Warriors star Khama Billiat is said to be still in a state shock following the robbery incident in which armed thugs pounced on him in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Kaizer Chiefs man was robbed for the second time in three years after another incident in February 2017.
Neither the player nor the Amakhosi communications department have broken silence on the incident but a friend of the Aces Youth Academy graduate told the The Herald newspaper that he is still traumatised on account of it.
“From what I hear, it all happened very fast. The good thing is they didn’t harm him although they managed to get away with some valuables,” he said.-Soccer 24
readers advised – there were frantic efforts from many quarters in both Zimbabwe and UK to stop this report from being published.
By Simba Chikanza |PART 1 | Within 3 days of Emmerson Mnangagwa striking a deal with the Belarusian government on the 17th Jan 2019, revenue money had already started disappearing from the transport company, ZUPCO, an exclusive ZimEye investigation based on the latest internal risk auditreveals.
In this documentary, several offices are probed by ZimEye and they include [see the satellite map below], the company’s Willowvale, and Belvedere buildings.
– military taskforce
–embarrassing cash leaks detected
-shortfalls on scan machines
-machine discovered inside a toilet with no ID number
-Zupco’s Tagwirei speaks to ZimEye [interview]
Fearing rising protests, Mnangagwa had launched the “noble” venture of purchasing hundreds of buses in order to lower the burden of transport costs. This would have worked well and the quality of life improved. But the multi million dollar investment is now set for another disappointment, as an embarrassing audit in ZimEye’s possession reveals that more than $22,000 missing, the looting beginning right within 72 hours of the Belarus meeting. The conclusion from the snap audit are that the company policy on the timing of banking revenue receipts was violated.
At the centre of Zupco’s scandal, is the notorious collusion of two directors, the CEO and the Director of Operations:
– The Acting CEO – [substantive post, Financial Director], Mr Everisto Madangwa.
– The Marketing (Acting Divisions Operations Manager) Tito Chirau … he is Madangwa’s enforcer of corruption.
Chirau has gained the reputation of being the ZUPCO Tagwirei, as it were, – a man who has taken over operations, marketing, and accounting, and the 5th department he is now in charge of is the HR department.
Military led taskforce
There is a task force team in ZUPCO appointed early last year by the minister of Defence through the Ministry of Local Government. The taskforce oversees the safety of buses, and it comprises, the ZDF, the police, and the CIO. The head of the taskforce delegation is Col Richard Mapanda, and he is deputised by Ass Comm Moyo, and DIO Ndabezihle Ndoro. This team was generally effective in the first few weeks of 2019, but from around April time they were rendered inept by a systematic cartel comprising at least three bigwigs: The chairman of ZUPCO, Dr Talon Garikai, is the Vice Chancellor of Harare Institute Of Technology. Everything happening in ZUPCO is now being run from the HIT. The tap card system came from HIT. Stationery supplies are coming HIT. The booking of Intercity buses system, is being run by the HIT, which means that ZUPCO is now literally operating from HIT.
Embarrassing Cash leaks detected
The cash amount of leaks detected from the snap audit are: – RTGS 19267.00, ZAR 2070.00 and RTGS 378.
In a summary, the report says: “the Accountant and Cashier were invited to explain and justify the departure from the company’s policy regarding the timing of banking revenue receipts. In their written responses, they attributed this departure to the temporary shift of the cash office from Willowvale Depot to Belvedere Depot as well as transport problems to transmit the cash receipts to the bank.
“It was however established that the temporary shift took place on 20 January 2019. Willowvale cash office resumed its operations on 12 February 2019. Their explanation does not hold water as the delays in banking continued beyond the 12 February 2019 when CIT – cash in transit services were available to the Depot.”
When a decision was passed to bring in the police and the anti-corruption commission, ZACC, to investigate, an accountant was then used to make some diversionary responses, on the 15th October 2019.
shortfalls on scan machines
machine which was discovered inside a toilet with no ID number inside it
Further to all this, there was last year a scandal of shortfalls on scan machines, which resulted in machine number 8 which leaked thousands to an unknown receiving account. This happened in October 2019. There is machine number 8 which was stationed at Willowvale Depot, it caused shortages running up to the thousands. That machine was tracked by IT, it was found the machine was not sending money to accounts, it was sending somewhere else. When the audit was being conducted Chirau blocked that investigations. There is a machine which was discovered inside a toilet, and was found without an identification number, and no sim card in it, but found inside a toilet. The identification number and the sim card would have made it easy to track the operator and the account number where the money is being routed.
Zupco has since fired its Risk, & Audit Control Manager, a Mr Chimbanda in the first week of February. Mr Chimbanda who had been appointed Risk Manager on the 1st August 2019, was suddenly fired within 6 months just before commencing a human resources audit. Impeccable sources revealed to ZimEye, he had at the time attempted to do an indepth risk audit, following several scandals in the human resources department, that have seen unqualified drivers being employed. This comes amid the rising spate of accidents. The CEO and the Operations Division blocked the audit and rushed to remove Chimbanda from the post.
The audit comes as it is revealed Chirau drafts what he terms a non renewal list through which long serving employees are randomly lined up for dismissal, and in their place, his own personal handpicks are given the jobs.
After Chimbanda was removed, he raised a complaint with the Task Force, but they did nothing at all.
Hot Questions the two ZUPCO bosses must answer are as follows:
– Has the more than $22,000 bankage shortage between Jan and June 2019 been finally restored?
– How come this shortage was not publicly declared?
– Why did you fire the Risk Control manager, Mr Chimbanda at a time when the June audit findings are still to be addressed?
– Why did you block the HR audit when it was needed seeing the number of non qualified drivers and rising number of accidents?
– Why did you block the HR audit and then you start firing people using your own non renewal list not based on an audit?
– Why have you allowed Eng, Talon Garikai to continue holding multiple posts without declaring his asset s according to the Companies Act ?
– In your estimation how many weeks does Zupco have before it requires capital injection from government?
– Why haven’t you addressed the conflict of interest in the TapCard system managed by the ZUPCO Board chairman’s other organisation, HIT ?
– Why did you reject the task force member from the CIO was appointed to work with the HR officer… and investigate allegations of job seekers being made to pay bribes of 20 USD to get jobs?
– In October 2019, Mr Chirawu and Madangwa you promised the sacked Lewis Matutu that you were going to fire 100 conductors to replace them with 100 Zanu PF youths. Why have you continued in this course of action and is this not abuse of office?
– To Mr Chirau, records show that you on the 22nd January 2020, you telephoned HR department to reinstate Mr Liberty Masomere, (work ID 9083), who is colonel Richard Mapanda’s secretary’s brother, was that not abuse of office?
Zupco’s Tagwirei speaks to ZimEye [interview]
ZUPCO’s own Tagwirei, Mr Tito Chirau
While efforts to get a comment from the demoted Risk Manager were fruitless, ZimEye managed to get a hold of the Operations Director, Mr Tito Chirau who briefly spoke to ZimEye. He at first denied the existence of the audit report, saying the only persons who can be called auditors are external auditors. He also said the Risk & Audit Control Department does not conduct any audits. Towards the end of the interview, he once again discredited the audit report this time however acknowledging its existence saying it was truly prepared by the Risk Department.
Will this money which leaked, the $22,000 be returned?, he was questioned. He replied saying, “Eeeeh, please speak to the CEO,” he said.
He continued loudly charging, “ you can call the CEO and speak to him.”
But you are the Operations Director Mr Chirau, he was asked, and he went on to reply saying: “What I can tell you right now is that there is nothing factual from all that you are saying, but anyway, I will just refer you to the CEO.”
The audit is not factual?, he was asked. He said, “yes it’s not factual, everything that you have there it’s people who don’t want to see ZUPCO succeeding, and the funny thing is you are just being verbose and loud, but when we speak about numbers, numbers don’t lie.
“And I can tell you right now that all those things that you are speaking about, if you are humble enough to speak to the CEO and gather facts, then you are going to see that it’s just people who are just trying to smear ZUPCO for their nefarious means.
“ZUPCO is one of the most successful government initiatives and a lot of people don’t like it, and you can tell that from your tone, you seem to have just believed those people who don’t want to see ZUPCO succeed.
“So please go speak to the CEO and I am sure if there is merit at what you are asking, he will be able to prove to you that it is all lies, the bunch of people who are probably aggrieved for wrong reasons, who are peddling these things they are all over the place. Speak to the CEO, and he will help,” he ended.
So the copy of the June audit that you have which one is it?, he was asked.
He answered saying, “the problem that you have is you are trying to be high sounding and clever for nothing. Eeh, what is an audit report? What is an audit report?
“An audit is done by approved auditors and the auditors they produce a report and this is a public company; those reports are there for government they are there for everyone to see.
“So when you speak of an audit, you see … you are trying to fight a battle for people who are aggrieved, and I am shocked I don’t know which country you are living in. ZUPCO is the biggest success story of the government; buses are on the road, and more buses are coming. So when you begin to say these things I wonder what agenda you are trying to drive at.”
Why do you say so? This is an audit by your Risk department, he was asked.
He replied: “So you see in this conversation all you are mentioning is the Risk department, and the Risk department is the one that has been featuring in all those articles that you are talking about. So you guys are fighting the battle of one aggrieved department, or one aggrieved worker without probably going directly to ZUPCO,” he said. I am not fighting any battle for a worker, ZimEye’s Simba Chikanza said. To this he hit back saying, “You are, the thing that you are raising you are trying to be high sounding, but I think you didn’t take time to go through the questions that you want to ask, for example you are talking about an audit, an audit, an annual audit is done by big companies that went to tender and was chosen that’s the company that does audits for ZUPCO. So if you are talking about an internal audit report that was generated by someone, and you are saying that the Risk department generates audit report, which company has got a Risk department that generates audit reports?
“No I am telling you now, I am calling you now, audit reports are done by the office of the auditor, the Risk department does not do audits. So if you come to ZUPCO,” he concluded just before putting the phone down.
Efforts to get a comment from the CEO, and the Zupco board Chair were fruitless up to the time of publishing.
– THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY PART 1 OF THIS SERIES: EXPOSING CRIMINALS STATIONED AT ZESA. JUMP ONTO ZIMEYE.COM FOR MORE
For the full interview: AUDIO LOADING BELOW – ZIMEYE.COM
Warriors star Khama Billiat is said to be still in a state shock following the robbery incident in which armed thugs pounced on him in Johannesburg on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Kaizer Chiefs man was robbed for the second time in three years after another incident in February 2017.
Neither the player nor the Amakhosi communications department have broken silence on the incident but a friend of the Aces Youth Academy graduate told the The Herald newspaper that he is still traumatised on account of it.
“From what I hear, it all happened very fast. The good thing is they didn’t harm him although they managed to get away with some valuables,” he said.-Soccer 24
Four years after making his first promises in 2016, Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya has issued another this time saying Zimbabwe is on the path to monetary recovery.
It was in August 2016 when Mangudya promised he will resign if his bond note method of fixing the nation’ monetary cancer (pun). Mangudya appearing on ZimEye said the country was going to achieve stability at last.
But fast forward 4 years later, no change has come. This time telling the state owned Sunday Mail he repeated just about the same words.
He said, continuous engagement between RBZ and banks would help address cash shortages.
“In an inflationary environment, it is difficult to get enough cash for everyone, but we are working towards that. We are continuously increasing the cash supply. We expect banks to give us their level of demand then we give them cash. We want to engage them more and continuously address the cash shortages,” Dr Mangudya said. The apex bank would continue to drip-feed cash into the market “so that people can get the money when they want it”, he said.
Monetary authorities also believe that the inflationary environment was making salaries increase at a faster rate than they are importing cash.
Dr Mangudya said in addition to rising demand for cash from individual depositors, the number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) seeking cash for handouts to vulnerable communities had also increased.
“The other demand has been coming from NGOs, in particular the World Food Programme. ‘They are giving out cash through the Food Assistance Programme.
“So the demand for cash is very high. They sell US dollars to us and we give them the local currency.”
Asked if Zimbabwe will ever return to a situation where there will be more money in the banks than in the streets, Dr Mangudya said: “My answer is yes, that is our desired trajectory and that is where we are going. But at the same time, we still believe in a cashless society and we want to see a reduction in the cost of doing digital transactions.
“There are too many variables which are there in the economy.”
Central bank statistics indicate that the stock of cash circulating in the economy as at December 31 2019 stood at $1,1 billion out of the $34,5 billion held in banks as deposits.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) — a key advisory body — has since advised the RBZ to increase the amount of cash in circulation.
“Following the MPC decision in October 2019 to increase the quantity of bank notes and coins in circulation to try and reduce the inconvenience being faced by the public in accessing their cash at banks, the bank has imported additional banknotes and coins to ameliorate this challenge
“The bank also advised of gradually injecting additional notes and coins into the economy to lessen the inconvenience caused by the shortages of physical cash to the transacting public. In addition, the bank introduced credit enhancing measures to incentivise and encourage banks to lend long term,” said Dr Mangudya in last week’s Monetary Policy Statement (MPS).
About 50 percent of the country’s bank deposits are held by about 200 individuals and companies.
