GOVERNMENT officials in Beitbridge, who are grappling with a mortuary crisis following the suspension of morgue services at the 160-bed Beitbridge District Hospital last week, are seeking authority to conduct pauper burials for eight unclaimed bodies, Southern Eye has learnt.

BY REX MPHISA

An SOS has already been sent to stakeholders and steps are said to be underway to get authority for pauper burials of some of the bodies.

A stakeholder, who asked not to be named, said pauper burials had been suggested, but these would take up to two weeks due to bureaucracy.

“There are six minors, mostly stillbirth products and two adults, who are yet to be identified,” the stakeholder said.

As an immediate solution, officials are engaging Zesa Holdings for a waiver of power cuts at the hospital.

Alternatively, they require $230 000 to repair the hospital’s standby generator to mitigate the crisis aggravated by incessant heat experienced in the Limpopo basin, where the institution is located.

“Those are the couple of options we have at the moment. Either Zesa spares the hospital from load-shedding, or we have to find that amount ($230 000) to repair the hospital standby generator,” Beitbridge district co-ordinator Sikhangezile Mafu told Southern Eye yesterday.

“The first option is more practical and sustainable,” she said.

“We have spoken with the local Zesa authorities ,who have assured us our request for a waiver of load-shedding at the hospital has been taken up to higher authorities.”

Repairs of the generator, as the second option, were costly. Extra funds would be required for fuel.

Beitbridge district health executive in charge of Beitbridge Hospital, a referral centre for the district’s 120 000 people, and a further transit population of about 10 000 a day of late, suspended mortuary operations due to incessant power outages.

The power shortages also affected water supply.

Staff at the hospital said keeping the mortuary clean under the circumstances was impossible.
“Some bodies had maggots,” a source said.

Although Mafu did not confirm, it is understood stakeholders had sent out an SOS to police to collect bodies it deposited at the hospital.

A Beitbridge resident, Elias Chibi, questioned why it had taken long for government to upgrade Beitbridge Hospital to a central institution, which would pave way for superior cash injection.

“It’s absurd that government fails to appreciate the difference between this hospital and any other district hospital. This hospital serves the region, considering it’s at the country and sub-Saharan Africa’s busiest port. At times, there are decisions that should be made which need no effort,” he said.

“Can you imagine what is going to happen considering our holidays are known to have many fatal accidents. What plans are there for such eventualities without a mortuary here?”

Mafu said stakeholders, particularly the business community, would be approached to assist in raising the amount required to repair the hospital’s generator.

COMMAND agriculture programme beneficiaries in Mashonaland Central province on Wednesday asked Agriculture deputy minister Douglas Karoro to address challenges they were encountering in accessing inputs and the cumbersome new banking system processes to get loans.

BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

Karoro, who was coming from his constituency, Mbire, stopped at the CBZ Bank, Mvurwi branch, after noticing meandering queues and had the time to listen to farmers’ grievances before assuring them of speedy action.

The farmers, who are now receiving their funds through banks said the process was too demanding and required them to travel a number of times, draining their meagre resources.

“Most of us do not stay here in Mvurwi, we have farmers from Guruve, Centenary, Muzarabani and Concession coming to CBZ Mvurwi to open a command agriculture account, which is not done in one day as it involves a lot of paper work. As farmers we are saying the transport cost is too much for us. It should be done through mobile banking,” Muzarabani farmer, Misheck Marezva, said.
Another farmer from Guruve, Debra Zivanai, implored the deputy minister to consider decentralising inputs distribution as was the case in the past.

“Honourable deputy minister may you as the government assist us by making sure that we receive our inputs at depots close to us rather than centralisation as we are spending too much time on the road and not in the fields. For example, we are getting our diesel in Bindura. Why not give the fuel to service stations that are in our areas?” she lamented.

Another farmer said those from Centenary were getting inputs from Mvurwi, Harare or Concession, while those from Guruve travel to Mvurwi.

