By Brenna Matendere

THE Midlands State University (MSU) has successfully translated the country’s Constitution into sign language in a development that is going to impact positively on schools for people with speech and hearing impairments.

This is the first time that the country’s supreme law has been made available in sign language.

Speaking at the university’s 20th graduation ceremony, where President Emmerson Mnangagwa capped 3 149 graduands on Friday, MSU vice-chancellor Victor Muzvidziwa said the translated Constitution has been packaged in DVDs.

“Your Excellency and chancellor, you may also recall that in my speech at the 2018 graduation ceremony, I announced the establishment of the MSU language institute. The institute has made milestones. Cognisant that sign language is one of Zimbabwe’s 16 languages recognised in the Constitution, the language institute has since produced sign language DVDs of the Zimbabwe Constitution,” he said.

Muzvidziwa also highlighted that the department which produced the sign language Constitution has made other major achievements.

“… it (Midlands State University language institute) has forged international partnerships with Sonke Gender Justice, a South African-based NGO (non-governmental organisations) for which they have translated advocacy documents. The institute has also started the first phase of training all Premier Service Medical Industries Fund staff in sign language competence,” he said.

Muzvidziwa also revealed that the MSU has re-branded.

“The 2018 national critical skills audit showed that we had a critical skills deficit in engineering and technology, natural and applied sciences, agriculture, medical and health sciences,” Muzvidziwa said .

“We are immensely proud of the university’s response to the skills audit through curriculum renewal. The university has since re-branded and expanded the mandate of its mining and mineral processing engineering faculty to become the faculty of engineering and geo sciences now, now offering a wide range of disciplines in engineering, including energy and fuel sciences.”

“We take pride that the MSU has made digital fluency, innovation and entrepreneurship priorities. Our disciplines in the humanities and social sciences have also embraced digital technologies, especially with the social media and the new trends in communication as well augmented reality in the performing arts.”

The MSU moved 25 places up on the Webometrics university ranking systems from position 175 to 150, Muzvidziwa revealed.

By Rex Mphisa

A POLICE constable based at Beitbridge Border Post has been taken to court for extortion after he allegedly held on to an importer’s car to demand a R40 000 bribe.

Obvious Senior Moyo of Dulivhadzimo in Beitbridge went further to hide the car in Harare to press his demand, it is alleged.

On Saturday, Moyo who faces a charge of criminal abuse of office or alternatively extortion, was granted $1 000 bail by Beitbridge provincial magistrate Perseverance Makhala.

He was not asked to plead.

The State, led by prosecutor Ronald Mugwagwa is alleging that early this month, Taurai Zhou met Bright Moyana and Anyway Kawara at the Beitbridge Border Post seeking their assistance to smuggle his car from South Africa — a Mercedes Benz, with chassis number WDD21034B150056 and registration number ND 78791 into Zimbabwe.

Zhou was to pay Moyana and Kawara R15 000 for the job and a deal was sealed.

Later on, Moyo handcuffed Moyana and Kawara and took them in his car to Zhou.

Moyo allegedly told Zhou that he had arrested the two for attempting to smuggle the latter’s car which was now in his possession.

He produced the keys as proof and then demanded R40 000 bribe to release the two and the car without pressing charges against them.

Zhou allegedly agreed and said he would make arrangements to withdraw the cash from Musina in South Africa the following day.

The next day, Zhou who had since alerted the police, invited Moyo to pick up 50% of the bribe money at a local lodge.

Moyo drove into a trap by his employer and was arrested upon arrival at the lodge, leading to the recovery of the car keys. He then led his police colleagues to Park Lane in Harare, where he had hidden the car.

He is expected in court for routine remand in a fortnight.

Beitbridge lawyer Reason Mutimba appeared for Moyo.

BY SILAS NKALA

CARCASSES of livestock which succumbed to drought are reportedly contaminating water sources in Filabusi, Matabeleland South; and villagers now fear a possible outbreak of diseases.

Villagers told Southern Eye last week that the drought had claimed dozens of cattle and donkeys whose carcasses are decomposing on river beds and dams after being trapped in mud.

Sibongile Khumalo said the most affected was the Insiza River that feeds into the Insiza Dam, which is Bulawayo’s main source of water.

“The most affected are villagers who use the Insiza River as a water source, those here at Filabusi Centre, Mapenga Area, Pangani Training Centre, Silalatshani village and many other villages who use the river as their water source,” she said.

