The main opposition party the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC ) led by Nelson Chamisa is said to be divided on the best approach to confront the ruling Zanu PF party as the country’s economy continues to slide into the abyss.

The likes of Tendai Biti and Job Sikhala, party vice president and vice chairman respectively, are believed to be agitating for direct confrontation with ZANU PF while Chamisa favours a non-violent confrontational approach.

An unnamed senior MDC official who spoke to Zim Morning Post is quoted as saying that the soft-stance approach will not yield results and the party has been waiting for a signal from Chamisa.

A political analyst, Michael Dama told the publication that “the Biti faction” has proved to be very radical. He said:

If you take a close look in the MDC the Biti faction is very radical and he has people like Sikhala who was arrested last year and during his trial, the Masvingo court chambers were always filled to capacity and on the acquittal day, there was a massive demonstration.

The Zimbabwean government has always responded with brute force when citizens stage protests on the street, with the events of August 1, 2018, and January 2019 proving that demonstrators should be prepared to pay the ultimate price.

Meanwhile, MDC Youth Assembly spokesperson Stephen Chuma has refuted claims that there are divisions within the party over the best approach to confront the ruling ZANU PF party.

Chuma told Zim Morning Post that contrary to those claims, party members are fully behind party president Nelson Chamisa as they believe that he is the best person to take the party forward. Said Chuma:

We are very united and fully behind our President Nelson Chamisa, there are no divisions in the party and you already know that the President finished addressing all our provinces.

The message is people are fed up with Emmerson Mnangagwa regime and they are unanimous and unambiguous that only President Chamisa is our best foot forward.

Reports from some quarters had claimed that some MDC officials, among them vice president Tendai Biti and vice-chairman Job Sikhala favour a full-blown confrontation with ZANU PF while Chamisa prefers a non-violent approach.

Zim Morning Post

NATIONAL Constitutional Assembly (NCA) leader, Lovemore Madhuku says the country should do away with a constitutional clause that allows a sitting president’s party to appoint his or her successor in the event of the death or removal of the incumbent under any circumstances.

He was joined in his call by one-time spokesperson to late former President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire.

The two were co-panellists at a Heal Zimbabwe Trust organised public discussion on the controversial Constitutional Amendment No. 2 which seeks to scrap provisions making it compulsory for presidential candidates to appoint their running mates.

Madhuku, a constitutional expert who also contested the 2018 presidential election, said it was improper for political parties to determine who should become the next president outside a national poll.

Precedent was set when then President Emmerson Mnangagwa was allowed to become state leader after the military ouster of then President Robert Mugabe in November 2017.

Madhuku felt there was everything wrong with the practice.

“What we did in November is we got Mnangagwa from nowhere as a nation; he came from Zanu-PF…we must not put in the constitution of the country, a provision that is dependent on what happens in a political party,” said Madhuku.

“We must never put in the constitution of Zimbabwe that if a sitting president dies or resigns, we will wait to hear what the political party of that president is saying. No, that is not the best way to run a country.

“A country is run on the basis of either an election or you have parliament aided institutions sitting as an electoral college…but never to allow a political party to sit there and say we are giving you a president.”

Mawarire, on his part, said drafters of Zimbabwe’s supreme law were wrong when they gave political parties power to forward names of a replacement president in the event of incapacitation or death of an incumbent.

“The drafters of the constitution assumed that it is not the individual who was elected by the people but the party that he represents,” said the one time journalist.

“That is why we do not have a by-election when the president resigns as what happened on 21 November 2017.

“So, there is that contradiction. If the president was directly elected by the people, if that president is no longer there, give the people a chance to elect a person who comes after that president.

“Do we have a by-election that will involve the whole country, or do we have parliament sitting and electing a president.”

In the current set-up, Zimbabwean by-elections are called only when an MP or councillor leaves the seat.

MDC MPs in parly this week mocked Vice President Chiwenga and referred to him as a senior bachelor and others accused him of bringing coronavirus to Zimbabwe.

The VP had attended parliament for a question and answer session when he became the subject of ridicule.

The MPs heckled the VP calling him a senior bachelor. Another MP shouted “mukadzi aripi” (where is your wife?) with another one yelling “you brought coronavirus to Zimbabwe”.

The Vice President was in China for 4 months last year and he is embroiled in a nasty divorce with his former model wife Marry who he is accusing of trying to kill him.

State Media|FUEL supplies started improving yesterday as more service stations received deliveries or were told they were scheduled for a delivery very soon after the Reserve Bank of Zimba­bwe (RBZ) released foreign currency to enable oil companies access fuel stocks that were already in the country.

In Harare, service stations started the day dry, with the minority that had received fuel over the last few days sold out, but deliveries were being made during the day and motorists were queueing from early morning at those stations that were expecting deliveries.

Most Direct Fuel Import (DFI) ser­vice stations around the city had fuel throughout the day.

In Matabeleland South, some motorists in Plumtree were crossing the border into Botswana to get sup­plies for resale in the town at a signif­icant mark-up. In Gwanda two of the four services stations had fuel while in Beitbridge more than half the 10 service stations received limited sup­plies although some motorists were still crossing into South Africa. Three service stations authorised to sell fuel in forex had supplies.

In Mutare, Total, Zuva and Petro­trade service stations received fuel on Thursday and yesterday, but deliveries were quickly sold out as demand was very high following the recent tight supplies.

The situation was the same in the Midlands where a few service stations received fuel, while some motorists were travelling to Chachacha Business Centre in Shurugwi rural to get fuel at a service station that sells fuel in foreign currency.

In Masvingo fuel deliveries had improved although most services station had long winding queues. But Engen, Exor, Total and Zuva garages had received petrol. A fuel attendant at one of the Zuva service stations in the city said they were expecting to get diesel by end of day yesterday.

“All the cars that are queueing here will get fuel as there are adequate sup­plies. For diesel, we are waiting for delivery later in the day and we want to assure motorists that it’s coming,” he said.

Some service stations in Masho­naland West started receiving fuel yesterday, easing the pressure on the few that had petrol and diesel over the last few days.

In Chinhoyi, fuel was available at Engen D and R and also at Petrotrade, resulting in queues becoming shorter.

The situation was the same in Che­gutu at service stations such as Tingle where there were no queues.

Kariba has been dry for the better part of the week, with Total and Zuva service stations expecting deliveries late yesterday.

While measures have been taken to improve deliveries of fuel bought with interbank funds and sold to motor­ists in Zimbabwe dollars, usually by swipe card or mobile banking transfer, steps are being taken to expand the number of service stations licensed to sell in foreign currency but under controls that will prevent cheating and ensure the higher forex duties are paid.

The RBZ has authorised the Zim­babwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) to register more fuel service stations that have proven free funds and wish to arrange their own imports to apply for forex licences.

RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya said the central bank had given exchange control approval for ZERA to receive applications from fuel com­panies that have free funds for direct imports to be sold in hard currency.

This could expand the number of stations licensed to import and sell fuel in forex.

The main requirement facing regu­lators is to ensure that fuel in the gen­eral supply system is not diverted to the forex service stations and that these stations do, in fact, have the free funds required to arrange their own imports.

Generally, a station has to sell exclusively in Zimbabwe dollars or exclusively in forex to avoid any diver­sions and to ensure that the fuel in a forex station is sourced outside the general system using legally-held free funds.

Secretary for Energy and Power Development Engineer Gloria Magombo said ZERA was work­ing on a watertight framework and licensing regime to curtail abuse and potential hazards from this arrangement.

Engineer Magombo said they will make sure they come up with fool­proof measures guided by terms and conditions including limits on the number of fuel stations and geograph­ical spread of service stations that sell in forex.

State Media|EMPOWER Bank will lend $60 mil­lion to 10 000 youths countrywide this year, the bank’s acting chief executive, Mr Shadreck Mhembere, has said.

Since last year, the newly-established bank has lent over $9 million, with 1 500 youths benefiting from the loan facility. The interest rate is 5 to 7 percent depending on the nature of business.

President Mnangagwa launched the Youth Empower Bank as part of Gov­ernment’s thrust to empower young people through a financial institution sensitive to their needs.

As a campaign move under former President Robert Mugabe, The Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment in 2006 unveiled the Youth Empowerment Fund established as part of the Old Mutual, Stanbic, Industrial Development Bank of Zimbabwe and CBZ Bank’s contribution to the country’s indigenisation and empowerment programme.

The facility was meant to support youth empowerment and development as a revolving loan facility for income generating projects, according to Old Mutual chief executive officer, Jonas Mushosho.

He noted that the youth fund was flexible and youth friendly in that there was no form of collateral required to access the funds.

CABS head of fund, Brian Mpofu, is on record stating that the fund was aimed at curtailing financial crisis and high rate of unemployment that had crippled the Zimbabwean youth.

Yet decades later, there are a few success stories recorded as the youth fund failed to effectively empower the youth, with an estimated $40 million having disappeared as a result of loosely-knit policies, lack of accountability and corruption.

“We have budgeted $60 million for the youths this year. We have to date disbursed just over $9 million and the total number of beneficiaries is just over 1 500. In terms of spread across the country, you will notice that Harare and Bulawayo are the provinces that got the biggest slices of the cake.”

Apart from Harare and Bula­wayo, the bank recently opened new branches in Masvingo and Mutare.

“With our new branches that have come up in Masvingo and Mutare, we are hoping to increase the num­ber of loans that are going to be dis­bursed in Masvingo and Manicaland provinces.

“We have come up with agencies that are travelling across the country to offer our products. The other provinces will also benefit from business develop­ments that we are going to do through our agencies. We are going to reach all the corners of the country with the loans for young people through our agencies,” he said.

He said the bank was flexible on collateral. “The topical issue has been collateral. We require some form of comfort. Our requirements for security are not rigid; we don’t look for tradi­tional forms of security. We accept any assets that you have as security,” he said.

“If you have a car you can make a pledge. You sign what we call a pledge document. You give us the registration book, but you remain with your car. If you fail to pay the loan we will take the car to recover the money.

“Our target for 2020 is to reach out to at least 10 000 youths. We expect 1 000 youths per province to bene­fit from the scheme. But, if funding allows, we want to do more than that.

“The value of money we give is determined by the project that one wants to do. Standard loans are US$5 000-US$10 000 equivalent. Those are the common applications that we accepted,” said Mr Mhembere.

For one to access a loan, Mr Mhem­bere said applicants should come up with a business proposal and a pro­jected cashflow.

“To get a loan, we basically want your business proposal, which details what you want to do, and how much you want in terms of the funding and your projected cashflows,” he said.

He expressed satisfaction with the rate of repayments.

“In terms of our non-performing loans, we have a very small book. We are currently assessing loan applica­tions valued at $4 million,” he said.

He challenged students in tertiary institutions to organise themselves into groups and to come up with business proposals so that they can secure loans.

State Media|Another consignment of 27 000 tonnes of drought relief maize imported by the Government arrived in Maputo, Mozambique, yesterday and is expected to be railed into Zimbabwe soon.

This comes as the Government steps up efforts to ease maize-meal shortages but amid shocking revelations of alleged smuggling of the government subsidized grain into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by organized cartels in the local milling industry.

The startling revelations came out of the Justice-Mayor Wadyajena chaired Parliamentary committee portfolio on Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement this morning where millers raised concerns over the rampant arbitrage activities happening in the country.

United Milling representative, Davis Muhambi while giving oral evidence went at lengths to describe how subsidized grain meant to cushion the vulnerable was being siphoned out of the country and some being used by processors for various other foodstuffs.

“We hear all sorts of stories that the maize is sold to bigger millers who then use that maize for other processes like stock feeds, porridge etc. This subsidized maize is cheap and in USD terms in regional parity that maize if you use any rate it cost about US$ 200 (tonne) so it then becomes maize that can be used to make other lines very profitable,”

The consignment brings to 42 000 tonnes, the volume of maize imported through Maputo after the initial 15 000 tonnes were received earlier and are already being brought into the country by rail.

The Government has stepped up the procurement of maize to cover harvest shortfalls caused by drought in the past two seasons.

National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) spokesman Mr Nyasha Maravanyika yesterday confirmed the delivery of the consignment.

“As we speak, there is a ship that will dock this afternoon (yesterday) in Maputo and the maize will be delivered into the country soon,” he said.

He said NRZ had so far brought in 8 369 tonnes.

“From the 15 000 tonnes that are in Maputo, we have railed 8 369 tonnes, leaving a balance of 6 631. We have 57 wagons that have arrived in Bulawayo, another 29 at Chicualacuala, 65 are at Rutenga while nine are at Dabuka,” he said.

Mr Maravanyika said nine wagons with maize that was imported from Tanzania were in Hwange.

The Government imported 100 000 tonnes of maize from Tanzania late last year.

Mr Maravanyika however, said the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) needed to speed up the offloading at its depots.

“The slow start at GMB has affected the turnaround of the wagons to go and bring in the maize that is at the port. Incessant rains that were experienced in Maputo have also affected the delivery of the grain,” Mr Maravanyika said.

Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Mozambique, Retired Lieutenant-General Douglas Nyikayaramba, voiced concern over delays in moving the maize.

