Brenna Matendere

Scores of artisanal miners are feared dead in Kwekwe after Globe and Phoenix mine collapsed in the early hours of yesterday.

Kwekwe district head of civil protection unit and district administrator, Fortune Mpungu told Southern Eye that the process of retrieving the dead bodies of people trapped was ongoing.

“I can confirm that a section of the mine collapsed. We are told that a huge boulder collapsed and it trapped the artisanal miners who were inside. So far we have retrieved two bodies and some are still trapped inside,” he said.

The mine is the oldest in Kwekwe as it was pegged on the site of ancient gold workings in 1894 by prospectors Edward Thornton Pearson and Joseph Schukala.

It is located a few hundred metres from the Central Business District westwards.

At the moment the mine has not been operating formally as it was shut down long back but illegal artisanal miners known as Makorokoza have been finding their way into the shafts during the night when police are not noticing them.

When Southern Eye arrived at the scene yesterday afternoon, police and some artisanal miners were busy trying to retrieve the bodies and search for any survivors. The bodies that had been were wrapped by some blankets but were later ferried to Kwekwe General Hospital mortuary.

Mpungu agreed that those trapped had trespassed into the shafts.

“Yes, no company has been operating at the mine lately but the artisanal miners have just been sneeking into the underground shafts illegally. At this stage we are not very sure of the numbers that are trapped in terms of the dead bodies but we are working to retrieve all the dead bodies.”

“What we have done is to use explosives to blast the huge boulder that is trapping the miners. That process is still ongoing and there is a big cloud of dust underground right now which makes us unable to see anything or count the bodies,” he said.

Sources said the artisanal miners have been blasting the pillars that hold fort the underground miners resulting in it becoming weak to an extent of collapsing.

However, Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya said some people indicated to him that about 15 people could be trapped underground.

“It is reported that the artisanal miners enter through a pit on the southern side of town and work on the old workings left by the previous mining company. This then weakens the roof of the tunnels resulting in the pillers falling and this is what happened in this case. There are 4 people confirmed to be under the boulder although the actual total figure is suspected to be about 15,” he said.

By Tatenda Chitagu

MASVINGO High Court judge Garainesu Mawadze has expressed grave concern over the upsurge in machete murder cases flooding the courts.

Justice Mawadze, without giving statistics, said the high number of murder cases committed by machete gangs in Kwekwe were worrisome.

“The court is inundated with Kwekwe machete murder suspects seeking bail. I am not sure why this is the case, but I want to register my displeasure with that,” he said.

Justice Mawadze was responding to a bail application by two Kwekwe gold panners, Edmore Phiri (34) and his brother, Tatenda Phiri (29), accused of murdering Brilliant Dube by hacking him with machetes and striking him with an axe.

It is the State’s case that on January 1 at around 10am, the two accused, in the company of five accomplices still at large, drove to Torwood Shopping Centre where they met the now-deceased who was drinking beer with his brothers.

The two groups, according to court papers, had differences emanating from previous clashes. Violence erupted and Dube sustained severe injuries all over the body and died on the way to hospital.

The accused’s lawyer, Tafadzwa Mbwachena of Maboke, Ruvengo and Partners, said his clients were not a flight risk as they handed themselves over to the police when told that they were being sought.

The State opposed bail arguing that the two were nomads who moved around the country looking for gold and were likely to abscond or threaten witnesses given that they belonged to a violent group of panners.

Justice Mawadze denied them bail on grounds that they were a flight risk.

“They allegedly committed the crime on January 1 and then disappeared from the scene. They were then arrested after two weeks. Therefore, the State’s application to deny them bail is strong and I dismiss their application for bail,” Justice Mawadze ruled.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

“THERE are winners and losers,” said Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana about the controversial ruling made by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe last month which allows for the settling of US debts, acquired before February 22, 2019, in ZWL at a 1:1 rate.

The Supreme Court ruling upheld Statutory Instrument (SI) 33 of 2019 promulgated in February 2019 that allowed for the settling of US$ debt in ZWL at parity.

The ruling marked the second time in Zimbabwe’s history that the value of earnings, assets and debts have been wiped in one fell swoop, the first being the abandonment of the ZWL for a multi-currency regime in 2008.

Property Developers
In response to questions by NewsDay Business, Real Estate Institute of Zimbabwe president, Alexander Millin, said property developers would negatively be impacted.

“For property developers who may have sold properties off plan on instalments this could impact negatively on firstly the cash flows for the project and the developer’s ability to successfully complete infrastructure works,” he said.

