SNEAK PEEK :Precious Chida

GOSPEL musician Daniel Mhere — younger brother to Favour hitmaker Mathias — says he believes his third album, Another Level, released recently, will be a game changer for him. The Gweru-based musician, who has three albums to date, says while many fans claim that he rides on his elder brother’s popularity, he has since tried to differentiate his music from Mathias’ despite having started off together. NewsDay (ND) Life & Style reporter Precious Chida caught up with Mhere (DM) who opened up about his music journey. Below are excerpts from the interview:

ND: Tell us briefly how your music journey started?

DM: I started music long back, but I only started recording in 2014. I take music as inborn because I remember joining the school choir when I was in Grade 3.

ND: What inspires your music and how do you come up with songs?

DM: Most of the time I just observe what is happening in life and come up with a song, whether it’s a good or bad situation. I come up with a song from those circumstances.
ND: How has Another Level been received?

DM: The title track is the one that fans are loving most. I featured a number of gospel artistes on the album who include my brother, Mathias, Obert Chari, Bernard Betera and Mpostori Mlambo.

ND: Do you think this album is going to be your breakthrough?

DM: Yes, the response I am getting right now shows light to my breakthrough. A number of friends and fans are in love with the project, so I am sure it will make it.

ND: Has music been profitable enough to financially sustain you?

DM: For now I cannot say my music is giving me enough profit to sustain myself. I am still at the foundation of building the name Daniel. Building the foundation is not an easy thing.

ND: Fans often compare you to Mathias. What differentiates you from him?

DM: Yes, I might try by all means to differentiate myself from him but the fact is we are one. We are from the same family, we grew up together and we are always together, but I am trying by all means to differentiate our music through our producers and most of the songs I do are slow beats while most songs by my brother are fast-paced.

ND: What has been your biggest challenge in music?

DM: Music without sponsors . . . Whatever you want to do, there is need for start-up money, which was a major problem for me. When starting a business, you need someone to give you a hand. Recording needs a lot of money for you to come up with a project, so that is a big challenge. Marketing is a challenge as well. It is now being overtaken by piracy hooligans such that you get nothing from your music despite incuring huge expenses.

ND: What’s your take on Zimbabwean gospel music?

DM: Zimbabwe’s gospel music industry is not that vibrant nowadays because of lack of support. I believe gospel must come first because the Bible says in the beginning there was a word, and the word was with God. I wish the gospel industry was supported as it used to be in the past and we will definitely bounce back to become the best genre in Zimbabwe.

ND: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

DM: In the next five years, I see myself being a music director, having studios and an academy to help those with passion for music.

BY VANESSA GONYE

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) director-general Fulton Mangwanya yesterday called on government to enact legislation to safeguard rangers who face serious threats from armed and dangerous poachers.

He said this at a funeral parlour in Harare where scores of Zimparks officials came to pay their last respects to the two rangers, Chidhumo Mabharani (49) and Timothy Tembo (35), who were found dead on Monday morning after a suspected attack by Zambian poachers they had apprehended on December 31.

“We have a serious problem with those from across the Zambezi River (Zambians). It is quite risky and unfortunate that we end up having such casualties. We want to lobby for a law that allows us to put handcuffs on poachers as well as for other areas in our line of work to avoid a similar occurrence,” he said.

ZimParks board chair, Justice Moses Chinhengo said the duty of the rangers is a difficult one which needs maximum protection for it to be executed well.

“It is not easy to safeguard the country’s wealth. It is sad that poachers are after it and they claim lives of those who protect it. It is a difficult job, they need to be protected,” he said.

Justice Chinhengo urged rangers to continue working while they find ways to resolve issues threatening their service.

“We are really sorry. It’s something that wasn’t planned and it is difficult to accept,” he said while consoling the bereaved families.

ZimParks cluster manager, Sebungwe region, Midwell Kapesa said the loss was too big for the unit because the two were dedicated workers.

“Records will tell that the two were dedicated members. They were working all night on the day they met their fate when they arrested four Zambian nationals and seven locals. It was when they were transporting the Zambian nationals that they lost their lives,” he said.

“They were dedicated to duty and, as ZimParks, we have lost conservation heroes who were dedicated to their job.”

