BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

ORGANISERS of the Zimbabwe Music Festival Bira (Zimfeb), a cultural exchange programme said they were gathering resources for the return of the fete this year, six years after the tragic accident that almost claimed the lives of its founder and band members.

The Zimfeb festival was founded by Sweden-based multi-talented artiste Luckson “Manlurkerz” Chikutu in April 2007 before it became an annual event with the objective of celebrating cultures from different parts of the world.

Of late, a number of local artistes have travelled to Sweden with their counterparts from the Scandinavian country also staging performances in Zimbabwe on cultural exchange programmes.

Manlurkerz, who is also the leader of the Zim Traditional Unity Band that comprises members from both African and European countries, yesterday told NewsDay Life & Style that returning the festival to Zimbabwe was among their 2020 top priorities.

“Zimbabwe Music Festival Bira is set for its return if everything goes according to plan. We are working hard to gather resources for this cultural exchange event, that brings different nationalities to our mother country, promoting different cultures, to happen,” he said.

“I know many arts enthusiasts have been anticipating the return of this festival, so as other artistes whom I have been interacting with over time.”

Manlurkerz said he had lined up a number of programmes that include workshops, traditional dance, music, among other artistic disciplines in some parts of the Scandinavian country as a way of promoting local culture.

“As artistes across genres we play a crucial role in nation building through our works. We are ambassadors of culture as our different works somehow depict our nation’s history that is showcased to the world through our creations,” he said.

“Artists must help to portray and preserve their country’s cultural history through their works and I am happy that I am playing my part in that regard.”

He said he was happy that his recently published book titled FlashBack Identity that narrates how music and dance have defined the Zimbabwean society was received well.

The book that is available in both hard copy and e-book was first published in Swedish in 2017 by Vulkan Media before it was translated into the English version. The book was showcased at the Africa festival in November last year in Stockholm, Sweden.

Guest column: Malvern Tatenda Chiweshe

MARITA is an 11-year-old girl from Epworth in Harare, Zimbabwe. She does not go to school as both her parents died of HIV two years ago. The uncle who took her in has been raping her since the day she moved in with them. As I talk to her, I can hear the innocence in her voice. I hold back tears as she tells me how the nurses at her local clinic could not allow her to get an abortion after she found out that she was pregnant. A neighbour had noticed her bulging stomach and taken her to the clinic were the head nurse told them that the law did not allow her to have an abortion. Now nine months pregnant, she asks me what she should do. Her aunt has thrown her out after she reported her uncle to the police.

Unfortunately, Marita’s case is not an isolated one. Many adolescents in her situation are forced to keep pregnancies despite the law in Zimbabwe allowing abortions for certain criteria.

The Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1977 allows abortion for rape, incest, fetal abnormality and to save a woman’s life. Yet despite this many like Marita, who have every legal right to access an abortion in a State health facility, are denied.

In Marita’s case it was by clinic staff, in another well-published case of Mildred Mapingure it was a broken system. Mildred was gang raped during a robbery. After discovering she was pregnant, she went to hospital to seek emergency contraception but was referred back to the police because the doctor could not give her the medication without the police knowing.

This went on until 72 hours passed. Months later after being pushed around between police, judges and hospitals she was finally granted the order to terminate but the hospital declined to terminate stating that it was no longer safe.

These are only but two cases in a long-standing tradition or a system that denies women reproductive rights.

The question becomes what needs to happen. First and foremost, the government especially the Health ministry needs to be held accountable for making sure that the provisions of the Constitution are observed.

Contrary to popular belief, abortion is not illegal in Zimbabwe but is restricted. It is the State’s responsibility to make sure that those that meet the criteria are able to access without barriers.

It is also the duty of government to train government health workers, police and judicial officers on what the law states.

A study led by the Guttmacher Institute recommended that to reduce unsafe abortions and abortion-related mortality, the government needed to improve healthcare workers’ knowledge on abortion.

