Seven people died when the vehicle they were travelling in was swept away by the flooded Ngwazani River between Battlefields and ZIMPLATS in Mashonaland West Province.
Police spokesperson Charity Charamba confirmed to the state media on the incident and warned people not to cross rivers that have been flooded by the incessant rains nationwide.
The accident was reported at around 8:31 p.m. last night.
Witness reported seeing a vehicle veer off the road and plunge down the embankment and into the river.
Meanwhile an autopsy will be performed to see if the driver had a medical problem.
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede’s office has been known for years for long queues and for failing to issue birth certificates to local citizens among other things, but three of his highly trusted officials have been caught having almost instantaneously issued birth certificates to fake citizens, Ugandan Tikamutandas baying for business in the country.
The three officials and an ex-employee have been arrested on allegations of fraudulently facilitating the issuance of identity documents to Ugandan nationals. The four (names withheld) were arrested this week in Harare and Bindura.
This followed the arrest of three Ugandans who were operating as traditional healers in the city.
The Ugandans were found with genuine Zimbabwean birth certificates, national identification documents and passports.
They implicated the four.
They are assisting police with investigations while the three Ugandans are in remand prison awaiting deportation.
The three were arrested by officers from the Immigration Department following a tip off.
Assistant Regional Immigration Officer Mr Francis Mabika confirmed the development on Wednesday.
“We arrested the three Ugandans and their cases are still under investigation. At the moment we are not at liberty to divulge any other information concerning the case,” he said.
The Herald understands that the three, Richard JJuuko, Nuludini Katende Serunjogi and Kikambi Hassan Mayanga were arrested on December 20 in separate incidents in Sunningdale, city centre and Warren Park where they were practising as traditional healers.
JJuuko was now using the name Richard Junior Mutasha while Serunjogi was Aslum Chiridza.
Investigations revealed that the three officials and an ex-employee helped the foreigners obtain the identity documents after charging them undisclosed amounts of money.
This is not the first time that officials from the RG’s office have been arrested after being implicated in criminal activities.
In September 2011, four senior officials in the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Gweru passport office were slapped with a 15-year-jail term after they stole over 12 000 Emergency Travel Documents.
New Minerals Will Be Discovered -Magaya
Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) founder Walter Magaya has predicted that ‘new minerals’ will be discovered in Zimbabwe this year.
Addressing tens of thousands of congregants who thronged his 2015 Crossover All Night prayer at his church in Waterfalls on New Year’s Eve, Magaya said he on December 22 received a message from God that the country would soon ‘awaken’ with the discovery of new minerals.
“You will be shocked at your own rate of success. Whatever is around you no matter how small because of God you are going to be fruitful and you shall multiply,” said Magaya.
He continued:
“When God speaks the wise listen – be fruitful and multiply!
11 The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite three months. And the LORD blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.
Reference scripture: Gen.1:28
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth,” Scripture: 2 Samuel.6:11[NKJV]
………………………………..
Uzzah touched the ark and he was struck dead and the ark was left at Obed-Edom’s house and it only took a short while for him to be fruitful and multiply. Those around him and those who knew him got shocked at the rate of progress in his life, there was divine acceleration. David got wind of the success of Obed-Edom and he got to know about the anointing of multiplication the ark bore.
The anointing of God is ready to mega-shift your life, you shall be fruitful and you shall multiply. This is your season whatsoever you shall lay your hands upon shall be fruitful and it shall multiply. The fact that you made it into 2015 makes you a candidate of fruitfulness and multiplication. You might not see it now but you shall see it by your testimony.
You will be shocked at your own rate of success. Whatever is around you no matter how small because of God you are going to be fruitful and you shall multiply.
Exodus 1:7
The Israelites were under Egyptian captivity and Pharaoh ordered that all Israelites be killed at birth because they were multiplying. Before the midwives would attend to them they would arrive late. God gave the Israelites women power to deliver hastily, they became strong. If they planned to kill the baby in the 9th month the child would be delivered in the 8th month simply because they bore the anointing of multiplication.
Your enemy might plan to pull you down for your destruction but because of the anointing of fruitfulness and multiplication you will escape all traps. God is going to confuse the enemy because you shall be fruitful and multiply. Before they shall expect it you shall have it.
2 Kings.7
There were 4 lepers at the gate of Samaria and there was hunger in their camp and they had gone down to eating cow dung. Women had even killed children for food that led the king to seeking solution from the Prophet Elisher. The Prophet told them food would be available in abundance the very next day. The king argued that it was not practical though he believed that heaven was there but doubt was what led him to miss out on the blessing. It didn’t make sense at the time he said it but when a Prophet speaks the wise listen.
The lepers were not allowed to meddle with others because of leprosy. They decided to move away from the outskirts of the camp as they felt they were going to die anyway. As they walked towards the Syrian camp God caused confusion in the Syrian camp to ensure the Prophet’s word was fulfilled. They heard a might army approaching them when in actual fact they were only four lepers. The Syrians fled their camp in panic leaving all their food and wealth to the lepers.
The lepers were shocked when they arrived to find the Syrian camp deserted. The first thing they did was to eat their fill and that is when they remembered their fellow men and went back. They were left as outcast but because of the news they bore it gave them access to where they were barred from.
News got to the king about the lepers and what had transpired. The king thought that it was all a lie and some form of a trap but he was assured it was not. There are blessings and breakthroughs that will come upon your life this year that will shock many including those around you.
Information on the Syrian camp breakthrough leaked and the army commander made a mistake by trying to control a hungry people and that was when Prophet’s word was fulfilled over his life he died and did not partake.
Your enemy will fight tooth and nail to block your testimony and breakthrough but you shall surpass it all. God is ready to lift you up high, raises you from rugs to riches and from grass to grace. Your breakthrough and testimony will happen at divine speed in ways you cannot comprehend. It doesn’t matter that you are deep in debt and have lost all hope in life God is ready to make you fruitful and multiply in everything you shall touch.
The fact that you have lost hope and you are in problems make you the perfect candidate to receive fruitfulness and multiplication. The anointing of God uses a system. The lepers noticed that staying and moving away was the same they would die anyway and that was how they walked their breakthrough.
You need to know how you can walk towards your breakthrough and destiny. The radar controls a moving ship and it is not the radar that moves the ship. If you move before time or after, you miss out on your breakthrough. You have to move as and when you have to and God is ready to bless those who are determined.
Let your actions reciprocate with what you want God to do in your life. What efforts are you making to bring your heart’s desires into fruition. You need to move to attract the power of God over your life. You need to have the right plans in place and in action in order for you to multiply.
The only way you can multiply is after you have created room. You need to think and act in the way you want to be. Whenever God places you anywhere there is a reason for it and you have to identify it and seize the opportunity that lies in that. You are not employed to die employed or for your salary but that job should be a stepping stone to a higher and next level.
You can never get a salary that is enough for you no matter how much more they give you and you will never be satisfied. Jacob only became rich after 14 years laboring for Laban despite the fact that he had brought multiplication over Laban’s household. It is when he decided to move away that he became rich. Ask yourself if you are doing anything that will attract multiplication over your life.
We give all glory to God.
The capital Harare City Council’s water supplies have sparked alarm with residents complaining that the city fathers are failing to address the problem and the water which not throws a pungent smell, has remained visibly filthy for several years.
Harare residents complain that “the quality of water does not need anyone to convince you. Water is its own master. Its taste, appearance, smell tells a real story. The City of Harare tries routinely to remind residents that Harare City Council is safe to drink, yet the citizens are not convinced because of the appearance of the water, its taste and the smell it produces.”
On typhoid fears, the Harare Residents’ Trust commented that the council should clear the air on the quality of its water.
“Typhoid fears rise in Mabvuku and Tafara. Two children identified have been tested and typhoid has been confirmed. Residents in the communities have been experiencing serious water problems, relying on water fetched from shallow wells and community boreholes sunk by humanitarian agencies. The City of Harare should clear the air on the quality of its water. Typhoid is dangerous and can kill,” their statement read.
AP – HONOLULU—The United States imposed new sanctions Friday on North Korean government officials and the country’s defence industry for a cyberattack against Sony, insisting Pyongyang was to blame despite lingering doubts by the cyber community.
The White House warned this was just the opening move in the U.S. response.
While the sanctions will have limited effect, as North Korea is already under tough U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program, American officials portrayed them as a swift, decisive response to North Korean behaviour they said had gone far over the line. Never before has the U.S. imposed sanctions on another nation in direct retaliation for a cyberattack on an American company.
“The order is not targeted at the people of North Korea, but rather is aimed at the government of North Korea and its activities that threaten the United States and others,” President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to leaders in Congress.
The 10 North Koreans singled out for sanctions didn’t necessarily have anything to do with the attack on Sony, senior U.S. officials said. Anyone who works for or helps North Korea’s government is now fair game, especially North Korea’s defence sector and spying operations, the officials said.
The sanctions also apply to three organizations closely tied to North Korea’s government: the country’s primary intelligence agency, a state-owned arms dealer that exports missile and weapons technology, and the Korea Tangun Trading Corp., which supports defence research. All three entities were already subject to U.S. sanctions.
Obama has also warned Pyongyang that the U.S. is considering whether to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, which could jeopardize aid to the country on a global scale. Beyond that, it’s unclear what additional penalties the U.S. has available.
North Korea has denied involvement in the cyberattack, which led to the disclosure of tens of thousands of confidential Sony emails and business files, then escalated to threats of terrorist attacks against movie theatres. Many cybersecurity experts have said it’s possible that hackers or even Sony insiders could be the culprits, and questioned how the FBI can point the finger so conclusively.
Senior U.S. officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, dismissed those arguments and said independent experts don’t have access to the same classified information as the FBI.
“We stand firmly behind our call that the DPRK was behind the attacks on Sony,” one official said, using an acronym for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Those sanctioned include North Koreans representing the country’s interests in Iran, Russia and Syria. Any assets they have in the U.S. will be frozen, and they’ll be barred from using the U.S. financial system. Americans will be prohibited from doing business with them, the Treasury Department said.
At the United Nations, no one answered the phone at North Korea’s UN Mission, and calls to a diplomat there were not answered. Sony, too, declined to comment.
While denying any role in the cyberattack, North Korea has expressed fury over the Sony comedy flick The Interview, which depicts the fictional assassination of leader Kim Jong Un. Sony initially called off the film’s release after movie theatres decided not to show the film. After Obama criticized that decision, Sony decided to release the film in limited theatres and online.
Questions remain about who was behind a nearly 10-hour shutdown of North Korean websites last week. The U.S. never said whether it was responsible. North Korea’s powerful National Defence Commission blamed the U.S. and hurled racial slurs at Obama, calling him a reckless “monkey in a tropical forest.” – AP
The controversial leader of the Budiriro-based Apostolic sect that bashed police officers, Madzibaba Ishmael Chokurongerwa [once reported as Ishmael Mufani], who has been on the run for the past seven months, has been arrested.
Madzibaba Ishmael was arrested today in Murehwa following a successful raid by the Zimbabwe Republic Police officers.
Madzibaba Ishmael, who made headlines last year when his followers assaulted police officers and journalists, is facing public violence charges and violation of the Children’s Protection Act.
The fugitive Vapositori sect leader had earned himself the title Osama Bin Ladin after the ZRP failed to locate his whereabouts more than seven months since the attack.
Madzibaba Ishamel’s Apostolic sect bashed police officers, ZBC cameraperson Relax Mafuruti and Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) leaders, who had visited their Budiriro shrine trying to engage the church over alleged human rights abuses.
37 members of the sect were arrested in a police blitz but Madzibaba Ismael ‘went off the radar’ since May.
11 of the 37 were later convicted in November and jailed for four years each for violence.
Kudzanayi Kusekwa (31), Cabson Chandaona (43), Takavengwa Gwenzi (46), Tichafa Madyegora (41), Johanes Makumbe (39), Ndumiso Moyo (33), Alexio Kanhema (37), Clement Chimutso (47), Madzimure Madzimure (36), Charles Matanga (42) and Darlington Mambayo (46), are all behind bars.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Republic Police is conducting investigations in connection with the unlawful entry at the office of the Minister of Transport, Communication and Infrastructure Development, Dr Obert Mpofu which occurred today.
The police say they have stepped up surveillance on all government buildings following recent cases of unlawful entry at some top government officials offices. – ZBC
ZIMBABWEAN ARCHBISHOP Walter Masocha appeared at Alloa Sheriff court on Tuesday to face charges of engaging in sexual activity with a number of girls, the youngest aged just 12.
Masocha is accused of making underage teenage girls massage his naked body.
The Tuesday hearing began with a preliminary session during which time it was determined that the whole trial requires 8 days all at once to finalise. This was after Mr Masocha’s solicitors protested against evidence submitted arguing they had not been part of the first charges for which they then requested more time to prepare evidence. The Sherrif’s office told ZimEye.com that the prosecution also requested more time to prepare evidence, upon which time it was conceded that the case requires 8 days to complete.
The trial has since been transferred to Falkirk Sheriff court which is 13 miles away from here.
Archbishop Dr Walter Masocha allegedly induced a 15-year-old and 12-year-old to perform the act on him on various occasions at an address in Sauchieburn and Crieff Hydro Hotel between 2012 and 2013.
The 50-year-old is also accused of sexual assault on a woman and engaging in sexual activity with a 14-year-old girl during the same period.
Masocha, founder of Agape For All Nations Ministries International, whose headquarters are in Stirling, appeared at Alloa Sheriff Court this week to face the five charges.
He pleaded not guilty to alleged incidents, on various occasions between May 17, 2013 and July 31, 2013, at Crieff Hydro Hotel and another location, engaging in sexual activity with a 14 year-old girl by inducing her to massage him using oils.
The church website had said Masocha, a former lecturer, was the leader of Agape For All Nations Ministries International, a “fast-growing church established in August 2007”.
Mention of Masocha has since been removed from the website.
A spokesman for the church confirmed last year that Masocha was on a “leave of absence” from his role as archbishop.
During an appearance in court on Tuesday, Masocha’s defence agent lodged a motion to adjourn the case for a further first diet before trial which was originally set for January 12.
He said the three charges relating to massaging were not on the original petition when Masocha appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court in January last year and asked for time to prepare.
He said: “It relates to the operation of the church and practices and relationship between the accused and the complainers.”
Asked by Sheriff John Rafferty to clarify what he meant, the defence added he needed to look into how the church operates and the “nature of the relationship” between the parties.
A new trial date has been set for April 13 at Falkirk Sheriff Court. (Daily Record/ZimEye)
Recruiting Zimbabwe’s top engineers and inventors
Zimbabwe could manufacture ground-breaking engineering innovations to stop the plague of plane crashes seen rising in the last few months. This is not because this country’s national airline has one of the safest records in the world having never crashed, but principally due to the raw untapped intellectual wealth buried in the Zimbabwean human capital. Zimbabweans are a rare breed as has been admitted in some scholarly circles and this “Zim species” could truly hold the keys of future international aviation, as this article explores.