Mabharani left behind two minor children and a wife, while Tembo left behind one child and a wife.

The two will be buried today in Gokwe and Kariba, respectively.

BY BLESSED MHLANGA

FORMER United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Harry Thomas, has warned that high-level corruption in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration might frustrate mobilisation of food aid for the country’s estimated seven million food insecure citizens.

Thomas told American television station PBS that top officials in the Zanu PF government were inflating prices of grain imports and pocketing the proceeds and in the process scaring away international donors offering to help those in need of food aid.

“There is concern that continuing corruption can mean that the people of Zimbabwe could not get the help they need, but we need to hold the government accountable,” he said.

“For example, they have imported wheat from Tanzania, the worldwide prices is about US$240 to US$250 per tonne. They charge US$600 per tonne, so they have inflated the price, so the wealthy and cronies can buy it and sell it at a price double the worldwide price. They are trying to import some from Mozambique, but Mozambique wants to be paid in hard currency and the people are suffering and these are brilliant people.”

Thomas also expressed concern over looting of mineral resources by the country’s well-connected and elite class, while ordinary citizens are wallowing in abject poverty and failing to send their children to school.

“To see people not to have to send their kids to school, to have to walk to work … is heart rendering. (The) people of Zimbabwe deserve better,” he said.

“This is because of massive corruption, mismanagement from many years. The government and leaders of Zimbabwe are only interested in power accumulation and wealth maintenance. It’s unfortunate, it’s man-made, in spite of the drought, but people of Zimbabwe deserve better. It happens when its leaders take all of the money that they earn through selling minerals as they should, gold, platinum. They are a very wealthy country, (but the leaders) put it in their pockets.”

But Information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana dismissed Thomas’s claims, saying government was not sourcing its wheat from Tanzania or Mozambique,.

“We are buying wheat from neither Mozambique nor Tanzania,” Mangwana curtly said, although the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) went on record in June last year saying it had released US$7 million for the procurement of 19 000 tonnes wheat from Mozambique, translating to around $368,42 per tonne.

Local millers buy wheat from the Grain Marketing Board at
$8 000/tonne, which translates to US$533 at the current interbank rate.

Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe chairman Tafadzwa Musarara said he was unaware of wheat imports made by government.

“We don’t know if government is importing wheat. I think they are concentrating on maize, I can only talk about the wheat we are importing using free funds, which we land in the country at US$407 per tonne,” he said.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom said it would continue engaging Mnangagwa’s government on the country’s food aid needs.

“Over the coming weeks, UK in Zimbabwe will be talking to Government of Zimbabwe about its response to the humanitarian situation, targeting those who need the most support,” UK Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson said.

BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE

AFRO-JAZZ crooner Alexio Kawara yesterday said his forthcoming video was designed to be a soundtrack for couples in love and likely to help improve their relationships.

The musician, who came out of hibernation last year following the release of his sixth album, Oyi, said the new track — Unombozviitirei? — would be dropped on January 13.

Kawara told NewsDay Life & Style that his fans would be able to see that the video was done with a high level of creativity lacking in many local productions.

“For this video, we went all out with the wardrobe and make-up as well as the choreography. The concept itself is something that people should look forward to as we tried to make it different from a lot of videos that are seemingly lacking creativity,” he said.

The Shades of Black frontman, who started off as an urban grooves artiste, said Unombozviitirei? had a mature feel with themes of love.

“This song is definitely one of those songs that if you listen to it attentively it should trigger something in people who are in a relationship and hopefully improve it. It is about two people who are stuck together in a relationship even though they wrong each other. I am mostly inspired by the need to transform people’s mindsets,” he said.

The video was produced and directed by Simba Gee and recorded by Cornelius Muponda of Harmony Studios.

Kawara, who has been one of the most consistent musicians since bursting onto the music scene with the group Guest at the turn of the millennium, rose to national stardom with his hit Amai and later released tracks such as chart-toppers Shaina and Tinodanana.

His discography include Usazondisiya (2003), Kumba Kwenyu (2004), Pfimbi Yangu, Kana and Tose (2011).

