BY VENERANDA LANGA

THE Public Service and Social Welfare ministry will spend $1,20 billion instead of a required $11 billion between now and March 2020 to feed seven million food insecure people in the country, Parliament heard on Tuesday.

Acting Labour secretary Clifford Matora appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Service to speak on the 2020 budget where he revealed that vulnerability levels in the country had risen.

This month the USAid factsheet said that approximately 2,3 million people in rural Zimbabwe faced hunger, while the World Food Programme also estimated that two million urbanites were food insecure.

“The ministry wanted an $11 billion budget for food mitigation – the reasons being the current price escalations, and the requirements are $9 billion in order to stretch up to March 2020,” Matora said.

“Government has also made a decision that transportation of the gain should now be a government expense instead of the vulnerable people being made to pay for transport so the $9 billion figure include transport,” he said.

Chief accountant in the ministry Edson Goronga added: “Vulnerability levels in the country have increased because of drought and issues to do with the Transitional Stabilisation Programme so we need more mitigation in terms of food programmes so that people do not die of hunger because in certain areas where people need food aid we are unable to cater for them.”

Government will also pump in $2 million for children living on the streets who will be taken to a centre far from Harare, which the Public Service ministry officials said due to its distance it would then be difficult for them to wantonly return to the capital city.

“For children in difficult circumstances, we were allocated only $13 million out of an ideal budget of $80 million. They will get $200 per child per month, but we are not likely to assist as many children as required because there are about 1,8 million children that need assistance and not every one of them is in institutions,” Goronga said.

For the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam), government is currently assisting 415 900 children across the country, but the ministry officials told Parliament that the thrust is to scale up the programme to assist 1,2 million orphaned and vulnerable students.

“Government had $90 million arrears for Beam which accumulated since 2016, but these have been cleared. The last batch of $9 million will be paid this week. As a ministry, we also managed to clear $11 million under assisted medical orders owed to general and district hospitals, so we are now operating on a clean slate,” Matora said.

For pauper burials, a $2 million budget was availed when the ministry needed $5 million.

BY Richard Muponde

THE opposition MDC has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of setting up a “vicious” crack team comprising members of the Police Support Unit, army and the Central Intelligence Organisation to suppress demonstrations.

The team is allegedly being trained at a local army barracks.

It is alleged to be behind the vicious attack on MDC supporters, passers-by and bystanders on Wednesday when MDC president Nelson Chamisa was about to give his Hope of the Nation Address.

Since taking over from the late former President Robert Mugabe in a November 2017 coup, Mnangagwa’s administration has been brutally quelling demonstrations by the opposition, civic groups and civil servants.

Six civilians were killed by soldiers on August 1 last year after they took to the streets protesting over the delay by the Zimbabwe Election Commission in announcing presidential results.

In January this year, civil society organisations said 17 civilians lost their lives following protests against the fuel price hikes by Mnangagwa and the ensuing brutal crackdown by the State security apparatus.

Wednesday’s bashing of civilians received condemnation from Chamisa and the Unites States, among others.

MDC chairperson Tabitha Khumalo yesterday said they had been made aware by their party’s intelligence that Mnangagwa had set up a crack team to deal with opposition demonstrations and gatherings.

She said the crackdown all but confirmed her party’s fear that Zimbabwe was now under military rule.

“It only confirms what we have been saying all along that we are now being ruled by the military.
All government units have been militarised and they are escalating their brutality, which confirms that they stole the election because why brutalise the people you claim voted for you?” Khumalo asked rhetorically.

However, Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana dismissed the claims as “nonsense”.

“There’s no truth in this at all. Absolute nonsense,” he said.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi also refuted the allegations.

“We are not aware of the allegations being made,” he said.

Chamisa has warned Mnangagwa against his continued use of force on unarmed civilians, saying the Zanu PF leader was behaving like a dictator and had not learnt from history how tyrants end.

He said Mnangagwa was slowly sliding into the league of other dictators in the world by closing down civilian politics and faces sad ending to his two-year rule.

The US government, through its assistant secretary for the department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, said there was growing concern over the Mnangagwa administration’s continued disregard of the people’s freedoms as enshrined in the Constitution.

BY NUNURAI JENA

CONTROVERSY continues to follow former President Robert Mugabe to his grave, with his neighbours now being forced to relocate their cattle kraals to pave way for the construction of a protective precast wall at his rural Zvimba home.

Mugabe died and was buried at his rural Zvimba home in September.

When NewsDay Weekender visited the Mugabes’ homestead at Kutama a few days ago, about 200 workers were busy on site building the brick protective wall around the homestead where Mugabe’s remains are interred.

