Johannesburg — South African alcoholic drinks firm Distell is likely to hold off on further investments in Zimbabwe until there are signs it is tackling is deep economic problems, chief executive Richard Rushton said on Wednesday.
He had said earlier this year that if an opportunity arose to invest further in the country the company would look at it favourably, but since then soaring inflation, shortages of basic goods and foreign currency and other problems have worsened.
“It would take a brave individual right now to invest,” Rushton told Reuters by phone after the company reported that its full-year profits had dropped by 1,8% partly because of problems in the country.
While Distell is committed to the long-term opportunity the country offers, he said it wants to see an improvement in currency flows and a plan of action to address the issues Zimbabwe faces coming to fruition before it invests further.
The company is striving to become Africa’s premier drinks brand via an ambitious expansion plan focused on the continent.
While this offers attractive growth prospects, it also exposes it to risks as it pushes into Africa’s tougher markets.
The High Court in Ngunjiri Wambugu v Inspector General of Police and others (July 29, 2019) has directed the state to change or develop new law and regulations to ensure peaceful assembly, and to write Codes of Conduct for organisers of demonstrations. The purpose is to prevent violence, especially by making organisers legally responsible for any damage and injuries occurring during protests.
The petitioner had requested these following the 2016 IEBC demonstrations where he claimed the violence by protesters threatened the rights of members of the public.
The judgment recommends regulations with “prescriptions for demarcation of demonstration zones, responsibilities for clean-up costs, maximum numbers, consents of persons/entities adjacent to demonstration zones with appropriate penalties when they go outside the expectations of the law.”
NEGATIVE SIDE OF THIS APPROACH
The implications of the pronouncements and orders in this judgment potentially violate the right to freedom of assembly under Article 37 of the Constitution.
A demonstration zone is exactly what it sounds like: a designated area in which protesting is permitted, to the exclusion of other public spaces. While it may sound as though protects the right, in fact, it does the opposite by confining the exercise of the right to those spaces. It is akin to a ‘designated smoking zone’, where smoking beyond the designated area attracts state sanctions.
Similar proposals elsewhere, have been fought by the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties organisations, because their real effect, indeed, objective, is censorship and an unjustified limitation on the rights to freedom of speech and assembly.
Location is an important aspect of the right to assembly. The motive of a protest is to draw attention to the cause supported by the organisers and to convince others of the rightness of the cause.
This often requires that it not only be held in view of the public but also that it be in proximity to the object of the protest. For instance, a protest against MPs awarding themselves high salaries is more effective if held in front of the Parliament Buildings (or at least nearby).
Regulations demarcating demonstration zones would thus deny protesters the ability to reach their target audiences, rendering their assembly ineffective. Suppose, for example, that demonstrations were restricted to Freedom Corner (in Uhuru Park). People would only be aware of them if they came voluntarily to the park — totally defeating the purpose of confronting the public with a cause.
This, in addition to the judge’s proposal that consent of the persons/entities adjacent to demonstration zones be sought, constitutes unreasonable restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly.
The judge’s proposal that a maximum number of protesters be prescribed is unconstitutional since Article 37 protects freedom of assembly as a right that belongs to ‘Every person’. Placing a general cap on the number of people allowed to participate in a demonstration would be to deny some this important right.
BURDEN ON ORGANISERS
The judge proposes that “the regulation could specify the full organiser’s details which must be captured to ensure that in the event of loss of lives and destruction of property then they are liable.” Interestingly, the current Public Order (Amendment) Bill 2019 also seeks to impose upon organisers of protests liability to compensate for loss or damage during protests and imprisonment for as long as one year.
Holding protest organisers jointly liable for acts they may not have committed is an unfair limitation on the right to freedom of assembly. Its effect would naturally be to deter the organising of protests for fear of the possible penalties if damage occurs.
And it is not in line with basic principles of criminal law which are based on the actual fault of individuals since organisers would be held liable without their having any intention or having committed any actual criminal act.
While there is a need for regulations about protest organisers, the focus should not be to impose criminal liability on them but rather to guide their relationship and partnership with the police to effectively manage, and ensure peaceful conduct of public gatherings. Protest organisers are an important link between police and protesters, which is useful for negotiation to enable police to discharge their duty to facilitate assemblies.
Trying to ensure that demonstrations are held peacefully and to minimise loss of life and damage to property, as the judge notes, is not wrong in principle. However, we must warn against the tendency of the state to roll back on constitutional rights under the guise of ‘peace and security’. The late Justice Onguto observed the same in Eugene Wamalwa v Minister for State for Internal Security (2011):
“The machinery of criminal justice cannot be allowed to become a tool for the police (to) violate the constitutional rights of citizens. The invocation of the criminal law, in unsuitable circumstances or for the wrong ends must be stopped…”
In the Ngunjiri Wambugu case, the High Court justifies unreasonable state action to criminalise protests. Justice Makau seems to be prejudiced against protesters when he states:
“In this country, it is no longer a secret that demonstration, picketing, assembly have escalated from peaceful and unarmed gatherings to violent unruly and unlawful gatherings which end up clouding the real agenda for demonstration and in which every member of the gathering takes law into their own hands.”
ROLE OF POLICE IN VIOLENCE
This ignores the role that police officers play in causing or initiating violence during protests. In their report on the 2016 IEBC demonstrations, the Independent Policing and Oversight Authority observed that there was excessive use of force on demonstrators, serious injuries and deaths at the hands of police officers and occasionally, prison warders.
A new study published by the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies, ‘Policing Protests in Kenya’, observes that the existing police structure, training and resources have had negative effects on their management of protests.
Specifically, it found that 72 per cent of police involved had never received any specialised training on public order control. The equipment available for public order control was also inadequate as reported by 60 per cent of the police officers surveyed.
Moreover, the study found that police attitudes and culture contribute to violence during protests. It found that 42 per cent of the police believe that an aggressive and overbearing culture is more useful in public order control. The study showed that police officers hold a negative perception that protesters are out to loot and damage property, which is adopted to justify the use of excessive force to disperse them.
What this reflects is the complexity of public order control where numerous factors are responsible for poor management of public gatherings, including the occurrence of violence during protests.
It is thus important that any policy or legal reforms capture this complexity by responding to an evidence basis, and include improving the capacity of police officers to manage protests. Essentially, the responses must not unfairly restrict the rights of or target protesters but rather ensure that police facilitate the right by responding appropriately and fairly to security risks.
As Marion Ogeto and Waikwa Wanyoike argue in their chapter in this study, “The police must be better equipped at crowd control, employing a much more disciplined and objective approach in policing to allow for better isolation of rogue characters in order to minimise compromising the right of those who have chosen and are practicing peaceful assembly.”
CONCLUSION
The state far too often uses ‘national security’ as a cloak to deny the fundamental right to assembly. The regulations proposed by the High Court in Ngunjiri Wambugu is a distressing instance where the court has justified state excesses under this guise.
The courts must be sure to guard against attempts to unjustifiably limit the right to assembly. To achieve this, judges ought to take a nuanced and elaborate assessment of each state attempt to limit the right in order to ensure that such restrictions do not impair the essence of the right.
The writer is a lawyer and researcher, currently working as Junior Researcher Fellow at the Centre for Human Rights and Policy Studies.
AFP|Business people have become a target of both insurgents and the police in Cabo Delgado. The car of local businessman John Loca was attacked near Quelimane village, Mocimboa da Praia district on Tuesday (27 Aug). Loca and another person in the car were decapitated. And on Saturday (24 Aug) a young local Mocimboa da Praia businessman, Aly Nuro, was arrested by police, allegedly for links with insurgents.
The coastal area of Macomia district, just 100 km north of Pemba, has become a centre of the insurgency in Cabo Delgado. The linked coastal towns of Mucojo and Pangane which were badly damaged by cyclone Kenneth in April are particular targets.
Four fishermen returning from the sea were attacked and beheaded Tuesday afternoon (27 Aug); they were employed by a trader, Momade Mansuli, who lives in Pangane. They were going home to their inland village of Nacotuco. A firth person was beheaded in Simbolongo, who was killed as he was cutting thatch for his roof. Both villages are on the road north of Mucojo, 3 km inland from Pangane and the sea.
On Monday (26 Aug) a villager in Ulo village in Mocimboa da Praia was killed.
On Friday 23 August, 5 people were killed in Nangade district in the far north of Cabo Delgado. Two were killed in Machava as they returned from spraying the cashew trees against fungus, and three were killed in an outer neighbourhood of Nangade town.
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has ordered general elections on October 23, as tensions rise with his estranged predecessor, Ian Khama, the man who put him in the top job.
Khama, whose father led the southern African country to independence, has accused Masisi of becoming an autocrat and threatening the country’s reputation as a beacon of stability in a troubled continent.
Masisi has called for “the holding of the 2019 General Elections to fill the 57 National Assembly vacancies and 490 local government vacancies”, Osupile Maroba from the national election commission said late on Friday.
The last date for nominations is September 26.
The country has been ruled by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) uninterruptedly since it gained independence from Britain in 1966. This year the BDP will come face to face with the opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Another BDP splinter group, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), which is the brainchild of former president Khama, will also contest the elections in 19 constituencies mostly in the Central District, a Khama stronghold.
Khama ruled from 2008 to 2018 and handed power to his chosen successor Masisi after completing two terms – the maximum allowed by the constitution.
But he walked out of the party in May, saying: “The person who I nominated to be my successor, as soon as he took office became very autocratic, very intolerant and it has led to a decline in the democratic credentials that we have a reputation for.” Since coming to office, Masisi changed several key policies adopted by Khama – the most high-profile being the lifting of the wildlife sports hunting ban imposed in 2014.
Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population with more than 135 000 roaming freely in its unfenced parks and wide open spaces.
Standard|Suspected state security agents have allegedly been sending threatening messages to leaders of unions representing doctors in a bid to force the medical professionals to drop plans to go on strike on Tuesday .
Government doctors last week gave notice that they would down tools after they rejected a 60% salary increase offer.
Some doctors said they had been threatened with death, but vowed that the industrial action was going ahead as planned.
“They are threatening to kill us and we have been called several times to accept the offer they are extending to us as a salary increment although it is actually, a meagre stipend,”
said one of the doctors who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Health minister Obadiah Moyo yesterday referred questions about the alleged threats to the Health Services Board (HSB) chair Paulinus Sikhosana, who was not available for comment.
On Friday, the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors’ Association acting president Peter Mugombeyi formally notified heads of government hospitals of the impending strike.
“This letter serves as a notice that starting from September 3 this year, doctors at Mpilo, Bulawayo United, Parirenyatwa Group, Harare and Chitungwiza central hospitals are not going
to report for work. We simply do not have the means to continue coming to work because the salary is not sufficient,” Mugombeyi wrote in a fresh notice to clinical directors and heads.
He said the HSB’s unwillingness to engage had left them without any choice.
“Attempts to engage the employer have proved to be futile. Letters have been submitted and meetings have been attended through the bipartite negotiating panel to register the concerns,”
read part of the letter.
“No satisfactory agreement has been reached so far to insulate the doctors from the current high cost of living.
“To this end, it is within this reason that on the date stated above we will not report for duty until the salaries are adjusted to an interbank rate that is based on the market forces
of the day.”
Doctors last year embarked on an over-a-month-long industrial action, which they eventually abandoned after government made promises to improve their working conditions. Threats and
blackmail were also employed to force the doctors to go back to work.
The government last week gave civil servants that fall under the Apex Council a 75% pay increase despite demand for a 400% review. Teachers accused leaders of the Apex Council of
selling out.
Unions such as the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Union and Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) have rejected the salary offer.
The Apex Council, however, claimed that it signed the agreement after reaching an agreement with its members that included the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta).
But Zimta secretary-general Sifiso Ndlovu dismissed the claims saying they had asked negotiators from the Apex Council to report back to them before signing so that they could consult
their members about the government’s offer.
PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said the Apex Council was being used by government to deny workers a living wage.
The least paid government worker now earns about $1 000 against their earlier demand of $4 750.
The MDC led by Nelson Chamisa has resolved to maintain pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government by mobilising its structures through regular rallies after the government blocked its planned protests.
Police last month blocked several MDC protests throughout the country citing security concerns.
The MDC’s top leadership met on Friday to restrategise and a communiqué to the party’s structures revealed that the opposition was not backing down on its confrontational stance.
“The party has resolved that the MDC will restore the people’s vote through constitutional and peaceful actions as informed by our goal to ‘win elections, attain state power through democratic, non-violent, constitutional means, and create a just, equitable, sustainable democratic Zimbabwe’,” wrote MDC secretary-general Chalton Hwende after the party’s national executive committee met in Harare.
“The party will endeavour to return the country to legitimacy, political stability and economic prosperity as informed by its five stages outlined in our transitional blueprint Reload.
“[We will] put political pressure through political advocacy and actions, genuine dialogue, transitional mechanism agreed and put in place, free and fair elections and prosperous Zimbabwe.”
Hwende said the party would roll out rallies throughout the country, which would be cascaded to the village level.
“To ensure that this happens, the party resolved to carry out Reload rallies that will be cascaded down to villages throughout the country,” he added.
“We maintain and sustain our peaceful engagement that will allow all Zimbabweans to participate in their quest to free themselves from the albatross of the current regime.
“These actions must be people-driven and promote unity on common grievances.”
Chamisa rejected Mnangagwa’s 2018 election victory saying the polls were rigged. The Constitutional Court, however, threw out the opposition leader’s petition challenging the election result.
Hwende said the MDC would continue challenging Mnangagwa’s legitimacy.
“The party, motivated by its social democracy ideology, remains concerned by the national legitimacy crisis and will continue to put pressure on the regime to ensure that the challenges — corruption, unemployment, power and fuel shortages, lack of genuine political and institutional reforms, high cost of living and unaffordable prices of basic commodities
— be dealt with once and for all,” he said.
On September 14 the MDC said it would hold its 20th anniversary celebrations at Rufaro Stadium, which could be the largest gathering by the opposition party this year.
THE much-anticipated report on the Government-stipulated investigation on the conduct of Bulawayo City Councillors is out, with indications that some councillors’ conduct was deemed inappropriate and therefore not fit to be in office.
The Government in July deployed a five-member team to investigate circumstances leading to the attempted suspension of Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube, by then Deputy Mayor, Mr Tinashe Kambarami and a clique of councillors. Mr Kambarami has since ceased to be a councillor and deputy mayor after the High Court in Bulawayo last week nullified his election.
The five, comprising senior officials including directors in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, interviewed the town clerk, Mr Kambarami, the mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni and other council officials as part of their investigations.
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Deputy Minister, Jennifer Mhlanga told state media that the investigating team had delivered their final report to the Ministry.
“Yes, the team has completed their final report and have tabled it to the ministry, we will soon be presenting it to the local authority,” said Deputy Minister Mhlanga.
She, however, did not divulge details of the report adding, “when all the necessary procedures had been completed they will then also present it to the media.”
She said; “I promise you that you will also be given this report but as you would know there are some logistical issues that have to be completed before we make the findings public.”
However, sources who gleaned the report noted that it questioned whether some councillors were even aware of their mandate in the running of the city.
“In short it says some of the councillors are not fit for their positions. Recommendations were also made and it is up to the minister at the end to announce a way forward. Indications are that some councillors have to be suspended or fired paving way for by-elections,” said the State Media source.
It is Mr Kambarami, however, who is likely to have been at the centre of the investigations as he together with Ward Four councillor, Silas Chigora attempted to eject Mr Dube from office taking advantage of Clr Mguni’s absence with Mr Kambarami assuming the acting mayor role. It, however, later emerged that when Mr Kambarami was purporting to be acting mayor, he was not as Clr Mguni was actually not on leave. The suspension was eventually overturned by Clr Mguni.
Following the skirmishes some residents in the city called on July Moyo to appoint a commission to run operations in the city.
The councillors were said to be miffed especially by the town clerk’s refusal to let them interfere in the distribution of the $5 million ward retention fund as well as control the subcommittee on allocation of stands and premises.
Moyo also reacted by blasting Mr Kambarami and his clique of councillors saying their conduct was not that of city fathers.
The minister further warned councillors to stop meddling in employment, procurement and allocation of stands issues saying Government will come down hard on city fathers found to be interfering in such matters which are the prerogative of council officials.
“I have been told that there are councillors who are interfering with procurement. The Procurement Act that has been put in place is clear about who ought to be doing procurement just as ministers are not doing procurement, councillors are not supposed to be involving themselves in procurement issues. This is the work of council staff and even the staff in order to make sure that heads of department also do not end up doing things that are wrong, there are special committees that are set up in each council that are responsible for procurement,” Moyo said then.
