By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Zesn) has urged political actors not to abandon the push for electoral reforms in the face of COVID-19 that has forced the country’s electoral body, Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), to suspend by-elections.

Zec has indefinitely suspended the holding of by-elections to prevent voters, polling officers and other electoral stakeholders from contracting COVID-19.

However, the independent electoral watchdog argued the global pandemic should not be used as an excuse to supplant the need to implement electoral reforms. Zesn said it would keep debate on the matter alive using various platforms.

“Zesn continues to keep the debate on electoral reforms alive, by among other things hosting webinars to review proposed amendments to the Comprehensive Electoral Bill drafted by the network,” the civic society organisation said in its weekly monitoring responses to COVID-19 bulletin.

“The network has this week held virtual meetings with its provincial representatives in the different provinces to share information, review the network’s programming, and opportunities to continue supporting various aspects of the electoral cycle during the COVID-19 era.”

According to Zesn, electoral reforms were necessary to strengthen the integrity of the country’s polls which are always marred by disputes, with the opposition citing rigging and manipulation.

Following the disputed 2018 general elections, there were several recommendations to Zec from local, regional and other international election watchdogs.

MDC Alliance has refused to recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory citing electoral malpractices.

However, Zec has denied charges of colluding with Zanu-PF to rig the elections.

Zesn has also called for the establishment of an electoral and political reforms taskforce bringing together political parties and other stakeholders to push for implementation of reforms to avert disputed polls in 2023.

-Newsday

“It is persecution of opponents of this evil regime. These are things that we have raised to the world that the democratic space of our country has been closed,” said the MDC Alliance Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala.

Watch the live video loading below…..

By A Correspondent- Zanu PF members and activists are coming out in the open voicing their displeasure at the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The unfolding leadership drama bedeviling the ruling party has seen some members openly demanding an extraordinary Congress to recall Mnangagwa and rectify the leadership crisis.

Popular ZANU PF social media activist (Murakashi) Munyaradzi Rex Midzi posted on his twitter handle saying: 

“I’m very clear now, ZANU PF is my party. I don’t agree with my first secretary ED Mnangagwa and his current approach. ZANU PF must reform.”

ZANU PF District Chairman Goodman Musariri, who stood against Advocate Fortune Chasi in the ZANU PF primary elections, said:

“I totally agree and an Extraordinary Congress is long overdue! The most critical part was my court challenge to seek a DECLARATORY ORDER that: No Competent Central Committee Session was held on 19 November 2017. It is that Central Committee Caucus that unlawfully REINSTATED the expelled V.P E.D Mnangagwa.”

Musariri added that 45 out of 49 politburo members are General Chiwenga’s favorites and patrons.

He singled out Obert Mpofu the Secretary for Administration and said for now the secretary for Administration who is meant to handle the process of calling for an extraordinary Congress supports Mnangagwa.

“Dr Obert Moses Mpofu is needed in the 3rd Republic.” he said

A Zanu PF Central Committee member who spoke to a local publication on condition of anonymity said Zimbabweans cannot rely on Members of Parliament to remove Mnangagwa but should put their trust on the extraordinary Congress of ZANU PF to deal with the current President.

“This, unfortunately, seems like the only viable way, we cannot depend on social media to topple a constitutionally elected government. Neither can we rely on Nero and his team of activists. We also cannot rely on sitting MPs to support impeachment. So Congress is the way to go. We legitimized an illegal appointment of a non-card carrying member to run for the presidency.”

A section of ZANU PF members has anonymously written to Former Liberation Movements in Southern Africa seeking their help in facilitating a ZANU PF extraordinary congress.

Renowned Pan Africanist Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba agreed with the ZANU PF supporters saying, “Mnangagwa has gone rogue”.

The issue of an extraordinary Congress is likely to be raised during a  special virtual meeting set to be held between ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule and ZANU PF secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu.

By A Correspondent- Beatrice Mtetwa, the lawyer of detained prominent Zimbabwean journalist and filmmaker, Hopewell Chin’ono has told members of the media that her client was stopped from wearing his goggles amid concerns they could be for surveillance purposes.

Chin’ono was using the goggles as personal protective equipment to prevent contracting the coronavirus.

The award-winning journalist was arrested on the 20th of July for inciting violence after he had persuaded the citizenry to participate in anti-corruption protests that were pencilled for the 31st.

Zimbabwean prisons are reportedly in bad shape and are also overcrowded making them very risky especially when the country is grappling with a pandemic.

The deadly virus has already breached the prison walls with both prisoners and prison officers to have contracted coronavirus.

Said the woman in a leaked audio…..

“The circumstances surrounding the death of my uncle are questionable…. but he was one of those guys sent to be at the forefront of the late Robert Mugabe’s coup. He reportedly is on record saying he knew that if the late Perrance Shiri had died, he was next, he would not live.

“A day after Shiri died, he confessed that he had been threatened at work. So when he said he was feeling cold, unfortunately his wife is late, he called the army doctor, he was advised that the doctor would tell him what to do. It is suspected that he was poisoned because he was reportedly coughing blood. Even his children were not allowed to get inside the hospital to see him let alone talk to him only to get a call that he was no more.

“We were told that he died of COVID-19 but no results were availed. They just rushed to bury him. It was like a movie. We dont even know if we buried him or we buried a chicken. An aunt pleaded with them to give her the PPEs so that at least someone from the family views the body, they refused, they were adamant. Not even body viewing.

“It is not only him who died such a mysterious death, there was also another colonel who died but his death was not announced. Something is going on, anything can happen anytime in this country.”

Watch the live video loading below….

Noxolo Maphosa, niece to Josphat Mzaca Ngulube, Bulawayo political activist who went missing on Friday morning was later dumped at her family home tortured and sexually assaulted.

See the video downloading below and pictures.

By A Correspondent- An official in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development said that health authorities are now adding the final improvements to ventilators produced by the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) so that they are ready for use.

Speaking during an interview with the state media on Friday, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Professor Fanuel Tagwira said the ventilators have already been tested on animals.

He said:

The university made a prototype and tested it, they even tested the ventilators on animals.

Now HIT are working with the Ministry of Health and Child Care putting finishing touches to ensure the ventilators are safe for the intended purpose.

Some of the components are expensive because they are imported and they may affect the scale of production we are anticipating.

Some of these components include circuit boards, which we have the capacity to make, but we do not have the requisite machinery yet, we will work to ensure that the machinery is bought to allow for cheaper production in the long run.

In June this year, HIT Vice Chancellor Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe told Parliament that their ventilators had passed requisite tests and that they met international standards.

A ventilator is a machine that helps pump oxygen into a critically ill patient’s body through a tube that goes in the mouth and down the windpipe.

-StateMedia

By A Correspondent- A three-week-old baby was among the latest six people who have succumbed to COVID-19 according to the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC).

The six deaths were announced by MoHCC in its daily updates on Friday, 7 August 2020 and this brought the cumulative number of deaths to 102 since the disease was reported in Zimbabwe in March this year. The Ministry of Health said in the statement:

Today we regret to report five deaths which were recorded from 3-5 August 2020 in the community and admission to casualty departments at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and other hospitals after investigations and postmortems were done.

These include two males and two females from Harare province and a baby aged three weeks from Matabeleland North province and had respiratory symptoms compatible with COVID-19 and the PCR results were positive for COVID-19.

On Friday, a total of 1 575 Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) screening tests and 961 Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) diagnostic tests were done. The cumulative number of tests done date is 147 026 (77 923 RDT and 69 103 PCR).

To date, the total number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 in Zimbabwe since 20 March 2020 is 4 451, 1345 recovered, 3 004 active cases and 102 deaths.

“We don’t believe that there is an alternative political formation in Zimbabwe which can address this crisis.”

Former ZANU PF top officials, Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao have appealed to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) to intervene to end ZANU PF’s factional fights as they believe that there is no other political party in Zimbabwe which can address the current crisis, hence the need to save ZANU PF from itself.

The duo wrote to the ANC of South Africa expressing their hearts out for the party they left in a huff when former President Robert Mugabe was kicked out in a military coup. They said they don’t believe that the main opposition MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa can be a solution.

“We don’t believe that there is an alternative political formation in Zimbabwe which can address this crisis,” they said.

The letter reads as follows:

We are requesting the ANC to positively and substantively intervene to help save the tradition, ethos and values of the liberation movement in Zimbabwe. We believe that the ANC faces a very high risk of having a rogue neighbour north of the Limpopo.

ZANU PF is no longer the liberation movement that it used to be. It is our considered view that the ANC, both as a sister liberation movement and as Africa’s oldest and most democratic liberation movement is best placed to serve Zimbabwe by saving its liberation movement.

It is instructive to note that when the military staged the November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe it presented seven demands to President Mugabe.

Out of the seven, six represented the interest of a ZANU PF faction linked to and supported by the military; and the other demand was about the tenure interests of the military commanders.

In effect, the military coup was about using the gun to dictate and entrench the interests of a ZANU PF faction. This remains the case in Zimbabwe today and explains why ZANU PF remains profoundly divided and why Zimbabwe remains mired in a crippling political and economic crisis with far-reaching implications for the country and its neighbours.

We don’t believe that there is an alternative political formation in Zimbabwe which can address this crisis. We are convinced that it is critically important to confront the elephant in the room which in our view is a liberation movement in Zimbabwe which is physically and hegemonically disintegrating.

In our assessment, while this disintegration is palpable, we believe it can be rescued, reversed and restored. More particularly we think the ANC can play a pivotal role in the rescue, reversal and restoration.

If this is in order, we avail ourselves to a process of engagement and discussion to pinpoint the threats and opportunities that are present.

For ease of reference, we attach herewith, a copy of the seven demands that defined the objectives of the November 2017 military coup in Zimbabwe whose consequences have been devastating on the liberation movement in the country.

Sincerely

Comrade Jonathan Moyo Former ZANU PF Politburo Member and Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development

and

Comrade Patrick Zhuwao Former ZANU PF Politburo Member and Minister of Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare

Kenyan professor PLO Lumumba has joined the many voices running the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter campaign talking to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

In a video that has gone viral, Lumumba appealed to President Emmerson Mnangagwa to constitute a government of national unity to rescue the country.

