The film industry was last week robbed of a promising actress, Samantha Kapora, who died following a short illness and was buried at Warren Hills cemetery in Harare on Saturday.

BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO

Kapora — who also worked for Zimbabwe Motor Distributors, Toyota and Mr Cruiser — succumbed to a stomach ailment last Thursday.

During her acting career, she featured in Telecel and Zimgold adverts as well as local movies, My First Boyfriend and Tsitsi.

Renowned filmmaker Shem Zemura described Kapora’s death as a loss to the film industry.
“She was a people’s person, full of fun and professional. The little time she dedicated to art, she gave her all, and is visible in productions she featured. She had a bright future in acting. The industry has suffered a great loss,” he said.

“I worked with her on my first project, Highscore, a music video I produced for hip hop artiste Bry360 in 2016.”

Producer of the film, Tsitsi, Billy Kabasa said: “The industry has lost an amazing talent that was destined to make Zimbabwe shine as the hub of African cinema. The future of the film industry has been robbed.

“On Women’s Day we were planning to premiere Tsitsi in which she played the role Aunty Sugar. We are going to edit the film that is going to the censorship board on Tuesday by adding credits in honour to her.”

Kapora’s friend Anesu Chipunza said: “She was a hard working woman who I worked with for five years. She could even hide her pain with a smile. Most of her time was spent selling cars, but she never left acting. When she got chance she utilised it.”

Another filmmaker, Mary Mphande, said she was saddened by Kapora’s death, “which was a great loss to the film industry”.

RISING Beitbridge gospel singer Tinashe Lunga Kurambiwa and his outfit, Voice of Thunder, have been invited to Botswana’s celebrated author and gospel singer Agnes Ntswejakgosi’s triple album launch set for March 28 at Moshupa Community Hall in Gaborone, Botswana.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

In an interview with NewsDay Life &Style, Kurambiwa said it was an honour to get an opportunity to rub shoulders with seasoned regional artistes at such an event.

“This is the beginning of great things in my career. Getting such an invitation to share the stage with talented and veteran regional singers is a great honour in my endeavour to spread the word of God through music,” he said.
“This is our first live show outside Zimbabwe and we promise our best at the event as we represent our beloved country.”

At the concert, Kurambiwa will share the stage with Bishop Michael Gaotloge, Mayoress Mochankana, Lucky Sephiri, Momphi and Keitumetse Ngwato all from Rustenburg, South Africa, Collen Zweni of Cape Town, South Africa, Lucky Sephiri of Botswana and Motivational speaker and president of United Gospel Artistes in South Africa Morake Makhudu, among others.

A member of ZAOGA-Forward in Faith Ministries International in the border town, Kurambiwa realised his music dream last year following the release of his debut eight-track album, Mbiri Kunashe that was produced by Ngoni Gwasira at Ngodza Gee Studios in Harare.

Kurambiwa said despite being in different genres with multi-award winning singer Jah Prayzah, he drew his inspiration from the latter’s artistic abilities and his prowess.

“I am an avid follower of Jah Prayzah and it is his music influence in me that I have embraced to pursue my music journey,” he said.

“It will be a great honour one day if I can get the chance to collaborate with veterans in the industry such as Pastor Charles Charamba. These are the people who can definitely give you direction.”

The sustainable future that we all want cannot be realised if youths are left out from the planning process or when their concerns are not factored into the country’s vision. Strategically situating the youths in the national discourse is paramount since they are there to oversee the full cycle of events because of their age. Therefore, responsible authorities need to nurture innovation and provide spaces for practical learning solutions to the young people if the country is to beat challenges and sustainable development targets.

According to The Brutland Report, sustainable development should meet the needs of the present without compromising the future generations to meet their own needs. In this regard, the youths have critical needs which can be converted into life-skills for livelihood development hence they need not be compromised. It is also significant to situate the youths within the framework of the new knowledge economy so that they can familiarise themselves with simple rural innovations using technology.

As a result of being techno-savvy and ready to communicate risks, the youths can be placed at the heart of sustainable development, transform lives and landscapes as well as enhance environmental security.

The prevailing situation on the ground and developmental paradigms should be able to translate to the youths’ aspirations and desires for a better nation. The youths, through sustainable mentorship, require creative spaces for divergent and versatile thinking around the sustainable development goals and climate action strategies in order to realise climate solutions and resilience.

In order to develop the country’s workforce for the future, it is important to empower the youth and place them on the forefront, rather than placing emphasis on the old and tired minds. Without taking anything from the old people, they should use their maturity and experiences to nurture the youths so that they build their confidence and realise their potential.

