President Xi Jinping’s top diplomat and Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi has arrived in the country on an assignment by the Asian country’s leader, seen as a special show of strong commitment by Beijing to grow relations with Harare in 2020.

Mr Wang arrived at the Robert Mugabe International Airport last night in what was his final stop-over on a five-nation mission that has seen him hold high-level meetings in Egypt, Djibouti, Eritrea and Burundi.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo welcomes the Chinese Foreign Affairs minister Wang Yi at Robert Gabriel Mugabe Interbnational Airport in Harare yesterday.-Picture: Tawanda Mudimu
In the past 30 years, China has made it a tradition for its foreign minister to visit African countries as the first overseas destination of the year, to show how Beijing values its relations with the continent.

That President Xi chose Zimbabwe as one of the five African countries for the annual visit underscores how he places a premium to his engagements with President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe and China in 2018 elevated relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships from All-Weather Friends and Minister Wang’s visit is expected to see practical implementation of this enhancement of ties on the diplomatic as well as economic front.

China is the biggest investor of infrastructure projects currently underway in Zimbabwe and it is expected that the visit will also give fresh stimulus to mega projects such as the US$1,1 billion Hwange 7 and 8 power expansion project, the US$100 million New Parliament building in Mt Hampden and the US$153 million Robert Mugabe International Airport facelift, among other projects.

Speaking ahead of the visit last week, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Dr Sibusiso Moyo said Zimbabwe was honoured by Minister Wang’s high-level deputation.

“Yes, indeed the People’s Republic of China Foreign Affairs Minister and State Counsellor is visiting Zimbabwe from the 11th to the 13th,” he said,

“Zimbabwe is the last lap of his five-nation journey in Africa. This is in tradition with Chinese visits at the beginning of each year.

“This is a very important visit because it is from a very friendly nation to Zimbabwe. It is a nation that has contributed very much to the development of Zimbabwe and where it is today.”

Dr Moyo said the visit by Minister Wang underlines how President Xi is keen to follow up on engagement that he had with President Mnangagwa when the two Heads of State met twice in China in 2018.

“We believe that we are honoured to have the State Counsellor coming to Zimbabwe as a follow-up to issues that were discussed between President Mnangagwa and President Xi twice, during his State visit to China and during FOCAC.”

The visit, Dr Moyo said, will see the two countries conducting comprehensive deliberations under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships theme.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Sibusiso Moyo welcomes the Chinese Foreign Affairs minister Wang Yi at Robert Gabriel Mugabe Interbnational Airport in Harare yesterday.-Picture: Tawanda Mudimu
Minister Wang’s visit will also present Zimbabwe with an opportunity to formulate strategies to expand trade with China, which is the world’s second largest economy.

“We believe that we are going to have in-depth discussions on our Strategic Comprehensive Partnership and also ensure that we cement the political relations that exist between the two countries.

“Furthermore, we will explore more ways of how China can enhance and support economic development of Zimbabwe.

“In this regard, we are also going to have a discourse in the trade area framework so that we can improve the trade figures between China and Zimbabwe.

“Already, trade has reached the US$1 billion mark and we hope that within the context of the 7 to 14 export strategy, we should be able to enhance our exports to China in a very competitive manner

“We are going to be appreciating that industry, mining, agriculture, tourism and all the other key sectors will come up to speed so that we can be able to utilise the huge market being offered by China.”

In a statement, China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Mr Geng Shuang said Mr Wang’s visit to Africa was also in line with the 20th anniversary of the inception of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

According to Mr Geng, the Chinese Foreign Minister will seek to, “… implement the important consensus reached by President Xi Jinping and African leaders and jointly follow through on the outcomes of the (last) FOCAC Beijing Summit with a view to advancing China-Africa BRI cooperation, building on China-Africa traditional friendship and moving forward the bilateral ties between China and relevant African countries as well as China-Africa relations as a whole.”

At the last FOCAC Summit held in Beijing in 2018, President Xi extended an unconditional US$60 billion in loans and aid to Africa until 2021.

The money includes US$15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, US$20 billion in credit lines and a US$10 billion special fund for development financing.

Chinese companies were also encouraged to invest at least US$10 billion in Africa over the next three years.

Deliberations will also touch on China’s signature foreign policy initiative, the Belt Road Initiative (BRI), in which the Asian Giant plans to invest US$750 billion in countries’ under the old Silk Road route and import US$24 trillion of goods into China.

This year, Zimbabwe and China will also be celebrating 40 years of diplomatic relations and a series of events are going to be held throughout the year in line with the anniversary.

