BY FORTUNE MBELE

THE Bulawayo Athletic Board (BAB) this year expects professional foreign athletes to grace the PPC Matopos 33-Miler Ultra Marathon which has been set for April 4.

BAB co-ordinates the country’s premier race in which PPC Zimbabwe partners leading sports timing information technology group Champion Chip Africa for electronic timing.

Board chairman Manuel Mpofu yesterday paid tribute to PPC Zimbabwe for their continued support for the race.

“We thank PPC for their continued support. Now that the date has been set I am sure they are working on the budget and the registration fees for this year. We are hoping that this year we will have one or two professional athletes from our neighbouring countries to challenge our own athletes to improve their times. We have had visitors in the past from South Africa and Botswana who take part in the veterans and grandmasters categories. We also expect to improve on the numbers,” Mpofu said.

The winning prizes for the athletes could be a deterrent for runners from outside the country, but the race makes a good preparation for South Africa’s prestigious Comrades Marathon which is run in June.

Confirming the date on its official Facebook page, PPC Zimbabwe said: “The date is set for the PPC Matopos Marathon and the journey begins towards April 4. Which marathon race are you running?

The countdown begins to the 2020 PPC Marathon on April 4. It is set to be another memorable experience in one of Zimbabwe’s magical wonders.”

The race starts at the centre of the Matopos National Park and takes a gruelling 53km course ending at the Bulawayo Athletic Club and incorporates a 21,1km half marathon, 10km and 5km fun runs on the same route.

Last year, PPC Zimbabwe poured in close to $50 000 in local currency compared to $16 000 the previous year with the winners of the 33-Miler getting $3 000 in the race which attracted over 3 000 athletes including wellness and fitness enthusiasts from across the country, compared to 2 000 in 2018.

Black Rhinos’ Andrew Chimbidzikai won the race in 3:12:22 with Blanket Mine’s Nkosiyazi Sibanda on the second spot to grab $2 250, while Airforce of Zimbabwe’s Peter Tumbare walked away $1 500 richer after coming third.

Mr Pace’s Chiedza Chokera won the women’s race with Mucheneta Gwata coming second, while Monica Kativhu finished third.

Moses Taranyika won the men’s half marathon to pick up $1 500 with Caroline Mhandu crossing the line first in the women’s category.

BY SIBONGINKOSI MAPHOSA

CHILDLINE Zimbabwe has partnered with Internet Watch Foundation to set up a portal that will report online child abuse.

Childline spokesperson Butler Nhepure said the development came at an opportune time when cases of online violence against children were on the increase.

“This is one of the many methods we can use to protect our children from digital space vices,” he said.

Nhepure said the threat to children was fast moving from the physical to the digital space because of technological advancement.

“Due to the advancement of technology, the physical space is becoming less of a problem compared to the digital space where children are concerned. A lot of abuse happens to children online and there is absolute need to protect children from these ills,” he added.

Nhepure said although the portal was hosted by Childline, it belonged to everyone just like their 116 toll-free helpline as they partnered with service providers like Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, the Information Communication Technology ministry, the Department of Social Welfare, police and other stakeholders.

Internet Watch Foundation development manager Jenny Thornton said the portal would report and instantly block online child sexual abuse.

Thornton also highlighted that the portal would go a long way in reducing online child abuse by blocking any pages that promote the abuse of young children.

Childline Zimbabwe also operates a 24-hour safe and confidential reporting platform under an emergency phone number – 116. The helpline encourages early reporting and response to child protection cases.

Internet Watch Foundation is an international organisation that strives to make the internet a safer space.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

The much-hyped Zanu PF youth business expo held at Marondera Showgrounds on Tuesday was a flop with just a few ruling party supporters mainly from central Marondera turning up.

NewsDay Weekender established that the expo failed to gather momentum due to poor planning.

At the venue, the exhibitors mainly Zanu PF youths, were milling around as they waited for organisers to show them the way forward.

Youth deputy minister Tinoda Machakaire, who was expected to grace the event, was in no-show, forcing exhibitors to disperse early in the afternoon.

“The flop is a result of poor planning. There is nothing transparent about this expo. We were told yesterday to come since the deputy minister was coming,” one of the Zanu PF youth leaders said.

“However, we are hearing that the leadership is no longer coming because they are preparing for a clean-up campaign to be held in Mahusekwa on Friday (yesterday). We were dismissed after being told that the expo was postponed until further notice.”

It was chaotic at the venue with the participants not aware of what they were supposed to do. At around midday, some exhibitors were already leaving the event while those who were hungry were fed by the owner of a local bakery.

The expo was running under the theme Youths in Mechanising, Modernising and Growing the Economy Towards Vision 2030.

Efforts to get a comment from the organisers and Youth ministry officials from the province were fruitless.

