InfocusNews 13 - 20 Dec 2021
COVID-19 positive learners to stay in quarantine until confirmed negative
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OVID-19 positive learners who were on isolation before schools closed on Thursday will continue staying in those facilities until they are confirmed negative, a measure which has been taken to curb the spread of the prevalent Omicron variant. Bulawayo Provincial Medial Director Dr Maphios Siamuchembu said the Ministry of Health and Child Care has decided that every learner on isolation continues the process even after the closure of schools. As at Wednesday, Zimbabwe had recorded 182 057 cases 130 920 recoveries and 4 759 deaths. “As schools close, those children who are in isolation because they facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
have tested positive for COVID-19 will remain in their current isolation facilities until the end of their isolation period. My office regrets any inconvenience caused, but we cannot knowingly allow infected people to go around spreading the infection,” said Dr Siamuchembu. He encouraged parents to be patient as the Ministry cannot allowed infected people to go into the community until they test negative. Over the last two weeks, the country has seen a 472 percent surge in new Covid-19 cases with 28904 of those being recorded last week alone compared to 5055 cases recorded during the previous week. The rapid rise also affected school going learners and some were
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forced to undergo isolation whilst doing their studies in boarding schools. St Christopher Primary School in Gwanda has also shut down after 28 learners tested positive early this week. Lupane State University and Masvingo Teachers College, among other higher learning institutions, have also not been spared. Dr Siamuchembu said members of the public should continue practicing social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks. “We did see this coming and all we can do is urge people to get vaccinated so that peradventure they contract the virus, they will not develop severe diseases. The pandemic is still with us and requires that we all be vigilant,” added Dr Siamuchembu.
“...we cannot knowingly allow infected people to go around spreading the infection...”
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Young women bemoan the prevalence of violence and abuse in tertiary institutions
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here has been a worrying increase of perpetuation of violence against young women and girls especially in local churches that condone and promote child marriages. The case of Anna Machaya a 15-year-old minor who died while giving birth at a Marange Shrine is an example of how child marriages are rife in some churches with church members failing to speak out as this has been their normal practice for a long time. This was said by Pamela Mpofu during a Young Women’s Roundtable hosted by Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) as part of the 16 days of activism
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against GBV commemorations. The Roundtable was attended by young women from Bulawayo in various sectors including media, arts, CSOs and tertiary institutions. The discussion focused on the impacts of GBV on young women. Noncedo Ndlovu a tertiary student bemoaned the prevalence of abuse in learning institutions as she says that this puts a lot of female learners at risk of unwanted pregnancies, STIs and depression. “In universities a lot of abuse emanates from those in authority especially male lecturers who ask for sexual favors from female students
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in return for pass marks. This kind of abuse goes unreported due to the power balances as students fear being victimised. We need practical interventions so that this comes because most survivors are suffering in silence,” explained Ndlovu. Sibonginkosi Netha who was also in attendance at the Roundtable highlighted that failure to address Gender Based Violence entails a significant cost for the future taking into consideration that children growing up in violent situations are more likely to become victims or perpetrators of violence in the future. “It is vital to incorporate more
InfocusNews awareness and knowledge sharing through partnerships and longterm programs in an effort to address the complex development challenge of gender-based violence. We should tackle violence against women and girls through strengthened approaches to iden-
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tifying and assessing key risks of GBV especially on children from a young age,” submitted Netha. In concluding the Roundtable, young women discussed mitigation strategies and recommendations in addressing GBV among young women and girls. They
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highlighted the need for strengthening of reporting mechanisms for violence, effective implementation of laws and policies in addressing GBV and improved information dissemination especially in rural areas among others.
InfocusNews founder of the online site Rappler, has been subject to scrutiny by the president and his supporters, and writers for the website. The film shows how powerful people use their control over social media networks to destroy lives and institutions.
Film screening conducted to commemorate Human Rights Day
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omen’s Institute for Leadership Development organised and took part in the film screening of the movie A Thousand Cuts in commemoration of the International Human Rights Day, that was held at Busters Sports Club on the 10th of December 2021. The film screening was attended by young women and men as well as Honourable Sichelesile Mahlangu, Member of Parliament for Pumula Constituency and Ward 17 Councillor Sikhululekile Moyo.
Before the film screening was an open discussion Human Rights, which was facilitated by Pamela Mpofu. Mpofu said that human rights should be upheld at all times and not only during the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV. She also said citizens should be reminded to stop GBV. In this discussion, human rights were explored and it was highlighted that as humans we are all equally entitled to our human rights. It was also stated that they can never be taken away, although they can sometimes be restricted.
The film screening was conducted in partnership with Centre For Innovation and Technology, Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association, Masakhaneni Projects Trust and Whispers.
The film that was aired was about a journalist who places her tools of free press and her freedom on the line in defence of the truth and democracy. It follows the conflicts between the press and the Philippine government. Maria Ressa, the
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After the movie there was a plenary session where women who had attended the film screening said that film depicted so many human rights abuses including cyber bullying. Honourable Mahlangu said citizens need to make sure that bad behaviour is not supported or tolerated. In conclusion the activity taught the attendees what human rights are and how they have an impact of citizen’s lives. The movie highlighted that cyber bullying is a form of human rights violation and it should not be tolerated.
