Week 5
A weekly selection from Zimbabwean newspapers
Water Security in Africa Starts with Educating Our Youth
Water is our most valuable resource. We can talk about rare earth minerals powering our gadgets, gold and silver fuelling our economies, and oil powering our vehicles. Yet none of that matters without water. If there is no water, there is no life, and the harder it becomes to access safe water sources, the less time we have to spend creating those other benefits of civilisation.
Mpilo Hospital cancer machine set for revival
MPILO Hospital chief executive officer, Narcissus Dzvanga has revealed that plans are underway to repair a malfunctioning cancer radiation machine at the health institution. The hospital has been turning away cancer patients since last year due to the malfunctioning machine, which came back on stream in March 2021 after nearly a year out of service. When it was revived in 2021 it lay idle for some time because there were no qualified people to operate it.
Senate passes PVOs Bill…as USAid warns of funding threat
THE Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) Amendment Bill, which has been criticised by opposition parties and civic groups for muzzling government critics and narrowing democratic space, has gone a step closer to becoming law after sailing through the Senate. It now awaits President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s assent to become law.
One of the country’s major financiers United States Agency for International Development (USAid) yesterday warned that its programmes with local PVOs would be severely affected if Mnangagwa signs the Bill into law.
USAid has provided US$4,5 billion support to Zimbabwe since 1980.
Completion rate for primary education in Zim declines
The completion rate for primary education in Zimbabwe has declined from 98.5 percent to 89 percent while the number of Out-of-School children for secondary education worsened to nearly one child out of three, according to a comparative analysis of the 2014 and 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) results.
The 2022 Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education revised budget accounts for 12.1 percent of the total Government budget, far less than the 20 percent investment recommended by the 2000 Dakar Declaration of the World Education Summit, said UNICEF.
300,000 stateless people living in Zimbabwe; Amnesty says their situation ‘dire’ as can’t even buy phone sim card
There are about 300,000 stateless people living in Zimbabwe. They do not have identity documents (IDs). Most of them are migrants and have lost their papers or never had any. They are excluded from digital services and the economy because to get a bank account or a job, you need to have IDs.
“The situation of statelessness people is quite dire in Zimbabwe,” said Caroline Kache from the human-rights watchdog Amnesty International. “It essentially means that stateless people cannot work, acquire education, open a bank account and get married officially.”
Kache said that statelessness is perpetuated from one generation to another as stateless people give birth to stateless children.
Human waste detected in city boreholes | The Sunday Mail (state owned)
Harare City Council has temporarily decommissioned 15 boreholes that were contaminated with faecal matter and are believed to be the source of typhoid cases reported in three suburbs.
Tests on water samples taken from 127 boreholes in Glen Norah, Mbare and Budiriro were found to contain significant traces of E. coli bacteria, indicating the presence of human waste.
City health authorities are monitoring 72 suspected typhoid cases, with about 20 others having already been confirmed.
Zimdollar in spectacular freefall
THE Zimbabwe dollar lost 84,1% of its value compared to the United States Dollar (USD) between December 2021 and December 2022, as hyperinflation took a toll on the local currency.
Data gathered by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd) show that from US$1:ZWL$108,67 in December 2021 to US$1:ZWL$684,33 in December 2022, the local currency lost nearly 84,1% of its value versus the USD.
The Zimbabwe dollar is currently trading at ZWL$779:US$1.
Zimbabwe Ranked Among Most Corrupt Countries
Zimbabwe has been ranked among countries that have high corruption levels by an international transparency organisation. Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe on number 152 out of 180 countries with a score of 23 out of 100 in its latest survey.
Scores are rated from zero to 100 with countries close to zero being the worst in tackling corruption. The score is way below the regional average of 32 out 100 by countries in the Sub Sahara. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople.
3m face hunger: Unicef
President Emmerson Mnangagwa claimed at an Africa food security summit in Senegal last week that Zimbabwe was food secure. An estimated three million Zimbabweans, including two million children, are estimated to require urgent humanitarian assistance across the country this year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has revealed.
In its 2023 Zimbabwe Appeal: Humanitarian Action for Children report, the UN agency also said this year, millions more will need life-saving health, HIV and nutrition services.
Harare-Chirundu Highway Now A Death Trap
The highway connects South Africa and Zimbabwe to Zambia, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, among other countries, and facilitates trade in the region, reported The NewsHawks.The state of the road now poses many problems for travellers which include damage to car tyres, damage to vehicles, slowing down movement and business, and increasing accidents. Of late, many travellers have been forced to park and sleep along the highway, especially when travelling during the night, after hitting dangerous potholes that are now a permanent feature along the way. The road is now dilapidated due to potholes and old lifespan.
Lakes, rivers crucial in Africa’s food security needs: Research
There is a growing recognition that freshwater lakes and rivers in sub-Saharan Africa are crucial to the food and nutrition security of millions of people, a recent research has shown.
The research; “The Role of Aquaculture and Capture Fisheries in Meeting Food and Nutrition Security: Testing a Nutrition-Sensitive Pond Polyculture Intervention in Rural Zambia”; was carried out by researchers from the UK, Zambia, the USA and Malaysia.
Zim, Belarus ties set for new highs | The Sunday Mail (state owned)
Zimbabwe and Belarus are this week expected to sign new multi-million-dollar deals that will help drive the country’s modernisation and industrialisation agenda, particularly in manufacturing, mining, energy and infrastructure development.
The deals will be finalised during Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s historic three-day State visit to Zimbabwe, which begins tomorrow.
