BY VENERANDA LANGA

ZIMBABWE’s latest Ordinary-Level examination results reveal that the pass rate has been improving over the past five years despite the fact that more than half of the students failed, the local public examinations body has said.

In a statistical analysis for the past five years’ O-Level results, Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) spokesperson Nicky Dhlamini said the pass rates over the past five years had improved from 22, 38% in 2014 to 33,86% in 2019.

While the pass rate graph over the past five years shows a drop in 2017, there, however, has been a cumulative progression in pass rates.

Zimsec said in 2014, the O-Level pass rate stood at 22,38%, in 2015 it was 27,86%, in 2016 it was 29,96, in 2017 it dropped to 28,70%, but it jumped up to 32,83% in 2018 and 33,86% in 2019.

He said there was an upward movement in performance for the 2019 November cohort of 1,03% compared to the 2018 November cohort.

Dhlamini also said the results showed that girls in the country were taking education seriously, with the number of girl candidates in the November Zimsec O-Level examination surpassing that of boys.

“The recorded number of female candidates who sat for the November O-Level examination was 152 389, compared to 144 075 which was the number of boys who sat for the same examinations,” the Zimsec analysis said.

In the November Zimsec A- Level examinations, girls also attained better passes than the boys after 19 877 girls sat for the examination and 89% passed two or more subjects. For males, 22 666 boys sat for the examinations and 84,5% passed two or more subjects.

On the issue of leakages of examination papers, Zimsec said the creation of more cluster centres had helped in securing the question papers which schools collect on a daily basis before the examination is written.

“The majority of school/centre heads have also been instrumental in assisting with the maintenance of integrity systems by alerting Zimsec authorities of any malpractices within the system. The tip-offs anonymous is a platform where the public is able to raise alarm of fraud and malpractice before, during and after the examinations cycle.”

Dhlamini said the platform is toll-free and protects the whistle-blower. He said the whistle-blower remains anonymous which has resulted in more people using the platform to assist Zimsec in curbing the malpractice.

BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO

THE Zimbabwean adaptation of the Vagina Monologues — an Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo production — was recently staged at the Jasen Mphepo Little Theatre in Harare and took the audience on a roller-coaster emotional ride with its no-holds-barred exploration of sexual issues, demystifying the notion that women in menopause do not enjoy sex.

Staged in a very sarcastic way by the quartet of Musawenkosi Sibanda, Sithabile Ndubiwa, Agnes Ncube and Lady Tshawe (pictured), the play questioned claims that older men cheated on their wives because the later no longer enjoyed sex as a result of menopause.

A commissioner with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, Naome Chimbetete — who watched the play — told NewsDay Life & Style that a lot of men with wives on menopause cheated on them out of ignorance.

“They managed to bring out key issues that women battle with regards to sexual reproductive health and rights, but I find that there is a gap when it comes to addressing elderly women’s sexuality, especially those going through menopause,” she said.

“It’s a myth that elderly women no longer want sex, and that their female sexual organs are dry. Consequently, a lot of men start cheating because they think that their spouse’s sex organs are now tired and need rest. Even if they are dry, there are lubricants. We need conversations around this.”

Although the play was criticised by some within the feminist movement in its exploration of consensual and non-consensual sexual experiences, body image, genital mutilation, direct and indirect encounters with reproduction, care, menstrual periods and sex work, one of the participants, Tshawe, defended it.

She argued that it was wrong to conclude that women should just serve their men on the bed when the relationship should be reciprocal.

Play producer Chipo Mawarire said she was pleased by the high turnout.

“Thank you for coming through. It’s amazing to see a full house. Thank you for engaging in a great conversation. We found it befitting because it’s a conversation that was long overdue,” she said.

“It’s time for women to take full ownership of their sexuality. It explains that the female sex organ is not only meant to please men but women as well. We want men to hear our stories, appreciate and respect our sexuality.”

The original play was written by Eve Ensler and premiered in 1996 at HERE Arts Centre, Off Broadway in New York, United States.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

WHEN retired veteran broadcaster Maguire Godzongere was at primary school, his ambition was to become a teacher, a nurse, a policeman or a land development officer.

