By A Correspondent- The ruling ZANU PF has instructed its newly elected Bulawayo Provincial executive committee to start recruiting new members for the party to retain power in the expected 2023 elections.

The party’s political commissar, Victor Matemadanda who is also the deputy minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs spelt out the huge task for the Bulawayo committee. He said:

As the party, we have a 5 million target which we have set for ourselves. Remember the president has put a vision but before we get to that vision we have said 2018 elections have created problems for us.

The president was in the same bracket with the opposition (2 million bracket). What we plan to do is to have a 5 million vote in the 2023 election so that the margin is big for all to see.

Fifteen (15) members of the 25-member executive committee for Bulawayo Province were elected at the event with reports saying the remaining 10 will be filled in due course.

While President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party are adamant that they have since fulfilled most of the promises made during the 2018 harmonised elections, some cite the socio-economic and political crises in the country as a failure on the party of the government.

-statemedia

High Court bail hearing for Jacob Ngarivhume set for Thursday, 27 August 2020.

Ngarivhume has been denied bail for a record three times, twice at Harare Magistrates Court and once at High Court.

He was arrested in the run-up to the 31 July planned protests and has been languishing in remand prison since then.

More to follow….

By Fanuel Chinowaita-  Magistrate Ncube has ordered the immediate sanitisation of prison cells at Maximum Chikurubi today.

Ncube responded to MDC Alliance National Deputy Chairperson Job Sikhala’s order that the cells should be fumigated.

Through Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Sikhala said:

“I do not feel safe being detained at Chikurubi prison and i want to be detained anywhere else except Chikurubi.

“The  State must also fumigate cells and provide PPE to inmates.”

It is reported that Sikhala was locked, in the D class section of Chikurubi where  four inmates had tested Covid 19 positive.

The Zengeza West legislator was not given Personal Protective Equipment exposing him to the disease.

Harare Magistrate Lazini Ncube will tomorrow make a determination on the application by MDC Alliance Deputy Chairperson Job Sikhala against his placement on remand.

Addressing journalists outside the Harare Magistrates Court, Sikhala’s lawyer Jeremiah Bhamu said after submissions from both sides, Ncube will make a determination at 1400hrs.

Sikhala is challenging his placement on remand insisting that the charges being levelled against him do not constitute a criminal offence.

More to follow….

By A Correspondent- The ruling ZANU PF has instructed its newly elected Bulawayo Provincial executive committee to start recruiting new members for the party to retain power in the expected 2023 elections.

The party’s political commissar, Victor Matemadanda who is also the deputy minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs spelt out the huge task for the Bulawayo committee. He said:

As the party, we have a 5 million target which we have set for ourselves. Remember the president has put a vision but before we get to that vision we have said 2018 elections have created problems for us.

The president was in the same bracket with the opposition (2 million bracket). What we plan to do is to have a 5 million vote in the 2023 election so that the margin is big for all to see.

Fifteen (15) members of the 25-member executive committee for Bulawayo Province were elected at the event with reports saying the remaining 10 will be filled in due course.

While President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party are adamant that they have since fulfilled most of the promises made during the 2018 harmonised elections, some cite the socio-economic and political crises in the country as a failure on the party of the government.

-statemedia

WATCH MDC Alliance Youth Leader Godfrey Kurauone’s lawyer Martin Mureri speak to ZimEye outside Masvingo High Court today

WATCH VIDEO LOADING BELOW…..

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=315244289793925&notif_id=1598345356335781&notif_t=live_video_explicit

By A Correspondent- Zanu Pf’s Victor Matemadanda has attacked United States President Donald Trump, accusing him of fuelling chaos in Zimbabwe by sponsoring protests through civil society organisations and the opposition MDC Alliance.

Said Matemadanda:

“They (opposition) think things won’t work without the Americans or the British, others brag that they are a phone call away from Trump. The sell-outs call America and even resort to faking kidnappings.

There is a (Economic Freedom Fighters leader, Julius) Malema in South Africa who thinks he knows Zimbabwe more than we do. Zanu PF and ANC [African National Congress] are sister parties. We want to maintain the relations because we know that after defeating Zanu PF today, they will go after ANC and other sister lib-eration movements.”

The Zanu PF national political commissar accused Malema of working with exiled former Zanu PF members based in South Africa to portray Zimbabwe as a country in crisis.

“We want to know who our real enemy is. Malema and (former Local Government minister Saviour) Kasukuwere say people were denied their rights to march, yet those who organised say they did not want to do that. Malema is a fool. You can say now that those we have here are stooges, the pushing factor is from outside – the Trumps when they blow their trumpets,” he said.

-Newsday

By Wilbert Mukori- “The Government will also start issuing birth certificates to children of some of the people who were killed during the disturbances and have been failing to get the documents and death certificates of those who died,” reported Zimeye.

“The government will next month start exhuming and burying bodies of victims of Gukurahundi.

“The recommendations were part of a high level third (closed door) meeting between President Mnangagwa and civil society groups under the banner of Matabeleland Collective at State House in Bulawayo yesterday.”

It is pleasing that those who have not been able to get birth and death certificates and all the other routine stuff done because of what happened during the madness Gukurahundi are finally going to do these things. It is shocking that it has taken nearly 40 years to have these matters sorted out.

Still, I have to question this Zanu PF government’s competence in the handling of any of the other substantive matters such as the reburial of Gukurahundi massacre victims, paying compensation to the victims, etc. To start with, these matters should be done after all the reports done so far on Gukurahundi have been released and the reburials, etc. are carried out as follow up processes.

There have been at least two official investigations, the Chihambakwe Commission, requested by Mugabe, and when Mnangagwa took over following the November 2017 coup he too set up a body to look into the matter. The two reports must be made public and only then must Zanu PF state publicly what the party propose to do next.

The path Zimbabwe has followed this last 40 years was defined, for better or for worse, by what happened during 1983 to the signing of the Zanu PF and PF Zapu Unity Accord – the Gukurahundi massacre years. Up to now, what happened has remained cloaked in shroud of secrecy and mystery. The shroud must now be lifted and the matter dealt with in an open and transparent manner.

Since Emmerson Mnangagwa and many of those in his Zanu PF government were the principle players in the Gukurahundi saga, it is very doubtful they can be trusted to let the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth come out. It would be better to do nothing regarding Gukurahundi at this point than to open up the old wound and make a complete mess of it!

The other point is; the timing of bringing up the substantive Gukurahundi issues is all wrong give the country is facing a very serious and immediate threat in then form of the corona virus pandemic! With out adding a new distraction, in the form of Gukurahundi, this Zanu PF government is already failing, once again, in its primary duty as the government of saving human lives.

This government’s blundering incompetence and deliberate acts of deception in the handling of the corona virus is putting hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean lives at risk. This is a humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding here and now and demanding our urgent attention!

Zororo Makamba, the country’s first corona virus victim, was allowed to mix freely with the public because a senior Zanu PF official overruled an Immigration Official who wanted Makamba placed in isolation.

South Africa’s corona virus infection rate will be similar to that of Zimbabwe, given the heavy human traffic between the two. SA has 12 843 covid-19 deaths, for example, and Zimbabwe, with 1/4 the population, should therefore have 3 210 deaths. Instead, Zimbabwe has, officially, 151 covid deaths; 20 times lower!

As of end of July 2020, SA had done 3 million test or tested 1 out of every 20 (1:20) of its 60 million population. In the same period Zimbabwe carried out only 145 000 tests out of a population of 16 million or 1:110!

In April the Zanu PF government promise to ramp up the country’s testing capacity and test health care workers regularly. It has not done so and hence the reason some health care workers are yet to have the first test! The biggest price the nation pays for failing to test aggressively is that many people with the infection and should be in isolation will remain to interact freely and thus spread the virus far and wide.

By the time there is a corona virus vaccine and/or cure, in a year or so time; Zimbabwe’s official covid-19 death rate would 2 000 or so. The real figure would probably have soared to a few hundred times higher than to official figure. The corona virus pandemic has the potential to kill 400 000 plus Zimbabweans!

So after 37 years, Zanu PF is finally doing something for the Gukurahundi dead. The tragedy is in attending to the long dead the regime is fostering on the nation a new national catastrophe even costing the nation 20 times more human lives than the Gukurahundi massacre!

The corona virus pandemic constitutes the greatest of our generation threat to human lives and livelihood for not only Zimbabweans across the board but the world over. Zimbabwe’s performance so far in stopping the virus entering our borders and, once in, containing it; is one of the worst in the whole world. Keeping this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime focused on the immediate task of saving Zimbabwean lives and livelihoods from the corona virus and the disruption it is causing is going to be tough.

Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies must be told in no uncertain terms ramp up the corona virus testing and all the other activities to help stop the spread of corona virus. The regime and the nation is ill equipped to deal with such matters as substantive Gukurahundi issues at present.

Indeed, Mnangagwa is bring up the substantive Gukurahundi issues to distract the nation from the urgent matters of the worsening economic meltdown, the growing social unrest and most pressing of all the soaring covid-19 infections and deaths! The need for all Zimbabweans to focus on the need to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance has never been greater than it is today because until we end the curse all these problems will only get worse!

By A Correspondent- A 30 year old jilted husband from Jejeti Village, Kasibo area under Chief Whange set his former mother-in-law Mrs Moyo’s homestead on fire after his wife Nobuhle Mrs Moyo’s daughter left him.

Absalom Nkomo had gone to Mrs Moyo’s house at night to enquire about his wife’s whereabouts and he was told she was not home and he proceeded to set Mrs Moyo’s huts on fire in a fit of rage.

