HARARE - Zora star Leonard Zhakata (pictured below) has poured cold water on reports that he walked away with $6 000 after claiming the top three positions on the 2016 Radio Zimbabwe Coca-Cola Top 50 due to the influence of popular preacher Emmanuel Makandiwa.

Some music fans and critics alike have claimed that Zhakata won the prestigious contest after Makandiwa directed members of his United Family International Church (UFIC) to vote for the music star.

“I know people are talking a lot, some saying the victory is a result of prophet Makandiwa’s miracles while others have attributed the success to UFIC congregants but little did they know that ...Makandiwa last spoke about my career in church way back in 2011 before I even released Gotwe…he is too busy to talk of artistes’ work in church,” said Zhakata, who is a UFIC member.

The Mugove singer remembers just a single occasion when the UFIC founder spoke about his music.

“The only time he talked about my music was when he (Makandiwa) said his father was not a fan of secular music until he came across my music which changed his perception towards secular music,” he told the Daily News on Sunday.

Zhakata, who walked away with $2 500 for claiming top position on the Coca-Cola music chart, $2 000 for earning second position and $1 500 for also getting position number three, said fellow UFIC members were equally baffled by the manner he made a clean sweep of the entire purse of the 2016 Radio Zimbabwe Coca-Cola Top 50.

“I was not the only one pleasantly surprised by the victory; even UFIC members were astonished by the victory as the majority of them were not even aware of this voting process .They have , however, promised to vote for me this year,” he said, adding that his victory was inspired by God.

“I believe God is using me as an instrument or example to show his grace on people. My success story has transformed people’s lives differently and I urge other artistes to turn to God and repent so that they can also enjoy these benefits.”

The zora star described his fans as “the best in Zimbabwe.”

“The victory came at the right time when some people thought I was finished but my fans — the zora cadres — stood by me, sacrificing the little resources they have including airtime to vote for me. I will always be grateful to them. Without them I am nothing,” said Zhakata.

He has urged other artistes to learn some lessons from the way his songs claimed the top three positions.

“Being the only artiste in the top three does not mean my music is better than that of other musicians. What simply happened is that my fans voted more than those of other artistes. I have a feeling that we will see more music fans supporting different musicians. I am really looking forward to it,” said the award-winning singer.

He conceded that he is now under pressure to prove that the victory was not a fluke.

“The victory has put us under some sort of pressure. We want to prove a point that we deservedly won considering that some sections of the society argued that our album was not good at all.

“We have already lined up new releases for this year. We are planning to release other songs which were originally on Mutunga Dzese and another full album.

“I am determined to be part of artistes who are contributing to the revival of sungura music. Sungura artistes worked hard last year because they were tired of playing second fiddle to Zimdancehall. It started with Alick Macheso’s powerful album Tsoka Dzerwendo (Ayaya) which was complemented by our album and several others,” said the Madam Boss singer.

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HARARE - Female musicians are struggling in a big way to give their male counterparts a good run for their money.

A case in point is the annual Radio Zimbabwe Coca-Cola Top 50 which featured only three female artistes.

Fungisai Zvakavapano-Mashavave, at position 10, was the top-placed female artiste with her duet with Killer T titled Vanondibatirana. The second best was Agatha Murudzwa who claimed position 19 with the song Zvakatirongera while rookie Prevalent Sithole, at position 35, was the third best female artiste on the strength of the song Inheritance.

The poor performance on the charts by female artistes was not restricted to last year. Over the past decade men have dominated the prestigious annual chart.

The artistes who have claimed the top position and the associated prize money include Leonard  Zhakata, Pengaudzoke, Marko Sibanda (late), Simon Chimbetu (late), Charles Charamba, Alick Macheso, Hosea Chipanga, Cephas Mashakada (late), Joseph Garakara, Tongai Moyo (late), Gift Amuli, Freddy Manjalima, Jah Prayzah and Blessing Shumba.

Fungisai believes the playing field is not level. She wants the top three women on the Radio Zimbabwe Coca-Cola Top 50 to be given prizes regardless of their position on the annual chart because “patriarchal social structures” favour men.

“I just wish they could recognise the top three female artistes too. It’s not because we aren’t good musicians but it’s rather unfortunate that we have no time to mobilise people’s votes because we are busy with household chores,” said the Makomborero singer.

But Fungisai’s suggestion has been opposed by fellow artistes who include Zimbabwe Musicians Union (Zimu) president Edith WeUtonga.

The Mukaranga singer, who is arguably the country’s best female bassist, is against preferential treatment of female artistes.

“I think we are all musicians when it comes to radio charts. The issue of quotas or gender holds no water here; it does not apply. Rather, it is our duty as artistes to market our music to the public. We need to mobilise our fans to vote for us, that’s all,” said Edith WeUtonga.

Female artistes’ lack of consistency and visibility appear to be at the centre of their failure to make a mark in the male-dominated music industry. In 2012, Cindy Munyavi and Clare Nyakujara co-founded the Kumabhebhi Concerts which sought to provide a platform for female artistes. Sadly, the initiative was discontinued after a couple of years.

Cindy told the Daily News on Sunday that the Kumabhebhi Concerts died due to lack of resources.

“Funding was the main issue. We got to a point where we stopped

approaching organisations for funding and resorted to funding ourselves,” she said.

Last year, Cindy and Clare tried to revive the initiative but they only managed to hold just a single show.

Apart from the defunct Kumabhebhi initiative, several leading lights among female artistes have fallen by the wayside due to either misfortune or self-inflicted transgressions. A good example is Afro-jazz star Dudu Manhenga whose career went off the rails in a dramatic way after she was involved in a fatal accident with a cyclist in 2010. From that point until she was convicted for causing the death of the motorcyclist in 2013, the talented Bulawayo-born artiste became less active on the music scene.

Dudu’s music career now appears to be playing second fiddle to her new role as a pastor with Jubilee Christian Centre under the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe Church.

Another female artiste whose career is dramatically losing the spark is Zimdancehall star Lady Squanda. Since she was recorded on video assaulting comedian Skimbo Ziso, the award-winning Zimdancehall star’s career has never been the same again.

Thanks to the Skimbo debacle, Lady Squanda was kicked out of the Bodyslam Madirirano United Kingdom tour in September last year by music promoter Simbarashe “Bodyslam” Chakare.

To make matters worse, the Squanda Fire Ndini singer failed to turn up for a concert which had been billed as “The Return of Lady Squanda” hosted by City Sports Bar in December last year.

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HARARE - The current heavy rains have indeed come as a blessing for communities like those in Zimbabwe, which are still reeling from the effects of the El Nino-induced drought that ravaged the country last season.

However, it appears nobody in Zimbabwe cares a jot about harnessing the excess water for future use.

Authorities must ensure they provide the requisite education to the population — both urban and rural — on the need to harvest this excess water that often flows off into the oceans.

The most common methods are surface run-off harvesting and rooftop rainwater harvesting — both of which can be effective methods of channelling rainwater into reservoirs.

It is important for government, through the Agriculture ministry, to also provide the technical expertise in the construction of tanks and aquifers for the storage of harvested water, to ensure they are not a danger to the very people they are built for.

The Metereological Services Department in Zimbabwe has forecast that the current heavy rains will continue, bringing back smiles on local authorities keen to see water levels in dams improve as this would guarantee continued supplies of the precious liquid.

Already, Harare’s major water source — Lake Chivero and Prince Edward in Chitungwiza are already overflowing while Lake Mutirikwi – which is dry Masvingo’s sole water source — was only 9 percent full as of Friday.

For the rural population, however, much smaller dams and aquifers can help store the excess rainwater. Sadly, government has never had these projects on top of their priority list despite their importance for rural folks, the majority of of whom rely on rain-fed agriculture.

Some countries in the Far East like Indonesia have put on top of their agendas, the construction of reservoirs at homesteads to harness rainwater for future use in agricultural plots and livestock farms.