“We are expecting more maize today (yesterday), but the slow turnaround of wagons is of concern to us because we fear that the grain could be affected by the rains we are receiving,” Lt-Gen (Retired) Nyikayaramba said.

During the 2018-19 summer cropping season, the country harvested 1 442 893 tonnes of maize, leaving the country with a deficit of 761 332 tonnes and imports were required to cover the deficit.

This year’s harvest is still to be calculated.

The Government has allowed private entities to import maize to augment its efforts to cover the grain deficit.

The bulk of the maize being imported is coming from countries in the Sadc region.

State Media|The African Development Bank (AfDB) has released US$24 million for the reconstruction of infrastructure damaged by Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani and Chipinge in March last year.

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is the project manager for work being done.

The funding by AfDB complements Government efforts and is centred on building new bridges, remaking roads and repairing and upgrading irrigation infrastructure.

The scheme involves permanent improvement rather than temporary repairs and there has been a lot of planning resulting in the actual civil engineering works starting now.

Chimanimani and Chipinge districts are rich in timber, tea, coffee and fruits, including pineapples, avocados and macadamia nuts.

Part of the funds will support the revival of irrigation schemes in the two districts.

On Wednesday, AfDB executive directors, among them Dr Judith Kateera and Mr Mbuyamu Matungulu, toured various areas in Chimanimani where the bank is funding four major bridges.

The tour was for board members to appreciate the scope of works.

They toured Nyahodi Bridge Number 3 to 5 and Kopa where the South African National Defence Forces and the Zimbabwe National Army constructed two Bailey bridges last year.

At Kopa, AfDB intends to construct two major bridges — one across Nyahode River and the other across Rusitu River linking Chimanimani East to Chipinge.

It is UNOPS’s view that the two Bailey Bridges are temporary.

The project has four phases, with construction of the bridges expected to start next year.

In an interview during the tour, UNOPS country manager Mr Djibrilla Mazin said funding was approved in September last year and funds were released in December of the same year.

Some quarters feel UNOPS is moving slowly in implementing the project.

Mr Mazin said there were a lot of pre-construction activities taking place.

He said UNOPS has to mobilise, recruit consulting firms, come up with detailed designs of the bridges, and recruit contractors.

“UNOPS is an agency that is mandated by the UN General Assembly for infrastructure, project management and procurement. We have been called here to support Government as well as the African Development Bank in response to the Cyclone Idai and the project is more than US$24 million that was dedicated and granted to Zimbabwe by the AfDB,” said Mr Mazin.

He said the project sought to improve agricultural productivity by ensuring construction of resilient infrastructure for easy movement of produce and inputs.

Mr Mazin explained why physical works have not started.

“We started with our inception phase. You must understand that this is not a humanitarian project. This is an infrastructural project and it has a lead time that is different from a humanitarian project. It’s not patching and rebuilding quickly. It is taking stock of the events ensuring that we understand the impact and the reasons why it happened and we build back better, meaning that we redesign with resilient criteria that will allow the infrastructure to last,” he said.

“We mobilised UNOPS in September last year. I think we have been pretty fast in analysing the needs, in detailing the different actions that we can propose to Government for them to come up with final list of priorities.”

Mr Mazin said needs surpassed available resources.

“You know the impact of Cyclone Idai is US$700 million to US$1,3 billion and we only have US$24 million. Obviously, we will need to prioritise and see how we can support the Government.

“These funds were dedicated to Chimanimani and Chipinge districts and purely to infrastructure which will enhance agricultural productivity and livelihoods of the population,” said Mr Mazin.

At the moment priority is on Chimanimani district.

“Mainly it is the bridges, but what is important to note again is we are not building what was there before. We are rebuilding with resilient criteria. We are rebuilding stronger and in some cases it requires realignment of roads and so that takes time.

“I know people are very anxious that after one year where is the physical construction, we cannot see it today?” he said.

Mr Mazin said UNOPS will not be rushed into action.

“I think it is also important to recognise that you do not want to rush and build something that will be destroyed by the next rains. The funds were released to UNOPS in December last year. We are looking at four main bridges,” he said.

UNOPS will also attend to irrigation schemes, water and sanitation improvements in Chipinge and Chimanimani.

https://twitter.com/BitiTendai/status/1230964842099617793?s=19

Two armed robbers ambushed a Harare-bound Croswell Logistics cross-border bus in northern South Africa at around 10am yesterday and robbed 58 passengers of cellphones and cash.

The driver, Mr Thembane Ngwenya, escaped death by a whisker after two bullets missed him.

The attack occurred when the bus stopped along the N1 Highway between Zebediella and Polokwane as the driver sought to check on a disturbing mechanical noise.

“This is a miracle. I survived by God’s grace. Two bullets missed my head at close range,” said Mr Ngwenya.

“We were travelling between Zebediella and Polokwane when I heard a disturbing sound while I was about to descend a slope. I asked the co-driver about the sound and he said he was not aware of where it was coming from. I then failed to engage into other gears. The door then swung open on its own. I stopped the bus after a few metres and as we were trying to investigate, one of the robbers shot at me.

“He tried again and missed. When he tried for the third time, the magazine fell out of the pistol. He told me that I was a very religious and pulled me out of the bus before he demanded R40 000 which I had been given by a client in Johannesburg. I insisted I had no money and he threatened to shoot me in the leg.”

Mr Ngwenya said when his colleague tried to find out what was happening, he was assaulted, pulled out of the bus and ordered to lie down before one of the robbers got onto the bus.

Co-driver Mr Pierson Zano said the robber ordered everyone off the bus and told them to surrender money and cellphones on their way out.

“They threatened to shoot anyone who resisted and after failing to get the money from Thembane (Mr Ngwenya), they came to me demanding the same money but failed to get anything. One of them searched all the passengers and took away a backpack (satchel) from one passenger and loaded money and cellphones. They searched the passengers twice,” he said.

Mr Zano said the pair vanished with his cellphone and R6000.

He said they suspected the robbers were working in cahoots with a passenger who had a fake passport who had tried to board the bus in Johannesburg.

One of the passengers, Mr Lloyd Zvorufura said: “I was seated near the front seat when they shot and dragged the driver outside. He is lucky to be alive. They insisted on him giving them R40 000 and they also took away money from everyone.

“Some passengers were assaulted with the butts of the guns for resisting. The criminals took my cellphone, R70 and US$100.”

Ms Kristle Moyo, who complained of pain in her legs, said she was injured after one of the robbers assaulted her repeatedly after suspecting that she had seen his face.

“He threatened to kill me while claiming that I had seen his face. He later ordered me to board the bus and not look back.”

Efforts to get a comment from South African police in Limpopo Province were fruitless yesterday.

Over 15 buses have been attacked by armed gangs on the N1 in the last 12 months.

-State Media

UNITED States ambassador to Zimbabwe Brian Nichols has chided government for failing to address rampant corruption in the agriculture sector which has undermined food security.

Nichols made the remarks in the wake of recent revelations that the current maize meal shortages were being worsened by widespread corruption at Grain Marketing Board (GMB) where some officials are allegedly involved in diverting grain to countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

“The allegations are very serious that subsidised grains are being diverted from the people who need it to the profit of small groups of individuals in this country and that’s why market-based policies, around cultivation of grains and the agriculture sector broadly, are crucial for value to the people of Zimbabwe,” said the American ambassador.

He said the yields in the country’s agricultural sector were not consistent with the huge investments the government has made in the sector.

“The amount of money that government spends on agriculture has gone up for five years but yields have gone down for five years so clearly something is out of work.

“And when you see that some people are taking mealie meal across borders to neighbouring countries, that you can’t find it in formal supermarkets but you find it in Mbare and Chitungwiza market, then you know that diversion is going on. What we saw yesterday (in Parliament) just confirmed what we knew in our hearts was going on.

“There is need to change those policies and move to market place-based policies which will deliver results for the people of Zimbabwe and value for their dollar,” Nichols said.

The diversion of mealie meal from the formal market, in a country where over eight million are in need of food assistance, has forced millions of hungry Zimbabweans to turn to the black market where the staple is highly priced.

“In my travels around the country, I have learned from rural Zimbabweans about how they are spending significantly more on food, while eating less in quantity and quality than last year.

“This is particularly worrisome given the already low levels of dietary diversity and high levels of stunting that we know exist in Zimbabwe.

“In order to end the cycle of privation, the government of Zimbabwe must implement a market-based agriculture policy, fully liberalise the trade of grains and pulses, pay local farmers on par with imported grain costs, put idle farmland on the market, speed resolution of claims owed to commercial farmers and transition from Vulnerable Inputs Support Scheme to more transparent supper to small holder farmers,” Nichols said.

Meanwhile, Nichols has urged government to speed up the payment of compensation to victims of the post-2018 elections violence in line with the Kgalema Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry.

“We have previously encouraged the government of Zimbabwe to fulfil its commitment to implement the Montlante Commission recommendations which include the payment of compensation to victims.

“The overall pace of reform is very important to the future of Zimbabwe. We hope that the government will move forward in that direction as soon as possible,” he said.

While Washington’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee has called for a review of the sanctions regime on Zimbabwe, Nichols said “at the appropriate time” there will be “action to maintain US policy and goals of encouraging reform, respect for human rights and fighting corruption”.

-Daily News

By Walter Mzembi | Zanu PF, and by extension its government, is held together by a culture of fear, intimidation, vengeance, retribution and violence …

The merchandising of fear and retribution is the central theme of the Zanu PF bible and there is ample evidence to attest to this over the last 50 years … There are thousands of Zanu PF members who for fear of losing farms or business opportunities, jobs and food aid, stay beholden to a system their inner souls have long rejected and which they cannot proudly stand up and defend.

Curiously, no matter how enlightened many of these people are, they believe the system has a way of telling how they would have voted. Emancipation from mental slavery is one of the tasks ahead of us.

Any successful strategy to dislodge Zanu PF from power must disrupt and destroy the DNA of violence and fear resident in every one of it is nearly 50 000 cells countrywide. Needless to mention that it will be a bloody exercise

Zanu PF polling model is based on giving everyone responsibility or a position in its structures starting with the cell where 21 office holders serve 29 members to make 50 members in a cell. Reality is there are 1 036 785 grassroots officeholders who defend their positions come every election apart from branch, district, provincial, national office holders.

When you add women and youth league positions, everyone in Zanu PF is an officeholder. These positions are an insurance policy to patronage benefits. Everyone from the president down to an ordinary member belongs to a cell and submits to the authority of the cell chairman who coincidentally may be the village headman.The village headman keeps a party membership exercise book that is also linked to food and inputs distribution and other freebies like party regalia.

This book is also linked to the voter registration master copy which every Zanu PF MP and councillor gets. With the introduction of roller meal committees and coupons and the imminent couponisation of the economy, village headmen can expect to dispense and be part of a food rationing chain.

As long as the State has monopoly over food distribution, Zanu PF’s hegemonic grip on the masses will remain intact. This grip is most firm during by-elections when the entire State machinery descends on a ward conflated with Zanu PF campaigns,” said Mzembi.

Shedding light on how the 2008 presidential elections were conducted, Mzembi said initially he was picked by Mugabe to be a member of a committee that was planning the campaign but was elbowed out by Mnangagwa who then took charge and launched a brutal campaign that led to the deaths of scores of opposition members and led the international community, including Sadc, to declare the elections a sham.

Zimbabwe’s election history is replete with violence. Whilst they are held timeously, there are also simultaneous cycles of violence and because I was already an adult in the 1985 elections, the country witnessed heinous violence against Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu , Edgar Tekere’s Zum (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) in 1990, Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC in the 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2013 elections all of which are in the public domain. The 2008 elections, which resulted in the GNU of 2009-2013, tops the bill because of its unprecedented violence.

Every Zanu PF senior member knows who collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee in 2008 and took charge of one of the country’s most violent electoral episodes. I was in this committee of 15 later 22, leading a subcommittee on business and traditional leaders with Sthembiso Nyoni

… one day in May 2008, … Mnangagwa walked into our meeting and told everyone that he was now taking charge and these academic exercises we were engaged in were now over! Our rerun committee was sent packing and brutality of the highest order took over, Tsvangirai succumbed and the rest is history.

Clearly, ‘the most potent weapon in the mind of the Oppressor is the mind of the Oppressed’ but for Zanu PF it is the desperation of the people arising out of the poverty this party and its government preside over and seek to perpetuate.

Therefore, a Zanu PF government will never truly empower communities to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining because poverty is an instrument of control and line of credit to power retention.

To that extent as long as Zimbabweans are under a Zanu PF government the economy will not be revived, food insecurity will continue, health delivery will remain a mirage because these vulnerabilities are the ultimate instruments of mass control and mobilisation by the Junta government

Free at last: We have secured the release from detention on $100 bail each for 7 Mutoko women including a 6 month-old baby, who had been arrested&charged with participating in an illegal demo demanding improvement in Zim's education standards. pic.twitter.com/CBZHsDhtbW

— ZLHR (@ZLHRLawyers) February 21, 2020

Govt intends to involve everyone in this year's 40th Independence Celebrations. The Independence Gala will also include Zimbabwean line-ups based in the Diaspora. We are responsible for the 40th Independence Music Gala. Which Diaspora artists or ensembles would you like to see? pic.twitter.com/RkymF8Dmf1

— Nick Mangwana (@nickmangwana) February 21, 2020

Buhera South legislator Joseph Chinotimba  and Chinese-owned firm Sunny Zimbabwe International have settled their dispute over a $65 755 debt out of court, resulting in two pending appeals in the Supreme Court being expunged from the roll.

