THERE is nothing new about public relations. Although communications management can be identified in the politics of the ancient world, it is possible to trace the history of PR itself back to the 19th century, when some academics argue that it was used by anti-slavery campaigners. The first “publicity bureaus” were set up in the UK in the early 1900s and PR techniques were used by all sides in the First World War.

However, it was not until the early 1920s that private sector companies began to use publicity bureaus, first in the US and then in Western Europe. PR was often known as propaganda prior to the Second World War but its use by the Nazis saw the term “propaganda” quickly disappear from the industry and turn into a form of abuse.

Since then, propaganda and PR have been regarded as distinct entities. The Chief Creative Officer of US firm Daly-Swartz Public Relations, Alan Graner, says: “Propaganda uses lies, half-truths, innuendo, smears, misinformation, one-sided arguments and inflammatory rhetoric to influence the public’s attitude . . . Propaganda’s underlying philosophy is us against them. ‘They’ are often denigrated as undesirables or simply ‘the enemy’. Public relations uses truth if, for no other reason, their claims can be checked. PR relies on logic, facts and sometimes emotions to spread information.”

By these definitions, it can surely be argued that US President Donald Trump employs political propaganda. The downside Negative views of the PR industry as a whole are fuelled by the tendency of some big corporations to use agencies to deflect attention away from damaging commercial activities. It has been widely reported that many of the US PR agencies that were involved in blocking anti-tobacco legislation are now working to block or overturn legislation designed to deter carbon consumption. In the main, they do so by creating doubt over an issue: by promoting the view that the evidence over a particular issue – whether that’s tobacco’s role in causing lung cancer, or the fact that current global warming is mainly caused by human activity – is not conclusive.

Agencies have supported their clients by seeking to sustain debates over issues for many years after the scientific evidence pointing in a particular direction has become overwhelming, thereby allowing clients such as cigarette producers and coal mining firms to continue their existing operations. Media outlets are often easy targets for these strategies because debate makes for better discourse – whether on TV, radio or in written media – than consensus. While 99 out of 100 scientists in fields related to climate science may agree that global warming is in large part man-made, pitching one scientist against another makes for a “better” TV debate and by “better” they mean more combative and confrontational.

Negative public views of the industry are also fuelled by the activities of high-profile spin doctors, including the UK’s Alastair Campbell, with his involvement in providing “evidence” to the British public of the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in order to drum up support for that country’s invasion.

Yet PR can also be used positively. It is a tool used to promote communication between governments, companies and NGOs on the one hand and their citizens, customers, supporters and beneficiaries on the other. When it promotes communication then it can be a force for good. The African PR industry is growing. The University of Nairobi has set up a PR degree programme and the numbers entering the profession are growing, although the lack of regulation makes it difficult to obtain accurate figures. As elsewhere in the world, brand promotion is becoming ever more important, with most large companies having a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. As internet access improves through rising mobile and cable access, the market for local PR companies to promote brand awareness is likely to grow rapidly.

The new generation
On Page 21, we look at the role of the new generation of PR agencies, such as Cambridge Analytica, in the Kenyan presidential elections. By harvesting vast amounts of online data, they are able to target “persuadable” voters, including through social media, which increasing numbers of people rely on as their primary news source.

The news directed at each person, via Facebook for example, is specifically targeted at them and often serves to confirm their own existing view of the world, perhaps only tweaking it in a particular direction. The automated nature of what they see on screen makes it easier to guide them towards a particular viewpoint. It could be argued that the diverse nature of news sources is more liberal, more pluralistic and perhaps even more democratic than when people rely on a single or a handful of news outlets.

It could also be argued that voters have long chosen newspapers that confirm their own view of the world. Yet the use of a much greater number of news providers and the automated nature of much of that news distribution has drastically lowered the bar of journalistic and reporting integrity. Put simply, there is little regulation of standards.

In much the same way, Google has a great deal of control over which news sources you access when you use its search engine. It’s almost as if your newspaper knew which articles you had read and then changed what was on the next page accordingly.

The ways in which the huge and rapidly increasing amounts of data being generated have become a strand of globalisation was not entirely predicted. It is difficult to predict how the situation will evolve over even the next few years, let alone the longer term, but it seems that the distinction between PR and news is fading. The big danger will be if PR, news and politics eventually melt into one amalgamated whole. The big question is how effective PR campaigns are. Sometimes PR agencies are merely used to calm the fears of their clients; others will be more challenging, putting forward arguments that their clients may not wish to hear.

The impact of campaigns is not easily quantifiable. It is becoming more so because of the use of big data but even here, it is not possible to draw a direct correlation between PR “election management” and voting outcomes in cases where voting is by secret ballot, except through opinion polls.

Involvement in Africa
The role of big international PR firms in Africa may now be better known but it is not entirely new. Burson-Marsteller of the US worked for the Nigerian government to deflect claims of genocide in the Biafran War in the 1960s. Yet while the continent has generally moved away from autocratic governments towards democratic systems, governments that want to load the dice in their electoral favour must resort to more subtle methods of “election management”. Many African countries are paying large sums to these organisations, which try to transplant methods used elsewhere to Africa.

While those methods may work, they need to be backed up with local knowledge. The Bell Pottinger scandal highlights why international PR firms may not always be best placed to work on African campaigns. Critics would argue that foreign firms simply don’t know what they are doing and don’t understand the local issues. Bell Pottinger may have employed South Africans to work on its campaign for the Guptas but it did not have a dedicated South African offshoot. It doesn’t seem that Africa is a special case in terms of the activities of PR firms but it has become caught up in the latest global wave of more sophisticated PR.

We will look at the Bell Pottinger case and also the role of PR in Kenya’s controversial elections. Yet it would be wrong to expect outside influences to take all the blame for any wrongdoing. Those paying their bills know what they are signing up to. What such agencies have is a track record for reputational management, including through the use of search engine optimisation. They can help ensure that searches for human rights abuses in a particular country bring up results dominated by attempts to ensure that such abuses do not happen again, rather than the details of what has actually occurred.

Once again the latest PR techniques bring us back to Google and the question, “Who decides what we read?” This is a question that is likely to be increasingly discussed over the next few years.

The obvious questions that come to mind are: “Was this one rogue firm?”, “Is the entire industry at fault?” and “Is there anything about Africa that makes it particularly susceptible?” The answers to those questions are, in turn: “Yes”, “To some extent, yes” and “Probably not”. But we’ll consider these issues in more depth throughout this report. Where Africa does seem to be a special case is that the continent lacks the type of industry associations and regulators that are found in the West. It was the UK’s Public Relations and Communications Association, after all that effectively pulled the plug on Bell Pottinger.

However, South Africa is about to set up its own industry regulator in a move that may be replicated elsewhere on the continent in the long term, although probably not in many countries in the near future because there are too many other demands on each national purse. The onus is also on agencies to decide who to do business with. The president of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), Kavitha Kalicharan, advises agencies: “Research your client well in terms of their background, especially if they are high profile. Do proper research before going ahead . . . Also, look at what has been produced in the media about that organisation or individual.”In addition, PR professionals should understand the substance of an issue and situation before deciding how best to spin it to the public. – New African.

Village health workers prepare a meal

Charity Ruzvidzo Features Writer
Sanele Siziba (32) is a widow who fends for her family through selling vegetables and fruits from her garden in Shamva, about 90km north of the capital, Harare. Her vending business has enabled her to provide basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter for her family, following her husband’s death. To her, quantity and not quality is what matters about the intake of food.

But she has learnt the hard way about the gravity of lack of knowledge about staying healthy and eating nutritious food. In 2016, she noticed her two-year-old daughter Patricia was losing weight at an alarming pace. Her daughter had diarrhoea and quickly became frail and sickly. Patricia lost her glow and her eyes became sunken. Siziba got worried and suffered from a museum of disappointments. In a frantic attempt to keep her child alive, she took her child to a local church prophet who urged her keep “fasting and praying” for her child’s recovery. Months down the line Patricia’s situation got worse. Then came a Damascene moment. The life of her child was saved by a local village health worker.

Ministry of Health and Child Care deputy director for nutrition Mrs Ancircaria Chigumira speaks on the four-star diet

“After several visits to our church prophet my daughter was not getting better. It was the village health worker who observed my daughter and found she was suffering from malnutrition and referred me to the clinic,” she said. Siziba said the village health worker educated her on the causes and symptoms of malnutrition.

A village worker explains the importance of breast feeding in Shamva recently

“I realised I was failing to provide a balanced diet to my child after the village health worker explained to me the four-star diet. I sell fruits and vegetables for a living and I never gave them to my family. I did not know it was important,” she said.

Patricia was introduced to food and water barely two months after her birth.

“I gave my daughter porridge a month after her birth. I would also give her water to drink and I did not practise exclusive breastfeeding. I had done the same with my first child and I did not face any challenges,” she said. At the clinic, Patricia was found to be malnourished. She was immediately placed on the four-star diet programme which comprises Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables (mango, papaya, passion fruit, oranges, dark green leaves, carrots, yellow sweet potato and pumpkin).

The other fruits and vegetables included banana, pineapple, watermelon, tomatoes, avocado, eggplants and cabbages. Health experts say fruits and vegetables are vital to a balanced diet. They say they are a source of vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre which play an important role in preventing malnourishment. The diet should include animal source foods (meat, chicken, fish, liver and eggs) milk and milk products. Staples such as maize, wheat, rice, millet and sorghum; roots and tubers (cassava, potatoes). Legumes such as beans, lentils, peas and groundnuts should also be part of the diet. Siziba is amongst many people in rural communities who do not realise the importance of using their local farm produce such as vegetables and wild fruits to enhance their diet. She has since joined a women’s support group to boost her knowledge on how to stop malnutrition.

“Before treatment, Patricia suffered from low morale. She did not play with others and her appetite was very low,” she said. “Now, I have learnt a lot from nurses at our clinic. I have also joined a support group where we share experiences and advice on nutrition.” Recently, Save the Children, an international child rights NGO, organised a media tour in Shamva district to help highlight some of their programme activities in the district. The international NGO is working closely with the Government to empower rural women in the fight against hunger and malnutrition.

“The Government is playing its role in curbing malnutrition through its health institutions such as clinics where people can go for medication and treatment,” said Mrs Ancircaria Chigumira, a nutritionist in the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

“Communities must come on board and provide their families with a balanced diet through the use of their local farm produce. They must eat wild fruits and those from their own gardens too. They must not sell everything, but eat some to enable them to get vital vitamins.” Chigumira commended village health workers for educating women on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.

“As we try to eradicate malnutrition it is very important for women to practice exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months after child birth as it reduces risks to diseases. I am happy to see that village health workers are already teaching about the benefits of breast feeding,” she said. Added Sophie Hamandishe, the spokeswoman for Save the Children (Zimbabwe): “We are teaching people through village health workers to be creative and innovative with their local farm produce.

“For instance, pumpkins can be served as pumpkin bread by adding flour and milk, instead of the normal routine where they are just boiled. Such creativity with food boosts children’s appetites.” According to the World Health Organisation, diseases caused by malnutrition include protein deficiency conditions such as marasmus, kwashiorkor, anaemia, night blindness, scurvy, rickets and goitre. Mostly, children and pregnant women suffer from these conditions. Lack of iron and vitamins in the food as well as hookworms and roundworms can also cause the diseases.

Scurvy is a disease caused by the deficiency of Vitamin C. People of any age can suffer from this disease. When a severe El Nino-induced drought bartered most parts of Zimbabwe in the 2015-2016 cropping season, the country experienced its worst malnutrition rates in 15 years, as nearly 33 000 children were in urgent need of treatment for severe malnutrition. The situation, however, improved after the country received better rains in the 2016/ 2017 farming season.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 890 million people worldwide are food insecure with one in every three children chronically malnourished. According to the 2016 International Food Policy Research Institute Global Nutrition Report, malnutrition is on the rise in every country in the world and is a leading global driver of disease. The report shows that 44 percent of countries with data available (57 out of 129 countries) now experience very serious levels of both under-nutrition and adult overweight and obesity, and that, despite good progress in some countries, the world is off track to reduce and reverse this trend.