Educating the youths on sustainable development issues is paramount, although not all education is sustainable though, but it should be qualitative enough to achieve goals, create milestones and produce goods and services necessary to move the country forward. Youth oriented quality education and designs should solve livelihood problems according to their needs, situations and world-views. There are four pillars necessary to cultivate their standpoints, give them direction, vision, purpose and relevance. In this regard, the youths should be empowered to change lives and situations around them into marketable solutions.

As the youths focus in what is good for them and their designs, elders should only give guidance, material and financial resources without trying to behave as youths themselves. In this view, the definition of what the youth is not only known, but it is in the public domain too. Youths are within the age range of 5 to 35 years, not 45 or 50 years. These age groups are not only necessary to strategically situate and classify the youths, but they are also important in giving them meaning, relevance and vision. In this regard, they can be sufficiently oriented to participate at the heart of sustainable development, including ecological skills, necessary for the youths to explore their creative environmental spaces in order to identify and close institutional and procedural gaps, proactively. The youths also have a future they can imagine for themselves which becomes central and youth-focused to enhance participatory networking and sense of ownership.

The 2030 agenda for sustainable development and its sustainable development goals (SDGs) should have some of its objectives met hence the universal nature of the SDGs should never be taken for granted. These goals are practically oriented and people centred, therefore, they should not be for grandstanding or communication massaging. Indeed, they require sustainable action which the youths should be ready to demonstrate. In this regard, authorities should not be seen using poverty (Goal 1), zero hunger (goal 2), good health and well-being (goal 3), gender (goal 5), clean water and sanitation (goal 6) or climate action (goal 13) and other closely related goals for grandstanding purposes.

Although the sustainable development goals apply to all countries of the world and not just poor countries, there should not be any excuses for not placing emphasis on the livelihoods of developing countries where the youths should play active and empowering roles.

Above all, these universal goals should act as the youth’s local goals and they are the rightful candidates to realise Agenda 2030.

Issues of sustainable land use and inequality of development should be at the core of the youth aspirations. The youths need to use land sustainably to preserve the environment, for agricultural production and food security. Realising the success of SDGs requires collective efforts from all stakeholders which include government, businesses, academia, civil society, the vulnerable and the marginalised which include the youth, women and children. In this view, everyone has a role to perform, hence more emphasis should be placed on the youth because they are the future. As such, information about goals, perspectives and deliberations on how best to navigate the developmental pathways requires inclusive efforts without leaving the youth behind.

Necessary and conducive environments should be realised by the youths in their local communities so that they do not migrate to urban centres or even outside the country looking for greener pastures. Therefore, conditions should be necessary for the youth to come up with their own greener pastures locally that is if they are not locked out of national funding schemes. The youths also need financial resources just as high ranking government officials or those in the private sector with the ability to pay back. Youth cannot be capacitated using the word of mouth and promises, they need real and tangible funding including land to launch their livelihood projects. The opportunities are endless to the youths and with research, a variety of agricultural ventures can be realised. With suitable support, youths can explore opportunities in forestry, small-scale mining, livestock, horticulture, fish farming, tobacco, bee keeping, micro-lending projects and many more. Opportunities in forest regeneration are critical because even during droughts, trees may lose leaves, but they do not die, they will continue to grow. Trees are important for clothing the environment and improve their beauty as well as holding soils together to reduce soil erosion and improving soil fertility through falling leaves and twigs.

Youths can be expert agri-prenuers and through using their experiences of growing up in villages, with their comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the soils, trees, rivers, mountains, birds, vegetation and many others, they can be able to establish a relationship with the environment and connect with nature.

Therefore, training the youths would provide effective ways of creating local community ownership of the SDGs.

 Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on: petrovmoyt@gmail.com

FC Platinum ended their Caf Champions League campaign in an embarrassing fashion after managing just one point in the group stages of the competition to become the team with the worst record in the campaign.

BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA

On Saturday, they were in Tunis, hoping to secure maximum points against Etoile Du Sahel to try and put a better reading to their group table, but true to their form, they lost 2-0, finishing the campaign with just two goals to their name, while they let in 11 and retained the worst goal difference across all the groups.

The Zimbabwe champions were playing in the lucrative group stages for the second time in their history, having taken part in the previous campaign under Norman Mapeza.

It was against this background that expectations were high among football stakeholders for the Zvishavane side to better their record.

However, the assignment proved to be too big for Pure Platinum Play who could only manage a single point after their 1-all draw with Egyptian Giants Al Ahly at Barbourfields Stadium. FC Platinum, now under the guidance of Pieter De Jong, who took over from Lizwe Sweswe, suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to Sudanese side Al Hilal Omdurman in their next match.

