By Own Correspondent Saturday, 03
March 2012 13:23
HARARE - The ministry of Health and Child Welfare
has applied for an urgent financial bail-out from the Treasury to control
the typhoid outbreak which is fast-spreading countrywide.
The
ministry has requested for $600 000 to use in containing the outbreak which
has so far claimed the lives of two people.
Minister of Health and Child
Welfare Henry Madzorera told the Daily News that his ministry is deeply
concerned at the manner in which typhoid is spreading throughout the country
and is now seeking cash to use in mounting a public awareness campaign and
distributing aqua tablets in highly affected areas.
“Typhoid is hot,
the situation is bad and we must look at it closely,” said Madzorera who
attributed the pandemic to water problems and poor sanitation facilities in
the country.
“People do not have water in their homes and they eat
without washing their hands and what we are doing is to raise consciousness
and teach people about prevention and stop the disease.”
Last week
the ministry of Health and Child Welfare released startling statistics of
diarrheal diseases such as dysentery and typhoid which have affected tens of
thousands of people particularly in Harare.
According to the latest
update from the ministry, typhoid, which was initially concentrated in
Harare, has spread to other towns such as Bindura and is also now affecting
major referral medical centres such as Parirenyatwa Hospital.
“Two
hundred and three cases were reported this week. The cases were reported
from Kuwadzana (93), Mufakose (31), Crowborough (22), other areas (33) in
Harare City, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals (1) and Bindura (23)
Mashonaland Central.
“The cumulative figures for typhoid are 3 074
suspected cases, 19 confirmed cases and one death since October 2011,”
Portia Manangazira, director of Epidemiological Services and Disease Control
told Parliament this week.
“The total diarrhoea cases reported this week
are 8 243 cases and seven deaths. Of the reported cases, 3 938 (47,8
percent) and four deaths were from children under five years of
age.
“The deaths were reported from Harare Central Hospital (3) and
Chitungwiza Central hospital (4).The provinces which reported the highest
number of diarrhoea cases are Mashonaland Central (1 281) and Mashonaland
East (1 071) while the cumulative figure for common diarrhoea is 55 976 and
37 deaths.”
Apart from diarrhoea, there have been other cases of clinical
dysentery with 874 having been reported last week.Of the reported cases, 266
(34 percent) were found among children under the age of
five.
Mashonaland Central Province recorded the highest number with (183)
cases and Mashonaland West (158). The cumulative figure for dysentery is 5
865 and four deaths.
Madzorera said that his ministry is ready to
take action after having completed the mapping stage.
“We graded the
country and we have the whole country mapped so we know where to go and what
areas need more effort,” he said.
Local authorities have been blamed by
residents for the outbreak of the otherwise preventable diseases who accuse
them of not prioritising sanitation services.
Residents throughout
the country argue that rates being charged by local authorities are not
commensurate with the services being rendered.
GABORONE,- Botswana government's spokesperson, Dr Jeff Ramsay
has hinted that President Ian Khama and his South African counterpart Jacob
Zuma ‘touched on’ the issue of Botswana supporting Zuma as a mediator in
Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed three years
ago.
Zuma and Khama met in a closed meeting on Wednesday in Gaborone and
indications are that, among other issues, Zuma had come to lobby Botswana to
support him as facilitator between Zimbabwean coalition government partners
and rivals, Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.
Dr Ramsay told
Africa Review: “When two leaders meet, generally, a lot of issues are
discussed and they touched on the issue of the GPA marriage.” Only
photojournalists were allowed briefly to take pictures of the two leaders
during the meeting.
Although there was no official word from the meeting,
Dr Ramsay admitted that there ‘unresolved issues’ between the two
neighbours.
He was referring to the extradition of suspects facing murder
in Botswana, cross-border crime, and a recent aircraft that flew into
Botswana without permission.
However, he said the two leaders were
happy with the outcome of their meeting.
“We have a good relationship
with SA; obviously there are always issues between two neighbours but
relationship with SA at government level is always excellent,” he said.“It’s
went on well – one could see from the smiles both before and after the
meeting.”
Zuma had come along with State Security Minister, Siyabonga
Cwele and International Advisor, Lindiwe Zulu before proceeding to
Namibia.
