BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

A JILTED Beatrice man allegedly killed his ex-wife and set her hut on fire in a bid to burn the corpse.

Christopher Chimina of Plot 5, Silver Oak Farm is currently assisting the police with investigations following the death of his ex-wife, Fortunate Muduwa (45), who he allegedly killed at his homestead.

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

“I confirm receiving a murder case in Beatrice. The suspect is currently in police custody and will soon be taken to court to answer to a murder charge,” Mwanza said.

According to the police, the accused and deceased separated mid-last year over an undisclosed dispute. After the separation, Chimina relocated to Chinhoyi.

It is reported that during the accused’s absence, Muduwa had a relationship with another man from the same farm.

In March this year, the accused reportedly returned to his plot in Beatrice. It is believed that when the now deceased heard of the return of the accused, she frequently went to see him looking for money for the upkeep of their two minor children.

On May 4, Muduwa allegedly went to visit the accused. A neighbour reportedly discovered smoke coming out from one of the huts.

The neighbour rushed to the scene and discovered that the hut was on fire and that the body of the deceased was also lying outside close to the burning hut. Other villagers tried to put out the fire, but to no avail. The hut was completely destroyed and Muduwa’s body was partially burnt by the raging fire.

A report was made at Beatrice Police Station, where police immediately launched a manhunt for the accused. The following day, police received a tip-off that Chimina had been seen at his homestead. They dispatched police officers to the scene and arrested him.

By Farai Matiashe

OVER 400 former Grain Marketing Board (GMB) employees, retrenched four years ago, have approached the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) complaining over the alleged unprofessional handling of their case by labour lawyer Munyaradzi Gwisai.

Gwisai of Munyaradzi Gwisai and Partners Legal Practitioners represented Stephen Machaya and over 400 other workers, who were laid off by the parastatal in 2015 on three months’ notice. The terminations followed a Supreme Court ruling which gave employers the right to terminate workers’ contracts under such conditions.

In a letter addressed to LSZ, the workers said: “We secured his legal services in our case against our former employer over outstanding salaries, pension, housing, funeral and medical aid contributions, in which we won this litigation on July 4, 2016 at the Labour Court in Harare.”

They claimed Gwisai kept the ruling a secret to them.

“Our former employer was supposed to fulfil this Labour Court ruling within six months. However, when that period lapsed without any response from the GMB, Gwisai did not even bother to follow up the matter.

“In fact, much to our utter shock, we received a ‘Memorandum of Agreement for Mutual Separation Upon Termination of Employment Contract’ from the GMB on March 31, 2017 — eight months after the Labour Court ruling,” the letter said.

The ex-workers said the GMB stated in its memorandum that the agreement “supersedes all previous agreements, written or oral, which had existed or now exist between parties — effectively cancelling the Labour Court ruling”, which they were still unaware of.

They said the memorandum was also signed by Gwisai, as the GMB ex-employees legal representative of which they had never instructed him to make such a decision.

“In this regard, we believe that Gwisai acted with gross dishonesty and unprofessionalism not expected of his station. We are of the feeling that it is possible that he was working in cahoots with the GMB to disadvantage us of our dues, which the Labour Court — in its wisdom — had seen fit to award us,” said the ex-workers in their complaint to the LSZ.

The ex-workers said they were hoping the LSZ would investigate the matter and take appropriate action against Gwisai.

LSZ executive secretary Edward Mapara confirmed receiving the complaint from the ex-employees.

“We investigate all the matters we receive. Investigations are still underway. I cannot pre-empt much until we have concluded the investigations,” Mapara said.

Gwisai recently insisted he did a great job and that the former employees were paid in terms of the agreement for mutual separation.

He said he could not update each and every claimant on the development of the case because they were many, but could only talk and issue documents to their representatives.

BY SILAS NKALA

The ruling Zanu PF is reportedly struggling to restructure its Bulawayo provincial executive following its dissolution by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in March this year due to underperforming.

Retired Colonel George Nare was tasked with co-ordinating the restructuring exercise in Bulawayo. Nare is also the party’s director in the Zanu PF commissariat.

On Sunday, Nare said the restructuring exercise had already taken effect in the cells and branches, with districts now next in line.

Nare said preparations for the provincial elections to choose a new provincial executive were also underway.

But sources close to the goings-on said all was not well, with only a handfull of party members coming forward for most of the cell, branch and district elections, a sign
that many people had pulled out of the party for various reasons.

“The restructuring (exercise) has been a torrid task for the party as those responsible could hardly get people to constitute quorums for cells and districts. They ended up
co-opting people who were not in those cells and branches to register so that structures are made,” a source said.

