BY KENNETH NYANGANI

DESTINY for Africa Network founder Obadiah Msindo has urged politicians to be accountable for their actions.

“Politicians should be accountable for their actions. We need politicians with a heart from both Zanu PF and MDC parties, and they should be accountable for their actions,” he said in Mutare yesterday.

“We need politicians with a heart and who come from the people. Just imagine during the January demonstrations, the country lost millions of dollars, and some were arrested because they started to be violent, burning tyres, cars and looting, we need to ask ourselves is this good for our society.”

Msindo, however, implored Zimbabweans to give President Emmerson Mnangagwa a chance to implement his policies to turn around the country’s economy.

Msindo made the call when he met local pastors, civil society leaders and various business stakeholders in Mutare on Sunday.

“We are saying that let’s give President Emmerson Mnangagwa a chance,” Msindo said.

“Let us give him the chance to implement his policies. Soon after elections last year, we saw some people going to the streets demonstrating against the President without even giving him a chance to implement his policies.”

Msindo’s call comes at a time many people, some within the ruling Zanu PF, are growing frustrated by Mnangagwa’s rule that has been characterised by ballooning economic hardships.

The MDC has accused Mnangagwa’s government of being clueless on how to handle the economy, which is on a free-fall.

But Msindo accused businesses of sabotaging government due to its insatiable desire to make profits.

He blasted business entities, urging them to stop profiteering, a practice which he said was killing Zimbabweans emotionally.

“The business of profiteering shows heartlessness; businesspeople should always demonstrate the love of people, … (but) they can even kill for the love of money, they are emotionally murdering people,” Msindo said.

“Some businesspeople are just increasing prices without justification and that is not good at all.”

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

ZIMPOST is working on extending its money transfer service, Zipcash, onto the mobile platform in a bid to boost traffic and increase revenue, acting managing director Sifundo Moyo has said.

Zipcash is a low-cost money transfer service that allows customers to send or receive money locally and internationally through the postal network.

“Zipcash is a product which largely depends on the availability of cash and you are aware the country has been having liquidity challenges,” Moyo told NewsDay Business. “And because of that, Zipcash has also seen a slump and again in line with the technological advancements that are happening around, we are working on extending the Zipcash service onto the mobile platform so that people can transact using their mobile phones — to both send and receive money on that platform.”

Currently, the company is carrying out transactions using Zipcash with countries such as Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania. Zimpost is also an agent for other international money transfer partners such as Mukuru, World Remit, Money Gram, Hello Paisa and Western Union. Meanwhile, Moyo said their e-commerce service was still performing below standard due to the current liquidity challenges.

“So far, the uptake is still low because we had issues to do with currency challenges, where items were priced in United States dollars and people wanted to pay in Real Time Gross Settlement dollars, but now that the monetary policy statement has come out to clearly differentiate the rates between the two currencies, it’s now easier for the sellers as well as the buyers,” he said.

The platform allows buyers and sellers to interact and do business online.

“We are currently recruiting e-sellers and what we want to do is to make sure that people find the convenience of looking for whatever they want from that webpage and if they get it, they place an order and make a payment. Everything being done at the same go and then as Zimpost we deliver.”

On the financial services side, Moyo said Zimpost had a major role to play in financial inclusion. This will be done in terms of the central bank’s financial inclusion strategy, set to run from 2016 to 2020.

Moyo added that Zimpost had been an agent for one insurance company and in 2018, they introduced their own house brands under the post insurance brand.

The brands are underwritten by NicozDiamond.

“Now we are happy that the Insurance and Pensions Commission has given us a multiple insurance agency licence. This licence means we can now transact on behalf of all the insurance companies in the country,” Moyo said. “What that means is that Zimbabweans at large are going to enjoy a lot of convenience. They can walk into any post office hall and demand that they be given any insurance product from an insurance company of their choice. This has not happened before and as we say, at Zimpost, we are delivering possibilities. We want to make sure that our institution remains relevant in the communities where we work.”

Editorial Comment

HWANGE has yet again been dragged back into the red with weak corporate governance, political interference and outright corruption undoing much of the work that had been put in to turn around the coal miner.

The company’s recently-released financial statements show that Hwange racked up US$78,5 million in after-tax losses in the year-ended December 2018, from US$43,8 million in the previous year as the coal miner failed to meet market demand and contain rising input costs.

The company’s monthly production average was 150 000 tonnes, compared to the budgeted monthly production of 300 000 tonnes and as a result, total sales tonnage was 1,5 million tonnes against a budget of 3,5 million tonnes.

As at December 2018, the company’s total liabilities exceeded total assets, with a negative equity position of US$290 million from US$211,5 million in 2017, attributable to recurring losses which continue to erode capital and reserves.

The company is in a precarious position and all the hope that the company could still be saved after creditors agreed to a Scheme of Arrangement in 2017 has since been lost.

