Vincent Tsvangirai takes oath before Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda in Harare.
State Media|Two new members of the National Assembly were yesterday sworn in following their victories in by-elections held last month.
The two are Zanu-PF’s Hlalani Mguni, who won the Mangwe seat that fell vacant following the death of her husband Obedingwa Mguni and Vincent Tsvangirai who won the Glen View South by-election, replacing his late sister, Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java.
The new MPs took their oaths before Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda in terms of Section 128 (1) of the Constitution.
Obedingwa Mguni, who was Zanu-PF’s deputy chief whip, died from diabetes complications, while Mrs Tsvangirai-Java succumbed to injuries sustained in a road accident in May.
Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda yesterday notified the House that Zanu-PF selected Dingumuzi Phuti, the representative of Bulilima West to replace the late Mguni as the party’s Deputy Chief Whip.
Meanwhile, Government has reviewed the Constituency Development Fund allocated to MPs for developmental projects in their constituencies.
“Following the Budget Review Statement and Supplementary Budget presented by Honourable Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube, I wish to inform honourable members that the CDF for 2019 has been reviewed upwards from $80 000 to $175 228,” said Adv Mudenda.
He urged parliamentarians to present their project proposals for funding.
Auxillia Mnangagwa greets Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr Aditi Hazra (right) while Harvard Director of Global Health Catalyst at Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Centre Professor Wil Ngwa (centre) looks on in New York, United States, on Saturday.
Paul Nyathi|Renowned Harvard University is facing immense pressure to rescind a title of “honorary ambassador” given to Auxillia Mnangagwa, the wife of Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, for “exemplary work” in the field of public health.
In a release last week, the Global Health Catalyst programme, which fights cancer and other diseases through outreach, collaboration and high-profile international initiatives, announced it was honouring the Zimbabwean first lady for her work in increasing access to cancer prevention and control and would organise a major conference in the former British colony.
Zimbabwe’s first lady founded a charity last year dedicated to public health work. Its website says it is “a foundation built of the strong African traditional and Christian values of love and unity.”
Some media outlets in Zimbabwe reported the award would lead to investment in Zimbabwe’s health sector and had been prompted by cancer-screening programmes that had benefited thousands of women.
However the university’s decision has surprised some observers.
In addition to a poor human rights record and allegations of electoral malpractice, Zimbabwe’s public health service is suffering an acute lack of investment while an economic crisis, blamed by many analysts on the policies of the ruling Zanu-PF party, has led to acute medicine shortages.
Members of the political elite are routinely treated overseas.
In a letter addressed to the director of global health catalyst at Harvard medical school, Prof Wilfred Ngwa and more than a dozen former US diplomats, including several former ambassadors to Zimbabwe, have expressed their “profound concern over [the] decision to honour the first lady of Zimbabwe”.
They wrote: “To be blunt, your well-intentioned work in these areas are tainted by the affiliation with Ms Mnangagwa and her direct personal connection to an increasingly corrupt and abusive administration in which tolerance for dissent is non-existent and democratic rights are violently denied.
“In light of the concerning situation in Zimbabwe, we implore your institution to … consider rescinding this honour to first lady Mnangagwa … Too often, repressive regimes will use prestigious international institutions, like Harvard University, to launder their oppressive practices and reputations.”
Mnangagwa took power in 2017 when the late veteran ruler Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a military takeover in November 2017. He promised to bring foreign investment to avert a deepening economic crisis, overhaul government and rehabilitate the former British colony’s international image.
Zimbabwe is crippled by massive debts incurred during Mugabe’s rule and needs a multibillion-dollar bailout to prevent economic collapse. However, the continuing repression and a lack of tangible political reform means there is little chance of international institutions offering major aid packages.
THE revolutionary party, Zanu-PF, has warned South African opposition Economic Freedom Fighters leader Mr Julius Malema to stop interfering in Zimbabwe’s internal politics.
Zanu-PF secretary for Information and Publicity Simon Khaya Moyo said Zanu-PF was disturbed by Mr Malema’s provocation.
“Whilst it is everyone’s democratic right to mourn and pay respect on the sad note of the founding father former President Robert Mugabe, including the restless and careless South African opposition party EEF leader Julius Malema, it is an abomination and unAfrican to use such a platform to denigrate virtues which define Ubuntu,” said Khaya Moyo.
In the African culture, said Khaya Moyo, it was taboo for anyone, despite their station in life, to use the occasion of a funeral to demean fellow African brothers and sisters.
“In that regard, the party finds it reprehensible for Mr Julius Malema to use such s solemn occasion to spew political propaganda and score cheap political mileage,” he said.
Khaya Moyo said Mr Malema needed to be reminded that his illusion to equate youthful exuberance and verbosity for wisdom and grounded intellectuality exposes him for a political novice which he is.State media
The appropriate exchange rate between the Zimbabwean dollar and the United States dollar should hover around US$1:ZWL$5,6 based on “founded quantitative estimates”, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube, has said.
While acknowledging the prevailing speculation and attendant exchange rate distortions in the market, Minister Ncube, in a public notice on exchange rate determination, suggested that the devaluation of the local currency was being exaggerated by unscrupulous elements.
As a result, this has seen exchange rate level spike above US$1: ZWL$20 within a few days last week, compared to a stable ratio of between 1:8.5 to 1:10 on the interbank market, since the re-introduction of the Zimbabwean dollar in June this year.
The Treasury boss said a lower exchange rate was appropriate for Zimbabwe but noted several limitations exist, both conceptual and concerning the availability of data when trying to establish the appropriate exchange rate level for the country.State media
Two new members of the National Assembly were yesterday sworn in following their victories in by-elections held last month.
The two are Zanu-PF’s Hlalani Mguni, who won the Mangwe seat that fell vacant following the death of her husband Obedingwa Mguni and Vincent Tsvangirai who won the Glen View South by-election, replacing his late sister, Vimbai Tsvangirai-Java.
The new MPs took their oaths before Clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda in terms of Section 128 (1) of the Constitution.
Obedingwa Mguni, who was Zanu-PF’s deputy chief whip, died from diabetes complications, while Mrs Tsvangirai-Java succumbed to injuries sustained in a road accident in May.State media
Farai Dziva|SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo has explained his outburst towards referee Khulekani Thusi during his side’s 3-1 loss to Polokwane City on Saturday.
Tembo approached the referee at the end of the first half and launched a verbal attack on the match official.
According to the gaffer, he wanted to talk about Onismor Bhasera’s red card which he believed was a bad call. The defender was adjudged to have made a crude challenge on Sibusiso Hlubi.
“When we play we just want to play football, we are not a team that complains about match officials but what is important is for the referees to be a little bit consistent,” Tembo told The Citizen newspaper.
“The reason I went to him was because I wanted to speak to him about the red card and tell him that he had made a mistake.
“It was a dubious red card where it should have been the other way around and it has been happening in other games where the red card could have gone the other side. Sometimes you have to take it and move one.
He is the one who was kicked. He got to the ball and got the injury,” he added.
The failure by ED to address the economic meltdown of Zimbabwe has left the life of a student miserable and horrendous. There is no doubt that the economic teething troubles are negatively impacting our studies.
We are facing high accommodation costs while our parents’ salaries remain meager and useless against the hyperinflation in the country. It is clear that the overall pass rate is going to drop due to power cuts which also make it impossible to access information on the internet.
In addition, accessibility to the internet is now hard due to the ever increasing costs of data and Wi-Fi.
Some students stay far from campus and commuting is now difficult due to high transport costs following fuel hikes. The few zupco buses available in a few colleges cannot meet the number of students to be ferried. Most students can no longer afford descend meals at campuses.
Due to all these hardships, education which is supposed to be a right and the government’s responsibility for it to be accessible is now difficult to acquire! In short, Education in Zimbabwe is now meant for the elite. The education itself has become meaningless as the streets of Zimbabwe are flooded with jobless graduates engaging in all sorts of shameless activities !!!
We also note with concern the ban of NUST demonstration which left some student leaders illegally arrested. The arrested comrades include Joseph Nyamayaro who is in the src board, Tanaka Charamba, Ruramai Sithole, Peace Takudzwa, Daniel Miracle and many more. NUST students had planned their demonstration following strike by lecturers who are complaining about poor salaries and poor working conditions.
Education and peaceful demonstrations are rights and it is sad that the two are being extremely violated by the government itself.
The ban of NUST demonstration and the arrest of students as well as abductions of members of the opposition and civic societies is a flawless indication that ED has no solutions to the economic decay in the country.
As students, our message to ED is clear. We are not going to bear this anymore. ED should address the illegitimate crisis in the country which he is absolutely not willing to do. It’s time to take the legal action against ED or else we fold our hands watching our future being thrown into a cesspool.
We are very much aware that the government is trying to instill fear in its citizens through a series of abductions of those who raise their genuine concerns for the government to address. However, that is not going to deter us from demanding the government to address the economic issues affecting students.
We are demanding that the president should solve the issue of legitimacy crisis in Zimbabwe. As students, our message to ED is clear!!! We are giving him an ultimatum and we are already awake from our slumber.
The MDC Youth Assembly is riled, disgusted and nauseated by continued abuse of the public sphere by the illegitimate Emmerson Mnangagwa’s military regime to pursue its parochial agendas hiding under the public interest smokescreen.
We note with regret and disdain the recent manoeuvres by the unrepentant and unreformed Mnangagwa administration’s continued abuse of public funded media institutions.
It is overtly clear that Mnangagwa’s so called ‘New Dispensation’ has learnt everything and forgot nothing from his predecessor’s regime that literally turned a whole public broadcaster into a narrow caster for ZANU PF and Mugabe family propaganda.
ZBC listeners and viewers are currently undergoing a serious punishment in form of a mental psyching from an institution whose funding is derived from public funds in which they are forced to listen and buy in to a sanctions mantra that does not resonate with the genuine cause of their suffering.
Yes, ZBC listeners and viewers know very well that the cause of the country’s problems is an illegitimate anti people military regime that went on a rampage killing innocent and defenseless citizens on 01 August 2018 and not some travel embargo on a few elite yet they are forced to bear the brunt of listening to an anti-sanctions sermon on a supposedly public broadcaster that owes its existence to their pockets.
It is lamentable that to ZBC public interest has since been redefined to mean Mnangagwa and military cabal’s selfish interests!
We know very well that all this spirited overtures by Mnangagwa’s administration to have targeted embargoes lifted is not going to help ordinary citizens but will aid a few corrupt cabal who have off shore accounts to enjoy the loot in luxurious Western destinations.
As an Assembly, we are very clear that the biggest sanctions in our land is a political party that has left a trail of plunder and destruction and that party is ZANU PF!
The biggest sanctions in our land is a political grouping that abduct political opponents and that grouping is fronted by Emmerson Mnangagwa!
Yes, no sanction is bigger than a political establishment that ensures that 40 years after independence, we remain with ZBC TV as a solitary television broadcaster on the land!
The MDC leadership led by the Secretary General Hon. Chalton Hwende and Local Government Secretary, Eng. Elias Mudzuri today held a crisis meeting with the acting Mayor of Harare and a team of his councilors to appreciate the water crisis in the capital city as well as the decision to shut down water supplies to residents.
The party was satisfied with the explanation given by the leadership of council that the city had run out of chemicals and could not afford to pump dirty water to the residents without risking a disease outbreak. The acting mayor and councilors also assured the party that they had run around and secured some reprieve for the residents when they accessed some chemicals which are already on site to ensure that water supplies resume immediately, at least for a few days while a permanent solution is being worked out.
Currently, water treatment has begun at the city’s water works and the precious liquid is expected to start trickling into residents’ homes by end of day today.
It emerged from the meeting that central government is at the centre of the current water crisis bedeviling the capital city. Government is the biggest debtor to the Harare city council while there has been no movement in the past 20 years in terms of the construction of the Kunzwi dam, which is expected to provide a permanent solution to Harare’s dire water situation. The Kunzwi dam project has been Zanu PF’s campaign issue in every election since 1995 but to date, nothing has been done.
It also emerged that government has centralized the procurement of water chemicals and every day, council awaits to get the trinkets in terms of water chemicals as and when the scarce foreign currency becomes available at the central bank.
The other challenge is that Harare City Council’s 2019 budget was pegged in US dollars and the government‘s decision to ban the use of hard currency has distorted the budgeted pricing system. The move also ensured that the little funds now available in RTGS to council can hardly sustain critical operations such as water supplies, among other key obligations of council.
So dire is the situation in Harare that council collects$15 million RTGS every month against a projected monthly expenditure of $45 million for water treatment chemicals alone. The $15 million RTGS is inadequate for water treatment chemicals, let alone other key obligations of council.
The MDC is happy that the Harare City council is working hard under the circumstances to ensure that residents get water, including ensuring that water bowsers are provided in the communities and that the boreholes in the various wards of the city are working so that at any given moment, there is constant water supply to the residents.
The MDC hopes that government will play its part in alleviating the crisis bedeviling the capital city by clearing its huge debt owed to council as well as providing a permanent water solution by ensuring that the Kunzwi water project becomes more than an election message that is bandied about ahead of every election.
Sanctions are a blunt instrument affecting the poor and the vulnerable. We have seen arguments saying sanctions are not affecting Zimbabwe's economy and we have said, then remove them. Why keep them if they are not effective? Everybody knows that this is never about travel bans pic.twitter.com/UIzLuNS7y5
Sanctions are a blunt instrument affecting the poor and the vulnerable. We have seen arguments saying sanctions are not affecting Zimbabwe's economy and we have said, then remove them. Why keep them if they are not effective? Everybody knows that this is never about travel bans pic.twitter.com/UIzLuNS7y5
Dear Editor-While it is false that targeted sanctions affect the people of Zimbabwe, our position as a party, because of our leniency and statesmanship, is that sanctions, targeted or not, must go but after Zanu PF is GONE.
Farai Dziva|Zanu PF youth league official Tendai Chirawu has described Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi as a liability to government and the nation.
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country.
It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions …
The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name,” charged Chirau.
Mutodi responded :For Tendai Chirau, ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
Farai Dziva|Zanu PF youth league official Tendai Chirawu has described Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi as a liability to government and the nation.
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country.
It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions …
The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name,” charged Chirau.
Mutodi responded :For Tendai Chirau, ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
By A Correspondent- A serial fraudster has been arrested in Bulawayo for allegedly masquerading as a top Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) officer and a close security aide to President Emmerson Mnangagwa before duping Ingwebu Breweries of 375 litres of fuel and $1 200.
Henessy Dube (40) of Entumbane suburb allegedly met Ingwebu Breweries managing director Mr Dumisani Mhlanga and produced a fake CIO identity card before he identified himself as a director of operations in the CIO.