Unsafe abortions are a reality in Zimbabwe. In 2016 it was estimated that 66 847 had induced abortion. What if many of these were women who under the law deserve to have an abortion?

If the law is a upheld and access improved, thousands of lives could be saved. Thousands of girls like Marita could not be forced to be single, unemployed, homeless mothers at 11.
Women like Mildred would not be forced to carry pregnancies that are a result of gang rape.

You might be asking yourself what this has to do with you? My answer is everything. Our people are dying unnecessarily from something they should have access to.

The already crippled health system is having to provide post-abortion care at a higher cost than providing lawful abortions at a fraction of the cost. It is my and your duty to ask our government why this is so. Why are we letting women die?

We should not be quiet anymore. We need to ask our government, our Members of Parliament, why? We start today. In our engagements with our public representatives, let us ask why?

 Malvern Tatenda Chiweshe is a Zimbabwean sexual and reproductive justice researcher and advocate based in Washington DC, United States

BY SHARON SIBINDI

BULAWAYO’S most celebrated afro-pop singer, Mzobanzi “Mzoe7” Mlauzi will later this month embark on a southern Africa music tour to promote his music in the region, NewsDay Life & Style has learnt.

“As a way of spreading wings, this year I am embarking on a music tour of Swaziland, Botswana, South Africa and I will also be going to other countries in the region,” he said.

Mzoe7 indicated that he was currently working on a collaboration with Swazi musician A2Z with whom he would share the stage.

“I am looking at collaborations, learning and experiencing much of African art and culture. I believe Africa is very diverse and creative. I believe the sky is the limit and I want to share my talent, experience and art with the rest of the world,” he said.

Mzoe7, whose performance electrified the crowd during the Bulawayo Shutdown show last year, said he would also take the time to launch his extended play (EP) aimed at uniting Africans.
“I will also release an EP during my tour — United Country of Africa. The track is aimed at uniting Africans, reminding them that we are one,” he said.

The musician has performed at the Lumankelenkele Festival in Swaziland before.

He said this year would be a busy year for him and plans were afoot for live shows.

“We will also be doing Mzoe7 live in concert, the first of its kind and plans are already underway,” he said.

Guest column: Cliff Chiduku

LAST week, Higher and Tertiary Education minister Amon Murwira made a startling revelation in as far as the Zimbabwean education system is concerned.

Speaking at a Zanu PF meeting in Masvingo, Murwira criticised Zimbabwe’s higher education system, claiming it was producing more of fools than thinkers.

“We should know that every person born of a woman is born ignorant, but not foolish or stupid. So where does stupidity and foolishness come from? Fools come from the education system. The type of education that tells them that in order to do engineering you have to study English first.

“Our ancestors never learned English, but we have our Great Zimbabwe monument. That kind of engineering remains a marvel even to date. Our education system is teaching people to read and write, but is doing little to teach them to think. This is why you see a lot of people fighting on WhatsApp because they mastered the skill of writing and reading, but not thinking,” Murwira said.

While this may sound like an insult to Zimbabweans, especially coming from our leaders, whose mandate is to transform the education system, this was frank of Murwira. The minister should be applauded for not mincing his words.

This could be the reason why most of our leaders shun local educational institutions, preferring to send their children to foreign universities where they know they will get the best out of their children. They don’t want to hear anything Zimbabwean as they quickly fly to foreign lands to seek medical attention even after a bout of flu.

In 1962, the colonial government had an inquiry into its education system where it came up with “African education only” meant to “brainwash” natives and is still in use today.

The Nziramasanga Commission report — a diagnosis of the problems affecting the local education sector — has largely been ignored because someone in government is benefiting from the stupidity injected into our veins by our education system. Our rulers would want us to remain foolish so that they continue to plunder what is left of the country’s resources.

Our education system was crafted during the colonial era and served a different purpose, so it needs deconstruction.

