By Everson Mushava

THE Minister of State in the President’s Office in charge of Implementation and Monitoring, Joram Gumbo, was yesterday arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) for criminal abuse of office during his time as Transport minister.

He becomes the second minister to be arrested in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s anti-corruption fight after former Tourism minister Priscah Mupfumira, who is still on trial for criminal abuse of office, money-laundering and corruption involving US$95 million of the National Social Security Authority funds.

Gumbo, a key Mnangagwa ally who is from the President’s home province of Midlands, was arrested yesterday morning for crimes he allegedly committed when he was Transport minister under the late former President Robert Mugabe administration, Zacc spokesperson John Makamure confirmed.

According to his charge sheet, Gumbo was arrested over a prejudice of US$1 million towards the renting and renovation of a house belonging to his “relative,” Mavis Gumbo in Harare’s leafy Chishawasha suburb, which was used as the headquarters of Zimbabwe Airways, a new airline which suffered stillbirth after Mugabe was toppled in a coup in November 2017.

Simba Chikore, Mugabe’s son-in-law, was the chief executive of the airline.

“The accused corruptly and single-headedly picked his niece, Mavis Gumbo’s house, whose address is Number 1436 Gletywin, Chishawasha Hills, for use as the headquarters for Zimbabwe Airways,” part of the charge sheet read.

“On August 21, 2017, the accused directed that the monies from Zimbabwe Airways RBZ [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] account should be used to rent and renovate the purported Zimbabwe Airways headquarters office, a property belonging to his relative, Mavis Gumbo. The accused caused Zimbabwe Airways to enter into a property lease agreement for the rental of Number 1436 Gletywin, Chishawasha Hills, thereby showing favour to his relative, Mavis Gumbo.”

Zacc added: “The accused acted contrary and inconsistent with his duties as a public officer by showing favour to his relative Mavis Gumbo, thereby causing the government of Zimbabwe to be prejudiced of US$1 million as a result of such actions. To date, nothing has been recovered.”

The State is the complainant in the matter.

The anti-graft body also alleged that on September 12, 2017, Zimbabwe Airways deposited an amount of US$1 million into Maclaten Holdings’ Standard Chartered bank account, owned by Mavis’ daughter, Clara Rachael Mudzami, and nothing has been recovered.

According to the charge sheet, Zacc alleged, Gumbo in March 2012 “caused the formation of Zimbabwe Airways, a private entity”.

After the formation of the company, two officials from the Transport ministry, Andrew Bvumbe and Angeline Karonga, were appointed as directors to the company, which, according to the Memorandum and Articles of Association, was to do passenger, cargo and freight agency on international and domestic air terminals as well as provide customs bonded warehouse facilities, among other things.

But it has turned out that Gumbo was not Transport minister in 2012 as alleged in the charge sheet.

Instead, Nicholas Goche was.

Zacc made the same mistake in Mupfumira’s case, claiming her offence was committed before December 2014, when the former Tourism minister was appointed in December the same year.

Zacc officials declined to explain the anomaly.

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

CONFUSION reigns supreme ahead of the introduction of new coins and bank notes of the Zimbabwe dollar with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) yesterday releasing a statement that it will be injecting new two dollar bond coins into circulation by November 11 instead of $2 coins.

In a public notice, RBZ governor John Mangudya said the $2 coins will be used interchangeably with the $2 bond notes which are already in circulation.

“In line with the pronouncement made in the 2019 Mid-Term Monetary Policy Statement and the Press statement of October 2, 2019 to increase the level of physical cash in circulation, the RBZ wishes to advise the public that with effect from November 11, 2019, it shall issue a two-dollar bond coin which will circulate alongside the two-dollar bond note,” Mangudya said.

The central bank last week announced during a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Harare that it was going to introduce new currency notes and coins in the next two weeks to ease the liquidity crisis.

The new bond coins are likely to create confusion in the market.

Attempts to get clarity on the issue failed as Mangudya had not responded to questions sent to him by the time of going to print.

The RBZ, which has already announced the features of the $2 and $5 notes said the two dollar bond coin features a bi-metal with the outer rim being copper-nickel plated and the inner core being aluminium bronze plated and serrated rim profile with a groove and edge lettering.

