MINES and Mining Development Minister Winston Chitando yesterday said time is up for mining title holders whose concessions have been lying idle or underutilised as Government will in the next four months repossess the claims.

Recently, Government proclaimed the “use-it-or lose it” policy after noting that some prospective investors awarded the Special Grants (SG) in different mining sub-sectors of the economy were holding onto the claims for speculative purposes.

Such behaviour, he said, was retrogressive as the country was being deprived of its potential to exploit its vast mineral resource base.

Speaking during a tour of some colliery firms in Hwange, Matabeleland North province, Minister Chitando who was accompanied by his Finance portfolio counterpart, Professor Mthuli Ncube, said Government was also looking forward to re-sizing some of the concessions with huge resource base and inordinate life spans and allocate them to potential investors.

“So, the use-it-or lose-it policy is being implemented and I can certainly assure you that by end of August or September, there will be a number of which will be realised. But I think more importantly, in terms of the use-it or lose-it policy, we have people who have got the mining concessions, which concessions in terms of the resources, it will take them 500 years to mine.

“It may be a gold, platinum asset or it maybe coal asset, so we will be cutting all the concessions so that we allocate to others,” said Minister Chitando.

The impending decision by Government to resize some of the concessions held by investors who are already on the ground comes in the wake of the realisation that some of the potential investors in the coal sector, for example, were failing to realise their full potential as well as beneficiate the mineral due to shortage of raw materials.

The firms, which the two ministers visited are Afrochine’s coking plant project, Zimbabwe ZhongXin Colliery Company, Jinan Coking Coal Project and South Mining Coking Coal Project.

In separate briefings to the ministers, officials from some of the firms highlighted that they were not adequately supplied with coal by the local producers to feed into their coking plants.

It was against this background that some of the companies with coking plants have applied to Government for coal concessions.

The tour of the collieries by the two ministers is a precursor to President Mnangagwa’s visit of mines in Hwange district tentatively within the next four weeks.

Minister Chitando said their visit with Prof Ncube was also a fact finding mission of the challenges bedevilling the firms in the coal sector as well as to apprise Prof Ncube about the mining sector.

In an interview with journalists, Prof Ncube said:

“My office being in charge of the taxes as you can imagine, I am always trying to see where we can fine tune the tax incentives for investment.

“Like what we did in the diamond sector by making sure that the royalties are tax deductive, so whatever we can do with the tax fund was to support the mining sector looking at issues like export incentives.”

Last year, President Mnangagwa launched a mining industry strategic road map to build a US$12 billion sector by 2023.

The strategic road map, which is anchored on beneficiation recognises the coal sub-sector as one of the minerals, which Zimbabwe can leverage on as the country also targets an upper middle income economy by 2030.

Under the road map, coal, chrome, diamond, iron and steel are envisaged to contributed US$1 billion. The projected increase represents a 344 percent jump from US$2,7 billion achieved in 2017.

Government has also identified mining houses undertaking various projects towards the attainment of the target while negotiations with others are in progress.

Already, the mining sector is critical in generating foreign currency, contributing about 70 percent of the country’s forex earnings.

A combination of picking low-hanging fruits or quick-win projects with a medium-term impact as well as a longer-term impact means Zimbabwe could see the lift soon.

State Media

Exiled former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Moyo who is the second republic’s fiercest critic has outlined the following 24 points and said they were the reasons why the ruling party Zanu PF must go and make way for better political leaders to take over.

While some may see ZanuPF as a political party, it has never been one. I did not have this view before 2000, but since then I have come to understand that ZanuPF is a system or culture steeped in the military; with a tainted history, a troubled present, with no future!The fact that ZanuPF is not, and I would say has never been, a political party, in the traditional sense of the term, has far reaching implications on why it must go. Before developing this further, some preliminaries on important assumptions underlying this intervention!

The bane of public discourse in Zimbabwe is that it’s impossible to know what’s going on from the media. There’s no investigative journalism. All there is are ocassional leaks, which are by definition incomplete stories. The advent of the social media has not improved this!The dearth of investigative journalism & the prevalence of uninformed generic commentary, explain why the discussion on why ZanuPF must go has not gone beyond a hashtag. It’s torture to get news or commentary that does not answer the what, who, where, how & when questions!

My two key assumptions: 1. It’s a fundamental sociological tenet that society does not wait to be interpreted: it always self-interprets; hence theory must follow practice and; 2. The narrative of what is to be done is best anchored on what is there, not what could be there!

When I reexamined the subtitle, “why ZanuPF must go”, on the back of the view of ZanuPF as a system & culture, it became clear that it should be: “why ZanuPF has gone”. The ZanuPF system or culture has disintegrated physically & hegemonically. What remains is its caricature!

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The crisis in Zimbabwe today is from the fact that, while ZanuPF has physically & hegemonically collapsed, the military which was embedded in ZanuPF since the 1975 Mgagao Declaration, staged a coup in 2017 to seize ZanuPF; thinking it was a going concern when it was debris!

As shown below, from the military’s “coup minutes” written on 15 &16 Nov 2017, out of 7 coup demands made by General Chiwenga to President Mugabe 6 were about ZanuPF & the 7th was about tenure interests of the commanders. Nothing for the military, government or the people!

What has the 2017 military’s takeover of ZanuPF meant, politically? As I show in Excelgate, the first effect was for the military to grab @ZECzim& to run it from Defence House; and for ZDF’s Africom Zim to run ZEC & CIO’s election computers to win the 2018 poll as ZanuPF!

The second effect of the military’s control of @ZECzim from Defence House between Nov 2017 & Aug 2018, while also managing the ZanuPF Commissariat, was to render ZanuPF politicians superfluous & to emasculate party structures; as Defence House became the de facto ZanuPF HQ!

The third effect of the military’s 2017 takeover of ZanuPF was that General Chiwenga became the most influential politician in ZanuPF & in Zim. He campaigned for all ZanuPF parliamentary candidates; not by his eloquence but his feared presence as the man who ousted Mugabe!

Key to General Chiwenga’s political influence in ZanuPF & in Zim were neither ZanuPF politicians nor structures but exZanla commanders & excombatants such as General Martin Chedondo, General Engelbert Rugeje, General Anselem Sanyatwe & General Douglas Nyikayaramba & others!

Even with the rise of exZipra commanders to the apex of ZDF, the core of ZDF, the ZNA, is now not only under an exZanla commander but also a gukurahundist, Edzai Chimonyo, who infamously defended atrocities by saying: “Some call us murderers but our role is quite clear”!

The fourth & most concerning effect of ZanuPF’s takeover by the military is that its quest to seize ZanuPF without improving military, govt or public affairs, has enabled Mnangagwa, his family, clan & cronies to fill the void in govt by engaging in unprecedented corruption!The fifth & most significant effect of the Nov 2017 military takeover of ZanuPF is that for the first time since 1980, an exZipra commander & thus Zapu cadre, General PV Sibanda, assumed the command of ZDF as CDF. This feat would not have happened under President Mugabe!

The rise of an exZipra commander General PV Sibanda, to be CDF of ZDF could trailblaze a new military trajectory with potentially positive spillovers for Zim politics. Notably, his rise was made possible by the fact that exZipra commanders led the military side of the coup.The post military coup setup at ZDF is that its apex has two exZipra commanders: General PV Sibanda who heads ZDF and Air Marshal Elson Moyo, who heads the Air Force and who did not see eye to eye with former boss, Rt Air Marshal Perence Shiri. ExZanla has command of ZNA!With General Chiwenga having to contend with troubling health challenges, and doing so remarkably, military influence in politics has shifted from ZanuPF to government; with General @MinisterSBMoyo emerging as the power horse, notwithstanding his own health challenges!

The most vocal agitators that have declared ZanuPF dead, like @ShingiMunyeza, one of@edmnangagwa ‘s advisors who says his boss is presiding over an evil system based on an occult, are inspired by @MinisterSBMoyo whom they see as the voice of reason in govt, outside ZanuPF!More in Home

WATCH: Mangwana Explains Why The Govt Suspended Mobile Money Transactions

Point Of Sale Machines For Police Stations

ZIFA To Receive $1.5 Million COVID-19 Relief Funds From FIFA

Reden Mine Owner Reaches Out To The Victims’ Families, Offers To Compensate Them

Chiwenga Hails The Agriculture Ministry’s Initiative To End Poverty & Hunger In CommunitiesWhy must ZanuPF go? As I adumbrated upfront, it’s not so much that ZanuPF must go but that people must see that it has disintegrated physically & hegemonically as a system or culture; yet its caricature remains & the military is using it for bad things, disguised as ZanuPF!

