sport reporter

Pretoria — SuperSport United have opened talks with coach Kaitano Tembo over an improved contract after the mentor led the club to MTN8 title two weeks ago.

Tembo is in the final year of a two-year contract‚ which has an option to renew‚ and United’s football manager Stan Matthews said the former Zimbabwean international defender had strengthened his case for an improved offer after the club beat Highlands Park 1-0 to win the trophy at Orlando Stadium.

“We are in discussions with him about a two-year extension‚” Matthews confirmed.

“I think we all know that what happened to Eric Tinkler after he won the MTN8.

“No one wants to get ahead of himself, but Kaitano delivered us a trophy and every coach who delivers us a trophy will be offered an improved or an extended contract.

“Kaitano will be no different.”

Matthews is confident he will find common ground with Tembo during the negotiations.

“I am pretty confident that he will get a contract extension and hopefully we will wrap that up by the end of the year‚” he said.

“At the beginning of his tenure‚ he signed a two plus two contract with us and this is his second year.

“He has earned (the right) to be offered an extension and we would like to improve it‚ but everything is in his hands.”

The MTN8 final appearance was the second for Tembo since he took over the club’s coaching job and Matthews said he is being rewarded for his hard work.

“I am delighted that he has won his first trophy as a coach and this one has a special feel to it‚” he said.

“Inasmuch as we won trophies with seven coaches‚ he has been with us the longest.

“He was truly groomed because if you remember the amount of time it took Pitso (Mosimane) from being an assistant to a head coach was short compared to Kaitano. He started from the bottom until he eventually became an assistant coach.

“He worked his way through the ranks‚ he prepared himself within our environment and that’s what makes us very special.

“To have a coach who is still with you 20 years later‚ is not by accident.

“He has built himself up and we are proud of him. “He won trophies with our other six coaches and it gives us confidence that the foundations of this club are strong.” — Sowetan

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

AS she waits for her turn to immunise her twin boys at a local clinic, 33-year old Sphiwe Muranda (not her realm name) cannot help but reflect on the long, emotional journey she has travelled.

The memory of how she suffered at the hands of her first husband’s family after failing to conceive for 10 years is still fresh in her mind.

“Harrison’s family put all the blame on me. They said I was infertile. But now, it is clear the problem was their son,” she said, wiping off tears with the back of her hand.

Muranda is one of the many women who have been hounded by their in-laws and condemned by society for “failure” to conceive. Cultural beliefs on infertility issues have resulted in both physical and emotional abuse of many women in Zimbabwe.

“At first, my ex-husband would rally behind me and we would pray over it. None of the family members ever thought that their son was the one who was infertile. I was forced to visit traditional healers and prophets, but all was in vain. I was verbally abused until I could not bear it anymore. I decided to end the marriage,” she said.

After the divorce, Muranda relocated to South Africa in 2017, where her sister lived, to pick up the pieces of her life in a new environment. She met the man who would marry her and sire her twin boys.

“My sister encouraged me to try again. At first I thought I would suffer a miscarriage, but I was relieved when the doctor said he had discovered two foetuses and that I was in perfect health. I gave birth to these two boys and my ex-husband who also got married is still childless. The answer is clear now,” said Muranda, forcing a smile.

Her ex-husband is already aware that she is now a mother.

“Harrison is aware of my two sons. I told him to visit specialists so that they can examine him. He wants a baby, but the truth is most people think that only women suffer from infertility issues. That is a very wrong perception,” she said.

In some societies, infertility is like a curse while others see it as a bad omen or a result of witchcraft. Despite the massive effects of globalisation or modernity, most people are still reluctant to accept that infertility is a medical condition and that even men can be infertile.

According to Mayo Clinic, infertility in men is due to a low sperm count, abnormal sperm function or blockages that prevent the delivery of sperm. Illnesses, injuries, chronic health problems, lifestyle choices and other factors can play a role in causing male infertility.

Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) spokesperson George Kandiero said it is high time affected couples sought solutions together since it has proven that the problem can also lie with men.

