BY SILAS NKALA

WOMEN’S rights lobby group, Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (Walpe) has expressed concern over the deepening economic and political crisis which it says is taking a toll on women and girls.

In its latest report released on Monday, Walpe said since the elections in July 2018, the country has been on an accelerated descent into the abyss as multiple crises in the political and socio-economic spheres continue to unravel.

“It is women and girls, who are hurting the most from these national crises which have seen a total breakdown in the social contract and all other service sectors which are crucial to the livelihoods and rights of women and girls,” the Walpe report read.

“The political and economic crisis has led to serious human rights abuses. On August 1, 2018, six civilians were shot dead by alleged army officials and one of them was a woman, Silvia Maphosa.”

Walpe indicated that the January 2019 crackdown was heavy on women and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum recorded 17 cases of rape of women by alleged State security forces during this period.

The organisation said the dire situation was corroborated by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) which noted in its report that there was a “heavy crackdown characterised by indiscriminate and severe beatings”.

“Since January 2019, a number of women human rights defenders, artists and journalists have also been targeted in attacks by alleged State security agents. Key examples are the women leaders who were part of seven human rights activists who were arrested and charged with treason in May 2019 for attending a peace-building and human rights workshop in Maldives,” Walpe reported.

“These are Walpe director, Sitabile Dewa, Femprist director Rita Nyampinga and activist Farirai Gumbonzvanda. An artist with a local comedy outfit (Bustop TV), Samantha “Gonyeti” Kureya was abducted from her home on August 21, 2019 by suspected State agents, tortured and left for dead in a sewer swamp in Harare. Recently, on October 19, a young female journalist, Ruvimbo Muchenje, with a local media company (Alpha Media Holdings) was brutally assaulted by the police in Harare’s central business district, while going to work.”

Walpe said: “Further, there is no action towards the setting up of a body to investigate abuses by State security forces as set out in Section 210 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”

Walpe also added that the health sector weighs heavily on women, some of them dying during child birth or have to care for the sick who are not being treated in hospitals.

The dire water situation in urban areas and power cuts place women in grave danger of rape and sexual harassment while fetching water and firewood, Walpe reported.

“The Zimbabwean crisis bears the face of a woman and we have suffered enough. It’s time there is genuine and inclusive dialogue to provide a soft landing for women. The national inclusive dialogue process must incorporate women in all key decision-making platforms as their voices are important for any way forward and such a process must not be an elite pact,” Walpe said.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

A 37-YEAR-OLD refugee from Mozambique, Barbara Nyamunda, has narrated the horror of not having national identification documents since she arrived as a child at Zimbabwe’s Tongogara Refugee Camp in 1984. This was at the height of a war between the Mozambican government and Renamo rebels back home.

Consequently, her children are also undocumented.

Nyamunda made the revelations while testifying before the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) inquiry in Bulawayo on Monday.

She said her failure to obtain a birth certificate and identity card forced her into early marriage, which resulted in her bearing children who also do not have national documents.

Nyamunda said she did Grade Seven and failed to proceed with her education because her parents had separated and they never had a chance to help her get identification documents.

“My parents and I escaped from Mozambique to Zimbabwe during the Renamo war when I was two years, to live at Tongogara Refugee Camp. I attended school up to Grade Seven and when they asked for my documents, I failed to produce them. I had to stay at home because they told me I could not proceed with school,” she said.

Nyamunda said she was forced into marriage at a tender age because she could not continue with school.

“I married my husband when I was very young because of lack of documentation . . . I think I was only 16 when I moved in with him,” she said.

She also spoke about her husband trying to help her talk to her parents concerning her identity documents, but they spurned his requests because he had not paid dowry.

“When my husband tried to talk to my parents, they chased him away because they claimed that he had not paid lobola . . . so whenever he tried they would tell him to go away,” she said.

Nyamunda said her husband later took off and told her that he could not stay with someone without IDs.

“I no longer stay with my husband after he left me because of my failure to attain even a birth certificate for myself. He left me with five children who, just like me, have not attended school because they cannot get birth certificates,” she said.

