Four heavily armed suspected state agents besieged MDC Alliance Bulawayo Councillor for Ward 24, Anorld Batirai Dube’s homestead last night.
The four, asked about Clr Dube’s whereabouts before getting away with valuables like laptop, 2 cellphones and money.
The break in comes hotly after another failed attempt just few days ago.
A shaken Mrs Batirai narrated her harrowing ordeal at the hands of the four who threatened to blow off her head demanding to know Clr Dube’s whereabouts.
Clr Batirai Dube is MDC Alliance Youth Assembly Deputy National Secretary for Local Governance.
As an Assembly, we believe Clr Batirai Dube is a victim of a panic stricken regime that is keen to foil the impending 31 July protests through a Night of Long Knives on opposition supporters.
We shall not be intimidated nor relent!
Stephen Sarkozy Chuma MDCAllianceYouth Assembly NationalSpokesperson
DIRECTIVE ON HANDING DOWN AND DISTRIBUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS 1 Reference is made to the Memorandum from the Hon Chief Justice dated 16 July 2020, and the subsequent amendment dated 17 July 2020. 2 The Memorandum gives directives on the procedure to be followed by Judges of the High Court and the Labour Court in the handing down of judgments or orders in certain situations. The substance of the directive is that a judgment that has been handed down cannot afterwards be withdrawn for any reason and that once issued it must be accessible to both the parties and members of the public 3 All the Judges of the High Court identity and agree with the substance of the Memorandum. In fact, it was a subject about which they had been previously consulted arid had aired their own views, including on the issue of to !earpore judgments, addressed in Paragraph 2 (vii) of the Memorandum. In their input, the Judges had expressed their strong support for those positions. This was then communicated to the Hon Chief Justice_ 4 However, when the directive was issued in the form of the above Memorandum. It contained completely new issues in Paragraph 2 (iv) and (v) to the effect that.
• before a judgment or an order of the High Court or Labour Court is issued or handed down, it should be ‘seen and approved’ by the head of court or division, and that • Judges should forthwith desist from the practice of issuing orders with the undertaking to give reasons later, the only exception being in relation to orders on points in & nine. 5 The subsequent amendment removed the word “approved in Paragraph 2 (iv) to read. ‘Before a judgment or an order of the High Court Of Labour Court is issued or handed down, it should be seen by the head of court /docb,on.’ 6 Quite apart from the impracticality of the directive that the head of court or the heads of divisions should ‘see’ every judgment or order before they are handed down (presumably including those made in motion court proceedings, or in bail applications), Judges of the High Court, at all the stations, wish to bring it to the attention of the Hon Chief Justice that. Paragraph 2 (iv) and (v) of the directive, even as amended, is highly objectionable and completely unacceptable for a number of reasons, not least. • by some administrative fiat, it ;s effectively sought to impugn and seriously undermine the independence of a Judge who, in terms of the Constitution, is appointed as an individual to exercise, without fear or favour, such of the functions as are reposed by law; • in the exercise of his or her judicial functions, such as making decisions and handing them down, a Judge does not operate under any other Judge or person or body. • the directive to have the head of court or division ‘see’ a judgment or order before they are handed down lacks precision as to what this means practically, and what the ‘seer’ ought to do after ‘seeing’_
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and swarm their garrison.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
Home with the kids? Try taking 20 minutes a day doing something that they choose – play a game or read with them.
Quality time will make them feel safe and loved.
Praise is powerful. Try praising your child or teenager for something they have done well. They may not show their appreciation, but you’ll see them doing that good thing again.
Routine up! A structured day helps kids feel secure and makes it easier to manage them.
Try making a timetable, with schoolwork, games, free time, exercise, and handwashing.
Kids at home driving you crazy? Feeling like you are going to scream? Give yourself a 1-minute pause. Breathe in and out five times. Then respond.
Crowded house? Stressed out? Share your feelings. Take a break. Looking after kids 24-7 during COVID-19 isn’t easy. Remind yourself of what you did well today. Think about the good moments.
Take care of yourself so you can take care of your children.
Credit:WHO
Inserted by Zimbabwe Online Health Centre
For more information follow /like our Facebook page :Zimbabwe Online Health Centre
ZANU PF Youth League Will Be Brushed Aside If They Stand On Course Of The Revolution!
22-07-2020
Reckless utterances by ZANU PF Youth League that they are going to counter 31 July mass protests against corruption are unfortunate and ill thought.
Statements by the delusional ZANU PF Youth League Deputy Secretary one Tendai Chirau that they will counter 31 July is a clear manifestation of wishful thinking and day dreaming.
July 31 is about the people, the suffering masses so not even a small youth grouping of a political party in dilapidation like ZANU PF has the capacity to stop Zimbabweans from speaking against corruption.
Whatever victory Chirau claims they will be celebrating, they better do that inside their Shake Shake building.
Out there people are hungry and angry hence we are not going to entertain any tomfoolery meant to harbour corrupt government criminals.
Maybe Chirau needs to dig a little bit into history and his family lineage.
Certainly he will find one of his grandfathers, one Chief Jeremiah Chirau who went to bed with Ian Douglas Smith against the masses’ call for freedom.
We all know what happened to that adulterated masquerade called Chief Chirau.
He was swept away together with his handler, Ian Smith by the winds of change.
Just like 1979, July 31 knows no puppets of dictators and those that stand in the way of the people will be swept aside.
Forewarned is forearmed!
Stephen Sarkozy Chuma MDC Alliance Youth Assembly National Spokesperson
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and swarm their garrison.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and swarm their garrison.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
A BULAWAYO man was shot dead after he allegedly tried to disarm detectives arresting him for a spate of robberies and theft cases.
According to a police internal memorandum dated July 17, Webster Muchena (35) of Pumula South, Bulawayo, was shot recently after he wrestled with police officers, who were arresting him as he tried to disarm them.
The detectives had pounced on Muchena after he was implicated by his colleague Knowledge Ndlovu (28) of Pumula South following his arrest over the commission of several crimes.
Their co-accused Mike Mpofu (42) also of Pumula South was yet to be located when the shooting occurred.
Police said during the period extending from June to July 16, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Homicide received reports of cases of unlawful entry into business premises where the suspects targeted digital video recorders, electrical gadgets, laptops, groceries and beers.
“On July 15 at 3am the three suspects went to Nichodim Dladla’s White Rocks Bottle Store at Matsheumhlophe where they broke in and stole beer, a Steward Bank swipe machine, foodstuffs, and cash amounting to US$10 and 300 rands and a CCTV whose value is yet to be ascertained,” reads the memo.
The memo also states that on the same day, police recovered a motor vehicle which was being used by the accused, which had been abandoned after they crashed on a precast wall.
Investigations led to one Allen Nkomo, who indicated that on July 14, Ndlovu, whom he knew as a fuel dealer, hired his vehicle to ferry his property from his home to Ashys in Pumula South.
Several goods were recovered from Ndlovu following his arrest.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednicho Ncube referred Sunday Southern Eye to national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
However, Nyathi said it was impossible for him to get details on the matter as he was out of office.
By A Correspondent- Chimurenga musician Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo on Friday took another dig at the Zanu-PF government accusing it of failing to uphold the constitution thereby giving a wrong reflection of the essence of liberation struggle.
Mapfumo, who is based in the United States, joins a growing list of human rights defenders and United Nations agencies who feel the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa is abusing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions to crack down on dissenting voices.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on Friday raised concerns over growing cases of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
In its statement, UNHRC said: “… the authorities [in Zimbabwe] may be using the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to clamp down on freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”
Since the advent of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown meant to tame the spread of the coronavirus, government has arrested a myriad of opposition activists, including the recent incarceration of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume on allegations of inciting public violence and breaching the lockdown regulations.
It is against this backdrop that on Friday, Mapfumo took to social media to raise his concern over the increased human rights abuses in the country.
“As a leader always mediates on your oath of office, respect the Holy Bible you swore on and respect the constitution.
“Serve the people; their voice is the voice of God. Zimbabwe ndeye vanhu [is for the people],” Mapfumo twitted via his Twitter handle @OfficialMukanya.
Mukanya, who for years has been fighting for the “liberation of the people of Zimbabwe”, said he would continue raising concerns, especially when the masses in Zimbabwe are suffering.
“As I am alive, I have to be seen fighting side-by-side with my people (because) when they are liberated, I am also liberated. So, that’s my goal [and] I want to see Zimbabwean people free,” he said
The musician said people in Zimbabwe should enjoy their fundamental liberties as enshrined in the constitution.
“They [Zimbabweans] should have freedom of speech, freedom of movement and no one should harass them,” he said.
“That country is for all Zimbabweans, not for a few individuals, and we should just respect that name Zimbabwe.”
This is not the first time that Mukanya has taken the authorities in Zimbabwe head-on.
In his 34th independence anniversary message to Zimbabwe, Mukanya said: “Even though I was not holding a gun, it was a difficult terrain and I was constantly harassed, arrested and detained because I denounced oppression and colonialism.
“My dream was to see a free Zimbabwe where our citizens are able to access education, health, access to decent accommodation, and above all a better life for everyone.”
The Oregon-based musician has reiterated that his music stands for freedom and justice.
Throughout his career, the 75-year-old musician has been a very vocal critique of social injustices perpetrated on the general population by the ruling elite.
By A Correspondent- Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri last week donated two tonnes of maize meal to health workers in Nyanga District.
The maize meal, which was handed over to Nyanga District Medical Officer Dr Admore Jokwiro by Nyanga North and South Members of National Assembly Chido Sanyatwe and Supa Mandiwanzira will be distributed to health frontline workers in the two constituencies.
Muchinguri-Kashiri recently made a similar donation to health personnel in Mutasa District.
In an interview with The Manica Post, Dr Jokwiro appreciated Muchinguri-Kashiri’s gesture.
“We really appreciate Muchinguri-Kashiri’s gesture. lt shows that some people out there are concerned about our welfare. This donation will be distributed to all health facilities in Nyanga North and South,” said Dr Jokwiro.
He went on to highlight that the health sector is grappling with a plethora of challenges, including the lack of basic equipment to mitigate against the spread of diseases.
Due to their proximity to the Mozambican border, some parts of Nyanga are prone to outbreaks of malaria through trans-border transmissions.
Some Mozambicans cross into Zimbabwe through porous illegal entry points to seek medical attention from health facilities near the border.
“Our health care facilities need a lot of attention and workers’ welfare needs to be constantly revisited. The Covid-19 pandemic is real and has brought a lot of challenges to the health delivery system in the country. We should all appreciate the good work being done by the personnel in this sector and render them the necessary support.
“We hope more individuals and corporates will come on board with donations of personal protective equipment and other accessories as we scale-up our fight against the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Speaking on the district’s state of preparedness to handle Covid-19 cases, Dr Jokwiro said a lot of work still needs to be done, especially on the Nyanga District Hospital isolation centre.
“Our district isolation centre is 50 percent ready. We have converted one of the wards into an isolation centre. Material for the project is taking time to be delivered but we expect the work to be done in two weeks’ time.
“Although we are still to record any Covid-19 cases in the district, we should not be complacent because the weather conditions in Nyanga can contribute to an upsurge of cases. We are at the peak of the winter season and at times temperatures here become unbearable. We hope to continue managing the situation well.
“The fight against the spread of Covid-19 is everyone’s responsibility and we should ensure that we observe the World Health Organisation’s safety guidelines,” said Dr Jokwiro.
He went on to reveal that during his last trip to the United States of America, he came face to face with the devastating effects of Covid-19.
“We should not throw caution to the wind because by doing so, we will have difficulties in managing this pandemic,” he said.
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and detect military weaponry.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
Energy minister Fortune Chasi says he has been alerted to fresh corruption allegations at Zesa Holdings (Zesa) — and specifically being perpetrated by executive chairperson Sydney Gata — and which the government will thoroughly investigate.
The development comes as the electricity concern has been dogged by graft allegations since the 1990s, with ex-chief executive Josh Chifamba and several other executives back in court last week and President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has vowed to rid the country of corruption starting with State-owned enterprises.
“Yes, my attention has been drawn to the allegations you state. They are indeed egregious and very worrying. However, I just note that the matter is sub-judice and hence as a result I am stopped from commenting there on,” Chasi told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday.
“Government’s attitude is well known. It is one of complete intolerance — regardless of the alleged culprit. The president (Emmerson Mnangagwa) has repeatedly made this point and there will be no deviation from that stance in this case,” he said.“This case will be a good test case as to the spine fullness of the board.
Government expects no less than adequate action that is in line with the seriousness of the matter in question.
The board’s speed of action must reflect the urgency and seriousness of the matter,’’ Chasi, a trained lawyer, said.
“Additionally, we expect that a proper investigation be carried out and that the outcomes of such investigation shall inform the requisite action by the board.
The importance, actual or imagined, of an alleged perpetrator is completely irrelevant to the inquiry and the corrective action to be taken in the circumstances,” he said.
While Gata was not immediately available for comment yesterday, information gleaned by this publication suggests that the Zesa executive chair had diverted some projects to entities associated with him, employed ghost workers and used company funds for his “personal benefit”.
The electrical engineer stands accused of splurging “$10 million on two lavish parties in Hwange and Kariba and $2 million on alcohol alone” when he was reappointed to the broke parastatal last year.
“The common link between Zesa… and the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Industry Trust (ZESIT) is that Dr Gata… is a champion of and patron of ZESIT.
He has been championing ZESIT’s cause to the extent of allowing it to operate from Zesa national training centre at no cost to ZESIT.
The entity is a private project, which is the brainchild and mastered by Dr Gata and some of his erstwhile colleagues in Zesa,” a government source, who indicated a dossier would be sent to Mnangagwa’s office and the anti-corruption unit tomorrow, said.
Among other projects that the British-trained executive is alleged to have carried out in an opaque manner include the Tuli mining project in Beitbridge and the KEPCO joint venture with a Korean company — for the manufacture of concrete structures for electrification.
The projects, it is said, have been passed off to the board as Zesa undertakings and yet it was ZESIT, which was at the centre of the projects.Gata, a former Robert Mugabe relative and who has been previously sacked at the parastatal, is also facing allegations of “subverting labour processes to favour individuals”.
In particular, he is alleged to have usurped disciplinary proceedings for one Norah Tsomondo — a suspended Zimbabwe Power Company employee facing serious allegations of causing unauthorised expenditures to the tune of US$20 million which arose in 2018 — by allegedly ordering her reinstatement.
On the issue of ghost employees, Gata is alleged to have imposed Peter Tshuma — an ex-Zesa employee — as head of projects and engineering as well as on business trips to South Africa in March.
According to the high-level source, the Zesa boss also stands accused of “abusing company vehicles, including a Toyota Fortuner allocated to his wife and is also alleged to have “ordered the installation of a US$4 000 solar system at his Borrowdale home, and which was not covered under his contract”.