“The currency’s features will also include inscription of the words ‘Two Dollar Bond Coin’ and the numeral and symbol ‘2$’ on the observe side and inscription of the letters ‘RBZ’ and the numeral ‘2018’ on the reverse side,” the statement read.

Zimbabwe has been facing acute cash shortages while the use of electronic money has failed to stem the problem, creating a three-tier pricing model which government is battling to close. The cash shortages have also led to frequent price increases, causing inflation.

BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO

TOP Zimbabwean model Pauline Marere on Friday last week added another feather to her crown after she was capped Miss Pan-African Queen at the continental pageant’s 2019 grand finale held in Lagos, Nigeria.

Her winning package — which included US$3 000 prize money, a vehicle, film acting deal and a trip to Dubai — will be handed over to her later this week.

Marere, who is still in Nigeria, told NewsDay Life & Style yesterday that she was very excited by her win. She expressed gratitude to the people who made her participation in the pageant possible.

These included engineer Peter Mutsinya who sponsored her trip, and her costume designers.

“Jasper of Ivhu Tribe made my national costume which stood out. It was the best among all national costumes that were there. I am really grateful to everyone who supported me,” she said.

Asked about the acting deal, Marere said it was a dream she had nursed from childhood and she was happy it was coming true.

“Growing up, I used to act. I was in acting clubs and acting at a larger platform such as African movies has always been my dream,” she said.

“When I was 17, I applied for acting in Nollywood (Nigeria’s film industry) through Mercy Johnson (top Nigerian actress). My mum said you need to finish school, so it’s something I really wanted to do.”

One of the pageant’s organisers, Trendy Isaac described the crowning event as “a memorable night”.

Prior to last week’s victory, the beauty queen had scooped several international pageant awards, making her one of the country’s top models.

Despite having lost the Miss Heritage Global title in Ghana in August this year, Marere remained optimistic that she would bring the Miss Pan-African title home, and her dream has come true.

Marere boasts of an impeccable track record as a model. She was crowned World Miss University Emissary at the 28th edition of the pageant held in Cambodia in 2017 and queen at the Miss Africa at Miss Africa Continent pageant in Soweto, South Africa last year.

BY TAFADZWA MHLANGA

SECURITIES firm, Morgan and Company (Morgan & Co) says that Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited (OMZIL) is cushioned from the vagaries of inflation and currency volatility as 75% of its $7,3 billion assets are invested in property and securities.

Companies tend to hedge against inflation by taking a higher position in assets, which may decrease in value less rapidly than the value of the currency.

In a recent research, Morgan and Company said it forecast a 72% increase in OMZIL share price.

“As a long-term play, we think OMZIL management has made a right decision in terms of asset allocation. We view OMZIL as a strategic holding for investors looking to gain from a quality blue chip investment through its $5,5 billion securities and property which offers an ongoing hedge against inflation while preserving value and earnings consistent dividend streams,” Morgan and Company said.

“We initiate coverage of OMZIL with a (year ending) YE2019 price target of $13,78 per share at current exchange rates, upside of 72% and by recommendation.”

As at November 1, 2019, OMZIL shares were trading at ZWL 3,698 cents on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

Morgan & Co expects further growth in the core businesses of Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited given the changes in the currency regime in the country.

The research firm forecasts revenue compound annual rate growth of 69% in the 2018-2022 financial periods due to the earnings from the banking interests and income from CABS and the free investment income.

“We note that FY2019 total revenues will reflect further growth in core businesses as well as FV gains on investments given the changes in the currency regime in Zimbabwe. That said, we expect growth rates to remain strong in FY2020F and beyond,” Morgan & Co said.

The research firm estimates a FY2018-2022 revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 69,7% driven by growth in net earned premiums, banking interests and income (CABS) and free investment income.

This comes at a time the company has been performing well with new products introduced that give more value to the company.

“We highlight that OMZIL had made significant process in rolling out USD denominated insurance prior to Statutory Instrument 142. Management has highlighted the need to lobby for extensions with regards to foreign denominated products and investments,” the research firm said.