Zimbabwe could do the same. If government invests in these little dams for this critical rural mass, the ultimate benefits will accrue to the State.

Once they harnesses rainwater, rural communities could easily become self-sufficient in terms of food if they make use of the water to irrigate small plots and gardens.

Letting rainwater flow away is a luxury most of Zimbabwe cannot afford, especially at times when above-normal rains fall as is expected to happen this season.

It is mandatory for government to allocate resources towards water harvesting projects because there is every benefit in doing so. It is also a sure way of empowering rural communities that rely on farming and animal rearing for survival.

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HARARE - Vendor Tapiwa Gumande quickly gathers her tomatoes and onions from the pavement and throws them in a box as she takes to her heels, fleeing from a joint taskforce of State and municipal police.

In the process, about five of her tomatoes spill to the ground, but she does not look back with the cops in hot pursuit.

Her neighbour was not so lucky as State and municipal police pounced on her green mealies and threw them into their lorry.

All perishables confiscated from food vendors are being destroyed to avoid cross contamination, according to the Harare City Council(HCC). The goods are being destroyed in the presence of the owners.

This has become the everyday interaction between the authorities and vendors over the past week, after the decision by the inter-ministerial committee to ban vending after 150 cases of typhoid and two deaths were recorded in Harare alone.

Deadly clashes have erupted in the MDC-run capital city since authorities tried to remove illegal street stalls and vendors from the CBD. Police have used batons to disperse the vendors. Some vendors have fought back, surrounding police, pelting them with rubbish, bricks and bottles and wrestling them.

The move to clear illegal vendors who sell local delicacies, trinkets and household goods from makeshift streetside stalls and carts has so far faced fierce resistance.

This comes as Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) lawyer Tonderai Bhatasara has filed an urgent chamber application in the High Court challenging the ban on vending in the city centre.

The hawkers, a common sight on Harare’s bustling streets, have vowed to stay put.

“The only way they will remove us from the streets is if government implements policies that will create employment, kumhanyisana nekanzuru (engaging in running battles with council officials) has become part of the job,” Gumande told the Daily News on Sunday.

“If I get off the streets and stop vending, what do I do? My husband is not working, is there any industry that you can direct him to where he can find employment?”

“... we do not enjoy being here on the streets the whole day, right now it’s raining, we are here, when the sun is blazing we will be here, when it’s cold we are here, this is not the life we want.”

She said vending was their only source of income, and removing them from the streets was as good as taking away their livelihoods.

“We are living from hand to mouth; with vending I can buy a little food for my family.

“It’s not even enough for school fees for my two children, and the other one is in Grade Seven, what  must I do?”

Leading  experts are warning that Harare is on the brink of a “public health catastrophe” — because of typhoid outbreaks, severe diarrhoea and other diseases —  that is so severe it could pose a threat to the  rest of the country.

A “perfect storm” of conditions for the spread of diseases had developed, with vast numbers of vendors amid a collapse in the country’s healthcare and sanitation systems.

Health minister David Parirenyatwa and the HCC have blamed vendors for the outbreak of typhoid, and said they had agreed to prohibit and stop the vending of food - processed or unprocessed, fruit and vegetables — at undesignated places.

“Even if they blame us for spreading typhoid, what can we do? True, vamwe vedu vane hutsvina, tinobvuma, but todii (some vendors are filthy, but what can we do?),” Gumande asked rhetorically.

“Those markets they want us to move to, ndiyani anouyako (who goes there), can someone get a kombi (minibus) for 50 cents to go to Coca-Cola to buy tomatoes or bananas? We come to town because that is where the people are.”

Viset lawyer Bhatasara said: “They are forcing vendors to go to designated sites which do not have water and toilet facilities yet they are claiming to be fighting the spread of typhoid.

“Instead of fixing the water, sanitation and sewer infrastructure, they are wasting resources on this exercise.”

HCC health director Prosper Chonzi said the decision to remove vendors from the city centre must be understood as a measure of curbing typhoid and not punishment on vendors.

“Typhoid is orally transmitted, which means you have to eat or drink something that is contaminated with salmonella typhi.

“If you don’t drink or eat, it means you don’t get it,” Chonzi told the Daily News on Sunday.

“The ultimatum to vendors has been misconstrued to be a confrontational thing. I would rather people appreciate why we are making certain pronouncements and why we are taking certain measures because we want to break the typhoid transmission cycle. “

He said people must see the perceived benefits of not buying food from an illegal vendor.

“Those people who sell meat from the floor, they buy fish from Darwendale that we know is bred in liquid sewer and you braai. If people see the benefits of our message, then they are likely to comply.

“As it is, people think we are just banning vending just for the sake of banning or for the sake of punishing people. That is not the intention.

“We want to be able to stop the spread of typhoid because we know the mode of transmission and the mode of transmission informs the measures we are taking.”

Chonzi said although the cases seem to be going down, it was not yet time to celebrate.

“We are also getting cases from Budiriro and Glen View, about seven so far, the cases are much less than those coming from Mbare, but we are talking of a disease that has a long incubation period, about three weeks.”

The disease’s epicentre is a sprawling slum in downtown Harare, Mbare, where many have been sickened by contaminated water and food.

“Although the cases are coming down, it’s too early to celebrate because some people are still incubating and some could still relapse,” Chonzi said.

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HARARE - Morgan Tsvangirai’s opposition MDC has accused President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF of milking dry Zimbabwe’s parastatals to fund ruling party operations.

This comes as Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF on Friday took delivery of 320 vehicles, as the party escalates preparations for 2018 election campaign.

At least 45 samples of the vehicles were presented to Mugabe at the party’s Harare headquarters last December.

Of the 45 Ford Ranger trucks, Mugabe handed over 13 to war veterans through their minister, Tshinga Dube.

This brings the total number of vehicles procured so far to 365.

MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said reports that Zanu PF has acquired 365 brand new Ford Ranger SUV motor vehicles and buses vindicate what the party has always been saying that the Zanu PF regime was illegally and fraudulently raiding financial and material resources from various State corporations such as Zesa Holdings, Zinara, Zupco and Nssa in order to fund the operations of the ruling party.

This comes as parastatals are grappling with high overheads, inter-parastatal debts, maladministration, under-capitalisation, corruption and lack of good corporate governance which have negatively impacted on their operations.

“At a time when the government is struggling to timeously pay civil servants their salaries and bonuses, we are witnessing a situation whereby the insipidly corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF political party has embarked on a massive motor vehicle buying spree.

“We have got it on very good and credible authority that Zanu PF has used no less than $20 million to acquire a brand new fleet of SUV motor vehicles,” Gutu said yesterday.

Zanu PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo confirmed on Friday that his party has acquired 365 brand new Ford Ranger SUV motor vehicles although he did not publicly disclose the source of the money that was used to buy such a huge fleet of very expensive, all-terrain motor vehicles.

“As the make-or-break 2018 harmonised elections are fast approaching, we can expect the crumbling and deeply-divided Zanu PF regime to continue to ransack and defraud financial and material resources from the 77 or so State-owned corporations all of which are now technically insolvent,” Gutu said.

“That Zanu PF politicians are thieves and looters is no longer subject to debate. Jonathan Moyo, the Zanu PF secretary for science and technology, also recently publicly admitted that he looted thousands of dollars from Zimdef in order to buy bicycles and other goodies for traditional leaders in Tsholotsho North constituency!

“Such is the brazen stealing and ransacking of State resources by senior Zanu PF politicians that it is actually fashionable and trendy to loot and pilfer State-owned funds and other material resources.

“Right now, top Zanu PF politicians and Cabinet ministers are competing to steal and loot the little that is left of State assets in Zimbabwe.”

Gutu said the MDC as the government- in-waiting, “when we take over State power in 2018, shall immediately institute a thorough and holistic audit of all State resources to ensure that all those persons who have ransacked and stolen from the State and its various institutions shall be held to account.”