Of the $34,5 billion bank deposits, $22 billion (64 percent) is in local currency and $12,5 billion (US$785 million) or 36 percent is in foreign currency.
“It is this liquidity or stock of money that is the key focus area that the bank is mandated to manage to ensure that it does not cause inflation and or bring volatility to the exchange rate,” said the governor.
Lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) in Bulawayo have stopped teaching parallel classes in fear that they will not be paid.
The lecturers have on numerous occasions clashed with the university management over payment for teaching of parallel classes. In an interview, Nust Educators Association (Nusteda) secretary-general Mr Blessing Jona said lecturers were sceptical about working basing on promises from the management as previously such promises have not been fulfilled.
“Lecturers said even if the money (for last semester) has been paid they do not trust that the management will keep its end of the bargain. We want to clear issues with the management so that we start the semester on a clean slate. Now that lecturers have received their money, we must have an urgent meeting with the teaching staff where we will discuss the agreement proposed by the Nust management and the lecturers’ union. In the meantime, a majority of these parallel students are not having lectures and it is a sad scenario which is something that could have been avoided,” said Mr Jona.
Affected students from outside Bulawayo have said they felt short-changed since they have already paid for accommodation in town.
“It is disappointing that we have spent three weeks in Bulawayo without attending any lectures after paying rentals in foreign currency at houses we are staying in. This has been really hard because we cannot be paying accommodation and accumulate expenses while we are not learning,” said Miss Yvonne Zvivenga, a student.
However, Nust director of marketing and communication Mr Felix Moyo, said the university and the lecturers have come to an agreement and lectures were set to resume. -Sunday News
A soldier based in Hwange went berserk and randomly assaulted patrons at two nightclubs after his love proposals were turned down by female revellers.
As if that was not enough, Philani Nyoni (34) of 356 Empumalanga in Hwange who is employed by the Zimbabwe National Army also attacked and overpowered four policemen who were trying to arrest him. He was only subdued when reinforcements arrived.
Trouble started when Nyoni went haywire when his love advances were spurned by two female patrons he was stalking before he turned on them and three other patrons for daring to deny his proposals. Before going on the rampage, he stole as punishment a cellphone from one of the revellers whose girlfriend had turned him down.
Nyoni appeared before Hwange provincial magistrate, Mrs Ailenne Munamati facing a count of theft, three counts of assault, a count of malicious damage to property, escaping from lawful custody and resisting arrest or assaulting a peace officer. He denied all charges claiming that he was the victim of assault after patrons had ganged up on him for an unknown reason.
Mrs Munamati, however, convicted him on the assault, malicious damage to property and escape from lawful custody charges while she acquitted him on that of theft and resisting arrest.
The assault, malicious damage to property and escape from lawful custody counts were treated as one for the purposes of sentence resulting in a 24-month jail term of which eight months were conditionally suspended. On the charge of escaping from lawful custody he was sentenced to three months imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence.
It is the State’s case that on 8 December 2019 at about 3am and near Thulani Night Club, Nyoni approached Mr Munyaradzi Moyo’s girlfriend, Ms Sitali Nasile and proposed love to her but she turned him down. He continued to accost Ms Nasile and at one point tried to drag her into the dark resulting in Mr Moyo intervening before telling Nyoni to stop harassing her.
Nyoni then snatched Mr Moyo’s cellphone which he was holding in his hand and fled. A report was made to the police and investigations were carried out leading to his arrest. The value of the phone was $250 and it was not recovered.
On the same day at around 5am, Nyoni approached Ms Marvelous Neshavi who was dancing to music inside Cricket Club with her female friends. He asked her to befriend him but she refused. However, Nyoni continued to stalk her resulting in another patron, Mr Janah Zacharia Murasiki intervening. Neshavi went outside the club and Nyoni told Mr Murasiki not to worry as she was a prostitute. He went on to strike Mr Neshavi with sharp pieces of an empty beer bottle on the left shoulder once.
He was stopped by Mr James Muyambiri from further assaulting Neshavi. She managed to run away but she sustained a dislocation on the left ankle after she fell down during her escape. She also sustained bruises on the left shoulder.
Afterwards Nyoni approached Mr Murasiki and hit him once with a broken piece of bottle on the right side of the chest and shoulder. After attacking Mr Murasiki he approached the club owner, Mr Fanuel Mutasa who was seated in his car and started to converse with him. Mr Mutasa pleaded with Nyoni to stop assaulting and destroying property at his premise. This was after a row Nyoni had with another patron, Mr Tichaona Muyambiri before picking up a chair and hitting him with it resulting in it being damaged.
He went on to remove the leg of the club’s table and used it to hit an unknown reveller resulting in it getting broken. The value of damaged property is $1 500. However, this only served to agitate Nyoni as he reacted by striking Mr Mutasa with a sharp object once on the chest.
Fearing for his life, Mr Mutasa ran away with Nyoni in hot pursuit before he managed to outpace him after the aggressor ran into a fence wire with his chest and fell to the ground. Mr Mutasa sustained laceration on the chest.
At around 7am Nyoni was arrested and taken to Hwange ZRP where he was charged with disorderly conduct and assault cases with regards to the Cricket Club incidents.
Nyoni was ordered by the police officers to sit down while they processed initial documentation and he complied. However, he suddenly stood up and ran out of the charge office towards the exit gate before police officers managed to catch up with him after he had lost his balance and fell on the ground on his face. While he was being informed of his arrest for escaping from lawful custody, Nyoni refused to be arrested and kicked away four police officers. Reinforcements were called in to subdue Nyoni who was subsequently re-arrested. Sunday News
By A Correspondent| State-owned Mobile Network Operator (MNO), NetOne has suspended its Chief Executive Officer Lazarus Muchenje and Chief Finance Officer.
The board instituted 6 separate audits against the company’s executives, with both internal and external audits, being concurrently undertaken, resulting in the resignation of the chairman and three other board members a fortnight ago.
The ministry of ICT Postal and courier services confirmed that the board has suspended the two but did not give reasons for the move.-TechnoMag
Muchenje’s recent suspension is not the first time it has happened, as this once happened when Supa Mandiwanzira was in charge of the ministry
Aston Villa’s woes continue after they were on the receiving end of a 2-0 beating by Southampton at St Marys on Saturday.
Dean Smith ‘s men needed to win the clash after a heatbreaking 2-3 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last week but they got off the worst possible start when Shane Long put Southampton ahead after just 8 minutes.
To make matters worse for the Birmingham side, they were forced into an injury-inspired change, Trezeguet replacing the injured Anwar El Ghazi.
Stuart Armstrong put the final nail on the Villa coffin in stoppage time to ensure a second defeat on the trot for the relegation-threatened Villa.
Warriors midfielder Marvelous Nakamba was back in the starting line up for Villa but was replaced in the 81st minute.-Soccer 24
By A Correspondent| Police in partnership with the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) and the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) have warned motorists that they will conducting a joint blitz operation country wide on unlicenced and all de registered vehicles.
“VID will be clamping non-compliant vehicles. To avoid any inconveniences, we appeal to our valued motoring public to regularise their vehicles licences before embarking on any trip,” reads the joint notice.
Tough-talking MDC vice-chairperson Job Sikhala said he is ready to call the people of Zimbabwe to action if there is procrastination in dealing with the current crises head-on.
Sikhala asserted that the people of Zimbabwe cannot afford the current regime anymore as it is causing them untold suffering.
He said:
I am going to call the people of Zimbabwe if I see that they are unnecessary dilatory tactics not to deal with this situation decisively within a short period.
Zimbabweans cannot afford a Zanu PF government anymore, people are suffering, children are not able to go to school, and parents are struggling to feed their children.
There is no struggle anywhere else in the world where you fight against a dictator where there has been no bloodbath.
The Zengeza West legislator rhetorically asked which is better to die demonstrating in the street and being killed while sitting at home.
Sikhala made the remarks during an exclusive interview to be aired on Alpha Media Holdings (AMH)’s Heart and Soul TV on Tuesday.- NewsDay
The time is ripe to do what is right. City of Harare has an obligus honous. They are mandated in accordance with their role to renovate infrastructure inclusive of toilets and bus termini. This picture of Old Tafara bus terminus’s toilet is an evidence of a city system in failure. The city must rehabilitate its infrastructure including bus termini and toilets for goodness and communities sake!!! – Passengers Association Of Zimbabwe Information Desk
Tough-talking MDC vice-chairperson Job Sikhala said he is ready to call the people of Zimbabwe to action if there is procrastination in dealing with the current crises head-on.
Sikhala asserted that the people of Zimbabwe cannot afford the current regime anymore as it is causing them untold suffering.
He said:
I am going to call the people of Zimbabwe if I see that they are unnecessary dilatory tactics not to deal with this situation decisively within a short period.
Zimbabweans cannot afford a Zanu PF government anymore, people are suffering, children are not able to go to school, and parents are struggling to feed their children.
There is no struggle anywhere else in the world where you fight against a dictator where there has been no bloodbath.
The Zengeza West legislator rhetorically asked which is better to die demonstrating in the street and being killed while sitting at home.
Sikhala made the remarks during an exclusive interview to be aired on Alpha Media Holdings (AMH)’s Heart and Soul TV on Tuesday.- NewsDay
By A Correspondent- A police officer based in Kezi has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his workmate with a sjambok after accusing him of proposing love to his wife.
James Madovi (31) of ZRP Kezi Staff Quarters was not asked to plead when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Mrs Nomagugu Sibanda, facing an assault charge. He was remanded out of custody to March 4 on his own cognisance.
Prosecuting, Miss Faith Mutukwa said Madovi allegedly sjamboked Constable Peter Makape , who is also stationed in Kezi, on December 23, last year.
“On 23 December 2019 at around 10PM, Madovi went to Constable Peter Makape’s house at the ZRP Kezi staff quarters and called him outside as he wanted to talk to him. Cst Makape went out of the house to meet Madovi and found him holding a sjambok.
“Madovi struck Cst Makape twice on the head, four times on the back, two times on the belly and once on the right elbow with the sjambok. Cst Makape called out for help and their workmate, Cst Eric Mukombwe, rushed out of his house and rescued Cst Makape. He questioned Madovi who indicated that Cst Makape had proposed love to his wife,” she said.
Miss Mutukwa said they went to the house of their superior also within the ZRP Kezi staff quarters and when they got there Madovi punched Cst Makape once on the left ear. She said Madovi drew a knife and threatened to stab the complainant but he was restrained by his workmates.
Madovi however, further assaulted Cst Makape and in the process damaged his cellphone. Miss Mutukwa said the matter was reported to the police resulting in Madovi’s arrest and Cst Makape was referred to Maphisa District Hospital for treatment.-statemedia
Midlands Senator Lillian Timveos ( MDC Alliance) was on Thursday further remanded to March 16 by a Zvishavane magistrate in a case where she is accused of threatening to destroy Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s offices.
Timveos appeared before Magistrate Evra Matura facing two counts of violating the Electoral Act.
According to State prosecutor Fiona Mukwena, Timveos reportedly had a confrontation with ZEC officials at their Zvishavane office on July 15, 2018.
Timevous allegedly obstructed ZEC Zvishavane district elections officer Regressa Dube from distributing ballot papers to voters who had applied for postal voting on the day.
She is also accused of disrupting operations at ZEC’s Zvishavane offices, even threatening to use violence to destroy the premises.
If convicted, she faces five years in prison or a $30 000
Timveos denies the charges.-NewsDay
By Nomusa Garikai- Last week, former Zanu PF Minister Walter Mzembi promised to spill the beans of how Zanu PF has been rigging elections.
Those who know Mzembi is but a man of little substance, an intellectual midget masquerading as a Newtonian giant, did not expect much from his promised revelations. And long behold the Mzembi interview was nothing but a dump squib that phut and fizzled out!
“Zanu PF, and by extension its government, is held together by a culture of fear, intimidation, vengeance, retribution and violence,” Mzembi told Daily News.
“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.”
He wittered on and on along the same lines. This is nothing new, many people with common sense had come to the same conclusion a long, long time ago and hence the reasons many Zimbabweans with half a brain left Zanu PF before independence or soon thereafter.
Only a village idiot would freely choose to remain beholden to a regime riding roughshod over the nation’s hopes of freedom, justice and human dignity; the merchants of fear and retribution.
If anyone expected Mzembi to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; they were once again to be disappointed by the upstart!
“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,” Mzembi continued.
“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.”
No one would deny that the political violence in Zimbabwe reach a new epoch first during the Gukurahundi massacre and then during the 2008 presidential run-off. Everyone knows that Emerson Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s most trusted murderous henchman and it is not surprising he was at the head of all the dirtiest and bloodiest politically motivated horror to befall the nation these last 40 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule. What Mzembi has not said is what role he himself has played in all these political shenanigans and horrors.
If Mzembi was in 2008 Zanu PF election committe until the “one day in May 2008” when Mnangagwa boot out Mzembi and the others; then he, Mzembi, should tell us the role his committe played in the blatant cheating in the counting of March 2008 votes. It took six weeks to declare presidential result.
Years later, Mugabe, in a Freudian slip, revealed that Morgan Tsvangirai had won 73%. It had taken six weeks to “cook” the vote count, to whittle the 73% down to 47%, to justify the presidential run-off.
