InfocusNews 17 - 21 January 2022
installation of prepaid meters was adopted as a recovery strategy with over 7 000 meters having been installed. She said the water body is owed more than $2,6 billion by members of the public, organisations and businesses.
Installation of water meters to aid recover arrears from debtors
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ORE people are set to have water meters installed in their homes this year, a development which the Zimbabwe Water Authority (ZINWA) says will help recover arrears from debtors which is estimated to be over $2 billion. The water authority last year had targeted installing 350 000 water meters countrywide and says these meters are the only way out of debts which are crippling its service delivery. ZINWA Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager, Marjorie Munyonga said the
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“ZINWA is owed in excess of $2,6 billion by various clients across the country, which it is working as of November 30, 2021, various clients, including Government departments, parastatals, irrigators, agricultural estates, mines and schools owed ZINWA a total of $2 606 402 553. To try and curb the further growing of the debtors’ book, ZINWA is rolling out prepaid water meters in the small towns, growth points and rural service centres where it provides treated water and as at January 16, 2022 a total of 7 356 prepaid water meters had been installed across the country in Hwange, Murehwa, Mutoko, Nyanga, Chivhu, Karoi and Mvurwi,” she added. In response to the announcement, disgruntled members of the public said arrears were as result of a crumbling economy and water meters will leave thousands without access to water. Mayibongwe Khumalo from
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Gwanda said his residential area had also been earmarked for water meters which were not going to end the perennial water woes in the mining town. “We have been hearing about plans to install water meters and we wonder who will address water challenges which are a result of ZINWA’s failure to provide quality services. Yes, people are owing but we all know that this economy is not improving and if we cannot afford to buy food how are we going to clear ZINWA arrears,” she said. Maryline Sibanda said the move will affect disadvantaged families who were struggling to clear arrears. “We have a number of disadvantaged families, some headed by individuals who will struggle to cope once these meters are installed. We do hope ZINWA will consider that these families have a right to water despite their financial status,” said Sibanda. “ZINWA hasn’t been giving us a good service and they cannot blame that on residents because for years we have struggled without water supplies. Women will suffer the brunt more in this move and ZINWA should reconsider before installing these meters,” she added.
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Young women from Pumula express concern on the prevalence of early child marriages
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omen’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD) in partnership with Amagugu International Heritage Centre held a community dialogue which saw young women from Pumula interacting with Councilor Skhululekile Moyo. The meeting was an opportunity for young women to engage with their Councilor on the state of service delivery within the Ward and other development issues of concern. Young women said early child marriages are increasing at an alarming rate since the country went on successive COVID-19 induced lockdowns since March facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
2020 which saw schools closing for prolonged periods of time. “Child marriages violate girls’ rights to education, health and other opportunities for development. Once a girl gets married, she is often expected to drop out of school to look after the home, children and extended family thus their right to education is infringed. Therefore, there is a need for the implementation of national policies that allow married girls, pregnant girls and young mothers to return to school,” said Precious Ncube. Young women identified poor health facilities in Pumula as one of the challenges faced by resi-
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“Ensuring quality health care for everyone is essential considering that it is our human right to receive adequate and good health facilities. As it stands women are spending long hours in queues to access healthcare services as there is no adequate staff and medication in the healthcare facilities. To meet community demands for accessible and affordable health services, community members should be actively involved in the planning and decision making with regards to resource allocation for local healthcare facilities,” highlighted Sithembiso Maseko, a young woman in attendance. The prevalence of drug abuse as many young people are now suffering from the impacts of drug abuse. “Drug abuse can weaken the immune system, increasing the risk of illness and infection. There has also been a rise in the crime rate in Pumula and this has been attributed mainly to drug abuse. To curb the prevalence of drug abuse, there is need for the youths to be involved in sustainable income generating initiatives so that they are not always idle which sees them resorting to drugs,” said Talent Mpofu. Young women present were encouraged to continue playing an active role in platforms similar to the engagement that was held as a way of ensuring their voices are heard in as far as decision making is concerned.
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“Ensuring quality health care for everyone is essential considering that it is our human right to receive adequate and good health facilities.