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and swarm their garrison.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
OVER a dozen suspected armed robbers pounced movie-style on the affluent Borrowdale Hospital Trauma Centre yesterday —an incident that was captured on CCTV.
National police spokesperson Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident saying the police were currently investigating the matter.
Trauma Centre owner, prominent medical doctor Vivek Solanki, told the Daily News on Sunday that he received a call from one of his security guards at the institution, who had managed to hide himself in one of the rooms, alerting him of the armed robbers ransacking the place.“There were about 12 to 14 armed robbers who popped up at the Trauma Centre at around 2:30am and tied my staff who were there with cable tiers.
One of the guards, who had successfully hid himself, then called me and alerted me of what was happening at the centre.“My wife and I then drove to the Trauma Centre because we live close by.
As we were getting closer to the Centre, we saw a group of men holding guns rushing into cars parked outside. I then flashed the headlights on my car hoping they would stop but they immediately got into three cars parked outside and sped off,” Solanki said.
Solanki immediately went on a high-speed chase after the suspected armed robbers who were fleeing from the scene.
“I drove after them in a high-speed chase and I rammed into a silver Fortuner which then rammed into another smaller car, a Vitz which had some of the armed robbers in it.
“The cars did not stop at first so I rammed into them again and they veered off the road and crashed and I also crashed.
“After that the robbers came out of their cars and started running. I got out of my car and I had sustained back injuries so I could not chase after them anymore. At that point, the caiman team had arrived at the scene being driven by my friend because we had alerted them and they said they didn’t have a car to respond.
They used their dogs to track the armed robbers but they did not find them. I suspect that they had been picked up by another car,” he said.
Solanki further revealed that the suspected armed robbers had assaulted his staff and gotten away with six laptops, cellphones and an undisclosed amount of money.
“The armed robbers harassed my staff, assaulted and bruised them. They were ransacking the place yelling asking where the money was and where the safe was located. They got away with some money, about six laptops and cellphones.
“This was all recorded in CCTV footage. It was such an organised crime because they tied my staff in cable tiers and the way they were walking around was as if they owned the place.
“They were so comfortable and were not even wearing masks or balaclavas. Some of them were wearing hoodies and were not even concerned about being recognised.
They only started running around when I arrived and began chasing after them,” Solanki said.Solanki proceeded to seek medical attention for the injuries sustained during the car crash.
Recently, Solanki opened a new private coronavirus (Covid-19) centre which treats patients for free and has a capacity of 30 beds.
“The first privately funded and dedicated Covid-19 hospital is up and running in Milton Park. The hospital has 30 beds and 700 healthcare workers who have been trained in infection control and self-protection techniques, including the complex Donning and Doffing protocols against Covid-19.
“It is fully staffed with trained doctors and nurses with dedicated administrators and will conduct examination, treatment with admissions including a high care unit,” Solanki said recently.
By A Correspondent- A total of 323 health workers countrywide have tested positive for COVID-19.
This was revealed by Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Gibson Mhlanga who said they have not yet recorded any fatalities so far:
It is unfortunate that we are having health workers being infected by Covid-19. These are critical in dealing with the rising number of cases being reported countrywide.
So far 323 health workers have tested positive in Zimbabwe since the beginning of the outbreak, luckily no deaths have been reported among these health workers.
Of these, nurses are the most affected, constituting 168 and doctors 16. Other affected health workers include people working in pharmacies, accounts, general hands working in the cleaning services as well as drivers ferrying patients. These healthcare workers need PPEs at all times.
This comes amid reports that health workers are on strike citing low wages and poor working conditions which includes lack of Professional Protective Equipment.
By A Correspondent- A police officer based in Beitbridge allegedly force-marched at gunpoint his boss from his home to the charge office in protest at being served with papers to appear before a board of suitability.
Rangarirai Dube, who is based at Zezani police station, allegedly has other several pending cases of violating the Police Act.
This time around he is being charged with contravening the Firearms Act Chapter 10:09 (pointing a firearm to a person).
Dube appeared before Beitbridge magistrate Toindepi Zhou seeking bail, but his application was dismissed as he was considered a flight risk and would possibly interfere with state witnesses.
Prosecutor Munyonga Kuvarega opposed the bail application and the magistrate remanded him in custody to July 30 for trial.
Dube is accused of force-marching the officer in charge at Zezani police station Inspector Cherechedzai Marisa from his house to the charge office to discuss a pending disciplinary issue.
By Patrick Guramatunhu- Zimbabweans have a knack for blaming everyone else but themselves for their problems, trials and tribulations.
“The US Embassy in Harare whose govt has always rooted for Tendai Biti as safe bet for American interests here, had hoped to use Ngarivhume and his pseudo-leadership of July 31 disturbances to re-launch Tendai Biti as the new leader of MDC-Alliance, with the impulsive Jobho Sikhala as the TONG for handling hot pieces. Both men are America’s centurions, Biti designated to play the Philosopher-King, while Sikhala is the Hotspur of the equation,” reported Bulawayo 24, quoting George Charamba.
“The choice of Ngarivhume – another of America’s men whose roots are in Chipinge – was the right face for that operation which would have consigned Nelson Chamisa to the dustbin. Previous to Ngarivhume, Americans had hoped for the Malawian cleric, Shingi Munyeza, who was later dropped for being inorganic and tainted after hopes of washing him clean by goading ED to fire him from PAC failed.”
This is just nonsense and the suggestion that the Americans are behind all this makes it all idiotic nonsense. The Americans, the EU and the west in general have rooted for the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. Of course, they were disappointed that Zanu PF failed to implement any reforms and dismissed the whole election as a farce.
The west was disgusted by the sheer naivety of Zimbabwe’s opposition camp, not even one of them had the common sense to demand even something as basic for democratic elections as a verified voters’ roll.
Everyone knows the principle reason the MDC leaders and the rest of the crowded opposition camp have continued to participate in elections even when it was clear Zanu PF was rigging the elections, was greed. Ever since the 2008 GNU Zanu PF has seen to it that it allowed the opposition to win a few gravy-train seats, bait which that latter has found totally irresistible. Still, there are some things a human being is expected to resist and not follow one’s primeval instinct like a mouse enticed into a trap by the smell of peanut butter!
By failing to implement the reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 GNU and then participating in flawed elections again and again thereafter MDC leaders have shown they have no common sense.
Having participated in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections all the opposition parties and candidates have since endorsed the rigged July 2018 elections as free and fair, contrary to the damning reports from the west. All except Nelson Chamisa who has elected to challenge Mnangagwa’s electoral victory not on the basis of something as substantive as the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll. How could he; since he knew the was no verified voters’ roll and decided to participate regardless.
Chamisa challenge Mnangagwa’s victory on the grounds ZEC failed to produce all the V11 forms, summary of all the votes tally at each Polling Station. ZEC only produced 10 987 V11 forms, 10% were missing. Some western observers reported of ZEC officials, with no other witnesses, completing V11 forms 24 hours after this was supposed to be done and dusted.
Chamisa not only wanted the Constitutional Court to dismiss Mnangagwa as the dully elected but declare him as the winner. He claimed to have polled 2.6 million vote which is more that ZEC’s 2.4 million votes for Mnangagwa. Needless to say; Chamisa too failed to produce the V11 forms to support his claim.
The very fact that Chamisa and his fellow MDC Alliance leaders like Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Welshman Ncube, etc. expect anyone including the west to endorse Chamisa’s claim as the winner goes to show just how naïve and stupid the MDC leaders are. Who in their right mind would ever want to be involves with such naïve and stupid with a knack to shoot from the hip, hence the reason they have failed to achieve anything of substance in all MDC’s 20 years in politics.
The way out of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis, which has dogged this nation for the last 40 years, is for the country to the hold of free, fair and credible election. This is obvious to everyone with common sense and it is therefore no surprise that the Americans have been arguing the implementation of the reforms to ensure free and fair elections. To therefore suggest that the Americans are behind the chaos and stupidity of MDC politics is laughable!
“The young man (Chamisa) doesn’t want risks, which is what riles Americans whose wish is confrontational politics in Zimbabwe,” maintains Charamba. Why then did the Americans want the reforms implemented before the elections, if they wanted confrontation politics?
After 40 years of blundering from pillar to post, Zimbabweans must now carefully reflect on what next because this disastrous path of thoughtless folly and greed has dragged us deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth we now find ourselves stuck in. The longer we have stayed, the deeper we have sunk and the harder it has become to escape. If this Zanu PF and MDC chaos and madness are allowed to continue unchecked, this nation will be pushed beyond the point of no return, if it has not gone past already!
We have allowed Zanu PF and MDC chaos and madness to rule the roost for 40 years. The responsibility to ensure we have free, fair and credible elections is our responsibility and we have failed no one else but ourselves in this!
Bees can be trained to smell solders and police and swarm their garrison.
https://youtu.be/6D2TKvur2G0
Amazing research has been coming out lately about bees and their high-intensity sense of smell. In addition, they can easily be trained to recognize smells in a very short time.
The Telegraph reported that Croatian and French biologists were able to train bees to detect explosives and mines in the Balkans. Their olfactory sense allows bees to detect thousands of unexploded underground landmines and explosives.
Yves Le Conte is the director of the bee and environment unit at INRA in Avignon, France. He has stated that bees can detect TNT if they receive the proper training.
This 3:08-minute long video shows how honeybees can help save human lives by detecting landmines that were hidden in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Dr. Rebecca Nesbit works at Inscentinel, a company that trains bees. She has stated that bees are cheaper and easier to train than sniffer dogs and their scent-sensing capabilities are so heightened that they can detect an odor in parts per trillion. For instance, they can sniff-out a grain of salt in an Olympic swimming pool.
Do bees smell fear? Keep in mind, bees traditionally use their sense of smell to protect their hives. It is not so much the actual fear that bees smell as it is the pheromones, which are like hormones, that are released by a creature when that creature feels fearful. Bees know to interpret that scent as fear and they can emit scents of their own to ‘talk’ to each other about the smell they identify as fear, so the entire hive is quickly alerted.
If a human, cat, dog, squirrel or raccoon gets too close to a beehive, the pheromones of that creature are picked up as ‘different’ to that of the hive, and the watcher bees will alert the rest of the hive by emitting their own pheromones that danger might be near. It is a defensive move intended to put the hive on high alert, rather than a desire to attack the stranger. Yet. An attack will usually only take place if the intruder initiates any sort of attack on the colony.
This 3:47-minute long video shows how honeybees are being trained as scent-detecting crime-fighters.
https://youtu.be/Ulsc0FpNVaQ
Remember, bee talk is non-verbal and unfolds in two ways. The waggle dance and bee pheromones are the languages of bees. The species is considered to engage in one of the most advanced means of communicating out of all social insects.
The waggle dance is the popular and well-known way bees talk to each other. We blogged about the waggle dance, which is how foraging bees tell each other about the hottest new foraging grounds so they can all enjoy the nectar and pollen.
Pheromone “talk” is the complex language of scent that informs bees about many things. It is especially useful as an early warning system to let them know if danger is nearby. If a bee is under attack or in distress, she can release “attack pheromones” and these will alert other bees nearby, causing a swarm of her defensive sisters to fly in and protect her.
What are bee pheromones and how do bees use them to smell? Pheromones are chemical substances that are created by an animal’s exocrine glands. When they are triggered within that creature, it elicits a response from another animal of the same species depending on the physiological or behavioral signature associated within that species.
Bees have an intense sense of smell and are drawn to scents as much as they are to colors. Their antennae pick up odors, even while flying. They can discern the trace of a scent mid-flight, which helps them to identify flowers that are rich sources of pollen and nectar. They can spontaneously follow the scent to the flowers or herbs.
They love the scents of native plants and some aromatic herbs bees love are lavender, hyssop, chamomile, beebalm, sage, rosemary and thyme. They do not like the smells of cinnamon, peppermint, geranium and cucumber, to name a few.
Can a bee smell a human? Some people think bees can smell fear, because many people get scared when they see a bee, and then the bee seems drawn to come take a closer look. The bee is just scoping you out unless you are provoking the hive.
The queen bee sets the pheromone signature scent in a hive, but what about individual bees? An exciting new study by EarthSky indicates that the scent profiles of bees change at different times in their lives. Most bees in the hive don’t notice subtle differences in the scent of their hive-mates. but the hive’s alert watchers, the Guard Bees, are geared to ‘smell’ outsiders that don’t belong in the hive. Since foragers may pick up other scents while they are away from the hive, they can be treated differently by Guard Bees when they seek hive re-entry since they no longer smell like the younger bees who have never left the hive but still maintain the full integrity of the queen’s hive scent.
What do you think of bees being trained as sniffer-bees? You can share your thoughts over on our Facebook page. – Source: beemission.com
By A Correspondent- Thokozani Khupe of opposition MDC-T has dismissed allegations which say she is privately approaching Nelson Chamisa of MDC Alliance seeking support to avert pressure from secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora who is reportedly eyeing the presidential post in the party.
This comes after sources close to the developments had alleged that MDC-T leadership in Matabeleland had pressured Khupe into approaching the Chamisa faction to counter Mwonzora’s rise.
In response to the allegations, Khupe’s spokesperson, Mr Khaliphani Pugeni said:
There is no basis at all to those reports, as you might know after the Supreme Court judgement and the actions by Mr Chamisa thereafter, the party wrote a letter expelling him, a letter that was signed by Dr Khupe.
Therefore, it cannot work for Dr Khupe to then go against the party position to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa. In actual fact, I believe Dr Khupe has more class to do such an act, people chose the path they took after the Supreme Court ruling.
He said the party was now focused on holding its extraordinary congress and would not be distracted by naysayers.
There are reports suggesting that MDC-T Harare province recently nominated Mwonzora for president ahead of the extraordinary congress which Khupe postponed indefinitely.
By A Correspondent- The High Court on Friday granted an order in favour of MISA Zimbabwe interdicting Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and other cited respondents from implementing a police warrant seeking information on the mobile phone operator’s transactions.
High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi granted the provisional order in Harare on 24 July 2020 in favour of the applicants, MISA Zimbabwe, first applicant, and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), second applicant.
In a statement following the ruling, MISA Zimbabwe said:
Justice Chitapi granted the provisional order by consent in terms of which:
The respondents and all other persons acting through them are interdicted from implementing the directives of the Warrant of Search and Seizure (Ref WSS 3913/20).
Econet Wireless shall strictly maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the information that is in its custody relating to MISA Zimbabwe and ZimRights, the organisations’ members, and the organisations’ employees.
For the avoidance of doubt, Econet Wireless shall not divulge to any of the co-respondents (i.e 1st to 5th respondents):
Any details regarding MISA Zimbabwe and ZimRights, or these organisations’ members, or the organisations’ employees, as listed in the Warrant, or
Any transactional data regarding transactions carried out between Econet Wireless and MISA Zimbabwe and ZimRights, the organisations’ members, and the organisations’ employees, for the period specified in the warrant.