According to the publication, Mrs Moyo and her 2 granddaughters survived the fire because they were already outside the house when he set the houses on fire.

On the 9th day of August at around 11pm the complainant was in her bedroom hut with her grandchildren when the accused arrived. The accused asked his mother-in-law about his wife Nobuhle Moyo’s whereabouts and the complainant told him that she didn’t know where her daughter was. The accused became furious and insulted the complainant

Nkomo threatened to burn a kitchen hut and a bedroom hut unless they disclosed his wife’s whereabouts. Mrs Moyo and her granddaughters went out of the bedroom hut and begged Nkomo not to burn their huts but he became more violent, the court was told. Nkomo then entered the kitchen hut and took a burning log which he used to set the same hut alight.

Nkomo was fined $6000 by Hwange magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje who also sentenced him to 10 months in prison before suspending 2 months on condition of good behaviour and also suspended the remaining 8 months on condition that he restitutes $203 400 the total value of the property destroyed in the fire and US$25 by Monday next week.

-statemedia

By A Correspondent- The ruling ZANU PF has instructed its newly elected Bulawayo Provincial executive committee to start recruiting new members for the party to retain power in the expected 2023 elections.

The party’s political commissar, Victor Matemadanda who is also the deputy minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs spelt out the huge task for the Bulawayo committee. He said:

As the party, we have a 5 million target which we have set for ourselves. Remember the president has put a vision but before we get to that vision we have said 2018 elections have created problems for us.

The president was in the same bracket with the opposition (2 million bracket). What we plan to do is to have a 5 million vote in the 2023 election so that the margin is big for all to see.

Fifteen (15) members of the 25-member executive committee for Bulawayo Province were elected at the event with reports saying the remaining 10 will be filled in due course.

While President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party are adamant that they have since fulfilled most of the promises made during the 2018 harmonised elections, some cite the socio-economic and political crises in the country as a failure on the party of the government.

-statemedia

By A Correspondent- The MDC-Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa has described the recall of  Harare mayor Herbert Gomba and five others by the MDC-T camp led by Thokozani Khupe as a ploy to destroy the opposition party.

Gomba was recalled together with Hammy Madzingira (Ward 10), Kudzai Kadzombe (Ward 41), Gaudencia Marere (Ward 32), Costa Mande (Ward 24) and Happymore Gotora (Ward 7).

MDC-Alliance deputy spokesperson Clifford Hlatshwayo yesterday said the recall was “illegal and irregular”.

“The rebels are a tool; they are being used by Zanu-PF, used to push its agenda. They don’t want MDC-Alliance-led councils to perform well; that’s why they are doing all this, disturbances and unnecessary interference in the affairs of local authorities.

“This is against the constitution that allows councils to operate and manage their local authorities. The rebels have no locus standi to recall MDC-Alliance councillors and must stop now. It is against the law. How can you recall from nowhere the first citizen of the capital city. These guys are joking with the people’s vote,” he said

Describing the recall of MDC-Alliance parliamentarians and councillors as “spirits of darkness”, Hlatshwayo vowed that his party would fight back.

“Power is derived from a constitutional process of elections either as an independent candidate or with your political party. In this case, it is MDC-Alliance party which fielded candidates. The Zimbabwean law on elections is clear that it registers political parties not coalitions.

“We are going to reclaim and conquer everything. These wild winds are going to end. We have a serious plan of action on the ground that will rescue the people of Zimbabwe from the bondage of the spirits of darkness,” he said.

This comes after the Khupe-led interim MDC leadership also recalled Bulawayo deputy mayor Tinashe Kambarami, as well councillors Concillia Mlalazi, Alderman Ernest Rafamoyo, Tinevimbo Maphosa and Norman Hlabani.

Khupe has also recalled 21 MDC-Alliance legislators from Parliament.

The MDC has been consumed by ructions ever since its much-loved founding father Morgan Tsvangirai died from colon cancer in February 2018.

The party’s infighting escalated after the Supreme Court’s judgment earlier this year which upheld last year’s ruling by the High Court that nullified Nelson Chamisa’s ascendancy to the leadership of the country’s biggest opposition party.

Both Chamisa and Khupe have been criticised for failing to heal their rift and focus on the failures of Zanu-PF, whose incompetent handling of the economy has stirred anger among long-suffering Zimbabweans.

Paul Nyathi

MDC-T Secretary General Douglas has shocked many after he made a statement claiming that the Gukurahundi genocide of the eighties was a civil war.

In a statement on his official Facebook page where he was endorsing President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s out of favour Political Actors Dialogue, POLAD, Mwonzora claimed that his so called Civil War was ended by a dialogue between ZANU’s Robert Mugabe and PF ZAPU’s Joshua Nkomo.

The Robert Mugabe regime with Emmerson Mnangagwa as State Minister deployed a battalion of soldiers into Matabeleland and killed over 20 000 unarmed civilians in the atrocities that Mwonzora declared as a civil war.

Below is Mwonzora’s full statement:

Our position on dialogue has never changed. Dialogue remains the only sustainable way to resolve the national crisis.

For any dialogue process to work and produce results it must be genuine, inclusive and unconditional.

In this regard we believe that any dialogueprocess in Zimbabwe must include political parties, churches, labour, civil society and
business. That is the only way to guaranteethat the dialogue process does not produce an elite pact but a sustainable and satisfactory outcome for all our peoples.

Zimbabwe’s history is full of evidence that dialogue works. After a gruelling war of liberation the warring parties had to resort to
dialogue at Lancaster House.

After the civil war in Matabeleland and the Midlands, Zanu PF and PF Zapu sat down and concluded the Unity Accord. After the violence of 2008, the major parties sat down and produced the Global Political Agreement.

The fact that there will be dialogue does not preclude people from embarking on lawful action like peaceful demonstrations that are permitted under section 59 of our constitution.

By A Correspondent- Masvingo Provincial Covid-19 Taskforce announced on Monday that five government workers at Masvingo provincial offices have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The development was announced by the Taskforce’s spokesperson, Rodgers Irimayi who said out of a total of 139 workers that were tested for Covid-19 last week from the government offices in the city, five had tested positive.

Masvingo recorded two Covid-19 deaths last week, and the province, overall, has 19 other active cases.

Of late, local transmissions have been more than imported cases. Health authorities have as a result urged the citizenry to observe recommendations to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

-statemedia

Global Sisters Report

HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Jane sat on a hard, wooden chair at a church in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, and stared into space for some minutes. Then, she began to croon in worship and, a few minutes later, the gates of her heart burst open, and she began to pour out her heart to her Lord, tears flowing freely like a fountain.

“Father, I forgive my abusers and the people who caused me pain,” prayed the 37-year-old mother of two, who asked that Global Sisters Report not use her real name. “They treated me like an animal, like I didn’t matter, like I was a dog, worse than a dog. God, please heal my pain and heal my broken heart.”

Jane’s journey of pain began in 2016, when she was enticed by a trafficking agent in Harare with promises of a salary of $1,400 per month at a hotel in Kuwait, more than 3,000 miles away. Life had become unbearable in Zimbabwe after her husband lost his job as a casual laborer in a local milk factory and they were evicted from their house for nonpayment of rent.

“Life was very difficult and we barely had something to eat, and if we ate, it was one meal per day,” she said.

It was at this difficult time that she met her trafficker, who was well acquainted with her mother. Everything was planned quickly, and within one week, all her travel documents were ready, including her passport. She was given a new Islamic name: Amina Ishmael.

Upon reaching Kuwait, she was picked up from the airport by a man who would be her boss. It was at his house that Jane realized she had been lied to and trafficked. Her host took away her travel documents and forcefully performed a medical procedure to check her overall health.

“I was raped every day, and I was helpless to do anything about it,” she said, weeping throughout the interview with GSR but insisting she wanted to tell her story. “I was forced to work day and night, beaten, restricted to go anywhere, threatened of arrest and deportation and unlawful withholding of my passport. I wasn’t even paid for the five months I worked at the home.”

When things became intolerable, she fled the home and took refuge in the Zimbabwe consulate. Jane was deported after a week, and upon arrival back in Zimbabwe, she was introduced to the religious sisters who run the African Forum for Catholic Social Teaching (AFCAST), an association of justice and peace practitioners throughout Africa, and who chaired the Counseling Services Unit, a group of doctors and counselors who assist the victims of human trafficking in Zimbabwe.

“As AFCAST, we deal with social problems that affect the people,” said Sr. Janice McLaughlin of the Maryknoll Sisters, who is one of the forum’s founders. “We focus our attention mainly on human trafficking and abuse of children and vulnerable adults. We always do our research and then we try to reach out to those affected or those we feel need help. All this is done by following Catholic social teaching and mission.”

‘There are no jobs here’

Jane is among the 40.3 million people who have been trafficked globally, including 24.9 million in forced labor and 15.4 million in forced marriage, according to 2016 estimates by the International Labour Organisation, the most recent available data.

Human trafficking in Africa is an urgent crisis, and women and children are especially at risk. People can be trafficked within their own countries, to neighboring countries and to other continents for sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, forced marriage, domestic slavery and various forms of forced labour, according to the latest report by the United Nations.

Zimbabwe does not meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so, according to the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report from the U.S. State Department. The report also notes that the southern African nation has been mapped as a source, destination and transit point for trafficking. In most of these cases, victims are vulnerable children and young adults.

In 2014, the Zimbabwe Parliament passed the Trafficking in Persons Act to identify those who have been trafficked, mitigate the illicit practice and prosecute trafficking offenders. However, it wasn’t until 2016 that the government launched the Trafficking in Persons National Plan of Action to enforce the law.