In a thinly veiled warning to President Robert Mugabe that
Pretoria and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would not
tolerate him calling elections before adoption of a new constitution, South
African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said the
SADC expected the Zimbabwean parties to fully implement the agreement known
as the global political agreement (GPA).
SADC remains the guarantor
of the present political agreement. In the GPA they have undertaken that
they will draft a new constitution,” Nkoana-Mashabane said Monday. “The
constitution will be taken to a process that will lead to a referendum and
the adoption of a constitution and that will be immediately followed by
elections.”
Nkoana-Mashabane spoke after Mugabe last week told state
media that Zimbabwe will go to polls this year with or without a new
constitution in place, while he also accused Tsvangirai’s MDC of delaying
constitutional reforms and of seeking to use the proposed new governance
charter to oust him from power.
Under the GPA Zimbabwe must first
adopt a new constitution to underpin democracy and implement a raft of
electoral and security law reforms to level the political field before
holding new polls.
But the constitutional reform process is terribly
behind schedule, slowed down by a shortage of funds and incessant squabbling
among the political parties over what to include in the
charter.
Barring further delays a referendum on the new constitution
should be held later this year and if approved by Zimbabweans the proposed
charter will be taken to Parliament for endorsement before Mugabe signs it
into law. But this would mean elections can only take place sometime in 2013
and not this year as demanded by Mugabe.
Zimbabweans hope a new
constitution will guarantee human rights, strengthen the role of Parliament
and curtail the president's powers, as well as guaranteeing civil, political
and media freedoms.
Sydney Kawadza Herald Reporter NO amount of coercion
will force Zimbabwe to accept the issue of gay rights, Justice and Legal
Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said. Addressing the High Level
Segment of the 19th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva,
Switzerland, Minister Chinamasa said the council failed to be transparent in
dealing with issues of abuses. Zimbabwe, Minister Chinamasa said, was
concerned with the nature of the International Criminal Court. He said it
was alien in the Zimbabwean culture although some countries persist in
foisting in their views on the country. “Those who are seemingly buying into
this alien value and accept it are enticed by the prospect of receiving
financial rewards with or without realising that they are furthering
imperialist designs.” Minister Chinamasa spoke against the issue of lesbians,
gays, bisexual and transgender through the Kapmala Declaration. The LGBT
and internet freedoms are part of the agenda during the meeting. “LGBT is
unacceptable to us and to those sharing similar cultural and religious
beliefs and values. No amount of sugar coating, re-branding or aid dangling
will make this alien value acceptable to the Zimbabwe people.” He said
countries advocating for internet freedoms speak “with forked tongues”
condoning the practice when it’s being used against some countries. “In their
own respective environments, internet services are always blocked whenever
the users share vital information that is considered of a security nature or
deemed anti-establishment. “In fact, even some electronic media broadcasters
are being removed from some broadcasting platforms because of broadcasting
what is considered alternative views and ideas.” He castigated the ICC
for targeting Africans and a few East Europeans. “I would like to repeat what
I said in October 2011 . . . given the spectrum of those who have been
indicted, the ICC remains, in our view, a glorified kangaroo court lacking
impartiality,” he said. Minister Chinamasa said people who have committed war
crimes and crimes against humanity remain free while it remains taboo to
name them because as they have manipulated the system. “Furthermore,
there are some countries that maintain that they will not allow the ICC or
any foreign court to try their citizens, yet the same countries are calling
other countries to surrender their nationals to stand trial at the ICC. What
hypocracy! “Why preace human rights and democracy but practice murder,
racism, assassinations and war mongering?” Minister Chinamasa said
although the HRC remains alert in monitoring gross and systematic violations
of human rights, it has failed to be transparent. “The HRC, like its
precursor, the Commission of Human Rights, has regrettably fallen into the
trap of selective targeting and politicisation of some of those
sessions. “We are deeply perturbed that some of the Special Sessions were all
but a cover for setting purely political scores with the aim of achieving
the illegal regime change agenda.”
Touts at a long distance pick up
point along the Harare road on Thursday fought running battles with a group
of Zanu (PF) youths who were demanding protection fees from the touts for
operating in the area. 03.03.1201:16pm by Zwanai Sithole
Harare
The marauding youths who were armed with stones and logs
descended on the touts , demanding $100 from each of the four groups which
operate at the point.