The five effects of ZanuPF’s takeover by the military necessitate ZanuPF to go & also confirm it’s gone but remains a caricature. ZanuPF is no longer viable to exZanla commanders; is not an option for exZipra now in charge of ZDF & was rejected by voters in the 2018 polls!What is to be done? The people & the military must find each other. The people embraced the military in Nov 2017. Now the military should make amends & embrace the people by respecting their 2 018 vote for @nelsonchamisa. It’s the people who must govern, not the military!

Source: Twitter 

There was panic and chaos last night when the Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana issued a statement that said OneMoney and Ecocash had been suspended.

The secretary also said the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange had been suspended. Given how ubiquitous Ecocash and OneMoney are, there was anger at this measure.

Eocash, the country’s leading mobile money provider, has however dismissed the notice pointing out that it did not come from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as procedure requires. Their service is therefore still up although one wonders for how long. The government easily rectify that procedural misstep and order the RBZ to order Ecocash to suspend operations.

It seems Ecocash is again trying to ingratiate itself with customers and washing it’s hands of any problems. They also seem intent on reminding the authorities that they risk annoying 10 million Zimbabweans who use Ecocash. These people will probably not be amused by whatever reason the government gives for suspending Ecocash. All they will care about is that the government’s orders will effectively affect their ability to transact. For an order that makes frequent use of the word “prudent” it doesn’t seem like diligence and care were part of the process that saw this order being made.

Own Correspondent

The government of Namibia has denied ever donating rapid COVID-19 test kits to the government of Zimbabwe.

The statement by the country’s embassy in Zimbabwe comes after a claim made by the Zimbabwe Minister of Information Publicity and Broadcasting Monica Mutsvangwa, that Namibia had donated 4499 test kits.

Here’s the full statement released by the Namibian government.

MINISTRY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND COOPERATION
REPUBLIC OF NAMIBIA

MEDIA RELEASE
26 June 2020

SUBJECT: REPORTS IN THE NAMIBIAN AND ZIMBABWEAN MEDIA THAT THE GOVERNMENT OF NAMIBIA DONATED RAPID CORONA VIRUS TEST KITS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE

The Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation has been following, with concern, persistent media reports attributing to the Government of the Republic of Namibia, a purported donation of 4499 rapid COVID-19 testing kits, to the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Following these tendentious media reports, the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation, through the Namibian Embassy in Zimbabwe, sought clarity on the matter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

In a formal response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of the Republic of Zimbabwe informed that the allegations of the alleged donation of 4499 testing kits from Namibia to Zimbabwe were unfounded and erroneous, and apologized for any inconveniences the reports might have caused.

The Ministry would like to reiterate the assurances to the Namibian public that there was no such donation made by the Government of the Republic of Namibia to the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

THE High Court has reserved judgment on bail application for Drax front-man Delish Nguwaya to the 1st of July 2020.

Nguwaya was denied bail by a Harare magistrate on the 16th of June. However, the superior court has reserved its judgment to thoroughly consider Nguwaya’s application.

It is the state’s case that sometime last year, Nguwaya misrepresented that Drax was a pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland and yet it was merely a consulting firm with no experience in manufacturing drugs and medical products.

The Court papers further allege that during the same year, the businessman and another individual only named as Dedja, who is still at large, showed interest in supplying medicines through a US$20 million loan facility under a company called Papi Pharma.

The move was turned down after a vetting process by the relevant government department.

It is also alleged that after a short while, Nguwaya sent the same documents to the Ministry of Health and Child Care expressing interest in supplying medical products but using a different name, Drax consult SAGL.

Acting on the misrepresentation the Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr. Obadiah Moyo, through the then Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Agnes Mahomva initiated a procurement process which involved communication among all the relevant stakeholders, who include the Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) and Natpharm, culminating into a contract of supply of medicines and medical products between NatPharm and Drax Consult SAGL.

Nguwaya now faces allegations of fraud and was remanded to the 30th of this month.

The lower court Magistrate Muchuchuti denied Nguwaya bail on the basis that he is likely to commit other offenses since he was removed from remand on another case and committed a serious offense which attracted public outcry.

State Media

Police have arrested seven traders who rejected bond notes and coins, which remain legal tender, and are ready to arrest anyone else reported for rejecting this legal cash.

The blitz comes after some people started rejecting bond notes and coins due to fake news circulating on social media platforms that they would be demonetised.

In a statement yesterday, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi urged members of the public to report any person, trader or institution rejecting bond notes. Police had so far arrested seven suspects in Harare and they were expected to appear in court soon.

“The ZRP will ensure that all laws meant to protect the public and promote the effective maintenance of law and order in the country are enforced without fear or favour,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.

Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa recently said traders were legally obliged to accept bond notes and coins.

“Government notes with concern that there are some sections of the market that are rejecting bond notes and coins,” she said.

“Notes inscribed ‘bond notes’ are being rejected in preference for those inscribed ‘dollars’.”

She too stressed they were still legal tender and no one was planning their demonetisation.

The Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) this week also threatened to stop supplying their products to wholesalers and shops refusing bond notes and coins.

Members of the association produce and pack maize-meal, self-raising flour, salt, rice, sugar beans and soya chunks which are critical for sustaining food security at household level.

The millers will be partnering the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) to stop the practice.

Under normal circumstances, when cash is deposited in banks fairly frequently, banks remove worn and soiled notes and send them to the Reserve Bank for destruction. This in that normal system would see older notes, such as the bond notes, gradually being moved out of circulation.

Traders eager to accept all payment types, and who readily accept bond notes, have noted that at times people tender such badly creased and soiled notes that it is difficult to make sure that they are genuine. But this is a problem with all currency notes

When notes or coins are demonetised, notice has to be given in the Government Gazette and a reasonable time is always given for the holders to bank these or exchange them at banks while they are still valid and can be spent in shops, and in a set time after demonetisation.

State Media

The Chinese national who has been charged with shooting and injuring two people at a mine in Gweru over a salary dispute will receive a fair trial, without discrimination, in accordance with the country’s laws, President Mnangagwa said yesterday.

Speaking at State House when he received donations to fight the Covid-19 pandemic fromthe Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) and the Chamber of Chinese Enterprises in Zimbabwe (CCEZ), the President made it clear that the mine manager would be treated the same as every other citizen and resident.

Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Guo Shaochun, had earlier said the incident did not represent the behaviour of the Chinese community in Zimbabwe.

Zhang Xuelin, a manager at Reden Mine, allegedly shot Mr Kenneth Tachiona (39) on both legs as well as Ms Wendy Chikwaira (30) on the arm after they confronted him over outstanding salaries at the mine last Sunday.

He has since been arrested on attempted murder charges and appeared in the magistrates courts in Gweru where he was remanded in custody to July 7.

“Let me assure you that our laws are not discriminatory; there will be no favour, there will be no discrimination. The law must apply to every citizen and resident in this country equally. So the man involved will not be disadvantaged at all. He will receive a fair trial and fair treatment as any other Zimbabwean would have,” said the President.

Making it clear that Zimbabwe recognised that crimes were committed by individuals not communities, President Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans were mature enough to recognise that a crime by one person did not brand others of the same group.

Ambassador Guo had expressed concern over the incident and reiterated his support for the country’s law enforcement agencies to investigate and handle the matter in a transparent manner as required by the country’s laws.

“I would also like to emphasise that this is an isolated incident, and no matter what had happened to the enterprise before the incident took place, this is not what we want to see. The behaviour of the Chinese employee involved in the case does not represent China, the Chinese Government and all Chinese nationals and Chinese enterprises in Zimbabwe. Any possible illegal acts and persons who violate the law should not be shielded,” he said.

Ambassador Guo said China and Zimbabwe had long-standing friendship and cooperation, and called upon all relevant sides to safeguard the relations carefully.

State Media

Phone-based mobile money transactions and trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) have been suspended with immediate effect to allow investigations into illegal dealings connected with the foreign currency black market and to put in place reforms that restore mobile money platforms to their original purpose.

But along with these temporary suspensions, Government is simultaneously putting into effect “prudent measures” to mitigate collateral damage to the innocent transacting public who use mobile money platforms, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Permanent Secretary Mr Nick Mangwana said in a statement last night.

The purpose of the latest move was to converge all exchange rates to the single market-based exchange rate set by the weekly auctions run by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

The black market was being funded and fuelled through the use of the four mobile money platforms, with EcoCash, where 94 percent of mobile transactions take place, being described as the “central pivot of the galloping black market exchange rate and therefore fuelling the incessant price hikes of goods and services that are bedevilling the economy and causing untold hardship to the people of Zimbabwe”.

Vast sums are sloshing around in the EcoCash system, with $8 billion held in 501 000 merchant and agent’s accounts, an average of around $16 000 in each account, along with large balances in suspense accounts at EcoCash.

None of these accounts can be monitored by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the RBZ which can, however, monitor dealings in bank accounts in the banking sector and can monitor RTGS transactions.

