by sport reporter

London — Unai Emery will hold talks with the Arsenal hierarchy before deciding whether Granit Xhaka will remain as club captain, after the Swiss international ripped off the armband, throwing it to the turf, and appeared to tell supporters to “f*** off” as he was substituted.

Xhaka’s fractious relationship with Gunners fans plummeted to new depths yesterday after he responded angrily to criticism from the home crowd during the draw with Crystal Palace.

When asked whether Xhaka would remain captain, Emery said: “It’s not the moment to speak about that because first I want to speak with him and the club. We need to stay calm but, really, he was wrong.”

Xhaka was already unpopular among a significant contingent of fans. Yesterday’s clash, in which he infuriated supporters with a series of angry gestures, did nothing to improve the relationship.

Emery refused to criticise those Arsenal fans who applauded their skipper sarcastically or booed him. Instead, he suggested Xhaka should have dealt with the situation with a cooler head. “We are working, me and the club, to manage playing under pressure, when under pressure to have our minds clear.

“In a difficult moment our heart can be hot, but our minds can be clever. We are going to speak about that because the reaction was wrong.”

Emery said that the discussions would be “inside, with the players and the club”.

He said: ‘We are here because we have supporters. We are the workers inside the club but we play for them. We need to have respect for them when they are applauding us, but also when they are criticising.”

Emery was also critical of the VAR decision to disallow what would have been a late winner for the Gunners.

Sokratis’s goal was ruled out because of a foul by Calum Chambers on Luka Milivojevic. Emery said: “Our goal, the third goal, he is not fouled. That is not a foul. Who is the person who checked that? If the referee watched that action on the TV, I am sure he would not decide that it was a foul.

“In the office with the TV, I don’t know who the person is who decides this. We lost two points to that tonight. We have cameras on the pitch, but here I don’t remember a single referee going to check on the touchline.”

Palace boss Roy Hodgson also had a show of indiscipline from a player. Jordan Ayew was furious when replaced by Christian Benteke in the closing stages.

— Daily Mail

BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE

AFRO-JAZZ artiste Samson “Droba” Gohwa is set to release his second album titled Tamba Neni soon.

Gohwa told NewsDay Life & Style that the forthcoming 10-track offering, with a bonus track featuring Tryson Chimbetu titled Kandiro, was almost ready.

“I am promising my fans that slowly we are getting there. I know it is not easy to start something new, but my fans should prepare to enjoy,” he said.

The 36-year-old musician said themes in the new production were centred on culture, ubuntu and love.

“The album is all about social issues, culture and how people should live and love each other,” he said.

Gohwa indicated that he would be mixing genres to show how versatile mbira, marimba and ngoma could be.

He said like any other emerging artiste, there were challenges littered along the way.

The new album, he said, is made up of the songs Sorry, Chinyakare, Tamba Neni, Ndinobvuma, Ndisinewe, Mbira, Vapeyi Rudo, Mhere, Ndipe and Kandiro.

Gohwa said there were indications that the duet with Tryson would be a hit after it was pre-released onto the market and welcomed warmly by many fans.

Phillip Chidavaenzi

YEUKAI Winnie Benhura’s 2017 slim volume of poems, Undressed, is a somewhat seductive undressing of the meaning of life’s experiences like that of a stripper — slow, teasing and exciting.

The poet starts off with a word study in which she explains the meaning of the title “undressed” and rolls off her pen a list of its synonyms: nude, bare, unclothed, unclad, stripped, denuded, disrobed, undraped and exposed. In the process, she lets slip an example that probably explains the context of the collection, when she writes: “She was undressed and ready for life.”

In this light, one is tempted to believe that it takes some form of “undressing” to be able to see life for what it is and respond accordingly. Undressing, therefore, can speak of experiences as the collection is full of poems that speak of mainly love experiences, the good and the bad. In the foreword, Benhura explains that context in which this offering of poems is poured out, describing these pieces as “mostly less a celebration and lamentation of love.” (pp7).

With the collection divided into three broad sections — Loving Devil, It’s All About Moe and Undressed — all the 27 pieces collected here are untitled. Perhaps the poet wanted to do away with the restrictions that titles often bring, especially if a poem is painted on a broad thematic canvass. The absence of titles easily allows the reader to come up with their own interpretations. I remember speaking to a young emerging poet Robert Mugobi recently, and he was confessing his struggle to craft titles for some of his new poems.

