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Women and the armed struggle in Chipinge west constituency, 1974-9
No full textThe main objective of the study is to explore the response of women to the Armed Struggle in Chipinge West constituency between 1974-9. The study illustrates the experiences of women in the pre-colonial traditional society prior to the armed struggle and how this was extended to the role of women in the armed struggle in Chipinge West constituency. The role of women at family level in Ndau traditional society in Chipinge played a crucial contribution to support and to sustain the liberation war effort at societal level. The study has demonstrated that the relationship between the freedom fighters and rural masses was that of co-existance. The liberation war fighters taught the masses about the agenda of the armed struggle. The Second Chimurenga propaganda was employed by the freedom fighters in order to identify themselves with the masses and to gain support from the rural public. Very little has so far been said by scholars and writers about the daunting task performed by women in the armed struggle. Women remained the most suffering group. The compelling roles played by women in the armed struggle such as motherhood, providing for freedom fighters and logistics to protect and support the liberation war was the major cause for women to experience the atrocities of the armed struggle. The study revealed that women were occasionally victimised by RENAMO and Chimwenje rebel groups. The respondents of this study testified that the liberation war fighters neither victimised nor abused women in any way as women were both their shield and lifeline. They were trained to socialisee so they were, disciplined and principled. However, the ceasefire period of 1979 witnessed further and increased victimisation of women in Chipinge West constituency. This was like that because the young and newly recruited cadres were untrained and undisciplined as compared to their counterparts who entered in the country earlier. The untrained and undisciplined liberation war fighters sometimes violated the principles of the war of liberation. Overall the armed struggle has had negative effects on women. Women were affected by the armed struggle in all forms of abuse. With the emergency of the armed struggle, women also became the major victims of rape, beatings and sexual harassment. They were abused by the guards in the Protected Villages. The situation in the constructed government Protected Villages were traumatic, and harmful to health of women and children. The armed struggle distabilised livelihoods activities which households survived on prior to the war period such as agriculture. Thus women were affected politically, culturally and socially by the armed struggle
‘‘The effectiveness of Social Dialogue in addressing the economic problems in Zimbabwe†(January 2008-December 2014)
No full textThe environment within which social dialogue operates is shaped by a number of factors, most of which are economic, social, political, environmental and legal. The economic, social and political developments in Zimbabwe from 2008, and 2014 posed various challenges to the economy of the country. In an attempt to find solutions to the challenges affecting the country, policy makers pursued various avenues, including social dialogue. Against this background, it was of interest to ascertain the effectiveness of social dialogue as a strategy in addressing the economic challenges in Zimbabwe from January 2008 to December 2014. The researcher was mostly interested in investigating how the social dialogue process was undertaken at the national level and the problems that were faced by the respective constituents. In undertaking the study, conducted were face to face interviews with respondents in order to gain more insight through probing. Arising out of the study, it emerged that social dialogue had indeed been used as a strategy to help in addressing the economic problems in the country, albeit without much success. The findings of the study points to the fact that; while social dialogue was pursued, it was not effective as envisaged owing to the voluntary nature and lack of a legislative framework to govern the process.Going forward, the study has brought to the fore, the importance of legislation on the state-run social dialogue process, as in form of strengthening the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) secretariat in order for it to be better capacitated to execute its mandate. In terms of the economy, the findings point to a great need to depoliticise public policies to better function
An evaluation of the policies instituted by the government of Zimbabwe in promoting survival and growth of SMEs: the case of Glenview area 8 SMEs
No full textThe main objective of this study is to evaluate the policies instituted by the government of Zimbabwe in
promoting the survival and growth of SMEs using a case of SMEs in Glen View Area 8. This was done with a view to draw up strategies aimed at improving the contribution of SMEs to Zimbabwe’s GDP. The research used a qualitative research design, a random sample was chosen to which a survey questionnaire was administered to collect data. Interviews were also conducted with personnel from the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Harare City Council Department of Health and Social Services. Findings indicated that little had been done by government in addressing SME concerns and accord priority to the SMEs so that they are enabled to contribute to the betterment of the economy. Challenges found to be facing SMEs were issues such as capital availability, difficulties in procuring raw materials, low technological capabilities, and difficulties in securing permits and licences. The study recommended that SMEs are a significant sector that should otherwise be contributing significantly to the economy and recommended that government should prioritise SMEs by establishing finance schemes, training programmes and encourage clustering
Implementation of guidance and counselling in secondary schools in Chinhoyi urban
No full textThe study endeavoured to find out the current contribution of head teachers and teachers in the implementation of guidance and counselling curriculum in Chinhoyi. The study adopted mixed methodology
approach. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data from participants about their experiences and opinions. A sample of four head teachers and forty (40) teachers was used in this study. Content analysis and statistical analysis were used to analyse data. The study established that only one school among the sampled schools was implementing Guidance and Counselling programme although other schools claimed to be implementing the programme. The government should provide trained and competent Guidance and Counselling co-ordinators so that they would be posted to various districts in the country
Exploring teachers’ and community’s strategies of empowering pupils on the importance of educational advancement: A case study of Mabvuku-Tafara educational cluster in Epworth, Mabvuku-Tafara District in Harare Metropolitan Province.
