The Platform for Youth and Community Development (PYCD) joins the rest of the international community in commemorating the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence under the theme; “ORANGE THE WORLD: GENERATION EQUALITY STANDS AGAINST RAPE.” This year’s theme resonates with the efforts that we have been undertaking in our endeavour to empower young women and girls against harmful cultural practices in Chipinge. We will have varied activities in Chipinge district that will start from the 25th of November 2019 and ends on 10^th of December 2019.

Chipinge district is a conservative community that has strong patriarchal beliefs, power and control that have created social environment for the perpetuation of gender inequalities.  Through our #NdirimunthuNgeanthu campaign, PYCD has put the issue of sexual violence, rape and abuse of young women and girls on the spotlight. We have increased awareness on violence and rape against young women and girls through women hearings, door to door campaigns and interface meetings with traditional leaders among key community stakeholders.

The 2019 activities are configured around the narrative of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as it has been realised that gender discrimination is still woven into the fabric of social norms. PYCD is of the belief that gender equality, quality education, good health and well-being, sustainable cities and communities, peace, justice and strong institutions will bring impetus to the elimination of violence and rape against young women and girls.

PYCD will officially launch the commemorations on the 2nd of December 2019 at Checheche growth point, through a march that will fold into a mobile clinic to afford the community at large to interact with free legal aid through one of our partner, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).From the 25^th there will be various activities in selected wards of Chipinge Rural District Council. These activities will include women hearings, men’s forums, interface meetings with traditional leaders as well as understanding the plight of sex workers, door to door campaigns and sensitisation meetings with key community stakeholders. The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence will also address the unequal economic relations between Mutema banana farmers and a large scale investment company. The unequal relations have exposed the vulnerability of young women in areas of entrepreneurship and land justice.

Young women have suffered violence and discrimination in Chipinge district in the on-going evictions that both the central government and local government have undertaken to pursue. Currently, young women have borne the brunt of the exercises to evict villagers from their area of residence. Women and girls are left stranded and exposed to sexual violence and rape, just like what happened during the Cyclone Idai disaster. Young women and girls suffered abuse, sexual violence and abuse as the distribution of relief aid was heavily gender insensitive.

Another major highlight of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence will be a family fun day to be held at Chibuwe Primary school aimed at providing psycho-social support to the victims and survivors of Cyclone Idai disaster.

Can the new currency ease cash shortages?

By Success Majaramhepo

Zimbabwe is trying to bring back its “Zimdollar” currency and not for the first time. Ten years since the troubled national currency was essentially destroyed by years of hyperinflation, central bank officials and a few strategic government insiders have been hinting or openly discussing the need for its return.

Last week the government moved a step ahead in its currency reforms when the central bank announced new notes will be introduced in two weeks to fight transactional challenges emanating from over-reliance on digital and mobile money exacerbated by cash shortages.

Mobile money, an area in which Econet spin-off, EcoCash is the dominant player has often been helpful for ordinary Zimbabweans in alleviating the cash shortages they have been experiencing. However, mobile money has also become problematic as wallet holders have had to pay premiums of up to 50% to access their funds in cash and this is why the Monetary Policy Committee of the central bank is moving to introduce new currency notes under the banner of the Zim dollar.

But to understand the Zimbabwean currency changes and reforms and the resultant crisis, one needs to go back to 2009 when the country—ravaged by hyper-inflation—abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar and adopted multiple currencies including the US dollar and South African rand.

In 2015, the foreign currency notes dried up at the banks, leading to cash shortages in the economy. Then in 2016, Zimbabwe introduced bond notes as a surrogate currency which initially had an equal value to the US dollar but today it trades at 1:15 with the greenback.

The currency crisis worsened even after longtime ruler Robert Mugabe was deposed by Emmerson Mnangagwa in November 2017. He appointed Mthuli Ncube as finance minister in 2018 leading to the adoption of a monetary policy pivoted around currency reforms which have in turn led to the removal of foreign currencies and re-introduction of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2019.

This November Zimbabwe will inject more cash into the economy in the form of new ZWL $2 coins, ZWL $2 and ZWL $5 notes and these will be legal tender alongside the bond notes introduced in 2016 pending their gradual phasing out from the market.

According to the monetary policy committee of the Zimbabwean central bank, “the level of physical cash in the economy is inadequate to meet transactional demand” hence its decision to “boost the domestic availability of cash for transactional purposes through a gradual increase in cash supply over the next six months” and starting with the new notes coming up this month.