“When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, Africa rejoiced because we had a chance to write the obituary of the regime of Ian Smith. I remember Julius Nyerere of Tanzania telling Robert Mugabe that he has inherited a gem and he should keep it as such lest Ian Smith looks back and laugh at us. Now the world hears such things as ZimbabweanLivesMatter it pains us. This is my appeal and i believe the appeal of many Africans to the administration of Emmerson Mnangagwa that the time has come to make true the promises of independence. Over 4 million Zimbabweans are living in the diaspora because the environment is hostile. This is the time to constitute a government of national unity. This is  the time to make Zimbabweans proud of their once happy nations. This is my appeal to you President Mnangagwa, ask yourself questions thy Africans are speaking to you via hashtags. The leadership of SADC move in and do what is right. The African Union should mediate the Zimbabwe situation. The AU and SADC should send people to fact find.”

Watch video downloading below.

Noxolo Maphosa, niece to Josphat Mzaca Ngulube, Bulawayo political activist who went missing on Friday morning was later dumped at her family home tortured and sexually assaulted.

See the video downloading below and pictures.

FOLLOWING another five deaths from Covid-19 reported yesterday, Zimbabwe’s death toll has passed the century mark to reach 102.

The two men and two women in Harare and a three-week-old baby in Matabeleland North all died between Monday and Wednesday in the casualty department of Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals or other hospitals, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said last night, in the daily report.

The Covid-19 infections were discovered during investigations and post-mortems. All five had respiratory symptoms compatible with Covid-19.

The Health Ministry records all deaths where Covid-19 infection is confirmed as a death due to the disease unless there is a clear alternative, such a car crash, diabetes, asthma, cancer or hypertension. If a person has been infected with Covid-19, counted as recovered and then dies, the cause of death will be attributed to whatever did kill the patient later.

Just 56 new infections were confirmed yesterday, two being returning residents from South Africa and the other 54 being infected within Zimbabwe, 21 of them in Manicaland and 20 in Harare.

The total number of confirmed Zimbabwe infections is now 4 451 with 3 353 infected within Zimbabwean communities. Of these local infections Harare accounts for 1 412 with 55 deaths, Bulawayo for 1 044 and 23 deaths, Midlands for 283 and five deaths and Manicaland for 152 and seven deaths.

The number of recoveries continues to rise and is now 1 345 although some provinces, including Harare, have yet to see all recoveries enter the official statistics.

South Africa, the fifth most severely hit country in the world by number of confirmed cases, has now recorded 9 604 deaths from 538 184 confirmed cases, but with 387 316 recoveries.

The global total is now 716 083 deaths from 19 160 806 confirmed cases with 11 605 114 recoveries. However, compilers of statistics stress that while the death toll is reasonably accurate, the number of cases and recoveries is almost certainly understated as not all infections were ever confirmed.

MDC Alliance Deputy President Tendai Biti has claimed that incacerated duo of Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume were moved from Harare Remand prison to Chikurubi Maximum Prison before they are even tried or convicted.

Posting on Twitter, Biti said;

The regime has moved Hope and Jacob to Chikurubi Maximum They have not been tried nor convicted .Chikurubi is a vicious colonial relic that should have been shut down in 1980.Emmerson is vindictive malicious &cruel .Once a genocidiare always a genocidiare #ZimbabaweanLivesMatter.

Police in Bindura have arrested Tendai Phiri (42) of Kazungula Village under Chief Chiweshe in Centenary for killing her husband Kingston Chitsinde (60) during a domestic dispute before trying to burn the body with the help of her lover, Givemore Chipata (50).

Chipata was Chitsinde’s friend.

Provincial police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Milton Mundembe said the incident occurred on August 3 at around 6pm.

“The couple had a heated argument after Phiri consulted a prophet over their daughter’s disability,” he said.

“They started fighting and she overpowered her husband, who fell to the ground unconscious.”

On realising that her husband had died, Phiri is said to have covered his body with a blanket before consulting Chipata for assistance.

He said they then connived to burn the body to cover up the offence.

“She kept the body in the house and the following day at around 7pm they took it to a banana field, covered it with logs and grass and set it ablaze before going back home,” he said.

Phiri then allegedly went to the village head to report that her husband was missing.

“A search party, comprising all villagers was organised. While people were searching for Chitsinde, Phiri went towards the banana field leading to the discovery of her husband’s half burnt body. The villagers accompanied Phiri to the police to report the matter.

“During interrogations Phiri confessed to killing her husband and implicated Chipata in the attempt to dispose of the body.”

Asst Insp Mundembe said it was worrisome that despite awareness campaigns, cases of domestic violence were on the increase.

“Violence does not solve anything but creates a lot of problems. We encourage couples to dialogue when they are faced with challenges.

“Make use of relatives or public relations officers at police stations for advice and guidance,” he said.

In an unrelated case, a three-week-old baby was found dumped in a pit toilet at Redlands Farm in Bindura.

Maidei Manyika (33) and Taizivei Kasinamunda (37) found the baby on July 4, this year at around 6pm.

They heard baby cries in the toilet and went to investigate only to find the baby almost covered by worms.

The toilet was almost full and the two women fished the baby out, bathed it and went to the police.

Asst Insp Mundembe said the baby was taken to Bindura Hospital and they are appealing to anyone with information on the identity of the baby’s mother to come forward.

Political activist Hopewell Chin’ono’s fresh bid for freedom on the basis of changed circumstances failed yesterday after a Harare magistrate turned his request down and ordered him to submit his bid next week.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna said he will hear Chin’ono’s fresh bail application on Wednesday next week.

The State, led by Mr Michael Reza, had indicated that it was ready to hear his application.

On Thursday, High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi threw out Chin’ono’s appeal for bail, saying the trial magistrate’s decision was properly made when he initially made the application.

Chin’ono is being charged with incitement to commit public violence after he allegedly called for the flopped July 31 protests through his Twitter handle.

In denying him bail, Mr Nduna noted that Chin’ono had shown some defiance in the face of the State, which was calling for banning of protests.

Justice Chitapi in his decision to deny Chin’ono bail said: “In disposing of the matter, I determine that the appellant (Chin’ono) has failed to demonstrate any misdirection of fact, law or both made by the learned magistrate in the court a quo (lower court) as would justify interference with his judgment.

“In consequence, therefore, the order I make is as follows . . .The appeal be and is hereby dismissed.”

Justice Chitapi said releasing Chin’ono might enable him to continue with his campaign as there was no condition discernible capable of restraining him if he was granted bail.

“The attitude of the appellant was, therefore, one of defiance of State authority on the basis of a claim of right,” he said.

“In such circumstances, the learned magistrate cannot be faulted in his reasoning.”

Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwisi died last week allegedly due to COVID-19 complications.

A member of the Mugwisi family, captured on an audio,  has however disputed that the long serving soldier died of Covid-19 but claims he was murdered together with his former boss, Perence Shiri.

Mugwisi reportedly died at an army hospital at the Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks, formerly KGV1 Barracks in Harare.

The family speaks in the video downloading below. Please be patient while the video downloads.

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State Media

The Senate still has time to vote on the Constitutional Amendment Bill (Number 1 of 2017), which would give the President power to appoint Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and High Court Judge President after receiving recommendations, after the Constitutional Court found a miscalculation on the needed Senate majority nullified the original vote.

In April this year, the Constitutional Court led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba ruled that passage of the Bill was not consistent with Section 328(5) of the Constitution that required that a Constitutional Bill be passed by two-thirds of the membership of each House present and voting in order to be considered as duly passed.

While the Constitutional Court found the National Assembly vote was valid, the majority in the Senate was inadequate once correct calculations had been performed.

In an interview, Clerk of Parliament Mr Kennedy Chokuda said Senate will soon consider the Bill and attend to issues raised by the Constitutional Court. He dismissed claims from some quarters that Senators were failing to meet because they were failing to constitute a quorum.

“We are well within the timelines. We were given 180 days and these will end sometime in September or October. Senate has not yet considered the Bill, but it was not due to lack of quorum. The quorum was there. What is required to carry through a Constitutional Amendment is a two thirds majority. There is no point in moving for its third reading when the House is not sure of getting the two thirds required. Moving for the Third Reading will only happen when Government is assured on its side of the two thirds majority,” said Mr Chokuda.

The Constitutional Court’s decision to nullify the process leading to the passage of the Bill followed an application filed by Mutare Central MP Mr Innocent Gonese (MDC Alliance) and former MDC-A legislator, Ms Jessie Majome .

The two had sought a ruling that both Houses had failed to abide by the dictates of section 328(5) of the Constitution, but the Constitutional Court found that the applicants had not proved on a balance of probabilities that the National Assembly had failed to discharge its onus.

It was subsequently ruled that the invalidity of the proceedings of the Senate did not affect the validity of the proceedings of the National Assembly.

Before the court ruling, the President had been empowered with the responsibility of appointing and promoting judges after a Constitutional clause that allows the selection of judges, including the Chief Justice, through the Judicial Service Commission’s (JSC) public interviews, was amended.

After the public interviews, the JSC would send a list of recommended interviewees to the President, who may assent to the names or ask the JSC to submit a fresh set of names.

In its ruling, the Constitutional Court noted that the then Senate President Cde Edna Madzongwe had calculated the two-thirds requirement from a total Senate membership of 79, rather than the true 80.

The court said the proceedings were conducted on the understanding that 53 votes in favour of the proposed amendment of the Constitution would be enough. Chief Justice Malaba said the Senate should be afforded an opportunity to conduct the vote with a full appreciation of what was required for a Constitutional Bill to be passed.

A virtual meeting between Zanu PF secretary for Administration Cde Obert Mpofu and his South African counterpart Ace Magashule saw the two parties pledging to work together.

Mpofu said the two parties were constantly in cordial contact at an inter-party level to confront the cross-sectional attempts to annihilate the standing successes towards entrenching democracy in the SADC region.

“Following regular fraternal engagements with my counterpart Cde Magashule, we have established that there are concerted efforts to attack the gains of the Second-Republic in Zimbabwe as well as the whole region and the continent at large.

“In my intense discussion with him this morning (yesterday), we shared a mutual position that liberation movements must be on the guard against efforts to divide the region,” said Mpofu.