Chinotimba was being represented by Advocate Slyvester Hashiti, while Mr G. Madzoka was the attorney for Sunny Zimbabwe International.

The dispute arose after Chinotimba entered into an oral agreement with the Chinese firm’s directors —  Mai Tao Ming, Luo Su Yuan, Lin Qianlong and Lin Shuen — for the sale of his macadamia nuts to the company for $220 000 payable the following month.

The firm paid $154 000, leaving a balance of $65 775, which despite demand the firm and its directors had failed to settle.

Last year, Sunny Zimbabwe International petitioned the High Court for an order to stop Chinotimba from auctioning its property, which High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero dismissed saying there was no justification in challenging the move.

The firm subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court in a bid  to save its property from going under the hammer.-herald

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa is concerned about the victimisation and marginalisation of rural communities by the ruling Zanu PF party which is using food and agriculture inputs to buy votes during election times.

In a statement, Chamisa’s spokesman Dr Nkululeko Sibanda accused Zanu PF of influencing some media houses to distort the recent message by the MDC leader.

Chamisa had claimed that the ruling party forced the rural communities to vote with their stomachs, making it difficult for MDC councillors to be elected due to their little or no control of rural societies.

“This is totally criminal. You can’t be taking clips and giving them a new meaning. What President Chamisa has said is the correct position from what the people are saying to him and as a matter of scientific fact. Off year elections are not a barometer of anything,” Sibanda on Twitter.

Sibanda confirmed the need for electoral reforms in the rural communities and blamed Zanu PF for victimising citizens when they vote for opposition councillors.

“Point of Clarification on By Elections Mischaracterisation by a Media House

“Some media houses, under Zanu PF inspiration have sought to mis-characterise President Chamisa’s recent statement. We do not expect such incompetence from media professionals.

“In response to a question about MDC’s performance in by elections and what the people in rural areas are saying, President Chamisa shared what people in the rural constituencies were saying to the MDC leadership.

“The President states that people in rural areas, in the absence of electoral reforms, are concerned about voting for objectively in by elections based on two core considerations,” Sibanda said.

Sibanda said the following things were discovered by Chamisa during his consultative meetings across the country in the past few weeks.

“1: A vote other than for Zanu PF will see citizens being victimised and living in fear.

“2: Citizens will be punished by denial of food and farming inputs. This is so in the absence of security of the voter and security of the vote in most rural constituencies,” Chamisa said.

Chamisa had claimed that citizens in rural constituencies were finding it difficult to vote for a councillor in a by election under such circumstances because it exposes them to abuse and harassment and the councillor has limited influence under those circumstances to effect change.

After Zanu PF won the Mwenezi by-election early this month, MDC secretary for elections, Jacob Mafume re-iterated the same accusation that ZANU PF uses food to manipulate rural voters.

“This tells you that it is not possible to have a proper election even in Harare. People were called to come and collect rice on the day of voting, Zanu PF was drilling a borehole a few metres from the polling station. These are not elections. It is manipulation of people’s poverty. Weaponising poverty and food and it is the biggest challenge that we have,” Mafume said. Nehanda Radio

GOMEL, (BelTA) – The Belarusian manufacturer of agricultural machines Gomselmash is set to ship the first batch of equipment to Zimbabwe in March 2020, Director General of the company Aleksandr Novikov told the media on 20 February, BelTA has learned.

“The first batch of 20 items of machinery to Zimbabwe will be shipped in March this year. This is a pre-paid contract,” Aleksandr Novikov said.

In his words, despite all the difficulties related to sales, Gomselmash sold a total of 1,280 vehicles overseas in 2019. These are bigger numbers than we had in 2018. “We sold 90 more vehicles to Russia,” the director general said.

Last year Gomselmash increased its exports to the post-Soviet countries of Asia. “These are Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. A total of 110 vehicles were sold to these countries in 2019,” Aleksandr Novikov said.

The Belarusian holding company Gomselmash is one of the largest manufacturers of agricultural machines. It is one of the leaders on the world market of harvesters and other sophisticated agricultural machines. The company uses the Palesse trademark to market lineups of grain and forage harvesters, ear corn harvesters, potato harvesters, mowers, and other agricultural machines. Palesse harvesters are used in fields of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Argentina, Brazil, China, South Korea, Baltic states, and other countries. Gomselmash operates an extensive distribution chain, joint ventures, and assembly enterprises.

Belarus has also offered Zimbabwe 500 buses to help modernize the country’s public transport system. Following recent visits by President Mnangagwa to Belarus, Russian and Kazakhstan.

Minister for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists that “Belarus has offered to help develop Zimbabwe as a regional transport hub using its own experiences. Belarus also offered to provide Zimbabwe with an initial 500 buses with the possibility of increasing the number in future.”

Mthuli Ncube, Finance and Economic Development Minister revealed the government was exploring options on how to best utilize the offer.

“It’s not free as you can imagine, it costs money. We are looking into this offer to see whether we can complete and consummate it but certainly 500 additional buses will make a huge difference in the mass transport system. We will progress this offer from our Belarusian friends but for now it’s an offer on the table that we need to consummate,” he said.

• Zimbabwe Mail

By Own Correspondent| Zimbabwean authorities have stepped up their onslaught against dissent after arresting a total of 47 people in one day for allegedly participating in anti-government protests over the country’s worsening political and economic crisis.

In Harare, Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers first arrested 7 students at Allan Wilson High School, whom they detained at Harare Central Police Station after accusing them of participating in an illegal demonstration which was held in the capital city early this month.

But when the students’ lawyer Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) arrived at Harare Central Police Station, where law enforcement agents were taking finger prints from them, challenged the treatment of his clients as accused persons, ZRP officers then indicated that they were now treating them as state witnesses in a matter in which a yet to be identified person will be brought to court charged with participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry as defined in section 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

The seven students were later released after the recording of the witness statements.

The ZRP officers also arrested 34 people including pro-democracy campaigner Makomborero Haruzivishe and charged them with participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry as defined in section 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

Police officers claimed that the 34 people, who were represented by Obey Shava of ZLHR, participated in a demonstration allegedly staged by some MDC Alliance party youths on Wednesday 19 February 2020 in Harare.

However, 32 of the people were released from police custody and only Haruzivishe and Allan Moyo were detained overnight and are expected to appear in court on Saturday 22 February 2020.

In Mutoko in Mashonaland East province, ZRP officers also arrested seven women including a six month-old baby and charged them with participating in a gathering with intent to promote public violence, breaches of the peace or bigotry as defined in section 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

In court, prosecutors alleged that the seven women, who were represented by Nontokozo Tachiona-Dube of ZLHR, staged a demonstration on Thursday 20 February 2020, where they handed over a petition at Mutoko District Council protesting against the country’s poor education standards.

The seven women were set free on $100 bail after Tachiona-Dube applied for their release and were remanded to Thursday 5 March 2020.

Tachiona-Dube also secured freedom for four Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe officials including Secretary-General Robson Chere, who had been summoned to appear at Mutoko Police Station in connection with the demonstration allegedly held on Thursday 20 February 2020 in Mutoko.

ZRP officers advised the four people that they will be summoned to appear in court if they intend to proceed with prosecuting them for allegedly failing to notify police officers about the demonstration.

Energy and Power Development Minister Fortune Chasi Wednesday told energy regulators from the region that power challenges faced by SADC countries were a form of punishment by nature for defiling the environment.

Chasi was guest speaker at the Regional Electricity Regulators Association of Southern Africa (Rera) conference in the resort town.

The Zimbabwe government minister said the whole Sadc region needed to put heads together to come up with a permanent solution to power challenges.

“We all have to understand the magnitude of this calamitous energy situation. We are facing punishment for what we have done to the environment.

“In the Bible, it is said God said let there be light, and there was light, yet we don’t have the light here,” said Chasi.

He said the region has to be thankful to South Africa and Mozambique which export electricity to their troubled neighbours.

“Our situation is critical. It is now time that we change our attitude and mindset and take cleaner energies such as solar. We need to come together as a region and put together a raft of measures for energy,” he said.

Chasi said only 42 percent of the region’s population has access to electricity.

He said the region needed to deliberately address issues of availability of power in the remotest areas.

“We need to know exactly where we come from because climate has conspired against us. We had cyclone Idai which we are still dealing with its effects.

“Kariba not getting reasonable is inflows while Hwange for the first time had serious floods that flooded the power station. This is a sign that we all have a role to play to preserve the environment,” he added.

The power shortages in the region have been attributed to effects of climate change as hydro generation is reduced due to low rainfall while thermal power stations are also dilapidated.

The Rera annual conference started on Monday and end on Friday with an annual general meeting.

It is being attended by regulators and partners from the Sadc region and was held under the theme: “Creating a conducive environment to enhance regional energy security, trade and investment.”

All Africa

POLICE yesterday warned MDC leader Nelson Chamisa that they would descend heavily on him if he incited opposition party supporters to engage in street protests and cause chaos in the country.

Chamisa on Wednesday indicated that he was now ready to confront President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government on the streets, despite the threat of bloodshed from State security agents.

Hours after his statement, suspected MDC youths staged flash demonstrations in central Harare, taking shoppers and motorists by surprise.

However, national police spokesperson, Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said if the opposition party engaged in acts which would disturb peace, they would have themselves to blame when the law enforcement agents descend heavily on them.

“If there are unruly elements who will want to disturb the peace and order and attack the police and civilians going about their business, they have themselves to blame,” Nyathi said.

“ZRP will ensure that law and order is maintained and we will not divulge what we are doing right now as that’s a security issue. Issues of security are not divulged to the public. I want to assure the public that (it) should be free do (its) activities without any fear.”

The spokesperson said if Chamisa wanted his views to be heard, he should engage lawmakers so that they can be considered.

“There is no one in the country who has the preserve to disturb the peace of other people. ZRP has a constitutional mandate to maintain law and order. People who conduct their various activities should do so in a peaceful manner. Police are there to protect peace and laws of the country,” Nyathi said.

Chamisa, who was on a whirlwind tour of provinces visiting party provincial structures earlier this month, told journalists on Wednesday that the general sentiment was that people were angry and ready to confront Mnangagwa’s government on the streets over his handling of the economy, alleged incompetence, arrogance and ignorance in the face of “humanitarian and political crises”.

However, Chamisa’s spokesperson Nkululeko Sibanda said they were unperturbed by the police threats.

“They should not think they are law unto themselves. They should not think that they are invincible. They should follow the law,” Sibanda said.

Paul Nyathi|The opposition MDC has declared that it will be holding sporadic unannounced demonstrations against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.

The party’s deputy spokesperson Luke Tamborinyoka said the lines have been drawn against government and they will soon engage in a series of demos without warning or notifying the relevant authorities as prescribed in the Maintenance of Public Order Act.

Writing on Twitter Tamborinyoka said:

There will be no warning and no notice. We have since drawn the line in the sand. There will be more flash demos and we will not comply with undemocratic requirements. Hunger and joblessness do not give notice. #thepeople'sgovernment.

— Luke Tamborinyoka (@luke_tambo) February 21, 2020

By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe People Protection Forum has said the proposed Constitutional Amendment Bill No.2. is motivated by a narcissistic power concentration agenda which should be totally rejected by all pro-democrats.

Said the organisation in a statement:

“As a forum that represents the interest of the less fortunate in Zimbabwe, the amendments are at variance with people’s democratic aspirations.

Not only that, the nation should put extra effort towards addressing the debilitating economic situation. Surely, the amendments which seem to be motivated by narcissistic power concentration agenda should not be supported by pro-democrats.

Almost all the proposed amendments seem to be driven by the executive. If we continue arming the executive with excessive power we risk becoming a totalitarian state.

Moreover the amendments emasculate other key pillars in the state: the parliament and the judiciary. Though these two institutions are currently compromised, the situation will be worse once the constitutional amendments become law.

Before amendments are made to a constitution widespread consultations must be undertaken. The proposed amendments must also come from the people not the executive.

As it stands we roundly reject any alterations to the existing Constitution. We call upon the government to speedily align all laws to the existing Constitution. People deserve to enjoy the benefits of constitutionalism and as of now that has not happened. The current constitution must be translated into all official languages.

The bill must be withdrawn forthwith. As an organisation we shall continue leading awareness campaigns to conscentise citizens of the constitution rights.”

By A Correspondent|Zifa seems like they have confirmed the venue for the Warriors’ 2021 Afcon qualifier against Algeria.

With virtually all stadiums in the country condemned by CAF, the senior national men’s team is now set to change their traditional Harare base.

Barbourfields Stadium, nicknamed Emagumeni, in Bulawayo which is the only football venue to get approval to host CAF games in the country in the last inspection looks set to host the next month’s game.

Zifa haven’t made any announcement but latest revelations seem to be confirming the Bulawayo stadium will be the Warriors’ home ground.

