By A Correspondent- Retired singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist Zex Manatsa has thanked his fans for wishing him a quick recovery.
Posting on his Facebook page this week, without disclosing his ailment, though, the Tea Hobvu hitmaker said he was now recovering from his Westgate home.
Below is his Facebook post:
My wonderful family, friends and fans. Some of you are already aware of my recent announcement/diagnosis/health condition. I want to thank you all for the overwhelming messages of love, support and prayers that I have been receiving over the past couple of months. I also want to say thank you to the medical professionals for the wonderful work which they are doing and for the latest report which suggests positive response to treatment. Wonderful news! Not forgeting my wife and children who are ensuring I am comfortable every single day and facilitating my treatment. Lastly, I thank God for the gift of life and all my blessings. Sincerely – Zex Manatsa
By A Correspondent| High Court Judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi has ruled that the magistrates court grossly misdirected itself by placing land developer and businessman, Felix Munyaradzi on remand.
In acquitting Munyaradzi, Justice Chitapi said the lower court grossly misdirected itself by making a finding that there was a nexus between the Munyaradzi and the alleged offense.
“The learned magistrate grossly misdirected herself by making a finding that Delatfin Civil Engineering Pvt Ltd to the applicant in circumstances where it was the company that dealt with Thomas Mabwe and as such criminal liabilities could not be attributed to the applicant,” said Chitapi.
Chitapi further stated that the lower court grossly misdirected itself in making a finding that the conduct of the applicant gave rise to reasonable suspension that he had committed an offense.
Munyaradzi was arrested by the police last year and brought to court for his initial remand on 2 September 2020.
The circumstances surrounding the matter were that Munyaradzi bribed a police officer Thomas Mabwe by awarding him two residential stand so as to ‘gain protection in return’.
Munyaradzi was accused of dishing out residential stands and double allocation, offenses he allegedly committed as the Chief Executive Officer of Delatifin Civil Engineering Pvt Ltd.
When Munyaradzi appeared for his initial remand, he challenged his placement on remand saying the allegations levelled against him did not raise a reasonable suspicion that the he committed an offense.
Warriors Players Now In Camp For Epic Duel With Black Stars
All the players in the Warriors squad to face Ghana in the World Cup Qualifiers tomorrow are now in camp after Brendan Galloway and Teenage Hadebe joined their teammates on Thursday.
The duo failed to arrive in Ghana on time after facing visa issues and missed the team’s first training session.
The Warriors are camping in Cape Coast, about 150 km out of capital city Accra.
Meanwhile, the national team will hold a training session at the match venue, Cape Coast Stadium, tonight.
The kick-off for the game is at 6 pm Zim/CAT.
Goalkeepers: Washington Arubi (Marumo Gallants), Martin Mapisa (Zamora CF), Talbert Shumba (Free State Stars).
Zimbabwe has been removed from UK’s coronavirus red list just days before the national team host Ghana in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
The Warriors face the Black Stars in Harare on 12 October, and there have been fears that the England-based stars in the squad would miss the encounter due to regulations required on all players visiting red-listed countries.
The quartet of Marvellous Nakamba, Tendayi Darikwa, Brendan Galloway and Jordan Zemura was allowed to travel for the game but under some expensive arrangements.
Zifa then decided to drop them for the Harare game.
But after the UK government confirmed the removal of Zimbabwe from the red list starting from 11 October, there is now a possibility that fully vaccinated players might come for the game without facing these regulations.
However, this would only be based on whether English clubs will also revise their travel regulations on players released to countries removed from the initial red list ahead of the current international break.
An update posted by the UK government reads: “Zimbabwe Will move off the red list at 4 am Monday 11 October. If you arrive in England before then, you need to follow the red list rules.”- Soccer24 Zimbabwe
What steps should a school take to keep students and staff safe from COVID-19?
What about vaccination? How can families and communities keep themselves safe as schools reopen? Dr Maria Van Kerkhove explains in Science in 5 this week
Tinashe Sambiri| MDC Alliance vice chairperson Hon Job Sikhala has described the Zanu PF leader Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of The Nation Address(SONA) as a compilation of high- sounding empty words.
According to Hon Sikhala, Mr Mnangagwa is clueless, hollow and hopeless.
Hon Sikhala also said he has since stopped listening to Mr Mnangagwa’s speeches.
“I was phoned by one of the journalists asking me about Mnangagwa’s SONA?
I wondered whether people still have got time to listen to Mnangagwa. I don’t have time to listen to that dude.
POLICE in Chivhu, Mashonaland East province, allegedly tortured and killed a woman whom they accused of concealing money stolen by her sister, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has claimed.
In its latest report titled It’s Politricks All Over, ZPP adjudged the police as the major perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East in September.
ZPP alleges that Sharai Mukaro was allegedly tortured by police officers during interrogation on September 12, 2021.
ZPP said a medical report showed that she suffered internal bleeding around her heart and that could have resulted in her death.
“Police officers were among the main perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East. The police were perpetrators of 40% of the human rights violations that ZPP recorded this month. In one of the cases, police officers in Chivhu in Chikomba district tortured a woman to death during interrogations on September 12.
“She was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her younger sister who had been arrested in Harare. According to an autopsy shown to the ZPP, the deceased, Sharai Mukaro, suffered massive pericardial clot, had large amounts of blood in the upper mediastinum (which contains the heart, thymus gland, portions of the oesophagus and trachea, and other structures) and had raptures in the area of the aorta,” the ZPP report read.
The human rights organisation said there was no record of any disciplinary measures taken against the killer police officers.
“This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without using unconstitutional means such as torture. This is not the first case of people dying at the hands of the police.
“ZPP calls on the police to act within their mandate when dealing with suspects. The Constitution clearly outlines the procedures to be undertaken during the investigation of a crime. Torture should be a punishable crime and we call on the Home Affairs ministry to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book in order to infuse confidence into the criminal and justice system of the country.”
Previous reports by ZPP show that for the past two years, police have been the leading human rights violators in the country.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has threatened to pursue the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering calls yesterday.- NewsDay
Tinashe Sambiri|The MDC Veterans Activists Association( VAA) has declared that ZEC is an extension of Zanu PF following its failure to carry out duties and programmes objectively.
The association accused ZEC of attempting to subvert the will of the people by excluding the MDC Alliance from key meetings.
Read full statement below:
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has proved Beyond reasonable doubt that it is indeed a player and referee in the Zimbabwean political field by denying the MDC Alliance a chance to be part of the ongoing stakeholders consultations.
ZEC has not only proved that it is an extension of ZANU PF but has also proved that it is not credible to run free,fair and credible elections.
ZEC’s conjoined relationship with ZANU PF is no longer questionable as the ZEC Spokesperson clearly spelt out the Commission’s quest to be guided on whether to invite MDC Alliance to these consultations or not by unnamed authorities outside the ZEC hence jeorpadising its independence.
Commissioner Joyce Kazembe’s brazen attempt to steal the elections again will not go unchallenged.Her naive allegation that ZEC does not know who the MDC Alliance is is not only stupid,lame and an expose’ of ZEC’s partisan conduct of national elections but also an expose’ of how Elections are stolen.This is the beginning of their devilish journey to steal the people’s will again.As peace loving citizens we shall resist such unlawful and biased conduct by the ZEC.
The MDC Alliance is the biggest opposition party in the nation hence barring it is tantamount to playing and refereeing at the same time.ZEC must not be an interested party in the fights currently obtaining in the Zimbabwean politics.
If ZEC is to hold stakeholders consultations then all stakeholders should be consulted.It must not be selective in choosing stakeholders as this will be met with resistance by all progressive forces.
Zimbabwe is for all of us and we should build it brick by brick together as a citizenry not as blue eyed boys of the dictator.
We demand impartiality and independence in ZEC’s conduct so that we build a better Zimbabwe together. We will not accept an extension of Zanu pf to masquarade as ZEC. The people,s power must guarantee the independence of ZEC, as well as protection of votes in order to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. Disputed elections are a liability to sustainable development.
ZEC must not only retract its statement but should be disbanded for being partisan, selective and a threat to future free,fair and credible elections.
Tinashe Sambiri| MDC Alliance vice chairperson Hon Job Sikhala has described the Zanu PF leader Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of The Nation Address(SONA) as a compilation of high- sounding empty words.
According to Hon Sikhala, Mr Mnangagwa is clueless, hollow and hopeless.
Hon Sikhala also said he has since stopped listening to Mr Mnangagwa’s speeches.
“I was phoned by one of the journalists asking me about Mnangagwa’s SONA?
I wondered whether people still have got time to listen to Mnangagwa. I don’t have time to listen to that dude.
By A Correspondent- A video of a top Zimbabwe government official has gone viral after he promised to pay South African artists 5 times what they had billed him for performing at his birthday party.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, George Guvamatanga hired top SA artists Makhadzi and Mafikizolo to perform at his lavish 50th birthday party celebrations.
The private party was held at the exclusive Padonhodzo events venues in Sunninghill, Harare.
The South African artists performed so well, that the Permanent secretary felt compelled to be generous and declared that he would pay 5 times what they had charged.
We publish reactions to the video …..
The Decor lights on that video are not very Bright because of the So-called Sanctions targeted on Zimbabwe. Not to mention the poor Camera taking the video, results of sanctions too.
The trouble with the Zimbabwean Govt is that they’re prepared to host lavish parties & pay foreign artistes in forex, even to the extent of multiplying the invoiced bill by 5 – out of “generosity” BUT they pay teachers slave wages in RTGS.
VICTORIA FALLS- The Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage this week hosted the National Migration Finalization Workshop with support from the International Organization for Migration’s Africa Regional Migration Program (ARMP).
Funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM), the project provides technical support to government to improve migration management at policy level and fosters intra and inter-coordination with relevant stakeholders in country, within the SADC region and on the African continent.
Officiating the workshop, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Mr. Aaron Nhepera said,
“This workshop to finalize the development of the National Migration Policy, comes at an opportune time, when the Government of Zimbabwe is intensifying implementation of migration policies for sustainable development, in line with the Global Compact on Safe Orderly and Regular Migration.”
He added that the policy with empower government to harness the opportunities presented by a growing diaspora in the social and economic development of the country. Speaking at the same occasion, IOM Zimbabwe Chief of Mission, Mario Lito Malanca said that once finalized, the National Migration policy will address the drivers of migration, facilitate safe, orderly, and regular migration and safeguard, and respect the human rights of all migrants, whatever their status, whether regular or irregular.
Over three days, thematic experts from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Public Service, Labour and Social Development, Industry and Commerce, Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Health and Child Care, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Local Government and Public Works, Environment, Tourism and Hospitality, Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Department of Immigration, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services and development partners UNICEF and ICRC critically evaluated the draft policy and made revisions before the draft was endorsed by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration (IMCM). The endorsed draft policy was handed over to the Permanent Secretary to initiate the process towards Cabinet approval.
Speaking at the handover, Permanent Secretary Nhepera congratulated the IMCM for finalizing the draft policy and said its development is a key government priority necessitated by the need to enhance migration and border management systems and to complement the Immigration Act and Regulations.
By A Correspondent- A Dangamvura couple has known no peace in their home since the wife bought her husband a smart phone as they are constantly bickering over the gadget.
So bad are the squabbles that they degenerate into fights, resulting in the wife confiscating the phone she had bought for her better half as a present.
This emerged at the Mutare Magistrates’ Courts where Takazvida Chakwanda had dragged her husband, Simbarashe Mutore accusing him of bashing her.
Mutore appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate, Mr Langton Mukwengi facing physical abuse charges.
Ms Tafadzwa Chiwanza prosecuted.
A remorseful Mutore admitted assaulting his wife, and pleaded with the court for leniency.
He also begged his wife for forgiveness.
“I am at fault, Your worship. I wronged my wife, and may she, please, forgive me. It was only out of anger that I acted that way because she had taken the phone I was now using for business as well as chatting with my relatives.
“This will never happen again,” he said.
Mutore promised that he will not let things get out of hand again over the phone.
His wife expressed disappointment with how he was misusing the gadget as she claimed Mutore was now in the habit of flirting with other women on the phone.
“I am the one who bought him that phone as a present, and I was bitter to see him chatting with his girlfriends on social media platforms.
“He even saved their pictures in the phone, and I decided to confiscate it.
“This did not go down well with him, and he assaulted me,” said Chakwanda.
Mr Mukwengi fined Mutore $10 000 or 20 days in prison for physically abusing his wi
Protesters at 10 different centers getting ready to take to the streets educating on vaccination and resisting mandatory Vaccination. Teachers reiterate, #ChooseToChoose#8Octoberpic.twitter.com/1q9xGdqMxJ
— Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe,ARTUZ (@ARTUZ_teachers) October 8, 2021
By A Correspondent| Harare Magistrate Barbra Mateko on Thursday 7 October 2021 set free two Harare residents who had been on trial on charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly chanting a slogan while attending a court session for pro-democracy campaigner Makomborero Haruzivishe in April 2021.
The two Harare residents Ngonidzashe Mupfumba and Kudakwashe Butao, who were out of prison custody on bail, had been on trial after they were arrested on 6 April 2021 and charged with disorderly conduct as defined in section 41(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
During trial, prosecutors alleged that Mupfumba and Butao, who were represented by Gift Mtisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, engaged in disorderly conduct by chanting a slogan “Ahoi Macomrades, Ahoi” outside Harare Magistrates Court after attending a court session for Haruzivishe and where some police officers were attempting to disperse people.
But Magistrate Mateko on Thursday 7 October 2021 discharged Mupfumba and Butao at the close of the prosecution case and ruled that State witnesses contradicted each other glaringly in their testimonies during trial and failed to corroborate each other’s evidence.
A suspected serial rapist, who terrorized female commuters using a Toyota Wish vehicle, appeared in court yesterday facing new charges of escaping from lawful custody after he escaped from the Harare Remand Prison on October 1 with the assistance of prison wardens.
Sam Muropa (31), who appeared before magistrate Barbara Mateko, pleaded guilty to escaping from lawful custody. He said his brother organised his escape.
He did not disclose who assisted him, but it is believed that two prison officers have been arrested for allegedly facilitating his escape.
Muropa is also facing theft of a motor vehicle, an offence he committed after escaping from lawful custody.
It is alleged that on August 16 this year, Muropa appeared at Harare Magistrates Court facing several counts of rape and armed robbery and was remanded in custody at the Harare Remand Prison, where he was committed to D Class.
But on October 1, at around 6:45pm, Muropa unlawfully escaped from custody and the offence was discovered on the same day during a physical count of inmates.
Detectives from CID Homicide Harare received information on the whereabouts of the accused, leading to his arrest in Kuwadzana, Harare.
It is alleged that on October 6, the accused person made indications at Harare Remand Prison on how he escaped from lawful custody and a video footage of the indications will be produced in court as exhibit.
Bruce Mupotsa is the complainant in the theft of the motor vehicle.
It is alleged that on October 5 at around 7pm, Mupotsa parked his unregistered white Toyota Wish vehicle at Kuwadzana 2 shopping centre where he was having drinks.
During that time, Muropa approached Mupotsa and requested to hire his car to pick up his girlfriend. Muropa requested to charge his mobile phone in the car. Mupotsa handed him the car keys and he sat on the driver’s seat charging his phone. He, however, closed windows, started the vehicle and sped off.
Muropa was spotted in Kuwadzana driving the vehicle, leading to his arrest.
By A Correspondent- Talent Dzitiro from Entumbane suburb in Bulawayo is reportedly demanding his lobola money back from his girlfriend.
This comes after his girlfriend Lwazi Mhlanga leaked her own nudes on Facebook.
Dzitiro who could not fathom the thought that everyone was getting a glimpse of her naked body on Facebook decided to demand his lobola money back.
A local tabloid reports that the matter only came to light after Mhlanga approached Magistrate Jeconia Prince Ncube seeking a protection order against Dzitiro who had threatened to kill her.
Mhlanga told the court that after Dzitiro discovered that she posted her nudes on Facebook last week, he lost his temper and threatened to kill her.
“My ex-boyfriend threatened to kill me last week. He forced me to board a commuter omnibus and took me to a lodge. He locked me inside and threatened to kill me. When we left the lodge he took my bag so that I would not leave him. He later locked me inside his house until I was rescued by the police,” Mhlanga said in her application.
Mhlanga claims that Dzitiro visits her workplace and embarrasses her. In addition to that, she revealed that he sends her nasty audios and messages. Mhlanga said she now fears for her life as he threatened her with some unspecified measures.
She pleaded with Magistrate Ncube to order Dzitiro not to come to her place of residence and not to threaten or assault her.
In his mitigation, Dzitiro refuted claims that he threatened to kill her arguing that he only reprimanded her for posting nudes on Facebook.
He, however, revealed that after the discovery, he has no plans to pay off the lobola balance, instead, he now wants his lobola money back.