With Zimbabweans having to pay premiums for their own money in their mobile wallets, economists including Oxlink Capital’s Brains Muchemwa have described the situation as a reflection of failures but some Zimbabwean economists believe the introduction of new notes under the Zim dollar banner will help address cash shortages in the economy, mainly because of fears that further injection of money will drive up inflation. It may be too late, the economy recently officially sunk into hyper inflation despite the government stopping publication of yearly inflation data.

Cash shortages have been pushing up transaction fees for digital money, leaving analysts divided over the role of mobile money in abetting or worsening the monetary crisis. Authorities in Zimbabwe have recently ordered mobile money operators to stop cash in and cash out functionalities, apparently because of the premiums some agents were charging and has only re-instatement of these functions after imposing limits of about ZWL100 per transaction. On the parallel market, ZWL100 is equal to $5 while on the official interbank market, ZWL100 is about $6.60

Apart from the pricing distortions and premiums on cash, Zimbabweans are having to cope with sharp price rises, the most recent of which has been fuel prices and data tariffs. Econet Wireless this week hiked mobile voice call and mobile data tariffs while fuel has also gone up by about 12% after the removal of subsidies on petroleum products this year. This is expected to provide further room for inflation increases. Re-Invent Zimbabwe chair and economist Vince Musewe says “increasing liquidity through hard cash will be like giving more chips to the gambler” as prices will likely shoot over the roof.

Apart from the skepticism and divided opinions over the new notes to be introduced and their impact on the economy, some analysts such as independent economist Jeffrey Kasirori say the government still has to do more to clear the way for the new currency notes to have a positive impact. Zimbabwean businesses have long complained about the high costs of doing business and a placid regulatory framework.

“If we don’t address fundamentals especially around the cost of production then the new currency might not work. We are waiting to see what else the government will do to address the business operating framework because as things stand, accessing foreign currency is still problematic for many companies and this makes their production difficult,” says Kasirori.

Success Majaramhepo is a 22 year old young woman who strongly believes in social justice and equality. She is a third year student at the University of Zimbabwe studying Journalism and Media Studies. Success is a contributor to PYCD's Social Media platforms.

Chipinge town residents run amok, as they reject increment of water rates

By Allan Murozvi

Residents of Chipinge town have caused a stir  by accusing the local authority of mismanagement and incompetence,  which are responsible in the eventual decision by  ZESA to disconnect the water source for residence.

ZESA was forced to disconnect water for residence over non-payment of a bill amounting to over I million dollars. The local Council is now in a catch 22 situation since the on-going budget consultation to increase the rates are now in limbo.

The budget consultation meetings are scheduled in terms of the Urban Council Act, to prepare the 2020 budget. The exercise which  started on Monday the 21st of October 2019,is now uncertain as residents  are refusing to budge as they demand to understand what led to the bill ballooning to  I million dollars when water had not been efficiently distributed by authority .

 Residents suspect that if the rates are increased, this will continue to give the local authority uninterrupted access to Council funds without accountability. They are not ready to approve the proposals as they view the proposed figures of an interbank equivalent of USD 8 is beyond the reach of the majority. This proposal to increase water rates for Chipinge town residence is failing to find takers and now raising emotions.

 Ward 4 residents have already disrupted a consultation meeting at Gaza Town Hall. The Council management had to call police after the residents became agitated. They are threatening to expose unethical operations of council which might eventually need the Anti-Corruption Commission to intervene.

 The Chipinge district Edition of the Cyclone Idai Sport Tournament, a huge success

Chimanimani and Chipinge districts are in distress following the Cyclone Idai that ravaged their communities in March of this year. Most survivors are still narrating the traumatic horrors of seeing visions of people being swept away in the muddy floods. This is a reflection of a community that is still in deep shock. On 19 October 2019, PYCD in collaboration with Sports for Excellence Trust staged a successful sports tournament in Chipinge District.

The sport tournament brought different walks of life together and it improved the self-esteem of Cyclone Idai survivors and prevented them from physically and mentally disintegrating. It was refreshing to see the community getting closer during the sport tournament, despite the sweltering and blistering heat.

