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Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter

THE Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) on Wednesday handed over a consignment of rice and sugar beans to First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa’s Angel of Hope Foundation in support of her efforts to transform the lives of underprivileged groups through her charity work.

So passionate is Dr Mnangagwa about improving the welfare of ordinary Zimbabweans that she personally mobilises resources for their benefit, with corporates also coming in to assist.

She personally distributes the goods to ensure they reach the intended beneficiaries.

With the overall mandate of improving the quality of life for the vulnerable and marginalised groups, the Angel of Hope Foundation cushions the elderly, child-headed families, persons with disabilities, widows, teenage mothers, and children who formerly lived and worked on the streets, among other groups.

Handing over the gift, Commissioner Felistus Ndawi praised Dr Mnangagwa for gracing the donation towards the achievement of her Foundation’s mission to offer bright dreams to hopeless and vulnerable members of the society.

Comm Ndawi said the CTC is a statutory body established under the Competition Act to implement and enforce Zimbabwe’s Competition Policy and Law, as well as to execute the country’s trade tariff policy.

“Your Excellency, globally the competition family commemorates the World Competition Day every 5th of December, the day when the United Nations Conference on Restrictive Business Practices approved the United Nations Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices in 1980,” she said.

“This year’s celebrations were thus held under the theme, ‘Competition policy for mitigating climate change.”

Comm Ndawi said Competition Policy and Law can fight against climate change in that as companies compete for customers, they are forced to invent new products and come up with new environmentally friendly products.

Without competition, she said, the motivation to create new products is eroded as companies are guaranteed their share of the market.

“Competition Policy and Law is one of the key drivers of environmental protection as it improves sustainable production of quality products, increasing choice of more environmentally friendly products and use of green inventions. Climate change is indeed threatening our existence on mother earth and developing countries are bearing the brunt of its impact.

“The Commission, as a competition enforcer, will increasingly attach more weight to environmental objectives when balancing the anti-competitive effects and the environmental benefits of mergers, cooperation agreements and any market conduct,” she said.

Corporate social responsibility, Comm Ndawi said, was one of the CTC’s key fundamental objectives and as a Commission they had resolved that whenever financial resources permit, they set aside a portion that goes towards CSR regardless of value.

“Accordingly, as part of our 2022 CSR and as enshrined in our five-year strategic plan (2021-2025), the commission is happy to contribute to this noble philanthropic work that changes lives of our vulnerable people being undertaken by Angel of Hope Foundation.

“As the Angel of Hope Foundation, you have shaped so many lives with your acts of charity which are widely known and greatly appreciated in Zimbabwe.

“In this regard, we sincerely appreciate this honour bestowed upon us to partner the foundation in providing for the needy, particularly during this festive season,” she said.

In her acceptance speech, Dr Mnangagwa assured the CTC that the donation would reach the intended beneficiaries.

“I want to assure you that this donation will reach the intended beneficiaries and I will personally hand over the goods. The consignment that you have brought will feed quite a lot of people. Through my Foundation, I also run a school feeding programme, hence this donation will go a long way in helping these children.

“I have seen some children missing school because of hunger. If he or she goes there, the attention in class is limited and at the end of the day there is no success.

“We are helping each other with the Government that is also running a similar programme so that we keep these children in school. Since they knew that there was food, the attendance has improved,” she said.

Dr Mnangagwa said a helping hand unlocks many blessings and encouraged people to give.

“It’s humane to think of other people and I want to thank you heartily for this,” she said.

She gave a brief background of her foundation.

“I started Angel of Hope Foundation in 2018 with the vision of helping marginalised communities. I travel to rural areas to see the kind of lives our people are living in rural areas compared to those in urban areas.

“What I do is driven by what I would have seen in both urban and rural areas. As the health ambassador, I also bring awareness and advocacy on the health of our people. I travel to many areas with my foundation’s mobile clinic offering health services.

“I also promote education for all the people in the country regardless of age. This saw my foundation partnering with the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU),” she said.

Amai Mnangagwa, who has a passion for the empowerment of communities, said she ensured people learnt important life skills to sustain themselves and their families, and these needed a background of education.

“I work with Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) where we have short courses for our people.

“I am also into culture where I am trying to bring back knowledge of our tradition to our young ones, including us the older people. I am going everywhere talking about Ubuntu/hunhu and the targeted group mostly is the young ones. Look at what is happening to our children today, it needs supervision and lessons for them. We are also sensitising the parents and this benefits the whole nation,” she said.