“At many water sources, several cattle have died in water and their owners do not retrieve the carcasses to dispose them safely, so they decompose in water which is now a health threat.”

She called on the relevant authorities to dispose of the decomposing carcasses.

“We are appealing for authorities to intervene or hire people to remove the decomposing cattle carcasses from water sources and burn them to prevent a possible health hazard,” Khumalo said.

Another villager said flood waters from the heavy downpour experienced on Tuesday last week have since swept most of the carcasses into dams.

“Today (on Tuesday last week) as we speak there are heavy rains and most of the dead and decomposing cattle bodies are being washed into our drinking water sources, it’s not safe anymore,” Sithabile Sibanda said.

Contacted for comment, Insiza disctrict co-ordinator Zakaria Jusa said he had tasked traditional leaders to identify owners of the dead livestock and order their proper disposal to avoid further contamination of water sources.

“For the past two weeks, I have been meeting village heads asking them to go around checking for cattle which might have died and their owners are not yet known. I advised them to trace the owners so that such cattle are properly disposed of to avoid the contamination of rivers,” Jusa said.

“We encourage villagers to take care of their livestock all the time and all people must be responsible in keeping their environment clean by always trying to do something when they see a dead cow, it’s either they approach the village heads to ask them to do something or they remove it themselves,” Jusa said.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

BULAWAYO residents’ groups and consumer watchdogs have dismissed suggestions by council that they did not raise objections to its proposed 700%rates increase.

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) said it was now awaiting Local Government ministry approval after ratepayers allegedly gave thumps up to the supplementary budget, but residents claimed their objections were ignored by the local authority.

“A majority of residents rejected the increments during public consultations, but we have a problem of good institutions deteriorating into elite-based, self-serving institutions that are serving the interests of the elite first and those of residents later,” Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association executive director Emmanuel Ndlovu said.

“The rates hike and the kind of service delivery we are receiving do not match…they have asked for a waiver from the Local Government ministry to allow them to hike rates without consultation. This is what they were aiming at.”

Council is owed millions by ratepayers.

National Consumer Rights Association (Nacora) coordinator Effie Ncube argued that there was no way residents could have approved a 700% hike in rates and tariffs under the prevailing economic climate.

“The hike is completely unaffordable and a reflection of a BCC that is fast losing touch with reality. In this poverty and pain, it cannot be right that any person, let alone a city father and mother, will find it normal to raise rates by such a figure,” Ncube said.

He added: “Nacora rejects the increase as it will not be (matched with) quality service delivery, just as has happened before.”

Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association executive director Michael Ndiweni weighed in saying informal traders rejected the 700% tariff proposal. The majority of citizens are now informal traders due to lack of jobs as a result of company closures and the harsh economic climate.

“BCC must also think of other revenue streams that will show ingenuity from them. For example, the city has a rich history, it must partner with other stakeholders and make money on urban tourism. You go to other cities across the world, you pay an arm and a leg to do a city tour, residents under this economic condition, cannot carry the burden alone.

“Government must take responsibility and provide grants, not only those to do with devolution of power, but others which can also provide some opportunities for the local authority to have other revenue sources, that empower it,” Ndiweni said.

Council has, however, vowed to proceed with the proposed rates and tariffs increase in the face of inflation despite resistance from residents with mayor Solomon Mguni saying “city fathers cannot watch Bulawayo die”.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

SENIOR members of the Xhosa royal family and head of the Xhosa Royal Council in Zimbabwe, Prince MacLeod Tshawe Nonxoloba have leapt to the defence of Ntabazinduna Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni, who was recently suspended by the Provincial Chiefs’ Council, urging the government to respect the family’s choice.

Ndiweni was suspended as Ntabazinduna chief at a Matabeleland North traditional leaders’ provincial assembly held in Bulawayo last week.

The traditional leaders argued that his chieftainship was being contested in line with Nguni traditions and the Traditional Leaders Act which recognise the first born of the family, Joram as the heir.

Joram filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court over five years ago seeking to block his brother Nhlanhla from taking over from their late father Chief Khayisa Ndiweni, who passed away in 2010.

Nonxoloba on Friday said Chief Ndiweni was chosen by his people.

“Chief Ndiweni is a chief because he was chosen by the people of Ndiweni and to us in the Xhosa community ithole lenkuzi likhethwa ngabazali balo lapha ekhaya (the bull is chosen from the calves by their owners) not an outsider. If the chief has been chosen by other people who are not in the family, that is unacceptable in our community,” he said.