But a very popular 1974 radio programme, Jarzin Man, which aired every morning on the then Rhodesia Broadcasting Corporation, attracted him to broadcasting, where he was to interview very important personalities, including the late former President Robert Mugabe.

“My first job was in 1973 and I worked for a company called Lewis Construction. I must point out that by coincidence, my first job was located at the then Third Street and Baker Avenue, now Nelson Mandela Avenue. Funny enough, my retirement job at Parliament was also in the same street, Third Street and Nelson Mandela Avenue,” Godzongere said.

After completing his “O” Level studies, his application to join the police force was rejected because he was too short at 1,6m.

“They wanted giants. So in 1974 during my service at Lewis Construction, we were awoken every morning by the Jarzin Man jingle,” he recalled.

“One morning, they flighted vacancies for broadcasters (then referred to as announcers) for Radio Mthwakazi, which was to be established in Bulawayo. I stood out during the auditions due to my fluency in both Shona and Ndebele.”

Born on May 10, 1952 in Makokoba Old Location, Godzongere grew up in West Commonage. He did Sub A to Standard 3 at Mtshede Primary School in Njube high-density suburb.

“I am proud to mention that at that time, my headmaster was the late Josiah Zion Gumede, who was later to become the first black President of Rhodesia (United African National Council).

The late Canaan Banana was the first black President of independent Zimbabwe. By coincidence, Banana was also my principal at Matjinge Central Primary School in Plumtree, where I did Standard 4 to 6,” he said.

He said Gumede was an inspiration as he had married a beautiful nurse, a South African woman, and he also coached them to do drama.

Godzongere recalled the Tshaka Zulu play which Gumede had them stage and a song during the play which spoke about Tshaka’s prophetic words that white men would invade the country.

His high school education was partly at David Livingstone Memorial Mission and Selukwe Chrome Secondary School.

Godzongere boasts having been part of the teams that constructed buildings like Zimnat (then called Bude House in the 1970s) and the Southern Sun Hotel (now Monomotapa Crowne Plaza Hotel) while working at Lewis Construction.

When he joined Radio Mthwakazi in 1974, he met other veteran broadcasters like Harry Nleya, Maplot Jubane, Luke Nkandla, Ferdinand Sibanda, Cephas Chimhanga, Ray Watson Chirisa, Lovemore Chavhunduka, Edward Ndlovu, Clement Maphosa and John Masuku was to join them later.

The veteran female broadcasters at the time, he said, included Julia Shumba, Mavis Moyo and Shiyeka Khumalo.

“I do not know why there were very few females. I went through in-house training because there were no broadcasting colleges, but later acquired a Diploma in Journalism and a Degree in English and Communication,” he said.

Some of the very popular programmes that Godzongere aired on radio were Kwaziso/Ukubingelelana and the music programme Dzandakusarudzirai/Engilikhetele Zona.

Others were Zvinofamba Sei, which looked at prominent Zimbabweans, where he had an opportunity to interview Tizirai Gwata, who later became the first African mayor of Harare and Misheck Sibanda (currently Chief Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet), who was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in the 1980s.

Godzongere’s linguistic skills were demonstrated in a programme called Mumatare/Emthethwandaba, where he boasts that he coined words like nharembozha (cellphone), jengeta chando (for fridge) and gwambisa pfimbi (for a freezer).

“These words that I coined became widely used,” he said.

He said the programme ChiKristu Netsika, which was launched by Benjamin Chipere, taught him a lot. The programme juxtaposed Christianity and traditional African culture.

“There were lots of emotions between staunch Christians and traditionalists,” he said.

Another of his interesting radio programmes was Chakapfukidza Dzimba Matenga, propounded by the late veteran broadcaster Jabulani Mangena.

“Some of the stories on this programme were weird. One day, a lady phoned complaining that her husband was a traditionalist. She said he did not want her to bath until he came back from work. Thereafter, he would check her underwear and sniff them to see if there had been no other bull in the kraal while he was away,” he said.

“When other people phoned in to comment, they accused the woman of administering a love portion on the husband which backfired and resulted in such jealous behaviour from him.”