“In the banking segment, CABS remains one of the market leaders, having launched a prepaid MasterCard, while building on existing digital platforms such as WhatsApp banking and electronic wallets. In the investment and wealth management cluster, the alternative investment unit is providing exposure to lucrative sectors such as tourism and wealth.”

OMZIL has three main strategic business units which are insurance, banking and the investment and wealth management. In the insurance segment the company has come up with product line extension that is expected to add to the bottom line.

The latest offering has been the weather index insurance which was in response to the recent Cyclone Idai and El Nino weather phenomena. A new cash funeral product has also been launched.

BY court REPORTER

TWENTY-FIVE Malawian illegal immigrants are languishing at Chipinge Prison awaiting a Chewa interpreter after they were arrested on Thursday night when a bus which was smuggling them to South Africa was intercepted at a police roadblock in Middle Sabi.

The immigrants, all of Muzimba village, were not asked to plead to contravening section 29(1)(a) of the Immigration Act (Alien shall not enter, be in or remain in Zimbabwe without presenting himself to immigration, or not being in possession of a permit) when they appeared before Chipinge provincial magistrate Poterai Gwezhira.

There was a separation of trial between them and a colleague, Jim Rukere, who understood English, who was convicted on his own plea of guilty.

He was sentenced to six months in prison wholly suspended for five years on condition he does not, within that period, enter Zimbabwe illegally.

In mitigation, Rukere told the court that he committed the offence because he wanted to skip the border into South Africa for greener pastures.

“I appeal for leniency when arriving on your sentence, Your worship. I committed the offence in desperation as I wanted to go to South Africa to look for better opportunities as I was suffering back home in the village,” he said.

However, his co-accused were remanded in custody to November 14 waiting for the State to provide a Chewa interpreter as they all indicated that they did not understand English.

Prosecutor Sesedzai Mayera told the court that on Thursday around 11pm, the illegal immigrants were aboard a Malawi-registered bus travelling along the Tanganda-Ngundu Highway.

They were stopped by police officers at the 255km peg at a roadblock in Middle Sabi.

Police discovered that the 25 had not gone through immigration processes on entering the country and did not have valid permits to be in Zimbabwe, leading to their arrest.

BY FARAI MATIASHE

Southern Africa Telecommunications Association executive secretary Jacob Munodawafa has urged information and communication technology stakeholders to push policymakers to speed up regional internet exchange points (RIXPs) and regional internet careers (RICs) projects as Africa is paying billions of dollars to overseas carriers to exchange continental traffic on its behalf.

The RIXPs and RICs projects are aimed at increasing the number of people using the internet in least developed countries and landlocked developing countries, where access and use was low by reducing the costs and increasing the internet speed.

“We are paying billions of dollars to overseas carriers. We should not be paying much. We need to push our policymakers so that we take it up to Sadc and then take it up to the world,” Munodawafa said, while speaking at a Sadc capacity building workshop on RIXP project organised by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulation Authority (Potraz) in Harare yesterday.

He said internet was for free as nobody owns the internet, but countries should only pay a reasonable fee when connecting to the world.

Speaking at the same event Information Communication Technology deputy minister Jenfen Muswere said part of the IXP would be located in a host country, where traffic between at least two other countries is exchanged via public or private network.

“African internet exchange system (AXIS) project aims to keep Africa’s internet traffic by providing capacity building and technical assistance to facilitate the establishment of national internet exchange points and RIXP in Africa. Increasing efficiency of regional traffic is an area that has this far not been addressed, resulting in a slow and expensive exchange of African inter-country traffic via overseas hub. The AXIS project was meant to address costly as well as inefficient way of handling inter-country exchange of internet traffic by providing capacity building to member states to facilitate the establishment of RIXP and RICs,” he said.

Muswere said by setting up RIXPs the exchange of the traffic generated in the region would remain in the region and hence reduce the traffic load on upstream providers and reduce latency for inter-country exchange of traffic and enhance internet development.

He said lowering communication costs by establishing AXIS would help reduce the cost of financing trade and ultimately the prices of goods and services.