“In the Tshawe family, we don’t accept such things. Can the Tongas come all the way from their home to tell the people of Ndiweni what to do, or can we leave our home to go and tell Tonga people what to do? I don’t think it’s correct.”

He said government and other traditional leaders should not dabble in the Ndiweni family wrangle. “No one should interfere, the Ndiweni clan are the ones who will have a say whether their child made a mistake or not, or remove the chief from the throne and have a say who can be installed,” he said.

“To claim that only a first born in the family is the heir to the throne, we do not know that, maybe in the Tonga community they do that.”

According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe “… the appointment, removal and suspension of chiefs must be done by the President on the recommendation of the provincial assembly of chiefs through the National Council of Chiefs and the minister responsible for traditional leaders and in accordance with the traditional practices and traditions of the communities concerned”.

HARDLY a day after his arrival from a four-month long medical trip in China, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga torched a fierce storm when he blasted MDC-run councils for failure to address service delivery problems and the opposition at large for having a destructive mentality.

BY MOSES MATENGA

He also tongue-lashed striking civil servants.

Chiwenga on Saturday arrived in the capital aboard a Chinese government jet and immediately threatened striking doctors, while attacking the MDC for having a “Genghis Khan mentality”.

His comments immediately attracted a backlash from the opposition MDC and doctors, among others, who feel the former army commander was out of touch with developments which took place in his long absence.

“We would think that it is high time high-ranking officials take what is happening in the health sector as a crisis,” Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights spokesperson Fortune Nyamande said.

“Leaders must desist from these kinds of approaches. They are not appreciating the gravity of the crisis. People are dying, newborn babies are dying, mothers are dying while giving birth and such utterances will not solve the crisis.

“The Vice-President should apply his mind deeply and bring stakeholders together to dialogue out of the crisis and find a win-win situation. It is time this issue is taken seriously. People are dying and we would have expected a solution from the VP.”

Soon after touching down in Harare at the weekend, Chiwenga, who in April last year fired over 16 000 striking nurses at public hospitals before government later reversed the decision following an outcry, said: “We have to work, we have the resources. We must utilise them and work and build our country. That’s the message we want to give our people that it will not help now and again to go on strike. You strike against what? Let’s work and build our country.”

His statements come as public hospital doctors and Harare council nurses have downed tools over slave wages while most civil servants have declared incapacitation due to the harsh economic environment.

Chiwenga also fired potshots at the MDC, accusing opposition-run councils of sleeping on duty, a comment that attracted anger from the Nelson Chamisa-led party.

He labelled the MDC as having a “Genghis Khan mentality” in apparent reference to Khan, founder and first Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.

“To the others, it will not help to have that Genghis Khan mentality. He wanted to conquer the world and went through the ancient desert. All the horses perished, all the men perished, so why would you want to do that?” Chiwenga said.

MDC shadow deputy minister for local government, Clifford Hlatshwayo, said Chiwenga had spent a lot of time outside the country and his comment on the opposition’s failure to run councils was misinformed.

“If it’s Costantino Guvheya, I know he has not been in the country for a long time. I hear he is not feeling well and he was getting medical attention outside Zimbabwe, I am told in China,” Hlatshwayo said.

“Obviously, he is not in touch with what is on the ground. What he knows is to squander taxpayers’ money in China while the people here are dying without medication. Obviously he is misinformed.

“The Zanu PF illegitimate government is the one that has run down this country.

“The MDC-run councils are trying by all means to deliver smart services to the residents.”

Hlatshwayo blamed interference by Zanu PF for hindering service delivery in MDC-run councils.

“Interference from the central government is at an alarming rate. The interference is very unnecessary and illegal. The Constitution of Zimbabwe is clear. It states that councils are managed by elected officials of council. But because Zanu PF lost in the elections, they are trying to impose themselves in MDC-run urban local authorities,” he said.

The MDC controls 28 out of 32 urban local authorities.

Political analyst Alexander Rusero said: “General Chiwenga’s return pauses a lot of paradoxes vis-a-vis the practical challenges that Zimbabwe is currently facing. His first shot was to dismiss the justification of striking at workplace, something coming as a blow, especially to the health sector whose grievances remain genuine, but with no urgency to settle from government.