“Our interactions as FLM are not only diplomatic, but they are premised on sound ideological brotherhood and a history of massive sacrifice. We are connected by our dedication to African Unity and not organised ploys by imperialists to misdirect our unity.

“Therefore, it must be known that we are cordially in contact at an inter-party level to confront the cross-sectional attempts to annihilate the standing successes of our democracy in the SADC,” he said.

“What has been presented as the violation of human rights in Zimbabwe is part of the exhausted script of the MDC Alliance’s failure to come to terms with its defeat in the 2018 Harmonised Elections. Moreover, we are aware that the purported instability in Zimbabwe is precipitated by disgruntled fugitives and ejected elements from the revolutionary party, ZANU PF.”

He further said the leaders of the two parties President Mnangagwa and President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa enjoy cordial relations.

“I am aware of the profound relations between President Mnangagwa and President Ramaphosa of South Africa. Equally, the two Heads of State are constantly exchanging notes on issues affecting Zimbabwe and South Africa. Contrary to the unpopular misrepresentation of issues, there have been no cases of State incentivised human rights abuses. Given the international lockdown measures, all that the Government of Zimbabwe has done is to contain the breaching of lockdown protocols.

“This is because we are sensitive to the severe effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to human life.

“The misplaced anti-Zimbabwe campaign on social media aligns with retrogressive regime change elements backed by their external neo-colonial handlers.

“In fact, the pictures and video clips being circulated in the mainstream and social media are old footages which are not reflective of the current state of peace and tranquillity in Zimbabwe,” expressed Mpofu.

A GROUP of South Africa based Zimbabweans and some sympathetic locals Friday clashed with local police at the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria.

They were protesting against rampant human rights abuses in Zimbabwe under the Zanu PF led government.

The protesters were initially granted permission to demonstrate at the embassy Friday but later found themselves being targets of rubber bullets fired by police.

State Media

Police are hunting down three directors of KWD Digital Marketing, a company running a suspected ponzi scheme in Harare, although two are thought to have already fled to South Africa after taking in huge sums in US dollar cash from gullible people hoping to double their money in four weeks.

Scores of people have over the past weeks been flocking to 147 Freedom Legacy Way (formerly Borrowdale Road) in Gunhill to deposit up to US$10 000 each after being promised that they would receive twice as much back after four weeks, something that is impossible with normal investment activity.

Detectives, working with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), have launched an investigation into the operation, with initial charges being contravening the Banking Act as they were offering banking services without a licence, but if, as suspected, the directors were simply paying off original investors with money brought by new investors, while taking a large cut for themselves, then they could face fraud charges as well.

KWD employees, including managers, were picked up by the police for questioning on Thursday, resulting in the closure of the offices and the start of the manhunt for the directors.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said two of the directors are reportedly in South Africa while the other one, Mpumelelo Dube, who was local, is nowhere to be found.

“I can confirm that we are looking for Mpumelelo Dube, who is a director of a company involved in the Borrowdale Road investment. We seek to interview him regarding the operations of the company but we are failing to locate him,” he said.

Asst Comm Nyathi said two other directors were reportedly in South Africa and police were also keen to interview them in connection with the same case.

RBZ has issued a statement saying KWD and another company operating along Lawson Avenue in Harare, Bevern Capital, were not authorised by the central bank to offer banking services taking deposits from the public.

Investment schemes of that nature require a banking licence and the bank’s Financial Intelligence Unit and other law enforcement agents have since launched investigations into both entities.

The central bank has urged potential investors to carry out a due diligence exercise before giving away their money.

“In the past, the bank has issued press statements warning the public not to fall prey to pyramid and ponzi schemes that come in various forms and guises, luring people to invest their hard-earned money, promising unrealistic and unsustainable investment returns.

“These are fraudulent investment schemes under which existing investors are paid returns, not from genuine market investment of their funds, but from contributions made by new investors, until a point when the scheme can no longer attract new investors and collapses.

“Members of the public should always do basic due diligence before they are hoodwinked to part with their hard-earned money. No one should ever conduct financial business with an institution until they have confirmed its regulatory status.

“When someone promises you unrealistically lucrative financial returns within a short period of time, it is likely to be a fraudulent scheme and further due diligence is always advisable, including checking with the authorities,” reads the statement.

Lawyers and experts warn the schemes are either a con, since there is no investment that can double the value of foreign currency in a few weeks, or are the start of Ponzi schemes, where early investors are paid out from the money received from newer investors until the whole scheme crashes.

Both schemes are attracting cross border traders and money changers whose businesses were affected by Covid-19.

The dealers’ premises are not labelled and there are no billboards advertising their businesses.

There has been scarce parking for vehicles at the premises where the owners were trying their luck on instant cash

The daily crowds at KWD were seen jostling to be listed among the first 300 people who are served daily with hundreds going back home grumbling after failing to make it into the top 300.

Most of the potential investors do not know the actual name of the company they deal with.

The forms they fill in before giving away their money, are written in Arabic, which cannot be understood by the majority of Zimbabweans.

Throughout a week-long investigation, The Herald established that none of the investors were aware of the name of the company.

Some said it was “Kuwait Dinar” others said Kuwait Dinar Africa while others only called it “KDW”.

None of those interviewed had bothered to check on the ownership of the company despite having the zeal to invest.

The “agreement”, according to legal experts, does not protect the investors in the event of collapse of business or the disappearance of the company owners.

Top Harare lawyer Mr Wellington Pasipanodya described the document as “a voluntary assumption of risk” on the part of the potential investors.

At Bevern Capital in Milton Park, motorists park their vehicles at Blakiston School car park before walking in a single file to the premises along Lawson Avenue.

The company accepts minimum deposit of US$100 and each investor is expected to pay an administration fee of US$10 for the first US$1 000.

After six weeks, the investors are promised 50 percent interest.

At Bevern, the depositors do not sign any documents. Their names are only captured in the system and they are issued with receipts to be presented on the day they withdraw the money.

The Zimbabwean

A long-standing tiff between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and former Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi has resulted in the fugitive ex-Zanu PF stalwart pleading with South Africa not to extradite him to Zimbabwe where he is wanted by the police in connection with charges of criminal abuse of office and theft of trust funds totalling to US$847 000.

Mzembi, in turn, denies the charges being levelled against him and emotionally narrated how dethroned late president Robert Mugabe and incumbent Vice President Constantino Chiwenga saved him from assailants sent by the Zimbabwe septuagenarian.

He further claims that the requested extradition is a filthy scheme by Mnangagwa to have him back home and kill him.

The former cabinet minister told one online publication in a wide-ranging interview in downtown Johannesburg that he survived three assassination attempts at the hands of assailants hired by Mnangagwa to kill him.

Mzembi, who skipped the country two years ago while on bail, said he would be slaughtered like a sheep should President Cyril Ramaphosa’s South African government extradite him.

This comes at a time when the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has requested the South African Government to extradite Mzembi so that he stands trial to the criminal abuse of office and theft charges he is facing, back home.

According to Mzembi, his hostile relations with Mnangagwa were birthed during the 2005 Tsholotsho Declaration- an intraparty scheme of factionalists who wanted the current Zimbabwe leader to be appointed deputy president ahead of Joice Mujuru in former president Mugabe’s government.

The VP post had, then, been left vacant following the demise of Simon Muzenda, a long-serving understudy of the late Mugabe.

Mzembi had allegedly thwarted efforts by an establishment loyal to Mnangagwa angling for the later’s appointment.

“Remember Zanu PF operates along tribal lines. So my fellow Karangas who included Mudenge and Josaya Hungwe tried to rope me into the team that was lobbying for Mnangagwa. So, when I refused, all hell broke loose,” the former minister told the online Zimbabwe Observer.

Mzembi also narrated how former education minister Stan Mudenge summoned him to his parliamentary office, on the eve of the infamous Tsholotsho Declaration, and openly warned that he would die in the event that he continued to thwart Masvingo region’s quest to wrestle power from the Zezurus.

Ironically, Mzembi hails from the Karanga-speaking Masvingo region.

The fugitive former minister also recalled that, a few minutes after walking into parliament, Mnangagwa, who was then Speaker, beckoned him to his high chair and told him not to worry about what Mudenge had told him as he would protect him.

“I wondered how Mnangagwa had, in such a short space of time, come to know about Mudenge’s threats,” said Mzembi.

“This is not fiction. Lucky Hakata, a freelance photographer, I had hired to take pictures of my projects in my constituency, was shot dead, execution-style in my brand new Pajero by assassins who mistook him for me. I was supposed to have gone with him but remained in Harare, owing to other commitments. About 45 minutes later, I received a call from Featherstone Police telling me my car had been involved in an accident and Hakata was dead.”

When he arrived at the scene of the accident, Mzembi said, the wreckage had already been taken away.

the late Robert Mugabe

Dethroned late dictator Mugabe is also alleged to have told Mzembi that he should be wary of Mnangagwa whose ‘cruelty knows no bounds and will avenge even at the slightest of provocations’.

On how (Rtd) General Chiwenga assisted him to foil another attempt on his life, the former Zanu PF minister said:

“Chiwenga called me to find out where I was and when I told him I was driving back to Harare, he told me to make a U-turn or catch a bus as there were assassins waiting for me on the Masvingo-Harare Road”.

He also claimed that a self-confessed assassin, Munyaradzi Mupazviripo, was allegedly promised US$50 000 if he executed him. Mzembi subsequently filed a report at Borrowdale Police Station on January 24, 2015, exposing the plot.

“I have been in the system and I know how these guys operate. I never had this problem of colon cancer before my arrest. I walked out of custody only to be diagnosed with a rare condition which doctors could not explain. My affected colon was cut away, but doctors couldn’t detect how that portion got cancer as there was no tracing whatsoever,” Mzembi said.

The ruling Zanu PF party has described Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, as an “absolute political nonentity, following his campaign dubbed #ZimbabweLivesMatter, which has generated international debate on alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

Responding to calls by Malema for the South African government to shutdown the country’s embassy in Pretoria over human rights abuses, Zanu PF acting deputy Youth League secretary, Tendai Chirau, said the EFF leader’s remarks are misguided sentiments of a person, who is looking for international recognition.

