BY OBEY MANAYITI

CHIPINGE farmer Richard Le Vieux yesterday accused Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Ellen Gwaradzimba of attempting to grab his multi-million export enterprising farm and was only blocked from doing so by Cabinet.

Le Vieux told the Justice Mayor Wadyajena led Parliamentary committee on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement that Gwaradzimba, whose son,
Remembrance Mbudzana, had been allocated his Farfell Estates, was trying to force partnerships with lucrative farms by threatening to grab all their land if they refused.

At one point, Gwaradzimba allegedly summoned four commercial farmers and threatened to take their land if they refused her preferred partnership.

At that particular meeting, Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri reportedly also repeatedly threatened to kick out the farmers if they continuously defied the
orders.

Le Vieux, who at one point was invited to farm in Mozambique by the leadership in that country, also narrated how he was bundled into a police truck at night
for refusing to pave way for the minister’s son.

He also told the committee how he was made to appear before the courts on numerous occasions before Cabinet’s intervention to save his land.

“Cabinet has now determined that Mr Richard Le Vieux is to remain on the estates,” read a letter that was written by Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo
after a Cabinet deliberation to stop Gwaradzimba. “He will be facilitated to acquire the requisite documentation to give him certainty of land tenure according
to his legal entitlement.”

Among other things, the former Swiss banker exports coffee and avocados to Europe.

He also told the committee that the country had immense agricultural potential and it needed to improve infrastructure, especially the road network.

guest column Jonathan Roberts

How many times in the past week did you think your life was affected by a robot?

Unless you have a robot vacuum cleaner, you might say that robots had no real impact on your life.

But you’re wrong. Let’s take a look at some of the ways robots are being used right now, but that you probably have no idea about.

So what is a robot?

Before we start, we need to define what actually is a robot. There is no official definition of what constitutes a robot, but many roboticists (like me)
consider it to be a machine that moves, or has moving parts, and that makes basic decisions while interacting with the world.

Hence, your vacuum cleaner that you leave to do its job while you are away is a robot. It senses the world around it and makes driving decisions as it sucks
and sweeps.

But your washing machine is not a robot. You tell it how to wash when you select the cycle and it gets on with it. There are grey areas and the definition is
debated, but let’s leave it there.

On to your past week.

Food sorting robots

If you eat rice, chances are that every grain you consumed was sorted by a robotic machine with a lightning-fast vision system.

Rice-sorting machines are miracles of automation and most people have no idea they exist. Did you actually think rice grows as uniformly (in colour and shape)
as it appears in the bag you buy at the supermarket? It doesn’t.

Rice sorting by colour

Every grain of rice passes through a robotic machine that uses very high-speed cameras, lights and a computer. The image of each rice grain is analysed by that
computer and a decision is made as to its grade. Jets of air are turned on and off to steer or flick the grain into the correct bin. This happens hundreds of
times per second.

In fact, rice is not the only food that is sorted by robots, and the food-sorting market is growing rapidly. Robotic machines are available to sort wheat,
pulses and seeds.

Robots for medical training

Did you see a health care professional? If you did, you should have noticed if they were human or a robot. Chances are they were a human. But did you know that
many nurses, paramedics and doctors now train on robot patients.

Robot patients for training

These training robots can simulate various conditions and give student health workers the ability to practice diagnosis and treatment of various conditions
before they go near a real person. You can think of these robotic patients as being like the flight simulators that airline pilots use during their flight
training.

Some of these medical training robots are life-sized and look like a real person, but some are more specialised and might be representative of just one part of
a person.

A robot rectum in action.

Robots for police training

Have you been taken hostage in an armed robbery? I hope not. But if you were, and an armed response team from your police service attended, those police
snipers that aimed their red laser dot at the criminals may have been trained using robots.

Sydney-based company Marathon Targets sells a range of highly capable mobile robots that can be shot at by military and police trainees. These robots are
armour-plated (for obvious reasons) and can be used to simulate real people (targets) during live-fire training.

