Jazz musician and publicist Penny Yon believes Jazz music in Zimbabwe made an upswing in the 90s, when the annual Jazz Festival was revived by the late saxophonist Simangaliso Tutani and other stakeholders.  

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Yon said after Tutati’s sad demise in 1995, and urged on by brilliant Zimbabwean jazz pianist Chris Chabuka and other senior musicians of the time, a small group of musicians and jazz-lovers including Sam Mataure, Debbie Paul, Dave Yon, Terence Mapurisana, Francis Mukuzunga, Gavin Rousseau, Comfort Mbofana and herself took up the mantle and went on to stage the ‘Zimbabwe International Jazz Festival’ from 1996-2000.  

“Others joined along the way — Comfort Mbofana also took up the mantle and went on to further annual festivals, and Sam Mataure continued with the Harare Jazz Festival for some years, and the Victoria Falls Jazz Festival which is still on-going.

“Back in the 90s, Zimbabwe was bursting with jazz talent, and in 1996 about 13 bands playing afro and western jazz and school bands were featured at these festivals,” said Yon. 

She said while the exact definition of Jazz is still being argued, the genre is growing and evolving; there’s now funk jazz, rap jazz, acid and all manner of jazz — all pointing to the freedom of expression and improvisation that is the essence of jazz.

“The future of jazz in Zimbabwe, in the hands of the current new crop still growing under the hands of veterans, is rosy in my opinion.  How blessed are fathers like Kelly and Filbert and Mono Mukundu to be able to play with their sons after years of teaching and guiding?  

“Even Dudu and Blessing Muparutsa’s baby boy is now on the drum journey.  How blessed are we to have singers like Dudu and Prudence who are still powerful women of jazz, performing consistently at the highest level while each bringing up four children through the years?”  

Yon said we have gifted and passionate jazz artists teaching music in formal schools; Bernie Bismark, Rute Mbangwa, Carmen Hwarari-Mutengo, Taona Mutengo and others. 

“Several high schools are sporting jazz bands, and the powerful professional music programme by Music Crossroads Zimbabwe runs throughout every year. Exciting new talent is emerging all the time, and audiences growing along with that.”

She said this being the case, it is now for the promoters and venues to match this growth and create an enabling environment for jazz.  

“In Harare jazz is happening and growing.  The next festival by Back to Jazzics is already on the cards for this year in Harare.  The Vic Falls Jazz Festival will go on for sure.  What of Bulawayo and other cities and towns?  

“What of venues for jazz?  While some have failed, others are opening, such as Amakhosi reopening this past week, a great cause for celebration in Bulawayo, and potentially a brilliant venue for jazz.  

“Jazz needs to be taken seriously as a very special community of artists with power to draw audiences across the board, challenge some of the divisions which keep us from unity, and work with other genres to produce music of a world class standard of which Zimbabwe can be proud.”

Yon added that venues need to attend to proper stage lighting, switch off television screens during performances, instruct their staff not to be a distraction, and generally show more respect for the product from which they draw healthy business.  

“It’s kind of missing the point if your star attractions — gifted artists with thousands of hours of learning and experience — are performing in conditions like itinerant buskers in the dim tunnels of a train station, on the way to the toilet.”

Over the years, Yon went from being an avid follower of Zimbabwean jazz, to assisting some of the older musicians who had no means of self-promotion, and later singing with the acapella group Big Sister, and growing from backing vocalist to bassist with the acclaimed afro-jazz band Mhepo.  

She worked closely with Sam Mataure and the ZIJF committee to keep jazz alive, while simultaneously working with Kunzwana Trust and the ngoma buntibe group Simonga in Binga, whose ancient traditional music modern European composers described as ‘closest to free improvised jazz’.  

In 2005, she was engaged by Paul Brickhill of Pamberi Trust to help build the arts development programme at the Book Café, where she worked for 11 years.

Yon remembers bands in the 90s that included Broadway Quartet with Simangaliso Tutani, the brilliant pianist Chabuka, bassist Kuki Tutani, and drummers Jethro Shasha and later Johnny Papas who played at the Manhattan cocktail bar at the then Monomatapa Hotel for several years;  radical guitarist Elisha Jossamu and bassist Chex Tavenga with Two Plus Two at the ‘TK’ Terreskane Hotel (and later the breakaway group 2+2) Timmy Makaya with Body & Soul and later Jabavu at The George Hotel; Luck St Blues with Paul Brickhill (sax) and Dave Ndoro (guitar) at Book Cafe; and many others — the likes of Mbare Trio with the Mbirimi brothers and others; Summer Breeze, Harare Mambos and Harare Drive,  Mhepo with Nigel Samuels, Biddy Partridge and the late Stan Zimi, Bryan Paul with Straight No Chaser, Z-Brass and later Savanna Cruz along with Filbert Marova and Sam Mataure at some point.   

She added: “From the northern suburbs, the best known were Detema Jazz Band with Mike Freeman (guitar), Tony Palmer on keys, the late drummer Peter Salthau, and the Siankope brothers from Binga, Daniel and Louis on trumpet and trombone.  

“These and other groups were featured at the festivals, which grew from strength to strength.”  She said it was about mobilizing the jazz community in the capital, which soon developed to the point of inspiring the establishment of the Mannenberg Jazz Club in Fife Ave in 2000 (by Paul Brickhill, adjacent to Book Café), and Jazz 24 at Eastgate Mall as dedicated jazz venues, at the time.

“In 1997, the Zimbabwe International Jazz Festival committee engaged with jazz musicians in Bulawayo, including trumpeter Paul Lunga with his band Jazz Impacto and The Cool Crooners, together staged the first Bulawayo Jazz Festival (in many years) at Amakhosi Cultural Centre in Bulawayo.

“Somewhere in the 90s also, Prince Edward School received a grant from the Embassy of Japan of music instruments and his wisdom, the headmaster at the time, Clive Barnes, hired professional jazz musicians — Biddy Partridge, Nigel Samuels, Bryan Paul, Marova, Richie Lopes — to teach music and grow the department, which is still strong and producing excellent musicians today under Mapiye,” said Yon.

She added that after the 90s a new wave of jazz artists emerged — Dumi Ngulube, Dudu Manhenga, Blessing Mparutsa and the band Colour Blu, guitarist Jimmy Buzuzi and The Other Four, singer/songwriter Prudence Katomeni-Mbofana, Adrian Muparutsa who went away to study jazz in SA, Blessing Chimanga ex-Prince Edward, singers like Rute Mbangwa, Hope Masike, Eve Kawadza, Patience Musa, Kudzai Sevenzo and Clare Nyakujara  with the support of gifted unsung heroes in the background — Enoch Piroro (bassist with Colour Blu before joining Tuku), the inimitable Nick Nare (keys), guitarist Mono Mukundu, Matthew Ngorima, and so very many more.

“More recently in the last few years we have seen others coming to the fore like jazz singers Buhle, Zeena, David Machaka, Tina Watyoka, and exciting jazz crossovers and collabs by musicians like mbira princess Masike, percussionist Othnell ‘Mangoma’ Moyo, and young guitarist Carlo Tinarwo moving into the jazz and blues arena of late,” said Yon.

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HARARE - There is this story of a prominent yesteryear female radio DJ whose smothering and golden voice swept listeners for years.

A lot of listeners, especially the males fell in love with her velvet voice and she usually held live phone-ins which were so romantic and teasing.

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But there was a paradox because few, if any of her multitude of fans, had seen her live; it was only the voice that massaged them.

It happened that the sister decided to make a little bit of extra money taking advantage of her radio slots’ popularity by holding her own disco shows, booking at popular joints, and emceeing at parties and weddings.

Am sorry to say this but her fans and audiences were taken aback when they saw her live; it wasn’t what they expected because they had put a wrong face to the voice!

I am reminded of this story because of a new development that has caught national radio broadcasting and that is live streaming on social media platforms, especially Facebook, Instagram and twitter periscope.

So today we are able to place the DJ’s voice to the face, hence no surprises.

But a lot then changes to their lives because now they have to be really presentable.

This is forcing them to upgrade their wardrobes and shoe racks! They have to compete with their counterparts on television and even outsmart them.

This new development has been driven by the growth and popularity of social media platforms.

Popular radio personality Kanyemba Bonzo known by the moniker ‘KB’ said trends have shifted and gone are the days of chubby looks.

“Radio is changing and it is now going beyond the desk and the microphone. Social media has made radio more visual which makes dressing a priority.

“There is always an outfit for each event and you should dress the way you want to be addressed. Away from radio, I do emceeing for events such as weddings, album launches and several others. Suits are always the way to go for formal functions and for that go for Bachelors Republic,” he said.

Popular radio and television personality Tich Mataz is one man who knows his stuff in as far as dressing for the occasion is concerned and never disappoints on the big stage.

Speaking to the Daily News on Sunday radio presenter Phathisani Sibanda said radio has transformed over the years and there is need to invest in appearances.

“Nowadays there is Facebook live, Instagram live and people have visuals of us while on air. I’m from the ghetto and represent the ghetto but I dress according to events.

“Radio presenters can also be hired by corporates for emceeing roles and also participate at other events and dressing matters. At times you go for outside broadcasting and you can’t be at people’s events improperly dressed. There is always formal wear and casual wear. I’m dressed by 4 May clothing outlet for my professional outfits,” he said.

The female presenters like ZiFM’s radio presenter Samantha Musa better known as Misred and Star FM’s Kudzai Violet Gwara (KVG) also tread carefully in as far as fashion is concerned and adding refreshing makeup and hairstyles. 

The two are popular with their Instagram live videos while on radio and they are always elegantly dressed.

Misred is popular with her photo shoots which come in designer clothes which again shows her life beyond radio as she is making strides into television. 

Her social media pages are flooded with pictures in nice outfits.

Another radio DJ Owen Madondo better known as Olla 7 said looks complete the puzzle of a radio personality.

“These days away from radio, there is emceeing at formal functions, weddings and other functions and dressing matters. Formal functions need formal wear and for me Bachelors Republic is where I go for that. When it’s an informal event a casual look will be ideal,” he said.