“A group of Zanu (PF) led by Tichaona Shoko
came here demanding money from our members. When we resisted, they started
attacking us with stones and logs .They also stoned some of the vehicles
which we were loading. Two of our colleagues were taken to Mpilo hospital,”
said a spokesperson of the touts who refused to be named for fear of
victimisation.
When the Zimbabwean news crew visited the busy pick up
point, the situation was tense with the youths milling around the area while
most of the touts had retreated to a nearby beer hall probably strategising
their next move.
“There is no way we can give the youths the money which
they are demanding. We are just trying to make a living through honest means
but these youths are harassing us. These youths have declared war and if
they came again we will be forced to hit back,” said another
youth.
The touts last week approached their local member of parliament,
Tabitha Khumalo over the issue.
FUNDS which were meant for the rehabilitation of the
country’s roads have been abused through outright corruption, overpayments
and dual payments. Documents at hand show that resources from the Zimbabwe
National Road Authority (ZINARA), which occasionally disburses funds to
local authorities for the maintenance and rehabilitation of the country’s
roads, were ransacked by contractors working in cahoots with government or
municipal employees. The abused funds were meant for the rehabilitation
of the Harare- Bulawayo Road, Harare Drive, Kirkman Road as well as
Ardbennie Road. The abuses extended to the City of Harare’s vehicle
licensing fees. Last year, ZINARA indicated that it had used US$2 million on
the asphalt overlay along the Harare Bulawayo highway. Due to logistical
challenges within the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development
and the Harare municipality, plant and equipment were hired from a number of
companies. But a council audit reviewing the work done has unearthed
underhand dealings some of which were blamed on both council officials and
the companies supplying the equipment. Consequently, taxpayers and
ratepayers were prejudiced. ZINARA has been disbursing funds to
municipalities collected from tollgates for the rehabilitation and
maintenance of the country’s roads, whose poor state has been partly blamed
for the carnage on the roads. The audit uncovered dual claims, overpayments
and the inflating of time the equipment was hired in order to claim more
funds from council. The report noted that there was no prior authority sought
to waiver tender procedures when the plant and equipment were being hired,
although regularization was later sought. In some instances, the
companies made claims to the Transport Ministry and later from council for
the same job. In one example, Washrose Trading was claiming US$28 350 for the
hire of a compressor for 81 days yet in actual fact its machine worked for
only two days. Officials from the department of engineering services were
also said to have knowingly and in concert overstated total expenditure
payable to Tencraft, resulting in a dual claim of US$63 571.
THE Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is working on a
third land audit to cost over US$31 million in compliance with the Global
Political Agreement (GPA), which states that there must be a comprehensive,
transparent and non-partisan land audit. In the past, the Ministry has
repeatedly cited the lack of funding as one of the major hindrances to the
successful carrying out of the land audit and the maximum utilisation of
land. Giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement recently, the permanent secretary
in the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Sophia Tsvakwi, revealed
that the same challenges still dog attempts to come up with the third land
audit. It is, however, hoped that the latest audit would gather relevant
and reliable data for policy makers to make informed decisions to resolve
the current land crisis. As a result of the under utilisation of land
acquired under the fast track land reform programme and incidences of
multiple farm ownership, an impartial land audit has become
necessary. Although the GPA states that there must be a comprehensive land
audit, there has been reluctance on the part of government to act on the
findings of previous land audits. A land audit report by Flora Buka
conducted in 2003, which was never made public although it was leaked to the
media, revealed widespread multiple farm ownership by ZANU-PF
chefs. Another audit by a commission led by Charles Utete, a former secretary
to the President and cabinet, also exposed the existence of swathes of
productive land lying idle. The report said only 134 000 people have been
allocated land instead of 300 000 as claimed by the government. In the
past, the Ministry of Lands and the Ministry of Agriculture have refuted the
need for a land audit, saying it was still too early to judge the indigenous
farmers’ production capabilities because they have been operating under
harsh conditions characterised by targeted economic sanctions imposed by the
West. Another land audit, according to Moses Jiri, the chairperson of the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, would gather relevant and reliable data
for policy makers to make informed decisions. “We hope that the Ministry
is ready to embark on this exercise and, as the committee, we will be
closely monitoring the whole process. The Parliamentary Committee has the
legal right to push the Ministry of Lands to produce results unlike
previously when there was no-one to monitor their progress,” Jiri said.