“Yet he is coming from treatment in China which, without proper remuneration of doctors attending him, he could have died. That being said, a lot of hype on Chiwenga’s return and expectations as whispered in corridors of power will soon be demystified with time because he remains simply a Zanu PF functionary who cannot be better.”

THERE was much discussion and commentary upon the return from a four-month medical sojourn in China of Vice-President (retired general) Constantino Chiwenga in the early hours of Saturday.

The excitement generated by his return was understandable. He is one of Zimbabwe’s duo of Vice-Presidents. He had spent four months in China where he was receiving specialist medical treatment.

By all accounts, the man literally escaped the claws of the Grim Reaper. Before the general’s great escape engineered by the Chinese, he had tried South African and Indian help without success. He was literally at death’s door, before the Chinese intervened with the elixir of life.

He is also the man who carried out an audacious coup two years ago, removing the late former President Robert Mugabe and creating a gap for the incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had fled into exile. This circumstance alone means Chiwenga is more than a deputy, but a partner in an unwritten power-sharing arrangement.

To some observers of the Zimbabwean political scene, his inordinate absence had created disequilibrium in the balance of power. His return, which was without prior public notice — a circumstance which lent surprise and drama to the occasion, presumably restores that equilibrium.

Saviour mentality?

But there are also speculative reasons for the excitement. This is based on an old but still enticing conspiracy theory that there exists some tension between the two men; that far from being partners united in cordiality, they are, in fact, rivals.

However, evidence of this so-called tension, if it exists, is sporadic and anecdotal at best. For example, before last year’s Zanu PF annual conference, some individuals and groups in Zanu PF supplied raw material for this theory when they started declaring Mnangagwa as the ruling party’s sole presidential candidate for the 2023 elections. This was interpreted as a notice being served to Chiwenga, who it has been said, is angling to succeed Mnangagwa.

There is supposedly a gentleman’s agreement that Mnangagwa is to serve only a single term, before handing over the baton to Chiwenga. Again, there is no real proof that such an agreement was ever made. This could well be a product of someone’s fertile imagination. But it fits perfectly into the matrix of the conspiracy theory and has been bandied around as fact.

The outcome of this conspiracy theory is that there is another coup brewing and apparently, Chiwenga will lead it. Some express a fear that this has created another dangerous myth of saviourhood; with Chiwenga repackaged as some sort of saviour from a dangerous and inept Mnangagwa.

This, of course, is a reminder of the human mind’s vast capacity for forgetfulness on account of immediate wishes. Such myopic desires stand in the way of reason. Just two years ago, Chiwenga was hailed as a hero after removing Mugabe in a coup. But the last two years have been an utter disaster and he is a co-author of that tragic story. So how on this good earth can he suddenly be cast as a saviour?

Collective wish for rupture

But I do not think the notion that he is a saviour is widely held. I think it is exaggerated by those who take a snotty view towards the excitement generated by Chiwenga’s return. Far from seeing Chiwenga as a saviour, what exists is a tacit wish for him to be a catalyst for implosion in Zanu PF. The ruling party has maintained a vice grip on power; controlling all institutions of the State to the extent that some people only see the possibility of change coming through self-generated implosion than from an external source. The excitement is an expression of a collective wish for rupture rather than a collective belief in Chiwenga as a saviour.

In fact, some may be motivated by a desire to instigate that breakdown by building narratives that amplify suspicions between the two men and their camps. That the two men have their followers cannot be doubted. “Tinhai dzirwe” (Drive them into a fight) is a not an uncommon phenomenon in politics; a variant of the divide and rule strategy.

Inflated tensions?

However, the conspiracy theory may also exaggerate the tensions between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga.
Indeed, it may also be based on inflation of Chiwenga’s power. Its authors assume that Chiwenga still wields control over the security apparatuses of the State or significant parts of it. But is this still the case?

In his absence, Mnangagwa has been rearranging the composition of security leadership. He has done so in a manner that gives him an advantage. Like all authoritarian rulers, he knows the threat that comes from the apparatus of violence and he has been retiring key senior figures of the coup through “promotions” and “redeployments”. This recalibration of the security sector may have severely weakened Chiwenga.

Common purpose

The conspiracy theory also underplays the common purpose between the two men, which operates to musk whatever differences they might have.