BY Veneranda Langa

SENIOR doctors have asked Parliament to investigate alleged hijacking of funds from the Global Fund earmarked to pay doctors retention allowances so that they do not leave the country for greener pastures.

The doctors revealed this when the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health chaired by Ruth Labode visited Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Sally Mugabe Central Hospital (formerly Harare Central Hospital) on Tuesday on a fact-finding mission.

This was after the Senior Hospital Doctors’ Association (SHDA) petitioned Parliament to investigate the rot in the country’s healthcare delivery system.

Over the past few years, the Global Fund agreed that it would assist government by paying allowances to doctors and medical staff in order to stop a massive brain drain which had seen qualified health professionals leaving the country because of lack of decent remuneration.

University of Zimbabwe clinicians also told Parliament that they were not getting the allowance.

When the committee visited Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, a senior doctor, who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation, narrated the issue to MPs.

“A retention fund was started for doctors under the Global Fund, but someone has hijacked the programme and some doctors are not being paid. It was also taken away from University of Zimbabwe lecturers (medical), but we know that it is being paid to some people, including non-medical staff,” the senior doctor alleged.

In its petition to Parliament, SHDA also wrote: “The Health ministry is refusing or neglecting to pay University of Zimbabwe clinicians their allowances for many years despite several letters of demand. This is despite the availability of an unambiguous government policy. In double standards, clinicians from other universities are paid in accordance with that policy. This has been causing disgruntlement among consultant doctors offering services in the public hospitals.”

Former Health deputy minister Edwin Muguti, who is a surgeon and lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, told the committee that for the past 10 years they had not received clinical allowances.

Nurse trainers raised the issue of failure to retain specialist nurses through allowances, whom they said were leaving the country in droves.

“Last year, we were given the mandate to take a double intake of specialist nurses in what was called ‘command nursing’, but all of them are going away after training. We are also training general nurses, but they are now on the streets for lack of jobs and they are going to lose their nursing skills,” said a nurses trainer.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry Mubaiwa, was yesterday granted $1 500 bail by a High Court judge after spending a week in remand prison on charges of assaulting her maid.

Marry, who is denying the charge of assaulting Delight Munyoro at Hellenic Primary School where she had gone to collect the couple’s child, was initially denied bail by Harare magistrate Bianca Makwande, who ruled that the State had proved that she had a propensity of committing offences while on bail.

But Justice Erica Ndewere said Makwande erred in relying on mere common assault allegations, whereas Marry had no previous convictions.

Ndewere said Marry’s freedom could not be sacrificed based on unsubstantiated allegations.

“No evidence was led by the State or placed before the court, neither was there any previous convictions presented. The State only relied on allegations,” Ndewere said.

She ordered Marry to deposit $1 500 bail, continue residing at her parents’ address and not to interfere with the complainant and one Batsirayi Furukiya.

Allegations were that on January 26, Munyoro went to Hellenic Primary School in Borrowdale to collect the accused’s child.

As she was waiting for him, it is alleged the driver, Furukiya, went to collect the child and the complainant remained seated in the vehicle.

The prosecution alleged that when the driver was walking with the child to where the vehicle was parked, Marry was following behind him.

When she arrived at the vehicle, Marry allegedly started to accuse Munyoro of telling her child not to like her.

It is alleged Marry began shouting at Munyoro and struck her left cheek using the back side of her left hand.

By Richard Muponde /Kenneth Nyangani

OPPOSITION MDC president Nelson Chamisa has embarked on a whirlwind tour of the provinces to prepare his party structures for the planned mass protests aimed at forcing President Emmerson Mnangagwa to act on the economic crisis bedevilling the country.

Chamisa’s spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda yesterday said his boss met party supporters in Chinhoyi.

“In Chinhoyi yesterday (Wednesday), it was electric. The room wasn’t enough to accommodate the people who had come to listen to the president laying his plans for the year,” he said.

“The president is meeting the structures and explaining to them their legal and constitutional rights. The meetings are going on very well and I think this year it’s going to pay.”

Sibanda said Chamisa was going to tour all provinces with the intention of later going to branches to meet with supporters at the polling station level.

“He has been selling his agenda and the agenda 2020 has been received very well. He is going to tour all provinces with the intention of going below to the branch levels. However, at the province level, he got an astounding response,” he said.

Chamisa is expected in Mutare today to meet newly-formed branches in the province and map the way following the party’s dismal performance in the province in the 2018 harmonised elections.

The main opposition party garnered only six of the 26 contested parliamentary seats in Manicaland province, previously considered its traditional stronghold.

In an interview yesterday, MDC Manicaland provincial chairman Prosper Mutseyami said they had already formed new branches in 21 constituencies.

“Generally, we are trying to improve the face of our party. We need to complete our branch structure formation by end of this month,” he said

“We are also going into the 26 districts or constituencies on a familiarisation tour to understand the challenges they are facing. This is a mammoth task because this needs money, but we are expecting to do our best regardless of the financial challenges.”