Since then, Zimbabwe’s government has made some headway in its efforts to end human trafficking. It investigated 72 potential cases of trafficking and prosecuted 42 cases in 2016, compared to none in the previous year. The government reported prosecuting 14 trafficking cases in 2017.

However, women and girls from Zimbabwean towns bordering South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia are still trafficked and subjected to forced labour and prostitution. In rural areas, men, women and children are also trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labor and to cities for forced domestic labour and commercial sexual exploitation, according to the U.S. State Department.

State Media

ZESA HOLDINGS has said power outages being experienced in different parts of the country are due to a technical fault at Kariba and Hwange Power station.

Power supply had vastly improved since March until recently when some areas have been experiencing power cuts.

After months without experiencing any power cuts, people took to social media to vent and to express their unhappiness at the new status quo.

Most have linked the drastic change in the power situation with the firing of Fortune Chasi also calling for new Minister Soda Zhemu to be fired, blaming him for the return of power cuts.

A new term had even been crafted whenever power is cut, “Zvadirwa Soda,” people would say.

ZESA Holdings acting group stakeholder relations manager Ms Prisca Utete said the situation had been compounded by the unavailability of normal import levels due to constraints in the region.

“Hwange unit 5 has been out and works are at an advanced stage to recover it, while Unit 2 developed tube leaks and repairs are almost complete with expectations of bringing it back as soon as possible, hence minimising the demand supply mismatch,” she said.

“Unit 8 is out of service due to a technical fault at Kariba power station, which is currently operating with seven units. Efforts are underway to restore this unit.”

She said that power supply should be stable starting this week.

State Media

One the country’s most wanted armed robber, Musa Taj Abdul who has been on the run for over two decades and masterminded a spate of criminal activities, has been arrested in Beitbridge.

Abdul was arrested while in the company of six other accomplices in the border town last night.

Police this morning confirmed the high profile arrest, and said a team of detectives from CID Homicide in Harare has since been dispatched to Beitbridge this morning as part of investigations.

Abdul has been known for evading police arrests and escaping shootouts in which some of his accomplices were killed by police in several incidents in and around the city.

Correspondent

UNDER FIRE Matabeleland Collective leader, Jenni Williams says that the eighties Gukurahundi atrocities that claimed lives of over 20 000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands was not a genocide.

Speaking to journalists soon after Mnangagwa’s meeting with members of the Matabeleland Collective at State House in Bulawayo last Saturday, Williams said the Gukurahundi atrocities were not genocide, but state-sanctioned killings.

“This (Gukurahundi) was not a Rwanda style genocide. This was not people of Shona tribe coming and killing the people of Matabeleland. These were salaried state soldiers who came here and killed people.

Victims of the emotional period have always insisted that the killings were a tribal genocide as was the case in Rwanda though some thoughts say it was a mere political warfare by ZANU on its rival PF ZAPU.

When probed further by journalists on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s position on the killings,
Williams challenged Mnangagwa to issue a public apology over the atrocities.

Mnangagwa was then State Security Minister and presided over the Gukurahundi brigade which reported directly to then President Robert Mugabe and not to the Army Commander.

“The head of state is the person who should be able to acknowledge that the soldiers were deployed by the government and we remain committed to identifying how that acknowledgement looks and how the apology looks,” she said.

“But for us, the position is not only the government to do that but our communities carrying that suffering, they have to describe that process,” she said.

“So, for us, the acknowledgement that this is what happened and how it happened is very important,” said Williams who is also the leader of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) leader.

She revealed Mnangagwa will soon launch a documentation programme for Gukurahundi victims in Matobo district in Matabeleland South.

Matobo is close to the notorious Bhalagwe detention camp, the epicentre of the gruesome atrocities.

“We are going to launch this exercise in Matobo district. We are going to take His Excellency to launch in that district because for us that is the centre around Bhalagwe, where these things happened. His Excellency needs to be able to come there and see people, launch this exercise,” she said.

The issuance of documents to Gukurahundi victims, she said, will assist in revealing the truth behind the killings.

“For us in Matabeleland, we want it to be clear these people were killed during Gukurahundi and so the death certificates of our lost loved ones must be a truth-telling element. I think some of those issues have now been addressed,” she added.

State Media

THE Government has gazetted Statutory Instrument 200 of 2020 stipulating l conditions to be adhered to during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Zimbabwe, like many other countries, is on a national lockdown as part of measures to curb the spread of the Covid-9 pandemic which has so far claimed 155 lives.

Dubbed the Public Health Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment; National Lockdown Consolidation and Amendment Order, 2020, the SI 200 of 2020 is a summary of legislation that has been put in place to ensure there is no spread of the global pandemic.

The piece of legislation also repeals 16 other previously gazetted public health statutory instruments which spoke to issues to do with national lockdown conditions.

According to the document, essential services include the work of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission established in terms of the Electoral Act.

“Essential services include any hospital service; any service relating to the generation, supply or distribution of electricity and any service relating to the supply and distribution of water. Any service relating to the production, supply, delivery or distribution of food in particular supermarkets and food retail store, fuel or coal as well as banking institutions, bureaux de changes, money transfer services are also essential services,” read the document.

The list also includes any sewerage or sanitary service; fire brigade or ambulance service; coal mining; communications and telecommunication services.

“The telecommunications services include the Internet, any public or licensed broadcasting service and the activities of persons as journalists, newspaper vendors or employees of such services.”

According to the SI, the conducting of public examinations at schools, colleges, universities or other tertiary institutions in accordance with circulars issued by the ministries responsible for primary, secondary, tertiary or technical education are also an essential service.

“The Government Printer (Printflow (Private) Limited); all criminal and civil courts together with their support staff including the Sheriff of the High Court or messengers of court are part of the essential services. All arms and organs of the State engaged in providing security services, and licensed private security services are also part of the essential services.”

Under the new regulations, residents who hoard food for profit making through resale will be subjected to prosecution if found guilty.

“No person shall, at his or her home or in any other premises or location, hoard medicines meant to combat Covid-19 or food in excess of what is needed to be stored for himself or herself and his or her family during the period of the national lockdown. No person shall export or attempt to export from Zimbabwe medical supplies needed to combat Covid-19 unless the exporter or other person in charge of the consignment for export of such supplies produces to a revenue, customs or enforcement officer a clearance letter,” reads part of the S1.

Correspondent

Residents of Bulawayo East constituency who claim to have voted in the 2018 elections have organised themselves to block the nomination of MDC-T members including its leader Thokozani Khupe into parliament.

The Zimbawe Electoral Commission, ZEC, gazetted that Khupe and her other MDC-T top leaders had been nominated to fill proportional representation seats in the National Assembly and Senate that fell vacant following their recalling from Parliament of MDC Alliance MPs.

According to the electoral act, voters have a tight to object to the nominations through ZEC before they are confirmed.

On Sunday, some voters in Bulawayo East held an emergency meeting in Mahatshula where they resolved to block Khupe’s nomination.

“As Bulawayo East voters, we are saying during the July 2018 harmonised elections, we overwhelmingly voted for the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa. Our constituency and our votes contributed to the cumulative provincial votes which formed the basis for the allocation of the proportional representative according to the Electoral Act,” said Gilbert Sibanda, who is spearheading the objection process.

“ZEC has a duty to respect our choices and should not allow the MDC-T to usurp our rights to choose our preferred representatives. Failure to abide by this duty is a clear infringement of our rights of association as spelt out in Section 58 of the Constitution,” he said.

“The whole essence of elections the world over is for people to choose their representatives. Why have elections when people’s preferred candidates can be replaced by other people without the approval of their political parties?”

Besides Khupe, other names set to replace expelled MDC Alliance MPs are; Yvonne Musarurwa, Lindani Moyo, January Sawuke, Memory Munochinzwa, Lwazi Sibanda, Sipho Mokone, Molly Dorothy Ndlovu, Tamani Moyo, Gertrude Moyo, Piniel Denga, Chief Ndlovu, Nomalanga Khumalo, and Teti Chisorochengwe. Khupe’s spokesperson Khalipani Phugeni has also been nominated.

President @nelsonchamisa leading demo against ZRP from the front, and five months later, youths are now on the ground, skilfully executing & subduing cops with live-bullets from the lips https://t.co/ppQS93GwM2 https://t.co/vQihilPZB1 pic.twitter.com/2GghzXoiir

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 25, 2020

State Media

PEOPLE should adapt their lifestyles to the new normal to curb the spread of Covid-19 for the country to win the war against the pandemic, the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa has said.

With no vaccine in sight experts have said people should learn to live safely.

In a media briefing after the ad-hoc Inter Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 meeting yesterday, Minister Mutsvangwa said as each day passes people are learning new information about the virus.

“Experts have informed us that those who will win this war are those who adapt to the new normal which entails adopting the protective and preventative measures that curb the spread and transmission of Covid-19. This is a new normal. Let us all accept it and adapt our lifestyles to it,” she said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said Government appreciates how difficult it is for citizens to avoid venturing out due to the demands of different social circumstances, but they must not put their lives at risk.

She said even though the country has been in lockdown for about five months, the worst is not yet over.

“Let us dig in into our legendary resilience and take heart in that what we are being asked to do will save us, our families and communities. Let us not violate the movement restrictions that are in place to protect us and others as well as the wearing of masks in public places,” she said.

Minister Mutsvangwa said the number of local transmission remain worrisome and continue to rise.

She said Government continues to work to prevent the spread of the virus.