Other experiences included interviewing a homosexual during the 1980s, which was regarded taboo then.

He said the man had demanded to be aired on a live programme, but due to its sensitivity, it was pre-recorded and edited.

Godzongere said he was also one of the first broadcasters to do HIV and Aids programmes at a time when there were huge knowledge gaps about the condition and some of the infected thought they were just suffering from diarrhoea or had been bewitched.

“This programme also fortified many marriages and we had testimonies from many couples that said they were now living in harmony,” he said.

Godzongere said drama production was one of his strengths after attending training in Germany at Deutsche Welle (DW).

“We relied on Colgate Palmolive funding and groups used to stage dramas on radio. In order to include sounds on radio, I suggested that we improvise. For example, for a sound of a person being beaten up, we clapped hands. For a baby Jesus play, we included sounds of a baby crying,” he said.

After his long stint on radio, Godzongere retired in 2002 when former Information minister Jonathan Moyo ordered retrenchment at the State broadcaster.

“I then went into artisanal mining because I come from Shurugwi, but I am certainly not a machete-wielding MaShurugwi,” he said with a chuckle.

“Mining did not work out. I then joined the Parliament of Zimbabwe in 2006, where I have been working as a public relations officer and interpreter. I left on December 31, 2019.”

Married to Lucia Hamandawana Godzongere, a principal nursing officer at Sally Mugabe Central Hospital, Godzongere is a father of six — five boys and a girl — and has 15 grandchildren.

“Now I spend most of the time playing with my grandchildren,” he said.

His parting shot: “Broadcasters should not let popularity get into their heads or else they will lose their sense of direction. They should bear in mind that fame is temporary.”

VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga’s estranged wife, Marry, who is in custody over charges of allegedly assaulting her house maid, has accused her husband of engineering the allegations after his initial failed attempts to have her locked up for failing to surrender a second passport in the attempted murder charge.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Marry said Chiwenga was using State resources to ensure that she is incarcerated at all costs and even on flimsy charges. Marry said this in her bail appeal application filed at the High Court on Monday this week and the matter is set to be heard today.

Through her lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa Marry said: “She (magistrate Bianca Makwande) also misdirected herself in her failure to consider and take into account that the charges are mere allegations engineered by a disenchanted spouse (Chiwenga) and that the presumption of innocence still operates. She also erred and misdirected herself in equating allegations of common assault to attempted murder.”

“The applicant (Marry)’s husband had attempted to engineer a breach of her bail conditions by pretending she was in possession of a passport which was actually in his possession. The likelihood of his having engineered the assault charge in order to achieve what he failed to do by lying about the passport was a factor the magistrate ought to have taken into account.”

Last Saturday, Marry was remanded in custody by Makwande, who ruled that she had a propensity to commit violent crimes, an assertion dismissed by Mtetwa.

“She (Makwande) also erred and misdirected herself in her conclusion that two alleged incidents arising from circumstances where one spouse is fighting another constitute evidence of “propensity” to commit violent crimes, particularly where no evidence of such propensity was led in respect of incidents unconnected with the acrimonious end of marriage,” Mtetwa said.

In her defence, however, Marry said it was not possible for her to assault the complainant in the matter, one Delight Munyoro, taking into account that she has a swollen hand and also the sitting position of Munyoro who was in her vehicle at the time of the alleged assault.

“She further erred and misdirected herself when she failed to consider and take into account the visible festering wounds and a swollen hand displayed to her making it unlikely that such a swollen hand and arm would have been used to assault the complainant (Delight Munyoro). Any use of such visibly damaged hand and arm would have resulted in more pain for the appellant (Marry) than to the complainant, who is a stout and well-rounded woman,” Mtetwa said.

“She erred and misdirected herself when she failed to take into account the physical difficulties of a backslap on the left cheek using the left hand on a person who was sitting in a motor vehicle whose right cheek would have been nearer to the applicant”.

Mtetwa further said the magistrate failed to consider and take into account the many weaknesses in the State allegations and instead treated the allegations as if they were proven fact in both cases.