She said her problems were compounded after her parents died during Cyclone Idai in March this year.

ZHRC chairperson Elasto Mugwadi said birth certificates were only issued to aliens’ children if both parents are citizens of Zimbabwe.

Mugwadi advised Nyamunda to visit the Mozambican embassy in Harare for documentation.

“You can go to the Mozambican embassy in Harare and explain yourself to the Refugees Commissioner, but I urge you to go to Tongogara and get your parents’ details first. I am quite sure they have records there concerning them,” Mugwadi said.

He also urged her to ensure her children also get documentation.

Bulawayo provincial registrar, Jane Peters said people do not check registration laws to see what was required of them to become registered citizens.

“Because of lack of knowledge, people grow up in Zimbabwe thinking that they are entitled to have the Zimbabwean documents. In my own perception, if people could observe the child registration laws . . . us as the registration arm of government we do not charge any money for children to get documentation,” Peters said.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

A PRIMARY and Secondary Education ministry official has ordered all secondary schools in Mberengwa to put together essays that chronicle how sanctions are hurting the country.

The essays are dubbed Anti-sanctions campaign from a school’s perspective as a social services deliverer.

In a memorandum sent to all schools in Mberengwa on Monday, district schools inspector Josta Nkomo, ordered all the learning institutions to compel students to write the essays on the subject and submit them to him.

The memorandum read: “Dear school heads: All schools are required to write an essay each on anti-sanctions today and submit it tomorrow morning at district office for onward transmission to Harare. Please don’t fail. Thank you.”

Contacted for comment, Nkomo confirmed to Southern Eye that he indeed gave the instruction to schools in Mberengwa to write the essays.

“It is a competition that we are conducting on the subject. I have the blessings of the Ministry of Education in that programme. It’s a competition for pupils from Form 3 to Upper Sixth,” he said.

Some of the schools which received the order include Batanai, Bvumbura, Chamakudo, Chaora, Chavengwa, Chaza, Chibvute, Chegato, Chengwe, Cheshanga, Chibvumba, Chiedza, Chingechuru, Chimapire and Chingezi.

The Zanu PF-led government will on Friday hold sanctions marches around the country to pressure the US to lift the restrictive measures it imposed on the country in 2001 over concerns of gross human rights abuses, dearth of democracy and bad governance during the then President Robert Mugabe’s era. The measures have been renewed since with US leaders insisting the situation in Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou, said Nkomo had abused his powers by forcing headmasters to dance to his wish on the contentious topic of sanctions.

“Such arrogance of the DSI is tantamount to abuse of power and lack of professionalism as it treats headmasters as if they are an extension of his kitchen. As PTUZ we urge officials to ensure that districts are run in a professional manner that promotes effective and efficient teaching and learning as products of appropriate supervision,” he said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure told Southern Eye that the exercise was bent on manipulating students.

“The government has adamantly resisted our calls for safe schools, the best we can do is to protect our learners from manipulation,” he said.

By Rex Mphisa

ZIMBABWE has been experiencing extremely high temperatures beginning Monday with Beitbridge recording 44,5º Celsius. The Meteorological Services Department (MSD), however, said temperatures would cool down beginning yesterday.

Although high temperatures are expected to continue in Matabeleland North, all Mashonaland provinces, northern parts of the Midlands and Harare, the MSD ruled out prospects of a heat wave hitting the country.

Beitbridge border town temperatures matched an all-time record of 44.5ºC recorded in October 2010. In 1998 temperatures spiked to 44,4 ºC in the border town.

Gweru, Zvishavane, Gwanda and Binga also broke or matched previous recordings, meteorologist Tich Zinyemba said.

Zinyemba said the temperature spikes were a result of compression ahead of cooler temperatures experienced countrywide yesterday.

“The advent of cooler temperatures caused the spikes before cold temperatures set in,” he said.

He said Beitbridge recorded 44,5ºC and Gweru recorded a new high of 36,4 ºC from a previous record of 36,1ºC.