In a statement, Chirau said Malema is struggling for significance in his native South Africa and therefore lacks any qualifications to authoritatively comment on Zimbabwean issues.

“By our standards, Mr. Malema is a puny, absolute political nonentity whose nostalgia for his wasted glory days with the ANC (African National Congress) has pushed him into bed with the equally disgraced G40 (Generation 40) clique of charlattans, whose narcissistic penchant for publicity is well documented.

“It is no secret that he is the latest, albeit ill-chosen, front for the furtherance of the self-exiled cabal’s counter-revolutionary pursuits. Malema’s continued senseless attacks on the Zimbabwean government and ZANU-PF, and the threats to close the Zimbabwean Embassy in South Africa only confirm his ill-advised futile objective of undermining the strong and healthy diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and her sovereign neighbor, South Africa, and the binding revolutionary ties, sealed with the blood of patriots, between ZANU-PF and the ANC. ZANU-PF has, from its very foundation, been at the heart of Zimbabwean lives.”

G40 is a faction of the ruling party, which campaigned for the elevation of former State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramai to succeed the late former president Robert Mugabe. The faction, said to be the brain-child of former Information Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, former Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and several others, was sent packing when Mugabe was toppled in a defacto military coup.

Chirau said Malema should not interfere with the affairs of a sovereign state like Zimbabwe, whose president was democratically-elected in 2018.

“By waging a bitter and protracted liberation struggle, wherein patriot cadres made the capital sacrifice, losing precious lives and limbs in the process, the revolutionary Party proved its fullest commitment to Zimbabwean lives. Under the current Second Republic, captained by the shrewd Cde ED Mnangagwa, the ZANU-PF led administration has embarked on various pro-people economic policies, such as Vision 2030, which are steadily yielding fruit,” he added.

“If Malema is truly more concerned about Zimbabwean lives than the Zimbabwean government, as he would have his gullible audience believe, then he should be at the forefront in defending them from the poisonous culture of targeted xenophobia endemic in his own country.”

In a tweet, Malema recently said, “We call for the removal of the Zimbabwean Embassy in SA until they restore the human rights in that country. Failure to do so, we will prevent any official from the Zimbabwean government from participating in any gathering in SA until they respect ordinary Zimbabweans.”

Other top South African political leaders and celebrities retweeted Malema’s #ZimbabweLivesMatter campaign post before it caught world attention.

VOA

With the rise in Covid-19 cases, the Government has ordered ministries to have just 15 percent of their staff on duty at any one time, but the rest staying at home on standby and being available to help cope with surges in work and being given more work to do at home.

Units that provide essential services will have higher percentages of staff on duty.

The thinning of staff on duty will boost safety, making it far easier to enforce social distancing and other protocols to minimise risk of infections.

The Public Service Commission (PSC) has directed that only 15 percent must be at their work stations but those who remain at home have been ordered to be on standby, remain in the towns and cities they are employed and be ready to be called in to provide help if the 15 percent of staff on duty is overwhelmed.

With an estimated 300 000 public servants, Government is the biggest employer and an estimated 45 000 have been recommended to report for work, which will substantially reduce the number of those coming to work.

“We want 15 percent of the public service to be at their respective workplaces. We want to decongest the workplaces. Others will be on call and might be told to report for duty if those at work are overwhelmed or need to rest,” said PSC Secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe.

“It is not every ministry where it is possible, where there are essential services that you cannot manage with 15 percent but those are exceptions.”

Ambassador Wutawunashe said the safety of workers was a priority and measures to protect the public servants would continue to be reviewed.

He said as they protected their workers, they would not negate the provision of essential services, which are needed by the public or cannot afford to be put on hold.

“The Government is mindful of the safety of its workers and as such it continues to review the situation relating to Covid-19, which at the moment seems to be escalating in terms of incidents of local infections. “It is Government to continue reviewing measures that protect the workers. While we continue to affirm that, essential services must be provided to the citizenry at the same time, the Government has taken the strategic role to reduce the number of civil servants reporting for duty at work stations to reduce the risk of exposure.”

Ambassador Wutawunashe said the position had already been communicated to all the ministries and had counselled the ministries to invest in technology so that those at home can remain useful during this crisis.

“The Public Service Commission has sent out a circular announcing to all heads of ministries that they needed to further reduce quite drastically the number those coming to work, and to ensure that those who are at home are working,” he said.

At the directive of President Mnangagwa, the Government is paying salary increases of 50 percent and the temporary US$75 monthly Covid-19 relief allowances, while waiting for the completion of negotiations on salary adjustments.

Ambassador Wutawunashe said the negotiations will continue, adding that the Government’s position was to take care of its staff, which includes those who get sick or infected by Covid-19 in the line of duty.

“The provision of essential services cannot be stopped, and the Government is very appreciative of the dedication that the workers have shown. Government would like to thank its employees sincerely for the effort.

“For its part Government continues to support the livelihoods of its workers including the salary grant while awaiting the usual negotiations between Government and its worker representatives.

“Government has come up with measures that support any worker who falls ill in the line of duty,” said Ambassador Wutawunashe.

Opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa on Saturday held a virtual interview with the SABC and gave a detailed analysis of the Zimbabwean situation in the wake of government’s gross human rights abuses. The youthful leader also gave a possible way forward for the country.

Watch video of the full interview downloading below.  Please be patient while the video downloads…

Read MDC Alliance statement on special envoys seconded to Zimbabwe by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Presenter: [music plays in background] So coming up wew are going to be having Zimbabwean radio personality and social influencer, philanthropist, digital entreprener, and brand ambassador, events MC and host shes so many things as well as a TV presenter, her name is Samantha Musa and we’re gonna be talking about whats happening currently in Zimbabwe. I’m sure you’ve seen the trend #ZimbabweanLivesMatter we’re going to be finding out whats happening so don’t go nowhere its happening right after this

 04:35

 Comercials

 06:30

 Presenter: Alrighty welcome back 56 past the hour of 7 and as I promised you we got Misred on the line who also just tuned in Misred is Zimbabwean radio personality, social influencer, philanthropist, digital entreprenuer, umm shes an events MC and host as well as a TV presenter best known for anchoring uh ZiFM Stereo drivetime show and the Rush drivetime and was named one of the most. one of the 15 most influencial Zimbabweans its an honour to have you here on the Y lounge Misred good evening.

Misred: Hey thats like a really long profile, [inaudible, laughter]

 Presenter: Cause you just did so much I mean how can we not [laughter in studio]

 Misred: Thanks for having me

Presenter: is it is it [sic] uuh evening whats the timezone, I guess you’re like two hours ahead of us or ?

Misred: So [pause] yeah we’re 2 hours ahead of you guys so its uhh just 3 minute before 10 oclock

Presenter: Ok ok alright its great to have you here I mean uumm we’ve all in Ghana at least uuh we started to hear about whats happening with the #zimbabweanlivesmatter and for people who know a little about what been happening uum is there anything you can, can you tell us, you know a little background umm of events uumm you know and context for everything thats happening currently?

Misred: [Inaudible] uh I think thats the most important thing because a lot of people don’t actually understand the context of what being spoken about by ZImbabweans

[Presenter interjects: Yes]

so I’m just gonna backtrack sightly to what #ZimabweanLivesMatter is all about [Presenter interjects: Yeah]

so basically`the protest umm is birthed from allegations of umm abduction and torture uuh of Zimbabwean citizens of uuh government opponents and they’ve been saying that umm there some what of umm eeh of of of [sic] a compromised judiciary a justice system is just messed up according to them umm there rampant corruption theres a an ailling economy dilapidated public health system and its literally on the verge of collapsing theres also high unemployment umm things like eeh survire food shortages and just generally an unhappy youth populace umm who feel robbed of their dreams of their future so for them I think umm it was one of the biggest umm nxxa things that has come out of all of this is that uh you hear a lot of uh young people it doesnt matter which political party you support but its almost like uhh like a collective citizen movement to just say government we want human rights to be umm to be respected we want to have our dreams back we want you to look at different things and to hear us when we speak and right now we’re not speaking as uhh the ruling party which is ZANUPF or th e main opposition which is MDC but we are just speaking as Zimbabwean citizens

Presenter: and and whats been the response I mean we’re reading headlines that the presidents says things hes going to flush out `opponents and you know it doesnt seem like he being receptive to whats being demanded

Misred: I mean I.. I.. its a very difficult one and i always says to people that its so difficult to understand the Zimbabwean situation unless if you are in Zimbabwe because theres very big disconnect between what happens on social media versus whats happening on the ground. So if you are to read the social media uhh you’d probably think we’re like in the middle of a warzone

[Presenter interjects: Yeah]

and its like bagdhad or one of those countries with like crazy war happening but it actually not like that

[Presenter interjects: Okay]

what happens in Zimbabwe is that uhh social media is a lot of young people, a lot of people in diaspora, who have been disgruntled over the years because they’ve had to come out of the country for different reasons mainly being the fact that the economy has been so terrible for them they’ve had to move to other countries, families have been seperated, so you find that the population of people on social media they’re more of the urban Zimbabweans who have access to internet, who have access to more information than the people in the rural areas, if you were to go to rural zimbabwe today they’ll probably tell you that they don’t know anything about ZimbabweanLiveMatter. So there is a very big disconnect between whats actually on the ground and whats on social media, however I feel that theres also a very big conversation around human rights that hasn’t been umm looked into and this the reason why you find people doing this very thing and now when the president comes out I think he also looks at the complete uumm population and unfortunately the majority of the people are not online even when you look at the numbers of Zimbabweans on twitter for example on instagram it very little as compared to the entire population so he may be speaking to that other demographic thats not online and doesnt know whats happening but they may be feeling the hardships of the economy but then don’t necessarily have a voice and this is why social media has become so important because in as much as on the ground everything may peaceful but a lot of people are disgruntled and they will tell you that they’re unhappy with a lot of things mainly being the fact that our economy is just dead and theres a lot of thing that need to be spoken about that arent being spoken about

Presenter: Wow honestly you’ve given me very very rich perspective on whats happen esspecially even in the discussion on the disconnect on social media thank you so so much Misred umm I hear you’ve been to Ghana before

Misred: I’m I’mma a citizen of Ghana man like I love this country so much [Presenter in Background: Oh Wow]

Presenter: Honestly

Misred: Ghana is almost like Zimbabwe the people [presenter in backgroung: Yup] the people are warm they’re loving they’re umm you know receptive to new people [presenter in backgroung: Facts] I love that about Ghana so I’m literally about to by a house in Ghana.