The Government now has evidence that millions of dollars are being transferred by merchants every day using mobile money platforms to street runners in the black market for foreign exchange, giving them the funds to buy foreign currency to hand over to the funders. Although most agency lines were supposed to be suspended, many were still operating and new lines had been opened and these unauditable accounts were being used by criminal syndicates.

In a ZBC interview last night, Mr Mangwana noted that mobile money systems were under the communications regulator Portraz, not the RBZ, and so could not be monitored or audited.

Trading on the ZSE was generating fake exchange rates, in particular the Old Mutual Implied Rate that matches the prices paid for Old Mutual shares on the London, Johannesburg and Zimbabwean stock exchanges.

In the statement, Mr Mangwana said the Government now had impeccable intelligence that made a prima facie case that mobile money systems, with the deliberate or inadvertent help of the ZSE, were engaged in illicit activities sabotaging the economy.

These activities included:

Illegal externalisation of foreign currency through transfer mispricing.

Acting as banks although not licensed to do so, with Ecocash holding $8 billion on Sunday in 501 000 agent and merchant lines that could not be scrutinised by the Financial Intelligence Unit.

Fraudulently creating and issuing non-attributable and non-auditable agent cellphone lines and accounts.

Hiding irreconcilable accounts in suspense accounts that hold huge balances for unjustifiable long periods.

EcoCash in particular being the central pivot of the black market and conspiring with big merchants as their conduit to transfer millions of dollars a day to runners on the streets to buy US dollars.

Rampant non-compliance with directives issued by the RBZ and its Financial Intelligence Unit.

Facilitating illicit trade in notes and coins that have seen premiums of 30 percent to 50 percent and causing artificial shortages of cash in the banking system.

Criminally allowing agent lines banned by the RBZ to continue trading.

Using bulk airtime sales at discounted prices tied to phantom US dollar exchange rates, distorting the Zimbabwean market and deliberately mopping up US dollars from the black market and forcing up exchange rates there.

Engaging in rampant and unchecked tax evasion.

Failing to report suspicious transactions or taking action against them.

Maintaining unauditable phone lines or accounts that are now being used by criminal syndicates, conniving with insiders to steal money through fraudulent activities like teeming and lading.

Acting as conduits of fake US dollar notes.

Facilitating criminal activity through non-enforcement of the know-your-customer requirements.

While all four platforms — EcoCash, OneMoney, Telecash and MyCash — were complicit in these illicit activities in various degrees, EcoCash because of its 94 percent market share was the central pivot.

The impact of mobile money platforms funding black market activities was exacerbated by what were described as “fake counters” on the ZSE epitomised by the Old Mutual Implied Rate. This had led to multiple phantom exchange rates, which conspired to defeat fiscal policy.

Ecocash has issued the following statement in which it urged its subscribers to remain calm and continue transacting as they wait for further instruction from their service provider. The statement reads:

CUSTOMER NOTICE

Dear Valued Customers,

We are aware of a statement purporting to have been issued by the Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services that purports to ban all mobile money transactions.

However, EcoCash is regulated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and would naturally expect a directive of that nature and significance to be communicated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

We urge all Ecocash users who exceed 10 million Zimbabweans, the majority of whom do not have bank accounts, to remain calm and to continue to do your lawful transactions as usual. Should there be any changes, we shall give you adequate notice as required by law.

Message to the ZANU PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa.

By Hon Job Wiwa Sikhala
MDC Alliance National Vice Chairman.

In my personal capacity as a duly elected National Vice Chairman of the MDC Alliance, it is my clear advise to you, that I refuse to be treated like a person belonging to an illegal political organization, the trend which you know was practised by the colonial governments of Edgar Whitehead, Ian Douglas Smith and successive outpost apartheid regimes of SA.

Political organizations as universitas at law, if you know what it means as you purport to be a lawyer whom I never head once appeared before a kraalhead defending goat theft, are organisations formed and joined voluntarily.

Of recent past I discovered a dangerous path you want to take our country to bloodbath by your desperate attempt to take our country down the warpath.

It has been always your traits from the liberation struggle via the Gukurahundi genocide to the mass murder of the MDC membership from 2000 up to present and your current attempts to annihilate us as an organization and destroy the will and aspirations our people and that of the generation of today.

You are systematically using our noble institutions of the State to try and totally destroy us. Unbeknown to you is that, the route you are traveling is tragic.

I know you have got self delusions that you can kill, arrest and abduct anyone who will assert his or her fundamental right to express themselves against the desperate situation we are in as a country and as a people.

But let me warn you, your end is nigh. I once warned you during the Mugabe era that you are the most dangerous threat to our civilization as a people if we become unfortunate to be governed by you.

It is now apparent to everyone including the most daft that you are a curse modern civilization.

You have destroyed the dignity of our people through your incessant persecution of alternative voices and criminalised them because you want to enjoy looting our National resources with your friends, family and cabal. I don’t think in your normal reflection of the situation you are proud of the coup you committed on the 17th of November 2017.

You are now persecuting the organization I belong to on a daily basis for the dangerous reason you know best yourself alone.

I know there are many people in the organization you purport to lead who ridicule you to us on a daily basis and do not share your appetite to obliterate us as an alternative to your failed leadership of this country. Your belief that you will use our brothers and sisters in the security services to persecute our people will not work. Repeating the same strategy all over again since we happen to know you won’t work forever. Let me warn you, people will bring it to a halt one day. You have been asked by many people and Men of God who care about you, to repent of which if you don’t, your end is nigh. You can not continue seeing dead bodies since 1980 on your pleasure and on your name and proudly walk thinking you are god.

There is one true God. And the ancestors of this land are not happy at all about what you are doing to its people. People are starving while you are eating like King Nebbukadnezzah. Million youth are unemployed and are surviving through ndokumbirawo dhora mudhara.

It’s only one day when their anger explodes. Don’t blame anyone but yourself and your arrogance that gives you false invincibility. Falling like a thud you shall.

The institution of a family is crumbling because our people are migrating daily to Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, DRC and other shameful destinations looking for life because you have destroyed any decency a normal person can have in this country. What kind of a shame are you that you don’t want to be challenged. Are you God??

I generally don’t dream falsehoods.

When I am talking about dreams I am not talking about wishes. I am talking about a really dream. Two nights ago I dreamt about you being viciously bitten by a swam of bees.

You tried to laugh at them saying nyuchi idzi dzinopenga but they continued coming for you heavily. When you tried to use your hand to sway them away I saw them biting your hand until it got swollen to the size of a drum. They continued biting you until you melted. Beware mene mene takil Falsin.

I urge you to resign as soon as possible to save yourself from the swarm of bees.

My dreams always come true Mr. Mnangagwa. You will remember me for this. Put it in your note book. You will try to kill some but it won’t work for you. Our people have reached the breaking point.

Ndapedza newe.

ZIMCODD has received with shock news that the Government has, with immediate effect, suspended all monetary transactions on phone-based mobile money platforms. Digital finance systems are playing an increasing role in macro-economic health globally.

The coalition is alive to the fact that the Reserve Bank worry that the proliferation of digital economies, currencies, and transactions will erode already fragile banking systems and by extension render ineffective the monetary policies which rely on them and erodes the efficacy of the two basic tools governments have in their arsenals for combating inflation: controlling the monetary supply
and setting interest rates.

The Central Bank (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe [RBZ]) has used the National Payment System Act as well as internally developed policy guidelines to regulate mobile financial services.

The major shortfalls of the current regulatory framework include lack of clarity on how overlaps and conflicts of regulators and players are addressed, limitation of products, the question of legality and non-enforceability of some frameworks and lack of emphasis on financial inclusion.

It is worrying that the government’s measure comes in the context of COVID-19 pandemic where banks and other financial institutions are going paperless and encouraging social distancing to stop the spread in compliance with World Health Organisation (WHO) standards.

Policy inconsistence – Less than a year ago, monetary authorities where on overdrive
encouraging use of electronic money. The banks are already cash strapped and mobile money has become part of people’s daily transacting means for all kinds of essentials reducing demand for cash withdrawals in the bank. The measure announced by the bank will take us several
steps backwards and also erodes public trust in both current and future policy prescriptions.

There must be some degree of predictability in policy environment
Urban to rural remittances will be significantly affected especially given the covid-19 context which has necessitated lockdown measures as enunciated by President E.D Mnangagwa limiting movements (including intercity) to stop the spread of corona virus. Many Zimbabweans have rural dependants that include children and the old aged. To this end, suspending mobile money platforms without offering a sustainable and affordable alternative will render beneficiary families members to hunger starvation.

For the record, ZIMCODD is not against regulation of mobile money platforms, however, the regulatory policy should be executed in a people centred and considerate manner.