File Picture: South Africans on the rampage attacking foreigners living in that country
Zimbabwe has expressed deep concern over growing attacks and threats on its nationals in South Africa since the beginning of the year.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa said threats of violence against Zimbabweans in the country escalated to alarming level in the past week, prompting officials to request an urgent meeting with South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation officials (DIRCO).
A campaign by groups of South African truckers against foreign truck drivers has raised fears of xenophobic attacks, at a time violent clashes were witnessed in Pretoria during the week.
“The threats have further been accompanied by public written statements from some organisations calling for ‘a nationwide stoppage of all trucks in South Africa’ from September 2,” the Embassy statement said.
While the South African government has assured the representatives of southern African countries that security measures would be put in place to address their concerns, the Zimbabwean embassy has advised its nationals to take precautionary action to ensure their safety and protection of their property.
South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mphakama Mbete, said he was aware that some organisations plan to embark on a nationwide campaign against the employment of foreign drivers, but he could not give details.
“I am aware that there are some groups that want to go on strike. Our government is always concerned about these things because they hurt the economy,” said Ambassador Mbete.
He expressed confidence that the security forces will be able to ensure the safety and security of people going about their business.
“You might also be aware that today (Saturday) our Deputy President (David Mabuza) was at the Mpumalanga Agricultural Show, where he condemned xenophobic attacks or any such activities. In fact, the Deputy President actually encouraged Zimbabweans to come and exhibit their goods at the show,” Ambassador Mbete said.
Sources within the Zimbabwean consulate said a planned meeting between representatives of Southern African countries and DIRCO officials was postponed indefinitely, much to the dismay of Zimbabwean representatives, who had hoped to seek assurances on security.
Organisers of the planned nationwide strike are complaining about poor salaries and what they say is the unfair employment of foreign nationals by South African transport companies.
Earlier in March, a Zimbabwean truck driver was assaulted in a suspected xenophobic attack in Durban, in the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa.
Zimbabwe’s Consul-General to South Africa, Mr Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro, confirmed at the time that the truck driver, Mr Tineyi Takawira, was admitted at King Edward Hospital after being stabbed.
Several human rights organisations have, in the past, urged the South African government to take urgent measures to protect foreign truck drivers from violence, intimidation and harassment. South Africa has had several cycles of xenophobic violence.
More than 200 people, mostly foreign truck drivers, have been killed in South Africa since March 2018, according to research by the Road Freight Association, which represents road freight service providers.
Groups of people claiming to be South African truck drivers have thrown petrol bombs at trucks and shot at, stoned, stabbed, and harassed foreign truck drivers to force them out of the trucking industry.
Many foreign truck drivers have lost their jobs, despite having valid work permits, or have been unable to return to work due to injuries or damage to their trucks. Some of the attackers claimed affiliation to the All Truck Drivers Foundation (ATDF), an association of South African truck drivers.
State Media|GOVERNMENT will introduce a series of key economic interventions to anchor stability of the recently reintroduced Zimbabwean dollar, cognisant of challenges posed by low market confidence and limited foreign currency reserves to support the currency, a Treasury official said.
In a speech read on his behalf by Ministry of Finance and Economic Development chief communications officer, Clive Mpambela, during a devolution conference hosted by our sister publication Business Weekly in Gweru on Friday, Andrew Bvumbe (finance permanent secretary non-accounting) said reintroducing the domestic currency had become inevitable.
Zimbabwe had since 2009 been using a multi-currency regime, largely dominated by the United States dollar until June this year, when it scrapped the system amid an acute shortage of the greenback to meet the demands of a much bigger economy.
Government contends that while a strong and stable US dollar had stabilised the economy, between 2009 and 2012, the currency had started to pose serious constraints to sustained rapid growth because it made Zimbabwe’s exports uncompetitive.
As such, Government made it a point under the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) that it would institute currency reforms in order to address the growth constraints posed by a strong currency as well as challenges presented by its shortage.
“The economy had been using the multi-currency arrangement which constrained economic growth dynamics. (There also) was higher demand for foreign exchange, with transactions on the parallel exchange market attracting premiums on either the bond note, or RTGS$. A new and more competitive currency has to be the solution,” he said.
While the domestic currency was successfully restored, Mr Bvumbe said maintaining its stability faced the twin challenges of low confidence and little foreign reserves to support it.
In view of these hurdles, Mr Bvumbe said the solution lay in measures for sustained macro-economic stability, generation of adequate foreign currency reserves to support the currency, enhancing business confidence and attaining rapid economic growth.
The currency reform measures are part of a basket of targeted economic reform measures under the TSP’s whose immediate task is centred on macro-economic and fiscal stabilisation.
The two-year programme, which runs from October 2018 to October 2020, is expected to lay a solid foundation for attaining the overall goal of a strong, sustainable and shared growth.
Broadly, TSP entails measures for fiscal consolidation, stabilising the macro-economic and financial sector, implementation of quick win infrastructure projects to stimulate growth, introducing key policy and institutional reforms to transition to a private sector led growth.
Writing in the US publication Financial Times, Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube last week said that achieving sustainable growth was inevitable without a local currency, scrapped in 2009 at the height of hyperinflation.
Following hyperinflation at the close of 2009, and to stem the instability produced by bad governance and fiscal ill-discipline, a mixture of other currencies — the US dollar, British pound, South African rand, the euro, the Chinese renminbi and the Botswana pula — became Zimbabwe’s media of exchange in place of the Zimbabwean dollar.
The Cambridge University trained professor of economics said while multi-currency had curtailed household price increase — its primary purpose — was now outdated.
“Dollarisation has acted as a break on Zimbabwe’s economic development as we are a country reliant on exports. The strong dollar stifled our competitiveness. Without our own currency, we have had no control of monetary policy.
“We have had no mechanism to stimulate economic activity — not exports, nor foreign direct investment — or to deal with downturns in international markets. That is why the Government must introduce its own new, and permanent, fiat currency,” he said.
The Treasury chief said the introduction of the Zimbabwean dollar was not a “political” decision, but simple economic and geopolitical necessity. He noted that Zimbabwe’s economic recovery would still depend on export-led growth.
Minister Ncube said to an outsider, it might appear puzzling that Zimbabwe had made the decision to reintroduce a local currency, given the amount of foreign currency to back the unit, this was necessary.
“Yet, with the US dollar strengthening over the years against the currencies of Zimbabwe’s major trading partners, exports were continually losing competitiveness. A fresh tranche of foreign exchange in the required volume and time-frame was improbable.
“Sooner or later, the current administration knew it would have to introduce a new, national currency. Prevarication would only place Zimbabwe in a weaker position. It was a choice between short-term turbulence now or far greater anguish later,” he said.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa and Chimanimani East legislator Joshua Sacco tour Belly bridge under construction by South African Defence Forces in Rusitu Valley, Chimanimani last Friday
State Media|STREET demonstrations being organised by the MDC are not benefiting anyone, and Zimbabweans are too smart to be used as political tools, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said.
The remarks by Minister Mutsvangwa come after police foiled a series of MDC protests against the harsh economic situation in the country a fortnight ago.
In an interview at Kopa in Chimanimani, where she toured construction sites in areas that were ravaged by Cyclone Idai in March this year, Minister Mutsvangwa said Government was fully aware of the difficulties Zimbabweans were enduring owing to ongoing austerity measures that are meant to revitalise the economy.
“Zimbabweans are mature. They fought for their independence and it was not easy fighting a strong enemy like the (Ian) Smith regime. It called for maturity. They have seen the Second Republic working hard to make sure that they change people’s lives.
There have been a lot of economic, social and political reforms which have been put in place by the Second Republic,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Zimbabweans, she said, are a hard working people who can see through the futility of demonstrations.
“All this (austerity) is aimed at changing people’s living standards, and the people of Zimbabwe are not eager for demonstrations. They realise that demonstrations will not bring any changes in their lives. They would like to work. You know that a lot of people actually run small enterprises, people who are self-employed and once you talk of demonstrations, that disrupts their economic activities and that does not put food on the table,” added Minister Mutsvangwa.
She said President Mnangagwa’s administration was fully aware of the challenges facing the nation owing to the current austerity measures.
“The Government is fully aware of the austerity measures which are in place, they cause pain, but that is the only way to bring the economy of this country back on rail,” said the Minister, who was accompanied by Chimanimani East legislator Joshua Sacco.
“Zimbabwe had suffered for decades and it was time to build the nation,” she said.
“What President Mnangagwa is doing in the Second Republic is to make sure that we bring back the economy on rail. The transformation that is happening — a lot of those who are progressive, Zimbabweans who are progressive — can actually see what is being done by the Second Republic. As Zimbabweans, we should ask ourselves what demonstrations help us with.
‘‘Who are we doing it for? Why are we seeing some embassies involved in making sure that they are demonstrations?
“Demonstrations, do they help our people? Our people are very intelligent and smart to know what is good for them.”
THE family members of missing Baines Primary School pupil in Bulawayo, Tinomutenda Faith Mambewu, said they are still making efforts to find her and are putting together a reward for her safe return.
Tinomutenda went missing more than a month ago on her way from school with a fellow classmate. In an interview, her guardian Ms Marian Maphosa said the family was in desperate need for any information that will lead to her whereabouts.
“We are desperate for any leads to where she could be. We have been checking all possible places even with relatives to no avail. There have been suggestions that we must have a reward offered to anyone who may know anything. We are still to finalise on it though as a family,” she said.
According to Ms Mpofu, Tinomutenda who is her late sister’s daughter left for school and just vanished after that.
“Tino’s mum passed away years back and I have been caring for her. She went to school like she used to do every weekday at around 7am. As people who did not know whether the child went or did not go to school we had to go to the school and confirm if she had arrived.
Her class teacher confirmed that indeed she came to school but when they knocked off that was the last she saw her,” she said.
Ms Maphosa said the teacher also said after dismissing, she only remained with pupils who were practising music and those who were on cleaning duty of which Tinomutenda was not in either group.
Ms Maphosa said the following day, she checked again at the school and talked to those who were with her after knocking off.
“We went to the school again the following morning to try and gather more information. We looked for Tino’s friend and she said they were together after school and they walked home together. She said they parted ways in North End when Tino said she was going to pass by an uncle’s house and that was when she last saw her friend,” she added.
The family however, said there were no known uncles that she was supposed to visit in the area.
“Tino knew that she should not entertain strangers so I am shocked how she got into this. She has always been a cheerful child with no mood swings or anything of that sort,” she said.
Police in Bulawayo said anyone with information about the girl’s whereabouts may contact ZRP Sauerstown police on (0292) 200 960 or the investigating officer Constable Fortune Sigauke on 0773 642 352 or 0738 202 117 or the nearest police station.State media
THE Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Ezra Chadzamira has hailed President Mnangagwa for his immense contribution to the health sector through sourcing medical equipment and medicine, a move that has improved service delivery in the sector.
In his keynote speech during a graduation ceremony of 107 registered general nurses (RGN) and midwives, at Masvingo General Hospital on Friday, Chadzamira said President Mnangagwa’s gesture showed that he was a listening leader and believed in action.
The President has sourced state-of-the-art medical equipment and medicines from India and United Arab Emirates for major referral hospitals.
“Furthermore, let us be inspired and encouraged by the personal intervention of His Excellency, the President Mnangagwa in sourcing medical equipment and medicines for our major referral hospitals. This intervention is a clear testimony of an action oriented, listening and hands-on leader, who has a desire to transform our livelihoods as Zimbabweans,” said Chadzamira.State media
STREET demonstrations being organised by the MDC are not benefiting anyone, and Zimbabweans are too smart to be used as political tools, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said.
The remarks by Minister Mutsvangwa come after the MDC unsuccessfully tried to mobilise Zimbabweans to rise against Government a fortnight ago.
In an interview at Kopa in Chimanimani, where she toured construction sites in areas that were ravaged by Cyclone Idai in March this year, Minister Mutsvangwa said Government was fully aware of the difficulties Zimbabweans were enduring owing to ongoing austerity measures that are meant to revitalise the economy.
“Zimbabweans are mature. They fought for their independence and it was not easy fighting a strong enemy like the (Ian) Smith regime. It called for maturity. They have seen the Second Republic working hard to make sure that they change people’s lives.
There have been a lot of economic, social and political reforms which have been put in place by the Second Republic,” said Minister Mutsvangwa. Zimbabweans, she said, are a hard working people who can see through the futility of demonstrations.
“All this (austerity) is aimed at changing people’s living standards, and the people of Zimbabwe are not eager for demonstrations. They realise that demonstrations will not bring any changes in their lives. They would like to work. You know that a lot of people actually run small enterprises, people who are self-employed and once you talk of demonstrations, that disrupts their economic activities and that does not put food on the table,” added Minister Mutsvangwa.
She said President Mnangagwa’s administration was fully aware of the challenges facing the nation owing to the current austerity measures. “The Government is fully aware of the austerity measures which are in place, they cause pain, but that is the only way to bring the economy of this country back on rail,” said the Minister, who was accompanied by Chimanimani East legislator Joshua Sacco.
Zimbabwe had suffered for decades and it was time to build the nation, she said.
“What President Mnangagwa is doing in the Second Republic is to make sure that we bring back the economy on rail. The transformation that is happening — a lot of those who are progressive, Zimbabweans who are progressive — can actually see what is being done by the Second Republic. As Zimbabweans, we should ask ourselves what demonstrations help us with.
‘‘Who are we doing it for? Why are we seeing some embassies involved in making sure that they are demonstrations?
“Demonstrations, do they help our people? Our people are very intelligent and smart to know what is good for them.”State media
STREET demonstrations being organised by the MDC are not benefiting anyone, and Zimbabweans are too smart to be used as political tools, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has said.
The remarks by Minister Mutsvangwa come after the MDC unsuccessfully tried to mobilise Zimbabweans to rise against Government a fortnight ago.
In an interview at Kopa in Chimanimani, where she toured construction sites in areas that were ravaged by Cyclone Idai in March this year, Minister Mutsvangwa said Government was fully aware of the difficulties Zimbabweans were enduring owing to ongoing austerity measures that are meant to revitalise the economy.
“Zimbabweans are mature. They fought for their independence and it was not easy fighting a strong enemy like the (Ian) Smith regime. It called for maturity. They have seen the Second Republic working hard to make sure that they change people’s lives.
There have been a lot of economic, social and political reforms which have been put in place by the Second Republic,” said Minister Mutsvangwa. Zimbabweans, she said, are a hard working people who can see through the futility of demonstrations.
“All this (austerity) is aimed at changing people’s living standards, and the people of Zimbabwe are not eager for demonstrations. They realise that demonstrations will not bring any changes in their lives. They would like to work.
You know that a lot of people actually run small enterprises, people who are self-employed and once you talk of demonstrations, that disrupts their economic activities and that does not put food on the table,” added Minister Mutsvangwa.
TONDERAI NDIRAYA ran out of superlatives to describe his side’s poor show after Dynamos laboured to a goalless draw against TelOne at Rufaro yesterday.
Ndiraya’s second reign at DeMbare came full circle yesterday when he met TelOne, his first opponents back in April when he took over from Lloyd “MaBlanyo” Chigowe.
It was Ndiraya’s 18th game in charge, 130 days after taking over the Dynamos hot seat and after yesterday’s draw, which was DeMbare’s ninth since the gaffer was unveiled on April 25, the former Ngezi Platinum Stars coach lashed out at his players.
Under Ndiraya, DeMbare have not lost at Rufaro and have now garnered 30 points out of a possible 54, which translates to a 55 percent success rate. DeMbare are now on 33 points, five behind new log leaders Chicken Inn who stunned defending champions FC Platinum 2-1 at Mandava yesterday.
However, Ndiraya thinks those statistics are not a true reflection of his team’s performance. “Yes, statistics show otherwise, but performance-wise, we are not consistent at all. Today we win, tomorrow we draw,” bemoaned Ndiraya.
“I think we were just bad today (yesterday) from the onset. From the first whistle, the team just failed to come to the party. We were not ourselves.
“Maybe fatigue was affecting the team, we have played three games in seven days. Honestly if you ask me to name the man of the match, I wouldn’t find one. It was a bad day in the office,” Ndiraya said.State media
Zimbabwe has expressed deep concern over growing attacks and threats on its nationals in South Africa since the beginning of the year.
In a statement, the Zimbabwe Embassy in South Africa said threats of violence against Zimbabweans in the country escalated to alarming level in the past week, prompting officials to request an urgent meeting with South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation officials (DIRCO).
A campaign by groups of South African truckers against foreign truck drivers has raised fears of xenophobic attacks, at a time violent clashes were witnessed in Pretoria during the week.
“The threats have further been accompanied by public written statements from some organisations calling for ‘a nationwide stoppage of all trucks in South Africa’ from September 2,” the Embassy statement said.