“Joshua Mqabuko (Polytechnic) in Gwanda recorded 38,2 ºC from a previous 38ºC. Zvishavane recorded 41,7 ºC over its 2010 record of 41,3ºC,” Zinyemba said. Binga also set a new record of 41,5ºC up from a previous 41,4ºC.

Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport recorded 34,2ºC.

In Beitbridge town two children fainted at a secondary school and by noon schools had abandoned classes as the searing heat persisted. A teacher from Beitbridge West said the school avoided classrooms as hot and almost still air prevailed.

“Birds, particularly doves, were falling down,” said another teacher from Madzivhe.

“We had problems with schoolchildren particularly in infant school,” said the teacher who declined to be named.

“We have sent reports to the Education Department at Beitbridge,” she added.

Officials at the district education offices were not available for comment. In the border town streets were deserted as people sought shelter from the heat. People could be seen holding water bottles and water vendors said they recorded brisk business.

“I have sold three times the number of water bottles I ordinarily sell and business is good,” a vendor who identified herself as Mary Moyo said.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

THE Department of Veterinary Services in Bulilima last week found no clinical evidence of Newcastle disease in Dombodema where villagers have reportedly lost many chickens.

Last week a number of villagers in ward 20 lost some chickens in a suspected Newcastle outbreak, sending villagers in Bulilima district into panic.

That prompted the Department of Veterinary Services to dispatch a team to the reported epicentre of the outbreak.

Provincial veterinary officer, Enat Mdlongwa dismissed the Newscatle disease outbreak reports in the ward and Bulilima district.

“Following reports that there has been an outbreak of Newcastle in Bulilima district, especially in ward 20 in Dombodema, we have not found any clinical evidence pointing to that disease. Soon after receiving the reports we sent our district team to investigate the matter and their findings are that there is nothing on the ground showing an outbreak of that disease, so villagers should not panic as their birds are safe,” Mdlongwa said.

Last week, the Bulilima Civil Protection Unit received a report of a suspected Newcastle disease outbreak after some villagers lost their chickens to what is now suspected to be a heat wave.

A source in Dombodema, Martha Ncube yesterday confirmed that indeed officials from the Department of Veterinary Services had investigated the reports.

“They came here last week to investigate. They told us that they have not found any trace of the disease. Villagers are now suspecting that their birds could have died due to excessive heat as they were facing respiratory problems and then die,” Ncube said.

Newcastle disease is an infection of domestic poultry and other bird species with virulent Newcastle disease virus. It is a worldwide problem that presents primarily as an acute respiratory disease, but depression, nervous manifestations, or diarrhoea may be the predominant clinical form.

The disease is a contagious bird disease affecting domestic and wild avian species, it is transmissible to humans. It was first identified in Java, Indonesia, in 1926, and in 1927 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England (where it got its name).

BY DARLINGTON MWASHITA/ PATRICIA SIBANDA

BULAWAYO-BASED award-winning gospel musician Margaret Mwamuka, popularly known in the gospel circles as Mai Mwamuka, is set to drop a new album titled Jesu.

Mwamuka disclosed this during the first Ultimate Worship Experience concert at the ZAOGA Church’s Nketa Redemption Centre in Bulawayo recently.

She said the album will comprise 14 tracks.

The musician said the album will have both collaborations and her back-up singers will also get a chance to do solos in some of the tracks.

“I am going to release an album titled Jesu. It has 14 tracks. My back-up singers will also feature with their solos in some of the songs,” she said.

Mwamuka said the album had both Ndebele and Shona songs and promised to release another single soon after hosting a Bulawayo worship gala following the album launch.

She urged artistes to have a positive impact on their audience by exhorting them through music.

“Motivation has to be what people say about you as their comments will always drive you to strive for more. I urge anyone who is in the music industry to localise their talent. If you are a singer or writer, I advise you to record or publish more of your works so that you enlarge your territory and your songs can be heard nation-wide,” she said.
She advised artistes to spread their wings and go the extra mile in showcasing their talent, otherwise they would remain unsung

heroes.

By Freeman Makopa

Mutare-based basketball club, Mercenaries, who are the country’s representatives at this year’s edition of the Basketball Africa League, are confident of progressing to the next round.