Cyclone Idai survivors and other people who graced the tournament acknowledged the fact that sport has proven to be an extremely beneficial tool in re-establishing normalcy, providing space for people to laugh and interact with others, free of guilt and fear. This has been identified as a crucial factor in rebuilding their lives and communities, and thus sport becomes an effective tool to rebuild dignity and faith in life, to overcome trauma and build resilience.

The sport tournament took place in two venues in Chipinge district. The venues chosen for the tournament were Takwirira High School and Checheche Primary School who were hosting teams from Chipinge South Constituency and Musikavanhu Constituency respectively. The sport tournament was configured around proffering psychosocial support to Cyclone Idai survivors. Therefore, participating teams were drawn from the community and surrounding schools and numbered 16 teams in total.

In Musikavanhu Constituency, Manzvire Secondary School and Manzvire community team emerged together with Rimbi High School and their community counterpart. These four will now progress to the next stage of the tournament. On the other hand, Takwirira High School and Katanga High School made it for school teams while One One FC and Mkukuzi FC community teams managed to progress to the next stage of the tournament. The finals for the tournament will be held on the 1^st and 2^nd of November 2019 at Takwirira High school where more firework is expected. ZIFA has confirmed attendance to come and scout talents through the vice chairperson of the soccer legends Mr Harlington Shereni.

The sport tournament enabled survivors to cope with traumatic experiences and return to their daily activities, helped in restoring and maintaining the social functioning of the affected Chipinge and Chimanimani districts as well as in creating an emotional balance of survivors at the level of their social environment.

According to the sponsors, the 1^st and 2^nd of November 2019 will be big events in Chipinge district where the public is invited to show solidarity with the victims and survivors of the disaster. Mr Claris Madhuku, the Director of Platform for Youth and Community Development has extended his invitation to well-wishers and the corporate world to also play a part.

“As a community based organisation we have been doing so much since March to contain this sad loss both in Chipinge and Chimanimani. We have reconstruction projects in schools where we have been involved in repairing classes, libraries and toilets for schools including paying for school fees to affected kids. We also expect other more serious players to join our plea in the spirit of Ubuntu” Madhuku pleaded.

PYCD Rallies the Community to Denounce Gender Based Violence in Chipinge

Hordes of people converged at Takwirira High School, Chipinge on the 28th of September 2019 to raise their voice against the increased statistics of women who are losing life due to the occurrence of gender based violence targeted at young women and girls.

The more than 200 marchers were coordinated by the Platform for Youth and Community Development together with Vemuganga Community Radio Initiative who were commemorating the International day of Peace in Chisumbanje. The day which was running under the theme "Climate Action for Peace” lived up to expectation.

This theme is a realisation that climate change is an indisputable challenge to human rights, security and socio -economic development in our local communities.

The march was organised in the view that climate change poses far greater challenges especially to vulnerable members of our society, as it has the potential to aggravate existing fragile situations as has become the case in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts due to the impact of Cyclone Idai. The advent of tropical storms like the recent devastating Cyclone Idai is expected to increase further due to climate change.

The socio – economic impact of Cyclone Idai did not discriminate but it was experienced differently by women and girls. Women and girls were affected more significantly than men due to gender inequalities and power imbalances in access to resources and information in the district.  Chipinge is the most climate change vulnerable districts in Zimbabwe which makes women and girls more susceptible to the adversities that result from climate change.

The march against domestic gender based violence took an hour, and raised awareness on the vulnerability of women and girls to climate change. The song s ".....Isu taramba bongozozo…” (We are against violence) punctuated the March and filtered through the community. Stakeholders graced the event whose main purpose was to raise awareness and recommend action against gender based violence in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts. PYCD Gender wellness and advocacy officer addressed the marchers and encouraged them to coexist by involving closer relations and family networks to mediate disputes before they escalate into violence.

The theme for the International Day of Peace for 2019 allowed the organisers of the event to provide statistics on how women suffered due to the effects of climate change that led to many people perishing and houses destroyed as a result of Cyclone Idai that struck Chimanimani and Chipinge district the most. The most affected are women and children who remain vulnerable today 6 months later.

After the March, there was a tournament that featured 8 soccer teams and 6 netball teams as part of the activities for the day. Sport has always been used as the best symbol of working together,  co-existence and peace.