“Additionally, community awareness programmes are gathering momentum. The training of trainers is underway in all eight rural and two metropolitan provinces. Training of village and community health workers is also underway in all districts. Village Health Workers are vital to the country’s health delivery system as they interface with communities on a day to day basis,” said the minister.

She said in the current Covid-19 context, the role of Village Health Workers has expanded beyond engaging communities in prevention and protective measures, to include detection and responses in containing the pandemic.

“There are presently 1 293 persons in quarantine facilities, which marks a significant reduction from the figures reported in previous weeks. This again follows the WHO recommendation that the quarantine period be reduced from 21 to 14 days,” said the minister.

She said the National Taskforce has noted with concern that despite Government’s effort to capacitate Zupco to provide services to commuters in urban areas, there is a lot of unnecessary travelling which increases risk in urban areas.

Minister Mutsvangwa said citizens are therefore encouraged to only travel when absolutely necessary and those who do not have to travel during peak hours are also encouraged to avoid travelling during the high congestion times.

She said the National Taskforce is now being chaired by the Minister of Defence and War Veterans Affairs, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who is deputised by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Prof Amon Murwira.

Two Zimbabwe Republic police officers received live rounds of verbal ammunition, truth-packed bullets, when they were told at the trial of the fiery Zengeza MP Job Sikhala:

“You can assault me here, I offer my body as a sacrifice, but tomorrow you will be miserable.”

The cops became totally subdued by the words spoken by two bold protesters angry with the manner in which Sikhala has been abused by the state.

The development came as Sikhala through his lawyers revealed that he has received death threats from a prison officer; is being kept in the death row section of the prison, and his warned-caution statement has been altered to suit the charges levelled against him. It was also revealed that he has been mixed with prisoners who are covid positive. VIDEO:

You can assault me here, I offer my body as a sacrifice, but tomorrow you will be miserable, @PoliceZimbabwe

cop told pic.twitter.com/OlTTKEYwci

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

Zimbabwe had 140 new coronavirus cases today pushing the number of cases to 6 070.

Seventy-eight people recovered raising the number to 4 950 but the number of active cases also rose from 903 to965.

There were no deaths.

The national recovery rate now stands at 82 percent.

State Media

Angry MDC Alliance supporters caused a scene yesterday at the Harare Magistrates Courts when they stormed the premises protesting against Job Sikhala’s arrest.

Sikhala was arrested last week on Friday for allegedly inciting public violence by calling for the July 31 flopped demonstrations.

Police had to disperse the rowdy group, which was singing and calling for his release.

Through his lawyer, Mr Harrison Nkomo, Sikhala said the officer-in-charge at the prison whom he identified as George Mutimbanyoka threatened him.

Sikhala said he “was advised in no uncertain terms that you shall die in this prison” and was asked to give a telephone number of the person the prison should contact in the event of death.

He accused Mutimbanyoka of directing a junior officer, named Murima, to handcuff him the entire day and he was in leg irons in the courtyard of Chikurubi on August 23.

Sikhala said he was kept in D Class cells where he was advised by inmates that seven people in that section had tested positive for Covid-19, with four more testing positive on that day.

“You obviously are aware of the catastrophic nature of this virus. No PPE or sanitiser,” he said.

Harare magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube ordered the fumigation of the prison cells and ordered the State to investigate the allegations made by Sikhala.

In his application, one of Sikhala’s legal team, Mr Jeremiah Bamu, took to the witness stand where he told the court that the police tampered with Sikhala’s warned and cautioned statement.

He said the statement was materially distorted and doctored in many aspects to suit police charges.

Mr Bamu told the court that he was neither shown the videos nor audios that the police alleged to be in possession of that they say supported the charges.

Sikhala is expected back in court today for continuation of his application for challenging his placement on remand.

Messrs Tendai Shonhai and Garudzo Ziyaduma represented the State.

State Media

The battle by former Information Communication Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira to quash the remaining charge of corruption he is facing continues with the former minister approaching the High Court to overturn a magistrate’s decision to allow the charge to stand.

Mandiwanzira is facing a charge of criminal abuse of office for allegedly seconding the personal assistant to the Minister, Tawanda Chinembiri, to the board of the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) without due process when he was ICT Minister.

Chinembiri was an employee of the Government and his position was equivalent to a Deputy Director in the Ministry.

The High Court has already quashed a second charge under which Mandiwanzira allegedly engaged a South African firm, Megawatt Company, to carry out consultancy work for NetOne without due process.

Mandiwanzira contested the charge because it gave the impression that Chinembiri was not an employee of government.

On the allegations that Mandiwanzira had hired a South African company to investigate corruption at NetOne without going to tender, investigations by Megawatt unearthed overpricising of equipment by NetOne of over US$100 million. At least US$30 million was recovered as a result of the investigations by Megawatt.

It is on this basis that the then High Court Judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi dismissed the first case against Mandiwanzira.

Last month, Mandiwanzira unsuccessfully applied to challenge the remaining charge via an application for exception before regional magistrate Ms Bianca Makwande.

But Ms Makwande dismissed the application when she made a finding that corruption matters should not be resolved on technicalities. Mandiwanzira argues it is a clear case of witch-hunting.

However, the ruling paved the way for the resumption of the former minister’s prosecution until Friday last week when he filed his latest application for review of the trial court proceedings.

In his High Court application, Mandiwanzira challenges the charge, which the prosecution wants to amend, two years after it failed to stick.

He wants the court to review the trial magistrate’s decision arguing that her findings were irregular in view of the prosecution concession in the exception hearing that the remaining charge did not disclose an offence.

“The charges were a nullity at law in that they were predicated on a false premise,” said Mandiwanzira.

The former minister also complained over why it had taken so long to finalise the matter since his arrest two years ago. He argued that the prosecution was not keen to finalise the matter, citing the fact that at one stage it considered withdrawing the charges.

“One wonders why after two years, the State proposes to amend its charge when it is the one that indicated the allegations were helpless,” said Mandiwanzira.

“Whichever way this matter is looked at, the result should be the trial court’s decision must be set aside for being irregular and actuating a constitutional violation.” The prosecution is yet to file its response.

State Media

A 54-year-old Bulawayo security guard was killed while his colleague was left nursing a serious head injury after eight gold panners set upon them with machetes.

The assailants got away with a loaded 303 rifle.

Mr Ernest Dube died on duty at Adar Bali Mining Compound along Victoria Falls Road on Thursday and his colleague Mr Ashley Manyemba (20) who reported his death is in a critical condition at Mpilo Central Hospital.

Police in Bulawayo have arrested four of the suspects who will appear in court today facing murder and attempted murder charges.

The four are Tobias Dube from Nkayi, Nkosilathi Ncube from Magwegwe, Loud Ngulube and Givemore Ngwenya from Insuza.

Dube was the first to be arrested after a tip off and upon investigations he implicated the other three.

On Thursday around 9.30PM, Mr Manyemba who was on duty with the deceased left the premises unarmed intending to have his supper.

On his way back he met a group of at least eight men who were armed with machetes.

The gang pounced on him and one of them struck him with a machete and left him for dead.

Mr Manyemba gained consciousness after a while and staggered to his colleague whom he found lifeless in a pool of blood.

He also noted that Dube’s rifle, shoes and uniform were missing and a report was made to the police.

Investigations led police to the four and they recovered the rifle which had four rounds of ammunition missing and they are yet to establish where these were used.

The police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident yesterday and said investigations are under way. “We have arrested four men in connection with the murder of a security guard in Bulawayo and the attempted murder of his colleague which occurred on Thursday. The four were arrested on Friday after a tip off and police are still investigating as they were found in possession of a rifle,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.

“We appeal to members of the public with information that may lead us to more suspects to contact their nearest police station.”

A 28-YEAR-OLD Filabusi man has been arrested for allegedly killing his neighbour by striking him with a brick on the head after accusing him of cheating with his girlfriend.

Moses Sibanda of Zamanjalo Village was not asked to plead when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Lerato Nyathi facing a murder charge. He was remanded in custody to September 1.

Prosecuting, Miss Ethel Mahachi said Sibanda met the now deceased Carlos Ndlovu walking with his girlfriend and he accused him of being in love with his girlfriend.

She said the two men had a misunderstanding over the matter.
Sibanda then struck Ndlovu behind his head with a brick.

Ndlovu was rushed to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

“On 21 May at around 2PM Sibanda was on his way to see her girlfriend at her home when he met her on the way while she was walking with Ndlovu. Sibanda became furious and confronted Ndlovu on why he was with his girlfriend when he knew that they were lovers which resulted in a misunderstanding,” she said.

“Ndlovu ignored Sibanda and then walked away leaving him with his girlfriend.

Sibanda pursued Ndlovu and demanded a response but Ndlovu refused to entertain him.

Sibanda accused Ndlovu of coming in between him and his girlfriend and also blamed him for the misunderstandings which they had been lately experiencing in their relationship.

Sibanda picked up a brick and struck Ndlovu on the back of his head before fleeing the scene.”

Miss Mahachi said Ndlovu lost consciousness and the woman rushed to a nearby homestead where she sought help.

She said Ndlovu was rushed to a nearby clinic where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

She said the matter was reported to the police resulting in Sibanda’s arrest.-Chronicle

THE country’s Covid-19 active cases have dropped to less than 1 000 for the first time in more than a month.

Since last month the country Covid-19 cases had been increasing following a surge in local transmissions.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care daily report shows that as of Sunday, Covid-19 active cases had dropped to just over 900.