Education and training should be central in confronting our challenges, but it is being used to blindfold us. We are victims of circumstances. Is it not stupidity that Zimbabweans remained quiet despite revelations that Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga used the military to settle a domestic issue with his estranged wife Marry?

At one point Chiwenga received a luxury car from Sakunda Holdings boss Kudakwashe Tagwirei to use in supervising Command Agriculture activities and we all saw nothing wrong with it.

This week, Zanu PF youth league leaders Lewis Matutu and Godfrey Tsenegamu exhibited their stupidity when they addressed a Press conference, where they announced that Tagwirei was sabotaging the economy. Wait a moment comrades! Does Tagwirei award himself government tenders? Certainly, no. Someone in the Zanu PF government is doing the bidding for the fuel magnet. Tagwirei travels with the President; buys luxury cars for top government officials, sponsors Zanu PF programmes, so who is the problem here? The two goons were barking up the wrong tree.

We have also given Finance minister Mthuli Ncube a blank cheque to experiment with our economy and the consequences are there for everyone to see. The economy is heading south, inflation is running away, unemployment has reached an all-time high and more than half the population is facing hunger, thanks to Mthulinomics.

It is out of sheer stupidity that we expect Zanu PF to fight corruption when the party’s highest decision-making organ — politburo — has the guts to suspend Matutu and Tsenengamu on charges of not following laid down procedures in fighting corruption. What the hack? The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) should be investigated for corruption. Engaging in catch and release is corruption in itself.

Corruption has reached alarming levels and Zimbabwe is desperate, so there is no need to follow procedure in fighting graft — any gun should shoot.

It is unfortunate now that fools — products of our education system — occupy critical positions in our country even in Cabinet — no wonder the economy is tanking. Our politics sometimes gets very absurd and ludicrous. One would fail to comprehend the motive behind such crazy antics. In 2007, several Cabinet ministers, among them Kembo Mohadi (now Vice-President), Sydney Sekeramayi and Didymus Mutasa, were taken for fools by a self-proclaimed spirit medium, Rotina Mavhunga, who convinced them that refined diesel was oozing from a rock in Chinhoyi. They paid two head of cattle, three buffaloes and ZWL$5 billion to Mavhunga for her services.

Time is now to ask ourselves if our education system is serving its purpose. We have an educated populace, which is failing to demand accountability from its leaders. Imagine that President Emmerson Mnangagwa is butchering the Constitution and an imperial presidency is looming.

Our education system is teaching us to be employees, not employers. There is need to deconstruct this colonial system being perpetuated by our government. It goes down to Zimsec’s grade inflation as pointed out by former Deputy Prime Minister Authur Mutambara. Now is the time to discontinue and deviate from toeing the line of our colonial masters, otherwise stupidity will follow us to the third generation.

We have seen most of our university and college graduates demanding jobs, yet they should be at the forefront of creating jobs and becoming employers. It is because our education system is crafted to create fools whose minds have been fashioned to work for others — perpetuating the boss mentality.

Drugs have run out of stock at our hospitals, but we have chemical engineering graduates sitting at home, saying there are no jobs. To address all these problems is a job on its own.
The country is importing everything, including toothpicks from China, when we have timber forests that are lying idle in Manicaland.

As long as our education system dishes out professors, who leave for greener pastures only to perform menial jobs in foreign lands, we will remain a country of educated fools.

As long as government continues on this destructive path, churning out thousands of fools every year, we are condemning future generations to hewers of wood and drawers of water.
Food for thought!

Cliff Chiduku is a journalist who writes here in his personal capacity. Feedback: cchiduku@gmail.com

Editorial Comment

THE controversial private pharmacy at Parirenyatwa Hospital — which is said to be always fully-stocked with drugs when the hospital pharmacy is dry — could just be a tip of the iceberg of the scandal in the health sector where private individuals are enriching themselves at the expense of citizens’ failing health.