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There’s nothing surprising or fundamentally new about the monetary and currency reforms that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) introduced in the 2019 Monetary Policy Statement. 

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I have restricted my focus to an interpretation of the monetary policy measures, unpacking the rationale and underlying policy objectives of the monetary measures, without looking at the effectiveness or implications of the changes.

I would personally describe the changes in two ways. 

Market actors to unresolved structural imbalances such as foreign currency shortages, low foreign currency reserves and an overvalued exchange rate can see the reforms as an official recognition and formalisation of monetary developments that had already established an existence either as an inadvertent and unforeseen consequence of previous monetary actions or as a “rationale” response.

For instance, I prefer to see the establishment of the interbank foreign exchange (forex) market as the formalisation of the parallel market which came into being in 2016 when the RBZ technically de-dollarised the economy through the introduction of bond notes, supported by a US$200 million nostro facility of Afreximbank. 

The same can be said of devaluation. After two years of adamant resistance, the RBZ has eventually succumbed to a series of speculative attacks on bond notes and RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) balances, and adjusted the peg to US$1:RTGS$2.5 from a parity position as a way to mitigate a structural currency crisis. 

I’ve deliberately used the term “adjusted the peg” instead of liberaliing the exchange rate because it is not a “free float” as officially claimed. 

Neither is it a “dirty float” manipulated from time to time by the monetary authorities to ensure that it fluctuates within a narrow band of pre-determined lower and upper limits. 

If the exchange rate was a free float, devaluation would have been followed immediately afterwards by a depreciation, which would have brought it closer to the parallel market rate of around RTGS3.5 for every dollar, reflecting the country’s low forex reserve position. 

On the contrary, the RTGS dollar has maintained a stable exchange rate in the official market and this reflects all the typical characteristics of a peg. 

Although many people might be surprised by the rather absurd phenomenon of RTGS as a currency, it has been so since 2016 when the RBZ started creating unfunded transferable balances, ie, “nostro” balances not funded by cash US dollars. 

From that point on, RTGS changed from a mode of transaction to a currency in itself. 

In effect, the monetary authorities found RTGS to be a convenient instrument to informally reassert their seignorage power to “print money” and overcome the money supply constraints of dollarisation. 

Through this seignorage power, transferable balances surged to nearly US$10 billion last year from around US$7 billion in 2016. The explosion in transferable balances was mostly a result of imprudent monetary and fiscal policies as well as speculative dealing in the forex black market.

As expected, the plan which initially appeared attractive and expedient soon plunged the monetary authorities into a dilemma. 

Continuing with dollarisation meant they had to find the cash US dollars to fund the balances. Abandoning dollarisation means they had to officially recognise the black forex market and devalue the balances under a new currency regime. 

For obvious reason, the RBZ has opted for the latter option, which is merely a formalisation of a market created and propagated by forex speculative dealers with full public acceptance and participation through a parallel market arrangement.  

Similarly, bond notes, which were purportedly backed to the last cent by the Afreximbank nostro facility at inception, also ceased to be a fiat currency of nostro dollars (USD balances) and became a currency in themselves in 2017 when the RBZ failed to provide cash US dollars on demand due to depleted reserves. 

The only difference between now and 2016 is that RTGS and bond notes are now officially recoginsed as currency. The bond note has changed from a fiat currency of nostro dollars to a fiat currency of RTGS dollars. The USD has also been turned into a fiat currency of the nostro dollars sitting in nostro foreign currency accounts. 

According to this view, the new monetary changes are an “official recognition” of monetary phenomena, which already existed informally or a “shock correction” of unresolved monetary imbalances, which had reached unsustainable levels as the RBZ had not adequately addressed them on October 1, 2018. 

The concept of “shock correction” does not always imply market-induced reform. In our case, it insinuates either a disruptive self-correction of monetary imbalances such as an overvalued exchange rate and unfunded transferable balances or a forced reform in cases where the imbalances had reached where “something’s gotta give”, what we can call the breaking point. 

We can also look at the reforms more as an attempt to address the unintended consequences of monetary measures introduced on October 1, 2018 than a phased implementation of planned monetary reforms. 

For instance, currency reforms had been deferred to three to five years to allow monetary and fiscal authorities to address fundamentals, in this case building reserves to at least three months of import cover. 

The forex black market and its exchange premiums were overlooked. Since it was not considered a macroeconomic threat at the time, inflation was not adequate attention. 

Paradoxically, the three issues have shown wicked tendencies through unintended consequences such as black market exchange rate-based pricing — what can be called “USD price benchmarking”— and informal re-dollarisation, which we can be viewed as “informal currency” reforms. 

Put another way, most of the issues that the monetary and fiscal authorities neglected or overlooked on October 1, have been addressed by the market informally, resulting in “shock reforms”, which effectively undermined the official short-term stabilisation programme.

Speaking during the Daily News Monetary Policy Breakfast Review last week, RBZ governor John Mangudya admitted that the monetary measures have been designed to contend with unintended or unforeseen consequences when “the trajectory changed”.

“We thought we were going to have a better last quarter (of 2018), but it became inflationary,” Mangudya said.  “The trajectory changed.” 

By implication, the current monetary reforms were not originally part of the short-term stabilisation plan and have been tailored to deal with what are generally known as wicked policy problems — challenges that are generally difficult to solve and often trigger unintended consequences.

With roots in the currency crisis, inflation and informal re-dollarisation and large forex spreads between the formal and informal markets have shown wicked tendencies.  Since October 1, 2018, inflation has changed from a monetary to an exchange rate phenomenon. Whereas the separation and “ring-fencing” of bank accounts into “nostro FCA” and “RTGS FCA” was purportedly intended to “support (stabilise) the multi-currency system”, it was widely construed as a technical reintroduction of local currency. 

Convinced that the RBZ had no reserves with which to defend its 1:1 peg, speculators responded with “shock devaluation”. 

In the same way, various market actors also stampeded to hedge themselves against loss of value through USD price benchmarking based on moving black forex market exchange rates.  Thus, any depreciation of the bond note/RTGS balances that occurred in the underground market is being passed through to and reflected in formal sector prices. 

Although the RBZ calls this multiple pricing, the correct term is USD price benchmarking or exchange rate-based pricing, a phenomenon where prices creep in line with movements in the exchange rate. Import-depended sectors such as the pharmaceutical and automotive industries resorted to direct USD pricing. 

Through these developments, hyperinflation has returned while the economy has progressively re-dollarised informally.

Thus, instead of stabilising the multi-currency system, the separation and ring-fencing of bank accounts paradoxically plunged the economy into hyperinflation and deepened the currency crisis through a shock devaluation. 

The current monetary measures can therefore best be described as “fire-fighting”. 

The monetary authorities are trying to build “sandboxes” around all highly inflammable points of the crisis. 

The original plan was to continue with the multi-currency system until they had successfully “stopped the bleeding” in the economy, to use the words of Mthuli Ncube, the minister of Finance. From a fiscal perspective, the original plan was focused on achieving three objectives: narrowing government deficit, reducing government debt and reducing trade deficit. 

In fact, the whole plan was all about fiscal consolidation, dragging government out of debt and stabilising fundamentals by increasing government revenues and expunging its debts. 

The monetary authorities were mostly concerned with building foreign currency reserves in order to support the multi-currency system and pave the way for longer-term currency reforms.

The plan caught fire within weeks and gutted the economy, prompting the current fire-fighting measures.

While the monetary and fiscal authorities have not really abandoned their original plan to defer currency reforms to three to five years and focus on fiscal consolidation in the meantime, they had to find a way to stop informal re-dollarisation and USD price benchmarking. 

The most convenient way has been to recognise RTGS and bond notes as currency and embrace devaluation for two reasons. 

On one hand, they want every economic actor to use RTGS dollars for all domestic transactions, restricting US dollars to a reserve currency. 

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What is not immediately apparent is whether the RTGS dollar is merely a new addition to the multi-currency system or whether the multi-currency system has been completely abolished. 

One the other hand, the monetary authorities want all those selling or looking for foreign currency to use the interbank forex market.  

The devaluation policy has also made it possible to establish a forex interbank market. 

Contrary to belief, both devaluation and the forex interbank market are not equal to liberalisation. 

Rather, the two measures are meant to deal with one of the most adverse consequences of the separation and ring-fencing of bank accounts. Since October 1, 2018, nostro balances have been accumulating in nostro FCAs and remained dormant since the two ring-fenced accounts could not trade with each other. 

In just four months, nostro balances hit US$600 million, which the RBZ had no access to. 

Apart from what it bought from exporters through statutory surrender requirements, the RBZ limited access to foreign currency, leading to critical reserve depletion. 

The monetary authorities had to find a way of opening the nostro balances to forex trade and created a market — the interbank market — in which they are the biggest participant.

The whole idea is buy the bulk of the foreign currency in the interbank market at a controlled exchange rate in addition to what they acquire through revised export surrender requirements, hoping to progressively build reserves through the two instruments.In other words, the design of the monetary reforms has to a larger extent been influenced by unintended consequences of earlier policy actions or issues that were previously glossed over.

Little wonder, currency devaluation and inflation control are now a key part of the revised short-term stabilisation programme, now built around five action areas:

• To stop informal re-dollarisation

• To stabilise prices

• To gain greater access to nostro balances through the interbank market 

• To build reserves in preparation for the introduction or real local currency

• To paralyse the parallel forex market.

In the next article, I will analyse whether the monetary authorities will be able to achieve these policy objectives, pointing out the challenges and suggesting alternative options.

n Mugowo is an economist and researcher. He is currently the Managing Consultant of Ziostats P/L, the thinktank of Ziopra consulting Group. He can be reached at munya.mugowo@gmail.com. Twitter @mugmugo.

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Why is there congestion at our public healthcare institutions? Patients take long hours before they are attended. 