So we are to award the Noble Peace Prize to Walter Mzembi and his “collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee” although it was the one responsible for the blatant vote count cheating that made the run-off necessary.
Walter Mzembi joined Zanu PF out of his free will and rose through the ranks to become one of Robert Mugabe’s, Zimbabwe’s late murderous tyrant who ruled the country with an iron fist, blue eyed Ministers.
Walter Mzembi did not carry out some of Mugabe’s dirties jobs such as mass murders, these were carried out by like of Mnangagwa and the other dung-battles; still Mzembi had no qualms dishing out the fear, intimidation, vengeance, etc. synonymous with being a Zanu PF thug.
“Peace maker” Mzembi, just like many other Zanu PF leaders, grabbed for himself Banquest Chicken Farm in Masvingo producing 100 000 chicks and 50 000 eggs per week and employing 200 workers. Production at Banquest Farm soon collapsed, just as happened on many other farms seized by Zanu PF triggering the collapse of the country’s once upon time very productive agricultural sector.
Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose hunger for power, political power, wealth and extravagant lifestyle is insatiable. Whilst there was plenty of wealth to share out, it was easy to keep the party members united. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption to feed the ever growing Zanu PF leaders’ appetites for loot have resulted in the total economic collapse. Zanu PF leaders have been fighting each other over the scraps.
The November 2017 military coup that ousted Robert Mugabe and many of his G40 faction members including Walter Mzembi is a result of one of the factional fights that are tiring Zanu PF apart. Walter Mzembi’s confession was about discrediting Mnangagwa and his Lactose Zanu PF faction, a carry on of the Zanu PF factional wars and not about revealing the party’s vote rigging secretes.
It is no secret that Walter Mzembi is the former Zanu PF leaders to form their own party which is set to challenge Mnangagwa and his faction for power in the next elections, in 2023. Mzembi was therefore not going to make a full confession of Zanu PF’s vote rigging activities and ruin his re-election back into office using the same dirty tricks or worse still incriminate himself for his rile in the rigging of past elections.
After 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has earned Zimbabwe the pariah state label Zimbabwe is in total economic ruins. Unemployment has soared to 90%, schools and hospitals are barely functioning, in a region were 5% or less live in extreme poverty, Zimbabwe’s figure has soared to 34%!
“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,” concluded Mzembi.
“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.”
Once again, he is stating the obvious but one that is worth repeating and we have been very foolish to ignore. By making millions of our people poor and dependent on Zanu PF patronage the party has its vice grip on the people and power.
The only sure way to break Zanu PF’s vice grip on the people – break the vicious cycle of the party rigging elections, abuse its power in office to undermine the people’s power and rig the next election – is for the country to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
Since Zanu PF will never implement the reforms, the party will never ever reform itself out of office; we need an independent body to be appointed and entrusted with the task.
Zanu PF must step down to create the political space for the independent body. There is no doubt that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and the regime is, per se, illegitimate and hence the reason the country is a pariah state.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will no meaningful economic recovery. No investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state. Meanwhile the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has reached the super critical level of economic, social and political instability.
Zimbabwe cannot afford to remain a pariah state much less another rigged elections in 2023. Doing nothing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the economic mess and political paralysis it has caused in no longer an option! Zanu PF must step down a.s.a.p. and certainly before 2023!
If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office till 2023, the party will rig that year’s elections, guaranteed
By A Correspondent- The Zimbabwe Republic Police have issued a stern warning to MDC leader Nelson Chamisa saying they would descend heavily on him if he incited opposition party supporters to engage in street protests and cause chaos in the country.
Nicknamed ”Wamba Dia Wamba” after a Congolese warlord, 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.
Mnangagwa has refused to meet Chamisa for talks to end the economic and political crises in the country, insisting that the opposition leader should join his Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), comprising fringe political parties, among them Thokozani Khupe’s MDC-T and Lovemore Madhuku’s NCA.
Chamisa has dismissed Polad as a Zanu PF “choir” and demanded dialogue convened by a neutral convener.Newsday
Midlands Senator Lillian Timveos ( MDC Alliance) was on Thursday further remanded to March 16 by a Zvishavane magistrate in a case where she is accused of threatening to destroy Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s offices.
Timveos appeared before Magistrate Evra Matura facing two counts of violating the Electoral Act.
According to State prosecutor Fiona Mukwena, Timveos reportedly had a confrontation with ZEC officials at their Zvishavane office on July 15, 2018.
Timevous allegedly obstructed ZEC Zvishavane district elections officer Regressa Dube from distributing ballot papers to voters who had applied for postal voting on the day.
She is also accused of disrupting operations at ZEC’s Zvishavane offices, even threatening to use violence to destroy the premises.
If convicted, she faces five years in prison or a $30 000
Timveos denies the charges.-NewsDay
By A Correspondent- The officer-in-charge of CID Gweru, Detective Inspector Leonard Gwandu, has appeared in court facing criminal abuse of office charges for allegedly releasing a vehicle stolen from South Africa that was being held by the police as an exhibit.
Gwandu appeared before Gweru Regional Magistrate Mrs Phathekile Msipa on charges of criminal abuse of office. The accused, through his lawyer Mr Nomore Hlabano, pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded to March 17 on $1 000 bail.
State witness, Detective Sergeant Mlabeni Sibanda said Gwandu released the stolen Toyota Hilux double cab valued at US$27 000 to Kwekwe businessman Shepherd Tundiya who had bought it from a Harare car dealer.
Det Sgt Sibanda said it was communicated to Gwandu that there were 10 such stolen South African registered vehicles and Toyota South Africa and its clients were making follow ups. Of the 10 vehicles, Det Sgt Sibanda said two were in Gweru including the one which was released to Mr Tundiya by Gwandu.
The court heard that releasing the stolen vehicle showed favour to Tundiya since Gwandu had information to the effect that the vehicle had been stolen and smuggled into the country.
Det Sgt Sibanda said: “There are 10 such vehicles stolen in South Africa which are being tracked by Toyota South Africa. Two of these vehicles are in Gweru and the others are scattered around the country.
“We had made an appointment with Toyota South Africa together with its customers whose vehicles were stolen from them so that they come and identify the vehicles for possible repatriation to South Africa. This vehicle in question was supposed to be released to Toyota South Africa instead of Tundiya.”
Mr Hlabano argued that his client might have erred administratively — which should have been an internal matter and not a criminal matter which is now before the court.
The State alleges that on December 14, last year, Gwandu released a Toyota Hilux valued at US$27 000, which was confiscated from Mr Tundiya after it was discovered that it had been stolen from South Africa.
Allegations are that Mr Tundiya, who had been arrested on October 16 last year in connection with the motor vehicle, was acquitted at the Gweru Magistrates Court on December 13. The following day Gwandu allegedly released the stolen vehicle to the businessman without following due procedure.
The State further alleges that the car was stolen in South Africa from one Thomas Blom of CMH Toyota and was being investigated by Alberton Police Station in South Africa under case number 233/11/2017.
The State said the vehicle was supposed to be handed to South African police but the accused person handed it to Mr Tundiya. It is alleged that Gwandu and other junior police officers checked the vehicle on the Interpol database which is installed in his office.
Mr Tundiya was subsequently charged with theft of a motor vehicle and was acquitted on December 13 last year, but no order was made as to the disposal of the vehicle. Mr Tundiya told the court that he bought the vehicle from a car dealer, Mr Patrick Mutodi, in Harare. He said he was also a victim in the event that the car was stolen.-StateMedia
By A Correspondent- A 25 year old man from Gokwe man has been arrested for bestiality after he was caught se_xually assaulting his friend’s dog.
Matthew Makoni of Bamha village under Chief Sayi appeared before Shurugwi magistrate Percy Mukumba facing charges of bestiality.
Makoni, who works at Nyathi Mine in Shurugwi, will face trial next Wednesday.
The State case is that on February 11 at around 11pm at Nyathi village in Shurugwi, Makoni visited Nicholas Simeon at his homestead where the two engaged in a chat.
Simeon, however, indicated that they bade each other goodnight and he retired to bed.
While outside, the accused allegedly forced himself on his friend’s dog.
The pet allegedly made loud noise, which awoke Simeon.
Simeon then went outside to investigate and allegedly caught his friend pants down, after which he reported the matter to the police.-Newsday
By A Correspondent- A 23 year old man from Victoria Falls was arrested and appeared in court for assaulting a police officer with a brick in a bar.
Enock Ndlovu of Mkhosana suburb hit Kudakwashe Ndonga (47), a sergeant stationed at Victoria Falls Criminal Intelligence Unit, with a brick on the back of the head before running away from the scene at Chinotimba Old Bar.
This was heard by Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje. Ndonga pleaded guilty to the assault charge and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Two months were suspended on condition of good behaviour while a further two months were brought into effect for a previous assault conviction. Ndlovu will serve an effective four months in prison.
Asked why he committed the offence, Ndonga told the court that he was drunk and did not know what happened.
“I was drunk and failed to control myself. I don’t know what was happening to me. It just happened,” he said as he pleaded with the magistrate for leniency.
“Your Worship, may you give me a lesser sentence so that I will be able to take care of my child as she goes to school. I’m the family’s sole bread winner because my wife does not work,” said Ndlovu.
Ms Gakanje told Ndlovu that he committed a serious crime and was a danger to society as he occasionally assaults people.
For the State, the prosecutor Mr Jacob Kuzipa said on June 16, last year, at around 8PM at Chinotimba Old Bar, the accused hit the complainant with a brick when the latter tried to restore order where people were playing pool.
“On the 16th day of June 2019 at around 2000hrs at Chinotimba Old Bar where there was violence while people were playing pool, the complainant started cooling down the violence by talking to the pool players to play the game peacefully. The accused suddenly hit the complainant with a brick and ran away,” said Mr Kuzipa.-statemedia
By A Correspondent- 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. Nobody 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.-ZimMorningPost
By A Correspondent| Tragedy has hit the ZANU PF aligned civic society leader Abigail Mupambi, who is currently hospitalised after her husband committed suicide yesterday.
Mupambi is the civil society leader known for appearing in a state media documentary while defaming former Hospital Doctors Association President Dr Peter Magombeyi saying he was never abducted in September last year.
While fuller details of the incident were sketchy at the time of writing, Mupambi’s relatives confirmed to ZimEye of a truth her husband is no more.
She is currently hospitalised at Westview Clinic where she had to be sedated last night, an impeccable source revealed to ZimEye on Saturday morning.
It could not be established what pushed the man to end his life, and family members had not at the time of writing disclosed how he did it.
Mupambi’s children were on Saturday requiring counselling following the disturbing mishap. One of them was saying, “Daddy vanga vangori restless” before this. – Daddy was just restless before all this.
This is a developing story- refresh this page for the updates.
By A Correspondent- Botswana has hanged a 29-year old man for murdering his employer, prison services announced, despite mounting calls by rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
Mmika Michael Mpe is the second convict to be executed since President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office in October.
He was sentenced to death in 2018 for the 2014 murder of his employer and his appeal was dismissed last year.
The Botswana Prison Service confirmed the execution in a statement on Friday.
It follows the December hanging of 44-year old bricklayer Mooketsi Kgosibodiba, who was also handed capital punishment for murdering his employer.
Amnesty International called on Masisi to abolish the practice after two other people were hanged in 2018.
It described Botswana as the only southern African country that “consistently executes people” and said the sentence was often carried out without prior notice.
The death penalty has been enforced in Botswana since its independence from Britain in 1966.
Masisi’s predecessor Ian Khama has previously defended it as a tool to combat rising murder rates.
By A Correspondent- Three police officers, Happymore Gwande (35) of Nyabira ZRP, Ronald Masendeke (29) of ZRP Southerton, Mupfugami Govai (35) of ZRP Southerton and ex-police members Francis Takura (32) and Tozivepi Chirara (28) were arrested on charges of robbing a Guruve miner of 92 grammes of gold and US$2 700 at gunpoint.
The gang appeared before Harare magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa charged with armed robbery and was remanded in custody.
The gang allegedly hatched a plan to rob the complainant, who is the owner of Zembere Pinda Mining Syndicate in Kachuta, Guruve, after he had asked a former Masvingo Fidelity Refineries employee, Hamilton Nyoka, to help him to sell 92,5 grammes of gold.
Nyoka, who is still at large, instructed the complainant to meet them at Jameson Hotel in Harare where he met two men whom he introduced as gold buyers.
The man then went to to a flat along Josiah Chinamano Avenue, a place the “buyers” claimed to be their office.
When they arrived at the flat, Gwande, Masendeke and Govai and another man only identified as Jonso, who is also at large, accosted the complainant and introduced themselves as detectives from CID Minerals.
They took away the complainant’s US$2 700, a Samsung J12 Core, a Samsung A2 Core and a Techno mobile phone.
The following day (February 14), the complainant reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of the accused persons.-Newsday
By A Correspondent- A Hwange man drowned in Deka River during the week while fishing with friends, police have confirmed.
Matabeleland North police spokesperson Chief Inspector Siphiwe Makonese said the body of Effart Tshuma whose age was not given was retrieved on Thursday afternoon.
