BY SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

A 37-YEAR-OLD jealous Bindura man is in serious trouble after he assaulted a man who gave his wife a lift.

The enraged man then proceeded to set their rented house on fire, destroying property worth over US$23 000, including that of his landlord.

Brian John (37), of section 6 at Trojan Mine, Bindura, pleaded not guilty before Bindura magistrate Christopher Maturure yesterday, who remanded him in custody to Monday next
week.

The State, led by Tariro Janhi, alleges that on February 27, John saw his wife, Memory Gondiwa, being dropped off by Boyd Ngulo (44), a Bindura council worker, at around 2pm at Tendai Hall in Chipadze, Bindura.

John charged towards the car and accused Ngulo of having an adulterous affair with his wife before assaulting him with a stone.

Ngulo sustained a swollen face and bruises all over the body.

John then went to Bindura showground, where Gondiwa plies her trade as a vendor and told her that he wanted to fix her by burning down the house and dumping her and the children.

In a fit of rage, John went to their rented property and set the house ablaze.

Everything was reduced to ashes, including his landlord Elias Kimu’s property.

John sent Gondiwa text messages informing her about what he had done. She filed a police report, leading to his arrest.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

A HOME Affairs ministry official allegedly fondled a 29-year-old Marondera woman who had visited the offices to inquire on her passport on Monday appeared before magistrate Rumbidzai Munemo facing indecent assault charges.

Wilbert Mugoni (41), who is attached at the Passport Offices in Marondera pleaded not guilty to the charges after he was dragged to court by Netsai Chigodora.

The accused, who is represented by Emmanuel Dera was remanded out of custody on free bail and is expected in court today.

According to court papers, on July 10 last year, Chigodora applied for a passport at the RG’s Office in Marondera.

On May 22 this year, the complainant was referred to the registrar of passports’ office to inquire about the delay in the processing of her travel document. Mugoni, who was in the office at the time, took Chigodora’s mobile number and dismissed her claiming he was busy and promised to call her over the passport issue.

Mugoni allegedly later phoned the complainant and summoned her to Mbuya Nehanda Street near Cherutombo Shopping Centre to discuss the issue. It is alleged that the two started walking towards Paradise Park, where along the way the accused fondled Chigodora’s breasts and backside before kissing her on the neck. Complainant then filed a police report, leading to

Mugoni’s arrest.Phyllis Mudekwa represented the State.

By Sindiso Dube

TelOne FC coach Joel Luphahla has said his youthful side is desperate for a win in order to lift their spirits following a three-match winless run.

Despite their attractive football, TelOne have managed only one win in their last five matches and more worryingly, they have won just twice in the first 10 matches of the season, even though their record is not the worst in the premier league.

On Sunday, they face an uphill task against an inform Black Rhinos side at home.

Black Rhinos are coming from a confidence-boosting 2-1 win over Herentals, which was their third win in their last five matches.

Luphahla said his team now needed a win to keep them going as well as boost their confidence.

“The boys have been playing well, but not getting positive results from the few last games. We are displaying good and exciting football, but we are failing to get that set of maximum points. It has been a string of draws and losses,” he said this week.

“We need a win now to boost the boys’ confidence and morale. The poor results have dampened the boys’ confidence and we need to turn the tables. We do not have as much experience, but I don’t regret having the young, inexperienced lads,” he said.

The former Warriors winger expects a tough encounter against Black Rhinos, who have only lost twice so far this term.

“It will be a difficult game, playing a physical and more experienced Black Rhinos team because looking at our team, it’s mainly composed of youths who are fresh from Division One. We will approach this match with caution and discipline, because we know it’s never easy playing against these experienced teams.”

TelOne will miss the services of Frank Bushiri, who was shown a red card against Highlanders for a foul on Prince Dube as well as James Jam, who accumulated three yellow cards.

BY STEPHEN CHADENGA

THE Land Commission, chaired by Justice Tendai Uchena, will on Monday start making inquiries into the sale of State land in and around the Midlands province dating back to 2005, a senior government official has said.

Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs permanent secretary Virginia Mabiza, who is secretary to the commission, said they would be in the province from June 10 to June 28, to gather public views on double or multiple allocations, allocation of stands on spaces meant for schools, clinics, roads, recreational sites, wetlands and open spaces, among others.

“The commission shall commence its inquiries in Midlands province by conducting site visits to farms, locations or urban State land units,” she said in a statement.

“After site visits, the commission will hear government officials, local authorities, land developers and homeseekers who purchased stands and beneficiaries of urban State land from June 14 to 28, 2019.”