By A Correspondent- Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube will be giving $300 monthly (about US$4) to families affected by the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.
The state media reported that Ncube told a ZANU PF Provincial Co-ordinating Committee (PCC) meeting in Gwanda Town that:
“I want to talk about those people that are vulnerable and are on social welfare. Our target is one million people across the country. I think we have about 65 000 households in Matabeleland South that we are targeting with this programme. We want this number to rise and people should come forward and register with the Department of Social Welfare.”
Ncube added that the money was targeted mainly to those who has not been given by the Social Welfare Department.
“Those that don’t receive food will be given money. We have said we want to give them $300 per month. That’s what we have in store for now. The figure might rise but that’s what we have in store for now.”
By A Correspondent- A Bulawayo man was shot dead after he allegedly tried to disarm detectives arresting him for a spate of robberies and theft cases.
According to a police internal memorandum dated July 17, Webster Muchena (35) of Pumula South, Bulawayo, was shot recently after he wrestled with police officers, who were arresting him as he tried to disarm them.
The detectives had pounced on Muchena after he was implicated by his colleague Knowledge Ndlovu (28) of Pumula South following his arrest over the commission of several crimes.
Their co-accused Mike Mpofu (42) also of Pumula South was yet to be located when the shooting occurred.
Police said during the period extending from June to July 16, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Homicide received reports of cases of unlawful entry into business premises where the suspects targeted digital video recorders, electrical gadgets, laptops, groceries and beers.
“On July 15 at 3am the three suspects went to Nichodim Dladla’s White Rocks Bottle Store at Matsheumhlophe where they broke in and stole beer, a Steward Bank swipe machine, foodstuffs, and cash amounting to US$10 and 300 rands and a CCTV whose value is yet to be ascertained,” reads the memo.
The memo also states that on the same day, police recovered a motor vehicle which was being used by the accused, which had been abandoned after they crashed on a precast wall.
Investigations led to one Allen Nkomo, who indicated that on July 14, Ndlovu, whom he knew as a fuel dealer, hired his vehicle to ferry his property from his home to Ashys in Pumula South.
Several goods were recovered from Ndlovu following his arrest.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednicho Ncube referred Sunday Southern Eye to national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
However, Nyathi said it was impossible for him to get details on the matter as he was out of office.
Teachers are worried about the difference between their salaries and those of other civil servants such as the armed forces after noticing that they have become the least paid among the government workers.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe President Takavafira Zhou in a statement said it defied logic why teachers had become the least paid among civil servants ahed of their counterparts in the security sector.
He said:
“After the deferment of the reopening of schools due to our herculean resistance against ill-informed intentions to prematurely open schools by Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education officials and some yellow teacher union leaders irrigating their pants, there are several fault lines that need our collective scrutiny.
“A major fault line is the issue of serious discrepancies in salaries received by teachers in comparison to other sectors particularly police, soldiers, University Lecturers and top civil servants,” Zhou said.
“We are all aware that at entry point teachers’ salaries were slightly higher than that of police and soldiers and one third of salaries received by University Lecturers. As such, giving teachers $1200 as 50 percent covid 19 allowance, soldiers and police $5000 to $9000, University Lecturers $19000 to $33000, top civil servants $25000 to $40000, baffles logic and common sense.
Consequently, teachers received salaries ranging from $3800 to $4500 whereas police and soldiers received salaries ranging from $10 000 to $18000, top civil servants $50000 to $80000 and lecturers would receive salaries ranging from $38 000 to $66 000.”
He said while they do not begrudge these salaries, they certainly need an explanation from the government as teachers in order to understand its selective forgetfulness.
“Contrary to perception of some malcontents within the teacher trade union movement, this is not pursuit of any political party agenda but rather pursuit of monumental labour justice and a stand against unfair labour practice, callousness, prejudice, narrow-mindedness and political bigotry,” reads this statement.
“It is a call for responsible leadership, transparency, accountability, political security and equity. If this is a product of belonging to the Apex Council, then to hell with the Apex Council that has become a liability rather than an asset.
We know this may not necessarily have anything to do with the moribund and obsolete Apex Council but we certainly need an explanation to teachers from the government.”.
“A considerable number of teachers turned to agony, anguish and wailing after receiving the starvation wages. Our view as PTUZ is that there is no need to regret for being a teacher, and teachers must never mentally resign although they physically remain teachers in Zimbabwe.
The situation where 99 percent of teachers have mentally resigned although they physically remain as teachers is not enviable for the profession.”
Zhou said rather teachers across the country must get organised and force their leaders to collectively unite and seek an explanation from the government as it is within the purview of trade unionism to do so.
He said there is also a need for unity in their diversity in clamouring for the restoration of their October 2018 salaries pegged at US$550.
“The restoration of our purchasing power parity is a dispute of right that must unite teachers across the union and non-union divide. There is no need to try to politicise such a clear labour issue. As long as our politics is non-partisan but focused on creating a credible education system in Zimbabwe there is nothing to fear except fear itself,” Zhou said.
By Own Correspondent| Zanu PF Youth League has urged law enforcement agents to deal with the planned violent demonstrations being organised by opposition activists and all those involved.
In separate statements yesterday, Zanu PF Youth League provincial structures said the planned demonstrations are meant to further an illegal regime change agenda.
Zanu PF Mashonaland West Youth League chairperson Vengai Musengi said holding a demonstration during a pandemic poses a danger to public health.
“Opposition elements are keen to cause violence at the end of this month,” said Musengi.
“Such acts pose a serious threat to the safety of members of the public and seriously undermine social order. They warrant society’s most severe condemnation.”
He said the organisers of the demonstrations were using social media to promote attacks on State institutions and private property.
The police, Musengi said, must use appropriate force to disrupt the planned demonstrations and arrest those involved.
Youth League chairperson for Matabeleland North Province, Tamuka Nyoni, said opposition elements were trying to destabilise the country through demonstrations.
“The provincial league, as much as other progressive forces in our country, is saddened and disheartened by news circulating in the electronic and print media regarding the 31st of July so called ‘mass protests’ by regime change agenda advocates,” said Nyoni.
“They are trying by all means to polarise the peaceful environment enjoyed by the citizenry, which is trying to come to terms with the reality of this global pandemic which is making lives unbearable.”
He said the organisers are criminal elements who intend to overthrow a constitutionally-elected Government which has a mandate that runs until 2023.
“We, therefore, call upon the citizenry to fight these forces in order to maintain the peace that we enjoy in the midst of this pandemic.
The Mat North Youth league appeals to like-minded and progressive formations who share our vision, to shun these calls and exercise maximum unity.”-The Sunday Mail
– Can you provide a video proving your bedding. – Even though this is still low standard- for a Highway carrying gonyetts, it must be: Alsphalt bedding 350mm, and it needs standard Buchmen @BeautyZhuwao – Can you publish the expenditure per km @advocatemahere
He is no longer Saro Wiwa but Osama binLaden: By Togarepi Nyambuya
Three days ago he was said to be in Zambia where rumour says he went to see a Pastor friend for prayers as he is determined to fight on until something happens in Zimbabwe. It is said he is so angry over the arrest of his friends Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume as they have been planning this together for a longtime. They agreed to launch Jacob Ngarivhume on the forefront first while he remains on the wings to disguise the State. He will pop up later as supporting the cause. Several planning and strategy meetings were held at Hopewell Chin’ono’s Chisipiti home since December last year that the time is up to deal with the looting in the country.
It all started with a flier of Ngarivhume early last month looking enigmatic and people should have raised eyebrows on the graphic design of the flier. Ngarivhume came out on the flier as the bull roaring for a fight and it ignited the nation into frenzy. Job Wiwa Sikhala was silent and nowhere to be seen.
They tasked each other roles. Wiwa underground mobilization, Hopewell to lobby other significant political players in the country such as Dr. Nkosana Moyo, Dr Noah Manyika and to approach Nelson Chamisa for endorsement. Jacob Ngarivhume to approach civic society organizations, ZCTU and ZINASU, Churches, youths and women organizations, vendor organizations and other important personalities such as Shingi Munyeza, Tsenengamu and every important stakeholder in the country. Sikhala activated his political cells and approached some of his friends such as Obert Masaraure for the wayforward. Wiwa helped Obert Masaraure to launch his Poverty Liberation Movement converging some civic society organizations under it. So this thing was organised over a period of a longtime than anyone would imagine. Wiwa was the master strategist of everything.
Wiwa went into brief confusion after the arrest of his buddies. He weighed options whether it was the right time for him to come out. After visiting his Zambia pastor friend for prayers the cat bolted out of the bag. He vowed to take charge in the absence of his colleagues. He held a one hour program with ZimEye which had an audience of over 19 000. He was bold and assertive. Clearly giving the country the wayforward on the 31st July plot.
Those who underestimate Wiwa are doing it at their own peril. He is a man so organised on strategy and planning. He lays back while he is the danger behind. He always emphasises on planning. His famous statement always in meetings is “a good planner dont go wrong”. His advantage is his knowledge of intelligence. He can predict correctly the reaction of his enemies step by step. There is no plot against him which he would not know in advance. He is a master on those things.
They miss him at the Zambian border and like Osama bin Laden launches an attack from an unknown place. Knowing him well he will be elusive until the day he will surrender himself to the police. I don’t think even his wife knows where he is. He keeps it to himself. Will the police whom he heard wants to raid his house today either in the morning or evening get him? Lets wait and see. The new Osama bin Laden.
Controversial musician WINKY D, has spoken out openly against the arrest of journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.
Winky D wrote on his Twitter page “Say no to violation against human rights. Don’t kill the dreams of the next generation by losing hope now and choose to be silent. God help us.”
DIRECTIVE ON HANDING DOWN AND DISTRIBUTION OF JUDGMENTS AND ORDERS 1 Reference is made to the Memorandum from the Hon Chief Justice dated 16 July 2020, and the subsequent amendment dated 17 July 2020. 2 The Memorandum gives directives on the procedure to be followed by Judges of the High Court and the Labour Court in the handing down of judgments or orders in certain situations. The substance of the directive is that a judgment that has been handed down cannot afterwards be withdrawn for any reason and that once issued it must be accessible to both the parties and members of the public 3 All the Judges of the High Court identity and agree with the substance of the Memorandum. In fact, it was a subject about which they had been previously consulted arid had aired their own views, including on the issue of to !earpore judgments, addressed in Paragraph 2 (vii) of the Memorandum. In their input, the Judges had expressed their strong support for those positions. This was then communicated to the Hon Chief Justice_ 4 However, when the directive was issued in the form of the above Memorandum. It contained completely new issues in Paragraph 2 (iv) and (v) to the effect that.
• before a judgment or an order of the High Court or Labour Court is issued or handed down, it should be ‘seen and approved’ by the head of court or division, and that • Judges should forthwith desist from the practice of issuing orders with the undertaking to give reasons later, the only exception being in relation to orders on points in & nine. 5 The subsequent amendment removed the word “approved in Paragraph 2 (iv) to read. ‘Before a judgment or an order of the High Court Of Labour Court is issued or handed down, it should be seen by the head of court /docb,on.’ 6 Quite apart from the impracticality of the directive that the head of court or the heads of divisions should ‘see’ every judgment or order before they are handed down (presumably including those made in motion court proceedings, or in bail applications), Judges of the High Court, at all the stations, wish to bring it to the attention of the Hon Chief Justice that. Paragraph 2 (iv) and (v) of the directive, even as amended, is highly objectionable and completely unacceptable for a number of reasons, not least. • by some administrative fiat, it ;s effectively sought to impugn and seriously undermine the independence of a Judge who, in terms of the Constitution, is appointed as an individual to exercise, without fear or favour, such of the functions as are reposed by law; • in the exercise of his or her judicial functions, such as making decisions and handing them down, a Judge does not operate under any other Judge or person or body. • the directive to have the head of court or division ‘see’ a judgment or order before they are handed down lacks precision as to what this means practically, and what the ‘seer’ ought to do after ‘seeing’_
MDC Alliance MP Joanah Mamombe and fellow party activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were denied access to the Harare Magistrates court on Friday because they were wearing facemasks with the MDC Alliance logo.
The trio had gone to attend the bail hearing for journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume among others.
Political commentator Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya gives his analysis to the SABC on the Hopewell Chin’ono case immediately after Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa denied the government was targeting him and politician Jacob Ngarivhume for their anti-corruption stance.
Al-Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez, the former Barcelona and Spain midfielder, said on Saturday he had tested positive for COVID-19 but was asymptomatic.
The 40-year-old, who renewed his contract with the Qatari club on July 5, said he will self-isolate as his team prepare for their first match on Saturday after the Qatar Stars League (QSL) was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today I won’t be able to join my team on their comeback to the official competition,” Xavi said in a statement.
“David Prats will be there on my behalf as head of the technical staff – coach to the Al-Sadd reserves.
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“A few days ago, following the QSL protocol, I tested positive in the last COVID-19 test. Fortunately, I’m feeling ok, but I will be isolated until I am given the all-clear.
“When the health services allow it, I will be very eager to return to my daily routine and to work.”
The QSL resumed on Friday after being suspended since March due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
Third-place Al-Sadd announced on its website that Xavi would not be joining the rest of the team for its league game against Al-Khor later on Saturday.
Qatar has recorded 109,036 positive cases and attributed 164 deaths to the virus, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
At least 250 widows from across western Cameroon are staging protests to call for an end to cleansing rituals and other cultural practices they say they have been forced to undergo following their husbands’ deaths. The widows gathered to demonstrate in the western town of Bafoussam.
Forty-seven-year-old Amede Djoulde is a member of the Association of Widows, based in the nearby town of Foumban. She says the demonstrations began when a mother of five children was chased from her marital home after her husband died recently.
She says widows are suffering enormously in their community. Women are always accused of killing their husbands and no one seems to consider the pain they go through after losing their life partners.
Amina Nji says her family home is now illegally occupied by her late husband’s older brother.
She says she should be the owner of their matrimonial home because she constructed it with her husband. She says her in-laws did not take into consideration that she and her five children need a home. She says she now lives in her oldest daughter’s house but wants to return to her home.
The women say they oppose practices that include the ritual of being forced to drink water used to bathe their late husband’s body as a sign they did not kill their spouse. The women also say the practice of having to stay with their in-laws for about a year after their husbands die is cruel.
Njingum Ngemnye, a public figure in the village of Koutoupit, says the practices are to cleanse the women of evil spirits brought about by the death of their spouses.
He says tradition gives authority to particular notables to cleanse a woman by shaving her head immediately after the burial of her husband. He says the female siblings of the late husband must accompany the widow to her farm, fetch water and watch over her by accompanying her everywhere she goes.