It’s okay to shoot these targets.

Robots for extracting poison

Did you take medication? If it’s medication to prevent malaria or suppress your immune system, those pharmaceuticals may have used scorpion venom as one of the
ingredients.

It is quite obvious the extraction of venom from scorpions is quite hazardous to people, but the perfect job for a robot.

A robot that extracts venom from a scorpion.

Robots down the sewer

You must have used a toilet? Hopefully! We do not often think about our sewers, but when they go wrong, we certainly know about it.

Fatbergs have become a major problem in many cities around the world.

Sewer inspection and maintenance is more important than ever and dome inspection workers now have robots to help them with their difficult business.

Robots can be used to help inspect sewers.

Robots and your shopping

Did you go shopping or order anything online? Did you know that many items you buy are partially moved from where they are made to where you receive them by
robots?

Some container ports are now partially automated. The huge containers are offloaded from ships by human operators controlling cranes.

But from then on, the containers are handled by giant robotic cranes on wheels — known as straddle carriers. They are moved around the port, stacked,
unstacked, re-stacked, and once ready for transport, they are automatically loaded onto container-carrying trucks for road transport.

Robotic warehouse workers.
The robot revolution is now

So that’s just six ways that robots may have affected you in the past week. Of course there are dozens more ways in which robots are likely to have affected
your life; this list is just a taster.

The point is that the so-called upcoming robot revolution that is often talked about in the media is already happening. It’s just that most people don’t
notice.

BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

ZIMBABWE Prison and Correctional Services Commission (ZPCS) brand ambassador and dendera musician Sulumani “Sulu” Chimbetu has urged motorists to be vigilant when driving, following several accidents he witnessed during his tour in Mashonaland Central province last week.

Sulu visited Bindura prison last Thursday and was not pleased with the number of road carnages he saw on the day.

Speaking to NewsDay Life & Style before his Mvurwi show in the same province at the weekend, Sulu said drivers should respect the sanctity of human life.
“I was not pleased with the number of fatal road accidents I witnessed in this province last week. Drivers should exercise extreme caution and respect human life. What I saw, especially along the Bindura-Harare Highway, was not pleasing at all,” he said.

Sulu was performing in Mvurwi for the first time in two years and people flocked to the show, where he sampled the track, Ndunge Akafa, from his forthcoming album, much to the delight of the fans.

“This song is meant to celebrate the life of our legendary traditional hero, Sekuru Ndunge. The track is on our forthcoming album, which I am not yet talking about now,” he said.

Music promoter Prince Chipenda was excited about the attendance at the show and praised Sulu for taking his invite to meet his fans after a long time.

“The attendance here shows that people were hungry for dendera music and Sulu’s visit to Mvurwi is greatly welcome as he has managed to meet his fans who have been starved of his live performances for two years,” he said.

Confidentiality is the bedrock principle of capital market ethics.

Client confidentiality is the principle that an institution or individual should not reveal information about their clients to a third party without the consent of the client or a clear legal reason.

As part of C-TRADE’s ongoing efforts to ensure that investor rights are fully respected, C-TRADE has developed policies and procedures aimed at protecting personal information. C-TRADE’s commitment to privacy is an integral part of its Code of Professional Conduct, to which it strictly adheres to.

Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Know Your Customer (KYC) are key elements that enable C-TRADE and its entire value chain to know its customers and their financial dealings better, which in turn helps C-TRADE identify suspicious transactions and manage risks prudently.

C-TRADE’s Customer Due Diligence includes identifying, verifying and monitoring all aspects of the applicant’s identity, residential address, any temporary address, and includes information on the source of funds and source of wealth. It also includes continuous surveillance and reporting mechanisms.

Except in the most unusual and extraordinary circumstances C-TRADE does not reveal client’s confidential information.