Gabriel Banda

BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA

MAZOWE — Taking sips of opaque beer, Gabriel Banda (37) enjoys an intermittent break from digging a new pit a stone’s throw away.

Visibly deep in thought, the gold panner sits on a rock at the summit of a mountain adjacent to the decommissioned Jumbo Mine.

From that vantage point, one can see hordes of young men clothed in reddish-brown dust, torches strapped on their foreheads and some carrying equally dirty bags.

Dusk is fast approaching and Mazowe’s mountainous Jumbo Mine community is a hive of activity as the youthful population hastens to wrap up another scorching day of hard work.

Many are headed home before the sun sets.

“When it gets dark, it becomes scary because gang members usually come on the ground to restock their food and other necessities and if they bump into you milling around, they can capture and rob you,” explains Banda, who came here over four months ago.

Before coming to Mazowe, the father of three from Mvurwi, 62km north west of here, spent years as a chrome miner in the Great Dyke before the mine closed down.

Despite over a decade’s experience in extracting minerals, he said the ruthlessness he has seen exhibited by machete gangs, known to this community as Mabhudhi (big brothers) or the cliché title MaShurugwi, has shaken him to the core.

They commit callous murders even in broad daylight without even pondering about it — perhaps the way one would slaughter a chicken.

“We have decided to dig for the gold belt from this hill near residential areas, where prospects of danger are minimal because working from inside the big mine is more dangerous. The Mabhudhi are harming people with Colombian knives (other name for machetes),” Banda claimed.

These machete gangs’ reign of terror has made artisanal mining in this gold-rich district a very risky enterprise.

“One can spend days working inside Jumbo Mine, but if gangs bump into you, they can take away your ore, torches and other belongings; that is if they decide to leave you alive or do not decide to detain and make you mine more for them,” he said.

It is estimated that there are thousands of unlicensed miners working there every day in a partially descending maze of surface levels that stretch for kilometres underground.

The mere decision to get in is a dice with death and those more cautious about their lives restrict themselves to levels closer to the ground, despite the prospects of reaping greater rewards further down the rickety shafts.

A few days ago, Banda recalls, one unlucky miner nicknamed Dhigo met his fate in cold blood after hitting the jackpot underground.

“They stabbed him, took his stones and, just like that, he was gone,” he said in a distraught tone.

An unclaimed corpse is all that is left to decompose in what has become the norm for those who breathe their last inside the canals of Jumbo Mine.

While falling stones still claim lives, many are said to be victims of increasing gang turf wars. The gangs are usually groups of 15 or more armed men ready to snuff out the life in anyone who dared cross their path.

Shockingly, apart from days of sporadic crackdowns, as is currently the case, law enforcers in the area are said to care less.

“Security is always there, but they do not go underground no matter the circumstances,” says a local miner, who only identified himself as Wonder.

“They only deal with issues on top of the ground and they say they were not trained to go underground.”

Wonder also detailed an account of how a US$10 bribe and a meticulous search is all that is needed for one to gain access into the heavily guarded shaft.

What puzzles him, however, after encountering Mabhudhi two times in the past year, is how the criminals get in with dangerous weapons including machetes, spears and knives.

“With that kind of search, it should not be possible to even enter with a razor blade, so where do those big weapons come from?” he quizzed rhetorically.

“There might be corrupt business going on there and perhaps they pay more money.”

If true, this probably makes the police force complicit to a spate of violence that has gripped the entire country of late.

Mashonaland Central police spokesperson Inspector Milton Mundembe, however, rubbished the corruption allegations, stressing that they were intensifying their crackdown on the gangs in Mazowe.

“We are not aware of that (taking of bribes), but perhaps if we could get tip-offs that such crimes are taking place, then arrests will be made,” he said.

Mundembe admitted that arresting the MaShurugwi was no child’s play.

“We are there to eliminate unruly elements, but arresting these armed gangs is not an easy task, so we are increasing our efforts to end the menace forever,” he said.

In December last year, a police officer was bludgeoned to death while his colleague was injured in an attack by the MaShurugwis who had invaded Good Hope Mine in Kadoma, while others were early this week arrested after storming a Gokwe North police base, sparking a bloody confrontation, as they wanted to rescue their arrested colleagues.

Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga had hinted at the possibility of implementing a “shoot-to-kill” policy.

There have also been urgent calls to stiffen the hunt on these criminals by bringing the national army into the fray, but there appears to be reluctance.