Presenter: You know in every fellowship I go to right with other Africans its the ZImbabweans I actually connect with the most the [inaudible] Nigerians you know what I’m saying. So i get it 100 percent. It was great speaking to you.

Misred: Lemme say something before I go, umm I think from my perspective I think the events umm of the next 4 weeks will have a long a long lasting impact on the uh say the political and the social landscape of the country which is Zimbabwe and I think there a big conversation that needs to happen from the countries leadership because there have to ensure that they create an environment that is free and supportive to the population, the social obviously business and judical which is what people are talking about and you know theres a lot of different arguements around that but business people want an environment thats conducive for business uhh government wants a populace that is governable, peaceful and supportive and you know the great challenge is actually finding the balance for all these demands and satisfying these different need without the whole system collapsing so this is what we’re praying for our beautiful country Zimbabwe

Presenter: We hope you get it and how can Ghanians doing the listening also be apart of building this? we also have our own problems but i mean umm how do we you know stretch pan-african hands together you know

Misred: I think its important that we understand the context like what you did its a beautiful thing that you reach out and say we wanna understand and see how best we can help. I think tonight umm the president of south africa uh Cyril Ramaphosa uh appointed a special envoy to actually come into Zimbabwe and just figure out whats going with all these reports of umm that people are saying that human rights are being abused etc so it goes to show that in as much as social media may seem like an unimportant thing to the general populace of Zimbabwe but theres a demographic which is speaking on social media and its got impact, because everybody is talking about it I mean I’ve seen all these celebrities talking about it Burna Boy was talking about it American celebrities were talking about it [Inaudible] Ice Cube etc so it means that its an important conversation that we look into this and the government will definately feel the presure because the world is now looking, its an important time for us and its a beautiful thing where we have people wanting to understand what is actually going on

Presenter : Yes, definately and thank you so much for helping share more of that perspective with us over here thank you have a great evening for your time.

Misred: Likewise see you soon

Presenter: see you soon byeee

[END]

A young woman in Bulawayo was found dumped after being sexually assaulted in a case of rising cases in the second capital city. The development is revealed in video footage that shows some of the wounds endured. SEE BELOW:

1/2 Noxolo Maphosa was abducted this morning & dumped later in the day outside her home after she was tortured & sexually assaulted in Byo. Abductions & torture cases in Byo have intensified. Lawyer Nqobani Sithole is handling Noxolo’s case!#ZimbabaweanLivesMatter#FreeZimbabwe pic.twitter.com/M7soi4OfJK

— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) August 7, 2020

Noxolo Maphosa was abducted this morning & dumped later in the day outside her home after she was tortured & sexually assaulted in Byo. Abductions & torture cases in Byo have intensified. Lawyer Nqobani Sithole is handling Noxolo’s case!
#ZimbabaweanLivesMatter

2/2 Noxolo is traumatized!#ZimbabaweanLivesMatter #FreeZimbabwe pic.twitter.com/CR7kizROrV

— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) August 7, 2020

By A Correspondent| Lawyers representing journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on 7 August 2020 said they will be making a fresh application for bail following denial of his appeal for bail by High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi.

Beatrice Mtetwa, who is representing Chin’ono, said they intend to make a fresh application for bail based on changed circumstances following the journalist’s appearance before Magistrate Ngoni Nduna in Harare on 7 August 2020 on remand.

He was further remanded in custody and will appear in court on 12 August 2020 during which the fresh application for bail will be made.

On 6 August 2020 Justice Chitapi dismissed the appeal for bail saying Chin’ono had failed to prove any misdirection of fact, law or both by the magistrate that had earlier denied him bail. The appeal for bail had been filed with the High Court after Chino’ono was denied bail by Magistrate Nduna.

He is being charged with incitement to participate in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of peace or bigotry or alternatively incitement to commit public violence and has been in custody since the 20 July 2020.

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday called on Zimbabweans to unite towards the development of the country and ignore rumblings of fugitives engaged in attempts to destabilise the nation.

Speaking as he commissioned the first phase of the Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge Road project in Bubi, Beitbridge, President Mnangagwa said development can only be achieved in a peaceful and tranquil environment.

“Let me reiterate that my Government will not tolerate corruption neither will we hesitate to terminate underperforming contracts. The days of holding national development at ransom are over.

“All this will be achieved under an environment of peace, tranquility, stability, unity and love in the country. That is the basis that provides development in our country,” said President Mnangagwa.

“We must remain united; we must ignore the rumblings of the fugitives who ran away from this country and focus on developing our country for the benefit of our people.”

President Mnangagwa’s calls come amid frenzied attacks on Zimbabwe perpetrated by the tripartite alliance of the opposition, the notorious G40 cabal and some hostile Western embassies.

The G40 cabal has also roped in South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters led by Mr Julius Malema in its assault on Zimbabwe.

So far, however, attempts to effect illegal regime change through demonstrations disguised as protests against corruption have failed as they found no takers from peace loving Zimbabweans.

The planned violent demonstrations on July 31 which the merchants of violence wanted to use to oust a democratically elected Government failed as it was ignored by the people.

After the failed attempts, they then adopted the #ZimbabweLivesMatter, a campaign to tarnish the image of Government and the security services.

-State Media

“You can’t call you citizens rogue; you can’t call your citizens terrorists, you have to make sure that you unify instead of dividing,” said President Nelson Chamisa speaking to the SABC’s Peter Ndoro on Friday night, and below was the interview:

THE end of a relationship can expose many raw emotions and it becomes worse when someone feels like they have been robbed in the name of culture.

That could be perfectly true for a Bulawayo man who could not stomach being divorced by his wife of 12 years when he reportedly followed her to her rural home where upon arrival, he stormed into his mother-in-law’s bedroom while she was stark naked and demanded that she pays him back his lobola money.

As if that was not enough, the disgruntled man, Artwell Homera, from Gwabalanda, before he forcibly walked on his estranged wife Sekai Timothy’s mother in her birthday suit he had also threatened to commit suicide at their homestead.

What reportedly ticked him off was that, Sekai dumped him after he became jobless despite the fact that she (Sekai) was the one who allegedly got him fired from one of the leading supermarket chain stores in the city where he was a supervisor.

According to evidence led at the Bulawayo Civil Court, where Sekai was seeking a restraining order against Homera, the couple broke up because of the latter’s abusive behaviour.

“I was customarily married to Artwell Homera and we have two children together.

He assaults and insults me in front of our children calling me a prostitute. When we were still staying together, he was not paying rentals, school fees for the children or even caring for them. He would come home very drunk and started being violent such that it was no longer safe for me to stay with him.

The children were also living in fear of their father,” protested Sekai.
She said they tried to involve relatives and church elders to solve their marital disputes but to no avail.

Explaining how Homera started reclaiming his lobola money back, Sekai said: “I need a protection order against him because when I left for my rural home in Mutorashanga together with the children he followed us.

“He was also sending abusive text messages while, threatening to commit suicide at our homestead because he paid lobola for me and that he could not lose me just like that.

He even forcibly went into my mother’s bedroom while she was naked and my mother had to scream and plead with him to leave and he refused. I had to call his brother to calm the situation.”

In his response, Homera accused Sekai of cheating on him adding that she dumped him because he was no longer employed.
“I am not opposed to her application.

When I went to her rural home, I was following my children. I even stayed there for two months. She is making this application because I found love messages in her phone which she was exchanging with her boyfriend.

What also pains me is that she is the one who got me fired from my job. She is also abusing our children by forcing them to walk more than three kilometres from their homestead to sell tomatoes,” said a livid Homera.

In her judgment presiding magistrate Nomasiko Ndlovu ordered Homera not to insult, assault his ex-wife and visit her rural home or where she is now staying with her aunt- B-Metro

Friday 07 August 2020

MDC Alliance Students Council Secretary General, Hither Rujeko Mpambwa has been granted $5000 bail by a Kariba magistrate.

She had appeared in court on charges of undermining the authority of the president after she sent a message in a Whats App group saying “ED has failed”.

She was also facing charges of violating the Postal and Telecommunications Act.

Tamuka Gurure

MDC Alliance Students Council Spokesperson

His Excellency the President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has, in terms of Section 16 (1) (a) read together with Section 16 (1) (d) of the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act, suspended the Executive Chairman of the ZESA Holdings, Dr Sydney Gata and the entire ZESA Board Members with immediate effect.

His Excellency the President has also directed the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo to immediately undertake thorough investigations into the following issues:

1. The allegations leveled against the Executive Chairman by Honourable Minister of Energy and Power Development, Advocate Fortune Chasi.

2. Any other underlying corrupt activities bedeviling ZESA Board Members and the electricity sector as a whole.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet

Dr Misheck J. M Sibanda

His Excellency the President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has, in terms of Section 16 (1) (a) read together with Section 16 (1) (d) of the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act, suspended the Executive Chairman of the ZESA Holdings, Dr Sydney Gata and the entire ZESA Board Members with immediate effect.

His Excellency the President has also directed the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo to immediately undertake thorough investigations into the following issues:

1. The allegations leveled against the Executive Chairman by Honourable Minister of Energy and Power Development, Advocate Fortune Chasi.

2. Any other underlying corrupt activities bedeviling ZESA Board Members and the electricity sector as a whole.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet

Dr Misheck J. M Sibanda

As top ZANU PF officials desert Mnangagwa, it's clear he has proven beyond number that he was never a President from the start, and noone is going to tolerate the tortures, jailing of journos, citizens, I hereby say the term "President" Mnangagwa must be criminalised worldover.

— Simba Chikanza (@schikanza) August 7, 2020

Prof PLO Lumumba to President Emmerson Mnangagwa on the current situation in Zimbabwe.#ZimbabweanLivesMatter
Full statement : https://t.co/sM2Aq5jMu6 pic.twitter.com/zgpHeWn84a

— PLO Lumumba (@ProfPLOLumumba) August 7, 2020

VIDEO LOADING BELOW

We received info that Hopewell & Jacob were going to be transferred to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison this evening. Jacob’s lawyer Moses Nkomo went to Remand Prison to verify. He was denied access to them; they were put in leg-irons & put in the truck to be taken to Chikurubi.