So who are jet manufacturers to employ, the University graduates? Perhaps. But in Africa we are not yet aware that the world’s best designers and engineers came from the ordinary Tom, Dick and Pombiadonhas who never went to university. In the western world everyone is worthy of recognition but in Africa if your father is a security guard or a toilet-cleaner, you are laughed at, a scenario that continues to eat up Africa with each passing day. We have such a long way to discover that a country is developed by every person within it no matter what he or she does.
Highly rated education
One of the prominent things Zimbabwe has celebrated to date since independence is what this nation has termed our “highly rated education”. But most graduates are now admitting on the knowledge they have boasted of all along, that they were mainly reciting books and they are poor as regarding the in-depth exploration of education. True education humbles people and those who beat their breasts in pride are 100% of the time the most non-creative and subversive members of our society who just go around “bigging” themselves with their little knowledge when they are actually destructive.
Aeroplane Inventors had no University Education at all!
The people who invented the aeroplane, the Wright Brothers had no university education at all. During that time 120 years ago it was SCIENTIFICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to fly in the sky and a London science symposium held by academic gurus in 1903 declared it impossible for a metal object to fly in the sky, and it was deemed impossible for a vehicle to travel at the speed of 35miles per hour without choking the person in it.During that very same month two boys with no university education, the oldest (who at the age 26 had enrolled at a Bible school, just that) decided to shift from making bicycles to manufacturing the first FLYING METAL OBJECT, and they proved those intellectuals a million times wrong. By December 1903, the first aircraft was made, ten years later it was used in advanced warfare, and less than 60 years later the little thing would travel as far as the moon and back. It was all created by youths who had no education at all, characteristic of those youths who hopelessly hang around in the rural areas of Zimbabwe herding goats and sheep, but are yet by far internally superior to the privileged graduates from the cities.
Zimbabwe still importing bulbs 35 years after Rhodesia
With the thousands of graduates capped by President Robert Mugabe, 35 years after independence, Zimbabwe is still importing basic goods like light bulbs and needles. Surely there must be something wrong with what we have celebrated as education which was really just scraping the surface. This is thus abundantly reflecting the fact that the real engineers are the poor insignificant ones who are humble for knowledge, and those who have graduated to become professional engineers, holders of colourful pieces of paper, must bow down in greater humility so to learn from these wise and innovative ones who are needed on the world market.
These are the people the world needs to come out and release from within their powerful selves their life saving superhuman prowess, and why shouldn’t Zimbabweans envision themselves manufacturing breakthrough technologies? The Wright Brothers of Zimbabwe are there within this country, they only need to come out. What is required is the confidence and the “we-can-do-it” attitude – Zimpolicy Dialogue Institute – Moses Mutyasira-Director, Tapiwa Kapurura and Patrick Tom, Sydney Barson (Board Members), Denzel Romol Nkhata, and Misheck Hogwe- Board Chairperson.
A Nigerian woman has surpassed Oprah Winfery on the rich list making her the richest black woman.
Folorunsho Alakija, a business tycoon has edged past Oprah Winfrey with a fortune of $7.3bn to Oprah’s $2.9bn. Folorunsho Alakija
According to Ventures Africa magazine’s Rich List, Alakija generated her wealth from oil and gas.
The magazine noted that it was widely believed that Alakija’s friendship with Maryam Babangida, the late wife of former head of state, Ibrahim Babangida, played a huge role in her acquisition of an oil block she bought way back in 1993.
National President of Independent Shareholders Association (ISAN), Sunny Nwosu said that her ranking as world’s richest black woman is understandable because she has one of the biggest oil wells in the country that is managed on her behalf by a leading multinational oil corporation.
“Her oil well is one of the investments the military government bequeathed to people like her,” Nwosu said.
However, a UK based Business Consultant, Philip Obi cautions that Alakija’s stand is shaky because oil is fast losing value in the face of falling oil prices.
Obi added that unless she decides to diversify, her 90% wealth in oil, her standing looks unsteady considering the alternative energy potential.
“The world is going digital,” Obi said.
Very soon, wealth will no longer be what we use to know; look at Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
“That is where the world is going- it is going digital,”he added.
According to Ventures Africa, Africa boasts 55 billionaires and they’re worth approximately $143.88 billion in total. Alakija’s Background
At age seven, Folorunsho travelled to the United Kingdom to begin a four-year primary education at Dinorben School for Girls in Wales. She returned to the UK in her later years for her secretarial studies at Pitman’s Central College, London. She also studied fashion design at the American College, London and the Central School of Fashion.
Alakija started her career as a secretary in a bank in 1974.
She started a fashion label called Supreme Stitches but her biggest break came in oil.
In 1993, her company, Famfa Oil, was awarded an oil prospecting license, which later became OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolific oil blocks.
The company owns a 60 per cent stake in the block, valued at around $7.3 billion.
As of 2014, she was listed as the 96th most powerful woman in the world.
Zimbabwe’s largest mobile-phone network operator, Econet, has finally bowed down to a Postal and Tele-communications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) directive as they yesterday announced they were slashing down their voice tariffs by at least 30%.
Before yesterday, Econet had resorted to fighting PORTRAZ in court, a move which has since been reversed, as the company joined Telecel Zimbabwe and the TelOne the latter two who complied with the PORTRAZ directive earlier.
The directive issued in October, was effective by 1st January, meaning Econet acted with the stipulated timeframe despite their earlier protest.
“Please note that tariffs have been reduced to 15c/min for Econet to Econet calls and 16c/min to local networks effective 1 January 2015,” Econet announced on Thursday.
The average tariff for the three networks put together stood at 23 cents per minute before the reduction.
The POTRAZ directive was due to a public outcry which prompted a survey by regulator discovering that mobile phone users were being overcharged by more than 30 percent.
South Africa has made a move and is set to start deporting more than 40,000 Zimbabweans who failed to apply for their visa extensions under the special dispensation mitigated by that government under request from Harare.
The deadline for any and all Zimbabweans in South Africa wanting to apply for a permit to stay in the country legally is the 31st, the home affairs department revealed as reported on ZimEye on the 31st December.
A Home Affairs officer has said following the announcement illegal Zimbabweans are to be forcibly removed from that country.
“The closure of the Zimbabwean special permit application process [is] by end of business today, 31 December,” the department said in a statement as earlier reported.
As of Tuesday, 207 802 applications had been received, while 198 840 appointments had been booked through VFS, a private company to which home affairs had outsourced certain visa and permit processes.
A total of 245 000 Zimbabweans living in South Africa were eligible to apply for the new permit.
The department said that besides the close of applications for Zimbabwean special permits, permits issued under an older system, the Dispensation for Zimbabwean Project (ZSP) also expired today – no matter their original expiry date.
Last month, the department announced it would allow people with the expired older permits to still use these documents to travel in and out of South Africa during the festive season until December 31.
Zimbabweans in the country illegally were granted an opportunity from 2009 to legalise their stay via the permit, due to the political and socio-economic conditions in that country.
Previously, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said all the new permits should be issued by the end of April next year. They would be valid until the end of 2017.
A similar permit process for the Basotho, Mozambicans, and other Southern African Development Community nationals is expected to be implemented in future.
– Sapa
United Family International Church (UFIC) founder prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa has warned politicians not to interfere in church activities, saying the only reason Zimbabwe has survived economic turmoil was because of the existence of churches.
Makandiwa told congregants at his crossover all night prayer on New Year’s Eve in Chitungwiza that most churches were not violating the country’s rules thus deserved respect from the government.
“What will bring us down as a nation is the day you start fighting the body of Christ, there shall be serious hunger in the nation.
“As a government, if you see a small group of people worshipping and you don’t understand them, best you just leave them… When I talk about the church, I do not refer to UFIC alone, I mean all churches in the country,” Makandiwa said.
Makandiwa was quick to point out that the economy had been aided by the prayers most churches hold every week.
“What has been keeping Zimbabwe alive to date is not the politician but the church, if it was not so, humans would be boiling their own babies for food. The church has been the only reason for our survival,” he said.
The preacher also warned that a “hunger of untold proportions” was going to befall the country if politicians continued disrespecting the church.
“Muri kuti mafa nenzara. Haisati yatanga (the hunger situation will worsen,”) the popular preacher said.
The country’s industry is in a deplorable state, with many companies shutting down and many more projected to as the country’s economy deteriorates further.
Official statistics indicate that at least 4 500 companies have closed shop since 2011, sending more than 55 443 employees onto the streets.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa was forced to lower the country’s 2014 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth projections from an initial 6,1 percent to 3,1 percent — which latter figure economic analysts said was still too optimistic.
Makandiwa said the church held the key to redeeming Zimbabwe from the tight liquidity conditions and high unemployment rates the country is grappling with.
Chinamasa has also predicted a 3,2 percent GDP growth for 2015, indicating that the limping economy will at best be largely stagnant in the new year.
In his 2015 budget statement, Chinamasa also warned that recurrent expenditure will go up to 92 percent in 2015, the bulk of it going to pay wages of the government’s 235 000 strong workforce.
Makandiwa, who recently scoffed at statements aligning him to any political party in Zimbabwe after his “bloodshed” prophecy, said government-church relations had to be stable for better economic conditions.
Makandiwa also took a swipe at politicians who seek medical attention out of the country, saying it took away the confidence of most Zimbabweans in the country’s health system.
“We have some who leave the country to seek medical attention, we have hospitals in this country, and there are many healing systems here. This defeats the whole purpose in everything,” he said.
The firebrand preacher also said he was not a prosperity bringer to his congregants, but instead sought to bring blessing.
“I am not a prophesy teacher, that is an understatement, I am a blessing teacher and you can only receive prosperity once you have understood the doctrine of blessings.
“Until you begin to think like a king, you remain in the church and not in the kingdom,” he said.
Makandiwa who hurled over the coals, all politicians who harassed churches, also said the only hope for unity in a country consumed by power struggles also lay in the church.
Late last year, Zimbabwe saw a shocker purge within the ruling party, Zanu PF, which saw President Robert Mugabe firing former vice president Joice Mujuru from government together with 15 other ministers whom he publicly accused of plotting to murder him.
Church and government have in the past locked horns with some government officials calling for the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to tax all churches. – Daily News
By ZimEye Citizen Reporter|A policeman based in Kwekwe crashed a borrowed car (pictured at parked at Sebakwe Hotel) on New Years eve in an accident that has had the story twisted and vital evidence suppressed. Because information was systematically twisted, it was not clear where and how exactly the accident occurred. The vehicle however could be seen parked outside the Sebakwe Hotel.
Popular Nigerian self-proclaimed Prophet T.B Joshua hosted a New Year’s memorial service for the South African relatives of people killed in the September 12 building collapse at his church in Lagos.
A total 116 people were killed in the September disaster, one of many in Nigeria’s never ending year on year building collapses caused by structural construction failings which involve cheap cement and other shoddy materials used to build.
Many driven by hopelessness make the pilgrimage to the prophet’s synagogue in search of “deliverance and blessings”.
T.B Joshua who claims to see into the future, failed to forsee the impending danger in his own backyard that claimed the lives of 81 South Africans caused by the obvious failings well documented over ten years in the country. Three Zimbabweans and a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo were also among the dead, having used South African passports.
According to the church’s spokesman in South Africa, Kirsten Nematandani, the memorial service is aimed at “commiserating and offering spiritual support” to the bereaved families.
Joshua is one of Nigeria’s wealthiest pastors who draws prominent politicians from across Africa as part of his flock. Forty four families have already taken up the all expenses paid week-long trip to Nigeria which started on Christmas day.
The prophet was also earlier reported to have made a R50 000 donation towards funeral expenses to each family of the victims, repatriated two months after the disaster.
Most South Africans on social media condemned the move, suggesting that the trip was a bribe meant to discourage the relatives from filing lawsuits over the deaths.
Meanwhile, the Lagos state coroner is carrying out an inquest into what led to the collapse of the guesthouse situated within the church compound. Expert witnesses have said the building was unsound and lacked proper permits. But the “miracle worker” and seer has suggested it was an act of sabotage caused by a Nigerian government plane flying above it. Evidence of explosives has however remained elusive and merely suggestive at the preacher’s behest.
Joshua has three times failed to appear at the inquest to answer questions with his lawyers fighting to stop the investigation. His loyalists claim it is “inappropriate” for a man of God to be subjected to questioning.
Meanwhile families of the eleven outstanding victims still awaiting DNA identification will be invited after the remains are sent back to South Africa.
It never rains but pours for Chief Njelele’s villages, as the chief was caused to preside over a case involving a Chemumvuri albino woman who is seeking a peace order from the chief’s court, following her husband’s weird sexual behaviour.
Chengetayi Muwandi 36, of Chemumvuri village under chief Njelele in Gokwe, has since reported to the village court, complaining of her husband’s sexual appetite, that she described as weird and out of this world. The mother of two told ZimEye.com that she is regretting the day she fell in love with Chandipa Marongere 41 of the same village.
“I am regretting the day I said ‘I do’ to this man. He was a good husband during our first four years together, but now he has turned into a sexual animal. From the time he started drinking beer last year, he has become a nightmare in bed. The past three months have been horrific for me, because when he arrives home at midnight, he goes on top and will only go down until the morning at around 7am and I would then hardly walk to work. I am a vendor and have to walk 10km to Gokwe centre to sell my wares,” said Chengetayi with tears dripping from her eyes.
The village head Gwinyai Zendera, confirmed receiving the complaint, and he has since forwarded it to Chief Njelele, who was said to be in Harare for business. “I have forwarded the issue to the chief, and I am waiting for his response, so that we can preside over the case soon,” said Zendera.
Chengetayi has since relocated to her parents who are a few kilometres from their home they built with Chandipa four years ago. Efforts to get comment from the husband Chandipa, were fruitless as he was not cooperative and threatening to assault this journalist if the story was going to published.
ZimEye.com tried in vain to reach Chief Njelele, as his cellphone was not reachable by the time the article was set to hit the press. Several villagers from Chemumvuri confirmed the incident but attacked the wife for reporting her husband to the village court on bedroom issues.
However, Chengetayi stood by her decision of leaving her husband, who she said ‘has turned into a ruthless sexual animal, and forgets that it’s a love making interaction, not a sexual battle.’
Zimbabwe’s most controversial and one publicly labeled a “bloody and satanic minister”, has been voted as Mashonaland West Provincial Minister Faber Chidadike whose files were opened and it was revealed he was found with a fresh bloodied human skull in his boot, claiming later that it belonged to a pedestrian he had knocked down.
Minister Chidarikire also has against his name a police report pulled showing how he at a different time in 1987 killed a teenage girl in 1987 and in cold blood mutilating her body allegedly for Satanic ritual purposes to enhance luck in business.
His reputation stank further when in a gaffe he equated Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife to the First Lady Grace Mugabe. Emotions boiled further when of Chidarike, a ZANU PF woman voiced back saying, “no woman can be equated to our only anointed Amai Grace Mugabe. She is an angel sent to this country to liberate all women and men.
“She is anointed by the spirit of Ambuya Nehanda.”