“Affordable and accessible bandwidth will encourage regional trade integration and new ‘think work’ industries like business process outsourcing and call centres will emerge and create employment, reduce poverty and generate wealth,” Muswere said.

Potraz director-general Gift Machengete said the 2019 statistics on internet usage show that if local content were to be kept local, developing countries would save almost US$1 million.
“In terms of time, almost 700 000 hours of video footage is watched within an internet minute, while in terms of spending, a whopping US$997 000 worth of data is spent every minute. If local content were to be kept local and regional content, regional — then that figure of almost US$1 million on data would drastically fall, thereby saving countries like ours, in the Sadc region, a lot of money,” he said.

BY JAMES MUONWA

THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) has noted that a significant number of children born to alien parents are undocumented, thereby hindering their enjoyment of fundamental rights such as education and health.

Speaking at a Press briefing at Chinhoyi University of Technology yesterday, ZHRC deputy chairperson Ellen Sithole said accessing national documents such as birth certificates was a huge challenge countrywide, affecting many people, particularly in mining and farming communities.

“Access to documentation is a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution of Zimbabwe which facilitates the enjoyment of other human rights,” she said.

“Lack of access to birth certificates by a significant part of our population is of great concern to the commission from a human rights perspective.”

Sithole said main personal documents which people were failing to get in Mashonaland West province were birth certificates, citizenships, identity cards, and to a lesser extent, passports and death certificates.

She highlighted that challenges in getting birth certificates affected mainly children, but were also experienced by adults of foreign descent.

Sithole said there was a significant population of children, born to parents originally from Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi with alien status, who did not have birth certificates.
“Most of the children born to parents with this status do not have birth certificates or any other documents.”

Added Sithole: “Birth registration is documentary proof of nationality. The importance of nationality is to prevent statelessness. Therefore, a person who is not registered does not legally exist, is not officially recognised as a citizen of the country and runs a substantial risk of falling outside the reach of government’s protective measures towards him or her.”
She reiterated that undocumented people find it difficult to access basic human rights such as health, education, social protection, housing, travel documents and political rights.

In Mashonaland West, other reasons hindering easy access to personal particulars were the cumbersome requirements at the Registrar-General’s office, inaccessibility of registration centres due to exorbitant transport costs, lack of access to birth records, unavailability of witnesses to authenticate births or paternity and lack of knowledge on the importance of the documents.

The ZHRC was in Chinhoyi conducting an inquiry on access to documentation in Zimbabwe. Similar exercises have been held in eight other provinces.

BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

THE Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) has announced plans to embark on an ambitious project to produce “affordable” bread for Bulawayo residents who cannot afford the commodity.

The ex-combatants will unveil their bread-making machine at their Entumbane high-density suburb offices today, the Southern Eye was told.

ZNLWVA Bulawayo spokesperson Christopher Sibanda told Southern Eye that the bread-making project was aimed at alleviating the plight of residents who are failing to purchase the commodity.

“We cannot disclose the prices of the bread yet, but what we can assure residents is that our prices will be reasonable and affordable in comparison with other local prices,” Sibanda said.

The price of bread, like other basic commodities and services, has been skyrocketing as producers cite inflation and a harsh operating environment.

It was only last week when Bakers Inn reduced the price of the commodity from $15 to between $14.

The ZNLWVA bread-project comes two months after more than 100 residents, including war veterans, underwent training on how to make bread in Bulawayo using Dutch ovens as part of Zanu PF’s empowerment projects.

Party supporters also underwent training in confectionery, petroleum jelly-making, shoe and floor polish-making, building of Dutch ovens and the making of dust ovens.

The trainings were held at Zanu PF’s Bulawayo Davies Hall offices.

Zanu PF bread making projects where party supporters are seen using pit ovens have been ridiculed by critics as primitive and unsustainable.

Meanwhile, Sibanda also revealed that the ex-combatants had also sunk a borehole in Entumbane suburb to aid residents who are going for days without the precious liquid after council introduced a 72-hour water rationing programme.

“The borehole was finished about four to five days ago. There is plenty of water that can supply the rest of Entumbane,” Sibanda said.

“Both the oven and the borehole were our idea, what we only did was to ask advice from specialists on how we can partake the project.”

