BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE/BRENNA MATENDERE/BLESSED MHLANGA

CIVIL servants’ union leaders are today set to hold a crunch meeting to decide their next course of action should their employer, government, refuse to give in to their demands for United States dollar-benchmarked salaries.

The meeting, convened by the Apex Council, comes at a time most teachers’ unions have declared their members would not report for duty when schools open for the first term next week.
Government workers want their salaries increased to the equivalency of what they used to earn during the US-dollar era.

Apex council spokesperson David Dzatsunga yesterday told NewsDay that
today’s meeting was meant to craft new strategies following government’s reluctance to urgently address their demand for salary adjustments as the local currency continues lose its value.

“We are meeting tomorrow (today) to discuss the way forward and strategies on the looming crisis where the majority of teachers and civil servants in general are chronically incapacitated and cannot afford virtually anything,” Dzatsunga said.

“As unions it is our calling to take the government to task for having created what in essence is a full-blown existential crisis for workers. There is dire need for urgent intervention and we will meet to strategise on how to have that happen sooner rather than later.”

Teachers said they had already resolved not to report for duty on the opening day, January 14, until the government paid them an equivalent of their United States dollar salaries at the prevailing interbank rates.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said they had lost faith in the Apex Council’s efforts to engage government.

“We have already resolved to go on strike on the opening day January 14, we are seeking the government to pay us an equivalent of our US dollars that we used to get at the end of September 2018. We have not asked for a pay increase yet. We will not accept piecemeal solutions. Current solution preferred by the government mean we have to knock at the government’s door every month. Our members will not report for duty from January 14,” Zhou said.

“We will only salute them (Apex Council) if they remain in trenches to demand the restoration of workers’ purchasing power through US$450 to US$550 that workers used to earn before the introduction of new Zimbabwe dollars,” Zhou further said.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure accused government of impoverishing them and negotiating in bad faith.

“Government has always been giving us empty promises through Apex (Council) but our incapacitation will not be resolved by promises but the immediate resolution of the salary crisis. We are only demanding interbank rate salaries, without that we will not report for duty on the schools’ opening day,” Masaraure said.

Speaking during the just-ended PTUZ congress, Zhou alleged there was a covert attempt by Zanu PF to take over the teaching profession.

“Zanu PF is contemplating Hitlarisation and Zanunisation of the teaching profession by demanding that prospective teachers first go through their Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology,” Zhou said.

Chitepo School of Ideology principal Munyaradzi Machacha last year wrote to all Zanu PF provincial chairpersons, requesting them to submit names of trained teachers who were awaiting employment in the public servive.

“You are directed to submit a list of names of all party members who have completed teachers training and are awaiting employment by the Public Service Commission. The list must specify the year each candidate completed teacher training. Chitepo School of Ideology intends to run a Basic Orientation Course for trained teachers,” read the letter.

Zanu PF provincial chairpersons play a key role in the employment of new and temporary teachers and their recommendations are highly considered by civil servants in their respective areas.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

FINANCIAL mismanagement and corruption have left Binga council coffers in the red, an internal 2018 confidential audit report has revealed.
The report forms part of a document presented to Local Government minister July Moyo by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and highlights alleged malpractices by the council under the leadership of chief executive officer Joshua Muzamba.

According to the report, bank transfers amounting to $151 493,36 were not receipted or recorded in the council’s cashbook.

“Transfers or cash should be receipted and subsequently recorded in the cashbook as and when received, hence they risk having revenue which may be unaccounted for and bank reconciliation may not be balanced,” reads the report.

“Creditors including statutory obligations amounting to $438 388,66 were not honoured. Council should continue to make efforts to settle their debts and statutory deductions should be remitted timeously thus the council may face litigations from creditors.”

A council source, who spoke to Southern Eye on condition of anonymity, said the Muzamba-led council had been employing unprofessional individuals.

The audit report said council had no employment policy, a situation that facilitates nepotism, recruiting of under-qualified personnel and is subject to abuse by the CEO.

Council sources said the report showed that there were people who were employed whose documents were not in the RDC database. He also said the report revealed that most of the activities done were not recorded in the books of accounts.

“The audit report reveals that $151 493,36 transferred to the RDC bank account was never receipted or recorded in the cashbook, thereby raising fears of potential abuse of such funds.

Why and for what reasons would such amount of money fail to be entered in the organisation’s financial system? The RDC was said to have been owing creditors about $436 388,66 including statutory obligations such as Paye for the employees,” the source said.