Instead, the Mines and Mining Development Parliamentary Committee has set up an inquiry to scrutinise the origins of machete gangs.

“We have discussed this issue and resolved to conduct an inquiry into the matter to identify and trace the foundation and development of the gold panning gang,” the committee chairperson Edward Mukaratigwa was quoted saying.

While reopening of big mines could be a much more sustainable option, it interrogates the current government’s willingness to formalise all mining activities and place a lid on gory gold deals some of them are fingered in.

As more big mines close or scale down in response to a failing economy, artisanal mining now reportedly accounts for over 60% of all the gold delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refineries, the country’s sole legal gold buyer.

Gold panners at Jumbo Mine yearn for protection of their hard-earned livelihoods currently under threat from the marauding machete gangsters.

“All these illegal mining activities you see are a result of high unemployment and if a mine like Jumbo is reopened, it could usher in a much more orderly and safer way of doing things here,” Banda
suggested.

Gabriel Banda

BY KENNEDY NYAVAYA

MAZOWE — Taking sips of opaque beer, Gabriel Banda (37) enjoys an intermittent break from digging a new pit a stone’s throw away.

Visibly deep in thought, the gold panner sits on a rock at the summit of a mountain adjacent to the decommissioned Jumbo Mine.

From that vantage point, one can see hordes of young men clothed in reddish-brown dust, torches strapped on their foreheads and some carrying equally dirty bags.

Dusk is fast approaching and Mazowe’s mountainous Jumbo Mine community is a hive of activity as the youthful population hastens to wrap up another scorching day of hard work.

Many are headed home before the sun sets.

“When it gets dark, it becomes scary because gang members usually come on the ground to restock their food and other necessities and if they bump into you milling around, they can capture and rob you,” explains Banda, who came here over four months ago.

Before coming to Mazowe, the father of three from Mvurwi, 62km north west of here, spent years as a chrome miner in the Great Dyke before the mine closed down.

Despite over a decade’s experience in extracting minerals, he said the ruthlessness he has seen exhibited by machete gangs, known to this community as Mabhudhi (big brothers) or the cliché title MaShurugwi, has shaken him to the core.

They commit callous murders even in broad daylight without even pondering about it — perhaps the way one would slaughter a chicken.

“We have decided to dig for the gold belt from this hill near residential areas, where prospects of danger are minimal because working from inside the big mine is more dangerous. The Mabhudhi are harming people with Colombian knives (other name for machetes),” Banda claimed.

These machete gangs’ reign of terror has made artisanal mining in this gold-rich district a very risky enterprise.

“One can spend days working inside Jumbo Mine, but if gangs bump into you, they can take away your ore, torches and other belongings; that is if they decide to leave you alive or do not decide to detain and make you mine more for them,” he said.

It is estimated that there are thousands of unlicensed miners working there every day in a partially descending maze of surface levels that stretch for kilometres underground.

The mere decision to get in is a dice with death and those more cautious about their lives restrict themselves to levels closer to the ground, despite the prospects of reaping greater rewards further down the rickety shafts.

A few days ago, Banda recalls, one unlucky miner nicknamed Dhigo met his fate in cold blood after hitting the jackpot underground.

“They stabbed him, took his stones and, just like that, he was gone,” he said in a distraught tone.

An unclaimed corpse is all that is left to decompose in what has become the norm for those who breathe their last inside the canals of Jumbo Mine.

While falling stones still claim lives, many are said to be victims of increasing gang turf wars. The gangs are usually groups of 15 or more armed men ready to snuff out the life in anyone who dared cross their path.

Shockingly, apart from days of sporadic crackdowns, as is currently the case, law enforcers in the area are said to care less.

“Security is always there, but they do not go underground no matter the circumstances,” says a local miner, who only identified himself as Wonder.

“They only deal with issues on top of the ground and they say they were not trained to go underground.”

Wonder also detailed an account of how a US$10 bribe and a meticulous search is all that is needed for one to gain access into the heavily guarded shaft.

What puzzles him, however, after encountering Mabhudhi two times in the past year, is how the criminals get in with dangerous weapons including machetes, spears and knives.

“With that kind of search, it should not be possible to even enter with a razor blade, so where do those big weapons come from?” he quizzed rhetorically.

“There might be corrupt business going on there and perhaps they pay more money.”

If true, this probably makes the police force complicit to a spate of violence that has gripped the entire country of late.

Mashonaland Central police spokesperson Inspector Milton Mundembe, however, rubbished the corruption allegations, stressing that they were intensifying their crackdown on the gangs in Mazowe.