“Any shrinkage in cash flow and or depletion of profit levels will result in developers being averse to carrying out further projects. Some projects may be aborted. This could result in a decrease in supply of property stock.”

He said properties sold in instalments could be affected particularly where the buyer has failed to honour the regular instalments.

“This means that such transactions may be terminated, albeit the seller will have to carry the loss as the arrears will be settled on one to one basis,” Millin added.

At an FBC analysts briefing last year, the financial group’s chief executive officer John Mushayavanhu revealed that they were incurring significant losses on their mortgaging business.

He complained that this was due to clients settling their mortgages in ZWL despite taking out the mortgage in US dollars, taking advantage of SI 33 of 2019.

So, suppose a person owed FBC US$10 000, they could now settle it as ZWL$10 000 or RTGS$10 000 as was the case that time. What this shows is that SI 33 of 2019 is already starting to affect mortgagees and property developers. This was at a time when the same legislation introduced the RTGS dollar.

But, unlike SI 142 of 2019 which brought back the ZWL as the sole legal tender, SI 33 of 2019 allowed the RTGS dollar to co-exist with the multi-currency regime allowing the exchange rate to be more controlled.

Dawn Properties reported that during the period January 1 to June 30, 2019, the market was subdued with most banks suspending their mortgage offerings over the conversion challenges.

Property expert Washington Musiiwa concurred that developers would feel the pinch of the Supreme Court ruling as the ZWL is the sole legal tender and as such has been devaluing.

Government creditors
According to the Parliament Budget Office, at the end of 2018 government had a domestic debt of US$8,5 billion. The debt was as a result of years of government’s insatiable expenditure that forced it to borrow more from the market to fund its spending. The government funded this expenditure through Treasury Bill issuances and central bank overdrafts.

Following the ruling, the domestic debt can be settled by paying ZWL$8,5 billion, meaning, the Supreme Court ruling has essentially wiped off US$8,02 billion of government debt in real terms.

This essentially leaves government with a domestic bill of US$480 million to pay which translates to ZWL$8,6 billion.

But, when asked if this was theft, Mangwana said: “You ask a question of whether it (Supreme Court ruling) has affected domestic debt? Yes. Some of could have been affected but again government is also owed money, government also owes and has contracts and some have already been renegotiated.”

“You may recall, post-February, Cabinet made a decision regarding contracts that were subsisting that those contracts could be renegotiated at the interbank rate. So if you have a decision that has already been made and done, there is no problem.”

He said this was why none of government’s creditors had so far come out to say they were robbed due to these renegotiated contracts prior to SI 33 of 2019.

“It is an assumption that is being made that this may have affected this creditor one way or the other. No, the government owes money for service provision and government has taken a moral position to negotiate with most of them,” Mangwana said.

“If these were tenders that had been won and people were supposed to deliver these were renegotiated taking cognisance of the new context. So, no, government is not robbing anybody, otherwise you would be hearing cries from the streets.”

However, he admitted that for those who owed money, they benefited from the ruling and that those owed money lost.

Financial institutions
Other losers from the Supreme Court ruling were financial institutions. In the February 2019 monetary policy statement, total banking sector loans and advances increased by 11,05%, from US$3,80 billion as at December 31, 2017 to US$4,22 billion as at December 31, 2018. The increase was attributed to lending to the productive sector that increased over the year, from 73,64% to 76,01% of total loans as at December 31, 2018 while consumptive lending took 17,75% of the loan book.

The sector that received most of these loans was agriculture at 16,34%, followed by commercial 15,33%, mortgage 11,12%, distribution 10,52%, construction 9,86%, manufacturing 7,68%, mining 3,52%, financial 1,78%, transport 1,06% and communication 0,38%.

The increase in lending led the central bank to report that the loan position of the banking sector had increased risk as the ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) to total loans rose to 8,25% as at December 30, 2018, from 7,08% as at December 31, 2017.

The debt was owed to 13 banks, three building societies and one savings bank.

Meanwhile, the loan book from microfinance institutions was also up. As at the end of December 2018, the Zimbabwe Association of Microfinance Institutions reported that total loans for the sector amounted US$207,3 million. These loans were mostly taken by micro and small-to-medium enterprises as well as individuals. So, in total, at the end of 2018 financial institutions were owed nearly US$4,3 billion.

Now, with the Supreme Court ruling, this translates to ZWL$4,3 billion or US$240 million, wiping out US$4,06 billion in debt.

The danger with this is that this has left the sector seriously exposed to a higher credit risk.