According to the Chronicle, a three-man delegation that included the Desert Foxes’ team doctor flew into Bulawayo on Tuesday night to inspect hotels, food suppliers, training grounds and Barbourfields Stadium.

The Algerian officials were accompanied by Zifa Southern Region board member Tizirayi Luphahla who revealed the news to the publication.

He said: “They toured three hotels, inspected their kitchens, visited shops where they are going to buy food and checked hygiene at a number of butcheries.

“They also went to the training ground (Luveve Stadium) and match venue Barbourfields Stadium. They were three; an official from the Algerian Embassy, the team doctor and a third person.”

Zimbabwe and Algeria are in Group H, with the Warriors currently in the second position while the Desert Foxes occupy the first place.

RETWEET! – @PoliceZimbabwe cops stealing beer before arresting 150 people at Jeppy Jaboon's pub yesterday pic.twitter.com/7irZLP3QGw

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) February 21, 2020

The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has announced the resignation of one of its nine commissioners, Netty Musanhu over a long-standing matter of conflict of interest.

The Commission did not reveal the outstanding conflict of interest issue that has forced Musanhu to leave the NPRC.

It said in a statement:

The NPRC wishes to inform the public that with immediate effect Mrs Netty Musanhu is no longer a member of the commission.

She no longer represents the commission in any private and public capacity. She no longer has the authority to act on behalf of the commissioners.

We appeal to the donor community to pay special attention to this announcement.

Musanhu was as the Executive Director of Musasa Project, an organisation that works to protect and capacitate women who are victims of violence before she was appointed to the NPRC in 2016.

At the NPRC, Musanhu was in charge of the Victim Support, Gender and Diversity thematic area and Resource Mobilisation Role.

Watch video- 90yr Old Gogo Dares Mnangagwa "I can do better than you" pic.twitter.com/guD2Es0nf1

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) February 21, 2020

By A Correspondent- Zanu PF leaders in Manicaland have undergone a five-day training on the party’s philosophy conducted by the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology (HCSI) to help them monitor and interpret critical contemporary issues correctly.

The workshop, held in the Vumba, was attended by leaders from the provincial level right up to the Politburo, including the MPs.

Zanu-PF national chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said it was no longer time for sloganeering and insulting each other, but to deliver tangible development resonating with Vision 2030.

“The leadership has to work; to mobilise and work towards fulfilling our promises. We want to see tangible development on the ground, not how good you are at talking and insulting others. We will look at the work you are doing. Have you started any sustainable projects for the people? What have you done to change the lives of the people as a Zanu-PF leader? Zanu-PF leadership should prove beyond doubt that they are developmental,” said Muchinguri-Kashiri.

She warned members against stampeding for positions, arguing that such behaviour would only serve to fuel divisions and confusion in the party.

“We cannot be doing the same things over the past 40 years – we should now embrace a developmental trajectory and deliver tangible results on the ground. It should not be about positions we hold in the party. I am ready to work with those who are willing to ensure that we achieve the President’s vision of becoming a middle income economy by 2030.

“We have lawyers here, go and educate people on their rights, those in health, show the people the importance of going for cancer screening and getting tested for other diseases. You cannot sit on your laurels and wait for the First Lady to educate the women in your constituency on the importance of cervical cancer screening. Be proactive,” Cde Muchinguri-Kashiri said.-ManicaPost

By A Correspondent- Mutare City Council has resolved to rename Second Street in the Central Business District (CBD) to Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, the former MDC leader who died of colon cancer on February 14, 2018.

The late Moven Mahachi, Moris Nyagumbo, Edgar Tekere and Kumbirai Kangai will also have streets named after them.

City of Mutare Mayor Blessing Tandi told TellZim News that councillors unanimously agreed to rename Second Street after the late Tsvangirai in honour of his contributions to the politics and democracy in the country.

“We are now in agreement with councilor Chabuka and Nyamhoka’s proposal. We have agreed that Jeff Road be renamed to Edgar Tekere, Second Street to Morgan Richard Tsvangirai and First Street to Morris Nyagumbo.

“Aerodrome Road will be renamed to Moven Mahachi. We will deliberate on Kumbirai Kangai later,” said Tandi.

He said Tsvangirai deserves a special place in the history of the country and renaming a street after him is not only befitting but appropriate.

“No one disputes the contributions made by Tsvangirai in the struggle for a democratic Zimbabwe. He stood up to a brutal regime when it was not fashionable to do so.

“He was brutalised but they did not break his resolve. His dream for a better Zimbabwe for everyone was more important to him than his life. Sadly, he did before that dream could be realised. We will inscribe his name into the history books because he was one of the finest leaders this country has ever produced,” said Tandi.

Tsvangirai has also received a similar honour in Masvingo where the city fathers agreed to rename Hofmeyer Street after the veteran opposition leader.

By A Correspondent- A police officer who was fighting to be granted the custody of her two children lost the appeal and later on her former husband smashed her cellphone on the ground after she refused to surrender birth certificates of their two children.

This incident happened last week on Tuesday in full view of members of the public.

While Florence Ngulube (27), a police officer stationed at ZRP Queens Park, and her ex-husband Johane Mupande (38), a soldier stationed at Imbizo Barracks — were walking from Bulawayo Tredgold  magistrates’ courts  along Leopold Takawira Avenue her ex-husband demanded birth certificates of their two children.

As a result an argument arose between the pair. The court heard Ngulube refused to surrender the birth certificates.

It took the intervention of a ZRP officer who was on patrol to calm down tempers that had reached fever pitch, a court heard.

They were taken to Bulawayo Central Police Station.

Mupande appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Stephen Ndlovu facing a charge of malicious damage to property.

In his defence Mupande said he was angered by Ngulube.

“Your Worship, I feel guilty for my unbecoming behaviour. I was angered by my former wife who refused to give me birth certificates of our two children. Her phone fell accidentally on the ground and I had no intention of damaging it,”he said.

His former wife said: “He slapped me on the face while demanding the certificates. He then took my Itel P 12 cellphone and smashed it on the ground. What shocked me is that I had explained that I left the documents at home but he could not accept my explanation.”

He was remanded out of custody to next week on Monday.-Statemedia

Online- Business and labour yesterday openly told President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the mono currency policy was not working and had pauperised many Zimbabweans while scaring away investors.

In a candid brief during the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) summit in Harare, Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) president Israel Murefu said the Zimdollar had failed as a currency and had to be dumped if it did not stabilise by mid-year.

“Currency has to store value, and in all honesty, the local currency cannot be said to be a store of value,” he said.

“The currency tends to move in one direction that is downwards. A normal currency must fluctuate — move up or down depending on supply and demand aspects in the economy. We need to stabilise the currency and if we fail to do so by mid-year or end of year we have to look at an alternative currency.”

Murefu called on government to implement a raft of measures, including borrowing from the open market, barring the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from creating or printing money to fund government deficit as well as engaging in quasi-fiscal activities.

The Emcoz president was backed by the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange chief executive Justin Bono, who said the Zimdollar had basically made everyone poorer and destroyed money markets, which were now valued at a third of what they were during the United States dollar era.

“We don’t get investors coming to us anymore to raise money because of currency issues. Those who want to raise money say, ‘look, we don’t know how much to raise because if we say we want this much, then by the time we raise it, the money would have lost value and won’t be sufficient to buy what is needed’,” Bono said.

The local bourse is now lobbying for a law allowing companies to raise foreign currency, especially exporters.

Apex Council chairperson Cecilia Alexander warned that the system could collapse if workers’ earnings eroded by the introduction of the local currency were not restored.

“The market has re-dollarised, but we are still earning in local currency and the salaries have not even moved upwards. The spending power of the worker has to be restored or social systems will collapse,” she said.

Through the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, labour has demanded a minimum national wage of $3 800, but business is reportedly resisting.

By A Correspondent- President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been accused of deceitfully co-opting civil society organisations (CSOs) under the Matabeleland Collective (MC) in a bid to whitewash the 1980s Gukurahundi atrocities.

The group split in two early this month after Mnangagwa’s first move to address the issue sparked serious acrimony, with 17 organisations going on to form their own group known as the Matabeleland Forum (MF).

Mnangagwa has since then sought to co-opt the Matabeleland CSOs under the guise of dialogue in a move seen as an attempt to mollify growing dissent over the Gukurahundi massacres which his predecessor, the late former president Robert Mugabe, described as “a moment of madness”.

Gukurahundi – referring to a systematic mass slaughter of civilians accused of harbouring dissidents in the immediate aftermath of the bloody liberation war in the early 1980s – remains a highly emotive issue in the country, mainly because government has been reluctant to address it.

Last week, Mnangagwa met with the remnants of MC at Bulawayo State House as he continues to seek ways to address the atrocities, although his approach has been severely criticised as half-hearted and piecemeal.

The meeting has once more torched a storm, with MF members accusing their counterparts of receiving cash inducements to dance to Mnangagwa’s tune.

The MF says it pulled out of MC because the latter had drifted from the original mandate of holding the state to account for the genocidal campaign which saw the North Korean-trained 5th Brigade kill 20 000 civilians.

There were reports that during last week’s meeting, the MC leaders were treated to luxury hotel accommodation, free fuel and a huge feast—all at the taxpayer’s expense.

“Money has exchanged hands under the guise of organising the MC functions. There has never been accountability on where the money is coming from. We understand the state has been bankrolling the activities of MC. The money is not meant to muzzle MC, but the strategy is to discuss petty issues,” a Bulawayo CSO leader said.

“Mnangagwa is a schemer. He can use any tactic in the book to squash the voice of the people of Matabeleland.” Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation director Mthulisi Hanana told the Zimbabwe Independent that the MC had failed to ensure a genuine process of truth-telling, healing, justice and reparations for communities affected by the Gukurahundi atrocities.

“We agreed to say that let us save our organisation and we pulled out. We thought to ourselves that let us continue to engage. We are happy to engage the President, but there should be an unreserved apology. We also advocate for the release of the Chihambakwe and Dumbutshena Commission reports,” Hanana said.

Hanana said decision-making within the MC was now limited to a few individuals.

Habbakuk Trust director Dumisani Nkomo said: “This is the view of some of us that the collective, whilst like all Zimbabweans having a right to engage the President, may be compromised. There must be a critical distance between the state and non-state actors.”

Nkomo said independent CSOs will continue to demand closure for the Gukurahundi issue, adding that government was not serious about addressing the post-1980 massacres.

“The collective is within its rights to engage, what is key is how we as independent CSOs move forward and ensure the Matabeleland issue is comprehensively addressed. The government is not yet serious about addressing Gukurahundi,” Nkomo said.

Jennifer Williams, the leading MC figure and Women of Zimbabwe Arise director, denied being co-opted by government.”As MC, we co-ordinated organisations that are members and broader civil society in accepting His Excellency’s invitation to come see him 14 February 2020. “We also assisted members to get accommodated and receive transport costs as the state President’s guests,” Williams said.

The MF’s argument is that while an apology was necessary for healing, government should craft a legal framework to facilitate truth-telling, justice and reconciliation.

Communities affected by the Gukurahundi massacres have been failing to get identification documents like birth certificates, nearly 35 years after the killings.

A report on the implementation matrix discussed last year, presented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Virginia Mabhiza, identified 16 key issues surrounding Gukurahundi that were still outstanding.

These include exhumations which government is yet to authorise. The CSOs have also accused MC of snubbing traditional chiefs — largely viewed as a critical cog in the truth telling, healing and reconciliation process.

Chiefs were absent from Mnangagwa’s meeting last week with MC.-Independent

The Senior Hospital Doctors Association notes the developments in the University of Zimbabwe’s College of Health Sciences with great concern; developments which can potentially degenerate into a serious disruption of Health service delivery in the country.

The University of Zimbabwe has unprocedurally removed the chairperson of the department of surgery who still had about one and half years as chairperson and clandestinely replaced him against the provisions of Ordinance 43 which governs the appointment of chairpersons in departments in the University.

Final year medical (MBCHB) students who were supposed to write their examinations in December 2019 but were sent home when the teaching environment had deteriorated because of the incapacitation in hospitals have still not been recalled despite different departments indicating that conditions for teaching have improved.

Paradoxically, the final year class of 2020, which had also not finished its fourth-year studies has now been propelled ahead and is being taught as final year students.

There is no objective justification proffered for this, leaving students and their parents to speculate whether the University is pursuing a vindictive and punitive agenda.

This decision is not in the national interest as it will create an artificial shortage of junior doctors in a few months.

A group of specializing doctors who were due to write their examinations and complete their studies could not do so because hospitals were incapacitated. They have again been left in limbo with no commitment being made towards their cause.

While just under a week ago, news tabloids reported on the open heart surgery training centre that is being set up at Parirenyatwa hospital with the University of Zimbabwe’s involvement in partnership with a South African company, the University has just terminated Dr David Chimuka’s contract again.

He is the lead person and the most experienced heart surgeon in the country who was spearheading the program. He has been dismissed with no reasons provided despite a shortage of cardiothoracic surgeons.

He was the only one of the three cardiothoracic surgeons available who was working for the University. This points to victimization and a vindictive agenda.