Seidou Tonta, also a notable (public figure) in Koutoupit, says he is surprised that the women want to abandon traditions intended to protect them.
He says their tradition states that a widow, for her safety and fear of being cursed by her late husband, must avoid having sexual relations and wear only black dresses for up to a year after her husband dies. He says he is upset that many people are now believing in the doctrine of Christian churches that says God is against such practices. He says their traditions must also be respected by people who preach Christianity.
Ernestine Essah, the highest ranking official in Noun, an administrative unit where Foumban is located, says the government has been educating communities in order to avoid such practices.
She says the most disturbing issue she has observed in western Cameroon is the inhumane way women are treated when they lose their husbands. She says she has organized several talks and conferences to propagate the rights of women. She says she has asked those who still practice harmful widowhood rights to stop it because it is against the dignity of women and the government forbids such rites.
The government of Cameroon says its western region still has some of the worst forms of cultural practices that undermine the rights of women.
ZIMBABWEANS who missed the submission deadline on 19 July to apply for food assistance cannot get an extension, Zimbabwean consul general in Johannesburg Melody Chaurura told GroundUp last Wednesday.
“There is no room for extension at this point because submitted details are already being processed,” said Chaurura.
The embassy had put out a call for Zimbabweans in SA in need of food assistance because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to apply for help by 19 July. The assistance would come in the form of a once-off voucher from the International Organisation for Migration, which had asked the embassy to submit a list of Zimbabweans for inclusion.
Chaurura said about 3 300 Zimbabweans had successfully registered for food assistance. Priority would be given to expecting mothers, unemployed youth and women-headed households.
In May, Zimbabwe ambassador David Hamadziripi told GroundUp that the Zimbabwean embassy had received over 4 000 requests for food assistance. The embassy had sent lists of struggling Zimbabweans to Non-Governmental Organisation partners and agencies of the United Nations.
Many immigrants earn an income through informal trading and menial jobs, which have evaporated during the pandemic, and initially no assistance was forthcoming for them from the South African government.
Then Pretoria high court judge Selby Baqwa ruled on 19 June that the R350 Special Covid-19 social relief grant be extended to asylum seekers and special permit holders from Lesotho, Angola and Zimbabwe.
Spokesperson for South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) Mr Kgomoco Diseko, in an e-mail said that the department was aware of the court order. Sassa has been working to adjust its system to be able to accommodate asylum seekers and special permit holders. He said the application process will still be electronic but requires a completely separate portal, as asylum seeker visas and special permit numbers are constructed differently to the one used for the applications by citizens and permanent residents.
“It must be kept in mind that the court ruling made provision for very specific categories of people to apply — asylum seekers and holders of special permits from Zimbabwe, Angola and Lesotho only, not all immigrants to this country.”
Agnes Mahomva, the chief coordinator for the national response to Covid-19 in the Office of the President and Cabinet, says Zimbabwe is yet to reach a peak in the number of infections and the country has to brace for the worst.
Mahomva told Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube on the online talk show In Conversation with Trevor that government’s modelling had shown that cases would start going up rapidly this month-end.
Zimbabwe’s cases breached the 2 000 mark last week with 2 296 confirmed cases as of Friday, including 514 recoveries and 32 deaths.
Mahomva said Zimbabwe was not testing enough people to manage the pandemic.
“We are not flattening the curve, unfortunately. Transmission control is not quite where we want it. We continue to have large numbers of returning residents.
“Recently we were having increased local transmissions. We don’t have it under control yet, but we are making progress. But we are still not where we want, but we need to be more concerned.”
“The biggest concern is testing. We need to know what the pandemic is like in our communities. We really should be testing more. I am also concerned with the community response, it appears everybody is relaxing.
“We are saying prevention is the utmost of this pandemic. Prevention is the cornerstone. We can talk of preparing Wilkins for ICU, but by the time you get there is a tiny percentage will need ICU. It is so important for us all to prevent.
Four heavily armed suspected state agents besieged MDC Alliance Bulawayo Councillor for Ward 24, Anorld Batirai Dube’s homestead last night.
The four, asked about Clr Dube’s whereabouts before getting away with valuables like laptop, 2 cellphones and money.
The break in comes hotly after another failed attempt just few days ago.
A shaken Mrs Batirai narrated her harrowing ordeal at the hands of the four who threatened to blow off her head demanding to know Clr Dube’s whereabouts.
Clr Batirai Dube is MDC Alliance Youth Assembly Deputy National Secretary for Local Governance.
As an Assembly, we believe Clr Batirai Dube is a victim of a panic stricken regime that is keen to foil the impending 31 July protests through a Night of Long Knives on opposition supporters.
We shall not be intimidated nor relent!
#KushingaMberi!
Stephen Sarkozy Chuma MDCAllianceYouth Assembly NationalSpokesperson
Police say they will only allow people with exemption letters signed by senior executives to pass through checkpoints as the government continues to tighten lockdown restrictions.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last week imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew as part of measures to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus and issued fresh stay-at-home orders.
Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi, the police spokesperson, yesterday said all health workers in uniform should carry their work identification cards while those in civilian attire should have a letter from the hospital medical superintendent or CEO stating the place, dates and times of reporting on and off duty.
Nyathi said workers from other companies and organisations should present letters from their CEOs or general managers with contact details of their bosses.
He said government and parastatal workers should have exemption letters from their directors and provincial heads.
A1 and A2 farmers should present their offer letters or lease agreements and an exemption certificate from a local officer in charge of a police station while their communal farmer counterparts need to get a supporting letter from a headman or village head stating the business to be done, the date, time and place.
Workers for food retailers have to present certified copies of a shop licence and an exemption letter from the police.
Nyathi said to get medical supplies, one has to produce the medical cards or prescription and contact details of a doctor.
He said for the attendance of funerals, concerned relatives have to produce a copy of burial order to the local police station and need to be issued with exemption letters showing destination and dates of movement to those who intend to bury relatives in other areas.
“In addition, members of the public are implored to do their shopping within a five-kilometre radius of their residence to acquire basic necessities like food, gas and medicine,” Nyathi said.
The government has been accused of using the Covid-19 pandemic to restrict citizens’ rights to freedom of assembly for political reasons.
South African Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel
South African Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel is the latest member of the executive to test positive for the deadly Covid-19.
Patel received his results on Saturday.
It was his second test since the outbreak of the virus.
“Minister Patel is in good spirits and is in self-quarantine, and will continue to work from home. Those that have been in contact with the minister are also in self-isolation and have been encouraged to get tested.”
On Friday, Patel participated in the virtual parliamentary budget vote debate on the revised budget for the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC).
“As part of his budget debate speech yesterday (Friday), the minister announced that every directorate of the DTIC and every agency within its mandate will prioritise saving firms and jobs during this period.”
Cabinet wished Patel a speedy recovery, and extended the same well wishes to the thousands of South Africans and their families who are also battling coronavirus.
The latest number of confirmed cases in South Africa, which has the highest numbers of diagnosed infections in Africa, is 434 200, with 6 655 deaths recorded.
There have been 263 054 recoveries. So far, just over 2.6 million tests have been conducted.
“To defeat this virus, we must all continue playing our part in observing all health protocols of washing our hands regularly, properly wearing a mask when in public, and practicing physical distancing. Together, we can beat the coronavirus.”
Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe have been hospitalised due to Covid-19 symptoms.
Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula also tested positive for Covid-19 and has since recovered.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura and his Western Cape counterpart Alan Winde also contracted the virus, while North West Premier Job Mokgoro is all clear and has returned home after seeking treatment at a healthcare facility in Gauteng.
CAPTAINS of industry in Bulawayo have openly told the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, that business in the city can only be functional through a wide use of the South African rand saying the dominance of the United States dollar is curtailing market performance.
Presenting their views to the minister at a no-holds-barred engagement on Friday, various captains of industry said the trading regime offered by the local currency and the US dollar presents a myriad of challenges such as the unavailability of change, price distortions and speculations.
Local businesses argue that the rand will help provide for denominations that can be used as change, a situation that will present well with consumers. Consumers at retail shops and bulk traders are saddened by being ripped off when they do US dollar transactions and fail to get change. They end up being forced to take sweets or settle to buy what they had not initially planned.
Business leaders have also argued that they are feeling the biting chill of dual and unstable exchange rates that disrupt business transactions. They said if the rand was largely used, then such problems will be addressed as the currency can be used as a readily available change for any US dollar buy.
Apart from change, business leaders said the rand would also present them better deals when trading with South African companies.
The rand is widely used in the southern part of the country, owing to diaspora remittances from South Africa. The currency trades freely in Bulawayo and most southern parts of the country. Shops and industry heavily rely on import from South Africa and Botswana.
Although the rand was widespread, its dominance had failed to filter into the mainstream market that only looks at the Zim dollar and US dollar exchange. Industry pleaded with Prof Ncube to look into the issue, to which the minister assured businesses that he will forward the concern to Government but reaffirmed that both industry and consumers have to put confidence in the strength of the local currency.
“It is an issue that we are seized with and will definitely look into that,” said Prof Ncube.
Business leaders also advised that the Government should maintain smooth trading at the foreign currency auction market.
Economic analysts have maintained that the Government needs to seriously consider basing the economy on the South Africa rand to ease the distortions and anxiety.
Information gathered from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) indicates that the country exported goods worth US$218,4 million to South Africa in January this year against imports of US$165,6 million, giving a trade surplus of US$52,8 million.
The MDC Alliance says it has embarked on a massive membership and fundraising campaign to shore up its finances following recent setbacks that saw it lose its party headquarters, several legislators and $7,4 million in state funding to the rival faction led by Thokozani Khupe.
David Coltart, the MDC Alliance treasurer general, told The Standard that the MDC Alliance had set a target to mobilise one million members as part of an ambitious campaign.
The party lost $7 492 500 under the Political Parties (Finance) Act, its headquarters, some legislators and councillors to Khupe, but said it expects to recover “soon”.
Coltart said they had set an ambitious target to recruit one million paid-up supporters.
“It is not so much how much we hope to raise, but rather how many members we hope will join and subscribe,” he said.
“That will provide us with the most secure support base going forward. We have set an ambitious target of one million members.
“We have had a very good response so far, but we are a long way off our target.”
At least 21 legislators from the Nelson Chamisa-led party have been recalled from Parliament. Last week the legislators were ordered to pay for their official vehicles at once or return them to Parliament.
“The call by Parliament for the return of vehicles by the MDC Alliance MPs who were unlawfully recalled by (Douglas) Mwonzora is political mischief by Jacob Mudenda.
“It is common knowledge that MPs were not given cars by Parliament, but loans to buy cars.
“So what they owe Parliament is those loans and Parliament can through normal legal processes take steps to recover the loans, not the cars whose loans they have been servicing until their recall.
“In any event, all the unlawfully recalled MPs have cases pending before the High Court to determine the legality of those recalls. If the determination is made in their favour, then the said outstanding loan balances are not due until the end of their term of office.
“Politically, Mwonzora is working with the Zanu PF speaker of the National Assembly to use the pressure of the return of cars to whip our MPs to support their charade.”
He added: “This will not work because our MPs are not mercenaries, but true people’s representatives.
“As a party, we will take the necessary steps to protect our MPs from this new onslaught by Mudenda and Mwonzora.”
MDC-T interim president Dr Thokozani Khupe has reportedly sent emissaries to senior members of the MDC-Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa to seek support in a bid to ward off pressure from secretary-general Mr Douglas Mwonzora for the top-most position in the party.
Dr K0hupe who is likely to face off with Mwonzora for the position of party president is reportedly making inroads into Mr Chamisa’s close allies especially in Bulawayo with the hope of convincing them to attend the pending extraordinary congress and fend off the party’s secretary-general’s attempt to wrestle power.
Two weeks ago it was reported that some councillors and MPs in Bulawayo, fearing a recall by Dr Khupe, were advocating for a settlement between Dr Khupe and Chamisa, failure to which they would join the former Deputy Prime Minister.
Party insiders have revealed that a number of councillors and MPs in the province and senior members of the MDC-Alliance provincial structures have already committed themselves to attending the extraordinary congress.
However, Dr Khupe’s spokesperson, Mr Khaliphani Pugeni refuted the allegations claiming the party leader had more class than to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa while knowing the true party position regarding him.
“There is no basis at all to those reports, as you might know after the Supreme Court judgement and the actions by Mr Chamisa thereafter, the party wrote a letter expelling him, a letter that was signed by Dr Khupe.
“Therefore, it cannot work for Dr Khupe to then go against the party position to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa. In actual fact, I believe Dr Khupe has more class to do such an act, people chose the path they took after the Supreme Court ruling,” said Mr Pugeni.
He said the party was now focused on holding its extraordinary congress and would not be distracted by people who only wanted to cause confusion within its ranks. Sources close to the developments, however, revealed that Dr Khupe had approached the party leadership in Matabeleland who had pressured her into approaching the Chamisa faction so as to counter the rise of Mr Mwonzora.
It is further alleged that Mr Chamisa’s allies are now becoming sceptical noting the number of court cases that they continue to lose to Dr Khupe’s MDC-T. Supreme Court judge Justice Bharat Patel, sitting with Justices Paddington Garwe and Antonia Guvava, early this year ruled that Mr Chamisa was not the legitimate MDC leader in terms of the party’s constitution and subsequently ordered the convening of an extraordinary congress within three months to elect a new president.
The decision by the superior court settled the acrimonious MDC leadership wrangle pitting Mr Chamisa and Dr Khupe. This followed an appeal by MDC-Alliance leaders Messrs Chamisa and Morgan Komichi challenging last year’s ruling by Harare High Court judge Justice Edith Mushore declaring that Mr Chamisa illegitimately acted as the party leader. Reports have also surfaced where Mr Mwonzora has reportedly started canvassing for support with Harare Province having already nominated him for the presidency.
Zimbabwean authorities should immediately release independent investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and drop the incitement charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said.
Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services released a statement on Saturday, which CPJ reviewed, announcing that authorities had charged Chin’ono with “incitement to participate in public violence.”
“The detention of investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono is yet another example of Zimbabwe’s increasing intolerance toward the press and those who expose corruption allegations about the country’s ruling elite,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal. “Instead of detaining those responsible for stealing public funds, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s security forces would rather employ strong-arm tactics to silence the messenger. Hopewell Chin’ono must be released immediately and allowed to work freely.”
Chin’ono, an award-winning journalist who writes for local and international publications, has covered alleged corruption by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in his reporting and on social media.
Chin’ono’s reporting on alleged COVID-19 procurement fraud within the country’s Ministry of Health led to the arrest and sacking of Health Minister Obadiah Moyo earlier this month.
Watch Angela Quintal speak to the SABC in the video downloading below:
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has lashed out at foreign powers after attempts to clamp down on organisers of the proposed July 31 protests were met with global condemnation.