Headman Forichi Chisumbanje a Hero of Land Rights and Social Justice in Chipinge

Headman Forichi Chisumbanje passed away on 17^th of September 2019 after a short illness, and was buried on Friday the 20^th of September 2019 in Chisumbanje. The death of Headman Chisumbanje is a heavy blow to the land rights and social justice movement in Chipinge District, as he was a vital cog in the land rights and social justice advocacy. Mourners who attended and spoke at the funeral of headman Chisumbanje unanimously agreed that the late headman was an irreplaceable character who gave the community direction in the land dispute between the community and Greenfuel Pvt Ltd. His passing on created a sombre atmosphere in Chisumbanje,since it was an emotional moment for land rights and social justice activists in the area.

His counterpart within the land struggle, Headman Phineas Chinyamukwakwa admitted that the land struggle for justice and beneficiation will be poorer in the community without the personality of headman Chisumbanje. He was the spirit behind the community resistance to arbitrary communal land take over without respecting traditional leadership as well as local customs.

His value was echoed by village head, Leonard Uchaka Muyondozi who described the headman as a rare breed of traditional leaders of our time. Headman Chisumbanje practiced effective delegation in terms of serving leadership tasks, an approach which made him to be revered and respected by both the young and elderly in the village.

“We have lost a firm and consistent leader who believed in a stakeholder approach in achieving community beneficiation within the framework of the land dispute.” Village Head Muyondozi told mourners.

The burial was attended by members of the Christian community, business community and various community stakeholders. People of different walks of life who attended the burial also appreciated the role played by a local community based organisation, Platform for Youth and Community Development (PYCD) for leadership on the land dispute as well as taking an active role in laying to rest headman Chisumbanje. The local community based organisation PYCD had to postpone its activities that were lined up for the weekend of 20^th – 22^nd of September 2019 in order to accord a decent and dignified send off to one of the community key stakeholder in land rights and social justice.

“We had to postpone all our weekend activities to pay our last respect to Headman Forichi Chisumbanje who was a pillar of strength to PYCD’s advocacy work since 2009.” PYCD Director, Mr Claris Madhuku said.

The ongoing land dispute in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa involving the community on one side and Green fuel Pvt Ltd, Chipinge Rural District Council and ARDA on the other hand has taken many dimensions that include confrontation, dialogue and legal processes. PYCD has been mandated by the community stakeholders to continue with the advocacy work on the land dispute to ensure that villagers are not inconvenienced by the Green fuel investment so that proper and adequate compensation is attained by the villagers. This can only be achieved through just and equitable land investment policy framework that addresses community beneficiation adequately. This is possible through the empowerment of a stakeholder dialogue platform where issues that affect the villagers and the Green fuel project stakeholders, are discussed and addressed for actioning.  

Press Statement on the commemoration of International Day of Peace 2019

Platform for Youth and Community Development (PYCD) joins Zimbabwe and the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of Peace. This year’s celebrations are running under the theme "Climate Action for Peace.” 

This theme is a realisation that climate change is an indisputable challenge to human rights, security and socio -economic development in our local communities.

 PYCD is cognisant of the fact that climate change poses far greater challenges especially to vulnerable members of our society, as it has the potential to aggravate existing fragile situations as has become the case in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts due to the impact of Cyclone Idai.

This year’s commemorations come in the midst of serious concerns by citizens of Zimbabwe and Africa, to invoke the values of ubuntuism as a lasting solution to the various forms of violence taking place in the world. A Case in point is the gothic scenes of Xenophobia attacks that are currently going on in South Africa against fellow African nationals. The xenophobic attacks have resulted in the death of 12 people with more than 680 people arrested for violence.

The commemoration provides an opportunity for PYCD to advocate not only for a legally binding instrument against violence, but for a moral campus that will assist citizens and governments to develop common values that allows for human rights, justice, freedom and protection of all core values of humanity.

PYCD will be commemorating this day through a sports tournament  featuring eight community soccer teams and eight community netball teams. The participating community teams have been picked from various villages in Chipinge district. 

The sports tournament will be preceded by a march which is expected to denounce the sprawling of gender based violence cases in Chipinge district .The procession will be from Machona village via Chisumbanje village to the venue of the commemoration, which is Takwirira High School on the 28th of September 2019.

This year’s theme commensurate with the current efforts by government and development agencies to mitigate against the effects of Cyclone Idai which left more than 1000 people dead. Cyclone Idai left a trail of destruction in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts.

In commemorating the International Day of Peace, PYCD will engage in public awareness activities that seek to address a wide chasm between women adversely affected by the consequences of climate change and community leaders who control the resources and hold the decision – making power.