He then allegedly offered to assist the company to recover money from its debtors purportedly using his influence by virtue of being in the President’s Office.
Dube yesterday appeared before Bulawayo magistrate, Mrs Ulukile Mlea-Ndlovu, facing charges of fraud, impersonating a public officer and making a false statement to deceive a registration officer in violation of Section 10 (1) (b) of the National Registration Act.
He was remanded in custody to October 4.
Dube, who fell ill soon after his arrest, is under police guard at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH).
Prosecuting, Mr Nkathazo Dlodlo said sometime at the beginning of May this year during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, Dube hatched a plan and went to Ingwebu Breweries head offices in Bulawayo intending to see management.
During that time, Ingwebu Breweries was facing operational challenges, some of which emanated from a failure by its debtors to honour their commitments.
“The accused person approached the company’s managing director Dumisani Mhlanga and introduced himself as the director of operations at the CIO based in Harare. He told Mhlanga that he was in Bulawayo as part of a team of President Mnangagwa’s close security aides during the ZITF period,” Mr Dlodlo said.
He said Dube produced a fake CIO identity card bearing the names Majaha Julian Dube.
“The accused person indicated to the Ingwebu Breweries managing director that he had picked information pertaining to the ill-treatment of workers and war veterans by management including the impending retrenchment of workers. He told the managing director that the President was not amused and due to his misrepresentation, Mr Mhlanga was convinced and he briefed Dube on the goings on at the company with the accused person promising to render assistance,” said Mr Dlodlo.
He said a few days later, Dube returned to Ingwebu Breweries and offered to use his authority to pressurise the company’s debtors, which included companies contracted on beerhall franchise, to pay their debts and the management agreed.
Some debtors reportedly paid up after Dube’s intervention.
Mr Dlodlo said Dube further pressurised management at Ingwebu Breweries to employ his friends under the guise that they were students on attachment from the CIO.
Their contracts were signed by management and they were given tasks to spy within the company’s various departments.
It was later established that the accused person was not employed by the CIO and due to his misrepresentation, Dube benefited in the form of 375 litres of fuel allocation and $1 200 among other undisclosed benefits.
It also emerged in court that on December 7, 2012, Dube acquired a national identity card under the names Henessy Dube NR 08-682325-J-53 bearing his portrait. On June 3, 2017, Dube allegedly took another identity card NR 08-719040-R-53 with his picture but under the names Majaha Julian Dube.
“Checks with Registrar-General’s Office showed that the names Majaha Julian Dube and all the particulars including the portrait belonged to his brother who is now based in South Africa and suspected to have acquired citizenship of that country,” said Mr Dlodlo.
He said armed with his brother’s identity card and his academic certificates, Dube applied for a teaching post in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. He was subsequently employed as a teacher and deployed in Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North under EC Number 5710690W.
He however, unceremoniously breached the contract and absconded. The court was told that Dube has a previous conviction after masquerading as a doctor for six months at Mpilo Central Hospital.
By A Correspondent- An ugly fist fight broke out during service inside St Agnes Anglican Church in Mutare on Sunday, pitting Masvingo Provincial Development Co-ordinator Mr Fungai Mbetsa, on one side and Mr Tinotenda Magada on the other.
St Agnes Anglican Church for a while has been a hotbed of factional fights and on Sunday a normal praise and worship session came to a halt as members from feuding factions clashed.
Video scenes typical of a nightclub brawl have since gone viral on social media depicting chaos that rocked the church service on Sunday with members insulting, pushing and shoving each other.
Mr Mbetsa concurred that the church session did not come to a logical conclusion because of “political issues in the Anglican church”.
“I only attended a church service as usual. The church session did not end well because of many reasons which I cannot reiterate. I did not see any problem with me attending the service because I was born an Anglican and will remain one. These political issues in the Anglican Church started long back and we are even trying to end them, which is however becoming so difficult for us,” he said.
A congregate, who requested anonymity fearing victimisation, said the violence occurred when Mr Tinotenda Magada tried to block Mr Mbetsa from putting an offering and this angered the later to the extent that he attacked Mr Magada.
“This ignited a fight between the two as fists were exchanged in the church without any of them respecting the place of worship. It is now a policy in Anglican that there should be one service under two different reverends and two different offering bowls.
Mr Magada, who was also among the congregants, could not give a comment when he was contacted but referred this publication to his lawyer who was not reachable at the time of going to print.
By A Correspondent- South African opposition leader, Julius Malema, on Monday, castigated Zimbabwean politicians he accused of trying to ride behind the late former President Robert Mugabe’s legacy while they tormented him to the last day.
Though Malema did not mention names, his utterances have been interpreted as having been directed at his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Malema was speaking to journalists at the Mugabe family Blue Roof Mansion in Borrowdale, Harare after a long meeting with Mugabe’s widow, Grace Mugabe and close relatives.
Said Malema:
We are here to tell her (former First Lady Grace Mugabe) in person that we are very proud of her and she serves as an inspiration to a lot of us and that she must protect ex-President Mugabe’s legacy with everything against any form of opportunism which will want to ride behind the legacy of President Mugabe even when they tormented him to the last day.
The firebrand Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) spoke against the military coup that ousted Mugabe from power in November 2017.
He said:
“These types of interventions, if they are allowed, they may become an unacceptable phenomenon for the region of Sadc. We shouldn’t allow a situation where the military interferes with political affairs.
He also lambasted the regional bodies, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU).
He said:
“There is no such thing (as) Sadc, there is no such thing. AU, there is no such thing. It’s a group of old people who protect each other. They don’t protect the interests of their people. It’s a club. It’s a gentlemen’s club.
They don’t care, they don’t call each other out. They are unable to say ‘you are wrong here, you are wrong there, therefore, this is how we are able to fix it.”
The MDC is in solidarity with Dr Magombeyi and his family who are going through severe persecution in the hands of the Zanu PF regime and its functionaries.
The contemptuous behavior by the police to defy the order of the High Court is a clear indicator that there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe and human rights are continuously violated.
The MDC is disgusted by the continued violations of the Rule of Law by the so called new dispensation regime of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Justice Happias Zhou handed down a Ruling allowing the young doctor to go to South Africa to access specialist treatment in South Africa but there are disturbing reports that the police are frustrating the Ruling in typical mafia style.
We thought that the days of flagrant defiance of Court Orders had died with the overthrow of Robert Mugabe but alas this Regime has no shame and the pretence that it’s a new dispensation has all but vanished with the perpetuation of the strong arm tactics reminiscent of the dark old days.
The hospitalization of the Doctor and his observation by both government and private doctors amidst reports that he was tortured clearly shows the desirability of him getting access to the best treatment.
After all our health institutions have been destroyed to the extent that all the top leaders seek treatment abroad at the slightest hint of the need for medical care.
It is therefore in this context that while we hold no brief for anyone we in the MDC are gravely concerned by this disdain and contempt for court orders and the callousness of this Regime.
Its bad enough that the Matemadandas and Mutodis of this world have been pontificating about fake abductions when there are clear cases of the state’s hand in previous incidents like the Jestina Mukoko case. Now we have a situation where law enforcement agencies are not only defying court orders but also violating rights.
We call upon the State to come to its senses and stop scoring own goals and then embark on the blame game. They must do the decent thing and allow Dr Peter Magombeyi access to the best medical attention and thereafter the truth of what transpired will be revealed.
Innocent Gonese
MDC Secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs
By A Correspondent- A member of the Zimbabwe Republic Police has appeared before the courts for obstructing justice after he reportedly assisted Chinese nationals to escape after they were found in possession of ivory.
Wonder Tawanda Kwaramba, appeared before a Chiredzi Magistrate for allegedly facilitating the escape of seven Chinese nationals who were on bail for the unlawful possession of 20 kg of rhino horns.
The accused is now facing three charges, defeating the course of justice, smuggling (after he illegally imported a Toyota Hilux) and fraud.
The state alleges that detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Victoria Falls were informed by reliable sources that the accused was dining with the Chinese nationals.
The detectives made investigations and realized that the Chinese nationals had not reported at CID Victoria Falls as per their bail conditions and had vacated their premises.
They tracked the Toyota Hilux which the Chinese nationals were using and discovered that Kwaramba had driven it through Gonarezhou checkpoint before heading to Sango border post.
The state also alleges that at Sango border post, Kwaramba assisted the Chinese nationals to cross the border into Mozambique.
Kwaramba was arrested on his way back from Sango border post.
The accused was denied bail and remanded in custody to 4 October.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg
By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has expressed hope of pushing the country’s agenda globally following his meetings with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
Said Mnangagwa who is attending the 74th UN General Assembly Meeting:
“Excellent day yesterday at the UN, including productive meetings with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
Now beginning another busy day as we push for the interests of the Zimbabwean people on the global stage.”
Harare City Council has found contingent supplies of chemicals to resume water production 3 hours from now.
The suppliers of the chemicals have been paid. The other quantities are coming from Bulawayo and are expected to arrive this evening.
Pumping to residents will be progressive from one area to another. Western suburbs will begin to receive water 8 hours from production start while the CBD and Mbare, Highfield/Sunningdale will access water after 12 hours/midnight.
The secured quantities will only last seven days during which period other quantities will be secured. We are currently engaging all stakeholders that include Government to find lasting solutions.
By A Correspondent- A war of words has erupted between Zanu PF youth league official Tendai Chirau and deputy minister of Information Energy Mutodi with the former described Mutodi as a liability to government and the nation.
Said Chirau:
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country.
It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions …
The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name,” charged Chirau.
Mutodi however immediately responded to Chirau and said:
“For Tendai Chirau, ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
By Nomusa Garikai: “On the monetary side, yes, we have introduced one currency. For the first six weeks it remained stable, but then our people are intelligent. We have people who found ways to fight that (stability of the currency) and undermine it, but yesterday (Friday) we also became smarter than them and so we took some action,” boasted President Emerson Mnangagwa.
“We have now arrested the galloping rate which was galloping from about eight, within few days it had gone up 10, and 20, by the time we left it had gone down and I think today it is about 14.”
Every time Mnangagwa has admitted there was a problem he has followed this up with a solution to the problem. In other words he has admitted a problem only as an excuse to offer a solution and thus show the world just how smart he is! If the truth be told, here the truth is the only currency, he is not smart at all.
At the beginning of the year, the Bond Note, the country default local currency, was on par to the US Dollar; today, nine months latter, it is trading at 14:1! Some smart leader, indeed!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the country cursed pariah state status.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt vote rigging and murderous tyrants. As much as President Mnangagwa has tried to put some political distance between his post November 2017 military coup regime with that of the late Robert Mugabe; calling his regime a “new dispensation”, “Second Republic”, etc. The Zanu PF dictatorship has remained untouched or be it under new management.
Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance on corruption” and yet two years since the coup and he has yet to arrest one Marange diamond looter. “Corruption is deeply rooted,” he admitted.
He also promised free, fair and credible elections but, again, failed to deliver. But above all else, by blatantly rigging the elections he confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state.
The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown because for the country has been starved of any meaningful investment for the last two decades. Investors do not do business in a pariah state.
Cure Zimbabwe’s pariah state curse and investors and investment will flood back into the country. And the pariah state cure is for the vote rigging Zanu PF regime to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown will get worse; the 14:1 Z$ to US$ exchange rate will get a lot worse smart Alec’s pride and joy, will get a lot worse; etc.
When President Mnangagwa staged his November 2017 putsch and launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” complete with the multi-coloured trademark scarf; there was not a single grain of doubt in his Sahara desert expense mind that the economic boom that was to follow. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has got a lot worse than it was in 20017; it must be every hard for him to admit this.
By burying his head in the sand and pretending he is smarter than he is; deluding himself that he can still deliver economic recovery and still keep the pariah state; Mnangagwa is digging the nation into deeper and deeper trouble. Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown is not only resulting in currency instability but the very survival of this nation is now at stake.
It is said of the Greek Philosopher, Socrates, that he admitted t being the wisest man in Athens but only because he alone was prepared to admit his own ignorance rather than pretend to know something he did not.
Zimbabwe’s worst curse is to be stuck for 39 years and counting with smart-Alec leaders who will not admit they have failed even in the face of a mountain of evidence of their failures!
By A Correspondent- The ruling ZANU PF party has been angered by the opposition MDC’s calls to the United Nations (UN) to declare President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his party a terrorist organisation for killing civilians during protests.
In a statement on Monday, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo hit back at the MDC, saying the opposition party has declared war on ZANU PF. He said:
The offensive pronouncement by the MDC party as reflected in the so-called independent media, that they intend to submit a petition to the UN during its 74th General Assembly sitting that Mnangagwa and the revolutionary Zanu PF be declared terrorists ‘for the killing of civilians during public protests’ is shameful.
This is a very serious allegation which borders on the declaration of war on Zanu PF and its revered leader.
The security services were found guilty of killing 6 unarmed civilians on 1 August last year by the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission. Though the Commission recommended that those found guilty should be punished, nothing has been done by the authorities.
Again, in January, more than a dozen people were killed after riots broke out across the country following an unprecedented fuel price hike. This was followed by a spate of abductions and torture of doctors, union leaders, comedians and human rights activists.
By A Correspondent- Female students on industrial attachments are reportedly subject to se_xual harassment, the Ministry of Women Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprise Development has noted.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Beijing +25National Validation Workshop Meeting held in the capital yesterday, Deputy Director Human Resources in the Ministry of Youth Sports Arts and Recreation Maureen Dhliwayo said that the current situation is causing the female student to opt for se_xual abuse to benefit money.
“Considering the current situation, things are too expensive for them and when they come to workplaces for attachment, they are being abused to get money.
“Most of these attaches are not being paid and some are getting as little as RTGS100 which ends up having most of them being se_xually harassed but not noticing it,” said Dhliwayo.
She also noted that some of the students were being abused in return for petty favors.
“Some of these students are being abused and se_xually harassed because they are offered lunch by male counterparts.
“When these girls are being harassed, they don’t come forward because they think it’s correct, which is not correct,” she said.
Dhliwayo added that female students on attachment have a mentality that they are above 18 and are now adults but they are putting their lives in danger.
“It’s really difficult and challenging but we are not going to stop talking about it.
“We will keep on encouraging workshops to stop se_xual harassment and the issue of gender based violence,” she said.
She added that they will start working with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprise Development to stop gender violence and se_xual harassment among students on industrial attachment.
By A Correspondent- A 34-year-old man from Zvishavane landed in hot soup after allegedly impreg_nating a minor related to the First Family.
According to the Newsday, Aleck Nyoni from Chief Masunda’s area recently appeared before the courts for impreg_nating a 13-year-old Grade 7 pupil (name withheld to protect her identity).
