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.”

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

STATE-OWNED telecommunications company, NetOne has entered into a partnership with Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) that will allow corporates and individuals to use the mobile financial services firm payment platform, OneMoney when remitting taxes.

Officiating at the launch, NetOne chief executive officer Lazarus Muchenje expressed excitement about the agreement between the two entities that is expected to drive change.

“We, as NetOne, together with our partners at Zimra, are very excited about the innovation we have gathered here to unveil, and I will tell you why. The world is changing, and the pace of that change is approaching light-speed. Innovation is now, undeniably, the driver of that change; and within the DNA of NetOne, the philosophy of “World Class”, a desire to achieve excellence in our every endeavour, has taken root,” Muchenje said.

“We know that our success as an organisation is tied to our ability to create solutions that dissolve the problems of our customers, and this is why I say today is an exciting day. Our mobile financial services arm, OneMoney, together with our esteemed sister company Zimra, have created a ground-breaking innovation under the code *554#.”

The NetOne boss said the new innovation would bring about payment convenience for businesses.

“Aimed at our shared customers, the OneMoney-Zimra payment solution, allows both corporate and individual importers to pay for their business partner and assessment numbers. What makes this ground breaking?” You may ask, for the first time, you can meet these obligations on the go. By adding this functionality to the OneMoney platform, NetOne and Zimra have made it so that you can now, for the first time, tackle this vital aspect of your business, from wherever you are,” he said.

Zimra commissioner-general Faith Mazani said Zimra was proud to collaborate with NetOne, saying the partnership would yield business solutions.

“Today, we are unveiling the product of collaboration with NetOne through their mobile payment platform OneMoney, which has given us the solution to put those days behind us. With that in mind, and with a view to creating value not only for our shareholders but for our customers, the OneMoney-Zimra payment solution was born. Now our shared clients, among them business owners, private importers and so many others, can enjoy an unprecedented level of convenience because paying Zimra obligations is now as simple as dialling *554#,” she said.

Mazani added that the move would also mitigate tax evasion and avoidance among citizens.

“More than tax evasion or tax avoidance, I’m speaking here about the ordinary honest citizen who does not own up, not because of a lack willpower, but a lack of know-how. People discover that they owe an obligation to Zimra at the point where we come to collect, while, in other cases, the knowledge was available but a convenient method of meeting the obligation was not, until now,” Mazani said.

BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE

OPPOSITION MDC vice-president Welshman Ncube has lamented the government’s failure to implement devolution.

Ncube made the remarks on Wednesday in Bulawayo at a meeting to enlighten residents on the Constitutional Amendment Bill.

He said the government and the Local Government minister, responsible for its implementation, seem not to understand the devolution clause in the Constitution (section 264) and what the concept entails or they deliberately do not want to implement it.

Ncube said one of the reasons the late former President Robert Mugabe was deposed was his failure to implement devolution.

“If you remember well when people were jumping in the streets saying Mugabe must be impeached, kissing the generals as cruel as they are, one of the charges against Mugabe was that from 2013 to 2017, he fully refused to implement devolution,” Ncube said.

“Not a single clause in the 2013 Constitution was implemented. To this day, they are amending the Constitution and not a single clause has been implemented. Those elected in 2018 have not done anything, so there is no devolution to talk about. Up to now, they are failing to implement devolution.”

Government last year disbursed funds to local authorities in the absence of laws to operationalise devolution.

Section 265(3) of the Constitution requires an Act of Parliament to provide appropriate mechanisms and procedures to facilitate co-ordination from central government, provincial, metropolitan and local councils, laws which have not been crafted.

Devolution is anchored on the principle of empowering provincial and metropolitan government councils to spearhead economic and social development projects in their jurisdiction leveraging on local resources.

It was adopted as a key component of the 2013 Constitution and is one of the founding values and principles of the Constitution.

Speaking at the same occasion, former State Enterprises and Parastatals minister Gorden Moyo said they had not seen devolution as wished by the public in the Constitution.

“The people who are trying to implement devolution on their own do not understand the concept. They do not understand it at all. To them, devolution is just decentralisation. We have not seen devolution (that was) wished for by the public in the Constitution,” he said.

