Friday, August 19, 2016

Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo pleads for humanitarian conditions in Gwanda!


Four days ago while walking around Gwanda this teenage little girl comes running to me and politely asks to talk to me. Though I was in a hurry and not in the mood to listen to other people's issues as I had my own at that moment that needed my utmost attention, I thought let me give her the attention.
She says to me she had heard people say that I am one of the people in the Gwanda Residents Association to which for a moment I wanted to deny knowing very well that it was again time to attend to other people's issues at the expense of my own pressing ones. The look on her face forced me to admit that I was and at the same time saying to God in my heart but why Lord and for how long shall I be a slave of the people while failing to attend to my own issues and the very same people fighting me and failing me.
She told me that their family home has not had running water for over three months because council disconnected their water supply due to an outstanding debt of over $800.
She even had the statements with her and that struck me why and how at her age she could be walking around with the statements old receipts and all. She went on to tell me that she had been to council several time sent by her sick mother who is at home to ask council to reconnect water for them but council insists they must pay at least a third of the amount to be reconnected and agree to sign a payment plan that will see them clear the balance in some three months.
In a hurry and confused as I was at that moment I just asked her to give me one of the old statements and promised that I will look into the issue. She smiled and went away very hopefully. Not surprising, because of the pressure I was under I immediately switched off and completely forgot her issues and went back to mine.
Then yesterday I decided to load my dirty clothes into the laundry basket in preparation for someone's return from Swaziland, then I pulled out the paper from the jacket.
I immediately went straight to the family to see for myself the conditions there and at least show that "I had not forgotten" about them. The situation was very sad.
The family of eight, an adult unemployed male with his sick wife her sister and five children the sixteen year old I met in town being the eldest were sharing a twenty litre bucket of water sourced by the sister to the wife some distance away from a borehole at the local Red Cross Centre. They were shockingly using an old bucket as a toilet for both the liquid and the solid which they carry in the cover of the night to empty at a bushy area a little distant from their house.
This really got me thinking ukuthi really why are we putting each other through such inhuman conditions as fellow citizens and more so by people who we have given the responsibility to take care of our civic responsibilities.
This is not a case for Gwanda only but our local governance as a whole. Why should we still be stuck to repressive laws that were inflicted on us by our colonizers when we claim to have achieved independence?
In the dispensation we are living in now access to clean, safe and potable water is a fundamental human right which no matter how much money is needed to provide that right should not be compromised.
All human beings have a right to dignity which right disappears immediately when people are denied access to water and full fledged hygienic sanitation facilities.
Councils have the utmost responsibility to make sure that at whatever cost they provide us citizens with uninterrupted access to clean, safe and potable water plus dignified sanitation without prejudice. It is unfortunately so also their duty to find means of recovering money to provide this service without compromising on it.
Why are the High Court provisions on water disconnections being ignored?
Water is life and a right.
STOP WATER DISCONNECTIONS NOW.
By Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo
Taken directly from his social network page

Local Gwanda residents concerned as council auctions stands to highest bidder




Municipality Of Gwanda featued an advert in The Chronicle of Friday 12 August inviting people to come and buy 300m 2 stands in Gwanda for $5150 cash price or $2000 deposit with installments of $131.25 per month for 24 months.
The advert is well circulated on the social media and people preparing to come and stampede for the stands in Gwanda on sale date.
In one WhatsApp chat group the stands are being discussed and someone asks they other "by the way where is Gwanda from Bulawayo?" That on its own got my nerves running.
To cut the long story short, guys wherever you are, please keep your monies and stay home don't even dream of coming to buy these stands.
These stands belong to the people of Gwanda and we shall make sure that only the people of Gwanda get them and not at this outrageous arrangement but our own way.
We don't want and we are not going to open up for land barons in Gwanda. Our Gwanda is our land.

One of Gwandas well known activist and watchdog Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo wrote on his social network page. 

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Notorious state security agents are reported to be eyeing one of Zimbabwe'e leading independent media mogul Trevor Ncube!

MILITARY VISIT UPDATE 2 
It is clear now that there is something not right about the two visits to my home last week.
Just to recap;
1. On Saturday a week ago we had two men in civilian clothes visit my home in Harare and ask strange questions to my staff.
2. Then 3 men in a black Merc registration number BCB 7664 visited my Harare home a few days later. All visits were during the day.
The visitors asked my staff all sorts of strange questions and were hostile. They left my staff and security guard frightened.
We decided that the right thing to do was to report the matter to the police for investigation which we did to the Highlands Police Station and we got a reference number. We were asked to report back for a follow up.
Yesterday my sister and staff went back to the police station for feedback. In a strange twist the police said there was no record of the report having been made. The reference number was not on their records and the detailed report that had been made could not be found.
So they said another OB report/statement be made which was done then and there with the understanding the previous reference number would suffice.My sister and staff were requested to report at 8:30 am today (Wednesday,17/08/16) to check on progress.
On reporting this morning my sister was informed that the car registration number BCB 7664 could not be traced. And this was all the officer could share. The officer said only the Officer-in-Charge could provide the rest of the information surrounding the incident we reported. He was clearly uncomfortable and not authorized to disclose further information.
So now we wait for a call from the Officer-in-Charge. From initially being friendly and helpful the police now appear unable to help.
In the meantime we still have a lot of questions unanswered. Who were these visitors and what was the purpose of the visit. Was this an official visit or rogue state elements sent to harass and intimidate? Is somebody abusing state resources to advance personal interests.
Remember that we have been made to believe that the number plate indicated that our visitors were from military intelligence and yet the beret hats indicated they were from the Presidential Guard.
As law abiding citizens we expect protection from the police and the military. It is absolutely unacceptable that state institutions and resources are deployed to harass and intimidate by those in power as appears to the case here. Who will protect us if the state turns rogue on civilians?
We are complicity in this harassment and intimidation if we elect to remain silent. We have a duty as citizens to stand up and speak out when ever such forms of abuse occur. Silence emboldens the rogue elements and encourages a culture of impunity.
Thank you for your love, support and prayers. Some of you have suggested l beef up my security in Harare. Good advice but is it possible for civilians to protect themselves from the state or from rogue state elements? I doubt it.
God is my protector!!
 The fearless and God trusting Ncube reported in his face book page couple of days.
Chief Justice correspondent reports!