Chidarikire was seconded by former Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation icon Josiah Hungwe who equated Emmerson Mnangagwa to Jesus Christ.
The executive order by President Robert Mugabe, to kick-start refurbishment of Harare-Masvingo-Beit-bridge Highway, in spite of the pending court case challenging commencement of its construction, is a welcome development which would transform the country in 2015. This highway is not only critical to Zimbabweans, but is also the life-line of survival for the rest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. It is an essential trade route for all nation states in Southern Africa as it is a link route to the sea via South Africa.
At the moment this road is characterized by numerous fatal road carnages because it cannot accommodate adequately the volumes of vehicles that flow on it daily. The prospect of this road’s construction, which is over-due, comes as a relief to citizens who have been waiting for this development for too long.
It is also encouraging to note that Dr Obert Mpofu, the Minister of Transport, is creating an air-tight control on Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA), which is tasked to collect toll-gate fees. Toll-gate fees are expected to fund the construction of roads nation-wide. Dr Mpofu’s operational strategy will ensure that cash leakages, poor management and corruption, are plugged.
In view of the foregoing, we are certain that toll-gate fess will be put to good use for national development. It is important that we should realize that a good road network is an indispensible pre-requite component for development as it makes easy and fast movement of capital goods and manpower as well as encouraging tourism activities.
As a nation, we need to open a clean slate of national development in 2015 with suitable competent people taking the lead. The President should be praised for removing corrupt elements from Government that had behaviours inconsistent with their national obligations in Government. Such people have selfish-personalized ambitions, which are at variance with the spirit of ZIM-ASSET which is expected to turn-around the national fortunes.
At the same time, this is an era to fight corruption to the bitter end until all wicked perpetrators are slumped into the frying pan of justice.
Former Reserve Bank governor Giden Gono has spoken in the wake of allegations that he owns vast tracts of land in the second capital, Bulawayo. Dr Gono in the below response in full explained that he does not own anything beyond a residential stand whose house has truly not been developed since 1992 not of his fault but that off the council which has failed to provide water supplies to the property.
Below was Gono’s response in full:
1. Recent media reports emanating from Bulawayo City Council have suggested that “ Dr Gideon Gono is among a number of top politicians and business people being investigated for owning “vast “tracts of land in Bulawayo which they have neglected developing over the years.
2. The reports further state that my family risks losing the “vast tracts of land to Council for unpaid rates”.
3. A few people were also named in the report as falling in the same category of “ land barons” at risk of losing their properties.
4. While I cannot speak on behalf of any of the listed land owners, and do not dispute the fact that my family have not been able to move an inch to develop our “vast piece of land/stand due to reasons the City Council is aware of (water etc), I, however, find it strange that neither the Bulawayo City Council itself nor the media practitioners who carried the story failed to provide vital statistics that would have given the public a better appreciation of the “size of the land” each of the “listed land barons” own, and the amounts owed to the city council in respect thereof.
5. Appreciating though that not everyone is adequately trained to deal with and skilled in writing financial and economic reports apart from a universal ability to raise disproportionate alarm that borders on skullduggery in the absence of facts, my family wishes to set the record straight, in the interest of public disclosure of a now public matter to what the “ vast piece(s) of land”we own in Bulawayo entail and in the process, hopefully, give a template to future reports of the same nature:
6. Name and description of property owned: “a certain undeveloped piece of land situate…called Lot 81 Windsor Park…. Bulawayo.
7. SIZE of Land: 4 166 square metres (about 1 acre).
8. Title Deed no: 945/92
9. Name of registered owner: Gideon Gono.
10. Bought for $25 000 (Twenty five thousand Zimdollars)
11. Date of Purchase: 9 April, 1992.
12. Estimated current value: US$10-15 000.
13. Outstanding rates: less than US$1 500,00.
14. This “VAST” piece of undeveloped land will, after paying off the rates owing, be surrendered in exchange for fair value, to City of Bulawayo.
15. There is no need to waste resources “investigating” anything pertaining to this property when Council could better use the resources so earmarked to improve water supplies in and around Windsor Park area, the very reason why my family opted, way back, to purchase a completely built house in the City of Kings and Queens, than develop that “one acre vast piece of land into a house”.
16. Hopefully the media will in future try to place their facts in proper context so they do not mislead the public for reasons best known to the authors as a certain section of society outside Bulawayo was already excited about this “Gono corruption…of owning vast tracts of land when others do not have half an acre to build their houses…and dispatching people to my home area ( Buhera) with the report and to spread news of Gono’s corruption” KIKIKIKIKIK!
17. Where people have legitimate queries or concerns about my integrity and family property portfolio, including what, where, how acquired, they should seek answers in a proper manner, in a proper context, and answers will always be happily provided! Happy and prosperous 2015!
Dr G Gono
Farmers duped millions of dollars by a Zanu PF linked company, Lasch Investments, were yesterday shut out by Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The farmers who yesterday besieged the ruling party’s headquarters in Harare seeking audience with Mnangagwa on the fate of their flopped agricultural inputs scheme,
Despite their concerted efforts, Mnangagwa reportedly snubbed them demanding that they rather present their grievances in writing at his Munhumutapa offices.
At least 500 furious farmers, some of whom had been camped in Harare since the beginning of December, were angry with the Zanu PF leadership claiming they urged them to join the scheme, but were now avoiding them at their time of need.
The farmers claimed that they visited Mnangagwa on Saturday at his Sherwood farm and presented their demands and the Acting President promised to take the matter up with President Robert Mugabe, who is on his annual leave in the Far East.
They claimed that Mugabe through State House director Dzepasi Innocent Tizora had promised to give them fertilisers yesterday.
But they were dismayed when they came and found nothing. This forced them to call newly appointed Zanu PF youth league leader Pupurai Togarepi, whom they claimed was snubbing their calls since morning.
After failing to access fertiliser against “a promise from Mugabe” angry farmers dispatched a 10-member committee led by Manicaland farmer Agrippa Lewanji to Mnangagwa’s offices at Munhumutapa Building demanding to meet him.
“The VP has asked us to compile our grievances and present them to his office,” Lewanji said.
This, however, angered other farmers, who besieged Zanu PF headquarters claiming they had written several reports since last September, but received nothing while the farming season was advancing.
“What is new that he (Mnangagwa) wants us to write? We sent the committee to Kwekwe and he knows our problems. He should come to address us since Pupurai is not picking calls. We are not leaving this place until the VP comes to address us,” one farmer said angrily. Absolom Sikhosana must provide answers
Meanwhile ZANU PF’s 60 Year Old Youth Leader was nearly bashed as farmers countrywide went into a rage against the ruling party ZANU PF “for defrauding them of of their hard earned cash which they paid for the Government Inputs Loan Scheme, which the farmers are yet to receive.
The scheme, which was a joint venture between Lasch Enterprises and the ZANU PF Youth League, has manifested an outcry in for instance the Mudzi district. Details obtained from Chimukoko village reveals that $2 was paid to AREX, $36 administration fee and $30 insurance fee, which guarantees a 25kg of maize seed, 8x50kgs of Compound D and 6x50kgs of top dressing fertiliser, which accumulates to $68. Chimukoko alone, which has three wards, paid $6000 which was deposited into a CBZ Bank account.
There are over twenty wards in Mudzi district which culculates to about $40,000 that was swindled from ordinary people in Mudzi. “The rains have fallen in most parts of the country, and yet we are still hoping for the inputs to come. Right now I don’t have any grain to plant, and I wish I would have kept my money and buy the little inputs with that money. Rains have come, and I need to plant but the government is cross legged.” said an irate Chimukoko villager.
In Harare, Central Committee member Absolom Sikhosana was on the 12th December detained overnight by angry farmers, while national director for youth affairs Tapiwa Zengeya was force-marched from the Willowvale industrial area to the party’s headquarters as farmers demonstrated against a company jointly-owned by Zanu-PF youth wing and Lasch Investment for failing to deliver inputs.
Over 15 000 farmers might have been duped of varying amounts of money they contributed to the company with the promise that they would get farming inputs this season. Sikhosana confirmed spending the whole night on Thursday detained by farmers at Cold Storage Company, before Zengeya was detained after coming to rescue his colleague.
Said Sikhosana: “I was detained by farmers on Thursday night after I had gone to explain the situation. Farmers said I was supposed to spend the night under harsh conditions so that I could understand their plight. When I tried to drive away, the farmers mobbed my car and blocked me until 4am,” he said.
“We cannot pay back farmers their money. The project relies on membership subscriptions and have since been exhausted. All along the management was trying to get support but it has not materialised. The scheme is unable to provide inputs because it has run out of money,” he said.
Meanwhile Police Spokesperson Charity Charamba has confirmed that the farmers reported a fraud case, while Sikhosana reported a kidnapping case. – Newsday/ZimEye
My fellow Zimbabweans, with joy ad humility, please allow me to wish you a great and promising 2015. We had quite an eventful 2014 that at times shook our beautiful Zimbabwe. Politics, economics and social forces all played their part but they never set us apart. That is why we are still here.
Zimbabwean we are and Zimbabwean we shall ever be. Our main challenge now is to appeal to our leaders to realize the need to make Zimbabwe a better place. The beauty of those foreign nations they visit for conferences should be emulated, benchmarked and planted at home. The same applies to those foreign hospitals our leaders visit when not feeling well. We have great colleges and universities that can make that possible. We cherish for the long-gone good old days when we had plenty to eat and share, when many of us had jobs and were happy and settled at home. Now we are everywhere across the globe as we search for livelihood. (Kuyaura kweasina musha) With determination, unity and hard work, we shall all be home and resume our old legacy of peace, joy, abundance and comfort.
This 2015, I wish we could be as inventive as we can in terms of what we can do better as a nation. Our people need food, jobs and good health care. We need to put our heads together and see how we can align our skills and mindsets to serve our country. Mind you, none, but ourselves can restore the sweet yesteryear era of comfortable living.
Zimbabwe is a great country. We have vast resources. Our people have the skills and the education. We have a solid foundation through powerful human capital. To add to that, we are a conscious nation. Despite economic and political challenges, we have never lost hope. Those at home continue to defend the fort. Those in the Diaspora complement that home-triggered effort. Annual cash remittances going home speak volumes about how much love and care Zimbabweans still have for each other. That communal spirit and love for each other as families, neighbours or friends has kept Zimbabwe going.
My last challenge is for all skilled men and women to put their wits together to invent, explore and manufacture possibilities. Let us remain united for the national good. The duty is on us to keep our Zimbabwe one of the best African countries. In that effort, let us remain united and hard working not by word of mouth but by practical action.
Thank you too for the continued support for Chimurenga Music. This 2015, we have a few surprises for you our fans. You have supported us through Facebook and related internet music purchases for all these years. We appreciate that and will keep delivering because without you, we would be nowhere. There would be no Chimurenga music.
Thank you Zimbabwe for remaining dedicated and focused despite some occasional hurdles. Happy 2015! Thomas “Mukanya” Mapfumo Chimurenga Music King
The Reserve Bank has with immediate effect cancelled Interfin Bank’s life and existence after deeming it to be operationally beyond redemption. Below was a statement by the Central Bank.
Members of the public are advised that the curatorship period for Interfin Bank Limited expired on 31 December 2014.
2. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (hereinafter referred to as the Reserve Bank) has, in terms of section 57 of the Banking Act [Chapter 24:20], applied to the High Court of Zimbabwe for the liquidation of the banking institution.
3. The primary purpose of placing the banking institution under curatorship was to protect depositors and preserve the assets of the banking institution, with the intention of resuscitating the banking institution to become a viable concern.
4. There were various initiatives and attempts to resuscitate the banking institution by the Curator. A total of 12 potential investors were considered. However none of the proposals put forward yielded any positive results and the institution’s condition continued to
deteriorate in the absence of concrete recapitalisation plans.
5. The Reserve Bank determined that it was no longer feasible to resuscitate the banking institution as a viable concern as all efforts to re-capitalise the banking institution have yielded no positive results and any further extension of curatorship would only further prejudice depositors and creditors.
6. The Reserve Bank has taken the action indicated herein as it considers it to be in the best interests of the banking institution, its depositors and creditors, and the public in general.
ZimEye.com brings you live updates from Alloa, Scotland where pentecostal preacher and founder of AGAPE For All Nations, pastor Walter Masocha is on trial on charges of sexual misconduct and sexual assault.
Child witness(es) are testifying on video away from the building, for their protection.
11:50Hrs – Court Clerk explains why case was transferred to Falkirk. “The case can only be heard for a period of eight days and the only centre that can hold that is Falkirk,” she says.
11:45Hrs – Case moved to 1st April. It will be heard in Falkirk.
11:30Hrs – The trial which was meant to resume this morning with witnesses and church members converging to the court house the day before, was moved to April after it was determined it needs 8 days in a row to finalise.
Let’s be optimistic for 2015
By Stewart Murewa
Judging from the events and interventions made by the government in the past twelve months , the new year seems to be very promising, that is if all stakeholders do not sit on their laurels and sleep on duty. Syllogism that is deductive reasoning shows that the economy of this country is going to improve drastically as opposed to what the prophets of doom in the newsrooms are saying.
Of concern is that the country continues to struggle in attracting meaningful foreign direct investment (FDI), hence our enemies coupled with the prophets of doom who are singing for their supper are pessimistic about the economic future of the country. Progressive and like-minded patriotic Zimbabweans think otherwise and view the country moving in the right direction forthwith.
But notwithstanding the challenges plaguing the local economy, there is now growing optimism that Zimbabwe is now ready to do business. This is epitomized by the mega deals which were signed by the government and other countries in an endeavour to prop up the economy.
The landmark multi-billion dollar deals signed with Russia and China tellingly indicate that Zimbabwe has now allied with cooperating partners that are willing to underwrite projects intended to cover the country’s infrastructural deficit. Thus, once the deals are rolled out they have the potential to provide the stimulus to the economic acceleration.
We have to take cognizance that projects in water, power and telecommunications are largely regarded as key enablers for economic growth. Moreover the platinum mining project in Darwendale, which Zimbabwe entered into with Russia, is considered to be the key to the country’s future economic growth prospects. Three miners already operating in the country- Zimplats, Mimosa and Unki have combined output of about 430 000 ounces a year.
Most importantly, it is estimated that the new platinum project will create more than 8 000 jobs and a smelter will also be established. This dovetails with the country’s economic blueprint, Zim Asset, which mainly emphasizes on value addition and beneficiation.
Already the country is haemorrhaging significant revenues through exporting ore to South African refiners. We should also remember that the country has the second largest known platinum reserves in the world after South Africa and is the world’s third largest producer of the metal.
Through bilateral agreements China has committed to providing financial assistance to critical sectors such as energy, roads, tourism, railway network, telecommunications and agriculture. If all the stakeholders work with a common allegiance we will reach the promised land of milk and honey. Hence Zimbabwe will be the beacon of economic prosperity in the region.