She said the sites that would be visited include Lot 73 of Umsungwe Block, Hertfordshire (Phase 1 and 2), Lot 1 of 5A West Gwelo Block and Belton of Clysdale (Tatenda Park), Subdivision 4 of Gwelo Small Holdings (Woodlands), Adelaide Park in Senga, Mkoba 12 Infill, portion of Central Estates in Mvuma, Mabula in Zvishavane and Makgakooshla in Shurugwi.

In March, at a devolution workshop in Gweru, Local Government minister July Moyo warned land developers in the Midlands province that the long arm of the law would soon catch up with those allocating residential stands on unsuitable sites such as wetlands.

BY TATENDA CHITAGU

ZIMBABWE’S hectarage under timber declined sharply from 120 000 to 70 000, about 41%, last year due to the harsh business environment, illegal settlers, miners, veld fires and the chaotic land reform programme, a situation that will lead to timber shortages in the near future, the Timber Producers Federation has said.

Speaking at an agriculture and forestry sector workshop in Harare, Timber Producers Federation chief executive, Darlington Duwa, said there is need for recapitalisation of the sector to avert domestic timber supply shortages.

The workshop was organised by the Climate Change Management Department in the Ministry of Lands and supported by the United Nations Development Programme.

“Plantations hectarage has declined from 120 000 hectares of commercial timber plantations to 70 000 last year. The general picture is that the area is declining. We do have a temporary unplanted area of 40 000 hectares,” he said.

“This is because of numerous challenges which have to do with the economy, shortages of diesel and working capital, among others, including the ease of doing business and veld fires that left large ripe trees burnt. A lot of areas have been damaged and this affected operations. As a result, companies downsized. There are also illegal settlers in our plantations.”

Zimbabwe Forestry Commission researcher Tatenda Gotore weighed in, saying there was also a shortage of improved tree species that could withstand changing climate.

“There is a steady decline in the supply of appropriate tree species. Shortage of suitable pine seed species is also hampering planting. The industry needs Pinus patula or Pinus maximinnoi/ tercunuminii, which are in short supply. The need for improved seed (varieties) is growing and we should look for other varieties because the timber industry is under 50% capacity utilisation, and they also cannot access low interest loans,” he said.

“Commercial plantation owners meet their own financing requirements. In recent years, it has become difficult to borrow due to high interest rates and perceived country risk. Thus, some companies have financed their operations through arrangements where payment is done in kind.”

Gotore said there are other policy barriers to the development of the timber industry, like lack of a national forest policy to guide forestry development, weak implementation of the
Forest Act as it relates to forest fires, prohibitive levies on the timber industry, lack of incentives on the “limping” industry as well as the unavailability of land for new commercial timber plantations.

He said if there are no interventions, the country would face timber shortages starting from 2025.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

THE National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has said its provincial peace committees will be mandated to solve conflicts in their areas because a “one-size-fits all” approach has proved impractical.

The NPRC is setting up provincial peace committees countrywide to deal with past conflicts peculiar to their areas, and also facilitate peace-building processes.

This comes after the NPRC recently completed a 21-day outreach programme to gather citizens’ views on dealing with past conflicts.

NPRC commissioner Patience Chiradza said the process of setting up provincial peace committees is expected to be complete by early July, having so far set up such in Mashonaland West and Central.

“The peace committees are a platform within the commission to deal with issues of peace-building in communities. What they will do is that they will use local knowledge and local resources in dealing with conflicts and peace-building initiatives in their localities,” Chiradza said yesterday.

“The provincial peace committees consist of various stakeholders representing government, civic society, church, business, academia, political parties, youth, people with disabilities and war veterans, among others.”

She added that between 30 and 40 people would sit in the committees.

“Obviously, we will put a small criteria such as ensuring that we have people who are committed to and have shown interest to issues of peace building. We are looking at 30 to 40 members on average to sit on the provincial peace committees,” she said.

“It is a kind of devolving the work of the NPRC. We have set up (their) terms of reference, the only difference being that it’s really voluntary. It’s all voluntary work of people who are committed. We are hoping that once we are done with provincial peace committees we will then cascade to the districts and wards, but that should be at a later stage.”

According to the Constitution, the NPRC is mandated to deal with past conflicts to ensure healing and reconciliation.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed NPRC into law in January to operationalise the commission appointed in 2016 by his predecessor Robert Mugabe.

BY CHARLES LAITON

CABS Bank has petitioned the High Court seeking a garnishee order against a member of the National Defence University, Arnold Lethlale Pullen, who reportedly stole $262 208 that had been mistakenly transferred into his bank account during a system failure at the financial institution in 2017.

According to the papers recently filed at the court, Cabs Bank Limited has cited Pullen as the judgment debtor while Defence minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and the director of the Salary Service Bureau (SSB) are cited as garnishees.