The researchers say malnutrition manifests itself in many different ways: as poor child growth and development, as individuals whose skin and bones are prone to infection, as those who carry too much weight or whose blood contains too much sugar, salt, fat or cholesterol, or those who are deficient in important vitamins or minerals. Further, the researchers say, malnutrition is responsible for nearly half of all deaths of children under age 5, and, together with poor diets, is the number one driver of the global burden of disease. At least 57 countries experience serious levels of both under-nutrition — including stunting and anaemia — and adult overweight and obesity, putting a massive strain on many already fragile health systems.

“One in three people suffer from some form of malnutrition,” said Lawrence Haddad, co-chair of the Global Nutrition Report’s Independent Expert Group and Senior Research Fellow at IPRI. We now live in a world where being malnourished is the new normal. It is a world that we must all claim as totally unacceptable.”

Minister Chinamasa

Nobleman Runyanga Correspondent
Last week, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader — Tendai Biti — presented what he termed the State of the Economy address at his offices in Harare. One of the issues that he raised was a proposal to adopt the South African rand as Zimbabwe’s anchor currency in the hope of bringing economic stability and growth. This is in spite of Government’s un- equivocal position, through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), on the matter, that it would not adopt the currency.

This is not the first time that the opposition has advocated for the adoption of the South African currency. In April 2017, the MDC-T’s so-called Shadow Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Tapiwa Mashakada, made the same suggestion justifying the calls by stressing that 50 to 60 percent of Zimbabwe’s foreign trade was with its southern neighbour. Mashakada, however, admitted that Zimbabwe could only adopt the rand if she had her own currency. He highlighted that the economic conditions which are conducive for the country to re-introduce its own currency were not yet ripe.

Tendai Biti

Around the same time, Biti also tweeted that, “Too late to adopt (the) rand. Economy (is) now in so much disequilibrium (that) without reforms, ZANU-PF will bastardise the rand.” This is the same Biti who has been “converted” and fervently believes that the adoption of the rand is now an urgent matter, whether ZANU-PF is in power or not. When it suits him ZANU-PF is the hindrance to the adoption of the rand and when it does not, in a chameleon-like fashion, he calls all the media houses in Harare to tell them that the adoption of the rand is now a matter of life and death. This time around he conveniently omitted to mention his earlier ZANU-PF condition.

Tapiwa Mashakada

When a whole opposition party leader forgets about crafting life-changing policies and programmes ahead of a major election and opts to major in matters of a Government ministry which he once presided over years back, one is reminded of the rich chiShona sagely wisdom which was dispensed in proverbs and idioms such as “Matakadya kare haanyaradze mwana” (Recalling past times of plenty cannot be used to cure present day hunger). Biti’s statement killed two birds with one stone. It indulged his thirst for the bygone days when he presided over the finance ministry, which he obviously misses, and the need to continuously appear politically relevant.

What with a splinter group from his party having tried to kick him out of the political outfit which he founded. Biti and his ranting aside, does Zimbabwe really need to adopt the rand? The answer is an emphatic, no. First and foremost, the rand is already part of the basket of foreign currencies which the country adopted in February 2009, as part of the implementation of that year’s National Budget, which the then Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Patrick Chinamasa presented in late 2008.

Prior to this hullabaloo, the rand was being used in Zimbabwe without any issue especially in the southern part of the country. Until the introduction of the bond coins by the RBZ to increase the availability of loose coins on the market in 2014, rand coins were the main source of loose change in Zimbabwe and they only fell out of favour with members of the public due to exchange rate differences with the bond coins.

Adopting the rand is being erroneously assumed to be a silver bullet to Zimbabwe’s liquidity challenges. What the country needs are initiatives within its manufacturing sector to significantly increase production levels, stimulate exports and reduce the prevailing high dependence on imports. There is need to address economic fundamentals to reduce the cost of production which would increase the demand for local goods. Reduced production costs also make Zimbabwe’s exports at both regional and global markets competitive.

South Africa has its own economic challenges. It is currently battling with the effects of the downgrading of its credit rating by global rating agencies Standard & Poor and Moody’s early this year, which reduced the southern African country’s economy to junk status. The country is also struggling with common issues such as poorly performing state-owned enterprises among other challenges and this hardly makes it a role model for Zimbabwe. Instead of Biti and ilk in the opposition camp playing the armchair economic critics, they should roll up their sleeves and ready themselves to work hard for the country’s economic turnaround, with a call for the removal of economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by their Western handlers being their first and foremost task.

Self-serving statements such as the one that Biti gave last week will not take Zimbabwe anywhere.

Maud Chifamba

David Mungoshi Shelling the Nuts
I am going to be deliberately provocative in order that together we indulge in a bit of imagination. Let us for a moment imagine Grade 7 children as school-leavers. I can already hear the creaking objections and the loud condemnation. What could be the reason for our protests? Are we perhaps saying that on average Grade 7 children are too young to be expected to carry the burden of decision-making where they might make decisions to last them a lifetime? Some Grade 7 children are at most 11 years old at the end of their Grade 7 examinations. Most people will argue that they are at this point too young to take on such huge responsibilities. True enough, but what are some of our reasons for saying this?

Teacher trainees, social workers and sociologists are familiar with the ideas behind what is known as chronological age and what is known as mental age. They will also tell you that it is not unusual to have a situation in which the mental age is well ahead of the chronological age or well below it. Some might ask what we mean by chronological age. The word chronology reminds me of a bombastic friend of mine, long ago and far away, who used to talk about his chronometer and mystify us all. However, if I have lived for 90 years, that is my chronological age, the number of years I have lived on earth. My bombastic friend was talking about his wrist watch.

Dr Sauramba

Different people try to impress in different ways. I remember growing up in Bulawayo’s eMzilkazi Village and sitting or crouching in the dust as part of a very captive audience. Abraham or Monday as his mother preferred to call him was dazzling us with talk about the Russians and the sputnik. It was all Double Dutch to me at the time, but I was fascinated nevertheless. His silky talk made my young and impressionable mind wonder about a lot of things. This was something that I did without prompting and quite frequently too. Allow me to whisk you away from the noisy environs of our urban environments with their smoke and smog, their vile smells from polluted rivers and the fiendish noises from loud appliances that play everything and anything and call it music. A far cry from the sweet melodious sounds of the legendary Sonny Sondo and the City Quads (the first ever group in Zimbabwe to do an album or long player as we called it then)!

But I digress a little. I wanted us to situate ourselves in the country — kumaruzevha or emaphandleni — and take in the open skies, the rivers and the valleys, and the herd boys cracking their whips to drive the cattle back home with the sun beginning to slowly sink into the horizon. It was things like this that made me want to follow a river just to see where it ended. In such moments the sky was alive with imihlambi yenyoni in isiNdebele, that is, a flock of birds in graceful flight.

Birds look absorbing and determined to get to wherever it is that they go to at the end of a day. I am convinced that the inventor of the submarine may have been influenced by the whale in the ocean, dipping and surfacing at will. Similarly, modern air forces in some ways ape bird formations in the sky. In my view, whatever we do is a copy of something in nature. For example, the dragon fly is, for me, the prototype of the helicopter.

Whenever I look up into the sky I cannot not help, but sing the classic folk song, “Shiri yakanaka unoyendepi?” I find its timeless lyrics fascinating, not just as a fanciful flight of the imagination, but also as a kind of charm to unlock closed doors. In my mind’s eye I see an enchanted singer begging the birds to take him with them to their destination somewhere in the misty distance. Enigmatically, the birds say they are on a journey to blend with the clouds and be like them. The singer says it is his wish to go there too. The effect of the sounds and the images created is devastating and fresh like the taste of the juice of exotic, but sweet fruit on one’s palate.

Abraham must have been about 14 or 15 years old and still at primary school at a time when very few blacks in the townships (what we now call the ghettos) owned radios or were able to buy a daily every day. Yet there he was, talking about rockets and the sputnik. As I recall it took me quite a while, some years in fact, to relate to what he described so effortlessly. It was not until 1963, when Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union aboard Vostok 6, became the first woman cosmonaut to travel that space travel and exploration took on an attractive new meaning for me. I could now talk about supersonic speed (travelling at a speed that breaches the speed of sound).

In time the enterprising Abraham was playing the penny whistle like the legendary Spokes Mashiyane and 16-year-old Lemmy Special Mabaso (now with the brass section of the Soul Brothers of South Africa who are still to recover from the demise of David Masondo, the lead vocalist with the silky voice and slick dancing skills). When Abraham began to play electric lead guitar in a band called The Pirates with famous jazz trumpeter Paul Lunga on the drums it was another notch up for him.

If we return to our hypothetical Grade 7 school-leavers, the drift of this article becomes clearer. Can you see them in a teachers’ college as student teachers? Do you think they have enough in their arsenal content-wise? Perhaps not, but we are likely to have some exceptions here and there. Maud Chifamba, for example, the orphaned and underprivileged girl from Chegutu, who attained 12 points at A-Level and was enrolled at the University of Zimbabwe at the tender age of 14. According to Wikipedia, as of 2012 Maud Chifamba was the youngest university student in Africa. Now the holder of a Bachelor of Accounts degree attained at 17, Maud can equal the feat of Dr Musawenkosi Sauramba, who at 23, became Africa’s youngest PhD degree holder. Wind the clock back a little, say to up until 1967, and you see that things were somewhat different. After eight years of primary schooling many of those who had good passes at Standard 6 began their vocational training in agriculture, carpentry, domestic science, nursing and so on. An aunt of mine who trained as a nurse at Nyadire Mission was, in addition to her general nursing skills, a capable midwife and dentist of sorts — at least where tooth extractions were concerned. Among some of the amazing feats from the old days is the story of national hero George Bonzo Nyandoro who for some time worked for City Stores in Harare and is credited with being the country’s first qualified black book keeper. All that just after standard six. Add to that his incredible ability with language and expression in both Shona and English and you have a well-accomplished person all round.

Old timers like me might swear that primary school education, before the ascendance of the Rhodesian Front party and the changes that party subsequently made to “African education”, was solid and profound. It could all be nostalgia, of course, but some still swear by the Oxford English Reader. The thinking is that it was this “prestigious” reader that so grounded many primary school leavers that in terms of vocabulary and expression they stood out and even excelled in their chosen careers.

Buxton (God bless him where he may be), a boyhood friend, after only Standard Six knew so much about so much. I had neither heard of opera, nor of the enigmatic tenor, Mario Lanza who by the 1950s had become a superstar, but Buxton had. He practically drooled when he spoke about Mario Lanza’s exploits in opera and on film. An uncle of mine in Manyene, just outside Chivhu town, is an unusually literate and erudite peasant after only Standard 6. Recently, he quoted to me from a comprehension passage in the Oxford English Reader, part of a defence lawyer’s statement in the murder trial of a noble man. Defence counsel sought to mitigate his client by calling the man a splendid slave and a reasoning savage “vacillating between the dignities of an intelligence derived from God and the degradation of passions participated with brutes . . .” Rookie law students are likely to struggle with the import of this learned counsel’s words, but my peasant uncle recites them with ease and perfect diction, 50 or more years after first reading them.

David Mungoshi is a writer, social commentator, editor and retired teacher.

Dr Chonzi

Charity Maodza Correspondent
The outbreak of typhoid in Harare last week torched a heated debate on social media with some observers blaming the city fathers for the scourge whilst others wanted to pin it on Government. As the typhoid debate ensued, new twists emerged on the matter when the City of Harare Director of Health Services, Dr Prosper Chonzi, told a local paper that the municipality was seeking permission from Government to inoculate all residents against the medieval disease.

Dr Chonzi told the paper that all along council had been dispensing the typhoid vaccine to its employees working at sewage plants but now wants to give it to all residents. The proposal to vaccinate all residents against typhoid elicited more questions than answers. If the typhoid vaccine was previously only given to sewage plant workers, why recommend it for the rest of the city? Is this a tacit admission by the MDC-T city fathers that they have turned the capital city into a huge sewerage pond in which everyone living in it has to be inoculated against medieval diseases?

What is raising more stench is that council has chosen the vaccination route as a way to fight typhoid instead of prioritising the rehabilitation of its antiquated water supply infrastructure. This seems to be an admission by council that it has failed to improve the quality of water supplies in the city. But how practical is the vaccination exercise? According to Zimbabwe’s 2012 census, Harare has a population of 2 123 132 people. Also a search on internet reveals that a single dose of a typhoid vaccine could costs around $200.