These poems are written with sweet cadence that easily makes them a pleasure to read regardless of some of the dark themes of pain and loss.

Benhura’s creativity is demonstrated right from the beginning. The first poem carries a lot of double meanings. The young persona encounters her Adonis, who is both an attraction and a threat, and so she paints images with double entendre. His eyes are “ravishing”. He wants to “devour” her and to “burn” her with anguish. Pain and pleasure, therefore, are spoken of in the same breath. It is an oxymoronic play on words.

The persona pouts her lips in readiness for a kiss from the one who “will dry out your soul”. This speaks to how people generally struggle to resist the lure of things that will burn their fingers. This man (or is it the devil?) does not even make secret his intentions to “seduce you and make a follower out of you”.

The persona seems to have a weakness for fatal seduction. In the second piece, a terse and compact flash poem, she wonders why she still loves the men who brings her harm, for she quips: “I felt you coming/The wind whispered your name/It warned me/My Armageddon . . . /Why do I still love you so?” (pp.13). This rings true of life, where the lure into harm’s way is often too strong to resist.

The third poem treads on the same path. A woman falls for the wrong man, and “it is like loving the devil”. Biblically, the devil is relentless, and it is the apt metaphor in this poem where this man “Pursues her heart despite her rebuttals/Wearing her down with his charms/Enticing her with gifts and poetry/Promising her the world that he does not own.”

(pp14). Remember during the temptations, how the devil promised Jesus the world if he worshipped him?

If temptations are entertained long enough, then falling is nigh, for soon enough, “she begins to believe her heart when it says he loves her.” The poet juxtaposes images. In this context, it is the devil who holds up this lovesick woman as an idol for worship as his goddess. This is lethal seduction at its worst.

The transient nature of pleasures drawn from yielding to temptation is captured aptly when the poet says the persona continues to yearn for the “devil” long after he has had his feel of her and left: “She stalks him/She nags him/She screams at him/She smoothers him with affection…” (pp14).

In another piece, the persona reflects on the array of men that have paraded across her life. In the aftermath of the long chain of relationships, she lists their names and reminisces on what each has meant for her. Sadly, the verdict is chillingly similar for all as they echo each other: “You who worshipped me for a moment/when I deserved lifetime devotion/You who made me think I was not worthy/yet you were the undeserving.” (pp16) Herein lies the tragedy of desperate love, for it makes one susceptible to abuse — to such a point that a woman believes she is not even deserving of that man who treats her like a doormat

The romance with the devil leads the persona into something like a Catholic confessional in search of absolution from guilt. In another poem, the poet lays out biblical allusions with great effect. We hear of the cleansing waters of the River Jordan, scrubbing salts from the Dead Sea, the incense of Aaron and Samuel’s holy oil.

As the next piece opens with the line, “Loving you is like dancing with the devil”, one begins to get the feeling that all these poems, with the recurring image of the seducing devil, could as well be just different stanzas of one endless poem.

All in all, the collection is a great read that portrays Benhura as a noteworthy poet who cannot be ignored.

BY FREEMAN MAKOPA

JEMIMAH Kandemiiri’s arrival on the catwalk was accidental.

For someone who started off as a tomboy in childhood before battling weight issues as she grew up, no one would have imagined that she would showcase her looks on some of the world’s most glitzy runways.

She will represent Zimbabwe at the 59th edition of the Miss International pageant in Japan on November 12.

“I am over the moon! It is such an honour to be representing Zimbabwe. I feel that with everything that has happened in our country, not much is expected from us,” she said.

“My target is to show that Zimbabwe is great and will be even greater again in every engagement. Winning would be great, regardless, there’s a bigger picture. We go for gold and if gold isn’t ours, I walk away with a wealth of knowledge.”

The South Africa-based beauty, who also works as a lawyer and criminologist, felt she was always cut out for the top.

“I was the girl who played soccer… The girl who lost a tooth racing with the boys,” she recalled.

“I started realising how I could do so much more than just taking pictures, posing, looking pretty.”

Then it took a chance meeting with a stranger for her to consider modelling.

“I was home alone and decided to take a walk to a nearby shopping centre. I was approached by a man from Figures Modelling, who said he saw potential in me as a model… I actually laughed at the time because I thought, who? Me?” Kandemirii recalled.