Nyoni pleaded guilty when he appeared before presiding Magistrate Achy Wochiunga.
In mitigation, the accused told the court that he had not been aware that the complainant was a juvenile as she had features of an adult woman.
He sensationally told the court that he was willing to take the child as his wife.
”The girl’s appearance deceived men as he is all grown up,” said Nyoni.
The court heard that on a date unknown sometime last year, Nyoni met the Juvenile at a river, proposed love and she consented. Over a short space of time, their relationship escalated and reportedly had se_xual interc0urse several times.
The matter only came to light in July after the grandmother discovered that the minor was preg_nant, leading to a report being lodged with the Zvishavane police.
The MDC leadership led by the Secretary General Hon. Chalton Hwende and Local Government Secretary, Engineer Elias Mudzuri today held a crisis meeting with the acting Mayor of Harare and a team of his councilors to appreciate the water crisis in the capital city as well as the decision to shut down water supplies to residents.
The party was satisfied with the explanation given by the leadership of council that the city had run out of chemicals and could not afford to pump dirty water to the residents without risking a disease outbreak.
The acting mayor and councilors also assured the party that they had run around and secured some reprieve for the residents when they accessed some chemicals which are already on site to ensure that water supplies resume immediately, at least for a few days while a permanent solution is being worked out.
Currently, water treatment has begun at the city’s water works and the precious liquid is expected to start trickling into residents’ homes by end of day today.
It emerged from the meeting that central government is at the centre of the current water crisis bedeviling the capital city. Government is the biggest debtor to the Harare city council while there has been no movement in the past 20 years in terms of the construction of the Kunzwi dam, which is expected to provide a permanent solution to Harare’s dire water situation.
The Kunzwi dam project has been Zanu PF’s campaign issue in every election since 1995 but to date, nothing has been done. It also emerged that government has centralized the procurement of water chemicals and every day, council awaits to get the trinkets in terms of water chemicals as and when the scarce foreign currency becomes available at the central bank.
The other challenge is that Harare City Council’s 2019 budget was pegged in US dollars and the government‘s decision to ban the use of hard currency has distorted the budgeted pricing system. The move also ensured that the little funds now available in RTGS to council can hardly sustain critical operations such as water supplies, among other key obligations of council.
So dire is the situation in Harare that council collects$15 million RTGS every month against a projected monthly expenditure of $45 million for water treatment chemicals alone. The $15 million RTGS is inadequate for water treatment chemicals, let alone other key obligations of council.
The MDC is happy that the Harare City council is working hard under the circumstances to ensure that residents get water, including ensuring that water bowsers are provided in the communities and that the boreholes in the various wards of the city are working so that at any given moment, here is constant water supply to the residents.
The MDC hopes that government will play its part in alleviating the crisis bedeviling the capital city by clearing its huge debt owed to council as well as providing a permanent water solution by ensuring that the Kunzwi water project becomes more than an election message that is bandied about ahead of every election.
Luke Tamborinyoka Deputy National SpokespersonMovement For Democratic Change
By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has suspended at least 36 officers implicated in lifestyle audits while processes are underway at the High Court to forfeit ill-gotten wealth.
Zimra Commissioner General Mrs Faith Mazani said the taxman was working with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) who are handling cases where internal investigations would have pointed to corruption.
Com Gen Mazani said Zimra was not only targeting its staff but the investigations also cover some taxpayers whose incomes will be questionable.
“Between January and June this year, a total of 36 officers were suspended pending investigation following lifestyle audits.
“Where criminality is detected, we hand over the cases to the police or other investigating arms,” she said.
“Already processes are underway to recover ill-gotten wealth,” she said.
Com Gen Mazani said lifestyle audits carried out in terms of the Zimra code of conduct revealed unjustified wealth.
“We have a code of conduct which is applicable to our staff. One of the things that we did was to carry out lifestyle audits.
“Where we feel they have assets beyond the income that we are aware of, we then ask them to explain the source of the income.
“That is when we found out quite a number of cases where our officers are building houses, going on holidays and buying cars beyond their expected lifestyles,” he said.
Com Gen Mazani said the asset forfeiture which was being done in terms of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act would not spare corrupt tax-payers.
“We are doing the same thing with taxpayers. When we approach taxpayers, we look at their assets and we ask them to explain how they acquired them and the sources of their income.
“We discovered that people were getting lots of income without declaring it,” she said.
Meanwhile, Zimra, through the National Prosecuting Authority’s Assets Forfeiture Unit, has since applied to forfeit mansions purchased by its former accounting officer Tapuwa Evans Chidemo.
Chidemo reportedly siphoned US$1 239 083 from the taxman’s bank account and splashed it on property.
He risks losing two mansions in Glen Lorne, Harare, a flat in Harare city centre and a top-of-the-range vehicle.
The State wants to forfeit the following properties:
Another ex-Zimra officer, Kennedy Nyatoti is in trouble after it emerged that his lifestyle did not match his earnings as a revenue officer.
NPA has since approached the High Court seeking to have his suspected unlawfully acquired assets and wealth forfeited to the State.
It is alleged that Nyatoti was employed by Zimra for only two years but he managed to buy an expensive stand in the upmarket Mabvazuva suburb and managed to build a world class house, all worth over US$150 000, yet his total earnings for the period he served as a revenue officer is around US$44 000.
Nyatoti is also said to have bought vehicles for his wife, Tatenda Chisadza who was cited as the Second Respondent in the court application, his sister, Portia Nyatoti and his mother using State funds.
The State is also working on another application to forfeit suspected ill-gotten assets worth $762 000 from a couple formerly employed by Zimra.
The couple — Tapfumaneyi Zunguza and his wife Cathrine Laji — were employed by Zimra as revenue supervisor and revenue officer, respectively.
The State questioned the couple’s acquisition of residential stands number 3807 and 3808 in Mainway Meadows, Waterfalls, Harare in 2009.
During the same year, they bought another stand in Helensvale measuring 2 200m2 and construction commenced in 2011 and was completed in 2013.
They also bought a Mazda BT50 twin cab for $40 000, but as per requirement with their employer, they were supposed to declare the assets from time to time.
According to NPA, during the time which the couple acquired the property, their lawful income amounted to $60 053,13 collectively.
Doctors’ union leader Peter Magombeyi was assaulted while in his hospital bed and in the corridor by a police officer only identified as Constable S. Zvinogona as tried to make his way out of the hospital on Tuesday afternoon following a court order clearing him to go.
Surprisingly the police officer was not known by any of the 16 officers who were at the scene.
The mysterious figure aggravated an injury on Magombeyi’s arm that was hurt during his alleged abduction, landed blows to his back and could have fractured his neck according to lawyers.
His father, Kingstone Magombeyi confirmed this.
“I saw it. I was there. It happened when we were making efforts to have him discharged.
“The person refused to identify himself. He is not the one who I was given by the police and what troubled me was who this was since I also saw the message he received on August 28 saying he will be taken away by a whirlwind,” said Magombeyi.
Added Magombeyi’s father: “I am more worried about this person who has refused to have my son go for further treatment. Peter is just representing other workers.”
According to Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA), Magombeyi’s liver is worsening because of suspected poisoning by his captors.
“Now he is under hospital arrest at Avenues Clinic, missed his flight whilst his LFTs continue to deteriorate from the suspected poison from perpetrators. He needs your assistance,” the ZHDA said in a statement late Tuesday.
Reuters|Trump’s fiery assault on multilateralism and diversity in favor of nationalism in front of the UN General Assembly was still shocking to hear from a US president even after his years in office.
In the past, US presidents speaking from the green marble dais in the United Nations’ General Assembly Hall have focused on calling for the gathered leaders and diplomats to focus on what brings us together — and how only together can the world move forward.
And then there’s President Donald Trump, who in his third appearance at the annual opening of the UN General Assembly was more forceful than ever in declaring the importance of not just nationalism, but a devotion to country and history, in a speech that repeated tropes used by the white nationalist and anti-Semitic portions of his base.
“Like my beloved country, each nation represented in this hall has a cherished history, culture, and heritage that is worth defending and celebrating and which gives us our singular potential and strength,” Trump said. “The free world must embrace its national foundations. It must not attempt to erase them or replace them.”
“The future does not belong to globalists,” he continued, “the future belongs to patriots.”
And in an extended section about the dangers that unchecked immigration represents, he provided a “a message for those open-border activists, who cloak themselves in the rhetoric of social justice. These policies are not just. Your policies are cruel and evil.”
“When you undermine border security, you are undermining human rights and dignity,” he said. “Many of the countries here today are coping with the challenges of uncontrolled migration. Each of you has the absolute right to protect your borders. And so, of course, does our country.”
While the words may have been wrapped up in the patina of a international address, the rhetoric at its core has gained a certain familiarity in recent years. Members of the so-called alt-right and white supremacists in the dark corners of the internet have targeted Jewish public figures as “globalists” with increasing volume since the run-up to the 2016 election. The phrase on its face refers to those who would see international bodies, like the United Nations, able to impose rules on otherwise independent countries or otherwise support a less nationalistic trade system economically. But in linking it with Jews, it takes on a connection to long-standing and hateful stereotypes that Jews are a people without a home who seek to infiltrate and conquer free (read: white and Christian) countries as part of a global plot. Use of the term “cosmopolitan” in the 1930s and 1940s shared a similar history of paranoia and animosity towards Jews.
The shooter in El Paso last month was convinced that immigrants and asylum seekers from Latin America were part of a plot intended to replace white Americans. “I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion,” he wrote (emphasis added) in the manifesto that has been attributed to him.
And at the University of Virginia in 2017, white protestors carrying tiki torches declared that “You will not replace us.” That march and the next day’s protests in Charlottesville — where a woman was killed while protesting against hate — were organized to oppose the removal of Confederate statues from public spaces. In the fate of that relatively recent set of monuments to a group of people willing to fight a war to uphold their right to claim other humans as personal property, they saw their history being erased. But in their chanting, they were repeating a “Blood and Soil” argument that says that only a people who have inherited a land from their fathers can truly be counted as citizens. Trump has been criticized since then for his response to the white supremacist-led violence: “There were some very fine people on both sides.”
While he did cover some of the more traditional issues that the US tends to bring up at the UN — he spoke about trade, upholding the rights of women and LGBTQ people, and North Korea’s nuclear program during his time at the podium — Trump shifted back into his emphasis on nationalism towards the end of his speech, leaning into the criteria of just who gets to be a citizen and who does not.
“The true good of nation can only be pursued but those who love it, by citizens who are rooted in its history, who nourished by its culture, committed to its values, attached to its people, and know that its future is theirs to build or theirs to lose,” Trump said. That phrase, “rooted in its history,” would seem a high bar to reach for immigrants recently arrived from Mexico or Honduras in the eyes of many of the president’s listeners, even as their culture permeates what we think of as the mainstream in the US today.
White House aide Stephen Miller is both the architect of the administration’s harsh immigration policies and one of the primary writers of many of Trump’s international addresses over the years. It was his hand that wrote a speech for delivery at NATO that refused to uphold that organization’s commitment for its members to defend each other. It was his reportedly his voice that came out of Trump’s mouth at the UN last year. And despite the fact that Miller himself is Jewish, a fact often mentioned along with Jared Kushner and Ivanka’s Judaism to defend the president from calls of anti-Semitism, it tracks that this year’s speech would double-down on the themes we heard in 2018, taking on a more intense and sinister edge in the face of what’s happened in the intervening months.
In its totality, the speech gave to the UN was one that pushes the Westphalian system — where states live in perpetual anarchy, doing as they will within their borders, agreeing that sovereignty within those borders is second only to God’s will — to its limits. Gone are the times of the responsibility to protect innocents in the face of mass atrocities and the idea of fundamental human rights that go beyond borders. In its place we have is a slavish devotion to the walls — invisible and physical — that anchor the concepts of statehood and nationality in Trump and his administration’s eyes.
The MDC leadership led by Secretary General Hon. Chalton Hwende and Local Government Secretary, Eng. Elias Mudzuri today held a crisis meeting with the acting Mayor of Harare and a team of his councillors to appreciate the water crisis in the capital city as well as the decision to shut down water supplies to residents.
The party was satisfied with the explanation given by the leadership of the council that the city had run out of chemicals and could not afford to pump dirty water to the residents without risking a disease outbreak.
The acting mayor and councillors also assured the party that they had run around and secured some reprieve for the residents when they accessed some chemicals which are already on site to ensure that water supplies resume immediately, at least for a few days while a permanent solution is being worked out.
Currently, water treatment has begun at the city’s water works and the precious liquid is expected to start trickling into residents’ homes by end of the day today.
It emerged from the meeting that the central government is at the centre of the current water crisis bedevilling the capital city.
Government is the biggest debtor to the Harare city council while there has been no movement in the past 20 years in terms of the construction of the Kunzwi dam, which is expected to provide a permanent solution to Harare’s dire water situation.
The Kunzwi dam project has been Zanu PF’s campaign issue in every election since 1995 but to date, nothing has been done.
It also emerged that government has centralized the procurement of water chemicals and every day, council awaits to get the trinkets in terms of water chemicals as and when the scarce foreign currency becomes available at the central bank.
The other challenge is that Harare City Council’s 2019 budget was pegged in US dollars and the government‘s decision to ban the use of hard currency has distorted the budgeted pricing system.
The move also ensured that the little funds now available in RTGS to council can hardly sustain critical operations such as water supplies, among other key obligations of council.
So dire is the situation in Harare that council collects$15 million RTGS every month against a projected monthly expenditure of $45 million for water treatment chemicals alone.
The $15 million RTGS is inadequate for water treatment chemicals, let alone other key obligations of the council.
The MDC is happy that the Harare City council is working hard under the circumstances to ensure that residents get water, including ensuring that water bowsers are provided in the communities and that the boreholes in the various wards of the city are working so that at any given moment, there is constant water supply to the residents.
The MDC hopes that government will play its part in alleviating the crisis bedevilling the capital city by clearing its huge debt owed to the council as well as providing a permanent water solution by ensuring that the Kunzwi water project becomes more than an election message that is bandied about ahead of every election.
UPDATE- Contrary to denials by @PoliceZimbabwe commissioner Gen Matanga that he does not know what is going on, the ZRP has infact just filed an appeal against the Judge Zhou's order. The @ZLHRLawyers is preparing a response. WATCH LIVE on https://t.co/RMz9FsvEJW
BREAKING: We are right now interviewing ZRP Commissioner Matanga on officers blocking @DMagombeyi from leaving Zimbabwe and leaving the Avenues Clinic. Gen Matanga is promising to return to us shortly. WATCH LIVE ON https://t.co/eY98GsdO0a@ZLHRLawyers
The United Kingdom embassy in Zimbabwe has expressed concern over reports that Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association President Dr Peter Magombeyi was being barred from leaving for South Africa to seek specialised treatment.