The company is under reconstruction and has since been suspended from trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

A number of high-profile individuals, including parliamentarians, Mines minister Winston Chitando, who has previously served as chair of the Hwange board, Vice-President Kembo Mohadi as well as President Emmerson Mnangagwa have all been fingered in the ongoing mess at the company, but in typical Zanu PF fashion, none of them has thought it necessary to exonerate themselves.

If the government is sincere about changing the business environment, heads are supposed to roll. Such a culture of impunity should never go unpunished.

The strategic importance of Hwange to industry and the country at large does not require overstating.

Hwange is too big an institution to be allowed to fail at the hands of a few well-connected individuals.

Given previous failed efforts to try to resuscitate the company, which saw government pumping in a $111 million loan, it will not be easy for Hwange to convince any banks or shareholders to invest any additional funding, but Hwange still has a valuable resource which, if extracted profitably, will go a long way in turning around the fortunes of the
country.

Stephen Chadenga

The Midlands State University Language Institute (MSULI) will soon conduct sign language lectures for doctors, nurses and police officers in the Midlands province to help better serve the hearing impaired citizens, an official has said.

MSULI acting director Wiseman Magwa said the institution had been tasked by government to offer such training in the province and later to other parts of the country.

“We have so far been asked to offer sign language training to all nurses, doctors and police officers in the Midlands province,” Magwa said on Monday at the official commissioning of the institute.

“So, very soon we will be rolling out the programme where we are going to offer short courses in sign language to nurses, doctors and police officers in the Midlands community.”

According to the World Deaf Federation, an estimated 80 000 people in Zimbabwe live with hearing impairments, with the majority failing to access essential services.

Magwa said MSULI’s vision was to be a one-stop world class language consultancy and support services centre, dedicated to the advancement of language research, policy, planning, translating, interpreting and editing.

MSULI has already established partnerships with the Justice and Health ministries, as well as with the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and Zimbabwe Gender Commission for the translation of various documents into local languages.

MSULI said the institute started as a project in 2018 meant to translate the Constitution of Zimbabwe into 16 officially recognised languages, but was now a fully-fledged institution.

“Soon after its (MSULI) establishment by Senate on October 2, 2018, the vice-chancellor then (Ngwabi Bhebhe) approved the appointment of an acting director, administrative assistant, secretary and 10 language researchers for the year 2019,” he said.

Magwa said seven posts for researchers had so far been filled, with the remainder expected to be appointed by end of the year.

He added that to date, the institute had translated the MSU code of conduct and grievances procedures into Shona, Ndebele and Braille, including brailing important health information for the benefit of the visually-mpaired university students. MSU vice-chancellor, Victor Muzvidziwa said meaningful development could only be realised if the country valued its national languages.

“The French, Germans, Russians, British, Americans, Portuguese, Japanese…. and many other countries have all based their industrial and economic development on the strength of their own languages,” Muzvidziwa said.

He said the recognition of national languages was a key component in building unity, peace and development in the country.

Among other services that the MSULI would offer include brailing services, developing orthographies for indigenous languages, dictionary making, beginners’ courses in indigenous languages, sign language interpretation, translation as well as other language consultancy services. In 2015, the Health ministry, through the Dr Timothy Stamps Trust for Chronic Conditions, embarked on a pilot project to teach sign language to 30 nurses at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

Although the then Health minister, David Parirenyatwa said the programme would cascade to other parts of the country, it (programme) suffered a stillbirth.

BY TENDAI SAUTA

ZIMBABWE Music Rights Association (Zimura) director Polisile Ncube yesterday said many local artistes were not fully conversant with the provisions of copyright law, and music publishers took advantage of that loophole to cream them off.

Ncube told NewsDay Life & Style, that artistes should approach their offices to seek legal counsel before signing contracts.

“The challenges related to right holders, who are members and non-members (of Zimura), are that of ignorance of their rights as provided for in the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, Chapter 26:05. Some music composers sign contracts that are prejudicial to them with publishers and entertainment venue owners, and only realise it when it’s too late,” she said.

Ncube said copyright violations were a cancer that has eaten into the arts sector, in particular, and the economy in general.

She said although Zimura had carried out campaigns to curb the vice, the interpretation and implementation of the law has often posed serious challenges.

“We have conducted raids in different provinces, with various stakeholders. However, what remains a challenge is the interpretation and implementation of the Copyright Act by the law enforcement agents like the police and the judiciary so that deterrent penalties and fines are instituted to infringers of the copyright (law),” she said.

Ignorance of the copyright law by the law enforcement agents, Ncube said, was another problem that needed to be dealt with.

“Copyright infringement is both a criminal and civil offense. Some of the public music users pay when we institute legal action against them,” she said, adding that Zimura conducted copyright capacity building workshops for both their members and law enforcement agents regularly.

Ncube was hopeful that the ongoing harmonisation of laws which were out of sync with the Constitution would create an environment in which artistes could benefit from their works.

“At the moment, the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act needs some improvement in terms of specific charges and penalties, so that they become more deterrent in order to discourage copyright infringement,” she said.