Bulawayo, March 03, 2012-Annah Chitsa, a Bulawayo
Senator from Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party
has passed away.
Chitsa died Friday morning at her house in Luveve high
density suburb, Tsepiso Mpofu, the MDC T Bulawayo deputy secretary general
told Radio VOP.
The cause of her death has not yet been ascertained but
Chitsa has been in and out of hospital suffering from a heart
condition.
“We have learnt with shock and sadness over the untimely death
of our Senator.
“We are in a loss of words as her death comes
when we are still morning the passing away of another Senator, Gladys
Gombami,” Mpofu told Radio VOP in an interview.
‘It’s a big loss for
the Women’s Assembly and the party as a whole,” she added.
Chitsa
was the MDC T’s national women’s assembly vice chairperson. Theresa Makone
is the national women’s assembly chairperson.
Chitsa’s death follows the
death of Gombami, another Bulawayo Senator who died in December after
complaining of disorientation and dizziness when she was on her way home to
Bulawayo from a funeral in Gokwe.
She was rushed to a hospital in Kadoma
where she died.
Gombami was the MDC T Bulawayo provincial women’s
assembly chairperson and also the deputy chairperson for the parliamentary
select committee in charge of revising the constitution.
She was also
the Tsvangirai MDC’s deputy chief whip in the Senate.
By Xolisani Ncube, Staff Writer Saturday, 03
March 2012 13:43
HARARE - Zanu PF politburo member and a member of
the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) Jonathan Moyo,
says he was surprised that police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri
regards Job Sikhala’s MDC 99 as a political threat to the inclusive
government.
Moyo, who is the Jomic co-chairperson of the media
subcommittee told editors and senior journalists who attended the meeting to
review operations of the media with the aim of promoting peace in the
country that Sikhala is a nonentity who should just be ignored.
“I
wondered when I saw in the newspaper that the commissioner-general (of
police) made mention to something that was referring to Sikhala.
My
own view is that he is not a threat to peace but instead a threat to
himself,” said Moyo of Sikhala who has threatened to roll out Libya-style
mass protests in the country until President Robert Mugabe goes.
Moyo
made the remarks while responding to a question asked by some editors as to
why Jomic has excluded other political players in the country as it seeks to
end political violence and encourage tolerance among Zimbabweans.
The
former information minister said any word uttered by people like Sikhala
should not be taken seriously as they do not have the capacity to implement
any of their plans or threats.
Chihuri said he was aware Sikhala
planned to roll out mass protests saying the police will be on guard to deal
with him.
The Jomic media sub-committee is a platform for editors and the
inter-party implementation organ to interact as well as assist each other in
reducing hate speech and abusive language in the media and the general
Zimbabwean society.
Innocent Chagonda, the mainstream MDC-appointed
point man to the sub-committee, praised editors of both the public and
private media for ensuring that very few cases of hate language are reported
to the monitoring body.
The other co-chairperson representing
Welshman Ncube’s MDC party Qhubani Moyo said more could be achieved if the
general public and the political parties in the inclusive government accept
political differences as something normal in a democracy.
Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the Syrian crisis 'requires diplomacy,
dialogue and international cooperation, taking full cognizance of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria'
Blessing Zulu |
Washington
Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has
voiced strong support for moves by Russia and China to shield the regime of
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad from international sanctions over its
crackdown on a 11-month old opposition uprising.
Chinamasa was
addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva after the panel
voted 37 to 3 to adopt a resolution to condemn the Assad
regime.
Chinamasa said Thursday that Syria is a sovereign state and
must be allowed to peacefully resolve its differences without foreign
interference. " In our view, the current situation in Syria requires first
and foremost, the efforts of the Syrian people to peacefully resolve their
differences without any foreign interference," he said.
Chinamasa
added that the Syrian crisis "requires diplomacy, dialogue and international
cooperation, taking full cognizance of the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of Syria." China, Russia and Cuba had opposed the Human Rights
Council motion.
Chinamasa said Zimbabwe will continue to do its utmost to
promote and protect human rights for the benefit of its people. But he said
Western sanctions were hindering that effort and have also been an
impediment to the country's development.
Chinamasa also condemned the
International Criminal Court, calling it “a glorified Kangaroo court lacking
impartiality." He took a swipe at gays calling homosexuality “alien to our
culture" and accusing accused Western countries of trying to foist
homosexuality on Zimbabweans by threatening to withdraw aid.