The three circumstances under which C-TRADE can disclose client’s personal information include when compelled to do so by the law in the case of a court proceeding.

C-TRADE is therefore not a vehicle for money laundering schemes and plays a role in combating financial terrorism.

C-TRADE can also divulge confidential information when given the authority by a client.

C-TRADE appreciates the protective function obtainable in the entire value chain of its market stretching from the supervised obligations of the issuers to the universal standard practices of the qualified professionals providing advice and services, as such, C-TRADE can disclose information if it increases transparency and if it is for the good of the market to promote the integrity of its market.

Where a breach of law does occur, investors should be protected through the strong enforcement of the law. In the event of an ultimate dispute, investors should have access to a neutral mechanism (such as courts or other mechanisms of dispute resolution) or means of redress and compensation for improper behavior.

C-TRADE provides a Market Watch that shows price movements and the available Bids and Asks, making the marketplaces more transparent, efficient and investor-friendly.

Moreover, besides prescribing the quantity and quality of information an investor provides, C-TRADE also provides investors with a Newsfeeds section which gives them all the trending capital market news for their decision making.

The platform ensures that the market structures do not unduly favor some market investors over others.

Thus, C-TRADE promotes market practices that guarantee fair treatment of orders and further aims to ensure that investors are given fair access to market facilities, prices and market information.

C-TRADE has investor interface tools such as the Web Portal, Mobile App and a USSD platform which are accessible to retail investors.

The Web Portal offers an advanced interface which allows investors to participate on the exchange in real-time through personal computers and gives them rich stock market information.

There are a myriad of factors that determine the price of stock on a stock exchange.

It is important for investors to understand how the price of a stock is arrived at so they can make informed decisions on their investment portfolios. Several factors determine the price changes in a share.

The Initial Public Offering price per share and the actual mechanics of what happens may be considered complicated, but the basic idea is simple economics: the price is set as the number which balances supply and demand. Specialists such as financial analysts, fund managers and securities dealers carry out calculations and valuations to determine the
initial or opening price of a share when it gets listed on a stock exchange.

The secondary market of an exchange functions like an auction meaning buyers and sellers of securities are lining up on either side for a potential trade, one party willing to
buy and the other willing to sell its ownership. When the two agree on a price, a trade is matched and that becomes the new market quotation.

Because the stock market functions like an auction, when there are more buyers than there are sellers, the price has to adapt or no trades are made. 

This tends to drive the price upwards, increasing the market quotation at which investors can sell their shares, enticing investors who had previously not been interested in selling to sell. 

On the other hand, when sellers outnumber buyers, there is a rush to dump stock and whoever is willing to take the lowest bid sets the price resulting in a race-to-the-bottom.

Stock Exchanges that operate sophisticated systems track security prices in real time and every time there is a trade the volume-weighted-price of that stock is re-calculated.

This recalculation also gives a revised market capitalisation of that particular stock as well as that of the entire market.

There are other events that affect securities prices. Some of these events include but are not limited to performance of the industry in which the company operates in.

Any positive sentiments within a particular industry tend to push demand for stocks in companies that operate in that industry and vice-versa.

Securities prices are also influenced by the general economic performance at any given time.

Stock markets are usually a good indicator of the state of the economy.

A well performing economy reflects in higher and more sustainable activity by long term investors on the local bourse.

Major political, economic and social events that occur in the country can indirectly affect a company listed on an exchange. Another factor is the market itself.

While a stock may rise and fall on its own merits, it may also benefit just by being in a market that is on the rise, called a ‘bull market’ or a market that is on a retreat, called a ‘bear market’.

Certain market conditions like bear markets require investors to take quick action.

This is made simple by the C-TRADE platform which enables any Zimbabwean in and out of the country to buy shares anytime anywhere without visiting a stockbroker.

C- TRADE has investor interface tools such as a Web Portal which is only accessible to retail investors.