On Sunday, 37 new cases were recorded while two people succumbed to Covid-19 related illnesses in Manicaland province as the death toll increases to 155.

“As of 23 August 2020, Zimbabwe has now recorded 5 930 cases, 4872 recoveries and two deaths,” reads the ministry’s report.

The report further states that the country has 903 active cases.-Chronicle

POPULAR preacher Nixon Chibuzor Ohizu, 46, the leader of Empowerment Ministries Church along Seke Road, Harare, has been arrested on allegations of bribery.

He allegedly tried to bribe National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) officials to reverse the cancellation of a lease agreement between his church and NRZ.

Ohizu was not asked to plead to the allegations when he appeared before Harare magistrate Richard Ramaboa last week.

He was remanded out of custody to October 1 on $10 000 bail and was ordered to surrender his passport.

Allegations are that on August 19, Ohizu went to NRZ offices where he found two high ranking officials, Colonel Nyabambi and Clive Ncube.

He allegedly tried to bribe the two officials to reverse the cancellation of a lease agreement between his church and NRZ served on him on August 7.

The two NRZ officials reportedly accepted a bribe offer of US$2 000 and he left the premises to collect the money.
The officials reportedly notified the police and a trap was set.

He allegedly gave US$2 000 to Ncube in $100 denominations, money which is being held as exhibit.

Prosecutor Sabastian Mutizirwa appeared for the State.-Daily News

OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has challenged Zimbabweans to move out of their cocoons and protect their rights in the wake of what he termed increased State-sponsored human rights violations in the country.
In a virtual address to his supporters last night where he accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of presiding over gross human rights abuses, Chamisa also pleaded with the international community to stand with the people of Zimbabwe “in their hour of need” as they were now under siege from the Zanu PF regime.

He started his address by quoting from Nobel Peace Prize winner and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who once said: “If you are neutral in the time of injustices, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Said Chamisa: “I come to you in circumstances of unprecedented national crisis.

Zimbabwe has been turned into a banana republic, a pariah State and the epicentre of evil and outpost of terrorism against innocent civilians.

“It has become so apparent that if we are all going to wait for others to do it, it will never be done.”

He said Mnangagwa must stop
labelling citizens as terrorists and bad apples to justify the clampdown by State security agents.

Several people have been arrested while others are in hiding following a government crackdown that began in the run-up to the foiled July 31 protests.

“This business of branding, labelling and condemning citizens as bad apples and terrorists to be flushed out is unacceptable.

It is the leader who sets the pace for unity, peace and harmony, heal not kill, treat and not injure, love and not hate, encourage and not victimise,” Chamisa said.

He said Mnangagwa must not be vindictive, but apologise when he makes mistakes, insisting that there was need for Zimbabweans to have their voices heard and that protesting was their right.

“A leader apologises when they make mistakes, forgives and not revenge, love and not hate. Only bad leaders point fingers, blames anyone but themselves, seeks to explain problems not to solve them. Bad leaders opt to bury their heads in the sand,” Chamisa said.

He said he was heartened that the church had spoken out as the “moral campus” of the country adding it was now time for Zimbabweans to act and speak against the social ills choking their lives.

The opposition leader bemoaned the abuse of State institutions by government to silence opposing voices.

“Only when Zimbabwe goes through leadership renewal shall we witness a completely new crop of leaders who are accountable.

I call upon you not to allow fear mongers, terrorists, to stop you from opening up and demanding accountability. Enough is enough, Zimbabwean lives matter and we can’t breathe,” he said.

“Protest is a God-given right, a fundamental right. Stand up, speak out and fight for your rights.

Your voices matter. Let’s not allow threats to force us into silence.”
“Everyone can’t be wrong except the government, it can’t be possible.

It is government against the world. Journalists are wrong, lawyers are wrong, doctors are wrong, nurses are wrong, opposition is wrong, churches are wrong, bishops are wrong, prophets are wrong, (South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius) Malema is wrong, AU is wrong, UN is wrong, (Mmusi) Maimane is wrong, (Ugandan opposition leader) Bobi Wine is wrong, Europe is wrong, the region is wrong and only government is correct. It can’t be so,” Chamisa said adding it was now clear that government had become incapacitated to deal with the national crisis.-NewsDay

THE newly-elected Zanu PF Bulawayo Provincial executive committee has been tasked with mobilising party membership to ensure the party wins the 2023 harmonised elections by a 5 million vote margin.

Zanu PF National Political Commissar, Victor Matemadanda, this Sunday, presided over an electoral process to choose 15 members of the 25-member executive committee for Bulawayo Province.

The remaining 10 seats in the committee are set to be filled in due course.

After the election, the National Political Commissar spelt out the huge task for the committee in mobilising support and instilling discipline among party members ahead of the 2023 elections.

“As the party, we have a 5 million target which we have set for ourselves. Remember the president has put a vision but before we get to that vision we have said 2018 elections have created problems for us,” he says.

“The president was in the same bracket with the opposition (2 million bracket). What we plan to do is to have a 5 million vote in the 2023 election so that the margin is big for all to see,” he adds.

Zanu PF National Women’s League Deputy Secretary, Cde Angeline Masuku urged the newly elected Bulawayo executive committee to work in line with party values.
“We should work to bring back the values of the party.

It should not be about positions but commitment to serve the party and stand for the entire party ethos,” she said.

The newly elected Zanu PF Chairperson of Bulawayo province, Cde Obert Msindo pledged to serve the party well.

Bulawayo province has been without an executive following the dissolution of structures in 2019 and had been operating under the chairmanship of Politburo member, Cde Absalom Sikhosana who died in May this year.-ZBC News

POLICE in Dema, Mashonaland East Province, have arrested a 23-year-old man who allegedly killed his lover after being intimate with her in a car, before dumping the body in a bush.

Shepherd Ndemera of Madoro Village under Chief Seke is assisting police with investigations after he allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Nokuthula Shana, of Chitungwiza.

Provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Tendai Mwanza, confirmed the incident.

“I confirm a murder case that occurred in Dema where a female corpse was discovered in a bush,” he said.
“The suspect has since been arrested and is helping the police with investigations.

We urge the public to exercise restraint during misunderstandings to avoid such tragic incidents.”

On August 16 around 7pm, the suspect reportedly asked his girlfriend to spend a night with him in a car that he was guarding along the Chirasavana-Gombe Road.
The car had developed a mechanical fault.

It is understood the girlfriend proceeded to the place, but they had a misunderstanding over infidelity, which degenerated into a fight.

On realising his girlfriend had died, the suspect allegedly carried the body and dumped it in a bush about 200 metres from the broken down vehicle.

The body was discovered by a villager the following morning, who alerted Dema police, who observed that the half-naked corpse had bites all over the face and a deep cut on the head.

Police also found blood stains inside the vehicle, leading to the arrest of the suspect.-The Herald

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance leader, Advocate Nelson Chamisa has accused Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa of “killing the people of Zimbabwe softly.”

Advocate Chamisa has also strongly condemned the violation of the rule of law by Mr Mnangagwa.

Watch video below :

Police Bash, Arrest MDC Alliance Supporters For Demanding Sikhala's Release

3 MDC Alliance supporters have been arrested outside Harare Magistrates Court for demanding Job Sikhala's release pic.twitter.com/S4Z5ky2DJb

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance leader, Advocate Nelson Chamisa has accused Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa of “killing the people of Zimbabwe softly.”

Advocate Chamisa has also strongly condemned the violation of the rule of law by Mr Mnangagwa.

Watch video below :

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti has described the detention of prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono as unconstitutional.

“The court has just dismissed Hope’s application for bail on changed circumstances.

One is is innocent until proven guilty.

We consider bail a constitutional right.A sad for the law. In any event Hope did not commit any crime .

Constitution must be restored #ZimbabweanLivesMatter,” Biti wrote on Twitter.

Farai Dziva| Controversial Masvingo based preacher, Isaac Makomichi’ s anointed love potion herb has been a subject of discussion in Masvingo in the past few months.

Church leaders and pastors argue Makomichi is a sangoma because he uses herbs to resolve love matters.

“Anyone can help you to solve problems, even Satan has the power to fix love matters because he is the one who destroys them.

Makomichi must speak the truth, is he a sangoma or a prophet?” said one church leader.

In his response Makomichi said:
“The said pastors want to soil my name .

I’m not a sangoma, God revealed the love herb to me”.

By Patrick Guramatunhu- ”Sadly, I too tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. This virus is real and we need to fight it by following the guidelines that our Government has given us which is in line with the WHO regulations,” said Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Deputy Minister Vangelis Peter Haritatos.

Deputy Minister Haritatos, you were tested for covid-19 as soon as you suspected of catching the virus; possibly as soon as you learned your boss, the late Minister Perrance Shiri had the virus.

Do you know that there are hundreds of thousands of frontline workers, like nurses and doctors, who work with covid-19 patients without the recommended WHO PPE, not even the most basic face mask?

Deputy Minister, do you also know that WHO has recommended that frontline corona virus workers must be tested on regular bases? In Zimbabwe, many of the nurses and doctors let alone the ordinary people with the corona virus symptoms, are not being tested.

As soon as you learned you had the corona virus, you went into isolation to protect your family and friends. Has it ever occurred to you that all those poor Zimbabweans who have the virus but don’t know it because they are denied a US$6 test would too want to go into isolation to protect their family and friends?

Zimbabwe has carried out a total of 145 000 tests as of the end of July, that is 1 in 110 people tested. Compared to SA that has done 3 million tests which 1 in 20. This is contrary to the WHO clarion call to “Test! TEST!! TEST!!!”

