News roundup

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

All is well Mujuru tells tourists
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joice Mujuru last week stepped up efforts to rebuild the country’s battered tourism sector by telling hundreds of visiting tourists that all was now well in the troubled sector.
Mujuru blamed negative media surrounding the country’s land reforms for the collapse of the tourism sector over the past six years.
“Our land reform programme is now part of our history . . . I am happy to say that the issue has now been taken to its logical conclusion. May I therefore reassure our visitors from all the four corners of the world that you are welcome, you are safe, you are secure and you are free to move around in Zimbabwe,” she said.
But Mujuru’s reassurances come amid reports of continuing chaos on commercial farms around the country with fresh evictions having been reported in Manicaland and Mashonaland provinces only last month.
Zimbabwe’s tourism sector, which was the third biggest foreign currency earner before 2000, has been in the doldrums over the past six years after tourists shunned the country because of violence most critics blame on ruling party supporters. - ZimOnline

Water crisis threatens health

HARARE – A local group which works with communities to promote basic health
care on Friday warned that Harare was facing a serious outbreak of water
borne diseases due to a water crisis.

The executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, Itai
Rusike, warned that the city faced a serious outbreak of cholera, dysentery
and scabies if the current water crisis was not resolved immediately.

“When people drink dirty water from sewage-drenched streams, when toilets
don’t flush and when people don’t bath regularly, it’s a recipe for disease
outbreak,” said Rusike.

The CWGH is a coalition of 35 non-governmental organisations that deal with
health matters in Zimbabwe. The group works with communities in the
promotion of basic health care around the country.

Residents in the poor eastern suburbs of Mabvuku and Tafara, for example,
say they have gone for months on end without running water resulting in most
of them fetching water from unprotected wells.

Earlier this year, five people died of cholera in Budiriro suburb in Harare.
Cholera is a water-borne disease that thrives in unhygienic conditions.
Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa’s deputy, Edwin Muguti, conceded that Harare was facing a health time bomb but added that water provision was the sole responsibility of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and the Harare city council. – ZimOnline

Police assault MDC activists
GOKWE - Pedzisai Chilimanzi(28) and Wellington Chilimanzi both of Kamakuyu village in the area of Chief Nenyunga under Gokwe Chireya Constituency were seriously assaulted by police based at Nembudziya Police Station from September 28 to 30 this year.
The two MDC activists were overheard on September 20 by a CID detective by the name Maenzaniso talking about how they think MDC is going to win the Rural Council elections to be held on October 28. Maenzaniso reportedly ordered them to go with him to Nembudziya Police Station, accusing them of saying words that insulted the president. They refused.
On September 28, the two were raided by policemen named Madamombe, Shiri and Chinake at Chitekete Business Centre. They were forcefully dragged into a COTTCO truck going to Nembudziya. At a place called Zhomba, Madamombe allegedly used his hands to beat Pedzisai trying to force him to admit that he insulted the president.
The youth were seriously assaulted at Nembudziya Police Station by Madamombe who forced them to lie on the floor and he continuously beat them using an iron bar. An eye witness told The Zimbabwean that the two incurred serious injuries on the legs, back and lacerations on the hands.They were then thrown into the cells. On Friday September 29, Madamombe took them to room 27 where he again beat them using the same iron bar. On Saturday Shiri wrote a docket which accused them of insulting the president and the police. They were remanded in the cells until Monday ,October 2 when they were talken to Gokwe Magistrate Court.
A public prosecutor by the name Ngwenya analysed the police docket and he told the policemen that it was unnecessary for the two to appear in court since the case does not have merit.
The two did not appear in court but the police released them and told them to go home. They went to Gokwe Provincial Hospital where there were treated for their injuries and were discharged on the same day. Cephas Zimuto(MDC Chairman for Midlands North) assisted them with bus far to back to Chireya. – Own correspondent