The period from September 2019 to January 2020 has been a difficult time in the medical field. Doctors could not offer any meaningful service in the hospitals because of the incapacitation of hospitals which was well documented and publicized.

The situation had begun to improve despite the many challenges still being faced. The regrettable move by the University authorities threatens to cause regression of the little progress made in attempting to restore normalcy.

In seeking clarity, the members of the Department of Surgery of the University of Zimbabwe have suspended their work services with immediate effect as they await the Vice-Chancellor to address them and give redress to the issues of unfair dismissal of their chairperson and the termination of Dr Chimuka’s contract and the appointment of another chairperson in total disregard to the standing ordinance 43 of the University.

The lecturers who are all surgeons, want urgent attention to be given to the MBChB V 2019 group as well as the MMED students so that they can finish their studies since they were affected by circumstances beyond their control.

The Senior Hospital Doctors Association urges the University authorities and perhaps the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to quickly act to solve the challenges in the College of Health Sciences as this has potential to cause skills flight and more disruption to the health delivery system yet again.

By A Correspondent- Police in Harare yesterday quizzed seven Allan Wilson High School students for allegedly participating in a demonstration led by the school’s former head-boy recently, where he allegedly attacked Mnangagwa’s administration and made fun of his “sadza nemuriwo” (sadza and vegetables) statement.

The students’ lawyer, Tinashe Chinopfukutwa, from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said his clients were initially told they would be charged for participating in an illegal demonstration around the Copacabana area in the central business district, but that was changed and they were asked to be witnesses.

“Initially, they were to be charged for participating in an unlawful gathering addressed by some young man said to be a former headboy of the school,” he said.

“This took place on February 7 around the Copacabana area. They then changed and they now want to make them witnesses, so they are recording their statements and they will be released.”

Chinopfukutwa said it was an impromptu protest and address by a former student, whose statement criticised government.

“He allegedly addressed them about sadza nemuriwo and basically criticising the government,” he said.

The statement sadza nemuriwo was made by Mnangagwa in January during an address at a clean-up campaign in Kuwadzana high-density suburb after residents had complained that they could no longer afford meat.

Mnangagwa jokingly advised them to stick to a healthy diet of sadza or potatoes with vegetables

-Newsday

By A Correspondent- A 29-year-old Guruve woman was dragged to court after she scalded her husband over a toilet se_x dispute.

Talent Chinemwamwasa, who hails from Nyamuseve village under Chief Chipuriro Guruve was not asked to plead on domestic violence charges. 

She was remanded in custody to February 24 after the State opposed bail citing that complainant is still hospitalized and that the accused could interfere with state witnesses.

According to evidence before the court, her husband Last Muzeza arrived at his home on the 17th of February at around 11pm.

Upon his arrival, he discovered that his wife was not in the house.

In his search for her, he went at the back of the house where their toilet is situated and saw the door slightly opened.

He called out his wife’s name and she shouted back saying that she was suffering from a stomach ache.

He decided to wait for a few minutes and then he heard funny sounds coming from the toilet.

His wife was apparently getting intimate with her lover.

As Muzeza advanced towards the toilet, his wife’s lover bolted out of the toilet and fled into the darkness of the night.

His wife also fled briefly but she came back some hours later after Muzeza had retired to bed.

Muzeza barred her from entering the house and told her to go back to her boyfriend.

The cunning Chinemwamwasa went into the kitchen and boiled water in a tin before seeking help from neighbours.

Accompanied by the neighbors, they knocked Muzeza’s bedroom window which he opened up and started talking to the neighbors.

As they were talking, Chinemwamwasa suddenly scalded her husband with the boiled water.

Muzeza sustained burns on the face head and stomach and is currently admitted at Guruve general hospital

By A Correspondent- It was Valentine’s Day without much love for a Bulawayo couple on Friday last week when the husband decided to put his wife on “shame parade” as punishment for allegedly committing adult_ery.

It apparently hit Itai Chikomberanwa, an ex-cop, like a punch to the gut when he discovered his wife Rosemary Chikomberanwa‘s extra marital affairs.

Itai discovered something shocking about the woman he loves after his 15-year-old daughter turned detective on her mother by sending him screenshots of her (mother) WhatsApp chat with erotic details she was exchanging with her alleged boyfriend while complimenting each other on what they did the previous day.

According to the story which the pained Itai decided to make public via the court, so er0tic were the messages which his wife was exchanging with her alleged lover while complimenting each other presumably after a series of steamy unprotected se_x romps.

Itai lamented his ordeal after his wife sued him for verbal, emotional and physical abuse. Rosemary accused her husband of constantly harassing her while threatening to kill her.

She said in a bid to instil fear, Itai was also sending graphic images of dead bodies of women having been killed or axed to death by their husbands.

“I have been married to Itai Chikomberanwa for 14 years but, I recently filed for divorce and the case is still pending at the Bulawayo High Court. I am making an application for a protection order because of the serious verbal, emotional abuse and harassment I am being subjected to by my husband,” bemoaned Rosemary.

She said the abuse had become so untenable as it occurred on a daily basis.

“My husband is constantly harassing me while threatening to kill me. He is sending graphic images of dead bodies of women having been killed or axed to death by their husbands. He is also stalking me, following me everywhere I go and this is causing a lot of hardships in my life.

“I am now living in constant fear and as an ex-police officer who has a history of being violent, he is capable of killing me.

“He once physically assaulted me in 2017 and as a result I am seeking the court’s intervention to stop him from causing distress, discomfort and abuse towards me,” she said.

Itai, however, rubbished his wife’s claims labelling her a “serial cheat”. He said the reason why she was seeking a protection order against him was to cover up her extra-marital affairs.

“I do not assault or insult her. The source of our problems is that she has been having extra-marital affairs since 2017. She once dated a police officer stationed at Queens Park Police Station. After I discovered the illicit relationship, I confronted them and we resolved the issue.

“I am a tobacco farmer and I spend most of my time away from home. The other day our 15-year-old daughter phoned me saying there was no food at home and their mother had gone for days and wasn’t at home. When I phoned her asking about her whereabouts, she insulted me saying I’m not her child,” said Itai.

He said he was the one who was being abused and disturbed by his wife’s philandering behaviour.

“On May 11 2018, that same 15-year-old daughter phoned me saying she had seen some dirty messages in her mother’s phone which she was exchanging with another man while complimenting each other on what they did the previous day.

“The reason why she is seeking a protection order against me is that she just wants to stop me from questioning her about her extra-marital affairs,” thundered Itai.

Rosemary, however, dismissed her husband’s allegations saying he was the one who was cheating on her.

“I know nothing about the issue of adult_ery. He is the one who is cheating on me as he had two other children out of wedlock”.

In a bid to maintain peace between the two estranged parties the presiding magistrate Adelaide Mbeure granted a reciprocal order which compels them not to stalk, verbally, physically abuse or threaten each other in any way.-statemedia

By A Correspondent- A Sakubva woman lost property worth thousands of dollars after her neighbour torched her bedroom accusing her of stealing her undergarments.

Lorraine Buwerimwe lost a double bed, blankets, duvets and other valuable items after Linda Mashingaidze allegedly went berserk and set her wooden cabin on fire following the alleged theft of underwear on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at No. 19A and 19B, OTS in Sakubva.

“Fortunately, we quickly put out the fire. The whole cabin could have been reduced to ashes,” said a neighbour, Polite Mupedzi.

When The Weekender caught up with the two women at the police station, Buwerimwe said there was bad blood between them.

“It all started when she accused me of stealing her pair of skin tights. She claimed that I had stolen them yet I had not, and I wondered why she kept accusing me. The misunderstanding got worse until I sought a protection order against her.

“Last month, she assaulted me and rushed to the police to report the matter. My life has been a living hell because of this woman. I do not know what wrong I did to her to warrant this sort of treatment. She always threatens to burn me alive and now she has burnt my house,” said Buwerimwe.

Mashingaidze denied ever burning the house saying instead it was she who had alerted neighbours to the fire.-Manicapost

By A Correspondent- Teachers at Ntenjane Primary School in Bulilima Matabeleland South, have vowed never to go back to work until the issue of goblins causing a reign of terror at the school is resolved.

Various teachers who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity had different stories to narrate about the chilling experiences they are going through because of the goblins.

Said 3 different teachers:

We are now victims of escalating witchcraft and goblins that storm workstations from the world of evil to unleash spine-chilling fears and a reign of terror. I left in a rush and left all my belongings. I am not going back to that place

I sleep on my bed daily; however, I wake up almost daily on the floor, with my blankets and everything. I have had enough of it. I asked my pastor to pray about it and it stopped for a while. It has started. There is no way I am going back. Public Service Commission will have to make a plan for us

I wear my underwear when I sleep, but when I wake up, it is washed and is hung to dry on the washing line. It happened for two consecutive days and I told my husband about it. He came to pick me at school and scolded me for not telling him the first time it happened

Other teachers also said they found their dishes washed in the morning despite leaving them dirty before going to bed and some said they were finding strange objects in their compounds in the morning.-Statemedia

By A Correspondent- A computer whizzkid at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) who was arrested for hacking the school’s examination results database has been granted permission to travel to Switzerland to represent Zimbabwe.

20-year-old Tatenda Christopher Chinyamakobvu, a Level 2.2 Information and Technology student will be representing Zimbabwe at an International Hackathon in Switzerland after the courts relaxed his bail conditions.

Chinyamakobvu is part of a three-man team who aced a hackathon competition staged by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) in Kadoma recently.

Chinyamakobvu together with Munyaradzi Muneka and Elvin Kakomo developed an application that can tell when an accident occurs as well as the gravity of the accident and its location.

According to Techzim,

…the application has a panic button that users can hit for minor accidents. In the case of more serious emergencies which incapacitate the driver and passengers, it then uses the sound of the car crash to automatically trigger the panic button.

The application is meant to improve the responsiveness of emergency first responders.

For winning the Potraz Hackathon, Chinyamakobvu and his team won the right to represent Zimbabwe at the #Hack4SmartSustainableCities conference organised by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The event will run from April 5-6 in Geneva during the World Summit for the Information Society (WSIS) Forum.

Chinyamakobvu’s legal troubles started after he discovered a weakness in the examination results database at CUT and ruthlessly exploited the loophole to forge passing grades for himself and his colleagues.

He initially changed his won results for the CUPE119 course which he took and failed during the August to December 2018 semester. He changed the result into a passing grade as he did not want to retake the course.

After realising how easy it was, Chinyamakobvu then started charging his colleagues who had failed some courses so that he could alter their grades. For this very valuable service, he charged amounts varying from US$20 to US$80 depending on the number of courses which need to be hacked and altered. At the time of his arrest, he had changed the results of 7 other students.

Chinyamakobvu did his hacking from an Itel P33 cellphone and a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop from his home in New Canaan, Highfield, Harare. The devices have since been confiscated as evidence by the police.

Chinyamakobvu’s luck ran out when CUT Information Communication Technology director discovered that Chinyamakobvu’s results had been altered.  The subsequent investigation led to his arrest.

He was granted  $150 bail on the second attempt after Chinhoyi magistrate Ms Mithel Mabika initially denied him bail saying that he was a flight risk.-statemedia

By A Correspondent- United Kingdom-based football intermediary and only African woman match agent in the world, Ellen Chiwenga, has set her eyes on the Zifa presidency in the 2022 elections.

A member of the Association of Football Agents (AFA), the International Association of Fifa Licensed Football Match Agents (FIFMA), and Women in Football (WIF) from Zimbabwe, Chiwenga took to her Facebook timeline to announce her intended entry into mainstream football politics in two years’ time to challenge Felton Kamambo.

Should Kamambo choose to seek re-election as expected and wins, he will be in his second and final term according to Article 38 of the Zifa Constitution.

Chiwenga informed her friends on Facebook that she will contest the Zifa presidency when the present board’s four-year tenure expires in 2022.

Responding to a question by one of her Facebook followers, Kudakwashe Motsi, who asked if she was sincere in her intentions to run for the biggest football post on the domestic scene, Chiwenga said she was serious.

If she decides to run, Chiwenga has to relinquish her positions as a member of the Association of Football Agents (AFA) and the International Association of Fifa Licensed Football match Agents (FIFMA) as per Fifa requirements.

When Chronicle Sport contacted her yesterday, she could neither confirm nor deny that she was eyeing the Zifa presidency.

“My personal assistant will give you details, don’t worry,” Chiwenga said.

If she contests and wins, Chiwenga, who has been working in the world of football for more than 15 years, will become only the third African woman to lead a football association after Lydia Nsekera and Isha Johansen who were voted presidents of the Burundi and Sierra Leone Football Associations respectively.

According to her biography, Chiwenga legally represents athletes by checking their contracts and negotiating their employment. She is responsible for communication between managers and individuals she represents to ensure that both sides are satisfied.

She also arranges worldwide matches between teams belonging to different confederations, such as friendly matches and tournaments between national teams or clubs.

“With passion and relentless determination, Ellen works tirelessly to promote social and economic development through football. She transforms football into a powerful instrument of economic and human development that builds healthy communities, fosters growth, empowers women and inspires change around the world,” reads part of her biography.

In 2017, Chiwenga won the Personality of the Year Award under the Zimbabwe Achievers’ Awards and the African Woman of the Year in Football in 2018.

