Gokwe Women Thrive On Selling Agricultural Produce

As soon as a car, bus or commuter Omnibus slows down at Bomba, women carrying baskets, plates, tins and others with wares in their hands  rush for the customers.

Bomba women sell varying products including sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions, bananas and varying kinds of fruits depending on the season.

However, in a bid to outrun each other some of the vendors at Bomba have lost their lives while others have been disabled after being run over by the cars of their potential customers.

Mavis Makanda told Radio VOP that over the years they have witnessed their colleagues dying while others have been maimed. “While we have been able to earn a living here at Bomba, we have seen a lot of our partners losing their lives after being run over by cars. Because we are competing to get customers, sometimes we run across the road for cars that stop at the other side and in the process some have lost their lives. I cannot recount how many of our colleagues have been run over but we have witnessed a number of fatal accidents, “Makanda told Radio VOP.

Face Nkomo has been vending at Bomba Growth point since 1978 and managed

Masses Give Mujuru Fitting Send Off

By 9.00am, the gallery was already filled to the brim. As more mourners poured in, the gallery spilled into the steep, bushy mountain slopes surrounding it.

Old people, mothers with babies strapped on their backs, children, were all part of the crowds that did not stop pouring in.

“Ende Mujuru achemwa! (So many people have come to mourn Solomon Mujuru)”; “This is the largest crowd I have ever seen at the heroes’ acre since Nkomo’s (Joshua) burial in 1999.”

This is how some preferred to describe the situation. But my layman’s estimation put the crowd at over 40 000.

Some watched the ceremony while perched precariously on tree tops right on the mountain slopes.

The pandemonium was not unique to the gallery.

Near the main arena, the VIP tent was packed with government ministers from both Zanu (PF) and the MDC factions, politburo members, MPs, war veterans and everyone who considered themselves important.

Many more stood while some sat on the stone grounds of the national shrine.

What caught my eye were sights of Higher Education Minister Stan Mudenge sitting in the VIP tent, head tilted downwards in a late morning nap; Energy Minister Elton Mangoma, fresh from a court

Are Extension And Advisory Services Meeting The Needs Of Farmers In Zimbabwe?

Mr Joy Khumalo a farmer from Nkayi District in Matabeleland North bemoans the existence of several organisations out-maneuvering each other at ward level: “Several committees are formed in one ward and power struggles ensue, eroding the spirit of togetherness that typify rural existence,” he said. The ward level has become a political battle front, further polarizing rural areas. Food is being used as a reward for supporting political parties as elections loom, thus shifting emphasis from food production to organising political meetings. 

The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development provides agricultural extension and advisory services through the Departments of Veterinary Services (DVS), Livestock Production and development (LPD), Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX). A number of organisations augment public agricultural extension and advisory services such as; public research-cum-extension organisations; donor-supported rural development programmes; international and private research centres; farmers' associations; Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and bilateral donors; private agrochemical input suppliers; commodity processors and exporters.

Mr Mandla Siwela, a small scale farmer in Bubi district said, “We are overwhelmed by the number of meetings we are expected to attend in one week. At times people are compelled to attend. That robs us of the time we are supposed to

Will Mujuru's Death Change Zanu (PF)'s Succession Matrix?

But the late army commander’s demise could have removed a very important piece in Zanu (PF)’s succession jigsaw since there has been a long speculation that two Zanu (PF) factions led by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and the late Mujuru have been fighting to replace the ageing President Robert Mugabe.

Careful not to cause divisions within his party, which faces a real challenge from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Mugabe has not encouraged internal debate on his succession.

But behind the scenes, the battle to succeed him has not stopped and may even be heating  up, more so with the death of Mujuru.

“It is apparent that the Mnangagwa camp now has an upper hand and all it can do is consolidate this position,”says Chrispen Majongwe, a keen watcher of Zanu (PF)’s power games.

Mujuru was a shy, quiet figure whose power brokering credentials date back to 1976 when he helped elevate Mugabe, then party secretary general, to the position of party leader.

He flexed his muscles in 2004 when he helped elevate his wife Joice, who faced a fierce challenge from the Mnangwagwa camp, to the post of Vice President.

It is generally believed that although Vice President

The Day Zimbabwe's Parliament Became A Battle Ground

When I was still a hundred metres from the building, I observed a crowd milling around the entrance of the building.

It looked unusually large for an event like that.

I had attended similar events with not even a quarter of what I estimated to be 300 adults of all age group and sex. Some 20 to 30 people jammed the small Nelson Mandela entrance to the parliament building as they all tried to force their way in.

Opposite the road, hundreds more sat on the pavement near the Africa Unity Square fence.

As a journalist, I took out my voice recorder to capture the proceedings while l mingled quietly with the restive crowd.

“Imi vanhu munopenga murikuita zve MDC panapa. Manje nhasi murikuma...chete,” (Today we will deal with you) they shouted at the parliament security that fought to bar them entry with the help of a few police officers.

The security staff looked overwhelmed as more and more people sneaked in through their armpits.

It started ringing on my mind that these were Zanu (PF) activists.