“I am opposed to the application. It is the first time that I’m hearing that I’m her ex-boyfriend. The thing is I always reprimand her about her style and her dressing. Recently I reprimanded her for posting nudes on Facebook.
When I met her she had a child and I paid the bride price. I was supposed to pay off the balance soon. I want my bride price money back.”he said
Presiding over the matter, Magistrate Ncube ruled in Mhlanga’s favor. He ordered Dzitiro not to threaten Mhlanga anymore and not to communicate or visit her place of residence
Police in Chivhu, Mashonaland East province, allegedly tortured and killed a woman whom they accused of concealing money stolen by her sister, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has claimed.
In its latest report titled It’s Politricks All Over, ZPP adjudged the police as the major perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East in September.
ZPP alleges that Sharai Mukaro was allegedly tortured by police officers during interrogation on September 12, 2021.
ZPP said a medical report showed that she suffered internal bleeding around her heart and that could have resulted in her death.
“Police officers were among the main perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East. The police were perpetrators of 40% of the human rights violations that ZPP recorded this month. In one of the cases, police officers in Chivhu in Chikomba district tortured a woman to death during interrogations on September 12.
“She was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her younger sister who had been arrested in Harare. According to an autopsy shown to the ZPP, the deceased, Sharai Mukaro, suffered massive pericardial clot, had large amounts of blood in the upper mediastinum (which contains the heart, thymus gland, portions of the oesophagus and trachea, and other structures) and had raptures in the area of the aorta,” the ZPP report read.
The human rights organisation said there was no record of any disciplinary measures taken against the killer police officers.
“This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without using unconstitutional means such as torture. This is not the first case of people dying at the hands of the police.
“ZPP calls on the police to act within their mandate when dealing with suspects. The Constitution clearly outlines the procedures to be undertaken during the investigation of a crime. Torture should be a punishable crime and we call on the Home Affairs ministry to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book in order to infuse confidence into the criminal and justice system of the country.”
Previous reports by ZPP show that for the past two years, police have been the leading human rights violators in the country.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has threatened to pursue the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering calls yesterday.
By A Correspondent- Several people were reportedly left injured while a yet to be confirmed number are feared dead after two buses from CAG collided about 10 km out of Bulawayo this Friday morning.
accident
A witness who refused to be named said the accident happened just after 8am.
The two buses reportedly left the rank in Bulawayo at the same time chasing after a ZUPCO bus.
“The buses collided when they were trying to block the way for a ZUPCO bus which they were racing against,” reported the witness.
At the time of publishing, several ambulances were at the scene attending to the injured.
Efforts to get a comment from the police was work in progress by the time of writing.
By A Correspondent- Two drunk men have been arrested for killing a man with a brick.
The incident happened in Nkulumane suburb when Recent Mukatawa (26) and his alleged partner-in-crime Sydney Siyamwi (23) pounced on Sabelo Gumbo (28), Isaac Sithole (29) and Limukani Sithole (39) while they were smelting iron to make axes.
A source close to the incident said: “When Sydney and his friend arrived at the trio’s shop, they hurled insults at Sithole and his co-workers.
“An argument ensued, at the height of it, Recent and Sydney threw bricks at Sithole and his co-worker. One of the guys hit Sithole on the head, causing him to fall on to the ground and bleed from the head.”
Gumbo tried to run way, but they caught him and hit him with bricks several times on the head and he bled excessively, said the source.
They went for Limukani and took turns to assault him with fists. After that they took to their heels leaving him lying on the ground.
A neighbor to Limukani reported the matter to the police and an ambulance ferried the trio of Sithole, Limukani and Gumbo to Mpilo Central Hospital.
Limukani and Sithole were treated and discharged while Gumbo’s condition deteriorated leading to his death in intensive care.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident and urged community members never to take law into their hands.-BMetro
By A Correspondent- A man from Jotsholo, Matabeleland North Province, got the shock of his life when he caught his wife moaning in pleasure while indulging in sex with his neighbour.
The court heard that Attalia Khumalo (23), who is wife to Vusumuzi Ncube (45), visited her parents and after two days away, the suspicious Ncube followed her and arrived at his in-laws in the early hours of the morning.
He stood at the door of the room where his wife was sleeping and heard groaning sounds of pleasure. He then pushed the door open only to find his wife enjoying sex with their neighbour.
In a fit of rage, Ncube manhandled the neighbour and assaulted him all over the body. The undressed neighbour took to his heels.
Ncube turned to his wife and bashed her with fists and kicked her all over the body.
Khumalo sustained injuries and was ferried to hospital. After that she reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of her husband.
Ncube appeared before Lupane resident magistrate Ndumo Masuku facing physical abuse charges.
He pleaded guilty to the charge and said he got angry when he caught his wife indulging in sex with another man.
He was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in prison which were wholly suspended for five years on condition that he does not commit any offence of which physical abuse is an element for which he will be sentenced without the option of a fine.
In passing the sentence the court noted that Ncube was a first-time offender who pleaded guilty to the charge and showed some degree of contrition and did not waste the court’s time by denying the charge.
The court also noted that the accused did not use a dangerous weapon to attack his wife.
By A Correspondent- Danisa Masuku Passengers were left shocked when a 60 year old man collapsed and died in a bus.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident.
A man, who only identified himself as Bothwell and was part of the passengers who witnessed the incident, said Adaton Mugwindiri (60) boarded a Zupco bus near Ashy’s shops in Pumula South suburb intending to go to town.
Along the way, Mugwindiri started complaining of stomach ache and vomited.
“He stopped vomiting and collapsed. One of the passengers informed the driver about the incident.
“He stopped the bus and checked him and discovered he had died,” said Bothwell. The Zupco driver drove to a police station and reported the matter. Mugwindiri’s body was ferried to a mortuary.
The late Mugwindiri’s son, Manley Mugwindiri (24), told B-Metro that his father was suffering from a heart disease and had been on medication since 2019.
By A Correspondent- A 29 year old Muzarabani woman allegedly f0ndled her 13-year-old daughter’s brea_sts while assisting a 25-year-old ‘would-be son-in-law’ to rap_e her to cement a marriage proposal.
She appeared before Bindura magistrate Ms Samantha Dhlamini facing aggravated indecent assault while the man Moses Murota is facing rap_e charges.
The pair was remanded in custody.
Prosecutor Mrs Paidamoyo Machakata told the court that sometime in July, Murota connived with the girl’s mother to facilitate the se_xual assault after registering his interest to marry her.
One day, it is alleged, the man arrived at the homestead in Muhomba Village and was accommodated in a hut where the mother forced her daughter to enter.
It is alleged that the girl refused to enter the room and her mother threatened to assault her.
She complied and the mother went closer to her and started f0ndling her brea_sts telling her that the man wanted to marry her.
The mother later left the hut and the man forced the girl to the ground and rap_ed her.
It is alleged that he went outside where the mother was waiting and she accompanied him to his homestead.
The following day the man came back and the mother forced her daughter to the ground and allowed the se_xual assault again.
The court heard that the abuse went on for several occasions until September 7, when the mother chased the girl away asking her to go to her father’s homestead at Utuku village in Muzarabani.
The matter came to light as she narrated her ordeal and the matter was reported to the police.
She was medically examined and the report will be used in court as an exhibit.-statemedia
By Business Reporter | A Chinese mine oxygen tank has burst up killing several people, former Energy Minister Fortune Chasi reports.
Chamisa speaks of the incident which happened in his constituency, saying in brief:
5 Chinese and several Zimbabweans die in a mine burst in Mazowe.
Former energy minister Fortune Chasi took to his twitter:
Very sad development at Saisai mine Mazowe South Ward 20. Oxygen tanks burst killing several people who include 1 child, 5 Chinese workers.
Just for the record this has not been reported by anyone as yet. This is information coming from the constituency. I have brought it to the attention of the relevant minister.
This is a sad situation as mines in the country continue to claim the lives of many. Recently there were others miners who were trapped in Madziva
By A Correspondent- Zanu-PF Mazowe district is yet to complete internal elections amid a number of challenges which include improper party cell structures, lack of resources as well as alleged manipulation of the process.
The elections, which began a fortnight ago, are yet to be finalised in Mazowe and Bindura districts due to alleged factional fights.
Mazowe district co-ordinating committee (DCC) spokesperson Kushinga Dutiro confirmed the development, blaming a shortage in human resources for the delay.
“It is true that elections in Mazowe are still on-going,” Dutiro said.
“This is because the constituency is very big. We have four constituencies in Mazowe, yet Bindura, which is supervising the elections, has got only two, hence human resource shortage is the biggest challenge.
“We also have other challenges such as fuel shortages. As Mazowe, we had to give people in Bindura fuel to come and conduct elections, but when we went to Guruve, we used our own fuel. So as a district, we are sponsoring two districts on logistics.”
Dutiro said they were taking their time on Mazowe West constituency, which was always a problem constituency due to the polarisation of supporters alongside two camps led by Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and Tafadzwa Musarara, who is the DCC chairman.
“We also have challenges with Mazowe West where party supporters are divided and the cell structures are not proper, hence as DCC, we want to perfect it and avoid the chaos that always comes from the divided supporters. We are uniting them. Since we are looking at five million votes as a party, it takes time to preach this gospel of peace.”
In some parts of Mazowe that conducted their internal elections, most of Kazembe’s backers allegedly lost.
The delay, according to some supporters, is to allow manipulation of the polls by Kazembe’s camp. Kazembe is battling to retain the provincial chairmanship in elections to be held at a date to be advised. He will likely to battle it out with Musarara and businessman James Makamba.
“In areas where elections were held in Mazowe North, Central and South, Kazembe’s camp lost. Kazembe’s camp is sponsoring the chaos being witnessed in the district that has resulted in some delays. The camp is plotting manipulation of the vote to regain lost ground.” Kazembe has denied leading a faction.
By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office yesterday denied reports that Sakhile Mnangagwa, who was duped of US$68 000 in a car importation deal, was linked to the First Family.
Presidential Communications permanent secretary Regis Chikowore accused the country’s three local dailies of linking Sakhile to the First Family without “verifying facts”.
“The Office of the President and Cabinet is dismayed by a malicious story appearing in three of our local dailies today linking the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, ED Mnangagwa, to a court case in which the president is not a respondent,” Chikowore wrote.
“The said story directly links one, Sakhile Mnangagwa, involved in the case to the First Family, creating an erroneous impression that the First Family is vicariously answerable. This is outright malice. If the three dailies had bothered to verify their facts as they should always do before going to print, they would have not dragged the First Family into the said court case.”
In the court case, Sakhile also gave his home address as Lot 1 Sherwood Block, Kwekwe. It could not be established if it is the President’s Sherwood Block’s Precabe Farm.
In January, he was also named as the President’s son in a case in which a Harare man attempted to bulldoze through Beitbridge Border Post claiming he was running errands for “Sakhile, President Mnangagwa’s son”.
By A Correspondent- Government has threatened to suspend operating licences for business entities manipulating the official foreign currency rate, thus fuelling the high parallel market exchange rate.
In a statement yesterday, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube said government would introduce a raft of measures to intensify its clampdown on money-laundering and other financial crimes by naming and shaming offenders.
He said the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) was conducting impromptu audits of corporates to quantify potential tax liabilities from illegal foreign currency deals.
“Government, through various agencies, is presently seized with instituting various measures to curb illegal trade in foreign currency and its associated twin evil, that of parallel market benchmarking or indexation of process of goods and services at parallel market exchange rates,” Ncube said.
“The recent resurgence of these practices, which have been identified as significant contributors to price instability in the economy and are imposing significant downside risk to macro-economic stability and the erosion of domestic and international competitiveness, is, therefore, a cause for serious concern.”
In May this year, government promulgated Statutory Instrument (SI) 127 of 2021, banning computation of prices using parallel market rates, stipulating penalties of up to $50 million against offenders.
The SI also introduced fines for businesses that access foreign currency on the RBZ forex auction flow, and yet dabble in parallel market activities.
Banks could be punished for failing to disclose delinquency among their customers.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) named and shamed 30 individuals alleged to be abusing mobile phone services and social media to facilitate forex transactions.
Another 47 offenders were added to the list this week.
Several company managers have also appeared in court on allegations of abusing foreign currency.
Ncube said Zimra would probe to see if companies were complying with the location tax introduced during the 2021 fiscal year, while regulatory bodies would work on a framework to impose appropriate financial and professional sanctions on members of the accounting fraternity implicated in illegal dealings.
Yesterday, the central bank reacted to social media claims that Simbisa Brands was manipulating the official foreign currency exchange rate, adding investigations were underway.
The RBZ official exchange rate yesterday stood at US$1:$88,55, but on Monday, there was discontent among the public following revelations that Simbisa Brands was using a US$1:$200 exchange rate.
Another social media leak yesterday revealed police conducted public auctions of their vehicles nationwide using unofficial rates of US$1:$166.
Bidders were asked to pay $500 000 or US$3 000 for vehicles sold at JEFFM Auction by the police.
Economist Christopher Mugaga said if the US dollar foreign exchange rate surpassed US$1:$200; it would cause the local currency to be rejected at shops.
Mugaga urged the central bank to put in place favourable policies to contain the situation.
He said investigations on individual companies were ineffective, adding that companies were commodifying the cash they get from the auction rate.
“We need an auction floor which respects the market forces and not specified companies. By allocating foreign currency to selected companies, RBZ is specifying demand and supply of goods and services when there are many companies that operate in the same industries,” Mugaga said.
By A Correspondent- A 16 year old Bulawayo girl was shot on the cheek after a police officer discharged his firearm to stop a fight, her family alleges.
The bullet went through one cheek and exited on the other.
Ayanda Tshuma, a Form 3 pupil at Sobukhazi High School, is admitted at Mpilo Central Hospital following the shooting on Monday night.
Ayanda was a bystander when police were called to a house in G-Square in Mzilikazi where two men were involved in a fist fight.
A witness said: “There was a fight between Thabani Magwenzi and Richard Goredema, who is a well-known drug dealer in the area. We suspect Goredema works with some police officers because they always come to his house but he is never arrested.
“I don’t know why they were fighting, but when the police arrived they handcuffed Thabani and started beating him. This incensed residents who asked the officers why they did not arrest Goredema as well.”
A relative of Ayanda, speaking on condition they were not named, said police began indiscriminately beating up people who had gathered to watch.
“An officer we only know as Shumba fired his gun into the air and people started running all over. When he fired the first shot, one of his colleagues shouted ‘isa panyama’ (put it on the flesh) and the next thing I remember Ayanda was lying down with blood all over her face.”
The relative said Ayanda’s mouth was swollen and doctors have recommended surgery after she complained of aching jaws and teeth.
The family said after the shooting, the police officers said they had called an ambulance but none arrived.
“We phoned a friend in Nguboyenja who has a car after we realised that the police were not treating the issue with urgency. We later made a report of the incident at Mzilikazi Police Station and they called homicide detectives to investigate,” the relative said.
The police officer named Shumba has allegedly been trying to bribe the family to withdraw their complaint.
“He has been following us to the hospital requesting that we don’t take action. He promised to cover all hospitals bills and he even offered to pay us US$3,000 in hush money. We’re not interested in money, we want justice for our daughter,” the relative said.
Thandekile Moyo, the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association chairperson for ward 8 said:
“The was no need for the police officer to discharge a gun on defenceless residents. If the officers had been professional in handling the matter, it would not have led to this.
“Police are struggling to arrest armed robbers in the city, but they come to discharge guns on defenceless people. Police should protect the public and not be enemies of the people.”
Moyo said she had reported the attempts to bribe the family to Commissioner Patton Mbangwa, the officer commanding Bulawayo province.
“We want to see action and we will not rest until justice is served,” she vowed.
We have reached out to police for a comment. Bulawayo provincial police spokesman Inspector Abednico Ncube’s mobile phone rang unanswered, and his office said he was not at work.
By A Correspondent- At least 27% of young people in Zimbabwe aged 15 to 24 are suffering from depression, some of it caused by COVID-19, a research conducted by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) has revealed.
A report, titled The State of the World’s Children 2021-On My Mind-Promoting, Protecting and Caring for Children’s Mental Health, which was released on Wednesday, listed Zimbabwe as one of the leading five countries out of 21, whose young people suffer from depression.
About 20 000 people aged 15 to 24 and older people aged up to 40 years were part of the sampled population in the research conducted between February and June 2021 in Zimbabwe and 20 other countries.
Cameroon was adjudged as the country with the highest number of youths suffering from depression at 32%, followed by Germany, France and the United States at 24%.
Unicef said the COVID-19 pandemic hardships had exacerbated mental disorders among the youth and urged governments to put in place measures to promote good mental health among children.
“Children around the world have been locked out of classrooms, sequestered in their homes, and robbed of the everyday joy of playing with friends, all consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the global children’s organisation said.