What it means is that council requires a staggering US$425 million to inoculate all residents against typhoid. This is a lot of money that can easily be directed towards the rehabilitation of the town’s obsolete water and sewer reticulation infrastructure. With the rehabilitation of Harare’s Morton Jaffray water plant fraudulently pegged at $144 million, the money earmarked for the typhoid vaccination would easily be used to revamp the rest of the town’s water supply system.

The refurbishment of the system would improve water quality and probably eliminate the possibility of future outbreaks of primitive diseases such as typhoid. Council should also slash its wage bill, which is currently gobbling a large chunk of its revenue. Municipal salaries are way above market average, with a council senior nurse said to earn $1 350 compared to $600 paid to those at Government health institutions. The realignment of the wage bill would allow the local authority to redirect a large portion of its revenue towards service delivery thus improving water quality and foster a clean environment.

Council should also realise that it would not be enough to simply inoculate residents alone as more people would trickle into Harare from rural areas or from outside the country. Without a safe water supply, these visitors would also need to be vaccinated prior to their visit. And how many from the rural areas would afford a vaccine bill of $200? Moreover, what kind of message are we sending to tourists with this typhoid vaccine narrative? How many tourists would volunteer to visit a supposedly typhoid- infested Zimbabwe? This would indeed be a blow to the country’s tourism industry.

Harare Municipality should therefore consider more permanent measures to eradicate the typhoid fever instead of undertaking cosmetic measures such as introducing vaccinations. A study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) titled “A study of typhoid fever in five Asian countries: Disease burden and implications for controls” noted that typhoid vaccinations have not been employed as a routine public health measure in most the typhoid-endemic countries.

In this regard, the Harare Municipality could only target typhoid-prone areas such as Mbare for vaccination while it dedicates itself to wholly improving its water supply situation to fight the disease. It is also disheartening that the city fathers appear oblivious to the importance of undertaking a preventive campaign against typhoid. A clear public awareness campaign against typhoid using the media would go a long way in curbing the spread of the disease.

Residents should observe the following precautions: Drink treated water from safe sources Wash hands with soap before handling foodstuffs Eat fruits and vegetables that have been washed or peeled Eat food while hot Avoid touching the face with dirty hands The MDC-T city fathers should therefore reconsider the global vaccination programme and focus more on improving water and sewer treatment infrastructure.

It is globally accepted that focus on raising industrial production levels in any country is the sure way to grow the economy. This means in the case of Zimbabwe, for this trajectory to be achieved, all pillars that is Government, industry, consumers and civic society must channel efforts towards economic revival.

Discord at the expense of a global national focus will lead to the demise of not only political actors, but industry as well as some will close shop never to open again — a scenario we do not want to happen. Therefore, growing the industry has a number of positives to the economy that include improving food security, reducing imports, particularly of locally available products, halting export of jobs and saving the country foreign currency. Last week we carried a story that capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector declined to 45,1 percent in 2017 from 47,4 percent recorded last year as rising costs of production and foreign currency shortages, among other challenges continued to take a toll on the sector. Competition from cheap imported substitutes, antiquated machinery constantly breaking down, low local demand and failure to access affordable finance, were some of the key exogenous factors impeding industrial growth, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries revealed during the release of the Manufacturing Sector Survey 2017.

Like what CZI chief economist Dephine Mazambani said while presenting the findings, the “vicious cycle” surely can be broken by addressing Zimbabwe’s cost structures and holistic regulatory reforms. The country’s economy is delicate and this calls for all players, Government and industry to play ball. As players grapple challenges with a view to find solutions, the habit of blame game should not be tolerated. If industry raises fundamental issues that are impeding industrial growth in the country, we surely expect all actors to listen and if others raise concern on critical issues they feel are overplayed, there should be an exclusive way of handling such. It’s a fact that Zimbabwe’s cost structure should be addressed as it affects final product costs and renders Zimbabwean exports uncompetitive, affecting capacity to raise foreign currency, among other challenges.

After announcing the capacity utilisation decrease, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr John Mangudya was quick to raise intriguing points worth noting. We are persuaded to buy Dr Mangudya’s argument that at a time when the CZI survey says capacity utilisation is declining, it’s taking only two of the seven companies in the oil processing sector to meet the country’s demand of 10 million litres per month. The seven companies in the sector have capacity to produce “about 45 million litres of cooking oil a month, which means there is excess capacity within some sectors as Zimbabwe’s demand for cooking oil is just 10 million litres per month. Besides, Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 has seen many companies with products covered by the instrument increasing their capacity to at least 100 percent. Therefore, industry should contextualise its figures on capacity utilisation, indicating their relevance to domestic consumption.

Surely, if one company in a sector can produce for the entire country and the rest being excess capacity, there is no need to raise alarm in the economy. However, if close to 40 percent of companies in the manufacturing sector have equipment older than 20 years, there is definitely a need to look into that even if it means Government coming up with subsidies to help them retool. Antiquated equipment is wasteful and slow, making it expensive for industry to produce under such situations. As such, Government’s efforts in reforming the ease of doing business environment, focus on fundamentals that affect production in all sectors of the domestic economy and safeguarding the productive sectors from cheap imports become imperative if our industry is to grow.

Peter Symonds Correspondent
US defence secretary James Mattis has again warned North Korea that the United States military is ready and able to obliterate the country of 25 million people unless it abandons its nuclear arsenal. The threat, backed by an unprecedented US military build-up in North East Asia, places the region and the world on the brink of a catastrophic war.

“I cannot imagine a condition under which the US would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” he told reporters in Seoul on Saturday. Make no mistake any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated, and any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is effective and overwhelming.” US war plans are offensive, not defensive, in character. Asked about the possibility of a pre-emptive US attack on North Korea to prevent a hypothetical attack on Seoul, Mattis confirmed, “yes, we do have those options”.

Under OPLAN 5015, US and South Korean forces are primed for massive offensive strikes against North Korean nuclear, military and industrial facilities as well as “decapitation raids” by special forces to kill its top leaders. While Mattis insisted that “our goal is not war”, US President Trump has effectively ruled out any other option, short of North Korea’s total capitulation to Washington’s demands.

Trump publicly rebuked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier last month for “wasting his time” in putting out diplomatic feelers for talks with North Korea. Trump is about to begin his first official trip to Asia this week, including to Japan, South Korea and China. Having threatened in the UN to “totally destroy” North Korea, he will undoubtedly use this incendiary threat not only to menace the Pyongyang regime, but the entire region, particularly China which the US regards as its chief obstacle to global hegemony. Trump’s trip will take place amid a massive show of US military force near the Korean Peninsula, including:

1. Three US nuclear-powered aircraft carriers — the USS Ronald Reagan, the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt — which are in the region and preparing for joint exercises along with their associated strike groups. Each carrier is accompanied by between six to 10 warships, including cruisers, destroyers and nuclear submarines, and has an air wing of dozens of fighter jets and other military aircraft.

2. The USS Michigan, a nuclear-powered submarine armed with more than 150 Tomahawk missiles, which docked in South Korea on October 17, ahead of joint exercises with the USS Ronald Reagan. The submarine also carries Navy SEALs, which in an earlier port call in April reportedly included the notorious SEAL Team Six that murdered Osama bin Laden.

3. All US military bases throughout the region, particularly in South Korea, Japan, Guam and Australia are without doubt on a high state of alert. The Pentagon has 28 500 military personnel in South Korea, around 54 000 in Japan and about 4 000 in Guam, along with a large number of naval vessels and warplanes. Australia acts as a de facto rear base for US Marines, warships and aircraft as well as housing key spy and communications bases. Two Australian frigates are due to arrive this week in South Korea for joint drills.

4. The Pentagon is set to deploy, for the first time, a squadron of F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jets and 300 personnel to the US base on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The advanced fifth-generation stealth fighters could well be used as part of a first wave to destroy North Korean air defences, opening the way for a massive air assault.

5. The US Air Force has carried out one military provocation after another — flying B-52 and B1-B strategic bombers close to North Korea. Recently, US Strategic Command, in charge of the nuclear arsenal, reported that it had flown a B-2 stealth bomber from the US to the Pacific to “familiarise aircrew” and to ensure “a high state of readiness and proficiency.” Unlike the B1-B, the state-of-the-art B-2 is nuclear capable.

The flight underscores the ominous comments of US Vice President Mike Pence during a visit last Friday to Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, which houses 26 nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and 150 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) sites. Referring to North Korea, Pence declared: “Now more than ever your commander in chief (Trump) is depending on you to be ready. Stay sharp, mind your mission.” The Trump administration is preparing a war not just with conventional weapons, but with nuclear bombs — directed against North Korea and any other powers such as China and Russia that join the conflict.

Last week, the Air Force announced that it was preparing to put its B-52 nuclear bombers back on 24-hour alert. At the same time, as reported by the Guardian recently, the Trump administration is drawing up a new Nuclear Posture Review, which will open the door for a range of new nuclear weapons and change the rules governing their use. The only conclusion that the North Korean regime can reach is that the country confronts the imminent threat of a US military onslaught, using conventional and/or nuclear weapons. The South Korean-based NKNews reported over the weekend that North Korea has been carrying out mass evacuation drills in cities and towns along the east coast.

The world may be closer to the brink of nuclear war than at any time in history. During the extremely tense stand-off between the United States and Russia during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, both the American and Russian leaders worked to prevent a nuclear exchange that would have devastated the world. Trump, however, driven by the irresolvable contradictions of American and global capitalism, is proceeding with an unprecedented degree of recklessness to deliberately inflame flash points in Asia, as well as the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Embroiled in one political crisis after another at home, and facing mounting public hostility to his agenda of austerity and war, Trump is being propelled towards launching war as a means of diverting acute social tensions outwards against a foreign enemy.

These same tensions are driving workers and youth in the United States and around the world into struggle to defend their living conditions, basic democratic rights and to prevent a conflict that would plunge the world into barbarism. That movement must find conscious expression in the program of socialist internationalism fought for by the International Committee of the Fourth International to put an end to the bankrupt capitalist system that engenders war and social misery.- wsws

Sharon Hofisi Legal Letters
The best way to assert a nation’s sovereignty and to raise awareness on its national interests is by showing a nation’s foreign policy to the world. A simple reading of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, 2013, shows that the foreign policy is considered as part of Zimbabwe’s national objectives. The objectives are directive in nature and their purpose is shown in Section 8 of the Constitution.

They guide the State and all institutions and agencies of Government in formulating policy decisions that will lead to the: establishment, enhancement and promotion of a sustain- able, just, free and democratic society in which people enjoy prosperous, happy and fulfilling lives. It may not be possible to define every aspect above in this article, but the authority of the Constitution is supreme. All those who are in the realm of constitutional research can attest to the importance of the benefits of a democratic society that is envisaged above.

The objectives are important because they are used when interpreting the State’s obligations under the Constitution or any other law. Ideally, the Zimbabwean Constitution is a written document and documents are meant to be read. It shows how other countries can start on their political or economic engagements with Zimbabwe. They can use our Constitution as they would any other policy document: look at its preamble, national objectives, declaration of rights and interpretive sections.

The interpretive section, Section 332 of the Constitution for instance defines law to mean any provision of the Constitution or of an Act of Parliament; any provision of a statutory instrument; and any unwritten law in force in Zimbabwe, including customary law. The question “how do we engage with Zimbabwe?” is therefore constitutionally pitched. Foreign governments can also scrutinise all those laws before they engage with Zimbabwe. The Constitution becomes their starting point in crafting policies on their diplomatic or bilateral engagements with Zimbabwe. This also applies to regional bodies. They can also use the normative provisions in a Constitution to get an insight into a nation’s commitment to regional integration or stability.

For starters, foreign policy is usually formulated and implemented by State actors – usually the executive arm of the State. As such, the chief strategist in this regard is usually the head of State or Government, as the case may be. In the Zimbabwean case, the President is both the Head of State and Government and is doubtlessly a key figure in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy.

It is also important to look at the role that is played by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other advisers of Government and the President. They deal with the actual administrative and anticipatory aspects on foreign policy. That Zimbabwe is a tiny but significant part of the international system of states is cast in stone. But the past weeks saw the print media dealing with issues to do with commercial diplomacy. Added to this were reports on the need for Zimbabweans in South Africa to regularise their stay by having proper documentation.