Exit package for Sekesai
HARARE – The Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development has reportedly put together an exit package for the bungling Harare acting mayor, Sekesai Makwavarara whose term of office expires at the end of
December.
The move might see the end of the term being brought forward to next month as the ruling Zanu (PF) makes frantic efforts to clean up its mess ahead of the city’s mayoral elections that are likely to be held in January.
Makwavarara, who has been at the helm of the city’s illegal commission since 2004, has seen a serious collapse in service delivery, reducing the capital from the Sunshine City of Africa status to a dump city.
The package is said to include money, her current service vehicle, a Mercedes Benz
C-Class, a state of the art house built by council, and a number of perks. . – Own correspondent


Transport crisis worsens
BULAWAYO – Train drivers have embarked on a go-slow to protest a decision by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) to introduce compulsory breath tests in a bid to curb driving under the influence of alcohol. President of the Enginemen Association of Zimbabwe Abel Mahlangu confirmed the industrial action.
The tests were introduced in line with recommendations made by a commission of inquiry into the cause of a head-on collision between a passenger and a goods train at Dibangombe siding in Victoria Falls on August 27, which claimed eight lives and injured 34 other passengers.
Mahlangu said: “The truth of the matter is that train drivers are not happy with this move. The findings of the commission should first of all be made public, otherwise what it means is that all recent NRZ accidents were a result of driving under the influence of alcohol.”
In realiy, accidents were mainly a result of obsolete communication signals and the general poor condition of the country’s rail system.
In the last session of Parliament, a portfolio committee on transport and communications in its report said the country’s rail network laid in the 1890s had outlived its lifespan. The committee added that the rail infrastructure, especially signal equipment, had fallen prey to vandals, resulting in communication problems between controllers and enginemen. – Own correspondent

Sithole was true founder says widow’s book
LONDON - A veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation now living in the United States has published a book that says the late Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole,
her late husband, was the true founder of the struggle, not President Robert
Mugabe.
Author Vesta Sithole says Ndabaningi Sithole created the Zimbabwe African
National Union party, but lost control of it to Mugabe in the mid-1970s
and was eventually cut out of decision-making through 1980 when Zimbabwe
gained independence.
Entitled My Life With An Unsung Hero, the book is autobiographical in
approach - the author joined the liberation struggle at 19 and spent years
in exile - but also provides many new details on the life and career of
Ndabaningi Sithole, who died in 2000.
Vesta Sithole told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that she wanted to set the record straight and dispel misconceptions about
the struggle for black majority rule in Zimbabwe and her late husband's role
in that process. – Own correspondent

Award for Khumalo
LONDON - Thabitha Khumalo, Vice President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions, has today been awarded a "Women of the Year Award", for the work
she has done with Action for Southern Africa on the Dignity! Period. Campaign, that so far as seen 2.5 million sanitary pads distributed to the most vulnerable women of Zimbabwe.
As Thabitha receives her award at the annual lunch held this year at the
Millenium Hotel in Mayfair, Euan Wilmshurst, ACTSA's Director said "This
award shows that despite the struggles Thabitha and all the women of Zimbabwe face on a daily basis, the campaign for access to basic sanitary protection has struck a cord. This award will mean the Dignity! Period. Campaign can continue to grow, and ensure that the dignity of the women of Zimbabwe continues to be restored." – Own correspondent

Anthrax outbreak in Mash West
HARARE - One person has died of suspected anthrax while 82 others have so far received treatment following an outbreak of the disease in Mashonaland West.
Eighty-two cases involving people and two cases involving cattle have reportedly been detected on Ngwarati and Mahewu farms in Trelawney last week. Anthrax is an acute, contagious disease characterized by septicaemia and sudden death.
The disease is caused by the bacterium bacillus anthracis whose unique feature is its ability to form dormant stages (spores) which can survive in the soil for many years.
Animals become infected by ingestion of contaminated feed or water. In the body, the spores multiply and produce a lethal toxin which kills the animal. Crispen Devere, who is the acting provincial environmental health officer, said his office had managed to contain the situation.
“It is the first time we have had an outbreak on those two farms but I wish to inform all concerned parties that we have managed to successfully treat all cases at Ngwarati and Mahewu farms,” Devere said. – Own correspondent