“Millions more families have been pushed into poverty, unable to make ends meet. Child labour, abuse and gender-based violence are on the rise. Many children are filled with sadness, hurt or anxiety.
“Some are wondering where this world is headed and what their place is in it. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised huge concerns for the mental health of an entire generation of children. But the pandemic may represent only the tip of a mental health iceberg — an iceberg we have ignored for far too long.”
It is estimated that globally, more than 13%, which is about 166 million adolescents aged 10 to 19, live with a diagnosed mental disorder, as defined by the World Health Organisation.
Unicef identified poverty as a critical social determinant of mental health that shapes the lives of children and their caregivers.
“Children’s and young people’s mental health is forged by experiences and environments. It is moulded in the world of parents and caregivers, of communities and schools, and of poverty, conflict and diseases,” it said.
“At critical moments of child development, these experiences and environments can harm mental health. Or they can be shaped to promote and protect it. Poverty can also have a profound psychological impact on children’s and adolescents’ capacity to seek opportunity and realise their dreams. The amount of exposure to poverty also matters. Indeed, the longer a child lives in poverty, the greater the risks to mental health.”
Unicef said there was an urgent need for investment in child and adolescent mental health across sectors to promote access to mental health.
By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commissioner (Zacc) investigating officer Eric Chacha yesterday exposed how police commissioner in charge of Matabeleland North province, Erasmus Makodza had been benefiting from a company owned by his girlfriend whom he is alleged to have corruptly awarded a farming contract at a police farm.
Makodza is accused of influencing the awarding of the contract at a police farm in Mashonaland East to his baby girlfriend.
Chacha, who was leading evidence for the State, said Makodza was a co-director of the company with Maonei Chapfudza who was given a contract to utilise a police farm.
“The accused person was appointed a director in 2017 of the company that was given a contract to farm. It was only in June 2019 when the same company appointed another director on its CR14,” Chacha said.
Makodza’s lawyer, Tapiwa Makanza, however, objected to the submission of company documents which had Makodza as a co-director.
Makanza argued that the document had no relevance since Chapfudza had not been awarded the contract when the accused person was the director.
But magistrate Noel Mupeiwa ruled that the documents should be submitted since they supported the State case.
He also ruled that the document spoke to the relationship between Chapfudza and Makodza.
Chacha insisted that the shareholding of the company contracted to utilise the police farm included the accused person.
Chacha said Chapfudza and the police entered into an agreement in June 2019, but the engagement had started in February 2019.
The Zacc investigator also submitted bank statements showing Makodza benefiting from the proceeds of the farm.
“I acquired a search warrant from the court and I went to the company’s banker where we got the bank statement showing transactions. The statement was recorded from the bank manager and confirmed by CR14” Chacha said.
“After receiving the bank statement, we established that on December 7, 2020, the same company where the accused was once a director transferred $32 350 for fuel to Makodza. Again on July 10, 2020 $200 000 was paid to Marondera Municipality for Makodza’s residential stand payments.”
Chacha said on August 14, 2020, another payment of $100 000 was paid for the same purpose to the Marondera Municipality.
“On August 19, 2020, the same company remitted $6 000 to ZRP Mashonaland East, another payment was then made on November 5, 2020, ZRP Mashonaland East Police Farm,” Chacha said.
The bank statement was submitted as evidence.
The matter was postponed to October 13 for continuation.
Harare Magistrate Barbra Mateko on Thursday 7 October 2021 set free two Harare residents who had been on trial on charges of disorderly conduct for allegedly chanting a slogan while attending a court session for pro-democracy campaigner Makomborero Haruzivishe in April 2021.
The two Harare residents Ngonidzashe Mupfumba and Kudakwashe Butao, who were out of prison custody on bail, had been on trial after they were arrested on 6 April 2021 and charged with disorderly conduct as defined in section 41(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
During trial, prosecutors alleged that Mupfumba and Butao, who were represented by Gift Mtisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, engaged in disorderly conduct by chanting a slogan “Ahoi Macomrades, Ahoi” outside Harare Magistrates Court after attending a court session for Haruzivishe and where some police officers were attempting to disperse people.
But Magistrate Mateko on Thursday 7 October 2021 discharged Mupfumba and Butao at the close of the prosecution case and ruled that State witnesses contradicted each other glaringly in their testimonies during trial and failed to corroborate each other’s evidence.
By A Correspondent- Police in Chivhu, Mashonaland East province, allegedly tortured and killed a woman whom they accused of concealing money stolen by her sister, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has claimed.
In its latest report titled It’s Politricks All Over, ZPP adjudged the police as the major perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East in September.
ZPP alleges that Sharai Mukaro was allegedly tortured by police officers during interrogation on September 12, 2021.
ZPP said a medical report showed that she suffered internal bleeding around her heart and that could have resulted in her death.
“Police officers were among the main perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East. The police were perpetrators of 40% of the human rights violations that ZPP recorded this month. In one of the cases, police officers in Chivhu in Chikomba district tortured a woman to death during interrogations on September 12.
“She was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her younger sister who had been arrested in Harare. According to an autopsy shown to the ZPP, the deceased, Sharai Mukaro, suffered massive pericardial clot, had large amounts of blood in the upper mediastinum (which contains the heart, thymus gland, portions of the oesophagus and trachea, and other structures) and had raptures in the area of the aorta,” the ZPP report read.
The human rights organisation said there was no record of any disciplinary measures taken against the killer police officers.
“This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without using unconstitutional means such as torture. This is not the first case of people dying at the hands of the police.
“ZPP calls on the police to act within their mandate when dealing with suspects. The Constitution clearly outlines the procedures to be undertaken during the investigation of a crime. Torture should be a punishable crime and we call on the Home Affairs ministry to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book in order to infuse confidence into the criminal and justice system of the country.”
Previous reports by ZPP show that for the past two years, police have been the leading human rights violators in the country.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has threatened to pursue the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering calls yesterday.
By A Correspondent- A man from Gokwe had the most unr0mantic end to a bout of love-making with a married woman after he was attacked by a swarm of bees in the middle of a tryst in the bush.
After being stung multiple times, bees were reportedly left covering his entire private parts for about two days, a development that villagers suspect was a result of black magic.
According to reports of the incident which villagers from Kwaramba Village under Chief Nemangwe suspected were acts of juju, Jethro Maimba was stung while having se_x with a married woman, Lizzie Maphosa, in the bush.
It is reported that Maimba met his fate after he had been warned by Maphosa’s husband Joseph Musariri several times to stop the illicit affair.
According to a source from the area the two — Maimba and Maphosa — were in the habit of indulging in bush se_x.
On the day in question, it is alleged that while in the act a swarm of bees mercilessly attacked Maimba but spared Maphosa who managed to flee from the scene while leaving her “partner-in-crime” to face the consequences alone.
“Maimba was stung by bees all over his body while having se_x with Musariri’s wife. He tried to run away but the bees just followed and kept stinging him. They were really aggressive. We suspected that the stinging was a result of juju after some of the bees were left covering his private parts for about two days,” said a source who requested anonymity.
It is suspected that Maphosa’s husband decided to cast a spell on his wife after he discovered that she was cheating on him with Maimba. The two lovebirds were also warned by Musariri to stop the affair but to no avail.
The bees which were alleged to have blanketed Maimba’s groin area for about two days reportedly disappeared after he (Maimba) enlisted the services of some elderly men from the village to talk to Maphosa’s husband.
“The bees only disappeared after Maimba asked for forgiveness from Musariri. This was also after he had promised to pay him two beasts. The two, however, agreed to later approach Chief Nemangwe’s traditional court so that they can solve their issue amicably,” added the source.
Contacted for comment, Chief Nemangwe could neither confirm nor deny the shocking incident.
“The matter has not yet been brought to my attention. Maybe the parties decided to solve it on their own. Matters of that nature are usually brought to my attention after the parties would have failed to agree on any terms or conditions,” said Chief Nemangwe.
ZEC says: Mnangagwa got 50.8 less than his party which got nearly 70%; Chamisa got 2 million far more than his party 1.6million. Running by ZEC 2018 figures, Mnangagwa is not popular in his own party | FALSE or TRUE?
By Patrick Guramatunhu- A few years ago I interviewed a number of job applicants and was shocked that many of them did not know what a verb is, although they had studied to “O” level and some even to “A” level. Now I can see the rot has gone up to not only University graduate and PhD level but right up to the University Lecturers and Professors!
“A group of academics in Zimbabwe under the banner of Lecturers Anti-Sanctions Network, (LASN) have embarked on research to prove that sanctions imposed by the West were detrimental to ordinary people,” reported a local publication.
The sanctions issue has been discussed over and over again and there is a mountain of evidence to prove sanctions are but a minor cause in Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown.
The root causes are gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness which have turned Zimbabwe into a Banana Republic in which the few ruling elite have creamed off the nation’s wealth becoming filthy rich and wasteful at the expense of the overwhelming majority whose lives have become hell-on-earth.
“Zvinotoda mazvikokota kuziva mutsauko yenyama yegwai neyegwayana. Nyangwe Ndomupeyi anoziva mhiripiri!” (It will take an expert distinguish lamb meat from mutton. When it comes to chilli, even a half-shilling Ndomupeyi, knows!) So goes the Shona adage.
People have long stopped believing in sanctions as the root cause of the nation’s economic meltdown because they can see with their own eyes how the ruling elite have become filthy rich. Of course, it does not make any sense at all that sanctions so be crippling the ordinary people who are not even on the sanctions list whilst those on the list thrive.
Corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, the hot chilli in the Zimbabwe dish, everyone can see that with their own eyes.
The real reason why sanctions have remained on the national agenda is because Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship, a dysfunctional political system, in which Zanu PF thugs alone set the national agenda. And the thugs have decreed that sanctions are the root cause of all the nation’s ills and will not brook to hear of any other causes for the sole purpose of drawing attention away from the real causes.
The nation failed to address the problems of corruption and mismanagement for the last 41 years allowing them to spread and grown to the cancerous level they are today. The only effective way to stamp out corruption and mismanagement is to make those in positions of power democratically accountable to the people.
Zanu PF ruling elite are the beneficiaries of the corruption and mismanagement and as long as they retain the carte blanche powers to rig elections and remain in power; corruption and mismanagement will remain.
So Zanu PF is using sanctions to hide corruption and mismanagement which in turn are used to hide the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
After 41 years of rigged elections and the nation sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss; one would expect Ndomupeyi, the half-shilling, to have finally figured it out that Zanu PF is using sanctions as cover to deceive the nation. And therefore for so-called academics to be leading from the front on this sanctions research is as meaningless as setting out to prove that the earth is flat!
“We, the intelligentsia of the Republic of Zimbabwe, hereby take a stand to unmask the myths surrounding the sanctions saga bedevilling Zimbabwe,” said LASN national co-ordinator Obediah Dodo, a lecturer at Bindura State University.
“We acknowledge that like any other sovereign State, Zimbabwe has its own fair share of internal contradictions which we, as Zimbabweans, should deal with, guided by our own peculiar socio-cultural dynamics. (No doubt a tacit admission that there are other causes, which LASN should look into but will not dare!)
“In a bid to contribute to the cause of our sovereign nation, we shall engage in rigorous research and make presentations and submissions to the international community and particular Western countries for a relook into the issue of sanctions.
“From the onset, we hereby declare that our position is that of academics who rely on verifiable facts to petition for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.”
So LASN has NOT yet engaged in rigorous research and yet is already petitioning for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe!
Of course, what Dodo and his fellow LASN, half-shillings masquerading as intelligentsia, are not only helping Zanu PF to keep sanctions on the agenda but, more significantly, are keeping the regime itself in power. The regime just added sanctions as an excuse to deny Zimbabweans their basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
In June this June Zanu PF’s Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa announced that the three million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be denied the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on Zimbabwe remain”!
Considering President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the presidency with 2.4 million vote or 50.8% of the cast votes; so the diaspora votes constitute 3 out of 8 million potential voters or 37%. How can an election in which 37% are arbitrarily denied the vote be legal, free, fair and credible? A question for Dodo and fellow LASN Ndomupeyis must answer!
What is killing Zimbabwe is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and bad governance; not sanctions. Zanu PF and its apologists are like a doctor who insist on giving painkillers even for a broken limb even even the stench of gangrene is overwhelming. And now Dodo and his LASN half-shilling academics are throwing their thrupence worth pontificating on the efficacy of painkillers!
By Farai D Hove | Contrary to her denials, the comedian Mai Titi was truly pounced on by US police for immigration and drug trafficking allegations. Mai Titi, real name, Felistas Murata revealed this in a brief live video with colleague Madam Boss. She said the police made a surprise visit at an undisclosed place where they interrogated her. The cops also took pictures of her and her colleagues.
Mai Titi
In her statement, Mai Titi said the cops passed a decision on her visa saying she can stay in the US forever, a claim legal experts say is impossible as the police are not immigration officials. Even even such a thing had happened, if ever that were possible, it would not happen on the same day, several analysts said.
The development comes days after Mai Titi announced on Facebook live that she is too busy looking for paid work.
Mai Titi’s live brief
She said in brief: “They are saying America fits you Amai Titi, oh thank you….
“Though I really miss home, I am already missing my kids. We came to do work here. We came to look for bag(money). So let us look for bag, all other things are meaningless.
“So leave me to look for work.”
Below was the brief interaction.
Madam Boss: America is too big, that I don’t think there are police officers who have time to find Mai Titi, but we will have lost it my friend the moment we decided to report others. Let’s focus on our own business. [to Mai Titi] It’s not like you are working in an office, you are working as a guest at events. Is this what must get a person arrested?
Mai Titi: There’s actually someone who phoned the police to say there is a person from Zimbabwe who is selling drugs, and I invited the cops seeking for a drug trafficker to enter in telling them openly yes, come in, I am the one who’s called Mai Titi. The police ended up taking pictures of us, and the cops announced to me saying, we have discovered that your fellow Zimbabweans are very bitter. The fools who operate on Facebook, the ones who said all this are the ones who said she is a drug trafficker. The police looked at me and said, what kind of a drug trafficker is this one who’s so young? LAUGH. And I said what has Mai Titi done? You see these people think the police will arrest anyone for anything, the officers ended up drinking beer with us, and the cops assured me saying if I encounter any problem, I should dial 911 to tell them I am being harassed. And the police said we are now protecting you, instead.
So, at least the police these days are now on my side. We want to protect you. And they said if you feel like these people want to hurt you, you can stay here forever, and I asked, tai, are you for real police? And they said, yes, if people from your country don’t love you you can stay here, and I said: oh my God!
By A Correspondent| Opposition MDC Alliance vice President, Tendai Biti whose exception appeal was dismissed by Harare magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti Guwiriro has applied for referral of his assault case to the Constitutional Court.
Biti is accused of assaulting a Russian woman and controversial land baron Kenneth Raydon Sharpe’s aide Tatiana Aleshina outside the Harare magistrates court premises.
After Biti’s exception application was dismissed, his lawyer, Alec Muchadehama filed a notice to apply for the magistrate’s ruling to be reviewed by the High Court saying the decision to stop him from filing for review violated his constitutional right.
He also gave notice to apply for the matter’s referral to the Constitutional Court .
In his application for exception, Biti argued that shouting was not an offence adding that he was being politically persecuted.
Biti further told the court that he is afraid that he may not get a fair trial as his rights to equal protection and benefit of the law have been flouted.
The Harare East legislator said the charge he is facing is a simple one with no allegations the he touched her (Aleshina) but only called her idiot or stupid, further referring to state prosecutor Michael Reza’s case where he called a female magistrate very stupid.
“Calling someone an idiot no malice, that is why he (Reza) was not prosecuted for calling a senior magistrate very stupid,” said Muchadehama.
However, Reza insisted that the trial should start immediately since the application for exception had been dismissed.
The matter was then postponed to October 13 for continuation.
By A Correspondent- MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora and MDC-Alliance advisor and political commentator Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya have engaged in a nasty Twitter rant.
Ruhanya initiated the conversation, which did not end well after he had asked Mwonzora about his alleged plea for the postponement of elections.
Mwonzora responded by sarcastically inviting Ruhanya to “our press conference today at 11 for answers”.
By A Correspondent- Retired singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist Zex Manatsa has said that he is not in good health.
However, posting on his Facebook page this week, the Tea Hobvu hitmaker said he was recovering from his Westgate home.
Below is his Facebook post:
My wonderful family, friends and fans. Some of you are already aware of my recent announcement/diagnosis/health condition. I want to thank you all for the overwhelming messages of love, support and prayers that I have been receiving over the past couple of months. I also want to say thank you to the medical professionals for the wonderful work which they are doing and for the latest report which suggests positive response to treatment. Wonderful news! Not forgeting my wife and children who are ensuring I am comfortable every single day and facilitating my treatment. Lastly, I thank God for the gift of life and all my blessings. Sincerely – Zex Manatsa
By Farai D Hove | Emmerson Mnangagwa’s uncle, Obadiah Moyo yesterday walked out of the High Court a free man following his year long prosecution case over corruption.