The controversial protective wall came at a cost for some villagers as they were forced to relocate their cattle kraals to pave way for construction of the wall by Chinese contractors.

A villager, Gibson Mareya, said they were summoned to the site by former First Lady Grace Mugabe early this month and told that their cattle kraals would be relocated to near Kutama Police Base.
They were allegedly told that there was no room for negotiations, but should simply follow instructions.

Mareya said no one objected save for Mugabe’s relative, Josphine Jarijari, who gave a brief history of the cattle relocation history.

“There was no room for negotiations. We were told what to do and everyone agreed. Grace told us that she would pay the cost of relocation. But a Mugabe relative, Ambuya Jarijari, initially refused, briefing the meeting that this is the second relocation after the first was done during the expansion of Mugabe’s rural home,” Mareya said.

Efforts to get a comment from Grace were fruitless. But Mugabe’s nephew, Dominic Matibiri, said the wall was meant to prevent intruders who might want to tamper with Mugabe’s remains.

“Since we buried our father there, a precast wall is a security measure to prevent his enemies from tampering around with his remains, considering that he was no longer a Zanu PF member,” Matibiri said without elaborating.

He said besides the security wall, they would also install CCTVs.

By Richard Muponde

THE European Union (EU) has stuck to its guns that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government should expeditiously implement economic and political reforms, including fighting corruption, as prerequisites to the bloc’s re-engagement with Zimbabwe.

In 2002, the EU imposed restrictive measures against the late former President Robert Mugabe’s government for gross violations of human rights, but most of the targeted measures have since been suspended.

Relations started thawing after Mnangagwa rose to power through a November 2017 coup when he begged the European block for re-engagement, leading into their first meeting in August.

On Thursday, the two parties held a second edition of the re-engagement meetings in which the EU impressed on the government delegation that Harare had to be serious with reforms.

In a joint statement released after the meeting, the EU noted that economic and political reforms, including the fight against corruption, was the panacea to solving the problems devilling Zimbabweans.

“The EU noted the economic and political reforms agenda, including fighting corruption. The two sides agreed on the importance of reforms and their benefit to Zimbabwean people,” the statement read.

EU and Zimbabwe also acknowledged the commitment to national dialogue, but government remained adamant that dialogue would only be held under the Political Actors Dialogue platform, shutting doors to possible direct talks between Mnangagwa and MDC leader Nelson Chamisa.

“The Zimbabwean side underlined the call by His Excellency the President for all political parties to join the Political Actors’ Dialogue as unity of purpose among Zimbabweans and political parties was central to developing a mutual vision for Zimbabwe’s path into the future,” the statement further read.

The meeting came barely two days after South Africa urged Chamisa and Mnangagwa to talk to solve the economic and political crisis in the country.

South African International Relations and Co-operation minister Naledi Pandor said Zimbabwe had political and economic crises caused by the antipathy between its political leaders.

Pandor said Zimbabwe had no capacity to solve the economic crisis, which has driven her citizens to flood the neighbouring country in search for greener pastures, without solving the underlying political problems.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

TEMPERS flared yesterday as legislators nearly fought each other when Chegutu MP Dextor Nduna (Zanu PF) and his Mberengwa North counterpart, Tafanana Zhou disrupted a Public Accounts Committee meeting hearing which had summoned three companies to give oral evidence on the Command Agriculture programme.

Nduna together with Zhou were also responsible for disrupting the Mines Committee, then chaired by Temba Mliswa last year, which was investigating bigwigs involved in the diamond looting saga.

PAC has resolved to charge Nduna with contempt of Parliament for causing yesterday’s chaos.

Nduna and Zhou were not present when Fertiliser Seed and Grain (FSG) boss Steve Morland began giving oral evidence on the Command Agriculture programme, where US$2,9 billion was gobbled in 2017 and US$3,5 billion in 2018 without parliamentary approval.

Most of the payments were made to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ally Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s Sakunda Holdings. The two MPs later turned up in the middle of the meeting to cause chaos and traded unprintable words with their opposition counterparts.

Nduna swore that Morland and other witnesses from Pedistock and Croco Motors would not give oral evidence until the MDC legislators, who had been walking out on Mnangagwa in Parliament, recognised his legitimacy.

As they traded barbs with each other in full view of Morland and other witnesses, it was evident that the aim was to ensure that the investigations on the Command Agriculture programme are quashed.

MDC legislators accused Nduna and Zhou of getting paid to disrupt PAC investigations by some of the companies embroiled in the saga.