While the South African government has assured the representatives of southern African countries that security measures would be put in place to address their concerns, the Zimbabwean embassy has advised its nationals to take precautionary action to ensure their safety and protection of their property.
South African ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mphakama Mbete, said he was aware that some organisations plan to embark on a nationwide campaign against the employment of foreign drivers, but he could not give details.
“I am aware that there are some groups that want to go on strike. Our government is always concerned about these things because they hurt the economy,” said Ambassador Mbete.
He expressed confidence that the security forces will be able to ensure the safety and security of people going about their business.State media
A ROMANTIC gesture by a Cowdray Park woman who asked her partner to join her for a bath earned her a beating from her husband who accused her of disrespecting him.
On Friday last week Mavis Muleya (34) invited her husband, Washington Mphini (42), to bath with her. “I collected hot water from the fire and went inside the house. I asked my husband to bath with me. He followed me and closed the door,” said Mavis, as she narrated her ordeal at the Western Commonage courts this week.
Mphini bashed his wife with fists all over the body several times using fists, accusing her of disrespecting him.
He denied the allegations in court but he was convicted at the close of the trial. Mphini was fined $100 (or 30 days in prison) by magistrate Stephen Ndlovu.B-Metro
HILARIOUS or ridiculous, you decide! If you’ve been with the same person for a long time, the smallest annoyances can suddenly seem insurmountable.
And that’s how seemingly trivial things can sometimes be the spark that leads to two people finally separating.
In a matter yet to be heard at the Bulawayo Customary Court, a man from Hope Fountain on the outskirts of Bulawayo is seeking divorce after suspecting that his wife was cheating on him because she was constantly calling out her ex-lover’s name during sex.
For Felix Dube, his wife Nombulelelo Moyo’s habitual actions of repeating her ex-lover’s name when in the throes of passion may seem like the sort of blunder which is better suited to a bad film.
This came to light when Dube filed for divorce at the Bulawayo Customary Court claiming his wife always calls out her former boyfriend’s name whenever they are making love.
In his suit he stated that there was no love anymore between him and Moyo reiterating that their customary marriage had irretrievably broken down and there were no prospects of a restoration to a normal relationship. The main reason being that his wife was constantly shouting another man’s name while the action was going on.
“I am customarily married to Nombulelelo Moyo and our union has irretrievably broken down as I suspect that she is still dating her ex-lover because, whenever we are in bed, she calls out his name.
“As a result there are no prospects of restoration to a normal relationship because we now have irreconcilable differences which render the continuance of the relationship impossible. As a couple we have also lost love and affection for each other,” read the papers in part.
He further claimed whenever he confronted her about the issue; she became violent and started verbally and physically abusing him.
Dube, who said he would take care of their two children‘s upkeep upon the dissolution of their marriage, wants to have their property mostly household items and livestock to be shared equally.
Moyo’s response is set to be heard when the parties appear in court.B-Metro
Government has warned pharmacies that are overcharging clients or selling medicines in United States dollars that they risk losing their operating licences.
Unscrupulous pharmacies are overcharging customers through pegging prices on prevailing parallel market rates of local currency to the US dollar.
This has led to decline in uptake of medicines, raising fears that some patients could be defaulting, which may complicate their medical conditions.
Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said Government would soon be checking for compliance to pricing of medicines at all pharmacies.
“We are going to be checking on all private pharmacies to ensure that they are all adhering to the approved prices. We do not want a situation where people are overcharged, where there is a continuous hiking of prices of drugs and at the same time we also want to advice retailers that they should not charge in foreign currency.
“We have heard that there are some who are still charging in foreign currency, that has to stop immediately. The law says we pay in Zimbabwean dollar and that is what we have to adhere to. All those who are charging in US dollars are doing an illegal act and we will not hesitate to withdraw licences of those who continue to do unlawful acts,” said Dr Moyo.State media
The general trend is that younger children need more sleep and naturally, should be allowed less screen time compared to adults.
Gone are the days of the good bedtime stories and a cup of warm milk before sending kids to bed. These days parents find it easy to give kids smartphones to watch some bedtime shows.
Those that grew up when grandparents, aunts, uncles, mothers and fathers told folktales are privileged. Those moments remain cherished. Remember going to your grandparents’ house for the holidays or going to your rural home, all the stories told around a fire. It was wonderful.
There was real human interaction. I used to love reading Sunrise readers and Uncle Arthur ’s bedtime stories before going to bed. I owned very few of the volumes but borrowed a lot of them from the library. I think most people my age or older could say they had a healthy childhood.
I got messages from concerned parents who were responding to last week’s column on digital addictions and how they affect child development during the week. I then felt that the issue could be the subject matter for this week too.
Most parents who communicated with me had interesting confessions to make. They know that too much gadget time is not healthy but it keeps sanity in the household. On the surface, screen time appears to get the job done as a pre-bedtime ritual for getting the little ones to sleep as it helps them to relax, unwind and most importantly, keeps them happy.
Unfortunately, a growing body of research is proving that screen time before bedtime is detrimental to your child’s sleep.
The most obvious way in which screen time disrupts your child’s sleep is that it pushes back bedtime for your child. Children love the moving graphics, the cheerful music and the seemingly endless on-demand entertainment they get from the screen and as such will give up their sleep for more screen time.
When screen time is unsupervised or curfews aren’t strictly imposed, children end up pushing their bedtime back.
It keeps your child alert and awake way longer than he or she should be. Even if curfews are strictly enforced, the very nature of engaging in screen time will make it harder for your child to fall asleep. First of all, content that keeps your child engrossed also keeps their brains alert, way too alert for sleep. Besides fuelling them with adrenaline, screen time also messes with the expression of the sleep hormone in your child’s body.
Screen time before bedtime doesn’t only keep your child up late at night and make it harder for them to fall asleep, it also heightens your child’s risk of developing insomnia, a sleep condition in which sleep disturbances are experienced over a prolonged period of time, often lasting more than a month.
We all know how difficult it is to function when we are running low on sleep. Our focus and alertness falters, and we can’t make ourselves move faster than a snail’s pace. For children, however, the signs that they aren’t sleeping enough can be a bit different, not all sleep-deprived children behave like walking zombies. Sometimes, unusually high levels of energy akin to hyperactivity is the result of not getting enough sleep.
When children don’t get enough sleep, they can be a lot less physically active and end up spending more time engaged in sedentary activities. Sleep deprived children who engage in considerable amounts of screen time also tend to have poorer dietary habits such as eating more junk food, which contributes to the problem of obesity as well. While obesity itself may not be that serious a problem since children’s bodies are in a state of development, being obese can put your child at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, which is a growing health epidemic among young children in recent times.
A lack of sleep is often associated with depression, anxiety and other mental health orders, not just in children but in adults as well. This is because quality, restorative sleep is extremely important in alleviating mental stress as children experience stress too and are perhaps more sensitive to its effects. Children who don’t get enough sleep are often unmotivated, uninterested, irritable and even aggressive.
A short attention span and trouble concentrating are side effects of not having enough sleep, so naturally this could lead to problems with academic performance. Children who stay up late on their devices will tend to be sleepier in classes and this affects their ability to learn and recall information.
Ultimately, less screen time is always better as it will help your child get more quality sleep. No matter how old your child is, quality sleep is of utmost importance to ensuring good physical and mental health. The most obvious way to help your child get more sleep is definitely by limiting their screen time. For babies and toddlers, avoid exposing them to screen time as they are still young.
For children in pre-school and primary school, imposing screen time curfews is extremely important. Children are very impressionable and mimic what most adults do. Whatever habits you want your child to embody, be it sleeping early or spending less time on screens, you must exhibit it first. So, put away your smartphones and laptops at home, or at least don’t use them in front of your child and keep to the TV curfew limits that you designated.
At the end of the day, getting quality sleep is important for the child’s well-being. Screen time is playing an increasingly bigger role in the lives of our children and we should take active steps to protect them from its disruptive effects.State media
By Farai D Hove |There was not a word about the missing hundreds of millions of US dollars money meant for command agriculture yesterday, as the deputy minister for Agriculture announced that his ministry wants more.
The figures were publicly disclosed during a parliamentary session last week.
“The allocation from Treasury was a good start, but we need more for us to succeed in our plans. These programmes are meant to cushion farmers from high prices being charged by suppliers,” said Deputy Minister Angelis Haritatos.
He continued saying :
“Programmes such as Command Agriculture are always a relief to farmers, but those who do not benefit still need to make their own plans. And as it stands, farmers are complaining that almost everything is expensive and might have to reduce hectarage,” he commented. His statements were published in the state media.
A TEACHER at Amavene Primary School in Bulawayo’s Nkulumane suburb has been arraigned for allegedly beating up and damaging the eardrum of a Grade Seven pupil he accused of poor performance.
Benuka Phiri (52) from Nkulumane 5 suburb allegedly slapped Leo Muriwo twice on his ear for failing a test, resulting in his eardrum discharging yellow pus which has given him problems since 2014.
Phiri appeared before West Commonage magistrate Ms Tancy Dube facing assault charges. She was remanded in custody to September 3 for commencement of trial.
The court heard that the boy’s mother only reported the matter to the police after Phiri defaulted paying Leo’s medical bills.
Prosecuting, Mr Tapiwa Solani said the teacher committed the crime sometime in 2014.
“Phiri slapped Leo on his left ear resulting in him being deaf and has sustained internal pain for almost six years since 2014,” said the prosecutor. He said Phiri only assisted with $60 for hospital bills and the boy’s medical problems have persisted.
“Leo’s ear started discharging more pus and he told his mother who confronted Phiri. However, she refused to pay the bills,” said Mr Solani. The matter was reported to the police leading to Phiri’s arrest.State media
By Patrick Guramatunhu| Health minister Obadiah Moyo has disclosed that the country is losing about $400 million annually on overseas medical treatments.
“Having our own up to standard facilities will make wonders and no-one will be airlifted out of the country for health treatment and I have shared this with the President,” Moyo said.
So, Minister Moyo thinks the idea of spending the millions squandered sending the chefs out of the country for their health care would be better spend on local health care had never occurred to Mnangagwa and the rest of the Zanu PF leadership? How naïve!
There are basically two reasons why Zanu PF have allowed the local health care facility collapse:
a) The chefs, from both sides of the political divide, have continued to enjoy a five-star health care service or be it in SA, India, China, Singapore, etc. instead of within Zimbabwe. So whilst we the masses have suffered greatly from the country’s collapsed health care, the Chefs have not.
b) In Zimbabwe going shopping in New York, studying in London, having your health check in Singapore, having a honeymoon in LA, etc. are all status statements. One can only imagine the disappointment on Grace Mugabe and her daughter, Bona’s, faces if they were to hear that there was a local hospital in Harare offering the same five-star service after all the money they had spend when Bona her baby in Singapore! And so, the poorer the local service the weightier the symbolism.
c) Yes, it is very expensive to send the chefs out of the country for all these health care trips but what of it! It does not cost the chefs themselves a dollar, the taxpayer pays it all. Indeed, health care has become just another excuse for the chefs to raid the public coffers.
President Mnangagwa has just returned from a trip to Japan. He flew there in a hired jet that reportedly costed US$17 million. He probably ordered the jet just hours after Minister Moyo comments above – there was the middle finger reply! – SOURCE: zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
London — Arsenal and Tottenham battle for North London supremacy tomorrow in an early indicator as to who will be Manchester City and Liverpool’s closest challengers for the Premier League title.
City and Liverpool have already moved clear of the chasing pack with Jurgen Klopp’s men boasting the only 100 percent record after three games to open a two-point lead over the champions.
Both will expect to add another three points before the international break as City host Brighton, while Liverpool travel to Burnley.
But below them the rest have plenty of room for improvement with Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea having already tasted defeat.
Arsenal were given a lesson in how far they still have to go to challenge for the title in losing 3-1 at Anfield last weekend, but the Gunners can quickly erase the memory of that defeat should they get the better of Spurs at the Emirates.
A thrilling 4-2 win over the Champions League finalists in this fixture last season was the highlight of Unai Emery’s first season in charge and Arsenal have little to fear from Tottenham’s start to the season.
Mauricio Pochettino believes his squad is unsettled by speculation over the futures of Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld.
Vertonghen has been dropped for all three games so far this season, while Eriksen started on the bench against Aston Villa and Newcastle.
A shock 1-0 reverse to the Magpies last weekend showed Pochettino can ill afford the luxury of leaving out two of his better players, even if they seem set to leave the club at the end of the season after failing to agree new contracts.
Arsenal missed out on Champions League football to their local rivals by a point last season, but still reinforced well in the transfer market.
Nicolas Pepe shone on his full debut against Liverpool last weekend and could be unleashed alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette from the start for the first time. Should Arsenal’s exciting new attacking trio click, they can lay down an early marker in the battle to be the best of the rest behind the top two.-AFP
By Dorrothy Moyo| The state owned Sunday Mail in a weekend feature has said zanu-pf president Emmerson Mnangagwa has won a coup in France.
The state broadsheet, said Mnangagwa has won “a major diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe using Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame
The story said Kagame took the country’s anti-sanctions lobby to leaders of the world’s most powerful nations that convened for the Group of Seven (G7) summit in France last week.
The article had Mnangagwa painted and quoted all over the place with not a single word of Kagame’s. Everything was according to Mnangagwa.
The G7 is made up of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada. President Kagame attended the G7 summit after receiving a special invitation as the immediate past chairperson of the African Union.
Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Kagame met for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) summit in Japan.
In an interview with journalists on Friday, Mnangagwa said President Kagame had briefed him that he had “pleaded” with the G7 countries on the need to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe.
“In particular, with President Kagame we were discussing strategies to deal with the question of sanctions. At the last Sadc meeting in Dar es Salaam, Sadc made a resolution that we must together appeal to AU, so that when AU goes to the United Nations, they speak about the removal of sanctions,” said the President.
“Sadc secretariat must also again appeal for the removal of sanctions. But individual African countries such as Kagame’s Rwanda, they are lobbying. They did lobby for Zimbabwe during the G7 meeting. President Kagame attended the G7 meeting and he was able to meet with the G7 leaders and he pleaded with them over removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe.”
Mnangagwa says his counterpart is a worthy ally in Zimbabwe’s fight against the embargo.
“These are the areas we were discussing and the possibilities of success and attitudes of every single leader in G7 and how they look at Zimbabwe.”
Mnangagww said he shares a brotherly bond with President Kagame.
“With my brother Paul Kagame, it is a continuous exchange of views with regards to our respective situations in Africa,” he said.
Mnangagwa told Japanese medi on Friday that Zimbabwe will continue the international fight against sanctions, which are limiting the country’s ability to access credit from international markets.
He said: “ZDERA constrains us. For the past 20 years we cannot access support from the IMF, World Bank, IFIs (international finance institutions). Those Bretton Woods institutions cannot extend any lines of credit to Zimbabwe. So we are surviving through our own domestic means. We are doing our best.
“We cannot bury our heads in the sand and blame the Bretton Woods institutions for not giving us credit.”
It remains to be seen if there is anything to celebrate for Mnangagwa, as Kagame has in recent days publicly humiliated Mnangagwa for failing to convine his own people.
Manchester United have confirmed that defender Chris Smalling will move to AS Roma on loan for the rest of the season.
The Englishman flew to Italy for his medical today ahead of the move and United manager Ole Gunnar Soljskaer confirmed it.
At the moment we’ve got six centre-backs,” Solskjaer told MUTV.
This is just something that popped up towards the end [of the European transfer window] in the last couple of days.
“Chris fancied the chance to go over there; it’s a new experience, new adventure.”
“He’ll come back better for it because it’s a big club, it’s a good league. There aren’t too many English players who have been playing in Italy so I think he’ll enjoy it.” he added.Soccer 24
Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi has ordered general elections on October 23, as tensions rise with his estranged predecessor, Ian Khama, the man who put him in the top job.
Khama, whose father led the southern African country to independence, has accused Masisi of becoming an autocrat and threatening the country’s reputation as a beacon of stability in a troubled continent.
Masisi has called for “the holding of the 2019 General Elections to fill the 57 National Assembly vacancies and 490 local government vacancies,” Osupile Maroba from the national election commission said late Friday.
The last date for nominations is September 26. The country has been ruled by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) uninterruptedly since it gained independence from Britain in 1966.
This year the BDP will come face to face with the opposition coalition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Another BDP splinter group, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF), which is the brainchild of former president Khama, will also contest the elections in 19 constituencies mostly in the Central District, a Khama stronghold.
Khama ruled from 2008 to 2018 and handed power to his chosen successor Masisi after completing two terms – the maximum allowed by the constitution.
But he walked out of the party in May, saying: “The person who I nominated to be my successor, as soon as he took office became very autocratic, very intolerant and it has led to a decline in the democratic credentials that we have a reputation for.”