“In all of these circumstances, appellant contends that the magistrate’s many misdirections led her to come to the wrong conclusion and that this court set aside her ruling as being based on the wrong bail principles and that the State provided no compelling reasons why she should not have been admitted to bail.”

In her chronological order of events, Marry said on January 28, 2020 she went to collect her children from school following the ruling by the High Court and when she got there, she saw Munyoro sitting in a vehicle in the company of security details from the army and the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Marry said she then asked Munyoro why she had instructed her (Marry) younger children not to speak to their siblings and Munyoro responded that she (Marry) should be grateful and thankful that she was caring for the children as Chiwenga could not look after them.

“Although there was a verbal exchange between them, there was no physical contact as complainant had armed personnel and was also sitting in the car,” Mtetwa said, adding her client was surprised to later learn that she was wanted by the police for questioning on charges of assault.

THE opposition MDC has hired independent auditors after $2 million allegedly vanished from its accounts last year, officials said yesterday.

BY MOSES MATENGA/ Richard Muponde

MDC treasurer-general David Coltart confirmed to NewsDay that a team of independent auditors would start work this week after unconfirmed reports that the money had been abused by unnamed top officials and individuals.

He could, however, not be drawn into confirming or denying the theft reports.

“We are starting an audit today because the party, at my request, has agreed to have an audit. We will have a standard audit and until maybe the audit reveals the irregularities, I am not aware of such,” Coltart said.

“Whether it is $190 000 or $1,9 million, I am not aware of any irregularities. I am not saying they are not there. I am not an auditor and that is why we have an audit. An independent firm will be doing the audit of the MDC books since 2019 and it is the first for the MDC and for any political party. It is the first time a political party has subjected itself to an audit.”

There have been concerns from within the party over allegations of abuse of funds in the opposition which prompted the audit.

MDC sources said there was proof that $1,9 million withdrawn from the MDC had been used for other unintended purposes.

“We are faced with that challenge whereby $1,9 million was stolen and used for other purposes,” the source said.
Last year, the MDC received more than $4 million under the Political Parties Finance Act.
Government released more than $12 million to both the MDC and Zanu PF to share according to the numbers garnered in the 2018 harmonised elections.

This is not the first time the MDC has been in the eye of a storm over alleged abuse of funds.
In 2014, the party split into two distinct camps amid accusations that donors were not happy with how the leadership had used funds.

As a result of alleged lack of accountability in party finances, the insiders said donors had withdrawn financial support to the main opposition following the 2014 allegations leading into a serious financial crisis.
It emerged back then that the party leadership was allegedly spending big on personal projects while the party was failing to pay its workers and fund key party programmes.

Meanwhile, MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa yesterday said he has been encouraged by the Malawian judiciary which exhibited courage in annulling the country’s disputed presidential election and urged Sadc and the African Union (AU) to draw key lessons from Malawi.

The Malawian Constitutional Court on Monday annulled the May 2019 presidential vote that declared Peter Mutharika a winner and ordered a re-run after an application from opposition parties cited irregularities.

Zimbabawe’s main opposition leader is still leaking his wounds after losing an election petition in which he challenged the 2018 election results. The ConCourt upheld the election of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and declared him duly elected.

Chamisa’s spokesperson, Nkululeko Sibanda yesterday said his boss was impressed by the judgment made by the Malawian ConCourt which he said was a lesson to Sadc and the African Union not to rush and endorse elections without fully applying themselves to the situation.

“The president (Chamisa) is very excited and encouraged by the judgment made by the Malawian ConCourt. It’s historic and unprecedented. The Malawian justice system has shown courage in nullifying the presidential election and ordering for a re-run. This shows that the courts are institutionalised and don’t play to the whims of politicians,” said Sibanda

He said Chamisa applauded Malawi’s security forces for their show of character in upholding their country’s Constitution.

“Sadc, AU and Zimbabwe should draw key lessons from Malawi. As for Sadc and the AU the lessons are that they shouldn’t just endorse elections which will later be nullified as they put themselves in an awkward position as is the case in Malawi. Sadc and the AU should be above local systems and institutions and stop delegitimising themselves,” he said.