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The Legal Space its account of Events of 2021. The major human rights violation of concern highlighted in the Report are the abuses of citizens by security forces including arbitrary arrests, abductions, torture and rape. Other human rights concerns highlighted in the report include a severe water and sanitation crisis, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, forced evictions, and child marriages. CONFRONTING PAST ABUSES
Human Rights Watch: World Report 2022 ZIMBABWE EVENTS OF 2021 Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an International Non-Governmental Organisation that conducts Research and Advocacy on Human Rights as well as investigations and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights. Human Rights Watch publishes Reports on violations of international human rights norms as set out by the Universal Declaration facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
of Human Rights and what it perceives as internationally accepted, human rights norms. These Reports are used as the basis for drawing international attention to abuses and pressuring governments and international organisations to reform. Human Rights Watch in its Reports pays more attention to social and gender discrimination, torture, political corruption and abuses in criminal justice systems. The 2022 Human Rights Watch: World Report shows continuous human rights violations in Zimbabwe in
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According to the Report, little effort has been made in taking meaningful steps to uphold human rights and ensure justice for serious abuses primarily committed by security forces in 2021. Abductions, torture, arbitrary arrests, and other abuses against citizens have not been meaningfully investigated. The government has yet to establish an independent complaint system, as provided for in Zimbabwe’s Constitution in a bid to receive and investigate public complaints against the security services. In the year 2021, authorities did not take concrete steps to ensure justice and accountability for serious abuses, most of which were committed by the security forces. President Mnangagwa appointed the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry to investigate the August 2018 post-election violence, which found that six people had died and 35 others were injured because of actions by state security forces. Yet, three years later, the authorities have not imple-
The Legal Space mented the commission’s recommendations, including to hold to account members of the security forces responsible for abuses and for compensating the families of those killed or who lost property.
narrow wells—are often contaminated. However, despite the known risk of contaminated water, there is no specific official information on which water sources are safe, leaving residents to take their chances.
RIGHT TO WATER AND SANITATION
CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
As noted in the Report, hundreds of thousands of residents especially in Harare and Bulawayo continued to face a potable water crisis with the responsible authorities failing to ensure the provision of clean water. Several factors have contributed to the country’s severe water problems, including economic decay, perennial droughts, the lack of maintenance of the old water infrastructure, the inability to procure the necessary chemicals to treat water sources, and corruption. The water crisis has affected the citizens’ rights to water and sanitation as entrenched in section 77 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe as well as other related rights, including the rights to life, food, and health. Many common water sources, namely shallow wells, taps, and boreholes—deep,
The 2021 Report highlights that there was failure by the authorities to fully enforce the ban on child marriages, exposing millions of underage girls to abuse. A landmark 2016 Constitutional Court decision declared child marriages unconstitutional and set 18 as the minimum marriage age for girls and boys, without exceptions. A 14-year-old girl who had been forced into marriage died during childbirth in July 2021, at a Marange Apostolic church, in Manicaland province, highlighting the high price girls pay for the practice of child marriage, which remains rampant in Zimbabwe. The practice is prevalent among Indigenous apostolic churches, an evangelical group that mixes Christian religious beliefs with traditional cultures and has millions of followers across the country.
Human rights violations are continuing despite Government of Zimbabwe’s commitment to promote and fulfil fundamental rights and freedoms through the adoption of the 2013 Constitution. The continuous violation of the fundamental human rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe is an indication that the country is experiencing a Constitutional crisis. This further disrupts the very structure of the Constitution of Zimbabwe to the extent that it no longer effectively serves the basic intents and purposes that it is meant to serve. There is, therefore, a need for the strengthening of implementation mechanisms with regards to legal, institutional and policy frameworks that will act as safeguards in the realisation of the fundamental human rights of the people of Zimbabwe. There is also a need for political will by the Government towards the implementation of recommendations by international, regional and national human rights bodies which is key in ensuring redress in cases of human rights violations.
The continuous violation of the fundamental human rights of the citizens of Zimbabwe is an indication that the country is experiencing a Constitutional crisis.
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Electoral Information Blitz EkhayaVote2023 conducts voter education in Bulawayo
EkhayaVote2023 conducted a series of Community Engagements that were held in Mzilikazi, Pumula North and Nkulumane. The
Mzilikazi
Lack of Identity cards is hindering youths from registering to vote as the registry office does not have the capacity to provide the needed service. Residents pleaded with EkhayaVote2023 to ensure that the registry office is consulted so that there is improvement in the process of issuance of IDs. A resident said it has taken too long for the ward to have anfacebook.com/wildtrustzim |
engagements held sought to ensure that communities are offered a platform where they can discuss their understanding on: “The Nex-
other Councilor. She said the quality-of-service delivery has drastically deteriorated due to the absence of a Ward Councilor since the ban on by-elections due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Another resident said candidates who are voted in power should ensure to serve all residents despite their political affiliations
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us Between Service Delivery and Electoral Processes.” During these engagements the following issues emerged in the areas visited:
Electoral Information Blitz
Pumula North
Ndodana Ndhlovu, a Field Officer from Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) emphasized the statistics that were released by Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) stating that out of the 5.6 million registered voters countrywide, Bulawayo has the lowest
number of registered voters with 254 630 followed by Matabeleland South with 259 689 registered voters and Mat North standing at 335 851. Ndhlovu stated that Bulawayo is in danger of losing three Constit-
Nkulumane
The District Elections Officer at Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), Sithembiso Khupe cited that the closure of the voters’ roll for the proclaimed National Assembly vacancies and Ward Elections does not mean that the voter registration for other subsequent elections is closed. She highlighted that ZEC’s mobile voter registration exercise will be conducted in two phases and these being the first phase that will run between 1 and 28 February 2022, while the second phase will run between 11 and 30 April 2022. Khupe cited that all electoral activities will be conducted in line with facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
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uencies as a result of low voter registrations as numbers currently show a low turnout of citizens in registering to vote. However, with the first phase of ZEC’s voter registration blitz starting in February, there is still time for Bulawayo to save its Constituencies.