No full textThe purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ and community’s strategies of empowering pupils on the importance of educational advancement. Data was collected in Mabvuku-Tafara educational cluster in Epworth, Mabvuku-Tafara district in Harare Metropolitan province. The researcher employed a qualitative research design. Data was gathered through the use of questionnaires from teachers, interviews for School Heads and drop outs and the focus group discussion for pupils. The target population were students, School drop outs, School Heads and teachers. Stratified random sampling was used to select teachers and students. School Heads and drop outs were purposively selected. The sample selected was made up of 44 subjects comprising 4 School Heads, 16 teachers, 16 students and 8 school drop outs. The results revealed that rate of girls are higher than boys who drop out of school in the Mabvuku- Tafara community. Teachers mostly help who bring educational capital to school and are from affluent homes on the expense of those from disadvantaged homes. The teachers mostly use the traditional methods such as prompt marking and giving of home work to enhance educational advancement. These methods only benefit those children who come from homes where there are books already as well as gadgets such as televisions, computers and the internet. The strategies to empower pupils for educational advancement currently used by teachers of Mabvuku- Tafara cluster only benefit children from homes who already have a reading culture. The country’s economic meltdown, socioeconomic factors and family displacements fuelled the low advancement in schools. The recommendations were that schools in Mabvuku- Tafara education cluster should hold career guidance and awareness campaigns targeting both school pupils and local parents. These should focus on the importance of educational advancement. Community mentors are needed for all children in senior classes to help them realise the importance educational advancement and to build their characters. The School Heads should organise workshops on gender responsive and inclusive teaching methods and multi- cultural approach to teaching. This will curb the problems of discrimination during the teaching and learning process which negatively affects the children from disadvantaged homes. Researches could be carried out by other teachers digging deeper into causes of low advancement in the cluster so as to nip the vice on the bud and disseminating information even to other teachers and school authorities
The effects of illegal gold mining by Globe and Phoenix mine retrenches on the environment
No full textThis study explores the environmental degradation in Globe and Phoenix mine that has been caused by illegal mining by the mine retrenchees. It seeks to examine the cause of illegal mining in Globe and Phoenix mine with regard to the fact that it used to be the biggest and first mine to be established in Zimbabwe. The city of Kwekwe came to being because of the establishment of the mining center. The extent of the degradation is assessed in view of the strategies that are being taken by the government and stakeholders, are the measures to mitigate the problem solving the issues or they are just right answers to the wrong problem. The researcher used the qualitative approach in the process of data collection. This involved observational fieldwork, archival research, interviews and questionnaires. Development and the environment are interlinked, hence negative impacts on the environment consequently affects development. Illegal mining activities are contributing to land degradation of which this affects the environment permanently posing a danger to the present and future generation. Therefore the small gains of illegal mining activities do not outweigh the long term effects of these activities on the environment. The government and stakeholders in mining and environmental management must formulate policies that enable illegal miners to formalize their activities, for these policies to yield positive results the community and illegal miners must participate in the policy making process instead of making them passive recipient
The impact of government agricultural input support programme in promoting food security in Zimbabwe: a case study of Mazowe district
