CIVIL society activists and other national and regional groups have made a clarion call on the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (Aripo) to increase access to affordable medicines in Zimbabwe through amendment of the Harare Protocol on industrial property.

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE

The stakeholders, who include those from the Health Global Access Project (Gap), accused the Aripo secretariat of prioritising collection of patent fees on unworthy patents instead of ensuring the right of access to affordable medicines for all.

Patents on medicines give patent holders the exclusive right to make, sell and import medicines and to charge whatever high price will maximize profits. For a low-resourced country like Zimbabwe, steeped in a myriad of economic challenges, it means that patients will go without treatment because neither they nor the government can pay.

“Every single patent on medicines for HIV, TB, cancer, and hepatitis C in Zimbabwe was granted by means of the African Region Intellectual Property Office rather than Zimbabwe national patent office. And virtually every medicine also has multiple patents granted by Aripo that extend the total length of monopoly protection beyond the original 20-year patent term,” Brook Baker, Health Global Access Project senior policy analyst, told NewsDay last week.

The activists also said Aripo is not taking full advantage of all flexibilities allowed under international law to accelerate generic competition.

“We have submitted detailed critiques of the Harare Protocol and of national legislation that has not yet incorporated life-saving flexibilities. Unfortunately, the Aripo secretariat seems to prioritise collecting patent fees on unworthy patents (as opposed) to ensuring the right of access to affordable medicines for all,” the said.

The groups also said the regional body had persistently refused to invite civil society to their meetings despite having promised to do so.

“Take bedaquiline, an important new medicine to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, as an example. The first patent on the base compound of bedaquiline was filed in 2003 and expires in 2023. However, additional patents have been filed for bedaquiline’s specific use in treating TB and for a well-known salt form of bedaquiline combined with a well-known wetting agent.

“These weak secondary ‘evergreening’ patents don’t expire until 2025 and 2027, meaning that Zimbabwean patients have to pay whatever Johnson & Johnson wants to charge. Johnson & Johnson claims that its best ‘special effort’ price is $2 a pill or $400 for a six-month course of treatment,” he said.

Baker also questioned if many patients, whose lives are threatened by TB can afford that, particularly since bedaquiline must be combined with other expensive new TB drugs for effective treatment

This is despite research estimates which have claimed that generic companies could sell the same medicine profitably for as little as $0,25 a day — an eighth of the price.

Unfortunately, because of Aripo’s lax patent examination that routinely grants unwarranted primary and secondary patents, Zimbabwean patients will have to wait four extra years for generic competition and lower prices.

Meanwhile, civil society activists throughout the 18-country Aripo region are calling on their governments to prioritise public health and to put pressure on Aripo to rebalance the Harare Protocol to protect the right to health.

“Pharmaceutical patents should be excluded for least-developed country Aripo members, Aripo should examine patent applications stringently and reject secondary patent claims, and interested persons should also be permitted to oppose the grant of patents,” Baker said.

“The public in Zimbabwe and the officials in the health department should insist that the government protects their rights by demanding needed reforms at Aripo. If they do so, thousands of lives can be saved.”

A CHIMANIMANI man brutally assaulted his father with an iron bar, accusing him of being responsible for his misfortunes.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

Hardlife Sokisi (26) of Ngorima village under Chief Ngorima appeared before Chipinge magistrate Joshua Nembaware last Friday facing charges of physical abuse as defined by section 4(1) as read with section (3)(1) of the Domestic Violence Act.

He was convicted and remanded in custody to tomorrow for sentence.

Hardlife told the court that he assaulted his father, Tobias Sokisi because he had refused to take him to traditional healers for exorcism

“I wanted to force him to go with me to traditional healers to consult because my children were always dying. I was told to bring my father and aunt. My father was refusing to go to the traditional healers, that’s why I beat him up. He was abusing me,” Hardlife said.
Prosecutor Sesekedzai Mayera told the court that on November 10 at around midnight, Hardlife went to his father’s homestead accompanied by his sibling, Munyaradzi, who is still at large.
They found him asleep and started accusing him of being a wizard who was responsible for their misfortunes.

His father did not respond and remained holed up in his bedroom.

Hardlife then forced open the door and grabbed his father by the collar and pulled him out.

Munyaradzi started assaulting Sokisi all over the body with an iron bar. Sokisi was saved by neighbours who heard his cries for help, leading to the pair running away from the scene.

Neighbours rushed Sokisi to hospital and it was discovered that he had suffered a broken rib which led to his stomach swelling and had a big gush on the forehead.
A police report was made, leading to Hardlife’s arrest.

MANY people talk about the need to add value in whatever work they do. Value-addition transforms dire situations into productive and sustainable ones, especially where value chain approaches are used. These include ways stakeholders communicate climate information to improve the way it is understood and utilised. Climate information providers should not just communicate critical information anyhow, but it should add value and transform lives. Therefore, it should not just be the dissemination of whatever climate change information, but that kind of information that is useful in people’s lives.