The qualifiers, which are scheduled for Johannesburg, South Africa, will run from today to Sunday.

Mercenaries coach Innocent Sithole is confident his charges have what it takes to reach the next round.

He said they were determined to progress to the next round.

“It is the first of its kind in Africa and we feel we have a good chance of getting into the next round,” he said.

Mercenaries were drawn into Group E where they will battle top clubs such as Ferraviario de Maputo (Mozambique), Jozi Nuggets (South Africa), UNZA Pacers (Zambia), Dolphins (Botswana) and Lions Club (Namibia).

Sithole said participating in such a tournament will expose the team to international competition and help in building a stronger Zimbabwean team.

“The financial rewards for going to the next round are huge and this will also help our players to gain experience as they will be battling against top clubs from around the region and we are also opening doors towards a professional team in Zimbabwe,” he added.

Meanwhile, Harare City Hornets maintained their dominance on top of the Men’s A league after beating BUSE Men 92-63 over the weekend.

By Sports Reporter

The who is who of the sports fraternity is today expected to converge in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central province, for the burial of one of Zimbabwe’s greatest athlete, Artwell Mandaza.

Mandaza died on Monday at the age of 73, having been unwell for quite some time. His burial is set for his rural home in Chiweshe.

One of Zimbabwe’s top ultra-distance athletes, Mako Mambo, was already in Chiweshe yesterday to witness the burial of a man idolised by the majority of local athletes.

National Athletics Assiciation of Zimbabwe Mashonaland Central provincial chairperson Pretty Maware said Mandaza had been unwell for some time although he occasionally attended some athletics competitions every time he was invited.

“The man loved his sport. He had been unwell since last year. I used to go and see him and only this year we invited him to an athletics event at Bindura Country Club and he came. He used to attend these events. The sports fraternity will be poorer without him,” she said.

The powerful-striding sprinter from Mhangura, rose to stardom before the country’s independence by becoming the fastest man in the then Rhodesia and the continent at one point.

He held national records in 100m (10,3 seconds), 200m (20,8secs) 400m (46,8secs) and 400m hurdles (52,18secs) from 1969 to 1976.

On the world map, he was ranked among the world’s top 100 on six occasions.

For his dazzling efforts, Mandaza was chosen as the nation’s Sportsman of the Year for 1970 and was also presented with the John Hopley Memorial Trophy to make him the first black African to be honoured as the country’s supreme sportsman.

BY TERRY MADYAUTA

HARARE football giants Dynamos will be seeking to complete a double over defending champions FC Platinum when the two sides clash in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer league tie at Rufaro Stadium this afternoon.

Dynamos go into the match with their confidence rocket high, having beaten FC Platinum 1-0 in their own backyard in the reverse fixture in June.

Having drawn seven times in eight matches, the Glamour Boys will be determined to secure maximum points.

Former Dynamos defender Gift Bello, now on the books of FC Platinum, believes the two teams are meeting at a crucial stage of the campaign and predicted a tough encounter.

The veteran defender made his name at the Harare football giants, before switching to the Zvishavane-based side five years ago.

He has won two successive championships with the Zvishavane-based side – in some of the highlights of his career.

And with his team in a strong position to dominate domestic football again, Bello is relishing the opportunity of meeting his former paymasters.

“We are looking forward to the match. As players, we have prepared very well for this match. We are aware that this match is very important for us. At this stage, we can’t afford to drop points, we need to remain focused.

“It is never going to be easy though, but we are prepared and we pray for a positive result. Remember, we are in the title race so we have to win all the remaining eight games so that we avoid depending much on how other teams play out,” he said.

Bello said they were not reading much into the fact that Dynamos have struggled to collect maximum points in their last five matches.

“Dynamos are playing at home, so obviously, with their huge support base they will be hoping to win this match.

“Their form book is not our concern at this stage because we are only working to collect the three points at stake,” Bello said.

A win for FC Platinum will pile pressure on log leaders, Caps United, who are currently enjoying a five-point cushion at the summit of the log table with 50 points with eight matches remaining.