Mnangagwa was accused of using the Covid-19 pandemic to suppress fundamental freedoms following the arrest of Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume, who is mobilising the planned protests against alleged corruption.
Police also arrested prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono on allegations of mobilising for the protests, which the police say will turn violent.
The duo was denied bail with a Harare magistrate ruling on Friday that Chin’ono “is a danger to the public because he has not yet completed his mission of inciting people to demonstrate on July 31”.
A broad alliance of opposition parties, civic society groups and churches has emerged in recent weeks to push for the protests, much to the chagrin of the government, which now says the demonstrations must be stopped because they will turn violent.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists in Harare yesterday that the reaction to the arrests by Western countries, including the United States, showed they were behind Ngarivhume and Chin’ono’s activities.
Mutsvangwa used strong terms to describe the US and her allies whom she described as “evil and doom-mongers”.
“Chin’ono and Ngarivhume belong to that camp of evil wishers,” she charged.
She claimed Western countries were sponsoring the looming protests as a way of gaining access to Zimbabwe’s resources.
“It’s cruel self-enrichment from our resources that they seek,” Mutsvangwa bellowed.’
“Please why can’t you give Africa a break? As Zimbabwe we are saying: ‘We can’t breathe.
“The role of foreign powers in this plot to instigate an illegal regime change in Zimbabwe is made apparent by a set of events and statements that followed the police operation,” Mutsvangwa said, arguing that US embassy officials were, within minutes of police arrival at Chin’ono’s house, tweeting to bring pressure on police not to act.
“President Mnangagwa and his government are fully apprised on this evil agenda and devilish machinations.”
Chin’ono’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa described Mutsvangwa’s claims as “nonsense”.
She said government’s attempts to portray the proposed protests as engineered by the West were a tired trick that was overplayed by the late Robert Mugabe and failed.
“I can say it here and now that this is the kind of nonsense we have been listening to for the past 40 years,” Mtetwa fumed.
“Any Zimbabwean who wants to assert their rights is being presented as someone who is working for some foreign agencies.
“It is not Americans that are being messed up by this government, it’s not Americans who are dying because they have no hospitals to go to, it is not Americans who cannot send their children to school, it is not Americans who are hungry.
“So why would Zimbabweans wait for Americans to tell them that they are suffering when they are experiencing it every day?”
She said Zimbabweans were sold a dummy by the new administration that claimed Mnangagwa would be a “listening president” when he was propelled into power by the military in 2017.
“They came in saying they were different from the previous regime, but actually they are turning out to be worse,” Mtetwa added.
“As far as I am concerned, there is absolutely nothing new in what Mutsvangwa said.
“It is always the same old excuse. It’s sanctions, sanctions, sanctions or regime change agenda.
“The constitution actually allows regime change.
“For Mrs Mutsvangwa to be where she is, they changed the previous regime.
“Other Zimbabweans are entitled to do exactly the same thing when they perceive them to be doing what Robert Mugabe’s regime was doing.”
Gladys Hlatywayo, the MDC Alliance secretary for international affairs, said Mnangagwa administration was“deluded” if it believed pressure to end corruption was coming from external forces.
“It is very unfortunate that the Mnangagwa regime has consistently aimed at foreign countries as a way to deflect attention from its misrule. Zimbabweans do not need anyone to tell them that Zanu PF has failed and must go,” Hlatywayo said.
“To suggest that the current agitation is foreign-engineered is not only baseless and a serious indictment on the so-called re-engagement thrust by the regime, but an insult to the intelligence of Zimbabweans who have suffered from decades of corruption, patronage, human rights abuses and bad governance under Zanu PF.
“On the other hand, the international community cannot watch whilst a rogue regime goes berserk.
“International law clearly gives the international community a responsibility to protect and this is why you see international players calling the Mnangagwa regime out.”
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition director Blessing Vava said the allegations against embassies, civic society and other actors by the regime were baseless.
“Those are baseless allegations by a desperate regime, which is out of touch with reality,” Vava said.
“It doesn’t need any outside influence to tell that Mnangagwa and his government have failed and they must go.”
US embassy officials were not immediately available, but the US assistant secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy on Friday was scathing about Chin’ono and Ngarivhume’s treatment.
“The Zimbabwean government has denied Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume their freedom while the corrupt remain free,” Nagy tweeted.
“When will the government uphold the people’s constitutional rights to freedom of political expression and freedom of the press?”
Other international bodies that condemned Mnangagwa’s administration included the United Nations Human Rights Commission, which on Friday said the government must stop using the Covid-19 pandemic to suppress human rights in the country.
Josep Borrel Fontelles, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, expressed concern over the developments in Zimbabwe.
“Recent developments in Zimbabwe are deeply worrying,” Fontelles said.
“The work of human rights defenders, journalists and civil society organisations is essential to support reforms that stand the test of time.
“Upholding constitutional rights is a principle which cannot be compromised.”
Mnangagwa has come under the spotlight for his clampdown on dissent with critics saying his government became more authoritarian after he imposed a lockdown to slow down the spread of the novel coronavirus in March.
Government would like to set the record straight on the arrest of Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume and their subsequent appearance in court. We have noted with dismay, a well coordinated local and international misinformation and disinformation media campaign where the duo are said to have been arrested for supposedly exposing alleged corruption cases in Government.
For the avoidance of doubt, Hopewell Chin’ono was not abducted. He was lawfully arrested by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. And he was not arrested for exposing corruption. He was arrested for using his social media accounts to incite Zimbabweans to violently overthrow the Government.
Even though Hopewell Chin’ono writes about corruption he is not unique in this regard. All the Newspapers in Zimbabwe, including independent publications have written extensively about corruption in Government and private sector. None of the Journalists who have written about the subject of corruption have been arrested for publishing the same. This is because the Government and the President of Zimbabwe acknowledge and appreciates the role the media plays in the investigation and exposition of corruption.
The Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent newspapers together with the State media, reported on the NSSA scandal that resulted in the arrest of Minister Prisca Mupfumira. None of the journalists from these newspapers were arrested or censured for reporting in this case. In addition, the President appointed Trevor Ncube the proprietor of Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) which is the biggest independent newspaper stable in Zimbabwe, to his Presidential Advisory Council (PAC)
Such claims are deliberately calculated to mislead and manufacture a false narrative which brings into question His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s sincerity in fighting corruption both in Government and private sector. Since coming into office as leader of the New Dispensation, His Excellency President Mnangagwa has provided a favourable working environment for media practitioners to conduct their business unfettered.
The Zimbabwe Independent from AMH publishes articles accusing Government Officials of corruption on a weekly basis without fail but this has not attracted any arrest of the journalists concerned.
The Second Republic through Parliament has repealed AIPPA which in the past was used against journalists and replaced it with a raft of legislation aimed at protecting the rights of journalist to practice their profession freely and the rights of citizens to information concerning the areas of interests and concern.
President Mnangagwa ordered an investigation into the Drax Affair before Hopewell Chin’ono started tweeting about it. As a result of those investigations several arrests were made. The most prominent of those arrested was the former Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Obadiah Moyo who was charged and relieved of his duties as Minister of Health and Child Care. It is therefore false to state that no action has been taken against the corrupt individuals fingered by Hopewell’s expose
The President has consistently shown his unflinching commitment to fighting corruption by setting up a robust legal infrastructure to fight this economic scourge. He has also spearheaded the funding of the Zimbabwe Anticorruption Commission (ZACC) as a way of capacitating it to deliver on its constitutional mandate.
This has seen an unprecedented arresting and summary dismissal of two serving Cabinet Ministers in a short space of time.
The conviction and jailing of high profile individuals such as former Minister Samuel Undege, Mr Douglas Tapfumaneyi and Simon Taranhike and many more is also indicative of this Zero Tolerance to Corruption Policy.
The arrest of these two individuals clearly, has nothing to do with their anticorruption stance which finds convergence with President Mnangagwa’s own position but their ploy to violently destabilize the country and unconstitutionally seize power (by any means necessary) putting Zimbabwean lives and property at risk.
The role of foreign powers in this plot to instigate an illegal regime change in Zimbabwe is made apparent by a set of events and statements that followed the police operation.
1- Within minutes of the arrival of the police at Mr. Chin’ono’s home, the US embassy was already all over this issue which is between a sovereign country and its citizen, by tweeting and trying to bring pressure to bear on the Zimbabwean Government, so it would not enforce the law of the land. Its particular interest in this one person is curious in the least.
2- Other Western Embassies who usually take the USA’s lead joined in this irregular interference by tweeting and releasing statements which were calculated to obstruct the course of justice in a hosting country.
3- Even after Zimbabwe’s Independent Judiciary had issued its verdict on the duo’s bail application, a senior member of the US Administration issued a very derogatory and undiplomatic statement against the Government of Zimbabwe, showing condescending disrespect to a sovereign country.
Zimbabwe is keen to engage with all members of the community of nations but will not surrender its sovereignty as a trade-off for this. All what Zimbabwe seeks is mutual respect and non-interference in its internal affairs.
Going forward, Government will not compromise on Zimbabwe’s national security and expects all foreign embassies hosted here to behave with propriety as set out in the Vienna Convention.
All the aforesaid is happening in the context of Zimbabwe’s fight against COVID 19 pandemic
At this moment Zimbabwe like the whole world faces the threat of the pandemic. The Zimbabwe Government has done reasonably and surprisingly well to date. Indeed it has confounded detractors and doom mongers.
Hopewell and Ngarivhume belong to that camp of evil wishers. The begging question is why call for a violent uprising in the midst of a raging and ravaging Covid 19?
The ongoing USA elections are a big exercise in democratic expression. Even President Trump has had to cancel the Convention of the Republican Party in Jacksonville for fear of Covid 19. Why can’t the detractors and doom mongers equally copy this act of noble political restraint?
And why can’t the American and Western embassies provide counsel to their regime change charges that this is not the hour to play dice with the lives of Zimbabweans? This is the season of Black Lives Matter after the choking to death of George Floyd by a cruel white police officer in Minneapolis.
We have travelled and suffered from their past depredations. It’s not democracy they want. After all we paid a heavy price to attain it from the conquering colonials. They did not give up Zimbabwe on a platter. It’s cruel self enrichment from our resources that they seek.
Please why can’t you give Africa a break? As Zimbabwe we are saying: WE CAN’T BREATHE.
SPROUTING SHOOTS Their actions are premised on the fear that President Mnangagwa and his deep seamed economic and financial reforms have taken root. That they are beginning to pay off in reviving the economy and rekindling hope.
Blood sucking money launderers and other dirty players in our fiscal and financial players are being squeezed by the succeeding Weekly Auction of Foreign Exchange.
The mobile money platforms are being husbanded into the central bank..
The all important energy sector is now full of promise from huge investments in Matebeleland North as can be seen from the recent visit by President Mnangagwa to the region.
The mortal fear of Africa by the West is the economic success of a self sustainable African Nation. Zimbabwe now offers that prospect after braving through devastating sanctions by the West for two decades.
No wonder the pandemonium being engendered by the fear of a good example.
President Mnangagwa and his government are fully appraised on this evil agenda and devilish machinations.
We will keep the course of re engagement while safeguarding the nation from a slide to chaos.
CHAOS and fierce factional fights continue to rock the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T faction after a camp sympathetic to acting secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora nominated him to take over as party leader ahead of the planned extra-ordinary congress.
The development reportedly irked acting party chairperson Morgen Komichi, who on Thursday threatened disciplinary action against officials who organised the meeting that nominated Mwonzora.
“That was an illegal process that was not authorised by the leadership,” Komichi said.
“People should not do things without instructions from national leadership and things that are unconstitutional. I don’t know why they are doing that and who gave them the instruction to cause unnecessary problems. That is indiscipline and we don’t like that kind of behaviour. That was a bogus nomination not authorised by anyone.
“People were secretly called to that meeting and we were not even present as leadership. It was just a small team of stubborn people and we don’t know who gave them that instruction and we will investigate.”
“The meeting was reportedly attended by 38 people and chaired by Simon Hove.
“The ground rules of the party shall be set and a neutral electoral board appointed and tasked to run all processes leading up to the extra-ordinary congress,” Komichi said.
By A Correspondent| Bulawayo based songstress and dancer Sandra Ndebele has opened up on her recent mouth-watering images making rounds on social media saying it was her way of showcasing African beauty while motivating full figured women to appreciate themselves.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Sandy as she is affectionately known said she was shocked after noticing that her pictures had rattled the nation.
“This is one happy accidental social media takeover. We did the photoshoot just to express a feel-good modern woman at the same time embracing African beauty,” explains Sandra.
“To be honest, I did not see this coming. I was pleasantly surprised to see people celebrating my photographs.”
Her PR team, who recognised the social capital she had created, jumped on to the wave that has seen corporate endorsements coming through.
The project was born out of the need to make the most of the current lockdown.
“Most working mums can tell you how difficult it is to get back to that original body.
“I have been on a very strict programme, eating traditional foods and working out twice daily for the last three months. And I am extremely grateful for the results,” said Sandra.
And she has a word or two for both plus-sized women and her audience.
“To my fellow sisters or thick madams as people call us, we are beautiful within our bodies and let us celebrate our African curves. And to the men, I thank you for appreciating us full-figured women.”
CAPTAINS of industry in Bulawayo have pleaded with the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, to promote the wide use of the South African rand to complement the multi-foreign currency regime, saying the dominance of the United States dollar is curtailing market performance.
Presenting their views to the minister at a no-holds-barred engagement on Friday, various captains of industry said the trading regime offered by the local currency and the US dollar presents a myriad of challenges such as the unavailability of change, price distortions and speculations. South Africa is Zimbabwe’s biggest trading partner.
Local businesses argue that the rand will help provide for denominations that can be used as change, a situation that will present well with consumers. Consumers at retail shops and bulk traders are saddened by being ripped off when they do US dollar transactions and fail to get change. They end up being forced to take sweets or settle to buy what they had not initially planned.
Business leaders have also argued that they are feeling the biting chill of dual and unstable exchange rates that disrupt business transactions. They said if the rand was largely used, then such problems will be addressed as the currency can be used as a readily available change for any US dollar buy.
Apart from change, business leaders said the rand would also present them better deals when trading with South African companies.The rand is widely used in the southern part of the country, owing to diaspora remittances from South Africa. The currency trades freely in Bulawayo and most southern parts of the country. Shops and industry heavily rely on import from South Africa and Botswana.
Although the rand was widespread, its dominance had failed to filter into the mainstream market that only looks at the Zim dollar and US dollar exchange. Industry pleaded with Prof Ncube to look into the issue, to which the minister assured businesses that he will forward the concern to Government but reaffirmed that both industry and consumers have to put confidence in the strength of the local currency.