Karoro said: “Inputs distribution may appear to have been centralised at the beginning of the programme. The truth is government and all stakeholders are working flat out to make sure farmers travel shorter distances to inputs collection centres.”

Farmers also raised concern that they were being forced to open new accounts when they already had command agriculture accounts from last year. They said there were variations in account opening deposits, with Harare banks demanding between $20 and 30 while the Mvurwi bank demanded $100.

Karoro said: “On the variations in account opening deposits, it’s not true that farmers are made to pay different amounts. The correct position is that farmers are asked to deposit $50 and if a farmer decides to deposit $100 that’s their choice and to their advantage. After all it’s their money.”

THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) is poorly funded to independently exercise its duties, leaving it exposed to manipulation and Parliament should make sure it has been allocated a sound budget, the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda (pictured) has said.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE/CHELSEA MUSAFARE

He said this in a presentation made on his behalf by Parliament counsel, Gladys Pise at a two-day Zacc and Transparency International Zimbabwe media roundtable on corruption in Harare this week.

He said the independence of the commission should be enhanced by the provision of a sound budget.
“Parliament must ensure that Zacc should be independent and not subject to the direction or control of anyone, must exercise their functions without fear or favour or prejudice but accountable to Parliament. Zacc’s independence needs to be strengthened in areas of its administration, staff recruitment, and control of its own budget,” Mudenda said.

He said it was the duty of Parliament to ensure that the commission was adequately funded to enable it to exercise its functions sufficiently.

“It has the power to authorise the expandable monies from the Consolidated Fund through the passage of the Appropriation Act in terms of section 305 of the Constitution. Parliament has power through its oversight role and its role in budget processes to ensure that the commission is well resourced,” he said.

Mudenda said the Ninth Parliament would ensure that the Executive brings Bills to domesticate treaties already signed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

“The committee on Foreign Affairs is in the process of coming up with a tracking tool for all conventions and treaties that are yet to be tabled for approval. In the last session there was a motion on the National Assembly Order Paper relating to the need for government to fully implement the United Nations Covenant against corruption,“ Mudenda said.

The Speaker’s sentiments resonates well with pleas by Zacc chairperson, Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo for government to fully resource the commission so that it adequately fulfils its mandate.
Speaking before Mudenda, Zacc spokesperson John Makamure said Zacc had already presented a $100 million vote to Treasury for the 2020 budget.

“Zacc needs $100 million for its 2020 activities which includes recruiting highly qualified staff and decentralisation of its work. The amount will enable the commission to recover about $300 million worth of assets in 2020,” Makamure said.

“We request to retain a percentage of what we will have recovered to allow us to run. Zacc has to spell out the role it should play in ensuring that we achieve vision 2030. Corruption is a threat to that goal because resources will not be harnessed towards national development.”

TEACHERS at Mosi-oa-Tunya High School in Victoria Falls on Wednesday stayed at home citing incapacitation at a time they were expected to supervise a Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) Ordinary Level examination.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

Mosi-oa-Tunya High School is the largest school in Victoria Falls followed by Mkhosana Adventist Secondary School (MASS).

The teachers were expected to invigilate the History Paper 1 “O” Level examination scheduled for 2pm, but they were conspicuous by their absence.

Efforts to persuade them to report for duty hit a brickwall as they all reportedly indicated that they were incapacitated due to their poor salaries.

Stunned by the development, Education ministry’s district officials had to hastily arrange for a bus belonging to the Public Service Commission to move around neighbouring primary schools to fetch teachers for the invigilation at the high school.

Non-teaching staff members at Mosi-oa-Tunya High School, who spoke to Southern Eye on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the situation affected the students.

“Some students were very restless and believed that the exam would not go ahead. They abandoned preparations for the sitting for the paper when they realised that there were no teachers at the school. A lot of the students had to be summoned from the playing grounds, where they had gone to play thinking the examination had been cancelled. Even though teachers from Chamabondo Primary School later volunteered to invigilate the exam, the results are likely to be poor with a lot of students failing due to the logistical challenge,” one non-teaching employee of Mosi-oa-Tunya High said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) president Obert Masaraure said he was aware of the incident and revealed that the teachers who boycotted invigilation belonged to his organisation.