“It appears the party’s support base and membership in Bulawayo has dwindled, either due to the G40 fiasco or due to the economic crisis, which might be forcing people to
lose trust and confidence in the party.”

Another source who preferred anonymity said the restructuring committees had to resort to luring people through food handouts.

“Over the weekend, they were giving some members three cups of rice each as bait to have them join the restructuring process.”
Contacted for comment yesterday, Nare said they were almost done with the restructuring exercise in Bulawayo, claiming all was going well despite the presence of people
from other cells and districts who were bent on manipulating the process to their advantage.

“There are some cases where individuals jostle for positions. Some unscrupulous individuals are trying to manipulate elections to their advantage in order to get into
provincial structures,” Nare said.

“We are only left with five districts out of the 35. This Sunday, we will have done all districts, then we will be getting into provincial elections. We were supposed to
conduct provincial elections on Sunday, but we have postponed and extended the process to May 18 to allow for due processes to be completed.”

Nare said they were ready to deal with unscrupulous elements seeking to disturb the process.

“We are putting mechanisms in place to make sure that we flush out rotten elements, and ensure that all goes well,” he added.

On Sunday, the ruling party’s city centre district elected new leaders in elections conducted at Davies Hall, the provincial headquarters.
Caleb Sengu is the new district chairperson after Nkosana Dube withdrew his candidature. Raymond Mtomba was elected the new deputy chairperson, winning against Nkosilathi
Dube.

Marvelous Ali is now the women’s league chairperson, deputised by Lydia Phiri.

The youth league chairperson is now Mayibongwe Zvigadza, and is deputised by Emmanuel Sunduza, who were both uncontested.

The party leadership said the dissolution of the party structures in Bulawayo and Harare would address problems that had resulted in the party perennially losing elections
in the two metropolitan provinces.

The party appointed Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga to superintend over the party’s affairs in Harare, while Vice-President Kembo Mohadi was assigned to oversee
structures in Bulawayo.

BY Brenna Matendere

Matebeleland North province is experiencing an acute shortage of teachers amid revelations that qualified educators were shunning the area due to the poor living conditions prevailing in most of the institutions.

In a survey carried by Southern Eye this week, primary schools were the most affected.

Majankila Primary School in Bubi was said to be operating with only three teachers.

The other schools that are also worst affected by the teacher crisis include Thuthukani Primary School also in Bubi as well as Chibuya Primary School in Binga where the teachers use makeshift classrooms and live in dilapidated grass-thatched huts.

Esphikeni, Bubi and Pedelis Valley primary schools are also facing staffing challenges.

In all the schools, learning materials like textbooks are inadequate, while proper classroom blocks are non-existent.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure bemoaned the staus quo in the province and called for urgent intervention.

“Matabeleland North region is suffering from extreme marginalisation. The teachers live in makeshift housing and teach multiple grades. Majority of lessons are conducted either in makeshift structures or under trees. The schools are inaccessible and there are serious telecommunication challenges in the region,” he said.

Masaraure added that the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal number four, which emphasises on inclusive access to quality education will remain a pipe dream if
government fails to address the crisis.

Matabeleland North provincial education director Jabulani Mpofu was unreachable for comment, but in January he promised to deal with all the problems affecting schools in the province’s remote areas.

Masaraure highlighted the effects of the existing crisis on young learners.

“Learners at primary school require strict monitoring from the teacher. Forcing one teacher to teach multiple grades reduces the time they spend with individual learners and learning time is reduced as well. This results in kids losing trust of the learning process at an early age. Dropping out of school for such kids becomes inevitable,”
Masaraure said.

Most of the secondary and primary schools in the region record less than 30% pass rates for Grade 7 and Ordinary-Level classes.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

RESIDENTS of Plumtree early this week spend 24 hours without electricity after bees swarmed the electricity poles that carry power lines linking Bulawayo and the border town, stinging Zesa employees, forcing them to defer replacement of stolen copper conductors.

Business reportedly came to a standstill in the dormant border town, triggering fears of a security risk at the country’s entry and exit point to neighbouring Botswana.

The effects were also felt by Solusi University near Tsholotsho, as the educational institution is connected to the Bulawayo grid.

The bees stung the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company’s (ZETDC) reaction team, which had been deployed to rectify the problem at Khami Bridge area, about 17
kilometres along the Bulawayo-Plumtree Highway.

They had to abandon the mission and summoned teams of fumigators from the city, who battled the stinging insects until after hours, leaving no room to finish the job.

The team had to abandon the exercise to complete the job yesterday. Power in Plumtree had gone out in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, leading to Plumtree ZETDC area
manager Victor Ndawana informing the Plumtree Civil Protection Unit about the power outage.

“We lost power from Bulawayo at 1am and efforts are underway to rectify the problem,” Ndawana said.