Since coming to office, Masisi changed several key policies adopted by Khama — the most high-profile being the lifting of the wildlife sports hunting ban imposed in 2014.
Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population with more than 135,000 roaming freely in its unfenced parks and wide open spaces.- Agencies
A HARARE magistrate yesterday deferred the sentencing of former Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) board chair Stanley Kazhanje, who was convicted of concealing a US$10 000 transaction he received from controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo’s Intratrek Zimbabwe.
Kazhanje, who was convicted after a full trial by senior regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya, was awaiting his aggravation by State prosecutor Brian Vito before sentencing.
However, Vito indicated that he wanted to call a witness, who is also a former ZPC board member and current Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, commissioner
Thandiwe Thando Mlobane.
Mujaya ruled that Kazhanje failed to submit evidence of receipt of the money or the nature of work done by his company, Terminal Engineering, at Intratrek Zimbabwe.
Mujaya said ZPC’s former corporate secretary, Saidi Sangula, testified that Kazhanje had disclosed his interests at Intratrek.
He further ruled that even former Energy minister Dzikamai Mavhaire, who Kazhanje claimed to have declared his dealings with Intratrek, denied the claim.
But in his defence, Kazhanje had told the court that he declared his previous dealing with Intratrek to Mavhaire, his deputy and then permanent secretary.
“It is difficult for the court to believe that a man of his stature would have confused the two. It is not clear if the accused person directed the two politicians and the permanent secretary to relay his declaration to the board. I equally wonder if the accused person forgot to tell this court if he directed the three to relay his message to the board, “Mujaya said.
“This was a transaction between two established companies, but no paper trail was produced in court. A receipt or invoice could have been produced to prove
that the transaction was legit. His intention was to deceive the board and whoever was his principal and is hereby found guilty.
The court heard that on October 23, 2015, Kazhanje signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract of a 100 megawatt solar panel station project
with Intratrek Zimbabwe, fronted by Chivayo.
Kazhanje failed to declare his interests. ZPC paid Intratrek advanced payments of $1 236 154 for implementation of the project.
However, Intratrek did not fulfil its obligation and this resulted in ZPC management suggesting termination of the contract.
On January 21, 2016, under unclear circumstances, Kazhanje received US$10 000 into his First Capital Bank (Barclays Bank) personal account from Intratrek’s CBZ
Bank account.
Kazhanje presided over a meeting in which it was resolved that the power utility pays for services direct to Intratrek subcontractors, instead of terminating the contract.
The court further heard that this resulted in ZPC paying $4 387 849 as advance payment despite that Intratrek had not fulfilled its obligation. Kazhanje was influenced by this payment to decide in favour of Intratrek.
According to the State, Kazhanje failed to declare any interest upon his appointment as the chairperson of ZPC.
He also failed to recuse himself from ZPC meetings that held deliberations on Intratrek. Newsday
Dear Editor -President Chamisa will tomorrow address a campaign rally in Glen View South constituency ahead of next Saturday’s by-elections. The Glen View seat fell vacant following the death of Hon. Vimbai Tsvangirai Java. Her brother Vincent Tsvangirai is the party candidate for the constituency.MDC Information Department
A 17-year-old housemaid from Sakubva is heavily pregnant after snatching her employer’s hubby and dishing ut se_xual favours behind his wife’s back.
The housemaid, Priscilla Muchisi has now fully replaced the wife (only identified as Musiiwa) as mother of the house is now looking after the pair’s four children, two of which are older than her.
According to Priscilla’s younger sisters Polite and Fungai, Musiiwa was chased away by Musatukana Mwapinzeudyi after she discovered the affair.
“When she was 16, she was our elder sister’s maid and snatched Mwapinzeudyi from under her nose. She was sleeping with him behind her back. Such betrayal to come out of that young a person is unbelievable,” said one of the sisters.
“She is only 17 but is looking after our sister’s children who are older than her. One is 19, the other is 17, then 12 and four. I do not know how in her right mind she saw it fit that she can hook up with a man who is older than her father,” said Polite, who had no kind words for Muchisi after their latest violent confrontations, which happened at the Mutare Civil Courts on Monday this week.
The protection order was granted in favor of Muchisi.
A MUTARE man this week went berserk and hacked his father with an axe, accusing him of dating his wife and practicing witchcraft.
Webus Muranda Junior (25) vanished soon after committing the heinous crime.
Police confirmed the incident, which happened in Chief Marange’s area.
His father, also called Webus Muranda (70), died after sustaining serious injuries.
The suspect has since gone into hiding with police launching a manhunt for him.
Police have since recovered the axe used in the gruesome murder.
Deputy Manicaland police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Luxon Chananda said they have since launched a manhunt to bring the culprit to book.
“Investigations carried out so far have revealed that the suspect and his father had a long dispute of the woman in question. He was in the habit of accusing his father of having an extra-marital affair with his wife and practising witchcraft. On August 22 at around 7pm, the suspect went to his father’s house armed with an axe.
‘The father and mother (Getrude Nyashanu) were in the kitchen. He then accused his father of having an affair with his wife and practising witchcraft. The accused then struck his father twice with an axe on the head, the now deceased ran out of the kitchen and his son followed him and struck him again once on the head and he died,” he said.
The matter was reported at Odzi police station.
Asst Insp Chananda urged people to solve disputes amicably.
An Air Zimbabwe Boeing 767 developed a technical fault yesterday in Bulawayo and travellers were left in a fix after the plane was grounded. The plane was scheduled to ply the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls; Victoria Falls-Harare and later the Harare-Johannesburg routes, but all those could not materialise due to the technical fault.
Airzim Corporate communications officer Firstme Vitori confirmed the incident.
“Yes, it developed a technical fault and our engineers are working on it. There are some parts that we needed to bring from Harare and we are hopeful that tomorrow (today) we will be able to resume our schedules as normal,” she said.
“It was still doing the morning triangle, the Harare-Bulawayo; Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Vic Falls-Harare, and then Johannesburg thereafter.
“Unfortunately, it was only able to do Harare-Bulawayo (route), so Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Bulawayo-Harare was affected as well as Jo’burg (Johannesburg).”
Air Zimbabwe had to hire a small plane to carry the required parts to Bulawayo and incurred expenses to cater for the stranded passengers
The number of affected passengers was not revealed at the time of publication
A 12-YEAR-OLD-BOY was arrested by police after he was implicated in the murder of a 24-year-old man who was accused of trespassing.
Police confirmed the incident.
According to police, the minor was part of the four member gang that fatally assaulted a mental patient for trespassing.
Manicaland province police spokesperson, Inspector Tavhiringwa Kakohwa said the minor reportedly struck the now deceased Brian Mapindu with a stone on the back of his head and he collapsed.
Effort by local villagers to resuscitate him failed.
The incident took place in Zvoushe village under Chief Zimunya on Sunday afternoon.
Kakohwa said Mapindu reportedly trespassed at Brenda Mwatutsa`s homestead and lit a fire.
Mwatutsa screamed for help after she saw the deceased wearing a grey short without a shirt sneaking into her bedroom carrying a box of matches.
The minor ganged up with Zvikomborero Nyagoyo (20), Tinashe Nzarayebani (21) and Reginald Zveushe (25) and responded to Mwatutsa`s call.
They then dragged the deceased for about 200 metres and began assaulting him with a catapult, stones and sticks.
The minor allegedly hit Mapindu with a rock on the back of the head and he collapsed.
Mapindu is reported to have sneaked unnoticed from David Ndoro’s home at Diki, Munyarari village where he was being looked after.
“People who care for mental patients should ensure they (mental patients) take their medication and make sure they are safe all the times,” said Kakohwa.
He also urged members of the public not to take the law into their own hands, saying those who tamper with the law must be prosecuted.
“We would also like to urge the public not take law into their own hands whenever they suspect a person is committing an offence but they should effect a citizenry arrest,” said Kakohwa.
Zimbabwe women’s football team, the Mighty Warriors, is faced with a daunting task in their 2020 Olympic qualifier return leg against Zambia slated for the National Sports Stadium (NSS) tomorrow.
After succumbing to a heavy 5-0 defeat at the hands of Zambia in Lusaka on Thursday, it appears mission impossible for the Mighty Warriors who face their southern region adversaries at the NSS.
With a place at the Tokyo 2020 games at stake, Zimbabwe will have to be on the front foot from the word go if they are to have any chance of launching what would be a dramatic comeback.
Having made a maiden appearance at the last Olympics following a win over Cameroon, the Zimbabwe women’s side face an uphill task but with dramatic scenarios having in the past occurred in the game of football, the Mighty Warriors will be hoping for the best.
Key to Zimbabwe’s chances will be the 12th man when the Mighty Warriors take on their opponents. Rest of ground tickets have been pegged at $2, bays 15-18 $5 with VIP tickets going for $10.
As Passengers Association of Zimbabwe we are dismayed, disappointed and disconcerted by the actions of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, whereby they are stopping and searching passenger service vehicles and searching them, as well as asking for identity particulars.
It is common cause, that these arbitrary actions are infringing on constitutional rights of the travelling citizenry, without pre-advised justification. In principle such actions should surely exist where a state of emergency is in existence.
Contextually, then, the rights enshrined in the constitution in Section 66 (2a) which stipulates that every Zimbabwean citizen has the right to move freely within Zimbabwe; Section 44 which states that The State and every person, including juristic persons, and every institution and agency of the government at every level must respect, promote and fulfill the rights and rights and freedoms.
ZRP is essentially an institution that is for the law, nation and the people (Prolege, Pro Patria, Pro Populo).
It is our anticipation that in these stops and search they are accordingly guided. Tafadzwa Goliati president of Passengers Association of Zimbabwe cell 0773239688
Two men have died while three others were injured when a deep well they were repairing collapsed in Deke village, Maramba Pfungwe, Mashonaland East Province.
What started as a noble mission to assist fellow villagers from perennial water challenges in Maramba Pfungwe turned tragic for five men when a deep well they were repairing collapsed yesterday.
Mashonaland East Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) spokesperson, Inspector Tendai Mwanza confirmed the incident saying the concrete slab they were standing on cracked and gave in, resulting in the five men falling into the 14-metre deep well.
Three of them were rescued by fellow villagers while the other two could not make it. Of the three injured, two have been discharged from hospital while the other is still admitted.
“The incident occurred around 4pm when we decided to repair the well which is one of our water sources when the concrete slab gave in resulting in all of us falling into the well,” said one of the survivors, Fambisai Sakawenga.
Maramba Pfungwe legislator, Cde Tichaona Karumazondo and Senator Address Matirira who visited the injured, appealed to government to assist in addressing the perennial water challenges in the area.
“We are appealing to the government to capacitate the DDF so that they can drill boreholes in our area which has been facing water shortages for years,” said Karumazondo.
The deceased have been identified as George Kareku aged 53 and Israel Mukara aged 49, both from Deke village.
In a matter yet to be heard at the Bulawayo Customary Court, a man from Hope Fountain is seeking divorce after suspecting that his wife was cheating on him because she was constantly calling out her ex-lover’s name during se_x.
For Felix Dube, his wife Nombulelelo Moyo’s habitual actions of repeating her ex-lover’s name in the bedroom are akin to an act of marriage terror.
This follows after Dube filed for divorce at the Bulawayo Customary Court claiming his wifes always calls out her ex’s name in the bedroom.
“I am customarily married to Nombulelelo Moyo and our union has irretrievably broken down as I suspect that she is still dating her ex-lover because, whenever we are in bed, she calls out his name.
“As a result there are no prospects of restoration to a normal relationship because we now have irreconcilable differences which render the continuance of the relationship impossible. As a couple we have also lost love and affection for each other,” read the papers in part.
He further claimed whenever he confronted her about the issue, she became violent and started verbally and physically abusing him.
Moyo’s response is set to be heard when the parties appear in court.
Zimbabwe women’s football team, the Mighty Warriors, is faced with a daunting task in their 2020 Olympic qualifier return leg against Zambia slated for the National Sports Stadium (NSS) tomorrow.
After succumbing to a heavy 5-0 defeat at the hands of Zambia in Lusaka on Thursday, it appears mission impossible for the Mighty Warriors who face their southern region adversaries at the NSS.
With a place at the Tokyo 2020 games at stake, Zimbabwe will have to be on the front foot from the word go if they are to have any chance of launching what would be a dramatic comeback.
Having made a maiden appearance at the last Olympics following a win over Cameroon, the Zimbabwe women’s side face an uphill task but with dramatic scenarios having in the past occurred in the game of football, the Mighty Warriors will be hoping for the best.
Key to Zimbabwe’s chances will be the 12th man when the Mighty Warriors take on their opponents. Rest of ground tickets have been pegged at $2, bays 15-18 $5 with VIP tickets going for $10.
A man (33) was electrocuted in Chikara after attempting to cut a live ZESA cable. His body was found near a ZESA transformer with serious burns on his body. An electric cable was also found next to the body. The harsh economic environment has seen citizens resorting to illegal activities which include stealing copper cables to survive.
The reward though great comes at price namely a mandatory 10-year jail sentence if caught or in a worst-case scenario death!!!
Dynamos were held to a goalless stalemate by TelOne in a Match-day 22 encounter played at Rufaro Stadium on Saturday.
The match created few meaningful chances throughout with the home team’s Nigel Katawa coming closest when his header was superbly saved by Raphel Pitisi in the 39th minute.
The youngster came back again in the second half and was again denied the keeper.
On the other end, the Wifi Boys’ biggest opportunity came just after the hour but Fredrick Muza’s effort missed the target by inches.
The result puts Dynamos on 33 points in the 5th position while TelOne remain rooted in the drop zone.
At Luveve Stadium, Bulawayo Chiefs and CAPS United shared the spoils in a six-goal thriller.
Hugh Chikosa and John Zhuwawu got a brace each in the encounter.
Chikosa opened the scoring in the 13th minute, converting from the spot to give Chiefs an early lead.
Makepekepe equalised on minute 28 through Joel Ngodzo who fired home from a free-kick on the edge of the box.
The parity, however, did not last long as Shadreck Nyahwa capitalised on a defensive mix-up to restore the hosts’ lead.
John Zhuwawu scored his first goal on the hour before completing his brace ten minutes later. Chikosa also got his second of the day but in between Zhuwawu’s goals.
The result sees CAPS United surrendering the top position to Chicken Inn who collected maximum points at Mandava.
The Gamecocks beat FC Platinum 2-1, thanks to a brace from Valentine Kadonzvo. The hosts got their consolation from Albert Eonde later in the game.
At Baobab Stadium, Bruno Mtigo and Arial Makopa were on target as Ngezi Platinum Stars beat Herentals 2-0.Soccer 24
A group of Nigerians Thursday staged a protest at the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa’s capital.
The protesters, mostly victims of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, according to Channels TV, said they are angered by the recent massive looting of foreign-owned shops in the city by some South Africans.
Many of the protesters lamented that they have lost their goods and business investments to the looting spree, which occurred on Wednesday at Pretoria Business district.
The protesters in separate interviews told Channels Television that the protest was needed because they are now feeling unsafe in the foreign country.
They claimed that Nigerian representatives in South Africa were slow towards responding to their plight.
“They came to my shop and burnt everything to zero,” one of the victims told Channels Television.
“We are appealing to our Consulate via the High Commission here to please intervene in this whole situation. We are so unsafe in this country,” another victim said.
However, Defence Adviser, Nigerian High Commission in South Africa, Abubakar Mustapha condemned the protesters for venting anger on the commission by destroying some property.
“The way they went about it (the protest) was quite unfortunate; they scaled the fence and almost destroyed the gate,” Mustapha said, adding that the quick intervention of security officers curtailed the incident.
Nigeria High Commission officers later visited the scenes of the looting spree to see the level of destruction on shops owned by Nigerians.
The acting High Commissioner to South Africa, Umar Bako later assured those who came to complain of their losses that quick actions would be taken to intervene in the matter.
Violence was recorded on Tuesday in Pretoria Business district as South African indigenes who were apparently angered by the killing of a taxi operator by a yet-to-be identified man, on Tuesday resorted to looting shops owned by foreigners in their country.
South Africa police have since arrested 17 people in connection with the looting spree.
By Farai D Hove| The Media Institute Of South Africa has narrated factual points on how allegedly misleading the state owned Herald newspaper was in their Saturday issue, pertaining the abduction case of the comedian, Gonyeti (Samantha Kureya).
Writing on Saturday night, MISA listed four main points. Below is the full text:
Dear @HeraldZimbabwe you lie that there has been no follow up on Samantha Kureya’s abduction case. Your story ignores the following:
1. The docket has been transferred to Harare Central Law & Order section
2. Felistas was called in to give her witness statement on 27 Aug.
3. The police do have the phone numbers Samantha used when she was dropped off in Crowbrough
4. Samantha’s own phone is not going through because it was damaged during the abduction
5. If your publication wants the actual truth contact Samantha’s lawyer Chris Mhike for updates. – Source: MISA
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has returned back home from Japan where he attended the TICAD summit that ended yesterday.
