Novuyo Seagirl

BY SINDISO DUBE

BULAWAYO House musician Novuyo Seagirl was forced to abort her act after she was booed and pelted off-stage during an Econet Wireless Ziyawa KuEcocash monthly draw at the City Hall car park in Bulawayo on Saturday.

The songbird opened her set with her new song, Bambelela, and when she launched into the award-winning hit, A.E.I.O.U, insults from fans grew louder, forcing the master of ceremonies to intervene and ask the fans to give her time.

Fans calmed down for just a moment before they resumed their rowdy behaviour, leading to Seagirl prematurely ending her act.

This was the second time the musician suffered such a fate in just two months.

“It’s very unfortunate that this is always happening to me, I won’t give up and will keep doing what I love doing. One day, the fans will accept me and also accept our music in Bulawayo. For now, I will stay hopeful and determined. One day, we will strike the right chord,” she told NewsDay Life & Style after the show.

Seagirl was introduced before Jah Prayzah’s act, but from the very moment she stepped onto the stage, irate fans started shouting unprintable words, calling the singer to leave the stage.

Her slot came after performances by Winky D, Mzoe 7 and IYASA.

The last time she was pelted off the stage was at the ZITF shutdown gig at Queens Sports Club, resulting in her angrily insulting the fans and accusing them of not supporting their own local artistes.

Some fans blamed one of the female MCs for hyping up and enticing fans after she said the stage was set for Winky D’s appearrance, yet they were bringing in Seagirl.

“I think one of the female MCs might have misled fans into thinking that they were bringing in Winky D, when they were bringing in Seagirl.

“She (the MC) was heard shouting are you ready for Winky D, sending fans into wild cheers, but thereafter brought in Seagirl, something I think angered the fans, who were expecting the Harare-based artiste,” one of the fans said.

The organisers had to add more Bulawayo acts after the Mthwakazi Republic party wrote to the telecommunications giants, ordering them to call off their gig if Winky D and Jah Prazyah — both of who are from Harare — were going to be the headline acts, without local representation.

BY NUNURAI JENA/JAMES MUONWA

The MDC Alliance has slammed the violence that broke out at the weekend during the Kadoma ward 2 by-election which saw several party activists being injured.

Violence allegedly broke out after suspected Zanu PF activists attacked MDC Alliance supporters using machetes, in full view of police officers.

The opposition party is furious that no arrests have been made following the incident.

Mashonaland West police spokesperson Inspector Clemence Mabgweazara confirmed that Kadoma deputy mayor Tendayi Kokera, one of the victims of the violence, had lodged a report of assault, but no arrests had been made because investigations were still in progress.

“Yes, I can confirm that Kokera made a report at Rimuka Police Station and we have another report of threats, but no arrests have been made as investigations are in progress,” he said.

The MDC Alliance reclaimed the seat after its candidate Svorai Chiwara romped to victory after garnering 780 votes against Zanu PF’s Lloyd Nyambo who polled 361 votes.

The assailants reportedly targeted Kokera, who is also MDC Alliance Mashonaland West vice-chairperson and six party activists, leaving them nursing injuries.
MDC provincial spokesperson, Blessing Mandava condemned the violence.

“We shall never bow down to these bullish antics by a bunch of maggots which are holding this nation to ransom,” he said.

Mandava said the victory was a clear testimony that the electorate had confidence in the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC party.

The seat fell vacant following the imprisonment of councillor Michael Gore, who was convicted of inciting MDC Alliance supporters to torch the Kadoma Zanu PF district offices in protest over fuel price increases that triggered a wave of price hikes of basic commodities early this year.

Chiwara is Gore’s wife.

Kokera, who sustained body injuries from the beatings, alleged that some police officers impounded a vehicle and arrested some youths suspected to be the perpetrators of the bloody clashes.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) is struggling to carry out its road maintenance programmes across the city due to the unavailability of fuel and financial resources, a report has revealed.