The former Health Minister is the ZANU PF leader’s uncle. Obadiah-Moyo is Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cousin, titled “uncle” or sekuru, in the Shona vernacular.
When the police arrested him in June last year, while he was signing a warned and cautioned statement, the police ended up releasing him on Mnangagwa’s orders.
Obadiah Moyo walking out of court
The head of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Isaac Moyo is another of Obadiah Moyo’s relatives who worked together with Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to make the case appear credible. They together went to Mnangagwa and organised that everything be staged so that he (Obadiah Moyo) is served so to subdue growing public angers over the Draxgate scandal. The plan was that Obadiah Moyo would sleep inside the police cells, and then bail be granted (and even that was cut short – he left Rhodesville Police station soon after arrival.) The CIO Director General and Ziyambi then went to get Obadiah Moyo’s own muzukuru, cousin, Munamato Mutevedzi who is the acting Chief Magistrate. Mutevedzi was invited to come and sit on the same case and the matter had the prosecutor saying that bail is not opposed. He was charged a bail of $50,000, which is just USD380, a small amount over a case involving USD60 million.
He had to take a fall to save Mnangagwa’s son, Collins, so he is actually a hero, in Mnangagwa’s eyes at the least.
Moyo was discharged from prosecution on corruption charges for illegally awarding a multi-million-dollar contract for Covid-19 medical supplies to Drax International without going through a competitive tender process. He was facing charges of criminal abuse of office over the awarding of a US$ 60 million contract to the company that allegedly sold supplies to the Government at inflated prices. Moyo, who was being represented Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara, made an application for the quashing of the charges, before Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, when the matter came for trial yesterday.
In his submissions, Adv Zhuwarara flagged a series of shortcomings in the indictment, particularly the way the charges were formulated.
He exposed how the indictment was at law, incoherent and how the allegations were vague and embarrassing. In this regard, he told the judge that his client was facing “what can only be described as an indictment that is inimical to the law, irregular in form and susceptible to impugnment”. He moved for the quashing of the indictment. But the State led by prosecutor Mr Garudzo Ziyaduma opposed to the quashing of the charges, arguing that they were clear and not calculated to embarrass Moyo. However, after a lengthy submission by both parties’ legal counsel, Justice Kwenda pressed the prosecution to explain the multiple deficiencies in the charge. The main deficiency was that the charge did not explain what influence the former minister had used in the awarding of tenders.
The prosecution had to reluctantly concede that they could not explain what exact influence they alleged had been used by Moyo.
Justice Kwenda noted that the charges did not fully inform the accused of the nature of the allegations he was supposed to respond to. In the end the court had no choice, but to take note of the prosecution’s admission that the charge was imprecise and upheld Adv Zhuwarara’s application, and quashed all the three counts against the former minister. According to the indictment papers, Moyo allegedly awarded the multimillion tender to Drax International LLC, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, which was concluded without the consent of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
The ruling clears Drax of any wrong doing in this case, which saw US$2 million paid to Drax Consult SAGL for the supply of medicines and medical sundries to the National Pharmaceutical Company (Natpharm) frozen in the former’s bank account in Hungary amid indications International Police Organisation (Interpol) Harare could have misinformed their counterparts in Budapest on the deal involving Drax and the Government. The money is locked in Drax’s MagNet Bank account in Budapest, after Interpol reportedly passed on information on investigations into the transaction between Drax and Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health for medical supplies to the Government-owned, Natpharm. This was after some banks involved in the system moved to stop suspected money laundering and raised a red-flag, leading to the freezing of the funds.
Drax, through its lawyer Mr Admire Rubaya, has since written to Interpol Budapest explaining the deal and putting the record straight and implored Interpol to engage State institutions to ascertain the facts around the Drax/Natpharm transaction. He requested Interpol Hungary to engage the Attorney-General’s office, the Commissioner-General of Police, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet to gather the relevant information on the deal. The court ruling yesterday also vindicated Drax suspicion’s that Interpol Hungary could have received wrong information from some elements in the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
To date, the company had not had an opportunity to respond to issues relating to its business with the Government which resulted in Interpol moving in to investigate the deal and the subsequent withholding of the company’s US$2 million by Hungarian authorities. Delish Nguwaya, who is the Zimbabwean country representative of Drax was arrested in June 2020 and appeared before the courts charged with fraud. However, these allegations have since been dismissed by the courts.- State Media/Additional Reporting
By A Correspondent- The Nelson Chamisa led MDC Alliance Members of Parliament yesterday did not attend President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) that was held at the Parliament Building.
Zengeza West Job Sikhala, Mutare Central Innocent Gonese, Harare North Rusty Markham, Harare West Joanna Mamombe, and Magwegwe Anele Ndebele were among those who boycotted.
MDC Alliance MPs have since 2018 been boycotting Mnangagwa SONA addresses and other parliamentary events he attends.
The snub was in response to claims by their party leader, Nelson Chamisa, that Mnangagwa rigged the results of the 2018 presidential election. Chamisa lost narrowly to Mnangagwa in that election.
By Dr Takavafira Zhou | The pre-occupation with Continuous Assessment Learning Activity (CALA) in schools in Zimbabwe has virtually crippled meaningful learning and teaching in schools. Against professional advice given by teacher unions the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has imposed upon teachers and learners the burdensome CALA of three projects per subject area, a total of 18 CALAs for a Grade 7 pupil and even more than 45 CALAs for an ‘O’ level learner. All this must be done before examinations. The cumulative effect is that teachers have stopped teaching in schools while learners have stopped learning in schools in order to focus on the defective CALAs.
One wonders how these students would write exams without covering the syllabus given the long period of lockdown due to covid 19 and the current pre-occupation with CALAs.
Dr Takavafira Zhou, President of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
With several boarding schools becoming quarantine centres due to a quantum leap of covid infections of pupils and teachers in schools, and several day primary and secondary schools giving pupils affected two weeks sabbatical leave at their homes, the CALA projects have been difficult to do by learners, let alone monitor and supervise by teachers. Several other students under the incessant CALA pressure have turned to mercenaries to have CALAs done for them for US$10 per CALA project for Grade 7, and US$20 per CALA project for ‘O’ and ‘A’ level pupils. The level of confusion over CALA, lacking as they do standardised assessment tools across the country, effective training of teachers, limited time for effective supervision and monitoring of learners, coupled with mercenary element that has cropped into CALA, have cumulatively turned it into a useless exercise that is derailing teaching and learning in 2021. The 2021 results would be very bad as our prescription of educational challenges have been worse than the disease. It is sad that Ministry officials as always, are intransigent, irresponsible and adopting commandist approaches over issues that need engagement with teachers who in essence are the linchpin in the supervision of learners and on ensuring the success or failure of CALA.
It is sad that as a nation we are failing to adopt and adapt to the serious challenges faced by the education system in Zimbabwe. Planning in the comfort of offices has never been a prudent way as such offices are far detached from vagaries and realities in schools. Worse still occupying a big or spacious office is no substitute for critical thinking as knowledge does not come through an osmosis way that resonate with occupation of a big office at Head Office. The level of bureaucratic red tape at Head Office has become a liability in our education system. As Ptuz we reiterate our long held view that there is no substitute for engagement in order to ensure the success of policy formulation and implementation in the education sector.
POLICE in Chivhu, Mashonaland East province, allegedly tortured and killed a woman whom they accused of concealing money stolen by her sister, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has claimed.
In its latest report titled It’s Politricks All Over, ZPP adjudged the police as the major perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East in September.
ZPP alleges that Sharai Mukaro was allegedly tortured by police officers during interrogation on September 12, 2021.
ZPP said a medical report showed that she suffered internal bleeding around her heart and that could have resulted in her death.
“Police officers were among the main perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East. The police were perpetrators of 40% of the human rights violations that ZPP recorded this month. In one of the cases, police officers in Chivhu in Chikomba district tortured a woman to death during interrogations on September 12.
“She was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her younger sister who had been arrested in Harare. According to an autopsy shown to the ZPP, the deceased, Sharai Mukaro, suffered massive pericardial clot, had large amounts of blood in the upper mediastinum (which contains the heart, thymus gland, portions of the oesophagus and trachea, and other structures) and had raptures in the area of the aorta,” the ZPP report read.
The human rights organisation said there was no record of any disciplinary measures taken against the killer police officers.
“This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without using unconstitutional means such as torture. This is not the first case of people dying at the hands of the police.
“ZPP calls on the police to act within their mandate when dealing with suspects. The Constitution clearly outlines the procedures to be undertaken during the investigation of a crime. Torture should be a punishable crime and we call on the Home Affairs ministry to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book in order to infuse confidence into the criminal and justice system of the country.”
Previous reports by ZPP show that for the past two years, police have been the leading human rights violators in the country.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has threatened to pursue the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering calls yesterday.- NewsDay
By A Correspondent- National Constitutional Assembly President, Professor Lovemore Madhuku, was this week in Gokwe where he engaged villagers on the functions of Political Leaders Actors Dialogue.
His party spokesperson, Madock Chivasa posted pictures of Madhuku’s engagements with Gokwe’s ward 27.
“NCA Party President Prof Lovemore Madhuku addressing NCA party ward 27 structure in Gokwe. The struggle to build a people’s party continues!” he posted.
POLICE in Chivhu, Mashonaland East province, allegedly tortured and killed a woman whom they accused of concealing money stolen by her sister, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has claimed.
In its latest report titled It’s Politricks All Over, ZPP adjudged the police as the major perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East in September.
ZPP alleges that Sharai Mukaro was allegedly tortured by police officers during interrogation on September 12, 2021.
ZPP said a medical report showed that she suffered internal bleeding around her heart and that could have resulted in her death.
“Police officers were among the main perpetrators of human rights violations that occurred in Mashonaland East. The police were perpetrators of 40% of the human rights violations that ZPP recorded this month. In one of the cases, police officers in Chivhu in Chikomba district tortured a woman to death during interrogations on September 12.
“She was suspected of withholding money allegedly stolen by her younger sister who had been arrested in Harare. According to an autopsy shown to the ZPP, the deceased, Sharai Mukaro, suffered massive pericardial clot, had large amounts of blood in the upper mediastinum (which contains the heart, thymus gland, portions of the oesophagus and trachea, and other structures) and had raptures in the area of the aorta,” the ZPP report read.
The human rights organisation said there was no record of any disciplinary measures taken against the killer police officers.
“This conduct by the police is of great concern and the ZPP continues to demand that police conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with their constitutional mandate and should be able to handle arrested persons without using unconstitutional means such as torture. This is not the first case of people dying at the hands of the police.
“ZPP calls on the police to act within their mandate when dealing with suspects. The Constitution clearly outlines the procedures to be undertaken during the investigation of a crime. Torture should be a punishable crime and we call on the Home Affairs ministry to ensure that perpetrators are brought to book in order to infuse confidence into the criminal and justice system of the country.”
Previous reports by ZPP show that for the past two years, police have been the leading human rights violators in the country.
The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights has threatened to pursue the matter and have the culprits brought to book.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi was not answering calls yesterday.- NewsDay
Tinashe Sambiri|The MDC Veterans Activists Association( VAA) has declared that ZEC is an extension of Zanu PF following its failure to carry out duties and programmes objectively.
The association accused ZEC of attempting to subvert the will of the people by excluding the MDC Alliance from key meetings.
Read full statement below:
05-10-2021
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has proved Beyond reasonable doubt that it is indeed a player and referee in the Zimbabwean political field by denying the MDC Alliance a chance to be part of the ongoing stakeholders consultations.
ZEC has not only proved that it is an extension of ZANU PF but has also proved that it is not credible to run free,fair and credible elections.
ZEC’s conjoined relationship with ZANU PF is no longer questionable as the ZEC Spokesperson clearly spelt out the Commission’s quest to be guided on whether to invite MDC Alliance to these consultations or not by unnamed authorities outside the ZEC hence jeorpadising its independence.
Commissioner Joyce Kazembe’s brazen attempt to steal the elections again will not go unchallenged.Her naive allegation that ZEC does not know who the MDC Alliance is is not only stupid,lame and an expose’ of ZEC’s partisan conduct of national elections but also an expose’ of how Elections are stolen.This is the beginning of their devilish journey to steal the people’s will again.As peace loving citizens we shall resist such unlawful and biased conduct by the ZEC.
The MDC Alliance is the biggest opposition party in the nation hence barring it is tantamount to playing and refereeing at the same time.ZEC must not be an interested party in the fights currently obtaining in the Zimbabwean politics.
If ZEC is to hold stakeholders consultations then all stakeholders should be consulted.It must not be selective in choosing stakeholders as this will be met with resistance by all progressive forces.
Zimbabwe is for all of us and we should build it brick by brick together as a citizenry not as blue eyed boys of the dictator.
We demand impartiality and independence in ZEC’s conduct so that we build a better Zimbabwe together. We will not accept an extension of Zanu pf to masquarade as ZEC. The people,s power must guarantee the independence of ZEC, as well as protection of votes in order to guarantee free, fair and credible elections. Disputed elections are a liability to sustainable development.
ZEC must not only retract its statement but should be disbanded for being partisan, selective and a threat to future free,fair and credible elections.
Soldiers beat a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party of Nelson Chamisa outside the party’s headquarters as they await the results of the general elections in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 1, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY – RC19D00FA760
By Patrick Guramatunhu | A few years ago I interviewed a number of job applicants and was shocked that many of them did not know what a verb is, although they had studied to “O” level and some even to “A” level. Now I can see the rot has gone up to not only University graduate and PhD level but right up to the University Lecturers and Professors!
Soldiers shooting civilians indiscriminately on 1 Aug 2018.
“A group of academics in Zimbabwe under the banner of Lecturers Anti-Sanctions Network, (LASN) have embarked on research to prove that sanctions imposed by the West were detrimental to ordinary people,” the report read.
The sanctions issue has been discussed over and over again and there is a mountain of evidence to prove sanctions are but a minor cause in Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown.
The root causes are gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness which have turned Zimbabwe into a Banana Republic in which the few ruling elite have creamed off the nation’s wealth becoming filthy rich and wasteful at the expense of the overwhelming majority whose lives have become hell-on-earth.
“Zvinotoda mazvikokota kuziva mutsauko yenyama yegwai neyegwayana. Nyangwe Ndomupeyi anoziva mhiripiri!” (It will take an expert distinguish lamb meat from mutton. When it comes to chilli, even a half-shilling Ndomupeyi, knows!) So goes the Shona adage.
People have long stopped believing in sanctions as the root cause of the nation’s economic meltdown because they can see with their own eyes how the ruling elite have become filthy rich. Of course, it does not make any sense at all that sanctions so be crippling the ordinary people who are not even on the sanctions list whilst those on the list thrive.
Corruption and mismanagement are the root causes of Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, the hot chilli in the Zimbabwe dish, everyone can see that with their own eyes.
The real reason why sanctions have remained on the national agenda is because Zimbabwe is a de facto one-party dictatorship, a dysfunctional political system, in which Zanu PF thugs alone set the national agenda. And the thugs have decreed that sanctions are the root cause of all the nation’s ills and will not brook to hear of any other causes for the sole purpose of drawing attention away from the real causes.
The nation failed to address the problems of corruption and mismanagement for the last 41 years allowing them to spread and grown to the cancerous level they are today. The only effective way to stamp out corruption and mismanagement is to make those in positions of power democratically accountable to the people.
Zanu PF ruling elite are the beneficiaries of the corruption and mismanagement and as long as they retain the carte blanche powers to rig elections and remain in power; corruption and mismanagement will remain.
So Zanu PF is using sanctions to hide corruption and mismanagement which in turn are used to hide the curse of rigged elections and bad governance.
After 41 years of rigged elections and the nation sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss; one would expect Ndomupeyi, the half-shilling, to have finally figured it out that Zanu PF is using sanctions as cover to deceive the nation. And therefore for so-called academics to be leading from the front on this sanctions research is as meaningless as setting out to prove that the earth is flat!
“We, the intelligentsia of the Republic of Zimbabwe, hereby take a stand to unmask the myths surrounding the sanctions saga bedevilling Zimbabwe,” said LASN national co-ordinator Obediah Dodo, a lecturer at Bindura State University.
“We acknowledge that like any other sovereign State, Zimbabwe has its own fair share of internal contradictions which we, as Zimbabweans, should deal with, guided by our own peculiar socio-cultural dynamics. (No doubt a tacit admission that there are other causes, which LASN should look into but will not dare!)
“In a bid to contribute to the cause of our sovereign nation, we shall engage in rigorous research and make presentations and submissions to the international community and particular Western countries for a relook into the issue of sanctions.
“From the onset, we hereby declare that our position is that of academics who rely on verifiable facts to petition for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.”