In the previous campaign, it was the first time the Zvishavane side were taking part in the group phase stage of the competition and their performance was understandable as they were still learning the ropes in the jungles of African football.

But an improvement was expected this time around, especially considering the resources that the club have at their disposal.

In comparison, Caps United who operate with lesser resources fared better than FC Platinum when they participated in the competition in 2016 under the tutelage of Lloyd Chitembwe.

Caps failed to reach the knockout phase, but they bowed out with dignity after they conjured up two wins to finish with six points, the same as Zamalek.

FC Platinum’s struggles have particularly been in the transfer market where they have failed to bring in the right players for such a high level competition.

To their credit, they have acknowledged their weaknesses and have moved to try and improve the situation by employing De Jongh who will start his own campaign in the next edition that kicks off in August.

For this edition, the former Highlanders coach presided over two matches against Al Ahly and A Hilal which they lost.

He will be going back into the market to shop for better quality after the club lost some of its top players to foreign leagues.

Considering the club only managed two goals from six matches he will look to sharpen his attacking departments ahead of the new campaign.

BY KENNETH NYANGANI

SMALL-SCALE miners in Manicaland province are up in arms against the Mines ministry over double allocation of gold claims which, they say, has led to disputes among miners.

This was revealed on Friday at a Green Governance-organised workshop with small-scale gold miners in Penhalonga where it also emerged that government officials were pushing hapless miners off their gold claims.

Addressing the gathering, Manicaland Miners’ Association chairperson Lovemore Kasha said corruption had reached alarming levels in the Mines ministry.

“We are worried about corruption in the Ministry of Mines. These days it is now worse maybe it is because of the struggling economy. We, of late, witnessed double allocations of gold claims,” he said.
“If you ask why they are doing that, they will say we have given it to brigadier so and so or a senior government official and you are forced into silence.”

Penhalonga Miners’ Association chairperson Tendai Mandonga also castigated the ministry for laxity as they were not educating small-scale miners on safety precautions.

“We are worried about the Ministry of Mines because they are not coming to carry out their duties because, as small-scale miners, we are supposed to be educated on security safety measures because we don’t want to see the loss of lives,” he said
“Yes, we need money, but we don’t want to see the loss of lives in the mining sector. Our Ministry of Mines officials in the province are not teaching us on safety precautions.”

Mandonga added: “There are many boundary disputes in the province. What happens if ministry officials fails to deal with these matters, then people will start to fight, leading to fatalities.”

Green Governance official Trevor James pledged to engage the Mines ministry over the allegations.

“We have noted all your points so our next step is that we are going to engage the ministry over the matter so that we can arrange a meeting with them,” he said. Manicaland provincial mining director Omen Dube mobile’s phone went unanswered when contacted for comment yesterday.

INTERVIEW:Moses Matenga

URBAN local authorities have been accused of failing to provide basic services over the years. Different reasons have been given on the failure, with the ruling Zanu PF party blaming the opposition MDC and vice versa. The MDC controls 28 of the country’s 32 local authorities. NewsDay (ND) Senior Reporter Moses Matenga spoke to shadow deputy minister for local government, Clifford Hlatshwayo, to hear his thoughts.

ND: How do you rate the performance of your local authorities across the country?

CH: We have striven to deliver prudent services under a debilitating national economic meltdown. The MDC has a smart city agenda in all urban local authorities and development and urbanisation of rural areas for the rural communities. These are clear developmental programmes for a better Zimbabwe.

These two programmes are guiding all our work in the several local authorities that we lead, thanks to the voters in the respective local authorities.

In March this year, our president, Nelson Chamisa, will be hosting a smart city summit, where we shall take stock of our successes and sculpt further strategies to enhance service delivery and strengthen some weak ends.

We are pleased with the progress we continue to make in the face of adversities such as a run-down economy and an Executive whose illegitimacy drives them to spurn good governance tenets and constitutional provisions. Central government has displayed an insatiable appetite for destruction and a penchant for interference in this crucial sector.

ND: You have been accused of failure as a party to address basic service delivery issues. How do you defend yourself?

CH: The economy has been bastardised by the illegitimate regime, which has thrown all sanity through the window.

Inflation is runaway, the dollar, or whatever name we give our currency, continues on a downward spiral of exponential value loss against the United States dollar and other currencies.

This has been exacerbated by an inept government. Electricity is scarce in the country while local authorities’ contingent savings have been eroded 20-fold by monetary policy misadventures.

Government has also centralised the procurement of waste chemicals because of the acute shortage of foreign currency. This is the hard reality of our macroeconomic situation and sadly, all the above economic ills disable service delivery.