There is a sinister reason why Zanu PF is not testing aggressively, at least not testing povo. The regime is hiding its blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic by sweeping the grime reality under the carpet.

Zimbabwe’s confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths is one of the lowest per capita in the world. Whilst other nations have earned the accolade by stamping out the virus Zimbabwe is cheating. Of course, if you do not test you will keep the confirmed cases and deaths very low.

The price of not testing is that many, many infected people who should be in isolation remain in the community spreading the virus far and wide. It is the povo, not the ruling elite, who are paying with their suffering and deaths for Zimbabwe’s rigged corona virus statistics!

Zanu PF is blatantly rigging the corona virus statistics, just as the regime has rigged the country’s elections, with the usual callous indifference to tragic suffering and deaths the spreading corona virus is causing to the ordinary people. Deputy Minister Haritatos, please, please spare us your insulting lies; the criminal negligence and dereliction of duty to save lives by this Zanu PF government is not what WHO ordered!

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance vice president, Hon Tendai Biti has described Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s reconcilatory gesture as mere pretence meant to hoodwink the nation and the international community.

Biti also blasted Mr Mnangagwa for feigning concern about Gukurahundi atrocities.

“On the day he locked up #Job he was in Bulawayo discussing Gukurahundi.

But how can those with blood on their hands masquerade as healers.

They have shown no remorse contrition ,apology nor acknowledgement.

This abuse must stop.The Wananchi are not fools #ZimbabweanLivesMatter,” Hon Biti wrote on Twitter.

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance vice president, Hon Tendai Biti has described Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa’s reconcilatory gesture as mere pretence meant to hoodwink the nation and the international community.

Biti also blasted Mr Mnangagwa for feigning concern about Gukurahundi atrocities.

“On the day he locked up #Job he was in Bulawayo discussing Gukurahundi.

But how can those with blood on their hands masquerade as healers.

They have shown no remorse contrition ,apology nor acknowledgement.

This abuse must stop.The Wananchi are not fools #ZimbabweanLivesMatter,” Hon Biti wrote on Twitter.

South African Broadcasting Cooperation has granted ZANU PF a platform to defend themselves against series of news reports that have been covered by the SABC news channel regarding abuse of human rights in Zimbabwe.

The program which will feature ZANU PF representatives will be aired on Wednesday at 9PM on the program African Perspective.

The platform was created after ZANU PF Director of Information Tafadzwa Mugwadi accused SABC news anchor Sophie Mokoena of being biased against Zimbabwe.

“Yesterday I had a 1 hour conversation with my sister & seasoned anchor @Sophie_Mokoena She is a wonderful lady in her trade. We talked over our disagreements On her part, she took me thru her long journey in her trade & gave me priceless advice which I found very inspiring.” Mugwadi posted on Twitter.

Mokoena acknowledged Mugwadi’s post by saying, “Thank you. Lets now move on. Let us all build a better Africa. Wednesday we will have a panel to revisit the Zim story. Giving all stakeholders right to reply. Watch @AfricanPerspec1 on #sabcnews channel 404 at 9 PM.”

Govt will only announce any school opening date once Cabinet has taken a position. What's on this news item is not correct;https://t.co/dMnjqdVPgv

— Nick Mangwana (@nickmangwana) August 24, 2020

Daily Maverick

President Cyril Ramaphosa, has “strongly reprimanded” Finance Minister Tito Mboweni for his weekend tweets, which sharply criticised Zambian President Edgar Lungu for abruptly firing the governor of the Zambian central bank, Denny Kalyalya.

Mboweni, former governor of the SA Reserve Bank, tweeted at the weekend that: “Presidents in Africa must stop this nonsense of waking up in the morning and fire a Central Bank Governor! You cannot do that. This is not some fiefdoms of yours! Your personal property?! No!!

“The President of Zambia must give us the reasons why he dismissed The Governor or else hell is on his way. I will mobilize!”

In response, the Zambian government’s chief spokesperson, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Dora Siliya called Mboweni’s comments “immature and improper”, and said her government would take up the issue diplomatically.

Mboweni had responded defiantly by tweeting: “I stand by my statement. Central Bank independence is key. Not negotiable. Let all central bankers speak out!”

Later, he tweeted: “ You know. Trouble makers are game changers! I am glad that I am a TROUBLE MAKER!”

But Zambia evidently did deliver an official complaint and Ramaphosa was clearly not amused. First thing on Monday morning, Ramaphosa’s office issued a statement saying that the president had strongly reprimanded Mboweni.

“In one of his tweets, Minister Mboweni is promising to mobilise if not given reasons why the Central Governor has been fired by President Lungu,” Ramaphosa’s acting spokesperson Tyrone Seale said in the statement on Monday, 24 August.

“President Ramaphosa wishes to assure the government and people of the Republic of Zambia that the unfortunate remarks do not reflect the views of the South African Government and its people.

“The issue is being addressed to ensure that such an incident does not occur again. South Africa and Zambia enjoy strong historical relations dating back to the days of the struggle against apartheid. South Africa remains committed to maintaining the deep and solid bonds of friendship between the peoples of South Africa and Zambia.”

Mboweni retweeted Ramaphosa’s statement after deleting his earlier tweets criticising Lungu.

Zambians believe Lungu fired Kalyalya because Kalyalya was trying to rein in inflation and was also frank about the weakness of the economy.

He replaced him with Christopher Mvunga, a deputy secretary to the Cabinet who is likely to be far less independent, a Zambian journalist told Daily Maverick. This change was “like replacing an experienced heart surgeon with a mechanic, in the middle of heart surgery,” Zambia’s main opposition leader, Hakainda Hichilema, who leads the United Party for National Development (UPND), said on Facebook.

Sunday Chanda, media director of the ruling Patriotic Front party suggested Kalyalya had been fired because he deliberately tried to sabotage the economy by creating a liquidity problem to advantage Hichilema – his cousin.

Lungu is up for reelection in 2021 and clearly, the weak economy is counting against him. DM

Paul Nyathi

Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa and her husband Christopher Mutsvangwa might not be coming out of the same house after all, as the two ZANU PF heavy weights have expressed two completely varied opinions over opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s “Kudira Jecha” statement.

Mutsvangwa recently told journalists during a cabinet media briefing that problems being experienced by the country emanated from post-2018 election vows by the opposition leader Nelson Chamisa that President Emmerson Mnangagwa would not find sleep in his rule.

“We all know that after the 2018 elections, the opposition MDC Alliance spoke about pouring sand (hamutongi tichadira jecha) on Mnangagwa’s reign and this is a public message.

“They have not stopped.”

“Some countries have imposed illegal sanctions on Zimbabwe. These have caused divisions among families. They have stage-managed abduction stories. There is an enemy in Zimbabwe,” she said.

Her husband, Christopher Mutsvangwa, in a Sunday Mail column however differed with her claiming that Chamisa has completely failed to effect his threat claiming that Mnangagwa has conquered and bringing the country to prosperity.

Mutsvangwa wrote:

“Nelson Chamisa and his MDC-Alliance lost the election in the July 2018 elections of the post-Mugabe era.

“Reacting to this loss, he cockily pronounced that it was of no consequence.”

“His agenda henceforth would be to ensure that the country is ungovernable through extra-parliamentary and extra-constitutional disruption.”

“Mutakura wacho tichaudira jecha tigoona kuti achaudya ndiani?”

Here was a self-proclaimed man of God embracing the mutually assured destructive path of biblical strongman Samson of the Temple.

There was an assured confidence of a defiant loser.

On what nuclear option weapon was he standing upon?

For the answer, dial Biti, his vice president of revolving MDC doors and a darling of the intrusive Washington neo-liberal practitioners of regime change in Zimbabwe.

Boasting of his legalistic command of complex financial matters, he gloated, “Mnangagwa can rig elections, but he cannot rig the economy!”

Why such political prancing by the two ambitious MDC stalwarts?”

Mutsvangwa goes on to mock Chamisa:

“President Mnangagwa’s mantra “Zimbabwe Is Open for Business” has acquired a potent and cogent expression.

“Welcome to on-ramp onto the highway to the middle-income status Zimbabwe by 2030.

“Sorry Chamisa, the dira jecharist. Zvakona! Mutakura wotonakisa.

“Pity to Biti. EDM has gone so far as to rig the economy.”

“As for detractors and doomsayers, ZDERA sanctions now face a potent weapon in a normalised economic and financial landscape.”

An MDC Alliance official, Prince Dubeko Sibanda who was arrested and dragged to court after he allegedly distributed face masks branded #ZANUPFMUSTGO in Bulawayo has been freed on bail.

Revolutionary gratitude to all of you who were in solidarity with me in what I went through. As I got bail my cry is #FreeHopewell #FreeJacobNgarivhume #FreeJobSikhala . The message I bring is that prison officers, police officers, prosecutors & all want masks #ZanupfMustGo

— Prince Dubeko Sibanda (@DubekoSibanda) August 24, 2020

The state says they two masks which had been distributed to two Pick n’ Pay, Hyper Supermarket workers on 2 August were recovered and can be presented as proof.

Prince Sibanda Dubeko is an MDC Alliance legislator for Binga North Post.

He joins scores of government critics who have been arrested so far since the detained opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume convened the foiled anti-government protests he had slated for the 31st of July.

Zbc

THE newly-elected Zanu PF Bulawayo Provincial executive committee has been given a daunting task with mobilising party membership to ensure the party wins the 2023 harmonised elections by a 5 million vote margin.

