LOS ANGELES-BASED Zimbabwean musician-cum-producer Tinashe “Bantu” Sibanda has flown the country’s flag high after being nominated for Grammy awards in the Music for Visual Media category following release of his recent project — Familia — a collaboration with Trinidad and Tobago-born rapper Nicki Minaj and Puerto Rican rapper and singer Anuel AA.

BY FREEMAN MAKOPA

The nominated song for the Grammy awards scheduled for January 26, 2020, is a soundtrack for the American animated superhero film Spiderman: Into the spider verse.

The Holiday hitmaker told NewsDay Life & Style yesterday that he was excited because it was his second time to be nominated after the 2017 nomination in the Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media category.

“I feel blessed and I am so excited that I have been nominated. The nomination was a dream come true as I always wished to reach these heights. It gives me strength to continue working hard and aiming high,” he said.

“This was a dream for me as somebody who grew up in Zimbabwe watching the Grammy awards every year on television. This is an honour as I just woke up to the nomination and I want to thank God.”

Bantu shot to the limelight in 2016 with the single Holiday, an up-tempo love song that fused bright electronic club sounds with African rhythms.

The song was paired with a provocative video depicting a young African couple clashing with rebel fighters. Subsequent singles Roll With Me that features Shungudzo and ZieZie and Juice followed a similar trajectory, with emphasis on vibrant reggae rhythms.

Bantu has worked with top artistes in the mould of Chris Brown, Rita Ora, Maroon 5, Mr Eazi, Ice Prince, Fifith Harmony, J Balvin, among others.

He has also collaborated with countryman Dr Chaii and continues to produce unique and chart-topping songs with top musicians across genres.

LOCAL clergyman Tafadzwa Ruwambara (32) recently launched his debut publication titled The Cactus Creed at a Harare hotel.

BY LIFE & STYLE REPORTER

Ruwambara said he was excited by the development which marked the beginning of his journey as an author.

“I feel excited to have achieved this feat because writing is my first love and I remember as early as Form Three I was already producing some manuscripts related to the topic,” he said.
”Again I feel challenged because this book should be the first of many to come.”
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch, Ruwambara said the book, which was published by Esteem Communications, a local public relations and brand development company, focused on hope and endurance.

“The book focuses on two major things namely hope and endurance. It emphasises that one can still make it in spite of the environment. Yes, we are operating in difficult times but the message in The Cactus Creed is that divine power coupled with human effort can achieve a lot,” he said.

Ruwambara thanked the publishing company, friends, family, members of his church as well as various partners who made his dream possible.

“It is a dream come true and I just can’t wait for the second publication to be published next year. I am already working on it and I hope it surpasses the previous project,” he said.
Esteem Communications managing director, Sympathy Sibanda-Mazuruse, said they were happy to be part of Ruwambara’s success story.

“We are the dream factory and we are happy for Tafadzwa as he embarks on his journey as a fully -fledged author. Even more encouraging is the fact that his book carries the message of hope. We wish him the best in his endeavours and it is our hope that his message continues to inspire many,” she said.

Zapu national secretary for security Canaan Ncube has died.

BY SILAS NKALA

Ncube died on Monday at the age of 80 after a long illness.

Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa yesterday confirmed the death, saying the party had lost a dedicated cadre who fought for the liberation of the country and continued to fight for the democratisation of the nation.

“Ncube was recently out of hospital, and we are yet to get the specifics on the funeral arrangements,” Maphosa said.

“Ncube is a product of the armed liberation struggle during which he was an official in the party’s national security and order, the intelligence outfit. He served under the late (Zapu leader — former Zipra intelligence supremo — Dumiso Dabengwa.”

Maphosa said Ncube was the inaugural chairperson for Bulawayo province in the revived Zapu in 2009 on an interim basis.

“He also served as the national people’s council member for Bulawayo before his election to head the national security department in 2016,” Maphosa said.

Zapu lost its leader Dabengwa on May 23 this year. The party also lost a youth leader Thamani Ncube in a road traffic accident sometime in June, as well as secretary for health Nikela Ndebele in the same month.

Mourners are gathered at 26 Sherwood Road, Woodlands, Bulawayo.

Ncube is survived by his wife and several children and grandchildren.

It’s a group of minerals used in everything from LCD TVs to batteries and defence technology, but rare earth elements (REE) have barely had a mention in any talks about Zimbabwe’s mineral potential.

— newZWire

Now the acquisition of ten claims by an East Africa-focused UK firm could point to new interest in the country’s rare earths, a part of the country’s mineral resource whose prospect has gone largely unexplored, until now.

Rainbow Rare Earths, listed on the London Stock Exchange, says the land covers a total of 12,6km² in northern Zimbabwe. The acquisition is part of the company’s strategy to augment its rare-earth portfolio, it says.

The ten properties acquired by the company have only previously been explored for phosphate and cover, the company said in a statement.

Rainbow Rare Earths has acquired these licences through its wholly-owned subsidiary Rainbow Zimbabwe, which will hold 100% of the licences, with no free-carried interest for the government after Zimbabwe dropped the 51% local ownership requirement.