The Web Portal offers an advanced interface which allows investors to participate on the exchange in real-time through personal computers and gives them rich stock market
information.

There is also an app-based solution for retail investors on smart phones. The USSD-based solution is targeted at non-smart phone users and integrates mobile money
services. 

To find out more about C-TRADE visit www.ctrade.co.zw.

The C-TRADE platform is convenient in that it allows investors to choose from two marketplaces; the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and the Financial Securities Exchange with each market catering to the varying preferences of investors, whether immediacy of execution, or best price, or least market impact, or different type of trading system altogether.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

Government has vowed to compensate all farmers in Mashonaland East province who lost their herd to January Disease in the past rainy season.

Farmers, mainly in Wedza, Chikomba and Goromonzi districts, were left counting losses after the disease, also known as Theileriosis, killed thousands of cattle. Some were left without a single beast.

Speaking to Zanu PF supporters in Marondera recently, Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs minister Appollonia Munzverengi said plans were afoot to compensate the farmers.

“A lot of farmers lost their cattle due to the January Disease and government is aware of that. Currently, there are plans to compensate those who lost their heads. Once
everything is finalised, the farmers will be receiving the cattle. Government is seized with replenishing the national herd, hence we are happy that the farmers will get
something,” she said.

According to government statistics, about 50 000 cattle across the country died due to Theileriosis in the 2017-2018 rainy season. About 5 000 cattle died in Mashonaland East
province alone.

Theileriosis, prevalent between December and March, is most common in January, hence the name January disease. The disease is spread by the brown tick and caused by non-dipping
of livestock.

A number of dip tanks in the province are in a dilapidated state, with farmers struggling to purchase chemicals to spray or dip their cattle.

BY OBEY MANAYITI

THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) says it will dig deep into senior Zanu PF and government officials’ feeding troughs, among them Command Agriculture, the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) and various other institutions that were exposed by the Auditor-General (AG) in its renewed fight against corruption.

In an interview after the swearing-in of Zacc commissioners at State House yesterday, chairperson Loice Matanda-Moyo said they were currently investigating almost 200 cases of corruption.

Zacc has largely been seen as a toothless bulldog, which is only used to pursue personal scores and to push a factional agenda within Zanu PF.
Matanda-Moyo said they were ready to get down to work.

“We are now properly constituted and we can now start our functions in terms of the Constitution. New decisions can now be made and there is nothing that can stop the work of Zacc from commencing,” she said.

She, however, refused to divulge the names of those under investigation, but said they were using the AG’s report, Command Agriculture and NSSA audit reports in their probe.

She said already, there were too many cases before them to deal with.

“For now, we are still doing the investigations. We have the Auditor-General’s report, we have the NSSA audit report, we have the Hwange issues, we have Command Agriculture. We
have so many cases that we are handling at the moment,” she said.

The AG has, on a yearly basis, exposed deep-rooted corruption, particularly by senior government officials and those heading parastatals.

Over the years, the government has lost millions of dollars through corruption, as exposed by the AG, although there seems to be reluctance in tackling the issue.

Government has channelled billions of dollars into Command Agriculture, which has not yielded the much-desired result, raising fears that the money could have been diverted from
the project for personal use by top government and senior Zanu PF officials.

At one point, the matter was at the centre of Zanu PF factional fights.

Hwange Colliery Company and NSSA are other areas where, according to audit reports, plunder of resources by a few top connected officials took place.

The Hwange issue caused pandemonium in Parliament after those in high offices were implicated.

The drama at NSSA has also led to fights within the ruling party, with the youth league naming and shaming senior government officials, including Cabinet ministers and Zanu PF
officials, for reportedly swindling the institution of millions of dollars.

The eight commissioners sworn in yesterday were Fungai Jessie Majome, John Makamure, Marble Ndakaripa Hungwe, Gabriel Chaibva, Thandiwe Thando Mlobane, Frank Muchengwa, Michael
Dennis Santu and Kuziva Phineas Murapa.