The measure is poised to worsen material conditions of the poorest of the poor, even
alienating them from the ray of hope they have in terms of livelihood support from distant family members, relatives and friends as well as from humanitarian organisations and social welfare department providing support through harmonised cash transfer programme. Mobile money platforms have played a crucial role in providing relief support in humanitarian crisis and disaster situations – noting that Zimbabwe faces multiple crises of health, food and economic nature, the announced measure is therefore untimely.

The government, through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development should be concerned about domestic resource mobilisation to fund treasury’s fiscal obligations – Zimbabwe has the world’s second largest informal economy that is characterised by non- formal banking hence limited money circulation in banking sector. Instead of adopting punitive measures, the government should not lose sight of the revenue collection value of phone- based mobile money transactions ensuring that citizens pay their fair share of tax.

Tempering with the resource mobilisation base at this critical juncture of economic decline undermines revenue collection and creates huge budget deficits. Recent research demonstrates that there is a strong link between remittances and mobile money adoption.

Most countries that have a higher level of remittances exhibit higher levels of mobile money adoption. It is a fact that most Zimbabwean households are surviving on diaspora remittances before, during and after the lockdown owing to economic depression.
ZIMCODD therefore calls upon the government to:
• Urgently reconsider and revise the pronounced measure;
• Make a resolve for enactment of the Electronic Money Act which regulates mobile financial services;
• Keep abreast with innovation and proactiveness of the regulators in coming up with suitable regulation matching new innovations;
• Harmonization of the regulation to address potential conflict between regulators and individual institutions;
• Channel efforts towards addressing a flawed economic model that promotes under dealings by a few elites and politically exposed persons fuelling the parallel economy; and
• Arrest and prosecute the said ‘economic saboteurs’ since there is claim of “impeccable evidence” instead of punishing innocent citizens already suffering from the economic meltdown.

MDC Alliance Spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere has dismissed a government announcement banning mobile money transactions saying without a Statutory Instrument it was hot air.

Posting on Twitter, Mahere said move was also an indication of government’s disregard for property rights.

“This statement has no force of law in any case. Without the backing of a valid legal instrument, it’s hot air. That said, if it’s a foreboding of what’s to come, your Govt will have shown yet again a huge capacity to destroy property rights. You cannot be trusted with anything,” said Mahere.

Yesterday government through the ministry of information, publicity and broadcasting services suspended all mobile money transactions saying platforms such as Ecocash were responsible for foreign exchange rate distortions which in return were responsible for runaway inflation.

By Ow Correspondent| MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa yesterday braced the cold weather to receive his party leaders and Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe who were granted ZWL$10 000 bail by the High Court.

The three ladies Mamombe, Cecelia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were allegedly abducted by suspected state security agents and were tortured before being dumped near Bindura.

They were later arrested on charges of faking abduction.

Posting on Twitter, Chamisa said, “Just been here at Chikurubi prison to welcome the MDC Alliance trio who have been granted bail & released this evening.The girls are strong, unbreakable and in high spirits. God is faithful. Power to the people. Victory is certain.”

THE Government has suspended phone-based money transactions with immediate effect as investigations into allegations that they fuel black market transactions that have caused runaway inflation gather pace.

The suspension is expected to allow reforms to restore mobile money platforms to their original purpose. Measures to safeguard the interests of the innocent public that use the platforms have been put in place.

In a statement yesterday, Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said the move would converge all exchange rates to the single market-based one set by the weekly auctions run by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

The black market was being funded and fuelled through the use of the four mobile money platforms, with EcoCash, where 94 percent of mobile transactions take place, being described as the “central pivot of the galloping black market exchange rate and therefore fuelling the incessant price hikes of goods and services that are bedevilling the economy and causing untold hardship to the people of Zimbabwe”.

The EcoCash system holds $8 billion in 501 000 merchant and agent’s accounts, along with large balances in suspense accounts.

The Financial Intelligence Unit of the RBZ cannot monitor these accounts the same way they can monitor dealings in the banking sector.

The Government, said Mr Mangwana, has gathered evidence that millions of dollars are being transferred by merchants every day using mobile platforms to street runners in the black market for foreign exchange.

The runners buy forex and surrender it to their funders.

The Government recently suspended some agency lines to rein in the practice but new unaudited lines have been opened and are being used by criminal syndicates.

Mobile money systems are under the communications regulator Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz), not the RBZ, therefore they cannot be monitored or audited.

Trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) was generating fake exchange rates, in particular the Old Mutual Implied Rate that matches the prices paid for Old Mutual shares on the London, Johannesburg and Zimbabwean stock exchanges.

Mr Mangwana said the Government had intelligence that made a prime facie case that mobile money systems, with the deliberate or inadvertent help of the ZSE , were engaged in illicit activities that sabotage the economy.

Illegal externalisation of foreign currency through transfer mispricing, acting as banks although not licensed to do so, 501 000 EcoCash agent and merchant lines that could not be scrutinised by the Financial Intelligence Unit, fraudulently creating and issuing non-attributable and non-auditable agent cellphone lines and accounts are among the tactics used by the mobile phone platforms to destabilise the economy through artificially increasing exchange rates.

Mr Mangwana said the platforms were facilitating illicit trade in notes and coins that have resulted in premiums for cash of 30 percent to 50 percent and causing artificial shortages of cash in the banking system.

EcoCash has also allegedly allowed agent lines banned by the RBZ to continue trading and using bulk airtime sales at discounted prices tied to phantom US dollar exchange rates, distorting the Zimbabwean market and deliberately mopping up US dollars from the black market and forcing up exchange rates there.

Mr Mangwana said the mobile money platforms are: “Engaging in rampant and unchecked tax evasion, failing to report suspicious transactions or taking action against them, maintaining unauditable phone lines or accounts that are now being used by criminal syndicates, conniving with insiders to steal money through fraudulent activities like teeming and lading.

“Acting as conduits of fake US dollar notes. Facilitating criminal activity through non-enforcement of the know-your-customer requirements. While all four platforms — EcoCash, OneMoney, Telecash and MyCash — were complicit in these illicit activities in various degrees, EcoCash because of its 94 percent market share was the central pivot,” he said.

The impact of mobile money platforms funding black market activities was exacerbated by “fake counters” on the ZSE epitomised by the Old Mutual Implied Rate. This had led to multiple phantom exchange rates, which conspired to defeat fiscal policy.

-State Media

Authorities at Beitbridge Border Post have increased surveillance and anti-smuggling activities during the ongoing lockdown period and have managed to intercept 21 commercial trucks that were smuggling into the country an assortment goods worth millions of dollars.

It is understood that the volume of commercial cargo entering or leaving Zimbabwe through its southern border has increased following the closure of other borders in the Sadc region.

Zimbabwe remains the only viable transit route for those countries north of the Zambezi River, including Zambia, Malawi, DRC, Tanzania and Angola.

According to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), traffic volumes per day increased from an average (import/export) 450 daily in 2019 to 1 000 between March and June this year.

Prior to the lockdown, Zimra was clearing around 500 commercial trucks daily.

Zimra’s regional manager for Beitbridge, Mr Innocent Chikuni recently said that the smuggling of groceries and related items remained the biggest challenges to the collection of revenue.

He was speaking during the tour of the border by the Revenue Authority’s senior managers and the Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube.

“Working with other stakeholders we have been able to seize goods from 56 offenders and impounded 22 motor vehicles between April and May at undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.

“In addition, smuggling activities through the border post are surging because of the increased traffic. Between March and May we recorded 81 seizures including 21 commercial trucks & trailers,” said Mr Chikuni.

Government has, with immediate effect, undertaken a series of prudent and coordinated interventions to deal with malpractices, criminality and economic sabotage perpetrated by the “wolves in sheep skins amongst our population” that His Excellency the President alluded to during his official address on the occasion of the Hero’s burial of Cde Stanley Nleya (Gagisa) at the National Shrine.

These measures include the suspension of all monetary transactions on phone-based mobile money platforms in order to facilitate intrusive investigations, leading to the arrest and prosecution of offenders.

Concurrently, the measures will also include the suspension of all trading on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

These measures are to subsist until such time that the mobile money platforms have been reformed to their original purpose and all the current phantom rates of exchange have converged into one genuine rate that is determined by market forces under the Foreign Currency Auction System which was launched by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on 23rd June 2020.

Operational modalities and details of the envisaged measures are going to be announced by the relevant monetary, regulatory and law enforcement authorities in the next few days.

Government will concurrently ensure that prudent measures are also put in place to mitigate and prevent any collateral damage that these interventions may cause to the innocent transacting public who were using these platforms.