“In fact, the new government will effectively trace and recover all looted assets; including the billions of dollars in public funds that have been fraudulently externalised to foreign countries such as Dubai, Hong Kong, China and Singapore,” Gutu said.

This comes as typhoid has broken out in the capital, Harare, due to people consuming contaminated water and food.

An estimated 150 people have been infected with the contagious disease, which causes diarrhoea and can be fatal, the Harare City Council has said, confirming two deaths so far from typhoid.

Gutu said: “Hundreds of people have fallen victim to water-borne diseases such as typhoid and dysentery whilst Mugabe and his huge entourage of hangers-on are still on an extended annual holiday in the Middle and the Far East; busy squandering millions of United States dollars that have been taken away from the bankrupt national treasury.

“The road and railway infrastructure has literally fallen apart but our absentee nonagenarian president is not bothered one iota. This is most saddening and tragic.”

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HARARE - Human rights lawyers have squarely blamed investigators for their faulty police work, accusing them of investigative amnesia and guilty omissions, which led to the absence of solid cases in the courts against pro-democracy campaigners.

More than 100 Zimbabweans will in January stand trial on various charges related to staging protests against President Robert Mugabe’s administration over the deteriorating political and economic conditions in the country.

Courts have so far thrown out several cases against pro-democracy activists in their entirety because of the shoddy investigations and the procedural mistakes in the many trials that magistrates said were so unsound they could not be considered just.

Legal experts believe that the acquittals pointed to bungled work by police investigators.

Police spokesperson Charity Charamba could not immediately comment on the accusations yesterday, saying she was tied up at a function.

Opposition legislators, pro-democracy campaigners and ordinary citizens are among those who have been hauled to stand trial in January and acquitted in a month in which Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (Zlhr) lawyers among them Jeremiah Bamu, Tonderai Bhatasara, Trust Maanda, Kudzayi Kadzere, Obey Shava, Dorcas Chitiyo, Sharon Hofisi, and Gift Mtisi had a busy schedule in the country’s courts.

Some of the activists that have been acquitted include National Vendors Union leader Sten Zvorwadza, #Tajamuka leader Promise Mkwananzi, advocate Fadzai Mahere and Patson Dzamara.

Human rights lawyer Bamu said police were fuelling erosion of the rule of law in Zimbabwe owing to their shoddy probes.

“The State continues to embarrass itself by bringing half-baked cases to courts. The prosecution has unashamedly become a conduit through which the police persecute citizens who are deemed not to be in line with the wishes of a Police State that they seek to transform Zimbabwe into,” Bamu said.

Most cases have been thrown out for either lacking evidence, being malicious, with some found to breach the liberties guaranteed by the new Constitution.

“The approach adopted by our police shows they are not adhering to the Constitution.

“They rush to arrest before investigating and in the end embarrass themselves by putting the justice system into ridicule,” Mtisi, a human rights lawyer, said.

“They overload the courts, denying deserving cases an opportunity for them to be dealt with within a reasonable time.”

Shava, a Zlhr award winner, said police have diverted from their mandate of protecting the public to torturing them.

“...their activities undermine gains from the 2013 Constitution such as the right to demonstrate, petition and political rights.

“That conduct also contradicts their constitutional mandate to protect and serve the very people they are currently persecuting and intimidating through malicious prosecution.

“To a greater extent, indeed conduct of the police leaves much to be desired and instead of promoting rule of law, they are focused on rule by law which entails a lot of subjugation of the masses, violating their freedom of expression, association, and conscience.”

Liberty Gono, a legal practitioner at Machaya and Associates, said the police must investigate before arrest and seek opinion from superiors if the investigation officer is not sure whether the matter is criminal or not.

“If there is reasonable suspicion that a crime might have been committed, only then can an arrest be made if the matter is not trivial and sent to court, full docket compiled and the matter is prosecuted.

“There is no need to arrest a suspect on trivial matters....the law is not concerned with trivial matters or de minimis non curat lex,  meaning police should advise as such....(and then the courts will) fine, caution or counsel.”

Gono said there should be no distinction between matters involving anti-government activists and other matters police handle, saying law enforcement agents should be impartial in execution of their duties.

“Matters involving anti-government activists are only problematic in that they come with certain instructions attached, leaving the junior investigation officer with no room to form his opinion as whether a crime has been committed or not and whether to arrest or not.

“In cases of activists, when a docket is compiled and brought to prosecution, prosecutors should decline half-baked cases which clog our courts,” Gono said.

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HARARE - Buying school supplies for the new curriculum has become costly as well as confusing.

Many parents wonder if some of the supplies — including expensive coloured and plain bond paper, traditional percussion instruments such as pianos and mbiras, Pritt, sticky-stuff, more exercise books, mini laptops, display files, more boxes of crayons and several other items — are really necessary.

The new curriculum is demanding that parents spend hundreds on supplies, even requiring bulk purchases of materials that benefit the entire class, in a move that is fomenting anger among parents who say the lists are real budget busters.

While many of the items may be inexpensive, dozens of inexpensive things do tend to add up.

Across the nation, parents are lamenting items appearing on the new curriculum supply lists that they feel schools themselves should fund.

“With the current economic conditions, we have been struggling to provide for our children’s needs and with the new curriculum coming in with new stationery demands including bond papers, sports kits and other necessities, our situation has become worse especially with the burden of the ever-increasing school fees,” Eriah Muriga, a parent from Mashonaland East Province, told the Daily News on Sunday.

“After paying fees, then bam, you have all these new demands. It’s now very difficult for us as parents given the economic hardships we face.”

Spending on back-to-school supplies has increased dramatically.

When government decided to implement the new education curriculum, Zimbabweans thought it was a smooth sailing affair.

It was envisaged that the new curriculum would bring to an immediate end the myriad of challenges that learners encountered, including missing or inadequate teaching materials, lack of competent teachers and appropriate curricula.

It was argued there was no point in providing an opportunity for a child to enrol in school if the quality of education is so poor that the child will not become literate or numerate, or will fail to acquire critical life skills.

Yet, barely one school term after the new curriculum was implemented; there are already howls of disapproval from stakeholders including teachers, parents and the learners themselves.

Critics said the proposed new framework is a retrograde step, risking narrowing opportunity for many pupils, rather than enhancing and supporting it.

Teachers complain, for example, that the new curriculum is complex and involves a myriad of new demands, new technologies for all schools, while the majority of institutions in the rural areas lack the requisite infrastructure and most teachers were not computer literate.

President of Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Takavafira Zhou told the Daily News on Sunday  that there was confusion and uncertainty when schools opened for the first term.

“Fundamentally, teachers had expected a gradual implementation of the new curriculum, punctuated by widespread engagement and consultation,” Zhou said.

“Many schools remain understaffed as teachers have not been recruited, let alone deployed to numerous understaffed schools.”

Zhou said the situation was compounded by the new electronic application system for Form One places, “and it created more problems than it intended to resolve, more so given the technological challenges faced by parents”.

He argued that the implementation of new curriculum was rushed and that it left teachers wondering where to start, as the syllabi and teaching resources are not yet in some schools, especially in rural areas.

“The heads of schools were as shocked as teachers, and waiting for further information from the line ministry, which may take days to filter down to schools.

“And even when it does, it will not provide a panacea to the challenges faced in schools,” he said.

Stakeholders also said the 12 terms of continuous assessment in the new curricula would make it impossible to implement the new syllabus anywhere beyond Grades One to Four for primary schools and Form One at secondary level.

The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union (Artuz) said almost all rural schools were not ready to implement the new school curriculum.

According to the union, 2017’s learning season failed to kick-start smoothly as both teachers and school authorities grappled with challenges of implementing the new curriculum.

A snap survey conducted by Artuz revealed that 98 percent of sampled schools in rural areas were not ready to implement the new curriculum.

“Learners interviewed revealed that they were unconscious of the expectations of the new curriculum,” Artuz president, Obert Masaraure, said.