We bemoan government failure over the past four decades to invest in water harvesting. Our raw water sources are inadequate for the urban population bulge.

The plans for Kunzvi Dam and the Zambezi Water Project remain stuck on the drawing board, while Zanu PF makes sonorous noises about these projects towards every election.

In addition, there has been deliberate strangulation of local authorities’ revenue streams, thereby setting up our councils for failure.

For example, you ask why road user licensing has been taken away from councils. You ask why the EMA [Environmental Management Agency] takes hefty fees from local authorities and you ask why government allocates a paltry 5% of its budget to sub national governments. It’s all choreographed to cause councils to fail.

Further, the abuse by central government of the Local Government Act, which is no longer fit for purpose, is a key ingredient of defunctionalisation of this sector. Local authorities are barred by central government from investing in innovation and reform.

They can’t re-engineer their service delivery models because there is the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, Joint Venture Committee Act and a plethora of other archaic acts standing as hurdles on the way of improved service delivery.

We thank our deployees for a spirit of never say die, the result of which is reasonable services against a background of serious interference.

ND: Your performance in rural councils by-elections has been dismal. Why is that?

CH: The people of Zimbabwe love the MDC. What you are witnessing are not elections. People are being frog-marched and forced to do what they don’t want. Our rural communities are very much vulnerable and exposed to Zanu PF militia tactics.

There is organised rigging and manipulation of all processes. Food aid to vulnerable communities is done on a partisan basis, leading to a captive community in our rural areas. We have witnessed traditional leaders being used as presiding officers, rogue war veterans being used to threaten communities, government property and employees being used, drugs being used to buy votes, just to mention but a few.

Now, in the delimitation process that is coming, gerrymandering has already begun. No normal person in this time and age will soberly vote for Zanu PF.

ND: There have been reports of corruption in MDC-dominated councils. As a party, how have you dealt with corrupt elements in your midst?

CH: Corruption is a scourge that needs to be dealt with ruthlessly whenever and wherever its ugly head pops up.

We are known for our uncompromising attitude toward corruption. As a party we are allergic to avarice and sleaze. This is why each time our elected officials have been found with their hands in the cookie jar, they have been removed from office. We set an example in Chitungwiza in 2010 when we fired a whole council for corruption, the only party ever to do so in this country.

On our part, very soon, we will be launching a hotline for all whistle-blowers on corruption in the councils that we run.

This coming month, we will be holding smart councillors accountability summits per province where our councillors will declare their assets and liabilities. This will be followed by periodic lifestyle checks and assessments.

Our president has established an integrity and accountability unit in his office, led by a renowned lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu. This is meant to sniff out rot in our councils.

Our councils are putting watertight systems to deal with corruption, which has been perpetuated by Zanu PF through space barons in markets and council properties and land barons linked to Zanu PF as revealed by a commission recently.

We will spare nothing in our quest for sustaining councils of high integrity, councils who stay the course to deliver superior services to all. There must be a social contract between the governor and the governed.

ND: Your councils seem to be relating well with the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Isn’t this a show of confusion on your part? Recognising ED as President in council and not recognising his legitimacy in Parliament?

CH: Mnangagwa is as illegitimate today as he has been on November of 2017 when he was foisted onto the people of Zimbabwe through a military coup.

He remains as illegitimate today as he was on August 1 of 2018 when soldiers killed peace-loving Zimbabweans on the streets of Harare.

He remains as illegitimate as he was on January 14 of 2019 when his marauding gangsters pumped live bullets into innocent citizens.

He remains illegitimate in central government as he does in provincial and metropolitan councils, spaces, where he has foisted his people to serve as Provincial Affairs ministers against the principle of devolution.

But as the MDC, we will neither allow nor give Mr Mnanagawa free reign on our zones of autonomy. It will be a travesty of justice to our voters if we were to abandon them and hand them over to a rejected and illegitimate President which they shunned in an election.

ND: Zanu PF has been mentioned as one of the biggest council debtors in Harare. What are your councils doing about that?

CH: The predatory instincts of Zanu PF are legendary. They are a serious pest that sucks its host to death.

This is wrong. They have bred a rotten culture of accumulation and impunity which needs uprooting.

Everyone must pay for services they get. The Zanu PF elite and their companies owe the people’s councils and they simply have to pay. Very soon, councils will start a process of sternly dealing with them so as to recover people’s money for better service delivery.

BY VENERANDA LANGA/ NIZBERT MOYO

WAR veterans have demanded that government creates their own ministry separate from the war collaborators and ex-political detainees, indicating that there should be a difference between freedom fighters and those who were assisting them during the war.

