POSB REHABILITATES COMMUNITY BOREHOLE
THE People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) has donated equipment to rehabilitate a borehole at Mahusekwa Hospital in Mashonaland East Province.
The donation is part of POSB’s Borehole for Health initiative, which aims to provide healthcare institutions, facing acute water shortages, with safe and reliable water sources in each of the nation’s provinces.
The borehole at Mahusekwa Hospital was installed by POSB in 2018 but had become dysfunctional.
POSB has now provided new equipment, including an HH submissible pump, pipes and fittings to restore the borehole to its full capacity.
The borehole will supply water to the hospital’s various departments.
POSB Public Relations Manager, David Makacha, said that the donation was in line with POSB’s mandate which stems from the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) to uplift marginalised communities in which the bank serves and operates.
“POSB is committed to supporting the health sector in Zimbabwe, especially in rural areas where access to clean water is a challenge,” he said.
“We believe that water is essential for health and hygiene and that by providing water sources to hospitals, we are contributing to the well-being of patients and staff.”
Makacha indicated that since the inception of the Borehole for Health initiative in 2015, POSB has installed several fully-functional boreholes, complete with accessories, including at the following schools and hospitals - St Killian’s Primary School Manicaland 2016, Neshuro District Hospital in Mwenezi, Masvingo, 2017 and Mahusekwa District Hospital Mashonaland East 2018, among others.
He said that POSB plans to continue the programme and install more boreholes in other provinces.
BOSTON. — This may be the world’s largest ever gathering of Satanists — and it’s just begun at a Marriott hotel in downtown Boston.
In a candle-lit room set aside for Satanic ceremonies, a neon sign welcomes you to The Little Black Chapel.
But Christian protesters from many denominations have gathered outside the hotel, carrying signs warning of damnation.
“Repent and believe the Gospel,” urges one. “Satan rules over all the children of pride,” says another — the letters of “pride” shaded in the rainbow colours of the LGBTQ Pride flag.
“We are hoping to show God that we do not accept this blasphemy, and that we Catholics have not abandoned the public square to Satanists,” says protester Michael Shivler, from a conservative Catholic group.
Convention-goers in the lobby eye the protest outside.
A raised altar stands at one end, a white pentagram on the floor in front of it.
The ritual being performed here is an “unbaptism”, in which participants symbolically reject religious rites performed when they were children.
“No names,” says a Satanist who agreed to let me witness their ceremony, as long as they aren’t identified.
They wear a floor-length, hooded cloak and a black face mask.
Their hands are bound with rope, which is then cast off to represent liberation.
Pages are torn out of a Bible to symbolise overturning their Christian baptism.
It’s clear the experience was powerful for them. “As a gay child, being told you are an abomination and should be destroyed, warped a lot of my thinking. Finding The Satanic Temple has really helped me embrace logic and empathy.”
The Satanic Temple is recognised as a religion by the US government, and has ministers and congregations in America, Europe and Australia.
More than 830 people snapped up tickets for its late April convention, dubbed SatanCon.
Members say they don’t actually believe in a literal Lucifer or Hell.
Instead, they say Satan is a metaphor for questioning authority, and grounding your beliefs in science. The sense of community around these shared values makes it a religion, they say.
They do use the symbols of Satan for rituals — for example when celebrating a wedding or adopting a new name.
That might include having an upside-down neon cross on your altar while shouting: “Hail Satan!”
For many Christians, this is serious blasphemy. “That’s not wrong,” agrees Dex Desjardins, a spokesperson for The Satanic Temple. “A lot of our imagery is inherently blasphemous.
The Satanists say they respect everyone’s right to choose their faith, and they’re not trying to upset people.
HARARE City Council has only managed to allocate 56 housing stands in five months while its housing waiting list continues to rise.
This has resulted in land barons taking advantage of desperate home-seekers.
Speaking during the presentation at the end of the first quarter report, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, said they had managed to allocate just 56 stands. “We managed to allocate only 56 stands since January and this is sad as the housing waiting list is standing at 11 282 active members as at December 31, 2022,” he said.
“The city is finalising the human settlement policy which is coming as a review to the current housing policy. We will then unveil the new housing models that the city will implement going forward particularly as we seek to address the outstanding issues in the pay schemes that are operational in Harare.
“Going forward the city will not allocate unserviced land because this has created a lot of problems and has promoted the mushrooming of illegal settlements.”
The report also covered issues to do with waste management which Mafume said remained a major challenge. “This is largely due to low fleet availability and the inherent littering that is the culture of some residents of Harare,” he said