Human
rights lawyer Dewa Mavhinga, in Geneva for the meeting, told VOA reporter
Blessing Zulu that Chinamasa’s remarks were to be expected given the record
of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party on protecting human rights.
The
state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Chief Presidential Secretary
Misheck Sibanda as saying the president and prime minister issued an order
for the constitutional committee to submit a draft by March 15
Violet
Gonda & Ntungamili Nkomo | Washington
The management committee
overseeing the drafting of a new Zimbabwean constitution has dismissed
claims by a top aide of President Robert Mugabe saying Mr. Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai set a two-week deadline for its
completion.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted Chief
Presidential and Cabinet Secretary Misheck Sibanda as saying the president
and prime minister met Monday and issued an order for the committee to speed
up its work and submit a draft by March 15.
But Tsvangirai spokesman
Luke Tamborinyoka said that while Mr. Tsvangirai attended a meeting with Mr.
Mugabe and agrees that the process needs to be accelerated, no deadline was
set by him or Mr. Mugabe in that meeting.
Members of the parliamentary
select committee in charge of the process, and the management committee
including party negotiators, also said they had not received such a
communication, and that such a deadline was in any case impossible to
meet.
Select Committee Co-Chairman Douglas Mwonzora told reporter
Ntungamili Nkomo that wrapping up the process is not possible due to a
number of outstanding issues and the absence of Justice Minister Chinamasa,
who has been in Switzerland.
“We have not been given any ultimatum at
all. We have not received it, whether orally or verbally, from anyone. We
just read it in the newspaper," Mwonzora said.
He added: “We do not
take instructions from one principal, we take instructions from the three
[national unity government] principals acting together.”
National
Constitutional Assembly Chairman Lovemore Madhuku told reporter Violet Gonda
that the two week ultimatum is without significance.
Madhuku, whose
pressure group has threatened to campaign for a “No” vote once the draft
goes to a referendum, said the constitution gives too much power to the
President.
“That two week ultimatum is now Mugabe reasserting his control
because he wants the constitution completed and he wants elections - he now
knows that the constitution is in his favor,” Madhuku said.
With a dire lack
of food supply in Zimbabwe’s urban and rural areas, international food aid from
NGOs has become the only means by which many can access food. However, the
ruling ZANU-PF party strictly controls the limited aid supply with allegations
of supplying only ZANU-PF supporters with food and farming supplies while the
remaining communities starve. This footage shows an angry community confronting
a ZANU-PF councillor regarding the unfair aid distribution while the next scene
shows a fist fight between ZANU-PF and MDC community members over the
distribution of the aid.
People then queue
for hours in front of a ZANU-PF controlled food distribution point waiting for
supplies while certain cars are allowed through, seemingly because they’re
paying ZANU-PF for supplies or because they’re loyal to the party. Finally a
local community member gives his testimony regarding the setting up of food
distribution meetings by ZANU-PF that excluded MDC
areas.
A female journalist from the
state-controlled ZBC TV asked the Deputy Minister of Women Affairs, Gender
and Community Development, Jessie Majome to read her speech again after
arriving late to the function. 03.03.1201:13pm by Ngoni Chanakira
Harare
"I am very sorry, can the Deputy Minister read her speech
again," she asked amid murmurs from other scribes present at the
function.
The function was hosted by the United Nations Information
Centre (UNIC) and was attended by more than 20 journalists from all media
houses in Harare.
The journalist then asked the UN Women boss in
Zimbabwe, Hodan Addou if Deputy Minister Majome and herself to read their
presentations again so that the ZBC could show them on national television
during the Main News Bulletin.
"This just goes to show how arrogant
the ZBC is," said a journalist who was at the same function.
"They
think they are very special and she must just ask to interview the Deputy
Minister during break time. She is late full stop and we cannot allow her to
make us listen again to what we have already heard."
Other journalists
objected to the reading of the presentations again.
The function was held
in Harare to honour three Zimbabweans who are going to Tanzania to climb
Mount Kilimanjaro in order to make people aware of violence against
women.
There are two women and one man in the delegation which will climb
Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.
"If others object
then you will have to seek an interview during the break," Addou told the
journalist much to her dismay and discomfort in front of the other
scribes.