Contacted for comment on Sunday, Muzamba advised Southern Eye to email questions to him. When called for feedback yesterday, Muzamba further asked this paper to email the same questions to his secretary. Further efforts to get a comment from him were fruitless and at the time of going to print he still had not responded to questions sent to him.

BY SILAS NKALA

Bulawayo City Council says it requires at least 70 000 litres of diesel and 40 000 litres of petrol per month to provide effective services amid concerns that the current shortage of fuel was crippling efforts to collect refuse, attend to fire outbreaks and water pipe bursts among other operations.

Town clerk Christopher Dube said the city council had in the past few months been facing challenges in accessing fuel for service delivery.

“The general shortage of fuel in the market, cash flow challenges within council and the inability of council to generate foreign currency which is required by the majority of fuel suppliers in the country have in some instances caused interruption in the delivery of services,” Dube said in a statement.

He said as supplies of fuel improve, services would be restored to optimum levels.

“There are no instances where council has suspended services in totality. The City of Bulawayo remains committed to the provision of quality services to the satisfaction of all stakeholders,” Dube said.

Last month, council announced that its refuse collection service was being crippled by a shortage of fuel. Among the affected areas were Makokoba, Riverside, Sunninghill, Waterford, Selbourne Park and Belmont Industrial Area and council urged residents to keep the uncollected refuse until normal services resumed.

Most service stations in Bulawayo have remained without fuel, causing transport shortages and interruption of services provided by council and other service providers.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

A TOP official at mining concern, Caledonia, says the company plans to commission its US$18 million central shaft expansion project at Blanket Mine in Gwanda during the fourth quarter of this year,.

The project is expected to increase production, reduce operational costs and increase flexibility to undertake further exploration and development, thereby safeguarding and enhancing the mine’s viability.

Following the commissioning of the project, production is expected to jump to 75 000 ounces in 2021 and later increasing to 80 000 ounces in 2022.

“We expect the central shaft to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2020; thereafter, we look forward to further increases in operating cash flow as production increases to the target rate of 80 000 ounces of gold per annum from 2022, as capital expenditure falls further and we begin to realise the operational efficiencies arising from the new shaft,” the company’s chief executive officer Steve Curtis said in a recent statement.

Meanwhile, the company has declared an increased quarterly dividend of US$0,075 on each of its common shares.

“I am pleased to announce a 9,1% increase in the dividend, which reflects our increased confidence in the outlook for our business. As we reported in mid-November 2019 when we published the results for the third quarter of 2019, our financial performance has improved due to increased production and the continued higher gold price. This improvement has continued through the final quarter of 2019,” Curtis said.

“As we approach the end of the five-year investment programme at Blanket Mine, we anticipate the rate of capital expenditure will begin to reduce from the middle of 2020, which gives us greater flexibility to consider deploying some of our cash reserves on an increased dividend.”

He said the board would review Caledonia’s future dividend distributions as appropriate while considering the balance between delivering returns to shareholders, pursuing the significant growth opportunities within Zimbabwe and maintaining a prudent approach to financial management.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed Caledonia has a 49% interest in Blanket Mine.

In November 2018, the company announced that it had signed a legally binding agreement to increase its holding in Blanket to 64%, subject to receipt of, among other things, regulatory approvals.

As at September 30 2019, Caledonia had cash at hand estimated at US$8 million.

In 2019, Blanket had targeted to produce between 50 000 and 53 000 ounces.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

SELF-EXILED former Cabinet minister Walter Mzembi has been appointed interim leader of a new opposition party, the People’s Party.

Mzembi, who left for South Africa in 2018 on the pretext of seeking medical attention before conclusion of his corruption case trial, has since been declared a fugitive from justice.

The party’s interim secretary-general Lloyd Msipa confirmed to NewsDay that the People’s Party had since been registered with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).

He said the party was targeting to end President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule before the next elections in 2023.

“The guardian council which is the highest decision-making body of the People’s Party outside congress has invited Walter Mzembi, the former Foreign Affairs minister, as interim president,” Msipa said, adding that Mzembi would be deputised by former Higher and Tertiary Education deputy Godfrey Gandawa.

“Emmerson Mnangagwa has evidently failed to unite the country and today Zimbabwe is a fragmented and polarised nation more than ever before, with dysfunctional bureaucracy split along factional lines reminiscent of the pro-coup era which is only kept together by institutional fear,” Msipa said.