So LASN has NOT yet engaged in rigorous research and yet is already petitioning for the removal of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe!
Of course, what Dodo and his fellow LASN, half-shillings masquerading as intelligentsia, are not only helping Zanu PF to keep sanctions on the agenda but, more significantly, are keeping the regime itself in power. The regime just added sanctions as an excuse to deny Zimbabweans their basic right to a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
In June this June Zanu PF’s Acting National Political Commissar, Patrick Chinamasa announced that the three million plus Zimbabweans in the diaspora will be denied the vote “as long as the sanctions imposed by the West on Zimbabwe remain”!
Considering President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the presidency with 2.4 million vote or 50.8% of the cast votes; so the diaspora votes constitute 3 out of 8 million potential voters or 37%. How can an election in which 37% are arbitrarily denied the vote be legal, free, fair and credible? A question for Dodo and fellow LASN Ndomupeyis must answer!
What is killing Zimbabwe is the failure to hold free, fair and credible elections and bad governance; not sanctions. Zanu PF and its apologists are like a doctor who insist on giving painkillers even for a broken limb even even the stench of gangrene is overwhelming. And now Dodo and his LASN half-shilling academics are throwing their thrupence worth pontificating on the efficacy of painkillers!- SOURCE: zimbabwelight.blogspot.com
Tinashe Sambiri| MDC Alliance vice president Hon Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe’s economy under Emmerson Mnangagwa is directionless like a drunk zombie.
Hon Biti challenged Mnangagwa to concede failure and resign.
The hard-hitting MDC Alliance vice president also dismissed the so called new dispensation.
See his presentation below: Literally every commodity has gone up in the last few weeks,fuel,mobile phone tariffs, bread&other food items The average increase has been a 30% increase pushing annualized inflation to over 80%. Inflation pressures remain extremely high due to expansionary fiscal pressures.
The expenditure overdrive creates serious inflationary pressures generated by massive increase in Broad Money Supply (M3) .It’s de javu for the ordinary average Zim who finds herself caught in middle of another crises of over-accumulation similar to the melt down years 1997/2008
Truth is since Black Friday , 14 Nov 1997 when the Zim $ fell by 70% , Zim is in a permanent vortex of economic crises , hurtling from one crises to another like a drunk zombie .Truth is Zimbabwe can no longer afford the permanent fudging & extractive reality of #ZANU.It must go
The consumer basket for a family of six is now ZW$50000 equivalent to UD$303 on the parallel market&US$609 on the official exchange rateYet the civil servant is earning ZW$22000 or US$133.00.Meanwhile prices have gone amok in shops.The necrophiliacs have failed&failed absolutely
By Farai D Hove | Emmerson Mnangagwa’s uncle, Obadiah Moyo yesterday walked out of the High Court a free man following his year long prosecution case over corruption.
The former Health Minister is the ZANU PF leader’s uncle. Obadiah-Moyo is Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cousin, titled “uncle” or sekuru, in the Shona vernacular.
When the police arrested him in June last year, while he was signing a warned and cautioned statement, the police ended up releasing him on Mnangagwa’s orders. The head of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Isaac Moyo is another of Obadiah Moyo’s relatives who worked together with Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi to make the case appear credible. They together went to Mnangagwa and organised that everything be staged so that he (Obadiah Moyo) is served so to subdue growing public angers over the Draxgate scandal. The plan was that Obadiah Moyo would sleep inside the police cells, and then bail be granted (and even that was cut short – he left Rhodesville Police station soon after arrival.) The CIO Director General and Ziyambi then went to get Obadiah Moyo’s own muzukuru, cousin, Munamato Mutevedzi who is the acting Chief Magistrate. Mutevedzi was invited to come and sit on the same case and the matter had the prosecutor saying that bail is not opposed. He was charged a bail of $50,000, which is just USD380, a small amount over a case involving USD60 million.
He had to take a fall to save Mnangagwa’s son, Collins, so he is actually a hero, in Mnangagwa’s eyes at the least.
Moyo was discharged from prosecution on corruption charges for illegally awarding a multi-million-dollar contract for Covid-19 medical supplies to Drax International without going through a competitive tender process. He was facing charges of criminal abuse of office over the awarding of a US$ 60 million contract to the company that allegedly sold supplies to the Government at inflated prices. Moyo, who was being represented Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara, made an application for the quashing of the charges, before Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, when the matter came for trial yesterday.
In his submissions, Adv Zhuwarara flagged a series of shortcomings in the indictment, particularly the way the charges were formulated.
He exposed how the indictment was at law, incoherent and how the allegations were vague and embarrassing. In this regard, he told the judge that his client was facing “what can only be described as an indictment that is inimical to the law, irregular in form and susceptible to impugnment”. He moved for the quashing of the indictment. But the State led by prosecutor Mr Garudzo Ziyaduma opposed to the quashing of the charges, arguing that they were clear and not calculated to embarrass Moyo. However, after a lengthy submission by both parties’ legal counsel, Justice Kwenda pressed the prosecution to explain the multiple deficiencies in the charge. The main deficiency was that the charge did not explain what influence the former minister had used in the awarding of tenders.
The prosecution had to reluctantly concede that they could not explain what exact influence they alleged had been used by Moyo.
Justice Kwenda noted that the charges did not fully inform the accused of the nature of the allegations he was supposed to respond to. In the end the court had no choice, but to take note of the prosecution’s admission that the charge was imprecise and upheld Adv Zhuwarara’s application, and quashed all the three counts against the former minister. According to the indictment papers, Moyo allegedly awarded the multimillion tender to Drax International LLC, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, which was concluded without the consent of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe.
The ruling clears Drax of any wrong doing in this case, which saw US$2 million paid to Drax Consult SAGL for the supply of medicines and medical sundries to the National Pharmaceutical Company (Natpharm) frozen in the former’s bank account in Hungary amid indications International Police Organisation (Interpol) Harare could have misinformed their counterparts in Budapest on the deal involving Drax and the Government. The money is locked in Drax’s MagNet Bank account in Budapest, after Interpol reportedly passed on information on investigations into the transaction between Drax and Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health for medical supplies to the Government-owned, Natpharm. This was after some banks involved in the system moved to stop suspected money laundering and raised a red-flag, leading to the freezing of the funds.
Drax, through its lawyer Mr Admire Rubaya, has since written to Interpol Budapest explaining the deal and putting the record straight and implored Interpol to engage State institutions to ascertain the facts around the Drax/Natpharm transaction. He requested Interpol Hungary to engage the Attorney-General’s office, the Commissioner-General of Police, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet to gather the relevant information on the deal. The court ruling yesterday also vindicated Drax suspicion’s that Interpol Hungary could have received wrong information from some elements in the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
To date, the company had not had an opportunity to respond to issues relating to its business with the Government which resulted in Interpol moving in to investigate the deal and the subsequent withholding of the company’s US$2 million by Hungarian authorities. Delish Nguwaya, who is the Zimbabwean country representative of Drax was arrested in June 2020 and appeared before the courts charged with fraud. However, these allegations have since been dismissed by the courts.- State Media/Additional Reporting
By A Correspondent- A married Bulawayo church elder’s r0mantic photographs with a nurse have leaked and are circulating on social media.
Eva and Tichafara
Tichafara Mhene, a church elder under Zimbabwe Assemblies of God in Africa (ZAOGA) and a police officer at Ross Camp hospital, shot the pictures with a local hospital nurse Eva Chitemuswe.
In one of the leaked photographs, a minor believed to be Eva’s child is watching her mother receiving a kiss from Mhene.
Eva and Tichafara
Mhene, married to Convenience Mhene, was reported to have been seduced by Eva following Convenience’s relocation to Australia.
Eva (a single mother of three children) and Mhene’s illicit affair has threatened the latter’s church position and the former is reported to be behind the leaking of the r0mantic photographs.
Convenience Mhene
Mhene told H-Metro that Eva was his ‘sister’.
“I do not mind what church members are saying since I do not own a church,” said Mhene.
“Besides, that woman is my sister,” he said refusing to answer further questions.
Mhene is reported to have abandoned his police apartment at Southampton flat to cohabit with Eva at her Hillside house.
Eva is reported to have leaked the r0mantic photographs after learning about Mhene’s plans to join his wife in Australia.
Mhene was taken to Eva’s rural home in Mutare where he was expected to pay lobola before making a sudden turn.
Contacted for comment, Eva could neither deny nor confirm tempting and exposing the man of cloth and guardian of law.
“I have no comment to that,” said Eva before hanging the call.
In an interview, Convenience, nee Mbedzi was yet to know about Mhene’s exposure that has become a talk at Ross Camp hospital where he is a nurse.
“My husband is not a womanizer and I am yet to know about the photographs you are talking about,” said Convenience.
However, H-Metro is reliably informed that Mhene and Mbedzi families held a meeting following the leaking of the photographs.
Armed robbers pounced on a Mukuru branch (money transfer agent) at Rutenga Growth Point in Mwenezi, Masvingo and robbed US$10 000 after forcing an employee to open a safe at gunpoint.
The unidentified two suspects descended on N&R Wholesalers at the growth point which houses a Mukuru branch and looted cash after firing two warning shots into the air to scare away employees on Wednesday afternoon.
The suspects also got away with two Mukuru Samsung phones worth ZW$40 000 and also lifted the N&R Wholesalers till where they got away with nearly US$2000 and over ZW$21 000.
Police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said the suspects first clapped a Mukuru customer who was being served by a teller at the Rutenga branch Mr Wayne Mugwagwa after entering the shop.
One of the suspects allegedly jumped into a booth and took two Mukuru phones before force-marching Mr Mugwagwa to the safe at gunpoint.
Mugwagwa allegedly opened the safe and one of the suspects took US$10 000 and 110Rands.
The suspect then proceeded to the N&R Wholesalers till and ordered Ms Constance Tsopo, a till operator to lie on the ground facing downwards before looting US$1795 and ZW$21 460 in cash.
Inspector Dhewa said after the robbery, the suspects bolted out of the shop and sped off in their unregistered Toyota Probox vehicle.
Police suspect that the vehicle might be one stolen last month in the Bikita armed robbery in which a mushikashika driver was shot and seriously injured before being robbed of cash and his Toyota Probox.- The Herald
By Farai D Hove | Contrary to her denials, the comedian Mai Titi was truly pounced on by US police for immigration and drug trafficking allegations. Mai Titi, real name, Felistas Murata revealed this in a brief live video with colleague Madam Boss. She said the police made a surprise visit at an undisclosed place where they interrogated her. The cops also took pictures of her and her colleagues.
Mai Titi
In her statement, Mai Titi said the cops passed a decision on her visa saying she can stay in the US forever, a claim legal experts say is impossible as the police are not immigration officials. Even even such a thing had happened, if ever that were possible, it would not happen on the same day, several analysts said.
The development comes days after Mai Titi announced on Facebook live that she is too busy looking for paid work.
Mai Titi’s live brief
She said in brief: “They are saying America fits you Amai Titi, oh thank you….
“Though I really miss home, I am already missing my kids. We came to do work here. We came to look for bag(money). So let us look for bag, all other things are meaningless.
“So leave me to look for work.”
Below was the brief interaction.
Madam Boss: America is too big, that I don’t think there are police officers who have time to find Mai Titi, but we will have lost it my friend the moment we decided to report others. Let’s focus on our own business. [to Mai Titi] It’s not like you are working in an office, you are working as a guest at events. Is this what must get a person arrested?
Mai Titi: There’s actually someone who phoned the police to say there is a person from Zimbabwe who is selling drugs, and I invited the cops seeking for a drug trafficker to enter in telling them openly yes, come in, I am the one who’s called Mai Titi. The police ended up taking pictures of us, and the cops announced to me saying, we have discovered that your fellow Zimbabweans are very bitter. The fools who operate on Facebook, the ones who said all this are the ones who said she is a drug trafficker. The police looked at me and said, what kind of a drug trafficker is this one? LAUGH. And I said what has Mai Titi done? You see these people think the police will arrest anyone for anything, the officers ended up drinking beer with us, and the cops assured me saying if I encounter any problem, I should dial 911 to tell them I am being harassed. And the police said we are now protecting you, instead.
So, at least the police these days are now on my side. We want to protect you. And they said if you feel like these people want to hurt you, you can stay here forever, and I asked, tai, are you for real police? And they said, yes, if people from your country don’t love you you can stay here, and I said: oh my God!
Tinashe Sambiri|Contrary to claims by Zanu PF that MDC Alliance leader President Nelson Chamisa has no plan, the vibrant leader’s vision is crystal clear…
His vision includes a strong education system, decent living wages for teachers, functional hospitals and jobs for young people:
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
A man from Bulawayo has begged a court to grant him a protection order against his ex-girlfriend who forces him to engage in sexual intercourse.
Daniel Mxoza from Entumbane suburb is tormented by Sicelesile Ndlovu, who is reportedly sexually abusing him.
In his court papers he said: “I am tired of my ex-girlfriend who abuses me sexually as she forces me to sleep with her yet she has many boyfriends some of which (sic) I caught red handed at her house,” said Mxoza.
Additionally, Mxoza said Ndlovu goes to his workplace uninvited and starts being violent. “She interrupts me at my workplace because she comes uninvited, and starts being violent.
“She threatens me with dangerous weapons at my workplace or even at home and on the streets,” said Mxoza.
Mxoza also revealed that Ndlovu forces him to buy her groceries and pay her bills, and when she pays herself she accuses him of owing her money.
“Because of what she does to me I’m not well. Her behaviour stresses me a lot, I have high blood pressure, sugar diabetes and I once found myself with a sexually transmitted illness,” added Mxoza.
Ndlovu never refuted any of the allegations.
Western Commonage magistrate Jeconia Prince Ncube ordered Ndlovu to refrain from abusing Mxoza. -B Metro
Tinashe Sambiri| MDC Alliance vice president Hon Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe’s economy under Emmerson Mnangagwa is directionless like a drunk zombie.
Hon Biti challenged Mnangagwa to concede failure and resign.
The hard-hitting MDC Alliance vice president also dismissed the so called new dispensation.
See his presentation below: Literally every commodity has gone up in the last few weeks,fuel,mobile phone tariffs, bread&other food items The average increase has been a 30% increase pushing annualized inflation to over 80%. Inflation pressures remain extremely high due to expansionary fiscal pressures.
The expenditure overdrive creates serious inflationary pressures generated by massive increase in Broad Money Supply (M3) .It’s de javu for the ordinary average Zim who finds herself caught in middle of another crises of over-accumulation similar to the melt down years 1997/2008
Truth is since Black Friday , 14 Nov 1997 when the Zim $ fell by 70% , Zim is in a permanent vortex of economic crises , hurtling from one crises to another like a drunk zombie .Truth is Zimbabwe can no longer afford the permanent fudging & extractive reality of #ZANU.It must go
The consumer basket for a family of six is now ZW$50000 equivalent to UD$303 on the parallel market&US$609 on the official exchange rateYet the civil servant is earning ZW$22000 or US$133.00.Meanwhile prices have gone amok in shops.The necrophiliacs have failed&failed absolutely
A Bulawayo traditional husband wants his lobola money back after his girlfriend posted her nudes on Facebook.
Talent Dzitiro from Entumbane suburb reportedly demanded his lobola money back from his woman, Lwazi Mhlanga after discovering that everyone was getting a glimpse of her naked body.
Dzitiro reportedly also lost his temper and threatened to kill Mhlanga. Fearing for her life, Mhlanga sought a protection order against Dzitiro.
In her application Mhlanga said: “My ex-boyfriend threatened to kill me last week. He forced me to board a commuter omnibus and took me to a lodge. He locked me inside and threatened to kill me. When we left the lodge he took my bag so that I would not leave him. He later locked me inside his house until I was rescued by the police.
“He threatens to visit where I work and embarrass me. I now fear to go to my workplace as he swears that he will do something that I do not know when he gets me. He also sends messages and audios which are nasty and they bring fear to me. May he be ordered not to come to my place of residence and not to threaten or assault me.”
Dzitiro hit back at Mhlanga and revealed why he threatened her.
“I am opposed to the application. It is the first time that I’m hearing that I’m her ex-boyfriend. The thing is I always reprimand her about her style and her dressing. Recently I reprimanded her for posting nudes on Facebook,” he said
He added: “When I met her she had a child and I paid the bride price. I was supposed to pay off the balance soon. I want my bride price money back.”
Magistrate Jeconia Prince Ncube ordered Dzitiro not to communicate with Mhlanga anymore, not to visit or enter her place of residence and not to threaten her. -B Metro
Tinashe Sambiri| The young people of Zimbabwe will remove Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF from office via the ballot box, MDC Alliance Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma has said.
The MDC Alliance Youth Assembly management committee has vowed to work tirelessly to encourage millions of young people to register to vote.
Sarkozy posted on Twitter:
“Youth Management had a successful workshop yesterday on strategic planning and leadership.