This is not the first time that the ZBC TV crew has arrived late
for a function.
At other functions, however, they are given
preference and other journalists are told to wait for them while they
disturb functions setting up their dilapidated equipment.
The late
Minister of Housing and national Planning, Enos Chikowore, was infamous for
waiting for the ZBC to film him because he thought the ZBC TV was "the only
media" in Zimbabwe.
The cash-strapped ZBC Holdings Limited has a monopoly
over the airwaves in Zimbabwe at the moment.
PLUMTREE, Zimbabwe, Mar 2, 2012 (IPS) - Beauty Moyo’s desire
for access to water has finally been met. The rains that fell in the past
week after a long dry patch have awakened this small-holder farmer deep in
rural Plumtree, Zimbabwe on the border with Botswana to the reality of
sparse rainfall, climate change and how she and her fellow villagers can
respond.
Plumtree, like most parts of southwestern Zimbabwe, is notorious
for low rainfall. But millions of farmers in the country rely on rain-fed
agriculture and food they grow themselves, which presents villagers like
Moyo with tough choices.
"The rains that fell this week have been
able to bring back hope as we had sunk our own reservoir to trap the water,"
Moyo said.
She says she teamed up with other neighbours during the course
of the year, and they invested their energies in digging what looks like a
miniature golf-course waterway.
"This idea came after people realised
we have been complaining each year about poor rainfall and harvests," Moyo
told IPS.
This reservoir water is used in farming activities where the
subsistence farmers say instead of spraying the whole field with water, they
now water individual plants.
"It’s a lot of work, but it helps
conserve our water," said Susan Mathebula, another villager working on the
project with Moyo.
"We had heavy rains that we had not seen in a long
time, with ice falling, and we were able to trap the water in this small
catchment we set up ourselves," Mathebula told IPS in
mid-February.
While drinking water is available from such sources as
boreholes, Mathebula says their major concern is water for irrigation
purposes, as they plant their own food and cannot rely on rainfall alone for
the maize and groundnuts they grow in their small fields.
Plumtree is
one of the areas lying on the southwestern belt that experienced localised
heavy downpours in the last week of February, with the Zimbabwe
Meteorological Service Department announcing that the nation should expect
more rainfall in the next two months.
Hope is returning that the
water they have will ensure adequate household food security at a time when
humanitarian agencies such as the Famine Early Warning System – Network
(FEWS-NET) announced early this year that millions of Zimbabweans will
require food aid.
Climate change and water shortages are among the issues
being debated at a two-week session of the U.N. Commission on the Status of
Women (CSW) Feb. 25 through Mar. 7 at U.N. headquarters in New York, which
is focusing on the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and
hunger eradication and sustainable development.
Aid agencies have
tied food insecurity to climate change that has pushed rains in Zimbabwe far
into the new year, when many farmers had prepared the land for the planting
season in the last quarter of last year.
The rains began to fall in
February, and the meteorological department announced that farmers can
expect more rains in the next two months.
According the U.N. Food and
Agriculture Organisation (FAO), women remain in the vanguard of farming in
rural areas, which are home to 70 percent of Zimbabweans, and
community-based initiatives such as the creation of reservoirs by Moyo,
Mathebula and other villagers only highlight the dire circumstances these
women find themselves in, with little assistance from government and
nongovernmental organisations.
Josephine Conjwayo, an agricultural field
officer from the Ministry of Agriculture who works with small-holder
farmers, said harnessing water for agriculture by rural communities in
response to climate change challenges has been limited by the absence of
experts in rural areas.
"Every area (in Matebeleland) we have visited to
assess farming activities, the issue of low rainfall and suffering crops is
typical. Trapping rainwater is one of the measures we have encouraged for
these women, but this water tends to be exhausted quickly as people use it
for purposes other than farming," Conjwayo said.
What has exacerbated
the challenges faced by small-holders such as Mathebula is the inability by
government and farming organisations to set up strategies for small-holders
to respond to climate change, resulting in villagers coming up with their
own initiatives.
The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union says rural
small-holder farmers are providing the bulk of maize consumed in urban
areas, as these farmers do not sell their produce at the Grain Marketing
Board, and laments the lack of government support for farmers.