With the negative attitudes towards modelling, she decided to pursue law because of her interests in women’s and children’s rights and, later studied criminology.

Knowledge of legal issues came in handy as she could smell a violation from a distance when she was pursuing modelling.

“I’m glad I trained first before just jumping in, because I knew what was legitimate and what wasn’t, how to check and look up agencies, people involved. Of course some seemed legit and I found myself in situations where some men wanted to take advantage of the situation,” she said.

She said she struggled with weight and did not know how to deal with the issue.

“It’s so inconsistent and I wanted at one point to measure up to it. It was the first and last time I ever worried about weight. I went to a show and a designer’s assistant gave me great talk about my size. I was small at the time. I just didn’t realise how it had affected me until I went on some crazy diet for three weeks so my body could ‘self-tone’ as I was too busy, then to gym.”

The model graduated from Figures SA Modelling and her accolades include Miss Uniworld, Miss Africa Continent princess before her current crown as Miss International Zimbabwe.

BY precious chida

JIBILIKA Dance Trust has embarked on a mission to empower young women through dance, as they launched female dance workshops that will kick-off on November 2 at their Harare studios.

Dubbed “Strictly for Girls”, the workshops will be held every Saturday and will be facilitated by musician Jah Prayzah’s main choreographer, Nyasha “Noni” Madzinga.

Jibilika’s community development officer, Mukudzei Nyamhamba, told Newsday Life & Style that the programme sought to address girl child issues.

“We would like to empower young women through dance and we are going to use dance to address girl child issues because we know when you put young people in a room to lecture them, they will probably not listen to what you have to say. Instead, dance is what they would prefer and would probably stay in their minds,” he said.

Nyamhamba said through the initiative they also wanted to do away with the stigma around female dancers in a bid to increase the number of females that venture into the industry.

“The future for female dancers is bright; there are a number of females that are emerging and are standing out in such a male-dominated industry,” he said.

“Because of this, we have to eradicate the stigma that is around dancers, particularly females, and increase platforms for females so that more of them can come on board and follow their dreams.”

BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

A UNITED Bulawayo Hospital medical doctor, Siduduzo Mphoko-Ndlovu, on Saturday night launched a YouTube channel that will deal with fashion, style and culture.

Former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko’s daughter, popularly known as Doctor Bae, said the luxurious fashion channel was necessitated by the need to showcase the country’s luxurious style and culture.

“I am tired of watching other people expose themselves; expose their country and their culture. We are so rich in arts and culture, we are so rich in many things, so it’s time we show them what we are made of here in Bulawayo,” she said.

She said the channel was under the management of Khulekani “Iyanda 263” Ndlovu’s LeFactory, which focuses on premium luxurious brands and provides public relations and marketing services to the elite.

Mphoko-Ndlovu said the channel would cover diverse issues under culture, luxury and style.

“The channel targets everyone and those who love luxury. Luxury is not for everyone you know, as you know some people think it’s too expensive, some are luxurious, but on a budget,” she said.

“We plan and create high fashion events, create platforms for young entrepreneurs in business and host a lot of events to support our luxurious lifestyles.”

LeFactory creative director, fashion consultant and a luxury stylist, Iyanda 263, said they were planning to take fashion and lifestyle in Bulawayo to greater heights.

“We plan to bring a new offering in Bulawayo, take over the fashion and lifestyle industry, grow and create influencer opportunities in the country and hopefully collaborate with brands that will see the influencer market and are willing to pay for their services,” he said.

“It was founded early this year and this is our first event. Mphoko-Ndlovu approached us a few months ago and said she wanted to launch a lifestyle brand and we thought a luxurious YouTube channel would be great to complete her luxurious living.”

He said their aim was to showcase luxurious lifestyles and prove to people that they could be anything they wanted to be.

“When we started, we wanted the channel to support our other platforms and also there are few channels in Zimbabwe that have good quality content and that is what we promised our viewers,” he said.

Robert Sigauke

“WHO can ever forget that a whole (President Robert) Mugabe and his government were shaken by a solo protester Itai Dzamara sitting in Africa Unity Square gardens vowing not to eat until Mugabe (found) time off his busy schedule and respond to his petitions!”