Matanda-Moyo said she was impressed with the commissioners, adding that people must have confidence in her because as a judge, she will be honest and thorough.

“I am quite happy with the CVs of the commissioners. We have auditor-generals, we have accountants, we have police and lawyers, so we have a very good team and I am confident

that Zacc is going to perform with the type of commissioners that I have got.”
Majome said she would work towards eliminating corruption in the country.

“Zacc’s role is to act as a means to ensure that Zimbabwe decisively deals with the menace of corruption and that is from a policy level and as well as from an enforcement
level,” she said.

“Zacc is given a mandate to take what I usually call a helicopter view around corruption in terms of the causes and effects and the detection of it as well as superintending and
promoting the prosecution and holding to account in other means by the criminal law as well as the law itself.

“I think the bigger role is to also promote a culture of zero tolerance to corruption in our society.”

Muchengwa said as a former police officer and head of commercial crime at Harare Central Police Station, he will use his background to investigate complex cases and overcome associated hurdles to fight corruption.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A HARARE magistrate yesterday called to order President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Anti-Corruption Prosecution unit for its lackadaisical approach to dealing with corruption cases.

Magistrate Nyasha Vhitorini was not amused after special prosecutor Michael Chakandida asked for postponement of the case of former National Social Security Authority (NSSA) general manager Elizabeth Chitiga, who is accused of criminal abuse of office, saying he had just taken over the matter from his colleague.

Vhitorini was irked that on the last remand date, another member of the unit asked for a postponement of the matter on similar grounds.

“Is there a decision to prosecute or it’s a hotchpotch? I reserved this whole week for this case and now you are saying the matter is allocated to a new prosecutor. You are not doing anything in fighting corruption,” the magistrate charged.

“I want you to go and communicate with whoever is assigning you to these cases that it’s bad. You said you need the whole week for the case and I reserved it, now you come again
seeking postponement. If you are not ready, next time I am inclined to remove the accused from remand.”

Chitiga’s lawyer Jonathan Samukange said they had been waiting for the State at the court since morning only to be advised midday that the State had come to seek another postponement.

Vhitorini postponed the matter to July 18 for trial.

Allegations are that in September 2016, NSSA and the National Building Society (NBS) convened a strategic meeting, whose resolutions included to give NBS the mandate to provide
10 000 low-cost housing units countrywide.

But the two institutions failed to build the houses after Chitiga “imposed” other projects, over and above the NBS project, thereby prejudicing NSSA of $31 million.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

POLICE in Marondera have launched a manhunt for six armed men who allegedly pounced on a broken down combine harvester, destroyed its fuel tanks and siphoned about 450 litres of diesel at the 76km peg along the Harare-Mutare Highway.

The suspects, who were brandishing a shotgun, sped off in two cars, an Isuzu truck and an unregistered Honda Fit, after loading the fuel into 20-litre containers.

Mashonaland East provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tendai Mwanza yesterday confirmed the incident.

“I confirm receiving a report on a six-member gang who pounced on a combine harvester that had developed a mechanical fault before stealing 450 litres of diesel. We are appealing to the public, who might have information that may lead to the arrest of the suspects, to approach the nearest police station,” Mwanza said.

According to the police, at around midday on Friday, Tinashe Macheso (27) of Gabaza Farm in Beatrice was driving the combine harvester to Agos Farm in Marondera along the Harare-Mutare Highway.

The machine developed a fault, and he pulled off the road waiting for rescue.

The next morning at around 3am, six men armed with a shotgun approached and asked him to sell them the diesel, but he refused. They threatened to shoot him and asked where the fuel tank was.

The suspects then drilled a hole on the fuel tank and siphoned the diesel putting it into containers.

They loaded the containers into their vehicles and sped off towards Macheke. The value of the stolen diesel was ZW$2 673.