Mnangagwa’s trip to Japan was without controversy as he continued with his luxurious Swiss jet which has been a subject of debate in the country.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived home today from the TICAD Summit, which ended yesterday in Yokohama, Japan. His participation managed to unlock resources for various local developmental projects. pic.twitter.com/KuLslFt2Az
— The Sunday Mail (Zimbabwe) (@SundayMailZim) August 31, 2019
By Eddie Cross| Listening to the uproar over the fires in the Amazon basin we all need to remind ourselves that what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic actually happens here every year.
If you look at the fire website and compare our region to South America, you will be shocked at the similarity – and it is a process that recurs every year.
This week I flew to South Africa for a day’s business and as we took off in Harare I pointed out the window at the dense smoke haze that blocked out the land below us.
Last night I saw a video of the Victoria Falls where the Falls is almost dry. Talk on the social media blame the loss of ground cover in the catchment – pointing out that the devastating evaporation effect of the loss of the vegetation due to veld fires is one possible cause.
I have previously raised the issue of the killing of the hippo population in the vast flood plains resulting in the blockage of the drainage channels that feed the flood waters of the Zambezi back into the main river in winter, leaving the water stagnant, evaporating under the tropical sun.
Whatever the reason we all need to be reminded that the earth’s atmosphere is paper thin. If space travel did anything for humanity at large it reminded us that this is all we have – mess it up and there is no place to go. All the talk of human settlements on the Moon or even Mars is just plain expensive nonsense. We had better get our act together here, or else.
In Zimbabwe the situation is made worse by the fact the what was once private land held under freehold title is now ‘State Land’ that no one owns and cares about. Fire breaks are no longer maintained, neighbours no longer turn out to fight fires together.
Fires just burn until they run out of material to burn or hit a road. Where there are no fires, there is no ground cover because of overcrowding and unmanaged livestock populations. Parts of Zimbabwe where I grew up are rapidly becoming desert with fences covered in low sand dunes.
This country once had perhaps the best managed conservation movement in the world and was far ahead of other countries. Now that is all gone and in the free for all situation that has taken its place we are rapidly destroying our natural environment and in the process contributing to the global problem of climate change. Denial does not make it go away.
But this is Zimbabwe, an amazing and always surprising place. Great climate and even greater people to live amongst. Also this is Africa and inevitably the spring follows our long dry winters.
Unlike the tropics we have four seasons and our winter mornings, clear, cold and with a heavy dew, are just magical and anyone who does not get up early, make a cup of coffee and then sit and watch the sun come up, misses a magic moment.
Then comes another amazing time when out of the dry barren veld and with no warning, the trees come out in new leaf. Each leaf covered with a thin covering of a water dissolvable wax that limits the loss of water and gives the leaves a special almost translucent colour.
Just yesterday I saw one Msasa that was bright red – almost indescribable, I thought, I have to come back and photo that when the light is right. If you painted that tree, people would say it was not real.
In the lowveld the Knob Thorns – great giants of the river basins, dig deep into the water that lies under the hot sand and suddenly burst into flower. The big animals of the region – Elephant and Giraffe are able to feed on the flowers and then the seed pods when nothing else looks alive.
In our towns the famous flowering trees of the region – many from the Amazon originally and brought here and planted by our forefathers start to come out and sometimes the colours are so bright they almost defy reality.
Any African living far away in a foreign land, will know exactly what I am writing about and feel homesick. Those of us who have the special privilege of living in this place, should always take time to savour our changing landscapes.
What is also encouraging – if difficult to see, are subtle hints in the past few weeks that at last we may have turned a corner in our long march back to economic and political sanity. I think there are signs that there is more political stability, mainly within the groups that hold power here.
The challenges to our new leadership seem to be receding and our leadership has more confidence to tackle the delinquency in our elite that is impeding our recovery from the problems inherited from the Mugabe era.
The massive distortions in prices and in our macro-economic fundamentals have been dealt with and there is little doubt that our markets are working better.
The mountain of RTGS dollars accumulated in the last four years of the Mugabe Government has been dealt with by devaluation and our currency seems to be settling down and the painful process of price discovery is taking place across the economy.
Incomes have been devalued in the process and the distortions introduced by the artificial macro and micro economic factors at play under the dollarization process from 2009 to 2019, are being corrected.
For ordinary Zimbabweans this process has been extremely painful. Living standards have plummeted and even the most basic elements of survival are now beyond reach for many.
But Zimbabweans are resilient and innovative and somehow people are getting by. A major element in this situation, in the absence of any real national safety net, is our culture based on our extended families and the huge contribution of the Zimbabwean Diaspora living abroad.
My own view is that Diaspora remittances are much bigger than the official estimates reflect – one electronic transfer company in 2018 with 3 million clients in SA registered an average of US$78 per month in transfers to Zimbabwe. That is US$2,3 billion a year.
Gold production is estimated at over 80 tonnes per annum and that is another US$4 billion a year, most of it generated by small scale informal miners. It is these inflows of hard currency that are sustaining our people in these tough times.
If the combined income in hard currency from both these sources is now about US$6 billion per annum that translates at current exchange rates to RTGS$60 billion. That is RTGS$500 per capita per annum.
Although this is modest – when combined with other sources of income, it all helps alleviate the hardship experienced as a result of the reform process that is underway.
For me three main issues remain to be tackled before we can really say we are on our way back to the road to recovery:
1. We need to get the interbank market working properly as a formal market for foreign exchange with clear rules and transparency and to insist that all foreign earnings are fed through that market.
2. We need to continue with our reform program and to never allow the pressures on the system to deflect us off the track we are on. Let’s continue to maintained discipline in our fiscal and monetary system, strengthen the market economy and the role of the private sector.
3. We need to tackle corruption – recover stolen funds and confiscate property obtained with corruptly obtained funds. We need to make corruption in all its many forms punishable severely and quickly.
Is this spring? In the natural world yes, of course it happens every year. In our economic and political world, maybe. The signs are there but it can easily turn out to be false dawn, the choice is ours.
Welshman Ncube with Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa
Former Bulawayo ward 3 councillor, Tinashe Kambarami has openly accused Welshman Ncube of playing a hand in the High Court ruling for his removal from council.
Have a look at the leaked Whatsapp chats below. In these chats, Kambarami accuses Welshman Ncube of paying the judge to get him Convicted on trumped up charges.
[8/29, 12:17 PM] Kambarami: However I’m appealing to the high court, I did not get justice in this matter since I had an appeal on that conviction and I don’t know how the judge made a ruling and concluded on this case that is still outstanding.
Tinashe Kambarami
[8/29, 12:24 PM] Kambarami: Let me start from the beginning.
This started in June before 2018 elections. Banda, Mlandu and his team connived with one of my employees to go and do a fake report that I had stolen an electric cable from him.
The matter went to court and I was convicted then I paid my employee the cable that I did not steal, this is someone that I had hired and paid over 2000us and It didn’t make sense to steal a cable worth $30 from him.
Now Mthwakazi has been working with Banda, Mlandu and VP Welshman to fight me through the courts. Professor Welsh had paid the judge lots of money to make sure he gets rid of me.
I knew about today’s judgment before and the meetings and the money that VP Welsh had paid to make sure that my election is set aside. All this they’re doing to get rid of Shona people in the system and to make sure that Welshman becomes The Godfather pf matebeleland like what MaKhuphe used to to to Tsvangirai.
Health minister Obadiah Moyo has disclosed that the country is losing about $400 million annually on overseas medical treatments.
Moyo made the disclosure in Nyanga, while officially opening the second annual general meeting and conference of Private Hospitals Association of Zimbabwe.
“Having our own up to standard facilities will make wonders and no-one will be airlifted out of the country for health treatment and I have shared this with the President,” Moyo said.
Government and ruling Zanu PF party officials have largely bled the country by flying out to seek medical treatment overseas, running away from local health institutions that have been run down through neglet over the years.
Former President Robert Mugabe and incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his deputies Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi as well as top government officials have in recent months been receiving treatment outside the country. Mugabe made several trips to Singapore during and after his 37-year rule and Chiwenga is currently in China for medical treatment after initially visiting India and South Africa.
The $400 million the country is losing annually is adequate to renovate and equip several public health institutions.
In his address, Moyo ordered private hospital operators to stop charging in US dollars and abide with government policy of using local currency for the benefit of every Zimbabwean.
Moyo said punitive measures would be taken on hospitals that continue to charge in US dollars.
“Charging in US dollars is illegal and it is an act of corruption which is there to disadvantage the people of Zimbabwe. As government, let me set the record straight, it is illegal, and no one is above the law, action will be taken,” Moyo said.
“There are a lot of health institutions that are mushrooming, registered and unregistered . . . and most of those small hospitals are the ones illegally charging US dollars, but the law will surely catch up with them” he added.
Various groups and institutions who have gathered for the conference aired their grievances to the minister relating to cost of service delivery and challenges they are facing which include electricity and defaulting medical aid societies as well as exorbitant prices of overheads.
The minister assured the delegates that government was doing everything possible to make health service provision easy.
“Let me submit to you that we have started with Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals which will be having a face lift, while I urge you to come together so that we don’t lose that money which is being taken overseas for medical treatments.”
Tererai Trent a Zimbabwean woman is humbled to be among the 10 women who were also sculptured with bronze statues, as Oprah Winfrey, Cate Blanchett, Gabby Douglas, Tracy Dyson, Cheryl Strayed, Janet Mock, Nicole Kidman and Jane Goodall.
Tererai‘s live history has not been rosy, as she grow up in a rural area in Zimbabwe, as an uneducated girl, at the age of 18 she was already a mother of four children. Trent is said to have experienced domestic abuse while advancing her dream.
“I grow up very poor I grow up in a rural area with no education with nothing by the time I was 18 I was already a mother of four struggling,” said Trent.
“Because of a belief in a dream I stand amongst ten other woman to celebrated statuses of equality it’s just unbelievable.”
Tererai has found her sculpture for the Statue of Equality as a feeling that cannot be expressed.
“Can’t just express the feeling it’s just unbelievable,” said Trent.
Due to gender inequality Tererai is said to have been denied the right to education, growing up in Zimbabwe.
Trent is the author of a bestselling book titled the The Awakened Woman.
Tererai won various awards which includes the 2018 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for Outstanding Literary Work for her book The Awakened Woman. The ten woman were honored as an epitome of woman who are championing gender equality by Statues for Equality.
Due to Trent’s inspirational story, Oprah Winfrey gave her $1.5 million in donations to rebuild her elementary school in Zimbabwe in partnership with Save the Children in 2011.
Her advocacy for education for all children propelled her to start Tererai Trent International Foundation The foundation, seeks to improve education quality, gender equality in education, technology, innovation, health and nutrition.
Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association Spokesperson Douglas Mahiya.
War veterans have demanded their own autonomous government ministry that will look solely at their affairs, telling a media briefing Wednesday that their allowances were now equal to just 48 cents in US dollar terms.
Through their pro-Zanu PF welfare group, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, the former fighters said that their affairs have been neglected since the time of former President Robert Mugabe.
“I want to tell you that in 1980 when we came back from the war, former president (Robert Mugabe) removed us from the political structures and other people took over,” association spokesperson Douglas Mahiya told the media.
“And those are people that are taking decisions today, there are people in the civil service who would want to see the new President fail today.
“Our welfare is not being looked at; we don’t understand why it is not being looked at.”
Mahiya said government has ensured all other sectors in the country were catered for through salary cushioning while their own welfare was being ignored.
He said war veterans were now surviving on an equivalent of just 48 United States cents per day.
“War veterans are surviving on US0.48c a day and nothing has been done yet everyone and everybody who could be driving a Mercedes Benz, living in a nice house and things like that; it came from the war veterans.
“But when we speak or ask about our welfare, we are told there is no money, and from this press conference, what will be picked by the enemy of the people is the welfare of the war veterans.”
Mahiya went on to plead with parliament to pass a Bill that should prioritise their welfare.
“Why is it taking ages for even Parliament to harmonise this thing (Bill) that we are talking about,” he said.
“No one is looking at that Bill, and war veterans are dying in poverty.
“So we are not happy about that and we want to urge the government and Parliament to speed up the harmonisation of this law so that war veterans start benefiting from the constitutional provision of their welfare,” he said.
“The war veterans again are advocating for a Ministry that will look after their own affairs because we don’t understand why it is not happening when the President has already agreed to it.
“So why can’t we have our own Minister who probably will look at issues that affect war veterans.”
Currently, war veterans issues fall under the Ministry of Defence and War Veterans.
The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) reportedly instructed interim Warriors coach, Joey Antipas not to call certain players for the upcoming World Cup qualifier against Somalia.
The surprise exclusions include the Warriors’ three captains at the 2019 AFCON finals — Knowledge Musona, Ovidy Karuru and Danny Phiri.
Goalkeepers George Chigova and Edmore Sibanda were also overlooked among other players in what observers consider to be a purge of those who were vocal during the failed AFCON campaign. ZIFA officials came under fire for allegedly taking their concubines to Egypt whom they showered with hundreds of dollars while players’ allowances were not paid.
The Herald cites unnamed sources who revealed that Antipas was ‘forced’ to leave out some players. Said the sources:
Joey Antipas told the ZIFA officials that they have to address that issue because it was their call and, in return, the ZIFA officials said the coaches should provide an explanation which didn’t trigger any controversy.
The coach felt it would be unfair for him to say something that wasn’t true because he knew these were not just fringe players and this is also a World Cup qualifier.
So, there was a deadlock, but everyone knew that this issue would come up, the questions about why some of the regulars were not in the squad.
ZIFA spokesperson Xolisani Gwesela dismissed the claims saying that the coach used his discretion in the selection of the national team and ZIFA didn’t interfere with the selection of the national team.
By Own Correspondent| Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa says he does not personally own Econet, but is simply the largest single shareholder of the listed entity with tens of thousands of other shareholders.
Writing on his popular Facebook blog, Masiyiwa explains why some people struggle to see a business beyond a person.
He says Econet Wireless Zimbabwe is a publicly listed company, with tens of thousands of shareholders. Virtually every person who has a pension of any kind or insurance policy is an indirect shareholder as well.
“I have never personally held more than 50%, since (Econet) was listed. So I actually don’t own the company. I’m simply the largest single shareholder,” writes Masiyiwa.
He says while there are more than 5 000 people working at the company, he had never actually seen or met 98% of them, including many in senior leadership positions.
“(But) you will still find even media people saying of a public listed entity ‘the Strive Masiyiwa-owned business’. And some will even ask me to intervene on things I have no idea about, and should not be expected to know.”
Masiyiwa says the reason for this is because some people are “still trapped in a mindset of the #BigMan” which the He wrote about on his Facebook post.
“They never shook away the BigMan idea developed when they were young,” he says, adding that this was not unique to Zimbabwe, but common across Africa.
“Many of us simply struggle to see institutions and corporate structures, and only see a person.”
Masiyiwa counseled that if Africa was to build businesses that expand continentally and spread globally, they needed to put away the simplistic understanding of how businesses are structured, and the rules by which they operate.
Strive Masiyiwa is the entrepreneur and billionaire founder of the pan African Econet group. He is a Forbes global influencer and a leading business mentor with 3,9 million active Facebook followers that he mentors through his regular posts.
Chicken Inn created a dent in FC Platinum’s third title charge with a 2-1 victory in match day 22 of the Zimbabwe Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.
Aubriel Chirinda opened the scoring for Chicken Inn, with Valentine Kadonvo doubling the lead after the break. Albert Eonde pulled one back for the defending champions in the 82nd minute to set up a tense finish but Chicken Inn held on.
Caps United‘s only consolation is that they now hold the lead unchallenged on points after a 3-3 draw with relegation threatened side Bulawayo Chiefs. Hugh Chikosa gave Chiefs the lead before Joel Ngodza equalised. Shadreck Nyahwa gave Chiefs the lead again and John Zhuwawu pulled back. Chikosa completed his brace and so did Zhuwau.
Bruno Mtigo and Arial Makoba were on target in Ngezi Platinum‘s 2-0 win over Herentals.
In light of everything that is happening let me urge some senior opposition figures to be wary of their surroundings. not everything is the way you see it.
Not everyone is who you think they are. Very important operational information is being leaked everyday. Be wary of the people you spend time with and sleep. You relax and let your guard down, they listen to when you talk on the phone.
How does someone in the executive know high level information. The beast is sophisticated. More than you can imagine. It uses girls. Not random girls. Girls that you know. Believe me you will trust these girls and you will let your guard down. Avoid sleeping in avenues and avondale areas. You are at your most vulnerable there.