This is an excerpt from a past article I wrote a few weeks ago. I differ with Linda Masarira on so many fronts about the democratic project in Zimbabwe, but I must admit that I found her opinion plausible about the biggest problem that has hijacked, attacked and sucked the life and authenticity out of the democracy project.

For so many reasons, the Government of National Unity (GNU) arrangement had sins of its own. This was a time when every Jack in the trenches knew that for any chance to be in government, one had to be either in MDC-T or Zanu PF. It best suited Mugabe at that time to use a third force, no matter how small in number or stature, to frustrate Morgan Tsvangirai’s manoeuvres. It was possible only if this third force was one with scores to settle with Tsvangirai, forget the pitch of its voice, just its noise and hand was enough.

Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara on one end, Tsvangirai cutting a lone figure on the other. One plus one against one. It does make mathematical sense, right?

If history has to be traced, it is Mutambara who sang the reforms mantra during the GNU. This was politically convenient in that he had no electoral following behind him better than Tsvangirai. Mugabe could well ignore him and get away with it. In fact, he did just that.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, had to hurry to have the people taste ice cream and eggs again in time for the 2013 elections. Mugabe and his party, in the meantime, also regrouped and found breathing space again, to live yet another day. The reforms agenda lost steam, it had no political backing, it died sooner than it rose.

On the other side, important and of interest in this, we had those who grabbed seats in the GNU through the back door, thanks to them we have a civil society to last a day’s discussion.
The tragedy of it all is that it is no longer left to accidents of biology for one to be a veteran of the struggle, anyone can invent their own struggle credentials these days. Evan Mawarire earned his without the bullet of a rifle and his family stays within American borders. Who said there has to be rifle shots for one to be a struggle veteran anyway, aren’t struggles different from circumstance to circumstance?

Then there is that pastor who chained himself to a tree in a one-man protest in Victoria Falls, the same guy who held the country to curious ransom in 2018 saying the gods had told him Mugabe (MHSRIP) would pass on in October of the same year. It is on record that the simple pastor even gave the exact date. I watched the video less than a week before the fool shamelessly backtracked and announced his availability for election as a parliamentary candidate.

The tale of the Dzamaras is also one which cannot be left out as far as exposing how corrupt and fraudulent the civil society divide has become. Even the street has word that allegations that Patson Dzamara lost his car because of his political activism is one big grand fraud; the man invented his ploy to source donor funds and inflated his struggle credentials. Nobody has come forward to clarify what happened to the other Dzamara brother and for the sake of consoling his poor family, salt will not be added to injury, but nevertheless, it still boggles the mind how Mugabe, the Central Intelligence Organisation or military bosses could have felt threatened by Dzamara and his one, two, three and four followers sitting in Africa Unity Square vowing to stay hungry until Mugabe found time between his trips to UN and Moscow to reply to Dzamara’s letter.

The sad story does not end there. In fact, the struggle veterans keep growing more and more in different sizes and shapes. Are they not doctor Peter Magombeyi’s abductors and tormentors the nicest and most reckless people walking on the planet? They even had the courtesy to buy their victim airtime so that he could text to his loved ones that he had been abducted so that they could alert the police to start the search. The doctor even came back with much of his body intact and in good shape, a little luckier than most who do not live to tell the tale.

The country is now hugely littered with so many briefcase civic society organisations whose main purpose is to make noise over just about anything; Tighter sanctions against the government, energy crisis, prices of basic commodities, hiring of Shona teachers in Matabeleland, Warriors losing to Ndombolo Boys and white farmers getting their farms back.

This is what civic society is paid to do, just to make noise about anything. There must be something more beyond them just making noise. This is their way of earning struggle credentials.

This is the currency, so they believe, for appointment into government, should another GNU be crafted, or better still, when the opposition finally takes over the reins and are short of men and women to fill in the available offices at Munhumutapa. Masarira noted this too.

Zimbabweans need to be a bit more careful in choosing their battles, it will take a bit of more digging in believing either side of the story; and it will take too, a resolute grounding in not being swayed by every wind.

editorial comment

NOW that the Zanu PF government has fired its cheap political potshots through the anti-sanctions march that failed to resonate with the majority of a better informed population with regards to the real cause of the crisis in the country and its solutions, it is time for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to demonstrate some real leadership and take the necessary steps.

We are sure that those that took part in the Friday anti-sanctions march are now aware that it is going to take much more than a march to have the embargo lifted and it is up to them to exert the necessary pressure on their leadership to simply fulfil their electoral promises.