The challenges facing referral hospitals are a direct result of existing economic circumstances. The referral system, user fees and access have put unbearable pressure on the main referral hospitals, which are Parirenyatwa, Harare, Mpilo, Chitungwiza, and United Bulawayo hospitals.

Whether the problem lies with perceived or real inefficiencies or inadequate resource allocations is anyone’s guess but there are structural problems that should not be ignored. Zimbabwe is currently operating within very tight healthcare budgetary constraints and this in general terms affects health delivery.  

Part blame has been shifted to the absence or shortage of enough hospitals at lower levels that ensure central hospitals purely undertake their referral function. 

In the midst of all these conversations this paper attempts to answer the extent to which our current economic circumstances have contributed to pressure at our central referral hospitals like Parirenyatwa, Harare, Mpilo and others. 

This is by no means to suggest that more cannot be done by way of improved efficiencies and healthcare management. This is so because careful budgeting and planning, monitoring and evaluation in resource allocation and utilisation in central hospitals can help to improve output. In fact on the basis of studies done elsewhere improvements of 30 to 39 percent were realised from better and more efficient use of available resources including training and capacity building.

Although there are no universal models for good service delivery, there are some well-established and tested basic requirements. A health system must deliver effective, safe, good-quality personal and non-personal care to those that need it, when needed, with minimum waste. Suffice to say the services be they prevention, treatment or rehabilitation must be affordable whether being delivered in the home, within the community, the workplace or in health facilities.

Effective delivery requires trained staff working with the right medicines and equipment, and with adequate financing. 

The World health report 2000 defined overall health system outcomes or goals as improving health and health equity, in ways that are responsive, financially fair, and make the best, or most efficient, use of available resources.

Zimbabwe’s hospital referral plan, the first level is the primary level constituting mainly rural clinics and other rural healthcare centers. According to the Zimbabwe National Health Strategy (2016-2020) every primary health has at least two qualified nurses, an Environmental Health Technician services 59 percent of administrative wards and 60 percent of villages have access to a village health worker.

The next level is district (secondary level) hospitals, which provide general inpatient services, accepting referrals from urban and rural health centers (RHCs) and clinics that constitute the primary level. 

Every district must have at least two doctors. WHO estimates 500 000 people per district hospital which should perform general operations that do not require a specialist doctor. 

Provincial or tertiary level hospitals receive patients referred from district or secondary level hospitals and provide general specialist services. 

Quaternary level hospitals in the major urban centres serve as national referral facilities and provide specialist and sub-specialist services. 

Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare designed for 900 beds but now accommodating much more functions as a teaching hospital and should just be a referral centre for patients from secondary and tertiary hospitals in the country and possibly the region. For example just in the physicians bay a cubicle supposed to hold six beds now holds about double that number. The hospital offers specialist and general outpatient and inpatient services and is at times overwhelmed. 

To date there is no intermediate hospital between the primary level and Parirenyatwa to which patients could have been admitted. The absence of these district hospitals has created the current congestion at Parirenyatwa. 

Reasons emanate from a dysfunctional referral system together with issues around council clinic user fees and charges by the private sector clinics and hospitals. Many go seeking initial care at the Parirenyatwa casualty department when they could have received such care at a secondary or primary level healthcare facility elsewhere.

There is also a school of thought as to whether Parirenyatwa hospital should not be split into two with one wing catering as a secondary or district hospital. Some thought must also be given to Harare hospital in terms of the whole referral value chain system. But it does not end there. Harare’s population is estimated at about 1.6 million and 2.5 million including surrounding areas. This demands an additional 3 hospitals.

The ministries of health and public construction and national housing have not built a hospital in the last 20 years in Harare. 

Success also requires an organisational environment that provides the right incentives and remuneration to both providers and users. This must be sustained over time and across different health conditions and locations. The issue of location is critically important, especially given Zimbabwe’s current economic circumstances in the context of our established but weak referral system.

Government adopted the primary healthcare approach in 1983. We have four basic levels of care and a well-defined package of health services provided by appropriately trained health care workers at each level. Competition for resources is not only between referral hospitals, district hospitals, clinics and other primary level care centers. 

It is also between prevention and treatment; between professional groups; between public and private players e.g. pharmacies over foreign exchange; between those engaged in efforts to treat one condition versus another e.g. HIV/AIDS and Cancer; between capital and recurrent expenditures. This demands the need to strengthen health system evaluation and monitoring to achieve best choices and health outcomes.

Changes to public policy and administration, particularly decentralisation, makes    

new demands on local authorities and may change fundamentally the role of central health ministry and how the current referral system should be operationalized. A continuous review of our health delivery system is necessary to ensure its goals are met. 

Economic growth and poverty reduction have direct positive impact on health delivery. The opposite is true. Zimbabwe is a case in point. Our experiences of the 1980s and 1990s as compared to the post 2000 need no further elaboration. In Africa Rwanda is an example of what economic growth can do to healthcare. 

Between 1990 and 2000 Thailand reduced its level of child mortality and reduced by 50 percent inequalities in child mortality between the rich and the poor. The results were attributed to substantial economic growth and reduced poverty over the period. But these were not the only reasons. 

In the matrix were increased health insurance coverage and more equitable distribution of primary health care infrastructure and intervention coverage. A series of pro-poor health insurance schemes improved health service coverage. The initial step was to waive user charges for low-income families.

This was followed by subsidised voluntary health insurance, then the extension of the government welfare scheme in the 1990s to all children under 12, the elderly and disabled, and to universal coverage from 2001. 

Health infrastructure and services were scaled up with emphasis on primary healthCare and community hospitals targeting the poorer, rural populations. Increased financial incentives and educational strategies led to a more equitable allocation of doctors in rural areas. This combination led to increased utilization of health services. For example, vaccination coverage rose from 20 to 40 percent in the early 1980s to over 90 percent in the 1990s, skilled birth attendance rose from 66 percent to 95 percent between in the 1980s and 1990s.

The same strategy is still possible in Zimbabwe if economic growth comes to fruition. Already some of these initiatives are already taking shape although some challenges remain. The role of government and medical health insurance has weakened over the years.

The loss of confidence in the medical aid system is a major concern. Medical health insurance is provided by Medical Aid Societies (MAS), covering mainly the formally employed and their dependents and collecting premiums through employers. Job losses have negatively affected these collections resulting in many medical aid societies collapsing or failing. Owing to multiple challenges medical aid societies sometimes fail to pay service providers on time. This has rendered medical aid unacceptable to some service providers. 

This has resulted in some members seeking help from public healthcare institutions ahead of private ones. Exorbitant shortfall even for those on medical aid has simply the scheme difficult to use.

Estimates reveal that about a million beneficiaries comprising eight to 10 percent of the population out of a national population of 16 million are on medical aid. About 80 percent of income to private health care providers in Zimbabwe comes from Medical Aid Societies and they contribute more than 20 percent of the country’s total health expenditure. 

The reality is that the high share of private health insurance spending is not reflected in equally significant coverage rates because the 20 percent covers less than 10 percent of the population. 

There presently is no fully fledged national health insurance scheme in Zimbabwe meaning most of the population is not insured for health needs and cannot access the expensive private sector health facilities. This puts pressure on the public health delivery system especially the main referral hospitals.

In addition when out-of-pocket spending represents a large share of health expenditure the pooling of private resources is negatively affected. 

This demands that households produce funds at the time of seeking care. This is a barrier to accessing healthcare and can threaten families into deeper poverty. Changes in user fee policy during the 1990s early 1991 and the enforcement of user fee collection at all health facilities at the start of ESAP in 1992 to present has to a large extent limited access to health care. 

Changes involving the retention of user fee revenues at the facility and district level, reinstitution of user fees at some rural mission hospitals, withdrawal of health grants for local authorities and municipalities, higher than average increase in user fees charged by municipal health facilities in the late 1990s. All these emanating from the challenges of reduced government expenditure on health. 

At present, specialised services in the public sector such as cancer care, dialysis, and advanced imaging are not always affordable for patients. This is a major concern. The challenges facing referral hospitals are a direct result of the economic circumstances facing us.

The issues of a dysfunctional referral system, user fees and access and cost of medicines together with poor antiquated equipment continue to put pressure on the main hospitals. When the full circle is drawn it comes back to the state of our economy.

One year after jubilant residents celebrated on the streets of Harare when Zimbabwe’s army removed Robert Mugabe from power, the country is in darkness.

In January, after days of protests over a doubling of fuel prices, security forces launched a crackdown in which more than 12 people were killed and 600 arrested. Zimbabwe’s government also ordered its first, countrywide Internet shutdown.

The country’s largest mobile services provider, Econet Wireless, said it had suspended services following an order from the government. 

“We are obliged to act when directed to do so and the matter is beyond our control,” said the company in a text message to customers.

In a Facebook post, Strive Masiyiwa, an exiled Zimbabwean billionaire who made his fortune after setting up Econet Wireless in 1999, said that “acts of government” had forced the company to switch off Internet connectivity. He added that he was informed “non-compliance would result in imprisonment of our managers on the ground for three years.”

Partial Internet service was recently restored, but social media apps and messaging services such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter remained blocked for days longer.

Zimbabwe’s assault on the Internet is the government’s latest attempt to impose its will on ordinary Zimbabweans, observers and activists fear. 

A year ago, incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa promised the start of a “new democracy” and an end to the country’s political divisions. In a piece published in the New York Times, Mnangagwa vowed to transform Zimbabwe into a country with a “thriving and open economy, jobs for its youth, opportunities for investors, and democracy and equal rights for all.”

In the year since the ouster of Mugabe — who once proclaimed “only God will remove me” — Zimbabwe’s economic problems have worsened as the country wrestles with vast debts, a battered infrastructure, soaring food prices, hyperinflation and unemployment.

Having failed to bring prosperity, Zimbabwe’s government now seems determined to establish dominion over all aspects of its digital and public spaces. 

As it enlists foreign firms from China and Japan to help build a surveillance State, activists and researchers are worried that what lies ahead could be worse than the Mugabe era.