A signal is around the corner! 2023 we are removing @edmnangagwa . #NgaapindeHakeMukomana https://t.co/MEaI2LAHij (https://twitter.com/chumasteve/status/1445982944724754432?s=20)
Below is a state media article in which the government threatens supermarkets while tolerating and promoting olygarchs such as Kudakwashe Tagwirei named for swindling the treasury off billions off US dollars.
Mnangagwa with Kudakwash Tagwirei
Retailers that continue to flout foreign currency regulations by setting prices in US dollars and then converting at the blackmarket rate will have their operating licences immediately suspended while the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is now closely monitoring transactions and taking action against perpetrators.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube in a statement yesterday, partly in reaction to the outcry after some top retailers were caught using exchange rates well above even the present manipulated blackmarket rate, gave the positive indications that the economy was sound and the steps are being taken to prevent manipulation.
Despite the fact that foreign currency inflows exceed foreign currency outflows, that is that Zimbabwe has adequate foreign currency although the actual flows can jam, fast food outlets, hardware shops, pharmacies and some huge supermarket chains are abandoning use of the auction rate and returning to black market rates when pricing.
Prof Ncube noted that at the moment Zimbabwe has foreign currency reserves totalling US$3 billion. Of this, US$1,8 billion is held by the private sector, generally the unspent portion of the retained export earnings, and the other US$1,2 billion is held by the State, which includes the US$961 million that arrived recently from the IMF.
Curiously, some of the companies that are undermining the local currency by following the blackmarket rate, are refusing to award salary increases to their employees, while some that trade exclusively in foreign currency, continue to churn out receipts in local currency so as to evade tax payments in forex according to the law that requires taxes to be paid in the currency the income was earned.
This means, for example, that VAT on goods sold in foreign currency should be paid in foreign currency, while VAT on goods sold in local currency can be in local currency.
But after a consumer bought two identical meals from a prominent fast food outlet in Zvishavane on Wednesday, one for US$1 and a similar one for $200 in local currency, and circulated the receipts on social media, many citizens protested resulting in Prof Ncube and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) intervening.
In a Tweet, the RBZ said: “The Financial Intelligence Unit is investigating allegations of currency manipulation and pegging of the ZW$ at 200 to 1USD circulating on social media. Perpetrators shall be brought to book.”
Twitter users praised each other for “exposing the rot” among retailers which has seen many hardworking citizens watch helplessly as their earnings are wiped out by greedy retailers and economic saboteurs that manipulate the currency by pushing up the rate indiscriminately.
Prof Ncube’s more lengthy statement looked at both the solid fundamentals as well as the abuses and the need to hammer them. Government, through various agencies, was instituting various measures to curb illegal trade in foreign currency and “its associated twin evil; that of parallel market benchmarking or indexation of prices of goods and services at parallel market exchange rate”.
“The recent resurgence of these practices, which have been identified as significant contributors to price instability in the economy and are imposing significant downside risks to macro-economic stability, and the erosion of domestic and international competitiveness is therefore a cause for serious concern,” said Prof Ncube.
Recently, the RBZ, working closely with the FIU had begun a process of identifying and prosecuting perpetrators of blackmarket activities.
The initiatives by the RBZ have full Government backing and the Ministry of Finance says it will further strengthen the efforts to fight manipulation of the local currency by saboteurs.
Other measures will see the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) carrying out impromptu audits of corporate activities with a view of quantifying potential liabilities arising out of illegal foreign currency trading.
“The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority will also be carrying compliance audits with respect to compliance with Location Tax introduced during the 2021 fiscal year,” said Prof Ncube.
Besides the need to pay taxes in the same currency as the income or revenue streams, tax audits could also uncover undeclared profits from under-the-counter dealing.
The FIU will continue to closely monitor and analyse financial transactions to identify, expose and take action against perpetrators of money laundering and other financial crimes. The capacity of the PIU and other law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute violations of the Bank Use Promotion Act as well as other laws will be enhanced.
“Regulatory bodies including the Public Accountants and Auditor Board, will also be working on a framework to impose appropriate financial and professional sanctions on members of the accounting, auditing and other professions who may be complicit in superintending over illicit affairs by corporate entities which they are charged with running.
“Business who disregard the law and continue to price their goods on the parallel market rates will have their licences suspended.”
Citizens have been encouraged to report to the FIU and the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate all businesses that directly or indirectly benchmark prices at black-market exchange rates.
Zimbabwe introduced the foreign currency auction system last year to bring stability on the market after businesses increased prices in response to blackmarket rates for forex. The auctions are largely satisfying the requirements for those who need foreign currency for production and for essential imports.
The move saw price stability as most traders used the auction rate to set prices. However, in recent weeks, the forex rate has been rising gradually on the black-market resulting in many traders, including those that benefit from the auction system, setting prices at the illegal market rate.
Some of the beneficiaries of the auction system are understood to be offloading the RBZ forex on the parallel market, without using it to improve their businesses.
The central bank has since named and shamed up to 77 illegal forex dealers that are manipulating the currency and more critically has frozen their bank and money market accounts and taken other steps to make it impossible for them to continue in that business.
Tinashe Sambiri| The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has claimed that it is neutral in the execution of prescribed constitutional duties.
ZEC is under pressure from stakeholders due to its decision to sideline the MDC Alliance from key meetings.
Political observers say ZEC is a direct extension of Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party.
In a feeble attempt to salvage its dwindling reputation ZEC claimed:
“The first hallmark of Justice is upholding the law. Whatever it is Agree with it/Disagree with it. ZEC will uphold the law until it is changed. Misinformation and disinformation is subversion of democracy. Laws are changed in Parliament not by an Electoral Management Body.
ZEC is neutral in that it applies the law consistently.”
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched the first ever global strategy to defeat meningitis – a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.
By 2030, the goals are to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis – the most deadly form of the disease – and to reduce deaths by 70% and halve the number of cases. The organizations estimate that in total, the strategy could save more than 200,000 lives annually and significantly reduce disability caused by the disease.
This strategy, the Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030, was launched by a broad coalition of partners involved in meningitis prevention and control at a virtual event, hosted by WHO in Geneva. Its focus is on preventing infections and improving care and diagnosis for those affected.
“Wherever it occurs, meningitis can be deadly and debilitating; it strikes quickly, has serious health, economic and social consequences, and causes devastating outbreaks,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is time to tackle meningitis globally once and for all –by urgently expanding access to existing tools like vaccines, spearheading new research and innovation to prevent, detecting and treating the various causes of the disease, and improving rehabilitation for those affected.”
Meningitis is a dangerous inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, predominantly caused by infection with bacteria and viruses.
Meningitis that is caused by bacterial infection tends to be the most serious – leading to around 250,000 deaths a year – and can cause fast-spreading epidemics. It kills 1 in 10 of those infected – mostly children and young people – and leaves 1 in 5 with long-lasting disability, such as seizures, hearing and vision loss, neurological damage, and cognitive impairment.
Over the last ten years, meningitis epidemics have occurred in all regions of the world, though most commonly in the ‘Meningitis Belt,’ which spans 26 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. These epidemics are unpredictable, can severely disrupt health systems, and create poverty – generating catastrophic expenditures for households and communities.
“More than half a billion Africans are at risk of seasonal meningitis outbreaks but the disease has been off the radar for too long,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“This shift away from firefighting outbreaks to strategic response can’t come soon enough. This roadmap will help protect the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of families who every year fear this disease.”
Several vaccines protect against meningitis, including meningococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines. However, not all communities have access to these lifesaving vaccines, and many countries are yet to introduce them into their national programmes.
While research is underway to develop vaccines for other causes of meningitis, such as Group B Strep bacteria, there remains an urgent need for innovation, funding and research to develop more meningitis-preventive vaccines. Efforts are also needed to strengthen early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for all those who need it after contracting the disease.
“This roadmap is the embodiment of the ambition of people and families affected around the world who have called for its creation.
It’s their experience and passion that has driven a whole community of interest to get this far,” said Vinny Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Meningitis Research Foundation and the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO), an international membership organization of patient advocacy groups for meningitis. “We celebrate together the common goal of defeating meningitis and will be led by their inspiration to make it happen.”
The new Roadmap details the following priorities for meningitis response and prevention:
Achievement of high immunization coverage, development of new affordable vaccines, and improved prevention strategies and outbreak response; Speedy diagnosis and optimal treatment for patients; Good data to guide prevention and control efforts; Care and support for those affected, focusing on early recognition and improved access to care and support for after-effects, and Advocacy and engagement, to ensure high awareness of meningitis, accountability for national plans, and affirmation of the right to prevention, care and after-care services. WHO and partners are providing support to countries to implement the Roadmap, including through the development of regional and national frameworks that will help countries achieve its ambitious goals.
Partner quotes
“The Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis demonstrates what can be accomplished when a global need is met with global action,” said Nikolaj Gilbert, President and CEO of PATH. “Progress against meningitis has lagged for too long; by working together, we can overcome the disease that has cost so many lives in countries around the world. PATH is proud to have been a part of the roadmap’s development and is committed to advancing affordable and equitable vaccine solutions to defeat meningitis.”
“We must be united in our efforts to end all preventable childhood diseases, including bacterial meningitis,” said Dr. Aboubacar Kampo, Director of Health Programmes at UNICEF. “UNICEF has been supporting governments for decades, facilitating the delivery of life-saving meningitis vaccines. Still, far too many children are succumbing to this and other preventable diseases – and the situation is only worsening as a result of the pandemic.
We need to act decisively to strengthen primary health care and get routine immunization back on track, before more children face adverse health outcomes – or loss of life – inflicted by meningitis and other preventable infectious diseases.”
“Although the main burden of meningitis is in poor countries, acute bacterial meningitis is a global problem with no country being spared its devastating impact,” said Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-chair of the Task Force supporting the implementation of the roadmap. “Thus, containing this serious group of infections needs a global response. This is what the roadmap sets out to achieve, bringing together – under the umbrella of WHO – health professionals from across the world to bring this condition under control by 2030.”
“The Meningitis Roadmap provides a clear blueprint for defeating this devastating disease,” said Professor Robert Heyderman, Head of the Research Department of Infection at University College London. “Crucially it identifies the gaps in our knowledge and the tools required. To achieve the Road Map’s ambitious goals, a team approach will bring together countries, global policymakers, civil society, funders, researchers, public health specialists, healthcare workers and industry to generate and implement innovative new strategies.
Zaka villagers were left gobsmacked after relatives to the Mvuma woman who was last week allegedly killed by her husband buried her body in a shallow grave at the centre of her husband’s homestead.
Regina Khumbula (35) was reportedly killed by her husband, Rameck Batirai (39) who wanted the wife’s body parts for ritual purposes.
The murder was allegedly exposed by Batirai’s one-year-old son who continued to cry uncontrollably at the crime scene as he was in the process of removing the body parts.
The relatives of the late Khumbula went to the suspect’s parents’ homestead in Zaka where they dug a shallow grave at the centre of the homestead and buried her on Monday.
A relative who requested not to be named in the report told The Herald that they did not involve relatives of the husband when they conducted the burial ceremony. He said:
They were just following proceedings with folded hands as we conducted the burial ceremony.
The centre of the homestead was the perfect place we thought was suitable enough to send our message well to them that we are still pained and in shock over the manner in which our daughter was killed by her husband.
Reports claim that Batirai had been promised US$5 000 by Tongai Hotera (37) and Innocent Munemo (39) if he provided a human tongue and breasts which they intended to use for ritual purposes. – The Herald
Sabbath School Summary
Moses’ History Lesson
Lesson 2.
By Dr Elder Masimba Mavaza
Memory Text: And they “all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:3, 4, NKJV).
INTRODUCTION
These are the words which Moses spoke” (Deut. 1:1, NKJV). Thus begins the book of Deuteronomy. And though, yes, Moses and the presence of Moses dominate the book, from these opening words to his death in the land of Moab (Deut. 34:5), Deuteronomy (as the whole Bible) is really about the Lord Jesus. For He is the One who created us (Genesis 1, Genesis 2, John 1:1-3), sustains us (Col. 1:15-17, Heb. 1:3) and redeems us (Isa. 41:14, Titus 2:14). And, in a looser sense of those words, Deuteronomy reveals how the Lord continued to create, sustain, and redeem His people at this crucial time in salvation history.
Basically, just as the children of Israel are finally to enter Canaan, Moses gives them a history lesson, a theme that is repeated all through the Bible: remember what the Lord has done for you in the past.
This admonition should mean something to us, we who are on the borders of a better Promised Land: “In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of advance to our present standing, . . . I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”—Ellen G. White, Life Sketches, p. 196.
SABBATH: At the heart of the Bible is Christ. It is no wonder that all through the book of Deuteronomy, Christ is revealed. Moses was used as the mouthpiece of God from the onset of the book till his death in the land of Moab (Deut. 1:1; 34:5). Deuteronomy calls us to remember our origins & love God. He made, sustains, & redeems us (Gen. 1, 2, John 1:1-3, Col. 1:15-17, Heb. 1:3, Isa. 41:14, Titus 2:14, LS, p. 196).
SUNDAY: Moses was God’s reply to the prideful Egypt & His teacher to the disobedient Israel. His ministry is one of the most important in the Bible. He penned Genesis, the book that tells the history of the world. He is first seen in his second book; Exodus 2:2. He had his flaws, but he interceded for Israel after the terrible sin of the golden calf (Exod. 32:29-32). He asked God to bear their sins (1 Pet. 2:24, Heb. 7:25).
MONDAY: True science reveals the handwriting of God in this world. It only bring fresh evidences of God’s creative power. It shows God’s precision in making this world. If God was precise in creating this physical world, He certainly will be precise with spiritual things (Deut. 1:1-6). As we see in the Bible, God always fulfills His promises (Num. 14:34, Dan. 9:24-27; 7:25; Rev. 12:6, 14; 13:5; see Dan 2, 7, & ?.
TUESDAY: In Kadesh Barnea when Israel rebelled & was to wait for 40 years before they could possess the Promised Land, God sustained them. When the 40 years was due, He blessed & bid them to enter the land (Deut. 1:8-11; Neh. 9:21). The prophet, Moses asked God to bless Israel more than before. After the blessing, they were to be organized as would the early church (Deut. 1:12-17, Matt. 16:18, 1 Cor. 12).
WEDNESDAY: Israel’s rebellion in Kadesh which doomed them to 40 years of wandering serves as the backdrop of Deuteronomy. Reports of the Promised Land given by the spies caused the people to dread. In distrusting the power of God & requesting to return to slavery, Israel was stopped from entering the land (Deut. 1:20-46; Num. 14 & 14:11-20). Israel was spared at the pleas of Moses to God (Eph. 3:10).
THURSDAY: The Bible contains no myth. Every account is true (2 Tim. 3:16). This also includes the killings of men, women & children in pagan nations such as the Amorites (Deut. 2:11, 20; 3:13; 20:10, 11). The pagan nations were cruel & had the time to repent but they would not. Since we don’t know more about some of these events, let’s accept the hard reality & trust in God’s goodness at all times (1 Cor. 10:1-4, John 14:9).
FRIDAY: Why did God permit the killings of the Canaanites? “The ways of God are a mystery.” Since we can never fully grasp His ways, let us relax with the questions we have in our minds till we meet Him (Isa. 55:8-9). Also, He is just as He is merciful. The wrath of God on humanity just as on the Canaanites was based on scale & agency (Gen. 6-9; Deut. 7:1; cf. 20:10-18). All sinners will also face God’s wrath.
—Daniel I. Block, The NIV Application Commentary: Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), pp. 98, 99.
Keyword
LS- Life Sketches
Amorites/Canaanites- The two are often used interchangeably. Canaan was the vast land while the Amorites were a part of it.
Captions
SUNDAY- The Ministry Of Moses
MONDAY- Fulfilled Prophecy
TUESDAY- A Thousand Times More Numerous
WEDNESDAY- Kadesh Barnea
THURSDAY- The Iniquity Of The Amorite
Discussion Questions
? Think about our understanding of the millennium, in which we will have a thousand years to have all our questions answered. How can this understanding help us to learn to trust in God despite whatever hard questions we have now?
By Farai D Hove | Contrary to her denials, the comedian Mai Titi was truly pounced on by US police for immigration and drug trafficking allegations. Mai Titi, real name, Felistas Murata revealed this in a brief live video with colleague Madam Boss. She said the police made a surprise visit at an undisclosed place where they interrogated her. The cops also took pictures of her and her colleagues.
Mai Titi
In her statement, Mai Titi said the cops passed a decision on her visa saying she can stay in the US forever, a claim legal experts say is impossible as the police are not immigration officials. Even even such a thing had happened, if ever that were possible, it would not happen on the same day, several analysts said.
The development comes days after Mai Titi announced on Facebook live that she is too busy looking for paid work.