Government is in possession of impeccable intelligence which constitutes a prima facie case whereby the phone-based mobile money systems of Zimbabwe are conspiring, with the help of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, either deliberately or inadvertently, in illicit activities that are sabotaging the economy.
These activities include: –
a) Illegal externalization of foreign currency through transfer mispricing;

b) Acting as banks outside the purpose for which they were originally licensed, as non-banking financial institutions. This includes, in the particular case of Ecocash, holding well in excess of ZWL$8 billion distributed across just over 501 000 agent/merchant lines as lat 10 June 2020, which is not under the scrutiny of the Financial Intelligence Unit;
c) Fraudulently creating and issuing non-attributable and non-auditable agent cellphone lines/accounts;
d) Hiding irreconcilable accounts in suspense accounts which hold huge credit balances for unjustifiably long periods;

e) Ecocash, in particular, is acting as the centre pivot of the galloping black market foreign exchange rate and therefore, fuelling the incessant price hikes of goods and services that are bedevilling the economy and causing untold hardship to the people of Zimbabwe.

In this regard, it has been conspiring with big merchants to act as their conduit through which they transfer hundreds of millions of dollars per day to runners on the street who then buy US Dollars on their behalf;
f) Rampant, often arrogant, non-compliance with directives issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Financial Intelligence Unit;
g) Facilitating illicit trade in notes and coins, at contrived rates of between 30% and 50%, thus causing artificial shortages of the same within the banking system;
h) Criminally allowing agent lines that were banned by the RBZ to continue trading illegally;

i) Using bulk airtime sales at discounted prices which are cross rated to phantom USD exchange rates, which further distort the Zimbabwe market and deliberately mop up US Dollars from the black market, thus forcing up the rate of exchange in a manner that has hitherto been difficult to explain for
the monetary authorities;
j) Engaging in rampant unchecked tax evasion;
k) Failure to report suspicious transactions or to take action against them;
l) Creation of illegal transient and permanent money through airtime loans, unaccounted wallet-to-bank and bank-to-wallet transactions and other malpractices;
m) Maintaining unauditable mobile phone lines or accounts which are being used by criminal syndicates, in connivance with insiders, to steal money from subscribers through such fraudulent practices as teeming and lading;
n) Acting as conduits for the circulation of counterfeit USD notes; and
o) Facilitating criminal activities through the non-enforcement of KYC requirements; and
Ecocash, OneMoney, Telecash and MyCash Mobile Money platforms are all complicit in these illicit activities in varying degrees.

Ecocash, however, which controls nearly 94% of all mobile money transactions, is the centre pivot of this problem and its resultant impact on Zimbabwe’s economy.

The impact is exacerbated by the existence of fake counters on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which is epitomized by the so-called Old Mutual Implied Exchange Rate (OMIR). This, in turn, results in four or more US: ZWL parallel market exchange rates operating in the market.

At any time, therefore, there is the official rate, an Ecocash rate, a OneMoney rate and the OMIR among others.

As the RBZ Governor aptly observed recently, there are multiple contrived phantom exchange rates in use in the Zimbabwe Economy, which conspire to defeat fiscal policy.

Statement issued by
N Mangwana
Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services

Farai Dziva|Suspected CIO operatives abducted the wife of MDC Alliance councillor, Denford Ngadziore and the couple’s six-month old baby on Thursday.

“Eight unknown people kidnapped my wife and our s 6-month -old baby Angel Ngadziore together with Allan Moyo and Snaga Lameck Bizzure in Mabelreign.

They were assulted and later dumped in Dzivarasekwa,” said Councillor Ngadziore.

“The wife of MDC Alliance Councillor, Denford Ngadziore and couple’s 6-month baby as well as Allan Moyo and Snaga Lameck were kidnapped from Ngadziore’s home in Mabelreign by suspected state agents driving a vehicle with no number plates.

They were beaten and dumped in Dzivarasekwa,” the MDC Alliance said in a statement.

Zimbabwe has been hit by a critical shortage of ARVs -which might affect people living with HIV on the second regimen of the antiretroviral therapy -as they might have to change one of their drugs.

This was revealed in a statement by the information ministry’s acting permanent secretary Dr Gibson Mhlanga who said:

This circular serve to notify you that we are experiencing a national shortage of Atazanavir/ritonavir due to reduced global production and delayed shipments from suppliers as a result of the global Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

The ministry and its partners are working tirelessly to address this shortage.

In the meantime, the ministry advices that patients on Atazanavir/ritonavir be given up to one month of supplies until the situation improves.

In the same statement, Dr Mhlanga gave a temporary solution to the problem if it persists and it cant be addressed on time and said:

If Atazanavir/ritonavir 300mg/100mg is no longer available, in consultation with the district pharmacy manager, it will be temporarily substituted with DTG 50mg until it is available.

Please note the Lopinavir/ritonavir is not a viable substitute for Atazanavir/ritonavir as there are no sufficient quantities in the country to cover the gap- Chronicle

Farai Dziva|Former Zanu PF youth league official Godfrey Tsenengamu has said the people of Zimbabwe have suffered for too long.

Speaking at a news conference in Harare on Friday, Tsenengamu said Zimbabweans should not expect politicians to resolve the deepening economic crisis in the country.

Tsenengamu also warned of mass protests initiated by citizens.

Religious leaders have praised Auxillia Mnangagwa for mobilising resources and distributing food to the poor countrywide, and her tireless efforts to ensure everyone has access to information on Covid-19, which has killed thousands of people across the globe.

They expressed the sentiments at the City Sports Centre in Harare yesterday where the Mrs Mnangagwa, who is the country’s health ambassador, met the elderly and the disabled, among many other groups of people, as she concluded her nationwide tour to conscientise citizens about Covid-19.

Mrs Mnangagwa has of late been holding interactive meetings with the elderly and rural communities to spread awareness on coronavirus and ways through which they can protect themselves from the pandemic.

She has, alongside her Angel of Hope Foundation, visited all provinces, including previously marginalised communities like the San in Plumtree where she distributed food, blankets, sanitisers and face masks, at the same time ensuring everyone had information on the pandemic.

Auxillia Mnangagwa has also mobilised resources like sanitising booths, sanitisers, detergents and face masks which she has handed over to hospitals and various communities.

Yesterday’s meeting came at a time when the country is facing an increase in confirmed Covid-19 cases owing to a number of factors, with the virus mainly being found among returning residents in isolation centres.

Daughters of Virtue leader Prophetess Memory Matimbire, said Mrs Mnangagwa’s nationwide visits demonstrated the importance of giving.

“Amai is teaching us on the power of giving,” she said.

“She is teaching us that the elderly and parents should be looked after, as this increases our days on earth. She is a blessed woman who leads by example.”

Reading from Acts 9 verse 36, Prophetess Matimbire likened Mrs Mnangagwa to the Biblical Tabitha, who was always doing good through helping the poor.

Pastor Evelyn Gaga from Hebron Art of Prayer said Christianity without benevolence and giving to the poor was meaningless.

She said praying without deeds was dead, adding that the First Lady was leading the way in doing good.

“Our mother has the nation at heart and she always joins us as churches in prayer,” said Pastor Gaga.-The Herald

Message to the ZANU PF leader Emmerson Mnangagwa.

By Hon Job Wiwa Sikhala
MDC Alliance National Vice Chairman.

In my personal capacity as a duly elected National Vice Chairman of the MDC Alliance, it is my clear advise to you, that I refuse to be treated like a person belonging to an illegal political organization, the trend which you know was practised by the colonial governments of Edgar Whitehead, Ian Douglas Smith and successive outpost apartheid regimes of SA. Political organizations as universitas at law, if you know what it means as you purport to be a lawyer whom I never head once appeared before a kraalhead defending goat theft, are organisations formed and joined voluntarily. Of recent past I discovered a dangerous path you want to take our country to bloodbath by your desperate attempt to take our country down the warpath. It has been always your traits from the liberation struggle via the Gukurahundi genocide to the mass murder of the MDC membership from 2000 up to present and your current attempts to annihilate us as an organization and destroy the will and aspirations our people and that of the generation of today.

You are systematically using our noble institutions of the State to try and totally destroy us. Unbeknown to you is that, the route you are traveling is tragic. I know you have got self delusions that you can kill, arrest and abduct anyone who will assert his or her fundamental right to express themselves against the desperate situation we are in as a country and as a people. But let me warn you, your end is nigh. I once warned you during the Mugabe era that you are the most dangerous threat to our civilization as a people if we become unfortunate to be governed by you. It is now apparent to everyone including the most daft that you are a curse modern civilization. You have destroyed the dignity of our people through your incessant persecution of alternative voices and criminalised them because you want to enjoy looting our National resources with your friends, family and cabal. I don’t think in your normal reflection of the situation you are proud of the coup you committed on the 17th of November 2017. You are now persecuting the organization I belong to on a daily basis for the dangerous reason you know best yourself alone.