No full textFood security has remained a very big challenge in many rural areas in Zimbabwe. Many households in the country’s rural areas have remained impoverished in terms of food security. Maize being a strategic grain crop for food security and livelihood purposes for the nation has remained low in production amongst smallholder farmers in the country. The government of Zimbabwe has realized the importance of maize production and implemented the input support programme to boost agricultural production so as to promote food security for households and the nation at large. However, household food security prospects are under threat due to continuous decline in maize production especially in the smallholder farming sector that is regarded as the major producers of maize grain. Among other factors, low maize production is blamed on the ineffectiveness of the programme and other natural factors beyond human control like climate change. Government interventions to reverse declining maize production and promote food security are mainly centered on subsidized input provisions but yields remain low. Apart from production gains realized from increased input usage, sustainable production gains can also be realized through efficient use of these resource
Community based small scale commercial cattle in Mangwe District of Zimbabwe
No full textThe objective of the study was to assess the impact of the introduction of improved indigenous beef cattle bulls on productivity, herd population dynamics and socioeconomic factors in small scale commercial livestock production areas of Mangwe district in Zimbabwe. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to all 20 participating farmers in the breeding scheme. The data collected included household demographics, herd structure, breeding practices, management, marketing, socio-economic impacts, challenges and impacts of withdrawal of funds on the breeding project by donors. Data analysis was perfomed using statistical package for social science (SSPS), version 16 for descriptive statistics. The herd sizes increased by 77%, 96%, 71%, and 60% for the White Brahman, Black Brahman, Tuli and Nguni, respectively. The highest number of offspring was sired by the White Brahman (4 per year per farmerJ.The Tuli and Nguni bulls contributed the least number of offspringof 2 per year per farmer. The mean age at first calving from the progeny of the White Brahman, Black Brahman, Tuli and Nguni were 36 + 0 , 34,5 ± 2.12 , 33.75+ 2.26, 35 ± 1.73 months, respectively. The main challenges affecting the programme were lack of adequate feed, uncontrolled mating and lack of functional fences. The withdrawal of support funds on the breeding programme resulted in collapse of the restocking program and lack of improvement of water points. It was concluded that improved indigenous cattle genetic resources can survive, reproduce under low input communal systems. Therefore, community based breeding schemes are a viable and sustainable option in improving beef production in the countr
Finite element method with quasi-linearization for solving Bratu's problem
No full textThis work presented here is the solution of one-dimensional Bratu’s problem. The major aim of
this research is to master the techniques used to solve the Bratu problem. The nonlinear Bratu’s
problem is first linearised using the quasi-linearization method and then solved by the finite element
method using
1. piecewise linear Lagrange polynomials as basis functions
2. piecewise quadratic Lagrange polynomials as basis functions and
3. hierarchical basis functions.
Unlike other basis functions like the trigonometric functions, the three basis functions used in
this research have an advantage that they have small local support, that is, they are only non-
zero on a small portion of the given domain. A comparison of the exact solution and the finite
element solutions using Matlab plots and tabulated results is made. The finite element solutions
are validated using both Matlab’s bvp4c and the Chebyshev spectral collocation method
Corruption as discourse of dis-enfrenchisement
No full textThis paper looks at corruption as a diversionary, amorphous and neo-colonial idea used by the West to denigrate African leaders and their achievements after uhuru. "Diversionary" because the term is used as a decoy to mislead African peoples and their leaders. Instead of striving for material democracy and well-being, the Africans are set on an anti-corruption crusade, pursuing mirages of transparency, accountability, good
democratic governance as defined for all by the same West. "Good and free" Africans are expected to be seen and heard chasing or challenging their leaders into joining the anti-corruption crusade. The term corruption became fashionable with the decolonization of Africa in the 1960s and thus became synonymous with postindependence African leaders and governments. The term is amorphous in that it has no definite meaning and has different meanings to different people