The British and Turkish delegations were recently sent to Zimbabwe to explore investment opportunities in various sectors of the local economy. In addition to this. big brands have returned to Zimbabwe in the likes of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Chippies and Puma Energy. It would be wise and valid to conclude that Zimbabwe will spring-up and prosper sooner!
Zimbabwe’s most prominent dancehall stomper, Souljah Love has landed in the UK in a surprise new year shocker.
The musician who last month became the talk of the whole nation, is staging in Coventry tonight at10pm. The gig ends a week long string of shows across the UK.
The function which runs all night, starts at Platinum Night Club, Tower Street, Coventry, CV1 1JN.
Also on stage will be the legendary Madiz, and Harare’s Extra Large.
This accident which claimed one life and injured three people, occurred on the Gweru – Bulawayo highway on Sunday 28th Dec at about 15:00 hrs. The vehicles involved including a brand new BMW were damaged beyond recognition.
Bulawayo Pumula South based spiritual Pentecostal worshippers have said their Bishop and founder uses mermaid powers to heal congregants and would be church members.
According to a source privy to the goings on in the church hierarchy who refused to be named, ‘the church leader consults so called mermaids, and this is usually done close to water sources. The healing process is all done with bottled water as per instructions from the so called water- human like creatures.
Visiting Pumula South every evening, near where the Prophet does his healing sessions, one would mistake the place for a bottling company dumpsite, as the fortune teller uses bottles to (as claimed) break all evil chains and bondages that may be causing suffering to church members and would be members.
This reporter captured one of the members in action, and talking to a bottle which was half- full of something that looked like water. “Yimi yimi , Nkululeko… ngifuna imali yami le mota yami olayo masinyane… ngiyayifuna kusasa… kusasa… ilanga lingakatshoni!” shouted the man in a navy blue suit while shaking the bottle and breaking it against a big stone just opposite Bulawayo Heroes acre, along Khami road.
Asked what he was doing, the man replied, “None of your business ndoda. Uthunyiwe yini!” he shouted, before leaving the broken bottle on top of another heap of broken flagons.
The development has roped in beverages company, Delta. According to a Delta official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the company visited the area anticipating that their bottles were being broken, but only to find that they were all non-returnable and many were being imported.
The pint sized prophet Ngwenya, kept postponing appointments with ZimEye, for a comment on whether it is true that he uses mermaid powers. His close security also kept rescheduling appointments for this journalist, as they were said to be always busy with clients from SA and Botswana, who will have come to be served by the alleged mermaid powers.
Several people, who stay in Pumula South near the place where Prophet Ngwenya conducts his sessions, confirmed that the man of the cloth uses so called “powers” which are water sourced.
Another congregant, Ms Sibongile Nkiwane, told this journalist that she was helped by the powers to recover her passport and goods which were stolen at the Botswana boarder. “I was just told to buy one of our bottles, and I wrote what I wanted on a piece of paper before putting it inside the bottle and telling the bottle what I want and hit it against others. In three days, I was called to go and collect my disappeared goods at a place in Kelvin industrial area where I found all my belongings even though they were opened, but I recovered them all,” she boasted.
RadioDialogue|Zimbabweans working and studying in South Africa have until today (Wednesday) to apply for special Zimbabwe Dispensation permits to remain in that country.
South African media reported that Zimbabweans living in that country have called on the South African government to put more application centres across the country to enable them to apply for the permits, that will allow them to stay in South Africa for another three years, before deadline day.
Some of the Zimbabweans who spoke to South African media houses suggested the Home Affairs Department should have deployed more personnel and placed them at certain places to help with their applications.
Others felt the South African government could have opted to put up internet cafes to allow them to easily access and carry out the application process online.
Already, some Zimbabweans who came back home to celebrate the Christmas holidays with their families have started trickling back to South Africa fearing the looming Wednesday deadline.
However, earlier the South African Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba, said Zimbabweans who are holders of the permit should be able to go home, and return to South Africa next year without fear of being penalised or declared “undesirable.”
In August, the South African government announced a new permit regime for Zimbabweans resident in that country.
Over 250000 Zimbabweans were granted five year permits under the special dispensation exercise.
The permits were set to expire at the end of this year with South African authorities initially indicating that the permits will not be renewed.
The Department of Home Affairs is expecting more than 245 000 people to apply for the special permits.
Gigaba then said he was happy with the number of applications that have come in so far and advised people not to panic. – RadioDialogue
We just wanted to wish you our ZimEye readers a Happy and Prosperous 2015. We know it has been quite a journey as we went about giving you the latest news and stories through our “No guts, No Story” mantra. At times we reported under stringent conditions but we tried our best to keep you fed and informed.
As many of you will recall, 2015 was an interesting year. It started with the nabbing of suspects in the Baba Jukwa saga. We saw the Kudzai brothers being dragged before the Rotten Row courts and we heard about certain police officers who were investigating the case having been reportedly allowed to travel to Simi Valley in California USA to meet Google representatives as the case unfolded. We then heard that Kudzai challenged Inspector Makendenge to put his passport on the table as he doubted if the cops had ever even, been on a plane in their lives, let alone set feet in the USA.
Then we heard about the Grace Mugabe Doctorate award from the University of Zimbabwe. That raised a lot of eyebrows as many deemed it fake, stolen and undeserving since she was alleged to have “ordered” it by phone like pizza using her status as First Lady. Many students and academics the world over registered their concern as she became the fastest person to earn a Doctorate in a space of two months and without a proven researched thesis that was ever defended. Many politicians who were apologetic came to her defence and naively stated that there was no way she could not have earned the PhD since she lived with the President of Zimbabwe who was known to have so many academic degrees. Some college students sued on the matter to have the PhD invalidated but politics played its part and the case died a natural death. From that incident many other cases of fake degree awards started emerging especially from the UZ as politicians and their close friends and family members went in a “gold rush” to order or demand fake degrees and diplomas from the institution. That marked the collapse of a once trusted academic institution. Even Walter Kamba turned in his grave in 2014 as countless Grade 7 dropouts “earned” degrees that they hardly knew what they stood for or meant.
We also heard a top ZANU PF journalist analysing that Grace Mugabe’s buttocks Mugabe had become hot national talk, all due to epic failures at public speaking where in one occasion Grace had as it were, accidentally blurted the word ‘buttocks’ during her “Scare The People” campaigns.
In the same 2014 Grace Mugabe emerged as a contender for the head of the Women’s League. Oppah Muchinguri was allegedly taken by surprise and ordered to give way to Grace Mugabe. She kept her public face and drummed her support that was later rewarded with a position as Minister of Higher Education. Many students registered concern and even went on to make fun of her in that they saw no value in having a higher education minister who did not carry higher education credentials.
The rise of Grace Mugabe came with some fashionable words like Mazowe Crush as she launched her attacks from her Mazowe Farm. Other accompanying common words became “Gamatox” and “Weevils”. These words led to an expose of the in-house wranglings in ZANU PF. They then escalated to dizzying heights and no sooner than later some prominent cadres off the Central Committee or Politburo wagon. Notably VP Joice Mujuru, Didymus Mutasa, Nicholas Goche, Webster Shamu and many others were abandoned in the peak of the Congress. Some developed high blood pressure complications as others simply suffered quietly as they tried to save face. The public responded by either cheers or groans as some saw the purging being vital for Zimbabwe. Others however viewed the purging as merely retrogressive.
It was a good year for the First family. Their daughter Bona got married to Simba Chikore and Grace earned a PhD. Later rumours would swirl about Bona not having a baby and Chikore seeing other women but the speculation quickly died a natural death.
Then the Renewal Party became an off shoot of the MDC as there were some internal power struggles. Biti became the leader but the public questioned the lack of creativity in any opposition force in Zimbabwe for it seemed as though without an MDC prefic there could not be any sign of survival. People had become tired of the MDC syndrome after MDC-T, MDC-N, MDC-99, MDC-M and the MDC Renewal. Many questioned such lack of intellectual inventiveness but as one concluded, “an apple would never fall far away from its tree”
Then Mwonzora batted it out with Chamisa and won the Secretary General position. By coincidence Mwonzora would suffer continued persecution on his case just after the Chamisa defeat making some try to suspect some foul play as there could be no smoke without fire. In the MDC, President Tsvangirai would be allegedly running low on funds for livelihood but that was dismissed as cheap propaganda since he was collecting a government pension as ex-PM.
Sikhala emerged from his MDC T and rejoined the MDC T with a thud. He continued making some bold statements on anything of personal interest and at some point he was allegedly picked by the Law and Order for questioning. He later reported some torture but the public demanded better proof.
Then Minister Kembo Mohadi became notorious for disobeying High Court orders in Beitbridge as he wrestled for control of some immovable assets in the area. He later just went quiet in the face of the looming purging where some notorious stalwarts were being thrown off the deck. Philip Chiyangwa bounced back allegedly via the back door and he reclaimed some prominence.
Themba Mliswa started making noise over the “Gay Gangster” allegations. That was after his name was drawn into some corruption and scandal issues. Later he was slapped by a lady in Chinhoyi. The ultimate end saw Mliswa losing his chairmanship.
Simon Khaya Moyo did not have a good 2014. As he hoped to strike the VP post, he actually was shocked to almost lose his ZANU PF seat in the politburo. Then from ZANU PF indoors, Obert Mpofu was attacked by Jona Moyo as he was labelled an “elephant body with a mouse brain” after allegedly trying to get a prominent Matabeleland ZANU PF stalwart thrown off the Politburo.
It was not a good year for Gideon Gono as well. He was denied entry into main stream politics and became a nonentity.
Four significant people in ZANU PF became Patrick Zhuwawo, Jona Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere and Oppah Muchinguri.
Overally the economy continued to face the downhill. No new jobs were created despite the colorful ZIMASSET promise. The year was dominated more by ZANU PF insider politics than anything else.
In showbiz Tocky Vibes stole the nation and replaced Jah Prayzah on fame.
Happy New Year Zimbabwe!!!!
STATE MEDIA:Four cases of typhoid have been reported in Glen View and Budiriro, an official has said.
Harare City Council health director Dr Prosper Chonzi yesterday said the city was concerned about the cases of typhoid.There are a number of cases that we are receiving in Glen View and Budiriro and four cases have been confirmed after testing their stool since there was an increase in the number of diarrhoea cases in the area” he said.
Dr Chonzi said people must be vigilant about hygiene and wash their hands frequently to slow the spread of the disease.
“The moment adequate water isn’t accessible it becomes difficult to maintain personal hygiene, to cook healthy food and everything else that has to do with water.
“At the end of day, water-borne diseases become rampant so people should boil water, wash food and hands consistently,” he said.
Typhoid fever is a bacterial disease caused by Salmonella typhi. It is transmitted through the ingestion of food or water contaminated with human waste from an infected person.
Dr Chonzi dismissed rumours of typhoid outbreak in Kuwadzana and Dzivaresekwa.
“We are yet to confirm the cases in these areas even though we are having cases of diarrhoea and abdominal pains in the area. The major drivers of the typhoid outbreak are due to uncollected refuse, illegal vending,” he said.
Symptoms usually develop from about three weeks after exposure and may be mild or severe.
They include high fever, malaise, headache, constipation or diarrhoea, rose-coloured spots on the chest and enlarged spleen and liver.
The typhoid comes at a time Harare residents have had erratic water supplies and poor quality tap water.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care week 43 report since January 2014, diarrhoea cases reported are 494 490 and 754 people have succumbed to diarrhoea,with 1 148 suspected cases of typhoid, 69 confirmed cases and 11 deaths across the country.
The PG Industries has been struggling and has since restructured its debts and operations as part of a strategy to turnaround its fortunes, the company said Tuesday.Kudakwashe Waniwa, the company secretary said the company reduced its short-term borrowings from $4, 433 million in January to $958,151 by November.
“This balance is being restructured to a three-year facility,” she said in a trading update on Tuesday.
Waniwa also noted that the company – suspended from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in December last year – was in the process of converting debentures and accrued interest to ordinary share capital as would long-term borrowings of $7,5 million after approval by the shareholders in January last year.
She said $1, 1 million three-year loan facility, with a fixed annual interest rate of 12 percent per annum, was raised at the end of June. The funds used to acquire stocks and raw materials while a receipt of $1 million from Private Placement Equity Agreement is pending sanctions of the scheme.
The group’s scheme of arrangement, which was unanimously approved by shareholders in March, however, is yet to be registered following an intervention by one of its creditors. The group expects the impasse to be resolved in the first quarter of next year.
PG Industries is heavily undercapitalised and needs massive cash injection to ensure its equity position moves from negative to positive.
Market watchers assert that the company is currently technically insolvent.
Waniwa noted that during the course of 2014, PG Industries realised $1, 070 million from property disposal.
“Proceeds from these disposals were used to settle $336,169 bank loans, with the balance used to purchase stocks and raw materials. A property/debt swap was completed resulting in the full settlement of $3 138 525 secured bank loan,” she said.
She said the group’s business units, PG Building Suppliers and PG Timbers, were successfully merged into one operating division of PG Merchandising Limited. This resulted in the operations’ branch network being reduced from 18 to 15.
“PG Glass will be divisionalised from January 1, 2015. Zimtile will only be divisionalised after settling amounts due to the former minority shareholder,” said Waniwa. _The Source
It is indeed worrisome that some business people, shop owners and transport operators are not accepting bond coins from their clients citing a number of challenges that they think may affect them when they accept those coins.
It is high time these business people start accepting these bonded coins as they have value which is equivalent to the United State of American dollar. Unlike the South African rand which has a lower value than the USD, people should not be skeptical about these bond coins.
Bond coins are convenient for the public to transact easily, especially on the issue of divisibility of cash. Government’s efforts of introducing these coins is intended to ease change shortage problems that most customers face after purchasing groceries from shops, as well as pricing structures by dealers.
Zimbabwean economy is mainly dominated by the United States dollar, and South African rand for transactions, but businesses usually round-off prices and give consumers vouchers that would not be accepted in other shops or forcing them to accept bubble gums, sweets, pens, matches or trivialities as consolation of their cash because they lack minor denominations such as one cent or five cents.
Introduction of bond coins is a splendid solution to the monetary divisibility challenge which has been bedeviling Zimbabwe since 2009. These bond coins will also assist in the reduction of liquidity crunch.
Furthermore, use of bond coins will assist in restoring of correct pricing models of goods and services. It is of paramount importance that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe should continuously educate the public about these bond coins. In some rural areas people are not even aware of these bond coins and their value. Hence, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe should be encouraged to enlighten people across the nation about these coins.
However, business people should play a pivotal role in encouraging customers to accept these bond coins as they are a legal tender. Bond coins are used to buy locally, hence support the local industry as the money will be circulating locally. Coins have been there since the dawn of time, therefore these bond coins are equivalent to any other lawful currency which is currently in use in this country.
The government should enforce the universal usage of these bond coins. Honestly, bond coins should be considered as a statutory instrument that everyone should feel free to use. It is through people’s goodwill that these bond coins will buttress the multiple currency system through the provision of change especially for the US dollar notes.