“Effart Tshuma left home around 9AM going fishing in Lalakolwe area in Hwange in the company of Messrs Best Dube and Richard Tembo. At around 3PM, the three decided to cross to the other side of the river upon which Tshuma fell into the deeper part of the river and drowned,” said Chief Insp Makonese.
She said seeing that Tshuma who resided in Number 2 Village was drowning, Mr Tembo jumped towards him in an effort to rescue him to no avail. Mr Tembo alerted Mr Dube who had already crossed and the two searched for Tshuma’s body but could not locate it.
The two reported the matter to the police and also advised Tshuma’s brother about what had happened.
A search team was dispatched and Tshuma’s body was retrieved about seven metres deep in the river on Thursday, Chief Insp Makonese said.
She said the matter is being treated as sudden death by drowning but investigations are underway to ascertain circumstances around the incident.
Chief Insp Makonese said police and rangers from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority have been carrying out campaigns for people to be wary of water bodies.
“We would want to encourage people to stay away from water bodies and not to cross deep rivers especially during the rainy season. Last week we were carrying out an awareness campaign with Zimparks in schools and villages around Hwange to encourage people to stay away from water bodies because this is the time when crocodiles invade small pools and rivers.
“We usually have cases of drowning and attacks by crocodiles and it’s part of our Constitutional mandate as police to save lives hence we want everyone to be cautious,” she said.
Chief Insp Makonese urged people to quickly alert police or Zimparks rangers if they spot any crocodile in any water body near human settlements. -Statemedia
SMALL and Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe’s (SMEZ) executive director Farai Mutambanengwe yesterday chided government’s economic policies which he said are turning citizens into criminals.His sentiments come as the local Zimbabwe dollar has continued to tumble against major trading currencies of the world, reviving appetite to use the United States dollar (USD) to store value.
Both citizens and businesses have also turned to the black market for foreign currency – which is currently at 27 against the USD – leaving the depressed interbank market, which is fetching a lower premium of around 18.
During his remarks at the Financial Gazette Annual Tax Review Forum yesterday, Mutambanengwe said the current economic crisis is also pushing businesses to informalise their activities in a bid to remain afloat.
“You ask why non-compliance? The simple reason is bad growth. There are glaring inconsistencies in the macro-economy.
“The deputy minister of Finance mentioned it himself that formal businesses are informalising and the question is why?
“And everyone including the deputy minister is transacting on the parallel market.
“Every single one of us transacts on the parallel market, and one way or the other we are breaking the law.
“We just have to be honest. All of us, it’s either we transact on the parallel market or we purchase goods using US dollars because that is what the country has become.
“The issue is if you issue bad law, everyone becomes a criminal. We must make the economy conducive for formalisation (of business).
“If the informal sector is informalising, it means the environment is not working,” he said
Mutambanengwe also urged the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to simplify the tax regime, including the registration processes which he said are complicated for most small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The informal traders are expected to pay presumptive tax.
He highlighted that some distortions are due to regulations for revenue as opposed to regulation for growth, thereby encouraging capitalisation.
“Together with the Small and Medium Enterprises ministry and , we worked on a proposal to say let the presumptive tax be three percent, and it was rejected by the Finance ministry.
“We were saying at least cross-border traders will be paying something.
“So, it’s not like we (SMEs) don’t want to participate in tax systems, but it’s being made impossible for us to do so,” Mutambanengwe said.
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 a 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 which make 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.
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.
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.
Nicknamed ”Wamba Dia Wamba” after a Congolese warlord, 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.
Mnangagwa has refused to meet Chamisa for talks to end the economic and political crises in the country, insisting that the opposition leader should join his Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), comprising fringe political parties, among them Thokozani Khupe’s MDC-T and Lovemore Madhuku’s NCA.
Chamisa has dismissed Polad as a Zanu PF “choir” and demanded dialogue convened by a neutral convener.
CLEARING and forwarding agents at the Forbes Border Post in Mutare are reeling under the effects of the Coronavirus Covid-19) in China that has caused a drastic decline in trade volumes as importers have reduced business dealings with the Asian country.
Zimbabwe enjoys fruitful trade relations with China that has seen the country posting a trade surplus of US$445 million in 2018.
The Forbes Border Post handles a big chunk of the imports and exports due to its proximity to the port of Beira in Mozambique.
When Business Post visited the border yesterday morning there was little activity.
“We are handling few clients these days because of the coronavirus.
“A lot of companies import goods from China and they use the port of Beira.
“China has suspended trade until the virus is contained, which means that there is less activity at the port of Beira. This entails low business for us since this border is the closest point of entry into the country.
“As you can see we are doing nothing here and we hope that the situation will be contained quickly,” said a clearing agent, Shingai Chahwanda.
A Zimra official who requested anonymity citing protocol said trade volumes were now low at the border.
“Zimbabwe exports a lot of things to China including tobacco and various other products. The Forbes Border Post is the closest gateway to the sea and most of these products pass through here. At the same time our local companies, including the Government, import plenty of things from the Asian country. For example, in recent months both the Government and local business people were importing buses from China.
The bulk of these buses came through via the port of Beira and they entered the country through here.
“The coronavirus has disrupted this trade and the economic and financial implications of this virus cannot be overemphasised. The few Chinese products that are still trickling into the country are coming from warehouses in Beira. If they get finished while China has not fully controlled the virus no imports will come our way,” he said.
AN 83-YEAR-OLD man from Bulawayo died yesterday morning after he was bludgeoned with huge boulders by his son who accused him of withcraft following an argument over tenants’ rentals.
Thabani Ncube (47) of Entumbane suburb is in police custody for allegedly killing his father, Mitsho Ncube, after the latter inquired why he was not paying utility bills using rentals collected from tenants.
In a gruesome scene, Thabani is alleged to have crushed his father’s head with a huge boulder, killing him instantly.
He then calmly walked to Entumbane police station to hand himself over to law enforcement agents.
Family members and neighbours said Thabani, who allegedly had not paid utility bills for more than four years, blamed his father for casting spells on him which made him sick and said he had proof from prophets he consulted that the deceased was behind his misery.
The house belongs to Mitsho who, however, had since moved to the family’s rural home, leaving it in his son’s care.
Witnesses said trouble started when Thabani started accusing his father of witchcraft following a row over why he was diverting rentals from tenants to his own use and not paying water and electricity bills.
“We are shocked as a community. We witnessed it all. It was as if he was possessed by some spirit. Ukhulu was busy shaving under the tree and Thabani was mending a shoe a few yards from him. He just asked his father why he was staring at him and threatened to hit him. The next thing he stood up and picked a stone and attacked his father. The old man fell into the drainage trench and then his son picked a boulder and used it to crush his head,” said a neighbour who declined to be named.
“He started shouting obscenities accusing ukhulu of bewitching him. We tried to restrain him and people were screaming on the road. We tried to walk him away from the scene but he escaped from us and went back to the old man. He picked up a bigger boulder, straddled him and crushed his head with it, killing him instantly. We watched as the old man gasped for air. It was sad, and his own (Thabani’s) children witnessed it too. I doubt I will ever get to sleep well again after seeing this.”
Thabani allegedly told neighbours that he was going to hand himself over to the police.
He allegedly left the scene, proceeded to a tap where he washed his hands before walking towards Entumbane police station.
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- Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe’s (SMEZ) executive director Farai Mutambanengwe yesterday chided government’s economic policies which he said are turning citizens into criminals.
His sentiments come as the local Zimbabwe dollar has continued to tumble against major trading currencies of the world, reviving appetite to use the United States dollar (USD) to store value.
Both citizens and businesses have also turned to the black market for foreign currency – which is currently at 27 against the USD – leaving the depressed interbank market, which is fetching a lower premium of around 18.
During his remarks at the Financial Gazette Annual Tax Review Forum yesterday, Mutambanengwe said the current economic crisis is also pushing businesses to informalise their activities in a bid to remain afloat.
“You ask why non-compliance? The simple reason is bad growth. There are glaring inconsistencies in the macro-economy.
“The deputy minister of Finance mentioned it himself that formal businesses are informalising and the question is why?
“And everyone including the deputy minister is transacting on the parallel market.
“Every single one of us transacts on the parallel market, and one way or the other we are breaking the law.
“We just have to be honest. All of us, it’s either we transact on the parallel market or we purchase goods using US dollars because that is what the country has become.
“The issue is if you issue bad law, everyone becomes a criminal. We must make the economy conducive for formalisation (of business).
“If the informal sector is informalising, it means the environment is not working,” he said
Mutambanengwe also urged the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to simplify the tax regime, including the registration processes which he said are complicated for most small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The informal traders are expected to pay presumptive tax.
He highlighted that some distortions are due to regulations for revenue as opposed to regulation for growth, thereby encouraging capitalisation.
“Together with the Small and Medium Enterprises ministry and , we worked on a proposal to say let the presumptive tax be three percent, and it was rejected by the Finance ministry.
“We were saying at least cross-border traders will be paying something.
“So, it’s not like we (SMEs) don’t want to participate in tax systems, but it’s being made impossible for us to do so,” Mutambanengwe said.
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.
Opposition MDC parliamentarians this week mocked and humiliated Vice President Constantino Chiwenga calling him a senior bachelor and the source of coronavirus in Zimbabwe.
Chiwenga was in parliament for the Wednesday session of the question and answer session.
MPs shouted at Chiwenga demanding to know the whereabouts of his wife while others accused him of bringing the deadly coronavirus in the country.
The VP is currently embroiled in a messy divorce with wife, Mary Mubaiwa and has also been to China until late last year for treatment.
He kept his cool but independent Norton MP Temba Mliswa did not take the issue lightly as he immediately stood up on a point of order.
“Mr. Speaker Sir, I think it is important as members of this august House to give respect to the Honourable Vice President.
“The issue of coronavirus when it was asked by Honourable Kwaramba, Honourable Chikwinya shouted and said yes, we must know the condition of coronavirus because of the Honourable Vice President.
“What Honourable Chikwinya was implying was that Vice President came with coronavirus in Zimbabwe.
“These (MDC) are inhumane people with no human dignity whatsoever and we shall not allow that here. They must respect the Vice President.
“It is them who go outside the country who bring the virus, it is unacceptable.
“You must respect the Honourable Vice President, he (Chikwinya) cannot do that. He must withdraw his statement, they are inhumane,” Mliswa fumed as MDC members jeered at him.
Chikwinya denied disrespecting the VP and responded: “Vice President Honourable Chiwenga is a respectable Member of this House.
“The Vice President went through his difficult times which you (Speaker) announced at the beginning of this session.
“To insinuate that a matter regarding the Coronavirus which emanates from China is being discussed in Parliament and therefore since he was treated in China, therefore he brought that disease is an indictment and a show of disrespect by Honourable Mliswa to Honourable Chiwenga.
“I challenge the Clerk to refer to the Hansard. If there was any time that I raised the name of Honourable Vice President Chiwenga in relation to the Coronavirus, I am prepared to face any consequences.”
Speaker Jacob Mudenda promised to go by the record of the Hansard adding that a determination would be made accordingly.
Mliswa was asked to approach the chair and as he stood, MDC MPs blocked him on his return to take his seat on the opposition bench.
“Mr Speaker Sir, I was addressing you in terms of the issue that I brought up on the Honourable Vice President, I then went back to try and sit. Visibly, they blocked me.
“As somebody who is trained, I managed to find myself in there and in the process, I tore my suit and I am more than happy to be able to get it repaired but at the same time, as I am going back, they have equally occupied my seat,” Mliswa said, addressing his complaint to Mudenda.
The issue turned chaotic as Mliswa and MDC MPs almost turned the house into a boxing arena.
Mliswa told the opposition parliamentarians off and sat on the bench after Kuwadzana East MP and party secretary general Charlton Hwende gave up his own seat for him.
CLEARING and forwarding agents at the Forbes Border Post in Mutare are reeling under the effects of the Coronavirus Covid-19) in China that has caused a drastic decline in trade volumes as importers have reduced business dealings with the Asian country.
Zimbabwe enjoys fruitful trade relations with China that has seen the country posting a trade surplus of US$445 million in 2018.
The Forbes Border Post handles a big chunk of the imports and exports due to its proximity to the port of Beira in Mozambique.
When Business Post visited the border yesterday morning there was little activity.
“We are handling few clients these days because of the coronavirus.
“A lot of companies import goods from China and they use the port of Beira.
“China has suspended trade until the virus is contained, which means that there is less activity at the port of Beira. This entails low business for us since this border is the closest point of entry into the country.
“As you can see we are doing nothing here and we hope that the situation will be contained quickly,” said a clearing agent, Shingai Chahwanda.
A Zimra official who requested anonymity citing protocol said trade volumes were now low at the border.
“Zimbabwe exports a lot of things to China including tobacco and various other products. The Forbes Border Post is the closest gateway to the sea and most of these products pass through here. At the same time our local companies, including the Government, import plenty of things from the Asian country. For example, in recent months both the Government and local business people were importing buses from China.
The bulk of these buses came through via the port of Beira and they entered the country through here.
“The coronavirus has disrupted this trade and the economic and financial implications of this virus cannot be overemphasised. The few Chinese products that are still trickling into the country are coming from warehouses in Beira. If they get finished while China has not fully controlled the virus no imports will come our way,” he said.