“In secondary schools, Form Three pupils are affected the most. The entry behaviour of learners in Form Three does not empower them to tackle new learning areas such as computers and pure science subjects,” he said.

“Teachers in the sampled schools revealed that they had not schemed because they do not have syllabi for the new curriculum.”

A teacher at one rural school in the Midlands was quoted saying a workshop on the new format on scheming is on the line up for Form Three and One teachers.

“There is a lack of preparedness for the teachers to implement new learning programme. Schools are also understaffed as new subjects have been introduced but a number of teachers remained unchanged. Integrated science teachers are now being forced to teach physics, biology and chemistry,” Masaraure said.

A visit by Artuz to schools in Gokwe showed apparent lack of infrastructure to implement new blueprint.

“No electricity for compulsory computer programs, no laboratories and no text books for the content to be taught. The story is the same in bulk of rural schools,” Masararure said.

“In all this chaos government response was to deploy overzealous inspectors countrywide. The inspectors could not do much as they realised that they was nothing to inspect.

“The schools were not ready to teach.”

“After all has been said the new curriculum not only causes confusion but is bound to fail to significantly change exit behaviour of learners.”

Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora introduced the new school curriculum as part of efforts to strengthen a needs-driven education system.

Dokora argues that the previous one lacked balance, with the core subjects largely academic such as Geography, English, Indigenous Literature, Mathematics, Science and History.

He claimed the sector needed strengthening through an education system which would have strong scientific, vocational and technical bias and would also stress a strong value system.

The minister said education was an empowering component which needed to be exploited to the maximum as captured in the new development blueprint, ZimAsset, which sought to empower communities and individuals while growing the national economy.

The minister also announced the introduction of non-formal or second chance education which will be used to complement the formal education system in        imparting academic and social skills.

The non-formal education component will implement some of the recommendations of the 1999 Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry into education and training by increasing access to both basic and secondary education.

“There is an increased number of children who are leaving the school system without productive skills. This has precipitated the need to revitalise non formal education to assist these out of school youths,” said the minister.

The review in the curriculum comes against the backdrop of poor performances by schools in public examinations from Grade Seven to ‘‘A’’ Levels.

Zimbabwe’s education system was once among the best and at one time had the highest literacy rate on the continent before dropping behind Tunisia.

The curriculum review process and the second chance education are all components that are being funded under the Education Development Fund being administered by Unicef and is looking at developing a transitional mechanism for development partners to jointly support the reinvigoration of the education sector in Zimbabwe, with Primary and Secondary Education ministry assuming the leadership role.

When Dokora announced the decision to implement the new curriculum with immediate effect, he insisted that the process was going to witness consultations with parents and other interested parties at school, district, provincial and national levels.

But teachers said schools and teachers were not given the professional freedom to develop the detailed content and pedagogy, collaboratively with other professionals, the local community, employers, pupils and families.

Instead of raising standards, there is a risk of inhibiting progress for large numbers of children, and labelling others as failures.

The sheer volume of content of the core subjects in the new proposals at primary, coupled with the year-on-year specifications, risks unrealistic and inappropriate expectations of children at too early an age, teachers warned.

While teachers shared the government’s commitment to raising achievement and closing gaps, they had real concerns about the “negative move” the proposals could have on pupils’ learning.

It is obvious that many others in the field of education share those concerns.

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BIKITA - Villagers in Bikita who spoke to the Daily News on Sunday yesterday recounted horror stories of thuggery and intimidation by Zanu PF apparatchiks.

They said the sum total of the anti-democratic behaviour was to force them, as allegedly directed “from above”, to vote for the ruling party.

Many of the visibly-shaken villagers said they had ended up duly voting for Zanu PF, fearing that they would be dealt with ruthlessly if they disobeyed the “chefs” (Zanu PF bigwigs).

It was also claimed that some traditional leaders had either willingly, or under duress, also participated in the thuggery, amid allegations that many people had been told that they were being closely monitored even when they were in voting booths.

This was confirmed by Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) interim chairperson for Masvingo, Claudius Makova, who said regardless of the fact that on the actual voting day there was “a semblance of tranquillity”, the by-election could not be viewed as “free, fair and credible by any stretch of the imagination”.

“We know that there are some village heads who are acting as Zanu PF political commissars. One of the biggest culprits is village head Musavengana who told his subjects that they must vote for Zanu PF.

“They intimidate people and are introducing other mechanisms to rig this election. This must stop for the good of the nation,” Makova told the Daily News On Sunday.

Peace civic group, Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT), also noted “multiple” electoral malpractices in the run up to yesterday’s voting.

“Heal Zimbabwe is greatly concerned with the escalation of intimidation, forced attendance and unfair food aid and vote buying in Bikita West.

“The organisation views the escalation of human rights violations in Bikita West as a hindrance to the conducting of free and fair elections and limits the free participation of the voters,” its director, Rashid Mahiya, said.

“Heal Zimbabwe notes that the participation of village heads and the coercion of villagers to attend political gatherings is a grave and serious violation of the Constitution which provides for political rights where citizens should be free to participate, form or join political parties of their choice,” he added.

A local villager, who was on his way to vote at Maregere Shopping Centre yesterday, claimed in an interview with the Daily News on Sunday that they had been given Zanu PF membership cards on Thursday, in addition to being forced to fill “special” forms ahead of voting.

“They told us that they will know everyone’s vote through the forms. Village heads were also threatened by Zanu PF and were told that they must make sure that the ruling party wins,” the terrified voter said.

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HARARE - Analysts, civil society groups and the opposition were united in condemning the conduct of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF in the Bikita West by-election which was held yesterday, saying this did not bode well for the looming 2018 national elections.

Speaking to the Daily News on Sunday yesterday, they said the warring and under pressure former liberation movement had “openly signposted” how it would use “foul and murderous” methods to retain power in the eagerly-anticipated 2018 polls, after the run-up to the Bikita West by-election was marred by deadly violence and intimidation of voters.

The results of the hotly-contested by-election were not yet available at the time that the Daily News on Sunday went to print late last night.

However, analysts, rights groups and the opposition were adamant that they had seen enough in the events leading to the mini-poll to understand Zanu PF’s thuggish strategy for the 2018 national polls.

“The shocking political violence witnessed in the Bikita West by-election, just as what happened in Norton, confirms that Zanu PF’s infrastructure of violence remains intact and that the police will always look the other way when the party unleashes political violence.

“This is a red flag that the 2018 elections will probably be as violent as the 2008 elections, with no accountability whatsoever for abuses. Zimbabwe is yet to move away from a culture of violence,” Human Rights Watch senior researcher for southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga, said.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, which once again declined to participate in the by-election, insisting on the implementation of sweeping electoral reforms to level the playing field, also warned that Zanu PF was “oiling its coercive machinery” in preparation for 2018.

“Whenever Zanu PF feels threatened, they revert to their default mode of violence, intimidation and thuggery,” MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said.

“The regime was shocked by the result of the Norton by-election and this is why they are employing unprecedented violence and massive vote-buying measures as part and parcel of their election campaign tactics.

“But the fact remains that ... Mugabe and Zanu PF are now unelectable. We urge the people of Zimbabwe, particularly the youths, to register to vote in their thousands as soon as Zec commences the biometric voter registration exercise in March 2017,” he added.

In the run-up to yesterday’s by-election, suspected Zanu PF thugs, who were brandishing guns, left for dead National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) candidate Madock Chivasa and his election agent Thomas Muzuva — as they made their way from a local shop where they had gone to buy food.

It was this merciless attack on Chivasa and Mudzamiri which heightened fears that Zanu PF had launched its bloody campaign ahead of the watershed 2018 elections.

Analysts have also said that it is worrying that there appeared to be “a consistent method of intimidation and violence by Zanu PF” in the country’s recent by-elections.

In the run up to the Norton by-election last October, in which Zanu PF candidate Ronald Chindedza was trounced by  former Mashonaland West provincial chairman Temba Mliswa, supporters of the ruling party ran amok as the brawling former liberation movement went for broke in its desperate bid to win the plebiscite.