Ncube, whose association is responsible for collecting royalties from broadcasters on behalf of musicians, said another challenge was failure by broadcasters to pay on time.

“The major users of music, like broadcasters, are not paying for the music copyright licenses on time and inflation has negatively impacted Zimura’s operations,” she said.

Gold panners going down the same mineshaft to look for their colleagues still believed to be trapped underground at Nugget Mine, in Matobo

BY RICHARD MUPONDE

FIVE people have been confirmed dead, while eight others are feared to have also perished when a mineshaft which was at the centre of a gun battle pitting a well-known gold baron from Esigodini, Baron Dube, collapsed in Matopo on Monday.

The five met their demise after they were crushed to death by boulders while digging for gold at Deep Stream 7 Mine, which is part of Nugget Mine, about 25km from Bulawayo.

There were reports of a gold war on Sunday night involving Dube and another Matopo gold baron, Madodana Moyo, over the gold-rich claim which left the pair hospitalised at the United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH).

Gunshots were reportedly fired during the scuffle that left the pair nursing axe and stab wounds.

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, leading to the collapse of the shaft.

Four people escaped death by whisker — one of them unscathed — while three others are said to be nursing injuries at UBH, where the bodies of the deceased were also conveyed.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the deaths.

“Although I am not privy to the gun battle, I can confirm that there has been a mine accident at Nugget Mine in Matopo, which is a disused mine where five artisanal miners were killed after a shaft they were mining in collapsed. Their bodies were conveyed to UBH. Four escaped with injuries. As I speak, the Matabeleland Civil Protection Unit is at the scene,” said Nyathi.

When Southern Eye arrived at the scene yesterday, the Matabeleland Civil Protection Unit was on the ground, making frantic efforts to locate the eight people suspected to be trapped underground.

Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs minister Abednico Ncube and his entourage, also arrived at the scene during the rescuing operations and ordered the police to seal off the area.

“We know gold panners are looking for money, but that should be done lawfully. I urge you Propol (Officer commanding the province Commissioner Partson Nyabadza) to deploy your team here to ensure that the law is observed. The Environmental Management Agency should also do the same. That way, we would avoid such a disaster,” Ncube said.

A source close to the issue said Nugget Mine was, on Sunday night, a battle ground as gangs fought for the gold-rich claim, with Dube and Moyo leading the pack.

Dube is no stranger to gold wars, which have become rife in the region.

He is currently on $2 000 bail pending trial at the High Court for allegedly shooting and killing a member of a rival mining gang, Antony Bvundura, in October last year in a fight over a mining claim in Esigodini.

In 2016, Dube and another gold baron, Mthulisi Ngwenya, were involved in a seven-hour fight for control of gold claims in the district.

Dube is said to lead a group of panners from Filabusi who operate in Esigodini.

Meanwhile, two other illegal gold panners were crushed to death after a mineshaft they were working on collapsed in Colleen Bawn in Gwanda on Sunday.

Nyathi said their bodies were retrieved and conveyed to Gwanda Distrcit Hospital.

“The incident happaned at Deep Stream 7 Mine in Colleen Bawn on May 4, when two gold panners were digging for gold and the soil above them carved in, and they were crushed to death,” he said.

BY BBC

The US is to return close to $200m (£152.4m) to Malaysia in funds recovered from asset seizures tied to scandal-hit state fund 1MDB.

US authorities have so far transferred $57m tied to a Hollywood firm accused of using 1MDB funds to finance films.

It will send another $139m linked to the sale of a Manhattan property allegedly bought with 1MDB funds.

Billions of dollars from 1MDB – officially the 1Malaysia Development Berhad fund – have gone missing.

Set up in 2009, the sovereign wealth fund was designed to boost Malaysia’s economy through strategic investments.

But US authorities say $4.5bn was diverted from 1MDB into private pockets, and they have been investigating the corruption scandal.

According to US and Malaysian prosecutors, the money was used to buy assets including luxury real estate, a private jet and expensive artworks.

On Tuesday, US ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Shirin Lahkdhir, told Reuters: “We are extremely pleased that this first tranche of assets from this Justice Department investigation is being transferred back to Malaysia, demonstrating the US commitment to return these assets for the benefit of the people of Malaysia,”

The $57m remitted so far relates to a settlement reached with US film production company Red Granite Pictures, Malaysia’s Attorney General Tommy Thomas said in a statement.

The film production company settled a civil lawsuit with the US government over rights to blockbuster The Wolf of Wall Street. According to Reuters, US authorities say the film was financed with 1MDB funds.

1MDB was set up by Malaysia’s then-prime minister Najib Razak, but red flags were raised in 2015 after it missed payments owed to banks and bondholders.

Mr Najib faces more than 40 charges and has gone on trial for his role in a financial scandal. He has pleaded not guilty.

He is accused of pocketing $681m from 1MDB. Prosecutors said the money had been used to fund a lavish lifestyle for the former PM and his wife Rosmah Mansor, who is also facing charges of corruption.