WOMEN in the mining sector in Zimbabwe are still facing major challenges such as lack of investment capital and knowledge on available opportunities, despite concerted efforts to address them, an official has said.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

In a speech read on her behalf by the director in the ministry at the ongoing MineEntra in Bulawayo yesterday, Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the mining sector in Zimbabwe was gender insensitive and women continue to be disadvantaged as they are still discriminated against in this fast growing sector.

“This conference is important because women in the mining sector in Zimbabwe still face major challenges such as lack of investment capital and knowledge on available opportunities. The mining sector in Zimbabwe has generally been regarded with mystification as a sector for the white, rich and powerful,” Nyoni said.

“This is because mining is associated with high capital investments, big machinery and underground activities. For women, the situation is made worse by occupational segregation and lack of access to capital even for the most basic tools.”

According to a study commissioned by the Women Affairs ministry in 2016 with the support of the World Bank, only 30% of the artisanal gold miners in the small-scale mining sector are women, while 80% of the small-scale gold and gemstone claims belong to men.

Women constitute only 7% of the total labour force in the sector.

“This gloomy picture calls for concerted efforts to be directed towards creating a conducive environment that encourages more women to venture into the formal mining sector,” she said.

Nyoni encouraged women to explore various opportunities available in the mining sector value chain.

These include catering and camping services, trucking and transportation services, drilling and coring services, civil works, crane and fork-lifting services, mine waste disposal services as well as water management and waste water treatment services.

She said small-scale miners are currently contributing around 60% of all the gold that is being delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refineries.

“It is gratifying to note that women miners are contributing a fair share of this output despite the numerous challenges they face,” she added.

She thanked the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through Fidelity Printers and Refiners for establishing the ZW$150 million facility of which ZW$20 million was set aside for women miners. “The onus is now upon all women miners to access these funds to increase production,” she said.

Zimbabwe mobile network operators have seen revenue decline and reporting break evens, in this highly inflationary environment. If this persists at this rate, they will be soon reporting loses as the environment continues to become tougher for various players.

Telecel will not be publicly announcing their results, but we all know they are making loses already, TelOne and Powertel were lucky to swing just above break-even whilst NetOne an Econet have posted some profits. Nevertheless, the major problem is more environmental which in turn is affecting other sectors as well outside the sector.

The Zimbabwe Telecoms sector is one of the most heavily licensed sector and still it does not escape the taxation system like any other industry.

*Telecel Zimbabwe for the second time is in trouble for failing to pay its license fee, violating even the payment plans it had promised over a 10-year license fee of $137.5million. Outside the huge license fee*, the sector faces duty on ICTs equipment imported, 5 percent excise duty on airtime sales, a 25 percent duty on handsets and ICT products and a 5 cents levy per transaction on mobile money transfers, plus of course the inescapable 2% for any electronic transaction, we are crushing the goose that lays the golden egg.

While most of these taxes are paid by the operators directly, consumers also bear the brunt of these measures as operators extend the whole portion to the user like the Universal Services Fund (USF) and the Value Added Tax (VAT).

The ICT sector is Zimbabwe’s second-biggest taxpayer, meaning it is contributing significantly to our national revenues hence it’s critical.

Technically at this taxation rate, It would be fair to say that our taxing system is making more money than the business itself, and you wonder if at all these cons are looked into as the environment continues to grow tough.

Besides the taxation issue which greatly contributes against the profits, just for the love of the sector, we are really concerned if issues of viability are at all concern to the powers that be.

There is an urgent need to start relaxing statutes and prohibitive laws before we see an inevitable collapse of the sector, which unfortunately has been drained with taxations and punitive measures, yet the same sector is expected to be at prime performance.

The elephant in the room has been the bond note pricing which has really eroded value at the current rate, forcing Zimbabwean Mobile service providers to be billing the least profitable rates in the continent. When the bond note and RTGS were introduced, there were pegged at the rate 1:1against the US dollar and this gave businesses the opportunity to also borrow and invest banking on the return of value using the same tariffs in actual USD currency.

With the actual value of the RTGS rate against the income buying power, it brings a big headache to price right while one needs to be super cautionary against a client earning a meager RTGS salary, while ultimately the same operators have real forex obligations.

At this rate, the government must consider availing forex to the sector, so that the local players remain sustainable and relevant amidst a hyperinflationary environment, some form of cushioning and prioritizing them as they settle international debts through the provision of foreign currency.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE/STEPHEN CHADENGA

WOMEN Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) Midlands Chapter has given Gweru City Council 14 days to explain the source of funding for former town clerk, Daniel Matawu’s exit package as well as resolve the city’s water crisis, failure which they would take to the streets and also approach government for intervention.

