KAIZER Chiefs goal poacher Khama Billiat sprinted to court this week to ask the law to protect him from his marauding baby mama.

DailySun

Billiat, who is embroiled in an off-the-field drama with a 22-year-old woman, approached the Randburg Magistrates Court this week to obtain an interim protection order against her.

The duo is expected to appear in court on February 27 when the woman should give reasons why the order should not be made permanent.

The young mum, whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of her nine-month-old child, angered the super star when she went to Chiefs headquarters in Naturena yesterday morning and requested to see Billiat.

This happened two days after Sunday Sun ran an article about how she stabbed him on the hand with a screwdriver outside Midrand Police Station a fortnight ago.

According to one of her friends, security guards at the Amakhosi village blocked her from entering the facility.
“They went to the training ground and called him, but he refused to come out,” the friend said.

But the drama did not end at Naturena, because the woman later went to Billiat’s residence in Midrand.

“It’s not easy to get in there. When you arrive at the gate, they have to call him first. If he refuses to grant you entry as a visitor, then security doesn’t allow you to come in,” explained the friend.

According to Billiat’s court papers, the woman should stop calling him, visiting him at his home or work and should also stop talking about him in the media.

Billiat could not be reached for comment while Chiefs spokesperson Vina Maphosa said he was not at the office yesterday when the woman came.

He said: “I don’t have reports. I will find out.”

Asked if he knew anything about the woman in question, he confirmed that he had met her before.

“The lady once came to the Village and just like any other walk-ins, I received her, listened to her query with utmost compassion and gave her advise on the club protocols of dealing with private matters,” Maphosa explained.

The baby mama declined to comment.

REPORTS say our country was set to clear its arrears with Mozambique and South Africa in order to revive a trilateral agreement with the neighbouring countries as part of immediate-term solution to stabilise local power supplies.

By Melissa, Our Reader

There is now light at the end of the tunnel.

However, workers at Zesa Holdings should not spoil our optimism. They should realise that it is no longer business as usual and rise to the occasion.

One gets the feeling that some of them only perform their duties after pocketing bribe money. As an example, I can illustrate this with an observation: There was a huge gum tree at our neighbour’s house in Parktown, Harare which was interfering with power lines. That was early last year.

We literally begged the utility’s workers to temporarily remove the lines so that we could cut the tree without endangering our lives. They finally removed them after some months of begging, but we were surprised when they went away with the lines.

After cutting the tree we notified the workers, hoping that they would come and place the lines back in position to facilitate connections, but they started dilly-dallying, giving contradicting excuses.

So up to now nothing has been done, but strangely enough individuals who claim to have links with our depot continue visiting us saying they can fix the power lines for us, provided we can give them a few US dollars.
We refuse to give in to corruption and hope that one day justice will prevail.

Maybe this is what President Emmerson Mnangagwa referred to when he said Zesa workers have a hand in the rampant vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure, which has cost the country millions of dollars and has led to disruption of efficient power transmission across the country.

CIVIL society and social movements have long been at the centre of pushing back corruption and authoritarian practices. Zimbabwe was no exception in the run-up to the November 2017 coup d’état that ousted the late President Robert Mugabe after four decades of unaccountable rule. This report, based on in-country interviews and focus group discussions, examines the transition that followed the coup to draw broader lessons for how the international community can support, without harming, grassroots non-violent action initiatives in countries undergoing profound political shifts.

By Gladys Kudzaishe Hlatywayo/Charles Mangongera

Zimbabwean lawyers demand justice for people detained in the government’s crackdown on violent protests in January 2019. Zimbabwean lawyers demand justice for people detained in the government’s crackdown on violent protests in January 2019. The November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe that ousted Robert Mugabe was at best a flawed transition. Its complexities included a party-state-military conflation and a change of leadership not concomitant with a change of governance culture.

Non-violent social movements and campaigns played a crucial role in promoting citizen agency immediately before the coup, at a time traditional forms of civil society and the opposition were both weak.

Social movements may appear to dissipate, but can reemerge, reflecting a cycle of ups and downs and boosts of action around trigger events. This pattern began unfolding in early 2019 in Zimbabwe.

External support helped enable Zimbabwe’s transparency, accountability, and good governance (Tagg) actors to push back authoritarianism and achieve incremental democratic gains.

External actor support effectiveness can be improved by enabling local capacities for collective action, providing alternative flexible funding for non-traditional civil society actors, and encouraging context-driven knowledge that promotes locally-grounded strategies and recognises different situational nuances.