A Nigerian woman is currently in pains after she lost four teeth during a physical attack from her angry husband who pounced on her after discovering her gross infidelity.
According to reports, the cheating wife was exposed when the man was arranging to relocate his family from Nigeria to Canada. Trouble started when the Canadian Embassy requested DNA test to proof that the kids belongs to him.
The husband got furious when the result of the test revealed that all the three (3) children his wife claimed to have for him are not his biological children.
The man who returned home to demand for explanation from his wife pounced on her heavily when she could not evidently convince him that all the children that he has been raising from birth belongs to him.
A 25-YEAR-OLD Gokwe man has been arrested for bestiality after he was caught sexually assaulting his friend’s dog.
Matthew Makoni of Bamha village under Chief Sayi appeared before Shurugwi magistrate Percy Mukumba facing charges of bestiality.
Makoni, who works at Nyathi Mine in Shurugwi, will face trial next Wednesday.
The State case is that on February 11 at around 11pm at Nyathi village in Shurugwi, Makoni visited Nicholas Simeon at his homestead where the two engaged in a chat.
Simeon, however, indicated that they bade each other goodnight and he retired to bed.
While outside, the accused allegedly forced himself on his friend’s dog.
The pet allegedly made loud noise, which awoke Simeon.
Simeon then went outside to investigate and allegedly caught his friend pants down, after which he reported the matter to the police.
BOTSWANA has hanged a 29-year old man for murdering his employer, prison services announced, despite mounting calls by rights groups to abolish the death penalty.
Mmika Michael Mpe is the second convict to be executed since President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office in October.
He was sentenced to death in 2018 for the 2014 murder of his employer and his appeal was dismissed last year.
The Botswana Prison Service confirmed the execution in a statement on Friday.
It follows the December hanging of 44-year old bricklayer Mooketsi Kgosibodiba, who was also handed capital punishment for murdering his employer.
Amnesty International called on Masisi to abolish the practice after two other people were hanged in 2018.
It described Botswana as the only southern African country that “consistently executes people” and said the sentence was often carried out without prior notice.
The death penalty has been enforced in Botswana since its independence from Britain in 1966.
Masisi’s predecessor Ian Khama has previously defended it as a tool to combat rising murder rates.
By Nomusa Garikai- Last week, former Zanu PF Minister Walter Mzembi promised to spill the beans of how Zanu PF has been rigging elections.
Those who know Mzembi is but a man of little substance, an intellectual midget masquerading as a Newtonian giant, did not expect much from his promised revelations. And long behold the Mzembi interview was nothing but a dump squib that phut and fizzled out!
“Zanu PF, and by extension its government, is held together by a culture of fear, intimidation, vengeance, retribution and violence,” Mzembi told Daily News.
“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.”
He wittered on and on along the same lines. This is nothing new, many people with common sense had come to the same conclusion a long, long time ago and hence the reasons many Zimbabweans with half a brain left Zanu PF before independence or soon thereafter.
Only a village idiot would freely choose to remain beholden to a regime riding roughshod over the nation’s hopes of freedom, justice and human dignity; the merchants of fear and retribution.
If anyone expected Mzembi to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; they were once again to be disappointed by the upstart!
“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,” Mzembi continued.
“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.”
No one would deny that the political violence in Zimbabwe reach a new epoch first during the Gukurahundi massacre and then during the 2008 presidential run-off. Everyone knows that Emerson Mnangagwa was Mugabe’s most trusted murderous henchman and it is not surprising he was at the head of all the dirtiest and bloodiest politically motivated horror to befall the nation these last 40 years of Zanu PF tyrannical rule. What Mzembi has not said is what role he himself has played in all these political shenanigans and horrors.
If Mzembi was in 2008 Zanu PF election committe until the “one day in May 2008” when Mnangagwa boot out Mzembi and the others; then he, Mzembi, should tell us the role his committe played in the blatant cheating in the counting of March 2008 votes. It took six weeks to declare presidential result.
Years latter, Mugabe, in a Freudian slip, revealed that Morgan Tsvangirai had won 73%. It had taken six weeks to “cook” the vote count, to whittle the 73% down to 47%, to justify the presidential run-off.
So we are to award the Noble Peace Prize to Walter Mzembi and his “collapsed Mugabe’s peaceful rerun committee” although it was the one responsible for the blatant vote count cheating that made the run-off necessary.
Walter Mzembi joined Zanu PF out of his free will and rose through the ranks to become one of Robert Mugabe’s, Zimbabwe’s late murderous tyrant who ruled the country with an iron fist, blue eyed Ministers. Walter Mzembi did not carryout some of Mugabe’s dirties jobs such as mass murders, these were carried out by like of Mnangagwa and the other dung-battles; still Mzembi had no qualms dishing out the fear, intimidation, vengeance, etc. synonymous with being a Zanu PF thug.
“Peace maker” Mzembi, just like many other Zanu PF leaders, grabbed for himself Banquest Chicken Farm in Masvingo producing 100 000 chicks and 50 000 eggs per week and employing 200 workers. Production at Banquest Farm soon collapsed, just as happened on many other farms seized by Zanu PF triggering the collapse of the country’s once upon time very productive agricultural sector.
Zanu PF is a party of ruthless thugs whose hunger for power, political power, wealth and extravagant lifestyle is insatiable. Whilst there was plenty of wealth to share out, it was easy to keep the party members united. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption to feed the ever growing Zanu PF leaders’ appetites for loot have resulted in the total economic collapse. Zanu PF leaders have been fighting each other over the scraps.
The November 2017 military coup that ousted Robert Mugabe and many of his G40 faction members including Walter Mzembi is a result of one of the factional fights that are tiring Zanu PF apart. Walter Mzembi’s confession was about discrediting Mnangagwa and his Lactose Zanu PF faction, a carry on of the Zanu PF factional wars and not about revealing the party’s vote rigging secretes.
It is no secret that Walter Mzembi is the former Zanu PF leaders to form their own party which is set to challenge Mnangagwa and his faction for power in the next elections, in 2023. Mzembi was therefore not going to make a full confession of Zanu PF’s vote rigging activities and ruin his re-election back into office using the same dirty tricks or worse still incriminate himself for his rile in the rigging of past elections.
After 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and rank lawlessness that has earned Zimbabwe the pariah state label Zimbabwe is in total economic ruins. Unemployment has soared to 90%, schools and hospitals are barely functioning, in a region were 5% or less live in extreme poverty, Zimbabwe’s figure has soared to 34%!
“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,” concluded Mzembi.
“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.”
Once again, he is stating the obvious but one that is worth repeating and we have been very foolish to ignore. By making millions of our people poor and dependent on Zanu PF patronage the party has its vice grip on the people and power.
The only sure way to break Zanu PF’s vice grip on the people – break the vicious cycle of the party rigging elections, abuse its power in office to undermine the people’s power and rig the next election – is for the country to implement the democratic reforms designed to stop Zanu PF rigging elections.
Since Zanu PF will never implement the reforms, the party will never ever reform itself out of office; we need an independent body to be appointed and entrusted with the task.
Zanu PF must step down to create the political space for the independent body. There is no doubt that Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections and the regime is, per se, illegitimate and hence the reason the country is a pariah state.
As long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state there will no meaningful economic recovery. No investor or lender wants to do business in a pariah state. Meanwhile the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe has reached the super critical level of economic, social and political instability.
Zimbabwe cannot afford to remain a pariah state much less another rigged elections in 2023. Doing nothing to end the Zanu PF dictatorship and the economic mess and political paralysis it has caused in no longer an option! Zanu PF must step down a.s.a.p. and certainly before 2023!
If Zanu PF is allowed to remain in office till 2023, the party will rig that year’s elections, guaranteed
MDC vice-chairman Job Sikhala has threatened to initiate constitutional processes to push out President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government from power.
Speaking in an exclusive interview to be aired on Alpha Media Holdings (AMH)’s Heart and Soul TV on Tuesday, Sikhala said the economic turmoil and deteriorating social and political space in Zimbabwe could not be allowed to continue.
AMH are publishers of NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard in addition to an online radio/television station, Heart and Soul Television.
“I will not rest until justice and a people’s government is put in place. I will never rest until Zanu PF is extinguished from the face of the earth,” said Sikhala who was last week acquitted on a treason charge by a Masvingo High Court judge.
“These have been evil people, evil men and women who have been presiding over the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have lost hundreds of thousands of people through murder by the people who are in Zanu PF,” Sikhala said.
“Zanu PF has killed so many people in our country, we cannot allow this regime to continue existing anymore. This is a regime where I call upon every Zimbabwean of normal circumstances to join us in fighting,” he said.
“Why are people still limping today after being tortured just for opposing? It is better to die demonstrating than being killed while sitting at home. Even if that body is mine, so be it,” the tough-talking Sikhala said.
The opposition MDC has repeatedly refused to recognise Mnangagwa’s administration claiming the Zanu PF leader “stole” the 2018 elections.
He said the decision on which course of action to apply on Mnangagwa should be collective, but he would not hesitate to call the people of Zimbabwe to act.
“I am operating within the confines of an organisation. I cannot be just a one-man band, so decisions have to be taken collectively, but if I think that my own political thinking on how to deal with the situation is continually being derailed, I will not hesitate to call the people of Zimbabwe into action and I know they will respond and I am serious on this.”
“I am going to call the people of Zimbabwe if I see that they are unnecessary dilatory tactics not to deal with this situation decisively within a short period. Zimbabweans cannot afford a Zanu PF government anymore, people are suffering, children are not able to go to school, and parents are struggling to feed their children,” Sikhala said.
“There is no struggle anywhere else in the world where you fight against a dictator where there has been no bloodbath. How many people have been killed by this regime from 1980 to present not because they were demonstrating but only because they were opposed to the government? Why were more than 20 000 people killed during the period of Gukurahundi? Where those people demonstrating in the streets? Why were people who voted against (the late former President) Robert Mugabe in the year 2008 killed?
Own Correspondent| Former Zanu PF National Political Commissar Saviour Kasukuwere has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of protecting the country’s most brazen criminal cartels saying that was the reason he worked with his now deputy Constantino Chiwenga to remove the late Robert Mugabe from power.
In a statement released through his #tysonwabantu movement on the commemoration of Robert Gabriel Mugabe day on Friday, Kasukuwere said Mugabe’s removal from power on the pretext of targeting criminals around the President was a fake plan by Mnangagwa to protect his notorious criminal cartels.
“You (Mugabe) may have left us, but your vision becomes more glaring now.
“May your departed spirit give us a sign, how best our worsened state might reclaim the stolen MOVEMENT toward your vision for our “Ziiimbabwe”, as you called out to it? Dearly departed President, your vision is alive now more than ever within our disillusioned souls.”
“The real criminals have turned your (Mugabe) vision into a horror of an impoverished nation at the mercy of cartels that have corrupted the centre and kill off our hopes.
“There were never any ‘criminals around your Presidency’, were they? We realise now that they removed you because you kept their baser appetites at bay.
“You were the incorruptible barrier against the real narcissistic criminals and their cartels that have now captured Zimbabwe.
“It dawns upon us now that they removed you only so that their hardened criminal handlers could come close enough to capture the entire State’s value chain, from the ruling Party and its Politburo into government, cabinet, state institutions and agents paid off with cars and privatised salaries to allow and be complicit in the rap_e of our nation.”
“While their so-called New Dispensation has now done away with that empowering vision, their alternative preferring foreign economic interests is proving a disaster.
“It is reported that foreign direct investment has reduced by more than 60%.
“The economy goes deeper into recession despite preferred and prioritised Indian, white and foreign economic interests, to the exclusion of our black majority aspirations being condemned to being the ‘hewers of wood’ Robert Mugabe implored us to shun.
“Robert Mugabe had seen through their treacherous criminal intent on the eve of their betrayal, knew he sat at the table with those who would betray him and his vision for Zimbabwe, “Wandinodya nawo ndowachazondichera. Wana Judas Iscariot.” The 21st February Movement remembers.”
By A Correspondent- A 23 year old man from Victoria Falls was arrested and appeared in court for assaulting a police officer with a brick in a bar.
Enock Ndlovu of Mkhosana suburb hit Kudakwashe Ndonga (47), a sergeant stationed at Victoria Falls Criminal Intelligence Unit, with a brick on the back of the head before running away from the scene at Chinotimba Old Bar.
This was heard by Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje. Ndonga pleaded guilty to the assault charge and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Two months were suspended on condition of good behaviour while a further two months were brought into effect for a previous assault conviction. Ndlovu will serve an effective four months in prison.
Asked why he committed the offence, Ndonga told the court that he was drunk and did not know what happened.
“I was drunk and failed to control myself. I don’t know what was happening to me. It just happened,” he said as he pleaded with the magistrate for leniency.
“Your Worship, may you give me a lesser sentence so that I will be able to take care of my child as she goes to school. I’m the family’s sole bread winner because my wife does not work,” said Ndlovu.
Ms Gakanje told Ndlovu that he committed a serious crime and was a danger to society as he occasionally assaults people.
For the State, the prosecutor Mr Jacob Kuzipa said on June 16, last year, at around 8PM at Chinotimba Old Bar, the accused hit the complainant with a brick when the latter tried to restore order where people were playing pool.