Those areas are a birds nest for this beast. A big birds nest. And so are most hotels. Every apartment complex is infested. Highly infested more than you can imagine. From guards to caretakers to residents. Big brother is watching & he doesnt blink an eye.
The man is seen peeing on the grave and insulting Rhodes all that he stood for. His friends are heard on the background cheering him up saying he is a hero for what he is doing.
A video of an unidentified man urinating on the grave of Zimbabwe’s colonial Imperialist Cecil John Rhodes has resurfaced online.
The grave of Rhodes which is located at the Matopos Rhodes Estate is one of the tourist attractions in the country.
In his will, Rhodes donated the estate to the then government of Rhodesia and all successive governments.
The government has said it will soon implement an “eye for an eye philosophy” against illegal artisanal miners who wield machetes against law enforcers.
Said Minister of State for Midlands Affairs, Senator Larry Mavima:
We cannot have a lawless society that terrorises law abiding citizens, it doesn’t matter whether you are an artisanal miner or not.
In this particular case, I want to reiterate that we do not tolerate machete attacks. We do not tolerate violence because there is no need to use force in order to achieve your goals.
Very soon we will be applying for an eye for an eye philosophy or principle. That means that if you have machetes and you meet a law officer, and if they are armed they will retaliate and shoot.
This is because we can allow our young people to become that lawless to the extent that they take the law into their own hands and believe that if he has a machete he is above the law.
Former Vice President and now leader of the opposition National People’s Party (NPP) Joice Mujuru has warned opposition members to be wary of their surroundings and guard against ‘honey traps’ that see them sleeping with spies who work for state security agencies.
Opposition National People’s Party (NPP) leader Joice Mujuru
Addressing nearly 40 000 followers on her Facebook page, Mujuru wrote; “In light of everything that is happening let me urge some senior opposition figures to be wary of their surroundings. Not everything is the way you see it. Not everyone is who you think they are.
Mujuru who served as Vice President from 2004 to 2014 went on to say “very important operational information is being leaked everyday. Be wary of the people you spend time with and sleep. You relax and let your guard down, they listen to when you talk on the phone.
Wrote Mujuru on Facebook:
Inlight of everything that is happening let me urge some senior opposition figures to be wary of their surroundings. not everything is the way you see it. not everyone is who you think they are. very important operational information is being leaked everyday. be wary of the people you spend time with and sleep. you relax and let your guard down, they listen to when you talk on the phone. how does someone in the executive know high level information. the beast is sophisticated. more than you can imagine. it uses girls. not random girls. girls that you know. beleive me you will trust these girls and you will let your guard down. avoid sleeping in avenues and avondale areas. you are at your most vulnerable there. those areas are a birds nest for this beast. a big birds nest. and so are most hotels. every apartment complex is infested. highly infested more than you can imagine .from guards to caretakers to residents. big brother is watching & he doesnt blink an eye.
Despite getting a 60 percent salary increase, have alerted government of their plan to embark on an industrial action starting from the 3rd of September saying delays by the Health Service Board to review their salaries has rendered them incapacitated.
The strike mainly focuses on the doctors from the country’s main hospitals that is Mpilo, Bulawayo United, Parirenyatwa Group and Chitungwiza Central Hospitals.
In an interview with 263Chat, Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association(ZHDA) Spokesperson Dr Peter Magombeyi said they do not have means to continue reporting for work.
“Knowing that what they are offering us as salary increase is nothing but a meager stipend, there are external forces that are also threatening us. We have been called several times to accept the offer. For that reason the doctors are embarking on an industrial action against their interests and association on threat come September 3,” said Magombeyi.
In a statement released today, ZHDA said there is no satisfactory agreement to insulate the doctors from the current high cost of living.
“Attempts to engage the employer have proved futile and even after all those meetings, no satisfactory agreement has been reached to insulate the doctors from the current high cost of living,” reads the statement.
Early this week, the health workers accepted the 60% salary increase but the doctors said they are still incapacitated.
“We are under HEALTH APEX as Doctors and we didn’t agree with the proceedings but once health Apex signs we have also “accepted” the offer though we are going ahead with the strike since we are still facing the same challenges,” added Dr Magombeyi.
Nhlambabaloyi Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni’s High Court appeal will be only be held after mid-year 2020 his lawyer Professor Welshman Ncube has said.
Speaking in an interview with Wildfire Deejay of The 1873 FM on Thursday Ncube said, “It will take quiet sometime and the Chief will not appear in court again. His lawyers will appear for the appear and he is not required to be in court when we do the appeal.
“We are yet to have the record prepared and certified as correct then after that have the heads of argument filed by both sides. So I do not see the appeal being held earlier than mid next year.”
Chief Ndiweni was granted bail pending appeal on Wednesday by Justice Thompson Mabhikwa after Ncube successfully argued the case at the High Court.
Ndiweni was jailed for 18 months for enforcing a traditional court judgment that saw some property of a villager being destroyed.
Ndiweni is appealing against both the conviction and the sentence.
By Farai D Hove|The state media broadsheet, The Herald was Saturday criticised over an article mocking popular comedian “Gonyeti” Samantha Kureya over her abduction on the 21st of August 2019.
The state original article was titled “Has comedienne’s case mojo Gone Yet?”
Scores of Zimbabweans chastised the state paper with some saying the Herald must either be shut down or put into the capable hands.
The reactions got to the point of doubting the capabilities of the board of directors.
The Saturday Herald article was authored by a journalist named “Nyore Madzianike” who said “there is strong suspicion that the alleged abduction on the night of August 22 (actually August 21) was stage-managed for political expediency or to raise the stock of the controversial drama queen.”
Below were a series of tweets by journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and the reactions thereafter:
3. 2day the Herald in a disgusting article mocked comedienne Gonyeti, of @bustoptv. Mukoma @ShingiMunyeza, if papers owned by a group on which you are a board member continue with these dishonourable attacks, it will be difficult for the citizen to separate your views from theirs pic.twitter.com/IWtqMOzRgG
What I find shocking is that respectable members of the PAC like @ShingiMunyeza who is also a Zimpapers board member, spend time trying to fix Zim’s relationship with the rest of the world, yet on another end, the regime’s poisonous State media led by Zimpapers churns out poison! https://t.co/BapL33G5depic.twitter.com/IDdu1rMSnq
2. Foreign Minister @MinisterSBMoyo travels the globe fixing damaged relations with Western countries including America! Yet back home the poisonous @HeraldZimbabwe newspaper churns out childish attacks on the representative of @realDonaldTrump who holds the keys to reengagement. pic.twitter.com/NihEGl67Yg
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is back in the country from Japan carrying with him a promise of barley for drought relief aid.
Mnangagwa was attending the Tokyo International Conference for African Development (TICAD7) in Yokohama, Japan.
Japan promised to secure 150 000 tonnes of barley for drought-stricken communities in Zimbabwe following a devasting drought.
In the run up to the 2018 elections ZANU PF got very popular by distributing barley to rural areas as part of its campaign.
Mnangagwa was welcomed at the Riobert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport by Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Defence and War Veterans Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, State Security Minister Owen Ncube, Harare Metropolitan Minister Oliver Chidau, service chiefs and senior government officials.
Honours even at Ellis Robins! The points shared in a four-goal thriller.. Eagles clawing their way back from 0-2 down after 85 minutes to rescue a point with the last kick of the match. FT| Golden Eagles 2-2 Arcadia United
– Controversial Ghanaian counselor has advised men to sleep with their maids
– That is if they cannot find peace with their wives
– He also noted that men can seek pleasure elsewhere if their wives cannot conceive
Popular Ghanaian relationship counselor and controversial pastor George Cyril Lutterodt has advised married men to sleep with their maids.
The counselor noted that men are allowed to cheat when it serves the purpose of procreation.
Counselor Lutterodt tells married men to sleep with their maids if their wives can’t give birth Source: GhAfricaNews
Speaking during an interview with United Televise, the counselor said that married men should not hesitate to seek pleasure in the hands of their maids if their wives cannot conceive.
He further noted the same goes with if their wives do not have good characters.
“If a wife is not exhibiting a good character and the maid is doing such, then what makes it wrong for the husband to make a move by going for the maid,” he said.
Lutterodt further expressed that it is wrong for people to condemn men who cheat because of reasons like procreation and peace of mind.
According to him, if a man is unable to find peace in the hands of his wife he should find it elsewhere.
The counsellor advised husbands to take the bold step of getting their maids pregnant if the wife is unable to bear children.
The new Cabinet appointment in the Democratic Republic of Congo has recently shown the country remains in the strong grip of former President Joseph Kabila, whose power continues to cast a shadow on the new DRC leader, Felix Tshisekedi.
The opposition previously foresaw that the new faces in the office would not change the political situation within the mineral-rich country, and the current trend of the events only confirms such suggestions.
The DR Congo coalition government, as well as both the National and Provincial assemblies, is heavily dominated by the members of Kabila’s Common Front for Congo (FCC), while Tshisekedi’s CACH alliance is in the representative minority. As a result, the first citizen has been placed in a difficult position where he is unable to make appointments in his favour, Stephanie Wolters, the Central Africa analyst with the Institute for Security Studies, claims.
“According to the Congolese constitution, the president [now] has restrictive powers. It is the party with the dominance at the National Assembly which is able to determine a wide variety of key appointments, including the prime minister,” the specialist commented on the matter.
Wolters also said Tshisekedi was currently struggling to carry out his own election campaign major reforms due to the heavy influence from his predecessor. Some of the promises — including the allowance of political protests and political prisoners’ liberation — however, have already seen the light.
“He could have done more to break away from the kind of politics his predecessor was known for, but given that he is severely constrained by Kabila’s majority, he will have to take it slowly,” she added.
Bearing all this in mind, the DR Congo residents express their optimism over the new Cabinet as almost three-quarters of the appointed ministers are completely new and have never held any ministerial posts. All of the officials have more or less clear portfolios without any implications in the scandals that drew the international community’s attention.
“Another remarkable thing is that the new government does not have any of the 15 high-ranking people on the EU sanctions list,” Benno Müchler, head of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s DRC office, noted.
Moreover, for the first time in its history, the country saw a woman at the top envoy position. Tumba Nzeza, a member of Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), is now leading the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while 12 more women were also granted the authority chairs. Even though the initial target of 30% of women in the government has not been met, the female representatives still received several of the most important positions.
Most analysts further agree that 48-year-old Kabila, a veteran politician who had ruled the country for nearly two decades, would not give up on his aspirations and is expected to battle for the crown in the next
An Air Zimbabwe (Airzim) Boeing 767 developed a technical fault yesterday in Bulawayo and threw passengers’ travelling plans into disarray as a number of routes it was supposed to cover were cancelled.
The problem, which was still being attended to by engineers last night, occurred morning after the Harare-Bulawayo route.
The plane was scheduled to ply the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls; Victoria Falls-Harare and later the Harare-Johannesburg routes, but all those could not materialise due to the technical fault.
Passengers that were flying from Victoria Falls to Harare had to be accommodated on Fastjet, while others remained behind and would have alternative arrangements made today.
Airzim corporate communications officer Ms Firstme Vitori confirmed the fault to The Herald last night.
“Yes, it developed a technical fault and our engineers are working on it. There are some parts that we needed to bring from Harare and we are hopeful that tomorrow (today) we will be able to resume our schedules as normal,” she said.
“It was still doing the morning triangle, the Harare-Bulawayo; Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Vic Falls-Harare, and then Johannesburg thereafter.
“Unfortunately, it was only able to do Harare-Bulawayo (route), so Bulawayo-Vic Falls; Bulawayo-Harare was affected as well as Jo’burg (Johannesburg).”
Ms Vitori confirmed that Airzim hired a small plane to carry the required parts to Bulawayo. She added that “there is still a bit more (parts) that we are taking to Bulawayo tonight (last night)” so that it could be back in service.
Airzim now has to foot food and accommodation bills for passengers that could not travel. She could not be drawn into revealing the number of affected passengers and the figures they have shelled out in accommodation and refreshments.
In the state media pictures below: Zanu PF campaigns in Zaka East ahead of a by-election set for 21 September. Party candidate, Cde Clemence Chiduwa is vying for the seat which fell vacant after the death of Cde Caston Gumbwanda a few months ago.
THE Mighty Warriors are dying a slow, but painful death. The Zimbabwe senior national football team has become a pale shadow of the side which reached dizzy heights in 2016 when they took part at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ironically, their fall was highlighted in the same competition where they made history by becoming the first Zimbabwean national football team to feature at the Summer Games.
The Mighty Warriors were thumped 5-0 by Zambia at Nkoloma Stadium in Lusaka in a first leg Olympic qualifier.
That venue has always been a favourite hunting ground for the Mighty Warriors, while She-polopolo would fancy their chances to cause an upset at Rufaro.
On Wednesday, an ill-prepared, pathetic Mighty Warriors side were given a rough ride by their hosts, conceding five goals in the second half.
The team got into camp on Saturday morning and on Monday morning they were on the bus travelling to Lusaka.
Zambia beat us last year to qualify for the Africa Women Cup of Nations finals in Ghana.
Now, the Zambians are on course to progress to the third round of the Olympic qualifiers.
Promises, like the residential stands they were told they would get after they qualified for the Olympic Games, have not been fulfilled.
Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya has ruled his team out of the title race as he believes there are some areas they need to improve.
The Glamour Boys had a slow start to the season but since Ndiraya took over, the team has gone for nine games without a loss to move five points behind the leading side on the log.
However, they haven’t been consistent in their run after drawing five matches, and this is the reason the gaffer is not thinking about the championship at the moment.
“We are five points behind the leaders, but you don’t want to talk of the championship without having rectified your shortcomings,” said Ndiraya, according to the Herald.
“At the moment I don’t think we are in the right frame to start talking of the championship. Statistically, we are there, but performance- wise, we aren’t.”
Dynamos return to action this afternoon to face TelOne at Rufaro Stadium in Match-day 22.
COSAFA president Philip Chiyangwa underwent complex and major surgery, conducted by two of the world’s leading specialists, in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday to treat a sight-threatening condition in his left eye which has been troubling him in the past four years.
The surgery was conducted at Mediclinic Cape Town, which describes itself as a “multidisciplinary hospital (which) offers local and international patients a broad spectrum of specialist medical services, modern facilities, high-tech equipment and outstanding nursing care.’’
Professor Darlene Lubbe, a world-leading ear, nose and throat specialist, and Dr Hamzah Mustak, an ophthalmologist, conducted the surgery.
A letter, written by Mustak, on August 8, ahead of the surgery, gave an insight into the specialist procedure. “This letter serves to confirm that Hon Dr Chiyangwa is receiving specialist medical care in Cape Town for the management of his thyroid associated orbitopathy,’’ Mustak wrote.
“Dr Chiyangwa had orbital decompression surgery to the right side for a sight-threatening comprehensive optic neuropathy.
“He has since been stable but now requires orbital decompression surgery to the left orbit. He has required chronic prednisone use to preserve the vision in his left eye whilst awaiting recovery from his previous surgery.
“Dr Chiyangwa is scheduled for a medical endonasal and lateral transorbital decompression at Cape Town Mediclinic on the 26th of August (last Monday) 2019.
“The surgery is complex based on the previous surgeries he had and will require him to remain for post-observation for at least ten days after the surgery.
“I trust that you will find the above information in order and allow Dr Chiyangwa the required leave to attend to his health and the required surgery as planned.’’
The surgery was performed on Monday.
The Harare businessman, who is the immediate past ZIFA president, flew back into the capital yesterday.
“Yes, I can confirm that I underwent a major and complex surgery under a team of world-renowned specialists to treat the thyroid associated eye condition, something I started feeling at about the time I first came into office as ZIFA boss,’’ he told The Herald.
“I have absolute trust in the expertise of the medical team that treated me and I am now going through the post-surgery observation phase.’’
Lubbe and Mustak were part of the team of specialists which, on February 2017, made a ground-breaking operation at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, which captured the attention of the world, by using eyes as a pathway to reaching the most intricate parts of the brain. Although the University of Washington had pioneered what is known as Transorbital neuroendoscopic surgery (Tones), Lubbe and Mustak became the first to use Tones to operate on the opposite side of the brain.
They used the eye socket as a corridor to reach the temporal lobe at the base of the skull to repair a lesion — a procedure which would have been very risky to perform using the traditional methods because of associated complications and the post-operative trauma to the tissue.
Two years earlier, Lubbe also grabbed headlines around the world after being called upon by a veterinary surgeon who needed help to deal with a French Bulldog which was having breathing difficulties.