Posting on Twitter, the UK Embassy said;
Concerned at reports that Dr Magombeyi is being prevented from leaving hospital. This seems to be against the order from the High Court this afternoon.
UPDATE- Contrary to denials by @PoliceZimbabwe commissioner Gen Matanga that he does not know what is going on, the ZRP has infact just filed an appeal against the Judge Zhou's order. The @ZLHRLawyers is preparing a response. WATCH LIVE on https://t.co/RMz9FsvEJW
BREAKING: We are right now interviewing ZRP Commissioner Matanga on officers blocking @DMagombeyi from leaving Zimbabwe and leaving the Avenues Clinic. Gen Matanga is promising to return to us shortly. WATCH LIVE ON https://t.co/eY98GsdO0a@ZLHRLawyers
Media Statement By The MDC|The MDC is in solidarity with Dr Magombeyi and his family who are going through severe persecution in the hands of the Zanu PF regime and its functionaries. The contemptuous behavior by the police to defy the order of the High Court is a clear indicator that there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe and human rights are continuously violated.
The MDC is disgusted by the continued violations of the Rule of Law by the so called new dispensation regime of Emmerson Mnangagwa. Justice Happias Zhou handed down a Ruling allowing the young doctor to go to South Africa to access specialist treatment in South Africa but there are disturbing reports that the police are frustrating the Ruling in typical mafia style.
We thought that the days of flagrant defiance of Court Orders had died with the overthrow of Robert Mugabe but alas this Regime has no shame and the pretence that it’s a new dispensation has all but vanished with the perpetuation of the strong arm tactics reminiscent of the dark old days.
The hospitalization of the Doctor and his observation by both government and private doctors amidst reports that he was tortured clearly shows the desirability of him getting access to the best treatment. After all our health institutions have been destroyed to the extent that all the top leaders seek treatment abroad at the slightest hint of the need for medical care.
It is therefore in this context that while we hold no brief for anyone we in the MDC are gravely concerned by this disdain and contempt for court orders and the callousness of this Regime.
Its bad enough that the Matemadandas and Mutodis of this world have been pontificating about fake abductions when there are clear cases of the state’s hand in previous incidents like the Jestina Mukoko case. Now we have a situation where law enforcement agencies are not only defying court orders but also violating rights.
We call upon the State to come to its senses and stop scoring own goals and then embark on the blame game. They must do the decent thing and allow Dr Peter Magombeyi access to the best medical attention and thereafter the truth of what transpired will be revealed.
Innocent Gonese MDC Secretary for Justice and Legal Affairs
Grace Mugabe meeting with EFF leader Julius Malema.
Deputy Information Minister, Energy Mutodi has castigated South Africa’s opposition politician, Julius Malema for the remarks he made on his visit to offer condolences to the late former President Robert Mugabe’s widow, Grace on Monday.
Malema attacked the government of Zimbabwe for denying the Mugabe’s family’s wishes as well as trying to ride on the late national hero’s legacy while they are mere arrivalists who had mistreated Mugabe.
Malema’s comments did not go down well with Mutodi:
“Julius Malema was foul-mouthed when he visited Zimbabwe.
It’s unfortunate he tried to impress the former First Lady Grace by denigrating President Mnangagwa.
Grace still looks young and is filthy rich and Malema decided to take a dig on the government in order to impress her…
Julius Malema was foul-mouthed when he visited Zimbabwe. It’s unfortunate he tried to impress the former First Lady Grace by denigrating President Mnangagwa. Grace still looks young & is filthy rich & Malema decided to take a dig on the government in order to impress her..
BREAKING: We are right now interviewing ZRP Commissioner Matanga on officers blocking @DMagombeyi from leaving Zimbabwe and leaving the Avenues Clinic. Gen Matanga is promising to return to us shortly. WATCH LIVE ON https://t.co/eY98GsdO0a@ZLHRLawyers
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has deployed an anti-riot unit at the Avenues Clinic in Harare to block the previously missing Dr Peter Magombeyi from leaving the hospital for South Africa to seek further medical care.
ZimEye has spoken to the family who are in distress over the matter. A LIVE program is shortly commencing.
The deployment is in contempt of High Court judge Justice Happias Zhou who ruled that Dr Magembeyi should be allowed to leave for South Africa.
Below is a short print out showing the of terms the court issued today interdicting ZRP from directly or indirectly preventing Dr Magombeyi from travelling to South Africa. It reads in part:
The respondents or any person or officer acting through them or on their behalf be and are hereby interdicted from preventing directly or indirectly, Peter Gabriel Magombeyi from leaving Zimbabwe for purposes of accessing medical services in the Republic of South Africa.
THE body of a victim of xenophobia attacks of South Africa arrived in Bulawayo yesterday with relatives noting that the man was stabbed, assaulted and burnt first before his body was dumped in a stadium in Johannesburg.
The body of Muziwandile Mhlanga arrived at the family home in Magwegwe were relatives narrated how the man met his death at the hands of the South African mobs.
An aunt to the deceased, Mrs Senzeni Tshuma said her nephew went missing for two days before he was found dead.
“What happened is last Thursday he went out towards end of day and never returned. When his friends he lived with realized that he was not coming back they called his mother to tell them that they couldn’t find him.
“He went missing for two days and on the third day he was found thrown into a security guardroom at a stadium already dead with his phone and shoes stolen,” she said.
She said what pains the most is that he was still young trying to make a living in South Africa.
“My nephew was only 21 years old, he had only been there for seven months and had recently found a job and moved out from his parents’ place to live with his friends,” said Mrs Tshuma.
The body was later taken to Lupane for burial today.
“He is going to be buried tomorrow in Lupane at Shurudunku where we come from as a Mhlanga family,” she said.
“What pains me is that we are all Africans and when they come here we treat them well and accommodate them so what we are asking from them is that when they no longer want Zimbabweans in their country they should depot them rather than showing such kind of brutality.”
Speaking during the service, Zanu-PF Central Committee Member and Bulawayo Senator Molly Mpofu said she was pained to see how Zimbabweans were being treated.
“It is painful to see how our children are being treated in a fellow SADC country where they go in order to find a better living.
“We are pained as the leadership of this country when such things take place so we want to appeal to the President of the country (South Africa) to have pity on our children because as I speak today this is the second body which arrived of a person killed in xenophobic attacks,” she said.
“He should teach his people not to take the law into their own hands,” said Sen Mpofu.
Tragic end … The late Bishop Berry Dambaza and his wife Sithembeni in happier times [ZimLive]
The late Bishop Barry Dambaza’s 90-year-old mother died on Monday a few hours after the clergyman’s apparent suicide in Central Harare.
Bishop Dambaza, who was a senior pastor at the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe (PAOZ) Upper Room Ministries, fell four floors to his death at a car park along Rezende Street in Harare on Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday, PAOZ refuted social media rumours claiming that Bishop Dambaza committed suicide after catching his wife with another man. The church’s spokesperson, Reverend Craig Ndoro said:
Those rumours are entirely and wholly untrue. They are malicious and extremely regrettable.
Yesterday, when this tragic incident happened involving the bishop, his wife was actually at home nursing the bishop’s mother, and we have just received terrible news that she has also died.
In short, Bishop Dambaza’s wife of over 30 years was not cheating on him, and no, he did not find her in a compromising position in the office.
We’re not sure who has been generating these rumours and spreading them. They are very hurtful not just to the family but the church as well.
Bishop Dambaza touched many lives in Zimbabwe and internationally, perhaps that’s why we have rumours flying quicker than facts.
But those that know him, his wife and children know that no such issues are true, and that gives us a bit of comfort.
The late Bishop’s wife, Sithembeni is reported to have been traumatised from losing her both husband and mother-in-law in such a short space of time and had to be admitted to a hospital.
VETERAN journalist and founding editor of the privately owned Daily News, Geoffrey Nyarota faces imprisonment for failing to settle a debt he owes the newspaper’s publishers Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ).
ANZ have filed summons against Nyarota with the High Court seeking to recover a debt which arose back in 2016.
This is after he was ordered to reimburse the publisher US$60 000 he pocketed after selling his website, Zimbabwe Times to the company back in 2019.
Nyarota was hit with the lawsuit after he failed to fulfil the terms of the sale agreement.
The veteran scribe was sued after he won a claim of US$90 000 against the Daily News which had unfairly dismissed him soon after the relaunch of the paper.
In the latest summons, ANZ said Nyarota is yet to settle the judgement debt despite several engagements.
The company is seeking an order to have Nyarota caged for failing to pay.
“You Geoffrey Nyarota of Sunridge Harare are called upon to pay the plaintiff, the sum US$60 000 together with interest on this sum at the prescribed rate from date of demand being June 9, 2010 to the date of payment in full and costs of suit in the sum of US$27 000.
“You are required to pay these sums by virtue of a judgement obtained against you in this honourable court on the 7th day of December 2016 under which you were ordered to pay the above stated sum, you were ordered to pay the costs in that case,” read the summons.
“You are at liberty to approach the plaintiff before the date of the hearing and to make an offer of settlement of the sum due.
“Unless you pay the plaintiff (ANZ) the sums specified or unless the plaintiff accepts an offer of settlement which you have made to it, you will appear before the High Court on the date and time specified. If you do not do so, a writ of personal attachment may be issued against you and you may be committed to prison,” further read part of the summons.
In December 2016, High Court Judge, Ammy Tsanga ordered Nyarota to reimburse ANZ after the website deal went wrong.
She ruled the journalist “a festering grievance relating to the divesture of control of the website from his hands which he had been prepared to countenance in expectation of a role to play.”
Malawi main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and United Democratic Front (UDF) have blasted their government over the proposed one percent withholding tax on non-bank mobile money transactions which us a copied version of Zimbabwe finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s two percent tax nicknamed Mthu%.
MCP MPs want Treasury to reconsider the tax measure
In his 2019/2020 national budget, presented recently to parliament, the Malawian Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha, said the tax will ensure that more people are motivated to contribute towards national building and government has a scope to improve service delivery.
Responding to 2019/20 National Budget Statement, MCP spokesperson on finance, Collins Kajawa, said introducing a 1% withholding tax on all mobile money transactions is not only retrogressive but militates against the country’s final inclusion agenda and punishes the very people government ought to protect and include.
“The justification for this tax measure that we have to a large number of the citizenry to contribute towards national building is misplaced because the biggest way to motivate them is to ensure that we protect them and allow them to graduate from poverty and not overburden an already vulnerable class of our population with further taxes. We propose that this tax measure should be reversed,” said Kajawa.
On his part, UDF spokesperson of finance, Ishmael Nkumba, also voiced concern that the tax will threaten financial inclusion because mobile money operators will raise the cost of transactions.
“The UDF is also against introduction of 1.0℅ withholding tax on mobile money transaction,” he said.
Nkumba said the tax is a burden on the poor the majority of which use mobile money transaction. The party urges government to find other means of revenue generation.
Chairperson of the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament, Sosten Gwengwe, said the tax “defeats the whole idea of financial inclusion”.
“Why should people merely pay for transacting,” Gwengwe said.
Justifying the introduction of the tax, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Development Joseph Mwanamvekha told Parliament that the tax will ensurethat more people are motivated to contribute towards national building through payment of taxes and ensure that government has scope to improve service delivery.
But a law lecturer at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College Sunduzwayo Madise said the tax will disempower the unbanked and underbanked, and said it seems as if the government has changed or abandoned its agenda.
Madise was quoted by local press saying “on one hand, mobile money service was touted by the government as a solution to empower rural people but on the other hand, the system has now decided to plot against the very people it should empower and will take from them the little that they have and fill up the tax purse.”
Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) executive director John Kapito also said the tax is a ‘war against the poor’.
“This is an insult that has come in this budget, which as consumers, we feel it is targeted at punishing the most vulnerable groups who are mostly in rural areas doing small businesses,” he said.
The latest figures from the Reserve Bank of Malawi shows that as of June 2019, the total number of registered mobile money subscribers was 7 million, with only 37.4% of subscribers using the service during the second quarter of this year.
The report also show that there are 45, 929 mobile money agents 81.1% located in urban and semi-urban areas while 18.9% are in rural areas.
Members of the ZRP caught on picture blocking Dr Peter Magombeyi from leaving hospital to go to South Africa.
As at the time of this breaking news article, uniformed and plain clothed members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police were at the Avenues Clinic, in Harare preventing Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association leader Dr Peter Magombeyi from leaving the medical facility to board a plane to South Africa to access specialist medical care in defiance of a High Court order issued earlier in the day by Justice Happias Zhou.
High Court Judge Justice Zhou on Tuesday interdicted Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) from preventing Magombeyi, from leaving Zimbabwe to access medical services in South Africa.
ZRP had on Monday Dr Magombeyi from travelling to South Africa to access urgent health care services that are not locally available in Zimbabwe after deploying some law enforcement agents to man the entrance at a local clinic, where Dr Magombeyi is detained.
This was in defiance of the recommendation by his doctors, who noted that he had suffered possible physical harm and psychological trauma which warranted that further functional brain imaging and further toxicological evaluation, which is not available in Zimbabwe, be conducted on him.
But Justice Zhou on Tuesday granted an application filed by Dr Magombeyi’s father, Kingstone Magombeyi, who in his court petition, protested against the ZRP’s actions and argued that the law enforcement agents’ actions were not authorised by law as Dr Magombeyi is a victim of abduction and enforced disappearance and has not been placed under arrest and has also not been accused of committing any offence.
In his ruling, Justice Zhou ordered the Officer-In-Charge of Criminal Investigations Department (Law and Order Section) at Harare Central Police Station only identified as Chibaya, ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Cain Mathema, who were cited as respondents, not to prevent directly or indirectly Dr Magombeyi from leaving Zimbabwe for the purposes of accessing medical services in South Africa.
The ruling Zanu PF party has hit back on opposition MDC’s calls to the United Nations (UN) to declare President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his party a terrorist organisation, saying the opposition was declaring war on the liberation party.
The MDC Northern America held protests outside the UN headquarters in New York on Saturday night, and vowed to hand over a petition to the UN for the body to declare Mnangagwa and Zanu PF a terrorist organisation for killing protesters during public demonstrations in Harare last year and this year.
“The offensive pronouncement by the MDC party as reflected in the so-called independent media, that they intend to submit a petition to the UN during its 74th General Assembly sitting that Mnangagwa and the revolutionary Zanu PF be declared terrorists ‘for the killing of civilians during public protests’ is shameful,” Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said in a statement in Harare yesterday.
