The curse of the rural elderly
I went to Brunapeg Assembly Point where we stayed there for a short period as we later on moved to Zezani in Beitbridge. I didn’t join the Zimbabwe National Army as I wanted to get into business. After demob I became the Zapu secretary for administration for Bulilima-Mangwe. I have been in politics up to today as at the moment I am a Zanu-PF district chairperson here in Plumtree Town. Sarah Sithole of Mgiqwa village, who refused them entry into her homestead to perform their rituals. Mrs Sithole who is 70 years old and a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church said she barred the witch-hunters from her homestead because their practice was against her faith.
“I never invited the tsikamutandas here, so I told them to leave. They said they had seen something at my homestead which they wanted to remove but I refused because I know that there is nothing. Besides it is against my religious beliefs to take part in such activities,” she said.
Even traditional leaders in the area have also fallen victim to the witch-hunters. Mavolunteer village head Mr Joseph Dube lost three goats to the witch-hunters whom he said were treating him of his swollen right leg which he had battled with for over five years. Mr Dube said he was opposed to the idea of witch-hunters operating in his area but was left with no choice after being allegedly instructed to accept them by Chief Ndiweni.
Mr Dube added that the witch-hunters charged every homestead $2 for them to come into the area, money which was collected by the chief’s aides.
“Each homestead paid $2 for the witch-hunters to come in. Everyone was forced to pay that amount and no one could refuse. Now the witch-hunters are moving from household to household performing their rituals and charging villagers. I hear they are discovering some strange things,” he said.
When Sunday News visited Ntabaziduna two weeks ago Chief Ndiweni was said to be out of the country and was expected into the country last week. Efforts to get hold of him were futile.
One of the witch-hunters Kumbulani Moyo, whose trade name is Gava, refuted claims that they were forcing people to participate in their rituals. He however, confirmed that each household paid a compulsory $2 fee for his team of 15 witch-hunters to come into the area.
“We don’t force people to come to us and be treated. People come on their own accord with their various concerns and we attend to them. We first agree on the price then we do our work and the person pays. If someone does not agree with our terms they are free not to take part in our activities,” he said.
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association (Zinatha) president George Kandiero said his association was constrained from taking action as the witch-hunters will be operating with the blessings of local leaders.
He warned members of the public not to entertain witch-hunters or any traditional healers who do not have practicing licences. THE Affirmative Action Group responsible for the Matabeleland Area has been in the news as it lobbies for intensification of efforts to revive parastatals whose headquarters are in the region which have been crumbling yet they have historically been the key to Matabeleland’s economy. So serious has been the AAG campaign that it has seen it go to court to bring attention to these issues including the manner in which the capital city of Matabeleland, Bulawayo, has been run. Bulawayo City Council was at one time rated as one of the cleanest cities in Africa and well managed authority in the continent. But some including the AAG believe BCC is a pale shadow of its former self. Sunday News Correspondent , Dumisani Sibanda (DS), who covered the municipal beat for the same paper during BCC’S glory days in the mid1990s, spoke to AAG Western Region president, Mr Reginald Shoko (RS) about these issues which the empowerment group has been seized with. Below are excerpts of the interview.
DS: Thank you for the opportunity to have this interview which is a follow up to the one which we had about your campaign as the Affirmative Action Group Western Region to lobby for the revival of parastatals whose headquarters are in the Matabeleland region. What have you achieved in terms of that campaign so far?
RS: We have made tremendous strides in trying to get Government to look into the revival of the parastatals in the region. The issue has been around Hwange Colliery Company, the National Railways of Zimbabwe and the Cold Storage Company.
With the National Railways of Zimbabwe, the Government has appointed a substantive general manager. It tried to pump in some money to address the plight of the workers, although it was not satisfactory. More can be done. It shows it wants to go in the right direction. We hope those who have been thrust onto these positions will try and do their duty in full and deliver.
NRZ is an enabler growth of the economy. So, when it is sick it affects the economy. It is the biggest transporter of goods and raw materials to and from the economy hence it must move forward. But it is important for management at the National Railways of Zimbabwe to understand that Government won’t always pump money into it because the economy itself is sick. Time has come for management to be innovative and not just think only in terms of a loan to revive the company.
I think it’s time to look into the issue of listing it and selling shares and dividing the company because the NRZ is too big and cannot continue as it is. They can break it into a company that looks into the development and maintenance of the railway network while another looks at running the trains themselves. That way it can attract investors because as it is it is too big and unattractive.
Government is the single shareholder but we must think about bringing in private players to help it out. We have seen how a private player like the Bulawayo Beitbridge Railway Company has been successfully run.
I don’t think Government has the capacity or the resources to bring back NRZ to its best or to a situation when it was at its prime, on its own.
DS: Do you see the NRZ going forward with the confirmation of Engineer Lewis Mukandi as General Manager?