“The teachers at that school are our members. The integrity of our examinations is in jeopardy. We urge government to urgently address the salary crisis to restore normalcy in our schools. The situation in our schools is swiftly degenerating from crisis to catastrophe. We urge government to urgently pay teachers an interbank rate-indexed salary to avert the collapse of our education sector,” he said.

Artuz announced on October 14 that its members could no longer afford to commute to work.

The union, which has previously held protests at Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s offices in Harare, says its members must be paid the equivalence of the salaries they received in October 2017, multiplied by the prevailing interbank market rate.

Masaraure said more scenes similar to what happened at Mosi-oa-Tunya would be experienced in future at several schools because teachers were incapacitated.

“We urge parents to join us in our fight for a living wage so that normalcy is restored in our schools. We call upon all progressive forces of the world to stand in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe as we seek to crush the neo-liberalism strategy of austerity,” he said.

Efforts to get a comment from Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema or the ministry’s permanent secretary Tumisang Thabela were in vain as they did not pick their mobile phones.

Caledonia Mining says production at Blanket Mine rose over 7% in its latest quarter, despite power outages and rising costs.

newZWire

In the three months to September, gold output dipped 2,4% year-on-year to 13 646 ounces, held back by lower mining rates. However, gold production was up 7,3% quarter-on-quarter.

Tonnes milled improved on the two quarters and the average milled grade for the quarter was 3,19g/t, an increase on the previous quarter’s grade of 3,11g/t. Low grades
In terms of costs, all-in sustaining costs — a key metric used by mines to determine all costs and efficiency — were 16% higher.

However, the average realised gold price was 23% higher, offsetting the year-on-year drop in production to help Caledonia double profits to US$10,4 million.

“The third quarter of 2019 can be characterised by two distinct phases. The first six weeks of the quarter were seriously affected by power outages and by the continued effects of the unstable economic conditions in Zimbabwe on our employees; both of these factors had an adverse effect on production and financial performance,” says chief executive Steve Curtis.

“The last six weeks of the quarter showed a substantial improvement as the electricity supply improved; and measures taken in previous quarters to improve mining controls began to bear fruit.

Notwithstanding further interruptions to the electricity supply in October, the excellent performance in the second half of the quarter has continued into October and early November,” Curtis added.

The company has increased its focus on minimising mining dilution, after lower grades forced it to cut production guidance for 2019 to between 50 000 and 53 000 ounces, down from previous forecasts of 53 000 to 56 000 ounces.

Caledonia is still confident of meeting those targets, before lifting output to 80 000 ounces in 2020.

According to Curtis, while there is still work to be done on the grade front, Blanket has begun delivering improved grades, combined with higher tonnage and efficiencies.

“I am pleased to report that production in October has continued this positive trend with production of 5 596 ounces in October at a grade of 3,55g/t. I look forward to updating the market on the full year and we reiterate our full year production guidance of 50 000 to 53 000 ounces for 2019,” said Curtis.

The company has recently floated a tender for a solar plant to feed Blanket Mine, a way of solving the power crisis. According to Caledonia, the recent power tariff hike could stabilise supply.

“Although the electricity supply situation has improved, this problem has not been permanently resolved. As we have previously announced, the situation has improved following the introduction of a revised electricity tariff during the quarter which allows the funding of imported electricity which is used exclusively to supply participating mining companies.”

Zimbabwe will vigorously enforce a policy to force companies to develop their mining assets and not keep the land for speculative purposes, Mines minister Winston Chitando said on Wednesday.

— Reuters

Chitando said some investors had not developed gold and platinum assets that they had held dating back to the 1960s and the Mines ministry had asked some companies to justify why they should keep their claims to those assets.