Communicating climate change information enhances decisions that are people-centred and increases resilience. As this is done, communities would be better prepared and positioned to manage the impacts of climate change and weather extremes. In this regard, it has been proved to be problematic on how stakeholders use climate information value chains to influence decision-making. There is need for climate information to be context-specific, generated and influenced by weather and climate data. This will in turn, improve decision-making and add value in terms of learning, training, preparedness and protection to climate change effects.

Climate information value chains should stand to benefit stakeholders and target situations in best possible ways, just as the processes and frameworks suggest. Each stage of the information value chain is fundamental, life-saving and transformative, hence it should be taken seriously. In this view, collaborative and collective efforts are required to get things done and benefit the target audiences to realise resilience.

Climate information value chains need to take a multi-stakeholder approach, which is an inclusive and interactive approach designed not to leave anyone behind. The way weather forecasts are communicated should add value to farmers, travellers, workers and any other concerned citizens. How disasters are approaching should be able to be accessed by the peripheral communities in order for them to decide and prepare. Natural disasters and cyclones strike people in their sleep or indoors as a result of their own lack of preparedness and denial, not because communicating climate information value chains would have gone wrong somewhere in the process.

Beneficiaries of this kind of information should be initiated into sustainable engagements, interactive and participatory pathways, good enough to guarantee them forms of feedback according to their target needs. For these to succeed, climate information providers are required to demonstrate a good understanding of the target audiences, situations and their needs from a cross-section point of view. The context and scope of climate information value chains may not be transformative enough if they become prescriptive, rather than being exploratory, sufficiently collaborative and engaging in nature. These approaches would empower stakeholders to solve specific information needs inherent in a changing climate. Beneficiaries are the most important stakeholders, first and foremost, therefore, they need to be the focal point, in order to become part and parcel of the whole discourse. Challenges of being ill-equipped to handle climate impacts and low adaptive capacities are associated with the target audiences, their situations and needs. In this regard, their target needs are not necessarily their wants, but their necessities, which should be taken seriously.

Climate information value chains should strategically feed into sustainable decisions that are aimed at especially improving food security and environmental sustainability.
Furthermore, the information should assist in improving water management strategies, reduce crop losses (especially post-harvest losses), forests conservation, wild-life conservation, energy and power conservation and improved quality of the people’s health as well as that of the livestock, among a host of many. For these reasons, the target situations should be strategically positioned to access valuable climate information services they need to improve their livelihoods.
It is also significant that, climate information value chains should help to fill in procedural, knowledge and information gaps among target audiences and stakeholders. These beneficiaries of climate change value chains are also required to participate in building their capacities and transform their lives, as target audiences who need the climate information value chains, more than anyone else.

The success of the climate information services and value chains is strongly influenced by the appropriate communication tools and channels used by the information providers.

The communication tools like public engagements, participatory interactions and dialoguing as well as community radios, mobile phones, printed materials and visuals, are designed to manage challenges of communication breakdown, misinformation and communication massaging. While it is true that there are some communication channels that leave out certain important stakeholders, human-centred efforts should be harnessed to close these gaps.

In this regard, the environment in which the climate information services are disseminated should be highly conducive, appealing and supportive in nature, in order to make public engagements possible. Between the climate information providers and the target audiences, there are influencers who are politicians, religious leaders, traditional leaders and professionals, who need to be involved, not because they either know or they don’t but because they are opinion leaders with influence. These are key actors in information value chains and they assist in instilling order and discipline in these critical interactive engagements. They can operate positively or negatively depending on the situation at hand not forgetting their ideologies, stand points and world-views.

The positive working environment would stimulate policy and regulation improvements, including political will to get things done. Cultural norms are also critical and informative because they influence the people’s behaviours and world-views.

In this regard, it is also important to let beneficiaries see why they should benefit from climate information value chains and also why they need to change their behavioural tendencies, instead of how they should change their behaviours in the first place. In the eyes of the beneficiaries, the providers of climate information value chains should be knowledgeable, trustworthy, credible and competent rather than otherwise doubting Thomas’s. It is also important that the stakeholders are not short-changed in terms of knowledge capacities, training and orientation.
The resources should also not only be available, but permitting to move the information value chains forward. This include whether the resources are being handled appropriately or not and are they reaching the intended beneficiaries or not.

The target audiences should not only be recipients of climate information value chains, but above all, they need to show hunger for these information services.

In this regard they should always go out of their ways to look for information services rather than wait as passive recipients. In attempts to make the climate information value chains accessible to everyone concerned, the information need to be disseminated in the languages that they understand best.

 Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on: petrovmoyt@gmail.com

BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE
GWERU-BASED gospel music outfit Joyful Praise was among the biggest winners at this year’s edition of the Prophet Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa Invitational Concert and Awards Night (Permican) at City Sports Centre in Harare last Friday where they won three of the six awards they had been nominated for.

The group won the Best Newcomer and Best Song awards for their hit track, Ngoro Yeminana, as well as the Best Group/Duo for the album, Joyful Praise Season 2.

They had also been nominated for Album of the Year, Best Producer and Best Songwriter awards.
The group’s chief operations officer, Godfrey Mukodzo told NewsDay Life & Style that they were grateful for their victory.