The introduction of bond coins may likely assist in reducing prices of some basic products such as bread. The price of a loaf of bread has been pegged at one US dollar since the introduction of foreign currency. Most of the shop owners were citing lack of small change as the reason behind that price. However, recent reports from millers have it that the retailers were making obscene profits from that and called for a decline in the price of bread owing to the availability of smaller denominations on the market-place.
It is therefore imperative for every citizen person to accept and utilize bond coins as they are a lawful tender in Zimbabwe.
Indonesian officials have confirmed that bodies and debris found in the Java Sea off Borneo are from AirAsia flight QZ8501 that went missing on Sunday, a statement by AirAsia states. Below was the statement in full:
AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501
As of 30 December 2014 18:00 hrs LT (GMT+7)
SURABAYA, 30 DECEMBER 2014 – AirAsia Indonesia regrets to inform that The National Search and Rescue Agency Republic of Indonesia (BASARNAS) today confirmed that the debris found earlier today is indeed from QZ8501, the flight that had lost contact with air traffic control on the morning of 28th December 2014.
The debris of the aircraft was found in the Karimata Strait around 110 nautical miles south west from Pangkalan Bun. Searchers have found what they think is the missing plane’s slide
The aircraft was an Airbus A320-200 with the registration number PK-AXC. There were 155 passengers on board, with 137 adults, 17 children and 1 infant. Also on board were 2 pilots, 4 cabin crews and one engineer.
At the present time, search and rescue operations are still in progress and further investigation of the debris found at the location is still underway. AirAsia Indonesia employees have been sent to the site and will be fully cooperating with BASARNAS, National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC), and relevant authorities on the investigation.
Sunu Widyatmoko, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Indonesia said: “We are sorry to be here today under these tragic circumstances. We would like to extend our sincere sympathies to the family and friends of those on board QZ8501. Our sympathies also go out to the families of our dear colleagues.”
Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia added: “I am absolutely devastated. This is a very difficult moment for all of us at AirAsia as we await further developments of the search and rescue operations but our first priority now is the wellbeing of the family members of those onboard QZ8501.”
AirAsia Indonesia will be inviting family members to Surabaya, where a dedicated team of care providers will be assigned to each family to ensure that all of their needs are met. Counsellors, religious and spiritual personnel have also been invited to the family center to provide any necessary services.
Further information will be released as soon as it becomes available. An emergency call centre has been established and available for families seeking information.
Family members of QZ8501, please contact:
Malaysia: +60 3 21795959
Indonesia: +62 2129270811
Singapore: +65 63077688
Korea: 007 98142069940
Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families and friends of our passengers and colleagues on board QZ8501.
JAKARTA: Indonesian rescuers saw bodies and luggage off the coast of Borneo island on Tuesday and officials said they were “95 percent sure” debris spotted in the sea was from a missing AirAsia plane with 162 people on board.
Indonesia AirAsia’s Flight QZ8501, an Airbus A320-200, lost contact with air traffic control early on Sunday during bad weather on a flight from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore.
Pictures of floating bodies were broadcast on television and relatives of the missing gathered at the crisis centre in Surabaya were shown weeping, their heads in their hands.
Media quoted an air force official earlier as saying one suspected body, luggage and a life vest were among the debris in the Java Sea.
“As we approached, the body seemed bloated,” said First Lieutenant Tri Wibowo, who was on board a Hercules aircraft, was quoted by the Kompas.com website as saying.
Search and Rescue Agency chief Soelistyo told reporters he was “95 percent sure” the debris was from the missing plane.
Djoko Murjatmodjo, acting director general of air transportation at the transportation ministry, told reporters some of the debris spotted was red and white, AirAsia’s colours.
Indonesia: Bodies found near site where AirAsia plane disappearedIndonesia: Bodies found near site where AirAsia plane disappeared
“It’s probably from the aircraft,” he said.
About 30 ships and 21 aircraft from Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and the United States were searching up to 10,000 square nautical miles on Tuesday.
The plane, which did not issue a distress signal, disappeared after its pilot failed to get permission to fly higher to avoid bad weather because of heavy air traffic, officials said.
Pilots and aviation experts said thunderstorms, and requests to gain altitude to avoid them, were not unusual in that area.
The Indonesian pilot was experienced and the plane last underwent maintenance in mid-November, the airline said.
Online discussion among pilots has centred on unconfirmed secondary radar data from Malaysia that suggested the aircraft was climbing at a speed of 353 knots, about 100 knots too slow, and that it might have stalled.
DISASTERS
The plane, whose engines were made by CFM International, co-owned by General Electric and Safran of France, lacked real-time engine diagnostics or monitoring, a GE spokesman said.
Such systems are mainly used on long-haul flights and can provide clues to airlines and investigators when things go wrong.
Three airline disasters involving Malaysian-affiliated carriers in less than a year have dented confidence in the country’s aviation industry and spooked travellers across the region.
Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 went missing on March 8 on a trip from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew on board and has not been found. On July 17, the same airline’s Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia and Britain. The co-pilot was French.
U.S. law enforcement and security officials said passenger and crew lists were being examined but nothing significant had turned up and the incident was regarded as an unexplained accident.
Indonesia AirAsia is 49 percent owned by Malaysia-based budget carrier AirAsia.
The AirAsia group, including affiliates in Thailand, the Philippines and India, had not suffered a crash since its Malaysian budget operations began in 2002.
India is waiting to know what went wrong with the missing plane and will investigate if AirAsia India is following all safety procedures, a senior Indian aviation ministry official told Reuters. AirAsia India, a joint venture of the Malaysian carrier, started flying this year and is expanding operations.
The plane’s disappearance comes at a sensitive time for Indonesia’s aviation authorities, as they strive to improve the country’s safety reputation to match its status as one of the airline industry’s fastest growing markets.
– India Times/AFP
There was drama mixed in horror, an incident that left Tsholotsho residents in a flood of tears, when a brother and sister allegedly beat their father and set him on fire in a brutal movie style murder.
Onesimo Khumalo,19 and his sister Bethester 20 appeared before Tsholotsho magistrate Abednigo Ndebele for the brutal and horrifying killing of their father Kwabokwashe Khumalo.
The two are facing murder charges and were remanded in custody to January 12. They were also advised to apply to the High Court for bail.
For the State, Sikhumbuzo Sibanda said the siblings murdered their father on November 27 for unknown reasons.
“On that day, Onesmo and Bethester allegedly entered their father’s bedroom. Onesmo assaulted his father twice with a knobkerrie before dousing him with five litres of petrol. Bethester then set him and his bedroom ablaze,then the the two left their father to burn beyond recognition.” Sibanda said.
There was also another incident that happened on Boxing Day whereby a 16-year-old Tsholotsho boy was murdered in a suspected love wrangle.
Mncedisi Malaba was stabbed to death by Geofrey Ndlovu of Dombo area who is still on the run.
Police in Matabeleland North Province recently expressed concern over the escalation of violent crimes in Tsholotsho adding that rape of minors now tops the national satistics in the district.
Some time in September, High Court Judge Andrew Mutema sitting in Hwange on circuit, sentenced Makhula Ncube, Atlas Moyo and Liketso Moyo all from the Gotshani area in Tsholotsho to an effective eight years in prison for killing Shepherd Ndebele for not having a national identity card.
In his ruling, the judge lamented the fact that most of the murders in Matabeleland North were committed over trivial issues.
Harare- A syndicate of fake war veterans who raked more than 3 million dollars of public money have been arrested.
Two members of the Harare based Nehanda Housing Corporative were arrested last night in a major police breakthrough. Two others were on the run last night with cops vowing to track them down. Never Kowo and Keri Mhute, all senior managers spent the night in cells at Harare Remand and are assisting police in investigations.
“They were stealing millions from us all this while for the last fourteen years and giving all sorts of lame excuses”, a source told ZimEye.com Tuesday morning.
One of them recently bought a construction grader for $500,000 registered in his son’s name and they reportedly “built gigantic houses for themselves using our money,” the source, who is a client, said.
Kowo and secretary Mataruka, a bodyguard of President Mugabe with high rank created the estate agent for greed and to suck money from the masses who are desperate home-seekers, sources say. More to follow…
An Australian aviation expert has slapped blame for the AirAsia flight QZ8501 fracas, on the two pilots.
Expert Neil Hansford said that human error undoubtedly led to the disappearance of the plane after the pilots flew directly into a well-known danger zone above the Java Sea.
He added that either the Indonesian captain or the French first officer plotted a dangerous flight plan.
He said veteran pilots avoided the area where the plane is believed to have gone down and would not fly through it.
“They call it the thunderstorm factory,” Hansford told the Nine Network, Xinhua reported.
“You plan to go around it. You don’t plan to go through it.”
He said whoever plotted the flight plan made a fatal error.
“Whoever did the flight plan — now we don’t know whether it was the French first officer or the captain himself,” Hansford said.
“Whether they read the meteorology right they were given in Surubaya who dropped the ball? And how well did they communicate? One whose basic language is Bahasa, and the other guy’s basic language is in French.
“How good is their common English between the two of them?”
He concluded by emphatically saying it was pilot error.
“I’ve said all along it was never going to be engineering,” Hansford said.
Meanwhile, search for the missing plane resumed Tuesday. The multi-national search operation has now been expanded to a wider area, media reports said.
The Airbus A320-200 disappeared Sunday en route from Surabaya in Indonesia’s East Java to Singapore after the pilot requested a change of flight plan due to stormy weather.
The ill-fated plane was carrying 162 people, including 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, and one person each from Malaysia, Singapore, Britain and France.
AirAsia, a low-cost carrier established in 2001 by Tony Fernandes, a Malaysian of Indian descent, has dominated cheap travel in the region for years with about 100 destinations and affiliate companies in several Asian countries. – Xinhua/EconTimes India
Zimbabwe’s prominent visually challenged lawyer Mehluli Ndlovu aged 37 tied the knot with his long-time lover Chipo Mbedzi 34, who is a pastor with a local Pentecostal church, amid pomp and funfair.
The two, who revealed to ZimEye.com that they fell in love two and a half years ago after helping each other cross a zebra crossing near Tredgold Courts building, exchanged vows last Monday at a colourful ceremony that was attended by prosecutors and pastors from all walks of Zimbabwean life.
Mehluli graduated with LLB Degree from the University of Zimbabwe, and first worked as a Lawyer for five years, before joining Ministry of Justice as a Prosecutor. Mehluli who is able to go to work and head back home without any guidance, has been advocating for the recognition of the disabled.
He applauded ZimEye.com for attending his wedding. “I am glad that you are here guys. Thank you very much for showing love and care to the disabled, this will go a long way in inspiring other disabled people, that there are people who care out there, like ZimEye,” said Ndlovu.
Chipo who is also an orphan and a pastor applauded ZimEye.com for their presence at their wedding with Mehluli. “We feel honoured by your presence, and we look forward to the publishing of this wedding, that we hope will be received by the world,” smiled Chipo.
Besides being a Lawyer, Mehluli is also a Matabeleland chairperson for Padare/Enkundleni Men’s Forum on gender. He has been spearheading programs on reducing domestic violence in homes and villages in Matabeleland.
Are national leaders only those who join Zanu ? How come the birth of Gukurahundi was Joshua Nkomo’s support as Zapu leader? Why was Nkomo in Zapu harassed and terrorized and portrayed as a regional leader, hence tribal, and when he joined Zanu PF he became a national leader embraced by all? Do national leaders only have to be tied to Harare politicians? Is the 1979 Grand Plan a myth?
The same narrative is seen today in MDCT; anyone outside the Big Tent, as long as he is a Ndebele is seen as regional leader, yet if that leader is from elsewhere he is not given the regional tag. Have I heard anyone saying Tendai Biti is a regional leader? No! Have I heard anyone saying Simba Makoni is a regional leader? No! Why did Morgan Tsvangirayi and his supporters call Welshman Ncube a regional leader after the 2005 split and not before? What pissed Manheru for him to see in Dumiso Dabengwa a regional leader? Chii chakabaya pamwoyo paManheru doro rikapera mumusoro? Dabengwa is more worthy a national liberator than most living fools in Zanu PF today who are clothed in fake history. It is not Zanu PF that accords a leader a national hero status because Zanu PF is also a mere political party like any other with the exception that it is in power and is able to abuse state apparatus to remain in power.
A Christmas beer or two is no excuse for Manheru to write insensitive and diabolical nonsense on a supposedly national paper. Nathaniel Manheru should not make himself excuses out of his chrismas gluttony for the nonsense he wrote. Like all genocide monsters, why do they want the victim to be ashamed of being a victim that they made him to be? They kill your mother, father, brother, sister and dog and neighbours; laugh at you and turn around to ask if you are not ashamed that you are a surviving victim. This is what I find to be the unfair stigma Gukurahundi victims face. Reading Nathaniel Manheru’s article; Southern Zimbabwe, Ending an overdue myth, one is left wondering if the man or woman has ever lost a relative through the hand of someone. For him to say he challenges the Gukurahundi victims to come forth and discuss Gukurahundi in the media is more of an insult than asking for a discussion. Why not ask the perpetrators to come forth and own up, and tell the nation what happened, why they did it and what they suggest should be done to make good their crime? Could that even not make the victims come around and say, ‘let us reason together?’ For the perpetrator, who includes Manheru, who is assumed to be closely linked to President Mugabe, to come out blaming the victims without even showing any remorse, let alone see anything amiss with the Gukurahundi genocide smacks of arrogance, if not mere posturing to ingratiate himself with the real perpetrators. His whole article is an insult to the people of Matabeleland who bore the bulk of suffering for supporting Zapu, despite their being Khalanga, Ndebele, Sotho, Venda, Nambya, Tonga, Shona-speaking, or anything for that matter. He should have tried to defend his Gukurahundi in a better way than to be divisive simply because there is a massive complaint against the bastardisation of Sindebele language. Surely and truly, when I learnt Ndebele and later Shona, I never spoke the languages correctly! But is learning a language as an individual then an excuse for national companies and parastatals to make adverts that have wrong spellings on a national language? Why has it suddenly come up? Are there no Ndebele people who can write the language properly? Why does Manheru see it as a joke like correcting an individual how to pronounce ‘tasvika’ ‘Despicable tribal narrowness’ is from people who can not speak one of their national languages. I found nearly everyone in Bulawayo speaking Shona yet one can not easily find any one in Harare who speaks Ndebele. Who is that despicable narrow minded tribal bastard who has stopped my fellow Zimbabweans in Harare from learning iSindebele? Yes, ‘the western educated, elitist, so-fluent-in- English’ who may include me, have a right to complain about what is wrong and propagated by political intellectuals like Manheru as right!