— Doug Coltart ✊??? (@DougColtart) August 7, 2020

Opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume was on Friday denied bail again when he appeared before High Court Judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi.

Ngarivhume was arrested on 20 July and charged with inciting public violence after rallying the citizenry to participate in anti-corruption protests that he had scheduled for the 31st of July.

He was arrested on the same day as corruption whistleblower Hopewell Chin’ono who was also denied bail this Friday.

Lawyer Moses Nkomo said Ngarivhume and Chin’ono are being transferred from Harare Remand Prison to Chikurubi Maximum Prison today.

Their arrest and continued detention have attracted the attention of the international community which is now calling upon Harare to uphold human rights enshrined in the constitution.

The democratic space in the Southern African country has been decreasing since the ascension to power of President Mnangagwa in 2017 with reports of the government crackdown on dissent on the rise lately.

The unfolding is not so good for the Mnangagwa-led administration that recently embarked on an engagement and re-engagement agenda.

Authorities, in strong terms, deny any form of human rights violations in the country.

They rather argue that the alleged abuses are coined by the country’s detractors to dirt Zimbabwe’s image.

Watch video downloading below:

VIDEO LOADING BELOW

We received info that Hopewell & Jacob were going to be transferred to Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison this evening. Jacob’s lawyer Moses Nkomo went to Remand Prison to verify. He was denied access to them; they were put in leg-irons & put in the truck to be taken to Chikurubi.

— Doug Coltart ✊??? (@DougColtart) August 7, 2020

WATCH THE LIVE VIDEO LOADING BELOW…….

The European Union in Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom in Zimbabwe have expressed concern over the denial of bail to Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.

The award-winning journalist who was arrested on 20 July was again denied bail this Friday. Posting on Twitter, EU in Zimbabwe said:

Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was again denied bail: we are concerned about the instrumentalisation of the law against citizens exercising their constitutional rights, including freedom of opinion and expression & the right to freedom of peaceful assembly. #EU4HumanRights

The UK in Zimbabwe also posted on Twitter urging the Zimbabwean government to uphold human rights. The tweet reads:

We note with concern that Hopewell Chingono has once again been denied bail. We urge authorities to respect and not compromise the rights to freedom of speech, expression and peaceful assembly during this #COVID19 pandemic.

Chin’ono was arrested for inciting public violence after he rallied members of the public to participate in anti-government protests that were slated for the 31st of July.

He has since then applied for bail on numerous occasions with courts turning the applications down.

Some argue that Chin’ono is being victimised for exposing grand corruption by some government officials and departments.

Calls for his release have intensified lately following his continued detention.

With reports of arrests, beatings and abductions in Zimbabwe, The Elders call for an immediate end to violence, and emphasise the fight against the coronavirus (Covid-19) should be rooted in respect for human rights.

As the scale of #ZimbabweanLivesMatter shows, dialogue and reform are urgently needed.

Watch the live video loading below…..

Two individuals at the National Blood Service Zimbabwe (NBSZ), an employee and one from a service provider have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The development was announced by NBSZ public affairs manager, Esther Massundah who said they duo tested positive following random testing of staff. In a statement released on Friday,  Massundah said:

NBSZ advises the public that as part of our routine random testing for staff, there were COVID-19 PCR tests done on employees and one service provider. There were two positives recorded; one positive from an employee and another positive from one of our service providers. The two who tested positive are self-isolating at home.

THE end of a relationship can expose many raw emotions and it becomes worse when someone feels like they have been robbed in the name of culture.

That could be perfectly true for a Bulawayo man who could not stomach being divorced by his wife of 12 years when he reportedly followed her to her rural home where upon arrival, he stormed into his mother-in-law’s bedroom while she was stark naked and demanded that she pays him back his lobola money.

As if that was not enough, the disgruntled man, Artwell Homera, from Gwabalanda, before he forcibly walked on his estranged wife Sekai Timothy’s mother in her birthday suit he had also threatened to commit suicide at their homestead.

What reportedly ticked him off was that, Sekai dumped him after he became jobless despite the fact that she (Sekai) was the one who allegedly got him fired from one of the leading supermarket chain stores in the city where he was a supervisor.

According to evidence led at the Bulawayo Civil Court, where Sekai was seeking a restraining order against Homera, the couple broke up because of the latter’s abusive behaviour.

“I was customarily married to Artwell Homera and we have two children together.

He assaults and insults me in front of our children calling me a prostitute. When we were still staying together, he was not paying rentals, school fees for the children or even caring for them. He would come home very drunk and started being violent such that it was no longer safe for me to stay with him.

The children were also living in fear of their father,” protested Sekai.
She said they tried to involve relatives and church elders to solve their marital disputes but to no avail.

Explaining how Homera started reclaiming his lobola money back, Sekai said: “I need a protection order against him because when I left for my rural home in Mutorashanga together with the children he followed us.

“He was also sending abusive text messages while, threatening to commit suicide at our homestead because he paid lobola for me and that he could not lose me just like that.

He even forcibly went into my mother’s bedroom while she was naked and my mother had to scream and plead with him to leave and he refused. I had to call his brother to calm the situation.”

In his response, Homera accused Sekai of cheating on him adding that she dumped him because he was no longer employed.
“I am not opposed to her application.

When I went to her rural home, I was following my children. I even stayed there for two months. She is making this application because I found love messages in her phone which she was exchanging with her boyfriend.

What also pains me is that she is the one who got me fired from my job. She is also abusing our children by forcing them to walk more than three kilometres from their homestead to sell tomatoes,” said a livid Homera.

In her judgment presiding magistrate Nomasiko Ndlovu ordered Homera not to insult, assault his ex-wife and visit her rural home or where she is now staying with her aunt- B-Metro

BREAKING- Jacob ngarivhume denied bail #ZimbabweanLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/IE0UBeUGeY

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) August 7, 2020

Yesterday, Zimbabwe official launched its 2020 World Breastfeeding Week commemorations under the theme; Promoting breastfeeding for a Healthier Planet!

As a mother, I am taking part in these commemorations because I understand and value breastfeeding’s positive impact to our nation. Not only is it a sustainable feeding option. It plays a crucial role in protecting the climate and environment.

Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the most urgent challenges facing our world today. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) – including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and others due to human activity – have increased global temperatures by over 1℃ since pre-industrial times. Our food production systems and consumption patterns are significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation.

We now understand that for us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, breastfeeding should be at the core of our efforts aimed at achieving these targets by 2030.

Breastfeeding has been shown to save over 800,000 children’s lives a year worldwide, equivalent to 13% of all deaths in children under two, and prevent an extra 20,000 deaths from breast cancer every year. Breastfeeding also acts as a cornerstone for economic growth and development for nations.

I want you to imagine the amount of air pollution that takes place during production, packaging, distribution and preparation methods of infant formula. On the other hand, breastmilk production only requires the additional food that a mother needs to consume, therefore using fewer natural resources and resulting in almost no waste.

Let us work together towards a Zimbabwe free from hunger, poverty and malnutrition.

Let us promote breastfeeding for a healthier planet!

We publish below the statement by the First lady Auxilia Mnangagwa on facebook:

Yesterday, Zimbabwe official launched its 2020 World Breastfeeding Week commemorations under the theme; Promoting breastfeeding for a Healthier Planet!

As a mother, I am taking part in these commemorations because I understand and value breastfeeding’s positive impact to our nation. Not only is it a sustainable feeding option. It plays a crucial role in protecting the climate and environment.

Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the most urgent challenges facing our world today. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) – including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and others due to human activity – have increased global temperatures by over 1℃ since pre-industrial times. Our food production systems and consumption patterns are significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation.

We now understand that for us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, breastfeeding should be at the core of our efforts aimed at achieving these targets by 2030.

Breastfeeding has been shown to save over 800,000 children’s lives a year worldwide, equivalent to 13% of all deaths in children under two, and prevent an extra 20,000 deaths from breast cancer every year. Breastfeeding also acts as a cornerstone for economic growth and development for nations.

I want you to imagine the amount of air pollution that takes place during production, packaging, distribution and preparation methods of infant formula. On the other hand, breastmilk production only requires the additional food that a mother needs to consume, therefore using fewer natural resources and resulting in almost no waste.

Let us work together towards a Zimbabwe free from hunger, poverty and malnutrition.

Let us promote breastfeeding for a healthier planet!

THE end of a relationship can expose many raw emotions and it becomes worse when someone feels like they have been robbed in the name of culture.

That could be perfectly true for a Bulawayo man who could not stomach being divorced by his wife of 12 years when he reportedly followed her to her rural home where upon arrival, he stormed into his mother-in-law’s bedroom while she was stark naked and demanded that she pays him back his lobola money.

As if that was not enough, the disgruntled man, Artwell Homera, from Gwabalanda, before he forcibly walked on his estranged wife Sekai Timothy’s mother in her birthday suit he had also threatened to commit suicide at their homestead.

What reportedly ticked him off was that, Sekai dumped him after he became jobless despite the fact that she (Sekai) was the one who allegedly got him fired from one of the leading supermarket chain stores in the city where he was a supervisor.

According to evidence led at the Bulawayo Civil Court, where Sekai was seeking a restraining order against Homera, the couple broke up because of the latter’s abusive behaviour.

“I was customarily married to Artwell Homera and we have two children together.

He assaults and insults me in front of our children calling me a prostitute. When we were still staying together, he was not paying rentals, school fees for the children or even caring for them. He would come home very drunk and started being violent such that it was no longer safe for me to stay with him.

The children were also living in fear of their father,” protested Sekai.
She said they tried to involve relatives and church elders to solve their marital disputes but to no avail.

Explaining how Homera started reclaiming his lobola money back, Sekai said: “I need a protection order against him because when I left for my rural home in Mutorashanga together with the children he followed us.

“He was also sending abusive text messages while, threatening to commit suicide at our homestead because he paid lobola for me and that he could not lose me just like that.

He even forcibly went into my mother’s bedroom while she was naked and my mother had to scream and plead with him to leave and he refused. I had to call his brother to calm the situation.”

