Week 47
Een wekelijkse selectie artikelen uit Zimbabwaanse kranten
Elections expose Sadc ruling parties
Elections held in southern Africa in recent years have exposed a deepening threat to ruling parties, especially those that evolved from former liberation movements, NewsDay can report.
Opposition parties have swept to power in Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and Mauritius while the former liberation movement in South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC), was forced into a power-sharing deal after losing parliamentary majority it had enjoyed since 1994.
In Mozambique, the ruling Frelimo is battling to convince the electorate that it still has the people’s confidence after the general elections results sparked deadly demonstrations across the country.
Observers told NewsDay this week that the trend was an indication that the world, dominated by a restive youth, has become impatient with incompetent regimes failing to deliver on their promises.
Violent rains damage 261 public buildings
Violent rains damaged public infrastructure mainly schools, health facilities and homes this week with the Civil Protection Unit (CPU) receiving 261 reports countrywide since the onset of the recent heavy downpours.
As rains are expected to intensify in line with the normal to above-normal projection for the 2024/25 summer season, emergency services have activated systems to curb any potential loss of life by ensuring maximum public safety in all communities.
In a situational report following the onset of the rains across the country, the CPU said as of yesterday total of 178 households, 71 schools, seven health facilities, four shops and a church were damaged by the rains with the worst affected provinces being Midlands, Masvingo, Manicaland, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South, respectively.
Zesa Holdings assures nation on load shedding (The Herald, state owned)
ZESA Holdings has assured the nation that it is actively working on the technical faults at the Hwange Power Station that have resulted in power outages countrywide.
In a statement yesterday, the power utility said the country’s power situation had also been worsened by low generation at the Kariba Power Station.
“ZESA Holdings would like to advise its valued stakeholders that the national power grid is currently experiencing reduced electricity generation capacity due to a technical fault at Hwange Power Station.
“This has been further compounded by low generation capacity at Kariba Power Station, resulting from low water levels.
“Our technical teams are actively working to resolve the fault at Hwange to minimise the impact on our customers.
Fix the health system
Newsday reported on Saturday of concerns raised by residents in Bulawayo that public hospitals have now become death traps due to poor service delivery.
Residents said visits to hospitals had become a nightmare as they were forced to wait longer before they were attended to, told there was no medication or given wrong prescriptions, thereby endangering the lives of patients.
One patient said she was attended to by a doctor after three days notwithstanding that she was writhing in pain.
There have been cases of patients diagnosed with wrong ailments.
Public hospitals have run out of basic drugs like paracetamol and sundries such as bandages and syringes.
All this points to a sector that is not being prioritised despite government introducing new taxes to fund the health sector.
The deteriorating state of affairs in public hospitals puts the lives of patients at risk and is a mirror image of a sick health system.
BCC tests show residents exposed to contaminated water
Bulawayo’s ongoing water shedding and relentless pipe bursts are not only depriving residents of consistent water access but have also led to serious water contamination, endangering public health.
The latest council minutes disclose disturbing test results from the Bulawayo City Council (BCC), revealing that over half of the water samples tested show contamination with feacal coliforms – direct indicator of feacal pollution.
Council tests revealed that 52 percent of borehole water samples and a staggering 56 percent of randomly collected samples contained feacal coliforms.
This contamination signals the presence of human and animal waste in the water supply, which poses severe health risks, including heightened susceptibility to waterborne diseases.
Over 30 000 get cash transfers
Cash transfers under the Government programme to support the vulnerable have benefited more than 30 000 people in urban areas.
The cash transfers, equivalent of the grain distributed to the vulnerable in rural areas, are part of the social protection measures under President Mnangagwa’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind.
Beneficiaries lauded the Second Republic for walking the talk and ensuring the smooth transfers of cash to the vulnerable.
The initiative is targeting at least 1,7 million urban dwellers across the country.
Govt in ZiG57m Beam arrears
Beam is a government programme introduced in 2001 to pay tuition, examination fees and levies for underprivileged learners.
Three out of 10 Zimbabwe learners are under the Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam), a programme meant to cater for educational needs of the underprivileged.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said this while responding to issues raised by legislators at a pre-budget seminar held in Bulawayo last week.
“I acknowledge the challenge and Treasury commits to clear the outstanding arrears in the near future,” Ncube said.