In a letter addressed to mayor, Josiah Makombe, dated July 9, WCoZ accused the local authority of failing to act on its previous petitions on the two issues.

“We sent a petition to your office regarding the source of the funding for the golden handshake for former town clerk, Daniel Matawu and we also petitioned your office over erratic water provision in Gweru,” WCoZ wrote.

“Numerous efforts have been made by our office to get responses to our petitions, but none have been forthcoming. Despite our efforts you have failed or
refused to demonstrate any commitment to address our plight.

“As we speak, some areas like Mkoba 1, 2, 19, Ridgemont and Adelaide Park, as well as Senga, have gone for the past four weeks without water and this has
placed us at risk of contracting water-borne diseases like typhoid and cholera. Due to this crisis, we are compelled to give your office 14 days (notice), to
take action to address our grievances,” reads the petition.

The women’s organisation said if the local authority fails to act on its grievances in two weeks’ time they would pursue the issues “(through) a different
forum”.

“We are prepared to approach for intervention, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Public Works and National Housing,” said WCoZ.

Alice Maqata, the WCoZ Midlands Chapter chairperson confirmed to Southern Eye the development, also saying young girls are being harassed by marshals at alternative water points. She highlighted that women were losing productive time searching for water because some suburbs have gone for four weeks without the
commodity.

“We have given council 14 days to address the water situation and to respond to the petition we gave them last year, where we wanted to know how council will
fund the former town clerk’s ZW$400 000 golden handshake,” she said.

“We are coming from a background where we know that council owes around ZW$30 million to Zesa alone. Residents owe council a staggering ZW$62 million. Over and
above that, council is saying it needs ZW$6 million to refurbish the city’s water infrastructure. Our women and girls are spending an average of seven hours a
day in search of water. This takes away their productive time and exposes them to all forms of abuse at (water) points, where marshals are demanding favours in
cash or kind for them to jump queues. We now want action, we have had enough.”

Makombe said he sympathised with the women, but indicated council will not be able to meet their deadline.

“I feel their issue is genuine. As women they are the most affected when there is no water. However, our failure to provide water regularly is not by choice.

Our situation is very critical, but we are trying our best. We have engaged government and the corporate world for required funding to fix the crisis.”

BY XOLISANI NCUBE

AN explosive leaked audio recording allegedly of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa (pictured) has exposed the simmering bad blood between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the military.

This comes hardly two years after the military, led by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, ousted former President Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa in a military-assisted operation. Chiwenga is now Vice-President, but has not been seen in public for months now as he is reportedly battling ill health.

Repeated efforts to get a comment from the First Lady proved fruitless yesterday as she was not picking up her mobile phone throughout the day.

But Information secretary Ndabaningi Mangwana said from the information he received, the audio seemed to have been manipulated.

“The information I received is that there is a lot of manipulation and simulation of the First Lady’s voice on the audio circulating,” Mangwana said.

Zimbabwe National Army spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Alphios Makotore said he was unaware of the alleged audio, hence he could not comment on its contents.
“I am not aware of the said audio,” Makotore said.

The audio, in which the First Lady ranted at a top military commander, went viral on Monday. The First Lady rails at one Murombo believed to be Colonel Samson Murombo, the commander of 1 Presidential Guard Infantry Battalion situated at Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks (formerly KGVI), whom she accused of “spying” on her. The battalion is responsible for protecting the first citizens’ official residence and guest house.

The audio may have inadvertently laid bare the tensions between Mnangagwa and the rank and file of the military that was the power behind his rise to State House in November 2017.

The audio revealed a skittish, but combative character of the First Lady who used abusive language to attack Murombo.

It is understood that the eight-minute-long audio could have been recorded last month when First Lady Auxillia was in Bulawayo visiting former First Lady Janet
Banana, the wife of the late former President Canaan Banana, as well as veteran nationalist Jane Ngwenya, and Zodwa Dabengwa, the widow of the late Zapu
leader, Dumiso Dabengwa.

However, it is still a mystery how the recording was leaked and who recorded it in the first place.

“You’re spying on me,” Auxillia reportedly accused Murombo, who was not given a chance to respond to the allegations even though he pleaded with her to defend
himself.

Murombo is occasionally heard pleading: “Excuse me Your Excellency,” but the First Lady curtly responded: “Just tell me what you want from me because if I die,
it would be you.”

The unmistaken voice of First Lady Auxillia further accused Murombo of using someone called Manjoro, believed to be a Central Intelligence Organisation
operative and member of her security detail, to spy on her.