Indeed as I ran my eyes around, l noticed commuter omnibus touts whom I have often seen in Zanu (PF) meetings and street

A Choice Betweeen Marriage And AIDS

He says from HIV/AIDS workshops and testimonials they conduct, it was clear several women, including the educated ones cannot negotiate for safe sex nor divorce their unfaithful husbands.

“It is unfortunate that women want to please their families and the communities they stay in over their health," he told Radio VOP. "When it comes to sexual issues women whether educated or not, they would rather stay with an unfaithful men rather than being labelled single or divorced.”

“Women need to be re-oriented to believe that they can still be respected in society even without the Mrs. title. They need to start appreciating that their health is more important than their marital status,” says Hwingiri.

Hwingiri says many men were taking anti-retrovirals (ARVs) without the knowledge of their wives or partners despite calls for couples to get AIDS testing and counselling.

“While we even encourage pregnant women to bring their partners for testing in preparation for the Prevention of Child to Mother transmission, it is clear that men are still not comfortable with getting tested especially with their wives present," adds Hwingiri. “In 2010 according to our Gweru urban statistics, out of the 2 349 pregnant women who came for testing,

Commercial radio licenses – beware of wolves in sheep’s’ skins

 On 27 May 2011 the improperly constituted Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) called for applications for two free- to- air national commercial radio broadcasting services. A national free- to- air national commercial licence refers to a profit making broadcasting entity that transmits an un-encoded signal throughout Zimbabwe.

    Notwithstanding the fact that the legality of the board which called for these licenses is heavily disputed, one also needs to examine the wide reaching nature and effect of this call for licenses.

    Due to the non-transparent manner in the management of the broadcasting signal administered in this country, chances are high that the smokescreen call for the licenses will become an extension of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)’s monopoly.

    For example the Zimpapers stable applied for a license in line with the permanent secretary George Charamba’s advice at the organisation’s strategic retreat held in Nyanga early this year. If Zimpapers is granted the licence, it will fit well into the propaganda manufacturing mills of Zanu PF ahead of the elections which will augur well with the government’s intention to maintain state monopoly of the airwaves.

    Given that scenario the BAZ’s impartiality and sincerity will be put to severe

Sugar cane lights up Middle Sabi

STEEL Anthill: A Green Fuel worker at Chisumbanje stands in front of the first of three fuel plants expected to produce about 500 million litres of ethanol annually in the next 10 years.

Welcome to Green Fuel, the company behind the massive Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi ethanol project – Zimbabwe’s first ethanol-only plant. Company officials say Green Fuel is now ready to churn out the first of an annual production of 500 million litres of the green liquid that will herald a new era of huge savings in fuel substitution and cleaner energy for the local motorist.

Green Fuel is a project driven by wealthy Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach and a consortium of local investors in partnership with the government’s Agriculture and Rural Development Authority, ARDA.

At its peak, says plant manager Peter Glaum, the Chisumbanje ethanol project – and ARDA’s cane growing adjacent farms operated by the private investors trading as Rating (at Middle Sabi) and Macdom (at Chisumbanje) – will create employment for more than 8000 people, becoming one of the single largest job creation ventures in the country in recent years.

Already, the venture is chewing more than $600000 every month in salaries alone for 120 full-time employees and hundreds of contract workers from villages dotted around the ARDA estates. The windfall has transformed the lives of people in Chisumbanje, including others at growth points such as Checheche and in

Giving Back To Zimbabwe

Glistening and gleaming on the boulders, I knew the water trail wouldn’t be here for much longer. The last puddles and pools of rain water are now trickling away and disappearing underground, signalling the start of our long dry season. Flying low overhead was a stunning Auger Buzzard, white wings edged with black, a long stick hanging from its beak.
It’s nearly nesting time and the Buzzard had obviously found its spot on a cliff ledge nearby. In the valley below lay a breathtaking panorama of open woodland and bronze grassland; some of the aloes have started flowering providing a breathtaking portrait of the African bush.

But everything is not as peaceful as it seems because, alongside the beauty of this magnificent time of year, is the grim reality that now is the time Zimbabwe’s wildlife species are most at risk. The end of the rainy season; drying up of small water pools and bronzing of the tall green summer grass, forces animals out into the open and makes them easy targets for poachers.
Johnny Rodrigues of the Zimbabwe Conservation task Force calls the coming months our “peak poaching season” and recently sent out the most horrific report on rhino

Draft Roadmap For Zimbabwe- A Joke

How a document with certain parts in 'bold and shaded areas representing deadlock' can be described as 'a breakthrough' and an 'agreement' defies logic. To me the whole draft roadmap for Zimbabwe is a big joke, to put it mildly. There was no need to bury the bad news for cheap news headlines.

A complete analysis of the document is constrained by the difficulty in demarcating the agreed areas from the deadlocked ones because the published copy does not show the 'bold and shaded areas' at least according to the one on the Newsday website which is the only one available online since the so-called agreement was reached.

A curious inclusion in the 'agreed road map' is where it 'calls upon the governments that are hosting and/or funding external radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe to cease such hosting and funding'. That is unbelievable. How can they be so hypocritical? All the parties in Zimbabwe use these external stations for interviews and 'leaked' news items.

On sanctions the negotiators say a re-engagement committee and SADC should lobby for the removal of sanctions. Now they are no longer referred to as targeted sanctions against Robert Mugabe and his inner circle for human