“Most times the woman is blamed, even if it means consulting traditional medical practitioners, it is the woman who does it alone. As custodians and champions of culture we know and believe that the problem can also lie with the man, hence we encourage couples to consult together,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation, between 8% and 12% of couples around the world have difficulty in conceiving a child at some point in their life, and in some areas that figure reaches one-third or more of couples. Infertility affects an estimated 48,5 million couples worldwide, of which 10,8 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Addressing journalists in Harare recently, First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa said the issue of infertility should not be a blame game, mainly on women.

“Infertility affects men and women. This cannot be a blame game. Yet we know in our societies that women bear the brunt of this problem. This can be a basis of sexual and or physical abuse, divorce or isolation from the family structure,” she said.

Traditionally, men’s infertility has been concealed by family and relatives who at times devised ways of secretly engaging his elder or younger brother to impregnate his wife. This act would be kept as a secret by the family members. However, it is different with women who, after being certified barren, are chucked out of the family residence in a humiliating way.

“There is need for a shift from the traditionally-held view that infertility affects women to a realistic understanding of the truth that infertility equally affects both men and women,” said Gerald Madziyire, a gynaecologist with the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

According to a 2003 research by Health Care Women International on the fertility patterns of women in Zimbabwe, at least one in every four women of childbearing age suffers from some degree of infertility.

Zimbabwe has one of the world’s highest infertility rates along with other southern African countries such as Botswana, Namibia and Lesotho according to a 2010 World Population Prospect survey.

Today, Muranda has proved her tormentors wrong. She is now a proud mother after enduring 10 years of emotional and physical torture from his in-laws.

Though God has blessed her with twin boys, the hard times she experienced in her first marriage will never be erased off her mind.

editorial

THERE is always going to be a challenge if government continues using a command system to get its way, especially against reason. Setting the condition that it will only hold negotiations with striking health workers on the condition that the health professionals return to work betrays government’s failure to deal with issues, thus opting to resort to threats.

The moment government begins to issue threats because it has failed to get its way, even if it is sometimes unreasonable, shows that it has not learnt the art of negotiation, which must be anchored on persuasion, thus it quickly resorts to issuing brusque commands, accompanied by threats for good measure.

While government may feel the 60% salary adjustment it made for the medical practitioners is an attractive package, nothing can be further from the truth. Given the local currency’s and RTGS’ rapid loss of value on the market, the increment, if it can be called that, is not going to stretch very far, implying that government needs to relook at its solution to the whole economic crisis in which low incomes are just but a fractional symptom. Unless the fundamentals are addressed, the current economic crisis will not relapse.

Of course, government was always going to insist it is not in a position to pay health workers in United States dollars, nor in local currency at the interbank rate, preferring a percentage-based increment. But the major question is: Will this be sustainable given the rate at which the local currency is losing value and as traders continue to peg the prices of goods and services in United States dollars? Where we are right now is exactly where we were in 2008-2009 when the economy self-dollarised and it might not be too far-fetched to suggest that we are again probably headed in that direction.

Although Health minister Obadiah Moyo insisted government was guided by the law, we don’t see how taking health workers to court is going to solve the problem. Court judgments are not going to miraculously wipe away the grievances of government workers. Ordering people to return to work without addressing their grievances can only be effected on paper as they are “incapacitated”.

Government seriously needs to rethink the way it has handled the economy over the last two years and make the necessary changes and adjustments, otherwise the economy will remain in a tailspin. And an economic crisis is not resolved through commands but rational, well thought-out and tested economic models that bring results which will automatically resolve many of the socio-economic challenges bedevilling Zimbabwe.

By Tatenda Chitagu

Masvingo journalists have requested the government to establish a Zimbabwe Media Fund that will help media upstarts as well as bail out struggling media houses to create diversity and plurality.

The call came yesterday during a Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) Bill public hearing conducted by the Information and Media Parliamentary Portfolio Committee at the Civic Centre Hall.