The European Union (EU) and United States (US) are clear that the restrictive measures imposed on Mnangagwa and his leadership will remain in place until necessary reforms are carried out. This means, the march was yet another typical exercise in extravagance that is not going to provide solutions. The money poured into that useless campaign could have been put to much better use, especially in view of how public hospitals are struggling to procure the necessary resources to effectively discharge their mandate.

It is indeed not only sad, but tragic, that huge amounts of money, energy and time could be invested in such schoolboy politics that do not address the issues that attracted the sanctions in the first place. Matters of sanctions cannot be decided on the streets, because they require high-level diplomacy.

The march may have been supported by Sadc even as the regional body is fully aware that it was never going to work, which is why other regional leaders don’t use marches to engage the international community in their own countries.

In fact, the more the Zimbabwe crisis continues, the more it remains profitable to them, given the number of Zimbabweans that do their shopping in neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania. The more the Zimbabwe crisis obtains, the more they continue to feed their national coffers.

There is no way there is ever going to be an unconditional lifting of sanctions, and no amount of campaigns without the necessary reforms are going to have them lifted. If, indeed, the government is really concerned that sanctions are stifling economic growth and hurting ordinary citizens, then it must simply implement the political and economic reforms it promised in the run-up to the 2018 elections. Is that asking far too much? It is about time that Mnangagwa and his bureaucrats show real leadership qualities, otherwise history will judge them harshly as a bunch of useless politicians, with no clue on how to run a country.

BY KENNETH NYANGANI

AN economist has said Zimbabwe should cut military expenditure and channel the resources towards revival of the health sector and economy.

Prosper Chitambara made the remarks yesterday in Mutare at the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe (LEDRIZ) engagement workshop with local scribes.

“We can do without a military. Let’s reduce the personnel in the army because we are not under any threat, but channel more resources to health and social services. For example, Japan has channelled more resources to health and social services than to the army,” he said

“We have found out that if you address health and social services chances of an uprising are very low, so I am urging my country to be like Japan.”

Government has been accused of channelling more financial resources towards the military for fears of an uprising as dissent increases due to a collapsing economy, amid a wave of human rights abuses.

Last month, secretary for Defence Mark Grey Marongwe said the Defence ministry requires $25 billion in 2020 if the value of the local currency against the United State dollar stays the same. The money would mostly be channelled towards funding of the national army.

Chitambara said the government has fallen short on policies that benefit people and jobs provision.

“We have seen decisions that only benefit people in the short term; our government policies are meant to benefit people in short term, but will cry in the long term. We have an example of freebies, printing money and borrowing, we have also noticed that State enterprises have been captured for political expediency,” he said
“African countries rely more on extractive industries and the industry is heavily capitalised and very few jobs are created. We need to create more jobs if we want to fight poverty because through jobs we can fight poverty,” he said

business reporter

Latest data released by ZimStat shows that poverty threshold levels for a family of five increased to ZW$883 in September from ZW$725,3 in August.

In growth terms, the movement represents a 22% month-on-month gain which compares to a rise of 14% between July and August.

The upward monthly movement in the average food basket’s cost for a family of five is at a variance to the average monthly inflation which came off marginally from 18,2% to about 17% in September.

This variance is due to the varying composition in baskets under the two measures. Aggregate inflation is weighted across all goods and services while the food basket used for poverty datum line only factors movement in the cost of food.

However, what is clear from the report is that the average food basket for a family of five has gone up in successive months since February.

Cumulatively, the food basket for a family of five has gone up by 200% from $294 in March to $883 in September. Given the food poverty thresholds, it follows that demand for goods and services in the economy has been under severe pressure, as wages have trailed in growth.

This mismatch has resulted in falling aggregate demand compounded by the loss in purchasing power due to inflation. This trend is likely to continue throughout the rest of the year.

Zimbabwe Revenue Authority revenue numbers are showing a decline in value-added tax on local sales receipts which is a clear indication of low demand. Government has largely resisted adjusting wages in the second half period of the year, which has helped slow down the growth in money supply, consequently slowing down Zimdollar depreciation to the US dollar. Other cost lines have, however, gone up and these include government operations and maintenance costs which now account for a higher share compared to wages.
— Equity Axis