A CIVIL engineering student at the National University of Science and Technology(NUST) is in trouble for allegedly raping a friend and fellow student after luring her to his room with the promise of a birthday present.
Rudney Talent Mushayi from Nketa, Bulawayo on Tuesday appeared before magistrate Lungile Ncube at the Bulawayo West Commonage Court facing rape charges.
He pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody to May 30.
The court heard that on April 21 this year, Mushayi invited the student to his room to collect a birthday present.
After unsuccessfully proposing to the woman, he allegedly raped her once after locking the room and hiding the keys.
He allegedly attempted to silence her with $5, which she refused to accept, prompting Mushayi to raise the offer to $10, which was declined too, before she left. She made a report to the police, leading to his arrest.
Harare City Council has opened talks with its workers for a cost of living adjustment following a recent spate of price hikes that have eroded workers’ incomes.
Minutes of the council’s joint finance and human resources committees, approved at Tuesday’s meeting, show that council tasked its representative at the negotiating forum with trade unions to engage in cost of living adjustment talks.
“This has been necessitated by the recent rise in the general cost of living in the country. However, council was also incapacitated because of budgetary constraints,” part of the minutes read.
The city, according to documents, is offering a 5% salary increment on top of the 2,5% already awarded for 2018 which council was yet to honour.
Council is yet to effect a 2,5% salary increment due to budgetary constraints and had indicated that it would settle the outstanding amounts starting this month and backdated to January.
The bid for a salary hike comes amid dwindling service delivery and revenue collection due to the poor economic outlook the country is facing.
Council workers are said to be earning high salaries compared to their counterparts both in the private and public sectors.
According to a council financial statement for January and February, the local authority had a surplus aggregated income and expenditure position of ZWL$22,6 million and being owed ZWL$887,3 million. The city owed various stakeholders, who include the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, pension funds and other players ZWL$498,35 million.
“The committee expressed concern regarding the delayed remittance of funds to statutory bodies and tasked the town clerk to address the concerns through relevant committees,” part of the minutes read.
GWERU-BASED teenage model Molly Glorydine Alicia Rahman has urged sponsors and corporates from the Midlands province to support her bid for top honours at the Miss Teen Zimbabwe finals set for tomorrow.
Rahman told Southern Eye Life & Style that modelling was an expensive career that demanded financial muscle, so there was need for sponsors to throw their weight behind her.
“The expenses we meet as models include hair products, manicure, pedicure and make-up, which is not easily available. Good quality beauty products are also very expensive, especially for someone still attending college,” said the teenage beauty.
Rahman, who ventured into modelling three years ago, is doing secretarial studies.
The model said she had an eye for fashion, but was approached by a friend who suggested she could be better off modelling.
“I was approached by a friend of mine who encouraged me to start modelling. That’s when l realised my potential to compete, and realised that l loved it,” she said.
Rahman said her family was supportive of her modelling career as they always encouraged her to do her best.
“My family is very supportive and they encouraged me to continue working hard and do the best l could. They are my greatest fans,” she said.
Miss Teen Zimbabwe is about the empowerment of the girl child. It is a national competition which is held annually.
THIS week, we carried a story in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa came to the rescue of 20 000 villagers who were being evicted from a piece of land in Domboshawa, where a Chinese miner wants to start quarrying for aggregate stones.
We were heartened by the act of benevolence by “Our Dear kind and listening leader”.
We, however, wish to hastily express our concern over this issue by asking why it had to take a whole Head of State to stop the Chinese company from evicting the hapless villagers even without compensation?
We understand that no Environmental Impact Assessment was ever done to support the establishment of the quarry, which incidentally was going to destroy the Domboshawa Hills, which are of great historical significance to us as a nation.
This is where the age-old San community paintings done centuries ago still exist.
We are seriously concerned that it has become a trend that some of our all-weather friends from the Far East continue being given the greenlight to establish their operations without following the rule book.
But even more worrying is the fact that, maybe through desperation, our government is allowing this trend to continue unabated, albeit the recent act of “kindness” from the President.
Also linked to this, and of further concern to us, is the wave of evictions that are taking place on farms across the country, which Mnangagwa has overtly chosen to ignore.
In yesterday’s issue of NewsDay, there is a story of some 5 000 villagers in Matabeleland South’s Insiza district who are being evicted for illegally occupying farmlands there.
War veterans leaders there have since warned that this continuing eviction trend would make the ruling Zanu PF party and its government very unpopular.
We are, therefore, saying Mnangagwa should not act on these issues through acts of benevolence, but should simply make sure that the rule of law is followed through and through, right from the onset.