Mai Titi’s live brief
She said in brief: “They are saying America fits you Amai Titi, oh thank you….
“Though I really miss home, I am already missing my kids. We came to do work here. We came to look for bag(money). So let us look for bag, all other things are meaningless.
“So leave me to look for work.”
Below was the brief interaction.
Madam Boss: America is too big, that I don’t think there are police officers who have time to find Mai Titi, but we will have lost it my friend the moment we decided to report others. Let’s focus on our own business. [to Mai Titi] It’s not like you are working in an office, you are working as a guest at events. Is this what must get a person arrested?
Mai Titi: There’s actually someone who phoned the police to say there is a person from Zimbabwe who is selling drugs, and I invited the cops seeking for a drug trafficker to enter in telling them openly yes, come in, i am the one who’s called Mai Titi. The police ended up taking pictures of us, and the cops announced to me saying, we have discovered that your fellow Zimbabweans are very bitter. The fools who operate on Facebook are the ones who said all this are the ones who said she is a drug trafficker. The police looked at me and said, what kind of a drug trafficker is this one? LAUGH. And I said what has Mai Titi done? You see these people think the police will arrest anyone for anything, the officers ended up drinking beer with us, and the cops assured me saying if I encounter any problem, I should dial 911 to tell them I am being harassed. And the police said we are now protecting you, instead.
So, at least the police these days are now on my side. We want to protect you. And they said if you feel like these people want to hurt you, you can stay here forever, and I asked, tai, are you for real police? And they said, yes, if people from your country don’t love you you can stay here, and I said oh my God.
The Confederation of African Football has approved the Ghana Football Association (GFA)’s request to have 4000 spectators at the Cape Coast Stadium on Saturday, for the World Cup qualifier between the Black Stars and Zimbabwe.
The two sides meet in a crucial Group G clash.
GFA wrote to the continental football governing body seeking permission for an improved crowd after 2250 attended the Ghana- Ethiopia match at the same venue last month.
The association has announced that CAF has given the green light and 4000 fans will be allowed to watch Saturday’s clash.
“CAF has approved Four Thousand (4,000) spectators for the match – an improvement over the 2,250 spectators which was approved for last month’s opener against Ethiopia,” reads a statement on the association’s website.
“Per this directive, the Safety and Security Officer of the GFA, Julius Ben Emunah shall together with all the relevant stakeholders i.e., Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Authority, the Security Agencies and the COVID-19 Officer, Dr. Christine Baah ensure strict adherence of the CAF/FIFA COVID-19 protocols.”
“The GFA advise Ghanaians to obey all the Protocols strictly to first and foremost have a successful match and also to avoid any sanctions from CAF and FIFA.- Soccer24 Zimbabwe
By A Correspondent- Two prison officers have been arrested accused of helping accused serial rapist Sam Muropa escape from Harare Remand Prison on October 1.
The two have been named as Simbarashe Machekera and Ngonidzashe Munhuuripi.
Muropa, 31, was rearrested on Wednesday night after stealing a car. Police believe he was on his way to commit more crimes.
A Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services source said: “The two prison officers will appear in court on Friday. They were arrested by CID Homicide after it became clear that Muropa was assisted to escape.”
Muropa – who is accused of robbing 21 women and raping some of them between July and August this year – allegedly used three concrete blocks and a chair to scale the prison wall before vanishing. The alarm was raised at around 4.30PM on October 1 after he failed to return to his cell.
Prison authorities have been criticised for failing to inform the public that a dangerous prisoner was on the loose. Police were not called until October 3.
Prosecutors say Muropa took advantage of public transport problems in Harare and patrolled the streets of the capital in a Toyota Wish looking for vulnerable women. He sometimes posed as a soldier using a stolen military ID card.
Once the women got in his car, Muropa, of Kuwadzana, allegedly diverted the route. At least six of the women were raped, while others were robbed at knife point.
By A Correspondent- A man from Dete in Hwange District has been arrested after he allegedly whipped his three-year-old stepson to death accusing him of wetting blankets.
Nkatazo Penga (38) of Gulalembila Village under Chief Nekatambe allegedly committed the heinous crime on Tuesday.
The deceased boy has been identified as Sanie Dieton Tembo.
He had been left in the custody of the accused stepfather by his mother who left home in the morning going to the family field to prepare land for farming.
The mother, Ms Estere Tembo (50) returned home and found her son’s lifeless body in the kitchen hut.
Penga reportedly told his wife that he went out and on his return found the boy dead and did not know what had happened to him.
Neighbours said Penga was in the habit of beating up the little boy each time he wet the blankets, and the boy’s body sustained scars.
The deceased’s maternal aunt Ms Tendai Ndlovu said the couple had no child together.
“We can’t say much for now as she is still shocked by this,” she said.
Gulalembila village head Mr Misheck Sibanda said the community was still in shock. “We don’t really know what happened since they were alone at home as the mother had gone to the fields but everyone is shocked by this issue. It has emerged that the man was always ill-treating the boy for wetting blankets.
We didn’t know there was such kind of abuse going on and I was shocked to hear it,” said Mr Sibanda.
He said he will gather his subjects to raise awareness against child abuse, domestic violence and other kinds of abuses.
“We will hear from the police but I am planning to gather all my subjects once this dust settles so we can talk about domestic violence. We always tell people to live in harmony and desist from violence and so we expect families to live peacefully,” said Mr Sibanda.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi could not readily comment on the matter saying he was yet to get an official update.
Sources closer to the investigations said Penga had been arrested for murder and is assisting police with investigations.
It is alleged that the boy’s mother left her son in the custody of the accused person as she went to the fields at 7am on Tuesday.
She returned home later and found him dead.
As she entered the hut, she saw her son lying facing downwards. Upon checking, she discovered that he was dead and wearing different clothes from the ones she had left him putting on in the morning.
At that time Penga was not at home.
A report was made to the police who attended the scene.
Police discovered that the boy’s body was swollen and had fresh bruises on the face above the eye, buttocks, leg, back, hand and head.
Penga was arrested on the spot but denied having assaulted the toddler.
The body was taken to Hwange Colliery Hospital mortuary and was expected to be conveyed to Bulawayo yesterday for post-mortem.
Interim Warriors coach Norman Mapeza will make four additions to the Warriors squad for the return World Cup qualifier against Ghana, in Harare on Tuesday.
The four will replace the United Kingdom-based quartet of Marvellous Nakamba, Tendayi Darikwa, Brendan Galloway and Jordan Zemura, who will only take part in the away game in Ghana.
Ghana, unlike Zimbabwe, is not on the UK government’s Covid 19 ‘Red List’, which is why the quartet will only take part in the away clash in Cape Coast.
A source in the Warriors technical team confirmed to Soccer24 this morning that four players will be drafted into the squad for the Harare fixture and the only name confirmed so far, is that of Mamelodi Sundowns’ Divine Lunga.
“There will be four additions to the team, as you know, the UK-based guys can only take part in the away fixture in Ghana, so the additions will be their replacements,” the source said.
“The four players’ clubs have been communicated with, but I can tell you is that one of the players in question is Divine (Lunga),” added the source. – Soccer24 Zimbabwe
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched the first ever global strategy to defeat meningitis – a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.
By 2030, the goals are to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis – the most deadly form of the disease – and to reduce deaths by 70% and halve the number of cases. The organizations estimate that in total, the strategy could save more than 200,000 lives annually and significantly reduce disability caused by the disease.
This strategy, the Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis by 2030, was launched by a broad coalition of partners involved in meningitis prevention and control at a virtual event, hosted by WHO in Geneva. Its focus is on preventing infections and improving care and diagnosis for those affected.
“Wherever it occurs, meningitis can be deadly and debilitating; it strikes quickly, has serious health, economic and social consequences, and causes devastating outbreaks,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “It is time to tackle meningitis globally once and for all –by urgently expanding access to existing tools like vaccines, spearheading new research and innovation to prevent, detecting and treating the various causes of the disease, and improving rehabilitation for those affected.”
Meningitis is a dangerous inflammation of the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, predominantly caused by infection with bacteria and viruses.
Meningitis that is caused by bacterial infection tends to be the most serious – leading to around 250,000 deaths a year – and can cause fast-spreading epidemics. It kills 1 in 10 of those infected – mostly children and young people – and leaves 1 in 5 with long-lasting disability, such as seizures, hearing and vision loss, neurological damage, and cognitive impairment.
Over the last ten years, meningitis epidemics have occurred in all regions of the world, though most commonly in the ‘Meningitis Belt,’ which spans 26 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. These epidemics are unpredictable, can severely disrupt health systems, and create poverty – generating catastrophic expenditures for households and communities.
“More than half a billion Africans are at risk of seasonal meningitis outbreaks but the disease has been off the radar for too long,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
“This shift away from firefighting outbreaks to strategic response can’t come soon enough. This roadmap will help protect the health and lives of hundreds of thousands of families who every year fear this disease.”
Several vaccines protect against meningitis, including meningococcal, Haemophilus influenzae type b and pneumococcal vaccines. However, not all communities have access to these lifesaving vaccines, and many countries are yet to introduce them into their national programmes.
While research is underway to develop vaccines for other causes of meningitis, such as Group B Strep bacteria, there remains an urgent need for innovation, funding and research to develop more meningitis-preventive vaccines. Efforts are also needed to strengthen early diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation for all those who need it after contracting the disease.
“This roadmap is the embodiment of the ambition of people and families affected around the world who have called for its creation.
It’s their experience and passion that has driven a whole community of interest to get this far,” said Vinny Smith, Chief Executive Officer of the Meningitis Research Foundation and the Confederation of Meningitis Organisations (CoMO), an international membership organization of patient advocacy groups for meningitis. “We celebrate together the common goal of defeating meningitis and will be led by their inspiration to make it happen.”
The new Roadmap details the following priorities for meningitis response and prevention:
Achievement of high immunization coverage, development of new affordable vaccines, and improved prevention strategies and outbreak response; Speedy diagnosis and optimal treatment for patients; Good data to guide prevention and control efforts; Care and support for those affected, focusing on early recognition and improved access to care and support for after-effects, and Advocacy and engagement, to ensure high awareness of meningitis, accountability for national plans, and affirmation of the right to prevention, care and after-care services. WHO and partners are providing support to countries to implement the Roadmap, including through the development of regional and national frameworks that will help countries achieve its ambitious goals.
Partner quotes
“The Global Roadmap to Defeat Meningitis demonstrates what can be accomplished when a global need is met with global action,” said Nikolaj Gilbert, President and CEO of PATH. “Progress against meningitis has lagged for too long; by working together, we can overcome the disease that has cost so many lives in countries around the world. PATH is proud to have been a part of the roadmap’s development and is committed to advancing affordable and equitable vaccine solutions to defeat meningitis.”
“We must be united in our efforts to end all preventable childhood diseases, including bacterial meningitis,” said Dr. Aboubacar Kampo, Director of Health Programmes at UNICEF. “UNICEF has been supporting governments for decades, facilitating the delivery of life-saving meningitis vaccines. Still, far too many children are succumbing to this and other preventable diseases – and the situation is only worsening as a result of the pandemic.
We need to act decisively to strengthen primary health care and get routine immunization back on track, before more children face adverse health outcomes – or loss of life – inflicted by meningitis and other preventable infectious diseases.”
“Although the main burden of meningitis is in poor countries, acute bacterial meningitis is a global problem with no country being spared its devastating impact,” said Professor Sir Brian Greenwood, Professor of Clinical Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and co-chair of the Task Force supporting the implementation of the roadmap. “Thus, containing this serious group of infections needs a global response. This is what the roadmap sets out to achieve, bringing together – under the umbrella of WHO – health professionals from across the world to bring this condition under control by 2030.”
“The Meningitis Roadmap provides a clear blueprint for defeating this devastating disease,” said Professor Robert Heyderman, Head of the Research Department of Infection at University College London. “Crucially it identifies the gaps in our knowledge and the tools required. To achieve the Road Map’s ambitious goals, a team approach will bring together countries, global policymakers, civil society, funders, researchers, public health specialists, healthcare workers and industry to generate and implement innovative new strategies.
Tinashe Sambiri| The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has claimed that it is neutral in the execution of prescribed constitutional duties.
ZEC is under pressure from stakeholders due to its decision to sideline the MDC Alliance from key meetings.
Political observers say ZEC is a direct extension of Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Zanu PF party.
In a feeble attempt to salvage its dwindling reputation ZEC claimed:
“The first hallmark of Justice is upholding the law. Whatever it is Agree with it/Disagree with it. ZEC will uphold the law until it is changed. Misinformation and disinformation is subversion of democracy. Laws are changed in Parliament not by an Electoral Management Body.
ZEC is neutral in that it applies the law consistently.”
Tinashe Sambiri| The young people of Zimbabwe will remove Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zanu PF from office via the ballot box, MDC Alliance Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Sarkozy Chuma has said.
The MDC Alliance Youth Assembly management committee has vowed to work tirelessly to encourage millions of young people to register to vote.
Sarkozy posted on Twitter:
“Youth Management had a successful workshop yesterday on strategic planning and leadership.
A signal is around the corner! 2023 we are removing @edmnangagwa . #NgaapindeHakeMukomana https://t.co/MEaI2LAHij (https://twitter.com/chumasteve/status/1445982944724754432?s=20)
Tinashe Sambiri|Contrary to claims by Zanu PF that MDC Alliance leader President Nelson Chamisa has no plan, the vibrant leader’s vision is crystal clear…
His vision includes a strong education system, decent living wages for teachers, functional hospitals and jobs for young people:
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
Tinashe Sambiri|Contrary to claims by Zanu PF that MDC Alliance leader President Nelson Chamisa has no plan, the vibrant leader’s vision is crystal clear…
His vision includes a strong education system, decent living wages for teachers, functional hospitals and jobs for young people:
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
?Register to vote for:
✔️Jobs ✔️Functional hospitals ✔️Modern infrastructure ✔️Good public transport ✔️Reliable basic services pic.twitter.com/72ZMrnXXhz
— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) October 7, 2021
Tinashe Sambiri| MDC Alliance vice president Hon Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe’s economy under Emmerson Mnangagwa is directionless like a drunk zombie.
Hon Biti challenged Mnangagwa to concede failure and resign.
The hard-hitting MDC Alliance vice president also dismissed the so called new dispensation.
See his presentation below: Literally every commodity has gone up in the last few weeks,fuel,mobile phone tariffs, bread&other food items The average increase has been a 30% increase pushing annualized inflation to over 80%. Inflation pressures remain extremely high due to expansionary fiscal pressures.
The expenditure overdrive creates serious inflationary pressures generated by massive increase in Broad Money Supply (M3) .It’s de javu for the ordinary average Zim who finds herself caught in middle of another crises of over-accumulation similar to the melt down years 1997/2008
Truth is since Black Friday , 14 Nov 1997 when the Zim $ fell by 70% , Zim is in a permanent vortex of economic crises , hurtling from one crises to another like a drunk zombie .Truth is Zimbabwe can no longer afford the permanent fudging & extractive reality of #ZANU.It must go
The consumer basket for a family of six is now ZW$50000 equivalent to UD$303 on the parallel market&US$609 on the official exchange rateYet the civil servant is earning ZW$22000 or US$133.00.Meanwhile prices have gone amok in shops.The necrophiliacs have failed&failed absolutely
At the first Google for Africa event today, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, announced a plan to invest $1billion over 5 years to support digital transformation in Africa.
The investment will include the landing of the subsea cable Equiano which will enable faster internet speeds and lower connectivity costs.
It also includes low-interest loans to help small businesses and equity investments in African startups.
Since 2017, Google has trained 6 million young Africans and businesses in digital skills. Google has also supported more than 50 nonprofits across Africa with over $16 million of grants, and enabled 100 million more Africans to access internet services for the first time through Android.
6 October 2021: Google today announced a plan to invest $1billion over 5 years to support Africa’s digital transformation. The investment focuses on enabling fast, affordable internet access for more Africans; building helpful products; supporting entrepreneurship and small business; and helping nonprofits to improve lives across Africa. The announcement was made at Google’s first-ever Google for Africa event, held virtually and livestreamed.
The planned $1billion investment announced today by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, will include:
Enabling affordable internet access and building helpful products
Google is building global infrastructure to help bring faster internet to more people and lower connectivity costs. The subsea cable Equiano will run through South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and St Helena and connect the continent with Europe.
Internet access is also hampered by the affordability of smartphones. Android has developed a device locking technology as part of the Android platform that will enable partners to offer financed devices. Google has collaborated with Kenya’s largest carrier Safaricom to support the launch of the first “Device Financing” plan in Kenya, and will expand this initiative across Africa with partners like Airtel, MKOPA, MTN, Orange, Transsion Holdings and Vodacom, and more. These partnerships will help millions of first-time smartphone users gain access to quality, affordable Android smartphones.