“We are not aware of that (taking of bribes), but perhaps if we could get tip-offs that such crimes are taking place, then arrests will be made,” he said.

Mundembe admitted that arresting the MaShurugwi was no child’s play.

“We are there to eliminate unruly elements, but arresting these armed gangs is not an easy task, so we are increasing our efforts to end the menace forever,” he said.

In December last year, a police officer was bludgeoned to death while his colleague was injured in an attack by the MaShurugwis who had invaded Good Hope Mine in Kadoma, while others were early this week arrested after storming a Gokwe North police base, sparking a bloody confrontation, as they wanted to rescue their arrested colleagues.

Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga had hinted at the possibility of implementing a “shoot-to-kill” policy.

There have also been urgent calls to stiffen the hunt on these criminals by bringing the national army into the fray, but there appears to be reluctance.

Instead, the Mines and Mining Development Parliamentary Committee has set up an inquiry to scrutinise the origins of machete gangs.

“We have discussed this issue and resolved to conduct an inquiry into the matter to identify and trace the foundation and development of the gold panning gang,” the committee chairperson Edward Mukaratigwa was quoted saying.

While reopening of big mines could be a much more sustainable option, it interrogates the current government’s willingness to formalise all mining activities and place a lid on gory gold deals some of them are fingered in.

As more big mines close or scale down in response to a failing economy, artisanal mining now reportedly accounts for over 60% of all the gold delivered to Fidelity Printers and Refineries, the country’s sole legal gold buyer.

Gold panners at Jumbo Mine yearn for protection of their hard-earned livelihoods currently under threat from the marauding machete gangsters.

“All these illegal mining activities you see are a result of high unemployment and if a mine like Jumbo is reopened, it could usher in a much more orderly and safer way of doing things here,” Banda
suggested.

With China’s help, a new city is taking shape on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, as Beijing deepens its influence in Africa.

A US$140 million six-storey parliament building being constructed on Mount Hampden, about 18km northwest of Harare, is the linchpin of a move by the southern African country to ease congestion in the crowded capital.

Sitting on the top of a hill, the imposing circular complex being erected by China’s Shanghai Construction Group is fully paid by Beijing, which regards the gesture as a donation.

The 33 000 square metres complex will replace the current 100-seat, colonial-era building which Zimbabwean officials consider too small for the country’s 350 legislators.

Besides the Parliament, the Zimbabwean government also plans to relocate some of its administrative units, including its judiciary and executive branches, to the site, where a state house and official residences for the speaker of the House of Assembly and president of the Senate also will be built.

The new city will also become home to the country’s reserve bank, upmarket suburbs, hotels and shopping malls.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made three visits to the site since its groundbreaking last year. During his latest visit on November 27, Mnangagwa expressed appreciation to China for the donation.

Zhao Baogang, the Chinese deputy ambassador to Zimbabwe, said the project was “a symbol of the friendship between China and Zimbabwe”.

“The building is important in the decolonisation of Zimbabwe,” he said. It is expected to be completed by March 2021.

Paying for the construction of grandiose symbols of the state, such as presidential palaces and parliamentary buildings, through grants or interest-free loans, has been one of Beijing’s major diplomatic strategies on the continent.

When China first started establishing diplomatic relations with Africa between the 1950s and 1970s, it used offers of financial help and interest-free loans and sent over medical teams to endear itself to African countries.

In return, those nations helped Beijing secure a seat on the United Nations Security Council in 1971. Until then the seat had been occupied by the Republic of China government seated in Taiwan.

But it was the construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (Tazara), Beijing’s most ambitious and expensive project, that did the most to boost China’s political capital on the continent.

The railway, which was built between 1970 and 1975 for US$500 million via an interest-free loan to be repaid over 30 years, necessitated the deployment of 25 000 Chinese workers. Once completed, the line stretched almost 1 870km from Dar es Salaam Port to the Zambian town of Kapiri Mposhi, where the country’s coal mines are situated.

Beijing has since funded several projects, including soccer stadiums, in nations such as Cameroon, Mozambique, Malawi, Ghana, Angola and Zambia. It has also paid for parliamentary buildings in the Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. Further, China has gifted presidential palaces to countries such as Togo, Sudan, Burundi and Guinea-Bissau.

The trend has picked up recently with Beijing bankrolling the building of the US$200 million African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Also, last year, Beijing said it would fund the building of the new headquarters for the Economic Community of West African States in Abuja, Nigeria, for US$31,6 million.

Meanwhile, China is building a US$58 million parliamentary complex in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and rebuilding the burnt parliament in Gabon.