Zanu PF National Political Commissar, Victor Matemadanda, this Sunday, presided over an electoral process to choose 15 members of the 25-member executive committee for Bulawayo Province.

The remaining 10 seats in the committee are set to be filled in due course.

After the election, Matemadanda spelt out the huge task for the committee in mobilising support and instilling discipline among party members ahead of the 2023 elections.

“As the party, we have a 5 million target which we have set for ourselves. Remember the president has put a vision but before we get to that vision we have said 2018 elections have created problems for us,” he says.

“The president was in the same bracket with the opposition (2 million bracket). What we plan to do is to have a 5 million vote in the 2023 election so that the margin is big for all to see,” he adds.

Zanu PF National Women’s League Deputy Secretary, Angeline Masuku urged the newly elected Bulawayo executive committee to work in line with party values.

“We should work to bring back the values of the party. It should not be about positions but commitment to serve the party and stand for the entire party ethos,” she said.

The newly elected Zanu PF Chairperson of Bulawayo province, Obert Msindo pledged to serve the party well.

Zanu PF Bulawayo province has been without an executive following the dissolution of structures in 2019 and had been operating under the chairmanship of Politburo member, Absalom Sikhosana who died in May this year.

State Media

Chitungwiza Municipal Council demoted its acting town clerk Dr Tonderai Kasu last week after he unnecessarily declined to authorise free data lines and bundles for councillors.

He was also accused of issuing a public statement without council authority listing alledged irregularities in the construction of a building on the stand allocated to MDC-A deputy national chairman Job Sikhala in Zengeza 2

He was repleced by finance director Mrs Evangelista Machona.

The demotion was made during a special council meeting held last Thursday.

Well-placed sources said Dr Kasu was demoted on allegations that he had opposed a demand by councillors to have data lines and monthly bundles.

“Dr Kasu was pressured to sign a memo seeking authorisation of councillors to be given data lines and five gigabyte data bundles on a monthly basis, which are not included on the ministerial directive on the prescribed benefits for councillors,” said a source.

Another source said councillors were unhappy with the way he handled Sikhala’s stand issue after issuing public statements raising concern over developments at the politician’s stand in Zengeza 2.

Dr Kasu refused to comment on the issue, referring all the questions to the mayor.

But Chitungwiza mayor Lovemore Maiko said the decision was taken to allow Dr Kasu to focus on his health portfolio following concerns over the rise in Covid-19 cases in the town.

“There is a resolution that directors must rotate as acting town clerk. However, in this case we were motivated to reassign him to his portfolio due to the increased cases of Covid-19 in Chitungwiza,” he said.

“There was a gap which Dr Kasu needed to fill as a medical doctor and make sure we contain the pandemic just like in Harare where the health director, Dr Prosper Chonzi, is hands on.”

Clr Maiko dismissed allegations that Dr Kasu was being victimised for writing orders against Sikhala’s stand in Zengeza 2 as that decision was done collectively.

In terms of data bundles, he said they wrote a letter to the parent ministry, Local Government and Public Works, and were given the greenlight since they intended to conduct virtual meetings considering that their chambers have limited space, which does not allow them to practice social distancing.

https://twitter.com/BitiTendai/status/1297910800431054849?s=20

Happening Now: @PoliceZimbabwe assaulting supporters of Zengeza West MP Hon. Job Job Sikhala outside Harare Magistrates Court. Video Credit Kumbirai Mafunda. pic.twitter.com/1g5Wu5Qvga

— ZLHR (@ZLHRLawyers) August 24, 2020

The Standard

Striking health workers have rejected Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s pleas for them to return to work, saying the government must first address their grievances.

Chiwenga, who was appointed Health and Child Care minister by President Emmerson Mnangagwa early this month, last week appealed to doctors and nurses to return to work while their grievances were being addressed.

The majority of health workers, including nurses, went on strike two months ago demanding salaries in United States dollars and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE).

They were joined by doctors weeks later, crippling services at public hospitals at a time the country is battling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shingayi Nyaguse from the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors’ Association said although their members were concerned about the plight of their patients, they would not return to work until their grievances were met.

“We are glad he (Chiwenga) is concerned about the lives of patients as we are,” Nyaguse said.

“Unfortunately, none of the factors that made people unable to come to work have been addressed.

“We would love to meet him or his representatives and discuss how to resolve the immediate issues and also to discuss how the underlying problems in the sector can be addressed in the medium to long-term.”

Enoch Dongo, the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) president, said nurses would only return to work after government addressed their grievances.

“Nothing has changed in as far as our grievances are concerned,” Dongo said.

He said besides poor remuneration, nurses wanted the government to improve their working conditions and provide them with PPE.

“We still do not have adequate personal protective equipment, so we will not be pushed to go back without the proper tools to carry out our work,” Dongo said.

Most public hospitals do not have drugs and basic equipment to treat patients.

Health workers have also been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with over 400 of them testing positive for the disease.

Meanwhile, Dongo said nurses were also frustrated that Chiwenga had not made an effort to engage them since he was appointed Health and Child Care minister.

“We just heard that the Health minister has called on us to go back to work, but he is yet to engage us,” he said. “We also need to be heard and share our side of the story.”

Nurses downed tools on June 8 citing incapacitation because of poor salaries and lack of PPE.

Senior doctors joined the strike, saying they too were unhappy with their conditions, which have been worsened by the absence of nurses in hospitals.

Itai Rusike, the director of the Community Working Group on Health, urged the authorities to urgently address the health workers’ grievances.

“We call for a speedy, fair and impartial procedure in resolving the labour dispute to avoid further loss of life,” Rusike said.

Strikes by doctors and nurses have become commonplace in Zimbabwe due to poor salaries and lack of equipment and drugs at hospitals.

Police officers at the Harare Magistrates Court had a torrid day trying to disperse a number of MDC Alliance supporters who had turned up at the courts in support of their leader Job Sikhala.

Sikhala was arrested from a house in Harare where he was supposedly in hiding from the police. He is charged with inciting violence.

Watch video downloading below.

Watch- "Unogona kundirova asi mangwana uchaita rombe" Police officer told at Rotten Row Magistrates court pic.twitter.com/iLncqZjIsH

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

By A Correspondent- Masvingo Provincial Covid-19 Taskforce announced on Monday that five government workers at Masvingo provincial offices have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The development was announced by the Taskforce’s spokesperson, Rodgers Irimayi who said out of a total of 139 workers that were tested for Covid-19 last week from the government offices in the city, five had tested positive.

Masvingo recorded two Covid-19 deaths last week, and the province, overall, has 19 other active cases.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe as a whole, as of Sunday 23 August 2020, had recorded a total of 5930 known coronavirus cases including 155 deaths.

Of late, local transmissions have been more than imported cases. Health authorities have as a result urged the citizenry to observe recommendations to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

statemedia

My Fellow Zimbabweans
This Honda Fit AFB – 8275 .This car tried to push us out of the road and when we stopped to talk to the driver he runaway and the car has been following me since yesterday .. #ZimbabweanLivesMatter @zimlive @ZimEye @PacheduZW @DougColtart pic.twitter.com/N0r8dgX14f

— Dr Nyasha William Gwazemba PhD (@DrNyashaForMP) August 24, 2020

State Media

Zanu PF Harare province has demanded that Harare City Council rescind the sale of land to some party officials, which the party was occupying on lease from the city, saying the transaction was fraudulently done.

The ruling party’s provincial executive led by acting chairperson, Oliver Chidawu, has since appointed the party’s District Coordinating Committee chairperson, Godwils Masimirembwa, to represent it in criminal investigations to establish the circumstances of the sale.

The Chidawu-led executive said only the party’s national leadership had the authority to handle the matter and not provincial executive members as what happened in the present case.

However, the party officials accused of buying Stand Number 55 Pomona Estate, Number 8 Campel Road measuring 8 000 square metres in Borrowdale, insisted the purchase was above board.

It is alleged that the party officials, using their private company, purchased the property through misrepresentation to council.

The stand has been used as district party offices by Zanu PF Borrowdale District since 1990.

One of the officials, Lameck Tarupuwa, said they bought the property after Zanu PF Harare province, through a letter by provincial secretary for administration, George Mashavave, notified council that it had no objection to the sale.

A paper trail in possession of The Herald show that normal procedures were followed in the acquisition of the land by Tarupuwa’s company, with letters from the city council and the party authorising the sale.

According to the papers, the stand was eventually bought by Pebney (Pvt) Ltd from the City of Harare on the strength of the letter from Mashavave.

The matter was eventually brought to the city’s Education, Health, Housing and Community Services and Licensing Committee, which approved the sale after the company offered to pay US$650 000 against a valuation of US$130 000.

In an interview yesterday,Mashavave said he wrote the letter after the then Zanu PF provincial management committee directed him to do so on the understanding that the party would be given alternative land.

Harare city council director for housing and community services, Mr Addmore Nhekairo, said they allowed Pebney to buy the stand after its application was accompanied by a cover letter from Zanu PF Harare province, indicating the party had no objection to the sale.

“We had no reason to doubt that party officials whom we were dealing with had no legitimate authority from the party,” he said.

“It was only brought to our attention when we attended meetings with Cde Chidau where we were told that we had to set aside the sale. Our hope is that they will find each other among themselves.”

In a new twist of events, Chidau’s executive has since reported the matter to police and appointed Cde Masimirembwa as the party’s contact person.