Mpika Diocese Priest Father Sefelino Chibesa, aged 38, has died in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Father Chibesa was found dead in his hostel in a kneeling position. Zambia’s Ambassador to Germany and Austria, His Excellency Anthony Mukwita says the family has been informed and arrangements for the repatriation of the body will be communicated soon.
Ambassador Mukwita described the death of Father Chibesa as a loss to the small Zambian community in Austria, to the whole Zambian community in Germany and six other countries of extra accreditation, his family and the whole Zambian Catholic community.
Mr. Mukwita said Father Chibesa dies at a tender age when his contribution to the spiritual development of the Zambian people and those that came under his influence were most needed.
“We know that even the Bible recognizes the importance of being a youth and how this stage in one’s life must be dedicated to the service of God and humanity”, the senior envoy reflected. Ambassador Mukwita has called on the community in Austria and Mpika where the deceased served to take something away from his life and make it their own.
“Father Chibesa turned his life over to God when he was young – the best years of his life contrary to those that would want to waste their youthful days and only seek God’s face in the closing moments of their lives”, Ambassador Mukwita admonished.
The death of the Catholic Priest was disclosed to the Zambian embassy by former Zambian police officer and now UN security official William Mubanga, who is also the Chairman of the association of Zambians in Austria.
Father Chibesa arrived in Vienna in April this year to further his studies in his priestly vocation. He joined a few other Zambian priests that are currently undertaking similar studies in Austria.- ZambianObserver
Dear Editor -President Chamisa will tomorrow address a campaign rally in Glen View South constituency ahead of next Saturday’s by-elections. The Glen View seat fell vacant following the death of Hon. Vimbai Tsvangirai Java. Her brother Vincent Tsvangirai is the party candidate for the constituency.MDC Information Department
Manchester United have confirmed that defender Chris Smalling will move to AS Roma on loan for the rest of the season.
The Englishman flew to Italy for his medical today ahead of the move and United manager Ole Gunnar Soljskaer confirmed it.
At the moment we’ve got six centre-backs,” Solskjaer told MUTV.
This is just something that popped up towards the end [of the European transfer window] in the last couple of days.
“Chris fancied the chance to go over there; it’s a new experience, new adventure.”
“He’ll come back better for it because it’s a big club, it’s a good league. There aren’t too many English players who have been playing in Italy so I think he’ll enjoy it.” he added.Soccer 24
By Dorrothy Moyo| Japan has humiliated ZANU PF President Emmerson Mnangagwa over reforms and democracy.
The powerful Asian giant said this is a necessity for business to thrive.
Mnangagwa is currently visiting Japan to participate in the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held from August 28 to 30.
At a time when Mnangagwa went on video to claim that during his meeting with that country’s Prime Minister, he was given promises of support, the Japanese Foreign Ministry issued the below statement of events:
On August 30, for about 15 minutes, from 8:45 a.m., Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a summit meeting with H.E. Mr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, in Yokohama, Japan. The overview of the meeting is as follows. President Mnangagwa is visiting Japan to participate in the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held from August 28 to 30.
At the outset, Prime Minister Abe mentioned the importance of institutional reforms for promoting business, as discussed at the TICAD7, and stated that, “We hope that reform will be promoted and democratization will be advanced in Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Mnangagwa.” President Mnangagwa stated, “I appreciate for the invitation to the TICAD. The TICAD process initiated by Japan is the first common platform to discuss African development”, and expressed that he would like to strengthen the bilateral relations including business.
Following that, Prime Minister Abe expressed his condolences to the people who have been affected by Cyclone Idai that hit Zimbabwe this March. He also stated that Japan was providing assistance, expressing Japan’s intention to support early reconstruction. In addition, Prime Minister Abe announced Japan’s intention to support the improvement of hospital facilities and food security, notified that Japan will dispatch an experienced agricultural expert to Zimbabwe, and requested an improvement of the business environment for the promotion of trade and investments between Japan and Zimbabwe. In response, President Mnangagwa expressed his gratitude for Japan’s support in elections, infrastructure, and health. He also expressed Zimbabwe’s intention to promote activities for strengthening economic relations between the two countries.
The two leaders also exchanged views regarding cooperation in the international arena, including UN Security Council reform, and the North Korea situation.
By A Correspondent- Six armed robbers pounced on a farm in Headlands and went away with a generator worth US$2 000.
According to Manicaland provincial police spokesperson Inspector Tavhiringwa Kakohwa, the robbers arrived at Falls Farm in an unregistered vehicle.
They assaulted guards manning the farm Taurai Gandi and Taurai Maodza. “They severely assaulted Taurai Gandi and Taurai Maodza who were manning the farm with sticks. They then tied them to a tree and disappeared with a generator,” said Insp Kakohwa.
Police have since launched a manhunt for the suspects and are appealing to anyone with information on their whereabouts to report at their nearest police station.
The police also urged businesspeople to ensure their properties were secure all the time.
“The public, especially business owners and farmers should tighten their security because these robbers are still on the run. Robbers are targeting farms and business premises,” he said.
By A Correspondent- A 21-year-old Chipinge woman, who connived with her husband to steal thousands of South African Rands and the greenback from her mother, was last week dragged to court on theft charges.
The suspect Sophie Phiri, of Magwede Village under Chief Musikavanhu, appeared before Chipinge magistrate Mr Joshua Nembaware last Friday and pleaded guilty to stealing part of the money.
The matter was remanded to September 2 for continuation of trial.
Sophie has only admitted to stealing R12 000, US$950 and $260.
She is denying stealing an additional R20 000 as alleged by the State.
Ms Sekesai Mayera prosecuted.
Ms Mayera told the court that during the period spanning May 2019 and June 8, 2019, Sophie and Tafadzwa Jenami (her fugitive husband), visited the complainant’s house and had access to her bedroom.
“On the first occasion the couple unlawfully took R12 000 and converted it to their personal use. On the second occasion they stole R20 000 and US$950 from the complainant’s bedroom and vanished.
“The accused would sweep the complainant’s bedroom.
“The complainant took her as her child, and did not suspect that she would steal from her.
“The stolen money was being kept in a monarch in the bedroom. The accused was arrested in Rafingora, Chinhoyi while her husband evaded arrest and is now a fugitive from justice,” Ms Mayera said.
The State closed its case and the court will proceed to hear the defence case.
Sophie indicated that she will call some witnesses to testify.
By A Correspondent- A Rusape boy was hauled before the court on allegations of twice prickling a minor girl’s eye with a sharp object, strangling her neck before forcibly drugging and raping her while she was unconscious.
The bizarre manner in which the boy masterminded the crime shocked the court, prompting the Rusape regional magistrate Mr Lucie-Anne Mungwari to order that he undergoes a mental examination from a psychiatrist to establish the exact state of his mind.
The boy (whose name could not be divulged since he is still a minor) was remanded in custody and was expected back in the dock yesterday.
He was not asked to plead.
Ms Event Dhliwayo prosecuted.
Ms Dhliwayo said on August 7, 2019, the complainant (who could also not be named) went to the communal grazing pastures to collect her parents’ cattle and pen them.
On her way to the pastures she passed through the accused’s parental homestead and asked him if he had seen her parents’ cattle.
The accused allegedly directed her where their cattle were.
After some time the accused allegedly followed the girl.
“He grabbed and strangled the girl’s neck by his hands. He forced her to drink a yellowish substance that was in a bottle drink, by putting his fingers in her mouth.
“The boy went on to prickle the girl’s right eye with a shoe maker’s needle twice and once on the back of her left hand. He also bit the girl on the right hand, tried to lower her skirt, and from there the girl lost consciousness and does not know what transpired.
“When she woke up, she was vomiting a lot of foam. She then proceeded to the boy’s homestead and told his uncle about what had happened. The uncle took the girl to her father who then reported the matter to the police.
“The girl sustained serious injuries on the right eye, face and left arm. She had teeth marks on her left arm. The matter (rape) came to light following a medical examination which was conducted on her and indicated that she had been sexually abused,” said Ms Dhliwayo.
The boy is in a senior grade at the same school with the victim.
By A Correspondent- Two people from Harare who allegedly stole 30 tonnes of wheat worth $125 000 which they had collected from Grain Marketing Board Rusape depot have been arrested and appeared in court recently.
Takura Makuyana (44), a truck driver and Anna Abrahams were not asked to plead when they appeared before Rusape magistrate Ms Rufaro Mangwiro who did not ask them to plead. The two were released on bail.
State prosecutor, Miss Ivy Mayimbo told the court that Makuyana instead of delivering wheat to National Foods depot in Workington, offloaded it at Abrahams’ homestead in Ardbenne.
“Makuyana is employed as a truck driver by Knockers Enterprises and Abrahams is not employed. On 13 May, 2019 Makuyana was directed by his director Ranganai Makombore to proceed to Rusape where he was going to be given a consignment of 30 tonnes of wheat at GMB Rusape. The consignment was destined to National Foods Limited Milling, Sterling Working Harare.
“Makuyana in connivance with other accused persons who are still at large diverted the route and offloaded the 30 tonnes of wheat at Abrahams homestead Y10 Finneran Road in Ardbenne.
“On 26 June, 2019 John Mutizira was advised by National Foods that the 30 tonnes wheat was not delivered to them. On 27 June 2019 Mutizira made a police report and on 20 August 2019 at around 1800hrs Makuyana was arrested at Larfage Cement and led the police to Abrahams’ home, where he had offloaded the 30 tonnes of wheat. The value of the stolen wheat is $125 000 and nothing was recovered,’’ said Miss Mayimbo.
Ms Mangwiro postponed the matter to 9 September for trial.
First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa has ignored numerous problems met by expecting rural women and told them to stop having home deliveries.
Zimbabwe women resort to home deliveries due to long distances they have to travel to the nearest health facility, with some reportedly walking for more than 15km.
So bad is the situation in most areas that some mothers reportedly spend two days on the road to health facilities.
Other women are also deterred from making regular visits to clinics for check-ups due to fear of wild animals.
Mrs Mnangagwa made the uncosy call when she commissioned a waiting mothers shelter at Chapoto Clinic where nurses will give medical attention to the expecting mothers when necessary.
Addressing the gathering, Mrs Mnangagwa urged the women to desist from giving birth at home.
“Expecting mothers, I have brought beds for you and other equipment which you will use during your stay at this shelter which was constructed by Angel of Hope Foundation,” she said.
“I urge you all to take good care of this place so that you have a place to stay while nurses monitor you if you have complications,” she said.
Mnangagwa said it was her wish to see the women participating in income-generating projects so that they become self-reliant.
“Women, I do not want you to just sit at home without doing anything waiting for hand-outs, I have brought sewing machines, make use of them,” she said.
Amai Mnangagwa also expressed concern over rampant child marriage cases among the Doma people.
One of the mothers at the newly opened shelter is a 31-year-old woman expecting her seventh child.
She told the First Lady she got married at 15.
“It is painful for a child to bear a child. Children should grow up and mature before getting married.
“Parents stop marrying off your children before they are of age,” said Amai Mnangagwa.
Mashonaland Central Provincial nursing officer, Mrs Elizabeth Manjonjori, thanked the First Lady for building the mothers shelter in Kanyemba.
A Kanyemba woman, Mrs Stella Bhasikoro, said she used to be a professional tailor who sent her children to school using money realised from the venture.
She had stopped due to lack of resources and motivation but thanked the First Lady for reviving her passion, adding she was willing to teach her fellow villagers the necessary skills.
Minister of State for Mashonaland Central, Province Monica Mavhunga, attended the function and applauded the First Lady for supporting the Kanyemba community.
By A Correspondent- A Mutare man this week went berserk and hacked his father with an axe, accusing him of dating his wife and practicing witchcraft.
Webus Muranda Junior (25) vanished soon after committing the heinous crime.
Police confirmed the incident, which happened in Chief Marange’s area.
His father, also called Webus Muranda (70), died after sustaining serious injuries.
The suspect has since gone into hiding with police launching a manhunt for him.
Police have since recovered the axe used in the gruesome murder.
Deputy Manicaland police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Luxon Chananda said they have since launched a manhunt to bring the culprit to book.
“Investigations carried out so far have revealed that the suspect and his father had a long dispute of the woman in question. He was in the habit of accusing his father of having an extra-marital affair with his wife and practising witchcraft. On August 22 at around 7pm, the suspect went to his father’s house armed with an axe.
‘The father and mother (Getrude Nyashanu) were in the kitchen. He then accused his father of having an affair with his wife and practising witchcraft. The accused then struck his father twice with an axe on the head, the now deceased run out of the kitchen and his son followed him and struck him again once on the head and he died,” he said.
The matter was reported at Odzi police station.
Asst Insp Chananda urged people to solve disputes amicably.
By Patrick Guramatunhu- “War veterans are surviving on
US0.48c a day and nothing has been done yet everyone and everybody who could be
driving a Mercedes Benz, living in a nice house and things like that; it came
from the war veterans,” complained Douglas Mahiya, Zimbabwe National Liberation
War Veterans Association.
“But when we speak or ask about our
welfare, we are told there is no money.”
Yes, Comrade Mahiya there are some
Zimbabweans out there who are driving posh cars, live in palatial mansions and
are filth rich. What you have clearly failed to grasp is that these are the
filthy rich ruling elite whose insatiable greed for political power and wealth
has destroyed the country’s economy making themselves power and filthy rich at
the expense of the overwhelming majority whom they, the ruling, denied the
freedoms and rights and forced into a life of abject poverty.
Whilst you, Mahiya, and the
overwhelming majority of your follow war veterans live in abject poverty too,
same as the povo; there our roads part ways. Whilst the ordinary Zimbabweans
have been fighting for the restoration of all Zimbabweans’ basic freedoms and rights;
you and your rogue war veterans (there are many who have remained faithful to
the liberation war values of freedom to all and not just the powerful few) have
actively supported the oppressive and corrupt Zanu PF ruling elite.
It is important to note that unlike
the colonial regime that generated wealth and our quarrel with the whites was
that the wealth must be shared fairly; with this Zanu PF regime, our immediate
task is dismantle the dictatorship and stop the criminal waste of resources
through corrupt and mismanagement. You lot want to keep the dictatorship as
long as you get a share of the looted wealth. You do not even have the common
sense to see that the country’s economy has been shrinking!
Most Zimbabweans have long realised
that the root cause of the country’s economic problems is the corrupt and
incompetent Zanu PF rule and they have also realised that they can never remove
the party from office as long as it retains its dictatorial power to rig
elections. And hence the reason they have called for democratic changes since
the late 1990s. It is a great disappointment that these economic and political
realities have remained a mystery with the war veterans.
Indeed, Robert Mugabe and the rest of
the Zanu PF leadership have continued to exploit the war veterans’ political
naivety, using them as the party’s foot-soldiers in harassing, intimidating,
beating, raping and even murdering people for selfish political gain. This is
all contrary to the values and principles for which they, the war veterans, and
the nation at large fought, and many died, for!
How you, Mahiya, and your fellow
rogue war veterans have remained, even today with all the benefit of hindsight,
shallow, thick and slow is a matter of the deepest regret and national shame!
Of course, the nation is ashamed that the generation that liberated the nation
from white colonial oppression has itself become the new oppressors and so the
nation is once again having to fight for the same freedoms and rights.
“The war veterans again are
advocating for a Ministry that will look after their own affairs because we
don’t understand why it is not happening when the President has already agreed
to it,” continued Mahiya.
“So why can’t we have our own
Minister who probably will look at issues that affect war veterans.”
So you think if there was an autonomous
government ministry for war veterans; all war veterans will all be driving posh
cars; live in Blue Roof type mansions; since the country’s health care has all
but collapsed, fly each and everyone of you to China or Singapore for your
health care needs; etc. I am speechless! How is it possible that anyone can be
this shallow!!!!
Agents|Former Economics Association of Zambia (EAZ) president Dr Chrisphin Mphuka says Zambia is not likely to benefit from the government’s austerity measures because there is lack of political will.
Last week, Bank of Zambia (BoZ) governor Dr Denny Kalyalya observed that if austerity measures were working, Zambia would not have the kind of economic challenges currently being faced.
Commenting on this observation, Dr Mphuka concurred, saying that government’s pronouncements were not being fulfilled because there was no political commitment.
He said government was still incurring huge expenditure on account of continuous travel that Zambian taxpayers had to pay for despite repeated announcements of austerity measures.
“I think the problem has been to renege on certain commitments; you make certain pronouncements, but you don’t fulfill because there is no political commitment and at the moment, that is the defining element. We are talking of austerity, but we are still seeing a lot of movements; it is an open secret. Clearly, there are certain things, which we can say government is doing and not responding to austerity measures. For example, you are having certain areas of the economy, which are being starved in terms of resources, but you are having other areas, which keep going above what is programmed and I think that is what’s causing the problem. But again, the argument is are we doing this in all areas of government? So, there are some areas that are really above the others, living as though austerity is not there and that is the problem,” Dr Mphuka told News Diggers! in an interview.