Two weeks ago, Zambia announced that China has agreed to fund construction of a new international conference centre that will be used to host the African Union Heads of State Summit in 2022.

During the 2018 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to extend US$60 billion in financing to Africa over three years.

That will include US$15 billion in grants, interest-free loans and concessional loans, US$20 billion in credit lines, the setting up of a US$10 billion special fund for development financing and a US$5 billion special fund for financing imports from Africa.

China is the continent’s largest bilateral lender, pouring billions of dollars into African countries for the building of motorways, dams and railways under the Belt and Road Initiative, the multibillion-dollar plan to link Asian and European economies to a China-centred trading network.

China advanced more than US$143 billion between 2000 and 2017, according to figures from the China Africa Research Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Chinese aid to Africa stood at US$29,4 billion between 2003 and 2017, the figures showed.

Obert Hodzi, an international relations scholar at the University of Liverpool, said these infrastructure “gifts” were meant to show China’s benevolence, its willingness to share its prosperity with other developing countries and its sacrificial giving that has endeared it to African leaders since the Tazara railway.

These gifts, he said, also allowed Beijing to re-emphasise the tangible and much-needed infrastructure benefits it provided to African economies — differentiating it from Western powers that focus on “intangible issues of governance and human rights” widely seen as disruptive by the ruling elites in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
“Currently, the strategy is working,” Hodzi said. “(President Yoweri) Museveni has recently praised the Chinese for not being jealous of Uganda and caring about its development. Beijing also hopes that recipient governments will reciprocate by favouring Chinese businesses.”

David Shinn, an American diplomat and adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, said China’s practice of building, at no charge, the African Union headquarters, regional African organisation headquarters, presidential palaces, military headquarters, public stadiums and political party headquarters was “brilliant public relations and probably buys a great deal of influence with African governments, regional organisations and the general public”.

But he questioned whether African leaders really believed the projects involved no quid pro quo, as Chinese diplomats often claim. If so, they were mistaken, he said.

“African leaders can be excused for taking no interest in Chinese internal issues such as human rights, the treatment of Uygurs in Xinjiang, the situation in Tibet, the building of islands in the South China Sea and the status of Hong Kong,” Shinn said.

“But a surprising number of African governments are supporting China’s position on these policies. That is where the quid pro quo comes into play.”

Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said China built prestige projects internationally.

“They sit alongside the infrastructure projects — roads, railways — for which China is well known,” he said.

“But they are not as expensive. In a way, it is visibility for less outlay. It also gives exposure to Chinese construction firms. For China, it is a win-win situation.”

But critics have questioned the motives behind China’s largesse. Last year, a French newspaper Le Monde claimed Beijing was spying on the African Union (AU), saying it had installed hidden microphones in the building and was taping sensitive information.

Beijing dismissed the report’s “groundless accusations”, while the AU called them “baseless”.

Analysts say China’s efforts to gift imposing projects is part of its broader chequebook diplomacy programme in Africa to win the affection and allegiance of its elite.

Bradley Parks, executive director of AidData, a research lab at the College of William and Mary in the US state of Virginia, said Beijing often plied African leaders with lavish spending on projects, such as stadiums, theatres, museums and parliamentary buildings, that disproportionately benefited urban elites.

Beijing’s purpose was partly to secure African countries’ support for its policy positions such as its opposition to the South China Sea arbitration process at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and its adherence to a “one-China” policy on Taiwan, he said.

Parks was part of a team that recently published an AidData paper showing that Chinese aid was used either to buy African governments’ support for its foreign policy or as a reward for them providing it.

“Across the continent, we find that there is a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship between Chinese aid provision and voting with China in the UN General Assembly (UNGA),” he said.

“To give you a sense of the magnitude of this effect, our statistical model indicates that a 10% increase in UNGA voting similarity with China yields an 86% increase in Chinese aid, on average,” he said.

As an example, he said, the model predicted that if Rwanda moved from its 67% level of voting alignment with China in the UN General Assembly to Egypt’s level — 93%, the maximum level of UN voting alignment with China in their Africa sample — it would see a 289% increase in aid from China.

Conversely, if Egypt’s 93% level of voting alignment with China in the UN General Assembly fell to Equatorial Guinea’s level (65%), “our statistical model predicts that Egypt would see an 87% reduction in aid from China”, Parks said.

— South China Morning Post

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

SCHOOLS have received a blank cheque to increase school fees according to market forces despite government’s earlier moves to block “unjustified fees hikes”.