“You must waylay me on the road. I’m coming from Bulawayo. If you don’t, straight away I’m coming to your office and you can do what you want with me. You can’t deal with women like this. I’m going to make a story about this. I’m coming to your office to sit there. What threat am I? To who? What threat do I have?” Auxillia ranted.

“You draw your confidence from the fact that you have a gun. I’m coming there and you can shoot me. If you don’t shoot me before I get there, we’ll kill each other in your office.”

The First Lady also claimed that she was aware of a plot to kill Mnangagwa and said those who wanted to do so could go ahead, but leave her alone because she had children to look after.

She went on to describe Murombo as a man with an “ugly face”, who was “trying to get to Mnangagwa through me”.

When Murombo asked if he could be afforded a chance to speak, she yelled back: “Get away! I’m just a mere woman, a grandmother. Go and shoot Mnangagwa, I ask for a pardon. Don’t shoot me because I’ve children. Just shoot Mnangagwa, because I know this is all about him. Just go and shoot him, why do you want to shoot me? What have I done? What threat do I pose to you Murombo? I don’t even know your wife. I don’t discuss politics, I don’t discuss military issues. I’m coming to your office.”

In May, the First Lady stormed the government-owned NatPharm and demanded to see documents showing where they were sending drugs.

She vowed not to leave the NatPharm warehouse “before they provide me with the current distribution list of the medicines they dispatched”.

At NatPharm, she was captured on video quizzing officials about stockpiles of undistributed medical drugs at a time most public hospitals were without drugs.
Earlier, she had also been recorded threatening to confront mobile network operators over tariff hikes at a gathering in Masvingo province.

Political analysts and opposition parties have repeatedly been questioning First Lady Auxillia’s “philanthropic” work, which has reportedly seen her interfering in government business.

But Auxillia hit back then, saying opposition political parties should not remain in election mode and should stop attacking citizens concerned with the well-being of Zimbabweans, including their supporters.

“I have been a health ambassador for quite some time and my role is to help the vulnerable in whatever possible way. When I (paid) a visit to NatPharm, I had asked the Minister of Health (Obadiah Moyo) to accompany me so that I could appreciate their operations. It is unfortunate that he was in a meeting. He sent a representative,” she said.

Moyo said then: “Indeed, we discussed with the First Lady about her familiarisation tour of NatPharm. Because I was engaged elsewhere, I dispatched one of my senior staffers at the ministry to accompany her. In relation to a meeting I had with NatPharm executives, it was a scheduled meeting which was not influenced by the First Lady. She is merely fulfilling her philanthropic work, nothing more nothing less. In any case, she is now our ambassador for health and child care.”

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

STANBIC Bank Limited, a subsidiary of the South African based Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, advanced its employees ZWL$1 000 in allowances to avert a strike last week as the economic situation continues to deteriorate.

This paper understands that last Wednesday, employees from both the Jason Moyo branch in Bulawayo and Nelson Mandela branch in Harare had last week planned to camp in the banking halls in protest over poor salaries.

“We have been advised that they were paid an allowance, which is an advance payment to be deducted from the July payday, just to cushion the staff. Salary
adjustments will be discussed in the next works council,” Zimbabwe Banks and Allied Workers’ Union (Zibawu) secretary-general Shepherd Ngandu told NewsDay.

Stanbic Bank confirmed that it was working on providing a cushioning allowance to workers, but denied that a strike nearly occurred last week.

“We are aware of the economic situation and its impact on the general population, including our employees. As such, the bank is currently working on sustainable solutions to cushion our employees against the prevailing challenges. During this process, the leadership continues to engage with employees on the
same,” Stanbic, in emailed responses to NewsDay, said.

Standard Bank is present and operates in 18 African countries.

EDITORIAL COMMENT

GOVERNMENT’s continued action of snubbing its workers as it tries to avoid paying what is due to the civil servants is nothing short of folly.

In fact, it reminds us of lyrics of one of reggae music legend Robert “Bob” Nesta Marley’s greatest songs in which he said: “Ya running and ya running, away;
But ya can’t run away from yourself. Ya must have done Somet’in’ wrong (something wrong).”

Despite Finance minister Mthuli Ncube and colleagues always telling us that things are looking good and they have recorded a surplus, the situation on the
ground is telling us a different story; and the civil servants’ shrill cries for help over their useless pay cheques is telling of the dire state of our
economy.

The sooner Ncube and colleagues sober up and see things as they are and give proper advice to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the better it will be for us all
because this business of running away from the truth will only make matters worse for everyone.

That government is determined to shy away from meeting its workers around a table to hear their grievances and curve out a lasting solution is indicative of
something gravely wrong within government.