“So far, we have prioritised the clearance of ZiG57 million arrears which was owed to special schools.”
“Let me take this opportunity to inform the House that of the 4,5 million primary and secondary students in the country, 30% are under Beam,” Ncube said.
‘TTI operating at a loss in Byo’
Tendy Three Investments (Pvt) Ltd, the company that manages parking bays in Bulawayo, is reportedly operating at a loss, to a point where the management is preferring to switch to 30% and allow the Bulawayo City Council to have 70% of the revenue.
The company recently proposed that BCC takes over 70% of revenue on condition it bears all the operational costs.
BCC contracted TTI in 2022 to manage the parking system in the city under a US$2 million public-private partnership (PPP) tender based on a build, operate and transfer agreement in which the local authority aimed at creating revenue for and providing employment to hundreds of residents of the city.
TTI started collecting parking fees under the first phase of the PPP arrangement on February 18, 2022. Under the arrangement, BCC is getting 30% of the revenue collected from parking management while TTI gets 70%.
MP slams ZINWA for leaving unfinished boreholes, drilling ‘holes’ in Byo
Member of Parliament for Pelandaba-Tshabalala constituency in Bulawayo, Joseph Tshuma, has criticised the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) for what he calls a lack of commitment in delivering functional boreholes, leaving residents frustrated with incomplete water solutions.
Tshuma described ZINWA’s efforts as merely “drilling holes” rather than completing boreholes capable of providing water, citing cases where ZINWA abandoned boreholes without necessary equipment, fuel, or maintenance follow-ups.
“ZINWA is drilling holes not boreholes. They are just drilling and leaving it like that. There are so many holes that have been drilled,” said Tshuma in Parliament on Wednesday. In response, Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr Anxious Masuka, acknowledged the limitations faced by ZINWA, citing budget constraints and technical difficulties.
As forests felled wood shortage hits villagers in Zimbabwe | The Guardian
A slight drop from the previous one, currently, Zimbabwe’s annual deforestation rate is estimated to be at 262,348.98 hectares per annum, the Forestry Commission says.
According to UNDP in 2022, the use of local forests for fuel wood has also been one of the many drivers of deforestation in the country.
UNDP has been on record, saying presently, fuel wood accounts for over 60 percent of the total energy supply in the country and almost 98 percent of rural people rely on fuel wood for cooking and heating.
The Forestry Commission says up to 11 million tons of firewood are needed for domestic cooking, heating and tobacco curing every year in Zimbabwe.
Kariba cholera cases surge
Zimbabwe is battling another cholera outbreak barely a year after it declared that the country was in the clear of the water-borne disease.
The current wave has been recorded in the fishing town of Kariba where 21 cases have been confirmed.
Kariba district medical officer, Godfrey Muza, said one person, who was recorded as the first case, had died.
“We have set up cholera treatment camps at the clinic, Gache Gache, and also some oral rehabilitation points within the affected villages,” Muza said..
“We are getting assistance from our local partners and also some regional partners like Medecins Sans Frontieres and Unicef.”
Bulawayo parking firm boss rolls into City Hall in US$400k Rolls Royce
Bulawayo – The owner of the parking management company in Bulawayo which claims 70 percent of revenues turned up for meetings at City Hall in a US$400,000 Rolls Royce Cullinan, ZimLive can reveal.The expensive motor, which appears to have been recently imported, bore a personalised United Kingdom licence plate, LC, thought to belong to the previous owner.
Lizwe Mabuza, the chairman of Tendy Tree Investments (TTI), is racking in the cash after securing a favourable deal with the city to collect parking fees for 70 percent of the revenue, while the city gets 30 percent.
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Displaced farmers skeptical about Zimbabwe’s decision to compensate them
Some former commercial farmers in Zimbabwe who were kicked off their land 20-plus years ago say a government offer of compensation is woefully inadequate, and only desperate people will take the offer.
Mthuli Ncube, Zimbabwe’s finance minister, said the government is starting to compensate white commercial farmers whose land was taken during the regime of longtime President Robert Mugabe.
Ncube said $20 million would be shared by 94 foreign investors whose farms were seized in what Mugabe described as land reforms.
The government has promised to pay another $3.5 billion to white Zimbabwean farmers.