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Limited reversed its prior year-after-tax loss of US$0,6 million to a profit margin of US$1,3 million in the year-ended December 31, 2018, driven by growth in revenue and an expansion of its distribution footprint into regional markets.
Revenue was up 24% to US$72,3 million due to better average selling prices achieved following price adjustments in the last quarter of the year, as well as a favourable product mix twisted in favour of higher strength cements.
In a statement accompanying the company’s financial results, chairman Kumbirai Katsande said demand for cement was firm following a spike at the beginning of the second quarter.
The group secured external and local facilities amounting to US$38,4 million and utilised US$24,8 million of this amount for working capital, as well as to clear long outstanding foreign obligations.
Katsande said limited access to foreign currency to settle foreign obligations led to the accumulation of cash balances to US$14 million and short-term money-making investments to US$11,9 million.
The group invested US$2,4 million in new plant and machinery upgrades, compared to US$3,7 million in 2017, and these investments included critical projects such as the cement mills aimed at improving plant reliability.
The group believes that demand for cement will continue to firm in 2019, allowing the company to focus on improving its profitability.
“As such, the business will focus on improving profitability with the anticipation of closing the year strong and in the lead. This will be done by implementing measures to improve plant reliability, creating and developing new business avenues through product development and growing the franchise channel, building stronger and more agile teams and restoring value through interventions such as asset protection,” Katsande said.
A PROMINENT Beitbridge businessman, Edwin Tumbare (40), has been slapped with an effective 15 years in jailed for raping his domestic employee.
Tumbare denied the charge when he appeared before regional magistrate Crispen Mberewere on Tuesday.
The magistrate, however, convicted him at the close of the State’s case after overwhelming evidence was proffered against him. He then sentenced him to 15 years in jail.
The prosecution, led by Munyonga Kuvarega, told the court that on January 11, 2018 at around 11pm, Tumbare got home from Lutumba Business Centre, where he runs a grocery shop, butchery and bottle store.
He ordered the maid to unlock his bedroom and to follow him. The convict then raped her once.
The following day, the maid told her sister about the ordeal. The sister then accompanied her to the police to make a report.
WOMEN in Matabeleland provinces have decried their poor representation in the traditional justice system, claiming it showed that they were still looked down upon by their male counterparts.
The women made the remarks at an indaba on the traditional justice system organised by Habakkuk Trust in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Habakkuk Trust community advocacy action teams said women from Umzingwane, Gwanda, Matobo, Mangwe, Nkayi, Insiza, Tsholotsho and Bubi expressed concern over the unequal representation in most traditional courts in their areas.
“Women are not able to fully express themselves when it comes to issues affecting them due to the absence of women assessors because most traditional courts are male-dominated,” said Mollet Dube, Habakkuk Trust action team vice-convener for Umzingwane ward 5.
“We call for the appointment of women assessors in traditional courts, which will enable women to actively participate and not to be mere listeners.”
Another action team member, Mary Mhlanga, echoed similar sentiments, saying: “Issues of child marriages are not handled fairly, as well, due to the absence of women in decision-making positions.”
Said Sibongile Tshuma: “In my area in Nkayi, it is unfortunate that all assessors are men and the traditional leadership say they cannot accept a female assessor because it is taboo.”
The women said men had a tendency of intimidating them into silence, thereby leaving important matters unaddressed and so they proposed that they be included in the traditional justice system.
Police are hunting for a suspect who murdered a 25-year-old Kadoma woman in cold blood.
Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson Inspector Clemence Mabgweazara identified the deceased as Bridget Envarator Karonga of Katumba Street, Rimuka.
Police said on April 24, at around 11pm, Karonga was spotted at Rumwe Shopping Centre in the company of an unidentified man, who was wearing a green T-shirt and khaki pair of trousers.
The two then reportedly went to Karonga’s house for a night of intimacy. They were also seen by fellow tenant, Rutherford Gambinya entering the house.
Police said, when Gambinya went to the toilet later that evening, he observed a trail of blood along the passage, stretching from the house’s main door, leading to Karonga’s room.
Gambinya then alerted neighbours who then tried to break the door, but failed and reported the matter to the police.
A police reaction team attended the scene and forced-open the door only to find Karonga lying dead in a pool of blood.
Her body, which was riddled with stab wounds on the chest, was then conveyed to Kadoma Hospital mortuary for a postmortem. A blood-stained kitchen knife was recovered at the crime scene.
Former Grain Marketing Board (GMB) workers are at loggerheads with the lawyer who represented them after they were sacked on three months’ notice in 2015 following the landmark Supreme Court ruling.