“Shutting down the Internet has become a go-to tactic. Mugabe, who was rightly reviled for the human rights abuses, did not go so far as to order a blackout. 

The (new) government has shown zero political will to protect rights,” said Jeffrey Smith a founding director of Vanguard Africa, a foundation advocating for open democracy, with a special interest on Zimbabwe.

The recent Internet shutdown may be a harbinger of human rights abuses to come, said Zimbabwean lawyer, Arthur Gwagwa, who is a cyber threat modelling expert and Open Technology Fund Fellow at Strathmore University Law School. 

“Arrests, torture and beatings were perpetrated under the shadow of the shutdown, so people are fearful,” he said.

“They are resigned to the militarised State, mentally preparing for it.”

Zimbabwe’s control of online and offline spaces rests largely on foreign suppliers, who have provided the government with a host of new cyber-control tools. 

Last November, Japan’s ambassador to Zimbabwe, Toshiyuki Iwado, delivered a grant for $3,6 million of cybersecurity equipment to Zimbabwe’s Finance minister Mthuli Ncube. 

According to the Japanese Embassy in Zimbabwe, the grant was part of Japan’s “Grant Aid Project for Cybercrime Equipment Supply.” 

Zimbabwe’s minister of Communication Technologies was more forthcoming about what the tech will be used for. Police will deploy it to boost digital forensics and facial recognition systems, and introduce a new data sharing platform, said Kazembe Kazembe. The technology would also allow the government to tap electronic communications to prevent crime and animal smuggling into Zimbabwe.

But technology experts worry that Japan’s grant may inadvertently help the government crack down on dissent.

“Although Japan has not been Zimbabwe’s ally in repressing its people, the country may not be able to control the nefarious objectives towards which its technology may be employed,” said Gwagwa. 

He added, “Pro-democracy activists, in the eyes of the government may be classified as part of the smugglers and wildlife.”

The Japanese contract is part of a wave of imported surveillance tech. 

Another is China’s recent involvement in building a national artificial intelligence facial recognition database. According to a report in China’s Global Times, CloudWalk Technology, a Guangzhou-based startup signed a deal with Zimbabwe last year to provide facial recognition software for public use throughout the country.

The agreement is part of “Belt and Road,” a Chinese soft-power initiative and will extend to building infrastructure like airports, railways and bus stations as well as smart financial systems.

China has traditionally been a close ally of Zimbabwe and is the single biggest financial investor in the country’s beleaguered economy. China has invested millions in diamond and platinum mines, new highways and electricity-generating projects.

The deal potentially means Zimbabwe is one of the first countries in the region to adopt this kind of technology. CloudWalk uses 3D light facial software, which is better than traditional facial recognition at reading dark-skinned faces.

Crucially, the deal will let CloudWalk train its algorithms on data taken from Zimbabwean citizens. The resulting information will help China build one of the world’s most comprehensive and racially-diversified facial recognition databases.

This has activists worried. Essentially, Zimbabwe may be giving away large amounts of private data on its citizens to an unaccountable overseas tech giant.

“(These deals) allow Beijing to use developing countries as laboratories to improve its surveillance technologies,” said Gwagwa. 

CloudWalk officials did not respond to Coda requests for an interview, though it told the Global Times, “The Zimbabwean government did not come to Guangzhou purely for AI or facial ID technology, rather it had a comprehensive package plan for such areas as infrastructure, technology and biology.”

Chinese companies have also signed similar deals in Angola and Ethiopia.

Another Chinese deal involves the Zimbabwe Republic Police, which has jumped onto the authoritarian technology bandwagon and is due to introduce powerful night vision surveillance cameras across Harare.

Drivers will be asked to install dashboard mounted cameras and upload videos of driving infractions to a Dropbox folder. According to police, the goal is to curb driving violations and crime. The Dropbox captures the names and email addresses of motorists and citizens who upload any footage.

A Chinese company, Hikvision, will provide the police with high-tech surveillance cameras. Hikvision is closely involved with large-scale surveillance projects across Xinjiang, where the Chinese government is persecuting Uighur Muslims.

Harare City Council have also separately spent $2 million installing Hikvision surveillance cameras at traffic lights across the city.

“The cameras will help identify traffic offenders, especially those who impede the smooth flow of traffic” said the city’s chief engineer of works George Munyonga.

The cameras will monitor all roads and parking spaces within the central business district. Installation of the network is 70 percent complete.

Tefo Mohapi, the founder and chief executive of iAfrikan, a digital-tech hub based in Johannesburg, is concerned about Zimbabwe’s increasing reliance on surveillance systems created in China.

“There are many possible negative concerns, especially regarding a government like Zimbabwe’s which has demonstrated it can use any means to infringe on citizens’ rights,” he said.

“One of those is of restricting the movement of people deemed not to be towing the line and opposing the State.”

The commander of Zimbabwe’s defence forces has long been enthusiastic about such technology.

“As an army, at our institutions of training, we are training our officers to be able to deal with this new threat we call cyber warfare where weapons (are) not necessarily guns but basically information and communication technology,” said Valerio Sibanda.

At other times, the army has used Internet access to its advantage. Crucially, during the coup, the army allowed unfettered access to the web to ensure global acceptance of the army’s narrative as it seized power.

“Rather than cut access to the web, the military allowed a free flow of online information; carefully crafted discourses and opinions,” said Gwagwa.

“It used soft power and allowed citizens freedom of social media as a grand strategy to allow a fast-pace exchange of information. This was key to ensure local and global acceptance of the coup.”

Gwagwa compares the army’s strategy with the example of Turkey, where President Recep Erdogan used Facetime to build resistance to an attempted coup in 2016.

“Authority led-information manipulation is highly dynamic when digital information has high value. In Zimbabwe the army carefully co-opted the masses through a choreographed scheme,” Gwagwa said. “The public easily bought into the narrative.”

More worryingly, he thinks the army’s successful manipulation of digital technology to suit its goal of portraying an “open and peaceful” transfer of power could be widely copied across Africa.

Locally, however, Zimbabwe’s government continues to tighten its hold over the Internet. And it may have recently received the best defence of its push to increase surveillance. 

On 21 January, an anonymous band of hackers calling itself “Anonymous” claimed to have struck down 70 government websites like justice, central bank, and water ministries in a DDoS (denial of service) attack. The hacker claimed that they were motivated by Zimbabwe’s political unrest, rather than money. “Your banking is next,” warned the hackers.

lRay Mwareya is a journalist and fellow of the ZKM.de Global Exhibition on digital surveillance. His work has been published in The Guardian, Reuters and the Financial Times.

There are times when I really think we Zimbabweans are very ungrateful. 

All we do is moan, curse, rant, rave, and practically do anything to show our people’s President, Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, in a bad light. 

This is the same man who secured an overwhelming landslide of 50,6 percent of the vote. 

He did not get his mandate by accident, he worked hard for it. And he is still working hard to fulfil it. 

I am sure we all remember how he courted the local white and Indian voters during the election campaigns. 

I particularly liked the way he addressed them at special venues like halls and at the Borrowdale Race Course, serving them tea and scones while wearing his now famous trademark scarf (oh yes, he personally served them tea!). 

And how his party spent millions of dollars on imported top-of- the-range vehicles, those brilliant billboards, bright T-shirts, caps, scarfs, Zambia clothes and other paraphernalia that were printed in China. 

He even advertised his campaign on Google Ads, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube! 

I mean, how many candidates could do that? Need I mention his place among the vapostori of this nation, who gave him his own gown and stick when he paid them a visit at their shrine?

And those billboards have become the stuff of legend. 

Here are just a few of the messages: The Voice of the People Is the Voice Of God… Affordable Quality Health Care Guaranteed… A Visionary Mature Leadership… For A Modern Railway Transportation System… Power Generation To Create Energy Surplus… Promoting International Trade Via World Class Borders.. Delivering The Zimbabwe You Want… For Robust Development… For Real Jobs, Jobs, Jobs… Upholding Our Rich Culture & Values… For The Protection & Nurturing Of Our Girl Child… For Principled & Strong Leadership… Clean Fresh Water For All… the man is fulfilling all these promises.

This man is a legend! What more do Zimbabweans want?

Ever since he won the July 30 elections, he has been flying in and out of the country, signing mega deals with friendly countries, hardly having enough time to sleep. 

He has chartered the most expensive planes and booked the most expensive hotels to make sure his efforts come to fruition, iwe woshora...  And his minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube has hardly been in the country, flying all over the world, flying first class too and sleeping in the best hotels, sparing no expense to give us the prosperity we so desperately want.

Like everyone says, let’s give ED a chance. 

Already, he has seen the plight of Zimbabweans who can no longer go to work because of high transport fares, and he recently introduced privately-owned buses to transport people under the Zupco banner. 

This was after he had announced higher fuel prices, in order to deal the black market a huge blow!

Then he revived all those buses that had been off the road for a long time and put them onto rural roads. 

Everyone is now happy. 

And now the good news is government will soon partner with a baker who will bake a special loaf for the low income earners. 

This is sweet news to those who love their tea with bread every day!!!

I now foresee a situation where our president will soon embark on a fast track rehabilitation of rural and urban roads after he is finished with widening and tarring the highways. Vakarongeka vakururu ava. 

The rehabilitation of rural roads should fairly be easy: all the president has to do is announce that he will be visiting a certain growth point. 

I assure you the road to that growth point will be tarred a few days before he even goes there! 

That’s how effective our president is. 

Something profound about the way he carries that scarf around his shoulders as a reminder to the weight of our problems he carries on his shoulders.

Now imagine him visiting all the growth points in the country…. 

CHILDREN in broken families are suffering badly from divorce or parental break-ups.

The Daily News on Sunday can report a perfect storm of worsening economic conditions and poverty is putting a squeeze on the source of income for poor single-mother families, many are once again flooding the courts seeking upward variations of their maintenance orders.

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But magistrates are turning down most of the single mothers’ applications on the basis that even though the cost of living has gone up, salaries of the dads have remained unchanged.

And in most instances, mothers with limited earnings potential often have children with men who also have limited economic resources.