What is this man Manheru referring to as the ‘Gukurahundi myth?’ Is he really saying it’s a myth? That it never happened? Sure? Where does he find in Gukurahundi as an ‘opportunity for a shelved debate?’ He goes on to link Dabengwa, blaming him for the failure of the government project to provide Bulawayo with water via MZWP? What crass patronizing of those who made an effort? How did Manheru’s government dissolve MZWP? Why is Matebeleland still dry with a black Zanu PF government in power for 34 years? Why are Bulawayo companies daily relocating to Harare? The man abuses his being in government by insulting the wronged! The man is ironically reviving the very debate his masters pray should be shelved for ever. The man is crudely opening the wounds and reviving the raw pains still being felt by kids who watched their parents burnt in huts, who watched their fathers and mothers bayoneted alive, the pain we feel for our relatives and friends and classmates we lost because his master had momentarily lost his mental capacities during what he called a ‘moment of madness!’ How so arrogant, base and utterly stupid and insensitive to posture over a national shame and blame the wronged for feeling victimized? How so arrogant to ask the people of Matabeleland and Midlands not to ‘own’ their pain from the Gukurahundi era? When it comes to Gukurahundi, Manheru has no right to tell Matebeleland when to cry, mourn or shut up! Like his masters he belongs to the Hague for his moment of madness he still exhibits today. He naively comes out as if defending his masters when in actual fact he wants to cast a doubt over Gukurahundi and hence shamefully justify their continued rule over their victims. To me he is an unrepentant common criminal who shows no remorse.
Atrocities, hence his saying it’s a ‘myth.’ ‘Who profits from this opportunity shelved debate on Gukurahundi? Or its occasional dusting and lifting off this strange shelf?’ How he makes me feel the pain of helplessness and nothingness as I watched my cousin die staring at us asking if we will eve meet again in heaven. Ohh brutal insensitive man, how dare you be the swordsman who trivialises a collective pain? How I see and feel the fear and pain of the cousins who sang glorious Adventist songs as they were led away never to be seen again. How l see the pain of fear and nervousness as kids asked the remaining elders, ‘Ubaba uphenduka nini?’ when no one was brave enough to tell the kids that their father had been butchered by their own government.
Manheru, Gukurahundi can never be shelved! The Gukurahundi victims will never shut up!!! Anyone appointed as Zanu PF leader from Matebeleland will be examined, measured and judged according to his role at that ‘moment of madness’. It is not for you to tell victims to rejoice, sing, feel ashamed or keep quite! It is not for you to tell Matebeleland how to feel about the Gukurahundi genocide. It is not for you to tell people when to dust it off and mourn, or to shelve it. Pain comes at anytime, and more so when some appointments or promotions take place to revive that pain. Yes, the people of Zimbabwe, in particular from Matebeleland, have a right to demand to know the role Mnangangwa and Mphoko played during that moment of madness. Dabengwa, as one of the victims has a right to demand for an explanation from those who incarcerated him. For you to try to cheaply and sheepishly trivialise and divide Matebeleland so that Gukurahundi is forgotten as people focus on their narrowly defined national priorities camouflaged under ethnic groupings is itself being narrow minded, shallow and naïve, because Gukurahundi affected everyone. Everyone has a right to speak of it, even those who were not personally involved because it affected them indirectly. Gukurahundi is indeed a national issue as it affects our national collective conscience and national cohesion. It is the genesis of our post colonial struggle. It is only a sincere debate, discussion and reparation that can help to heal it not posturing after during a festive period. It is insensitive to try to gloss over what happened so as to make Mnangagwa acceptable.
No, 1987 Unity Accord did not cure Gukurahundi. It is being naive and insensitive to say 1987 cured it. The 1987 Unity accord served to stop the massacres! It did not cure anything for no-one was sick at all, except those leading individuals suffering from their moment of madness that needed curing! 1987 stopped the unnecessary and unwarranted killing of people but was no cure at all.
You can not call for a debate from the victims leaving out the perpetrators. Have you called out on Emmerson Mnangangwa, Perence Shiri, Robert Mugabe and others to come forth and explain to the nation what happened, to explain their role and ask for forgiveness? You should not be crass on what you have never experienced. At high school I learnt that, ‘Chinokanganwa idemo muti watemwa haukanganwi.’
Your posturing makes one implore Matebeleland voters to see for themselves what Harare represents to them; to see that the 1979 Grand Plan was never a myth but real; http://malema.byo24.com/index.php?id=iblog&iblog=105.
Maybe it is high time Matabeleland voters changed tact and voted wisely. The likes of Manheru have brought out their dirty secrets and skeletons long hidden in their political cupboards and are no longer ashamed to tell the Matabeleland voter the truth about what they think! To the likes of Manheru, Prof Jonathan Moyo never lost his father through Gukurahundi because it is a ‘myth’. To all of us, we never lost relatives and parents because Gukurahundi is a ‘myth’. To them Dabengwa and Lookout Masuku were never arrested because Gukurahundi is a ‘myth’. To them there are no Gukurahundi orphans out there without birth certificates and national identity cards because Gukurahundi is a ‘myth’. To them we should be ashamed to say we are victims of Gukurahundi because to them it never took place. Yes, to believe such men and women and put our lives in their hands leaves us facing another Gukurahundi in the near future. This can affect any sons and daughters from any region Manicaland, or Masvingo. The time to condemn it and stop Gukurahundists and denialists from doing so by all means is now!!
IT TAKES GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING FOR EVIL TO PREVAIL…
Glasgow: Ebola has caused panic in Europe again and the first case in months diagnosed in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, as a healthcare worker recently back from Sierra Leone was diagnosed on Monday.
This is the first diagnosis of the deadly virus in Britain in recent days since a woman was
The woman who had been working in Sierra Leone, was being treated Monday in a Glasgow hospital amid tight security.
She has been only identified as a health care worker for National Health Service.
Official government reports say she arrived in Glasgow on Sunday night via Casablanca, Morocco, and Heathrow Airport in London. The panic continued after NHS doctors attempted tracing all her previous contacts since landing in the UK with conclusions stating that she had had contact with only one person in Glasgow. The UK’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the woman would be transferred soon to a specialist unit in London.
Britain’s only previous case in the current outbreak was William Pooley, a nurse who also contracted the disease in Sierra Leone. He survived. But Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has labelled it the first case of Ebola ever diagnosed inside the United Kingdom. Sturgeon said the risk to the public is “extremely low to the point of negligible” and that steps would be taken to protect the public.
“Scotland has been preparing for this possibility from the beginning of the outbreak in west Africa, and I am confident that we are well prepared,” she said, saying also that the patient is “stable” and would soon be transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
She said the patient had traveled on an internal British Airways flight from London to Glasgow on Sunday night and that the other 71 passengers and staff on that flight will be contacted.
But she said the patient was not yet showing symptoms at the time and that people in that stage are much less contagious than they are after they exhibit symptoms, which include a high fever, diarrhea and vomiting.
The development came as more than 45 new cases emerged in Liberia.
Fresh elections are likely to be held in 2015 and parliament in its entirety could be dissolved and fresh harmonised elections held before 2018, the MDC-T’s spokesperson Obert Gutu says following looming recalls of ZANU PF MPs deemed to be aligned to expelled Vice President, Joice Mujuru.
The opposition MDC-T has rallied its supporters to brace for the dissolution of Parliament and proclamation of new general election dates in the next few months amid reports that the ruling Zanu PF party wanted to get rid of 100 of its legislators linked to ousted former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said fresh general elections were now inevitable given that the opposition party has also initiated plans to recall its 19 legislators, who defected to MDC Renewal Team over the past few months.
“Let’s all brace ourselves for the dissolution of the Parliament of Zimbabwe in the next few months,” Gutu said in a weekend post on his micro blogging Facebookpage.
“A new era is beckoning. History is about to be made. We have to be extremely cautious. As Zanu PF inevitably crumbles like a deck of cards, there will be several twists and turns.
“The regime has got its back against the wall; it’s completely broke, but paranoid and hence, extremely dangerous,” Gutu said.
He however warned that the MDC-T would only agree to participate in the impending elections if its demands for electoral reforms were implemented.
Although Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo could not be reached for comment yesterday, analysts said the move was meant to pre-empt MDC-T threats to impeach President Robert Mugabe with the help of Mujuru’s backers.
The MDC-T, which has 91 legislators, needs the backing of Zanu PF MPs for their impeachment plans to succeed. Zanu PF has 234 legislators.
Mugabe is legally obliged to dissolve Parliament once the majority of seats have fallen vacant and proclaim fresh election dates within 90 days.
Both Zanu PF and the MDC-T camps have of late experienced internal turbulence following their respective elective congresses which claimed the scalps of several party bigwigs.
The MDC-T lost 19 legislators after forming theiroutfit MDC Renewal Team following their fallout with leader Morgan Tsvangirai accusing him of dictatorship.
The party has already advised Speaker of the House of Assembly Jacob Mudenda and Senate president Edna Madzongwe to declare the MPs’ seats vacant to pave way for by-elections.
Zanu PF, which on the other hand has purged 16 ministers linked to Mujuru, was reportedly contemplating recalling them from Parliament over allegations of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe.
“We are happy that at last Zanu PF has reached a waterloo and remembered to respect provisions of the constitution which oblige the Speaker and the Senate president to declare seats as vacant once advised by parties in Parliament. We were getting worried over their reluctance to do so. Now that Zanu PF itself has made similar overtures, the process is expected to move faster,” Gutu said.
Sources in Zanu PF said the recall would be spearheaded by the party’s provincial executive councils.
“The recall is likely to be carried out in phases followed by a round of by-elections to avoid a scenario where President Mugabe would be legally obliged to dissolve Parliament and call for fresh polls if the recall is done en-masse,” a Zanu PF insider, who declined to be named said.
“Either way, President Mugabe has nothing to lose because even if he proclaims fresh election dates today, there is no way the purged Zanu PF legislators would contest against ruling party candidates as independents. Again, there is no way the opposition can mobilise its membership and overturn Zanu PF’s parliamentary majority given the divisions within most of the opposition parties.
“The renegade Zanu PF MPs know the consequences of fighting the ruling party from within and without, so they would rather hold back and let the party’s chosen candidates sail through.”
Zanu PF Mashonaland Central provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios last week, said they had identified 10 legislators for possible recall.
“These MPs are a shame to the party and as a province; we will not allow them to represent Zanu PF anymore,” Mafios said.
These includedNicholas Goche (Shamva North), Brigadier General Epmarcus Walter Kanhanga (Guruve North), David Butau (Mbire), Chriswell Mutematsaka (Guruve South), Edgar Chidavaenzi (Mazowe North), Kenneth Musanhu (Bindura North), Christopher Chitindi (Muzarabani South), Fortune Chasi (Mazowe South), Alice Chimbudzi (Mashonaland Central senator) and Shamva South legislator Joseph Mapiki.
Other provinces have also indicated that they will roll out similar purges in the next few weeks with Mashonaland West acting provincial chairperson Ziyambi Ziyambi indicating that they were targeting suspended chairman and Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa, Makonde MP Kindness Paradza, Mhondoro MP Syvester Nguni and Chegutu East MP Webster Shamu. – Newsday/ZimEye
WOMEN calling for life imprisonment and castration of rapists are justified, as man seem not to be deterred by heavy sentences since rape cases continue on the increase.
Gwanda regional magistrate Mark Dzira said this while sentencing a 25-year-old Filabusi man to 33 years behind bars for kidnapping and three counts of raping an 11-year-old girl.
Genius Moyo of Insiza Primary School had pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping and one of rape, but denied the other two rape counts, although he was still convicted on all four counts.
He blamed evil spirits for his cruel act.
“The complainant is aged 11 and we all saw when she came to testify that she is just a kid,” Dzira said.
“No doubt she was traumatised, as you made her spend the whole night in the mountains. You are cruel, heartless, and you did not care what would happen to her after you raped her.
“She could have been eaten by wild animals, got lost or died of hunger because of you.”
He said there was a movement countrywide to have rapists either sentenced to life sentences or castrated and people like Moyo justified such calls.
“There is an outcry from women across the country who want men like you to be sent to prison for life, others have even suggested you be castrated and no one can blame them for that,” Dzira said.
“People want to see criminals like you being punished. I will not be lenient, as people like you need to be uprooted from society. We will not be deterred.”
Moyo was sentenced to five years for kidnapping, 12 years for the first count of rape and 18 years for the third and fourth counts.
Ten years were wholly suspended for five years.
On November 19 this year at around 4pm Moyo, in a drunken stupor, met the young girl who had been sent to buy some tomatoes by a neighbour.
Moyo grabbed the girl, dragging her to Matjola Mountain.
While atop the mountain, Moyo raped her. In the process he assaulted her and threatened to kill the girl with an axe and a knife he was carrying.
After some time he raped her again and when he heard some voices he took theyoung girl’s T-shirt and used it to stuff her mouth before he hid in a cave.
When the voices diminished he raped her again before taking his opaque beer and a bottle of cane spirits, leaving the girl behind with her mouth still stuffed.
The fatigued girl then fell into a slumber. She woke up the next morning and tried to get up, but she could not walk properly because of pain.
Later in the day at around 6pm, 26 hours into her ordeal, a villager found her and alerted her mother before she was taken to a health centre.
Moyo’s green sun-hat, which he dropped during the act, was produced as part of the evidence in court, while the girl positively identified him as the person who raped her. – SouthernEye
Struggling sugar refiner Starafrica Corporation’s losses for the six months to September slowed to $3,154 million from $5,237 million in the same period last year despite revenue falling by nearly 60 percent, although it expects to perform better in 2015 because of cost reduction measures and a stable domestic market for sugar.
Revenue for the period fell to $2,8 million from $ 6,941million last year while the group’s loss before tax from continuing operations fell to $3,7 million from $4,1 million, the company said on Monday. In the full year to March 31 this year, its losses stood at $12,2 million, down from $16,4 million the previous year.
Discontinued operations – Bluestar Logistics – reported a profit before tax of $571,000 compared with a loss of $1,1 million last year. However, the group has failed to find a buyer for the company citing liquidity challenges in the market.
It has also failed to sell-off its 33 percent shareholding in Tongaat Hulett Botswana. The two assets were put on the market to raise funds to partly settle creditors under a scheme of arrangement sanctioned by the High Court in February last year.
However, a starafricacorporation official told The Source on November 5 that it was unlikely to dispose of its Botswana associate as the company was increasingly confident that it could settle its obligations after increasing capacity at its plant by 50 percent, enabling it to generate revenue to repay the debts.
“I think they are at a stage where it does not make sense to sell Tongaat Hullet because as it stands, it is a core asset. It is a profitable company with very good earnings. The dividends which they receive twice a year can be used as working capital because the local market is dry, which is a plus,” the official said then.
As at September 30, the group’s current liabilities exceeded current assets by $36,6 million compared to $8,2 million last year.
Additionally, it exceeded the borrowing powers as stipulated in the Memorandum and Articles of Association by $39,8 million, although $37 million of this was ratified at the company’s Annual General Meeting held on September 29.
This excess was mainly attributable to finance charges on group borrowings.
Finance costs for the half-year period under review were at $2,2 million compared with $2,8 million in prior year.
Chairman Joe Mutizwa said the company remains confident that the next financial year will see a positive performance after commissioning its new plant in the new year.
” The ongoing plant commissioning exercise has already resulted in the plant producing good quality sugar that meets the specifications of all our customers. The cost reduction measures being undertaken and a stable domestic market for sugar will result in the company operating viably,” said Mutizwa in the statement accompanying the financials.