“It is an issue that we are seized with and will definitely look into that,” said Prof Ncube.
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) national vice-president Mr Walter Chigwada raised the concern and said the US dollar, Zim dollar regime presented a challenge in pricing.
“We encourage the wider use of the rand so that it trades hand in hand with other currencies such as the US dollar. As of now referencing is done using the US dollar and that creates a competitive challenge on pricing. We are using replacement pricing. We might be pricing using the Zim dollar but backed by the US dollar,” said Mr Chigwada.
Confederation of Retail Industries of Zimbabwe vice-president Mr Zak Hawa, said the use of the rand is widely accepted by most shops.
“Some retailers refuse to accept the rand because it has not been officially mentioned as one of the trading currencies. But due to the unavailability of change, the rand is the solution,” he said.
Business leaders also advised that the Government should maintain smooth trading at the foreign currency auction market.
Mr Chigwada who is also Mealie Brand managing director said while they appreciate the efforts to stabilise trading, there has to be an assurance that it is sustainable.
“As of now we are not sure of the stability brought by the foreign currency auction trade. What can we do as stakeholders to make sure this is sustainable? The system seems temporary. It’s something that we need confidence on,” he said.
Economic analysts have maintained that the Government needs to seriously consider basing the economy on the South Africa rand to ease the distortions and anxiety. Information gathered from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) indicates that the country exported goods worth US$218,4 million to South Africa in January this year against imports of US$165,6 million, giving a trade surplus of US$52,8 million.
ZimStat presented data that showed exports to South Africa included scrap metal, agricultural produce, beef, minerals as well as wines. Local industry imports from South Africa included vehicles, mealie-meal, fish, sausage casings, biscuits, electricity, electrical gadgets, chemicals, disposable napkins, incontinence pads, and wooden furniture.
A 48-year-old South African primary school teacher, who died after setting herself on fire as a result of Covid-19 depression and the stigma attached to it, was yesterday wedded by her husband in an extraordinary symbolic wedding ahead of her official burial tomorrow.
The private traditional ceremony took place yesterday at the couple’s Crystal Park home in Benoni on the East Rand., South Africa.
The woman succumbed to severe burn injuries last Thursday after being in the intensive care unit of a local hospital for a month.
Before she died, the harrowing details of the teacher’s attempted suicide were exclusively reported in Sowetan last month when the woman’s husband told of how he planned to embark on a community education campaign aimed at de-stigmatising people infected by the virus.
The husband, a high school principal, has subsequently tested positive too.
Speaking to Sowetan yesterday, he said he was on day eight of self-isolation. He revealed that he tested positive after going back to work on July 8 following the incident of his wife’s attempt to take her own life.
He further told Sowetan that a total of seven people have tested positive at his school and he was one of them “even though I had tested negative when my wife was tested positive”.
He said as an “advocating campaigner”, he has been able to calm his fellow colleagues who tested positive and their families as well.
The 51-year-old, whose name is being withheld to protect their children, had previously told this newspaper how he battled to save his wife from the flames engulfing her isolation room in their home.
He was wearing full personal protective gear (equipment) during the private wedding which was attended by family and friends at the family home late yesterday.
He again recalled that fateful day on June 6 after his wife had been in quarantine at home for 11 days. He had not noticed that his wife “was losing it after all the support we had offered to her”.
He recalled how his wife woke up that morning at around 4am when everybody was still asleep.
He and their 17-year-old son also woke up and checked if she was fine before they went back to bed.
“After a while we realised there was something burning. I ran to her isolation room. It was locked.
“I broke the door open and found her in flames. I immediately took a blanket and tried to put out the fire until my brave eight-year-old child ran to fetch a bucket of water which she emptied on her mom in an attempt to rescue her,” the man told Sowetan at the time.
The man again recalled how he was not aware that his wife was “depressed from receiving messages on social media from friends and colleagues”.
He said she had complained about being sent messages that made her feel like she was dying. She also complained about gossip that came from colleagues and friends.
He yesterday told of how his wife was always looking forward to her big traditional wedding that was put on hold when the national lockdown was announced in March. They had been planning their wedding since last year.
“She was excited to be going to wear her isiSwati wedding gown. We are still going to honour that wish because she will now be buried wearing it.”
The father of two met his wife in 1991 while he was travelling in a taxi in Daveyton.
“I jumped out at the wrong stop just to go and talk to her because she caught my attention. She was with her two friends.”
He said his wife was a mother to many children besides her own. She taught him how to love all children unconditionally. Many of those children who are now working “come to our home from time to time to thank her for the role she played in their education.”
Death impacts heavily on culture
A family elder said in their culture as Swati people when wedding preparations had been done, there’s no going back even if one partner dies.
“In this regard the family will find a sister of the deceased bride to represent her in the ceremony because her body will be in the mortuary. Then the groom will take his stand and marry the bride and both families will exchange gifts,” he said.
The elder said the bride’s corpse will then be washed with herbs and put in the coffin and a ritual, joining the two, will be performed a day before her body is brought home from the morgue.
He said when the body arrives home, the groom will then enter with her in the house with elders announcing to ancestors that she is now part of the other family and can be laid to rest as a part of her husband’s family.
The man will then go into a mourning period after the burial and will be cleansed after several months.
An emotional Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said “this sad passing of our educator, colleague and sister who happened to be a wife to our fellow colleague and a principal in one of our schools really touched and devastated me dearly”.
He said: “Covid-19 hit us where it matters most and robbed us, our most valuable resource in the education sector.
“It is difficult to even try to understand the horrible incident which led to the death of our colleague.
“We would like to convey our sincere condolences to the family and the school community. We are hopeful that, the psycho-social support that was dispatched by the department will play a significant role in assisting the family to heal from this traumatic death.”
The deceased’s funeral service will take place tomorrow.
THE Zanu PF Youth League has urged law enforcement agents to deal with the planned violent demonstrations being organised by opposition activists and all those involved.
In separate statements yesterday, Zanu PF Youth League provincial structures said the planned demonstrations are meant to further an illegal regime change agenda.
Zanu PF Mashonaland West Youth League chairperson Vengai Musengi said holding a demonstration during a pandemic poses a danger to public health.
“Opposition elements are keen to cause violence at the end of this month,” said Musengi.
“Such acts pose a serious threat to the safety of members of the public and seriously undermine social order. They warrant society’s most severe condemnation.”
He said the organisers of the demonstrations were using social media to promote attacks on State institutions and private property.
The police, Musengi said, must use appropriate force to disrupt the planned demonstrations and arrest those involved.
Youth League chairperson for Matabeleland North Province, Tamuka Nyoni, said opposition elements were trying to destabilise the country through demonstrations.
“The provincial league, as much as other progressive forces in our country, is saddened and disheartened by news circulating in the electronic and print media regarding the 31st of July so called ‘mass protests’ by regime change agenda advocates,” said Nyoni.
“They are trying by all means to polarise the peaceful environment enjoyed by the citizenry, which is trying to come to terms with the reality of this global pandemic which is making lives unbearable.”
He said the organisers are criminal elements who intend to overthrow a constitutionally-elected Government which has a mandate that runs until 2023.
“We, therefore, call upon the citizenry to fight these forces in order to maintain the peace that we enjoy in the midst of this pandemic.
The Mat North Youth league appeals to like-minded and progressive formations who share our vision, to shun these calls and exercise maximum unity.”-The Sunday Mail
Farai Dziva|Tajamuka leader Promise Mkwananzi has said the July 31 protests are about sacrifices meant to emancipate the people of Zimbabwe from poverty and corruption.
In a strong warning to the Zanu PF regime, the former MDC Youth Assembly Secretary General said no form of ammunition would stop the protests.
“This is the time for the people of Zimbabwe to unite and fight for total emancipation.The demo is not about political parties, rather it is about the people of Zimbabwe.
Nobody is supposed to go to work, for once let us unite as Zimbabweans.
We know they want to suppress the protests but our message to them is clear- no form of ammunition will stop us from fighting for freedom.
Those who want to buy food please do so in time because this is not a joke.Nobody should be left out of the programme.We are going to confront the regime without fear,” said Mkwananzi.
“We are saying enough is enough , Zimbabweans have suffered for too long as result of Zanu PF misrule.”
ZIMBABWEANS who missed the submission deadline on 19 July to apply for food assistance cannot get an extension, Zimbabwean consul general in Johannesburg Melody Chaurura told GroundUp last Wednesday.
“There is no room for extension at this point because submitted details are already being processed,” said Chaurura.
The embassy had put out a call for Zimbabweans in SA in need of food assistance because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic to apply for help by 19 July.
The assistance would come in the form of a once-off voucher from the International Organisation for Migration, which had asked the embassy to submit a list of Zimbabweans for inclusion.
Chaurura said about 3 300 Zimbabweans had successfully registered for food assistance.
Priority would be given to expecting mothers, unemployed youth and women-headed households.
In May, Zimbabwe ambassador David Hamadziripi told GroundUp that the Zimbabwean embassy had received over 4 000 requests for food assistance.
The embassy had sent lists of struggling Zimbabweans to Non-Governmental Organisation partners and agencies of the United Nations.
Many immigrants earn an income through informal trading and menial jobs, which have evaporated during the pandemic, and initially no assistance was forthcoming for them from the South African government.
Then Pretoria high court judge Selby Baqwa ruled on 19 June that the R350 Special Covid-19 social relief grant be extended to asylum seekers and special permit holders from Lesotho, Angola and Zimbabwe.
Spokesperson for South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) Mr Kgomoco Diseko, in an e-mail said that the department was aware of the court order.
Sassa has been working to adjust its system to be able to accommodate asylum seekers and special permit holders.
He said the application process will still be electronic but requires a completely separate portal, as asylum seeker visas and special permit numbers are constructed differently to the one used for the applications by citizens and permanent residents.
“It must be kept in mind that the court ruling made provision for very specific categories of people to apply — asylum seekers and holders of special permits from Zimbabwe, Angola and Lesotho only, not all immigrants to this country.” — GroupUP/
KWEKWE City Council Director of Housing Edson Chiyangwa who is facing a murder charge after allegedly shooting a gold panner at his mine in Zhombe, has been granted bail.
Chiyangwa (51) escaped unhurt after an alleged marauding machete-wielding gang besieged his Forever Mine in Zhombe on Wednesday night.
His colleague and gold buyer Mr Cornelius Dube is battling for life at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals in Harare after he was attacked by the gang.
Chiyangwa fired three shots, using his pistol, one of them which reportedly killed one of the gang members on the spot. Magistrate Miss Samkelisiwe Gumbo granted bail after the State had consented.
His lawyer, Mr Valentine Mutatu of Mutatu and Partners Legal Practitioners confirmed that Chiyangwa was granted bail.
“I can confirm that my client was granted $2 000 bail. As part of bail conditions, he was ordered to surrender travelling documents at the Kwekwe Magistrate Clerk of Court, not interfere with State witnesses, to continue residing at his known address and to report at Kwekwe Central Police Station every Friday,” said Mr Mutatu.
Allegations are that on 21 July at about 11pm, Chiyangwa was at his Forever Mine in Zhombe with Mr Dube where they were overseeing their mining operations. While they were conducting mining operations, a gang armed with machetes and axes allegedly attacked the pair and their employees.
While Mr Dube escaped and hid himself in a car, Chiyangwa, the court heard, tripped and fell and the gang continued advancing intending to attack him with machetes. He then produced a 357 Taurus Pistol and fired a warning shot in the air.
The gang, however, continued advancing leading to Chiyangwa firing another shot towards the gang, killing one of them instantly.
The gang left him and charged towards the Toyota D4D Hilux where Mr Dube had locked himself in.
The gang hit the vehicle with machetes and forced open the vehicle, dragged Mr Dube outside where they attacked him all over the body with machetes leaving him for dead and in a pool of blood.
Sensing danger, Chiyangwa vanished from the scene and made a report to the police-The Sunday News
State Media – The Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration, Dr Obert Mpofu, says he is doing most of the chores his wife does, among other many things, since he has been quarantined alone at his Nyamandlovu home as part of Covid-19 preventive measures.
Dr Mpofu went into self-quarantine after attending a conference for global political parties in Tanzania recently. His wife, Mrs Sikhanyisiwe Mpofu is in Bulawayo.
“I have been very busy actually with chores at my farm here, doing things that do not require contact with people. I have been tending to my crops a lot, seeing that all is in order and ensuring produce is of good quality. I have also been occupied with writing my book, so there is a lot of reading, writing and editing that I am doing and it has kept me busy this whole time. I am also doing some chores my wife would ordinarily do but I will be returning to office soon,” he said in a telephone interview.
Dr Mpofu said self-quarantine is a must despite social and political standing if one has been to a place where they could have been exposed to Covid-19. In addition, the country has a 21-day mandatory quarantine for returning residents and visitors, with testing supposed to be done on Day One, Day Eight and Day 21.
“This is a preventative measure which everyone regardless of stature should go through if we are to fully adhere to the World Health Organisation (WHO) requirements as well as the directive from Government and the President against Covid-19. I was in Tanzania attending a conference which went on for four days and I had a stopover in Ethiopia and spent some time there. So, on my return I went into quarantine,” he said.
Dr Mpofu said he consulted medical experts and took all necessary steps before leaving the country.
“Before I left, I reported to the Ministry of Health and Child Care about my trip and asked them what I must do before I left in view of the pandemic. The ministry was very swift in sending its doctors to do tests on me. Initially I was scared but I needed to have that process done. They came and tested me, the tests seemed scary at first but it’s quite comfortable. I did a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test and it was done by professionals and didn’t take seconds.
“I had to go through that and the tests were rushed to the laboratories and I was told not to travel until the results were out. I was given the results in time for me to travel to Tanzania. I took sanitisers and masks following the doctor’s advice on how to conduct myself while I was there and I did just that.”
He raised fears of Tanzania’s stance on not wearing masks.
“I flew in a small aircraft with people without masks and attended a conference with people without masks, just a few of us had masks, the Chinese delegation and a few others had them. We stuck to our regulations and stayed safe.
“To them, they have strong reasons why they are not using masks, but besides that fact we stuck to our regulations from Zimbabwe. That served a purpose. I even said to myself if I didn’t contract the virus under those circumstances in Tanzania then it would be difficult for me to contract it at home where we have strict regulations,” said Dr Mpofu.
He said he followed protocols on self-quarantine on his return home and was given an all clear by officials.
“On our return we were put in quarantine for eight days initially, then we wanted to get further tests and the doctors said we should wait for further four days, which we have done and the days have expired and according to them, with the development of the virus we could be safe. I am now free to move around after the 12 days in quarantine,” he said.
Dr Mpofu said being in quarantine was necessary but an unusual experience.