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

Listed clothing retailer Edgars Stores Limited says consumer spending was suppressed in the interim period to July 7, 2019 owing to eroded purchasing power.

Zimbabwe has been experiencing frequent price hikes of basic goods and services since the beginning of the year, against stagnant salaries. This has continued to erode workers’ incomes, weakening consumer purchasing power.

“Consumer spending was suppressed, and continues to slow down, due to depressed salaries’ purchasing power. The prevailing liquidity challenges impact negatively on our stocking and growth initiatives while decimated consumer salaries continue to suppress demand,” Edgars chairman Thembinkosi Sibanda said in a statement accompanying the company’s financial results.

Sibanda said the group’s units declined by 17%, recording encouraging performance in terms of units only in April and May, while in June, it was negatively affected by the introduction of a mono-currency regime.

Profit-after-tax for the period was $13,6 million, a 594% improvement from $1,9 million recorded in the same period last year.

Revenue increased from $32,1 million posted in 2018 to $62,85 million.

Edgars chain profit to sales ratio increased to 36,8% from 23% in 2018. Turnover improved by 93% to $37,6 million out of 25 stores from a 2018 comparative of $19,5 million despite units sold for the year decreasing by 25%.

Jet chain profit to sales ratio increased by 30% in the period under review from 16,7% in 2018. Total sales grew by 91% to $23 million from a 2018 comparative of $12 million, despite units sold being down 17% to $870 000 from $1,048 million in 2018.

The group’s manufacturing division posted a profit of $1,9 million while 6% of the sales were exports.

The micro-finance business revenue increased from $500 000 to $1,8 million, making a profit before tax of $1 million while loans to customers stood at $5,9 million.

Sibanda said Edgars would remain committed to providing compelling ranges to their customers at competitive prices and convenient locations.

He added that the group plans to open two new Jet stores in Banket and Chegutu as well as re-open the Edgars Kadoma store before year-end.

In May 2019, South African retail giant, Edcon, which owns a 41% stake in Edgars Zimbabwe through its wholly-owned investment vehicle, disposed of its shareholding in Bellfield Limited to Mauritius-based company, SSCG Africa Holdings.

BY PHYLLIS MBANJE

PREVENTIVE medicine for tuberculosis (TB) should be more accessible to a greater number of people as this would contribute immensely to reducing TB incidence, deputy director for the Aids and TB unit in the Health ministry, Charles Sandy, has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the recently held lung conference in India, Sandy said reports that the price of the anti-TB drug, rifapentine, had been reduced was a welcome development.
“Making preventive medicine more accessible to more people will contribute towards reducing incidence of TB,” he said.

Leading global biopharmaceutical company Sanofi, together with Unitaid and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, signed a pact which saw the drug price being lowered by close to 70%.

“Rifapentine is used in combination with isoniazid and the combination is of shorter duration and taken once a week for three months,” he said.

The dose of isoniazid is taken once daily for a period ranging from six months to two years. The period is inconveniently longer and some may default.

Said Sandy: “This (price reduction) is good in terms of convenience for the client and should lead to better adherence.”

Many people have latent TB (when a person is infected with mycobacterium tuberculosis, but does not have active tuberculosis) and so if they take rifapentine it will halt progression to full-blown TB.

In the absence of any intervention, a substantial percentage of this population will develop active TB.

Meanwhile, access to diagnostic services for children remains a major challenge to TB programmes around the world.

This was highlighted at many of the sessions at the conference with concerns that routine screening of children was not being prioritised.

Hollywood film and television actress Claire Forlani, ambassador for The Union, made a clarion call for local interventions using simple tools for active screening and diagnosis to end the epidemic among children.

Of concern as well was the incidence of asthma and pneumonia. While these two diseases are the biggest causes of illness and death in young children, they are avoidable.

Millions of children and adults succumb to these diseases annually, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where inequalities in access to affordable and high quality care is a barrier to diagnosis and adequate treatment.

“There have been highly effective asthma controlling treatments available for decades, and yet children die from asthma in LMICs because of the difficulty in diagnosing and treating them,” said Innes Asher, University of Auckland professor and Global Asthma Network chair.