In his response, Homera accused Sekai of cheating on him adding that she dumped him because he was no longer employed.
“I am not opposed to her application.

When I went to her rural home, I was following my children. I even stayed there for two months. She is making this application because I found love messages in her phone which she was exchanging with her boyfriend.

What also pains me is that she is the one who got me fired from my job. She is also abusing our children by forcing them to walk more than three kilometres from their homestead to sell tomatoes,” said a livid Homera.

In her judgment presiding magistrate Nomasiko Ndlovu ordered Homera not to insult, assault his ex-wife and visit her rural home or where she is now staying with her aunt- B-Metro

By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has received praises from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Summit plus Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries (FIB – TCCs) on how he has led the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation displaying outstanding leadership.

The praises were made after the recently held summit which included SADC Troika members, United Nations and the DRC.

Read the full communique below:

The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation for his outstanding leadership and for a fruitful Summit.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Summit plus Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries (FIB – TCCs) and the DRC (The OTS Plus meeting) was held, virtually, on 05 August 2020.

2.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was officially opened by H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

3.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was attended by the following Heads of State and Government:

Zimbabwe: H.E. President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

Botswana:  H.E. President Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, President of the Republic of Botswana, and the In-coming Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

Zambia:   H.E. President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, The President of the Republic of Zambia, and the Outgoing Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

DRC:        H.E. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Malawi:    H.E. President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, The President of the Republic of Malawi.

South Africa:   H.E. President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, The President of Republic of South Africa.

Tanzania:    Prof. Palamagamba John Aidan Mwaluko Kabudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Representing H.E. President Dr. John Pombe Magufuli the President of United Republic of Tanzania.

4.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was also attended by the Executive Secretary of SADC, H.E Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax.

5.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC noted the strategic review of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) that was conducted in October 2019, and the subsequent adoption of Resolution 2502 of December 2019 that renewed the MONUSCO mandate for the period of one year.

6          The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended the Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries for their tremendous commitment, and continued deployment of their troops in fighting the negative forces in DRC.

7.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC, expressed gratitude to the United Nations for the continued support to the SADC Region and the DRC, while noting with concern the unilateral decision by the United Nations to reconfigure the Force Intervention Brigade contrary to SADC position.

8.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC reiterated SADC position as was submitted to the UN Secretary General which, among others, appealed that the Force Intervention Brigade should not be tampered with.

9.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB– TCCs and the DRC welcomed the position of the Government of the DRC that it fully supports the SADC position regarding the reconfiguration of the FIB.

10       The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC called upon the United Nations Secretary General to convene a consultative meeting with SADC to engage on the SADC position on the reconfiguration of the FIB.

11.      The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation for his outstanding leadership and for a fruitful Summit.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has received praises form the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Summit plus Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries (FIB – TCCs) on how he has led the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation displaying outstanding leadership.

The praises were made after the recently held summit which included SADC Troika members, United Nations and the DRC.

Read the full communique below:

The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation for his outstanding leadership and for a fruitful Summit.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ Troika Summit plus Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries (FIB – TCCs) and the DRC (The OTS Plus meeting) was held, virtually, on 05 August 2020.

2.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was officially opened by H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

3.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was attended by the following Heads of State and Government:

Zimbabwe: H.E. President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, and the Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation.

Botswana:  H.E. President Dr. Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi, President of the Republic of Botswana, and the In-coming Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

Zambia:   H.E. President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, The President of the Republic of Zambia, and the Outgoing Chairperson of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation.

DRC:        H.E. President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Malawi:    H.E. President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, The President of the Republic of Malawi.

South Africa:   H.E. President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa, The President of Republic of South Africa.

Tanzania:    Prof. Palamagamba John Aidan Mwaluko Kabudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Representing H.E. President Dr. John Pombe Magufuli the President of United Republic of Tanzania.

4.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC was also attended by the Executive Secretary of SADC, H.E Dr. Stergomena Lawrence Tax.

5.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC noted the strategic review of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) that was conducted in October 2019, and the subsequent adoption of Resolution 2502 of December 2019 that renewed the MONUSCO mandate for the period of one year.

6          The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended the Force Intervention Brigade Troop Contributing Countries for their tremendous commitment, and continued deployment of their troops in fighting the negative forces in DRC.

7.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC, expressed gratitude to the United Nations for the continued support to the SADC Region and the DRC, while noting with concern the unilateral decision by the United Nations to reconfigure the Force Intervention Brigade contrary to SADC position.

8.         The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC reiterated SADC position as was submitted to the UN Secretary General which, among others, appealed that the Force Intervention Brigade should not be tampered with.

9.        The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB– TCCs and the DRC welcomed the position of the Government of the DRC that it fully supports the SADC position regarding the reconfiguration of the FIB.

10       The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC called upon the United Nations Secretary General to convene a consultative meeting with SADC to engage on the SADC position on the reconfiguration of the FIB.

11.      The Organ Troika Summit plus FIB – TCCs and the DRC commended H.E President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, the Chairperson of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation for his outstanding leadership and for a fruitful Summit.

Yesterday, Zimbabwe official launched its 2020 World Breastfeeding Week commemorations under the theme; Promoting breastfeeding for a Healthier Planet!

As a mother, I am taking part in these commemorations because I understand and value breastfeeding’s positive impact to our nation. Not only is it a sustainable feeding option. It plays a crucial role in protecting the climate and environment.

Climate change and environmental degradation are some of the most urgent challenges facing our world today. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) – including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane and others due to human activity – have increased global temperatures by over 1℃ since pre-industrial times. Our food production systems and consumption patterns are significant contributors to climate change and environmental degradation.

We now understand that for us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, breastfeeding should be at the core of our efforts aimed at achieving these targets by 2030. Breastfeeding has been shown to save over 800,000 children’s lives a year worldwide, equivalent to 13% of all deaths in children under two, and prevent an extra 20,000 deaths from breast cancer every year. Breastfeeding also acts as a cornerstone for economic growth and development for nations.

I want you to imagine the amount of air pollution that takes place during production, packaging, distribution and preparation methods of infant formula. On the other hand, breastmilk production only requires the additional food that a mother needs to consume, therefore using fewer natural resources and resulting in almost no waste.

Let us work together towards a Zimbabwe free from hunger, poverty and malnutrition.

Let us promote breastfeeding for a healthier planet!

At High Court, we are waiting for Justice Chitapi to hand down his judgment on Transform Zimbabwe party leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who is in prison after he was arrested & charged with inciting people to commit public violence. pic.twitter.com/cKGtSbJi1u

— ZLHR (@ZLHRLawyers) August 7, 2020

By A Correspondent- The United States Embassy in Harare has welcomed the New Director for the USAID Zimbabwe Mission Mr Art Brown.

The Embassy posted on its social media pages saying the new director possessed leadership experience that will is needed in the implementation of USAID programmes. The post reads:

His Excellency the President, Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa has, in terms of Section 16 (1) (a) read together with Section 16 (1) (d) of the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act, suspended the Executive Chairman of the ZESA Holdings, Dr Sydney Gata and the entire ZESA Board Members with immediate effect.

His Excellency the President has also directed the Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo to immediately undertake thorough investigations into the following issues:

1. The allegations leveled against the Executive Chairman by Honourable Minister of Energy and Power Development, Advocate Fortune Chasi.

2. Any other underlying corrupt activities bedeviling ZESA Board Members and the electricity sector as a whole.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet

Dr Misheck J. M Sibanda

By A Correspondent- A family from Newton West suburb in Bulawayo is lucky to be alive after they woke up to a thick cloud of smoke and broke down a door to escape after a thief set their storeroom on fire.

The incident which left Emilly Muzarurwa and her family shell-shocked happened last week on Thursday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity a neighbour said Muzarurwa was in deep sleep when she was choked by smoke and woke up to find her storeroom which is adjacent to her bedroom in flames.

The source said: “She woke her daughter up. At the time the whole house was engulfed by a thick cloud of smoke. They had to break down the door and screamed for help.”

The source said a neighbour rushed to the house and helped to put out the fire.

“A door mat in the living room was in flames .While they were putting out the fire, Muzarurwa’s daughter spotted a male adult scaling over a pre-cast wall with a 3kg gas cylinder and an adaptor. In fear she retreated while screaming. The suspect showed a clean pair of heels with the gadgets,” said the source.

They reported the matter to the police.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Abednico Ncube confirmed the incident: “It is suspected that diesel which was kept in the storeroom caught fire while a suspected thief was busy stealing. Luckily no one was injured. The suspect who is on the run took an adaptor and a 3kg gas cylinder. We would like to urge members of the public not to keep diesel or petrol or any flammable liquid in the house.”

-BMetro

Watch the live video loading below…..

By A Correspondent- The end of a relationship can expose many raw emotions and it becomes worse when someone feels like they have been robbed in the name of culture.

That could be perfectly true for a Bulawayo man who could not stomach being divorced by his wife of 12 years when he reportedly followed her to her rural home where upon arrival, he stormed into his mother-in-law’s bedroom while she was stark naked and demanded that she pays him back his lobola money.

As if that was not enough, the disgruntled man, Artwell Homera, from Gwabalanda, before he forcibly walked on his estranged wife Sekai Timothy’s mother in her birthday suit he had also threatened to commit suicide at their homestead.

What reportedly ticked him off was that, Sekai dumped him after he became jobless despite the fact that she (Sekai) was the one who allegedly got him fired from one of the leading supermarket chain stores in the city where he was a supervisor.

According to evidence led at the Bulawayo Civil Court, where Sekai was seeking a restraining order against Homera, the couple broke up because of the latter’s abusive behaviour.

“I was customarily married to Artwell Homera and we have two children together. He assaults and insults me in front of our children calling me a prostitute. When we were still staying together, he was not paying rentals, school fees for the children or even caring for them. He would come home very drunk and started being violent such that it was no longer safe for me to stay with him. The children were also living in fear of their father,” protested Sekai.

She said they tried to involve relatives and church elders to solve their marital disputes but to no avail.

Explaining how Homera started reclaiming his lobola money back, Sekai said: “I need a protection order against him because when I left for my rural home in Mutorashanga together with the children he followed us.