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

UPON arrival at Heather Chimhoga Orphan Care (HCOC) centre deep in rural Murewa North, one is greeted by modern and state-of-the-art infrastructure at the institution.
Sandwiched by Goromonzi and Shamva districts, the centre has become home to thousands of orphans in the poverty-stricken district, with the majority of beneficiaries having their fees paid while a total of five schools in the area are currently under a school feeding programme.

The centre has been taking care of several child-headed families while water projects have been installed at surrounding schools and health centres.

However, the sweet story of HCOC was born out of tragedy, as the lead person, Chimhoga from Nyamashato and a vendor in the neighbouring South Africa died mysteriously after initiating the idea to rescue children from abject poverty as well as empower orphans, some of whom have since obtained university degrees.

Chimhoga, a member of the Presbyterian Church in South Africa returned home to Nyamashato in Murewa with her white friends who, upon arrival, were shocked to learn that the local primary school was facing closure due to dilapidated infrastructure, according to HCOC chief executive officer Albert Mukondwa. Mukondwa, who has been at the helm of the centre since its formation over a decade ago, said tragedy struck when Chimhoga was found dead at a relative’s house in Harare in 1996 while en-route from South Africa.

“Together with her white friends, Heather brought gifts to the vulnerable members of the society in her rural village and promised that they were going to renovate the dilapidating infrastructure at Nyamashato Primary School,” he said.

“After spending sometime in the rural areas, tragedy struck when Heather was found dead in her room at a relative’s house in Sunningdale. It was sad,” recalled Mukondwa, who was also an environmental technician in the area.

The testimonies about Chimhoga’s charitable works attracted the attention of the United States-based Rotarians, Ralph and Roberta Pipitt who, in 1997, visited Nyamashato and renovated the school that has since become a modern example of learning infrastructure in Murewa district.

The Pipitt family also raised funds for the refurbishment of four more other schools in the area, among them teachers’ houses.

The Rotarians, later led the motion to establish the HCOC in honour of the late philanthropist, a move that gave birth to the centre — a success story in a rural set-up.

Currently, a state-of-the art clinic is being constructed while a thriving Moringa production project will leave many with envy. The centre also has a flourishing chicken rearing project of up to 21 000 birds, with the meat being sold at the organisation’s butchery located in urban Murewa, about 25km away.

Richard Kadyauta, a social worker at HCOC, said their operations have yielded positive results in empowering the orphans.

“The school feeding programme in this area among other endeavours has been of great impact and we are happy about that. The most educated child is the orphan, the most dressed child is an orphan and this has been motivating. We buy uniforms, pay fees for even those who are in boarding schools. Some of the beneficiaries are now graduates and that is refreshing,” he said.

As of December 2019, the centre catered for 234 orphans while a total of 810 including ECDs are on the feeding programme where each beneficiary getting two meals per day — a move that has resulted in the reduction of school dropouts due to hunger. At the schools, the centre established well-equipped kitchens with modern cookers all sourced by the Rotarians. HCOC has so far taken total ownership of 15 child headed families in the area.

At the centre is also a state-of-the-art safe house that will house at least six children with the officials waiting for government to officially register them. The safe house contains a television set, well-equipped kitchen, beautiful bathrooms and three bedrooms with each containing two beds.
Currently, the centre has 32 permanent workers including some who work at the Moringa project while a lot others do come as per contract or volunteers as caregivers in the villages. HCOC is operating in 21 villages.

“As our resource base grows, we are targeting to work in 10 wards that are within our catchment area. We currently need more Moringa processing equipment. We currently have one with the workshop having a capacity to carry four more. We are saying together let’s make the children smile again,” said Mukondwa.

The electric Moringa dryer was purchased at a cost of US$21 000 with the assistance of the Rotary Club of Harare City and has a capacity of drying 1kg of Moringa powder every four hours. The organisation boasts of a four-hectare field of Moringa plants while eight women have since been employed to harvest the medicinal plant.

HCOC also runs a well-stocked clinic at Nyamashato that is manned by professional nurses and has benefitted the whole community.

Beauty Mukondwa, who heads the health department said the completion of the clinic at the centre will see more people benefitting.