This article is based on such media reports and focuses on the need for academia to monitor media reports and to develop tools in this regard. It provides an analysis on the foreign policy of Zimbabwe using the Constitution as the starting point. It shows that the Constitution sets a new trajectory on Zimbabwe’s foreign policy. The goal is to ensure that State actors benefit from the views on the importance of the constitutional framework as discussed below.

The national representation and global reach of the Constitution positions it well to stimulate diplomatic engagements and negotiations between Zimbabwe and the other countries of the global family. Further, the Constitution is the starting point on arguments between Zimbabwe’s sovereignty and responsibilities within the international system. The choice of the Constitution for the discussion on foreign policy is considered most appropriate, for in the Constitution the author sees not only the prospects of a normative theoretical approach to international engagement, but also the appeal to political realism.

In any valid critique on political engagements, the link between norms that protect tenets of democracy such as constitutionalism and theories that explain the real distribution of power in the international community such as realism must always be shown. As shown above, foreign policy is part of the national objectives that are found in Chapter 2 of the Constitution. Section 12 of the Constitution lists the principles upon which the foreign policy of Zimbabwe is based.

There are four mandatory principles which are listed in Section 12 (1) and include: promotion and protection of the national interests of Zimbabwe; respect for international law; peaceful co-existence with other nations; and the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means.

Firstly, national interests can be defined according to what a state considers to be the core values. Although this is debatable, the question that arises is “who defines national interests?” At a surface, the answer is to be found from the question, “who usually deals engages with the outside world?” We may be quick to say the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Other ministries can also be considered but they may be dealing more with image or welfare management than foreign policy. The issues such as self-determination or sovereignty can be used.

Zimbabwe is a unitary, democratic and sovereign republic. Aspects of sovereignty such as non-interference cannot be ignored. Secondly, respect for international law is also important in foreign policy. Zimbabwe has ratified several Conventions. For instance, nations are currently working within the framework of the United Nations Refugee Convention and the African Union Convention to ensure that Rwandan refugees return to Rwanda.

Thirdly, peaceful co-existence with other nations has seen Zimbabwe working with other countries in activities such as “Operation Mahombekombe” in 2015. This operation was under the auspices of the SADC Special Forces. The area of operation was Kariba. A close examination of the media reports in this regard will show that Zimbabwe is committed to peaceful co-existence with other nations as a pillar of its foreign policy. Fourthly, Zimbabwe envisions a situation where international disputes are resolved by peaceful means. This is important because Zimbabwe has also benefited from peaceful means of dispute resolution such as mediation.

Mediation led to the establishment of the Government of National Unity in 2009. This Government gave birth to political negotiations which culminated in the adoption of the 2013 Constitution. Section 12 (2) of the Constitution makes it obligatory for the State called Zimbabwe, to promote regional and pan-African cultural, economic and political cooperation and integration. The State must also participate in international and regional organisations that stand for peace and the well-being and progress of the region, the continent and humanity.

From the above sections, it is clear that the idea of writing down the principles of foreign policy, of showing how a state interacts with the outside world, individual countries, international or regional organisations might seem the stuff of science fiction. But this is, in all earnestness, rooted in real politics. A quick glance in history shows that presidents play a significant role in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. For instance, President Jimmy Carter once announced the United States’ intention to extend long denied formal recognition to the People’s Republic of China.

The historical example clearly shows that the leading factors that guide state actors are based on both the domestic and external factors that affect a state. The United States once had a protracted policy of non-recognition but had to be changed for some reasons. Other diplomatic conflicts that have been witnessed include Qatar and some of the Gulf States. A nation’s laid down foreign policy is important in showing the world what is negotiable or non-negotiable, and what activities are friendly or hostile towards it.

Sometimes what gets caught in the crossfire of miscalculated foreign policy is the ordinary citizen – franchised or not. For instance, some Zimbabweans who work in South Africa have been presented as defectors from the army on the one hand or have been linked to murders in farming communities on the other. The media reports become an important factor which must influence how foreign policy is formulated or implemented. Looking at the reports, one would never ignore the energy that the South African Police Minister would expend on protecting South African nationals. All this is, of course, a matter of fact. Readers of such reports can believe what seems right to them.

If the Constitution is actually the voice, soul and spirit of the citizen, as it is often said, then the citizen must participate in the formulation of policy. What matters in the end is not whether citizens are given feedback in through the Press, but how the Constitution should be used. There is evidence that most of the foreign policy approaches are taking a calculated account of the Constitution. Commercial diplomacy can work in the interests of Zimbabwe’s economy.

Peaceful diplomacy also works in the interests of Zimbabwe’s national security. When an impression was created that defectors from the Zimbabwean army are committing serious offences in South Africa, the role of State actors was shown through the pacific approach that was taken by Zimbabwe’s ambassador to that country. In this wake, the Constitution certainly becomes a living document. It is every citizen’s autography.

Sharon Hofisi is a lawyer and writes in his own capacity. He is contactable at sharonhofii@gmail.com <mailto:sharonhofii@gmail.com>

We were all children once. This is something we all have in common. Many of us have a child or are involved in the lives of children in some way. We want children to grow up to be happy, healthy, strong and productive. We want them to thrive. Children are both the present and the future. They represent the next wave of parents, grandparents, caregivers, teachers, doctors, police officers, judges, community leaders, faith-based leaders, politicians and decision-makers.

How we address the violence affecting children today will have a direct bearing on future families and societies. Article 19 of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), defines the scope of violence as “all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development contains a bold and ambitious call to end violence against children, acknowledging its eradication as a key component of sustainable development. A crucial step towards achieving this universal imperative is the mobilisation of political will and the promotion of evidence-based strategies to address multiple contributing factors, including social and cultural norms that condone violence, lack of adequate policies and legislation, insufficient services for victims, and limited investments in effective systems to prevent and respond to violence.

Central to these efforts is the creation of strategic partnerships, such as the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children, to accelerate action, leverage resources, build commitment, facilitate exchange of knowledge and implement work at scale. As part of the End Violence campaign, UNICEF is launching a new report titled “A Familiar Face: Violence in the lives of children and adolescents.” The study focuses on violence children face in places most familiar to them, often at the hands of those closest to them, during all stages of their childhood.

The report highlights rates of violent discipline against children aged one year old and children aged 2-4 years old; sexual violence; homicide; and violence at school. In Zimbabwe approximately one third of girls and young women and one in 10 boys and young men aged 18-24 experienced some form of sexual violence in childhood, and nearly one in 10 girls reported experiencing physically forced sex (rape) before 18; while over a third of the respondents experienced physical and emotional abuse by an authority figure.

Of all the young people who experienced abuse, only 2,7 percent of girls and 2,4 percent of boys knew of a place where they could seek professional help, and received professional guidance. Those at risk cut across all boundaries of age, gender, religion, ethnic origin, disability, socio-economic status, sexual orientation and/or gender identity and expression. Gender-sensitive approaches are needed to mitigate children’s risk of violence and to address specific care and support needs. Gender discrimination is not only a cause of many forms of violence against girls, but also contributes to the broad neglect and acceptance of violence against girls as a social norm.

Perpetrators are often not held to account and girls are discouraged from speaking out and seeking care, support and protection. While these problems are pronounced in the lives of girls, many forms of violence against boys also go under-reported, often because of issues related to stigma and shame. The impact of this violence against children can be lifelong, and even passed from generation to generation. When young people experience violence, the likelihood of their becoming future victims and of acting violently themselves as adults increases.

Research shows that violence can negatively impact children’s educational performance and achievement, which can have long-term economic consequences, including poverty. Exposure to violence at an early age can impair brain development and is associated with a range of mental health problems. Violence can lead to acute and long-term problems for children’s physical, sexual and reproductive health as well as their psychological well-being. In all its forms, violence is detrimental; in the worst cases, it can be fatal.

Sound data and analysis are needed to provide a solid underpinning for evidence-based policies to address these factors. This will require dedicated investments for collecting quality data to assess the magnitude and circumstances surrounding violence against children, evaluating the impact of interventions, and working towards filling information gaps. In addition, societies that have greater awareness of the issue can hold governments accountable to their commitments.- UNICEF.

Irene Sithole
In Zimbabwe, there are many people who get married by performing customary law rites which include lobola payment but they do not go further to formalise their marriages through registration. There is a legal challenge with such arrangements in that the law only recognises them as marriages in very few circumstances. Such circumstances include inheritance and the legitimacy, guardianship, custody and maintenance of the children born in such unions.

However, in the crucial area of property distribution in the event of a divorce, the law in the form of legislation is silent on how this should be done where a couple has a customary law union. This position exists despite the fact that the issue of how property acquired during the subsistence of a marriage should be shared is one of the main contentious issues warranting the intervention of the courts. The good news for couples in these customary law unions is that the courts have exercised their right of judicial activism and there are now some legal principles which can be applied to ensure that there is a just and equitable distribution of the property of parties who have a customary law union.

It is however very important to note that these principles, which are the subject of discussion in this article, do not automatically apply because one has a customary law union. The party that is the spouse who wants them to be applied has to prove their existence in his/her particular case. First and foremost, when a couple decide to enter into a customary law union, it is assumed that they want customary law to be the system of law that applies to them in the event of a divorce or any other disputes which may arise between them.

For this reason, such unions are dissolved in terms of customary law under which a spouse who is being divorced is given a token of rejection called gupuro in Shona. This divorce is according to customary traditions and it does not go through the formal courts. Similarly the parties will also be expected to share their property in accordance with customary law under which a wife is entitled to what is called mawoko property.

This type of property is usually confined to personal effects and household utensils. This application of customary law in property sharing has resulted in some unfairness where some women have had to walk out with almost nothing yet they would have contributed significantly to the acquisition of the matrimonial property. It is in these circumstances that an aggrieved party may approach the court to seek its intervention for property distribution. The party has to provide justification to the court that general law is the legal system that should be applied in his/her case. One aspect which the courts take into consideration in deciding whether to apply general law or customary law is the lifestyle of the parties.

If, for instance, the parties are professionals living in an urban setting where they have acquired a house or houses and they generally adhere to a western type of lifestyle, general law will be applied in sharing their property. There are two key principles which a party from a customary law union can present before the court in order for it to determine how the parties’ property can be shared. These are tacit universal partnership and unjust enrichment. The courts have laid down some prerequisites which a party who is claiming the existence of a universal partnership has to prove.

In order for there to be a tacit universal partnership, each of the parties in the customary law union must have brought something to the union or made a commitment to bring something whether it is money, labour or skills. This element allows the court to take into account other non-financial contributions to the union. For example one spouse may contribute financially in buying a stand and building a house while the other may contribute labour in supervising the building or cooking for the builders.

It will be unfair in such a case to deny a share to the spouse who did not make financial contributions. The size of the share that each spouse gets is proportionate to their contributions in accordance with the principle of equity. Further, for a tacit universal partnership to be present, the business or acquisition of the property should be carried out for the joint benefit of the parties. A clear example of such an intention to have both parties as beneficiaries would be where the property in question is registered in both spouses’ names.

Where a party has made direct contributions in the acquisition of the property, it can also be an indication of the parties’ intention to benefit jointly from the property. The third element to be present is that the object of the business should be to make a profit and lastly the agreement should be a legitimate one. The third element of making a profit would be easily satisfied if the parties carried out a joint venture or business and used the profits to acquire the property which they want the court to distribute between them.

In a tacit universal partnership, the agreement is implied and not expressly stated hence the use of the word tacit. Another principle which a party in an unregistered customary law union can allege is that of unjust enrichment. If the party succeeds in proving to the court that the property distribution proposed by the other party will result in unjust enrichment, the court is then obliged to distribute the property in question in an equitable manner. In proving unjust enrichment, a spouse has to satisfy the court that he/she contributed something which will leave the other party enriched at his/her expense if not equitably distributed.

Take for instance a case where a husband is formally employed in the city and he sends the wife to the rural areas to do some farming during the rainy season. The husband provides the farming inputs while the wife provides all the labour. After harvesting the crops, the crops are sold and the proceeds used to buy a scotch cart. At some point, the couple who has an unregistered customary law union decide to separate and the husband claims the scotch cart as his property based on his financial contribution in buying the farming inputs.