Acting Primary and Secondary Education minister Amon Murwira yesterday confirmed the development, saying only tuition would remain unchanged.

He said levies could be increased in line with market forces, only after at least 20% of the parents vote to approve the increase.

“The issue that I talked about is no tuition fee increases. Boarding fees, food
fees are subject to market forces. Therefore, that one will be charged reasonably,” Murwira said.
“They have been given guidelines on how to proceed with boarding fees. What we are talking about here are tuition fees and that there will be no tuition fee increases in our public schools.”
This came a week after President Emmerson Mnangagwa warned school authorities against hiking fees without government approval.
Schools collect levies, which are controlled by School Development Committees (SDC), and most government schools charge $10 per term as tuition, which is managed by headmasters.

Murwira said government had allocated $8 billion to the ministry, which would be used to finance procurement of stationery, owing to a shortfall that will be created after blocking tuition increases.

“We must also know that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has a budget of $8 billion. The tuition fees are going to move towards helping this, but they are not a complete solution to it,” he said.

“Government is investing a lot to move towards free basic education as per the Constitution, so that’s why the ministry is given such a budget. It is important to note that public schools are not only funded from tuition, they are funded (by) the taxpayer.”

Government has been failing to fund schools over the past years and even owes a number of institutions a lot of money in unpaid Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) fees.

Treasury has also been accused of failing to pay fees for war veterans’ children.
Murwira said this mistake would be corrected starting this year.

“We have allocations from Treasury for that. If there have been no speedy releases in the past, we are talking about the future here,” he said.
On private schools charging fees in foreign currency directly or indirectly, Murwira said: “Government has also learnt that some private schools are charging directly or indirectly in forex. Responsible authorities of such schools are warned that they risk deregistration of such schools,” he said.

Government teachers have threatened to down tools and not show up next Tuesday when schools open over a salary wrangle with their employer, but Murwira ducked the question saying he was spurred by hope.
“We are obviously concerned, but the reason I wake up every day and work is because I have hope. At this point, we are not talking about that because it’s in the hands of the Public Service Commission. We are talking about school fees at the moment,” he said.

ACCORDING to a very brief, but incisive synopsis on the web-based free content encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, in 1950 a Zimbabwean philanthropist by the name Jairos Jiri set up an organisation in his name in the City of Bulawayo. The association he formed was meant to support and train disadvantaged people mainly people living with disabilities (PWDs).

NewsDay Comment

“Jairos Jiri, using Christian principles, wanted to help individuals who previously had been marginalised and rejected. Initially the association supported arts endeavours and training and set up craft outlets selling tourist souvenirs, such as carvings, paintings, tiles and furniture. In the 1970s legal representation and affiliate support groups were founded in the United Kindgom. Jairos Jiri Association now houses the disadvantaged, support music and dance groups, and is a powerful advocacy for those who would otherwise have no voice in Zimbabwe,” writes Wikipedia.

However, 70 years down the line, Jiri’s legacy largely lies in tatters with every institution set up in his name facing collapse due to neglect and obviously poor management and lack of appreciation of what the visionary philanthropist bequeathed nation Zimbabwe. When Jiri died in 1982 he left behind 16 centres across the country catering for the disadvantaged, especially PWDs. But today the man Jairos Jiri must be turning in his grave as those institutions, which were all developing into self-sustaining organisations through income-generating projects, are turning into empty shells with the latest being Jairos Jiri Masvingo which closed down a few weeks back due to lack of water.

While the prevailing harsh economic situation in the country has obviously not spared the institutions Jiri bestowed to the country, it is, however, sad that centres which had stood the test of time are being run down to the point that they can no longer sustain themselves. All Jairos Jiri Masvingo centre needed was adequate and constant supply of water to sustain its agricultural programme. And given the food situation in the country with enough supply of water it is difficult to even imagine how the centre could not have managed to flourish through growing and selling farm produce or even rearing livestock.

It is quite disturbing that when asked about the centre’s predicament, Jairos Jiri Association national director Wilson Ruvere initially said all was well at the centre before admitting that the institution had shut down. Trying to hide the truth tells a lot about what could be happening at Jairos Jiri because if the association is still operating along Christian principles then all those working there, especially the directors, must be honest people who are never evasive. In fact, Ruvere should have been the first one to contact the Press or beam an appeal via the media after problems visited Jairos Jiri Masvingo. But alas he and his colleagues just shut their mouths and even tried to lie that everything was fine when it was not.