This sad state of affairs has had unintended consequences for economically vulnerable and otherwise fragile families, with many single moms having difficulty managing to the best advantage of their children.

Oblivious of the required fundamentals in seeking a maintenance increment, single mothers are flooding the courts but leaving disappointed.

Judiciary officers have the duty to weigh the economic well-being of the non-resident father and the demand for an upward variation of child support in the income packages of resident mothers.

In all instances, the single mother argues that the money which their former boyfriends or husbands were initially ordered to pay can no longer sustain the children in question.

Most of the women, who are barely making ends meet as single parents let alone afford legal representation, attribute their demands to rising inflation, high cost of living as evidenced by the price increases of food, stationery, school uniforms and clothes amongst others.

While one may be mistaken to think that their applications have merit and the courts have no other option but to rule in their favour, this is not the case.

Children rights activists who spoke to the Daily News on Sunday said dragging each other to court is a last resort because a child is the responsibility of both parents.

Justice for Children coordinator Chinga Govhati said parents who contribute monthly support for their children are in a dilemma as they are struggling in an environment where prices are constantly rising.

And the courts are taking particular attention to the economic impact of child support on payers and recipients.

This comes as the economy went into a tail spin after Finance minister Mthuli Ncube introduced a two percent tax on all electronic payments in October last year, sparking a sharp and relentless increase in prices of basic goods.

The consequences of the controversial tax were not only felt on the economy but also cascaded to household level.

Prices of basic goods and services skyrocketed as manufacturers transferred the high cost of production on consumer prices in an attempt to make a profit.

With the cost of living continuing to rise and concomitantly inflation soaring as evidenced by the latest figures from the Zimbabwe national Statistical Agency (Zimstat), single parents are emerging as the most affected.

According to Zimstat, year-on-year inflation for the month of January raced to 56,9 percent, the highest since hyperinflation 10 years ago.

Besides the skyrocketing prices of basis, some single mothers have retained counsel to argue their child support cases in court.

Govhati said lately, Justice for Children has been receiving as many as 10 custody cases per day from economically-strapped parents, particularly fathers who are convinced that having custody of their children will reduce the maintenance burden.

“The organisation has also seen an increase in the number of women approaching the organisation for help in seeking upward variation of existing maintenance orders.

“In the same vein, we have also seen mothers who are struggling to provide for themselves seeking economic relief through claiming maintenance for their children,” Govhati said.

In the face of a failing economy, Govhati said there is no way that the demand for child support can be met.

When prices are changing every day, this may prompt women to seek upward variation each time they visit the store, resulting in courts failing to cope with the high demand for legal services.

Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children director Reverend Taylor Nyanhete said men refuse to maintain their children due to their negative attitudes.

“Men are always difficult in contributing to maintenance because they tend to transfer the hurt associated with the broken relationship to the child, but that is not the right attitude,” Nyanhete said.

“Denying women upward variation on the basis that salaries have not changed is not a valid reason because there are other areas where people are getting income to supplement their salaries. Unfortunately, the courts tend to consider the pay slip when making such decisions.”

He said providing evidence proving the increased financial demand for the child’s necessities must be enough to sway the courts to rule in favour of the applicant.

Nyanhete said since the welfare of the child is at stake, parents can share custody of the children as a way of equally sharing responsibility, adding that when one has the custody of the children, they will appreciate that the cost of living has gone up and that the child support they are forking out is no longer adequate.

“However, a lot of mothers do not feel comfortable having the children raised by the fathers but this is another way of dealing the matter,” he said.

Nyanhete pledged to raise the issue with the chief magistrate when they convene for the quarterly victim friendly meeting scheduled for this month.

Parents who live in separate households also lose the economies of scale associated with shared housing and other resources, and therefore are at an economic disadvantage relative to two-parent households, regardless of their individual incomes.

In the face of dwindling child support and poverty, most of the children end up doing badly at school, suffering poor health, falling into crime and addiction.

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Nearly every municipality in Zimbabwe is grappling with a water crisis, putting lives in great danger.

In January this year, Bulawayo City Council (BCC) instituted a 48-hour water rationing exercise as its water sources have gone down due to erratic rains. 

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So severe is the situation in Bulawayo, in particular, that United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) has been forced to suspend all its surgical operations.

UBH chief executive officer Nonhlanhla Ndlovu recently told the media that the water crisis had severely incapacitated one of the southern region’s top hospitals. 

“The city council’s water-shedding hasn’t spared us. We don’t have water. Council is also not supplying us with water bowsers to alleviate the problem. We are finding it hard to fill up containers with water. We just hope the period won’t extend further because the situation will be out of control,” said Ndlovu.

A few days after BCC started rationing water, the Harare City Council (HCC) followed suit.

HCC has advised its residents that Lake Chivero — its main water source — has water supply for only 18 months at its current levels. 

Other local authorities have reduced their water supply owing to low water levels at their supply dams.

The escalating water crisis in almost all local authorities, according to the Community Water Alliance (CWA), could be a precursor to a national disaster.

“The majority of local authorities in the country are proposing water rationing and this is likely to cause a health disaster if the situation is not handled properly.

“The crisis is manifesting through dwindling water levels in dams where local authorities abstract water for treatment before distributing to citizens,” said CWA chairperson Hildaberta Rwambiwa.

She added that dam level averages throughout the country were far from encouraging.

“Besides dwindling water levels in dams; there is serious siltation in dams, very high water pollution levels, poor catchment management and wetlands depletion, poor quality of potable water, insufficient potable water, obsolete infrastructure, crisis of foreign currency availability for water treatment chemicals, poor funding for water projects, downgraded sewerage and water treatment plants,” said Rwambiwa.

CWA has warned that unless the water crisis in the country is attended to, a disaster looms.

Rwambiwa told the Daily News on Sunday that there is an escalating water crisis in every local authority.

CWA also wants to see enhanced transparency and accountability in the way water system is administered.

The organisation’s programmes manager, Hardlife Mudzingwa said loan agreements and guarantees being concluded by the government for the water sector were not being published in the Government Gazette within 60 days in line with the Constitution 

The CWA programmes manager also bemoaned the lack of meaningful fiscal support to address the water supply crisis. Finance minister Mthuli Ncube only allocated 2,7 percent of his budget to water and sanitation despite the country’s typhoid and cholera history.

“In essence, there is no water fund. Water and sanitation projects are huge capital projects that require money from central government. 

“Local authorities will not, on their own, manage to raise those funds. The 2018 Service Level Benchmarking report by the Urban Councils Authorities of Zimbabwe revealed that on average Zimbabwe’s local authorities are losing 43 percent of water produced through leakages and unaccounted for loses.

“The same report revealed that proper solid waste management has dropped from 93 percent to 78 percent. This means that a lot of potable water is lost through leakages, illegal connections and also that the condition of raw water within local authorities will continue to deteriorate. If local authorities remain contained in the vicious cycle of water pollution and request for foreign currency at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the challenges on water and sanitation will persist,” Mudzingwa said.

A schedule by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) indicated that catchment area averages were low this year with Gwayi Catchment at 62,1 percent, Manyame Catchment (88,7), Mazowe Catchment (92), Mzingwane Catchment (66,8), Runde Catchment (56,7), Sanyati Catchment (72,3) and Save Catchment (65,8).

Last year, the dam level averages were much higher with the Manyame catchment’s dam level average standing at  92,1 percent, Gwayi Catchment (67,3), Mazowe Catchment (90,4), Mzingwane Catchment (84,3), Runde Catchment (53,6), Save Catchment (78, 3) and Sanyati Catchment (76,3) respectively.

Zinwa’s corporate communications manager Marjorie Munyonga told the Daily News on Sunday that a significant number of dams still hold sufficient water to meet the country’s agricultural and domestic needs.

She, however, conceded that some dams may not be able to sustain demand until the coming rain season.

“It follows that when we have depressed dam levels, there is bound to be scarcity in some areas. However, it is not all the users that will be affected as some dams still have water. 

“The major challenge that we have at the moment is not about the number of dams per se, but the limited rains that the country is receiving. The largely below normal rains have thus led to depressed inflows into the dams,” she said.

Munyonga added that the government was also in the process of constructing new dams in needy areas.

“Of course there are places which are in need of new water bodies and government is already making strides towards the construction of such water infrastructure. 

“Among these places are Rushinga where Semwa Dam is already under construction, Murambinda where Marowanyati Dam is substantially complete and has already started impounding water and Bulawayo where Gwayi Shangani is also under construction,” she said.

But in the meantime, she said demand management may come to the fore in the face of limited water, adding, though, that the process shall be guided by the law and other principles of Integrated Water Resources Management.

“Our solutions to the problem shall be guided by the Zinwa Act and the Water Act which mandate Zinwa to ensure that the impact of floods and droughts are mitigated. The authority will continue to closely monitor the situation and come up with solutions that may include the drilling of boreholes for communities, connecting centres to new raw water sources and rolling out awareness campaigns among water users on the need to conserve the resource. In all the interventions that the authority will make, saving human lives shall be a top priority,” said the Zinwa corporate communications manager.

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More and more members of the security services are being arraigned before the courts for playing a major role in perpetrating blue-collar and violent crime.

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Analysts attribute the breakdown of discipline to the worsening economic crisis, the fractured nature of national politics and the culture of impunity by the new dispensation.

Soldiers and cops’ involvement in perpetrating violence in private spaces, crime and other nefarious activities comes as the rise in the cost of living is pushing many into destitution.

The worsening economic conditions have not spared poorly paid law enforcement agents who, in their quest to survive and keep their families going, are breaking the very laws they should be upholding.

In the recent past, police and soldiers have been captured on social media committing heinous crimes that society expects them to guard against. 

Criminal acts by members of the security forces range from opportunistic theft, armed robberies, fraud, sexual assault to police collusion with bosses of organised criminal syndicates.

And the problem is cutting across the entire gamut of the security service.

Just last week, an officer-in-charge at Borrowdale Police Station, Simbarashe Sibanda was jailed for four years for attempting to murder his lover.