“It is with regret that works on conductor replacement, due to copper theft close to Khami River, will not be finished today. The cause being that other tubular steel poles had aggressive bees inside them. Pest control teams were engaged and are working to contain the bees.”

Recently, Plumtree has been dogged by power outages due to copper cable thefts along the Bulawayo-Plumtree Highway, leaving the border town going for days without power.

The border town had previously gone for a week without electricity due to theft of copper cables, affecting business and the delivery of essential services.

Zesa has been losing cables worth millions of dollars to thieves, with some targeting transformer oil for resale on the black market.

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

ANTI-RIOT police have sealed off the scene of the Matobo mine disaster, where five gold panners perished when a shaft collapsed at Nugget Mine early this week.

Three of the four injured artisanal miners are nursing injuries at United Bulawayo Hospitals.

The deployment of riot police was after rescue operations were called off on Tuesday evening, when it was ascertained that there were no other casualties except the nine accounted for.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he would comment after he had obtained full information from the ground.

“I am out of office. Phone me after lunch, when I would get all the details,” Nyathi said.

However, on a visit to the mine yesterday, a Southern Eye crew found the mine sealed-off and all the illegal gold panners cleared.

Hordes of panners were hovering around in the peripheries of the mine, presumably waiting for a chance to enter the shafts, but the whole area was a sea of grey and blue, as police in riot gear cordoned off the shaft.

The mineshaft, which was at the centre of a gun battle pitting a well-known gold baron from Esigodini, Baron Dube, collapsed on Monday morning.

After the war involving rival gangs, a scramble for the pit by illegal miners ensued, with some said to be coming from as far afield as Kwekwe, Zvishavane, Filabusi and
Matobo, contributing to the collapse of the shaft.

A police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity at the scene said the rescue operations were called off yesterday night after it was discovered that there was no one trapped.

“All the people who were in the shaft were cleared yesterday. It was only the five bodies and the four who were rescued, who were the casualties of the mishap. No one else
is trapped or was trapped as of 5pm on Tuesday when the rescue operation was called off. We are deployed here to cordon off the whole area, as it was unsafe to leave the
panners to continue with their operations,” he said.

There were also reports that government was planning to bring in graders and front-loaders to seal off the shafts.

By Tinashe Mungazi

A 34-YEAR-OLD Binga man, who was facing four counts of attempted murder after he allegedly went berserk and set ablaze his in-laws’ homestead 11 years ago, has been acquitted.

Nelson Munkuli, of Sikalenge village under Chief Sikangele in Binga, in 2008 allegedly flew into a fit of rage and torched his father in-law’s homestead, destroying property while they slept after his estranged wife deserted him.

However, regional magistrate Collet Ncube found Munkuli, who faced four counts of attempted murder and malicious damage to property charges, not guilty.

Ncube said the State had failed to prove a prima facie case, especially when it came to identification and material evidence positively linking Munkuli to the crimes.

“It is trite to know that a number of precautions had to be taken before such evidence can be accepted. What must be mentioned are peculiarities or similarities that are
distinct that a witness recognises as such belonging to accused,” Ncube ruled.

The State led its case through evidence of witnesses who claimed they had all identified Munkuli and had been led to his homestead after following a sandal spoor.

Throughout the trial, Munkuli continually maintained his innocence, arguing he was being framed after having fallen out with his in-laws following a misunderstanding with his wife.

“I deny the allegations and have no knowledge on what could have prompted the complainants to accuse me of trying to kill them by setting their huts on fire. On the day in question, I was fishing with some friends. Besides, no one set huts on fire and remains standing at the scene. It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

Before the commencement of trial, Ncube demanded to know from the State what had caused the delay in the prosecution of the matter, to which he was told by counsel led by
Charlene Gorerino that witnesses were defaulting and had difficulties locating Munkuli.

Munkuli was first arrested in August 2008 and placed on remand for seven months at Binga Prison, before being transferred to Hwange, where he spent a year awaiting trial.

He was later released in 2012 after the State could not locate its witnesses, prompting the court to rule that the case should proceed by way of summons.

BY MISHAMA CHAKANYUKA

Battery manufacturer, Chloride, says it is planning to expand its smelting plant to nearly double the firm’s manufacturing capacity.

With its current smelter, Chloride produces 35 000 batteries monthly and the new capacity will take its output to 50 000 units.

The company’s operations manager, Edwin Makhaza told NewsDay Business yesterday that Chloride would make use of its export earnings as well as internal reserves to finance the project.

“We are working on expanding our smelting plant which is still in its initial stage and we are just trying to source funds for that. We are in the process of expanding so
that we are able to fully utilise the capacity that we have in the plant,” he said.