Last
year, the Climate and Development Knowledge Network partnered with the
Zimbabwean government to map climate change policy, and according to
preliminary research, changing rainfall patterns are expected, as well as
temperature increases and extreme weather events such as floods and
droughts.
It is these circumstances villagers in Plumtree are
experiencing, and Mathebula, Moyo and many others respond the only way they
know how: thinking on their feet.
"There is very little we can do
here," Moyo told IPS. "But we hope the water we trap will last us long
enough to see our crops grow," she said as she tended the small maize crop
that is beginning to sprout after the recent downpours.
Dean Du Plessis is
a 35 year old cricket commentator in Zimbabwe. If that was all that
distinguished him, his story wouldn't be that special. There are an uncountable
number of announcers and commentators all over the world ranging from high
school to college to professional, across sports, and across continents. But
Dean Du Plessis may be the most unique announcer in the world for one simple
reason.
Dean Du Plessis is
blind.
That's right... a
blind cricket commentator. Sure, we've all made jokes about a play by play
person or an analyst being blind and not seeing what was happening in front of
them. But, to really be blind? It's an extraordinary story that has
to be seen to be believed. Who would think that a job which centers exclusively
on relating what transpires in front of you to an audience could be done without
seeing anything that happens in front of you? A 2010 UK Telegraph
article claims Du Plessis rarely makes mistakes and listeners
would never know of his blindness. Du Plessis has such adept hearing that he is
able to follow a cricket match through the sounds of the game. He follows
certain batsmen and bowlers through microphones at the stumps. Anything from
words to grunts to footwork tell Du Plessis what is happening on the pitch.
Watch in amazement in this news footage below...
Du Plessis works
as a guest commentator on cricket matches providing analysis and also does radio
work and sportswriting in Zimbabwe. In fact, Du Plessis wants to do more
announcing according to IOL sport in South Africa and is
willing to go outside Zimbabwe to do so:
“I love this country, it's
where I grew up, it's where I was born,” he said. “But at the end of the day I
have to look after myself as well and there's not enough cricket that is being
played here at the moment.
“And, more importantly,
there's not enough broadcasting opportunities for me because of that. So I'm
quite prepared to settle down anywhere.
“I want to be a full-time
cricket broadcaster for many years to come so, as they say in cricketing terms:
if the ball is there and if you want to hit it, then hit it
hard.”
Who knows if Du
Plessis will ever get that chance, but even if he never gets an opportunity
outside Zimbabwe, his story is one of the most incredible you will ever see in
announcing.
My first face to face meeting with a bushpig was very early in
the morning when I went to check on two baby elephants that were in my
care, being hand reared after they had been left orphaned in a culling
operation. The elephants spent the night in a safe enclosure which was
secured with poles which slotted horizontally across the opening. Every
afternoon a deep bed of hay would be prepared in the enclosure for the
little elephants, so deep that it easily reached my waist. Every morning the
poles would be removed and the elephants let out into the game park. One
morning I arrived to find the elephants asleep in the hay – with a friend!
It was a very large bushpig which woke up in fright and charged straight at
me. Luckily the very deep hay slowed the animal’s forward momentum and gave
me a chance to run. I learned to climb an eight foot fence that day! I stood
panting and shaking on the other side, looking at this fearsome, grey,
hairy creature snorting and puffing at me through the wire. For a few
moments the 100 kilogram wild pig and I stared at each other, not sure who
was more scared, then the bushpig turned and trotted off into the long grass
and disappeared into the bush.
In years that followed I had other
encounters with bushpigs, always early in the morning, but none so close or
frightening, and most which involved shouting and running, chasing them out
of the maize we grew on our farm to feed the livestock. I never thought then
that it would be a treat to see bushpigs which are mostly thought of as crop
raiding pests which dig under fences and root around in crops doing a lot of
damage.
On a recent journey through what used to be a very productive
farming area, my eyes were peeled. Farm after farm for more than thirty
kilometres was largely deserted. Fences gone, houses stripped, roofs
removed, window and door frames gone and even brick walls being dismantled.
Giant trellises in perfect straight rows which once supported hops, now have
a few stunted maize plants growing between the supports. The road was in a
shocking state; it was impossible to travel at more than 20 kilometres an
hour, as you zig-zagged between deep, gaping gullies and treacherous holes.