Critical medicines and drugs have become too expensive with only a few rich in our society able to buy them. Suffice to say, the majority of people that seek treatment at Parirenyatwa are low-income earners who actually need government-subsided healthcare services.

Thus having a private pharmacy inside the hospital premises creates fertile ground for corruption, which scourge all citizens should be fighting as a nation. We appeal to the Ruth Labode-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health to take up the suggestion by doctors at Parirenyatwa to investigate the ownership of the pharmacy, how it was allowed to run at the institution, and perhaps come up with ways of ensuring that the public pharmacy accesses medicines for patients.

Indeed, public institutions such as hospitals need good corporate governance practices and having a private pharmacy within a public hospital’s premises flies in the face of that tenet. It also does not make sense that the doctors at the hospital have no idea who owns the said pharmacy. Interesting questions such as how did it end up there arise? Who allowed the pharmacy to be set up within a public health facility? Why has it been operating all along with no investigations into its operations?

In fact, it may actually be a good idea to bring the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission into the picture so that they dig to the bottom of this matter, especially in light of concerns by doctors that drugs that would ordinarily cost $4 are sold for as much as $20 at the private pharmacy. This is obscene profiteering, which shows that someone is just out to make money by taking advantage of poor sick people. This indeed raises eyebrows. To make matters worse, Chitungwiza Hospital is also reportedly faced with the same situation.

There is need for the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe to urgently investigate all hospitals across the country with private pharmacies operating within their premises and order their closure, much the same way it did at United Bulawayo Hospitals in 2018.

It is our belief that for the health sector to run smoothly, healthcare should be easily accessible by the majority. Politicisation of healthcare as is the case now speaks to poor leadership by those holding the levers of power in the country.

Citizens should demand transparency in the health industry.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

Yesterday, NewsDay Business examined the losers of last month’s Supreme Court ruling that upheld Statutory Instrument (SI) 33 of 2019 legislated in February 2019.

SI 33 of 2019 allowed for the settlement of United States debts prior to its promulgation to be done as ZWL, at parity. But, considering how the local currency has been devaluing, creditors have been left with massive losses.

However, while the creditors are nursing their wounds, debtors have been given relief. In this instalment,we look at the beneficiaries of the ruling.

Government

As explained yesterday, government had a domestic debt of US$8,5 billion at the end of 2018, but the Supreme Court ruling allows government to settle such debt as ZWL$8,5 billion, a significantly lower amount. When the exchange rate is applied, this debt becomes US$480 million in real terms.

With government struggling with a debt overhang due to years of overspending, Treasury has been under pressure both locally and externally to deal with this debt to build investor confidence and access fresh lines of credit.

As such, the Supreme Court ruling has allowed government to address its domestic debt, something not lost on Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana.

“There are winners and losers in this, we cannot totally dismiss that, but the court has spoken,” he told NewsDay Business.

When pressed further, he distanced government from the ruling saying the Supreme Court is another branch of the State.

“This one-to-one is not coming from government, it is coming from the courts. Government when it made its decision it said interbank to which the courts have said ‘no, it’s one-to-one’,” Magwana said.

He was referring to how Cabinet, shortly after promulgation of SI 33 of 2019, decided that government debt could be settled with its creditors at the interbank rate at the time of US$1:RTGS$2,50.

In the previous article, Mangwana tried to downplay the benefits of the Supreme Court ruling saying that government was already renegotiating contracts with its creditors, suggesting that it would not be total losses for its creditors.

However, in his analysis of the Supreme Court ruling, United Kingdom-based legal scholar Alex Magaisa said the ruling was a windfall for debtors whose debts were denominated in US dollars.

“The ramifications of the government’s decree (SI 33 of 2019) were felt across the economic landscape and predictably, the drama was soon being played out before judges in the courts of law,” he said.

“This is because debtors suddenly found the energy to pay up their debts — by simply converting their US dollar-denominated debts to RTGS dollar debts at the rate of one-to-one, effectively profiting at the expense of their creditors.”