“On the 16th day of June 2019 at around 2000hrs at Chinotimba Old Bar where there was violence while people were playing pool, the complainant started cooling down the violence by talking to the pool players to play the game peacefully. The accused suddenly hit the complainant with a brick and ran away,” said Mr Kuzipa.-statemedia
By A Correspondent- 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. Nobody 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.-ZimMorningPost
By A Correspondent- The police have 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.
Nicknamed ”Wamba Dia Wamba” after a Congolese warlord, 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.
Mnangagwa has refused to meet Chamisa for talks to end the economic and political crises in the country, insisting that the opposition leader should join his Political Actors Dialogue (Polad), comprising fringe political parties, among them Thokozani Khupe’s MDC-T and Lovemore Madhuku’s NCA.
Chamisa has dismissed Polad as a Zanu PF “choir” and demanded dialogue convened by a neutral convener.-Newsday
By A Correspondent- Lesotho’s 80-year-old Prime Minister, Thomas Thabane, has been granted sick leave until February 27 when he will have to appear in court on charges of murdering his wife.
This was revealed by the country’s Deputy Police Commissioner Paseka Mokete on Saturday.
He said:
New arrangements for him to appear before a court shall be made as he has to be fit for an appearance.
So there is no warrant of arrest issued as yet. His sick leave starts from yesterday and ends on 27 February.
Thabane was due to be charged on Friday, but he failed to appear in court and instead travelled to South Africa for what his aides said was a routine medical check-up.
Lesotho police had threatened to issue an arrest warrant for Thabane if he was trying to evade justice.
Thabane’s-then estranged wife Lilipelo, 58, was shot dead in June 2017, two days before he took office for a second stint as premier, and two months before he married his current wife Maesaiah.
Maesaiah Thabane, 42, has already been charged with arranging the hit squad but is currently out on bail. She has also denied involvement in the killing-Reuters
By A Correspondent- At least four people died while the driver of the Honda fit vehicle they travelling in suffered life-threatening injuries after a head-on collision with a haulage truck along Gweru-Harare Highway last night.
The accident occurred after the haulage truck driver tried to overtake at a bend just outside Gweru city leading to the tragic collision. The driver of the haulage truck escaped the fatal accident unscathed.
When state media reporters arrived at the scene, firefighters from the Airforce were already at the scene removing the bodies of two females and two male adults from the back of the Honda Fit.
The driver of the Fit was still trapped in the wreckage screaming for help. He was rescued after about 20 minutes. He sustained serious head and leg injuries.
Police details at the scene confirmed the deaths.-Statemedia
By A Correspondent- A 63 year-old man from Makoni area in Manicaland Province was humiliated last week after he was caught red-handed with a married woman.
The incident reportedly took place on Valentine’s Day.
In videos and images that have been trending on social media, Mr Isaiah Brighton Chirongwe was paraded before a camera dressed only in a red underwear, and forced to confess that he had been bonking a married woman.
It was not immediately clear where the incident took place, with varying accounts from many people.
The white-haired man was also forced into writing a letter acknowledging that he had wronged the husband to his lover, who was not identified, and that he would compensate with four live cows.
Chirongwe, in accepting his crime, agreed to surrender his vehicle, a battered old sedan. He also agreed to bring four live cattle as payment for damages to the lover’s husband.
Police are yet to issue a statement on the matter, but previously, such cases have attracted arrests and even fine on the part of the perpetrators.
Police urge people not to take the law into their own hands if they feel aggrieved.
By A Correspondent- A 25 year old man from Gokwe man has been arrested for bestiality after he was caught se_xually assaulting his friend’s dog.
Matthew Makoni of Bamha village under Chief Sayi appeared before Shurugwi magistrate Percy Mukumba facing charges of bestiality.
Makoni, who works at Nyathi Mine in Shurugwi, will face trial next Wednesday.
The State case is that on February 11 at around 11pm at Nyathi village in Shurugwi, Makoni visited Nicholas Simeon at his homestead where the two engaged in a chat.
Simeon, however, indicated that they bade each other goodnight and he retired to bed.
While outside, the accused allegedly forced himself on his friend’s dog.
The pet allegedly made loud noise, which awoke Simeon.
Simeon then went outside to investigate and allegedly caught his friend pants down, after which he reported the matter to the police.-Newsday
By A Correspondent- Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe’s (SMEZ) executive director Farai Mutambanengwe yesterday chided government’s economic policies which he said are turning citizens into criminals.
His sentiments come as the local Zimbabwe dollar has continued to tumble against major trading currencies of the world, reviving appetite to use the United States dollar (USD) to store value.
Both citizens and businesses have also turned to the black market for foreign currency – which is currently at 27 against the USD – leaving the depressed interbank market, which is fetching a lower premium of around 18.
During his remarks at the Financial Gazette Annual Tax Review Forum yesterday, Mutambanengwe said the current economic crisis is also pushing businesses to informalise their activities in a bid to remain afloat.
“You ask why non-compliance? The simple reason is bad growth. There are glaring inconsistencies in the macro-economy.
“The deputy minister of Finance mentioned it himself that formal businesses are informalising and the question is why?
“And everyone including the deputy minister is transacting on the parallel market.
“Every single one of us transacts on the parallel market, and one way or the other we are breaking the law.
“We just have to be honest. All of us, it’s either we transact on the parallel market or we purchase goods using US dollars because that is what the country has become.
“The issue is if you issue bad law, everyone becomes a criminal. We must make the economy conducive for formalisation (of business).
“If the informal sector is informalising, it means the environment is not working,” he said
Mutambanengwe also urged the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to simplify the tax regime, including the registration processes which he said are complicated for most small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The informal traders are expected to pay presumptive tax.
He highlighted that some distortions are due to regulations for revenue as opposed to regulation for growth, thereby encouraging capitalisation.
“Together with the Small and Medium Enterprises ministry and , we worked on a proposal to say let the presumptive tax be three percent, and it was rejected by the Finance ministry.
“We were saying at least cross-border traders will be paying something.
“So, it’s not like we (SMEs) don’t want to participate in tax systems, but it’s being made impossible for us to do so,” Mutambanengwe said. -DailyNews
By A Correspondent- Two Chicken Matty Bindura employees were slapped with a jointly 420 hours of community service by a Bindura magistrate Maria Msika yesterday after stealing US $110 from their company.
The duo Elizabeth Tavengwa (28) and Moses Kanyenze will offer free service at Bindura magistrates courts
Prosecutor Joseph Munemo told the court that on January 24 the two hatched a plan to steal from their employer and Kanyenza sent RTGS $110 on the company’s merchant code.
Tavengwa subsquently stole the cash from the till which they equally shared.
By A Correspondent- MDC vice-chairperson Job Sikhala has vowed to continue the fight for the demise of the ruling ZANU PF party which he accuses of causing the suffering of Zimbabwean people.
Sikhala was speaking in an interview with a local publication and said:
I will not rest until justice and a people’s government is put in place. I will never rest until Zanu PF is extinguished from the face of the earth.
These have been evil people, evil men and women who have been presiding over the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have lost hundreds of thousands of people through murder by the people who are in Zanu PF.
Zanu PF has killed so many people in our country that we cannot allow this regime to continue existing anymore. This is a regime where I call upon every Zimbabwean of normal circumstances to join us in the fighting.
The combative Zengeza West legislator was recently acquited of a treason charge by a Masvingo High Court judge.
He had been arrested for saying President Emmerson Mnangagwa will be overthrown before he finishes his presidential term in 2023.-Newsday
By A Correspondent| An Advanced Level student who obtained 20 points in the November 2019 Examinations was awarded a car by her school for her excellence last Thursday.
Tinotenda Chidume (19) was a learner at Sandon Academy in Mupandawana, Gutu District, Masvingo and came up top of her class.
For her achievements, the school handed her the keys of a Toyota Fun Cargo at an inaugural awards ceremony held at the school.
She said:
I am still in shock that I won this car. I did not expect such a big prize.
I want to urge all learners at this school, across the country and the world over to always aim high because there is always a reward for hard work.
Other top-achieving students were awarded cash prizes, while their teachers walked away with television sets and bicycles.
The ceremony was attended by Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services Minister Jenfan Muswere, who was the guest of honour.
Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Ezra Chadzamira was also in attendance and he praised Sandon Academy for its academic excellence.
I’m in Mashonaland Central today.We will leave no stone unturned until there is a national chorus for total change and a truly free Zimbabwe.This is the struggle of this moment.
By A Correspondent| Tragedy has hit the ZANU PF aligned civic society leader Abigail Mupambi, who is currently hospitalised after her husband committed suicide yesterday.
Mupambi is the civil society leader known for appearing in a state media documentary while defaming former Hospital Doctors Association President Dr Peter Magombeyi saying he was never abducted in September last year.
While fuller details of the incident were sketchy at the time of writing, Mupambi’s relatives confirmed to ZimEye of a truth her husband is no more.
She is currently hospitalised at Westview Clinic where she had to be sedated last night, an impeccable source revealed to ZimEye on Saturday morning.
It could not be established what pushed the man to end his life, and family members had not at the time of writing disclosed how he did it.
Mupambi’s children were on Saturday requiring counselling following the disturbing mishap. One of them was saying, “Daddy vanga vangori restless” before this. – Daddy was just restless before all this.
This is a developing story- refresh this page for the updates.
Namibia has become the first African country to export red meat to the United States, following nearly two decades of negotiations.
Namibia is one of the countries including Zambia and Botswana that accepted former white farmers from Zimbabwe during the fasttrek land redistribution exercise.
The state-owned meat firm Meatco sent a shipment of 25 tonnes of beef to Philadelphia on Wednesday, and the Southern African nation is set to export 860 tonnes of various beef cuts in 2020 to the United States, rising to 5,000 tonnes by 2025.
“We’re able to finally export meat to the lucrative and big U.S. market,” Namibia’s minister of international relations, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, said.
The United States is the world’s biggest red meat consumer as Americans consume on average 120 kgs of meat per person, according the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Namibia’s first commercial consignment came after samples were sent in the past 24 months to U.S. laboratories for tests. Negotiations over safety regulations and logistics have spanned 18 years.
Under the deal, exports will include boneless, raw beef cuts in frozen or chilled form.
“Namibia will benefit economically from tapping into the largest consumer market with purchasing power of $13 trillion, and U.S. consumers will benefit from access to Namibia’s high-quality, free-range, grass-fed beef,” U.S. ambassador to Namibia, Lisa Johnson, said.
In 2019, Namibia exported about 12,400 metric tonnes of meat to Norway, Britain, the European Union and Chinese markets.
Agriculture contributes about 5% to Namibia’s economy but farming including cattle raising contributes to nearly two-thirds of the population’s income.
Namibia’s exports will also benefit from a duty-free regime under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
A 23-YEAR-OLD man from Victoria Falls has appeared in court for assaulting a police officer with a brick in a bar.
Enock Ndlovu of Mkhosana suburb hit Kudakwashe Ndonga (47), a sergeant stationed at Victoria Falls Criminal Intelligence Unit, with a brick on the back of the head before running away from the scene at Chinotimba Old Bar.
This was heard by Victoria Falls magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje. Ndonga pleaded guilty to the assault charge and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Two months were suspended on condition of good behaviour while a further two months were brought into effect for a previous assault conviction. Ndlovu will serve an effective four months in prison.
Asked why he committed the offence, Ndonga told the court that he was drunk and did not know what happened.
“I was drunk and failed to control myself. I don’t know what was happening to me. It just happened,” he said as he pleaded with the magistrate for leniency.
“Your Worship, may you give me a lesser sentence so that I will be able to take care of my child as she goes to school. I’m the family’s sole bread winner because my wife does not work,” said Ndlovu.
Ms Gakanje told Ndlovu that he committed a serious crime and was a danger to society as he occasionally assaults people.
For the State, the prosecutor Mr Jacob Kuzipa said on June 16, last year, at around 8PM at Chinotimba Old Bar, the accused hit the complainant with a brick when the latter tried to restore order where people were playing pool.
“On the 16th day of June 2019 at around 2000hrs at Chinotimba Old Bar where there was violence while people were playing pool, the complainant started cooling down the violence by talking to the pool players to play the game peacefully. The accused suddenly hit the complainant with a brick and ran away,” said Mr Kuzipa.
By Business Reporter| The exiled businessman Mutumwa Mawere has reacted to calls by the disgraced former African Union ambassador Arikana Chihombori who alleges that sanctions on Emmerson Mnangagwa are sanctions on Zimbabwe, the nation.
Chihombori speaking in the state owned ZBC said, ” Zimbabwe has been under sanctions for a very long time.
“The people of Zimbabwe have suffered for many years. The most affected are the most are vulnerable. The sanctions are illegal and there is no good reason why they must continue…”
But Mawere, a black investor deprived of his own private business by the same government said,
“Only wish more is known and shared about the self-inflicted pain imposed by policies that are inimical to the rule of law.”
He continued, “the opposite of poverty is not sanctions removal but a consequence of deliberate actions to make Zim a friend of wealth which is created by humans.”