In such a scenario it can be argued that awarding the scotch cart to the husband will enrich him at the expense of the wife who laboured in the fields and such enrichment will be unjust. The prevailing situation of not recognizing customary law unions as marriages and excluding them from the provisions of the Matrimonial Causes Act that regulate property distribution on divorce is not desirable. It has been a ground for discrimination for most women who are in such unions. It is hoped that legislative reform will come sooner than later so that all types of marriage will be treated equally. In the meantime, it is acknowledged that the principles discussed above have been a lifesaver mostly for women who would otherwise have found themselves dispossessed of property which they contributed in acquiring.

Irene Sithole (Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association Member). For feedback, questions and comments please feel free to email: zwla@zwla.co.zw — For a response to Gender Based Violence Issues, call our toll free number 08080131: hotlines 0776736873/ 0782900900

Caesar Zvayi

Don Muvuti Lest We Forget
THE listing of some Zimbabweans whom together with the Zimbabwean society, Anglo-Americans and their European Union allies have earmarked for punishment with illegal sanctions constitutes totally unjustified persecution of the society by imperialism. Inclusion of two Zimpapers journalists — Munyaradzi Huni and Caesar Zvayi — on the list has called for comment because of the evil use of freedom of expression by imperialism involved in this move.

When it had become clear to imperialism that Zanu-PF was not abandoning land redistribution, it (imperialism) launched its anti-Zanu-PF programme aimed at replacing Zanu-PF by another movement through which it would neo-colonise the country. One of the means which it has used to bring the state of affairs about has been demonising Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe, and mass media in the imperialist world, have been devoted to that exercise for a decade now. The result has been that where news on Zimbabwe is predominantly sourced from imperialist of pro-imperialist mass media, the people have a completely distorted picture of the goings-on here.

Munyaradzi Huni

Those of them who have been able to come and see for themselves whether it was true that Zimbabwe has inexplicably lost its democratic character to become dictatorship have been shocked to find that what was being propagandised about the country was false. Some returned determined to do all they could to get the truth across about peaceful innocent Zimbabwe. As Zimbabweans manning the people’s mass media the two journalists have done their duty to the nation to dispel the demonising propaganda against Zimbabwe for the benefit of the society and for correct information of those interested in the reality of our situation.

In doing so, they have not been abusing their freedom of expression. They have been using this [particular freedom quite correctly and that does not merit interference by anyone with their right to exercise this freedom. It is imperialism’s false propaganda against Zimbabwe which merits banning not only in Zimbabwe, but indeed on the planet because of its being at once false and evil. Basically, why is imperialism interfering in the domestic affairs of small Zimbabwe? When it was colonised, Zimbabwe was viewed as going to be colonisers’ country where indigenous Zimbabweans would be confined to diminishing “reserves” as increasingly more colonisers came to settle in the colony. As is well known that scenario can result in indigenous owners becoming the minority if as long as a thousand years is rendered available for that to happen.

It was thanks to timeous intervention of communism that Chimurenga II did not go the way of Chimurenga I and we were able to make a success of our struggle for liberation. As Kwame Nkrumah correctly predicted, after losing classical empires, imperialism is now bidding for neo- colonisation leading to neo-empires. When at Lancaster House we settled for land redistribution after 10 years, little did we know that the Anglo-Americans were buying time to manoeuvre against the exercise. This became evident only when the pledge to fund land redistribution was rejected in 1997 followed by imposition of illegal sanctions amid demonisation of the ruling party, its leader and the society, with support glued onto the then labour based opposition. The country has been singled out for neo-colonisation and the machinations were aimed at pre-empting land redistribution and otherwise rendering the country’s resources available to imperialism at the cost of continued marginalisation of indigenous Zimbabweans.

At least people’s mass media in the country had to mount sustained exposure of imperialism’s sinister programme, and the cadres who have accordingly manned the media in the society’s time of struggle for its land are heroes who should be left alone to do their work. By banning them from this world, imperialism wants to hide the need for the correct move of banning the journalists manning imperialist media from the entire justice-cum-peace loving world. That can jog imperialist circles into human sense. Without that sort of move, imperialism will continue to think that it is doing wonders in its neo-colonisation machinations.

What imperialism is doing against Zimbabwe is reminiscent of Anglo-American propaganda directed at making Germans hate Jews and Communism. The result was Nazism which emerged with a program of holocausts meant to result in world domination. Mankind owes defeat of that to communism which by then had become sufficiently united and organised to stand their ground in the former Soviet Union (in World War II) for a full five years at the end of which the allied forces emerged victorious.

The morale is that devilishly demonising Zimbabwe can lead to untold consequences, and it should be viewed as quite proper for the evil program to be countered not only by Zimbabwe people’s mass media but also by all other mass media which aspire for peace and justice on the planet. Because of imperialism’s evil programme against Zimbabwe our situation has gone past ordinary circumstances. Illegal sanctions which have been with us for a decade now have reduced the economy close to shambles, making life extremely difficult for Zimbabweans. This is a most serious economic war against Zimbabwe which imperialism wants to comprise the basis of an insurrection against the Government, not because there is no democracy in Zimbabwe, but because the government has been needful of the people’s demand for land redistribution.

While imperialism is persecuting the two journalists for their duty to the nation, , among the so-called independent papers here are some which are financed by global bourgeoisie specifically to be part and parcel of the demonising campaign against Zanu-PF and the government. We are not against objective criticism because that has the goal and duty of drawing attention to something going wrong so correction may be effected in time. That is not what is being alluded to here, but to a policy of demonising the liberation movement in order to bring about change to a neo-colonialist regime.

Editor’s Note: This article by national hero, Cde Don Muvuti, was published in The Voice, under the column The Way Forward on August 10, 2008. In the economic war aimed at provoking a hot war to re-colonise the country, a hard look needs to be taken at this type of mass media in our midst.  They are actually abusing freedom of expression by contributing to a situation in which the country may become a colony again. That is subverting the society in a dangerous and hence treasonable way.

Such mass media have been tolerated in the belief that banning them would lay the society open to criticism that we are denying this segment of the mass media freedom of expression, but in a regime change war this consideration has now to be weighed against the cost to the society of this war in terms of loss of positive economic growth and a possible hot war the circumstances of which are being created with the aid of the pro-imperialist mass media.

Since this cost is more than the society can afford, it is better to ban the pro-imperialist mass media operating in our socio-economy for the specific purpose of inducing pro-imperialist mind-sets into the people, hoping thereby to dive the society into a pro-imperialist segment versus an anti-imperialist segment. Needless to state that such a scenario can result in a bitter civil war with imperialism militarily coming in to boost the chances of its favourite segment.

Thus pro-imperialist propaganda in our midst is treasonable and must not be allowed to continue the evil mission. There are some of us who join imperialism in demonising the society from externally based mass media. Such elements must be charged with treason and tried even the absentia. We are in a war. In World War 11 those types of elements were sentenced to death even on the side of allies against Nazism, showing that freedom of expression is far from being an absolute freedom. The mass media owned by the people of Zimbabwe have played their role in the society exceptionally well. We are all welcome to contribute through them what we sincerely consider useful to the society. As such they should be considered sufficient for most if not all our needs for this sort of means to exercise freedom of expression. Furthermore there must be strident criteria to be met for the people to grant a licence to run a mass media, and no mass medium should be found circulating in the society without a licence from the people. We are in a war which we must win!

This article by national hero, Cde Don Muvuti was published in The Voice, under the column The Way Forward on August 10, 2008.

After the First World War there was an advertisement inviting people to migrate to Southern Rhodesia because there was plenty of good land and there was sunshine 365 days per year

Dr Sekai Nzenza on Wednesday
Long before independence when land reform was a dream, my grandmother Mbuya VaMandirowesa stopped drinking beer, singing and dancing at the end of each October. You would see her shelling nuts and selecting the best red millet and maize seed. Some mornings, we saw her standing by the cattle pen, mumbling to herself saying. “Gore rino jongozi iri rinorima negejo?” This year, is this ox strong enough to pull the plough?”

Mbuya walked from one end of the field to the other. One time, we saw her with Sekuru Dickson, standing in the field that belonged to my mother. There was an argument about groundnuts. Mbuya was telling Sekuru that a woman, meaning my mother, must be allowed to grow her groundnuts. They walked to yet another field and we could see Mbuya angrily throwing her hands up and down and sideways, then shaking her head. My mother said they were fighting over land. Sekuru had four wives, with Mbuya being wife number one, VaHosi. My father was her oldest son and the first to be allocated land when he married my mother. He was given a small piece of land which was not big enough for my mother to grow maize, millet and groundnuts. “Hausi murume kana usina munda,” Mbuya used to say, meaning, you are not a man unless you have land. But this saying did not apply to men only. You were not a woman or a mother unless you had a groundnut field.

Women grew all the crops, but groundnuts were and still are a woman crop. Our land was too small for a growing family. Sometime in 1971, my father wrote in his diary in ink: “We are suffering from land hunger. I shall educate my children so they can do something better for themselves.” At that time, my grandfather Sekuru Dickson and Mbuya VaMandirowesa had something like four or five hectares of land. This land was allocated to them by Chisadza, a white envoy of the then Native Administrator. Mbuya used to tell us the story of Chisadza, one of the first white men to venture this far into the Tribal Trust Lands. Chisadza was not his real name. They called him Chisadza, meaning, one who gives sadza. Giving sadza was also the same as giving land.

Chisadza came here around 1940, 10 years after the Rhodesian government’s Land Apportionment Act of 1930. The Act ordered Africans to live in allocated Tribal Trust Lands or Native Reserves while the European settlers were given fertile land in good areas where there was plenty of rainfall. After the First World War some British people came to Rhodesia to farm tobacco, maize and cotton. Later on more British settlers were supported by their government to come to Rhodesia and farm. There was an advertisement inviting people to migrate to Southern Rhodesia because there was plenty of good land and there was sunshine 365 days per year.

Mbuya said Chisadza arrived on his horse, accompanied by Native Assistants and Black Watchers or mabhurakwacha who rode on bicycles. They wore khaki outfits, pith Safari-type helmets and heavy brown boots. Many people had never seen a white man that close, let alone a fierce big animal called a horse, or bhiza. When others fled, Mbuya and several others stayed. Chisadza spoke in English and Mubhurakwacha translated. The people were all ordered to sit under a big muchakata tree behind the village homestead. The horse stood nearby, while Chisadza told everyone that he had come to subdivide the land into individual fields. Each male head of the family was to be allocated munda, or fields of land where he would grow his maize, groundnuts, sorghum or whatever he so wished. But, terraces had to be built before anyone could plough because the land was rocky and rain washed away all the good soils. Terraces, or madhunduru as Mbuya and others used to call them, would safeguard the soils and stop it from being washed away to the rivers.

Chisadza rode his horse and his assistants followed behind placing big wooden pegs at the corner of each five or six acres for every male with a wife. Chisadza pegged the land from the river valley right up to the foot hills where we later built our village homestead. In those old days, before independence, men left the village and travelled to look for work on the farms or in Salisbury. There was one bus that carried them along the road from Enkeldoorn, now Chivhu. On the right side there were thick jungles and virgin land.

The village bus also took us all the way to Salisbury for the occasional visit. From Chivhu we went through Charter Estates and we could see vast European-owned land full of tobacco and maize. Fat cattle grazed in the wide green pastures. We could also see tobacco barns and smoke coming out. The white farmer’s house was often a short distance from the main road and you could easily tell where he lived because there were colourful bougainvillea trees near the house. You could also see dams of water and sprinkler irrigation. The native workers’ little huts were crowded somewhere on the farm. As the village bus raced past the white owned farms without stopping, we used to see signs written: “Trespasses will be prosecuted.” Later on, we discovered that the white farmers received a lot of support from the colonial government. In addition to all this support, there was legislation to benefit the settler farmer during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These included the Maize Control Acts and Cattle Levy Acts of 1931 and 1934. Then there was the Native Land Husbandry Act of 1951, which was responsible for controlling the utilisation and allocation of land occupied by Africans.