The international community should view engagement with Zimbabwe’s government and Tagg movement as mutually inclusive and reinforcing.

International support should be available throughout Zimbabwe’s electoral cycles given that democracy is not restricted to voting. Intensifying grassroots Tagg activities around elections is also fodder for government propaganda efforts portraying civil society organisations as regime change agents.

The newly formed Ideas Party of Democracy will, as part of the preparations for the 2023 elections, soon roll out a programme to seed-fund those who seek to set up small scale business and social projects.

In an interview, IPD leader, Hebert Chamuka said, “Our party has programmes to fulfill its promises and as such we have lined up some funding for projects to assist those who want to set up small businesses such as flea markets, vending stalls, and other small projects.”

Hebert Chamuka

In addition, Chamuka said the IPD will also support rural sports activities for children and women through the provision of resources and facilities.

” Social activities are a critical part of any society and we recognise that, and that is why as part of our programmes, we will support the young and old with facilities to enable them to engage in social activities such as soccer among other things.”

Chamuka said his party will target rural voters and reiterated that his party is independent of other political players.

“We are not going to be part of (The Political Actors Dialogue) Polad platform and we will not join other parties.”

Polad is a grouping of some of the minority political actors that contested in the 2018 harmonised elections.

guest column:Arthur Mutambara

I HAVE seen Press reports about this years’ Ordinary Level and Advanced Level examination results all over the place. I want to congratulate all the students, schools and teachers who excelled. Congratulations!

However, on the Zimsec Advanced Level examination results, there is a slight problem of grade inflation — a pernicious and ruinous national cancer. How do you get one school getting 79 students with 15 points (or more) out of 140 students? This is 56% of the students getting the same top examination outcome. This is shameless grade inflation.

Throughout the country, some schools have such results as 37, 25 or such large numbers of 15-pointers each. While these achievements must be celebrated and the students applauded, there is a problem.

How do you differentiate these multitudes of 15-pointer kids? The very top students (the superstars) are now hidden and buried in the 79, 37 and 25, for example. You cannot tell who they are. How do you get them scholarships or secure places for them into top universities such as Oxford, Harvard or Cambridge when there are a thousand students with 15 points from Zimbabwe? It is meaningless. You probably have to give them another examination to distinguish and differentiate them.

The 2019 Zimsec Advanced Level examination results do not follow a standard normal distribution curve. How do you get 56% of the students from one school getting the same top examination outcome? These results are a disservice to the best and brightest students. In fact, they are a disservice to all the students.

Grade inflation is not a good idea. I have received a lot of requests from these students with 15 points or more from this year’s results, asking for opportunities at top universities across the world. While I congratulate the high achievers and I am excited for them, it is very tough to sell their outstanding results to great institutions outside Zimbabwe, because of the obvious and disgraceful grade inflation. Do you approach Oxford or Harvard with a thousand such 15-pointers from Zimbabwe? It is a joke.

Why do I say this? When you present a thousand students with 15 points from one country (obtained in one sitting) to a university like Oxford or Harvard, it is meaningless because the thousand students are not differentiated. You cannot tell who is in the top 10 or 20 among the thousand outstanding students. You put the top university in an invidious situation. They cannot admit them, and yet some of the thousand students would definitely qualify to study in these top and globally competitive programmes. However, you do not know who they are. You might have to give the thousand students another examination to rank them. This is the challenge that is presented by grade inflation.

Zimsec must sort out this mess.

For sure, getting 35 points or 25 points is an indicator of differentiation. However, the standard Advanced Level examination is three subjects. So, attaining 15 points from three subjects (3As) becomes the ultimate and uniform measure of the highest excellence. Yes, you can say the 35- pointer has differentiated himself or herself. Agreed. However, taking more than three subjects is not the standard format of the Advanced Level examination. Very few students do that. And when they do not take more than three subjects, that act/choice must not count against them in terms of excellence.

Now, how about the thousand with three As (who only took three subjects) each? Are they all equal? How do top universities choose the best among these thousand students? How do you differentiate these thousand students? Surely some of them are superstars who qualify to enter Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or Stanford. But we cannot tell who they are from the thousand. This is the challenge presented by grade inflation that I am flagging.

Globally grade inflation is a well-known concept. There have been cases in African countries (eg Nigeria), the United States, and Europe. In the high school sector, the UK has been effectively grappling with it by having several private examination boards that compete, thus shaming and minimising the occurrence of this scourge.