Armed with sticks and stones, drunk ruling party hooligans, battered supporters of Mliswa and fought running battles with police — in barbaric scenes which turned the usually sleepy Harare dormitory town into a mini war zone.

The chaotic scenes left scores of people badly injured and forced Mliswa to cancel his scheduled rally at Ngoni Stadium where thousands of his supporters had gathered for a star rally.

And fearing a repeat of its mauling in the Norton by-election last November, Zanu PF had deployed the full might of its terror machine in the subsequent Chimanimani West by-election, which unsettled many villagers there.

“The violence we witnessed in Bikita and Norton are a clear indication of what the 2018 election holds in store. As expected, Zanu PF will resort to its default strategy of violence, intimidation and coercion, which is all not surprising,” political analyst, Maureen Kademaunga, also told the Daily News on Sunday.

“What is worrying are the levels of complacency that the law enforcement agencies who should be preserving peace are displaying.

“Also, it is quite disturbing that in 2016 we actually witnessed police themselves being perpetrators of violence through the aggressive and unwarranted use of force on unarmed civilians during protests,” Kademaunga said.

Civic groups which were monitoring the Bikita West by-election have also raised concerns regarding a number of irregularities during the course of last week, which they blamed squarely on Zanu PF.

Among the electoral malpractices listed by the observer groups were the commandeering of villagers to Zanu PF meetings where they were directed to give their headmen ballot paper serial numbers, feigning illiteracy, so that they could be “assisted” to vote.

In September last year Zanu PF youths also ran amok in Guruve, embarking on an orgy of political violence there and bludgeoning four Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) bigwigs — including a retired senior military official and former diplomat —  before forcing a forcing a local school to close.

The barbaric attacks by the axe-wielding ruling party mobs against ZPF officials also saw property worth tens of thousands of dollars, including two vehicles, being destroyed in the historically volatile Mashonaland Central Province.

The bloody scenes at Dunaverty Farm, where the three ZPF officials are running agricultural operations, left four people hospitalised, including Retired Brigadier-General and former Zimbabwe ambassador to Mozambique, Agrippa Mutambara.

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BANJUL - Officials in Equatorial Guinea refused to comment on Sunday on whether ousted former Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh had arrived in the country.

But in a statement, Equatorial Guinea's opposition denounced the presence of Jammeh, whose 22-year reign was marked by systematic human rights abuses, on their soil.

Jammeh slinked off in the dead of night from The Gambia's capital Banjul in the early hours of Sunday on an unmarked plane alongside Guinea-Conakry's president Alpha Conde.

The strongman's departure ended six weeks of political turmoil sparked by Jammeh's refusal to accept his election defeat to new Gambian President Adama Barrow.

Following a short stopover in Conakry, the Guinean capital, Jammeh was due to head to Equatorial Guinea, a top Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) military official said.

But asked by AFP to confirm this news, Equatorial Guinean authorities did not comment.

However, Equatorial Guinea's Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) opposition hit out at the decision to grant Jammeh "political exile".

"The CPDS rejects this decision and holds" President Teodoro Obiang Nguema "responsible" for any consequences Jammeh's presence on Equatorial Guinean soil could bring, the opposition said in a statement acquired by AFP.

The CPDS said other countries had offered to host Jammeh and stressed that Equatorial Guinea has "never welcomed political exiles".

The opposition accused Obiang of showing "contempt" towards the country and "thinking only of his personal gain".

Obiang has been president of Equatorial Guinea since ousting his uncle in 1979.

He has been accused of human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, being a dictator and of encouraging a personality cult in the tiny oil-rich nation.

Opposition in the country is barely tolerated and the 74-year-old leader was re-elected in April with almost 94% of the vote.

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HARARE - Dynamos have retained the services of coach Lloyd Mutasa, despite a number of stakeholders feeling he would not be up to the task.

Mutasa’s stock had hit rock bottom following a lukewarm season which saw the Harare giants finish the season in a distant fifth place.

The Dynamos executive met at yesterday’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) and club president Kenni Mubaiwa insisted that Mutasa, was not a spent force yet.

“We sat down as an executive and decided that for the time being let coach Mutasa carry on for continuity’s sake,” Mubaiwa said.

“We will give him a performance-based contract and the first five matches of the season will be crucial for him in whether we keep him. So he must bring results. He knows exactly what we are talking about and he must make sure he gives us better results including tournaments like the Bob Super Cup. If he fails in the first five matches he is likely to go because look, we have failed in two successive seasons and this time we want results.”

Despite the demands, it was not immediately clear if funds would be availed to allow the former FC Platinum coach to strengthen his squad for the new season.

The side is presently battling to retain some of their best players whose contracts expired at the end of 2016.

They have already lost defender Godknows Murwira and midfielder Dominic Mukandi, who have joined Ngezi Platinum Stars.

Midfielder Brett Amidu has already joined FC Platinum.

Goalkeeper Tatenda Mkuruva, who is in Gabon with the national team, is also out of contract and could be on his way out.

Mubaiwa, however, put on a brave face apparently banking on Dynamos’ rich history which has lured rising youngsters in recent years.

“We will meet the technical team on Tuesday (tomorrow). We have got a lot of players who are willing to join us,” Mubaiwa said.

“…we are definitely going to look for possible replacements. There is going to be a lot of surprises. As Dynamos we are known for grooming players. You look at a player like (Brett) Amidu he was going to be one of the best players but it’s a pity that he has lost that opportunity because he chose to leave us.”

The club has also tasked Mutasa to pick his own backroom staff of the new season.

Meanwhile, Dynamos board secretary Mthokozisi Nkosi (formerly Kasiyazi) took a swipe at Ernest Kamba and his colleagues for trying to stop yesterday’s meeting.

Kamba and a number of former players had approached the High Court seeking to have the meeting stopped but Justice Priscilla Chigumba threw out the application.

“I think the clear message that came out which the stakeholders would like to know is that Dynamos is owned by these group of people who attended this meeting, these are the people who formulate policy so our stakeholders should not get confused,” Nkosi said.

“Those guys we can only encourage them to come and watch Dynamos play if they have ideas they can bring them in through the appropriate channel.”

Nkosi said the club will also not be offering any of their yesteryear heroes free entrance into club matches adding the club needs their money for the players’ welfare.

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HARARE - Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa is not throwing in the towel yet and is confident his side can beat Tunisia this evening and qualify for the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Zimbabwe take on the Carthage Eagles tonight at the Stade de L’Amitie in the Gabon capital Libreville at 9pm.

The Warriors are still smarting from last Thursday’s humbling 2-0 defeat to Senegal while Tunisia boosted their chances of reaching the last eight after a 2-1 victory over Algeria also on Thursday.

It was a disappointing loss for Zimbabwe after the early promise the team had shown in the entertaining 2-2 draw against Algeria in their opening match of the competition.

“We lost it during that early period against Senegal, where we were caught cold,” Pasuwa told reporters yesterday ahead of the match.

“We improved as the game progressed, but it was difficult to recover playing such a team. It is a lesson learnt for us, but the good part is we are still in it, it’s not yet over.

“We have to fight against Tunisia and we know a win can take us through.”

Zimbabwe paid dearly for trying to go toe-to-toe against the Lions of Teranga as they were decimated by the West Africans , who scored two quick-fire goals through Sadio Mane and Henri Saivet in the opening 15 minutes.

From there, the Warriors were kept at bay and never really troubled goalkeeper Abdoulaye Diallo for the remainder of the game. 

Although they began the competition with a 2-0 loss to Senegal — Tunisia played some irresistible football but lacked the killer instinct.

Henryki Kasperczak’s side rectified their mistakes to convert their chances when they downed Algeria last Thursday.

“We sat together as a team and I kept on motivating the players knowing that as the tournament proceeds they will gain more confidence.

“It was not an easy game because our opponents were also working hard to get a win, but we realised we could beat them in the first 20 minutes.”