Our extended family has lived back here in the village since resettlement in the early 1940s. We have lived and farmed on this land, following the seasons. When November, the sacred month of the goat, mwedzi mbudzi arrived, no ceremonies could take place. The adults prepared for the coming of the rains. The rains came at the end of October or in early November. My mother and all the women and everyone in the village started work before sunrise. We ploughed the fields and sowed maize, sorghum and groundnuts. The agricultural officers or Madhumeni came to the rural areas to monitor the use of lands and helped us conserve the natural resources. I recall times when we made madhunduru to help stop soil erosion and preserve the soil. Despite the poor soils, the land was productive because we added a lot of cow manure and mulch from the hills.

Today, most of our village land was inherited from my grandfather, Sekuru Dickson and all the uncles. The land is still not productive unless you add plenty of hybrid seed and fertiliser. When land reform came, many people from around here moved to the resettlement areas on to land where most of the white men used to farm. They live on A1 farms, which is an average of six hectares each. A few of them managed to get A2 farms, which is an average of 40 or more hectares. Our uncle Babamunini Mabisho grows a lot of tobacco somewhere near Beatrice. He is a productive A2 farmer. We visited his farm during his daughter’s wedding in September.

Babamunini Mabisho is doing well. He has more than one hundred cattle, a big four-bedroomed house and a truck. His granary was overflowing with maize after the harvest. He made good money from selling tobacco this year. During the wedding, Babamunini Mabisho slaughtered a whole beast, two goats and several broiler chickens for the guests. When his turn to give a speech as father of the bride came, Babamunini stood on top of a drum and reminded us about the time when Mbuya VaMandirowesa, my mother and the uncles used to fight for land back in the village.

Dressed in a shiny silver suit, white shoes and a red tie, Babamunini Mabisho said there was money to be made from the soil. “The white farmer had a loan given to him by the bank. He had knowledge and he used cheap labour. We do not have money, we have little knowledge, but we have energy,” he said. He then went on to praise the Government initiative called Command Agriculture and how he has benefited from it. People clapped hands. Babamunini Mabisho said we must not forget to look back to the past and celebrate the hard work of our parents and grandparents. “Takapiwa minda. November asvika. Mvura iri kuuya. Ngatishande,” he said. We have the land. November is here. The rain is coming. Let us work hard. Kuti unzi murume, kunzi munda. To be called a man (or a woman) is to have land.

Dr Sekai Nzenza is an independent writer and cultural critic.

There are reports of white farmers arming themselves to the teeth, conducting military-style training camps, propagating nationalist hate and ready for war.

MY TURN WITH TICHAONA ZINDOGA
Racial tensions in South Africa are always high, and occasionally shoot through the roof. It is something that was not cured by the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that was part of measures, processes and conditions that brought about South African independence in 1994. A system of racial discrimination against blacks should have ended in 1994.

South Africans of all colours must have become equal from 1994. Political, social and equality must have characterised new life in the “Rainbow Nation”. The beautiful, utopian story of a new “multi-racial” country has not been achieved. In fact, the situation has been more characteristic of a festering sore as South Africa marked by inequality, poverty, crime and racialism. These differences, this festering sore, will not heal any time soon.

The sore will get worse, wider, deeper and stinking. Black people are angry and impatient. White people feel insecure. White farmers want war. On Monday, white farmers and mainly Afrikaner nationalists, staged protests countrywide over “farm murders” which they say are part of “white genocide” in South Africa. There have been a number of killings on farms and Afrikaner groups claim that these incidents are racially motivated. (Ironically, last week two farmers were sentenced to 20 years in jail for torturing a black man, whom they forced into a coffin and threatened to kill him.)

The lobby group AfriForum has released statistics meant to show that commercial farmers are 4,5 times more likely to be killed than the South African population as a whole. According to AfriForum‚ 156 commercial farmers are killed per 100 000 and, according to reports, national police’s annual crime statistics indicate that 34,1 South Africans are murdered per 100 000 of the population. The figure by AfriForum is heavily disputed. Africa Check, which verifies facts and figures made public, says the so-called farm murder rate is 0,4 murders per 100 000.

“SA’s farm murder rate remains unknown,” says Africa Check.
“While questions remain about the accuracy of farm murder statistics and an accurate estimate of the affected population is unavailable, any farm murder rate should be viewed with caution.”

Political figures
It has become evident that figures are political. Afrikaners are trying to project a view that white farmers are under siege. Unexpectedly, whites belonging to the Afrikaner community have even reached out to rightwing figures and sentiments in Europe and America to find sympathy and even support. They have reached out to US President Donald Trump and expressed fear of being wiped out by blacks, and that says a lot about race relations in South Africa. An article, “Donald Trump, white victimhood and the South African far-right” (The Conversation, February 23, 2017) illustrated this clearly.

“The fear of black violence, the so-called ‘Swart Gevaar’ (Afrikaans for black danger) propagated by the apartheid state, still persists. The most extreme version of this victimhood is ‘white genocide’. This idea has been popularised by the Afrikaans pop singers (Steve) Hofmeyr and Sunette Bridges through their Red October campaign. They advocate that farm murders in South Africa come down to ‘white genocide’ – farm murders most certainly are problematic, even without it being hijacked for political mileage. But they don’t amount to ‘white genocide’ and affect more than white people.

“The right-wing political party Freedom Front Plus has called on the UN to investigate white genocide. The numbers show that this idea is sheer hyperbole.” A petition that was supposed to be handed to President Trump also shows how deeply the matter is racial and political. The petition contained the following statement: “We (Afrikaners) and the Koisan [sic] are the original natives of South Africa and were here since 1652. No other people were here since Jan van Riebeeck arrived except the Koisan living from the sea in the Western Cape.” (President Trump, SA’s white right’s white knight? Daily Maverick, January 17, 2017).

Of course, President Trump has not heeded the call, but the existence of people like a young white man Dylan Roof, who in 2015 killed black people in a church in the US while wearing flags of apartheid South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, shows that racists in South Africa have global links and sympathisers. And for their own part, there are reports of white farmers arming themselves to the teeth, conducting military-style training camps, propagating nationalist hate and ready for war. In March, an outfit calling itself the “Boer Afrikaner Volksraad” warned government that it would “not recognise any law that makes nationalisation of land without compensation legal, even if it comes from parliament” (Boer-Afrikaner ‘nation’ warns ANC of war over land, The Citizen, March 1, 2017).

“Deprivation, dispossession and occupation of our country in terms of any law shall be considered formal acts of war against the Boer Afrikaner people, which we have to defend against and retaliate with internationally accepted means and methods in order to ensure our ownership and recovery,” said the organisation.

Enough is enough – and an insult
Things are not getting any cooler. Events of Monday, when white people blockaded roads and busy highways against “farm murders” and proceeded for rallies, is the latest sign of a festering situation. A group called “Genoeg is Genoeg” was at the forefront of the protest action. By all estimation, racially privileged white farmers are not prepared to concede anything that they consider a threat to their livelihoods and position.

The so-called “farm murders” is both an excuse and rallying point. Whites will simply not be giving away land as demanded by blacks. A pocket of 40 000 white farmers, as at December 2016, held 73,3 percent of land in South Africa, a country of 56 million and more than 70 percent black. Government, which has managed to redistribute only about 8 percent of its target of 30 percent land since 1994, has been under pressure and President Jacob Zuma’s call for “expropriation without compensation” has been severely undermined by politics and, generally, by time.

Meanwhile, white farmers are becoming bolder and in many instances openly show disdain for black people. On Monday, a picture circulated of farmers posing with a bakkie with the message which read, “NO BOER, NO PAP”. Pap is the local word for “sadza”, and the white farmer – the Boer – was telling us that without him black people who depend on pap, as we all typically do, would starve to death! What an insult to South Africans and all of us! And, by the way, apartheid flags were openly displayed by some of the protestors.

The first phase of the Biometric Voter Registration, which ended last week, provided a number of lessons for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, which if addressed can contribute to a more successful second phase. The second phase of the BVR exercise got underway on Sunday and we hope ZEC will continue to perfect its systems to ensure that as many prospective voters as possible are accorded a chance to register.

The BVR exercise is being held in preparation for the harmonised elections due next year. This exercise forms an integral part of the elections, and its success or failure will have an important bearing on the holding of the elections. This is why we urge ZEC to ensure that all its systems are in order to avoid situations where the BVR system becomes a point of contestation, especially for losing candidates. So far we have observed that ZEC’s first phase of the BVR exercise was done perfectly, despite a few problems in some areas. ZEC can still do far much better than it did in the first phase, especially considering that time is not on its side for the registration process. The third and last phase of the exercise will end in January. Remember, this is a whole new registration exercise, which should account for almost all eligible voters in the country.

To avoid cases where some will claim being disfranchised, ZEC should ensure that it relaxes some of the requirements for the registration process. We should be awake to the fact that voter registration is a voluntary exercise. No matter how ZEC carries its mandate to educate people about the exercise and publicise it, the electoral body has no mandate to force people to the registration centres. This means that anything that seems like an obstacle will force people to stay at home. ZEC chairperson Justice Rita Makarau announced on Sunday that the first phase of the BVR exercise managed to register 1,2 million voters. The figure might seem massive, but that is before one considers that ZEC targets to have registered at least seven million voters by the time the exercise ends in January.

This means that the electoral body is yet to account for nearly six million voters. One issue that has become contentious since the BVR exercise started is the proof of residence requirement. Well, ZEC has its own reasons for requiring the proof of residence, which are valid. ZEC is simply implementing the law in that regard. The electoral body obviously needs to be sure that it is registering people, not ghosts, and one way of being sure is to know where one comes from and where they stay.

When it comes to the allocation of polling stations, which will be ward-based this time around, ZEC has to ensure that one votes at the nearest possible polling station. This can only be achieved effectively in the presence of authentic proof of residence. The provision for the proof of residence is contained in Section 24 of the amended Electoral Act. The requirement was also reiterated in Statutory Instrument 85 of 2017 titled “Electoral (Voter Registration) Regulations, 2017”. Now that it seems all political parties are agreed on the need to do away with the requirement for proof of residence, it is incumbent upon them to push their legislators to consider changes to the Electoral Act as amended. Otherwise ZEC’s duty will be to strictly follow the law and the regulations, although the electoral body can come up with means that make it easier for people to obtain the proof of residence. One such move is its awarding of Commissioner of Oath status to voter registration supervisors to assist people without proof of residence documents at registration centres.

Indian Chirara Correspondent
Gone are the days where attending pre-school or crèche was viewed as a symbol of privilege only accessible to a few kids from the well to do families. Following the adoption of the new curriculum by government early childhood development has become compulsory with authorities now more interested on how infants begin their formal education. In 2004 the provision of two years of pre-primary education in Zimbabwe (named ECD A and B) was instituted as a policy directed at all primary schools in order to insert at least two ECD classes for children in the 3-5 years age group. The basis for the formulation of the 2004 policy was a recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into Education undertaken in 1999.

The Commission found that many children in rural and poor communities did not have access to early childhood services. The aim of the 2004 policy framework is to make official the ECD programme under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The Ministry wanted to increase equity and access to ECD provisions, and enhance quality education Because of government’s new policy making ECD compulsory, a number of centres offering the curriculum have mushroomed all over the country.

Some have dubious reputation making it necessary for parents and guardians to carry out thorough background checks before enrolling their children. One of the first things that parents should consider is the security of the children at any given institution given the increase in cases of child abuse. The fees of pre-schools are mostly determined by the location with those in high density suburbs charging fees ranging from $50 to $100, while those in the low density range from $100 to as much as $400 per month.

The standards which are offered by pre-schools are also taken into consideration by parents when they seek to enrol their children, as well as the outlook of the premises. Some parents are even attracted by simple things such as uniforms. Geographical location is another factor, parents should opt for a school which is closer to their homes.

Most pre-schools provide transport to ferry children to and from, it’s vital that the drivers are not reckless and are of sober habits. It must be a policy for the owners of the school that their vehicles are always serviced for the safety of their children. Parents must take it as their responsibility to check on the condition of the vehicle which ferry their children, as some of these vehicles are not fit to be on the road.

Still on the issue children, some of the vehicles which are used are not comfortable and is some cases kids are often packed like sardines. This is not ideal. However, the most important aspect to consider on a preschool is to see if it is registered because some of them are not. Some of these pre-schools may not have qualified teachers, something which may not be beneficial to the kids.

In addition some of them may not have the official curriculum which was regularised and recommended by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The skill of the teachers are very important for the socialisation process of the children as it determines and influence their future. Young children capture things they are taught very quickly and so may be poisoned is they are not taught appropriately.