Electoral Information Blitz the ZEC COVID-19 Policy. Eligible persons can still be regis-
tered as voters as this is an on-going process. She encouraged young
people to take up space and contest in the upcoming elections.
Bulawayo has the lowest number of registered voters with 254 630 followed by Matabeleland South with 259 689 registered voters and Mat North standing at 335 851.
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Electoral Information Blitz cards, poor voter education and the centralization of ZEC offices were the reasons behind the low figures. A majority of respondents said ZEC had let them down despite disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic which fueled the closure of ZEC offices for the greatest part of 2021. The global pandemic had also affected the issuance of National ID cards by the registry office as the majority of potential voters could not register without the public document.
COVID-19 disrupting voter registration in Matabeleland Region
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HE outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic which disrupted a number of significant services could explain why a majority of people have not registered to vote in Matabeleland Region, which is likely to lose a number of Constituencies according to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Recently released statistics from ZEC show that by January 8 this year, only 3435 members of the public had registered to vote as new voters. The Southern Region accounted for the least registered voters as Bulawayo had a total of 825, Matabeleland North 106 while Matafacebook.com/wildtrustzim |
beleland South had 283 voters. In total there are about 5,6 million registered voters and ZEC has said these will be the only ones who will participate in the forthcoming by-elections. ZEC statistics also show that overall, Bulawayo has the lowest number of registered voters with 254 630 followed by Matabeleland South with 259 689 registered voters and Matabeleland North standing at 335 851. In a snap survey conducted to establish reasons for low turnout to register to vote, members for the public cited that COVID-19 lock down, lack of national identity
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Some of the respondents said despite the COVID-19 pandemic, ZEC did not make any deliberate efforts to raise awareness on the voting process or avail mobile centres as seen in other countries which successfully held elections during the pandemic in the African region. Youths were concerned that these low figures are a reflection of how they may miss out on choosing leaders since they do not have IDs. Bongeka Ntini from Bulawayo said failure by the registry office to provide IDs is a sign that the Government wants to maintain older voters. “We did not register because up to today we don’t have IDs although we turned 18 years of age in the year 2020. We are a majority that could have added to the few who registered to vote but maybe this is a control measure to ensure that
Electoral Information Blitz we do not air our views come the year 2023,” she said. Getrude Ncube from Lupane said she was already a registered voter
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but her children who are now over 18 years did not manage to register because of IDs and the distance they have to travel to the nearest ZEC Office.
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“We tried to reach out to fellow community members who had lost hope in all this voting process but they did not register because ZEC offices were not accessible.”
Electoral Information Blitz “This planned blitz will be useful if a majority of our people have IDs. Surely, the Government should do something about ID cards so that we have free and fair elections with contribution from the youth who have power to bring about the much-needed change.”
Youths without ID cards likely not to register to vote in upcoming blitz
A
majority of youths may fail to register as voters during the forthcoming Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) blitz set for February as registry offices have not been issuing identity cards due to a number of problems. Besides the fact that the registry offices have been limiting the maximum ID cards issued daily, a number of them have not been fully functional since December last year. In a statement last week ZEC announced that only voters registered by January 8 will be able to participate during by elections and the rest can continue registering for future elections. ZEC also called on members of the public to take advantage of the voter registration blitz to register, although no efforts have been made to ensure that the registry facebook.com/wildtrustzim |
improves pace at which IDs are being issued at. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, attaining an ID or birth certificate has been a nightmare for many Zimbabweans and this development may interfere with the electoral process as the nation gears for the 2023 General elections. Bulawayo Ward 19 Councillor Sikhululekile Moyo said the issue of IDs could be a deliberate move to discourage new voters from participating in elections. She said more than 500 youths from her ward are in need of IDs so that they can register. “We cannot have a majority of our youths failing to register to vote, this means votes will be easily manipulated. Last week I went to check on our registry office and was told the machine has been down for weeks,” she said.
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An official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that Bulawayo offices had been struggling with ID production. “Our machines have been down for weeks and we also ran out of material during the holidays which forced us to stop production. The issue has been fixed in some of the offices but we still have challenges as we cannot meet demand from members of the public,” she said. One of the affected residents, Mongiwethu Dube said she had been struggling to get an ID for the past four years. “At first I had issues with my birth certificate and had to pay extra to have officials give me one. In 2020 things went bad due to COVID-19 and now we cannot easily book. We are always told it’s fully booked. Unfortunately, as an unemployed young person I cannot pay extra for an ID card, ” said Dube.
“This planned blitz will be useful if a majority of our people have IDs.
Electoral Information Blitz
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Electoral Information Blitz
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Electoral Information Blitz
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