All I could think was how sad it was that the tall thriving crops which
used to sway in the warm wind here, have been replaced by a few mud and
thatch huts which stand alongside little squares of pale, stunted maize. How
sad that we are still seeing such a desperate, impoverished situation eleven
years after farm takeovers. This year the harvest predictions from the
national grain crop are that it will provide less than one sixth of our
needs.
Then, on the road ahead, a ‘sounder’ of bushpig crossed from one
side to the other. A large boar, four or five big sows and in between the
adults, running behind each other in single file, came the fat, black
piglets, perhaps ten or twelve of them. It was a sight to lift flagging
spirits, to know that some have survived. It’s hard to know how many
species have been able to survive the orgy of hunting, poaching and habitat
destruction of the last eleven years. A time when farms have become lawless,
no-go areas and where most people have no idea of what’s really been going
on. Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy
However much Robert Mugabe tells us that he wants
elections this year, it seems unlikely that it will happen. We are already
in March and there is evidence on all sides of how broke the country is.
Workers at Air Zimbabwe, for instance, have not been paid since September
2011 but Mugabe says ‘We’ll find the money’. Perhaps he will be able to
persuade all those diamond-billionaires to give up some of their ill-gotten
gains to fund an election. The fat cats certainly want Mugabe to remain in
power, they have done very well under his rule and in return, have given him
their undivided support. As for the Coalition Government, the Prime Minister
himself dismisses it as ‘having no shared vision and no shared values’ and
blames his ‘coalition partners’ for that - but it takes two, I
say.
In Russia, Vladimir Putin is campaigning to run for another
term. His supporters ask, ‘After ten years of stability, why should Putin
not stand for another term?’ It’s a very familiar argument to defend
long-standing, dictatorial leaders: ‘the stability we have enjoyed during
his rule will disappear and anarchy will ensue.’ One often hears the same
argument with regard to Robert Mugabe; people the world over are generally
uneasy about change. This is particularly true of Africa which tends to be
very conservative; Robert Mugabe, shrewd politician that he is, understands
the people’s conservatism, that’s why he feels able to devote his ‘birthday’
speech to gay bashing – his favourite subject. So obsessed is he with the
subject that one has to wonder if it has some particular relevance for him
personally. At his birthday party he urged the nation’s youth to shun
‘western values, homosexuality and greed’, not mentioning the fact that it
is his own followers who are largely to blame for the violence. In curiously
twisted logic, Mugabe equates homosexuality with western values; what he
doesn’t say is that tolerance is also a western value and in this case, it’s
tolerance for people of different sexual orientation. He, presumably, would
have them all executed or imprisoned for a very long
time?
Tolerance is not a value we associate with Zanu PF; for
example, in Mashonaland East the PA tells his followers to do all they can
to sabotage the MDC and in Matabeleland South 20 MDC officials are arrested
for holding an ‘illegal’ workshop, even though they had police permission.
While Mugabe preaches his version of tolerance his police force practises
something very different. Labour leaders Lovemore Matombo and Raymond
Majongwe were briefly arrested during a peaceful protest march for a living
wage. As the economy shrinks it gets harder for ordinary Zimbabweans – those
lucky enough to have jobs - to survive on their salaries. Robert Mugabe does
not talk about that; instead he uses the red herring of homosexuality to
distract public attention from the real issues facing the
country.
Mugabe’s call for elections this year is in direct contradiction
of the GPA which stipulates that a new constitution must be in place before
an election. South Africa warned Mugabe this week not to call elections
until that condition has been met. There are no signs either that media
reforms will be in place before elections and the churches have urged Mugabe
to put reforms in place before the poll. He remains deaf to all appeals,
content to bask in the adulation of his adoring followers who keep him in
power. Any opposition to his rule, he claims, must be inspired, if not
funded by, western imperialists. African leaders who disagree with Mugabe he
describes as ‘naďve and weak…a lily-livered crop easily manipulated by
western imperialists’. No doubt, the west will be blamed if he loses the
next election. He actually admitted at his 88th birthday celebration that he
had been shocked to lose the 2008 election. He could hardly have expected
that in view of the massive violence his party unleashed on the people prior
to the poll. Anyone who thinks it will be different this time is seriously
deluded. Violence is and always has been the Zanu PF way to win elections.
Whenever the next one is, 2012 or 2013, it will be business as usual for the
Zanu PF thugs.