“It is unusual in one’s life because as a politician and parent you need to have your family around and people around you, but this time around my wife also stayed away from me. She has been in town (Bulawayo) and I am in Nyamandlovu (Matabeleland North province), it’s quite strange yes, but necessary as you cannot expose people to this virus which you know will affect their lives to the extent of losing them,” he said.
Dr Mpofu added that the position taken by Zimbabwe and President Mnangagwa through expert advice was the best to save lives.
“I urge colleagues to prevent themselves from contracting this virus either at home or when they travel in and around the country. If you look at what is happening in other countries, it’s frightening that people are dying, including in our neighbouring countries. Zimbabwe has done its best to avoid massive deaths, it’s a pity we have people that always go against rules and instructions, they do not wear masks or keep social distances and are mingling in crowds. Common sense should tell you to do what the experts say you must do.
“It may be difficult for them to understand how transmission of the virus goes. It was very easy with HIV because people understood the type of contact that would lead one to be infected but this one is unknown, it could be from surfaces, the air and so on. So, it is an enemy attacking whose description we do not know. We must be careful.”
Dr Mpofu said he was grateful that Dr (David) Parirenyatwa (former Minister of Health and Child Care), Dr (John) Mangwiro Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care and Dr Prosper Chonzi the Director of Health Services at Harare City Council who have been in touch with him every day checking on his well-being.
“I am still very careful even after my return and quarantine period. I still feel I should continue with that protective attitude,” he said. – Sunday News
MDC-T interim president Dr Thokozani Khupe has reportedly sent emissaries to senior members of the MDC-Alliance led by Mr Nelson Chamisa to seek support in a bid to ward off pressure from secretary-general Mr Douglas Mwonzora for the top-most position in the party.
Dr Khupe who is likely to face off with Mr Mwonzora for the position of party president is reportedly making inroads into Mr Chamisa’s close allies especially in Bulawayo with the hope of convincing them to attend the pending extraordinary congress and fend off the party’s secretary-general’s attempt to wrestle power.
Two weeks ago it was reported that some councillors and MPs in Bulawayo, fearing a recall by Dr Khupe, were advocating for a settlement between Dr Khupe and Mr Chamisa, failure to which they would join the former Deputy Prime Minister.
Party insiders have revealed that a number of councillors and MPs in the province and senior members of the MDC-Alliance provincial structures have already committed themselves to attending the extraordinary congress.
However, Dr Khupe’s spokesperson, Mr Khaliphani Pugeni refuted the allegations claiming the party leader had more class than to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa while knowing the true party position regarding him.
“There is no basis at all to those reports, as you might know after the Supreme Court judgement and the actions by Mr Chamisa thereafter, the party wrote a letter expelling him, a letter that was signed by Dr Khupe.
“Therefore, it cannot work for Dr Khupe to then go against the party position to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa.
In actual fact, I believe Dr Khupe has more class to do such an act, people chose the path they took after the Supreme Court ruling,” said Mr Pugeni-The Sunday News
MDC-T interim president Dr Thokozani Khupe has reportedly sent emissaries to senior members of the MDC-Alliance led by Mr Nelson Chamisa to seek support in a bid to ward off pressure from secretary-general Mr Douglas Mwonzora for the top-most position in the party.
Dr Khupe who is likely to face off with Mr Mwonzora for the position of party president is reportedly making inroads into Mr Chamisa’s close allies especially in Bulawayo with the hope of convincing them to attend the pending extraordinary congress and fend off the party’s secretary-general’s attempt to wrestle power.
Two weeks ago it was reported that some councillors and MPs in Bulawayo, fearing a recall by Dr Khupe, were advocating for a settlement between Dr Khupe and Mr Chamisa, failure to which they would join the former Deputy Prime Minister.
Party insiders have revealed that a number of councillors and MPs in the province and senior members of the MDC-Alliance provincial structures have already committed themselves to attending the extraordinary congress.
However, Dr Khupe’s spokesperson, Mr Khaliphani Pugeni refuted the allegations claiming the party leader had more class than to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa while knowing the true party position regarding him.
“There is no basis at all to those reports, as you might know after the Supreme Court judgement and the actions by Mr Chamisa thereafter, the party wrote a letter expelling him, a letter that was signed by Dr Khupe.
“Therefore, it cannot work for Dr Khupe to then go against the party position to nicodemously approach Mr Chamisa.
In actual fact, I believe Dr Khupe has more class to do such an act, people chose the path they took after the Supreme Court ruling,” said Mr Pugeni-The Sunday News
Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: Liz Throssell Location: Geneva Date: 24 July 2020 Subject:Zimbabwe
We are concerned at allegations in Zimbabwe, which suggest that the authorities may be using the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to clamp down on freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
Among the latest incidents, investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested on 20 July and charged with inciting public violence, after he tweeted his support for nationwide protests against government corruption and worsening economic conditions.
Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition leader who has been calling for the protests on 31 July, was also detained and similarly charged. Merely calling for a peaceful protest or participating in a peaceful protest are an exercise of recognized human rights.
We are concerned at reports of police using force to disperse and arrest nurses and health workers for infringing lockdown restrictions as they were trying to protest for better salaries and conditions of work.
This pattern of intimidation echoes the events in May when three members of the main opposition party were arbitrarily arrested and detained for taking part in a protest.
The women – Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova – alleged that state agents abducted them from the police station, tortured and sexually assaulted them.
The women were then formally arrested in June, charged with participating in the protests and faking their abduction. They were recently released on bail.
It is clear that COVID-19 has added greatly to the challenges Zimbabwe faces amid a deteriorating economy and placed a further burden on an already struggling health sector.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa – highlighting an increase of 600 COVID-19 cases in a week to a total of 1,713 – on Tuesday announced a series of measures that he said were necessary to curb the spread of the disease, including a dusk to dawn curfew and the curtailment and suspension of freedoms that, as he put it, Zimbabweans “have always enjoyed”.
While recognizing the Government’s efforts to contain the pandemic, it is important to remind the authorities that any lockdown measures and restrictions should be necessary, proportionate and time-limited, and enforced humanely without resorting to unnecessary or excessive force.
We encourage the Government to engage with civil society and other stakeholders to find sustainable solutions to grievances while ensuring that people’s rights and freedoms are protected in accordance with Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations.
These include the responsibility of the State to guarantee economic, social and cultural rights.
Farai Dziva|Tajamuka leader Promise Mkwananzi has said the July 31 protests are about sacrifices meant to emancipate the people of Zimbabwe from poverty and corruption.
In a strong warning to the Zanu PF regime, the former MDC Youth Assembly Secretary General said no form of ammunition would stop the protests.
“This is the time for the people of Zimbabwe to unite and fight for total emancipation.The demo is not about political parties, rather it is about the people of Zimbabwe.
Nobody is supposed to go to work, for once let us unite as Zimbabweans.
We know they want to suppress the protests but our message to them is clear- no form of ammunition will stop us from fighting for freedom.
Those who want to buy food please do so in time because this is not a joke.Nobody should be left out of the programme.We are going to confront the regime without fear,” said Mkwananzi.
“We are saying enough is enough , Zimbabweans have suffered for too long as result of Zanu PF misrule.”
By Lynette Karenyi-Kore MDC Alliance Vice President
At the Harare Magistrate Courts Rotten Row today(Friday) with Vp Tendai Biti, DSG David Chimhini, Sec for International Relations Gladys Hlatywayo ,Deputy Sec for International Relations Lovemore Chinoputsa and Vongai Tome Sec for Mobilisation [ WA]
We are not moved by the Arrests.
These Arrests Must Stop. Aluta Continua. No turning Back ChamisaIsMyPresident.
By Lynette Karenyi-Kore MDC Alliance Vice President
At the Harare Magistrate Courts Rotten Row today(Friday) with Vp Tendai Biti, DSG David Chimhini, Sec for International Relations Gladys Hlatywayo ,Deputy Sec for International Relations Lovemore Chinoputsa and Vongai Tome Sec for Mobilisation [ WA]
We are not moved by the Arrests.
These Arrests Must Stop. Aluta Continua. No turning Back ChamisaIsMyPresident.
A nurse at Avenues Clinic in Harare recently tested positive for COVID-19 after she attended to a patient who had been admitted in the casualty section and later tested positive for the disease.
The Avenues Clinic Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Searchmore Chaparadza said the nurse tested positive after taking a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
He said: Management would like to advise stakeholders of a COVID-19 incident that occurred within the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Avenues Clinic. One of our nursing staff members tested positive for COVID-19 after taking a PCR test.
The staff member, whose results were received on 22 July 2020, whilst on self-quarantine, was exposed to the virus after attending to a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19.
In the meantime, the hospital has traced all contacts for quarantine and tracing. Chaparadza added that the hospital continues to enforce various measures to ensure the safety of all stakeholders- Health Times
A nurse at Avenues Clinic in Harare recently tested positive for COVID-19 after she attended to a patient who had been admitted in the casualty section and later tested positive for the disease.
The Avenues Clinic Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Searchmore Chaparadza said the nurse tested positive after taking a Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.
He said: Management would like to advise stakeholders of a COVID-19 incident that occurred within the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Avenues Clinic. One of our nursing staff members tested positive for COVID-19 after taking a PCR test.
The staff member, whose results were received on 22 July 2020, whilst on self-quarantine, was exposed to the virus after attending to a patient who later tested positive for COVID-19.
In the meantime, the hospital has traced all contacts for quarantine and tracing. Chaparadza added that the hospital continues to enforce various measures to ensure the safety of all stakeholders- Health Times
By A Correspondent- 2 Chinhoyi University Students perished in a horrific car crash in Banket yesterday together with 4 other people including a mother and her infant baby.
The accident which occurred when the Nissan Sulphy the 6 were travelling in tried to overtake another vehicle in front of oncoming traffic rammed into a haulage truck killing all passengers in the car, was confirmed by Mashonaland West Province police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Ian Kohwera.
CUT’s director of communications and marketing, Dr Musekiwa Tapera also confirmed the accident and said:
The 4.1 students (name provided) were on vacation and they decided to drive to Chinhoyi to collect their belongings where they used to lodge last semester after hearing that universities are no longer opening. One of the students was driving and they are believed to have picked passengers at Greencroft.
ZRP National Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said they were still investigating the accident when he was contacted for comment.
The government yesterday gazetted Statutory Instrument 186 Of 2020 which authorised law enforcement officers to impound public transport vehicles being used to breach lockdown restrictions.
Part of the SI which speaks about the seizure of the vehicles contravening lockdown restrictions reads:
Where any public transport vehicle or other vehicle used for the transport of passengers for gain, is used in connection with any offence unde r this Order (prohibiting the operation of such transport) an enforcement officer, if such vehicle is used again after the driver or owner thereof has been warned or charged for such offence, shall have the power to seize such vehicle as an exhibit in connection with the prosecution of such owner or driver for such offence in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07].
SI 186 of 2020
The government last week also said law enforcement officers were going to impound all vehicles moving without number plates to try and curb robbery cases in the country.
Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals has revealed that 13 bodies that were brought to the hospital between 9 June and 25 July for postmortem tested positive for the virus.
This was contained in a statement that was released by the Hospital on Twitter which reads in part:
We have recorded 8 deaths out of the 60 patients who were admitted in the red zone. Of the bodies that were brought in dead, 13 tested positive for Covid-19.
Posthumous COVID-19 cases have increased over the last few weeks with reports circulating that ZANU PF politician and businessman Keith Guzhah is one of the cases that tested positive for the virus posthumously.
The government tried to explain these posthumous cases and said they are being discovered during routine postmortem because it is standard procedure to test for COVID-19 during postmortem.
This means at least 13 out of Zimbabwe’s 32 COVID-19 deaths tested positive for COVID-19 posthumously.
By Patrick Guramatunhu- Zimbabweans have a knack for blaming everyone else but themselves for their problems, trials and tribulations.
“The US Embassy in Harare whose govt has always rooted for Tendai Biti as safe bet for American interests here, had hoped to use Ngarivhume and his pseudo-leadership of July 31 disturbances to re-launch Tendai Biti as the new leader of MDC-Alliance, with the impulsive Jobho Sikhala as the TONG for handling hot pieces. Both men are America’s centurions, Biti designated to play the Philosopher-King, while Sikhala is the Hotspur of the equation,” reported Bulawayo 24, quoting George Charamba.
“The choice of Ngarivhume – another of America’s men whose roots are in Chipinge – was the right face for that operation which would have consigned Nelson Chamisa to the dustbin.
Previous to Ngarivhume, Americans had hoped for the Malawian cleric, Shingi Munyeza, who was later dropped for being inorganic and tainted after hopes of washing him clean by goading ED to fire him from PAC failed.”
This is just nonsense and the suggestion that the Americans are behind all this makes it all idiotic nonsense. The Americans, the EU and the west in general have rooted for the implementation of the democratic reforms to ensure the July 2018 elections were free, fair and credible. Of course, they were disappointed that Zanu PF failed to implement any reforms and dismissed the whole election as a farce.
The west was disgusted by the sheer naivety of Zimbabwe’s opposition camp, not even one of them had the common sense to demand even something as basic for democratic elections as a verified voters’ roll.
Everyone knows the principle reason the MDC leaders and the rest of the crowded opposition camp have continued to participate in elections even when it was clear Zanu PF was rigging the elections, was greed. Ever since the 2008 GNU Zanu PF has seen to it that it allowed the opposition to win a few gravy-train seats, bait which that latter has found totally irresistible. Still, there are some things a human being is expected to resist and not follow one’s primeval instinct like a mouse enticed into a trap by the smell of peanut butter!
By failing to implement the reforms even when they had the golden opportunity to do so during the 2008 GNU and then participating in flawed elections again and again thereafter MDC leaders have shown they have no common sense.
Having participated in the flawed and illegal July 2018 elections all the opposition parties and candidates have since endorsed the rigged July 2018 elections as free and fair, contrary to the damning reports from the west.
All except Nelson Chamisa who has elected to challenge Mnangagwa’s electoral victory not on the basis of something as substantive as the failure to produce a verified voters’ roll. How could he; since he knew the was no verified voters’ roll and decided to participate regardless.
Chamisa challenge Mnangagwa’s victory on the grounds ZEC failed to produce all the V11 forms, summary of all the votes tally at each Polling Station. ZEC only produced 10 987 V11 forms, 10% were missing. Some western observers reported of ZEC officials, with no other witnesses, completing V11 forms 24 hours after this was supposed to be done and dusted.
Chamisa not only wanted the Constitutional Court to dismiss Mnangagwa as the dully elected but declare him as the winner. He claimed to have polled 2.6 million vote which is more that ZEC’s 2.4 million votes for Mnangagwa. Needless to say; Chamisa too failed to produce the V11 forms to support his claim.
The very fact that Chamisa and his fellow MDC Alliance leaders like Tendai Biti, David Coltart, Welshman Ncube, etc. expect anyone including the west to endorse Chamisa’s claim as the winner goes to show just how naïve and stupid the MDC leaders are.