Former ZMC commissioner and ex-Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president Matthew Takaona said the fund could either come from taxpayers or the current money that is levied on media houses by the commission.

“Media houses are levied money by the ZMC. Journalists also pay accreditation fees. The money should create a media fund to fund upstarts or help struggling media houses that are facing collapse. A vibrant media landscape is very critical for democracy and it should be protected,” Takaona said.

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe national chairperson Golden Maunganidze said the journalism profession should not be criminalised through arbitrary arrests and called for the repeal of some sections of the Bill.

“Journalism is not a crime. Why criminalise the profession by having the police arresting a journalist doing their job? When in line of duty, journalists should not even be harassed by political party activists,” he said.

Maunganidze also emphasised the need for self-regulation, but said under the circumstances, the media profession is willing to compromise and have co-regulation with the ZMC.

“We would prefer self-regulation just like international best practices, and not State regulation. Many of the problems that you see within the profession are because we do not self-regulate and do peer review. However, at the moment, we can’t wish away the ZMC. So for now, we can compromise on co-regulation,” he said.

Masvingo journalist Godfrey Mtimba said the ZMC Bill is conspicuously silent on journalists’ working conditions.

“The Bill is scandalously silent on the need for journalists to have decent work, decent wages above the poverty datum line. Professional journalism cannot thrive in an environment of poverty and fear. The Bill should call for the establishment of a National Employment Council (NEC) for journalists and peg the minimum wage for journalists,” Mtimba said.

Another participant said the commission should not report to the minister, but to Parliament, while commissioners should also not be appointed by the minister as it takes away their independence. They should, instead, be appointed by an independent panel. Contributing to the discussion other residents said the terms of office for commissioners should be well defined and be limited to similar periods with other commissions.

Some residents said the Bill should not empower commissioners to investigate a media violation where there is no complaint as this would be abused and used as a witchhunt to silence critical journalism, saying journalists can easily self-correct if such cases arise.

Committee chair Prince Dubeko Sibanda said the hearings were going on well and most issues raised in Masvingo were the ones raised in other towns where they have been.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

THE 2019 tobacco marketing season ended with a plethora of short-changings that must never be allowed to recur if authorities are keen on sustaining tobacco farming in the country.

It is well known that tobacco farming is a billion-dollar industry that cashes in essential money critical for the importation of needed pharmaceuticals, fuel, raw materials and wheat.

The first week of this year’s season started on a low note after tobacco merchants offered low prices in protest over the overburdening 2% intermediated transfer tax.

The disagreement on loan repayment model by contract farmers after the introduction of local currency was also another hurdle that affected the success of the season.

Merchants who had bankrolled the tobacco cropping in hard currency were not happy to recover part of their money in local currency, as per authorities’ instruction.

Farmers were also not amused by the huge cost incurred during the handling of rejected crop at the floors.

The central bank was paying growers 50% of their earnings per sale in foreign currency or using the interbank rate with the remainder paid in local currency.

Farmers were saddened by the fact that they were receiving local currency payment via the interbank rate of the day of sale, but the issues emanated when payments were delayed due to various reasons.

As such, farmers felt disenfranchised to then get payment after two weeks when the exchange rate has shifted and the money has lost its initial value.

Last week, farmers complained that Goldern Barn, a tobacco contracting firm, failed to pay for delivered crop a month after delivery, raising fears that they could have been duped.

One such instance was in June when there was mayhem in Mvurwi as farmers protested against Voedsel Tobacco over payment delays.

Farmers also lambasted the central bank’s inefficiency in allocating forex in nostro as the payment process failed due to lack of transparency.

At the end, farmers who initially were entitled to get half payment in forex via nostro accounts could opt for a 100% payment in local currency as the payment process was opaque and murky.

Some veiled organisations deducted money through a stop order system from farmers without their consent, thereby eroding farmers’ earnings.

As has become cancerous, the cash crisis continued to ravage tobacco farming, with farmers spending days at auction floors desperately waiting for cash.