In Guruve, a soldier, Wayne Masaiti, 26, shot a civilian during a robbery and seized his $6 000 bond notes and US$200.

These cases are just a tip of an iceberg of burgeoning criminal activities being perpetrated by law enforcement agents, with some going unreported as victims fear victimisation.

Experts in the security and legal fraternity said the phenomena was difficult to understand, with some struggling to give an explanation how the dying economy is possibly pushing members of the security forces into committing attempted murder or assaults in aggravating circumstances.

The Zimbabwe National Army and the Zimbabwe Republic Police have blamed army, police deserters and retirees for the rising crime, which spiked during fuel riots in January.

“The Zimbabwe Defence Forces and Security Services have noted with grave concern an increase in cases of people committing crime particularly robberies whilst clad in military/police regalia,” the two security units said in a recent joint statement.

“Some of these uniforms worn by criminals were seized by rogue elements during the recent riots in Epworth and Chegutu. A case in point is a recent arrest of five armed robbers in Epworth; Harare on January 14 2019, who were using police and military regalia to commit armed robberies, after hiring vehicles from car rental companies. We are therefore giving an ultimatum to individuals who have retired, deserted, absented themselves without official leave (AWOL) from service to immediately handover uniforms either to the police or the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

“All those who do not comply with this directive will be flushed out by already deployed members of the security services. We are also appealing to members of the public who have information on such people who are not serving members and are abusing military/police regalia to report to the police.”

As the security agencies shirk responsibility, there has been a

concomitant decline in public trust in the security forces.

According to a recent Afrobarometer survey, the majority of Zimbabweans perceive the police as the most corrupt institution in the country, with one in four survey respondents who had contact with the police saying they paid a bribe to obtain a service or to avoid problems.

University of Zimbabwe War and Strategic Studies lecturer Wesley Mwatwara said the breakdown of discipline within the lower ranks of the security services should be viewed in terms of the general economic challenges that afflict the present Zimbabwean society.

“We have a very complex situation playing right before us. It cannot be explained in monocausal terms as there are a number of variables at play,” Mwatwara told the Daily News on Sunday.

“Whereas these security elements have been at the forefront of spearheading the crushing of any opposition to the present government, the reality is that these same officers are not insulated from the economic crises bedevilling us.

“In this context, it is possible to view the recent trend in the rise in criminality by members of the security services as an attempt to eke out or forge a living in an otherwise dwindling economic space.”

Mwatwara said there was need for security sector reform saying it was evident that political influences were at play.

“Furthermore, the fractured nature of our national politics plays out also in the national security services. The history is there for everyone to see, especially in light of the acrimonious relations between members of the police service and the military.

“In addition, like the police, the President’s Department also seems to be side-lined for its allegiance to the previous regime.  When looked at from this vantage point, it would appear that the breakdown of discipline is partly linked to the culture of impunity which the new dispensation unwittingly or wittingly cultivated.

“The creation of a truly professional security apparatus is long overdue. Such a programme, one can only hope cascades down to the individual security officer - soldier, policemen or state agent – and instil in them professional values.”

Lawyer and MDC legislator Job Sikhala said poverty was the major driving factor in perpetration of crimes by law enforcement agents.

“They are living under difficult and pathetic conditions, given

slavery salaries and own almost nothing. They are always in debt through borrowing from micro finance institutions and hardly afford a suit to look gentlemanly when off duty,” Sikhala told the Daily News on Sunday.

“They always buy from bhero (second hand clothes) and are perpetually traumatized. I will tell you that a man who wakes up in the morning going to work and fail to support his family always turns violent; hence end up committing crimes such as attempted murder.

“Their behaviour, compounded by their penchant to abuse human rights, leaves them outcasts in the society. No one buys them beer anymore or assist them with lifts to and from work. So, the society must always be in full alert of these people. They have become dangerous.”

MDC spokesperson and lawyer Jacob Mafume said it was difficult to curtail incidences of law enforcement agents that engage in crime if the financial situation was not addressed.

“The whole country has become problematic in the sense that if you don’t pay police well, they have no other source of income and are required to be stationed where they are. The whole country will be reduced to a criminal enterprise as they seek to make ends meet,” Mafume said.

“Our minister of Finance is lying about the cost of goods, value of salaries and only interested with coming up with statistics that have no reflection of what is happening on the ground. This will hit the security sector very fast. Where do they expect soldiers to get money or police officers? They will resort to use the skills that have been trained to sustain themselves.”

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HARARE - A top MDC official has sensationally claimed that party officials, especially those who will be voting in the upcoming congress are being paid large sums of money to vote out Nelson Chamisa from the party’s presidency.

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But Zanu PF has angrily dismissed the allegations.

MDC vice president Morgen Komichi told the Daily News on Sunday on Friday that Zanu PF has a budget to influence the outcome of the opposition MDC’s congress with the aim being to remove Chamisa who has refused to capitulate to the ruling party’s whims and caprices.

Chamisa has particularly irked the powers-that-be by refusing to participate in dialogue being initiated from the Office of the President and Cabinet.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year initiated a national dialogue platform involving all those who contested in the July 30, 2018 presidential elections but an obdurate Chamisa refused to play ball much to the embarrassment of the ruling party.

Chamisa, who is the country’s main opposition leader has refused to recognise Mnangagwa’s presidency, describing the Zanu PF strongman as an illegitimate leader who came to power through a rigged election.

This is despite the fact that the Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land, dismissed the MDC Alliance petition to nullify the elections.

In an interview with the Daily News on Sunday, Komichi said Zanu PF wants to destroy Chamisa either by eliminating him before the MDC congress or sponsoring a “pliable candidate”.

“Zanu PF has two options to hurt Chamisa before congress or to sponsor a candidate. The idea is to buy our members in the region of $4 million to $6 million to destroy Chamisa. 

Individual MPs have been approached, when they (Zanu PF officials) talk to us they make it clear that we should dump Chamisa for a more responsible leadership, they feel strongly that Chamisa is a stumbling block to their objectives. We are, however, not interested,” said Komichi.

Komichi told the Daily News on Sunday that they have evidence of an operation to ensure that the opposition gets a weaker leader during its congress.

“We will never interfere with Zanu PF processes. They should leave us alone. Zanu PF must not destroy a partner in a constitutional democratic country,” said Komichi.

This comes as the name of the party’s organising secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora has been touted as the one to challenge the hugely popular MDC leader at the forthcoming congress due to be held between the 24th  and 26th of this month.

Mwonzora, who once beat Chamisa in an election, stoked emotions in the opposition party when he said it is his democratic right to contest for any position in a statement that angered the majority of the party faithful.

Contacted for comment, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo ridiculed suggestions that the ruling party, whose officials have publicly expressed interest in the MDC congress, is interested in meddling in the affairs of its rivals.

“That is nonsense, we have nothing to do, with that we have two-thirds majority in Parliament, we are very strong,” said Khaya Moyo.

However, Zanu PF officials like the party’s secretary for youths Lewis Matutu have openly pronounced themselves on who they prefer to lead the MDC.

In a revealing statement on micro-blogging platform Twitter, Matutu wrote “Mwonzora likely to become the new MDC Alliance president because majority of Chamisa’s hooligans are not in the structures of their party and they don’t form part of the congress delegates”.

Zanu PF is on record saying Chamisa’s refusal to accept Mnangagwa’s legitimacy is mere political posturing that is designed to cement his position ahead of the congress.

Mnangagwa’s spokesperson recently told the Daily News that Chamisa’s stance is informed by the impending congress and not national interests.

“On the part of engagement we finished that with the elections. He should not waste our time. We know he wants to raise his stature ahead of his party congress, if he wants to help resolve the economic problem he should go to work. We will grow the economy through productivity, through putting shoulder to the wheel. He wants ED to help him build his profile, we have no time for that,” said Charamba.

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HARARE - The forthcoming MDC congress is critical as it will settle once and for all, the legitimacy question dogging the leadership of Nelson Chamisa, political analysts have said.

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Chamisa assumed the reins of the country’s main opposition party ahead of his rivals following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai — the party’s founding father — last February, albeit, under controversial circumstances.

The 41-year-old was accused of using his then assumed closeness to Tsvangirai’s widow, Elizabeth, to torpedo the ambitions of the likes of Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe who were also eyeing the post.

A titanic leadership battle subsequently ensued in the party, which eventually led to Khupe forming a breakaway faction which went on to perform dismally in last year’s elections.

Chamisa ultimately prevailed over his party competitors after a consultative meeting of the MDC, which was held at the party’s Harare headquarters — and which was attended by 639 delegates from 210 party districts.

The meeting endorsed him as Tsvangirai’s successor and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2018 polls.

Political analysts canvassed by the Daily News on Sunday said Chamisa has a chance to iron out the issue of legitimacy surrounding his leadership.

Piers Pigou, a senior consultant at the International Crisis Group said formal endorsement at congress is important for Chamisa as it would help remove remaining doubts about his position from many. 

“Some, of course, will be dead set against his leadership, whatever the outcome. This will also be influenced by how credible the membership feels the delegation selection process has been. 

“How the reconstituted MDC Alliance structures operate in this regard will be essential and it’s critical for Chamisa that these processes retain as much integrity as possible and are seen to have done so,” said Pigou.

The platform, according to political analyst Maxwell Saungweme is also an opportunity for the MDC to elect leaders with unquestioned mandate and legitimacy.

He said it is important, where possible, that all positions are contested and where someone challenges someone’s favourite, and they are not labelled.

“Democratic institutions are not built by ring-fencing positions or attaching labels to genuine contestants. Leaders who emerge from that congress, contested, feel elected, legitimate and holding real mandate. 

“I don’t think we need negotiations in Zimbabwe but dialogue that leads to win-win outcomes in terms of having inclusive governance and having the economic problems unlocked.

“He must be able to dialogue with (president Emmerson) Mnangagwa and others if his interest is a prosperous Zimbabwe. His suffering two million-plus supporters want the country to progress and he will be made to dialogue for a better Zimbabwe,” said Saungweme.