In the same year, she became an ambassador of FC Karachi in Pakistan. In August 2019, Chiwenga was appointed Global Goodwill Ambassador of Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation (BHHF), a charity organisation that delivers humanitarian aid and medicines to internally displaced people, refugees and people in need around the world.

In November 2019, she was awarded the prestigious Football Black List Award for her outstanding work in football and in January this year, she was awarded the Medal of Knight of the Order of Lafayette.

Chiwenga is also a member of the Right to Play’ Partnerships Committee.-Statemedia

Health and Child Care Minister Obadiah Moyo has urged legislators to stop travelling to China for business or shopping until such a time when coronavirus has been contained.

Speaking in the National Assembly, the Health Minister said it was by God’s grace that the country has not reported a confirmed case of the disease.

“Let us stop this issue of travelling to China completely. No travelling to China please, at this stage, stay in your country and stop shopping. Let us stay in our country; it is by God’s grace that we do not have it here.

“I was praying last night about that woman who was admitted at Wilkins Hospital that she does not turn out to be positive and by God’s grace she turned out to be negative. So, we are lucky and this is why you have seen me personally going to the borders.

“I will not leave any stone unturned and when I get to the borders, I will make sure that I educate everyone and it has to be done like that,” he said.

Minister Moyo added that he has challenged all border personnel to keep watch and ensure the disease does not enter through the borders.

“So, I have challenged every border and every person who works at the border, not just health personnel but the immigration, the police, the soldiers and everyone who works at the border has to wake up.

“We all have to remind each other when someone is doing the wrong thing. we do not want to allow someone who has got a fever to come into Zimbabwe without being stopped and that is exactly how we managed to pick up the case at the airport the day before yesterday.

“It is a serious issue which we have to put a lot of respect and we are all going to monitor each other’s performance wherever we are. We pray that this scourge will not enter into Zimbabwe and it will not enter if we all cooperate with each other,” he said.

-Open Parly

Popular Malawian prophet Shepherd Bushiri has told former Deputy Finance Minister Terrence Mukupe to respect his wife Rachel J after the latter claimed his wife had been bedded and impregnated by the controversial church man.

Rachel J is famous for singing a song with Enzo Ishall titled Ngoro which has been described as vulgar.

Below is Bushiri’s statement

It is not in my nature to respond to allegations levelled against me. However, it has come to my attention that Terence Mukupe, a disgraced former deputy minister in Zimbabwe has made false allegations that I am responsible for his wife’s pregnancy.

The basis of his allegations are screenshots of chats and messages purportedly between me and his wife.

For the purposes of clarity.

I am not on WhatsApp. Neither am I on iMessenger. This has been the case since late 2017. Those with access to me will know this. Those who do not, please stand guided, I AM NOT ON WHATSAPP or iMESSENGER. I have not been for 3 years.

Secondly, I have not traveled out of South Africa in the last 13 months, and therefore have not met this man’s wife in Malawi as he believes. This ought to be public knowledge.

Thirdly the contact number in his pictures is NOT mine and has never been mine. Therefore whoever was speaking with this man’s wife isn’t me.

Given all this, it is therefore impractical and impossible for his allegations to be materially true.

Sadly this guy’s lies are part of a pattern of libel and slander that has been directed at me for over a decade.

The bible teaches us to forgive and ignore, but there also comes a time when those that make defamatory and highly damaging allegations about others must face the music of their choice.

I have consequently engaged my lawyers in Zimbabwe to urgently seek legal recourse.

As you may know, since 2019 I have been suing every newspaper that carries fake stories about me. This is on record. I have been suing and winning, and media house after media house has been apologising and paying damages for their lies. It is a strategy that has become policy.

I therefore call on Terence Mukupe to respect his wife, his marriage and his children. For him to tell the whole world that his wife was impregnanted by another man paints him in bad light but also opens his wife to all forms of abuse.

A man has a duty and obligation to protect his wife and Terence must not open her up to abuse and name calling.

I call on him to respect my family and everyone else. These false allegations stay on the internet forever and will harm many lives. If they were true it would make sense. But these are lies.

To sue him, win and take money from him would be unfortunate, as his already doing all this to me for money. Sir, fear God, don’t be desperate to the level of selling a good name of yourself with cheap lies like these.

But as I said, if he chooses otherwise, we will have no option but to make yet another example out of him.

We cannot tolerate and allow slander, libel and defamation to go unchallenged.

Lastly, I pray that Mukupe makes peace with his wife and whoever is responsible for her pregnancy.

God Bless you Zimbabwe. I love you!

ZimEye reveals footage of ZRP cops raiding former ZANU PF senior Jeppy Jaboon’s pub in Luck Street in the capital late Thursday afternoon. The footage shows cops literally stealing beer. There is also evidence of them smashing the doors before stealing money kept in a safe in there. They also attempted to delete CCTV footage. Shortly afterwards they arrested over 150 people.

RETWEET! – @PoliceZimbabwe cops stealing beer before arresting 150 people at Jeppy Jaboon's pub yesterday pic.twitter.com/7irZLP3QGw

— ZimEye (@ZimEye) February 21, 2020

By A Correspondent- The government of Zimbabwe has warned opposition MDC leader Nelson Chamisa over his threats to unleash unsanctioned protests in the wake of authorities’ failure to arrest the country’s deepening economic and social crises.

Speaking to the Daily News on Thursday, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe said police can deal with any illegal disturbances.

He said:

Whoever breaks the law will be dealt with according to the law. The law enforcement agents in our country can deal with any illegal disturbances.

The police have a constitutional mandate to protect the peace-loving people of Zimbabwe as well as their properties.

Meanwhile, police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said conveners of demonstrations should always follow proper procedures.

He said:

The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)’s mandate is to maintain a peaceful environment. Our role is to make sure that people are living in a peaceful environment.

It’s is clear what is supposed to be done when someone wants to protest or petition, he or she must follow proper procedures.

While addressing a press conference in Harare on Tuesday, Chamisa said the people of Zimbabwe are not weak, therefore, Zanu PF and the government should not take them for granted.-DailyNews

INDUSTRY in Bulawayo yesterday challenged government to stop crying about sanctions, but start creating a conducive operating environment, give them fuel and forex for raw materials as well as sort out the exchange rate.

Speaking during a business breakfast meeting held in Bulawayo yesterday, captains of industry told Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza that government needed to address issues of currency, policy inconsistency and stop blaming sanctions.

“We want to challenge you and your colleagues in government, can we stop the cry about sanctions. In our industry here in Bulawayo we have some glaring evidence of sanctions busting companies. Companies created specially to subvert sanctions during the Smith regime,” Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries Matabeleland Chapter president Shepherd Chawira said.

“We toured Delta with your predecessor minister Mangaliso Ndlovu in November last year and we were shown old beer brewing chambers bought from the European Union when the brewery was built and alongside those were a number of others built by a company established locally here to bust sanctions.”

“Sadly, the company closed down in the 2000s due to the economic meltdown. So we are saying, give us fuel, give us forex for raw materials, sort out our exchange rate and give us policies which create a conducive operating environment and there won’t be any sanctions to talk about,” he said.

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Matabeleland Chapter vice-president Golden Muoni challenged government to be sincere about addressing the currency issue.

“Where is our problem? Currency. Do we have a currency which we have trust over, in which men and women are able to transact? Who are the manipulators of that currency? Where are they?
Are they not known? What are we doing? So who is the problem?” he said.

“We can have these conferences and talk shows but if we don’t go deeper and address this issue of allowing people to destroy our currency, we are going to face a lot of challenges. We are going to leave this economy in shambles and we are going to be part of those people who failed,” Muoni said.

“We want a stable currency. Let us revisit the issue of currency as a matter of urgency. Do we want to use the US$ or bond note? We must have a clear monetary policy which is well defined and allow the business to plan. As we are speaking some are transacting in US$, others are refusing the bond notes. Right now as we are speaking, many garages have no fuel in town but there are garages with fuel which is sold in US$. So, are we using the US$ or bond notes? Which currency are we using? That needs to be addressed.”

Government last year announced the return of the Zimbabwe dollar as the sole legal tender, albeit with inadequate foreign currency and mineral backing causing the currency to lose value within a short period of its introduction.

The Zimbabwe dollar has plunged more than 85% since it was reintroduced. Businesses also demanded to know how much foreign currency was allocated to companies in Bulawayo through the interbank system.

Bulawayo City Council business development officer Kholisani Moyo said since Bulawayo was regarded the industrial hub of the nation, more resources needed to be channelled towards it.

In her earlier address, Nzenza had told industry that government was aware of the issues of import licences, delays at border posts and policy inconsistencies.

“The informal economy continues to grow at a very fast pace. Our production levels are low. These are some of the problems that I already know as a Minister of Industry and Commerce. I also acknowledge that our policies have not been consistent,” she said.

“There are issues that we as government need to address. Issues of import licences, export licences, problems at the border, we are aware of those problems and we would like to work together to address those. Our policies need to be consistent.”

She said there was no doubt that most of the challenges that the country was facing such as inflation, currency instability, and other macro-economic imbalances emanated from low productivity in industries.

“In that regard, we need to put more emphasis on production and more production,” she said.

-Newsday

A woman was attacked by a hippopotamus while she and her husband were on a wildlife tour in Africa, according to tour operator Wild Horizons.

On Saturday, a married couple was on a canoe safari — consisting of three guests and two guides — on the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe. One of the guides saw hippos on the right side of the river, and instructed guests to paddle to the left, away from them, Wild Horizons said in statement.

As they paddled, a hippo emerged underneath the canoe the woman was in, capsizing it, the tour operator said. The hippo then attacked her and pulled her under water as she attempted to swim to shore.

The head guide pulled her onto the river bank and administered first aid, according to Wild Horizons. The woman was then airlifted to a local hospital.

The Tampa Bay Times identified the couple as Odessa, Florida, residents Kristen and Ryan Yaldor. Ryan Yaldor’s mother, Martine Yaldor, confirmed the details reported by the Tampa Bay Times to ABC News.

Kristen Yaldor was attacked on her 37th birthday, a source close to the family told ABC News. Kristen Yaldor was in the front seat of the two-person canoe, while her husband was seated in the back, the source said.

When the hippo hit the canoe, Ryan Yaldor was ejected toward the island, but Kristen Yaldor was thrown toward the hippo, which pulled her under quickly after she hit the water, the source said.

It took Ryan Yaldor less than 30 seconds to swim to shore from the middle of the river, and when he turned around and screamed for his wife, she popped out of the water, her right leg still in the hippo’s moth, the source said.

Kristen Yaldor then punched the hippo several times in the face, and it eventually released her, the source said. She then swam toward shore, and Ryan Yaldor helped her out of the water and into the nearest canoe, the source said, adding that a helicopter arrived about 45 minutes later.

She was first taken to a clinic in Zimbabwe and then transferred to a hospital in Johannesburg, a journey that took 14 hours from the time of the attack, the source said. The hippo’s teeth caused a ragged fracture to Kristen Yaldor’s right femur, for which she has received two surgeries — one to repair the break and a second to remove the dead tissue, the source said. She may need additional surgery as well.

The couple was not made aware of the elevated danger surrounding hippos because of calving season, the source said, adding that they had “no idea” a baby hippo was present, and that the mother hippo was protecting her calf.

The U.S. Department of State confirmed to ABC News that it was aware of reports of an accident involving American citizens in Zimbabwe.

Wild Horizons detailed its extensive safety procedure in a statement. On each river trip, a back-up vehicle on land follows the canoe, and each guide is equipped with a cell phone and hand-held radio, according to Wild Horizons.

The source close to the Yaldor family said the guides were delayed in getting help because they weren’t able to reach anyone on their radios and their cell phones didn’t work on the island.

Before embarking on the tour, guests are given a safety briefing and are required to practice paddling, in an effort to ensure they “are familiar with the mechanics of rowing down a river, and are competent to do so,” Wild Horizons said.

“We would like to stress that while our guides are expertly trained and qualified to manage trips such as these, and that every preparation is painstakingly made, nature is unpredictable,” Wild Horizons said in the statement.

Hippos are known for their aggressive behavior and kill about 500 people per year in Africa, the BBC reported.

Wild Horizons has been operating in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and along the Zambezi River for nearly three decades, it said.

ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Ben Gittleson, Kirit Radia and Lisa Silverstein contributed to this report.

By A Correspondent- Former tourism minister Walter Mzembi speaking to a local publication explained how the ruling party rigs elections. Muzembi claims the ruling party has access to the voter’s prior to the elections and preys on people’s poverty to get votes.

Mzembi said:

Zanu PF, and by extension its government, is held together by a culture of fear, intimidation, vengeance, retribution and violence …

The merchandising of fear and retribution is the central theme of the Zanu PF bible and there is ample evidence to attest to this over the last 50 years … There are thousands of Zanu PF members who for fear of losing farms or business opportunities, jobs and food aid, stay beholden to a system their inner souls have long rejected and which they cannot proudly stand up and defend.

Curiously, no matter how enlightened many of these people are, they believe the system has a way of telling how they would have voted. Emancipation from mental slavery is one of the tasks ahead of us.