Plus Codes are a free and open-source addressing system to provide addresses for everyone. The government of The Gambia has adopted this in providing addresses for residents and businesses across the capital Banjul and are now scaling to the rest of the country. Plus codes will expand to South Africa, Kenya and other countries in partnership with governments and non-governmental organisations.
Investments in entrepreneurship and technology. Through a Black Founders Fund, Google will invest in Black-led startups in Africa by providing cash awards and hands-on support. This is in addition to Google’s existing support through the Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, which has helped more than 80 African startups with equity-free finance, working space and access to expert advisors over the last three years. Google also announced the launch of an Africa Investment Fund. Through this fund, the company will invest $50M in startups and provide them with access to Google’s employees, network, and technologies to help them build meaningful products for their communities.
Empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation: In collaboration with the non-profit organisation Kiva, Google is providing $10M in low-interest loans to help small businesses and entrepreneurs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa get through the economic hardship created by COVID-19.
Renewed funding for nonprofits. Google.org is expanding its commitment to support nonprofits working to improve lives across Africa, with $40M to help more partners who are responding to challenges they see first hand in their communities – innovators like the Airqo team at Makerere University, who use AI and sensors to monitor poor air quality, a leading cause of premature death. Google is providing $3M in new grant funding to expand this pioneering work from Kampala across 10 cities in 5 countries on the continent.
The announcement expands Google’s ongoing support for Africa’s digital transformation and entrepreneurship. In 2017, Google launched its Grow with Google initiative with a commitment to train 10 million young Africans and small businesses in digital skills. To date, Google has trained over 6 million people across 25 African countries, with over 60% of participants experiencing growth in their career and/or business as a result. Google has also supported more than 50 nonprofits across Africa with over $16million of investment, and enabled hundreds of millions of Africans to access internet services for the first time through Android.
CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai said:
“We’ve made huge strides together over the past decade — but there’s more work to do to make the internet accessible, affordable and useful for every African. Today I’m excited to reaffirm our commitment to the continent through an investment of $1B over five years to support Africa’s digital transformation to cover a range of initiatives from improved connectivity to investment in startups.”
Nitin Gajria, Managing Director for Google in Africa added:
“I am so inspired by the innovative African tech startup scene. In the last year we have seen more investment rounds into tech startups than ever before. I am of the firm belief that no one is better placed to solve Africa’s biggest problems than Africa’s young developers and startup founders. We look forward to deepening our partnership with, and support for, Africa’s innovators and entrepreneurs.”
Hon. Minister Stella Tembisa Ndabeni-Abrahams, Minister of Small Business Development, South Africa said:
“I am happy to note that Google has been active in supporting Small to Medium Enterprises, dedicating even more resources to this sector, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last 12 months, Google has helped close to 500,000 African businesses get online and reach new customers.”
Providing a platform for African cultural treasures and collections
Since 2012, the Google Arts & Culture team has partnered with institutions across the continent to preserve and promote their collections, providing a free online platform which anyone around the world can access. The result is hundreds of expertly-curated stories about Africa by Africans. This includes a new project called ‘Cradle of Creativity’ dedicated to the creative history and heritage of Africa. In collaboration with the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art in Nigeria and the Origins Centre in South Africa, people across the globe can explore more than five hundred high-resolution images, sixty expertly-curated stories with audio narrations, as well as Street View virtual tours, helping to showcase Africa’s creative talent and heritage. You can visit the project at g.co/google4africa21
ENDS
About Google
Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through products and platforms like Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Google Play, Chrome and YouTube, Google plays a meaningful role in the daily lives of billions of people and has become one of the most widely-known companies in the world. Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has come under fire for claiming that the commission is neutral.
Last week ZEC was accused of being a ZANU PF tool to fight the opposition after the commission conducted stakeholders’ engagement meetings without inviting MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.
Posting on Twitter Thursday morning, ZEC said it is neutral in applying the laws made by the legislature. Read the tweet:
“The first hallmark of Justice is upholding the law. Whatever it is Agree with it/Disagree with it. ZEC will uphold the law until it is changed. Misinformation and disinformation is subversion of democracy. Laws are changed in Parliament not by an Electoral Management Body.
“ZEC is neutral in that it applies the law consistently.”
In response, Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a law lecturer in the United Kingdom who is also a former Chief of Staff in the office of the late former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, said:
“There’s no law that stops you from correcting your mistake. If anything you, as a reasonable referee, should have approached the court to fix your error. Now the people of Chegutu West have a loser for an MP courtesy of your “error” & you claim to be “upholding the law”?
“You should take responsibility instead of pontificating about “upholding the law”. What law says a loser will be an MP? You failed in your duty as an elections management body. Anywhere else heads would roll. But you’re @ZECzim and what do you care about standards?”
MDC Alliance activist, Pedzisayi Ruhanya questioned the independence of the electoral body after announcing a losing ZANU PF candidate as the winner in the 2018 Parliamentary elections. He said:
“Why did you announce Dexter Nduna of ZANU PF as MP for Chegutu West after he lost the election to MDC Alliance’s Gift Konjana; which law allows you to do that? Can you do or did you ever do that against a winning ZANU PF candidate. You are a disgraceful election management body.”
This is happening when Zimbabwe is scheduled to have general elections in 2023.
Stakeholders have been calling for the implementation of reforms to ensure a level playing field with Chamisa threatening to boycott the elections if ZEC is not reformed.
By A Correspondent- Traders yesterday described the Harare City Council’s order for them to vacate Mbudzi roundabout within 48 hours as illegal and unconstitutional.
On Tuesday, council ordered traders who conduct their business at the densely-populated area to vacate and pave way for the construction of an interchange to allow the smooth flow of traffic.
But trade unions that represent both formal and informal traders challenged the order, accusing council of being insensitive to the needs of the general public.
Vendors for Social and Economic Transformation executive director Samuel Wadzai told NewsDay that traders would exhaust all legal channels to challenge the order.
“This is totally unacceptable,” he said.
“As much as we appreciate the fact that the roundabout needs to be looked at in terms of improving the road network, we are totally against an ultimatum that puts pressure on members.
“A 48-hour notice is really unacceptable. Why do they want to destroy livelihoods like that? These things should be done in a manner that is organised.”
Wadzai added: “We don’t want our informal traders who are surviving from hand-to-mouth to be ambushed like that. We are considering challenging this in the courts of law as we are concerned that it’s illegal. This is uncalled for and we will not accept it, therefore, we are challenging it.”
Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy secretary-general Wisbon Malaya said: “The issue of traders operating from Mbudzi roundabout is becoming a source of violence and harassment in the world of work. I am referring to the International Labour Organisation Convention 190 which was endorsed in 2019, where our country Zimbabwe is also a signatory to the convention.
“The city fathers are always using confrontational engagement to the situation instead of having dialogue with key stakeholders so that we discuss mitigating measures and rescue measures for the people trading at the roundabout who have children to take care of and pay bills.”
He said the city fathers should not view vendors as “criminals” and illegal traders as there were no job opportunities in the country.
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union secretary-general Japhet Moyo said he had not yet heard of the pending removal of vendors.
“However, we have seen authorities destroying livelihoods of traders before without any alternative space provided for them to work from. It seems we have become specialists in impoverishing our own citizens,” he said.
Moyo said the infrastructure to be put up by council should minimise disruption to businesses.
By A Correspondent- The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has said it is investigating allegations that Bakers Inn, a subsidiary of Simbisa Brands, is selling products using a rate of ZWL$200: USD1.
This week the exchange rate was pegged at US$1:$87.67 at the RBZ’s weekly official forex auction compared while the rate on the parallel market is reportedly as high as US$1: ZWL$150.
ZimPriceCheck says most shops try to stay ahead of the black market rate in case it rises.
It’s not clear whether a receipt purported to be of Simbisa Brands’s Zvishavane Bakers Inn branch is genuine or not. Below are copies of the receipts allegedly issued by Bakers Inn.
RBZ said in a Twitter post this Thursday:
The Financial Intelligence Unit is investigating allegations of currency manipulation and pegging of the ZW$ at 200 to 1 USD circulating on social media. Perpetrators shall be brought to book.
Gurira said efforts by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to uproot widespread misconduct in the economy may not be effective if other institutions are not vocal about the mischief.
By A Correspondent- The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) says the parallel market exchange rate in the economy is becoming a big threat to exporting businesses as it eats into the viability of exports.
This week the exchange rate was pegged at US$1:$87.67 at the weekly official forex auction compared to margins of as high as US$1:$150 on the parallel market.
The introduction of the Dutch Foreign Exchange System in June 2020 by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) had suppressed the parallel market.
In its recently released Business and Economic Intelligence Report for the second quarter and half year, CZI said its members were being negatively affected by the huge parallel market premium.
Said CZI:
The parallel market premium, which has since risen to about 63 percent, is considered a tax by exporting businesses, as they offload the surrender portion of their export earnings at the auction exchange rate while they conduct their business in a cost environment determined by mixed rates depending on where their suppliers of goods and services are sourcing forex.
The best-case scenario being that they are charged at a blended rate of the auction and parallel market and worst-case scenario being the application of the parallel market rate.
Thus, the huge parallel market premium is dampening the motivation for exporting business as it eats into the viability of exports.
The rise of the parallel market rate is attributed to the foreign currency backlog at the RBZ saying it forced businesses to buy forex on the black market.
CZI says the backlog threatens to erode the confidence, which industry had managed to build with the foreign suppliers over the past months.
The RBZ has pledged to clear the nearly US$200 million backlog by end of September and last week, the Treasury revealed that US$70 million had already been released to clear the gap.
By A Correspondent- The trial of Jacob Ngaruvhume, leader of Transform Zimbabwe, is set to start at the Harare Magistrates Court on 7 October 2021. He is charged with incitement to participate in public violence after he called for the 31 July 2020 national protest against corruption and economic decay.
The protest by Ngarivhume followed a $60 million case of alleged embezzlement of COVID-19 funds that led to the sacking of Health Minister Obadiah Moyo. Though he lost his job, Moyo was never incarcerated like Ngarivhume and may never face trial.
The scandal by Moyo, which became known as “Covidgate” had links to President Mnangagwa’s family which led to calls by citizens for his resignation.
It was this move that infuriated the ZANU PF which then claimed Ngarivhume was inciting people to revolt against Mnangagwa and his government. Ngarivhume was consequently arrested, denied bail and had to spend over six weeks in the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Prison until the High Court’s Justice Chitapi granted him bail.
Mnangagwa’s government has failed to uphold the rights of its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, particularly _Sections 58 and 59 which guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and the right of the people of Zimbabwe to challenge government policies through demonstrations and petitions._
The democratic space has continued to shrink under the supposedly “new dispensation”. Ngarivhume will not be expecting any favours when his trial begins. It has become very difficult for opposition activists to get any favourable judgements from from the Magistrates Court.
Will the Magistrates Court do something different this time? Or will be case be taken again to the High Court? Only time will tell.
Below are leaked WhatsApp Chats between activist Linda Masarira and ZANU PF’s Gugu Ncube over the plight of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga’s persecuted wife, Marry.
Please note the communication contains elements that some readers may find inappropriate.
GUGU: Fellow women….allow me to address @Linda Masarira .
Linda, what you are saying out there about Marry is wrong. Don’t be an enemy to the emancipation of women. You may have your grudges against Marry but you are dealing with those grudges in a wrong way n platform, Linda.
You have no right to judge Marry. You have been changing men every year if not every month. People have even accused you of giving birth every year citing that you are a loose woman who has no idea what protection is. Worse, those children are from different fathers Linda. Moreover, people have been insulting you for that n l maintained that who you sleep with in none of anyone’s business n pipo must leave you alone. I mean every word. Who you give your body to is your business.Thus, who Marry dumps n marries is none of your business, Linda. Marry is free to sleep with whoever she wants, just like you are. Don’t be a hypocrite Linda. Many men have come out complaining about your conduct towards them while in a relationship. Recently one accused you of stealing his passport etc. You are not as holly as you claim….if we are to listen to those men over you. We all have our dirty linen. As women we must learn to unite n cover each other….not what you are doing Linda.
Linda, you come out with a lot of accusations that Marry tried to kill Chiwenga. Where were you at the time? What evidence do you have? Don’t expose yourself Linda. You may be wanting to be liked n be embraced in polad but this is not way to go…destroying another woman.
Don’t be a hypocrite. You are not holly, Linda. We are all not holly.
Tendai don’t worry she had an agenda because she posted that rubbish to numerous groups musiyeyi Aite. Ndizvo zvaanzwa zvichimuitira nhasi.
LINDA: Marry is not my sister and will never be my sister period and you have also lost the sisterhood tag from me that is it. If she is your sister don’t shove her to be mine because she will never be mine period
By A Correspondent- Zaka villagers were left gobsmacked after relatives to the Mvuma woman who was last week allegedly killed by her husband buried her body in a shallow grave at the centre of her husband’s homestead.
Regina Khumbula (35) was reportedly killed by her husband, Rameck Batirai (39) who wanted the wife’s body parts for ritual purposes.
The murder was allegedly exposed by Batirai’s one-year-old son who continued to cry uncontrollably at the crime scene as he was in the process of removing the body parts.
The relatives of the late Khumbula went to the suspect’s parents’ homestead in Zaka where they dug a shallow grave at the centre of the homestead and buried her on Monday.
A relative who requested not to be named in the report told The Herald that they did not involve relatives of the husband when they conducted the burial ceremony.
He said:
They were just following proceedings with folded hands as we conducted the burial ceremony.
The centre of the homestead was the perfect place we thought was suitable enough to send our message well to them that we are still pained and in shock over the manner in which our daughter was killed by her husband.
Reports claim that Batirai had been promised US$5 000 by Tongai Hotera (37) and Innocent Munemo (39) if he provided a human tongue and breasts which they intended to use for ritual purposes. – The Herald
By A Correspondent- People have expressed mixed feelings over a proposal by music producer Clive “Mono” Mukundu for the government to honour the late Oliver Mtukudzi with a national day dedicated to him.
Commenting on Mukundu’s suggestion, he posted on his social media platforms some contributors applauded the idea, saying it needed to be taken to the late music icon’s relatives and relevant authorities for discussion and endorsement.
Others said it would raise unnecessary tiff with other artistes’ families, who would feel they too deserved a national day.
One of Mukundu’s social media followers said, “This is nonsense Mukundu. We have lost so many good musicians . . . if all of them get national days, we will have the whole calendar filled.” But Patience Musandirire concurred with Mono, saying it was a noble idea because Mtukudzi was a distinct musician. “Though there have been many musicians who deserve accolades in the way they progressed their art, but no doubt Tuku was a step ahead as he wore ‘a coat of many colours’. He was a cut above the rest,” she said. Malvin Soko of Chitungwiza said there was nothing wrong in honouring Tuku with a national day.
“I agree with Mono Mukundu because Tuku was a national treasure who inspired many generations,” he said. “It would be ideal to have a day set aside to remember him.” Another fan commented; “Yes, Tuku’s level was something else, but also Tongai Moyo’s funeral was well attended, maybe that is why some people are disputing Mono’s idea on why only Tuku, yet we have a lot of other artistes. “Is it because Tuku was internationally known or had inspired Mono? But I don’t see any problem.” In an interview with The Herald Arts, Mukundu said the idea came to mind after he was invited to Tuku’s first posthumous birthday celebration which were held last Friday. “I was chuffed and thought at the same time why can’t we have a national day for the late legend? I thought of this idea when I was invited to the private posthumous birthday celebration of the late icon,” said Mukundu “I then did a research and discovered that not only do other countries celebrate their legends’ birthdays, they actually reserve days to commemorate them.”
Mukundu said it was possible to have a national day reserved for Mtukudzi. “In Jamaica, the late Bob Marley’s birthday was declared as Bob Marley Day in 1990. In 2018, the mayor of Toronto in Canada also declared February 6 as Bob Marley Day. “Considering what Tuku contributed to Zimbabwe, Africa and the world at large, it would be proper to have an Oliver Mtukudzi Day. Having celebrated heroes contributes to patriotism. “I believe having celebrated role models helps to increase patriotism and national self-worth. I don’t under-value other late legends, but no other local artiste so far reached the levels that Tuku reached. “That is why he is the only Zimbabwean whose funeral filled up the National Sports Stadium. He is the only Zimbabwean musician that I know who was occasionally received like a head of state in some countries, sometimes with a police escort too. “Remember in 2011 it was even suggested that he be given a diplomatic passport, although it was never fulfilled.”
By A Correspondent- The black market rate has shot to US$1 to ZW200, cash sale receipts believed to be from Bakers Inn have revealed.
The receipts from the food outlets Zvishavane branch, which went on social media Wednesday, have exposed the government, which says they have managed to contain the rate.
“This is a lesson to politicians that the economy is not run through propaganda, lies & threats. As the Ghanaian VP said, if you are in doubt of what’s happening, check the exchange rate,” read some comments on social media on the sad reality.