“...human rights should be upheld at all times and not only during the 16 Days of Activism Against GBV.”
InfocusNews formation, some e-passports also have on their digital record, biometric data, the bearer’s photograph and in some cases the holder’s iris pattern.
Introduction of e-passports grossly unreasonable -ZLHR
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he recent decision to introduce e-passports for Zimbabweans has sparked debate among the disgruntled citizens who say the move is unreasonable and a violation of many rights. The current type of passports, issued before the date of operation of these regulations, will cease to be acceptable internationally by 31st December 2023, and will therefore need to be replaced by e-passports in terms of these regulations. An electronic passport or e-passport is a conventional passport with the addition of a readable electronic chip that carries the same information that is printed on the physical document. According to SI 273 of 2021, an ordinary e-passport will cost US$100 and an emergency one will be US$200. On top of the conventional infacebook.com/wildtrustzim |
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights however said the phasing out of the old passports is unreasonable. “We have written a letter to Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe telling him that his decision to make the current passport non-operational and non-functional by 31 December 2023 is grossly unreasonable as many citizens had obtained or renewed their current passports and had parted with hefty sums of money in paying the prescribed passport fees. We told him that it is grossly unreasonable and unfair to impose an obligation on current passport holders to apply for an e-passport by December 2023 even when their current passports still have many years running before their expiration date,” said ZLHR in a letter. “We said this is a violation of the right to administrative conduct which is substantially fair and reasonable and hence is a breach of Section 68 of the Constitution. We also asked Hon. Kazembe to furnish us with the procedures and criterion used to designate CBZ Bank as the entity to be processing e-passports. We stated that in terms of Section 35(3) of the Constitution, it is the State’s primary obligation to provide citizens with passports & other identity documents.”
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Sandile Ngwenya an informal trader said the new passport system was a money making scheme for a few Government officials who are not worried about the welfare of members of the public. “This is just a calculated move to dupe ordinary and suffering citizens of their hard earned forex. We have been paying forex and bribes for registry to give us passports which we applied for in 2019 and I do not trust that this e-passport will work, it’s just a scam and no one cares about our welfare,” said Ngwenya . “We live off vending and without passports we will not be able to make ends meet but the pricing now is meant to discourage us from applying. The fact that the facility will be centralised in Harare is a cause for concern and surely we cannot accept that after sleeping in queues to get these older passports, they will expire in 2023.” Another concerned resident Nomaqhawe Moyo said the decision to introduce the e-passport was just another sign to show that Government has once again failed to avail documents for its citizens. “Soon we will be told that we can only access the required passport in Harare and whether are we going to source the additional money to travel to Harare. For starters a majority of us earn in local currency and we wonder how this e-passport doesn’t have a bond price, it’s pathetic,” she said.
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#SheLeads #WomenUnlimitedzw #GenderChampions
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According to UNWomen, at least 1 in 3 women are abused in their lifetime and only 1 in 10 of these women report their cases to the police. facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
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Community Voices
Voter apathy among youths a concern
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ost youths in Gwanda Urban are reluctant to go and register to vote. There is high voter apathy as citizens especially youths are not keen to voluntarily go and register to vote. However, through community initiatives that seek to raise awareness on the importance of registering to vote, young people are slowly beginning to be inquisitive on hoiw they can participate in public processes such as voter registration. By Lungile Masuku
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As a citizen of Gwanda who is interested in increasing the number of registered voters in my area, this week I accompanied youths from Ward 7 to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s local offices in Gwanda urban, so that they could register to vote. Youths that I assisted highlighted that they did not know where the ZEC District office is located which is why they had not registered to vote. I tasked them to lure their peers to go and register to vote.
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Electoral Information Blitz that all citizens who have reached the required age and eligible have the right to vote.
“People should not be denied registration as voters on the basis of such factors as race, sex, language or religion” said one of the poets. The activity also provided an opportunity to educate citizens that elections are a cycle and discussions on voting should not only focus on election day but should focus on the pre-voting process which is voter registration.
Youths use Poetry Slam to encourage voter registration
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rafts and visual arts play an important role in terms of information dissemination in Zimbabwe. It is against this background that Women’s Institute for Leadership Development conducted a Poetry Slam which was meant to disseminate information about the importance of registering to vote. The Poetry Slam was conducted at Sokusile Shopping Centre in Nkulumane. The event was a competition in which poets performed spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. Poets managed to disseminate information about the importance of registering to vote before the 2023 facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
election. “Voter registration is intended to ensure that everyone entitled to vote can do so, to prevent ineligible persons from voting, and to guard against multiple voting by the same individual” said Cwebile one of the poets. Many participants articulated that voter registration systems should be designed to ensure that women and young girls are not disadvantaged or disenfranchised, as can easily happen. During the Poetry Slam, one of the poets alluded that voter registration should begin with the premise
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“Don’t let others decide for you because if you do not register to vote, you are letting others decide who wins and what issues matter,” said one of the poets encouraging everyone to register to vote.
“Don’t let others decide for you because if you do not register to vote, you are letting others decide who wins and what issues matter...”
Electoral Information Blitz
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Electoral Information Blitz
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Electoral Information Blitz
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