By not being taught the recommended content, a child will have difficulties when they enrol at primary school, and it will take some time for them to catch up. Cleanliness of the environment is also another aspect to look into. The learning environment of the children must be very clean and tidy. Children can be easily infected with diseases if they are exposed to a dirty environment. Pre-schools must have proper sanitation and a clean environment.

The kitchens must be spotless all the time so as to avoid food poisoning at all costs. In a recent incident that transpired in an area a few kilometres from Masvingo city, almost 70 students from Reformed Church in Zimbabwe-run Morgenster Teachers College were admitted at a local hospital in a suspected case of food poisoning.

The diet of children is also very important, when one is looking for a place. It’s important that they are given a balanced diet, so that they will not be malnourished. Junky food must be avoided at any cost, for they are unhealthy. Chenai Maranda who resides in Belvedere, said that her daughter used to attend a certain pre-school in her neighbourhood but had to withdraw her after started experiencing health problems.

“I had enrolled my child at a certain pre-school here in Belvedere, the reason l had opted for the school is that it appeared to offer services that were up to expected standards. My daughter started experiencing stomach problems and at first I ignored it until the problem became severe and I had to take the child for medical attention,” said Maranda.

After several tests, she said it was found that she had accumulated too much fats because of junk food.

“And l realised that it was at the school because at home we do not take junk food,” the parent said. “I was left with no option but to withdraw my child.”

The responsible authorities must scrutinise the operations and the hygiene of these pre-schools so that the lives of children are not endangered. All in all, parents must not make rush decisions when enrolling their kids as they are serious aspects which must be taken into accounts so as to avoid any regrets.

Soraya Narfeldt Correspondent
For many developing countries, building a skilled workforce is one of the greatest challenges. In a digital age where an increasing number of traditional jobs are being replaced with technology, it is crucial for emerging markets to build a knowledge economy where their citizens can contribute to their nations’ sustainable development.

However, history shows that in many countries, international companies and expatriates have often gone in, done the work, reaped the rewards, and left. In sub-Saharan Africa — the region with the world’s youngest and fastest growing population — investing in human capital is imperative if millions are to gain employment and build better lives for themselves and their families.

The good news is that for many organisations doing business in African countries, hiring a proportion of local people is now a legal requirement as part of “nationalisation” strategies. While this may appear to be burdensome, there are compelling reasons for hiring local people. They understand their cultures and business practices much more than expats ever can.

Smart companies hire locals as much as possible because they very often instinctively understand business etiquette, networks and cultural nuances. These capabilities are particularly important for companies that are outward facing and who engage with the public and other external stakeholders.

Here are a few ways to invest responsibly in Africa’s human capital.

1. Enable local development through job training

Empowering those who work for international companies with skills and training is especially important in communities where large numbers are employed by only one foreign firm. Major industrial plants in sectors such as mining rely very heavily on local employees, and communities can be left unable to find new jobs when companies leave.

And, while it is true that many jobs might require only basic skillsets, there are opportunities to train and develop large numbers so that they are better equipped for whatever the future holds.

The responsibility for doing so, however, does take time, planning and resources. In the mining sector — where sites can often employ many thousands of people in remote locations — companies can choose to delegate training and development schemes to third-party companies that specialise in on-site operations, logistics, and management.

2. Learn from working in conflict-affected areas

Private sector companies such as RA International often take on the responsibility of training and development in difficult terrains. From running remote mining camps in the middle of nowhere to delivering communications equipment to war-torn areas, the company has succeeded in helping local employees skill-up, so that it can leave behind a positive footprint.

For instance, in 2009, RA was tasked with disinfecting hospitals in Chad as part of a wider UN programme. The company developed a training scheme for widows, teaching them modern sanitation practices so that they could perform the tasks to the highest standards and then go on and find paid employment in other hospitals.

More recently, one of RA’s managers developed a safety training programme, known as “Toolbox Talks”, that has been provided to the company’s staff and subcontractors in Somalia.

With the aim of generating “catchy” and easily understandable content that is easy to remember, the programme has proven to be an effective method for reinforcing the safety message throughout the workforce by taking the form of short, weekly conversations regarding topics such as Fire Safety, Ear Protection, Working at Heights, and Ladder Use.

The firm also used its own catering team to provide food safety training, using PowerPoint presentations and online courses to ensure that local employees gained academic as well as practical experience.

Companies that work in areas of conflict or humanitarian crisis also have an opportunity to support populations that may have been displaced. RA recruited internally displaced people in South Sudan in 2005, which provided them with an income for six months, schooling for their children, and then resettlement and reintegration back into the community.

Programmes such as these enable some of the most underprivileged people to gain a foothold back into the labour market and gain a fresh start for them and their families.

3. Enforce transparency rules

It is particularly important that international companies operating in Africa assess suppliers, including background checks, self-assessment surveys, site visits, and audits. International companies that operate in Africa must do all they can to ensure that their business is not linked to corrupt practices elsewhere along the supply chain.

Corruption and bribery inevitably cause the most harm to those at the bottom of the ladder, which is why companies should enforce global standards of transparency and rely on extensive supply chains.

Such companies must ensure that their accounts are independently audited every year so that payments that could be related to bribery or corruption can be identified. It is incumbent upon foreign employers to make sure that those they employ must not only be trained and developed, but valued, respected and protected from corrupt practices.

4. Leave a positive footprint

The real legacy goes beyond employment. With ongoing training and investment in skills development, companies operating in Africa can contribute enormously to the development of a skilled workforce and in turn get better at what they do without the input of expats.

This developmental curve adds incredible value to clients and, most importantly, means that organisations can leave the communities where they work significantly richer in skills. However, the real value comes from the mutual respect that employers and employees have for each other — and the respect that businesses have for each other across the supply chain.

Communities learn from their employers and will, if given the opportunity, follow best practice. It is crucial that international companies respect the natural environment and are seen to do so, so that they leave behind a lasting, positive legacy. Policies governing recycling or responsible waste disposal, for example, can also inspire others to understand the importance of environmental and social responsibility across the local supply chain and wider communities.

When communities and their natural environments are respected by foreign companies and employers, they are left with a powerful impression of how things should be. Best practice in terms of human rights, education, and opportunity can help those we employ become role models for the next generation.

In doing so, international companies can play a leading part in Africa’s flourishing ecosystem of highly skilled, responsible workers. This is a positive footprint that we should all work towards and be proud of. – Devex.

Dr Sacrifice Chirisa Mental Health Matters
For a lot of people, the pursuit of a healthy work-life balance seems like an impossible goal. With so many of us torn between juggling heavy workloads, managing relationships and family responsibilities, and squeezing in outside interests, it is no surprise that more than one in four workers describe themselves as “super stressed”. And that is not balanced and is unhealthy.

As our stress levels spike, our productivity plummets. Stress can zap our concentration, make us irritable or depressed, and harm our personal and professional relationships. Over time, stress also weakens our immune systems, and makes us susceptible to a variety of ailments from colds to backaches to even heart disease.

The newest research shows that chronic stress actually doubles one’s risk of having a heart attack. While we all need a certain amount of stress to help us perform at our best, the key is balance. Not only is achieving a healthy work-life balance an attainable goal but workers and businesses alike see the rewards. When workers are balanced and happy, they are more productive, take fewer sick days off, and are more likely to stay in their jobs and enjoy their lives and fewer injuries on duty.

Here are a few practical steps to help deal with stress and win back the balance in our lives. Below are tips for the two environments one spends most of their time.

At Work

• Set manageable goals each day: Being able to meet priorities helps us feel a sense of accomplishment and control. The latest research shows that the more control we have over our work, the less stressed we get.
• Be efficient in the use of your time at work: When we procrastinate, the task often grows in our minds until it seems insurmountable. So when you face a big project at work or home, start by dividing it into smaller tasks.
• Ask for flexibility: Research shows that employees who work flexible schedules are more productive and loyal to their employers.
• Take frequent power breaks: Small breaks at work or on any project will help clear your head, and improve your ability to deal with stress and make good decisions when you jump back into the grind.
• Tune in: Listen to your favourite music at work to foster concentration, reduce stress and anxiety, and stimulate creativity. Studies dating back more than 30 years show the benefits of music in everyday life, including lowered blood pressure.
• Communicate effectively: Be honest with colleagues – make allowances for other’s opinions, and compromise. Retreat before you lose control, and allow time for all involved to cool off.

At Home

• Unplug: The same technology that makes it so easy for workers to do their jobs flexibly can also burn us out if we use them 24/7. Leave the laptop and phone off.
• Divide chores: Make sure responsibilities at home are evenly distributed and clearly outlined — you’ll avoid confusion and problems later.
• Don’t over commit: If you’re overscheduled with activities, learn to say “No”.
• Get support: Chatting with friends and family can be important to your success at home — or at work and can even improve your health. Take advantage of your company mental health wellness programmes: Organisations are now finding mental health as a key component to productivity.
• Stay active: Exercise reduces stress, depression and anxiety, and enables people to better cope with adversity, Treat your body right: Don’t rely on drugs, alcohol to cope with stress; they’ll only lead to more problems.
• Get help if you need it: If you are persistently overwhelmed, it may be time to seek help from a mental health professional. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness — taking care of yourself is a sign of strength
• Dr S. M. Chirisa is a passionate mental health specialist who holds an undergraduate medical degree and postgraduate master’s degree in psychiatry, both from the University of Zimbabwe. He is currently working as a Senior Registrar in the Department of Psychiatry at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and is also the current national treasurer of the Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZiMA). He can be reached at drsmchirisa@yahoo.com

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Lorenzo Fioramonti Correspondent
Until a couple of years ago, all financial institutions and investment banks were celebrating ‘Africa Rising’, in a symphony of compliments that should have cautioned any reasonable African leader as well as citizens on the continent. But what did they really mean when they were saying that Africa was rising?

They simply meant that its gross domestic product (GDP), which is the conventional measure of economic growth, had been growing (on average) at a faster rate than in other regions of the world. Of the world’s top 10 countries in real GDP growth rates for 2012, five were indeed African. Libya topped the list, with an astounding 124 percent, followed by Sierra Leone with 15,2 percent, Zimbabwe with 13,6 percent, Niger with 11,8 percent and Ivory Coast with 10,1 percent.

A year later, in 2013, South Sudan was Africa’s best performer, with 29,3 percent. Ever since, other very fast growing economies included Angola, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo. But GDP tells us nothing about the health of an economy, let alone its sustainability and the overall impact on human welfare. GDP is simply a measure of market consumption, which has been improperly adopted to assess economic performance.

Rebuilding Libya after the civil war has been a blessing for its GDP growth. Similarly, building the South Sudanese economy from scratch has invariably meant astronomic growth. Both these countries’ economies indeed bounced back from annihilation. Libya’s GDP growth was -66 percent in 2011, while South Sudan’s was -52 percent in 2012. As expected, their growth was short-lived. Libya went negative in 2013 and so did South Sudan right after. In 2013, I warned against celebrating Nigeria’s economic “miracle” at the time when the country was about to become the continent’s largest economy.

I indicated that Nigeria’s economic expansion was ephemeral, unsustainable and extremely unequal, which would soon trigger social conflict and a prolonged recession. Most media, business and a number of colleagues ridiculed my predictions. But I was right: the country’s approach to growth was self-destructive. No surprise Nigeria has fallen into one of the worst recessions on the continent. And the list of these growth disasters continues. In 2016, only two African countries were in the top ten global GDP growth contest — Ethiopia and Ivory Coast.

But rather than reflecting critically on why this is happening, the continent’s politicians are putting their heads in the sand and simply hoping for more growth. This is very dangerous in the current global economic landscape. Economic growth is slowing down almost everywhere and there is little chance it will return to Africa in the foreseeable future.

Critical reflection missing

There are important structural reasons why one should be suspicious of the ‘Africa rising’ discourse. Most fast growing African economies are heavily dependent on exports of commodities and foreign direct investment. This makes them easily affected by the volatility of international markets. It also gives a false perception of national income. Indeed, most of the profits generated by foreign companies add to the “domestic” GDP but are highly unlikely to remain in the country.