I know there are many people in the organization you purport to lead who ridicule you to us on a daily basis and do not share your appetite to obliterate us as an alternative to your failed leadership of this country. Your belief that you will use our brothers and sisters in the security services to persecute our people will not work. Repeating the same strategy all over again since we happen to know you won’t work forever. Let me warn you, people will bring it to a halt one day. You have been asked by many people and Men of God who care about you, to repent of which if you don’t, your end is nigh. You can not continue seeing dead bodies since 1980 on your pleasure and on your name and proudly walk thinking you are god. There is one true God. And the ancestors of this land are not happy at all about what you are doing to its people. People are starving while you are eating like King Nebbukadnezzah. Million youth are unemployed and are surviving through ndokumbirawo dhora mudhara. It’s only one day when their anger explodes. Don’t blame anyone but yourself and your arrogance that gives you false invincibility. Falling like a thud you shall. The institution of a family is crumbling because our people are migrating daily to Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, DRC and other shameful destinations looking for life because you have destroyed any decency a normal person can have in this country. What kind of a shame are you that you don’t want to be challenged. Are you God??

I generally don’t dream falsehoods. When I am talking about dreams I am not talking about wishes. I am talking about a really dream. Two nights ago I dreamt about you being viciously bitten by a swam of bees. You tried to laugh at them saying nyuchi idzi dzinopenga but they continued coming for you heavily. When you tried to use your hand to sway them away I saw them biting your hand until it got swollen to the size of a drum. They continued biting you until you melted. Beware mene mene takil Falsin.

I urge you to resign as soon as possible to save yourself from the swan of bees. My dreams always come true Mr. Mnangagwa. You will remember me for this. Put it in your note book. You will try to kill some but it won’t work for you. Our people have reached the breaking point.

Ndapedza newe.

Former Studio 263 actress and radio personality Tinopona Katsande allegedly ferried her close friend’s corpse to her relatives without informing the police after she collapsed and died at her home.

Katsande reportedly hired a taxi to ferry the 45-year-old Rebecca Chinyerere’s body after she collapsed in a bathing room at the actress’ apartment in Belvedere on Tuesday.

The case was reported at Avondale Police Station under RRB number 4381451.

Uncle to the deceased, Ishmael Chinyerere, who is also family spokesperson, told H-Metro that Katsande’s conduct left them with more questions than answers. He said:

We know that death is there but the way Katsande failed to respect it left us with more questions than answers.

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After she saw that her (Tino) friend had collapsed while naked, she went on to clothe her.

If we had known the cause we would say okay. She came and picked up my daughter only for her to come later with her dead body.

Katsande had picked Rebecca from her family home on Monday on the understanding that she would return the following morning since she was going with her two sons.

However, on Tuesday evening, Katsande brought home Rebecca’s body with her two sons in the same car.

More: H-Metro

By A Correspondent- The MDC Alliance youth leaders who were arrested for faking their abduction Harare West legislator Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova have been granted $10 000 bail each.

The trio were also told to report to the Zimbabwe Republic Police three times a week.

As part of their bail conditions, the trio were also instructed to hand in their passports and not to interfere with witnesses.

The three were also told to reside at given addresses and not to communicate with media or use social media.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for latest updates.

Thousands of commuters have been left stranded in Mutare as Zupco  franchisees are on go slow over a compensation dispute with the government.

The go slow started on Wednesday and some commuters are walking on foot to and from work.

Transport operators who spoke to Newsday revealed that bus operators are being paid $4,000 per day whereas kombis are getting $1,000 per day.

Bus operators want to be paid $15,000 per day.

“We are on a go-slow because of the paltry commission we are being given. Just imagine that we are getting $4 000 per day, while kombis are getting $1 000. It’s peanuts, in fact, the government is now benefiting because a kombi is cashing about $3 000 per day and if I was doing it alone, I could get much higher. He added: “It seems it is us who are now subsidising our buses. We want the government to pay us at least $15 000 per day. We are on a go-slow, but what we are avoiding is to park at all because we don’t have any source of income, may our government will help,” the operator said

State Media

AUTHORITIES at Beitbridge Border Post have increased surveillance and anti-smuggling activities during the ongoing lockdown period and have managed to intercept 21 commercial trucks that were smuggling into the country an assortment goods worth millions of dollars.

It is understood that the volume of commercial cargo entering or leaving Zimbabwe through its southern border has increased following the closure of other borders in the Sadc region.

Zimbabwe remains the only viable transit route for those countries north of the Zambezi River, including Zambia, Malawi, DRC, Tanzania and Angola.

According to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), traffic volumes per day increased from an average (import/export) 450 daily in 2019 to 1 000 between March and June this year.

Prior to the lockdown, Zimra was clearing around 500 commercial trucks daily.

Zimra’s regional manager for Beitbridge, Mr Innocent Chikuni recently that the smuggling of groceries and related items remained the biggest challenges to the collection of revenue.

He was speaking during the tour of the border by the Revenue Authority’s senior managers and the Finance and Economic Development Minister, Professor Mthuli Ncube.

“Working with other stakeholders we have been able to seize goods from 56 offenders and impounded 22 motor vehicles between April and May at undesignated entry points along the Limpopo River.

“In addition, smuggling activities through the border post are surging because of the increased traffic. Between March and May we recorded 81 seizures including 21 commercial trucks & trailers,” said Mr Chikuni.

Five people died in an accident in the Mavhuradonha mountains on their way to a burial in Tete area in Muzarabani.

The accident occurred earlier today when the vehicle they were travelling is said to have suffered brake failure seven kilometres shy of completing the Mavhuradonha mountain range.

Muzarabani district development coordinator Mr John Chihobo said five others are in a critical condition and were transferred to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.

The other 8 who were injured are admitted at St Albert’s Hospital. The 18 were travelling in two vehicles and were accompanying the body of their deceased relative.

Own Correspondent

Expelled Zanu PF national youth political Commissar, Godfrey Tsenengamu has ripped into President Emmerson Mnangagwa and opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa saying they are only concerned about power than the majority of the people.

Tsenengamu made these remarks during a press conference in Harare saying the over two million votes that both parties garnered in the 2018 election cannot be the basis of the country’s economic halt.

“If you look at their numbers 2, 1 million and 2, 4 million votes, what percentage is that of the total population of Zimbabwe. So you (Mnangagwa and Chamisa) think you can hold us at ransom because of two million votes kutotiona sevanhu venyu, kutotiita zvireshe zvenyu (you take us as your servants making us fools)” charged Tsenengamu

Watch video downloading below. Please be patient while the video downloads.

NewsDay

A COMBATIVE teachers’ union has psyched up the educators to boycott invigilating the June examinations until government complies with a High Court ruling ordering it to equip schools with facilities to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The “O” and “A” Level Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) examinations kick off next Tuesday.

However, in an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president Takavafira Zhou said teachers would boycott invigilating the mid-year exams due to failure by government to comply with the High Court order.

“The issue of invigilating June exams is before the courts, where both Zimsec and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had promised to put testing kits, thermometers, sanitisers, PPEs [personal protective equipment] in schools by June 26,” Zhou said.

“They also promised that they would have cleaned and disinfected schools currently used as quarantine centres by then.

“Surprisingly, the ministry and Zimsec have been belting and bellowing instructions to school heads to scavenge for COVID-19 abatement requirements at a zero budget, an impossible feat indeed.

“Some school heads have also been belting instructions to candidates to have paid second term school fees by June 30.”

He added: “To all teachers in Zimbabwe, be advised that the issue of invigilation is before the courts, all communiqués made so far have no locus standi and must be disregarded forthwith. Our health, safety and welfare should come first.

“Anything else must be resisted by all means possible. We can’t fasttrack our demise by dicing with death and being reckless with our health, safety and welfare.

“All teachers in Zimbabwe must forthwith disregard unlawful instructions from some school heads threatening teachers with unspecified action should they not report for invigilation.

“Teachers are duly advised to resist all unlawful instructions from school heads, DSIs [district schools inspectors], PEDs [provincial education directors] and head office. We have nothing to fear.”

Zhou said teachers were not employed by Zimsec and should disregard an order from the schools examination authority.

By Nelson Chamisa|Zimbabwe sinking courtesy of bad policies and bad leadership causing abject poverty and untold suffering. Take policy inconsistency and reversals e.g termination of the multiple currency regime in favour of the local currency and later on the return to dollarization in less than a year.

Replacing of a fixed exchange rate with an interbank market rate and then going back to a fixed exchange rate and a month later disbandment of the fixed exchange rate regime with an auction system points to tragic policy reversals and policy contradictions just within a few months.

The approach to corruption is ample a demonstration of leadership ineptitude and unwillingness to tackle corruption beyond lip service. Government is carrying out the so-called “catch and release” and has totally ignored the findings of the auditor-general on corruption.

Poor policy implementation as evinced by the TSP having annual inflation target of 5% and growth targets of 6.3%, 18.5% &19% in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively being abandoned before expiry due to its dismal performance as inflation approaches 1 000% with – economic growth rates!