Political analyst Rashweat Mukundu said the MDC congress will end once and for all the noise around Chamisa’s legitimacy. 

“It’s an issue that is advanced by Zanu PF using the State media and its activists but never an issue within MDC as Chamisa was legally put in that position by the relevant party structures,” said Mukundu.

“What Chamisa and the MDC must do is to deliver a democratic congress that demonstrates their capacity and values as an alternative to Zanu PF.”

Mukundu added that the congress offers a fresh start for Chamisa as a post-Morgan Tsvangirai opposition leader and gives him leverage to define the future of the party.

“I think the congress will simply strengthen Chamisa’s hand in deciding on MDC political trajectory, and essentially put the Chamisa stamp on the MDC away from the shadow of the late …Tsvangirai which still looms large on the MDC.

“I think the MDC position on the dialogue is well defined and unlikely to change. What will happen after congress is that Chamisa will have more time and space to focus on national politics and not worry about internal political party issues.”

Another political analyst and civil rights activist Gladys Hlatywayo said the supposed legitimacy deficit is a creation of MDC detractors.

“Yes, president Tsvangirai left Chamisa in an acting position but this acting position was confirmed by the highest decision making body in-between congress which is the National Council.

“The congress is only important in as far as it is the first after the departure of the revered founder and a continuation of the democratic culture of subjecting leadership to the will of the people,” she told the Daily News on Sunday.

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LAST week, the local skies welcomed the arrival of the restructured fellow southern African carrier, Air Tanzania.

The airline re-launched flights to Harare after close to two decades of no direct flights between Harare and Dar-es-Salaam.

To maximise on profitability, the passenger carrier is connecting Harare to Lusaka as it flies south of the African continent. 

What a remarkable story it has been for Air Tanzania.

When President John Pombe Magufuli came to power in 2015, the airline had only one plane.

Upon assuming the reigns, the “Bulldozer”, as Magufuli is affectionately known, prioritised investment in the airline to revive the loss-making carrier because of the potential to boost the vital tourism sector — a top foreign exchange earner.

Through his impressive and commendable austerity measures, this carrier managed to get his government to raise money and recapitalise by purchasing brand new long haul and short to medium haul aircraft in the form of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, two ultra-new Airbus 220-300 — formerly known as the Bombardier C Series — and three Bombardier Q400 Turbo Prop aircraft, all which are fuel efficient and will be utilised to capacity.

Air Tanzania touched down at the Robert Mugabe International Airport last week hard on the heels of the suspension of flights into Harare by Zambia’s Proflight which had launched the service in May last year.

The airline had been facing stiff competition from Emirates and Kenya Airways.Air Tanzania’s arrival therefore keeps our hopes alive.

Flights into the country had declined considerably since the beginning of the new millennium largely due to the volatile political and economic landscape, which resulted in the majority of the international airlines — mostly from Europe and Australia — pulling out of Zimbabwe.

Most international airlines ceased flying into Harare, among them British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa, SwissAir, Qantas, Egyptair and KLM.

KLM’s case was unique.

The airline pulled the plug after operating for about a year citing the unviability of the flight. 

It is, however, encouraging for Zimbabwe’s tourism industry to see Air Tanzania joining the list of other airlines that have now entered the local market, among them Emirates — the only international airline coming to Zimbabwe and taking advantage of a yawning gap in the market.

Ethiopian Airlines also saw a gap to connect global travellers from various cities such as Washington DC, London, Milan, Paris and Asian cities and flying them to the resort town of Victoria falls via Addis Ababa. 

RwandAir also launched flights into Harare in 2016 and has added a connection onward to Cape Town — a route that last saw a direct flight from Harare through Air Zimbabwe (AirZim) in 1999. Of course, South African Airways (SAA) has never pulled out of the route – opting to stayed on and defend its market share.

SAA’s most lucrative route is the Harare to Johannesburg flight where it operates six flights a day of which four are to the capital city and the other two to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, respectively.

The increase in airlines plying into Zimbabwe is a clear indication of the massive growth potential the country has and the fact that there are monetary rewards to be gained by airliners despite the economic challenges facing the southern African nation.

The development comes when the aviation industry in Zimbabwe is confronted with a number of challenges, mainly the foreign currency shortages, which have caused most airlines to decline payments in local currency (the RTGS dollars).

Airlines flying into Zimbabwe have been advising their customers to purchase tickets in United States dollars or to use international credit cards for payment to avoid exposure to the unpredictable new currency. This is quite understandable.

Air tickets paid for in local currency have caused remittance challenges at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which owes airlines millions in ticket sales remittances from the International Air Transportation Association.

Over $60 million is owed to airlines by the central bank.

Ethiopian Airlines is owed $18 million, while Kenya Airways is owed $30 million. 

The aviation industry is critical to the growth of the country’s economy.

As more airlines join the local skies, AirZim should dust itself up and be competitive in the game.

The period when the local skies were almost deserted by regional and international airlines should have been an opportunity for the national flag carrier to consolidate its position.

Unfortunately, that has not happened due to poor management and government interference.

If only government could stop interfering in the running of the national airline and allow other local players to come in without restrictions. Better still, government can liquidate the airline and start afresh for AirZim’s current reputation has inhibited it from withering the storm.

The sky is the limit for the local aviation if it can be liberalized to buttress growth through diversity.

One hopes that the country would be able to address these challenges since tourism has huge potential to outpace traditional foreign currency earners such as mining in terms of growth.

HARARE - Harare City Council (HCC) has had to revisit its refuse collection fleet and go back to tender as more of trucks continue breaking down.

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HCC environmental committee chairperson Kudzai Kadzombe told the Daily News that their biggest challenge apart from non-servicing of refuse compactors, was fuel. 

“In order to deal with the backlog of refuse collection council has to hire refuse equipment as an interim measure and request a special tender from the Procurement Regulatory Authority since the situation had gone out of hand and was now an emergency.”

Kadzombe said on the issue of servicing refuse trucks, the company they had contracted was taking too long despite having already been paid. 

“We may end up changing the company that services our trucks to a more reliable one because even after the repairs, trucks were not lasting on the road and were constantly in and out of the garage at all times. We are also considering capacitating our workshop and employing an expert to service the trucks internally ...,” Kadzombe said.

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A Norton man was convicted and slapped with four years’ imprisonment for causing the electrocution of a 21 months old baby that touched live electricity wires that lay unprotected at his residence.

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Wilbert Ndiyamba, 35, was convicted of contravening section 60 (a) (3) (b) of the Electricity Act and culpable homicide before Harare regional magistrate Jessy Kufa.

Two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour. Kufa condemned Ndiyamba’s conduct and said a custodial sentence would justify the offence. The first complainant was Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company.

Prosecutor Chipo Matambo proved that on August 21, 2015 Ndiyamba illegally fitted electricity from his cabin to the borehole.

That day, the deceased person went to play at Ndiyamba’s house with other juveniles.

While they were playing the deceased child went and touched electricity wires that were covered with a plastic bag while standing on wet ground.

The child was electrocuted and died on admission at Norton Hospital.

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AS one of the contesting presidential candidates in the 2018 harmonised elections, I am happy that for once President Emmerson Mnangagwa has listened to the voice of the people and decided to sit down and dialogue.

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As candidates and leaders of political parties when we meet with Mnangagwa we are just representing a fraction of the proposed national dialogue and it should not end or concentrate on us alone.
We have the church, the youths, women, the disabled, the businesses community, non-governmental organisations and even the diplomatic community who all have to contribute their input as we develop an inclusive dialogue.

I have been attending the meetings with Mngangwa so far and what we are still working on is a framework to the dialogue; the dialogue hasn’t started yet. But time is not on our side!
The national dialogue in my opinion should be well structured and possibly have a secretariat running its activities every day. Like I said politicians are just but a fraction of the whole dialogue.
In any dialogue of this nature there is need to put time frames to the talks and we should be able to have targets and measure our success.

The call for a neutral mediator is quite a crucial aspect to the success of any such dialogue and you want to have someone of international standing; hence the lessons learnt when we had our first Government of National Unity which brought Zanu PF leaders and MDC leaders together resulting in a power sharing arrangement.
That dialogue was a result of constant, painful negotiation with a full secretarial running around to make sure things worked.

The president may as of now lead us as politicians on working a framework to the talks, but the national dialogue involving all stakeholders has to have an independent chair because Mnangagwa is an interested party. As Dop we think ultimately after all the negotiations and dialogue the resultant government must be controlled by a broad representative of all significant parties.

The new government system should be based on proportionality, especially with regards the political parties and other stakeholders’ representations. We would also recommend that all political parties no matter how minor or insignificant must have veto power concerning issues of vital and fundamental importance.

Judging from other countries that have adopted coalition based governments, the compromise and co-operation inherent to governing through sharing power has helped power their societies to prosperity. Over the past 10 years, coalition governments have become the norm throughout Europe and Germany is a good example of how effective a coalition government can be in overcoming divisions and creating shared prosperity.

The coalition’s first task is to regain international investors’ confidence, hence capitalising on the international goodwill which would have been generated by a change of government.
The next step would be to improve skills development; introduce a countrywide apprenticeship programme that trains young people emerging from school to become mechanics, plumbers, boilermakers and electricians.

We need to invest in technical colleges, including teacher and nursing training colleges which would incorporate compulsory apprenticeship programmes designed to stream line the transtion into employment.

We also need to improve on our human rights record, observe rule of law and Constitution. In order for the coalition to be successful and stay in power, all members of the coalition government must retain the respect of voters by working together. Political parties would need to compromise on an agreed manifesto in order to achieve the best possible outcome under any given coalition arrangement. 

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Kimberly Process (KP) Civil Society Coalition has raised concern over non-disclosure of diamond contracts and revenues by government saying it punctures proper accountability.

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The KP Civil Society Coalition is an international organisation under the Kimberly Process which is committed to promote a conflict-free diamond global supply chain. The coalition’s global coordinator, Shamiso Mutisi, who is an international expert in the area of diamonds, said government needs to publicly disclose revenues in the mining sector.