Any successful strategy to dislodge Zanu PF from power must disrupt and destroy the DNA of violence and fear resident in every one of it is nearly 50 000 cells countrywide. Needless to mention that it will be a bloody exercise

Zanu PF polling model is based on giving everyone responsibility or a position in its structures starting with the cell where 21 office holders serve 29 members to make 50 members in a cell. Reality is there are 1 036 785 grassroots officeholders who defend their positions come every election apart from branch, district, provincial, national office holders.

When you add women and youth league positions, everyone in Zanu PF is an officeholder. These positions are an insurance policy to patronage benefits. Everyone from the president down to an ordinary member belongs to a cell and submits to the authority of the cell chairman who coincidentally may be the village headman.The village headman keeps a party membership exercise book that is also linked to food and inputs distribution and other freebies like party regalia.

This book is also linked to the voter registration master copy which every Zanu PF MP and councillor gets. With the introduction of roller meal committees and coupons and the imminent couponisation of the economy, village headmen can expect to dispense and be part of a food rationing chain.

As long as the State has monopoly over food distribution, Zanu PF’s hegemonic grip on the masses will remain intact. This grip is most firm during by-elections when the entire State machinery descends on a ward conflated with Zanu PF campaigns,” said Mzembi.

Shedding light on how the 2008 presidential elections were conducted, Mzembi said initially he was picked by Mugabe to be a member of a committee that was planning the campaign but was elbowed out by Mnangagwa who then took charge and launched a brutal campaign that led to the deaths of scores of opposition members and led the international community, including Sadc, to declare the elections a sham.

Zimbabwe’s election history is replete with violence. Whilst they are held timeously, there are also simultaneous cycles of violence and because I was already an adult in the 1985 elections, the country witnessed heinous violence against Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu , Edgar Tekere’s Zum (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) in 1990, Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC in the 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2013 elections all of which are in the public domain. The 2008 elections, which resulted in the GNU of 2009-2013, tops the bill because of its unprecedented violence. Every Zanu PF senior member knows who collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee in 2008 and took charge of one of the country’s most violent electoral episodes. I was in this committee of 15 later 22, leading a subcommittee on business and traditional leaders with Sthembiso Nyoni

… one day in May 2008, … Mnangagwa walked into our meeting and told everyone that he was now taking charge and these academic exercises we were engaged in were now over! Our rerun committee was sent packing and brutality of the highest order took over, Tsvangirai succumbed and the rest is history.

Clearly, ‘the most potent weapon in the mind of the Oppressor is the mind of the Oppressed’ but for Zanu PF it is the desperation of the people arising out of the poverty this party and its government preside over and seek to perpetuate.

Therefore, a Zanu PF government will never truly empower communities to be self-sufficient and self-sustaining because poverty is an instrument of control and line of credit to power retention.

To that extent as long as Zimbabweans are under a Zanu PF government the economy will not be revived, food insecurity will continue, health delivery will remain a mirage because these vulnerabilities are the ultimate instruments of mass control and mobilisation by the Junta government.-DailyNews

By Jane Mlambo| Leader of the National Constitutional Assembly yesterday told a public meeting organised by Heal Zimbabwe that President Emmerson Mnangagwa came from nowhere to occupy his current position.

Madhuku made the remarks while trashing the constitutional amendment number 2 which was gazetted on the 31st of December 2019.

He said the bill though retrogressive was an opportunity for Zimbabweans to push for a broader amendment to the constitution especially the widely demanded electoral reforms.

Madhuku said as POLAD, they have pushed a position to have the bill withdrawn to allow every citizen to input changes they want in the constitution including the part on succession following the resignation or death of a sitting President.

He made reference to the resignation of the late President Robert Mugabe which gave rise to Emmerson Mnangagwa saying the ideal situation is to allow the country to go to elections and elect a new leader or to have parliament sitting as an electoral college chose chose someone to take over the reigns of power.

WATCH THE FULL PRESENTATION ON THE VIDEO LOADING BELOW

By A Correspondent- The body of a Bulawayo Lodge employee was found in one of the lodge’s rooms with a deep cut in the forehead and his hands tied on his left leg.

Edwin Ndelelo Nyathi who was a caretaker in Bulawayo’s Matsheumhlope suburb’s body was found on Tuesday and his family said the autopsy report said he might have died on Saturday as his body was already decomposing when his body was discovered.

His brother spoke to the publication and said:

My brother was brutally murdered.We don’t know who could have done it. He lived alone at the lodge where he had been working for the past 15 years. We suspect it could have been a robbery gone wrong. Although we did not see his body, we were told that both his hands were tied to his left leg.

He also had a deep cut in his forehead and was found in a pool of blood and there was also a brick in the room,A neighbour stumbled on his body before informing the police on Tuesday. His body was already decomposing and the postmortem report suggests that he could have been killed on Saturday.

Nyathi was not married and he had no children.-statemedia

By A Correspondent- A pupil from Kwekwe’s Goldridge School was sent packing after he took a photo of his teachers’ payslips and uploaded them on social media and captioned them “even my father gives me more”, Bulawayo Metro reports.

According to the publication:

The named pupil (19) found himself in the firing line after he reportedly accessed the salary list and posted it on social media and shared with friends.

The pupil, whose father is a member of the College Board, went on to denigrate the teachers by captioning the picture “even my father gives me more than this” and “liking” the teachers who called for his expulsion.

A source believed that the student accessed the salaries list from his father. Salaries in most organisations in Zimbabwe have remained relatively low despite skyrocketing inflation.

By Cheriel Dzobo in Chipinge| Villagers who attended a community dialogue meeting organised on Valentines day in Vheneka village have complained that efforts by humanitarian organisations and government to avert hunger were being undermined by those bent on promoting their political party interests.

Participants recommended the establishment of a stakeholders platform that would help the equitable distribution to reduce the current status, where known political players are bulldozing their way to determine who should be recipients of the food handouts from both government and non Non Governmental Organisations.

The 2017 Zimbabwe Poverty Report states that poverty is much higher in rural communities than in urban areas and that at least 6 out of every 10 or 60.6 per cent of households have per capita consumption expenditures below the upper poverty line. At the same time, 76.9 per cent of rural households are deemed poor. Zimbabwe boasts of a constitutional provision for the right to food and water for its citizens.

From the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (no.20) Act 2013, the provision extol the state to take “reasonable legislative and other measures, within its limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realization of this right” of food and water. Thus, the Constitution emphasizes the achievement of fair distribution of humanitarian assistance to marginalized communities.

Chipinge district is classified as food insecure especially communities along the Save Valley. This has been compounded by current macroeconomic environment. This has presented extreme levels of vulnerability and risk for rural communities and put people’s lives and livelihoods under acute threat due to the fact that local capacities to cope with crisis are overwhelmed. In response to this predicament, PYCD conducted a community meeting on the 14th of February. The main objective of the meeting was to sensitive the community on the obligations of the state to ensure that every person has the right to food as espoused by the Constitution. From the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (no.20) Act 2013, the provision extol the state to take “reasonable legislative and other measures, within its limits of the resources available to it, to achieve the progressive realization of this right” of food and water.

However, the local people bemoaned the politicization of the right to food. Political players within the community have an influence on decisions about levels of assistance and in turn affect the type of assistance people receive, and where and when they do so. The partisanship nature of humanitarian assistance in rural communities leads to a continuing need for relief assistance, creating a vicious cycle and trapping people into chronic poverty. This in turn creates tension within communities and possibly violent behaviors against each other.

“It is within your right to receive any assistance that can ameliorate your situation. The right to food is an inalienable right that no other person must abuse. Remain vigilant and report such cases as it is a serious violation.”
Artwel Sithole, PYCD Information and Social Media Officer is quoted as telling the community.

It is sad to note that most people in Chipinge have now resorted to crossing over to Mozambique and South Africa in search of mealie meal. The measures that the central government have since introduced in order to curb abuse of the food resources have been abused. Most shops in Chipinge have stocks of mealie meal from South Africa that is being charged in foreign currency, a move that is beyond the reach of many vulnerable communities in the district.

Nevertheless, the community meeting enhanced the community’s level of awareness on the right to food and the need to ensure equal access to humanitarian assistance.

This is part of the civic duties of PYCD to ensure that communities are not vulnerable to hunger and the cycle of poverty.

There will be no warning and no notice. We have since drawn the line in the sand. There will be more flash demos and we will not comply with undemocratic requirements. Hunger and joblessness do not give notice. #thepeople'sgovernment.

— Luke Tamborinyoka (@luke_tambo) February 21, 2020

By A Correspondent| The current foreign affairs minister SB Moyo was commandeering over 8112 youths in order to rig elections, just as the Zimbabwe National Army trained over 35000 youths in order to rig the 2013 elections, the Mugabe aligned NPF spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has alleged.

Speaking during last light’s Heal Zimbabwe Trust debate on the constitution, Mawarire said the military has the final say in all elections.

He said that citizens can spend time worrying about constitutional amendments but at the end of the day the military has the final word on what happens on election Day.

He spoke narrating what he says happened in 2013. He said:

https://twitter.com/ZimEye/status/1230749550417068034?s=19

There were 35000 youths being trained by the army. 7000 were being trained in Bulawayo. Brig SBMoyo was commandeering 8112 youths. This is not allowed in either the constitution or the electoral act. But they do it. So how do you confront such people?

https://twitter.com/ZimEye/status/1230749550417068034?s=19

By Own Correspondent| Zimbabwe intends to build a second fuel pipeline in partnership with three other Southern African countries in a deal that will be funded by the Russian Government to the tune of US$1, 5 billion.

The deal puts a lid on the much talked about Mining, Oil and Gas Services (MOGS) deal which some politicians principally Christopher Mutsvangwa (Zanu-PF) and Tendai Biti (MDC) have been pushing for over five years without success.

The US$1.5billion Russian deal involves Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana and was mooted at last year’s Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi city with the blessings of all the respective Presidents.

A delegation from Russia is expected in Zimbabwe in March to fine tune the deal.
Construction of the second pipeline was rejected as an unviable business venture by Mozambique owing to failure by Zimbabwean oil companies to fully utilise the existing pipeline which has capacity to pump 180 million litres monthly.

About 40 percent of the existing pipeline is not being utilized.

“Russians hinted their interest in funding the second pipeline at last year’s summit in Sochi city as a government to government transaction for the southern region at a very nominal rate. If there is a second pipeline to be build then it is this one by the Russians because this is what the four Governments prefer than having it as a one nation project considering that 40 percent of the current pipeline is underutilised,” said a government source involved in the negotiations.

“Negotiations are now at an advanced stage and a team from the Russian government will be in the country next month.”

MOGS had attempted to build a second pipeline in the past years but Government rejected the deal after discovering that the project was meant to bankroll the opposition MDC party.

The South African firm has continously tried without success to use Christopher Mutsvangwa, Tendai Biti and Eddie Cross to land the deal.

The trio has been at the front of smeering Trafigura and Sakunda Holdings which they believe have been blocking them from landing the billion dollar project.

Sources highlighted that before agreeing on the second pipeline Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana first discussed the upgrading of the Beira-Harare pipeline.
“The current pipeline can be upgraded up to 240 million litres monthly which can be expanded to 320 million litres hence continuous engagement at Presidential level to have volumes of scale,” said the source.

“However after deliberations the Russian deal was agreed on.”

The Government source also scoffed at media reports that Zimbabwe was losing US$400 million due to alleged Trafigura monopoly of the pipeline.

The existing pipeline has a capacity to pump 180 million litres monthly at a pipeline fee of 0.0789 cents per litre from Beira.

“Total revenue of the pipeline is USD$14 million monthly and multiplied by 12 months, it gives a revenue of US$170million annually hence assertions in the media that we are losing US$400million is mere fallacy,” said the source.

A NOIC insider indicated that 40 percent of the underutilised capacity of the pipeline at the going rate of 0.0789 cents per litre can amount to US$68million dollars which does not even tally with figures being thrown around.

“There are more than 20 companies which signed agreements with NOIC to pump fuel via pipeline and about six companies pump fuel on a regular basis thus Glencore, IPG, Trafigura, Praise Petroleum, Vivo and BP and one wonders how this can translate to monopoly.

“The pumping fees from Beira to Feruka are not set by Zimbabwe but by CPM of Mozambique as Zimbabwe doesnt own the pipeline. Government of Zimbabwe sets pipeline fees from Feruka to Harare meaning no other company can do that except government,” said the source.

Information ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana dismissed reports that Sakunda enjoys a monopoly over the pipeline, saying the company was only recouping its investment for rehabilitating the infrastructure.

Sakunda in 2014 invested millions into the refurbishment of the Beira-Feruka pipeline, and is recouping its investment.

“Trafigura assisted in refurbishing the pipeline and they are recouping their money from the use. The seven (US) cents applies to Zambia and DRC because they would be collecting the fuel from here.

Suppose we contract an energy company to help us build infrastructure, when they have finished they will say ‘from your power tariffs, add the two cents per kilowatt hour which we will use to recoup the costs’ and it will be done, but it doesn’t speak to a monopoly, it speaks to a PPP (public-private partnership). It’s a variant of the BOT (build, operate and transfer). Definitely, they don’t have the monopoly,” he said.