Mnangagwa has been telling us that he and his administration have solutions to the country’s unending economic problems, and for him and his administration to
then run away from meeting aggrieved public workers only serves to expose that “somet’in’ is wrong”, indeed.

But unfortunately, or fortunately, they can run, but they can’t run for ever; more so because they too are public servants themselves and the problems they are
running away from will sooner than later catch up with them.

The recent 15% or so fuel price hike has already further gnawed into the civil servants’ meagre earnings in a big way, and expected more hikes in electricity
charges are some of the many tell-tale signs that government is fast running out of rope as far as the public workers’ demands are concerned.

All the civil servants are asking for is a fair living wage calculated at the prevailing bank rate. This, in our view, should be easy to fulfil since
government keeps assuring us that everything is under control.

Need we remind government that also waiting on the wings for a fair living wage are the ever restless war veterans who have demanded a 100% increase in their
pensions. Time is definitely not on government’s side because a disgruntled public workforce is the last thing it wishes for at this point in time.

FIDELITY MHLANGA/MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

Cooking oil manufacturer Surface Wilmar says it has cut back production at its Chitungwiza plant to below 15% of its installed capacity as a result of incessant power cuts.

Ordinarily, the company produces 8 000 tonnes of cooking oil per month, but company executives told Industry deputy minister Raj Modi yesterday during a tour of the company’s plant that output had slumped to 1 500 tonnes.

“There is no production. As you went through the factory, did you see workers there? Did you see the factory running? For the last 16 to 17 days, there has
been no production here,” Surface Wilmar executive chairman Narottan Somani said during the tour.

Asked by journalists if the situation would not affect supply to the market, Somani said: “Are you guaranteeing us that there will be power. You want me to
guarantee supply of the products without power? It does not work like that. Let’s not create illusions.”

Somani added that the company requires 8 megawatts per day to power its Chitungwiza plant, adding that powering the factory with a generator would require 100
litres of diesel per hour and would push the prices of products northwards.

Chief executive Sylvester Mangani said it was difficult to convince foreign investors who enquire from him to come and invest in the country at a time they
were also struggling.

“I don’t know how the country can be open for business when we have power cuts,” bemoaned Mangani.

The company, which during normal times produces enough for export, bemoaned the existence of red tape, saying it required at least 17 export licences.

“When we export, we have to go through a process of getting export permits. Each time we export, we have to get an export permit so it’s just a nuisance cost.
So, we have to recruit a person who has to do that. So, for us, its just an extra person who has to chase export permits, which we think is an unnecessary
cost.”

guest column Paidamoyo Muzulu

WHEN it staged the November 2017 coup, the military was very candid in its statement that the grave action was an effort to “restore Robert Mugabe’s legacy”, a heritage that over time had been reversed by flagging economic conditions.

However, in addition to near universal education and health services, land reform, though brought to the fore through a rather disastrous modus operandi in
2000, is the shining beacon in Mugabe’s presidency.
The noble legacy is, however, about to be destroyed.

Mugabe, under pressure from liberation war veterans in 1997, started the fast-track land reform that changed the face of commercial farming, with over 140 000
black farmers getting resettled.

Mugabe’s government went on to constitutionalise that all agricultural land was now owned by the State, making the land acquisitions final and permanent in the
process.

The country paid heavily for land reform when Western governments imposed economic and travel sanctions on the leadership under the guise of promoting human
rights and democracy.

To his credit, Mugabe started the ambitious farm mechanisation programme as a means to capacitate the new farmers and improve production.

It came at a cost, the State was left saddled with a debt of US$1,2 billion which it assumed from the central bank that had birthed it.

The nationalisation of land seems to be coming to an end, if Agriculture minister retired Air-Marshall Perrance Shiri’s comments (Financial Gazette 26/6/2019)
on allowing resettled farmers to sub-lease their land.

“On sub-leasing of farms; if you have a farm and you have proper documentation, that is an offer letter or a 99-year lease, you can go ahead. What we are
interested in as government is to make sure that the land is fully utilised, it is being productive,” Shiri said.

“As to the arrangement on the farm of who exactly is tilling the land, that is not much of our business. Previously, we used to discourage sub-letting of
farms, but with the new dispensation, we have said farming is a business. Let the farmers make business decisions. If they want to till the land with partners,
if they want joint ventures, it is up to them, but we encourage farmers to have whatever agreements they enter into endorsed by the ministry to ensure that the
interests of both parties are adequately protected,” he added.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been touted in the media as pro-capital, but few would have anticipated that he would reverse the land reform programme to
appease capital or take the country back to feudalism, with the resettled farmers as new landlords.