According to a report by the environmental management and engineering services committee, 70% of Bulawayo’s road network is in bad state and needs urgent attention, but the city council does not have the resources to rehabilitate them.

BCC engineering services director Simela Dube said their efforts to rehabilitate the roads were being constrained by inconsistencies in fuel deliveries.

“Even though there was an allocation of tar from their sources, the deliveries were erratic. Further, road maintenance was affected by fuel shortages. Most of the diesel acquired was being channelled towards water,” the report read.

Initially, Dube said council had agreed to do 5km per ward, but the cash-strapped municipality was, however, unable to meet their promise.

“The budget is limiting progress to only five wards per year, hence the programme will stretch to 2021.”

The report also advised councillors to revisit the programme so that they reduce the roads rehabilitation stretch from the proposed 5km to about 2,5km per ward. That, the report said, would increase the number of wards to be covered per year.

“He (Dube) pointed out that 70% of roads were currently in bad shape and needed urgent attention. The unavailability of diesel was a major constraining factor on all road maintenance programmes.”

Bulawayo needs capital investment to the tune of $69 million annually for the rehabilitation of road infrastructure.

Environmental management and engineering services committee chairperson Alderman Norman Hlabani said the state of the economy was affecting progress on the rehabilitation of roads.

BY Business Reporter

ZIMBABWE’S local currency, the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar, has plunged by 140% to trade at US$1:ZWL$6 on the official interbank market, nearly four months after its introduction in February this year.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced the currency after scrapping the discredited 1:1 dollar peg for the surrogate bond notes and electronic dollars, merging them into a lower-value transitional currency called the RTGS dollar as part of monetary policy measures to address the country’s currency challenges.

The RTGS$ debuted at ZWL$2,5 to the greenback, while on the parallel market the rate was as high as US$1:ZWL$4 back in February. As of Wednesday the black market rate averaged US$1:ZWL$8,70.

Monetary authorities insist that the two markets will eventually converge stressing that there isn’t enough RTGS dollars in circulation to sustain the continued run of the parallel market rate.

Recently, Delta Beverages, which had previously complained of failing to access currency on the interbank market, said the platform had become more liquid and open.

Last Friday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the country will have a new currency by year end, adding uncertainty to an already unnerved market.

Most businesses are now pegging their prices in US dollars and use black market rates to calculate RTGS dollar prices.

Mnangagwa’s comments echo Finance minister, Mthuli Ncube’s position who has stressed that the southern African economy needs to regain its monetary policy as a means of dealing with the country’s macro-economic problems.

Following a devastating bout of record-setting hyper-inflation which rendered the country’s currency worthless,in 2009, Zimbabwe adapted the United States dollar and other currencies such as sterling and the South African rand.

BY NUNURAI JENA

About 50 000 pensioners have not received their pension payouts with unclaimed pension funds now amounting to more than ZWL$27 million, the industry regulator has said.

Speaking during a meeting with funds trustees in Chinhoyi yesterday, Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec) spokesperson, Lloyd Gumbo, said the regulator was worried about the substantial amount that is lying idle while the owners are probably wallowing in abject poverty.

“The commission is concerned with the number of pensioners who do not know that they have money in pension funds, while they are probably suffering,” he said.
Gumbo appealed to all those who contributed pensions in their lifetime to approach pension funds or their former employers.

He said the money will remain with the pension fund for five years and then transferred to the Guadian Fund where it will be kept for 30 years.

Speaking at the same meeting, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ health and welfare officer, Nathan Banda, said it was alarming that such a number of pensioners and amount of money remains unclaimed while most pensioners led poor lives.

“In most cases we find out that workers who were contributing all their lives being told that they were not contributing due to poor records keeping and another problem is of employers not forwarding contributions to pension funds,” Banda said.

During the meeting, some workers raised concern over the monthly payouts pensioners were getting considering that their contributions were in United States dollars, but payouts were being made in Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollars.

Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Mineral Mine Workers Union representative, Prince Mpala, who attended the same meeting, said inflation had rendered the pensioners’ benefits.

“Our concern is that pensioners who contributed in US$ are now getting their dues in RTGS$ without being rated…there is need to craft policies that protect pensioners in such situations,” Mpala said.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

SECRETARY for Lands and Agriculture Ringson Chitsiko was yesterday taken to task in Parliament over a spate of fresh farm invasions, including the one in which Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Ellen Gwaradzimba’s son attempted to grab a Chipinge coffee plantation owned by a retired Swiss banker, Richard Le Vieux.

Chitsiko was grilled after he appeared before the Lands Parliamentary Portfolio Committee where MPs wanted to know why Gwaradzimba’s son Rememberance Mbudzana occupied Le Vieux’s farm, which exports coffee, avocados and macadamia nuts, bringing in the much-needed foreign currency.

Confirming that indeed Mbudzana was indeed allocated Plot 1 of Farfell Coffee Estates, Chitsiko said: “What happens is that an offer letter might be given to an individual, but in due course, it is realised that, in fact, such offer letter should not have been given. The process of reversing is that the holder of the unintended offer letter is given notice to withdraw and should respond within seven days, but in this case (of Mbudzana), it was not a case of illegal resettlement and the individual in question had an offer letter. The offer letter to Mbudzana must have been issued sometime at the beginning of this year.”

Chitsiko also added that applications were made at provincial level and then signed by the Lands minister. He said in the case of Mbudzana, he was offered the land by the Manicaland provincial lands committee.

But Mount Darwin West MP Barnwell Seremwe (Zanu PF) and Chipinge East MP Matewu Mlambo (MDC Alliance) said the manner in which Mbudzana was given the offer letter should be investigated to find out if he was the first on the waiting list or if it was because he was the son of a minister.

Chitsiko said everyone who invaded and occupied land from 2005 to date is being considered as an illegal settler and would be removed.

“Those who occupied land in the years 2000 to 2004 during the period dubbed jambanja do not hold legal permits, but we are now regularising those. But unsanctioned settlements on land from 2005 to date are considered as illegal settlers and will be removed,” he said.

According to Chitsiko some people resettled themselves in villagised models (A1) and A2 resettlements without authorisation and, in some cases, encroached into grazing land or reserved open spaces, which has resulted in a lot of pressure on natural resources causing soil erosion, loss of vegetation and siltation of rivers and dams.

BY KENNETH NYANGANI

A SOMBRE atmosphere engulfed Jori village in Buhera on Sunday during the burial of Terrence Masendeke, who was shot dead while allegedly panning for diamonds in a protected area at Chiadzwa last month.

A post-mortem report released by government pathologists last week showed that three bullets were plucked out from his body.

In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, the deceased’s uncle Richard Masendeke said they avoided body viewing as the body was now in an advanced state of decomposition.

“He was finally buried on Sunday in Buhera. We financed the funeral, but police helped by transporting the body from Harare,” he said “

Masendeke said his family was worried that no officials from the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company were present, neither did they send a condolence message.

The family recently took Home Affairs minister Cain Mathema and Commissioner-General of Police Godwin Matanga to the High Court, demanding an urgent autopsy and release of the body for burial.

Police had reportedly earlier indicated that the post-mortem would only be conducted on June 25 due to the shortage of pathologists in the country.

The family expressed fears that further delays in carrying out the post-mortem would compromise evidence.

According to the court papers, Masendeke was fatally shot on May 15 by ex-policeman Dulula Chinamano in full view of his colleagues.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

The trial of former Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) board chairperson, Albert Mugabe, on criminal abuse of office charges, was yesterday postponed to a later date after the chief witness and complainant in the matter resigned, making it difficult for him to represent the State.

The court yesterday heard that Zinara ex-acting board chair Wilfred Ramwi had tendered his resignation and the State asked to be given more time to allow the new board to be appointed and then second another person to represent the company.