“So far we have counted more than 20 mega-deals related to the mining sector, and these were signed with ZMDC, ZCDC for example, the Government of Zimbabwe with the Chinese investors with the Russians, with, United Arab Emirates and with Belarus.
“But the question is, do these deals include responsible investments related to ensuring that the country gets benefits, adequate royalties, dividends and other payments that can trigger economic growth and then the non-disclosure of those contracts is a major issue,” he said.

Mutisi, who is privy to Zimbabwe’s diamond revenues through the Kimberly Process said this will also enable development as well as remove leakages in the system. “…Some of you might be aware of the Tuna Bond in Mozambique that led to the arrest of government officials.

“We looked at the contract and gave advice to Parliament in Mozambique because we are dealing with an issue of government guarantees, meant to prop up the regime in Mozambique and trigger investment by the military in Mozambique.

“So it is important for government, industry and civil society to come together and possibly form a multi-stakeholder forum for partly disclosure of mining revenues,” he added. The Mozambique scandal involved 18 indicted individuals together with government officials who were accused of concealing contracts scamming up to $2 billion, 12,5 percent of Mozambique’s GDP.

Zimbabwe has in the past lost a jaw-dropping $15 billion to alleged nefarious activities by some of diamond mining firms.
At the same time reports have shown gross corruption by conniving top officials who have also been benefiting behind closed doors.
Before he became president, Emmerson Mnangagwa had said the government had ordered a forensic audit of the seven companies that were mining in Chiadzwa as part of the investigations regarding the missing $15 billion.

In the 2019 budget statement Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube refers to the Extractive Transparency Initiative (ETI) which is a multi-stakeholder forum for disclosure of mining revenues and mining contracts. “We thought that was progressive but so far we have not seen any action on the ETI,” said Mutisi.

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International economist and currency expert Steve Hanke says Zimbabwe’s inflation now sits at 266 percent following the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s recently-announced monetary policy.

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Just two weeks ago, Hanke said the country’s inflation was pegged at 242 percent, hence a 24 percent jump to today. The John Hopkins University professor said government made a mistake when it initially failed to admit that the surrogate currency’s rate was not at par with the United States dollar.

He added that the Real Time Gross Settlement dollars (RTGS$) that were introduced in the monetary policy will only make life unbearable for Zimbabweans. “By issuing the bond notes and RTGS at par to the dollar and then devaluing, Zimbabwe has robbed its citizens.
“This, among other things, has produced a trust deficit between citizens and the government. Cancerous RTGS$ will only increase budget deficit and make matters worse,” Hanke said.

This comes after the renowned economist rubbished the inflation figures released by the Zimbabwe National Statistical Agency (Zimstat), saying the country’s year-on-year inflation rate now stood at 242 percent. Zimstat reported that year-on-year inflation rate for the month of January surged to 56,9 percent, making it the highest in 10 years.

The statistics agency attributed the increase to a rise in the price of basic goods and beer. Writing on his Twitter account, Hanke said Zimbabweans must not be alarmed by the “official” inflation rate released by Zimstat as the real rate is “far scarier.” “Zimbabweans are alarmed that the official inflation rate has spiked to 56,9 percent, the highest in 10 years.

The real number is far scarier,” Hanke said. “I use Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) to calculate inflation accurately and reliably and by my measure, year-on-year inflation is at a whopping 242 percent per year,” he added. Hanke’s calculations are derived from the Old Mutual Implied rate, which indicates that the inflation rate in Zimbabwe rose sharply.

Over the last couple of months, Hanke has been consistent in measuring the country’s inflation rate.
As of January 16, Hanke said the cumulative inflation hit 236 percent, a figure much higher than the 42,09 percent released by Zimstat for the month of December.
He also warned that the economy will lapse within a year or less if the country fails to remove bond notes from the system.

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Zimbawe’s agricultural sector needs massive retooling to increase production as it is still relying on antiquated equipment.
Farming experts said as long as the situation remains like this, the sector’s capacity to produce more will be constrained, leading to an increase in the country’s import bill.

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A researcher at Sam Moyo African Institute of Agrarian Studies, Walter Chambati, said Zimbabwe’s fertiliser industry — for example  — is still dependent on technology from the 1950s, which consumes a lot of electricity.
“. . . so we need to focus on how we can retool the agro-industry to produce inputs for the agriculture sector and also absorb raw materials for their production of various products that they put on the market,” he said.
A key player in the production of fertilisers — Sable Chemical Industries Limited — is Zimbabwe’s sole manufacturer of ammonium nitrate (AN) fertiliser.
It was established in the 1960s, and it is massively powered by electricity.
Chambati said the sector needs to modernise machinery, irrigation schemes and farming methods in light of the climate change phenomenon.
He said the transformation of the sector is key to the rise of the economy given the backward and forward linkages between agriculture and agro-industrial based sector in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union’s executive director Paul Zakaria concurred, saying there is need to upgrade costly primeval techniques still being used in the sector in order to become efficient.
“Production methods are also still very conventional… we need appropriate methods that are suitable and the right type of technology that is suitable.
 “. . . in irrigation, they are doing flood irrigation, the oldest model which does not conserve water at all like drip irrigation where you are targeting the crop itself,” Zakaria said.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s premier agriculture finance institution, Agribank reportedly needs $200 million to recapitalise and support the country’s agriculture activities.
Although agriculture is a key component to the recovery of Zimbabwe’s economy, much still needs to be done to retool the sector which contributes 20 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

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Zimbabwe is set to have another mega-plant that will be producing tiles and other related granite products, the Daily News can report.

This comes after Surewin Investment (Pvt) Ltd which was granted the Special Economic Zone status last year is setting up a manufacturing plant for granite cutting and polishing in Mutoko.

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The plant is set to attract foreign direct investment to the tune of USD$20 million with an estimated revenue of USD$5 million per annum through both local and export sales of value added granite rock products. Mutoko in Mashonaland East Province is commonly known for the black granite which is now popularly used to furnish and tile modern homes worldwide.

Zimbabwe Special Economic Zone Authority (Zimseza) chief executive officer Edwin Kondo stated that the newly-approved investment is also expected to bring new technologies to the granite mining sector. “The project will see thousands of direct and indirect jobs created and a huge number of the jobs will be for the locals.

Twenty locals are expected to be trained on mine construction projects during the first year of implementation,” Kondo said.
Zimseza is a statutory body set up in terms of the Special Economic Zones Act (Chapter 14:34) mandated to designate, attract and administer Special Economic Zones in Zimbabwe.

While Zimbabwe’s “import over export” problem remains, the project is said to contribute greatly towards introducing new technologies and skill, value addition and import substitution.
 “Furthermore, the country and its human resource will benefit largely from the transfer of new granite cutting and polishing technologies which will make our granite products competitive on the international market thus increasing value to our natural resource,” Kondo added.

While the Mutoko people have bemoaned exploitation of resources as the community wallows in poverty, Kondo said Surewin Investment (Pvt) Ltd has also undertaken the social responsibility projects to assist the local community.

“The organisation promises to undertake the following projects in its continued support and assistance to the local community construction of access roads, seasonal road maintenance, completion of learning blocks at Manemba Primary and Nyakabau Primary School and upgrading of local school facilities,” he said.

To date the authority has declared five special economic zones namely Masuwe stateland in Victoria falls measuring 1 200 hectares, Fernhill in Mutare measuring 87 hectares, stand 518 Beitbridge and its surroundings measuring 105 hectares, Imvumila industrial area in Bulawayo and the Belmont, Kelvin, Donnnington corridor also in Bulawayo.

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Musicians of the moment in showbiz Winky D and Jah Prayzah have been dwarfed by rookies in the industry in this year’s edition of National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) amid indications that their flirtation with politics cost them.

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Last week, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (Nacz), the organisers of the annual awards unveiled the list of nominees where Winky D was missing. Jah Prayzah was however, nominated in one category, outstanding music video for Dzamutsana. Popular comedienne Samantha Kureya aka Gonyeti also faltered in this year’s Namas.

However, many have suggested that the arts mother body deliberately elbowed out individual artistes such as Jah Paryzah, Winky D and several others who of late have appeared to dabble in politics. This has seen the awards, scheduled for March 23 at Harare International Conference Centre (HICC), being dominated by gospel music sensation Janet Manyowa who bagged three nominations in different music categories.

Manyowa was nominated in outstanding music video, outstanding female musician and outstanding music album categories.
Manyowa’s music video Tinomutenda Neyi was nominated together with Jah Prayzah’s Dzamutsana and Tekere from Tamy Moyo. Under outstanding female musician category she is competing with

Thamsanqa Moyo aka Tamy and Sandra Ndebele.
Her album Grateful is in the same category with Ntunjambila by Majahawodwa Ndlovu aka Jeys Marabini, Tseu Tseu by Enock Munhenga aka ExQ and Dzinosvitsa Kure by the sungura kingpin Alick Macheso.

Tamy Moyo, ExQ and Enzo Ishall have got two nominations each.
Meanwhile, Winky D, Gonyeti and Jah Prayzah have been making headlines in the showbiz due to their political stance.
Winky D and Gonyeti have been aligned to opposition politics if their works are anything to go by.
The Zimdancehall music stalwart, Winky D, made waves in the music industry following the release of his controversial song titled Kasong Kejecha which was immediately linked to opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa who has also suspiciously endorsed the singer.
Gonyeti was recently summoned to the police and subsequently paid $20 fine after she used clothes that resembled police uniforms in one of her skits on social media.

Unlike her co-actress Magi, real name Sharon Chideu, Gonyeti is too vocal against dictatorial tendencies of the present government.
On the other hand, Jah Prayzah is linked to Zanu PF and he is the brand ambassador of the army hence he is allowed to don army regalia on stage.

His release of the song Mudhara Achauya was interpreted to mean that he was predicting the fall of former president Robert Mugabe and his replacement by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the November 17 soft coup.

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