“The day devolution is really implemented, many things will be done in the local communities. At the moment, we still rely on central government. I don’t think the minister responsible for devolution really understands the concept.”

Devolution is meant to ensure the preservation of national unity, democratic participation in government by all citizens and communities and the equitable allocation of national resources and the participation of local communities in the determination of development priorities within their areas.

Doing away with the centralised system would improve service delivery, which collapsed in the past two decades.

On constitutional amendments, Moyo said government had misplaced priorities.

“The problem of the government is their priority. They are busy saying they want to gain public confidence and public trust, but when you come up with a controversial programme like the constitutional amendment, you lose on national confidence and trust including your international friends,” he said, adding that government should not interfere with the Judiciary.

Moyo said the government could legally amend the Constitution, but morally, it was wrong as they must respect citizens’ views.

Letrica Mumba, one of the guests, said the Constitutional Amendment Bill was retrogressive and inimical to the progress achieved in 2013.

“We are going back to the time when we had one centre of power, where the President would hire and fire someone and that is shown by most of the clauses,” Mumba said.

“The clause clearly states that the President can appoint a public protector; the President can appoint judges in consultation with so and so. Let’s take into account that consultation does not mean agreement.”

Mumba said the President can consult, but the final decision was his. The meeting was attended by residents, civic society organisations and political party representatives.

By SIMBARASHE SITHOLE

THREE Harare men will spend 40 days in jail for trespassing into Jumbo Mine area, Mazowe, which has since been declared a no-go area for artisanal miners.

Alfred Chikwadze (35) from Waterfalls, Obvious Nyamutukwa (24) and Samuel Sithole (26) both from Chitungwiza pleaded guilty to trespassing when they appeared before Concession magistrate Nyasha Machirori.

Machirori slapped the trio with 40 days in prison.

Prosecutor Kumbirai Nyamvura told the court that on January 21, police officers were conducting an operation dubbed Chikorokoza Ngachipere at Jumbo Mine where they came across the trio and asked for their travel passes which they failed to produce.

The police officers subsequently arrested the trio and charged them with criminal trespass.

In another case, magistrate Machiriori sentenced a Chiweshe man to 20 months in jail for stealing an elderly man’s groceries.

Peter Mushayi (27) pleaded not guilty to the charge, but was convicted after full trial.

The magistrate suspended 12 months of the sentence on condition the convict does not committee a similar offence for the next five years.

The court heard that on January 11, the convict took advantage of the absence of the complainant Samuel Hondoyedzomba (72) and broke into his kitchen.

Mushayi stole groceries valued at $3 275.

When Hondoyedzomba returned home, he discovered that his groceries were missing and was informed by neighbours that Mushayi had stolen them.

He filed a police report, leading to Mushayi’s arrest and goods worth $60 were recovered.

Nyamvura prosecuted.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

MDC top official Tracy Mutinhiri has quit politics ending her long political career that saw her flirting with both the ruling Zanu PF party and the main opposition movement.

The firebrand politician, who once served as Labour minister, joined the MDC when it was still led by the late founder Morgan Tsvangirai after being expelled from Zanu PF in August 2011 on allegations of going against party policies and directives.

Mutinhiri announced her decision to leave the MDC and political arena in a letter dated February 5 and addressed to party leader Nelson Chamisa.

“This letter serves to inform you that I am tendering my resignation from your party with immediate effect. I would like to take this opportunity to thank most sincerely the late Morgan Tsvangirai who accepted me and accommodated me when I was expelled from Zanu PF and indeed yourself in the MDC family. I wish your party the best luck in its endeavours,” the letter read.

After crossing the floor, Mutinhiri faced criticism from the MDC family who accused her of being a spy sent to destroy the party from within.

She, however, held different posts including being a member of the national executive council which she held until her resignation.

“I confirm that I am no longer with the MDC. I am now concentrating on my farming business,” she told NewsDay yesterday.

She owns a farm outside Marondera. Mutinhiri is not the first to leave the opposition party from the province.

Her departure follows that of another stalwart and former Marondera Central MP Ian Kay who left the opposition party a few years ago in protest over Tsvangirai’s long stay as MDC leader.