What has happened to Jairos Jiri Masvingo could just be a tip of the iceberg to what is taking place at one of Zimbabwe’s biggest privately-owned institutions that has for 70 years done sterling work, looking after PWDs. There could be more happening to Jairos Jiri’s legacy which is escaping public scrutiny and it would be quite sad if one day we wake up to hear that the association is no more. And predictably, those who will be in charge when the institution collapses will blame donor fatigue. But some of us will always remember that most of the institutions Jiri left behind were almost self-sustaining. Many of us will also remember that those running Jairos Jiri after the death of its founder have been acting dubiously and at one time in 2010 sought to evict Jiri’s window, Betty, from a house in Bulawayo’s Nguboyeja. It took the late former President Robert Mugabe’s intervention to stop the eviction. We also know that Jiri’s son fought those who were left running the association. So it would be prudent for those running Jairos Jiri Association to pose a little and go back to basic founding principles of the association if it is to last a little longer.

The Bulawayo City Council is looking at other options of destroying mosquito-breeding spaces in the city after abandoning the idea of hiring a forking machine for US$15 000.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

The matter came up during a full council meeting on Wednesday.

Town clerk Christopher Dube said hiring a forking machine would bleed the already cash-strapped local authority.

“In our budget, we had proposed hiring a forking machine to get rid of the adult mosquitoes, but now that the economy is facing challenges, we will not do so. The last time we hired one it (cost us) US$15 000. What about now? I am sure it costs more than that,” he said.

Health services director Edwin Sibanda advised that residents must make sure that they also get rid of mosquito -breeding areas in their homes.

“We are doing our utmost best to destroy the breeding sites. As for residents, it’s important that you clean gutters in your homesteads to avoid mosquitoes breeding in those areas,” he said.

Sibanda said some of the areas in the high-density suburbs had been cleared as of last year, but the local authority had run out of some of the chemicals they use.

“The section had continued with streambank clearing exercise and the following streams had been cleared: 975m Bulawayo Spruit, 1 390m along Nketa 9, 3 080m along Emganwini Island, 1 275m along Senzangakhona and 1 435m along Nketa Park Mpopoma streams,” council’s latest minutes read.

“Breeding of mosquitoes had been encountered along the streams. Spotters had continued monitoring streams for mosquito breeding and attending to interdepartmental requisitions. All mosquito control chemicals were out of stock.”

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) needs about US$700 million to rehabilitate three quarters of its road network, mayor Solomon Mguni has said.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

In his New Year’s message, Mguni said the city has a road network of 2 389km with 70% of it in poor condition, requiring urgent rehabilitation.

“Lack of funding has affected the current state of the road network and approximately US$700 million is required to bring the network to good condition. Current funding levels are way below this figure,” Mguni said.

“Despite the challenges of erratic fuel supply, limited road repair materials coupled with constant plant and equipment breakdowns, council made progress in rehabilitating roads.”

Mguni said last year, 2,3km of roads were constructed, while a total of 5,5km of completed sections were awaiting surfacing.

He said resealing was affected by budgetary constraints, while 8,4km of overlays were done on Fort Street, Robert Mugabe Way, Matopos Road, Jason Moyo Street, Samuel Parirenyatwa Street and 8th Avenue.

He said 5,4km of regravelling was done in wards 10, 11, 12, 17, 27 and 29.

In partnership with the community, the city cleared 16,3km of drains, 20,3km of median cleaning and 5 032 square metres of pothole patching, while 26km of road marking was outsourced to private contractors.

“It is our hope that we will be able to meet the funding requirements necessary to bring our road network to a good condition. We will continue to use funds disbursed by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration to attend to the city’s road infrastructure in 2020 and beyond,” Mguni said.

He said the year 2019 presented numerous challenges and obstacles to the optimal implementation of municipal services.

“Most challenges were not unique to the City of Bulawayo and are prescribed by the general macro-economic environment. Unique solutions continue to be explored by the city in order for service delivery to be sustained.”
He said implementation of capital projects as well as maintenance of council infrastructure was affected by the unstable economic environment and pricing regimes.

Other persistent challenges affecting service delivery include inadequate manpower, limited and obsolete plant, equipment and vehicles, erratic fuel and electricity supply and water shortages due to drought.

Mguni said the change in the macro-economic environment negatively impacted on the completion of various projects.
“One of the projects affected was the Basch Street Terminus (Egodini Mall) and phase 1 of the project is now anticipated to be completed either at the end of the first quarter of 2020 or beginning of the second quarter of 2020,” he said.