RS: I will give him the benefit of doubt and say he was acting and when he was acting he did not do anything to really inspire confidence. But now he has been confirmed so let’s support him and see what he can do.
DS: You also mentioned one of the key parastatals in the Matabeleland Region, Hwange Colliery Company.
RS: As the Affirmative Action Group in support of the workers we had tried to have Hwange Colliery placed under judicial management. This was to save the company’s assets which it was losing through litigation. One of the major shareholders Nicholas Van Hoogstraten who owns Messina Investments had actually supported that the company goes under judicial management but Government as a major shareholder thinks otherwise. It prefers a different scheme or arrangement, which we discussed with the then board chairman, Mr Jemester Chininga and the workers. We were going somewhere with Mr Chininga because we had agreed that the scheme serves almost the same purpose as judicial management.
What was the sticking issue was that the workers needed to have someone appointed by them to represent them in the scheme because they have lost hope in the current management. So they thought it would be better if they would be involved in the management of the scheme. We hope the new board that has come into place will continue where the previous chairman was at in terms of the interaction with the workers.
What is important to understand is that it’s not outside creditors, even the workers themselves are owed and it is important for the labour force to be happy. The workforce is the largest creditor of the company, it can destroy it if it demands its dues at once but it has been reasonable and is still working. The board has to look into how it manages the debt it owes the workers, how they move forward to bring confidence between management and the workers.
DS: Are you happy with the composition of the new board?
RS: The fact of the matter is that you can’t change anything, they are appointed by the minister. Yes, we have individuals that are there that have shown that they are capable leaders. You have the Executive Chairman of Mimosa Mining Company, Mr. Winston Chitando, he is a successful business executive and a capable one as seen in how he has run Mimosa. We have the confidence he can do something at Hwange.
But it is not the board only, but it is the attitude of Government and all stakeholders that is important. We think the creditors must find a way to give the company
time to breathe and work and then pay back. DS: As people who have been following developments at Hwange Colliery closely even taking the company to court, what do you think has to happen immediately? What should the new board attend to now?
RS: The new board must attend to the issue of litigation. Court orders everyday attaching the assets of Hwange Colliery must be stopped so that the company can work. Whether this is through judicial management or the proposed scheme, something must happen to stop the auctioning of the company’s assets. The board needs to find a way of balancing the payment of creditors and making sure the company moves forward.
DS: But at the end of the day are you confident that Hwange Colliery will go back to where it was ?
RS: It’s not about confidence but it is about what must happen. People must work and pull up their socks so that Hwange goes back to where it was. In the past few days, you have realised that the Zimbabwe Power Company is crying that it does not have enough coal for its thermal power station, that is how Hwange Colliery is critical to the economy and Zimbabwe.
DS: As people who have also been following developments closely at Cold Storage Company, do you think it can be saved at all or the Government must just dispose of it?
RS: The problems of CSC or its revival, are purely based on the legislative environment. When CSC was thriving it had no competition, it was a monopoly but when they opened competition it was not prepared for the competition.
For example the state of the art abattoir at CSC is using city council water which is a serious expense when all other abattoirs are using borehole water because they are outside the municipal area. To be brought to full use, the CSC abattoir needs 1 000 cattle per day for slaughter while competing private abattoirs need to slaughter 50 to 60 cattle a day.
So legislatively, we need to protect it. Not to do away with competition, but to protect it in such a way that even if Government were to say commercial beef should be slaughtered under a certain standard that will give CSC a lifeline.
But we cannot wish CSC away because ours is an agricultural-based economy. We have a lot of downstream industries, leather, medicals, oils and those into soap manufacturing that now have to import raw materials and that has a serious effect on the market and the final price.
They need to protect and arm CSC for competition and this has not happened for over 10 years and Government is the only shareholder. I think it’s time that Government accepts that they are not a good businessperson, they must bring in partners to help them. Government must shed off a stake in CSC and bring in a partner who will run it profitably but have a foresight that we will need a legislative framework that will protect CSC. We don’t want a situation where CSC will compete as a train against an aeroplane because of the baggage it is carrying. It won’t survive.
DS: The other part of your campaign that you had taken interest in as Affirmative Action Group is the Bulawayo City Council. You had some misgivings on the issue of tenders and so on. Do you think local businesspeople have actually lost out of business opportunities here through the manner in which the Bulawayo City Council operates?
RS: No! The issue of tenders is a thorny one across the economy. Our issue with Bulawayo City Council was around issues of mismanagement, corporate mis-governance, and abuse of office. We are in court with council over these issues.
But one thing that has happened since our intervention is that Government has sent in a commission of enquiry that has come here and gathered information around what we were alleging. We will be vindicated and let the law take its course and Government take appropriate action.
By going to court we were trying to show that in the midst of the claim that they are the second best run city, they were serious malpractices and misdemeanors in the local authority and Government acted. On that note, thank you for the interview.