“The party notified Zec in November last year and they acknowledged the existence of the party on November 6. Prior to this and over a period spanning one-and-a-half years, the visionaries behind this people’s project have been carrying out extensive consultations with Zimbabweans in the diaspora on how to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis going forward after the November 2017 military coup and the controversial 2018 elections which produced a stalemate over legitimacy coupled with the humanitarian crisis and meltdown.”

He said names of other party executives would be unveiled at the launch as some of them were serving in the Mnangagwa administration.

“The rest of the leadership will be unveiled at the launch. We have a 30-member guardian council which is the supreme decision-making body. Our leadership spans across people who currently hold government positions and we would like to protect their identity at the moment,” Msipa said.

“Our leadership mirror the Harare administration man for man and woman for woman. We constitute an alternative government.”

Efforts to contact Mzembi were fruitless, while Gandawa kept referring all questions to do with the party to Msipa.

Mzembi becomes the second former Cabinet minister to launch a political comeback after his counterpart Saviour Kasukuwere recently sent representatives to launch the Tyson Wabantu movement

BY SINDISO DUBE

ORGANISERS of the prestigious Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) have said they are ready to host this year’s edition of the awards following a four-year sabbatical.

The awards received more than a thousand submissions for this year’s ceremony when entries closed on the last day of 2019.

The organisers said the adjudication process is now underway and they will release the list of nominees on January 11, just two weeks before the ceremony, set for January 25.

Themed Celebrating 16 Years of Musical Excellence and Creativity, the ceremony will be held at the Country Club in Newlands, Harare.

Awards spokesperson Benjamin Nyandoro said the four-year break was necessary and they were ready to make it big this year.

“This is one of the biggest awards ceremonies in the country and we have been preparing for it. The time is here to do it big. I believe the four-year sabbatical was necessary because it gave us time to rethink and also interrogate ourselves on how these awards should be done. We asked ourselves pertinent questions and also have set up structures that enable the awards to be held annually without any break,” he said.

Following the announcement of PPC Zimbabwe as the headline sponsor, Zima chief executive Reason Sibanda urged more companies to come on board.

“We are happy and excited to announce our partnership with PPC Zimbabwe as our headline sponsor. This is an important gesture and we encourage other companies to step up and sponsor individual awards,” he said.

The top five awards will be Best Female Artiste of the Year, Best Male Artiste of the Year, Best Group/Duo of the Year, Best Newcomer of the Year and Best Album of the Year.

Other awards will be for Zimdancehall, sungura, Afro pop, Hip hop, contemporary gospel, traditional gospel, RnB & soul, Jazz, Dance (house/gqom/kwaito/edm), tshibilika, and traditional (folk/ezomdabu/imbube) genres.

Technical awards for Producer of the Year, Engineer of the Year, Best Music Video and Best Videographer will also be included.

Special awards will also be given for Best Collaboration, Best DJ (radio/club), Best Promoter, Best International Zimbabwe Artiste and Best Corporate Sponsor.

BY DARLINGTON MWASHITA

MACHETE-WIELDING gold panners in Inyati area in Matabeleland North clashed with the police, leading to one of them being shot dead while five others were arrested on Sunday.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident.

The stubborn gold panners reportedly charged at the armed police officers wielding machetes and axes with the intention of attacking the law enforcement agents deployed to stop rampant illegal mining activities at Acuutes Farm.

The five illegal miners who were arrested were identified as Prince Ngwenya (37) of Silobela, Cosmos Ndlovu (34) of Nkayi, Clever Ntakhana (39), Nhlanhla Ncube (34) and Orderly Nzombane (43) all of Inyati area in Bubi district.

Nyathi said the police recovered an okapi knife from the illegal miner who was shot dead but did not identify the deceased for ethical reasons.

However, sources said the panner who was shot dead was identified as Alpha Mabhena (23) of Mbangwa village in Nkayi.

Nyathi said the owner of the farm where the illegal mining activities were taking place, who was identified only as Tshabangu, made a police report.

He said weapons such as axes, shovels, machetes, iron chisels and knobkerries were also recovered at the scene.

“Police will not tolerate acts of violence especially targeted at those who are on duty and action will be taken against any gangs which are going around attacking people, including those at mines,” Nyathi said.

According to a police memorandum on January 5, a team of eight officers, led by Sergeant Matekenya, was deployed at Acuutes Farm to curb gold panning activities.