Zimplow shareholders on Monday approved a special resolution to raise $5 million through a rights issue aimed at reducing its expensive short-term debt at an Extraordinary General Meeting.
Zimplow’s total debt stood at $13,15 million as at October 31, with $8,4 million of it being short-term. The company is paying close to $1,3 million annually in interest charges.
Group chief executive, Zondi Kumwenda told The Source that the legacy debt was assumed when the group took over Tractive Power Holdings (TPH) in 2012.
“This occurred as a result of the 2012 transaction involving the acquisition of TPH, whereby some of the TPH minority shareholders opted to receive cash in lieu of new Zimplow shares of which the company had to borrow to settle,” he said.
At the time, Zimplow raised $11 million through a rights issue to finance the purchase of TPH.
Kumwenda said in addition to retiring a portion of the group’s debt, the offer which opens on January 5, is expected to improve its overall working capital position.
The rights issue will increase the number of Zimplow’s shares by 33,3 percent .
Falcon Gold on Monday reported a net loss of $1, 8 million for the full-year to September 30, compared to a $12, 5 million loss in the prior year, on the back of depressed gold prices and costs for maintaining its closed Dalny Mine.
Care and maintenance costs for Dalny Mine, which it shut down in August last year, amounted to $1, 5 million from $669,000 in the prior period.
A provisional agreement in September to sell the mine to London-based African Consolidated Resources collapsed after AFCR failed to raise the $12 million price, although it recently indicated that the deal could be revived.
The net operating loss at $1, 2 million was lower than the $5, 5 million registered last year.
Gold prices averaged $1, 267 per ounce during the period under review, 15,6 percent lower than the $1, 502/oz in the previous period.
“The continued weakening in the company’s financial performance was caused in substantial part by the low and still falling gold price regime, exacerbated by the current high tax and power cost base, together with the care and maintenance expenses incurred by the closure of Dalny Mine in August 2013,” the company said in a statement on Monday.
Gold sales for the year fell to 312 kilogrammes from 556kg last year following the Dalny closure.
The group currently has one operating mine, Golden Quarry which increased gold production from 291kg last year to 312kg this year.
Falgold also owns Venice Mine in Kadoma.
Barely five months after major changes were made to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, government has
announced a new development that will see the law altered again.
State Media: Amendments to the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act that will see line ministries approving indigenisation plans in sectors under their purview are set to be effected soon after Parliament approves some of them through the 2015 National Budget. Speaking in the Senate while steering the Finance Bill recently, Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said the Ministry of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment would only issue compliance certificates on the recommendation of line ministries after their assessment.
He said the line ministries and that of Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment would monitor implementation after compliance with the law.
“Madam President, the Bill also seeks to amend the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, in order to devolve to line Ministries the responsibility for approving indigenisation plans, prescribing indigenisation and empowerment assessment rating schemes and certifying transactions as being compliant with the Act,” he said.
“These amendments are motivated by the fact that line ministries are generally more knowledgeable about the dynamics of the sectors which come under their responsibility.
“They will be in a better position than the minister responsible for the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act to know the real needs of each sector, the inadequacies, strengths and weaknesses. So, it is for this reason that we devolving this responsibility to line Ministries.”
Zanu-PF senator for Manicaland, Retired Lieutenant General Mike Nyambuya said while devolving indigenisation assessment to line ministries was a bold move, it would have been ideal to clarify the indigenisation law from a centralised authority.
“Because again, if you leave it to line ministries and officials; you might create some room for rent seeking behaviour. It would be good if could lay down one solid policy which is friendly to the investors.
“We need fresh money in this country and FDI is one clear source of attracting fresh money into the economy. What I am saying is that, I would have been happier if the clarity had been done from a ministry point of view, rather than delegating it to the line ministry,” said Cde Nyambuya.
Minister Chinamasa defended the proposed amendments saying line ministries were best suited to do the job but said what was important was for Government to guard against corruption by publicising ministries’ decisions in that regard.
Chief Fortune Charumbira weighed in saying foreign-owned firms were naturally against indigenisation.
“But I have one apprehension which is that, in the previous arrangement, there were some allegations and insinuations that the whole issue of indigenisation was characterised in some cases by corruption and I think it is in the way it was being done.
“When we do this, I doubt if this might take away the issue of possibilities of corruption. We have just moved from one ministry to another ministry but as I am saying, it is good that we move to the line ministry but within that ministry, we need checks and balances.
“That is the critical issue. So that they do not have to approach a particular director or officer and say, can we indigenise and then they say, no, not yet. The particular officer or director may end up being corrupted and end up saying, no, we cannot indigenise now but let us do that after 10 years or 20 years,” said Chief Charumbira.
He said it was critical that Government comes up with measures to guard against corruption if the indigenisation and economic empowerment drive was to succeed.
The 2014 festive season road accident death toll has now reached 86 following the death of five more people on Sunday the 28th of December. – State Media
Cecil John Rhodes’ grave in Matopos Hills 45 km south of Bulawayo, in the National park and Matabeleland south, province has been vandalized by suspected disgruntled war veterans.
The tomb’s cover is now variously scribbled, most probably by a sharp instrument. According to villagers who refused to be named, some disgruntled war vets, were heard planning to exhume the remains and take them to the Indian Ocean, where they want to dump them.
Rhodes who died in 1902 was buried at the Matopos National park together with one of his colleagues, Leander Jameson. The place which is a property of the National Monuments & Museums Department has been regarded as one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions.
As shown in pictures which ZimEye possesses, the grave has been tampered with, and some words have been inscribed most probably after failing to open the grave.
Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. He was the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes.
He wanted to expand the British Empire because he believed that the Anglo-Saxon race was destined for greatness.
Rhodes who never married, pleading “I have too much work on my hands” and saying that he would not be a dutiful husband, has no descendants.
ZimEye visited the National Museum and Monuments Head Office in Harare and talked to Doctor Mahachi who blamed the vandalism on some sections of Zimbabwe’s Liberation War fighters who wanted Rhodes remains to be removed and relocated to England.
Dr Mahachi also ruled out placing security at the Matopos grave site, and appealed to the people of Zimbabwe to look after their tourist attraction. The grave is considered a revered attraction to foreign tourists from all over the world.
A snap survey by ZimEye revealed that a number of Zimbabweans are against the vandalism of this famous grave and that it is part of the country’s heritage. Several people in and around the Matobo district blamed the perpetrators, and openly expressed their opinions that this burial site should not be tampered with.
Norah Gwanzura an educationist added her voice in blaming the vandalism and the intention to destroy the grave. She told ZimEye that if anybody wanted the grave removed, they should also remove other historical places and see if that will make any sense.
Leonard Magorose, a Pastor with ZAOGA, also discouraged the relocation of the grave and pleaded with those offended by it to learn to forgive mistakes of the past.
A selective group of people in Zimbabwe wanted the grave removed because of colonial insinuations
“But would such a drastic move serve any logical purpose, given the financial difficulties being experienced by this embattled country, which is in dire need of whatever hard currency it may get,” said Simon Bhebhe of Kezi who is also a war vet.
Forced marriage has become rife in a small mining community of Mapombo, situated 60 kilometers north-east of Mutoko growth point.
The girls in this small remote community have been ascribed with a new role of ‘cash cows’ for their hand in marriage and families force them to get married as a way of eluding poverty. These girls also assume parental responsibilities of taking care of their siblings and they have to endure the struggles of motherhood at a very tender age.
Though the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights explicitly states that marriage should be entered only with the free and full consent of the intended partner(s); the girls in this community are being forced into marriage which is a defilement of their rights.
Those with the means (the illegal panners) exploit the poverty stricken families and take their young girls as wives in exchange for gold.
Florence*, barely 15 years of age and who is 6 months pregnant told us of her ordeal,and how she dropped out of school and had to engage in gold panning. She, later on, was forced to get married as a way to fend for her family.
“I left school when I was in grade 4 and joined the panning field; my parents are too old and so it’s my duty to look after them; panning was not doing so well and I had to get married to a local gold panner,” said Florence.
Florence’s story is one of many girls who as a result of poverty and pressure from family members have ended up giving into marriage to elderly men as a way to make ends meet for their families.
“The villagers main source of income is panning; with miners of this exquisite and prized mineral taking advantage of the prevailing economic hardships and take the young girls as wives; a girl can be forced into marriage at the age of 14 or 15 and the parents do not take into consideration the effects that this has on the child,” said Antony Nyamuda a University student who resides in Mapombo.
The majority of girls in this remote community either engage in panning as they wait to become ‘ripe’ (as seen in the eyes of the parents) and forced into marriage at tender ages as a way to evade poverty.
Born in an era where an economy is crumbling, the girls are being exposed to a raft of dangers; which range from forced marriages and infection to HIV Aids.
Lack of cognizance amongst the community members in this area has seen society ascribing the girl child with a new role of bread winner and as a way of eluding poverty.
“It is very common for a girl to leave school before sitting for her O’level examinations and get married; the majority of these girls will be very young; aged between 14 and 17; in most cases they are forced by their parents,” said Chenai Makahamadze; a Guidance and Counselling teacher at Mapombo Secondary School.
Chenai explained how an enormous number of girls in this area had been forced to drop out of school and forced into marriage to elderly men who put them at risk of contracting HIV and Aids as a result of multiple sexual partners.
As indicated in a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) survey carried out early this year; 31% of girls in Zimbabwe under the age of 18 are forced into marriage and half of these girls are married off at the age of 15.
Names of victims in the above article have been changed to protect identity
Daily News| A mere three weeks into his tenure as President Robert Mugabe’s senior lieutenant, the knives are now being sharpened against Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as Zanu PF’s ugly infighting refuses to go away and the party faction that worked together to decimate former anti-Joice Mujuru falls apart.
The Daily News learnt yesterday that among Mnangagwa’s new rabid critics are erstwhile colleagues who played a critical role in annihilating Mujuru and her perceived sympathisers, a development that paved the way for his Phoenix-like rise from the political ashes to the presidium.
The sources said Mnangagwa’s former supporters were not just “peeved by his meteoric rise to the VP position” while they had to “make-do with scraps”, they were also upset that he had seemingly forgotten them and was allegedly acting as if he was now “the substantive head of State” while Mugabe was on holiday.
As a result, some within the former anti-Mujuru grouping — particularly the so-called “Gang of Four” — now expeditiously wanted the tail of the party strongman cut.
The sources also claimed that it had not helped that the much-feared vice president had recently hosted parties and business persons in his home province, the Midlands, where some of the disaffected hardliners had not been invited to.
Worse still, some of Mnangagwa’s most fervent followers, such as Psychomotor minister Josiah Hungwe, had made the fatal mistake of praising him overzealously at these gatherings — at worst silly faux pas that the hardliners had expediently latched on to, in their quest to cut Ngwena down to size.
“There are some within the victorious camp who feel that Mnangagwa in the first place did not deserve to be vice president after doing virtually nothing during the Mujuru demolition job where First Lady
Grace Mugabe was used to turn President Mugabe against Amai Mujuru,” a well-placed source told the Daily News.
He said in particular the so-called “Gang of Four”— comprising senior party bigwigs Oppah Muchinguri, Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao and Saviour Kasukuwere — was allegedly working to undermine the VP and to “expose him as a power-hungry individual who is not fit to take over from Mugabe”.
This, the source added, supposedly explained why Mnangagwa, just like what had happened to Mujuru, was coming under vicious attack in the State media — “to discredit him as much as possible”.
Writing in the lickspittle Sunday Mail yesterday, a columnist who uses the bizarre pseudonym of Bishop Lazarus, and widely believed to be a senior Zanu PF bigwig, accused Mnangagwa of jettisoning party resolutions emanating from the party’s congress, and behaving like the deceased party stalwart Solomon Mujuru, who was widely regarded as a kingmaker.
Lazarus also queried why Mnangagwa had told a business delegation at his farm on the outskirts of Kwekwe that Zimbabwe’s indigenisation laws would be reviewed.
“Dear reader, there are two very worrying things about the statement above. The first worrying point is where this statement was made and secondly if indeed the VP said government would announce new business policies aimed at relaxing the indigenisation laws, then the bishop is amazed that the VP is throwing resolutions from the just ended Zanu PF into the dustbin so fast and furious,” the columnist said.
The columnist went on to say that it was also inappropriate for the VP to hold meetings at his Sherwood Farm, just like the late Solomon Mujuru had done.
“You see it starts with these courtesy calls at the farm and before we know it things get out of hand. There are so many places where these business people could have met VP Mnangagwa without raising any suspicion.
“Once upon a time, the bishop vividly remembers a famous farm somewhere in Beatrice where business people flocked to pay homage to some presumably powerful political skimmer who went on to get entangled in very dirty political games that are today haunting those he left behind.
“We don’t want a repeat of that in Kwekwe because that would be tragic and very unfortunate. VP Mnangagwa is a veteran politician and we hope he will move the courtesy calls to either his offices or some other place that suits his important office,” the columnist added.
The same paper also laid into the minister of State for Mashonaland West, Faber Chidarikire, yesterday for jokingly referring to Mnangagwa’s wife, Auxilia, as the acting First Lady.
“In my entire life I have never heard of an acting First Lady, where did he get that nonsense from. He is not the only one who is getting over-excited but most of these guys now regard Mnangagwa as the President,” a top Zanu PF official allegedly told the paper.
In an interview with the State media last week, Moyo also said people should not confuse Mnangagwa’s appointment as VP as anointment as Mugabe’s successor.
And Mugabe’s nephew, Zhuwao, also warned last week that those close to Mnangagwa needed to guard against getting too excited.
Respected political commentator and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eldred Masunungure recently told the Daily News that Mujuru’s ouster would not translate into Mnangagwa’s automatic ascendency to the highest seat in government.
He said there were now two main factions in Zanu PF — namely the Gushungo (Mugabe’s totem) and Mnangagwa factions.
“The other two factions coalesced against Mujuru and now that they have decimated that faction, the question is which one remains the most dominant?
“To me the Gushungo faction is now in control of the party because Mugabe knows that real power lies in the party, not in the government, so Mnangagwa may not be the winner after all,” Masunungure said.
Three years on Zimbabwe has continued to dominate as having the best climate in the world.
ETN: Zimbabwe is a country of contrasts, and it comes as no surprise that its climate was voted “the best climate on Earth” alongside that of Malta in International Living magazine’s Quality of Life Index. Every year, the magazine rates and ranks 192 countries for this index, and Zimbabwe scored 100% on climate, one of the nine categories voted upon.
Alas, a month later its capital city, Harare, was reported to be the “worst livable city in the world,” placed in last at 140 behind even the dubious cities of Dhaka in Bangladesh, Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, and Lagos in Nigeria. Harare had particularly poor scores for stability, economy, health care, and infrastructure, according to this annual ranking compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “world’s most liveable cities” survey. The unit ranks 140 cites from around the world using 30 indicators which each city is judged against from the five broad categories of stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.