“We have a clinic at Nyamashato Primary School that caters for the orphans. However, we have cases where we assist people from the community. We have all the services and a professional medical doctor visits once a month. We also refer patients to bigger institutions like Murewa District Hospital. If the clinic under construction at this centre is complete, it will serve more people if not the whole community,” she said.

The organisation also works with a religious leader Stewart Marufu who conducts home-based visits to the orphans and guides them spiritually. According to Marufu, the spiritual assistance has shaped the behaviour and moral sides of the children in a positive direction.

HCOC centre has become an outstanding feature in rural Murewa, turning a somehow marginalised community into the most-sought-after. From solar-powered water systems at schools, feeding schemes for children and a close health centre, the beneficiaries have indeed their oasis in a desert — thanks to the Rotarians who revived Chimhoga’s dream of making the world a better place.

guest column:Clement Prince Addo

All over the world, the internet has provided extraordinary socioeconomic opportunities to businesses, governments, and individuals. But less developed countries still face numerous obstacles to maximise its potential. The problems range from obsolete infrastructure, the nonavailability, non-accessibility, cost, power fluctuations, policies and regulation.
Many countries on the continent still have bandwidth as low as 64 kilobits. This is in contrast to the 270 000 megabits per second in the US. Data also shows that downloading a 5GB movie took 734 minutes in the Republic of Congo, 788 minutes in Sao Tome, 850 minutes in Ethiopia, 965 minutes in Niger and 1 342 minutes in Equatorial Guinea. Singapore is the fastest, taking about 11 minutes and 8 seconds to download a typical 5GB high-definition movie.

In certain situations, bandwidths for the entire country is less than what is available to an individual residential subscriber in the United States of America.

Similarly, African countries are listed among those with the lowest internet speed yet with the most expensive communication and internet cost in the world.

Africa is on record to have had the fastest growing mobile telecommunication market over the years. But the continent still has the lowest mobile penetration. And developments in Africa’s telecommunications sector happen in cities and urban centres.

Service providers argue that it’s not economically feasible to roll out a network to cover an entire country.

But various advanced technologies are emerging to reduce the cost of internet provision and to increase accessibility. They also offer the possibility of developing communication networks in a way that does less harm to the environment.

The approach is called resource virtualisation, where multiple telecommunication services can be provided by less physical infrastructure.

Since the chunk of the cost transferred to the end-user comes from the cost of power and infrastructural management, this approach can reduce the operational cost, improve accessibility and cut the cost to the end user.

Like every architectural work, telecommunication masts must meet specific constructional requirements, including choice of location and risk analysis.

But unregulated construction is typical in many parts of Africa. Even where regulatory bodies exist, many media and communication masts are sited within very short distances and hilly grounds in big cities.

This is true in Ghana too where in an urban environment it’s possible to see 10 masts within close proximity to one another.

This does not necessarily guarantee quality service. In addition, it poses a severe environmental and physical risk.

Masts are also expensive to put up.

It stands to reason, therefore, that having fewer masts, hence using less energy and doing less damage to the environment would be the optimal way forward.

I have been involved in developing a framework along with other colleagues that can help policymakers demarcate, and zone major cities — or the whole country into zones. Each zone takes only one mast, owned by an infrastructure provider and shared by multiple service providers.

I focused on telecommunications, but the principle can be applied to TV and radio signal towers too.

My proposal involves a three-level architecture that includes a provider who owns and manages the infrastructure.

At the upper level is a Cloud-RAN macro-base station. A provider like the State regulator, can own and manage the data from the base station.

The macro base station is responsible for managing the system’s energy, bandwidth allocation, and flow management, including the handover in intra and inter mast zones.

At the middle level, service providers focus on providing tailored and quality of service to their users. The service providers will not have to spend their resources on managing the infrastructure they only have to deal with how to satisfy users.

The user on the third level has to only deal with the service providers.

This framework will bring an end to uncontrolled mast deployment seen in many African countries.

It would allow for power and bandwidth sharing among multiple service providers and would reduce the need for multiple masts. Traffic would be scheduled over limited masts or access points that reduce the system energy consumption and improve efficiency. The general impact on the environment would also be reduced.

Service providers could then focus on end-users and not on infrastructure.