By A Correspondent| The Zimbabwe National Army trained over 35000 youths in order to rig the 2013 elections, the Mugabe aligned NPF spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has said.

Speaking during last light’s Heal Zimbabwe Trust debate on the constitution, Mawarire said the military has the final say in all elections.

He said that citizens can spend time worrying about constitutional amendments but at the end of the day the military has the final word on what happens on election Day.

He spoke narrating what he says happened in 2013. He said:

https://twitter.com/ZimEye/status/1230749550417068034?s=19

There were 35000 youths being trained by the army. 7000 were being trained in Bulawayo. Brig SBMoyo was commandeering 8112 youths. This is not allowed in either the constitution or the electoral act. But they do it. So how do you confront such people?

https://twitter.com/ZimEye/status/1230749550417068034?s=19

Own Correspondent|THE National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) has with immediate effect parted ways with Commissioner Mrs Netty Musanhu over a long-standing matter of conflict of interest.

In a rather bitter statement yesterday, the commission said the conflict of interest issue has been in existence since Mrs Musanhu’s appointment to the commission in 2016.

Section 236(2) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that: “Persons who are members of a political party or organisation on their appointment to an independent Commission must relinquish that membership without delay and in any event within thirty days of their appointment.”

Prior to her appointment to NPRC, Mrs Musanhu was as the Executive Director of Musasa Project, an organisation that works to protect and capacitate women who are victims of violence.

At the NPRC, she was in charge of the Victim Support, Gender and Diversity thematic area and Resource Mobilisation Role.

The commission did not reveal what was the outstanding conflict of interest issue that has forced Mrs Musanhu out of NPRC.

We publish the statement by the NPRC below:

A CHITUNGWIZA woman who claims to be a spirit medium was on Wednesday arrested for storming Munhumutapa Building – Office of the President and Cabinet – demanding an audience with the President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Asinuta Dendere was arraigned before Harare Magistrates Rumbidzai Mugwagwa charged with unlawful entry.

Dendere who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Mbuya Nehanda said she will not stop until she delivers a “message from the spirits to Mnangagwa.”

“The spirits keep tormenting me they are not happy with how the government is running the country’s affairs,” she claimed.

“I am not a dog and the citizens of Zimbabweans are not dogs. Not body should treat us like dogs.”

Dendere stopped the reading of allegations, saying she is only violent because of government’s deficiencies.

The complainant is the state represented by Simbarashe Mangezi who is an employee at Munhumutapa Building.

Prosecutors alleged that on February 19 around 10am at Munhumutapa Building, Dendere stormed the entrance and started to behave mischievously saying she is a spirit medium and she wanted to enter into the building.

Mangezi apprehended the accused and reported the case which led to her arrest.

She was then taken to Harare Central Police station.

Harare magistrate Mugwagwa ordered that Dendere be examined by a psychiatrist.

She was remanded to March 4 and placed in the custody of her daughter-in-law.

Zim Morning Post

THE British government’s HM Treasury on Thursday updated its financial sanctions notices against Zimbabwe and ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida organisations.

View Financial sanctions, Zimbabwe at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-sanctions-zimbabwe.

View Financial sanctions, ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida organisations at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-list-of-designated-persons-al-qaida.

The European Union has renewed its arms embargo on Zimbabwe, as well as a targeted asset freeze on the state arms company.

In a statement on Monday, the Council of the European Union said the late former president Robert Mugabe’s name had been removed from the sanctions list, adding that an asset freeze and travel ban on four other individuals would remain, although suspended.

The four are Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri, Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Phillip Valerio Sibanda and former first lady, Grace Mugabe.

Mugabe, who died in September last year, is off the sanctions list.

The decision to review the Zimbabwe sanctions is the first since former colonial power Britain – which campaigned for the sanctions first imposed in 2002 – officially withdrew from the European Union.

Pledging its support for “economic and political reforms in Zimbabwe” the EU said it wanted to move towards a “more constructive EU-Zimbabwe relationship.”

“Taking into account the situation in Zimbabwe, including the yet to be investigated alleged role of the armed and security forces in human rights abuses, the Council agreed to renew its arms embargo and targeted assets freeze against one company, Zimbabwe Defence Industries, for one year until 20 February 2021,” the statement said.

“The existing restrictive measures against four individuals are suspended. The arms embargo, as well as the asset freeze against Zimbabwe Defence Industries, do not affect the Zimbabwean economy, foreign direct investment, or trade.”

The EU said in noted the ongoing acute humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, and would renew its support in various sectors “such as economic development, primary health care, resilience building, as well as through humanitarian assistance.”

The EU sanctions were forced imposed in 2002 in response to the often-violent invasion of farms owned by whites, and human rights abuses.

Initially targeting over 100 officials who were banned from travelling to the EU and subject to an asset freeze, the sanctions regime has been relaxed over the years, although arms trade with Zimbabwe by EU states remains banned.

The EU said it “stands ready to review the whole range of its policies at any time, when justified, based on developments in the country.”

George Charamba, the spokesman for the presidency, said they expected Britain to shortly announce its own sanctions policy on Zimbabwe, which he said would be aligned with the more aggressive sanctions imposed by the United States.

“The British government is set to issue a statement in which it seeks to disagree with marginal concessions done by the EU on illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe,” Charamba wrote on Twitter.

“The goal is two-fold: to show independence of action vis-a-vis the EU; to align with the United States which retains virulent sanctions against Zimbabwe as the new UK Prime Miniser (Boris Johnson) closely aligns his policy with the US, and seeks to placate his home constituency against lingering British anger in respect of land reforms.

“UK does not want closure on land, which is why it has problems with Zimbabwe rejoining Commonwealth. Aluta!”

A caretaker (49) at a lodge in Matsheumhlope suburb, Bulawayo, was killed in cold blood and his body found with a deep cut on the forehead while his hands were tied to his left leg.

Edwin Ndelelo Nyathi’s decomposing body was found in one of the rooms at the lodge by his neighbour on Tuesday who alerted the police.

His family yesterday said Nyathi, who was employed at the lodge owned by a city medical doctor, could have been killed on Saturday.

His brother Mr Godwill Nare said they were informed of his death by neighbours who saw police removing his body from the scene.

“My brother was brutally murdered. We don’t know who could have done it. He lived alone at the lodge where he had been working for the past 15 years. We suspect it could have been a robbery gone wrong. Although we did not see his body, we were told that both his hands were tied to his left leg. He also had a deep cut in his forehead and was found in a pool of blood and there was also a brick in the room,” said Mr Nare.

“A neighbour stumbled on his body before informing the police on Tuesday. His body was already decomposing and the postmortem report suggests that he could have been killed on Saturday.”

He said Nyathi was a loner who was single and childless.

Mr Nare said his family was devastated as they do not have clues on what could have led to Nyathi’s callous murder.

“It’s difficult to tell what could have led to him being killed but police are investigating the murder. We hope that is what would bring closure to us,” said Mr Nare.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube said they were appealing for information that could give leads into the gruesome murder.

“We are investigating a murder case where a caretaker at a city lodge was found dead by his neighbour. We appeal to members of the public who might have information which would assist us in solving this case to report to their nearest police station,” said Insp Ncube.

The medical doctor, who requested not to be named, said the lodge was not operational.

“He was caretaker at our lodge in Matsheumhlope suburb. The lodge was owned by my deceased spouse and is not operating at the moment.

“It ceased to operate after my husband’s death. It is a deceased estate and we hope after all legal issues are done it will resume operations. He lived alone and maybe that is what could have led to the murder incident being discovered very late,” she said.

State Media|The Zimbabwean woman who was quarantined for tests for coronavirus (Covid-19) at Wilkins Hospital in Harare was yesterday discharged a few hours after testing negative.

The 27-year-old woman, was in Wuhan, the epicentre of Covid-19, and passed through Guangzhou before she came to Zimbabwe.

Said City Health director Dr Prosper Chonzi: “We admitted this patient two days ago for a suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. We placed her under isolation because that is what is required for us to do if one is suspected to be carrying the virus and we isolated her at Wilkins Hospital,” he said.

“The reason for admission was that she had a positive history of travel. She has done very well and we have since done the PCR tests for coronavirus.

“It has turned out to be negative and we are happy with the clinical health of the patient and we have since decided to discharge her today and follow up on her for the next 21 days to see if she develops any kind of fever or symptoms of Covid-19.”

Dr Chonzi said the woman showed neither signs nor symptoms of the virus and having tested negative there was no reason to keep her in hospital any longer.

“When she was admitted, she was not symptomatic; she had no cough, no high temperature and no signs of respiratory distress. We doubt very much that she will develop any kind of symptoms.

“There is no need for us to isolate her because she has no symptoms of the virus and the tests turned out negative. Normally, patients who pass on the infection will be symptomatic so for her we cannot keep her because she does not have a runny nose, she is not coughing or sneezing. So we don’t expect her to pass on the infection when is not symptomatic.”

Dr Chonzi said the woman will be placed under strict self-quarantine and surveillance for the next 21 days.

“We had moved our patients to Beatrice Infectious Diseases Hospitals and the moment patients will be treated there, Wilkins Hospital will start functioning normally on Monday,” Dr Chonzi said.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said the Government was tightening security along the country’s ports of entry to prevent illegal crossing by people who may spread Covid-19.

He made this remarks while addressing parliamentarians who had asked on the state of the country’s preparedness towards Covid-19.

“We had a suspected case of coronavirus and it tested negative. In order to protect our nation, the candidate had to be isolated immediately. To me, this shows that our system is working well and is a sign of good preparedness,” he said.

“I can safely confirm that the Zimbabwean traveller was identified through our surveillance system at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport having noted that she had been to the epicentre of this coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan.”

State Media|The Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) — a grouping of politicians who contested the 2018 presidential elections — yesterday held its maiden Economic Summit which drew together captains of industry, labour unions and development partners.

In his opening remarks, President Mnangagwa once again extended an invitation to parties that have not yet joined the national dialogue to do so.

One such party is MDC-Alliance led by Mr Nelson Chamisa.

The President said no one had monopoly on ideas.

“The cornerstone of the Second Republic is dialogue as a means of resolving the challenges that may arise in our nation and the sharing of knowledge among us as Zimbabweans,” he said.

“No one has the monopoly of ideas on how our country can speedily modernise, industrialise, develop and grow. It is only through dialogue and hard honest work that our collective efforts can be fruitful. As you may be aware, POLAD is a platform which seeks to enhance national cohesion, unity and political tolerance.

“In addition, the forum is committed to undertake remedial steps to address identified gaps to enhance economic stability, growth and sustainable development.

“In that spirit, this summit presents us with an opportunity to put our minds together towards the realisation of our national vision and aspirations. We have, as a Government, declared 2020 as the year of productivity and trade; as such, let us work in unity of purpose to achieve our development milestones and ultimately, Vision 2030.”

He said turning around the country’s economic fortunes was not an overnight event, but a process that could take time.

“The economy is an intricate ecosystem that requires our collective effort and hard work. It influences our day to day lives regardless of our creeds, socio-economic status, political or religious persuasions, among other things. I therefore, call upon my fellow countrymen and women to join hands and help chart a better future for the collective good of our country.

“In doing so, let us be realists and acknowledge that, to put our country back on its rails will not be an event, but a process. There are no quick fixes. We must be bold and stay on course, always seeking sustainable means to resolve our challenges. Let us act and speak with the collective good in mind and never be blinded by individual or sectoral benefits.

“In unity of purpose, let us provide proposals and recommendations that stimulate investment, productivity, decent jobs and fight poverty. Innovative ideas which will help Government to develop robust social safety nets for the more vulnerable members of our communities are also welcome.”

The President said his administration would be responsive to the requirements of the market. He urged Zimbabweans to explore ways of increasing productivity and attract local and foreign investment.

“As we consolidate and accelerate our economic recovery, let us be emboldened by the fact that Government is not on sabbatical leave. Policies and programmes are in place on which we can build. I therefore urge delegates, as you engage, not to gloss over the unique, specific realities, which we find ourselves in as a country,” said President Mnangagwa.

“Most of these are unprecedented in other economies. It is through a realistic understanding of our situation that our discourse would be more useful.”

After the President’s address, there were panel discussions chaired by various committee chairpersons.

First was the business panel where captains of industry outlined the challenges they were facing. Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Mr Henry Ruzvidzo said currency and exchange rate stability and policy consistency were key to economic development.

“Perhaps a national currency stabilisation plan which is still and time-bound is necessary,” he said.

Mr Ruzvidzo said the Government was there to protect market distortions and pointed out that uncertainty around business environments discouraged investment.

Ms Rosemary Kariuki of the World Bank acknowledged that 2019 was a difficult year globally and Zimbabwe was no exception.

South African Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mbaleka Mbete and his Chinese counterpart Guo Shaochun gave detailed accounts of their economic experiences and how their governments managed to overcome the challenges they were facing.

There was another panel discussion on labour and consumers where labour leaders explained the challenges facing workers due to relentless increases in the cost of basic commodities.

Ms Rosemary Siyachitema of the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ)said consumers were struggling to transact electronically due system challenges while other traders were refusing to embrace the use of plastic money.