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HARARE - Ex-Big Brother Africa (BBA) star Jerome “JJ” Arab is expecting a child with top Zambian songtress Namvula Rennie.

A delighted JJ, who represented Zimbabwe in the 2014 edition of BBA, posted a video on Instagram and Facebook of the first baby scan with the caption: “I am so excited and thank you God for this blessing...”

In an interview with the Daily News from Lusaka, JJ confirmed that he has been dating the highly-rated Namvula, who was born to a Zambian mother and Scottish father.

“We have been dating for just under a year. We are expecting the baby end of July or beginning of August,” JJ said.

The two met two years ago in Zambia.

“She was shooting a music video in Lusaka with Mojo Media and I was doing the same with my Zambian brother James Sakala. He had worked with her on her last album Shiwezwa and decided to introduce us. No fireworks from the get-go but now I can honestly say I have never been more in love,” said the former Zimbabwean BBA representative.

Though both are musicians, JJ was quick to point out that they try as much as possible not to interfere with each other’s creative processes.

“It is hard to stay out of each other’s music lives as we both have to manage ourselves which means every now and then we definitely have to assist each other with writing, melodies and planning shows but I try and keep my work, especially the stuff inspired by her to myself and she likes to work on her stuff separately,” he said.

JJ’s relationship with the Zambian folk songstress has inspired him to come up with an album titled Learning Love.

“This album is all about falling in love, falling out of love and being in love.  The amount of emotions swimming around inside you can inspire some great music. Love is a feeling and therefore it cannot be explained but only shown. This is me learning love,” he told the Daily News.

JJ intends to release the album on February 8 before a tour of southern Africa.

“Tracks on the album are Strawberry Moon, Sitandane, Come Ova, Your Love, Why/ Love you Better, Pieces and Letter to...

The Tour is made up of five countries, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia,” he said.

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HARARE - Music superstar Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi has lined up a series of monthly shows with different artistes as a build-up to a mega bash to mark his 65th birthday set for Pakare Paye Arts Centre on September 22.

The monthly celebratory concerts will begin on Saturday at Pakare Paye where Tuku will share the stage with his protégé Mbeu.

Tuku’s manager, Sam Mataure, told the Daily News that they have decided to mark the music superstar’s 65th birthday party in a special way.

“This weekend Tuku will share the stage with Mbeu who is a product of Pakare Paye Arts Centre. Next month on February 25 mudhara (Tuku) will perform alongside Jah Prayzah,” he said.

Mataure, who also doubles up as Tuku’s drummer, said the line-up of artistes to feature in the music superstar’s monthly concerts “will be as inclusive as possible.”

“It will feature both seasoned and upcoming artistes. We will ensure that both female and male artistes get the chance to share with mudhara Tuku. All these monthly concerts will be opened by Pakare Paye Arts Centre,” he said.

Mataure was not prepared to divulge the names of artistes to perform at Tuku’s mega birthday bash to be held in September.

“We can’t release the names yet but I can assure you that the birthday bash will be a very big event. It will feature top local, regional and international artistes,” he said.

Tuku’s 60th birthday concert held at the Glamis Arena attracted over 15 000 music fans. The event was graced by South African artistes Ringo Madlingozi, Dorothy Masuka, Judith Sephuma and Steve Dyer as well as top local musicians who included Alick Macheso, Suluman Chimbetu, Jah Prayzah, Munya Mataruse, Tryson Chimbetu, Allan Chimbetu, Diana Samkange and Willom Tight.

The internationally-acclaimed artiste is likely to invite again the artistes who performed at his 60th birthday concert and his other singing friends like South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela, the Kenyan duo of Suzanna Awiyo and Eric Wainana, South Africa-based Zimbabwean songstress Berita Khumalo and Mozambican music star Stewart Sukuma.

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HARARE - China's leading supplier of surveillance products, HIKVISION, has partnered Nations Hardware and Electrical to strengthen Zimbabwe’s security industry.

Nations Hardware and Electrical manager Dusty Joosab said it was the company’s objective to provide unique and world class services in the hardware, security and electrical goods sector.

“Having been in the hardware and tools industry for several years, we felt there was a need to fill a void that other players in the industry could not fill,” he said during the official launch of HIKVISION brand and family of products onto the Zimbabwean market last week.

Joosab added that there was need for true customer satisfaction by providing products and services that are unmatched in Zimbabwe.

Some of the products launched included e-policing — a system that can automatically detect traffic violations and generate traffic tickets automatically and advice motorists of fines on their registered mobile  devices — and automatic incident alerts to emergency response teams like ambulances and fire departments.

Other smart solutions include solutions for the energy sector, wildlife conservation, fleet monitoring, systems integration, vertical solutions and number plate recognition.

Joosab noted that Zimbabwe’s leading supplier of security-related products also aims to provide a service that is internationally-recognised — simultaneously providing quality products that are affordable and consistent with international standards.

HIKVISION products have become a household name and are now being specified by many governments, local authorities and industries as the product of choice to protect their utilities, correctional facilities and defence infrastructures.

Since its inception in 2001, HIKVISION has played an active role in video surveillance market, devoting eight percent of its annual revenue to research and development for continued product innovation.

Featuring the industry’s strongest research and development workforce, HIKVISION uses its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities to design and develop innovative CCTV and video surveillance products.

The company’s complete product suite includes Smart IP cameras, HD analog cameras, speed domes, NVRs, DVRs, video management software, access control and alarm systems, encoders, decoders, and other elements of sophisticated security systems.

HIKVISION products serve a diverse set of vertical markets that includes retail, banking and finance, transportation, education, commercial, government, and residential applications

The Chinese firm, which is publicly listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, has a truly global presence with regional offices in nearly 20 locations around the world.

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HARARE - Zimbabwe's trade deficit with the rest of the world declined to $2,3 billion last year compared to $3 billion in 2015, latest data show.

Figures released by the national statistics agency, Zimstat, on Friday showed that the country imported goods valued at $5,2 billion in 2016 compared to $2,8 billion exports.

Zimbabwe’s balance of trade has remained in negative territory in the last few years fuelled by economic decline that has hit on productivity while promoting imports.

In 2014, the country recorded a trade deficit of $3, 3 billion with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe citing in part the retreat in international commodity prices and lack of competitiveness.

The country’s main exports are still dominated by commodities such as gold, platinum, chrome and tobacco which are more vulnerable to international price fluctuations.

Market experts said the decline in imports was mainly as a result of low aggregate demand emanating from an economic slowdown and lack of pro-business policies rather than the country’s protectionist strategies.

To curtail the thirst for imports, government last year put in place measures including banning the importation of certain products through Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016.

However, the local manufacturing industry, once a major contributor to the country’s exports is currently struggling due to high labour costs, clogged cheap capital inflows, antiquated equipment and stiff competition from imports. As a result, its contribution to exports is now minimal.

The release of the trade figures came at time Old Mutual has projected that Zimbabwe’s economy would slump further this year due to continued decline in global commodity prices, fiscal challenges, and possible difficulties in policy implementation.

“Notwithstanding the improved trend in capacity utilisation, unless supportive measures are implemented to ensure that foreign currency generation improves, a reversal of the gains already achieved may result,” the insurance giant said in its latest economic outlook report.

Old mutual noted that signs of this are already popping up as some reports suggests that retailers have begun resorting to buying foreign currency at premium rates on the black market in order to restock and passing on the premium incurred to customers.

“This, if left unchecked is likely to result in internal inflation and resultantly less competitive products that could otherwise potentially earn export receipts.

That said, we are of the opinion that gross domestic product is unlikely to register positive growth if the foreign currency shortages persist,” the integrated financial services firm added.

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HARARE - Zimbabweans are dangerously unprepared for the natural disasters most of the country is exposed to if the latest incessant rains and subsequent floods are anything to judge by.

Government’s response to prolonged flooding in various areas of the country exposes weak political accountability.