“He was also sending abusive text messages while, threatening to commit suicide at our homestead because he paid lobola for me and that he could not lose me just like that. He even forcibly went into my mother’s bedroom while she was naked and my mother had to scream and plead with him to leave and he refused. I had to call his brother to calm the situation.”

In his response, Homera accused Sekai of cheating on him adding that she dumped him because he was no longer employed.

“I am not opposed to her application. When I went to her rural home, I was following my children. I even stayed there for two months. She is making this application because I found love messages in her phone which she was exchanging with her boyfriend. What also pains me is that she is the one who got me fired from my job. She is also abusing our children by forcing them to walk more than three kilometres from their homestead to sell tomatoes,” said a livid Homera.

In her judgment presiding magistrate Nomasiko Ndlovu ordered Homera not to insult, assault his ex-wife and visit her rural home or where she is now staying with her aunt.

By A Correspondent- In a disturbing incident, a 41-year-old man from Bulawayo’s Buena Vista suburb who was employed as a domestic worker was caught red-handed having sex with his master’s dog.

The pervert Pholani Mkhwebu was caught romping with the dog by his horrified co-worker Shayne Ngwenya who alerted their boss and a report was made at Hillside Police Station.

Unbelievably, upon his arrest Mkhwebu, a married father of a four-year-old child, admitted to having a nice time with the dog saying it was a temptation too good to ignore since he was sex-starved.

Facts of the session are that on 31 July at around 10 am, Mkhwebu and his co-worker were seated in the house before Mkhwebu told the latter that he wanted some fresh air and he went to sit outside.

It was proved that after sometime when a seemingly suspicious Ngwenya went outside the house to check on Mkhwebu, he was horrified when he found him holding a dog with his pair of trousers dropped to kneel level and having sex with it.

In the process he was also groaning with pleasure while sexually assaulting his boss’ dog. It is said that in a bid to stop the animal from howling he tied it around its neck with a wire. Seeing that he had been busted, Mkhwebu in a swank of shame pulled up his pair of trousers as if nothing had happened. The matter was reported to the police leading to his arrest.

For the offence Mkhwebu was brought before Bulawayo magistrate Shepherd Mjanja charged with bestiality as defined in section 74 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.

Mkhwebu didn’t waste the court’s time when he pleaded guilty to the offence of performing a sexual act with his boss’ dog.

Asked why he committed the offence, a remorseful Mkhwebu told the court that he was “very” sorry for his shameful actions.

“I just misbehaved, I am sorry,” he said.

Mkhwebu, who was remanded out of custody to 3 August on free bail, however, betrayed the court’s trust when he didn’t turn up for sentencing leading the magistrate to issue a warrant for his arrest.
-BMetro

7 August 2020

Patrick Chinamasa, acting secretary for information and publicity in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF government, has announced that, through the signing of the government’s “Global Compensation Agreement” on 29 July 2020, there is now acceptance from white commercial farmers that there will be no compensation for land from the Zimbabwe government.

Chinamasa emphasised that by agreeing on the amount of compensation for improvements, the time frame for payment and the modalities for raising the resources, ZANU-PF wished it to be known that it no longer considered the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) and the Southern African Commercial Farmers’ Alliance- Zimbabwe (SACFA-Z) to be anti the land redistribution programme.

Further to these comments published in the state-owned Herald newspaper on 5 August 2020, Chinamasa stated that white farmer organisations were now no longer against the taking of their members’ farms. He called for the Commercial Farmers’ Union and other farmers organisations to demand the unconditional lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States.

“As we go into the future, ZANU PF expects the voice of the two organisations in calling for the unconditional lifting of the sanctions to be loud, clear and unambiguous,” he said.

Chinamasa noted that the conclusion of the Global Compensation Agreement was “an acceptance by white commercial farmers that with respect to compensation for land, they should look elsewhere and not to the people of Zimbabwe nor to the Zimbabwe government.

“In terms of section 72(7) of our Constitution, the obligation to pay compensation for land was placed squarely on the shoulders of the former colonial power, the British,” Chinamasa added.

As SADC Tribunal Rights Watch (SADC-TRW), we wish to distance ourselves from the Global Compensation Agreement that the CFU, SACFA-Z and the Valuation Consortium were under extreme pressure to sign – and within a minimal time frame.

However, in the government’s apparent haste to have the agreement signed, even Zimbabwe’s own constitution has been violated in the laid down procedure for the compensation process.

Although the reasons for the pressure were not clear, numerous legal experts and dispossessed farmers, many of them living in dire straits in Zimbabwe or scattered around the world, urged caution and highlighted legal shortcomings in the proposed draft agreement.

SADC-TRW was also concerned that dispossessed farmers were not given prior sight of the actual agreement document before being asked to vote in a referendum on whether or not to accept the agreement, which was presented to them as the last option for compensation from the government.

The reality is that the government is broke and although the parties have agreed to a sum of US$3.5 billion, there is no money available or pledged, and the farming organisations are expected to work with the government to raise it internationally.

Chinamasa is a lawyer and was former Justice Minister during the landmark Campbell case (Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd et al. v. Republic of Zimbabwe), which was lodged with the SADC Tribunal in 2007. He has been trying to find ways to circumvent the 2008 SADC Tribunal judgment for the last 12 years.

Chinamasa has made it clear that he believes the Global Compensation Agreement is a great triumph in undermining this historic and binding judgment of the Tribunal.

SADC Tribunal judgment – key points

The Tribunal held that the Zimbabwe government had violated the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Treaty by denying access to the courts and engaging in racial discrimination against white farmers whose lands had been confiscated under the land reform program.

The Tribunal also held that the Zimbabwe government had violated the SADC Treaty by denying access to local courts and engaging in racial discrimination in the confiscation of the land.

With respect to the question of who should pay compensation, the Tribunal stated that in international law it is the expropriating state that should pay compensation.

Regarding compensation for the land, the Tribunal noted: “It is difficult for us to understand the rationale behind excluding compensation for such land, given the clear legal position in international law. It is the right of the Applicants under international law to be paid, and the correlative duty of the Respondent [the Zimbabwe government] to pay fair compensation.”

The Tribunal stressed that [the Zimbabwe government] cannot rely on its national law and its Constitution to avoid an international law obligation to pay compensation. The Tribunal was unanimous in its decision that fair compensation should be paid by the Zimbabwe government for land it had unilaterally taken.

It is important to note that more than 75 percent of title deeds were transferred after independence in 1980, after the government had issued “certificates of no present interest”.  This meant that government had the first option on any sale. If it did not want a farm for resettlement, it issued a certificate and the farmer could sell his land on the open market.

The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA)

The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA) requires that the Zimbabwe government compensates farmers fairly according to the SADC Tribunal judgments, the rule of law and international precedents, guidelines and norms.

Chinamasa claims that President Mnangagwa is leading the way in adhering to the Constitution, particularly Chapter 1, Section 295, subsection 3 (a) that obliges the State to pay compensation for the improvements that were on the land when such land was acquired.

However, the Constitutional Provisions that Chinamasa says President Mnangagwa is respecting in the “deal” are the very same Constitutional Provisions struck down by the SADC Tribunal judgment.

Indeed, if individual farmers do sign up to this “deal” over the next nine months – the time line agreed to – those farmers will be locked into a process which strips them of any further claims or rights that are derived from the landmark SADC Tribunal judgment of 28 November 2008.

This will be tragic given that everything farmers and their families had worked for and invested in over decades – some cases for up to four generations – was taken from them. They lost their entire farming enterprises and livelihoods, including expensive equipment and machinery, standing crops in the ground, livestock and wildlife.

In addition, they lost their homes, household possessions and in many cases cottages built for elderly parents for whom the farms were their source of retirement income. Even the very lives of farmers, family members and farm workers were taken during the frequently brutal land nationalisation process.

Despite the fact that the SADC Tribunal regional human rights court was shut down by the SADC heads of state in 2012 at the instigation of President Mugabe, all judgments made by the Tribunal remain in force and are legally binding.

Should farmers heed the minister’s call to lobby for the dismantling of the sanctions measures and the stipulations of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA), they will be siding with a government that is steeped in corruption and continues to perpetrate shocking human rights abuses and to violate the rule of law and property rights.

Ironically, the dispossessed farmers will find themselves in the invidious position of supporting the very tyranny that has left them and their fellow Zimbabweans in the dire position that the majority are currently enduring.

In closing, we highly recommend that you watch the following interview of a brave colleague and valued friend, Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, who has just been released from prison and speaks for the suffering people in Zimbabwe.  https://youtu.be/4Rg5AGQ6scY

ENDS

Ben Freeth

Spokesperson for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch, Zimbabwe

E-mail:  [email protected]

NOTES TO EDITORS

ZDERA : The Mugabe administration’s undemocratic practices, human rights abuses, and economic mismanagement prompted the U.S. Congress to pass in 2001 (and amend in 2018 under Mnangagwa) the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZDERA), which restricts U.S. support for multilateral financing to Zimbabwe until Zimbabwe makes specified political and economic reforms. /….

In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Treasury enacted targeted financial sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for undemocratic practices, human rights abuses related to political repression, and public corruption.  The U.S. also placed travel restrictions against selected individuals, a ban on transfers of defence items and services, and a suspension of non-humanitarian government-to-government assistance.

Sanctions Facts from the US Embassy website

U.S. targeted sanctions apply to only 84 Zimbabwean individuals and 56 entities (mostly farms and legal entities owned by the 85 individuals) as of February 5, 2019.  For an up-to-date list, please go to http://sdnsearch.ofac.treas.gov/ and select “Zimbabwe” from the list on the Program menu.

Complete information on the U.S. targeted sanctions program is available at the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) website. Click on the “Overview of Sanctions” link for a summary of the sanctions program.

[On 5 August 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new sanctions against businessman Kudakwashe Tagwire and Sakunda Holdings.]

Note: U.S. sanctions do not block the Government of Zimbabwe as a whole, nor do they prohibit all business with Zimbabwe or transactions involving that jurisdiction.  The United States has imported goods from Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe has imported goods from the United States on an ongoing basis both before and after the targeted sanctions commenced.  For current United States-Zimbabwe trade statistics, please go to: https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c7960.html