State enterprises and parastatals

In the Auditor-General’s report on parastatals and State enterprises for 2018, concern was raised on how the entities continued to fall in arrears, thereby remaining unaccountable.

In the report, as at May 31, 2019, 103 out of 179 State enterprises and parastatals had submitted their financial statements for audit.

This is because State enterprises and parastatals have become a huge burden on government’s finances as these entities have failed to account for State funds annually.

Such poor governance saw the parastatals owing US$490 780 504,19 to the tax collector as at the end of 2018.

But, with the Supreme Court ruling, this has translated to ZWL$490 780 504,19, wiping out at least US$463,4 million in debt in real terms for these State entities.

Apart from Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), State enterprises and parastatals also have other creditors under Treasury’s Debt Management Unit that have still not been disclosed.

“The court decision affects both debtors and creditors. Given that parastatals have both debtors and creditors they are affected relative to the amount of credit or debt,” said State Enterprises Restructuring Agency (SERA) executive director, Edgar Nyoni.

“As it looks attractive in paying off their erstwhile US dollar-denominated creditors in local Zimdollar currency, it is painful to them when they are paid by debtors in the same currency. The public entity that had a huge creditors’ book relative to debtors’ book seems to benefit more.”

Property owners

Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling, property owners have been accorded a chance to buy properties at very cheap prices.

So basically, if a property owner owed US$5 000 to a property developer, for a residential stand, they now owe ZWL$5 000 or US$279 as an example.

“Property owners may be affected especially where long-term leases have been entered into and tenants are in default,” Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe president, Alexander Millin said.

“This implies that if and when the arrears are eventually settled time value of money implies the property owner will receive less rental income in real terms.”

He added: “Properties sold in instalments could be affected particularly where the buyer has failed to honour the regular instalment payments. This means that such transactions may be terminated or the seller will have to carry the loss as the arrears will be settled on the one-to-one basis.”

Winners and losers

With all these winners and losers, the question now remains, who stands to benefit more from the Supreme Court ruling.
You decide.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

GOVERNMENT say it will release a National, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) policy covering the period 2020 to 2024 in the next six months.

Speaking to NewsDay Business on the sidelines of a validation workshop for the MSME Draft Policy 2020-2024 in Harare yesterday, Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development permanent secretary Melusi Matshiya said SMEs were a key player in sustaining the economy.

“It (MSME 2020-2024 policy) has to be done, I should say in the next six months. I would want to push for that. Once the validation with the consultants have been done, I will now need my minister to take it to Cabinet. There is this symbiotic relationship between the mainstream industry and SMEs that are now the bedrock of economic development,” he said.

“So, it is a two-way process where we may aim high, but as we get more resources to capitalise the SMEs or the medium level they graduate into what one might say is the mainstream industry. This is an industry which could attract capital, investment, from banks externally et cera et cera and these (SMEs) will be able to drive themselves as entities.”

Government worked with local company, Africa Corporate Advisory, in crafting the draft policy with the European Union (EU) providing technical and financial assistance.

The draft policy has been designed to complement other national, regional and international policy frameworks in line with government’s vision for an upper middle-income economy by 2030.

This comes as it is estimated that SMEs employ most of the workforce in the private sector with the sector contributing 60% of the country’s gross domestic product.

“The EU stands ready to accompany Zimbabwe in the successful implementation of this new policy. The process in formulating the MSME policy is financially supported by the EU through the EU EPA Support Project (Zepa). Moreover, under the Zepa project two grant contracts worth €2,5 million each have recently been signed,” EU Ambassador to Zimbabwe Timo Olkkonen, said.

“They target support to increased productivity and competitiveness of MSMEs in selected value chains. They also seek to strengthen the capacity of business support organisations relevant to chosen value chains to deliver services to the MSME actors. The technical assistance component of the Zepa (Zimbabwe Economic Partnership Agreement) project has resources to provide further assistance to the sector on a demand-driven basis.”