Despite being introduced three years back to weed out collusion and dispense transparency, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board has failed to effectively operationalise the electronic marketing system.

Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union president Shadreck Makombe pleaded with authorities to show commitment of ironing out some of the pressing issues bedevilling the sector.

“The meeting I once attended with the Minister of Agriculture (Perrance Shiri), you would see the willingness is there. Unfortunately, the situation is so porous that you would find these opportunists are the ones causing problems because farmers would want to do business, but because farming is the only industry which appears to be ticking, hence everyone from everywhere will be there to get something. To me, it needs a concerted effort, but am not seeing it happening given the environment which we are operating in. So it’s quite tricky from my own assessment,” Makombe said.

Some of the factors that contributed to the lower tobacco prices this season, according to a Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) market report, included policy inconsistency throughout the selling period, especially on the loan separations in the form of Real Time Gross Settlement dollars and United States dollar and lack of confidence by important buyers due to the general economic environment.

Other factors that contributed to lower prices were over-production coupled with a high carry over of unsold stock from the 2018 selling season, lower quality for certain types of tobacco, caused by the drought, changing demand for leaf styles and qualities in key markets and increased demand for value tobacco from non-premium markets.

This season, the golden leaf average price were deplorably low at $2 per kg down from $2,92 registered last season at a time the 2019 total output grew to 259 million kg from 253 million kg last year.

While output grew exponentially, authorities need to reign in certain wrongs to ensure viability according to ZTA. Auction floor deliveries have plunged from an all-time high of 76, 8% in 2004 to 14% this season.

“Prices on the auction floors remained depressed throughout the season, though there was a slight improvement after three quarters of the crop had been delivered already. Most of the growers who sold on the auction floors have received sub-economic returns and this will have an impact on their ability to finance themselves for the next season and, resultantly, most have turned to contractors to look for inputs and working capital support. This will naturally lead to further declines in auction tobacco,” ZTA said.

“Although a record volume of tobacco has been sold this season, US dollar earnings to the farmer and the country dropped significantly by 30%. This has had a direct impact on growers’ overall viability this season. Significant upwards movements in the official exchange rate towards the end of the season meant prices for imported inputs such as fertilisers, chemicals, fuel became unaffordable to many farmers who sold earlier in the season and attempted to retool in August and September.”

Tendai Kamba

In an effort to revive the agricultural sector, government has asked the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to print electronic dollars, increasing money supply and flooding the market with created dollars (wish it could be called (Mosi-oa-tunya currency — the currency that keeps falling) in order to finance the so-called Command Agriculture. This increase in money supply has fuelled the fires of hyperinflation, led to the rapid fall in the exchange rate, increases in electricity tariffs (that is not available anyway) by more than 320%, and fuel by more than 25%. I believe that, besides adding misery to the already miserable and unbearable lives of Zimbabweans, the so-called Command Agriculture will not work for a number of reasons.
First, Command Agriculture is just a way that Zanu PF designed to transfer rents from the ordinary Zimbabweans or State coffers into the private hands of the Zanu PF elites.

The first people in line to benefit from the more than US$500 million allocated for the programme are the senior Zanu PF officials, senior military and civil servants who do not have anything to do with agriculture. Instead of using these resources for agriculture, surely this money will find itself in foreign bank accounts for funding expensive and lavish lifestyles.

Unfortunately, the poor farmer in Karoi would be lucky to see even a single bag of fertiliser from the programme, if any is left after the Zanu PF network down to the village level has looted the inputs. Command Agriculture is a classic programme of privatising State resources and enriching the few elites, while bankrupting and socialising poverty for the ordinary Zimbabweans. Second, the Command Agriculture programme does not have any incentives (carrots and sticks) to encourage the recipients to put the resources into good agricultural use.

The recipients get a blank cheque that does not have any strings attached. This is a classic example of leaving a five-year-old with a cookie jar and expect them to be a responsible person.