“This is to prohibit the holding of mining title for speculative purposes. We will deal with that more vigorously,” Chitando told a meeting of the mining industry in Harare.

He said the government had been lax in enforcing the “use it or lose it” policy, but that would change as authorities pin their hopes on the sector to drive the recovery of an economy grappling with power cuts and acute shortages of United States dollars and fuel.

Miners have raised concerns over power cuts that have affected production and want to be allowed to keep all their foreign currency earnings because they are disadvantaged by having a proportion paid to them in Zimbabwe dollars.

But that request was shot down by Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya, who told the meeting the miners could not keep all their earnings in forex because the government needed some of the money to fund crucial imports like fuel, power and medicines.

Mining companies are only allowed to keep up to 55% of their foreign exchange sales and the central bank pays them in local currency for the balance at the official interbank rate.

Zimbabwe is home to the second largest known platinum reserves and large lithium, gold and diamond deposits, but many investors fret over whether they can take money out.

Chitando said platinum output was expected to rise to 1 023 000 ounces by 2023 from 917 000 ounces last year as the producers Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum Holdings and Sibanye-Stillwater ramp up output.

Zimbabwe’s platinum production now justified the setting up of base metals and precious metals refineries, Chitando said.

Miners currently process their raw platinum in South Africa.

“Following the address we made on November 13, 2017, which we believe our main broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and The Herald were directed not to publicise, the situation in our country has moved to another level.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

“Firstly, we wish to assure the nation that His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and Commander-in-Chief of Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Comrade RG Mugabe, and his family are safe and sound and their security is guaranteed.

“We are only targeting criminals around him who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice,” announced then Major-General Sibusiso Moyo, who was also Chief of Staff Logistics, as the army officially broadcast the coup on national television and blocked access to government offices, exactly two years ago.

The coup, Zimbabweans were to learn, was aimed at bringing economic stability, deal with corruption and restore democracy and people power, re-engagement with the West and shape a free society.

Main opposition MDC says Zimbabweans were sold the biggest dummy by a clique of power-hungry looters who removed Mugabe, not because they wanted to save the people, but after seeing that their economic interests were threatened.

“Twenty-six months, 137 pages (referring to Constitutional Court ruling of 2018 elections) later, ED (President Emmerson Mnangagwa) remains both illegitimate and clueless, the people are suffering and the social core has collapsed. We have a government which is using the central bank as a terrorist organisation to loot from the people, while the Ministry of Finance is nothing but a con-artist. The RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] is looting — forget corruption — they have legalised looting,” Nelson Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda told NewsDay.

At the dawn of the “new dispensation” in November 2017, there were high expectations, with the general public looking forward to seeing government focusing more on people-centred politics, a less travelling President, more investment in social services and a leaner, more competent government.

Sibanda said that never came, because the people who were fronting that attempt were the same system that was looting the government clean.

“You can’t ask a dog to do a cat’s job. The removal of Mugabe did not change anything for them. They just continued in a much more ruthless and aggressive manner. Democratic space has been further restricted; soldiers now shoot and kill unarmed protesters on the streets. Demonstrations and rallies don’t happen, they are blocked,” he said.

NCA leader Lovemore Madhuku echoed similar sentiments, saying now the government is incompetent, and more brutal than what happened under Mugabe.

“There is no new dispensation. I think currently, if you have anything, there is a dispensation that has been going backwards. They (current leaders in government) have gone beyond what we had in the 1980s. Clearly, they are actually trying to learn the bad portion of their old days. That’s what they are doing; the bad portion of the days where the mysterious disappearance of people, the heavy deployment of the police and the army at the smallest excuse; the old days of this where you find people in government who have no clue on how to deal with the situation, how to turn around the economy. That’s what we have at the moment, so we have no new dispensation at all,” Madhuku charged.

For the first time in the history of Zimbabwe, doctors have gone beyond 70 days on a strike demanding a living wage.