“The prevailing inflationary environment and increase in interest rates further affected the completion of the transportation hub. Despite the highlighted challenges, there was progress in the project with 90% employment opportunities to local residents.”

Vice-President Kembo Mohadi is still being haunted by the 2008 alleged abductions of opposition activists, with one of the victims, Pieta Kaseke, still pursuing her US$1,2 million compensation claim.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Kaseke, who filed a US$1,2 million claim in July 2009, is still waiting for the determination of her lawsuit which she filed against Mohadi, his then co-Home Affairs minister Giles Mutsekwa, former Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, former State Security minister Didymus Mutasa, former Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, former Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director-general Happyton Bonyongwe, Senior Assistant Commissioners Nyathi and Chiobvu and several other senior police officers.

Kaseke was allegedly abducted on October 31, 2008 in Banket during a period several other MDC-T activists were facing “trumped-up” charges of banditry, sabotage and terrorism.

However, soon after being released from detention following a pact between the late former President Robert Mugabe and the late MDC-T president Morgan Tsvangirai, through a power-sharing agreement, Kaseke petitioned the High Court for compensation and her matter is yet to be finalised.

On July 23, 2019, Kaseke’s lawyers Mbidzo, Muchadehama and Makoni wrote to High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore pursuing the compensation claim.

“We write to advise that the parties have not yet reached a settlement as anticipated. We are advised by the defendant’s (Mohadi and others) legal representatives that the relevant government departments are still in the process of obtaining the necessary approvals in order to finalise the issue,” the lawyers wrote.

“To that end, we kindly request that the matter be set down possibly at the beginning of the next term (end 2019).

That will give the parties more than sufficient time to finalise the negotiations.”

However, at some point towards the end of last year, the matter was set down for hearing, only to be removed from the roll following indications of an out-of-court settlement.

But since then, the matter is still before Justice Mushore and waiting to be set down for hearing.

Kaseke is claiming US$500 000 for unlawful abduction, enforced disappearance, unlawful detention incommunicado, unlawful arrest and unlawful deprivation of liberty.

She is also claiming US$100 000 for assault, US$300 000 for torture, pain, shock, suffering, psychological trauma, contumelia and loss of amenities and US$300 000 for malicious prosecution.

According to court papers, Kaseke was abducted on October 31, 2008 by police officers and instead of being taken back to Banket, she was handed over to CIO agents who subjected her to further unlawful detention and torture.

“Plaintiff was unlawfully detained and thus unlawfully deprived of her liberty by defendants jointly or one or more of them acting in complicity to one another from October 31, 2008 to December 22, 2008 when defendants then conspired as they had been doing all along to detain plaintiff officially at a police station,” Kaseke said.

She later appeared in court charged alongside Concelia Chinanzvavana, Fidelis Chinanzvavana, Fidelis Chiramba, Violet Mupfuranhewe, Colin Mutemagawu, Manuel Chinanzvavana, Audrice Mbudzana and Rodrick Takawira.

TWO senior employees at Defence House appeared before a Harare magistrate yesterday charged with fraud after they allegedly raised fake invoices valued at $306 135 claiming they were for cleaning services, and later converted the money to their own use.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

Peter Muchakadzi (55), a director in the Defence ministry, and Kunofiwa Marvyn Madondo (58), an accountant, appeared before magistrate Francis Mapfumo, who remanded them to January 23 on $5 000 and $3 000 bail, respectively.

As part of their bail conditions, the duo was ordered to surrender their passports with the clerk of court and report three times at Mabelreign and Warren Park Police stations, respectively.

The two were also ordered not to visit Defence House unless with the investigation officer and not to interfere with State witnesses.

The complainant in the matter is Defence permanent secretary Gray Marongwe.

Allegations are that from March to June last year, the accused connived with Danison Muvandi, who is on the run, in misrepresenting that Defence House had received cleaning services from Maids on Wheels (Pvt) Limited when no such services had been rendered.

It is averred that Muchakadzi then fraudulently sourced fake invoices with a total value of $306 135.

Muchakadzi allegedly further fraudulently originated a loose minute dated June 19, 2019 addressed to the director of finance and human resources, Muvandi, the owner and signatory to Maid on Wheels bank accounts, which was supposed to be prepared by the Procurement Management Unit.

Audrey Chogumaira appeared for the State.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe National Army has clarified that Muchakadzi is not a member of the military as had been reported in the Press, but a civilian employed by the Defence ministry.

In a statement, ZNA spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Alphios Makotore also said reports that 30 tonnes of beef disappeared at Mbalabala barracks in Matabeleland South province were not true.