There is no repayment requirement for the recipients to ensure that the programme is self-sustaining. There is no requirement of past production history (the only requirement is Zanu PF and or bureaucracy connection), no monitoring of the progress on the utilisation of the assistance, no prosecution of recipients who abuse the system, no record keeping of the recipients, and an evaluation of the impact of the programme after its end. With no incentives, no wonder why most recipients would gladly pocket the money and send the Zimbabwean people a sucker thank you note. This is puzzling, given that even the Chinese model from which this programme is conceived has got string incentive requirements and enforcement mechanisms. This programme is there to provide 100% benefits to the ruling elite, while leaving the Zimbabwean people holding an empty bag without any benefit.

It’s a shame that this programme is there to grease the stomachs of the powerful and well connected.

In conclusion, let me state clearly that I would offer my unqualified support if Command Agriculture is well conceived; it can clearly put Zimbabwe back on a path to the agricultural green revolution that we veered off really bad in the early 1990s. Our agricultural programmes have been there to feed the fat cats (the elite), while loading taxation on the ordinary Zimbabweans through hyperinflation, stripping public institutions of assets (for example Reserve Bank’s more than US$3 billion debt liability from all the Mechanisation programme to Command Agriculture). I propose that for the sake of our country, let us have a Command Agriculture that is fit for purpose in 2019.

One such programme is one in which the government allocates money to public and private agricultural institutions and demand a below market rate that is sustainable.

Then let government institutions such as Agribank (if it still exists) loan the funds under the right incentives, monitor its implementation and evaluate its impact. Such a programme will take Zimbabwe on an agricultural revolution path. I am sure the Zanu PF elite will be happy to live rich among well-off citizens rather than continue the current situation of living rich among poverty-stricken citizens.

If so, I propose that the policy-makers consider this opinion for the sake of my beloved country that bleeds red soil.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

IBHAYISIKOPO Film Project in Bulawayo has partnered Hivos to embark on a campaign that seeks to improve women’s access to, and participation in, the media, film and television industry.
The initiative also seeks to build their capacity to fight gender-based violence (GBV) through offering a media reporting manual and an increased level of digital participation.

Priscilla Sithole Ncube (pictured) of Ibhayisikopo Film Project told NewsDay Life & Style that the GBV digital reporting manual will be used to address the barriers that restrict the influence of women doers and change makers in film and the media.

“This project aims to contribute towards the fight against gender-based violence and toxic masculinity in Zimbabwe’s socio-political landscape. The strategy to achieve this will involve working with the media houses, the public, government institutions, tertiary institutions and arts organisations so as to create and implement a solution,” she said.

“The project will further provide a women-friendly capacity-building environment, dominated by women during the implementation project.”

The development, Ncube said, entailed the provision of the necessary skills and networks for women in media and film so that they can share knowledge.

“The GBV digital reporting manual will also be a rallying point for women’s advocacy initiatives and help women in the media to self-organise against gender inequality, sexual harassment, gender-based violence and women’s lack of access to economic empowerment,” she said.

Ncube said 10 women frontrunners from various sectors including universities and civil society organisations will be selected to contribute towards the collation of the manual.

“GBV in the media includes stereotypes, gender insensitive reporting, exclusion of women and homophobia. The project is in view of the use of digital media as a path to capacitate women in social and political advocacy,” she said.

Ncube said the victimisation of women directly involved in the media included labelling and stereotyping, to the detriment of female change makers in the country’s media.

“Very often, when efforts are being made to liberate women from various obstacles hindering their total and full participation in the media, film and television, focus is frequently restricted towards obvious structures of violence like physical violence and sexual harassment,” she said.

“Very little effort is directed towards engaging structural violence and the masculinity of the space, its gender insensitivity and the fixation of opportunities to either males or a few women at the benevolence of males.”

BY SILAS NKALA

A MAN from Siantibule village in Binga has been jailed for 14 years after kidnapping his former girlfriend and taking her to his home where he allegedly raped her four times.