“This letter serves to authorise Godwills Masimirembwa in his capacity as Chairman Zanu PF DCC4 to represent Zanu PF in criminal investigations under CCD DR 55/7 and CCD CR 503/7/2020 pertaining to fraudulent purchase of stand number Lot 55 Pomona Estate (No 8 Campbel) by Pebney (Pvt) Ltd represented by Lameck Tarupuwa and the fraudulent transaction involving US$26 000 rentals due to Zanu PF rentals which was deposited into the account of one Fungai Chiboora,” read a letter from Chidau dated July 17, 2020.

In another letter to Mr Nhekairo, Zanu PF DCC4 secretary for administration Blessing Chimangah said Harare provincial members had no authority to consent to the sale of the land to a third party.

Chimangah said Harare City Council should have first offered to Zanu PF the right of first refusal before selling the land to a third party as per their agreement.

He said the purported consent to the disposal of land by Zanu PF was fraudulently given.

“Issues of land acquisition and disposal are decided upon by national leadership of the party, not by provincial leadership,” said Chimangah.

“Thus the letter written by Cde Mashavave or any provincial leader consenting to the disposal should be disregarded,” read the letter.

Further, it is argued that Tarupuwa was a member of Zanu PF Harare Province when his company, Pebney (Pvt) Ltd, purchased the property from the City of Harare.

VIDEO LOADING BELOW….

Luck and certainly justice just don’t appear to be on the side of detained journalist Hopewell Chin’ono as he was denied bail by the Harare magistrates court yet again on Monday.

Chinono is facing charges of allegedly inciting the public to take part in a protest march last month.

He is seen as one of the key figures in the planned July 31 protests, which the government had outlawed citing security and Covid-19 health grounds.

He is accused of widely using social media to rally people to take part in the planned protests inspite of the ban of the marches.

Chin’ono, who was arrested together with other political activists on the same charges, has unsuccessfully tried to secure bail at the High Court and Harare Magistrates Court several times.

In the latest case, he sought bail on grounds of changed circumstances, arguing that since the date of the planned protests had passed, there was no need to keep him in remand prison.

The protests were generally snubbed by the public, a factor Chin’ono’s lawyers argued also made him a good candidate for bail.

But magistrate Ngoni Nduna dismissed the application, ruling that there were no changed circumstances that warranted granting of bail.

“Freelance journalist Hopewell Chin’ono denied bail again. Magistrate Nduna says there are no new facts warranting his admission to bail,” Chin’ono’s lawyers, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said.

In the latest bid for partial freedom, the political activist had also claimed dangers of possible Covid-19 infection in prison.

Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was on 24 August 2020 denied bail yet again following his fresh bail application on the basis of changed circumstances.

However, in his ruling, Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna highlighted that alleged exposure to Covid-19 in the prison facility and the passage of 31 July 2020 (a day that had been planned for demonstrations), does not constitute changed circumstances that warrant the granting of bail.

The fresh bail proceedings had been held in camera following an application by the State represented by prosecutors Whisper Mabhaudhi and Tendai Shonhayi.

Read: Bail ruling for journalist Chin’ono reserved to Monday

Read: Lawyer Mtetwa barred from representing journalist Chin’ono

Read: Fresh bail application for journalist Chin’ono to be held in-camera

Chin’ono was arrested on allegations of incitement to participate in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of peace or bigotry or alternatively incitement to commit public violence, allegedly linked to the planned demonstrations.

In custody since 20 July 2020, Chin’ono is set to appear in court on 1 September 2020 for the continuation of the remand proceedings.

He is now represented by Advocate Taona Nyamakura after his former lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa was barred from representing him on allegations of being disrespectful to the court and making derogatory comments towards the court through a Facebook page titled: Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law.

By A Correspondent- A Mount Darwin pedophile was sentenced to 16 years in jail by Bindura regional magistrate Amos Mubhobho who for raping a 12 year old girl twice in the field.

Andrew Kambosha (37)  of Nyamupfukudza village was convicted after full trial.

Prosecutor Samson Chamunorwa told the court that sometime in February Kambosha followed the minor in the fields and pinned her down before raping her.

A week later he used the same modus operandi and threatened to kill her if she revealed it to anyone.

The matter came to light when the victim asked the name of the rapist after he was involved in bestiality and told her aunty that he had raped her months ago.

She was taken to hospital where it was revealed that she was penetrated leading to his arrest.

Police arrest MDC Alliance members at magistrates court pic.twitter.com/zoBC83m48u

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

Happening Now: @PoliceZimbabwe assaulting supporters of Zengeza West MP Hon. Job Job Sikhala outside Harare Magistrates Court. Video Credit Kumbirai Mafunda. pic.twitter.com/1g5Wu5Qvga

— ZLHR (@ZLHRLawyers) August 24, 2020

By A Correspondent- At least 364 people have succumbed to Malaria this year while 361 000 people were infected by the disease according to the World Health Organisation.

Most of the affected people are in Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland.

This comes as Zimbabwe observed World Mosquito Day, which falls on August 20 every year in commemoration of British doctor Ronald Ross’ discovery in 1897 that female mosquitoes transmit malaria among humans.

-DailyNews

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance leader, Advocate Nelson Chamisa has accused Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa of “killing the people of Zimbabwe softly.”

Advocate Chamisa has also strongly condemned the violation of the rule of law by Mr Mnangagwa.

Watch video below:

POLICE in Dema, Mashonaland East Province, have arrested a 23-year-old man who allegedly killed his lover after being intimate with her in a car, before dumping the body in a bush.

Shepherd Ndemera of Madoro Village under Chief Seke is assisting police with investigations after he allegedly murdered his girlfriend, Nokuthula Shana, of Chitungwiza.

Provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Tendai Mwanza, confirmed the incident.

“I confirm a murder case that occurred in Dema where a female corpse was discovered in a bush,” he said.
“The suspect has since been arrested and is helping the police with investigations.

We urge the public to exercise restraint during misunderstandings to avoid such tragic incidents.”

On August 16 around 7pm, the suspect reportedly asked his girlfriend to spend a night with him in a car that he was guarding along the Chirasavana-Gombe Road.
The car had developed a mechanical fault.

It is understood the girlfriend proceeded to the place, but they had a misunderstanding over infidelity, which degenerated into a fight.

On realising his girlfriend had died, the suspect allegedly carried the body and dumped it in a bush about 200 metres from the broken down vehicle.

The body was discovered by a villager the following morning, who alerted Dema police, who observed that the half-naked corpse had bites all over the face and a deep cut on the head.

Police also found blood stains inside the vehicle, leading to the arrest of the suspect.-The Herald

We publish below the live updates at MDC Alliance leader Job Sikhala’s court hearing which is currently happening at Rotten Row Magistrates court

State says there should be an investigation into complaints put before the court by the defence counsel. Says Sikhala can only be removed from Chikurubi upon production of an investigation report https://t.co/Yb78xJnELM

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

Lawyer says Sikhala noblonger feels safe at Chikurubi

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

14:35- The State says there should be an investigation into complaints put before the court by the defence counsel.

14:32- Mutimbanyoka told Sikhala that verbatim) “you will die” and asked for his next of kin’s number.

14:30- Harrison Nkomo who is representing Sikhala tells the court that jis client was mixed with inmates who had tested positive to coronavirus.

14:28-  Mutimbanyoka instructed a junior prison officer to handcuff Sikhala for the whole day on 23 August 2020, the court hears.

14:25-  Sikhala’s lawyers complain to Magistrate that his client was threatened with death by a prison officer named Mutimbanyoka at Chikurubi maximum prison.

By A Correspondent- Doctors at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals have with immediate effect withdrawn their services after some of their colleagues tested positive for COVID-19.

In a letter to the Hospital Management, the doctors said their decision to withdraw their services was to protect their patientsand the spread of the virus.

We publish below the letter to management by the doctors:

“A considerable number of the SRMOS have tested positive for SARS-Covid-19 and a sizeable number SRMOS are displaying symptoms of Covid-19 and await to be tested. In the best interest of other health workers and patients, we have found it best that we self-isolate at home whilst Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital is disinfected.

Those who tested positive will be in quarantine as per national guidelines. Those who are symptomatic will self-isolate until they are cleared. Providing service whilst symptomatic and without proper PPE puts patients and other health workers at risk of contracting the highly contagious pathogen.

We kindly implore your office that you organise that all patients that will be admitted in hospital be tested for Covid-19. Those who test positive will have to be managed in the Red Zone.”

The court says #JobSikhala can only be removed from Chikurubi maximum prison upon the production of an investigation report detailing the aunthenticity of his complaints against state security agents. Can the STATE independently INVESTIGATE ITSELF? #ZimbabweansLivesMatter

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

We publish below the live updates at MDC Alliance leader Job Sikhala’s court hearing which is currently happening at Rotten Row Magistrates court

State says there should be an investigation into complaints put before the court by the defence counsel. Says Sikhala can only be removed from Chikurubi upon production of an investigation report https://t.co/Yb78xJnELM

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

Lawyer says Sikhala noblonger feels safe at Chikurubi

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 24, 2020

14:38- The State says Sikhala can only be removed from Chikurubi upon production of an investigation report.

14:35- The State says there should be an investigation into complaints put before the court by the defence counsel.

14:32- Mutimbanyoka told Sikhala that verbatim) “you will die” and asked for his next of kin’s number.

14:30- Harrison Nkomo who is representing Sikhala tells the court that jis client was mixed with inmates who had tested positive to coronavirus.

14:28-  Mutimbanyoka instructed a junior prison officer to handcuff Sikhala for the whole day on 23 August 2020, the court hears.

14:25-  Sikhala’s lawyers complain to Magistrate that his client was threatened with death by a prison officer named Mutimbanyoka at Chikurubi maximum prison.