The acquisition, Rainbow says, “aligns with the recent changes to the legal framework covering mining in Zimbabwe”.

Rainbow Rare Earths will immediately begin an exploration programme on the claims including geological mapping, sampling and assaying to conclude an interpretation report that will evaluate the new claims for rare earth elements.

The firm’s chief executive George Bennet said: “With our strategic intent for our licences in Burundi well on track, the company stabilised, I believe this is a great opportunity to diversify the portfolio, with low risk and minimal capital outlay.”

Rainbow’s current focus is the Gakara Project in Burundi, one of the highest-grade rare earths projects globally and the only African producer.

Rare find?

Could this acquisition point to a new front in the race for minerals used in anything from renewable energy to defence technology?

In June, President Emmerson Mnangagwa told Bloomberg that “we have been sleeping on them (rare earths); we didn’t know that they were useful”. But he said that Zimbabwe was now looking for the technology and skills needed to extract them efficiently.

According to the Mines ministry, Mashonaland Central hosts three likely resources at Gungwa, Mutondongwe, and Nanuta. “While there has not been exploration for REE at these complexes, Gungwa is known to be rich in lanthanum and cerium,” the ministry website says.

According to Rainbow, a 2002 report by the US Geological Survey provides a record of rare earths content in the Gungwa deposit, which is described as “probably a metamorphosed carbonatite containing several thousand ppm cerium and lanthanum”.

In preparation for widening its exploration portfolio, Rainbow raised US$5,1 million in a share placing in London in July.

Rare earth metals are used in the production of tech products such as computer memory, DVDs, TVs, rechargeable batteries and cellphones. Demand is also being driven by prospects in the growing electronic vehicle market.

Some rare earth elements are also used for components used for defence systems, such as for fighter jets, night-vision goggles, precision-guided weapons, communication equipment and other defence electronics.

Worldwide demand for rare earths is projected to increase 3,5% per annum to 149 500 metric tonnes in 2019, valued at US$4,5 billion. However, demand is seen rising, with one new report from Adamas Intelligence forecasting a 350% increase in rare earths demand from electric vehicles alone between 2018 and 2025. Other estimates see a further 127% increase from 2025 to 2030.

SEVERAL months after Chief Bere was installed in his motherland, the Bere people are still waiting for the promised land and are being haunted, divided, harassed and traumatised by illegal settlers who took advantage of their displacement about 100 years ago.

By Gugu Magorira, Our Reader

I am a biological descendant of the late Bere, currently resident in some sandy location near Runde River, under threat from Tugwi-Mukosi Dam expansion.

My fear is that I may be forced out of the land by government before being settled in my own motherland.

We have been to a number of meetings with the authorities, for example, district administrator, provincial administrator, Resident minister, Lands and Local Government ministries and others without any breakthrough.

Bere people are being harassed and threatened by a bogus chief close to Great Zimbabwe, who is a member of the G40 and President Emmerson Mnangagwa is either deliberately silent or badly misinformed by his emissaries.

The district administrator for the area is conniving with the so-called chief. They are buying time and frustrating Bere people, claiming to be auditing the land but until today nothing concrete seems to be materialising.

We are simply demanding our land from government, nothing else.

Mnangagwa must urgently intervene in the Bere chieftainship to save his people from daylight robbery by Local Government officials, who in our view, are leopards in sheep skin.

The Local Government officials in the area should be transferred or fired for undermining the authority of the President.

We are not happy with the handling of the Bere land issue by G40 criminals.

Mnangagwa must act on the Bere land issue currently being stalled by the Local Government officials.

I am a legitimate heir to the Bere chieftainship and badly frustrated by the failure to return to my land. I want to be buried in my motherland.

SINCE 1988, Zimbabwe has never seen a terrible government like that of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

By Fanuel Chinowaita, Our Reader

The situation we are in now is so terrible and unbearable. We are treated like Dalstroy prisoners of 1937, who were routinely clubbed, beaten or in many cases shot.
If Mnangagwa is trying to copy the Soviet way of treating citizens, he is failing. This is not Russia, we are not prisoners and we are not in the 1930s. We have every right to be heard and treated according to the Constitution.

We have watched and seen the Mnangagwa-led government violating citizens’ rights, forbidding them to demonstrate, assemble, beating and abducting them. These conducts are shocking, disgusting and dishonourable.

Children are raped for a plate of sadza, parents do not have school fees, basic commodities are very expensive. All people, employed and unemployed are incapacitated.
If we have suffered during the late former President Robert Mugabe era, we have never seen this. Mnangagwa has no mercy and has no focus on people. He’s a megalomaniac who thinks he is above the law, kills without mercy.

The health of an entire society depends on the ease with which its individual members can get medical attention.

Thus, in Zimbabwe during Mnangagwa government’s era, there will be widespread “mental illnesses”, neuroticism, hatred, alcoholism, drug abuse, violence, and social disorder will certainly be prevalent.

Personal worth is not something human beings are free to take or leave. We must have it, and when it is unattainable, everybody suffers.
The abuses by Mnangagwa will not continue for long. We have learned a lot in the past. We have matured.

Mnangagwa is sailing in a clay boat.