“This is a very serious allegation which borders on the declaration of war on Zanu PF and its revered leader.”
He said the MDC must halt their petition immediately as it was an insult to Zimbabwe, adding that such “selloutism was unheard of and represents evil conduct”.
Moyo said his party was ready to defend itself against such provocation.
He accused the opposition of calling for the government to be placed under sanctions at a time Mnangagwa is making efforts to have sanctions removed by the West and put Zimbabwe on an economic recovery path.
Six civilians were killed and dozens were injured after the army fired live ammunition during protests over delays in announcing presidential elections on August 1 last year, according to a commission of inquiry appointed by Mnangagwa.
The 150% fuel price hike in January triggered violent protests, with 17 people killed when the army clamped down on the unrest.
The MDC’c call comes at time the Zanu PF youth league boss Pupurai Togarepi told parliamentarians that a law should be crafted which would see people who call for the imposition of sanctions on the country to be declared terrorists.
GWERU – A father, educator, civic activist, active Catholic and a published poet, Felix Tungamirai Marondedze who passed away in September 2016 left a great trail that deserves recognition.
Against all odds, Marondedze (75) became an educationist in the early 60s, starting as a temporary teacher, becoming a headmaster and then an Education Officer for Gutu and Mwenezi Districts from the late 80s to 2000.
After attaining a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of Zimbabwe Marondedze got promoted to the position of District Education Officer (DEO) now District Schools Inspector (DSI) and later on, Education Officer (Education Officer).
He was one of a kind. From 1980 to 1984 he was the headmaster of Rafamoyo Primary School, a school he helped attain higher educational and other standards making it a gem in the district.
Rafamoyo school was the first among rural schools of its kind to have electrification of teachers’ houses by 1980 while Gutu United Primary School was also the first of its kind to introduce a school printed magazine and a centralised radio communication system that linked all classrooms with the headmaster’s office.
Teachers could communicate with the head and other teachers at the switch of a microphone. He also introduced primary schools quiz shows, something which was unheard of in rural schools, let alone primary schools.
He always thought from outside the box.
His years in the civil service did nothing to assuage his passion for social justice, something that has always been at the bossom of the Roman Catholic Church.
He made spirited contributions towards the work of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), opening the Masvingo office in 1989 as its Chairman.
His role at the CCJP saw him being part of the election observer team in the 1994 elections in Malawi.
He was an active lay Catholic participating in relevant guilds and societies and for the good of the church.
With an artistic streak, he contributed to Shona poetry publications in the 70s and was an able organiser and opinion leader gifted with the power of speech.
For this, he was regarded as an asset at social functions where he always left a mark, educating, inspiring and provoking thoughts.
Wherever he went, he left visible footprints that endeared him to those he was fortunate enough to meet and pursue common interests.
He formed pseudo-kin relations so easily that no one could tell who he was not related to in his workplace and even in his social circles.
In his extended family, he was the go-to man who sat between enemies inveterate enabling them to eat from the same plate.
A genuine man, he was so strategic in his praises to those who deserved none, often times helping them to see themselves differently and aspiring for bettering themselves.
Complications of the heart and the need to concentrate on his Cibi Park farm in Mvuma led him to early retirement in year 2000, where he resided with his now late wife Margaret Rosie Marondedze.
Family and friends of Marondedze laid him to rest on the 24th of September 2016.
At the time of his demise he was retired and alone after the departure of his wife, to whom he devoted praises for the remainder of his life after her death in 2012.
He is survived by 9 children and 21 grandchildren. Source: Masvingo Mirror
The MDC leadership led by the Secretary General Hon. Chalton Hwende and Local Government Secretary, Eng. Elias Mudzuri today held a crisis meeting with the acting Mayor of Harare and a team of his councilors to appreciate the water crisis in the capital city as well as the decision to shut down water supplies to residents.
The party was satisfied with the explanation given by the leadership of council that the city had run out of chemicals and could not afford to pump dirty water to the residents without risking a disease outbreak. The acting mayor and councilors also assured the party that they had run around and secured some reprieve for the residents when they accessed some chemicals which are already on site to ensure that water supplies resume immediately, at least for a few days while a permanent solution is being worked out.
Currently, water treatment has begun at the city’s water works and the precious liquid is expected to start trickling into residents’ homes by end of day today.
It emerged from the meeting that central government is at the centre of the current water crisis bedeviling the capital city. Government is the biggest debtor to the Harare city council while there has been no movement in the past 20 years in terms of the construction of the Kunzwi dam, which is expected to provide a permanent solution to Harare’s dire water situation. The Kunzwi dam project has been Zanu PF’s campaign issue in every election since 1995 but to date, nothing has been done.
It also emerged that government has centralized the procurement of water chemicals and every day, council awaits to get the trinkets in terms of water chemicals as and when the scarce foreign currency becomes available at the central bank.
The other challenge is that Harare City Council’s 2019 budget was pegged in US dollars and the government‘s decision to ban the use of hard currency has distorted the budgeted pricing system. The move also ensured that the little funds now available in RTGS to council can hardly sustain critical operations such as water supplies, among other key obligations of council.
So dire is the situation in Harare that council collects$15 million RTGS every month against a projected monthly expenditure of $45 million for water treatment chemicals alone. The $15 million RTGS is inadequate for water treatment chemicals, let alone other key obligations of council.
The MDC is happy that the Harare City council is working hard under the circumstances to ensure that residents get water, including ensuring that water bowsers are provided in the communities and that the boreholes in the various wards of the city are working so that at any given moment, there is constant water supply to the residents.
The MDC hopes that government will play its part in alleviating the crisis bedeviling the capital city by clearing its huge debt owed to council as well as providing a permanent water solution by ensuring that the Kunzwi water project becomes more than an election message that is bandied about ahead of every election.
Sanctions are a blunt instrument affecting the poor and the vulnerable. We have seen arguments saying sanctions are not affecting Zimbabwe's economy and we have said, then remove them. Why keep them if they are not effective? Everybody knows that this is never about travel bans pic.twitter.com/UIzLuNS7y5
Sanctions are a blunt instrument affecting the poor and the vulnerable. We have seen arguments saying sanctions are not affecting Zimbabwe's economy and we have said, then remove them. Why keep them if they are not effective? Everybody knows that this is never about travel bans pic.twitter.com/UIzLuNS7y5
Farai Dziva|SuperSport United coach Kaitano Tembo has explained his outburst towards referee Khulekani Thusi during his side’s 3-1 loss to Polokwane City on Saturday.
Tembo approached the referee at the end of the first half and launched a verbal attack on the match official.
According to the gaffer, he wanted to talk about Onismor Bhasera’s red card which he believed was a bad call. The defender was adjudged to have made a crude challenge on Sibusiso Hlubi.
“When we play we just want to play football, we are not a team that complains about match officials but what is important is for the referees to be a little bit consistent,” Tembo told The Citizen newspaper.
“The reason I went to him was because I wanted to speak to him about the red card and tell him that he had made a mistake.
“It was a dubious red card where it should have been the other way around and it has been happening in other games where the red card could have gone the other side. Sometimes you have to take it and move one.
He is the one who was kicked. He got to the ball and got the injury,” he added.
By A Correspondent- An ugly fist fight broke out during service inside St Agnes Anglican Church in Mutare on Sunday, pitting Masvingo Provincial Development Co-ordinator Mr Fungai Mbetsa, on one side and Mr Tinotenda Magada on the other.
St Agnes Anglican Church for a while has been a hotbed of factional fights and on Sunday a normal praise and worship session came to a halt as members from feuding factions clashed.
Video scenes typical of a nightclub brawl have since gone viral on social media depicting chaos that rocked the church service on Sunday with members insulting, pushing and shoving each other.
Mr Mbetsa concurred that the church session did not come to a logical conclusion because of “political issues in the Anglican church”.
“I only attended a church service as usual. The church session did not end well because of many reasons which I cannot reiterate. I did not see any problem with me attending the service because I was born an Anglican and will remain one. These political issues in the Anglican Church started long back and we are even trying to end them, which is however becoming so difficult for us,” he said.
A congregate, who requested anonymity fearing victimisation, said the violence occurred when Mr Tinotenda Magada tried to block Mr Mbetsa from putting an offering and this angered the later to the extent that he attacked Mr Magada.
“This ignited a fight between the two as fists were exchanged in the church without any of them respecting the place of worship. It is now a policy in Anglican that there should be one service under two different reverends and two different offering bowls.
Mr Magada, who was also among the congregants, could not give a comment when he was contacted but referred this publication to his lawyer who was not reachable at the time of going to print.
Farai Dziva|Warriors star Marvelous Nakamba is keen to be an example to the Zimbabwean youngsters and use his influence to inspire them.
The 25-year-old became the first Zimbabwean player in eight years since Benjani Mwaruwari to play in the English Premier League. He has so far made two league starts for Aston Villa after joining them in August and has earned praises from both the coach and the club fans.
“It’s good for my country to have someone representing them, and I also think it’s good for the upcoming players, the young ones back home,” he told BBC Sport.
“I think they can believe and have faith that nothing is impossible.”
The midfielder adds that he is still settling and will play with all the effort when given a chance.
“This is my first year here, I am still trying to settle, to learn and give everything every time I am given the opportunity to play,” he said.
Nakamba joins former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, Coventry City star Peter Ndlovu and Manchester City striker Mwaruwari on the list of Zimbabweans who have featured in the English top-flight division.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland
By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has expressed optimism of pushing the country’s national interests on the global stage following his meetings with the Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
Said President Emmerson Mnangagwa who is attending the UN General Assembly:
“Excellent day yesterday at the UN, including productive meetings with Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg
Now beginning another busy day as we push for the interests of the Zimbabwean people on the global stage.”
Harare City Council has found contingent supplies of chemicals to resume water production 3 hours from now.
The suppliers of the chemicals have been paid. The other quantities are coming from Bulawayo and are expected to arrive this evening.
Pumping to residents will be progressive from one area to another. Western suburbs will begin to receive water 8 hours from production start while the CBD and Mbare, Highfield/Sunningdale will access water after 12 hours/midnight.
The secured quantities will only last seven days during which period other quantities will be secured. We are currently engaging all stakeholders that include Government to find lasting solutions.
By A Correspondent- Deputy Information Minister has blasted the party’s youth wing saying that it was full of crap hence the reason why Zanu Pf always failed to garner votes in urban constituencies during elections.
Mutodi said this while responding to comments by a Zanu Pf youth league official Tendai Chirau who described the deputy minister as a liability not only to the party but the nation.
Said Mutodi
“Ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
Below is Chirau’s earlier tweet:
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country. It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions … The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name.”
By A Correspondent- The ruling ZANU PF party has been angered by the opposition MDC’s calls to the United Nations (UN) to declare President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his party a terrorist organisation for killing civilians during protests.
In a statement on Monday, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo hit back at the MDC, saying the opposition party has declared war on ZANU PF.
He said:
The offensive pronouncement by the MDC party as reflected in the so-called independent media, that they intend to submit a petition to the UN during its 74th General Assembly sitting that Mnangagwa and the revolutionary Zanu PF be declared terrorists ‘for the killing of civilians during public protests’ is shameful.
This is a very serious allegation which borders on the declaration of war on Zanu PF and its revered leader.
The security services were found guilty of killing 6 unarmed civilians on 1 August last year by the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission. Though the Commission recommended that those found guilty should be punished, nothing has been done by the authorities.
Again, in January, more than a dozen people were killed after riots broke out across the country following an unprecedented fuel price hike. This was followed by a spate of abductions and torture of doctors, union leaders, comedians and human rights activists.
Farai Dziva|Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was on Tuesday crowned the world’s player of the year at the 2019 FIFA awards.
Messi went ahead of Virgil van Dijk and Cristiano Ronaldo to scoop the award.
Ronaldo didn’t vote for either of his rivals and opted to pick Juventus teammate Matthijs de Ligt as his first choice, followed by another former Ajax player Frenkie de Jong and PSG’s Kylian Mbappe.
Messi, however, put his long-time rival as runner-up behind Liverpool’s Sadio Mane who didn’t make it into the final nominees.
Mane was also placed on top of Eden Hazard’s list while Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez put him in second.
Van Dijk who finished second in the category picked winner Messi as his best player and placed his Liverpool team-mates Mane and Mo Salah in second and third positions respectively, snubbing Ronaldo.
Anyone who says MSU is not a good university either lives in the past or is a GIGANTIC IGNORAMUS.
One MSU science researcher as I type got the biggest funded research grant from Europe and their law school is doing enormously. When institutions and people do good, lets applaud.
Dear Pres Mnangagwa: Out of respect, due courtesy to your office, it is in the interest of your gov and Zimbabwe to fire deputy Minister Mutodi. You may keep him coz of the mug/boss stunt but every time he opens his mouth he damages your gov. Now, without cause he attacks MSU.
The University of Pretoria leads at the moment and its Vice Chancellor is a proud Zimbabwean called Prof Khupe. Thats beside the point. My point is that you are an embarrassing clown. MSU through the work of Prof Bhebhe and others is a great university doing very well in research.-Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya
Dear Editor-While it is false that targeted sanctions affect the people of Zimbabwe, our position as a party, because of our leniency and statesmanship, is that sanctions, targeted or not, must go but after Zanu PF is GONE.
Harare, September 24, 2019 –The United States Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing an additional US$41.9 million in funding to respond to the critical food security situation in Zimbabwe between October 2019 and April 2020. The funding will ensure that more than one million rural Zimbabweans have access to adequate food supplies before the next harvest.
“The United States is proud to be part of a coordinated response to the humanitarian situation,” said Ambassador Brian A. Nichols. “These contributions will enable USAID to scale up its emergency response over the coming months.
We will work closely with the World Food Programme (WFP) to ensure that Zimbabweans in dire need of assistance have access to lifesaving food. While we recognize that there is currently a need for this type of assistance, humanitarian assistance alone is not enough. The root causes of food insecurity and poverty must be tackled for Zimbabweans to end chronic food insecurity for good.
The United States urges the Government of Zimbabwe to implement a market-based agriculture policy and eradicate corruption in its subsidy programs, which severely exacerbate the very problems of food insecurity they are purportedly intended to solve.”
On August 6, the United States announced US$45 million in funding to the WFP to provide food rations and cash transfers in response to the UN Flash appeal. These food and cash distributions will help improve the nutrition of vulnerable Zimbabweans and alleviate suffering for those affected by food insecurity.
Today’s additional contribution will bring the total U.S. humanitarian funding in response to the 2019/20 lean season to US$86.9 million. These resources are in addition to US$15 million in emergency food security funding from the United States announced in February of this year in support of 2018/19 lean season needs under the UN Flash appeal and US$7.9 million in Cyclone Idai response funding.