In his founding affidavit, Cabs Bank head of recoveries, Collins Chikukwa said his employer was making the application for a garnishee order in terms of Order 42 of the High Court Rules, 1971 after having failed to recover the cash directly from Pullen.

“On April 2, 2019, the applicant (Cabs) obtained an order against the third respondent (Pullen) in the sum of US$262 208 together with interest thereon calculated at the rate of 20% per annum and costs of suit on a legal practitioner and client scale,” he said.

“The judgment debt arises from unauthorised overdrafts utilised by the third respondent which debt remains outstanding and unsatisfied. The applicant is aware that the third respondent is a member of the Air Force and is employed by the first respondent (Defence minister).”

The bank further said since the minister, through the SSB is obliged to pay a monthly salary to Pullen as the judgment debtor it is on that basis that the current application has been made.

“The applicant prays for an order compelling the first and second respondents to pay the sum of US$1 000 per month to it until the judgment debt is paid in full,” he said.

Sometime last year Pullen was arrested and charged with theft after which he was released on bail when he appeared before Harare magistrate Victoria Mashamba.

It was the State’s case that between May and September 2017 Cabs experienced challenges on its banking system, which resulted in the automatic crediting of clients’ accounts thereby allowing clients to access funds, but not being debited at the time.

Pullen is reported to have noted the system’s weakness and took advantage of it and stole $237 000, which he transferred to various Steward Bank and ZB Bank accounts. The application is pending.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has been urged to set up a system to handle ratepayers’ petitions amid charges that the local authority “has no clear-cut format” of handling grievances.

In a petition dated June 3, activist and Bulawayo resident Khumbulani Maphosa complained that the council has no system of submitting, handling and responding to petitions.

Maphosa argued that petitions he had so far submitted to the local authority on various occasions have been handled differently and by different departments, raising the need for a clear system.

“All the petitions I have submitted to the BCC have been handled differently, that is, responded to in different length and times and in different manner and this makes me believe that the BCC does not have a systematic manner of handling residents’ petitions and petitions from (other people and) groups,” Maphosa wrote in the petition addressed to town clerk Christopher Dube.

It was copied to mayor Solomon Mguni and other council departments.

Maphosa noted that the right to petition was critical for residents to enjoy the freedom of conscience as outlined in section 60 of the Constitution.

He also argued that establishing a system for petitions would also partially fulfil principles of public administration as espoused in section 194 of the Constitution.

“I, therefore, propose that the BCC establish a system/framework which will guide the format for submitting petitions to the local authority as well as the method of handling the citizens’ petition by the local authority,” Maphosa said.

“Critically, the system/framework should capture the structure of writing the petition, how and where to submit the petition, how and when the local authority should respond to the petition, and follow-up mechanisms for the petitioners among others.”

Contacted for comment, Mguni denied the local authority did not have a system for handling petitions.

He, instead, argued that the process of dealing with complaints was not an overnight event.

“We have a robust system that we have at play. For example, we have the public relations department which handles complaints from all our stakeholders who (may) want to engage council on anything,” Mguni said.

“What happens is that when petitions are submitted they are circulated through relevant departments before there is a response. It is not something that can be done overnight.”

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

ORGANISERS of the inaugural Mafuwe International Festival (MIF) say they are going ahead with the arts extravaganza scheduled for August 16 to 18 in Harare.

This is despite the volatile economic situation in the country, which has significantly eroded people’s disposable incomes.

The fiesta comes at a time several such programmes have failed to take off due to the current economic meltdown.

The festival — a brainchild of Germany-based arts promoter Plot Mhako (pictured), Rwanda-based performer-cum-choreographer Brian Geza and Zimbabwean award-winning dramaturge and director Cindy Jaenicke — will be held under the theme Invisible Boundaries.

“We are constantly monitoring developments in the country and still engaging more support and partnerships, but so far we have had great commitment from key festival partners in the country and abroad,” Mhako told NewsDay Life &
Style.

“We are still mobilising resources and funds for the festival, and we remain very optimistic though we must say the funding prospects for culture in Zimbabwe have been further reduced. This has been worsened by the liquidity crunch.”

He said the festival — expected to unite various dancers, communities and artistes across the world — is a platform to advance, promote and celebrate the art
and culture of dance.

“We have received overwhelming applications from across the world. Over 60 applications from dance companies, productions and solos from all over the world who want to be part of the festival. We are completing the selection process for our programme,” he said.

Mhako said most of the applicants were drawn from the United Kingdom, Germany, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

“We are partnering with the Dance Trust of Zimbabwe, the Reps Theatre and Bvukumbwe Theatre in Highfield,” he said.

The arts promoter said they were certain that the festival had the capacity to invoke imagination as well as provoke dialogue for national growth.