Zimra
Zimra perhaps is the biggest loser of the Supreme Court ruling. In the tax collector’s annual report for 2018, Zimra was owed US$5,03 billion. Of that amount, parastatals owed US$490 780 504,19, councils US$232 281 337,50, private US$3 137 760 073,29, and importers US$77 460 507. The money was owed through unpaid taxes. Now, the Supreme Court ruling has effectively translated the US$5,03 billion to ZWL$5,03 billion, wiping at least US$4,75 billion of the arrears. .

What legal experts say
Legal experts have called the Supreme Court ruling “the grand heist”.

In his analysis of the ruling, United Kingdom-based legal scholar Alex Magaisa explained why the ruling was a heist.

“If the debtor owed US$1 million on 21 February 2019, on 23 February 2019, just two days later, they owed just RTGS$1 million. But in the real world, RTGS$1 million was obviously significantly weaker than US$1 million. All because the government said so, via a draconian decree,” he said.

“This is the essence of a command and control approach governance which is the hallmark of the Zimbabwean regime. While it was a boon for debtors, it represented a devastating blow to creditors.”

He added: “The decree was a windfall for debtors whose debts were denominated in US dollars. At the stroke of the presidential pen, their debts had been significantly reduced in US dollar terms because contrary to the government’s command rate, the RTGS was weaker than the US dollar. For the creditors, however, it was a total nightmare”.

Tomorrow we look at the winners of the Supreme Court ruling.

BY Richard Muponde

MACHETE gangs pounced on Masvingo High Court Judge, Justice Garainesu Mawadze’s Waterfalls house in Harare where they severely assaulted his son, and left him for dead. They also stole US$1 500 and other items.

Another machete gang also raided a Kuwadzana forex dealer and stole US$300 and ZWL$18 000.

The two incidents happened on Tuesday.

Reports are that a gang of over 10 men armed with machetes, an assortment of weapons and pepper sprays pounced on Justice Mawadze’s house at around 6pm when there was no one at home.

After getting into the yard, they sprayed his two dogs with pepper spray and tied them to a tree.

They then stripped his Mercedes Benz E400 of its four wheels and a grill after which they broke the French door to his house to gain entry.

On getting into the house, they reportedly ransacked the house, turning everything upside down and stole US$1 500, an iPhone and DVD player.

Reports indicate that the judge’s son arrived while they were still inside the house and they sprayed him with pepper spray before assaulting him, leaving him unconscious.

After the robbery, they disappeared from the scene and are reportedly still at large.

Judiciary Service Commission spokesperson Brian Nkiwane confirmed the robbery without giving more details.

“We confirm receiving such a report and we can’t say much as the matter is under police investigations,” Nkiwane said.

National police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said he was attending a workshop.

In the Kuwadzana robbery, reports say a gang of six robbed a forex dealer of US$300 and ZWL$18 000 which was in his EcoCash account.

The gang reportedly arrived at Earnest Mukuzo’s house in Kuwadzana 3 at around 1am wearing masks armed with an iron bar, hammer and a pistol.

They awoke him and demanded cash.

In fear, Mukuzo handed over US$300 and his two cellphones which had ZWL$18 000 mobile money.

The gang also demanded his EcoCash pin code.

After robbing him, they allegedly struck him with an iron bar on both hands.

Mukuzo sustained a deep cut on his right hand.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

MYSTERY surrounds the renaming of Robert Mugabe Way in Kwekwe to ED Mnangagwa Street, with council and the government denying involvement in what seems to be a ploy to erase the late former President’s
legacy.

Last year, the Cabinet approved plans to rename roads, places and government buildings across the country, with 10 roads to be named after President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who owns Precabe Farm in Sherwood, near Kwekwe.

Cabinet announced that Enterprise Road (Harare), Sixth Avenue (Bulawayo), A5 Road (Kwekwe), Main Street (Gweru), Chipinge Main Street, Etherton Road (Bindura), Edgar Peacock Road (Mutare), Henry Hartley Road (Chegutu) and Hughes Street in Masvingo would be named after the incumbent President.

Kwekwe mayor Angeline Kasipo yesterday confirmed the renaming of the street, but said councillors were not involved in the development and the matter would be discussed at the next full council meeting.

“Yes, it is true that the street was renamed and there is a sign post on the corner of the street right now. However, we are going to be discussing that matter to see what happened because we do not have a resolution that paved the way for the renaming. So at this stage, what I can say is that a position is going to be made at the next full council meeting to see if that development was regular or not,” Kasipo, who is an MDC Alliance councillor, said.

Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana yesterday said it was false that the street had been renamed and refused to shed light on the matter.

“Robert Mugabe Way has not been changed to ED Mnangagwa Street. You have inaccurate information,” he said curtly.

The Nelson Chamisa-led MDC has a majority of councillors in Kwekwe City Council.

Kwekwe-based human rights defender Nkosilathi Moyo said the general populace in the city was shocked to see the Robert Mugabe Way being renamed and said it seemed the process was irregular because councillors he spoke to in the city expressed ignorance on the re-naming exercise.

“The people of Kwekwe would feel that their rights were trampled upon because they were not consulted on the re-naming exercise. Besides that, we are shocked as to why the authorities chose to target the street named after the late President Mugabe when there are several others with names of former Rhodesian politicians and some whites from the colonial period,” he said.

Soon after the ED Mnangagwa Street sign post was erected, people took selfie photos of it and posted them on social media platforms venting their anger on the development, saying it was better to leave Mugabe’s sign post intact to preserve his legacy.

They said Mnangagwa should, instead, give the people of Kwekwe jobs because they were suffering under his leadership.

Moyo said people were generally unhappy about the name change.

Efforts to get a comment from Local Government minister July Moyo were unsuccessful as his mobile went unanswered.

By Desmond Chingarande

Socialite and businessman Genius Kadungure, who is accused of fraud, was yesterday remanded in custody to today for his bail ruling.

Kadungure, who was represented by Jonathan Samukange, appeared before magistrate Chrispen Mberewere.

In his application for bail, Kadungure said the High Court ordered him to pay US$58 665 to Zimra as additional vehicle import duty which he did, leaving the State with no tangible allegations against him.

Samukange said the order compelled the complainant not to confiscate Kadungure’s vehicle, but the police violated the ruling.

The investigation officer Erasmus Mazhawidzi said Kadungure had a propensity to commit similar offences while on bail, but Samukange argued that he never committed any offence because he was currently facing mere allegations.

Samkange said Kadungure is on remand over a US$5 million case and could not flee a case involving US$58 665.

But the State opposed the application, saying Kadungure could interfere with investigations in South Africa as he always travels to that country.

But Samukange said the Bentley company, where his client bought the car at the centre of controversy, was an international company and the State must provide the names of people who he must not communicate with.

Samukange said there was no basis to deny his client bail as the accused voluntarily went to the police station despite knowing the charge. Mberewere will deliver his ruling today.
The complainant is the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) represented by Lovemore Chigwanda.

Allegations are that sometime in 2019, the accused went to LSM Distributors, trading as Bentley Johannesburg and bought a Bentley for R3 281 784.

When he arrived at the Beitbridge Border Post, Zimbabwe side, Ginimbi allegedly connived with his agent Alexander Gumbo and forged the vehicle’s value to read R1,9 million.

They allegedly scanned the forged documents before uploading them on the Zimra Asycuda system for duty processing on December 22 last year.

Zimra then acted upon the misrepresentation to charge duty amounting to US$81 000 instead of $139 665, leading to an actual prejudice of $58 665.

George Manokore appeared for the State.

BY Richard Muponde

A 62-YEAR-OLD Chipinge granny allegedly stole 12 head of cattle belonging to another villager and kept them for a month at her homestead.

This came to light at the initial appearance before Chipinge provincial magistrate, Poterai Gwezhira of Eunice Dziyani of Chichichi village under Chief Mutema.

She pleaded not guilty to stocktheft and was remanded to February 15 for trial.

Dziyani is out of custody on $500 bail. She is being represented by lawyer, Tariro Tazvitya.

The accused denied stealing the cattle, claiming they belonged to her and had lost them in 2009.

“They are my cattle. I didn’t steal the complainant’s cattle. They belong to me. I lost them in 2009 when they were still seven and recovered them in 2017 in the grazing area,” she said.

Prosecutor Gift Bikita told the court that on an unknown date, but in July 2017, the complainant Silas Matangi from Samutsa village released his 12 cattle to a grazing land in the woods of Highlands Wattle Company and left them unattended.

After some days, he went to collect them, but found them missing.

He searched for them in nearby villages, but could not find them and did not report the matter to the police since he suspected that they had strayed.

A month later, he saw them at Matute Business Centre and he sent his employee to collect them.

When his employee was driving off the cattle, he was confronted by Dziyani’s children who asked him where he was taking the cattle.

He advised them that they belonged to his employer.