Rather than obsessing over whether African economies are rising or not, the focus should be on how to make African people thrive. And these are two different things. Indeed, the problem with the continent’s current model of industrial growth is that it privileges the formal at the expense of the informal, big corporations at the expense of small businesses, large centralised infrastructure at the expense of decentralisation. In the end, this growth leads to more inequality and environmental destruction.

Rather than big business districts, African countries need labour intensive economies. As the only continent that will experience exponential population growth in the next decades, Africa will soon be faced with a major unemployment problem. This can only be addressed through widespread networks of small businesses, which are the real creator of good jobs, and doing away with the dominance of a few corporate giants, which are shedding jobs and are increasingly reliant upon automation.

The Africa Progress Panel, a think tank chaired by former UN secretary Kofi Annan, highlighted the crucial role smallholder farmers can play in making Africa food secure. It also noted that small farmers ensure sustainable livelihoods to people. And it pointed to the need to move beyond “big-grid” high carbon infrastructure and to renewable energy to turn conventional top down economic growth “on its head”.

In their own analysis, energy production must be “democratised” so that Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable people could be reached through renewable energy on terms that drive down energy costs, stimulate small and medium-sized enterprises, generate jobs and reduce pollution-related health risks.

Innovators point the way

In my new book, “Wellbeing Economy: Success in a World Without Growth”, I show numerous examples of African innovators using new communication technologies to support networks of small businesses and micro-enterprises.

Mobile connections are widespread across Africa. This means that there is an unprecedented opportunity to improve coordination between producers and consumers, cutting middlemen and the dominance of big retailers. On top of this, developments in other new technologies, from 3D printing to energy production through small-grids powered by renewable resources, are making SMMEs ever more competitive. From farming to manufacturing, the future may very well be dominated by customisation rather than mass production.

As summed up by Joe Kraus, one of the leaders of the dot.com boom of the late 1990s, the availability of new manufacturing technologies, which diversify production and multiple markets for local producers, makes the shift to a decentralised economy easier than ever.

He says: the 20th century was about dozens of markets of millions of consumers. The 21st century is about millions of markets of dozens of consumers. A new economy founded on networks of small businesses, a post-industrial form of artisanship and integrated smallholder farming is the best chance for Africa to develop sustainably as well as to generate the decent and fulfilling jobs that millions of Africans rightfully aspire to.- Conversation Africa

• Lorenzo Fioramonti, Full Professor of Political Economy, University of Pretoria.

Christopher Mutsvangwa

Bevan Musoko Correspondent
WE live in interesting times. Very interesting indeed. The political temperature is rising, war veterans are spitting venom against their “creation”, that is President Mugabe as they claim. Farmers who participated in the 2016-17 Command Agriculture scheme are smiling all the way to banks, threatening to repeat the bumper harvest of the yester-season. Apostolic churches are coalescing around the revolutionary party Zanu-PF, while poor Morgan Tsvangirai, we are told by Eddie Cross, is in excruciating pain and probably battling for his life while Tamborinyoka claims that Tsvangirai is “winding up his health issues”, whatever what that is supposed to mean.

On a serious note, of interest though is that our esteemed war veterans have turned against their patron, President Mugabe, claiming, through Victor Matemadanda that he has overstayed in power, that they will not campaign for him if he is nominated as the Zanu-PF presidential candidate for the 2018 elections, that public infrastructure has deteriorated under his stewardship, that there is tolerance of corruption blah blah blah . . .

For those not in the know, Victor Matemadanda is the secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, the grouping of Zimbabwe’s liberation war combatants. The ZNLWVA is an affiliate of Zanu-PF, and according to President Mugabe these military or former military men do not direct the civilian affairs of the revolutionary party. Instead, it is the party that directs its affairs, with possible support from affiliates like the ZNLWVA.

Once upon a time, Matemadanda and his chairperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa, were strong Zanu-PF members who participated actively in the affairs of the party. They even attended the Zanu-PF 2014 Congress which nominated President Mugabe as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2014 elections. The slogan was “VaMugabe chete-chete”. The two mobilised the war veterans’ constituents to support the President’s candidature, which they dutifully did. Those were beautiful times. Mutsvangwa and his wife, Monica were both deputy ministers. How the good times were rolling. “Vaidya”, as the political street jargon would have it.

Come 2016, Mutsvangwa, Matemadanda and their ilk got expelled from Zanu-PF for indiscipline. That may have marked the turning point in their relationship with Zanu-PF. Since then, they have used every opportunity to rubbish and besmirch the Zanu-PF leadership. They now refer to the Head of State and Government as “iye Mugabe”

It is, therefore, not surprising that Matemadanda claims that war veterans will not campaign for President Mugabe. Just a reminder. War veterans were active participants at the 2014 Congress that nominated President Mugabe. In fact, war veterans held their own congress that same year where Mutsvangwa “won” the association’s chairmanship.

Victor Matemadanda

One of the resolutions at that Congress held in Masvingo was the endorsement of President Mugabe as the party’s candidate. War veterans pledged that they would support and mobilise support for his candidature. Things have turned around. Matemadanda just announced that if President Mugabe is the Zanu-PF candidate, which he already is by virtue of the 2014 resolutions, war veterans will not mobilise support for Zanu-PF. He cited President Mugabe’s age as a factor. It should have been clear to everyone that the President would be 94 years in 2018.

Mutsvangwa, the war veteran, is on record calling on Rhodesians to return to rebuild Zimbabwe. “We want them (Rhodesians) to be part of the next governance in Zimbabwe because this country has been run on a scorched earth policy”, said Mutsvangwa at a recent press conference in Harare. Surely, for a war veteran to call for the return of Rhodesians to govern Zimbabwe, knowing and supposedly having witnessed the horrific killings and inhumane treatment they inflicted on indigenous Zimbabweans defies logic. Their new-found hatred of Zanu-PF and its leadership runs deep.

At the centre of the about turn by the war veterans could their perception that the appointment of younger politicians in the mould of the Kusukuweres, Mzembis and Zhuwao’s of our politics was a renunciation of the nationalist liberation war ethos for which they (war veterans) sacrificed their lives for. To them, the progression of the President’s appointment to include younger politicians without liberation war experience is a direct snub to their nationalist egos, as such, they see no good in all those appointments.

It is a painful truth to war veterans that, despite their cherished contribution to the liberation of Zimbabwe, the country will not forever be trapped in the model of nationalist politics solely based on the 1970s liberation war. It is inevitable that the liberation fighters’ generation will disappear from the political scene, a reality which began the day the country achieved its independence. This is natural attrition. No one can stop this. The National Heroes Acre in Harare is slowly, but surely filling up as hero after hero succumbs to mortality.

It would be a political masterstroke for Mutsvangwa and company to provide political direction through linking the 1970s nationalist liberation ethos with the future economic, political, social and other strategic interests of Zimbabwe, in a way that moves the country away from perceived stagnation. The world is evolving in a tremendous fashion, so should be our political systems.

In a video widely circulated on social media, Mutsvangwa castigated President Mugabe for allegedly tolerating corruption and factionalism in Zanu-PF. The twin evil of corruption and factionalism. I was reminded of recent media reports of Mutsvangwa’s name cropping up in a corruption trial in America. It was alleged under American court oath that Mutsvangwa was bribed by some Americans to peddle his local influence in helping those Americans to acquire some mining concessions in Zimbabwe. Large sums of money apparently changed hands. He is the Mutsvangwa now pointing corruption fingers at Zanu-PF.

It is apparent that by appointing some young blood in Cabinet, the President is setting base for the inevitable switch-over between the liberation and the youth generations. While there could be a disconnect between the two generations in terms of their perception of how the country can achieve its goal of economic development and independence, the country will not remain ensconced in the past forever. It may be an unpleasant truth that Zimbabwe has to move on. The liberation war was fought to create political space for Zimbabweans to chart their way forward. That space should remain open, regardless of divergent opinions by our erstwhile liberators.

Mutsvangwa and Matemadanda should be inculcating the liberation ethos and values in the young generation than inviting Rhodesians back to power. They need to be reminded that the path they have chosen makes them similar to Morgan Tsvangirai who aligned with our yester-year oppressors in a vain attempt to win State power. Do you have to sacrifice your strategic interests for power?

Granted, war veterans may have some issues against some Zanu-PF leaders at various leadership strata. The discipline which prevailed during the liberation war, we are told, demands that cadres should remain loyal, even in such instances of perceived unfairness. One political figure who carried his cross with dignity and loyalty is former Political Commissar, Webster Shamu.

He never ranted against anyone, but submitted himself to Zanu-PF discipline. The leadership took note of that submission. He was recently appointed a Minister of State. History will judge between cheap political grandstanding and disciplined loyalty to the nationalist liberation revolution.

Donald Trump

Margaret Kimberley Correspondent
The desire to be affirmed by American society has dangerous consequences for black people. This pernicious dynamic creates the inclination to worship any black face in a high place or to defend questionable activity. The death of special forces Sergeant La David Johnson in Niger is a case in point. Donald Trump’s racism and stupidity prevented him from performing the simple task of conveying appropriate condolences to Johnson’s widow. The ensuing brouhaha focuses on what Trump said in the phone call overheard by Congressional Black Caucus member Frederica Wilson.

Almost no one is asking about the fact that American troops are stationed in Africa at all. Few people realise that such a thing as the United States Africa Command (africom) exists and that the military forces of most African nations have been under the de facto control of this country since the George W. Bush administration.

There is similar silence about the role that the United States played in bringing groups designated as terrorists into nations such as Niger and Mali. The decision to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi in Libya is directly responsible for Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda affiliate groups gaining a foothold throughout the region.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and their NATO partners-in-crime were not just responsible for the deaths of thousands of Libyans, slavery in that country, and an ongoing humanitarian crisis. They are responsible for bringing state-sponsored terror to the entire region. Focusing on Donald Trump’s bad behaviour is a sure path to confusion and accommodation. Instead of denouncing imperialism, otherwise sensible people are waving the flag and attacking Trump using right wing terminology. They use ludicrous terms like “gold star family” and make the case for continued American aggression around the world.

It is pointless to ask about the specific circumstances of Johnson’s death. He died along with three other soldiers in murky circumstances that are to be expected in warfare. Any questions posed should be about America’s ever-expanding empire and a determination to make war on as many places in the world as possible.

Black people should feel no need to validate themselves through military service or any other undertaking. As the people who have suffered through centuries of unpaid labour, Jim Crow apartheid and constant oppression, we should feel no need to uphold this system. Yet we have already proven a willingness to die for the interests of a corrupt and dangerous state. There is frankly no reason to show pride in Johnson’s death or to allow a member of the CBC to turn an important issue into nonsensical grandstanding versus Trump.

At this juncture in history all talk of patriotism is at best foolish and at worst a call for continued crimes and mass murder. It is also high time to end the deification of the American war dead, even when they look like us. They die because they are trying to kill other people. Condolences to Johnson’s family are appropriate but they are also appropriate for the millions of people who lost loved ones to American empire building in Niger, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq. That is a short list which only includes the victims of American war crimes committed in the past 20 years.

No one should be fooled by crocodile tears from white Americans with grudges against Trump. If Sergeant Johnson had been killed by a police officer in an American city many of the same white people who now rush to call him a hero would either shrug their shoulders in indifference or applaud his death. They should not be allowed to jump on the bandwagon of fake concern because Trump is their target. As for congresswoman Wilson, she has a golden opportunity to discuss the impact of American interventions abroad and question their rationale. But like the rest of her CBC colleagues, her interests are confined to reliance on the largesse of the Democratic Party and their corporate benefactors.

Trump’s bad behaviour makes him an easy target for scorn and a convenient punching bag for the useless black political class. If Wilson wants to take on the president it ought to be for more substantive reasons. Likening his boorishness to “Benghazi” uses a right wing trope for ridiculous effect. Any discussion about Sergeant Johnson ought to point out that he was a victim of the poverty draft. Before enlisting he worked at Walmart, a sure path to continued poverty or to the dubious odds offered by the army. Trump said that Johnson “knew what he signed up for” but that is probably not true. He took a chance and hoped for the best.

Unfortunately, the machinations of Bush, Obama, Clinton and Trump made his choice a bad one. If the Congresswoman wants to have a debate she could start with the realities of Johnson’s life and how it ran afoul of United States foreign policy. Only then would her fight with the president be worthwhile. — Counterpunch.