Their common purpose is to maintain political power; to ward off an existential threat and to keep control of the channels of maximising personal wealth extraction. Both men are phenomenally wealthy. They will not do anything that will threaten that wealth. That is how, despite personal political ambitions and obvious signs of Mugabe’s waning powers over the years, the Zanu PF political and military elites continued to keep him in power even when it had become clear that it was counter-productive to the nation.

Instead, the rival factions co-existed and worked together because they had a common purpose. The fallout in 2017 happened because the two factions — Lacoste and G40 — were now posing an existential threat to each other. The proverbial Rubicon had been crossed and one had to be annihilated. It is not obvious that the situation has come to that between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga.

Mnangagwa may be failing the nation, but if he can arrange for Chiwenga to cheat death in China, the two men can continue to co-exist in their current power-sharing pact.

Beijing’s man in Harare

What is more significant in the circumstances is that one of Zimbabwe’s key leaders literally owes his life to a foreign power. He has admitted that without China, he would be history. The impact of China’s role in saving Chiwenga from what looked like a certain death cannot be overstated. The Chinese do not forget their debts. Only this week they reminded the Zimbabwean government that they will not take kindly to what they perceive to be an understatement of their development aid.

Anyone whose life is saved by another is bound to be grateful. But Chiwenga is no ordinary man. As a co-Vice President, he is just a step away from being our next president. A death, removal or resignation of the incumbent puts him in pole position to be president of the country. And if that happens, China will truly have their man in Harare.

Even now, Beijing has a stake in one of the partners in the current power-sharing arrangement.

It is not a surprise that the man waiting to receive him at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport when he arrived aboard a Chinese jet was not anyone from the Zimbabwean government but the Deputy Ambassador of China, himself the personifaction of China in Zimbabwe.

That, in the midst of all this drama and speculation, is a sobering thought.

 Alex T Magaisa is a United Kingdom-based Zimbabwean academic and lecturer of law at the Kent Law School of the University of Kent. He writes in his personal capacity.

AS much as we would want to always support our fellow country folk who sacrificed their life and limb fighting for the liberation of this country, we sometimes find it difficult to accept some of their demands.

NewsDay Comment

We have also noticed that each time it gets really tough for all other citizens, like it is now, liberation war heroes peel off the rest of us and start demanding preferential treatment.

And government has not disappointed at every turn to act on their demands, even if it may result in disastrous consequences such as the 1998 demobilisation exercise that effectively helped plunge the country into an economic crisis whose effect is still being felt today. Along the way they have also been pampered with preferential treatment in resource allocation, including land and agricultural inputs.

Now we here that the war veterans want their own bank and hospital that exclusively cater for them, with the hospital having an option to accept and charge other patients who are not war veterans.

“Women have their own bank, which was established for them, but if you look at the war heroes (who) fought in the liberation struggle they are not well-funded in terms of self-help projects and there is need for financing to be availed so that there can be a war veterans’ bank (from which) they can borrow money for self-help projects,” Defence and War Veterans ministry secretary, Mark Marongwe recently told Parliament.

Currently, there are an estimated more than 20 banking institutions in Zimbabwe from which the country’s over 16 million people, including babies, can chose to open accounts with. There are also another over 190 micro-finance institutions which include the Empowerbank and Women’s Bank, among a host of others that cater for groups or individuals hoping to start their own businesses and projects. And we would have thought that our war veterans are quite eligible to get loans from these institutions. We would also have thought the war veterans, because they are part of us, would be treated together with us in our hospitals and clinics spread all over the country.

We then become curious, if not somewhat disheartened, when those we thought were part of us start segregating themselves and demanding their own services, especially considering that the liberation struggle was won simply because we were all united as one.

What united us back then was a philosophy that the general masses were the water while the armed guerrilla fighters were the fish. That way the freedom fighters managed to engage the enemy undetected at majority of times. This is what led to the creation of the Zimbabwe nation State.

But now it is sad that the fish no longer want to associate with the water, which is quite tragic. The bigger fish are no longer even being treated here in the country while their banks are all abroad.

We would have thought that because our own hospitals are currently dysfunctional due to a protracted doctors’ and nurses’ strike, our liberation heroes would stand up and demand that the government urgently acts on the catastrophic situation facing our health sector.

Instead, the war veterans seem unaffected by the dying masses who are failing to access proper health services. It is quite sad indeed that our very own brothers and sisters, who we protected with our very own lives during the liberation struggle, have decided to forsake us at this crucial hour.