These contributions bring the total U.S. contribution to emergency needs in Zimbabwe to $109.8 million in 2019 and make the United States the largest bilateral donor to emergency humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe.
“WFP is grateful for this generous new contribution from the American people, which will be key to ensure vulnerable households meet their food and nutrition needs in difficult circumstances,” said WFP Zimbabwe Country Director, Eddie Rowe. “We will continue to provide critical food and livelihood support to the people who are hardest-hit at a time of unprecedented needs.”
In addition to this emergency response, USAID’s programs are improving long-term food security for Zimbabwe by building resilience to future shocks. The United States is providing US$144 million over seven years to non-governmental partners Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture and World Vision to address the underlying causes of chronic food insecurity and malnutrition in rural areas.
USAID has also provided US$20 million over five years through the Feed the Future initiative to Fintrac, Inc. and LEAD Trust to reduce rural poverty and improve food security through increased agricultural production and market linkages for small-scale farmers.
Today’s additional US$41.9 million demonstrates the United States’ continued commitment to assist the people of Zimbabwe during difficult times.
Poor weather conditions in Zimbabwe, including erratic rainfall and long dry spells, combined with poor economic policies, have contributed to increased humanitarian needs across the country.
Farai Dziva|Zanu PF youth league official Tendai Chirawu has described Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi as a liability to government and the nation.
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country.
It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions …
The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name,” charged Chirau.
Mutodi responded :For Tendai Chirau, ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
Farai Dziva|Zanu PF youth league official Tendai Chirau has described Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi as a liability to government and the nation.
“I repeat once again,@energymutodi is not only a liability to Government but a liability to his own country.
It’s unfortunate that the supposed to be energetic Minister has energy to discredit his own institutions.He is supposed to be a promoter of Zim institutions …
The comments quoted by this publication are indeed mine. I did not study at MSU but at UZ. MSU has produced some of the best brains. I can not mention all of them by name,” charged Chirau.
Mutodi responded :For Tendai Chirau, ranking an institution and giving it its proper position is unpatriotic. I don’t know why the ruling party continues to rely on these dunderheads. Probably explains why we have failed in urban constituencies. The youth league is full of crap.”
MDC Students Council Speaks On NUST Students Harassment
The failure by ED to address the economic meltdown of Zimbabwe has left the life of a student miserable and horrendous. There is no doubt that the economic teething troubles are negatively impacting our studies.
We are facing high accommodation costs while our parents’ salaries remain meager and useless against the hyperinflation in the country. It is clear that the overall pass rate is going to drop due to power cuts which also make it impossible to access information on the internet.
In addition, accessibility to the internet is now hard due to the ever increasing costs of data and Wi-Fi.
Some students stay far from campus and commuting is now difficult due to high transport costs following fuel hikes. The few zupco buses available in a few colleges cannot meet the number of students to be ferried. Most students can no longer afford descend meals at campuses.
Due to all these hardships, education which is supposed to be a right and the government’s responsibility for it to be accessible is now difficult to acquire! In short, Education in Zimbabwe is now meant for the elite. The education itself has become meaningless as the streets of Zimbabwe are flooded with jobless graduates engaging in all sorts of shameless activities !!!
We also note with concern the ban of NUST demonstration which left some student leaders illegally arrested. The arrested comrades include Joseph Nyamayaro who is in the src board, Tanaka Charamba, Ruramai Sithole, Peace Takudzwa, Daniel Miracle and many more. NUST students had planned their demonstration following strike by lecturers who are complaining about poor salaries and poor working conditions.
Education and peaceful demonstrations are rights and it is sad that the two are being extremely violated by the government itself.
The ban of NUST demonstration and the arrest of students as well as abductions of members of the opposition and civic societies is a flawless indication that ED has no solutions to the economic decay in the country.
As students, our message to ED is clear. We are not going to bear this anymore. ED should address the illegitimate crisis in the country which he is absolutely not willing to do. It’s time to take the legal action against ED or else we fold our hands watching our future being thrown into a cesspool.
We are very much aware that the government is trying to instill fear in its citizens through a series of abductions of those who raise their genuine concerns for the government to address. However, that is not going to deter us from demanding the government to address the economic issues affecting students.
We are demanding that the president should solve the issue of legitimacy crisis in Zimbabwe. As students, our message to ED is clear!!! We are giving him an ultimatum and we are already awake from our slumber.
Farai Dziva|The MDC Students Council has said Emmerson Mnangagwa must resolve the legitimacy issue in Zimbabwe to avoid a total economic implosion.
See the MDC Students Council statement :
The failure by ED to address the economic meltdown of Zimbabwe has left the life of a student miserable and horrendous. There is no doubt that the economic teething troubles are negatively impacting our studies.
We are facing high accommodation costs while our parents’ salaries remain meager and useless against the hyperinflation in the country. It is clear that the overall pass rate is going to drop due to power cuts which also make it impossible to access information on the internet.
In addition, accessibility to the internet is now hard due to the ever increasing costs of data and Wi-Fi.
Some students stay far from campus and commuting is now difficult due to high transport costs following fuel hikes. The few zupco buses available in a few colleges cannot meet the number of students to be ferried. Most students can no longer afford descend meals at campuses.
Due to all these hardships, education which is supposed to be a right and the government’s responsibility for it to be accessible is now difficult to acquire! In short, Education in Zimbabwe is now meant for the elite. The education itself has become meaningless as the streets of Zimbabwe are flooded with jobless graduates engaging in all sorts of shameless activities !!!
We also note with concern the ban of NUST demonstration which left some student leaders illegally arrested. The arrested comrades include Joseph Nyamayaro who is in the src board, Tanaka Charamba, Ruramai Sithole, Peace Takudzwa, Daniel Miracle and many more. NUST students had planned their demonstration following strike by lecturers who are complaining about poor salaries and poor working conditions.
Education and peaceful demonstrations are rights and it is sad that the two are being extremely violated by the government itself.
The ban of NUST demonstration and the arrest of students as well as abductions of members of the opposition and civic societies is a flawless indication that ED has no solutions to the economic decay in the country.
As students, our message to ED is clear. We are not going to bear this anymore. ED should address the illegitimate crisis in the country which he is absolutely not willing to do. It’s time to take the legal action against ED or else we fold our hands watching our future being thrown into a cesspool.
We are very much aware that the government is trying to instill fear in its citizens through a series of abductions of those who raise their genuine concerns for the government to address.
However, that is not going to deter us from demanding the government to address the economic issues affecting students.
We are demanding that the president should solve the issue of legitimacy crisis in Zimbabwe. As students, our message to ED is clear!!! We are giving him an ultimatum and we are already awake from our slumber.
Farai Dziva|The MDC Youth Assembly has slammed the arrest and detention of NUST students.
In a statement the MDC Youth Assembly described the harassment of NUST students as barbaric.
See the full statement :
The MDC Youth Assembly is riled by the barbaric state behavior exhibited by the illegal arrest and detention of 13 NUST students today.
It is regrettable and quite saddening that the ever blundering regime keeps on trampling on civil liberties enshrined in the country’s constitution willy nilly.
As an Assembly, we strongly believe that the right to education which the NUST students are clamouring for is the prime indicator of any society that is ready achieve transformation and development.
As such quashing and trampling the right to education is self defeating and at worst a symbol of cowardice, barbarism and retrogression.
We are of a strong conviction that for our universities to produce best graduates, they should resemble a universitas where lecturers and students meet to share new horizons of knowledge instead of resembling a war zone that is being propagated by this military regime.
As such the MDC Youth Assembly demands the unconstitutional release and compensation of the detained NUST students.
The continued detention of these students is not only a declaration of war to the student community but young people and all the progressive forces of our society.
The MDC Youth Assembly is riled, disgusted and nauseated by continued abuse of the public sphere by the illegitimate Emmerson Mnangagwa’s military regime to pursue its parochial agendas hiding under the public interest smokescreen.
We note with regret and disdain the recent manoeuvres by the unrepentant and unreformed Mnangagwa administration’s continued abuse of public funded media institutions.
It is overtly clear that Mnangagwa’s so called ‘New Dispensation’ has learnt everything and forgot nothing from his predecessor’s regime that literally turned a whole public broadcaster into a narrow caster for ZANU PF and Mugabe family propaganda.
ZBC listeners and viewers are currently undergoing a serious punishment in form of a mental psyching from an institution whose funding is derived from public funds in which they are forced to listen and buy in to a sanctions mantra that does not resonate with the genuine cause of their suffering.
Yes, ZBC listeners and viewers know very well that the cause of the country’s problems is an illegitimate anti people military regime that went on a rampage killing innocent and defenseless citizens on 01 August 2018 and not some travel embargo on a few elite yet they are forced to bear the brunt of listening to an anti-sanctions sermon on a supposedly public broadcaster that owes its existence to their pockets.
It is lamentable that to ZBC public interest has since been redefined to mean Mnangagwa and military cabal’s selfish interests!
We know very well that all this spirited overtures by Mnangagwa’s administration to have targeted embargoes lifted is not going to help ordinary citizens but will aid a few corrupt cabal who have off shore accounts to enjoy the loot in luxurious Western destinations.
As an Assembly, we are very clear that the biggest sanctions in our land is a political party that has left a trail of plunder and destruction and that party is ZANU PF!
The biggest sanctions in our land is a political grouping that abduct political opponents and that grouping is fronted by Emmerson Mnangagwa!
Yes, no sanction is bigger than a political establishment that ensures that 40 years after independence, we remain with ZBC TV as a solitary television broadcaster on the land!
Farai Dziva| Robert Mugabe was truly buried in Zvimba.
ZimEye reveals the exact spot where he was laid to rest.
If you ever dreamt that the Mugabe family would hand the former Zanu PF legend’s body to Emmerson Mnangagwa, keep on hallucinating. It’s too late.
President Robert Mugabe was buried in Zvimba in the wee hours of Tuesday last week.
ZimEye has photograhic evidence. The burial was done exactly as President Mugabe’s nephew, Leo, had told ZimEye days before. Speaking to ZimEye, Leo said no journalist would be allowed when Mugabe is buried.
ZimEye then published a string of explosive exclusives from his own words which state media outlets local and international failed to fathom.
So diligent was the capturing by ZimEye of the family’s exact statements such that on the prior Friday, Leo introduced his press address by mentioning ZimEye by name as the pivot of what was needed to be unraveled and understood by the whole world. It was an important juncture or pointer in the entire burial program. It was thus because of the indepth expose’ by ZimEye that the whole program was altered and the Sunday Heroes Acre burial was cancelled.
Speaking before the SABC and other international outlets at the Mugabe family’s Blue Roof residence, Leo cryptically said, “our ZimEye I’m sure, they are distorting things that we are talking about, but I understand why…cause there is some various misunderstanding arising out of the function that was supposed to happen on Sunday.
“And on my trying to understand, from the questions that you asked me, I then took those questions forward to try and understand exactly what that is supposed to achieve. Eeeeh, and now I have a bit more clarity, that there is no-oooooooo, Heroes on Sunday. Okay?
“And the fact that, the chief and traditional leaders went to the heroes acre to show each other President Mugabe is going to be buried, the place will take about 30 days to be complete, so, what that means is the burial will take that long.
The actual burial. So I thought I must make that clarification so that everybody…”
Did the family finally bend to the demands by ZANU PF? Leo was very clear and he was consistently on camera declaring that there would be two burials, a government one done according to modern dictates in which “they will be burying something else,” and secondly a traditional one done secretly in which the real corpse is laid to rest.
THE BURIAL
It was a secret operation done by chiefs according to royal tradition. President Mugabe was buried at a small hill cave, in Dombwe Zvimba.
ZimEye reveals the photograph of his resting place.
The area is a secret eternal sanctuary for chiefs and no woman is allowed near there. There is a traditional belief that a woman who is on her periods can end up literally disappearing due to her “spiritual” uncleanness. In the same vein, a woman who has just been intimate will be deemed unclean and suffer the same fate. She will vanish and never be found.
Present at the scene were some of Mugabe’s cousins (vazukuru), including one surnamed and only known as “Tagwirei” known for being extremely vocal. He is seen holding a special spiritual book in which are the secrets of the area. The book also has instructions on burial processions pointing to where Mugabe had to be rested.
His wife Grace was excluded from the burial ceremony. ZimEye could not obtain a convincing explanation why she was excluded and the closest that could-be inferred was what the late 95 year-old’s nephew had said when he communicated a week before that everything will be done in private, you will not know anything about it. We do not want to see you anywhere near there.
President Robert Mugabe was buried whole body out, without a coffin. His body should never be found, in the same fashion treated the last King of Zimbabwe, Lobengula.
Meanwhile, the Mugabe family is on video sounding out the special role ZimEye has played to expose plans to seize the former President’s body in what strongly appears to be a fight for legitimacy.
This development, that is the secret burial, is a slap in the face and puts an eternal seal against attempts by Emmerson Mnangagwa to seize Mugabe’ body while publishing in the state media allegations that Mugabe never backed Mnangagwa’s nemesis, Nelson Chamisa.
EXCLUSIVE PHOTO & VIDEO HOVER THE AREA-
ZimEye is releasing details of the geographical location only to our subscribers and the evidence is be released in two grades:
Subscribers (Twitter &FB): – Picture of the burial place.
Supporters: – Picture + Video Hover over the cover area Google satellite footage (3km square radius), + a LIVE engagement over the matter due to take place at 4pm Tuesday. Should we also drop the exact coordinates, and what will Mnangagwa do?
The MDC leadership led by the Secretary General Hon. Chalton Hwende and Local Government Secretary, Eng. Elias Mudzuri today held a crisis meeting with the acting Mayor of Harare and a team of his councilors to appreciate the water crisis in the capital city as well as the decision to shut down water supplies to residents.
The party was satisfied with the explanation given by the leadership of council that the city had run out of chemicals and could not afford to pump dirty water to the residents without risking a disease outbreak. The acting mayor and councilors also assured the party that they had run around and secured some reprieve for the residents when they accessed some chemicals which are already on site to ensure that water supplies resume immediately, at least for a few days while a permanent solution is being worked out.
Currently, water treatment has begun at the city’s water works and the precious liquid is expected to start trickling into residents’ homes by end of day today.
It emerged from the meeting that central government is at the centre of the current water crisis bedeviling the capital city. Government is the biggest debtor to the Harare city council while there has been no movement in the past 20 years in terms of the construction of the Kunzwi dam, which is expected to provide a permanent solution to Harare’s dire water situation.