The junior doctors earned US$1 800, in November of 2017, the price of bread was 90 cents, a litre of fuel was selling at $1,15 at most, while the poverty datum line (PDL) was just above $300 and inflation slowly rising.

Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association, which has seen 286 of its members fired in the past three weeks, says government proposes to take their salaries up to $2 400 a month at a time bread is selling at $15, a litre of diesel now around $17,60 and PDL hovering around $3 000.

They have dug in saying they will not be forced to dialogue or back to work if the salaries are not enough to feed their families, educate their children and fund their own health care.

Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions leader Peter Mutasa, whose life has been under threat, says the country is now in the dark ages.

“These people are clueless they are taking us nowhere, it’s time we come together and make our voice heard we can’t continue in silence,” he said.

Mutasa has been charged with treason, beaten and arrested for mobilising workers to demonstrate against the new regime.

Mnangagwa continues to appeal for more time, saying his government is setting the right conditions for economic recovery.

He has even ended the multi-currency regime and returned Zimbabwe to the Zimbabwe dollar, which has been losing value against other currencies.

The International Monetary Fund says Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate is the second-highest in the world, after Venezuela, at 300%.

On the re-engagement front, Mnangagwa has won the regional leaders on his side, but Europe and the United States have refused to embrace him, calling for meaningful reforms and respect of human rights.

A report putting Mnangagwa’s regime under scrutiny complied by the United Nations special rapporteur, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, on the right to peaceful assembly and association sums it all.

“Albeit the common belief that a transformation will come, I believe that the long-awaited hopes are fading. The population is now questioning the government’s capacity to bring about such changes. They feel they have not experienced concrete and tangible results,” Voule said.

“On the contrary, I have perceived from my different meetings around the country, that there is a serious deterioration of the political, economic and social environment since August 2018 resulting in fear, frustration and anxiety among a large number of Zimbabweans.”

Moyo, who is now Foreign Affairs minister and is currently battling ill health, then appearing as a hero for many, told the nation things were going to go back to normal.

“As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy. To the civil servants, as you are aware, there is a plan by the same individuals to influence the current purging that is taking place in the political sphere in the civil service.

We are against that act of injustice and we intend to protect everyone of you against that,” he said.

But two years later, Mnangagwa’s legendary governance failure has painted Mugabe as a saint.
Mugabe’s battered legacy has been reinvented by his long-time ally, who has dismally failed to capitalise on the goodwill and euphoria that punctuated his rise to power.

PRODUCERS of a new local movie, Chipo Chirorwa, to premier early next year, have roped in school pupils in the production to empower them with film-making skills as fulfilment of the objectives of the new education curriculum.

BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE

One of the producers, Melody Mutyavaviri, told NewsDay Life & Style that the pupils, who will be blended in with professional actors, were drawn from Winwood College, Watershed College and Prince Edward School.

“They will be blended with professionals so that they learn about acting, script writing, directing, cinematography, editing, lighting, sound recording and production design,” she said.
“Plans are underway to get the students to camp at Karumazondo Outdoor Centre to shoot the movie this December.”

She said the movie touched on issues of heritage and culture, including traditional marriage and funeral rites.

“The movie is meant to teach young people about heritage and cultural issues around the rites of passage to do with customary marriage and what happens during funeral processes,” she said.
The movie’s co-producer and writer Charles Mutyavaviri said the movie was also in line with the new curriculum and has unveiled a Film Foundation Programme meant to teach high school students fundamental skills in film production.

The 20-member cast movie features Zolile Makeleni, who plays Tsotsi in another local movie, Wenera.

“The movie is going to be better in terms of the production values. It will be shot in 4K resolution. The movie will also be different in that it will incorporate young people from high school as part of the cast as well as part of the production team,” Mutyavaviri said.

The production is bankrolled by Karumazondo Outdoor Centre, which will cater for accommodation for the crew and cast.

This is the Mutyavaviris’ second project after their 2010 debut, Sores of Emmanuel.