Who in their right mind would ever want to be involves with such naïve and stupid with a knack to shoot from the hip, hence the reason they have failed to achieve anything of substance in all MDC’s 20 years in politics.
The way out of Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis, which has dogged this nation for the last 40 years, is for the country to the hold of free, fair and credible election. This is obvious to everyone with common sense and it is therefore no surprise that the Americans have been arguing the implementation of the reforms to ensure free and fair elections. To therefore suggest that the Americans are behind the chaos and stupidity of MDC politics is laughable!
“The young man (Chamisa) doesn’t want risks, which is what riles Americans whose wish is confrontational politics in Zimbabwe,” maintains Charamba. Why then did the Americans want the reforms implemented before the elections, if they wanted confrontation politics?
After 40 years of blundering from pillar to post, Zimbabweans must now carefully reflect on what next because this disastrous path of thoughtless folly and greed has dragged us deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth we now find ourselves stuck in.
The longer we have stayed, the deeper we have sunk and the harder it has become to escape. If this Zanu PF and MDC chaos and madness are allowed to continue unchecked, this nation will be pushed beyond the point of no return, if it has not gone past already!
We have allowed Zanu PF and MDC chaos and madness to rule the roost for 40 years. The responsibility to ensure we have free, fair and credible elections is our responsibility and we have failed no one else but ourselves in this!
By A Correspondent- Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda has said he does not enjoy recalling legislators, but was mandated to follow the Constitution to the letter.
He made the remarks in Mutare on Thursday at the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines Mining Development meeting to review legislation and policies governing the mining industry in Zimbabwe.
“I don’t enjoy reading recall letters in Parliament. It is not within me to read that, but I am just following the Constitution, I think you get me,” he said.
“Ok, I am failing to read this word, honourable Settlement Chikwinya has bewitched me, but it’s very unfortunate I am schooled, I know what I am doing,” he said jokingly.
Mudenda has been accused by the Nelson Chamisaled party of working in cahoots with MDC-T interim leader Thokozani Khupe to dismantle the MDC Alliance through recalling its MPs.
Mudenda, however, said the committee faced a difficult task in assisting the Mines ministry achieve its targets.
“The Portfolio Committee on Mines and Mining Development has a tall order in assisting the Mines ministry to achieve its laudable targets, particularly the US$12 billion economy target by 2023,” he said.
“It is also important for the committee and ministry to come up with a strategy on how to export and market our products during this COVID-19 period. A way has to be found … that is why we have the brains and we need to apply them.”
By A Correspondent- Police in Mashonaland Central arrested a Centenary man who bashed his brother to death in a domestic dispute on Tuesday.
Deputy police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Fidelis Dhewu confirmed the case.
“I can confirm a murder case in Centenary where of Madzinga village, Macksen Bvumbe (32) Chief Chiweshe assaulted his brother Stephen (34) with open hands and he subsquently died due to excessive bleeding the following day upon arrival at a hospital,” Dhewu said.
Allegations are that the now deceased Stephen came home from a beer drink and started insulting his aunt Enita Bvumbe (57) accusing her of chasing him and his family away from his father’s homestead.
This did not auger well with the suspect who assaulted his brother with open hands.
The deceased started bleeding profusely from nose, eyes and ears and did not receive any medical treatment.
His health continued to deteriorate and his wife Lilian Kamangira ferried him to St Alberts mission hospital where he died upon admission.
Police warned people to desist from violence but instead they should solve their problems amicably.
The government yesterday gazetted Statutory Instrument 186 Of 2020 which authorised law enforcement officers to impound public transport vehicles being used to breach lockdown restrictions.
Part of the SI which speaks about the seizure of the vehicles contravening lockdown restrictions reads:
Where any public transport vehicle or other vehicle used for the transport of passengers for gain, is used in connection with any offence unde r this Order (prohibiting the operation of such transport) an enforcement officer, if such vehicle is used again after the driver or owner thereof has been warned or charged for such offence, shall have the power to seize such vehicle as an exhibit in connection with the prosecution of such owner or driver for such offence in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9:07].
The government last week also said law enforcement officers were going to impound all vehicles moving without number plates to try and curb robbery cases in the country.
By A Correspondent- Chaos and fierce factional fights have rocked the Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T after a camp sympathetic to acting secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora nominated him to take over as party leader ahead of the planned extra-ordinary congress.
The development reportedly irked acting party chairperson Morgen Komichi, who on Thursday threatened disciplinary action against officials who organised the meeting that nominated Mwonzora.
“That was an illegal process that was not authorised by the leadership,” Komichi said.
“People should not do things without instructions from national leadership and things that are unconstitutional. I don’t know why they are doing that and who gave them the instruction to cause unnecessary problems. That is indiscipline and we don’t like that kind of behaviour. That was a bogus nomination not authorised by anyone.
“People were secretly called to that meeting and we were not even present as leadership. It was just a small team of stubborn people and we don’t know who gave them that instruction and we will investigate.”
The meeting was reportedly attended by 38 people and chaired by Simon Hove.
“The ground rules of the party shall be set and a neutral electoral board appointed and tasked to run all processes leading up to the extra-ordinary congress,” Komichi said.
Watch ZimEye.com’s Simba Chikanza in a no holds barred discussion with MDC-T National Vice Chairperson Job Sikhala who is definitely the ZANU PF regime’s next target for arrest.
Six people including two Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) fourth year students died on the spot when the vehicle they were travelling in rammed into a haulage truck near Banket along the Harare-Chirundu highway on Friday afternoon.
Details of the accident remain sketchy but it is understood the driver of the vehicle, a Nissan Sylphy, was trying to overtake in front of an oncoming vehicle.
Mashonaland West Province police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Ian Kohwera, confirmed the incident.
However, he referred further questions to national spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi.
Asst Comm Nyathi said they were “investigating an accident that killed six people in Banket yesterday”.
CUT officials said they lost two male students in horrific accident.
The deceased were on their way from Harare to Chinhoyi.
“The 4.1 students (name provided) were on vacation and they decided to drive to Chinhoyi to collect their belongings where they used to lodge last semester after hearing that universities are no longer opening.
“One of the students was driving and they are believed to have picked passengers at Greencroft,” said the CUT’s director of communications and marketing, Dr Musekiwa Tapera.
Exiled former cabinet minister and opposition party leader Savior Kasukuwere has said he paid back the loan he received from the RBZ in the infamous Farm Mechanisation Scheme that has rocked the nation and caused a media frenzy this past week.
Kasukuwere disclosed this information on Twitter where he even went ahead and asked for the RBZ to invoice those who paid back the loans. Kasukuwere was responding to one Royal Manala who had urged those who benefited from the scheme to pay back the money and said:
Those who benefited from the mechanization USD fat cheques,please you dont need to be invoiced officially to pay back, and you dont need to pay RBZ, you need to find citizens who need financial support to kick start projects and extent a helping hand by giving them soft loans
Kasukuwere responded and said he paid for the tractors he got from the scheme and said:
“I think the RBZ should invoice and collect the money. These are public funds and no one should put up useless defences for looting. I paid for the two tractors I got and I am happy to receive an invoice from the RBZ if I owe them anything.”
The ruling party officials have released a statement saying they will not be repaying the debts, former RBZ governor Gideon Gono also said the loans were not supposed to be repaid contrary to what he had said almost decade ago when the loans were being issued by the central bank.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police has issued a statement outlining requirements for citizens to pass through their Covid-19 restrictions enforcement roadblocks.
25Th JULY 2020
ZIMBABWE REPUBLIC POLICE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED AT CHECKPOINTS AND ROADBLOCKS
The Zimbabwe Republic Police wishes to advise that the COVID-19 national lockdown measures announced His Excellency, President E.D. Mnangagwa on 21 July 2020 and the subsequent promulgation of Statutory Instrument 174/2020, members of the public should take note of the following to ensure their passage through roadblocks and without hassles:-
Service Provider Health
Uniform and health ID cards
Those in civilian attire, a letter from Medical Superintendent or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) stating the place, dates and times of reporting on and off duty. The contact details of Chief Executive Officer to be indicated on the letter.
Companies/ Organisations
Letters from Company Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or General Manager (GM) stating the place, days and times of reporting on and off duty. The contact details of Chief Executive Officer to be indicated on the letter.
Ministries/ Parastatals HQ and Provincial Levels
At National level, an exemption letter from Directors and above stating the duty, place, days and times of reporting.
At Provincial level, an exemption letter from the Provincial Heads stating the duty, place, days and times of reporting. The letter to indicate contact details of the responsible person.
Commercial, A2 and A1 Farmers
An offer letter/lease agreement and an exemption certificate from local Officer In Charge station.
Communal Farmers
Supporting letter from the Headman/Village Head stating the business to be done, the date, time, place and an exemption letter from OIC Station. The contact details of headman or village head to be indicated.
Food retailers
Certified photocopies of a Shop Licence and an exemption letter from local Officer In Charge Station
Sole Traders
Shop licence accompanied by an exemption letter from local Officer it Charge station
Private Security Services
Uniform, company ID and letter from services the management stating dates and time of reporting on and off duty. Letter to indicate contact details of Chief Executive Officer or responsible person
Medical resupplies
Medical cards/prescription and contact details of Doctor where possible
Attendance of funerals
Concerned relatives to produce copy of burial order to local Police station. • Officer In Charge Station, Officer Commanding District and Officer Commanding Province to issue exemption letters showing destination and dates of movement to those who intend to bury relatives in other towns, rural areas, etc.
In addition, members of the public are implored to do their shopping within a five-kilometre radius from their residence to acquire basic necessities like food, gas and medicine. The public should also make prior arrangements to obtain assistance for themselves or someone to whom they are related or have a duty to care for. This includes an ill person whom they are related to or care for purposes of rendering medical assistance.
The Police are once again reminding the public to conduct permitted activities between the hours of 0600 hours and 1800 hours of each day.
The observance of the national lockdown measures will promote the effective maintenance of law and order by police and other services.
Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals which has recorded seventy Covid-19 positive cases amongst its staff members since the start of the Coronavirus era has all but shut down.
The hospital has announced that it will no longer be attending to general patients but will be attending only dire emergencies only as a way to curb spreading the novel coronavirus.
The move comes in the sudden upsurge in COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe in recent weeks.
Read the hospital’s full statement on the matter below:
NOTICE ON MEASURES TO RESPOND TO THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS REGARDING THE RISE IN COVID-19 CASES
Having noted the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the community and among Health Care Workers and the lack of personnel due to the ongoing industrial action, Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals is taking the following steps with immediate effect:
All staff members, patients and visitors should have a temperature screen on entry into the hospital.
Only dire emergencies will be admitted.
All new and current in-patients will have PCR tests done.
All patients and staff will be assumed COVID positive unless tested and confirmed otherwise.
Dire surgical emergencies which can’t wait for PCR results before intervention will be swabbed but operated on with all relevant IPC measures being taken with the assumption of them being pos-itive until proven otherwise. The anesthetic, surgical, theatre and ward staff should all agree on the necessity of proceeding in those circumstances.
All staff should at least have a baseline PCR test before 31 July 2020 and subsequently be tested as per national guidelines.
Isolation of staff will be guided by the National and WHO guidelines.
All areas will have regular disinfection or fumigation in addition to standard guidelines when a positive case is picked.
All other protocols and SOPs should be adhered to, for example, movement of patients to the red zone and handling of suspect cases.
Zimbabwe as of last night has recorded 2295 COVID-19 cases including 32 deaths.
Parirenyatwa Group Of Hospitals has revealed that 13 bodies that were brought to the hospital between 9 June and 25 July for postmortem tested positive for Covid-19.
This was contained in a statement that was released by the Hospital which we publish below.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa says that Opposition Transform Zimbabwe leader, Jacob Ngarivhume and journalist Hopewell Chin’ono were not arrested for speaking out against corruption, but for trying to incite the nation into toppling a constitutionally elected government.
The duo was arrested on Tuesday, and appeared in court mid-week, charged for allegedly inciting the public to engage in violence.
They were both denied bail by the Harare magistrates court, and remanded in court to next month for trial.
Addressing the media, Mutsvangwa said government had noted with dismay a misinformation campaign where the duo are said to have been arrested for exposing alleged corruption in government.
She said on the contrary, government welcomed media exposure of corruption in any place as this was in tandem with President Mnangagwa’s stance on the vice.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Hopewell Chin’ono was not abducted. He was lawfully arrested by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. And he was not arrested for exposing corruption.
“He was arrested for using his social media accounts to incite Zimbabweans to violently overthrow the Government,” said Mutsvangwa.
She said all media houses in Zimbabwe openly report on corruption both in the public and private sector, but their journalists have never been persecuted.
Said Mutsvangwa; “Even though Hopewell Chin’ono writes about corruption he is not unique in this regard. All the Newspapers in Zimbabwe, including independent publications have written extensively about corruption in Government and private sector. None of the Journalists who have written about the subject of corruption have been arrested for publishing the same”.
“President Mnangagwa ordered an investigation into the Drax Affair before Hopewell Chin’ono started tweeting about it. As a result of those investigations several arrests were made. The most prominent of those arrested was the former Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Moyo who was charged and relieved of his duties as Minister of Health and Child Care,” Mutsvangwa said.
Ngarivhume and Chinono are accused of playing key roles in mobilising support for citizens protests planned for next week, ostensibly to press the government to tackle prevailing economic hardships.
The government has taken refuge from sanctioning the demonstration allegedly because of the dangers posed in spreading Covid-19.
The country, like all others around the world, is in Covid-19 lockdown. Mutsvangwa said local and international opponents of the government were disappointed the pandemic had not affected Zimbabwe as terribly as wished for, to provide them ammunition to attack it.
“Hopewell and Ngarivhume belong to that camp of evil wishers. The begging question is why call for a violent uprising in the midst of a raging and ravaging Covid 19? She asked.
“The ongoing USA elections are a big exercise in democratic expression. Even President Trump has had to cancel the Convention of the Republican Party in Jacksonville for fear of Covid 19. Why can’t the detractors and doom mongers equally copy this act of noble political restraint?
“And why can’t the American and Western embassies provide counsel to their regime change charges that this is not the hour to play dice with the lives of Zimbabweans?”
Mutsvangwa said the land reforms laid the foundation for Africa’s eventual economic freedom from the West, hence its hostility towards Zimbabwe.
“The mortal fear of Africa by the West is the economic success of a self sustainable African Nation. Zimbabwe now offers that prospect after braving through devastating sanctions by the West for two decades. “No wonder the pandemonium being engendered by the fear of a good example.
“President Mnangagwa and his government are fully appraised on this evil agenda and devilish machinations.
“We will keep the course of re- engagement while safeguarding the nation from a slide to chaos,” she said.