“Well, I think the problem is that you must have budget credibility before you talk of fiscal consolidation. And I would agree with the Bank governor (Dr Kalyalya); the last three years we have set targets and we have missed those targets in terms of (achieving targeted) fiscal deficits, which clearly shows they there are slippages somewhere. We commit, but we really don’t go with the commitments and this is the reason some of us feel strongly that it would be nice to have a programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so that you have a supervisory process that helps your process of being credible in implementing the budget. Maybe this year, we will manage the fiscal target, but I doubt! I doubt clearly going by what we have seen over the years.”
He added that government needed to critically analyze whether it was capable of sticking to its austerity measures agenda, especially ahead of the 2020 national budget.
“We need really need to come back and say: ‘how can we really stick to this austerity agenda?’ In the short-run, it is very painful, but I think in the long-run, it brings back macro-economy stability. And that is what we want to achieve: low inflation and also bringing liquidity in the economy; there is no liquidity because of the same over-borrowing,” he said.
And Dr Mphuka, an UNZA economics lecturer, said fiscal consolidation remained difficult to achieve in Zambia because public expenditure usually outweighed revenue mobilization.
“And why it has been difficult to achieve fiscal consolidation in Zambia? For example, if you looked at how the budget was designed, the aim was to achieve fiscal consolidation using the revenue side rather than the expenditure side. You can’t tax your way out of this fiscal situation! It is almost impossible! So, there must be a commitment to be seen to cut on the side of expenditure and that is one thing that has been seen to be coming in this year’s budget. We hope that in the next (2020) budget, we will see commitment on the side of expenditure rather than achieving fiscal consolidation through raising revenue. There is a limit to which you can raise revenue because when it comes to compliance, it becomes an issue. And this year, the issue of the Sales Tax, which was projected to be one of the mechanisms that would have been used to ensure that government raises more money, that has not come out. Then it directly means less revenue, and less revenue implies that you have a bigger fiscal deficit,” said Dr Mphuka.
State Media|Heaps of second-hand clothes, new clothes dangling from hangers, school uniforms, church garments, shoes, towels, umbrellas, groceries, and cosmetics among many other wares welcome potential buyers just outside Mupedzanhamo Flea Market in Mbare.
A sea of piles of clothes stretches from Rufaro Stadium to Mupedzanhamo flea market covering almost every open space in that area. The noise of hagglers and vendors is deafening.
“Mwana mwana, wese mwana,” a male vendor selling children’s clothes shouts at the top of his voice as he advertises his merchandise.
His wares are arranged on a small space at the traffic light opposite Mupedzanhamo flea market. He does not pay anything to council and bags every cent he makes each day.
“We have all the products you want, groceries, cosmetics, we have them in stock, and we have retail and wholesale prices,” he says.
Next to him, a woman selling shoes sits by the roadside, waiting for customers in the blazing sun.
She seems not to pay any attention to her three year- old child who strays and disappears in the crowd. She only notices the child had strayed when another vendor returns her.
The vendor seems oblivious of the danger her child is in as speeding commuter omnibus and other motorists drive inches away.
A few meters away, a teenage boy also markets his merchandise at the top of his voice, also in an effort to attract passer- byes.
He is selling second hand denim jeans of different shapes and sizes. His huge pile of merchandise is on the roadside.
On several wooden tables outside Mupedzanhamo are heaps of coins being sold by Ecocash agents. The agents ask those who want to cash out to pay between 30 and 35 percent interest depending on whether they will get coins or notes. Several transactions take place here, as it is cheaper to buy second hand clothes using cash.
Along Chaminuka Street, traffic has halted.
It is organised chaos.
Two cars have collided and one of the drivers says he was overwhelmed by increased human, fruit vendors’ carts and traffic volumes.
To decongest the area, young teenage boys control traffic as drivers make their way out. They get a small fee for the work.
Welcome to the chaos that has popped up at most open areas around Mupedzanhamo Flea Market in Mbare.
The situation seems to worsen each passing day and when they notice council takes no action to remove them, more keep coming.
Vendors say they cannot find stalls in Mupedzanhamo as they are all occupied. They also claim they used to sell their wares from Shawasha grounds, but can no longer do so as the place was fenced off and council promised to move them to another place.
In July 2018 Harare City Council and its partner Consortio International Zimbabwe promised to construct a $30 million multi-purpose business complex at Shawasha Grounds in Mbare that will include a state-of-the-art flea market to accommodate 6000 informal traders but nothing has been done to date.
As they wait to be “relocated”, each morning some vendors also arrange their wares that include second hand shoes and slippers just outside Pioneer Cemetery.
At a parking space outside Rufaro Stadium, lorries of vendors selling potatoes park everyday as customers’ trickle to buy.
The lorries seem to have found a new home. The illegal vendors who sell clothing at the side of the streets said they were not afraid of the police or council authorities.
“This is our livelihood. Council should make available proper vending sites that address our needs.
“I will use this place as my market place until the Harare City Council builds stalls for us. We are still waiting for the mall that they promised to build us but they are not doing anything so we are left with no option.
“Council is inconsiderate in looking at the needs of the people in the area.” said a vendor who identified herself as Mai Tafara.
Another woman who owns a table at the entrance of Mupedzanhamo flee market said they cannot get a table in the market because they are not financially stable.
“I live from hand to mouth and cannot afford to pay money for renting tables. There is so much competition in the market so it is easier to sell wares from the roadside,” she said.
Vendors who have traditionally done business at Mupedzanhamo and paying rentals for many years are not happy.
They have seen their fortunes dwindle since customers are no longer coming to the traditional market as they can now purchase second-hand clothing items at cheap prices on road sides.
“It is quite unfair considering that the council is making us pay large sums of money in rentals. The vendors outside do not pay anything and can charge lesser for their wares,” said a vendor who identified himself as Tapiwa.
While many African countries also face the challenge of illegal vending, the way they have dealt with the problem has made huge positive differences.
For example, in Johannesburg South Africa, the Council has set aside specific areas, called designated areas, where vendors can trade.
They can then apply to the Council for allocation of a stand in this area. Once one is allocated a stand, they must enter into a lease agreement with the Council to trade from that stand. A token has to be issued to show that one has the right to trade, and must be able to produce that token at any time to show an official of the Council.
ZIMBABWE’S state-owned power utility Zesa Holdings (Zesa) is on the brink of collapse due to a plethora of problems.
It is beset by multiple crippling factors, including rampant power theft, non-payment of electricity bills, vandalisation of infrastructure, as well as insufficient foreign currency, an explosive internal report reveals.
Energy and Power Development minister Fortune Chasi, who confirmed the confidential report to the Zimbabwe Independent this week, said there are even cases where some power sub-stations are running without being connected to the national grid, leading to loss of electricity. This comes as Zesa is pleading with government for a subsidy to cover funding gaps created by its refusal to approve the company’s periodic requests for upward electricity tariff reviews, without which its operations are severely compromised.
Zesa says that the funding gap could balloon to ZW$2,8 million by the end of the year if the government does not approve its requests for higher tariffs. It also says it is failing to repair its critical machinery due to acute foreign currency shortages, as it cannot procure required spare parts sourced outside the country.
Chasi said he will present the report to the next sitting of cabinet, where he will also call for adoption of solutions which can rescue the perennial loss-making parastatal from the brink, including a vigorous debt collection strategy, revival of vandalised power infrastructure and introduction of severe and deterrent measures against vandals and thieves who have decimated Zesa infrastructure in recent years. He said the document sheds light on the true state of affairs at Zesa and what needs to be done to save the company and possibly redefine the country’s power systems.
Chasi said he commissioned the compilation of the report after he learnt of the existence of large-scale abstractions of electricty, where some sub-stations are not linked to the national grid.
“We have cases where some of the Zesa sub-stations are not linked to the national grid and yet the power goes to clients. This can only imply that there is a lot of power being lost. We are currently undertaking thorough investigations on this matter to try and establish the extent of the problem but it appears to be rampant,” Chasi said in an interview this week.
“So this report will guide us in terms of trying to save Zesa and map the way forward in terms of curbing these massive power thefts. We have also established rampant cases of illegal connections. The result of this has been that commercial loss of power in Zimbabwe has gone beyond the internationally agreed limit because the losses are quite significant.
“We have also faced serious problems regarding the vandalisation of power infrastructure and theft of electricity transformers and cables. So when I take the report to Cabinet next week, I am going to propose that as a country, we should tighten the law to, for instance, introduce a mandatory 30-year sentence for those convicted by the courts for committing these sorts of offences. We have been studying what is done in other countries. For instance, in South Africa they have a mandatory 30-year sentence which I think is more deterrent than the 10-year sentence we have here.”
The report recommends that Zesa should have demand-side management strategies for it to survive.
“A number of demand-supply management opportunities are available but their implementation is being guided by their level of complexity, cost, planning, data availability, technological advancement and implementation complexities. General available opportunities include loss of efficiency arising from poor maintenance practices of electric motors, reduction of power abstractions and power theft as well as availability of new generation efficient motors and adjustable speed drives. The absence of reliable power supplies cripples economic growth and retards socio-economic development,” the report reads.
The report further indicates fears that Zesa may collapse if the debt situation is not immediately resolved.
“Zesa has been in a drive to collect its dues from the clients. This is an effort to turn around the fortunes of the company. The debt overhang has resulted in poor cashflows which have negatively impacted performance of the company and is threatening its survival. Various initiatives have been put in place in an effort to collect from the clients,” the report reads.
Zesa, in the report, is also appealing for a subsidy from government to the tune of ZW$1,4 billion which it claims to have lost between January and July this year when President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration refused to approve its tariff hike proposal. Government only approved a power tariff increase last month when Finance minister Mthuli Ncube presented the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy in parliament.
However, Zesa is still requesting for more tariff hikes and fears that the funding gap could balloon to ZW$2,8 billion if government does not approve such proposals.
“The recent 2019 tariff adjustment resulted in a tariff of ZWLc38,61/kWh from ZWc9,86/kWh (292% adjustment). The delay in the award has resulted in a funding gap of ZW$1,4 billion for the period January to July 2019. A tariff of ZWLc79,20/kWh has been applied to July target revenue as per application. The failure to implement the proposed tariff of ZWLc79,20/kWh from August to December 2019 will result in a funding gap of ZW$1,44 billion. Hence the total funding gap for the year is ZW$2,8 billion, which could cripple operations at the company,” the document further reads.
Zesa has also been battered by insufficient foreign currency revenue inflows from its encumbered and non-encumbered exporting customers, who are required to pay electricity bills in forex.
“On average about US$8,5 million (including levies and VAT) per month is expected from customers encumbered on the Afrexim Bank loan facility that provides funding for Hwange 7 and 8 Expansion Project. Then about US$12,7 million (including levies and VAT) is expected per month from the exporting non-encumbered customers. The assumption is that levies and VAT will be paid in local currency to enable enough funding to meet current import bills,” the report says.
“The United States dollar payments from these customers will be used to clear the current bills for power imports. However, the expected USD inflows are not sufficient to meet the average import bills of US$15 million. Hence, the RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) will have to assist in clearing the current bills in addition to clearing the outstanding arrears with a payment plan of US$890 000 per week.
“Though funding for power imports may be met by revenue inflows from potential exporters, funding for critical spares, repair and replacement of vandalised and faulty transformers, just to name a few, remains outstanding.”
Zesa is owed a total of ZW$1,2 billion by consumers who are mainly government departments, parastatals, local authorities and commercial farmers.
The country is currently in the middle of an unprecedented power crisis which has forced Zesa to come up with a severe load-shedding programme which has seen most areas go for up to 18 hours without electricity.
Zimbabwe requires 1 800 megawatts per day, but currently there has been a scaling down at the Kariba Power Plant due to low water levels in the lake, which have limited power production to just 190MW, down from 1 050MW per day. The ageing and frequently breaking down Hwange thermal power station is producing 522MW per day, while the country imports 50MW per day from Mozambique and 400MW per day from South Africa’s Eskom.
Small thermal power plants contribute just about 35MW per day, leaving a power deficit of 700MW per day, which is being managed through rolling load-shedding.
By A Correspondent- A NJUBE woman is living in fear of her granddaughter who beats her up and insults her saying she has decaying teeth because she eats human meat.
It is reported that Kuda Tewe is weary of being abused by her granddaughter, Violet Muwilimi, who accuses her of witchcraft.
While seeking a protection order at the Western Commonage courts Mpofu narrated her ordeal.
“I am applying for a protection order against Muwilimi who is my granddaughter. She is always insulting me saying that I am a witch and I have killed my family members because I want to stay at our family house alone,” said Tewe.
She added: “She also insults me saying that I have decaying teeth because I eat human meat. She is very violent and she also assaults me. Her behaviour is now disturbing my peace. May the honourable court grant me this protection order so that she may stop insulting and assaulting me.”
In his ruling magistrate Urgent Vundla ordered Muwilimi to refrain from verbally, physically and emotionally abusing her grandmother.
By A Correspondent- A romantic gesture by a Cowdray Park woman who asked her partner to join her for a bath earned her a beating from her husband who accused her of disrespecting him.
On Friday last week Mavis Muleya (34) invited her husband, Washington Mphini (42), to bath with her.
“I collected hot water from the fire and went inside the house. I asked my husband to bath with me. He followed me and closed the door,” said Mavis, as she narrated her ordeal at the Western Commonage courts this week.
Mphini bashed his wife with fists all over the body several times using fists, accusing her of disrespecting him.
He denied the allegations in court but he was convicted at the close of the trial.
Mphini was fined $100 (or 30 days in prison) by magistrate Stephen Ndlovu.
By Patrick Guramatunhu: “War veterans are surviving on US0.48c a day and nothing has been done yet everyone and everybody who could be driving a Mercedes Benz, living in a nice house and things like that; it came from the war veterans,” complained Douglas Mahiya, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.
“But when we speak or ask about our
welfare, we are told there is no money.”
Yes, Comrade Mahiya there are some
Zimbabweans out there who are driving posh cars, live in palatial mansions and
are filth rich. What you have clearly failed to grasp is that these are the
filthy rich ruling elite whose insatiable greed for political power and wealth
has destroyed the country’s economy making themselves power and filthy rich at
the expense of the overwhelming majority whom they, the ruling, denied the
freedoms and rights and forced into a life of abject poverty.
Whilst you, Mahiya, and the
overwhelming majority of your follow war veterans live in abject poverty too,
same as the povo; there our roads part ways. Whilst the ordinary Zimbabweans
have been fighting for the restoration of all Zimbabweans’ basic freedoms and rights;
you and your rogue war veterans (there are many who have remained faithful to
the liberation war values of freedom to all and not just the powerful few) have
actively supported the oppressive and corrupt Zanu PF ruling elite.
It is important to note that unlike
the colonial regime that generated wealth and our quarrel with the whites was
that the wealth must be shared fairly; with this Zanu PF regime, our immediate
task is dismantle the dictatorship and stop the criminal waste of resources
through corrupt and mismanagement. You lot want to keep the dictatorship as
long as you get a share of the looted wealth. You do not even have the common
sense to see that the country’s economy has been shrinking!
Most Zimbabweans have long realised
that the root cause of the country’s economic problems is the corrupt and
incompetent Zanu PF rule and they have also realised that they can never remove
the party from office as long as it retains its dictatorial power to rig
elections. And hence the reason they have called for democratic changes since
the late 1990s. It is a great disappointment that these economic and political
realities have remained a mystery with the war veterans.
Indeed, Robert Mugabe and the rest of
the Zanu PF leadership have continued to exploit the war veterans’ political
naivety, using them as the party’s foot-soldiers in harassing, intimidating,
beating, raping and even murdering people for selfish political gain. This is
all contrary to the values and principles for which they, the war veterans, and
the nation at large fought, and many died, for!
How you, Mahiya, and your fellow
rogue war veterans have remained, even today with all the benefit of hindsight,
shallow, thick and slow is a matter of the deepest regret and national shame!
Of course, the nation is ashamed that the generation that liberated the nation
from white colonial oppression has itself become the new oppressors and so the
nation is once again having to fight for the same freedoms and rights.
“The war veterans again are
advocating for a Ministry that will look after their own affairs because we
don’t understand why it is not happening when the President has already agreed
to it,” continued Mahiya.
“So why can’t we have our own
Minister who probably will look at issues that affect war veterans.”
So you think if there was an autonomous
government ministry for war veterans; all war veterans will all be driving posh
cars; live in Blue Roof type mansions; since the country’s health care has all
but collapsed, fly each and everyone of you to China or Singapore for your
health care needs; etc. I am speechless! How is it possible that anyone can be
this shallow!!!!