During the melee, PAC chair Tendai Biti kept his cool and did not involve himself too much in the harsh exchanges.

“This meeting cannot go on because we still have our own issues as a committee and if possible, can Biti step out of the chair and Mliswa proceed as chairperson as an opposition MP because we cannot be chaired by an opposition that does not recognise our President,” Nduna said.

Parliament rules stipulate that the PAC should always be chaired by a person from the opposition as it has an oversight role on public finances.

Morland was asked to go out so that the PAC tries to resolve its differences first. But even after an hour of deliberations and trading insults, the issue was not resolved.

The FSG boss was called back to continue with his oral evidence, but Nduna continued to shout that the committee meeting would not proceed.

Marondera East MP Caston Mateo (MDC Alliance) suggested that they should pretend that Nduna was not present and leave him to shout as much as he could, but continue with oral evidence from Morland.

“Legitimise the President first and everything will be okay. You cannot choose not to recognise him because according to the Constitution, Mnangagwa is part of Parliament,” Nduna shouted.

When the MDC MPs ordered him to respect the chair, Nduna hit back saying that Mnangagwa was bigger than Biti as PAC chairperson.

“There is a decision that needs to be made by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee and we cannot proceed until the legitimacy issue of Mnangagwa is resolved by the SROC,” he said.

Dzivarasekwa MP Edwin Mushoriwa (MDC Alliance) then said: “We are not going to allow what Nduna and Zhou did to the Mines Committee to happen again to the PAC. You (Nduna) have a history of disrupting Parliament committees.

“You are claiming that you are defending Mnangagwa when you are defending yourself. You Zanu PF people even lied to the late former President Robert Mugabe claiming that you liked him, but you betrayed him. You are sell-outs and we know that you have been paid a lot of money by some of these companies that are supposed to be grilled for the Command Agriculture issue.”

In anger, Zhou hit back, calling Mushoriwa a fake pastor-turned-politician.

He also attacked Mateo over the shooting incident at his Marondera house saying that he (Mateo) had stage-managed the incident to gain sympathy. This angered Mateo, who then insulted Zhou in front of the witnesses.

Nduna also exchanged harsh words with female legislators from the MDC — Memory Mbondiah (PR) and Virginia Zengeya (PR) — as the parliamentarians continued to trade barbs.

Mliswa kept his cool during the melee and suggested that the meeting be postponed since it was now embarrassing that the media was live-streaming the programme as Nduna disrupted the proceedings.

Zhou shouted: “The MDC strategy is to walk out on Mnangagwa, and so as Zanu PF, this is our strategy.”

Biti then made a ruling that all witnesses should go back and will be re-called to give oral evidence after November 28 when the SROC would have made a decision on the matter.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government is headed for another clash with cross-border traders and ordinary citizens after announcing plans to compel travellers to disclose their source of foreign currency at the country’s border posts, failure of which the State will forfeit their imported goods.

Finance deputy minister Clemence Chiduwa Chiduwa made the revelations during a Press conference in Harare yesterday. He claimed the measures were geared towards taming black market operations.

“What we should do as government, which is what we are working on now, is to refine the policy to say we have designated commercial banks, where we get our foreign currency freely from our nostro accounts,” Chiduwa said.

“What is needed on our part is compliance and enforcement. Just to give you a bit on what we are working on at the moment, we are all aware that most of the people buy money on the parallel market and they go to buy goods outside the country.

“But when you are coming back, before you declare the goods, you have to first declare the official source of the foreign currency. The moment you declare goods, in the event that you are not able to declare the official source of foreign currency, you forfeit whatever you have to the State. So this will deal with black market operations.”

Chiduwa said indexing prices to the United States dollar was a major driver of inflation, estimated at 440% in October.

“Government is committed to the use of the Zimdollar as a unit of exchange. There has been an indexation of prices against the exchange rate. All the laws guiding the operations of economic agency are in place,” he said.

Government has failed to control parallel market activities and currently, the greenback is trading against the Zimbabwe dollar at 1:21, while the official rate is pegged at 1:15.
The selling of money on the black market was banned in September 2017 when the now late former President Robert Mugabe issued Statutory Instrument 122A of 2017 Exchange Control (Amendment) Regulations 2017 (No 5) to tame rife cash vending on the streets.

The law empowered police to arrest money peddlers and take hold of the traded currency.

Meanwhile, Finance secretary George Guvamatanga said government would soon unveil higher denominations of money to bring convenience to the transacting public.

Guvamatanga said some of the bond coins and notes would gradually be withdrawn from circulation.

