Lazarus Sauti

Lazarus Sauti Life in Chikomba district in the Mashonaland East province is tough as gripping poverty is the order of the day and tormenting most, if not all, the villagers. Some families do not even afford to eat three meals per day; in fact, most families do not afford goats to pay school fees for their children. As such, children, especially orphans are mostly affected and compelled to abandon their education. Worse still, some children are abused in the form of child labour, as well as early marriages, a fact attested to by Makanaka Jera (60), a villager from Mangoro. “Poverty is part of our DNA in this area and besides farming and mining, there is nothing that can sustain us here,” she says. “Sadly, orphans and other vulnerable children (OVCs) bear the brunt of this poverty as they are forced into early marriages.” Pained with this plight of OVCs in the district, Reaction of Orphans Support Association (Rosa), a civic society organisation, initiated pro-de...

Lazarus Sauti Veld fires are proving to be one of the greatest biodiversity challenges in Zimbabwe and other southern African countries as they lead to the destruction of pastures, forestry resources, livestock, property and sadly human lives. In its 2010 report the SADC regional fire management document said veld fires have become a major environmental and human welfare concern in the region. In Namibia, for instance, the councillor of Kahenge constituency and chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Joseph Sivaku, recently said veld fires were destroying pastures in areas such as Rupara, Nzinze and Rundu, thereby threatening food security in the country. According to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate’s permanent secretary, Prince Mupazviriho, more than 700 veld fires incidents have been recorded in Zimbabwe since the beginning of the fire season on July 31 this year, destroying over 435 000 hectares of forest. “Veld fires are also...

Lazarus Sauti In Zimbabwe, women and girls make the largest number of people who are abused and the situation becomes a double tragedy for widows, of which the country is home to around 587 000 of them, according to the 2012 census. Widows, according to a report by the Human Rights Watch, titled “ You Will Get Nothing: Violations of Property and Inheritance of Widows in Zimbabwe ”, are still vulnerable to age-old societal and patriarchal practices which deny them the right of inheritance to their late spouses’ wealth and property. “In Zimbabwe, widows are routinely deprived of land and property when their husbands die,” says the report. “They are pushed into extreme poverty and fighting back takes courage and costs money that many widows do not have.” Another study by the Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) notes that many women in Zimbabwe are side-lined in land ownership due to lack of information, finances as well as negative cultural practices such as customa...

Lazarus Sauti The world today is entangled in technology – an integral part of our existence. Without cellphones, for instance, people seem to gasp for air, struggling like a Tiger fish out of Lake Kariba. The fact that 96 percent of Zimbabweans have cellphone services, according to a report by Afrobarometer, a pan-African and non-partisan research network, vindicates the notion that cellphones have slowly morphed into our personal and public domains. However, the handiness cellphones offer must be judged against the dangers they create as their use contributes to the problem of inattentive driving, adding to the already costly problem of road injuries and deaths , a fact supported by a recent road-safety study by insurance company Allianz, which reveals that cellphone distractions double the risk of an accident. “Distractions while driving are one of the central causes of accidents on the road, and it is getting worse with the increased use of smartphones and other el...

Lazarus Sauti In Zimbabwe, just like in most African countries, a marriage could not take place without some form of gift or payment of animals, food or other material goods to the parents and family of the bride. This practice of paying lobola/ roora , which starts the process of marriage, is not only an expression of respect to the parents, but also an undertaking of responsibility to the spouse. Lobola/ roora is also a demonstration of how much the girl is valued by both sides, says Sekuru Tarirai Mahuda (65) from Buhera. “ Roora inzira yekubatanidza mhuri mbiri zviri pamutemo . It is a sign of approval of marriage by the families and it signifies decency, worthiness, as well as appreciation,” he says. “It shows that one is not stolen, but given away under mutual agreement between the two families.” In most parts of the country, people prefer using cash for almost all lobola transactions and this is so because most Zimbabweans developed a culture of carryin...

Lazarus Sauti Makonde – Migration in Zimbabwe, Zambia and other southern African countries is proving to be still a male dominated trend, although women are now moving from one place to another in their own right. According to the recent Labour Force Survey, women constitute 40 percent of the population that left Zimbabwe since June 2009. “Sadly, women who stay at home are paying a high price as they bear emotional stress, pain and suffering – part and parcel of secreted costs of men-out migration,” validated the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM). The intergovernmental organisation, which acts with its partners in the international community to advance understanding of migration issues and encourage socio-economic progress through migration, added that men’s out-migration has led to an increase in the number of women-headed households. In Gwanda, a district in Matabeleland South Province , for instance, 42 percent of households are female-headed. Si...

Lazarus Sauti Human activities are threatening biodiversity at an extraordinary pace thus affecting the provision of critical ecosystem, including insect pollination. Forests are being cleared mainly for agriculture, which employs 60-70 percent of the Zimbabwean population, and contributes to about 40 percent of total export earnings. The Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe (FCZ) is saying the country lost 29.4 percent of its forestry cover between 1990 and 2000, and the national rate of deforestation currently stands at more than 300 000 hectares per annum. Approximately, 15 percent is attributable to tobacco production activities, according to the commission. A recent report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) also shows that the world’s tropical forests are being reduced at a rapid rate due to human activities, with the figure of decline pegged at 0.8 percent of deforestation per year. The study further asserted that the problem of deforestation is se...