For a nation coming out of a devastating drought, the latest natural disaster across the country’s cities, towns and rural areas illustrates how weak political accountability mechanisms are aggravating the human, economic, ecological and financial cost of the current floods.

The situation is likely to get worse in the coming  days amid indications that more heavy rains are expected in the country after a number of low-lying areas have already been seriously affected by flooding.

The Meteorological Services Department has warned that more rains are likely to fall this month, causing more problems for a country struggling to deal with the effects of monsoon type of rains.

There are reports that an eight-hour storm pounded Gwanda South last week, washing away three dams and crops in its wake.

Mud huts were destroyed and livestock was swept away following the storm that left a trail of destruction in the impoverished constituency.

The same story has been repeated in areas such as Gutu, Chipinge and Muzarabani among other areas in the country with the majority of people losing their livelihoods to the natural disaster. 

However, despite the flimsy excuses being given by the government, the real problem is not the heavy rainfall that has been pounding the country but the prolonged delay in getting the water off the land.

Investigating this problem reveals serious deficiencies in rehabilitation and maintenance work on the country’s drainage systems. The failure to efficiently complete these works for the past few years reflects too much government interference in council programmes and overly centralised decision-making.

Impromptu meetings between citizens and political figures last week in Harare provided, to date, the only opportunity for affected communities to learn about certain major decisions.

Such meetings are, however, no substitute for statutory mechanisms to engage citizens’ views in systematic consultation at local and national levels. This dismissive culture should be replaced by systematic community consultation on all social issues.

Currently, communities are robbed of any influence they have over decisions that affect them because of the absence of effective accountability to them about disaster responses.

The current thinking on disaster relief, which reduces — and at times even disregards — community involvement, is defective and disempowering and we recommend that it be corrected.

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HARARE - Following Ecowas’ sustained pressure that has forced Gambia’s former authoritarian leader Yahya Jammeh into exile in Equatorial Guinea after his crushing poll defeat, analysts and opposition parties said yesterday Sadc must abandon its cautious diplomatic approach and dissuade leaders such as President Robert Mugabe from subverting elections.

This comes after Ecowas sent 7 000 troops into Gambia on Thursday, forcing Jammeh to relinquish power in the face of onslaught from West African States to recognise his election defeat to opposition coalition leader Adama Barrow, who was forced to hold his inauguration as president in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

Sadc throughout its history has steadfastly avoided criticism of veteran leader — Mugabe, 92, and in power for 36 years — and even conferred legitimacy on the nonagenarian by continuing to recognise him as head of State and by advocating the formation of a coalition government to ensure the extension of his occupancy of State House, even after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai beat the Marxist leader in a March 29, 2008 election, but fell short of enough votes to avoid a June run-off.

Rather than seeking to uphold the will of the people, Sadc leaders fell into line behind Mugabe — in effect positioning themselves in agreement with the view that there is a malevolent white racist conspiracy to oust Mugabe and re-colonise Zimbabwe, led by Britain and the US.

Mugabe has adroitly capitalised on British denunciations of his policies to present himself as a victim of neo-colonial bullying.

As Zimbabwe lurches into ever deeper trouble amid very real fears about vote-rigging and subversion of the electoral process in the forthcoming 2018 polls, analysts said yesterday it was time Sadc learns from Ecowas and abandon its softly-softly approach which has been criticised as ineffective and tantamount to appeasement.

If the next Zimbabwe election is seriously flawed, it is imperative that the entire regional community responds immediately and all states refuse to recognise the results, analysts said.

The crisis that erupted after the March 29, 2008 elections, when it became clear Mugabe was bent on defying evidence of his defeat at the polls by Tsvangirai, was an important moment for Sadc but betrayed the regional bloc’s impotence.

“It is rather sad that the person who had the highest votes in the 2008 (Zimbabwe) election was forced to become a junior partner in a coalition government,” Gladys Hlatywayo, an analyst said.

“In the case of Gambia, Ecowas was clear in terms of its objective; they were negotiating and putting pressure for Jammeh to go.

“Sadc might have given us a breathing space given the enormous challenges the country was facing in 2008 but they did little to solve the crisis in a sustainable manner.

“Eight years later, Zimbabwe still faces the same challenges.”

Analysts said Sadc has provided substantive moral and political support for the Mugabe regime, which has encouraged it to behave with impunity.

With the Zimbabwean economy in freefall; law and order in the country breaking down alarmingly; and with presidential elections due next year, Mugabe faces the real prospect of being defeated again at the polls by a coalition of opposition parties.

But as checkmate day approaches for the 92-year-old leader, his administration is predictably going to ridiculous ends to stem the tide.

Since Mugabe’s crushing defeat in the 2008 polls, he has committed to clawing back his authority through a number of strategies including the deployment of terror and the use of judicial intimidation against the opposition; widespread torture and intimidation attested to by both national and international human rights bodies and using threats by the state and sections of the paramilitary youth movement.

He has also re-organised Zanu PF structures to ensure the promotion of a provincial leadership committed to a strategy of coercive mobilisation; constantly harassed the independent media, and imposed legislative interventions to consolidate the monopoly of the ruling party over the electronic media.

Analyst Maxwell Saungweme said it was a good move that Ecowas was able to rein on a losing head of State who wanted to cling to power.

“This is positive and refreshing. Though this succeeded in this case, it’s not a sustainable way of asserting people power.

“Citizens of a country must be able to reclaim their vote if politicians intend to steal it. A citizen cannot depend on foreign forces to address internal issues.

“I have heard people trying to draw parallels with Zimbabwe and Sadc. This approach worked in this one case and must not be expected to work everywhere.”

MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said Africa is moving away from the era of “Big Man politics” to the era of democracy centred on the people having the right to choose their leaders in free and fair elections.

“Jammeh and Mugabe are basically cut from the same political cloth, both of them are rabid and diehard dictators,” Gutu said.

“They are yesterday’s men. Such tyrants are now an anachronism on the African continent. If Sadc had properly and democratically intervened on the side of the people in Zimbabwe in March 2008, Mugabe would be history by now.

“Unfortunately, Sadc was more concerned with protecting Mugabe’s political reign that they effectively aided and abetted the Zanu PF regime to trash the people’s will.

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“After losing the March 2008 presidential election by more than 74 percent to ...Tsvangirai, Sadc should have put its foot down and called upon Mugabe to hand over power.

“Right now, Zimbabwe is a political and socio-economic hellhole thanks to Sadc’s incompetence and indolence.”

Opposition PDP spokesperson Jacob Mafume said Ecowas has put Sadc — which betrayed its mandate to promote respect for human rights and the rule of law, subverted the democratic processes and abandoned the people of Zimbabwe — to shame.

“Ecowas has shown that it is a community for the people and not a community for the leaders,” Mafume said.

“... Sadc seems to view democracy as a debatable notion only to be practised when it’s convenient. In other times, they pretend that regional security is by keeping ruling parties in power.

“In 2008, had they taken a decisive and bold stance, then Zimbabwe would be a better place and the region would have benefitted as a whole. Sadc is led by leaders who are dwarfs in giant robes,” he said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch senior researcher for southern Africa, Dewa Mavhinga, told the Daily News that generally Ecowas was more decisive and committed to its principles than Sadc, as the Jammeh case confirms.

“Ecowas did not hound Jammeh out of office; it simply stood up to dictator and defended its values.

“This is unlike Sadc which had strong principles for free and fair elections but is unwilling to defend them and was too cowardly to stand up and insist on those values in Zimbabwe in 2008,” Mavhinga said.

Analyst McDonald Lewanika said Ecowas continues to be a breath of fresh air and encouraging sign for the respect of people’s will and democratic practice on the continent.

“The lesson for other regional bodies like Sadc is clear, they must stop negotiating with power thieves and dictators when their people reject them or decide to go another route.

“The will of the people is supposed to be sacrosanct and Sadc should be able to defend it and associated threats to life to the end,” he said.

He said in Sadc, old loyalties and institutional cronyism takes precedence over democratic practice.

Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London told the Daily News there are no parallels of any decisive sort with Sadc.

“The situation in The Gambia was one where the electoral commission declared a clear winner in an observed election, and where the president at first accepted the results — seemingly with good grace,” Chan said.

“None of those conditions have pertained elsewhere. The Nigerians were particularly incensed about Jammeh’s change of mind, as the peaceful transition to (Muhammadu) Buhari in Nigeria depended on (former Nigeria President who served from 2010 to 2015) Goodluck Jonathan’s concession of defeat.

“For a while, it seemed Jonathan was indecisive about this.”

Chan said the other key player in case was Senegal, which surrounds The Gambia — itself a freak of colonial history where the people on both sides of the border share the same ethnicity, language and religion.

“But Senegal is huge and The Gambia is tiny and in strategic military terms, being long and narrow, is indefensible in any military sense.

“So, when 7 000 Senegalese soldiers in light armour crossed the border, the 2 500-strong Gambian army — which has never been tested anywhere — realised that all posturing was ridiculous and abandoned the president,” he said.

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HARARE - Stephen Chan, professor of world politics and international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, says it is vital that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who now leads the fledgling Zimbabwe People First (ZPF),  project themselves together  if the mooted grand coalition is to gain confidence of the general populace.

He speaks to Senior Assistant Editor Guthrie Munyuki about this and other issues and below are the excerpts of the interview.

Q: Do you see Zanu PF finally resolving its rumbling succession issue this year and what is likely to happen?

A: There are no indications the succession battles will be resolved in the near future. It would not be surprising, however, if a successor should be named by Robert Mugabe shortly after the 2018 elections.

Q: Who holds the aces and can there be one more final twist to this saga?

A: This saga has had many twists, but there have only really been two major factions since the departure of Joice Mujuru. These are the factions of Emmerson Mnangagwa, and those who oppose Emmerson Mnangagwa —but those who oppose him cannot decide on a champion who will carry their colours forward. The problem is that neither faction can decide on a set of policies to take Zimbabwe forward. If it finally comes down to personalities and not policies, the future cannot be bright.

Q: Increasingly, Mnangagwa’s backers are coming out in the open expressing confidence that he will succeed Mugabe, what’s your reading into this?

A: As long as those who oppose Mnangagwa cannot identify and rally around a candidate, he will be the one who attracts international attention. All major players, from the Europeans to the Chinese, have dossiers on Mnangagwa, and outline strategies on how to approach dealing with him. This is impossible when it comes to the opposing faction. In international terms, therefore, Mnangagwa is ahead by default.

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Q: Some say the Coffee Mug storm is a sign that Mnangagwa still has a lot to do to win over rivals in Zanu PF, is this a fair assessment?

A: This was stupid. I myself had a coffee mug with the same words on it. It’s just a personal joke to drink out of such a mug, first thing in the morning, when the world looks impossible. If people are quarrelling about this, it makes policy outlooks even more remote. If the mug had the words, ‘I will print money’ on it, then there would at least have been a debate on fiscal policy.

Q: For long we have been told the military will eventually decide Mugabe’s successor, is this possible when Mugabe clearly says they must not interfere with their internal affairs?

A: The military cannot be factored out. I doubt they will intervene directly or visibly, but they constitute a huge factor in Zimbabwean history and politics.

Q: How do the Zanu PF factional and succession fights impact the party’s chances in the 2018 national elections?

A: Zanu PF will probably win in 2018, if only because of disillusionment with the entire political process, including the democratic process, and because of disappointment over a squabbling opposition.

Q: In what way can the opposition benefit from Zanu PF widening fissures?

A: If the opposition was united, not only as a coalition of parties, but with united and detailed policies, then it could make inroads on Zanu PF — particularly if the economy has worsened by 2018. It seems to me, however, that no opposition leader has anything that resembles a detailed, workable plan or set of policies. It’s all generalities. There’s not a technocrat among them.

Q: Morgan Tsvangirai says he has recovered from cancer, how does a fit-again Tsvangirai change the dynamics of the 2018 elections?

A: Well, one doesn’t recover from cancer just like that. Recovery is a long-term affair and the body must not be subjected to undue stress — so I doubt we shall see a fully dynamic Morgan Tsvangirai. But even a fully fit Tsvangirai will change nothing without a financial plan and, I think, a clear account of what he failed to do as prime minister, and how he would do better in the future; and how he would stop his ministers and MPs from becoming corrupt clones of the worst of Zanu PF.

Q: Can someone else lead the mooted grand coalition other than him given his popularity with ordinary Zimbabweans?

A: It is not a situation blessed with choice. It has to be Tsvangirai or Mujuru. For the sake of a decent contest, the two must learn not only to work together but project themselves together.

Q: Will it be fair to suggest that the state of the economy will also play a part in deciding who wins the 2018 elections?

A: I think the economy will be a huge factor on people’s minds. It will be worse in 2018 than it is now. The new bond notes will lead to inflation, even if carefully controlled and this inflation is not the hyper-inflation of the bad old days. But those bad old days were under a Zanu PF government; so if anything even remotely like that starts happening again, it will certainly dent the numbers voting for Zanu PF.

Basically, from our external analyses, the country is technically bankrupt. The Chinese know this and are going slow on their own investment. Coming to terms with the IMF has been helpful, but the IMF will move very cautiously.

Basically, it seems to me like the condition Ghana faced in the early 1980s. I went to Ghana then, and people were surviving with huge ingenuity — but nothing worked anymore in the sense we associate with a formal State.

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HARARE - President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF won the Bikita West by-election by directing voters to give their ballot-paper serial numbers to their headmen who had marshalled them to polling stations and made them queue in a predetermined order, observers claimed.

Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) — the largest independent observer group in the country — confirmed the electoral mischief.

“In the run up to the by-election, Zesn observers reported that there were plans to intimidate voters by recording serial numbers of voting slips and requesting voters to report to their village heads and party structures after casting their votes,” the leading domestic monitoring body’s chairperson Henry Masaya said.

Zesn said these developments “are clearly in violation of Section 133B(c)(1) of the Electoral Act which outlaws any attempts to compel voters to vote for a particular candidate or party.”

Villagers who spoke to the Daily News after attending pre-poll village meetings with their kraal heads, also said the local Zanu PF leadership had been directed “from above” to ensure that traditional leaders had a chat with their subjects before casting their votes, blatantly violating the sanctity of the vote.

Zanu PF candidate Beauty Chabaya won the by-election by 13 156 votes, beating her closest rival Kudakwashe Gopo of ZPF, who polled 2 453 votes.

Independent candidate innocent Muzvimbiri garnered 725 votes, followed by Madock Chivasa (NCA) with 343 votes, Terrence Tanyaradzwa Makomborero (PDZ) with 132 votes while former MDC legislator Heya Shoko polled 76 votes.

There were 247 spoiled ballots.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said events that obtained during the Bikita West by-election revealed that Zimbabwe could be headed for yet another sham poll in 2018 if measures are not taken to level the political playing ground.

“Senior army personnel as well as Zanu PF officials openly threatened to unleash violence in the event that Zanu PF loses the by-election and this would justify any contestation of the outcome of the Bikita West by-election,” the report said.

“Zanu PF’s resolve to win the Bikita West by-election at all costs — including violence and intimidation — culminated in the attack of ...Chivasa and his campaign manager by known Zanu PF sympathisers.

“Zanu PF also went on a vote-buying spree and this included manipulating hungry teachers who were directed to campaign for the ruling party.

“Partisan distribution of food aid and farming inputs was also part of the vote-buying spree by Zanu PF and the Bikita West by-election was fraught with a lot of electoral irregularities and should thus be dismissed given the fact that conditions that prevailed before, during and after the election were far from meeting the standards of free and fair polls.

“It is quite evident that Zanu PF has an overbearing influence on the operations of Zec (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) and thus maintains an unfair advantage during elections and this is likely to continue into 2018.”

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