He said last year the company operated at about 89% of installed capacity. This has since declined to 60% due to deposit demand in the market.

“The major challenge we are facing is of foreign currency to import some of the raw materials that we use. The foreign currency requirements against the exports that we
generate do not match, so we are not able to smoothen our operations through the exported materials. We are trying to source foreign currency through export generation and
through the interbank to smoothen our operations,” he said.

The company’s major raw material, lead, which constitutes about 60% of the battery, is locally made from scrap batteries that the company recycles in their smelting unit.

The company supplies about 80% of its product to the local market, while the remaining 20% is for exports.

“We supply batteries to Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia and we intend to expand to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia and South Africa. In Malawi and
Mozambique we are not dominant, but we want to ensure that we are dominant in those markets,” Chloride general manager, Kudzai Pasipanodya said.

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

THE Warriors technical team is now banking on the government to give a special dispensation to England-born Zimbabwean striker Macauley Bonne, to enable him to feature for the senior national soccer team in the upcoming 2019 African Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals in Egypt.

Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambga is battling to secure the services of Bonne, who plays for Leyton Orient for the biennial continental soccer showpiece scheduled for next month.

However, with amendments to the Zimbabwe Citizenship Bill, it means Bonne, who is a Zimbabwean by decent having been born in England to Zimbabwean parents, and holds a British passport, might have to renounce his British citizenship to be eligible to play for the Warriors.

The England-based star had submitted his application form for a Zimbabwean passport at the Zimbabwean embassy in London last month after choosing to play for Zimbabwe ahead of England.
Warriors team manager Wellington Mupandare yesterday said they were now pinning their hopes on the government to save the situation.

“It’s now a challenge. I don’t see any new players being able to make the squad for the African Cup of Nations because of the new amendments to the Citizenship Bill. We are now banking on the government to give a special privilege to the players so that they can play for their country,” Mupandare said.

Bonne, who has played for the Warriors before under former coach Kalisto Pasuwa and scored against Morocco, has been prolific for his English side, banging in 23 goals in 46 matches to help the team earn promotion into League Two.

Besides Bonne, Chidzambga has also been working to bring into the team Zimbabwean players dotted across Europe.

They include Andy Rinomhota, Adam Chicksen, Reiss Nelson and Kundai Benyu, among others.

There is, however, no problem for such players like Nottingham Forest star Tendayi Darikwa who secured his passport before the new Bill, and has been influential in the qualifiers to help Zimbabwe secure a ticket to the finals for the second successive time having played at the 2017 tournament in Gabon.

Wales-based Alec Mudimu and Leicester City’s Admiral Muskwe, born in Zimbabwe but grew up in the United Kingdom, also played a part in the qualifiers.

The Warriors, who have been given a target of reaching the knock-out stages of the tournament are scheduled to play the Super Eagles of Nigeria in an international friendly on June 8 in Lagos.

Zifa are also lining up more international friendlies for the team with neighbours South Africa and Morocco highly likely to be some of the teams the Warriors will face in a dress rehearsal for the tournament.

Zimbabwe has never gone beyond the group stage of Africa’s premier competition since they took part for the first time in Tunisia in 2004. For this year’s edition, they were drawn in the same group with African heavyweights Egypt, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They will get their campaign off with a clash against the hosts on June 21.

The Warriors’ provisional squad for the Afcon finals is expected to be announced in the coming seven days.

BY TENDAI SAUTA

SCULPTOR Elvis Mamvura says he was inspired to come up with the piece, The Love of Once, after losing several family members to HIV and Aids.

The piece captures the plight of people living with HIV, particularly at a time before the anti-retroviral therapy was introduced.

The 42-year-old visual artist has walked a long journey in stone sculpture and fondly recalled the time when he was tasked by government to sculpt a present for British royal family member Prince Charles as a symbol of peace and tranquillity.

Mamvura said most of his artworks – which include Uptown Girl and Bathing Woman – were mainly semi-abstract social commentaries on day-to-day issues.

The artist said he was inspired, and first mentored by his late father, multiple award-winning sculptor, Albert whose works were presented to assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Queen Sofia of Spain in the early 1980s.

Working on stone, Mamvura said, has always been a passion that runs deep in his family.

“It runs in the family. My late uncle, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, was a visual artist of distinction who mentored my father, Albert, who in turn trained me,” he said.

Mamvura has travelled to various parts of the world holding exhibitions that have attracted critical acclaim.

The sculptor’s early international tours were facilitated by Renate Braimah of Africart Gallery and included workshops and exhibitions in Europe, Germany and Canada.

Although he owns a white opal mine, Mamvura said he faced several challenges, including access to raw materials and tools, as well as converting markets into sales.