Prosecutor Nyikadzino Machingura also told the court that the company secretary Mathlene Mujokoro, who was also expected to represent the company, had tendered her resignation as well, making it difficult to commence trial.

But Mugabe’s defence team led by Admire Rubaya opposed the postponement, arguing that changing complainants and witnesses at this stage constitutes new investigations because the statements needed to be changed.

The matter was, however, stood down for the State to confirm with the company the time it will take for the postponement to be effected.

Mugabe, who is accused of writing a false letter to CBZ Bank, advising them that the board had agreed to set off a $300 000 mortgage loan to former chief executive Nancy Chamisa-Masiyiwa.

Mugabe last week requested further particulars which include the agreement documents of the mortgage between Zinara and CBZ Bank and the minutes of a meeting that was held in 2017 that gave birth to the mortgage agreement.

It is the State’s case that on March 30, 2017, the Zinara human resources committee deliberated through a round robin resolution, the acquisition of a mortgage loan from CBZ Bank in respect of Chamisa-Masiyiwa and the six-member human resources committee unanimously resolved to recommend to the Zinara board to approve the security of a mortgage loan scheme not exceeding $300 000 with CBZ Bank for the purpose of housing loan benefit as per Zinara human resources policy manual.

The State alleges that on April 5, 2017, Mugabe wrote a letter of undertaking for the mortgage loan in respect of Chamisa-Masiyiwa to CBZ, advising them that the Zinara board had authorised her to enter into a housing loan scheme with CBZ Bank and that Zinara had undertaken to pay off the mortgage facility if her contract expires with the mortgage loan still existing, knowing that the Zinara board had not approved the loan facility.

On April 6, 2017, Mugabe wrote another letter to CBZ Bank, advising them that the Zinara board had agreed to set off the $300 000 mortgage loan facility in the event that Chamisa-Masiyiwa accrued arrears and termination of her contract of employment, when, in fact, Mugabe knew fully well that the board had not authorised the setting off of Chamisa-Masiyiwa mortgage loan.

It is averred that on April 20, 2017, CBZ Bank approved a $300 000 mortgage loan facility in respect of Chamisa-Masiyiwa and released the mortgage loan on the strength of the false letters of undertaking and set-off authored and tendered to financial institution by Mugabe.

The State further alleges that Mugabe acted contrary or inconsistent with his duties as a public officer by authoring and tendering false letters of undertaking and set off a mortgage loan facility to CBZ without the approval of the Zinara board for the purpose of showing favour to Chamisa-Masiyiwa.

Machingura and Mercy Ndingadini appeared for the State.

The matter was heard by magistrate Lazini Ncube.

BY SHARON SIBINDI

BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has decommissioned the Upper Ncema Dam as the city’s water supply dam levels continue to drop, leaving it with five out of six major supply dams.

This comes after city engineer Dumisani Gwethe recently warned that the local authority would experience more water cuts unless it secured US$4,6 million to refurbish its ageing water infrastructure.

“There is potential of 176 megalitres when pumps are redesigned and currently, the total water abstraction is 156 megalitres,” Gwethe said.

In a statement yesterday, council spokesperson Bongiwe Ngwenya advised residents and stakeholders in the city that Upper Ncema Dam was decommissioned on Saturday due to low water levels.

“The City of Bulawayo would like to advise members of the public that Upper Ncema Dam was decommissioned, with effect from Saturday June 8. The city remains with five out of six dams (Lower Ncema, Umzingwane, Insiza, Mtshabezi, and Inyankuni) as available sources of surface water supply,” she said.

“BCC further advises consumers that the current 48-hour water rationing programme remains unchanged, and residents are urged to conserve and use water sparingly.”

Currently, residents are enduring a 48-hour water-rationing programme that was introduced at the beginning of the year after water levels in the city dams dropped significantly.