In analysing the Zimsec outcomes, it is clear that certainly, our children are not getting too smart. That is not the issue. The problems are the standard of the examination, the marking systems and grading thereafter. It is a Zimsec problem. Those who took Cambridge Advanced Level examinations in 2019 do not have this grade inflation problem.

Our challenge is that we have one national (incompetently State-run) examination body. We need to rethink, reimagine and re-invent Zimsec. They must understand the meaning and impact of grade inflation. In the UK, as already indicated, there have several privately-run examination bodies that compete and thus mitigates and manages the occurrence of grade inflation.

By the way, once they are admitted into top global universities, students from our great country, generally distinguish themselves. With the tremendous and world-renowned Zimbabwean work ethic and drive, they usually take care of business. Sometimes, getting into these top schools is now the problem, and not performance once admitted. I sit on the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee. Getting the scholarship does not guarantee you a place at Oxford University. There is a separate application process into Oxford.

About five years ago, one of our two Rhodes Scholarship choices: A First Class Degree in Computer Science from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) could not get a place at Oxford University! They asked the selected Rhodes scholar to spend a year at the lower-ranked Brookes University (next door to Oxford) for a year, and prove himself first, then apply again to the University of Oxford.Of course, the young man was shuttered and humiliated. But he braved it, spent the year at Brookes, and eventually gained entrance into Oxford. He is now a proud Oxonian. But can you imagine the ordeal and psychological trauma that the young man had to go through? Was it necessary?

Now, do you know why the University of Oxford did this to our Rhodes scholar? Because UZ gave a Phd to former First Lady Grace Mugabe after three months. Oxford basically discounted the young man’s First Class to a Third!

These are the things we do to undermine our superstar students! We ought to stop. We must protect the brand, opportunities and possibilities for all our students, the country’s future human capital, starting from primary school, through high school right up to tertiary education. Sorting out the mess at Zimsec — the disgraceful and shameful grade inflation – is a national imperative.

Arthur Mutambara is Zimbabwe’s former Deputy Prime Minister and an Oxford University graduate

guest column:Emmanuel Zvada

HR in the age of disruptions needs to play the role of agile leaders with a digital and business mindset, helping their organisations stay ahead of the technological curve. Smart technologies are not just changing our homes; they are edging their way disrupting the workplaces.

I thank IPMZ (Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe) for pioneering Digital HR Transformation last week, it was really long overdue in the Zimbabwean HR fraternity as it has the potential to improve productivity, efficiency and accuracy across organisations both private and public.

What is artificial intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technology used to do a task that requires some level of intelligence to accomplish. In other words, they are tools trained to do what a human can do. AI is different from ordinary software’s because it has high-speed computation, a huge amount of quality data and advanced algorithms. AI technologies offer significant opportunities to improve HR functions, such as self-service transactions, recruiting and talent acquisition, payroll, reporting, access policies and procedures. Human resources executives have faith that merging AI into HR administration functions will benefit and improve the overall employee experience.

Artificial intelligence and HRM

AI is reinventing human resources in a way not seen before by automating the repetitive task of hiring, onboarding, learning, and development, allowing HR teams to focus more on creative and strategic work. AI is being used in HR to automate repetitive, low-value tasks thus increasing the focus on more strategic work. Many fear that the rise of AI will lead to machines and robots replacing human workers and view this progression in technology as a threat rather than a tool to better ourselves. Let me clear all the fears and resistance of AI by enlightening all HR practitioners that you are not been replaced but HR processes, system and practices are just being reinvented.

Why artificial intelligence
Adopting a workplace artificial intelligence leads to more automatic processing for tasks that a company works through each day. It is crucial to note that the beauty of AI in the workplace is that the same amount of work that can be done in a day or two days by employees with the aid of AI it can be done in hours. This means productivity and efficiency is enhanced. Using AI in the workplace is also easier than many thinks. Artificial intelligence in the workplace allows a company and its employees to reach maximum efficiency levels, leaving more time for projects and networking.

Eliminate repetitive, manual processes with automation
AI automates processes eliminating repetitive, manual processes replacing them with automation. Think about how much time is wasted on repetitive processes that could be performed via automation. By automating many of the physical and redundant processes performed by your workforce, you can allocate more time, resources, and brainpower to larger endeavour’s like sales strategy and customer satisfaction.

Save time especially use of chatbots
A chatbot is a service, powered by pre-programmed rules and sometimes, that you interact through a chat interface. Chatbots have actually been around for years, but they have had a recent renaissance with the rise of artificial intelligence. These easy-to-use tools are incredibly useful in the workplace since they allow for instant communication, ergo faster decision-making.