The mujibhas and chimbwindos (war collaborators) on Friday, however, told Parliament that the liberation war would not have been won without them and demanded equal treatment and compensation, saying that their plight had been ignored for too
long.

Outspoken ex-officio member of the war veterans association, Andrew Ndlovu, told NewsDay on Friday on the sidelines of Veterans of the Liberation Struggle 2019 Bill hearings in Bulawayo that the war collaborators and ex-political detainees do not have military training, hence they could not be called freedom fighters.

“We are military persons, while those are civilians who are (late former President Robert) Mugabe’s creation to combine us so that he could gain political mileage,” Ndlovu said.

“Some of these people (war collaborators) were too young during the liberation struggle and were herding cattle. They were not exposed to the risk that we were subjected to. We fought a guerrilla warfare against the National Treaty Organisations (NATO). This was a tough assignment and we did this just for the love of our country, not for money.
“We want that guerilla warfare structure to be maintained with its commanders and be treated as a special constituency.”

He said political detainees were in the country advocating for freedom, but were never in the forefront during the liberation struggle.

Dry Katsande, a representative from the Mujibha Chimbwindo Association during public hearings at Stoddard Hall in Mbare, Harare, said they were never given a chance to attain education, but the war veterans that did attain education were now mocking them and labelling them illiterate.

Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs chairperson Levi Mayihlome said the Bill would, among other issues, eliminate any form of discrimination to military exposure, recommend four categories of liberation war fighters under Zanla and Zipra, non-combatant cadres, war collaborators, and ex-political prisoners and detainees.

“We demand that the Bill should stipulate equal treatment to mujibhas and chimbwindos because without us, the liberation war fighters would not have survived and we played a very important role to support them by carrying food, ammunition, clothes, spying and supplying information to them,” Katsande said.

“During the war, wherever there were bombings of the liberation war fighter, we mujibhas and chimbwindos were also bombed and we suffered in the same manner as the liberation war fighters.”

He demanded paid education for their children, farms, as well as positions to head companies.

“All war veterans must be exempted from paying tollgate fees and other taxes. The term ‘war collaborators’ is also vague and we want it changed in the Bill to ‘liberation war collaborators,” Katsande said.

But war veterans felt that when it comes to compensation, the Bill must state seniority of the different war veteran’s groupings.

Hoyini Bhila, the Harare province chairperson of the War Veterans Association, criticised lack of mentioning of seniority of war veterans in the Bill.

“Seniority must be based on one’s contributions during the liberation struggle and their sacrifices. It is our view that the degree of sacrifice by those who held arms and fought in the liberation war supersedes that of other groups,” he said.

Bhila also said there must be a 20% quota reserved for war veterans in all institutions, including seats in Parliament.

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Cadres Association said the Bill recognises veterans who fought in Mozambique and Zambia and ignores those who fought from Botswana.

Different war veterans criticised lack of implementation of Statutory Instrument 194/205, which stipulated that all categories that participated in the war must be compensated.

BY CHARLES LAITON

A FORMER Delta Beverages sales representative, Togara Chikonzo, has taken his ex-employer to the High Court seeking an order compelling the bottling company to pay him compensation for his 5 000 shares and to deliver to him 74 drinkage vouchers.

Through his lawyers Hungwe and Partners Legal Practitioners, Chikonzo recently filed a court application accusing Delta Beverages of failing to comply with a court order which compelled it to pay him after terminating his employment contract in 2013.

“I hold 5 000 shares in respondent’s (Delta Beverages) company under employee share empowerment scheme of 2008. The shares were allocated to me as a then employee of respondent,” Chikonzo said.

“Upon termination of the contract of employment with respondent, it did not settle the value of my shares in monetary terms. I have ascertained the value at the time of making this application to be $17 700 … despite demand, both verbal and written, respondent has failed, neglected, refused or failed to settle my 5 000 shares in the sum of
$17 700.”

Chikonzo also said upon termination of his contract, he agreed with his former employer through their lawyers that Delta Beverages would give him 74 drinkage vouchers and the agreement was recorded by Labour Court judge Justice Godfrey Musariri, who handled his labour matter.

In his founding affidavit accompanying the court application, Chikonzo quoted Justice Musariri as having said: “I record herein that the parties’ attorney agreed that respondent shall deliver to applicant (Chikonzo) drinks worth 74 vouchers. Accordingly, the item was dropped from the calculations.”

Chikonzo, however, insisted that the vouchers in the current case are claimable as a matter of agreement (contract) which was made between legal practitioners representing him and his former employer and, as such, it was still binding and enforceable.

The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.