The Kunzwi dam project has been Zanu PF’s campaign issue in every election since 1995 but to date, nothing has been done. It also emerged that government has centralized the procurement of water chemicals and every day, council awaits to get the trinkets in terms of water chemicals as and when the scarce foreign currency becomes available at the central bank.
The other challenge is that Harare City Council’s 2019 budget was pegged in US dollars and the government‘s decision to ban the use of hard currency has distorted the budgeted pricing system. The move also ensured that the little funds now available in RTGS to council can hardly sustain critical operations such as water supplies, among other key obligations of council.
So dire is the situation in Harare that council collects$15 million RTGS every month against a projected monthly expenditure of $45 million for water treatment chemicals alone. The $15 million RTGS is inadequate for water treatment chemicals, let alone other key obligations of council.
The MDC is happy that the Harare City council is working hard under the circumstances to ensure that residents get water, including ensuring that water bowsers are provided in the communities and that the boreholes in the various wards of the city are working so that at any given moment, there is constant water supply to the residents.
The MDC hopes that government will play its part in alleviating the crisis bedeviling the capital city by clearing its huge debt owed to council as well as providing a permanent water solution by ensuring that the Kunzwi water project becomes more than an election message that is bandied about ahead of every election.
Luke Tamborinyoka Deputy National SpokespersonMovement For Democratic Change
By A Correspondent- A member of the Zimbabwe Republic Police has appeared before the courts for obstructing justice after he reportedly assisted Chinese nationals to escape after they were found in possession of ivory.
Wonder Tawanda Kwaramba, appeared before a Chiredzi Magistrate for allegedly facilitating the escape of seven Chinese nationals who were on bail for the unlawful possession of 20 kg of rhino horns.
The accused is now facing three charges, defeating the course of justice, smuggling (after he illegally imported a Toyota Hilux) and fraud.
The state alleges that detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Victoria Falls were informed by reliable sources that the accused was dining with the Chinese nationals.
The detectives made investigations and realized that the Chinese nationals had not reported at CID Victoria Falls as per their bail conditions and had vacated their premises.
They tracked the Toyota Hilux which the Chinese nationals were using and discovered that Kwaramba had driven it through Gonarezhou checkpoint before heading to Sango border post.
The state also alleges that at Sango border post, Kwaramba assisted the Chinese nationals to cross the border into Mozambique.
Kwaramba was arrested on his way back from Sango border post.
The accused was denied bail and remanded in custody to 4 October.
By A Correspondent- A 34-year-old man from Zvishavane is in trouble after he allegedly impreg_nated a minor related to the First Family.
Aleck Nyoni from Chief Masunda’s area recently appeared before the courts for impreg_nating a 13-year-old Grade 7 pupil (name withheld to protect her identity).
Nyoni pleaded guilty when he appeared before presiding Magistrate Achy Wochiunga.
In mitigation, the accused told the court that he had not been aware that the complainant was a juvenile as she had features of an adult woman.
He sensationally told the court that he was willing to take the child as his wife.
”The girl’s appearance deceived men as she is all grown up,” said Nyoni.
The court heard that on a date unknown sometime last year, Nyoni met the Juvenile at a river, proposed love and she consented. Over a short space of time, their relationship escalated and reportedly had se_xual interc0urse several times.
The matter only came to light in July after the grandmother discovered that the minor was preg_nant, leading to a report being lodged with the Zvishavane police.
The High Court has ordered the police to allow Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association leader Dr Peter Magombeyi to travel to South Africa to seek and access urgent specialist medical treatment.
This followed the police action to blocked the tortured doctor’s trip to South Africa forcing his lawyers to seek legal recourse.
By Nomusa Garikai: “On the monetary side, yes, we have introduced one currency. For the first six weeks it remained stable, but then our people are intelligent. We have people who found ways to fight that (stability of the currency) and undermine it, but yesterday (Friday) we also became smarter than them and so we took some action,” boasted President Emerson Mnangagwa.
“We have now arrested the galloping rate which was galloping from about eight, within few days it had gone up 10, and 20, by the time we left it had gone down and I think today it is about 14.”
Every time Mnangagwa has admitted there was a problem he has followed this up with a solution to the problem. In other words he has admitted a problem only as an excuse to offer a solution and thus show the world just how smart he is! If the truth be told, here the truth is the only currency, he is not smart at all.
At the beginning of the year, the Bond Note, the country default local currency, was on par to the US Dollar; today, nine months latter, it is trading at 14:1! Some smart leader, indeed!
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the country cursed pariah state status.
Zimbabwe is a pariah state ruled by incompetent, corrupt vote rigging and murderous tyrants. As much as President Mnangagwa has tried to put some political distance between his post November 2017 military coup regime with that of the late Robert Mugabe; calling his regime a “new dispensation”, “Second Republic”, etc. The Zanu PF dictatorship has remained untouched or be it under new management.
Mnangagwa promised “zero tolerance on corruption” and yet two years since the coup and he has yet to arrest one Marange diamond looter. “Corruption is deeply rooted,” he admitted.
He also promised free, fair and credible elections but, again, failed to deliver. But above all else, by blatantly rigging the elections he confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state.
The Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown because for the country has been starved of any meaningful investment for the last two decades. Investors do not do business in a pariah state.
Cure Zimbabwe’s pariah state curse and investors and investment will flood back into the country. And the pariah state cure is for the vote rigging Zanu PF regime to step down to allow the appointment of an interim administration that will be tasked to implement reforms and deliver free, fair and credible elections.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by vote rigging thugs the economic meltdown will get worse; the 14:1 Z$ to US$ exchange rate will get a lot worse smart Alec’s pride and joy, will get a lot worse; etc.
When President Mnangagwa staged his November 2017 putsch and launched his “Zimbabwe is open for business!” complete with the multi-coloured trademark scarf; there was not a single grain of doubt in his Sahara desert expense mind that the economic boom that was to follow. Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has got a lot worse than it was in 20017; it must be every hard for him to admit this.
By burying his head in the sand and pretending he is smarter than he is; deluding himself that he can still deliver economic recovery and still keep the pariah state; Mnangagwa is digging the nation into deeper and deeper trouble. Zimbabwe’s worsening economic meltdown is not only resulting in currency instability but the very survival of this nation is now at stake.
It is said of the Greek Philosopher, Socrates, that he admitted t being the wisest man in Athens but only because he alone was prepared to admit his own ignorance rather than pretend to know something he did not.
Zimbabwe’s worst curse is to be stuck for 39 years and counting with smart-Alec leaders who will not admit they have failed even in the face of a mountain of evidence of their failures!
THE family of Dr Peter Magombeyi, the leader of Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) has petitioned the High Court seeking an order to interdict Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers from preventing him to travel to South Africa to access urgent specialist medical services.
In an urgent chamber application filed on Monday 23 September 2019 at the High Court, Kingstone Manetswa Magombeyi, the father of Dr Magombeyi, who is represented by Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, argued that his son had been prevented by some ZRP officers from travelling to South Africa to access urgent health care services that are not locally available in Zimbabwe.
The lawyers argued that Dr Magombeyi, a survivor of an enforced disappearance, who is currently receiving medical treatment at a local medical facility requires urgent health care services that are not locally available in Zimbabwe but offered in neighbouring South Africa.
The lawyers indicated that the preliminary medical assessments done on Dr Magombeyi reveal possible physical harm and psychological trauma hence it is imperative that the ZHDA leader receives the best possible health care to enable him to fully recover so as to be in a position to assist ZRP officers and any other stakeholders in the discovery of the truth as to what really happened to him between 14 September 2019 and 19 September 2019, when he was disappeared and later found.
However, some ZRP officers, who were deployed to camp outside Dr Magombeyi’s hospital room without his concern, denied him the right to leave Zimbabwe on 23 September 2019 to South Africa, where he is due to receive specialist health care services.
The lawyers argued that the ZRP officers’ actions are not authorised by law as Dr Magombeyi is a victim of abduction and enforced disappearance and has not been placed under arrest and has also not been accused of committing any offence hence he is entitled to his right to liberty, security of person, freedom of movement and has a further right to access health care services.
The actions of ZRP officers, the lawyers argued, infringe upon Dr Magombeyi’s constitutional rights and he stands to suffer irreparable harm should he be barred from seeking expert medical services and any delay in accessing the medical services required compromises his health and well-being.
The lawyers want the High Court to order ZRP officers to allow Dr Magombeyi to travel to South Africa late on Tuesday 24 September 2019 to access the specialist medical services.
The Officer-In-Charge of Criminal Investigations Department (Law and Order Section) at Harare Central Police Station, ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Cain Mathema have been cited as respondents to the urgent chamber application.
By A Correspondent- Independent election observer, Zimbabwe Election Support Network has expressed great concern over the decision by ruling ZANU PF to use a well known traditional leader as their election agent in the recently held ZAKA East by-election.
ZESN also reports that at another polling station, another village head came putting on ZANU PF regalia.
The election observer says that the two incidents could have intimidated voters.
Part of ZESN’s report reads:
Zesn is, therefore, concerned that at Vhurumuku Primary Scchool, in ward 25 of Zaka East, a well-known headman was serving as a Zanu PF party election agent.
In ward 32, a village head turned up to vote at Machiva polling station wearing Zanu PF regalia. Though he removed the cap and put on a jacket to conceal the Zanu PF T-shirt upon Zec’s instruction, the village head went out and sat at the gate of the school, where the polling station was located, within the vicinity of the polling station, in Zanu PF party regalia.
The report is consistent with remarks which the opposition MDC has been making not so long ago.
Traditional leaders are prohibited by Section 281 of the Constitution to actively participate in politics given their status as natural leaders in society.
The traditional leaders in ZESN report are however not the first after Chief Nhlanhla Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna and Chief Fortune Charumbira, in that order, publicly supported the opposition MDC and ruling ZANU PF.
By A Correspondent- Mukuru, a financial services company, has announced that it was now offering bureaux de change services.
The company has over the past few years been offering financial services in Zimbabwe, enabling recipients of remittances from the diaspora.
It allows users to send money to countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Pakistan, Kenya, DRC, Nigeria, Lesotho, Mozambique, Uganda and Namibia.
Announcing the newly added platform, the company said:
“Now in the wake of the introduction of SI 142 of 2019, we have expanded our services to include a bureau de change, allowing members of the public to buy and sell foreign currency at competitive rates.
We believe our extensive national coverage will provide a convenient and cost-effective means for people from all walks of life to access this vital service in a safe, secure and efficient way. To date, we have opened branches in Gweru, Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Chitungwiza, Victoria Falls. Shortly, we will extend bureau services across our entire network.”
Jane Mlambo| Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) have announced that police are barring the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association President Dr Peter Magombeyi from leaving the country to seek specialised treatment.
Magombeyi was abducted on the 14th of September only to be dumped in Nyabira after five days.
Posting on Twitter, ZLHR said they were forced to approach the High Court to challenge the police action against Magombeyi.
“In violation of Constitution, Police have prevented Dr Magombeyi from leaving Zim to seek further urgent medical, forcing ZLHR to file urgent application at court
“Dr Magombeyi reported case(s) to police such as threats he faced in August 2019 before he was abducted, disappeared & he also reported his abduction on 19 Sept after he was dumped at Nyabira. Police questioned him for several hours about his whereabouts on 19 September
“He was released & sought medical attention. Now Police has prevented him from leaving the country to seek further specialized treatment. Although he is a complainant in cases he reported it is not clear why his rights are being restricted by police,” said ZLHR while posting on Twitter.
ZimEye last night went LIVE right concerning the supposed death of a 25 year old Zimbabwean in JoBurg yesterday on Sunday, Tapiwa Svosve. Concerns were raised that the story lacks evidence. There is no visual evidence of the corpse, no details of the place of murder, and neither details of the incident time. Further concerns have been raised because the UK based announcer rushed to ask for donations Monday afternoon without providing adequate evidence. IS THIS DEATH GENUINE? IF IT IS, HOW CAN CLEARER DETAILS BE OBTAINED?
263chat|Outspoken Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has hit out at the South African opposition Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema over his praise of the late former President Robert Mugabe’s widow Grace saying his praise for the former first lady ignored her alleged case of beating up a young girl in Johannesburg as well as amassing up to five farms in Norton.
In an eight threaded Twitter rant, Mliswa said Malema who has been vocal against the corruption of South Africa’s former President Jacob Zuma had suddenly turned around, ignoring Grace Mugabe’s alleged ownership of five farms in Norton.
Mliswa accused Malema of pushing a G40 agenda citing the attendance of expelled Zanu PF members Saviour Kasukuwere and Patrick Zhuwao at the EFF memorial service of Mugabe at Orlando Stadium.
Below is Mliswa’s thread…
1/I was interested to understand your definition of tormentors…. Oh & by the way, is this strong lady you refer to the same one who displayed such strength beating up a young SA girl, strange you didn’t seem to comment on that….
2/for one who was so vocal against the corruption of @PresJGZuma & talks of opportunism you’re strangely quiet about the 5 Norton farms this “strong woman” has or of the money allegedly stolen by @ProfJNMoyo in Zim & SA..
3/Interesting to note was the “G40” presence that greeted your arrival. Was there any particular reason this visit was made in the absence of @edmnangagwa & that respects were not paid to either himself or his office as protocol dictates?
4/No small surprise the presence of a certain group of Zimbabweans at the service for the late RGM at @OrlandoStadium recently
5/The folly of making populist statements is 1. They must appeal to the majority & 2. They mustn’t allow you to lose credibility from those whose popularity you seek.
6/The strong woman’s strength was in the abuse of people & making their lives miserable. The empty National Sports stadium bares testimony to her unpopularity
7/As my brother & comrade @Julius_S_Malema I celebrate & encourage your successes but where you cross the line I must be blunt.
8/Our history indicates the way true comrades & heroes were demeaned upon passing by RGM. Maybe you’re not familiar with stories of Nkomo being forced to flee the country in a dress & other incidents.
Malema was in the country yesterday to pay his condolences to the Mugabe family.
Meanwhile, Mliswa who also tried to visit the Blue Roof to pay his condolences was barred by security guards at the entrance who told him the former first lady was not around. This is despite the fact that she was later seen with Malema and his EFF delegation.
Independent election observer, Zimbabwe Election Support Network has expressed great concern over the decision by ruling ZANU PF to use a well known traditional leader as their election agent in the recently held ZAKA East by-election.
ZESN also reports that at another polling station, another village head came putting on ZANU PF regalia.
The election observer says that the two incidents could have intimidated voters. Part of ZESN’s report reads:
Zesn is, therefore, concerned that at Vhurumuku Primary Scchool, in ward 25 of Zaka East, a well-known headman was serving as a Zanu PF party election agent.