AI chatbots become smarter over time and learn better answers to frequently asked questions, freeing up time for management to focus on more strategic tasks. These virtual robots are effective and bridge the communication gap between employees and management and make internal information easily accessible.

Artificial intelligence improves employee’s productivity.

The main objective of the organisation is to earn maximum profit by utilising minimum manpower. Through the technical improvements and automation software, multiple tasks in the office are achieved effortlessly and the work of the employees become much simpler. The advancement of technology works as an important tool but at the same time, increases complexity at the workplace. Not only does AI increase productivity, it also improves overall quality. With any job, human-error is always a factor, whereas AI software is less likely to malfunction. It also enables deeper personalisation by understanding what customers want over time, resulting in better quality products and services.

Reducing human bias in decision making
Humans are normally biased in whatever choices or decision they making. Even when striving for inclusiveness, HR professionals may subconsciously lean toward a particular candidate, for example in recruitment. Now, with artificial intelligence, algorithms can be designed to help employers identify and remove these biases. That potentially translates to better hiring communication and attracting a more diverse group of candidates. Those same algorithms can also find candidates who may have been screened out due to human bias.

Artificial intelligent makes HR more human
Embracing of artificial intelligence and machine learning applications in human capital management is the only way that HR practitioners can become more human at workplaces. The automation of tasks through AI technology allows for the freeing of HR professionals to focus on uniquely human abilities such as critical thinking, creativity, and empathy. While they are involved with the more human tasks, technology, at the moment, can handle the more ordinary tasks.

Besides being adaptable, flexible and agile to the ongoing changes, HR has to prepare for the innovations that are yet to occur and the development that might define the future of work. This is where a strong knowledge of current trends and the potential they come with will come in handy.

The HR department is probably the most promising field to put AI to use as they are the first line in dealing with the “human” component of their business. AI could serve as a great ally to them at each stage, right from sourcing talent, shortlisting applicants and performance assessment, making it a key tool in HR management. The journey for HR to pace up with the age of disruption starts from knowing the employees, the business, the environment the business operates in, applying analytics and data science, and then framing relevant strategies which will be then executed using new age technologies as per the requirement of business. Thus, in the age of disruptions, the first thing HR needs to disrupt is themselves.

If organisations wish to remain competitive in today’s global economy, they need to look at ways to incorporate conversational AI for HR transactions in their decision-making processes.

Organisations should rely on AI to perform administrative duties so that HR departments may become more efficient, by so doing HR professionals will be able to focus more on strategic planning at an organisational level.

guest column:Everson Mushava

Last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa penned an opinion reflecting on his two-year rule since taking over from his long-time ally and mentor turned foe, the late former President Robert Mugabe in a coup in November 2017.

For many people not living the realities of hyperinflation, a collapsed health sector and deepening human rights violations that have characterised the past two years, the opinion piece showcased a man on an unrelenting mission to change Zimbabwe for the better.

Key was Mnangagwa’s claim that his rule marked a complete break from Mugabe’s ruinous and autocratic leadership. He said under the so-called new dispensation, the people of Zimbabwe have been given their voices.

Sweet, only if it were true. According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, 21 people have been arrested for insulting or undermining the authority of the President during Mnangagwa’s two-year rule.

Since January last year, about 22 people have been arrested on subversion laws, apart from the over 20 abducted during the same period that was marked by the first ever internet shutdown in Zimbabwe, making Mnangagwa and Mugabe birds of the same feather.

At least 23 people died after Mnangagwa deployed the military to deal with dissent, six of them dying in August in 2018 in post-election protests crackdown, and 17 more during protests over fuel price hikes in January last year.

Mnangagwa’s failure disappointed many of his faithfuls who never anticipated his failure on the economic and political fronts. Even those who had never budgeted for his failure were shocked by the speed with which he proved them wrong.

Democracy is measured by rule of law, not rule by law. Based on his promise, Mnangagwa’s task was to align over 400 pieces of laws to the 2013 Constitution. But progress on that front has been moving at a snail’s pace, with the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act still on the Zimbabwe statutes. The Maintenance of Peace and Order Act (Mopa) signed by Mnangagwa last year is even more draconian than the colonial Law and Order Maintenance Act (Loma). Mnangagwa’s façade of reformist is breaking like pieces of Chinaware, exposing a President who is selfish, rapacious and keen to consolidate power at all cost.

Reform — Mnangagwa’s thorn-littered path
“I commit to you that we will continue to reform with an eye on the long term; for we must not reform only for ourselves, but for our children and our children’s children,” Mnangagwa said last month. Contrasting Mnangagwa’s promises against action proves the Zanu PF leader is full of rhetoric, but pathetically short on action.