More than ever before, the A2 farmers have all of a sudden become landlords, nay absent landlords who can sweat their land (State-land) for profit through
subletting.

These same farmers have been struggling or deliberately not paying any land unit taxes to the central government and local authorities.

Mnangagwa has, overnight, created feudal lords (land owning class) using State-capital for private gain. Was this Mugabe’s plan from the onset? I doubt.

Mugabe could have been many things, but he genuinely believed that blacks should be proud farmers not absentee landlords who survive on lease fees.

In the past weeks, we have seen and heard Zanu PF youths and Mnangagwa calling out former First Lady Grace Mugabe as having 16 farms.

Mugabe could have grabbed 16 farms, which should be regularised as so many other political honchos.

It is now more important than ever that the farm audit report has to be made public so that we get to know who were the beneficiaries of A2 land programme?

In the same vein, the list of beneficiaries of farm mechanisation should also be tabled in Parliament for scrutiny.

Why should Zimbabweans continue to carry the can for the few politically-connected who benefitted from both A2 farms and farm mechanisation projects?

Is it not time that we should know who is going to be getting money from leasing the farms? Is it not just that they should pay for the developments and farm
mechanisation debts?

It can be argued that Mnangagwa is busy working on creating a bourgeoisie class that survives on drinking the blood of the poor, through taxes and burdening
them with debts and obligations accrued by the greedy capitalists.

Could this be the reason why Mnangagwa has kept insisting that Zimbabwe is open for business and that government will always follow capital?

Without doubt, Mnangagwa has started to dismantle farm nationalisation that Mugabe steered for the benefit of his cronies.

The Mugabe land legacy is simply fading and soon would be totally erased from the body politic.

Probably more than ever before Zimbabweans have to raise their political consciousness and come up with an alternative to the feudal, neoliberal politics of
this regime.

Operation Restore Legacy could after all have been a ruse just as argued in Two Weeks in November, written by Douglas Rogers.

The operation was more about personal glory and empire building by a regime stalking State capital.

BY HENRY MHARA

DYNAMOS returnee Archford Gutu (pictured) has received his International Transfer Clearance (ITC) papers and will be available for selection when DeMbare face off with Caps United in the big Harare derby at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday.

The midfielder, who is returning to the club which he left in 2011 for Europe, has been training with the Harare giants since last month, but could not play for them because he had not received his ITC papers.

ITC is required when a player previously registered to a club in another country wants to be registered to an affiliated club in another country.

It’s a clearance letter that an association seeking to register a player will require from the player’s former association.

Gutu was previously playing for Swedish division one side IFK Värnamo.

The player’s manager Calvin Nyazema last night confirmed that he had received all the required documentation which he would submit to Dynamos this morning so that they can start the registration process with the Premier Soccer League (PSL).

“I have all the papers with me, and what is left is for Dynamos to register the player with the PSL. The process had been delayed by the constant power blackouts, but everything is sorted now, and he (Gutu) should be available for selection in the next match,” he said.

The development will excite Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya, who views Gutu as the missing piece in his jigsaw puzzle.

“When he played locally, he was one of the best attacking midfielders around during that time and from what we have seen so far at training, of course, we still need to work on his fitness, but in terms of the creativity that we are looking for in the final third, I think he is one player who can give us that,” the Dynamos mentor said.

“That has been our major weakness, because in the last games, we have done well in terms of the defensive part of the game, but it’s the final third that we are really coming short. So, the coming in of Archford will surely give us more quality in that department, and we hope to be creating more chances and scoring more goals.”

Gutu is one of three players who Dynamos have acquired in the current transfer window.

Other players who have joined are Evans Katema and another returnee Simba Nhivi, who is making his third stint with the club.

Katema and Nhivi featured for the team against Black Rhinos at the weekend, with the former providing an assist on his debut for goalscorer Jarrison Selemani.

The match ended 1-all.

The other good news in the Dynamos camp is that captain Edward Sadomba, who suffered an injury against Rhinos, has fully recovered, and is expected to play
against their biggest rival on the local scene Caps United.

Castle Lager Premier Soccer League week 15 fixtures

Saturday: Chicken Inn v Bulawayo Chiefs (Luveve), Herentals v Hwange (National Sports Stadium), ZPC Kariba v Triangle (Nyamhunga), Yadah v Harare City

(Rufaro), Ngezi Platinum Stars v Black Rhinos (Baobab), FC Platinum v Chapungu (Mandava)

Sunday: Manica Diamonds v Highlanders (Vengere), Dynamos v Caps United (Rufaro), TelOne v Mushowani Stars (Luveve)