Meanwhile when contacted by ZimEye, Chihombori’s response was below:
VIDEO LOADING BELOW….
@edmnangagwa has hired the Washington based @AmbChihombori to force President @realDonaldTrump to remove ZIDERA | She was fired by the AU last year for corruption. Already she is on ZBC video today and this afternoon briefly spoke to ZimEye via phone. – WILL IT WORK?
FORMER cabinet minister and G40 kingpin Saviour Kasukuwere has showered glowing praises on late former state leader Robert Mugabe while reserving snide comments for his successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa he accuses of protecting the country’s most brazen criminal cartels.
In a statement released through his #tysonwabantu movement on the commemoration of Robert Gabriel Mugabe day on Friday, the exiled former legislator said Mugabe’s removal from power on the ostensible attempt to “target criminals around the President” 2017 was a con as the Zimbabwe incumbent has been shown to be protecting notorious criminal cartels.
“You (Mugabe) may have left us, but your vision becomes more glaring now.
“May your departed spirit give us a sign, how best our worsened state might reclaim the stolen MOVEMENT toward your vision for our “Ziiimbabwe”, as you called out to it? Dearly departed President, your vision is alive now more than ever within our disillusioned souls.”
When the military put Mugabe under siege on the night of 14 November 2017, it made a televised statement Mugabe was “safe”, adding the operation was only aimed at flushing out “criminals” who were taking advantage of their closeness to the once feared leader to seek cover for their illegal acts.
The military, then led by the now Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, also accused Mugabe of failing to manage the national economy, a situation that placed the country on a constant danger of exploding into civil unrest.
The situation is now worse under Mnangagwa, who has also come under fire for allegedly protecting criminal syndicates that have bled the country of billions of dollars through illicit trade in fuel and foreign currency.
Said Kasukuwere, through his movement, “The real criminals have turned your (Mugabe) vision into a horror of an impoverished nation at the mercy of cartels that have corrupted the centre and kill off our hopes.
“There were never any ‘criminals around your Presidency’, were they? We realise now that they removed you because you kept their baser appetites at bay.
“You were the incorruptible barrier against the real narcissistic criminals and their cartels that have now captured Zimbabwe.
“It dawns upon us now that they removed you only so that their hardened criminal handlers could come close enough to capture the entire State’s value chain, from the ruling Party and its Politburo into government, cabinet, state institutions and agents paid off with cars and privatised salaries to allow and be complicit in the rape of our nation.”
#tysonwabantu movement went on to say that in the name of “Open for Business” and a “New Dispensation” they have reversed the gains of a “vision’s pursuit for the indigenisation of our country’s wealth and the economic empowerment of our majority”.
“While their so-called New Dispensation has now done away with that empowering vision, their alternative preferring foreign economic interests is proving a disaster.
“It is reported that foreign direct investment has reduced by more than 60%.
“The economy goes deeper into recession despite preferred and prioritised Indian, white and foreign economic interests, to the exclusion of our black majority aspirations being condemned to being the ‘hewers of wood’ Robert Mugabe implored us to shun.
“Robert Mugabe had seen through their treacherous criminal intent on the eve of their betrayal, knew he sat at the table with those who would betray him and his vision for Zimbabwe, “Wandinodya nawo ndowachazondichera. Wana Judas Iscariot.” The 21st February Movement remembers.”
Gumare — The Botswana Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security is closely monitoring suspected African Migratory Locust invasion in Gumare.
The ministry’s public relations officer in the North West region, Mr Clifford Molefe said investigations were still at an initial stage following the sighting of the suspected locusts covering approximately two kilometres along Masimo-a-Molapo farming area.
The affected areas are Gumare and Tubu extension areas known as Ngami west.
The African Migratory Locust is known for ravaging greenery and crops.
He said precautionary measures were being taken to ensure that the suspected pest did not spread to other areas.
Mr Molefe advised farmers to report any unfamiliar pests or locusts in their area for the matter to be addressed on time.
A local farmer, Mr Timothy Samoxha, said he contacted the crops department a week back upon witnessing a locust-looking like pest at his ploughing field in the Xurube area.
He said he was given the necessary assistance.
The 67-year-old farmer said he considered the matter a potential catastrophe as it put his livelihood and those of others were on the line.
Malawi's President Peter Mutharika inspects a guard of honour during his inauguration ceremony at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, Malawi, Friday May 31, 2019. Mutharika narrowly won re-election with 38% of the votes in last week's polls, the electoral commission declared Monday. (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi)
Lilongwe – Political tensions and uncertainties continue to escalate in Malawi following the 3 February High Court verdict that nullified last years Presidential elections.
Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) declared the President Peter Mutharika who was seeking a second term as the winner of last year’s polls, a thing that forced Opposition leaders to go to court.
The High Court,sitting as Constitutional Court in the Capital Lilongwe ordered that fresh elections are to be conducted within 150 form the day of the verdict.
The High Court also ordered that in all future elections the winner should only be declared if he/she a masses more than 50% of the vote casted.
The 50+1 clause in the verdict has caused another political tensions as the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vehemently oppose to it while the opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) and the United Transformation Movement (UTM) supports the implementation of 50+1 as opposed to the current first pass the post system.
On Thursday malawi parliament shot down the private mambers bill on electoral reforms which was tabled in the house by Hon. Kezie Msukwa.
The bill among other things wanted parliament to set fixed dates of elections and a re-run in case none of the contestants didn’t attain more than half of the votes casted.
71 Government legislators voted against the amendments while 109 opposition MPs votes yes.
But the bill failed to pass because 109 was not enough, it needed at least 128 votes which is two-thirst of the 193 member parliament.
However Msukwa who was the mover of the motion said Malawians should not think the 50+1 amendment has been shot down,saying it was already a law as per High court’s ruling.. parliament only rejected the process to achieving its implementation through among other things setting of a date of fresh elections.
Most Malawians especially those in the opposition want the laws to be amended while those on the government side still want the current simple majority procedure to continue.
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.
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.
Own Correspondent|The weigh-ins have come and gone, so it’s now time to get down to business with one of the biggest heavyweight boxing rematches of all time.
Saturday night in Las Vegas, WBC champion Deontay Wilder and lineal king Tyson Fury will once again do battle in the middle of the ring just a little over one year since their controversial split draw in December 2018.
In an era where it’s seemingly impossible to set in stone the fights the fans want to see, this is a rare exception.
While the two heavyweights are the main attraction, both promoters have made sure to give fans some interesting undercard bouts. WBO super bantamweight champ Emanuel Navarrete is back as he takes on Jeo Santisima. As is 6-foot-5 junior middleweight Sebastian Fundora as he takes on Daniel Lewis. Plus, Charles Martin and Gerald Washington battle in a heavyweight co-feature.
The biggest names in the sporting world are set to descend upon Las Vegas for this incredible rematch, and ZimEye.com will be with you throughout the week with the latest news, odds, features and columns leading up to the fight.
Six licences for free-to-air commercial television services are now available, along with almost 30 community radio licences for services across the country, as part of the reforms of the media landscape.
Television applications to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe cost $42 000, plus $127 000 for a pubic inquiry.
Applications for 10-year community radio licences attract a fee of $8 500.
A wide spread of these community radio stations is planned for Rukotso, Susamoya, Empandeni, Maphisa, Ndolwane, Plumtree, Chipinge, Chimanimani, Gwendingwe, Rutsitu, Chibuwe, Chikombezi, Chiredzi, Rutenga, Mahenye, Malipati, Manama, Legion, Binga, Kamativi, Kariba, Mapenga, Siabuwa, Beitbridge, Shashi, Mbembesi, Shamva and Alaska.
Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said the move bore testimony that President Mnangagwa walks the talk on media reform.
“This is a sign that President ED Mnangagwa is walking the talk regarding media reforms,” he said.
“We have seen this at different levels. At the legislative level, we have two Bills that will repeal AIPPA which are already at second reading stage in Parliament. These are Bills that are coming out of a very wide consultative process with stakeholders.
“We continue to hold all-inclusive consultations even at this stage. The second level of media reforms involves governance issues. We are bringing in best practice and putting in place structures that support transparency and accountability.”
Mr Mangwana said this was why all media-related state entities were getting boards, including those that had not had some for over five years.
“You also saw for the first time in 20 years, the President reviving the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust to act as the watchdog and steward in the media companies Government is invested in.
“The President could have maintained the status quo and let the ministry remain in direct charge in the majority shareholder role. But he chose to place a buffer between the media houses and Government in the form of ZMMT.”
Mr Mangwana said the last level is that of enhancement of media diversity and pluralism.
“This is where we bring more players in the broadcasting sector by licensing more TV stations and completing the three-tier broadcasting system through the launching of Community Radio Stations.
“Freedom of expression is given more legs and communities empowered,” said Mr Mangwana.
Mr Mangwana said with these reforms, democracy was guaranteed.
By Own Correspondent| A Zimbabwean bus driver cheated death by a whisker on Friday morning after armed robbers pounced on his bus in South Africa.
Thembane Ngwenya told ZTN that an armed robber demanded R40 000 from him after bullets had missed his head twice at close range. Narrating his near-death experience to the publication, Ngwenya said:
It’s a miracle! I survived by God’s grace as two bullets missed my head at close range.
We were between Zebediella and Polokwane when I heard a disturbing sound.
I asked the co-driver about the sound, but he, too, had no clue regarding what was going on. Suddenly, I could not engage the gears or brakes. The door then opened automatically.
I managed to stop the bus after a few metres. And as I tried to investigate the problem, one of the robbers shot at me. He, however, missed my head narrowly. He tried again but missed. The magazine fell off his pistol as he tried a third time.
The man (joked) that I was very religious. Pulling me away from the bus, he demanded R40 000, which, he said, a client in Johannesburg had asked me to give to his family in Zimbabwe. I insisted I had no money, and he threatened to shoot me in the leg.
The robbers demanded and got away with cellphones, cash and other valuables from the passengers who were on the Zimbabwe-bound bus.-StateMedia
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.
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”.
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
An 83-year old man from Bulawayo died yesterday morning after he was bludgeoned with huge boulders by his son who accused him of withcraft following an argument over tenants’ rentals.
Thabani Ncube (47) of Entumbane suburb is in police custody for allegedly killing his father, Mitsho Ncube, after the latter inquired why he was not paying utility bills using rentals collected from tenants.
In a gruesome scene, Thabani is alleged to have crushed his father’s head with a huge boulder, killing him instantly. He then calmly walked to Entumbane police station to hand himself over to law enforcement agents.
Family members and neighbours said Thabani, who allegedly had not paid utility bills for more than four years, blamed his father for casting spells on him which made him sick and said he had proof from prophets he consulted that the deceased was behind his misery.
The house belongs to Mitsho who, however, had since moved to the family’s rural home, leaving it in his son’s care.
Witnesses said trouble started when Thabani started accusing his father of witchcraft following a row over why he was diverting rentals from tenants to his own use and not paying water and electricity bills.
“We are shocked as a community. We witnessed it all. It was as if he was possessed by some spirit. Ukhulu was busy shaving under the tree and Thabani was mending a shoe a few yards from him. He just asked his father why he was staring at him and threatened to hit him. The next thing he stood up and picked a stone and attacked his father. The old man fell into the drainage trench and then his son picked a boulder and used it to crush his head,” said a neighbour who declined to be named.
“He started shouting obscenities accusing ukhulu of bewitching him. We tried to restrain him and people were screaming on the road. We tried to walk him away from the scene but he escaped from us and went back to the old man. He picked up a bigger boulder, straddled him and crushed his head with it, killing him instantly. We watched as the old man gasped for air. It was sad, and his own (Thabani’s) children witnessed it too. I doubt I will ever get to sleep well again after seeing this.”
Thabani allegedly told neighbours that he was going to hand himself over to the police.
He allegedly left the scene, proceeded to a tap where he washed his hands before walking towards Entumbane police station. He collapsed a few yards away. Police who arrived at the scene took him away.
Thabani is reported to have started hallucinating, claiming to be seeing goblins. In a trance like state, he claimed the goblins were trying to kill him and belonged to his father.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube was not immediately available for comment.
A Chronicle news crew was met by a pool of blood where the incident had happened with family members and neighbours trying to wash blood stains off the concrete.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in Nkulumane suburb, a 40-year-old man was found lying dead in a pool of blood with a gun next to him in a suspected case of suicide.
His wife had allegedly run away and sought shelter at their relatives’ home after a domestic dispute.
In a statement on their official Twitter account, the Zimbabwe Republic Police said the matter is under investigation.
“Following a domestic dispute with his wife and the seeking of shelter by the woman with relatives, a man (40) of Nkulumane, Bulawayo was found dead with a gunshot wound on his head. A pistol was recovered by his side. Investigations into the incident are in progress,” said the police. State Media/Chronicle
Suspected Cartel member, ZUPCO's Procurement Manager, Linda Samunderu, tendered her resignation on 5 Feb which was however overturned by CEO Madangwa. It is reported that she reverted back to her Adminstrator duties and is no longer the Acting Procurement Manager. @MinistryofTID
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
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
Security has been upped at the Katuna/Gatuna border ahead of the Summit
Heavily-armed Special Forces units and regular police personnel have been deployed in Katuna and neighboring towns and hills to secure the heads-of-state and their delegations.