The combined effect of bad policies and drought of leadership has resulted in the collapse of the local currency which has seen a nationwide rejection of the same. As a sign of capitulation, the government is starting to pay workers in USD and businesses being asked to display prices in USD.

No amount of SIs, auction system or force will reverse the meltdown. It’s a scandal that just last year people’s Nostro accounts were converted into ZWL together with their cash balance and debts. In a year, the same people now have Nostro accounts with zero balance in preparation for payment of salaries.

In the process of this madness, citizens have lost pensions, savings and medical aid. Isn’t it unprecedented that people can lose their pension twice in ten years? Where on earth does this happen? Not in even in hell.

We are at a tipping point of the Explosion. On the back of poor policies, we see the total demise of Zimbabwe dollar and full dollarization which has seen government ditching its own currency.

We see excessive wage erosion and workers salaries now meaningless notwithstanding the latest paltry offer by the government which can’t beat the poverty datum line which is now above $8,000.This has pushed our committed workers into abject poverty and rendered them technically unemployed.

We note the bankruptcy amongst major companies as their cashflows are heading towards zero balance in face of full dollarisation. Cos will struggle to build new cashflow in USD their efforts to raise USD thru the pricing in USD will not build cash balances as quickly as possible.

There is a constrained budget and little space to pay government workers in USD mainly as a result of liquidity crunch coming on the back of low export earnings, depressed investment inflows, low diaspora earnings caused by COVID -19 and absence of lines of credit due to high debt overhang.

There is a liquidity crunch, coupled with food insecurity, high unemployment, high incapacitation across – people, workers, Government, businesses, etc and absence of external support, the economy is heading for total collapse.

In the absence of sound stimulus package which must be in the region of US$5 billion coupled with the freefall in our local currency at a time when foreign currency receipts are anticipated to fall by US$3 billion, there is no doubt that the economy will fail to perform.

Going forward, as we alluded to in our independence speech, 40 is a sacred number – life begins at 40, the children of Israel took 40 years to cross into Canaan and Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. Zimbabwe turned 40 this year! Hope is our portion!

Let us prepare for the new independence as we claim back all that was stolen and demand a people’s government through citizens’ peaceful protests per section 59 of the constitution. People of Zimbabwe deserve a legitimate capable state. The change we demand! None but ourselves!

263chat

Opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa’s decision to replace party spokesperson Daniel Molokele with firebrand constitutional lawyer Fadzayi Mahere was purely mutual and not motivated by frosty relations between the two long term allies, it has since emerged.

There have been widespread reports that Molokele had been demoted after failing to meet Chamisa’s high expectations as well as how the Hwange Central legislator handled party communications soon after the Supreme Court ruling that restored Thokozani Khupe as the MDC-T Acting President.

Molokele’s replacement also sent tongues wagging as it happened at a time a number of party legislators were crossing the floor to join Khupe.

However a close source within the party told 263Chat that Molokele who is also the Hwange Central legislator had already asked Chamisa to look for a replacement as he wanted to concentrate on other interests.

“Molokele’s decision was based on commitment towards his vast personal projects, family in South Africa, a constituency to serve and also the task of chairing the parliamentary committee on education,” the source said.

The source added that the party standing committee was already in the process of discussing Molokele’s new role in the party as he is widely viewed as a cornerstone in Matebeleland North region.

In an earlier interview before the reshuffle, Molokele had gone public about his support for Chamisa and the MDC Alliance party.

“I am clear, I support Advocate Chamisa. I don’t support Khupe, I don’t support Mwonzora, I don’t support Komichi,” said Molokele.

This comes at a time the MDC-A has seen a number of its MPs jump ship to the rival MDC-T party led by Thokozani Khupe in recent weeks to save them from recall.

Chamisa has been often criticized for chastising loyal and long serving members who were in the original MDC in 1999 from influential positions in the MDC-A instead choosing to reward some deserters (Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube) and new comers like Fadzai Mahere.

Three MDC Alliance Youth Assembly leaders Joana Mamombe, Netsai Marova and Cecilia Chimbiri have finally been granted bail…

Stringent Bail Conditions For MDC Alliance Girls https://t.co/gR935KS3I4

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) June 26, 2020

Also watch video loading below. ..

Watch the live video loading below……..

By A Correspondent- The MDC Alliance trio Harare West legislator Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova have been granted $10 000 bail each.

The trio were also told to report to the Zimbabwe Republic Police three times a week.

As part of their bail conditions, the trio were also instructed to hand in their passports and not to interfere with witnesses.

The three were also told to reside at given addresses and not to communicate with media or use social media.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for latest updates.

By A Correspondent- The MDC Alliance trio Harare West legislator Joanna Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova have been granted $10 000 bail each.

The trio were also told to report to the Zimbabwe Republic Police three times a week.

As part of their bail conditions, the trio were also instructed to hand in their passports and not to interfere with witnesses.

The three were also told to reside at given addresses and not to communicate with media or use social media.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for latest updates.

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa has said the country’s economic quagmire is a direct result of bad policies and lawlessness.

Emmerson Mnangagwa is accused of disregarding fundamental human rights.

Below is Advocate Chamisa’s argument :

Zim sinking courtesy of bad policies & bad leadership causing abject poverty & untold suffering.Take Policy inconsistency & reversals e.g termination of the multiple currency regime in favour of the local currency & later on return back to dollarization in less than a year.

Let us prep for the new independence as we claim back all that was stolen and demand a people’s government through citizens’ peaceful protests per section 59 of the constitution.People of Zimbabwe deserve better. Change we demand! Non but ourselves!

Going forward, as we alluded to in our independence speech, 40 is a sacred number – life begins at 40, the children of Israel took 40 years to cross into Canaan and Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. Zimbabwe turned 40 this year!Hope is our portion!

Elections were rigged but sadly they can’t rig the economy.Force and coercion will not work.Illegitimacy is killing us. Bad governance is killing us. Bad politics is killing us. Corruption is killing us.The economy is tanking.We are on a fast lane to to nowhere!

In the absence of sound stimulus package which must be in the region of US$5 billion coupled with the freefall in our local currency at a time when foreign currency receipts are anticipated to fall by US$3 billion, there is no doubt that the economy has failed to perform.

There is a liquidity crunch, coupled with food insecurity, high unemployment, high incapacitation across – people, workers, Government, businesses, etc and absence of external support, the economy is headed for a total collapse.

There is a constrained budget & little space to pay gvt workers in USD mainly as a result of liquidity crunch coming on the back of low export earnings,depressed investment inflows,low diaspora earnings caused by COVID -19 &absence of lines of credit due to high debt overhang.

By A Correspondent- Justice David Mangota has dismissed two MDC Alliance High Court spoliation applications over the illegal takeover of Harvest House by a faction of the party led by Dr Thokozani Khupe.

The development comes as the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa challenged the move by the security forces to seize the party’s headquarters Morgan Tsvangirai House and hand it over to Douglas Mwonzora and his Khupe faction on June 4 2020.

This is a developing story. Refresh this page for latest updates.

Farai Dziva|MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa has said the country’s economic quagmire is a direct result of bad policies and lawlessness.

Emmerson Mnangagwa is accused of disregarding fundamental human rights.

Below is Advocate Chamisa’s argument :

Zim sinking courtesy of bad policies & bad leadership causing abject poverty & untold suffering.Take Policy inconsistency & reversals e.g termination of the multiple currency regime in favour of the local currency & later on return back to dollarization in less than a year.

Let us prep for the new independence as we claim back all that was stolen and demand a people’s government through citizens’ peaceful protests per section 59 of the constitution.People of Zimbabwe deserve better. Change we demand! Non but ourselves!

Going forward, as we alluded to in our independence speech, 40 is a sacred number – life begins at 40, the children of Israel took 40 years to cross into Canaan and Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. Zimbabwe turned 40 this year!Hope is our portion!

Elections were rigged but sadly they can’t rig the economy.Force and coercion will not work.Illegitimacy is killing us. Bad governance is killing us. Bad politics is killing us. Corruption is killing us.The economy is tanking.We are on a fast lane to to nowhere!

In the absence of sound stimulus package which must be in the region of US$5 billion coupled with the freefall in our local currency at a time when foreign currency receipts are anticipated to fall by US$3 billion, there is no doubt that the economy has failed to perform.

There is a liquidity crunch, coupled with food insecurity, high unemployment, high incapacitation across – people, workers, Government, businesses, etc and absence of external support, the economy is headed for a total collapse.

There is a constrained budget & little space to pay gvt workers in USD mainly as a result of liquidity crunch coming on the back of low export earnings,depressed investment inflows,low diaspora earnings caused by COVID -19 &absence of lines of credit due to high debt overhang.