In ward 32, a village head turned up to vote at Machiva polling station wearing Zanu PF regalia. Though he removed the cap and put on a jacket to conceal the Zanu PF T-shirt upon Zec’s instruction, the village head went out and sat at the gate of the school, where the polling station was located, within the vicinity of the polling station, in Zanu PF party regalia.
The report is consistent with remarks which the opposition MDC has been making not so long ago.
Traditional leaders are prohibited by Section 281 of the Constitution to actively participate in politics given their status as natural leaders in society.
The traditional leaders in ZESN report are however not the first after Chief Nhlanhla Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna and Chief Fortune Charumbira, in that order, publicly supported the opposition MDC and ruling ZANU PF.
Pan African Movement members, Martin Ssempa (right) holding a poster of the late Robert Mugabe and Executive chairman Pan African Movement Uganda, Daniel Rugarama during a press conference aimed celebrating the life of Robert Mugabe
Ugandan Pan Africanists under the organization of the Pan African Movement have organized a march in honor of the Late Robert Mugabe, former President of Zimbabwe.
Dr. Martin Ssempa, a renowned member of the Pan African Movement said they would take this opportunity to celebrate the life of Mugabe and what Africans have done.
“There are those who celebrated Mugabe’s death but we want to give honor where honor is due. Mugabe helped in spreading the ideology Liberty” Ssempa said.
Ssempa said they did not have the opportunity to attend the burial ceremony of Mugabe which took place in Harare however they made efforts to secure at least one Bombardier but it was not possible.
The event which will take place on Friday will be entrenched on the theme “ Tracing the Footsteps of African Liberation” where the march will kick off at 2:00 pm from the Freedom Square, to the halls of residence of Nkrumah, Africa, Lumumba, University hall, Mitchell Hall and back to the Freedom Square.
A combination of other activities will take place besides the march and these will include speeches and music among others.
Ssempa condemned the actions of those who were criticising Mugabe and forcing others to believe in their opinions saying those who thought of Mugabe as a villain should not force their opinions of him on others.
The executive director of the Pan African Movement, Daniel Rugarama expounded on the reasons why they had chosen to celebrate the life of Mugabe.
“Here is a man who gave the African person the face of who an African is. He was a member of the frontline for the liberation of South Africa.” Rugarama said.
He also called out on other leaders to learn from Mugabe because if they did not do what Mugabe did, they are sitting on a time bomb.
The event will also acknowledge the achievements of Mugabe especially in liberating the mind of the African person.
Some of the invited guests that Ssempa hope will attend include the Deputy President of Kenya, William Ruto and President Museveni.
One of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s close allies and Zanu-PF Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena has salted the state media for blacking out the names of Sakunda boss Kuda Tagwireyi whose company accounts were frozen last Friday for alleged money laundering.
The Sakunda accounts were frozen by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe after the company allegedly “poured” money in the black market to mop United States Dollars in a development that saw the exchange rate between the Zimbabwean and United States dollar shooting up to US$ 100 = Zim $2500.
While other media houses, in covering the story mentioned Sakunda and Tagwireyi, the State media withheld the name of the business man also with close links to Mnangagwa.
Commenting on the issue, Wadyajena alleged that some senior people in the state media were given fuel coupons in order to withhold Tagwireyi’s identity.
“Dodgy censorship by state/public media in the explosive story on economic saboteurs manipulating our currency. H.E Emmerson D Mnangagwa himself spoke on the thieves and frozen accounts
yet one corrupt charlatan instructs newsrooms to black out names and take down stories in exchange for fuel coupons,” said Wadyajena. ZBC on Friday posted the story on the freezing of Sakunda accounts but quickly pulled off the story from its website and social media platforms.
NewsDay|FIFTEEN National University of Science and Technology (Nust) students were arrested yesterday for staging a demonstration at the college campus.
The students were protesting against the continued industrial action by lecturers who are demanding a pay hike. Only two of the arrested students had been released last night, sources said.
Bulawayo acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nomalanga Msebele declined to comment on the matter yesterday.The students last week tried to stage another demonstration which was thwarted by police.
Their concern was lecturers were not attending to them for the past three weeks.The most affected students were the parallel classes that have reportedly not been learning since the beginning of this semester.
Student Representative Council president Dennis Mwashita yesterday told Southern Eye that anti-riot police swamped the campus in the morning and crushed the demonstration before arresting some of the students.“Dogs were set loose, students were heavily assaulted and taken into custody,” he said.
“The demonstration is still going on (as at 9am), other students have been displaced, but we are still trying to gather them around. We have been trying to contact the administration, but they are not available or they are not interested.”
In a statement, the SRC president earlier on had said it was now clear that their administration had failed to deliver quality education.
“We regret to inform the authorities that if the official and principal business at a university is denied, we are demanding the halting of any activity on campus.
We must remind the authorities that they have forced us out of class and, indeed, we shall stay out of class unless resolute action is taken to end this crisis,” read the statement.
“It has become clear that our administration has failed to deliver its sacred mandate to provide quality learning in a conducive environment. It is with uncertainty that students are frustrated by the persistent strike by the teaching staff. For about three weeks now, Nust students have not been learning, particularly the parallel students.”
The SRC said ongoing lecturers strike had become a heavy burden on students paying exorbitant prices in rentals, food and transport, but being turned down every day because there were no lectures.
Contacted for comment, Nust spokesperson Felix Moyo said: “On Friday last week, we had agreed with NUSTEDA (Nust Educators Association) to continue with the lectures, we are trying to understand what is going on,” he said.
A memorandum released by Nust administration yesterday read: “This serves to confirm that management has committed to settle obligations arising from the above on a monthly basis, as semester progresses.”.
If you ever dreamt that the Mugabe family would hand the former Zanu PF legend’s burial ceremony to Emmerson Mnangagwa, keep on hallucinating. It’s too late.
By Own Correspondent| President Robert Mugabe’s traditional skin (hide) was buried in his rural home area, Zvimba in the wee hours of Tuesday last week.
ZimEye has photographic evidence. The burial was done exactly as President Mugabe’s nephew, Leo, had told ZimEye days before. Speaking to ZimEye, Leo said no journalist would be invited when Mugabe is buried. ZimEye then published a string of explosive exclusives from his own words which state media outlets local and international failed to fathom. So dilligent was the capturing by ZimEye of the family’s exact statements such that on the prior Friday, Leo introduced his press address by mentioning ZimEye by name as the pivot of what was needed to be unraveled and understood by the whole world. It was an important juncture or pointer in the entire burial program. It was thus because of the indepth expose’ by ZimEye that the whole program was altered and the Sunday Heroes Acre burial was cancelled.
Speaking before the SABC and other international outlets at the Mugabe family’s Blue Roof residence, Leo cryptically said, “our ZimEye I’m sure, they are distorting things that we are talking about, but I understand why…cause there is some various misunderstanding arising out of the function that was supposed to happen on Sunday.
“And on my trying to understand, from the questions that you asked me, I then took those questions forward to try and understand exactly what that is supposed to achieve. Eeeeh, and now I have a bit more clarity, that there is no-oooooooo, Heroes on Sunday. Okay?
“And the fact that, the chief and traditional leaders went to the heroes acre to show each other President Mugabe is going to be buried, the place will take about 30 days to be complete, so, what that means is the burial will take that long. The actual burial. So I thought I must make that clarification so that everybody…”
Did the family finally bend to the demands by ZANU PF? Leo was very clear and seen repeatedly on camera declaring that there would be two burials, a government one done according to modern dictates in which unequivocally said “they will be burying something else,” and secondly, a traditional one, done secretly, in which the real corpse will be laid to rest. (see video) – ARTICLE CONTINUES
THE BURIAL It was a secret operation done by chiefs according to royal tradition. President Mugabe was buried at a small hill cave, in Dombwe Zvimba.
ZimEye reveals the photograph of his resting place.
The area is a secret eternal sanctuary for chiefs and no woman is allowed near there. There is a traditional belief that a woman who is on her periods can end up literally disappearing due to her “spiritual” uncleanness. In the same vein, a woman who has just been intimate will be deemed unclean and suffer the same fate. She will vanish and never be found.
Present at the scene were some of Mugabe’s cousins (vazukuru), including one surnamed and only known as “Tagwirei” known for being extremely vocal. He is seen holding a special spiritual book in which are the secrets of the area. The book also has instructions on burial processions pointing to where Mugabe had to be rested.
The men, at least five in number are seen standing inside the wetland where the cave’s hill sits.
VIDEO LOADING BELOW (continue reading) …
His wife Grace was excluded from the burial ceremony. ZimEye could not obtain a convincing explanation why she was excluded and the closest that could-be inferred was what the late 95 year-old’s nephew had said when he communicated a week before that everything will be done in private, you will not know anything about it. We do not want to see you anywhere near there.
When being buried, Mugabe will be buried whole body out, without a coffin. His body should never be found, in the same fashion treated the last King of Zimbabwe, Lobengula.
Meanwhile, the Mugabe family is on video sounding out the special role ZimEye has played to expose plans to seize the former President’s body in what strongly appears to be a fight for legitimacy.
Efforts to get the latest comment from Leo were fruitless at the time of writing as he was unreachable, but he last week assured ZimEye that reports that the family had agreed to hand over Mugabe’s body were both false and misleading.
This development, that is the secret burial, is a slap in the face and puts an eternal seal against attempts by Emmerson Mnangagwa to seize Mugabe’ body while publishing in the state media allegations that Mugabe never backed Mnangagwa’s nemesis, Nelson Chamisa.
EXCLUSIVE PHOTO & VIDEO HOVER THE AREA-
ZimEye is releasing details of the geographical location only to our subscribers and the evidence is be released in two grades:
Subscribers (Twitter &FB): – Picture of the burial place.
Supporters: – Picture + Video Hover over the cover area Google satellite footage (3km square radius), + a LIVE engagement over the matter due to take place at 4pm Tuesday. In addition to the picture evidence, should we also drop the exact coordinates?
READERS PLEASE NOTE: The LIVE video engagement will load on this same article, so bookmarking is advised
FORMER Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarous Dokora’s ex-wife, Mercy Hanyani (31), has been issued with a warrant of arrest over malicious damage to property as their divorce case rages on.
According to court papers, on August 5, Hanyani went to Dokora’s house in Harare, broke the door to the cottage, spilled some mealie-meal on the kitchen floor and vandalised some household goods.
The State alleges that the incident occurred when Dokora had left for work at the University of Zimbabwe, where he is a lecturer.After Dokora was gone, Hanyani is said to have gone to the cottage armed with a metal object.
She allegedly tried to open the cottage door, but failed since it was locked.Hanyani then damaged the lock using a metal object and managed to gain entry.
She allegedly spilled some mealie-meal and mahewu around the kitchen floor and also hid a single gas stove plate.
The prosecution alleged that at times, Hanyani would pour water on the fire, while the family was preparing meals.
Reuters|Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel firm, collapsed yesterday, stranding hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers around the globe and sparking the largest peacetime repatriation effort in British history. The firm ran hotels, resorts and airlines for 19 million a year in 16 countries, generating revenue in 2018 of US$12 billion.
It currently has 600 000 people abroad, including more than 150 000 British citizens.
Thomas Cook employs 21 000 people and is the world’s oldest travel company, founded in 1841.
The company has US$2,1 billion of debt.
What happens to tourists?
The British government has asked the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to launch a repatriation programme over the next two weeks, from yesterday to October 6, to bring Thomas Cook customers back to the UK.
“Due to the significant scale of the situation, some disruption is inevitable, but the Civil Aviation Authority will endeavour to get people home as close as possible to their planned dates,” it said.
A fleet of aircraft will be used to repatriate British citizens. In a small number of destinations, alternative commercial flights will be used.
About 50 000 tourists are stranded in Greece, mainly on islands, a Greek tourism ministry official told Reuters yesterday.
The CAA has launched a special website, thomascook.caa.co.uk, where affected customers can find details and information on repatriation flights.
For those customers not flying from Britain, alternative arrangements will have to be found. In Germany, a popular customer market for Thomas Cook, insurance companies will coordinate the response.
What is the advice to passengers?
“Customers currently overseas should not travel to the airport until their flight back to the UK has been confirmed on the dedicated website,” the CAA said.
“Thomas Cook customers in the UK yet to travel should not go to the airport as all flights leaving the UK have been cancelled.”
Who will pay for the cost of hotels?
The CAA said it was contacting hotels and other companies likely to be impacted by Thomas Cook’s collapse to reassure them they will be paid.
The regulator said that if holidaymakers are being asked to settle bills they should contact the CAA.
Thomas Cook package holiday customers are covered by ATOL — Air Travel Organiser’s Licence — which protects accommodation and return flights. However, the CAA said some customers may be asked to relocate to other accommodation.
What happens if a holiday is booked for the future?
The CAA says that if customers have not yet started their trips most holidays and flights booked with Thomas Cook are now cancelled and customers should not go to the airport.
The liquidation
Thomas Cook said it had entered compulsory liquidation and an order had been granted to appoint an official receiver to liquidate the company.
AlixPartners UK LLP or KPMG will be appointed as special manager for the different parts of the business.
The industry
The impact is already being felt further afield, with Australian travel group Webjet Ltd (WEB.AX) saying it was US$30 million out of pocket and British online travel group On The Beach (OTB.L) saying it would suffer from helping its customers in resorts who had flown with Thomas Cook.
The collapse could provide a boost, however, to major rival TUI (TUIGn.DE), whose shares surged more than 10 percent in early yesterday trading, and to Europe’s overcrowded airline sector, which could benefit from the closure of Thomas Cook’s airline.
Why did it collapse?
Thomas Cook was brought low by a $2.1 billion debt pile that prevented it from responding to more nimble online competition.
With debts built up around 10 years ago due to several ill-timed deals, it had to sell three million holidays a year just to cover its interest payments.
As it struggled to pitch itself to a new generation of tourists, the company was hit by the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, one of its top destinations, and the 2018 Europe-wide heatwave which deterred customers from going abroad.
Thomas Cook needed another 200 million pounds on top of a 900 million pound package it had already agreed, to see it through the winter months when it receives less cash and must pay hotels for summer services.
The request for an additional 200 million pounds torpedoed the rescue deal that had been months in the making.
Thomas Cook bosses met lenders and creditors in London on Sunday to try to thrash out a last-ditch deal to keep the company afloat. They failed.
Under the original terms of the plan, top shareholder Fosun — whose Chinese parent owns all-inclusive holiday firm Club Med —would have given US$552 million of money in return for at least 75 percent of the tour operator business and 25 percent of its airline.
Thomas Cook’s lending banks and bondholders were to stump up a further 450 million pounds and convert their existing debt to equity, giving them in total about 75 percent of the airline and up to 25 percent of the tour operator business.