Angolan president, João Lourenço, arrived in Kigali on Thursday evening ahead of today’s function.
Lourenço was welcomed by Rwandan Foreign Affairs Minister, Vincent Biruta.
DRC President Felix Tshisekedi has since confirmed attendance.
From Katuna, Chimp Corps say a special area where the leaders will sit for talks will be out of bounds for journalists.
Only presidential press units are expected at the venue.
High on the agenda is the normalization of relations between Rwanda and Uganda which have sharply deteriorated and raised the prospect of an armed conflict.
Lourenco and Tshisekedi have been mediating the talks over the past one year.
It remains to be seen if President Paul Kagame will reopen the Katuna border to allow his citizens move freely to Uganda and also allow Ugandan goods on Rwandan market.
Rwanda closed the common border in February 2019, accusing Uganda of helping dissidents hell-bent on toppling President Kagame by force of arms.
Kagame also accused Rwanda of economic sabotage and harassment of Rwandans in Uganda.
On its part, Kampala accuses Kigali of slapping a trade embargo on Uganda; aggressive espionage; closing the Gatuna border; uprooting prominent Ugandans from the Rwandan economy and orchestrating a hate campaign against Uganda and its officials.
However, recent weeks have seen Uganda and Rwanda release detainees and commit to restoration of ties.
Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa recently said in line with the Luanda MoU and context of normalization of relations between the two countries and as a gesture of goodwill, Kampala withdrew charges of several offences including unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition against Rwandans.
Rwanda last week made new demands from Kampala which included dismissal of top security chiefs in Uganda, saying they are facilitating Rwandan dissidents’ operations in the region.
The Rwandan Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, Olivier Nduhungirehe, told the Ugandan delegation that Kigali “demands” action be taken by Uganda including “disbanding” RNC (Rwanda National Congress), RUD-Urunana and “arrest and extradite all its members to face justice in Rwanda.”
RNC is led by exiled former Rwandan army chief, Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa while RUD-Urunana is a splinter group of FDLR, a militia whose leadership is accused of committing the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Both movements have since denied conducting any operations in Uganda. RNC says it has no intentions of toppling Kagame by use of arms.
Nduhungirehe further said Uganda must “refrain from all actions intended to destabilize Rwanda; eliminate all factors that create such perception; withdraw the passport issued by Ugandan government to RNC’s head of diplomacy, Charlotte Mukankusi and prevent her from traveling to Uganda.”
In response, Kutesa called for a joint Verification Mechanism to investigate Rwanda’s allegations.
He also said “the human rights of Rwandans are protected just like any other nationals in Uganda. By Rwandans continuing to travel to Uganda by air is evidence that they feel secure being in Uganda. Even those who get shot by Rwanda authorities, feel safe to take refuge in Uganda.”
Kutesa wondered why Rwandan security personnel “continue to shoot Ugandans along the border, denying them right of life and hurting the spirit of integration.”
The Minister further said Rwanda continues to “relentlessly” orchestrate a “hostile campaign against the Ugandan government and its officials.”
He said while Ugandan border “has remained open to goods and services” in compliance with regional and international frameworks, the Rwandan border “remains closed and a trade embargo on Ugandan goods remains in place to date.”
A person holds U.S. dollars and Venezuelan bolivares to pay for gasoline in Caracas, Venezuela,
Everyday, more Venezuelans use American dollar notes to buy groceries, pay a hair cut or fill the tank of their cars and motorbikes.
Over 65% of monetary transactions in Venezuela take place using dollars, and nearly two-thirds use any type of foreign currency, according to data obtained by the Caracas-based research firm Ecoanalitica.
The analysis, which studied around 16,000 transactions carried out from February 9th to 14th across ten cities in Venezuela, found that 55.7 percent of all transactions now took place in dollars, while over 64 percent of sales in foreign currency. The most popular currency after the dollar is the Colombian peso, as the neighboring country is experiencing relative economic prosperity compared to the shattered economy of Venezuela.
Credit card readers accepting Venezuela’s bolívar currency are regularly rendered useless by repeated power cuts, The most affected cities, such as San Cristobal and Maracaibo, reported usage of foreign currency as high as 94 and 92 percent, respectively.
The figures mean that despite the fierce opposition of Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime to all things American, the U.S. dollar has effectively become the country’s unofficial currency. As well as the total collapse in value of the bolivar, which has lost well over 99.99999 percent of its value in the past decade, a major reason for this change is because four million people have fled Venezuela’s economic and humanitarian crisis over the past five years.
Many of these exiles send foreign currency back to their friends and relatives in Venezuela. Ecoanalitica estimated around $4 billion in annual remittances. That figure is highly likely to rise given the thousands of Venezuelans who continue to flee the country each day in search of economic refuge.
Currency inflation in Venezuela began to soar as early as 2007 under the rule of socialist dictator Hugo Chávez and in recent years has reached levels similar to Germany’s Weimar Republic or Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, where some people were seen using a wheelbarrow to buy products and the government introduced a 100-trillion-dollar banknote.
The study also found that 81 percent of sales now take place in cash, creating problems for local businesses unable to store their money in Venezuelan bank accounts.
“I do not believe that the economy will be completely dollarized but it is showing a growing trend that is difficult to reverse,” Asdrubal Oliveros, director of Ecoanalitica, said. “We will continue to have a dual economy in which the dollar has an increasing weight.”
Another popular trend in Venezuela is the use of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Increasing numbers of businesses are accepting payments based on various blockchain technologies, although these can be problematic due to their rapidly fluctuating value.
In a bid to interfere in this market – often touted by free marketeers as the key towards a stateless, libertarian future – the socialist regime has introduced its own scam cryptocurrency known as the “petro,” supposedly backed by the country’s extensive natural resources and oil reserves. Maduro has previously claimed that the currency has received over a billion dollars’ worth of investment, although this figure is highly disputed by cryptoanalysts, many of whom question whether it has any value whatsoever.
Business and Labour leaders on Thursday told President Emmerson Mnangagwa to dump the Zimbabwe dollar by mid-year if it continues to devalue as has been happening since its re-introduction seven months ago.
Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe (EMCOZ) president Israel Murefu addressed the Political Actors Dialogue (POLAD) Economic Summit at the HICC in Harare yesterday. He said:
Currency has to store value, and in all honesty, the local currency cannot be said to be a store of value.
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 the year we have to look at an alternative currency.
Also speaking at the event, Zimbabwe Stock Exchange chief executive Justin Bono said the Zimbabwe dollar is scaring away investors due to its volatility.
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 Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fairtalk Communications, the parent company of Skyz Metro FM and Breeze FM, Qhubani Moyo, has left the organisation.
Moyo, who was appointed CEO five years ago, confirmed in a statement yesterday that he was parting ways with the Bulawayo-based company after the expiry of his term of office.
Skyz Metro station manager, Godwin Phiri, will act in the interim until a substantive CEO is appointed.
Posting on Facebook, Moyo said: “It’s with a deep sense of fulfilment colleagues, listeners, advertisers and competitors that I announce that my five-year contract as CEO of Fairtalk expires today and I have elected not to renew it to pursue other interests. A hand-over take-over period is being implemented between now and 31st March 2020.
“The board of directors has selected Godwin Phiri to be acting CEO from 1 April 2020 as the company searches for a substantive CEO. I remain involved in the company as a shareholder. I would like to thank all of you for the support you gave to me and the station during my tenure & urge you to continue supporting the project. Ngiyabonga”.
He described his five-year tenure at the helm of Fairtalk Communications as the fulfilment of a boyhood dream.
“I started a job as Chief Executive Officer. How time flies! This was a fulfilling project that has always been close to my heart since my boyhood days. The five years that I’ve been at Fairtalk have seen us build a giant media institution that has created two radio stations namely Breeze FM & Skyz Metro FM in Bulawayo which have impacted positively on community transformation in areas of our operation,” said Moyo.
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.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Nelson Chamisa
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.
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.
China is massively hit by the coronavirus. But another plague is about to hit the Middle Kingdom: Locusts, billions of locusts, currently wreaking havoc in East Africa, Pakistan and India.
The country has turned to an army of ducks to fight off the billions of locusts arriving at its borders from Africa.
The plague of as many as 360 billion insects has so far devastated East Africa before moving over Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and India.
Chinese authorities have dispatched the 100,000 birds to its Xinjiang border in the far west of the country, where it meets Pakistan and India as the locusts continue to swarm eastwards.
Pakistan declared a national emergency because the grasshoppers caused food shortages by destroying crops.
Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, called the event “the worst locust attack in decades”.
Locust plague: How China sent 100,000 ducks to fight ‘worst locust attack in decades’ (Image: Getty / Twitter)
A video shared by China’s state-run news site CGTN shows thousands of ducks waddling in legions down a road on their way to face the insects.
One Twitter user said the ducks “look like the allies troops here”.
The brown birds, dubbed “duck troops” by Chinese media, have been used to tackle locust infestations before and can be more effective than pesticides.
A resident named Wang, from Xinjiang, told Chinese newspaper Global Times that previous locust outbreaks happened in the end of summer and autumn in the region’s grassland areas.
But winter temperatures combined with a lack of grass in the region makes life difficult for locusts.
Wang explained that a division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps in Hami used to prevent the locust outbreak by raising ducks and chickens.
He said one duckling can “control” a 4sqm of land and eat the locusts.
Using ducks to prevent locust plague is economically and environmentally friendly compared with spraying pesticides, according to Wang.
The locusts are edible and are considered a delicacy in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
They are supposedly tasty when battered in breadcrumbs and fried in oil.
In 2017, farmers who lost crops due to the locust plague got their revenge by catching the critters and selling those for food instead.
“Our corn harvest would be reduced, for sure, but catching locusts brought me a lot more money,” a local told Beijing News at the time.
In this latest outbreak – said to be the worst in 25 years – one swarm of locusts in Kenya is said to have reached a whopping 60km, which is further than the distance between Manchester and Liverpool, as the crow flies.
Desert locusts can travel up to 95 miles in a day and can eat their own body weight in plant material, meaning even a small swarm can consume as much food as 35,000 people in a day, according to the UN.
During each three-month breeding cycle, a single locust can breed 20 more, which is why the massive swarms are now threatening crops on either side of the Red Sea.
The UN has warned that an imminent second hatch of the insects could threaten the food security of 25 million people across the region.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has a locust watch bulletin.
Its latest one says the “situation remains extremely alarming in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where widespread Desert Locust infestations and a new generation of breeding threatens food security and livelihoods in the region”.
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.”
Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame in historic meeting
Paul Nyathi|President Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame of Rwanda have held a historic meeting at a border between the two countries to discuss the impasse arising out of the closure of the common border by Rwanda.
The meeting was held at the no-man’s land in Katuna between Uganda and Rwanda.
Aimed at stabilising the relations between Uganda and Rwanda, the summit was being mediated by the President of Angola, João Lourenço and Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi.
In a communique issued after the meeting, the meeting recommended that Uganda will verify the allegations by Rwanda about the actions of forces hostile to Rwanda operating in Uganda.
If the allegations are true, the Uganda government will take measures to stop it and prevent it from happening again. The action must be verified and confirmed by the Ad-Hoc ministerial commission for the implementation of the memorandum of understanding of Luanda.
Once this recommendation is fulfilled and reported to the heads of state, the facilitators will convene, within 15 days, a summit, in Gatuna/Katuna, for the solemn re-opening of borders and subsequent normalisation of the relations between the two countries.
For nearly a year, the common border at Katuna has been closed, with Rwanda accusing Uganda of hosting elements that are hostile to the Kigali government.
First to arrive at the venue was Museveni while his three counterparts led by Kagame arrived minutes later. All leaders came by road.
The standoff
Trouble started in February 2019 when Rwanda government closed its border with Uganda and even issued a travel advisory barring Rwandans from traveling to Uganda.
In March last year, Rwanda publicly accused Uganda of abducting its citizens and supporting rebels bent on overthrowing the government.
The rebel groups Rwanda government accuses Uganda of supporting include the Rwanda National Congress and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda.
Last week on Friday Uganda and Rwanda delegations held fruitful talks in Kigali during which measures for ending the impasse between the two countries were agreed upon.
The two countries agreed to resume collaboration among their security organs which had been stopped when the relationship between the two countries collapsed at the beginning of last year.
The Kigali ad hoc committee meeting was a follow-up on the February 2, 2020 summit of Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda President Paul Kagame which transpired in Angola’s capital of Luanda.
Both parties committed to further verify the number and the status of nationals of either party detained in each other’s country and to report back in a three weeks’ time.
The two parties resolved to be committed to the need to protect and respect the human rights of nationals of either party in observance of the rule of law and international humanitarian law and by ensuring that the due process is followed.
Both governments agreed on the need to finalize the extradition treaty to be signed in the presence of the Heads of State at the fourth Quadripartite Summit that is happening Friday.
Presidents Paul Kagame, João Lourenço, Felix Tshilombo Tshisekedi and I, have held a meeting on the sidelines of the fourth Quadripartite Heads of State Summit 2020 at Katuna/Gatuna border.
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.
By A Correspondent- A computer whizzkid at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) who was arrested for hacking the university’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