Pangayitari Mudimba (30) pleaded not guilty to one count of kidnapping and four counts of rape when he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate Collet Ncube on Tuesday.

The magistrate yesterday convicted and sentenced him to an effective 14-year jail term after overwhelming evidence was proffered by the State that he committed the offence.

Prosecutor Memory Munsaka told the court that Mudimba was involved in a love affair with a 24-year-old woman (name withheld for ethical reasons), but had recently separated.

It is the State’s case that on October 31, 2018 at around 7pm, Mudimba called the woman and told her to bring his mobile phone she was in possession of when they separated.

Mudimba told her that he would wait for her by the road side. The woman, in the company of her sister’s daughter, went to meet Mudimba, where she handed over the mobile phone.

It was the State case that after handing over the phone, Mudimba grabbed her and dragged her towards his home.

The woman struggled to free herself, but Mudimba maintained a tight grip on her. The court heard that the woman later bit Mudimba to free herself, but Mudimba retaliated by bitting her on the shoulder.

Mudimba managed to drag her to his bedroom hut where he raped her four times before letting her go.

The woman later made a report to the police, leading to Mudimba’s arrest.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Parirenyatwa Hospital-based neurosurgeon Aaron Musara has accused the institution’s department of anaesthesia and clinical medicine of neglecting and refusing to attend to patients in need of urgent surgical operations.

He said this had resulted in the unnecessary death of many patients at the country’s biggest referral hospital.

Musara made the remarks in his court application in which he is seeking an order to compel the hospital’s authorities to nullify an adverse report against him which it authored and kept in his personal file.

The report suggests that the surgeon carried out an unprocedural and inappropriate operation on a patient despite the fact that the hospital’s head of anaesthesia and clinical medicine refused to assist him.

“This conduct also poses serious emotional and psychological challenges to surgical teams as sometimes patients die in our full view due to delayed and/or cancelled surgical operations occasioned by the absence of anaesthetic services…in December 2018, I lost a patient, by the name Gloria Shambare, who we had failed to operate on for 52 days due to persistent refusal by anaesthetists to render their services” Musara said.

Musara, who is also a senior lecturer in the neurosurgery unit at the University of Zimbabwe said he was now being tormented by the hospital’s authorities after taking an independent decision to administer general anaesthesia on one Shadreck Musekiwa.

He said this was after the hospital’s anaesthetic team refused to anaesthetise the patient on the basis that they wanted to attend lectures.

“I further explained to him the urgent need to operate on the patient on the day in question. I further pleaded with him to put the patient to sleep to avoid the emotional assault that comes with watching a patient who can potentially recover deteriorate right before us,” Musara said in his affidavit.

“He (head of anaesthesia) advised that the operation was to be cancelled as he had also briefed his consultant and they had made a decision to cancel the operation…he walked out of the operating room, leaving my team and I stranded.”

Musara said with a full appreciation that the patient was only left to the surgical team and no specialised anaesthetic services available, he took the bold decision to administer general anaesthesia upon Musekiwa and the team carried out a successful operation.

However, after Musara’s successful operation on his patient, the head of the division of anaesthesia and clinical medicine, lodged a complaint with the hospital’s acting clinical director, Aspect Jacob Maunganidze, accusing Musara of misconduct in the manner he had handled Musekiwa’s case.

“To my surprise, I was served with a letter on August 8, 2019 where, inter alia, the second respondent ruled that when I administered general anaesthesia upon Musekiwa on June 5, 2019, I acted in an unprocedural and inappropriate manner. He further advised that the communication would be kept in my personal file for future reference,” he said.

Musara further said Musekiwa’s case was not isolated in that it was actually the habit of the division of anaesthesia and clinical care medicine for consultants and students to provide services only up to 1pm.

“They abandon work between 1pm and 4pm citing very flimsy reasons like attending lectures and meetings. This is inspite of the fact that the operation list for the hospital runs from 8am to 4pm. Thus, from 1pm surgical operations are cancelled due to absence of anaesthetic services,” Musara said.

The matter is pending.