“We are grateful to the Almighty for his grace and to all our fans for their support as a new group and for being outstanding amongst other gospel music groups,” he said.

Mukodzo said their music was divinely-inspired and also dealt with contemporary issues and people’s social life.

He promised their fans to look out for new material soon.

The new group went head to head with other big gospel outfits including Zimpraise and made their mark.

Top gospel musician Michael Mahendere, who also scooped the 2019 Most Viewed Gospel Song Online award, performed some of his plug tracks including Makomborero, My Witness and Salt of the Earth.
Trending and award-winning songbird Janet Manyowa, who took to the stage in a green gown, wrapped up the set with Zadzisai and Nyasha Nengoni which had fans on the dance floor.

Under the Special Awards category, Endai Naizvozvo hitmaker Diva Mafunga who won the Legendary Award saluted gospel guru Mechanic Manyeruke for being his greatest inspiration.

The concert, complemented by impressive stage work and best MCs Miss Red, Becky and Tich Mataz, also witnessed performances from Jonah Chivasa and Nyasha Mguni, Gemma Griffiths, Kuda Mutsvene, Vabati vaJehovha, Mabel Madondo, Brian K, Tembelami, Zimpraise, Tatenda Mahachi and Sharon Manyika as well as Joyful Praise and Manyowa.

LONG-KNOWN for love ballads that have become soundtracks for many romantic affairs, veteran urban grooves musician Sanii Makhalima reflects a new national consciousness in his latest song — Vatiregerera — in which he calls out the country’s leadership for failing the young generation.

BY FREEMAN MAKOPA

The new hard-hitting song, which was released on Friday last week, unveils a new Makhalima despairing over the economic hardships, police brutality and high unemployment levels while the country’s leaders share the national cake among themselves, far removed from the daily troubles of ordinary people.

Makhalima told NewsDay Life & Style over the weekend that artistes were duty-bound to artistically express social issues afflicting the nation.

He said his new offering — whose visuals captured police brutality, empty public hospital corridors and endless fuel queues — was inspired by the situation obtaining in the country.

“Vatiregerera was inspired by the happenings in Zimbabwe. I have always written stuff based on true or real events, hence my music carries truth to it. I have usually written about love directly. However, it’s the same love for my country that inspired me to pen the song,” he said.

Makhalima said the song was also a reflection of certain fears that he felt as a citizen.

“My fears are mainly founded on the fact we are seemingly not allowed to express real social issues in our country. On the face of things, apparently we can, but we all know what happens,” he said.

“My fear is that we have a human and constitutional right to have freedom of expression and that right may be taken away from us [but] through my music, I have spoken for many.”

The musician — who was among the pioneers of urban grooves music at the turn of the millennium under the stewardship of his elder brother Delani Makhalima — said artistes had a big role to play in shaping society and alerting authorities over the people’s suffering.

Makhalima, however, said he would not have sleepless nights over a possible backlash from the authorities as he did not violate any law by releasing the song.

“I don’t think I have violated any Zimbabwean law by singing about what’s real and happening. I will continue singing,” he said.

In the song, Makhalima questions the rationale of beating up hustlers trying to earn an honest living, and longs for past glory years when young people could afford to dream of a bright future.
The artiste said besides music, he was also still into advertising, media and the supply of motor vehicle spares.

Hwange……..(2)2
Herentals…..(3)3

Hwange inched closer to the dreaded relegation chop after they succumbed to pressure from Herentals, conceding three goal to two during a Premier Soccer League match played at the Colliery Stadium yesterday.

By Tinashe Mungazi

Hwange hit the ground running with an early goal, courtesy of a penalty from Nomore Chinyerere after Gerald Ndlovu who was pulled down in the box.

Herentals levelled the scores on the seventh minute through Blessing Maunganidze after a sizzling shot from Blessing Majairira was fumbled by Hwange goalkeeper Taimon Mvula.

With the two teams tied, a charged up Herentals escalated their fight for a lead as the pair of Maunganidze and Majairira gave Chipangano defence a tough time.

Five minutes before the break, Herentals striker and team owner Innocent Benza hammered home off a pass by Bhingala.

The second half saw a besieged Chipangano turning the heat on the College Boys with Chinyerere proving to be the main threat.

The home side’s pressure paid off on the 47th minute after a Prince Tafiremutsa blunder resulted in Gilbert Zulu flicking the ball into the net.

Hwange coach Nation Dube described his boys’ performance as a disaster, arguing that they failed to maintain the edge of scoring first.

“I cannot say there is something that went well. All I can say is that it was disaster; we defended badly. We are going to fight through the remaining three games to avoid the chop.”

His counterpart, Kumbirai Mutiwekuziva applauded the inspiration and fighting spirit that his boys had drawn following 48-year-old Benza’s amazing goal.

“I would attribute this win to the fighting spirit that the boys displayed, especially coming back after conceding an early goal. The aspect of fighting to avoid relegation dawned on them. To add to that, Benza also offered the much needed motivation with his good passes and subsequent goal.”