BY FARAI MATIASHE

A MEMBER of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Presidential Advisory Council, Jana Ncube, has openly expressed her frustration at the government in the wake of rampant human rights abuses in the country, saying Zimbabwe remains in the news headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Writing on her Facebook page, Ncube, an international civil society activist, said the State was blaming sanctions for difficulties faced by citizens without accepting responsibility for the things it has power over and power to do.

Ncube last night confirmed to NewsDay Weekender that she had indeed posted the messages on her Facebook wall.

“I am not keen on articles because I think my words speak for me best. Thanks for checking,” she said.

“For instance, the government has power over what the police do. The Zimbabwe Republic Police can be like police in many countries across Africa, where they serve and protect citizens and are not unleashed to bash, beat and maim their own people,” she wrote on the day police brutally crushed a gathering by MDC supporters who wanted to listen to an address by their leader, Nelson Chamisa.

“Being in the opposition doesn’t make one less Zimbabwean. The ZRP have responsibility to care for and protect for all. Our military has no business in police uniforms and no business operating within Zimbabwe against Zimbabweans. Police beating women and young people and the elderly who want to protest against the government or want to support their party is wrong by all moral and just laws. The government of Zimbabwe has power over this.”

Ncube said government has the power to do what was right for the country.

Without mentioning names, she questioned why Energy minister Fortune Chasi appointed former Zesa Holdings executive chairman, Sydney Gata, to the same position, decades after leaving the same institution under a cloud.

“How does appointing a person who dishonourably left an institution (get) back into that institution with supra Executive power make our institutions and governance stronger?” she asked rhetorically.

“With the many reports and evidence of corruption, theft, pilfering from the State by political and military elites and no action against those guilty, how do we justify this? We fire doctors and nurses for asking for living wages and ask Parliament for overlook (over) billions stolen by a few elites who continue to live in luxury.”

She said no woman, man or child deserved to live the way most Zimbabweans are being forced to live.

“No woman should give birth in the conditions circulating on social media. No one should die for lack of medical care. It’s happening every day. My heart, is broken,” Ncube said.

She said Zimbabweans have been praying for rains which have come and now continue to pray for good leadership which will take responsibility for what is not working and commit to fix it.

“Leadership that will implement political reforms that allow our democracy to grow and for ordinary citizens to enjoy their freedoms; a democracy that is not afraid of differences in our political opinions and choices but rather thrives because of them,” Ncube said.

“We search for leaders who are accountable for every minute of their time in positions of decision making and also for every cent that belongs to this country. Leaders who won’t steal or cheat nor allow anyone else to steal or cheat.”

BY Kevin Mapasure

Despite his team’s failure to compete for the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League (PSL) title this season, Dynamos defender Emmanuel Jalayi is impressed with the season he has had so far and is targeting a flourishing finish by shining on the big stage set by the big Harare derby against Caps United tomorrow.

The right back has been Dynamos’ shining star despite it being his first season in the top-flight where he is well set to finish among the Soccer Stars of the Year finalists.

DeMbare have experienced an average season where they have failed to put up a fight for the league title, but they have been one of the most difficult sides to beat since Tonderai Ndiraya took over as coach following the sacking of Lloyd Chigowe.

Ndiraya has spent much of the season complaining about the quality of players at his disposal, but among the rubble he has found a gem in Jalayi, who has since become one of the most sought-after players as some of the serious teams have already started planning for next season.

Jalayi shone in the first league match against Caps which ended in a one-all draw at Rufaro Stadium and is looking to shut out the Green Machine attackers, particularly speed merchant Phineas Bamusi, when the two square up tomorrow.

Theirs should be one of the key contests in the derby which Caps will be desperate to win.

“In the derby, everyone wants to do well. I did well in the first one and hopefully I will also play well in this one,” Jalayi said.

“The Harare derby is a big stage and there will be a lot of people watching so it’s an extra motivation to do well. Caps are fighting to win the title and they want to win this match, but we also have a target of finishing among the top four, so the match is just as important to us as it is to them.”

He said he had received a lot of encouragement from the watchers of the game in his maiden year in the topflight and wanted to keep improving.

“I am one of the players at Dynamos who only started playing in the PSL this year. I feel it’s a massive achievement for someone of my age to come in and play for a big club like Dynamos. I have received a lot of support and encouragement from the supporters which has made it easier to for me in my debut year. I am quite pleased with what I have achieved so far and only hope to get better next season.”

The Aces Youth Academy product had a six-month stint at Caps last year, but failed to win a first team cap.

Tomorrow, the 20-year-old will be looking to hurt the Green Machine’s title ambitions and advance DeMbare’s cause of going 23 matches unbeaten.