Dziyani’s children went and advised their mother about the issue and she in turn approached her church pastor about the issue.

He allegedly advised her to solve the matter without involving the police.

However, she went and confronted Matangi demanding the cattle, arguing that they belonged to her and had lost them in 2009.

Matangi then reported the matter to the police, leading to Dziyani’s arrest.

guest column:Ray Hartley & Greg Mills

In a landmark court ruling, Malawi’s constitutional court has nullified the presidential election of May 21 2019, and ruled that the poll’s supposed winner, Peter Mutharika, was ”unduly” elected. The ruling throws a harsh light on foreign election observers, who praised the election and understated its weaknesses.

The unanimous decision by all five judges of Malawi’s apex court ordered that fresh elections be held within 150 days, and has finally drawn a line in the sand as a growing number of southern African leaders have come to power in dodgy elections.

Justice Healey Potani, who delivered the judgment, said: “We hold that first respondent (Peter Mutharika) was not duly elected as president of Malawi. As a result, we hereby order nullification of the elections. We further order that a fresh election be held in accordance with the law and pursuant to directions we will make.”

Opposition candidates Saulos Chilima and Lazarus Chakwera, who brought the case amid widespread claims of abuse, were finally vindicated.

In an interview shortly after the ruling, Chakwera said: ‘We saw justice. Malawi is again a democracy.”

And Chilima said: “I hope we have sent a nice message on the continent. The fact that we have national constitutions and electoral laws must count for something in the conduct of general elections. Those that are delegated or appointed to discharge the task of overseeing elections derive that authority from the people.”

While the ruling has caused an outburst of celebration among Malawians and underlined the strength and independence of its court system, all eyes are now turning to the hordes of election observers who descended on Malawi and pronounced the election free and fair, except a few mild criticisms.

Chilima does not mince his words: “For international observers, if what they are going to continue to do is election tourism, we should scrap it. It is no better than a cartel protecting each other. But if we want to continue with them, let’s redefine their role. It should not be a tick-the-box exercise.”

Chakwera is equally critical: “We have always had mixed feelings about what observer missions do. They scratch the surface, and yet they think they know what they are doing. Almost like an exercise in futility and all they want to do is maintain the status quo and find excuses for things that are going wrong and are actually pushing the country deeper in the mire. This thing could have been arrested a long time ago. If it had not been for the court, we would have continued without change, and these missions would keep recommending the same things over and over again.”

So numerous and detailed are the court’s findings of irregularities in the counting of votes, reconciliation of ballots and the Malawi Electoral Commission’s failure to adhere to electoral rules, that it boggles the mind that these problems were not picked up and amplified by the election observers.

In a masterpiece of understatement, the court observed that the widespread use of correction fluid on the return ballots was a strong indication that the results were flawed. As were the use of duplicate sheets and the general administrative failure to properly manage the reconciliation of votes.

The European Union’s Election Observation Mission had 83 observers reporting from 342 polling stations in 27 of the 28 districts of Malawi.

Their finding, released on the day of the election, 21 May 2019, makes for astonishing reading. The statement was released under the headline: “Well-managed, inclusive, transparent and competitive elections, but the campaign was marked by tensions and an unlevel playing field.”

The EU went on to state: “The process was largely well organised by the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) and voting on election day was well-managed.”

Perhaps most astonishing of all were the comments of chief observer, Miroslav Poche, who went so far as to say: “Of particular note was the improved integrity of the voter register, a revised and public election calendar and the creation of constituency tally centres.”

Poche refers somewhat dismissively to the counting process, saying: “The tallying of results continues and it is clear that problems with result sheets are causing challenges.”
Equally out of touch was the Commonwealth observer group led by the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki.

Mbeki, heading a group of “12 eminent persons” from across the Commonwealth, heaped praise on the election after votes were cast, saying it had been handled with “professionalism and dedication”.

“It was noted that, for the 2019 elections, and for the first time in its electoral history, Malawi adopted a biometric voter registration process. In addition to collecting voters’ biographical data, their photographs were captured.

“The voter registration process was also tied to the government’s national civil registration process, through which citizens were provided with national ID cards. These innovations enhanced the integrity of the process.”

While “some inconsistencies” in the application of procedures were noted, these were not held to be serious or to challenge the validity of the election.

Both the EU and Commonwealth pronouncements were made after voting, but before tallying had been completed.

Once statements with the adjectives “well-managed, inclusive, transparent and competitive” and “professionalism and dedication” had been issued, the world took its eyes off Malawi, satisfied that except one or two “inconsistencies”, the election was credible and thus legitimate.