BY MOSES MATENGA/NUNURAI JENA

SUSPENDED Zanu PF national youth commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu yesterday warned President Emmerson Mnangagwa that he risks being swept away by an impending revolution if he does not urgently dialogue with his political nemesis, Nelson Chamisa of the MDC, to restore political and economic stability in the country.

The former Zanu PF youth leader, who was suspended by the party politburo on Wednesday together with deputy youth secretary Lewis Matutu while youth secretary Pupurai Togarepi was axed from the politburo, said citizens were fast losing patience at the slow pace of stopping the scourge of corruption.

He also warned the Zanu PF leader against getting drunk with power.

“If you have power today, be sober, because it’s temporary. Don’t get drunk with power, zvinopera (it will come to an end),” Tsenengamu warned Mnangagwa at a no-holds-barred Press conference in Harare, where he also disclosed a plot to assassinate him and his ally, Lewis Matutu, for naming and shaming alleged cartel leaders behind the country’s current economic mess.

“Power rests in two political parties in Zimbabwe, we can’t hide from that and the solution of this country lies with all Zimbabweans, but these Zimbabweans, for a start, have to accept the reality that, for now, they (fall under) two major institutions, that is Zanu PF and the MDC,” he added.

“You cannot run away from the fact that while my President won an election, garnered 2,4 million votes, the next contender had 2,1 million votes and you cannot wish that away. It is a fact of life. The difference between the winner and the second contender is around 300 000 votes, so whoever chooses to ignore that is wasting time. Zimbabwe is polarised, it is a fact.

“The solution to this problem partly is on the two political parties because they are also part of the problem. Not because they are saints or geniuses, but they created this mess. The mess is on the shoulders of our two political parties.”

Added Tsenengamu: “There are hardliners in Zanu PF who are afraid that if President Mnangagwa dialogues with Chamisa, they are finished. There are hardliners in the MDC who think that if that happens, they are finished. There are people who want ED out and they want this situation to degenerate. There are others who want Chamisa to lead demonstrations, but he learnt in 2017 that you can go on the streets and get nothing. Now they (MDC hardliners) want a militant and vocal leader on the streets and these two leaders face extinction if they are not careful. They are being cheered as they sink. The time they will turn back, it will be too late.

“Imagine a team with President Mnangagwa here, VP (Constantino) Chiwenga there, VP (Kembo) Mohadi there, Chamisa there, Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube there. Everyone has his strengths and weaknesses and I am of the opinion that if forces and ideas are combined, we will get Zimbabwe out of this mess. The first thing is Zimbabwe must have stability and the situation out there is threatening big time. All of us will be losers.”

He warned that if the current leaders do not act now, all of them risk being on the wrong side of history.

“I am not fighting the party, I am not fighting any leader. I have just said cartels must go, corruption is harming the good efforts being made by the leadership, so there is no reason then to suspend me. Why would you suspend me for naming non-members of the party?” he asked.

“When we named the likes of (Zanu PF secretary for administration) Obert Mpofu, (Presidential Affairs minister) Joram Gumbo and others who have positions in the party, what you (Mnangagwa) only did was to set up a commission, which commission died a stillbirth. It could not even see the light of day. They have not even sat for a single meeting. So that was a minor crime to challenge a whole secretary of administration of the party and you smiled at it.

“Now we have touched non-members of the party, they do not even have a membership card of the party except for (Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe chairperson) Tafadzwa Musarara. (Green Fuels boss) Billy (Rautenbach) doesn’t even know how to chant a slogan and the leadership saw it fit to make sure they crush our political careers and save this (Green Fuels boss) Billy (Rautenbach) and (Sakunda Holdings CEO) Kuda (Tagwirei)?”

He said as youths, they were planning to host an all-stakeholders’ anti-corruption summit in Harare next week, before forcing Mnangagwa and Chamisa to the negotiating table by February 21 — a day which coincides with the late former President Robert Mugabe’s birthday.

The day has since been declared a public holiday.

But Mnangagwa yesterday rubbished suggestions that he should talk to Chamisa.

Speaking during a clean-up campaign in Banket, Mnangagwa said Chamisa should wait for another election cycle in 2023.

“To those who are prone to violence, give peace a chance. Our laws call for elections after every five years and in any elections, there are winners and losers. So if you are a loser, celebrate with us and leave things that made you lose,” he said.

“As winners, we will continue doing what is good for our people like alleviating their problems.”

Contacted for comment, MDC deputy spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka insisted that Mnangagwa lost the July 2018 presidential race, hence the opposition’s refusal to recognise his presidency.

“We will continue pointing out that Mnangagwa stole an election and this year we are going to claim our victory,” he said.