An array of reasons could be militating against his resolve towards reform, although he could be willing to do so.

Important to note is the way Mnangagwa ascended to power which often presents the biggest precursor to his failure to reform.

Mnangagwa took over power through a coup and existing literature suggests most governments consummated from coups are themselves a threat to democracy. Coup in a dictatorial regime is likely to convey a democratic changeover, particularly in those States that are least expected to democratise the conventional way. But the situation on the ground shows that coups only oust dictators to impose new ones, increasing human rights violations and instability.

Studies suggest that coups cannot bring about a complete democratic transformation, but rather, marginal guarantees of certain rights temporarily to be suppressed when it becomes necessary for the new incumbent to maintain power when subsequently challenged. Such has been the case with Zimbabwe. The vast number of democratic failures in Africa is due to coups, and Zimbabwe has joined the bandwagon. The coup in Zimbabwe was more about self-preservation, than it was about the people. The coup changed the leaders and not the political game plan as University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Eldred Masunungure has observed.

Mnangagwa was thrust in to become a civilian face of the coup and has struggled to balance political stakes in Zimbabwe’s triangular power matrix pitting the military, die-hard party supporters and the people who marched to support his take over from Mugabe.

He can’t reform without stepping on the toes of his biggest stakeholders, particularly the military. In fact, Mnangagwa is a step child, if he washes, he is wasting soap and water, and if he doesn’t wash, he is labelled dirty. He stands at the centre of a political precipice. He knows what needs to be done, as exhibited by his rhetoric, but is doing the opposite because of his compromised position.

The international community, moderates in his Zanu PF party and the people who marched in solidarity with him want reforms; the army and the hardliners in the party are anti-reform, but power consolidation. The military feel more entitled because they engineered Mnangagwa’s rise, and for Zanu PF to step on their toes in the name of reform would be suicidal. There will be grave consequences. Some people might want to argue that Mnangagwa is now his own man after last year’s elections. The way he rose to power will never make him independent from the military. It will remain a thorn in his flesh. Furthermore, Mnangagwa’s administration still has relics of the old regime that are not susceptible to change. Most of the changes by the Zanu PF leader are towards consolidation of power, not democratic transition for fear of reforming himself out of power.

On the other hand, Mnangagwa doesn’t seem to be enjoying a lot of support from his party and the bureaucracy, making reforms difficult. After the January 2019 bloody protests, his politics has shifted from the reform agenda to power consolidation “at all cost.”

Another factor working against reform is Mnangagwa’s type of governance lacks an ideological underpinning. Unlike Mugabe’s days when the world was aware that he stood for black consciousness and empowerment, that has not been the case with Mnangagwa.

It is easy to hazard that party members who support him support the person, not ideology, because none exits. His lack of clear ideological path has even put his Zanu PF supporters into a quagmire. They don’t know what to defend.

The lack of a clear ideological inclination seems to have brought in more confusion in Zanu PF than ever before, unless it is a form of strategic incoherence. Summing up Mnangagwa’s dilemma, foe and ex-Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo last week tweeted: “The ideology of varakashi is Mnangagwa, and their policies are Mnangagwa, whose only objective is that 2030 anenge achipo. The varakashi phenomenon is just a whole lot of bull expletive.”

Ideological deficiency has also put Mnangagwa at an international relations crossroad. When he got into power, he was keen to engage everyone, including the west, a move that seemed to have ruffled the Chinese that had stood with Zimbabwe or decades, vetoing several United Nations resolutions that could have brought grievous consequences on Zimbabwe.

After efforts to be readmitted into the Commonwealth as well as the removal of sanctions hit a snag, Mnangagwa, forced into a default mode, seem to be heading back to the East, with Russia becoming one of his biggest allies than China. This too seem to be unsettling China.

The statement released by Chinese embassy in Harare last year over Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube’s 2020 budget querying figures was nothing short of a manifestation of the Asian economic giant’s frustration with Mnangagwa’s government.

Could it be Mnangagwa is no longer being trusted by anyone? This leaves him constrained on the reforms to make, in fact, on whom to please. Zimbabwe is back to its pariah status and no rescue package is coming her way.

With the country burning economically, with no solution to the economic challenges; Mnangagwa’s government has turned into a police or military state to keep Zanu PF in power, forgetting the promised reforms.

It is clear to conclude that Mnangagwa doesn’t seem to be enjoying his leadership.

He can’t take any further step without hurting himself.