The problem is that observer missions with personnel who have other commitments and limited budgets, leave the scene after voting and criticism by the opposition of dodgy counting is dismissed as the whingeing of sore losers.

It takes a court ruling such as that of Malawi’s constitutional judges to demonstrate how shallow and toothless the election observers were. They played their role in conferring legitimacy and then left Malawians to deal with the mess.

Malawi faces a fresh election within 150 days — five months — and there is a golden opportunity for the EU and the Commonwealth to redeem themselves by rethinking how they approach their task of observing.

This time the campaigning and the tallying must be closely watched and the adjectives should be kept in check until it is clear that the entire election process meets the standard needed to produce a legitimate outcome.

This election is likely to be even more hard-fought as Chilima and Chakwera edge closer to forming a coalition.

Chakwera said: “We have been talking about a coalition. We will certainly consider that.”

Chilima was more guarded, saying: “We need to guard against voter apathy as we sign up such alliances, however. If we get a true majority, it will require such a coalition. We need to be more futuristic about the nature of such an alliance, one that focuses on making a contribution, not just being about the individual.”

The signs of such a “super-coalition” may be there with southern politician Atupele Muluzi, son of the former president, meeting before the court judgment with Chakwera to discuss national “peace and unity”.

As the politicians manoeuvre, Malawi remains stuck in the bottom six poorest countries, as it was at independence from Britain in 1964. If they can construct a coalition committed to governance, the opposition could secure a different future for the country than that offered by the Mutharika brothers — the late Bingu and the incumbent president Peter.

While Malawi’s Constitutional Court ruling should be a lesson in humility for observers, and a message to replace political observation with technical monitoring, it remains to be seen whether it is a wake-up call for southern Africa’s opposition movements.

Greg Mills heads the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation. Ray Hartley is research director at the foundation.

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

HARARE football giants Dynamos’ daring bid to snap up Caps United speedy winger Phineas Bamusi seems to be stalling with the player now appearing to be committed to his club.

DeMbare were understood to be closing in on the forward and the speculation reached fever pitch a fortnight ago when the player posted a picture of himself on Facebook during a match against Dynamos last season.

The speculation was further fuelled when the Soccer Star of the Year finalist missed the first days of pre-season training at Caps.

Although Caps rebuffed talk that Bhamusi was joining their rivals, it was understood that negotiations between Dynamos and the player had reached an advanced stage.

Bamusi has since re-joined the rest of the Caps squad in pre-season and was in jovial mood as the team went through their paces under the watchful eyes of coach Darlington Dodo at the National Sports Stadium B Arena this week.

He however, declined to comment on his likely move to DeMbare, preferring to focus on their target of winning the championship this term after missing out last term when they were beaten to the prize by FC Platinum.

“As you can see, we are all focused on training. Everyone is working hard. We are trying to improve from last season. We just hope it will work out,” Bhamusi said. Dynamos though are still hopeful of getting the winger, who still has a one-year contract with Caps.

“It is still work in progress,” a Dynamos official said yesterday when asked how the negotiations have gone so far.

“By the end of this week, it will be clear whether we are winning or not. We have shown interest and he is also willing. We are still hopeful,” the official added.

Dynamos have been one of the busiest teams in the player transfer window after signing eleven players, but are still thin in forward positions following the departure of veteran striker Edward Sadomba who called time on his football career at the end of last season.

Evans Katema, their chief striker who emerged the club’s top goalscorer last season, also left for Zambia a month ago where he linked up with several Zimbabweans who are now playing in that league.

Two other strikers – Nigel Katawa, who was another regular for the team last season, is away in Russia for trials, while Tawanda Macheke has not renewed his contract, which expired at the end of the year, further decimating the club and limiting coach Tonderai Ndiraya’s options in attack.

The Harare giants have brought in several new faces as they seek to win the championship they last won in 2014 under Kalisto Pasuwa.

The Glamour Boys have so far confirmed Partson Jaure, Jeansmith Mutudza, Sylvester Appiah, Byron Madzokere, David Temwanjira, Barnabas Mushunje, Nkosi Mhlanga, Tanaka Chidhobha, Lennox Mutsetse, Tinotenda Chiunye and goalkeeper Tymon Mvula as their new arrivals.

Dynamos finished a distant ninth place on the league table last season with the club leadership claiming they were reconstructing the side.

After bringing in the new signings, the Glamour Boys believe they now have a solid side capable of delivering the stubbornly elusive championship.