MDC Alliance legislator for Mkoba Amos Chibaya has said his alleged recall from parliament does not change his responsibility to serve the people in his constituency indicating that his parliament is in Mkoba-Gweru.

Chibaya is one of the MDC Alliance MPs who were recalled by Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T for aligning them self with their leader Nelson Chamisa.

“The enemies of the struggle claim to have recalled me. l was sponsored by MDC Alliance and voted by the people of Mkoba. My Parliament is in Mkoba. We remain focused to free the people of Zim from the jaws of poverty emanating from the legitimacy crisis and massive corruption from Zanu-PF.

To the MDC Alliance family and all Zimbabweans who want to see change lets remain strong and focused. We can not be silenced, the time is now to liberate ourselves,” he said.

-Online

By A Correspondent- Ministry of Health and Child Care Ambassador Auxilia Mnangagwa has reportedly intervened in a cooperate disciplinary case by the state broadcaster ZBC TV which had saw Cameraman Stan Marodza being suspended for allegedly smuggling a video of President Emmerson Mnangagwa telling the nation that the controversial Drax International had donated US$60 million worth of medical stuff for the fight against COVID-19.

According to impeccable sources, the powerful First Lady had a conversation with the Ministry of Information officials which led them to reverse the suspension but booked him for a disciplinary hearing next week Tuesday.

The video appeared on the 8pm news bulletin sometime in April.
According to Newsday Marodza, who took the video clip and was accused by Information ministry permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana of sneaking it onto the main news bulletin, has been suspended.

Mangwana also accused Marodza of selling the video to Delish Nguwaya, the man at the centre of the US$60 million procurement scandal that has sucked in Mnangagwa’s family.

The video allegedly embarrassed Mnangagwa and his family after they claimed that they had no links to Drax International or its representative Nguwaya, yet the clip shows the president standing next to Nguwaya and announcing a donation of US$60 million which he said came after he personally appealed to the company.

Nyambabvu, instead accuses Marodza of using the video clip, which has poor sound quality despite his bosses instructing otherwise.

“Upon returning to Pockets Hill, the reporter Abigail Tembo debriefed the news editor who consulted with the director of news and current affairs and it was decided that the US$60 million donation must be excluded from the reporter’s story due to poor audio,” Nyambabvu alleged.

Three days later, Marodza is alleged to have smuggled the story into the 8pm news as the top story.

By A Correspondent- The Chief Justice has withdrawn the Dress Code Practice Direction 6 of 2020 which had been published citing it was published in error.

Part of the regulation in the published dress code practice direction say female lawyers should not wear skirts with hems that are 3cms above the knee.

Read the full statement below as published by the law society:

RE: PRACTICE DIRECTION 6 OF 2020: DRESS CODE FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS APPEARING IN THE MAGISTRATES COURT

Reference is made to the Practice Direction published today.

Please be advised that the Practice Direction was published in error. It is a draft which is still under consideration. We are aware that currently there are consultations with the Law Society of Zimbabwe. We will also be consulting with the Prosecutor General and the Attorney General.

The Chief Justice has directed that the Practice Direction be withdrawn
which we hereby do.

W.T Chikwana

Secretary, Judicial Service commision 

By A Correspondent- President Mnangagwa reportedly blocked Health Minister Obadiah Moyo from attending Tuesday’s cabinet meeting, The Zimbabwe Independent reports.

Moyo reportedly went to the meeting and took his seat and was later on approached by VP Chiwenga who reportedly told him he was needed by the president in his office.

A source privy to the events that took place that say said:

He arrived in the meeting room at exactly 9am, shortly before the meeting commenced and took his usual seat. But about five minutes later, VP Chiwenga walked in, walked straight up to Moyo and informed him that the President was waiting for him in his office. So he left his papers on the desk and went out to the President’s office together with the Vice-President.

He returned to the meeting room alone about 20 or so minutes later, collected his papers and left without saying anything. I bet he was told that his presence was undesirable.

The President walked in shortly afterwards and the meeting proceeded as if everything was normal. He never said anything about the incident throughout the meeting

The source also opined that Moyo’s job is hanging by the thread:

As things stand, I don’t see him lasting long. He should not have come to the meeting in the first place. I don’t know why he couldn’t learn from the Prisca Mupfumira case.

The wisest thing for him to do right now is to resign and concentrate on the case, but our people do not have the culture of resigning. They would rather be fired.

Moyo was arrested a week ago on 3 counts of criminal abuse of office charges and is out on $50 000 bail.

At court- MDC Alliance stalwarts offers solidarity to incarcerated female youth leaders @JoanaMamombe @ceechimbiri2 @MarovaNetsai pic.twitter.com/6CpYRdIkTB

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) June 26, 2020

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2/Replacing of a fixed exchange rate with an interbank market rate &then going back to a fixed exchange rate &a month later disbandment of the fixed exchange rate regime with an auction system points to tragic policy reversals & policy contradictions just within a few months.

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

4/Poor policy implementation as evinced by the TSP having annual inflation target of 5% &growth targets of 6.3%, 18.5% &19% in 2018,2019 and 2020,respectively being abandoned before expiry due to its dismal performance as inflation approaches 1000% with – economic growth rates!

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

6/ No amt of SIs, auction system or force will reverse the meltdown. It’s a scandal that just last year pple’s nostro accounts were converted into ZWL together with their cash bal &debts. In a yr,the same pple now have nosto accounts with zero bal in prep for payment ofsalaries

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

8/ We are at a tipping point of the Explosion.On the back of poor policies,we see the total demise of Zim dollar &full dollarization which has seen gvt ditching its own currency.

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

10/We note the bankruptcy amongst major companies as their cashflows are heading towards zero bal in face of full dollarization.Cos will struggle to build new cashflow in USD their efforts to raise USD thru the pricing in USD will not build cash balances as quickly as possible.

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

12/There is a liquidity crunch, coupled with food insecurity, high unemployment, high incapacitation across – people, workers, Government, businesses, etc and absence of external support, the economy is heading for total collapse.

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

14/ Going forward, as we alluded to in our independence speech, 40 is a sacred number – life begins at 40, the children of Israel took 40 years to cross into Canaan and Jesus Christ spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness. Zimbabwe turned 40 this year!Hope is our portion!

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

15/ Let us prep for the new independence as we claim back all that was stolen and demand a a people’s government through citizens’ peaceful protests per section 59 of the constitution.People of Zimbabwe deserve a legitimate capable state. Change we demand! None but ourselves!

— nelson chamisa (@nelsonchamisa) June 26, 2020

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“I do not know how many we will be, maybe we will be 2, a hundred or thousands, starting July 7 and until the 10th of July, we will act. I do not know what we will be doing, but we will act. Maybe they will arrest us or send whoever to quell this but know that we are now fed up.”: Tsenengamu.

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Heal Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating International Day in support of Victims of Torture. The day came into force on 12 December 1997, by resolution 52/149, when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed that 26 June to be the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, with a view to the total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the convention against Torture and Other cruel, inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

For Zimbabwe, the occasion for this year commemoration comes at a time when there has been slow pace in the implementation of a legislative framework that seeks to ensure that victims of torture get justice. Zimbabwe’s history is littered with episodes where torture has been used as a weapon to coerce and inflict pain on political opponents.

Some of these episodes include Gukurahundi and past elections particularly the 2002, 2005 and 2008.For Zimbabwe, the commemorations for this year come at a time when the country’s human rights record has come under intense scrutiny.MDC Alliance activists, Harare West Legislator,Honourable Joana Mamombe,MDC Vice Chairperson, Cecelia Chimbiri and Deputy Organizing Secretary Netsai Marova were abducted on 13 May 2020.According from testimonies produced in court, the three  activists were tortured by alleged state agents.

The torture of these activists is not the only isolated case where torture was used on victims. In recent months, several activists including Citizens Manifesto coordinator, Tatenda Mombeyarara and the MDC Alliance Youth Chairperson Blessed Kanotunga are some of the people who were abducted and tortured.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights highlights that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This important instrument underscores the need for states to uphold human rights by legislating policies and practices that ensure that fundamental human rights and freedoms are enjoyed by everyone.

Article 2 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment compels member states to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights also prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Section 53 of the constitution dictates that “no person may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”

  In light of the above, Heal Zimbabwe implores the government to ratify  the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).Added to this, government must also implement previous undertakings and assurances given to the UN Human Rights Committee and to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights which have still not been fulfilled. Adopting CAT and implementing its key provisions will go a long way in esnruing that the state complies  with Section 53 of the constitution of Zimbabwe that prohibits torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of punishment.CAT obliges states that are parties to the convention to do far more than merely having a brief general prohibition of torture in their constitution  but to take all legislative,administrative,judicial and other measures to prevent acts of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment within their territories.

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