The workers are accusing lawyer Munyaradzi Gwisai of professional misconduct after he reportedly hid court papers of a ruling that favoured them in a case against the parastatal in July 2016.
Documents in possession of NewsDay showed that the GMB sacked Stephen Machaya and 476 others, who were working in various depots, among them Mutoko, Mt Darwin and Guruve.
The former employees had sought the legal services of Gwisai of Munyaradzi Gwisai and Partners Legal Practitioners to recover outstanding salaries, pension, housing, funeral and medical aid contributions.
One of the former GMB employees, who preferred to speak on condition of anonymity, accused Gwisai of partnering with the parastatal’s lawyers to hide the court papers from them.
“After the Zuva judgment, we were given three months’ notices. We then challenged the dismissal and we won, but I believe Gwisai and GMB lawyers hid the judgment from us,” he said.
The former employee said it was after 16 months when both lawyers came up with the memorandum of agreement for mutual separation.
“We are demanding that GMB must pay us from November 2015 up to March 31, 2017. We cannot be prejudiced because lawyers went to bed with GMB in order to run away from our favourable July 2016 ruling. The dismissal was declared unlawful,” he said.
“Up to now, GMB has not paid us even what was agreed on in the agreement for mutual separation. We did not even get a cent.”
Papers from the labour officer showed that GMB was ordered to pay the claimants a minimum retrenchment package of one month’s salary for every two years worked as compensation for loss of employment.
The payment was supposed to be effected in six months.
But when six months passed without any action from GMB, it is alleged that Gwisai did not follow up on the matter despite having been paid by his clients.
Another former employee told NewsDay that he was suspecting GMB wanted to make them suffer because they had demonstrated against the parastatal’s board of directors and senior managers.
But Gwisai told NewsDay that he represented the former employees well and insisted they were paid in terms of the agreement for mutual separation.
“The employer paid these employees in terms of the agreement. We did a great job for them. We managed to push the employer to pay them. The ruling you are talking about is actually a draft ruling, which is issued by the Labour Officer in terms of section 93 subsection 5 of Labour Act. It is supposed to be confirmed by the Labour Court,” he said.
“Within a month, we had reminded the legal officer to do the application, so they cannot say we did not follow up. After the mutual separation agreement, we could not follow the matter to the Labour Court because they had already been paid.”
Gwisai said they could not update on the development of the case to each and every claimant because they were many, but could only talk and issue documents to their representatives.
“The (claimants) were over 400. We gave (updates on the case to) their representatives, they were the ones who were coming to court. If their representatives did not give them (the information), it is not my problem,” he said.
Gwisai said the employees had not be paid from November 2015 to March 2016 the day an agreement for mutual separation was signed because the Labour Act had ruled that the sacking of employees with a three months’ notice was lawful, if the employees were paid.
“The Labour Amendment Act (No 5) of 2015 was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on March 28, 2018 in a case of Greatermans Stores and Anor v/s Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare,” he said.
GMB human resources manager Aquinata Makuvise requested questions to be sent to the public relations department, but these had not been responded to at the time of going to print last night.
ZIMBABWE’S second largest national park, Gonarezhou, has embarked on a rural electrification programme which has seen Phahlela Clinic in remote Malipati in Chiredzi being electrified at a cost of US$220 000.
“The park partnered with NetOne, one of the country’s largest mobile service providers in this project. We are, however, going to electrify a number of other premises until we reach Malipati shopping centre, which is about 25 kilometres from Phahlela,” Gonarezhou Conservation Partneship’s senior manager Eviaous Mpofu said.
“This is one of our corporate social responsibilities and our continued endeavour to take on communities around the park. The park will constantly engage with the Tshangani community.” A nurse who spoke to Southern Eye, on condition of anonymity, said the clinic serves over 300 locals per month.
“This clinic carters for areas like Masukwe, Masiya, Mutombo and others. We are happy that we are going to get electricity because initially, we were using candles and solar lanterns before a certain donor installed solar panels, but it was not enough because it only managed to light up the post natal ward and the drug room,” the nurse said.
“The electrification will make life easy for us, especially in our labour room, which carries three people at a time. We had no running water at this clinic, so after installation of electricity, we will be able to pump water into our tank. Electricity will also light up our treatment room.”
One of the villagers who frequents the facility, Irene Chauke, said as women who are assisted to give birth at the clinic, they were happy with the gesture because they can now be attended to at any time of day.
“I would like to thank all those who made this project a success because we are now going to access treatment any time of day, especially those who are still giving birth,” she said. Gonarezhou Conservation Partnership is a joint venture between the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the Frankfurt Zoological Society.