“At around 4pm, the illegal miners, who were armed with machetes and axes, started charging towards the armed police officers. Constable Mandindo, who was armed with an FN riffle, fired six warning shots in the air after seeing that the mob was advancing at them,” read the memo.

“The warning shots could not deter the mob as it continued to charge towards the police officers and eventually Mandindo shot Mabhena once on the left shoulder. He was armed with an axe and a knobkerrie and he died on the spot.”

The memo states that police managed to apprehend five other panners.

BETWEEN THE LINES:Phillip Chidavaenzi

Title: Life Will Humble You
Author: Audrey N. Chirenje
Publisher: Royalty Books (2019)
ISBN: 978-1-77929-724-2

AUDREY CHIRENJE is an emerging novelist whose debut literary offering, Life Will Humble You, opens the lid into the private lives of the powerful and wealthy Kondwani family that runs a growing and influential Pentecostal church whose activities attract extensive public interest.

The adage that never judge a book by its cover (not literally) comes out strongly as what people see outside is not always what happens inside. One may argue that the Kondwani family is scandal-ridden — especially as the media is constantly pursuing the dreadlocked son, Riko, whose past life is at variance with what his family represents — but this is indicative of the fact that a ministerial calling does not necessarily place the individual beyond the reach of mortal failings.

With a cast of colourful and diverse characters that are comfortable and at home in their own skins, Chirenje tells a moving story of how Ronda, a young public relations and marketing consultant with McNeil & Sheanesu, is swept off her feet by Riko, an agent for a well-known “bad boy” musician, setting the stage for an enthralling romance that would drag in Riko’s powerful family and some baggage from Ronda’s past.

With his dreadlocks, association with secular musicians, “drama-queen” ex-wife, a hot temper and a child from a past marriage that shattered on the rocks, Riko does not, at first, fit the bill for Ronda’s ideal life partner, especially in the wake of her divorce from a no-good husband who sulked over her perceived inability to give him a child.

Following one encounter with his father, Riko reveals how those who convert to Christianity after a particularly unflattering record of life always struggle to fit in because people connect them to their past and previous misdeeds.

He says: “When was the strife in my life going to end? That discussion with Pops just confirmed that I would always be labelled the prodigal son who went and blew away his father’s fortune before returning dead broke.” (pp77).

The encounter with Riko sets Ronda on a collision course with her belief systems and forces her to reconsider many of her ideals as her love for Riko — “warts” and all — puts her in a place where she commits to work with him on perfecting his character, now that he is a Christian after a long inglorious history of life in the murky waters of the secular world.

Riko is not only a poser to Ronda, but his family as well. The black sheep of an otherwise white flock, Riko’s father, Victor Kondwani, the founder of the mega church, V&V Ministries, has to keep him close and ensure that he continues to tread the straight and narrow path, because just a single misstep will attract the interest of the hawkish Press. It is no mean feat.

Soon enough, matters come to a head when Riko’s ex-wife Nitrah appears on The Grace Talk television show, where she spews falsehoods against Riko and his family.

Riko and his father, however, refuse to take that lying down and demand an opportunity to tell their side of the story. Nitrah is forced to climb down as the powerful Kondwanis set the record straight.

Riko is not perfect, but Chirenje portrays his character in such a way that we love him, and we are dying for Ronda just to accept his ministration, even as his attentions often attract the refrain, “Be gone, Satan!” from Ronda.

That humans do not change overnight is an enduring lesson in the text, and that failure to handle baggage from the past can shipwreck or derail current relationships.

When Nitrah resurfaces in Riko’s life following her return from America, the fact that she wants her daughter to reconnect with her father becomes a ruse to get closer to Riko again.
And all this has to happen under Ronda’s eye.

Written in largely informal language likely to present a challenge to linguists, Chirenje’s writing style violates many formal writing rules, but in a beautiful way, and quickly reminds one of Roderick Simba Mazoyo’s novel, Hupenyu Hauna Formula.

Chirenje writes in a contemporary, innovative style that reflects how we speak and interact in everyday life.

She uses multiple voices and, sometimes, the stream of consciousness to allow different characters to share their views and perspectives on the events unfolding in the story.

Her style confirms the dynamism of language, which continues to evolve with time and place, with otherwise informal words and expressions slowly creeping into official language discourses and staking a claim. That makes this new novel a little more chic and user-friendly for a younger generation of readers.
This is indeed a worthy read!