While statistics are debatable, a safe bet would be to head some 365 kilometers north of Harare to Lake Kariba where the climate and ambience is a clear winner. Still the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the world in terms of volume, it has its own distinctly unique and particularly favorable weather pattern that affects the climate of the entire Zambezi Valley.
Lying between Zambia and Zimbabwe, this lake offers some spectacular weather variations within its three seasons of “wet,” “cool,” or “hot.” Dramatic tropical thunderstorms with fantastic cloud formations can occur during the rainy or wet season from late November to April. Tourists who come here at this time may well be lucky enough to witness the power of nature in the form of a water spout – a miniature version of a tornado or twister.
The Bumi Basin – a stretch of water lying between Musango Safari Camp (a rustic-luxury tented camp that sits on a private island within the lake), Bumi Hills Safari Lodge (recently refurbished luxury hotel plus spa), Island 155 and Starvation Island (site where a number of animals were marooned last year until a rescue mission was put in place) – sees many of these fair weather water spouts, which form over water beneath vertical cumulus or cumulonimbus clouds when warm, humid air and the cooler air provided by a cloud system mix. The spouts are made up of rising columns of rotating air, at first invisible, then becoming curtains of spinning water droplets.
To be specific, as a patch of warm air on the surface of the water rises, the cooler air around it begins to rotate. The humid air over the water forms much water vapor, and because warm moist air is lighter than dry air, the water vapor swirls upwards cooling and condensing into droplets. After anything between 2 to 20 minutes, the spout disappears over the water or within a few hundred meters of reaching a shoreline.
When water spouts do occur, Musango Safari Camp’s chief chef Jinglison of the Tonga tribe is among the many local people who keep a low profile as he believes that Nyaminyami, the sacred river god that is said to oversee Lake Kariba, is angry.
The lake sees cool winter temperatures from April to September of between 15 deg C at night and 25 C during the day, while the third season starts mid-September, with a hot and dry October seeing day time temperatures of up to 40 deg C and 30 deg C at night. – ETN
A 67 year old man from Chivi District, Masvingo has gone missing. He has been missing for two weeks.
Mr Rodgers Mazhambe was last seen on the 16th December at Dzviti Village near Chomuruvati Township, Chivi.
He was last seen by local villager Mr Edward Chikosha when the latter was told he was out looking for his cattle.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Mr Mazhambe’s son on (Zim number) 0776269805.
Accidents countrywide during the holiday period have injured 589 people and killed over 81.
The accidents were predominantly caused by bad roads while others were due to over speeding. 59% of all the accidents were blamed on poor road maintenance due to either potholes, or lack of appropriate signage at dangerous spots. 17% of them are linked to reckless driving, while the remaining 12% was reportedly caused by unknown (yet to be established) causes.
National police spokesperson Chief Supreintendent Paul Nyathi said that the number of road accidents had risen to 1 012, indicating a 23% rise from last year’s figures.
“Over the same period, 81 people died while 589 were injured. As we prepare to celebrate the New Year (holidays), motorists are urged to continue exercising caution on the road,” he said.
Tickets.
Mr Nyathi added saying that the cops despite challenges carried out a successful raid on all and any offending motorists. He said that on Saturday alone they ticketed 6 978 motorists for various offences, while the holiday death toll rose to 81.
He said they had in summary issued over 96 000 tickets and impounded about 2 000 defective vehicles over the last 12 days for various traffic offences as they sought to ‘tame the traffic jungle this festive season’.
Nyathi said between December 15 and December 27, a total of 96 634 tickets were issued for various traffic offences and 2 289 vehicles impounded after they were deemed unfit to use public roads.
Firearm offence
The police also revealed that during the holiday period they arrested a 35-year-old man identified as Sambulelo Ndlovu for unlawful possession of a firearm which he is believed to have acquired with the intention to commit robberies in Harare.
“Circumstances are that the accused hired a taxi from Machipisa to Southley Park, Harare on December 24 2014. The driver became suspicious and drove straight to ZRP Machipisa where the accused was searched by detectives,” Nyathi said.
Nyathi added: “Upon being interviewed, the accused implicated his three accomplices who had invited him from Bulawayo to Harare intending to commit robberies. Police are conducting investigations with a view of arresting the accused’s accomplices.” Police said they recovered a 6,35 mm Rhoner Sport Waffen pistol with one round, two by two-metre-long nylon ropes, a hunter’s knife, two pairs of latex gloves and a roll of adhesive tape.
BULAWAYO CITY COUNCIL has targeted Transport minister Obert Mpofu and Gideon Gono among a host of top politicians and prominent people accused of letting vast areas of land lie idle for years.
MDC leader, Welshman Ncube and property magnate, Ernest Marima have also been named in an unprecedented clampdown on high ranking officials accused of abandoning vast swathes of land.
Close to 400 properties, mostly in the eastern suburbs, have been targeted for reclaim. This is a sharp departure from the norm, where only stand numbers would be published and not names of owners. Council gave the affected owners 60 days to make necessary payments or risk repossessing.
Section 5 of the Titles Registration and Derelict Land Act Chapter 20:20 states, “persons having claim on derelict land may apply to High Court for relief”.
“Whenever there remains due and unpaid for the space of five years any rate or assessment payable to any municipality or other public body any immovable property in Zimbabwe and such property is abandoned, deserted and left and the owner, therefore, cannot be found, it shall be lawful for the person or body claiming such rate or assessment to apply to the High Court, stating the amounts claimed to be due and the grounds for applying for relief under this Act,” the law reads.
According to a list from the local authority eminent persons include Mpofu and his wife Sikhanyisiwe (Matsheumhlophe), Ncube and wife Thobekile (Burnside), Gideon Gono (Winsor Park) and Marima with a single stand at Queensdale.
On companies Gope Investments (Pvt) Ltd leads the pack with 28 stands all in Matsheumhlophe, Giga Properties (Pvt) Ltd has 16 at Waterlea, Anzac Investments, nine stands at Burnside and Bulawayo Golf Club has five stands at Riverside.
National Railways of Zimbabwe has a stand at Southworld, Forestry Commission (Riverside) and Zumpango Investments has four stands at Matsheumhlophe.
The council has in the past expressed concern about the high number of commercial stands that have remained underdeveloped for a number of years.
According to council regulations, if an owner fails to develop a stand for two years, the local authority can repossess it without paying any compensation.
The city’s housing waiting list presently stands at more than 100 000, as both the council and private land developers are failing to cope with the high demand in the face of economic challenges in the country. – SouthernEye
A Mnangagwa boot-licker, the Minister of State for Mashonaland West Faber Chidarikire, who last week called Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife ‘First Lady’, was once found with a fresh bloodied human skull in his boot, police have revealed.
Impeccable Police records show Chidarikire was driving his vehicle at the time of the find, and he admitted responsibility for it claiming that the head belonged to a pedestrian he had knocked over by the road side. The prosecutor said that at the time of the incident in 1994, police accepted Chidarikire’s explanation that the head belonged to a pedestrian he had knocked down.
No charges were laid against the then mayor, who is a powerful figure in the ruling ZANU-PF party, despite the suspicions of doctors who examined the head.
But after the then mayor was charged with the murder of a primary school girl in 1987, the head was exhumed and pathologists concluded that it had been deliberately sliced from the body, the prosecutor said.
On the first charge, Chidarikire is alleged to have snatched 12-year-old Esnath Rangles from the roadside, stabbed and strangled her in his car and sliced off a breast and her genitals.
Murders to obtain body parts for use in magic rituals believed to enhance success in business are not uncommon in Zimbabwe.
Two men who say they were hired by Chidarikire to assist in the 1987 murder and a string of others told police they are now being haunted by avenging spirits of the people they helped kill.
Chidarikire, who was granted bail despite public outrage after his first court appearance, was remanded in custody and yet later released under unclear circumstances through ZANU PF, and this year he resurfaced as the government Minister of State for the entire Mashonaland West – Sapa-AFP-ZimEye
A year after the 2013 elections, top Harare preacher Rev Andrew Wutaunashe has insisted that following last year’s polls, God Almighty has given Robert Mugabe another chance.
Addressing a delegation of thousands, some of whom came from African countries and overseas to attend the national prayer and dedication service for Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, Rev (also referred to as Prophet) Wutawunashe said President Mugabe’s leadership role was a special gift to the nation from God.
“President Mugabe is a God chosen leader. He was raised by God to lead this nation. He has worked diligently for this country and was given the strength to fight for the nation’s wealth to be owned by the black majority, which has been a success,” said Rev Wutawunashe.
Last year he told ZimEye.com way before the 2013 elections God had showed him a picture of how the post election Zimbabwe will be and told him ” I am going to give the old man an opportunity to complete his work.” He added that he himself then told President Mugabe: “the years of collegial government you had with these people (The MDC) were not a waste of time.” He said that contrary to what political apologists have said before, the government of national unity has actually brought respect among politicians from both warring groups.
While leading special prayer session attended by Zanu-PF Politburo and Central Committee members, lawmakers, senior party officials and delegates from Malawi, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, Wutaunashe repeated his comments that Mugabe is God’s special gift. He continued, “he has led the country through the struggles against hatred and negative reporting from other countries. I keep on mentioning that his leadership role comes from God and all we have to do is to pray to God to give him long life and wisdom to take this nation to a different level.”
Wutawunashe said it was important for the nation to respect and rally behind President Mugabe and the country’s entire leadership.
During the same meeting there were prayers for the President and the First Family; his two Vice Presidents, Cdes Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko; the Cabinet and all political leaders in the country. Wutawunashe also took time to pray for the successful implementation of the five-year Zim-Asset as well as a fruitful agricultural season.
He said he was confident that the country would experience tremendous blessings from God as promised in the Bible, adding that it was important to always bring the country’s leadership before the Lord.
The festive season has to date claimed 81 people after 3 more died in road accidents recorded on Saturday the 27th of December.
They were all road collisions.
The state media reports that the figure translates to an 8 percent increase as compared to the 75 who died in 2013.
Despite continued campaigns by all stakeholders to reduce road carnage, statistics indicate that the number of accidents continues to increase with the period between 15 and 27 December claiming 81 people on the country’s roads.
There was horror on Christmas day when a bloodied human skull still with flesh was found near President Robert Mugabe’s homestead in Kutama, Zvimba.
Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi in a statement said the human head was found on a dust road in Mabvure-Masiyarwa.
“Police are also appealing to the public to assist with information which may lead to the identification and establish leads in a case where a human head comprising right cheek, half chin, right eye, full nose, right upper, lower jaw and protruding tongue was found lying at the centre of Mabvure-Masiyarwa dust road in Kutama on December 25, 2014,” he said.
Nyati added saying investigations were underway as police continued in their public appeal for information.
Meanwhile commenting, a villager, only identified as vaChikava said Satanic rituals were rife in the community as there has in the last four years been a sharp rise in businessmen rushing to witch doctors for assistance on get rich fast methods. “They are told all sorts and we believe this murder could be one of those,” he said. Those requesting to view the pictures of the skull can request via the ZimEye WhatsApp number: +447426863301
Orchestra Mberikwazvo manager William Tsandukwa says attempts by Noel Nyazanda, Obert Gomba and Congolese Jonasi Kasamba to return to sungura star Alick Macheso’s backing group are destined to fail.
Tsandukwa’s remarks fly in the face of recent reports that the three, who unceremoniously quit Orchestra Mberikwazvo last year, are on the verge of an imminent return to Macheso’s band.
“We no longer need those people back in the band because we are not sure of their intentions,” Tsandukwa told the Daily News on Sunday.
“The people who replaced them are doing a great job and as such we cannot ditch them when they have been loyal to us even during trying times.”
The Orchestra Mberikwazvo manager added that lead guitarist Nyazanda was the least reliable of the trio.
“Nowero (Nyazanda) has a long history of ditching the band so how can we trust him this time around. Remember in 2012 he deserted us along with Elton Muropa.”
Gomba, who is regarded as one of the best sungura drummers in the country, is hopeful that some day he will retrace his footsteps back to Orchestra Mberikwazvo band.
“I still need time to think about my next move. It is counterproductive to rush decisions. At the moment I am still coming to terms with what happened at Extra Kwazvose,” said Gomba.
“I do not have a problem with mudhara Macheso (Alick); I know I can return to his band anytime without any hassles but the time is not now.”
Gomba played drums for close to two hours during the sungura kingpin’s concert at New Life Night Club in Budiriro last month sparking speculation that he was about to be welcomed back at Macheso’s band.
While Gomba is not ready to rule out a return to Macheso’s fold, Nyazanda conceded in an interview with the Daily News on Sunday that his Orchestra Mberikwazvo return was highly unlikely.
“Chances of re-joining Orchestra Mberikwazvo are slim considering that our positions there have been filled. We cannot quickly form another band because we need time to come up with new songs as we cannot perform Extra Kwazvose songs which were composed by Dhaka,” said Nyazanda.
Meanwhile Tsandukwa has revealed that Macheso, who is currently touring various Zimbabwean cities and towns, will take a break from holding concerts in order to concentrate on his highly-anticipated forthcoming album.
“He will use the time to polish his forthcoming album which is at an advanced stage,” said Tsandukwa.
The Tafadzwa singer’s hectic festive season diary will take him to Manyame Park Night Club in Chitungwiza tomorrow, Pakare Paye Arts Centre, Norton (December 30), Ice and Fire Pamuzinda, Harare (December 31) and Dandaro Inn in Harare’s Exhibition Park (January 1). – DailyNews
A senior pastor from a Harare based charismatic church has rejected the recently introduced RBZ coins.
Senior Pastor Emmanuel Sitima of Boerea Assemblies in Kuwadzana extension speaking aside two three other men of the cloth, said people should only give what they esteem to be of value. “Why do you want to give what you know is not acceptable?” he said in a Saturday afternoon prayer meeting. He added,
“Just like these coins you know very well that they are not accepted in kombis so giving out something you do not value can be an insult to the one you are giving,” he said.
But the Kuwadzana Pastor added that: “if you find the smallest bond coin you give as an offering to be of heartfelt value, then you will be blessed, even though they are devoid of further use.”
Pastor Sitima’s words came as it emerged that kombis are rejecting the coins as useless. The Commuter Omnibus Operators Association has pleaded with its members to accept the new coins.
Cosmas Mbonjani, the Chairman of Greater Harare Association of Commuter Operators (GHACO) said his organisation supported the use of the special coins.
“There is no reason why our members should not accept the coins because we had a meeting with the RBZ boss who assured us that it was genuine money and that we should accept them,” said Mbonjani.
He, however, said the challenge was that some of the service providers like service stations were not accepting the coins.
He said his organisation had 400 members who had registered their vehicles and was made to understand that a majority of their members accepted the coins.
RBZ unveiled a new set of bonded coins worth $10 million, which started circulating on December 18.
The special coins in denominations of 1c, 5c, 10c and 20c are part of a five-year $50 million bond that government has secured to give them value. Mangudya said the introduction of the bond coins on the local market was part of efforts to ease the shortage of change, but allayed fears that they were clandestinely bringing back the Zimbabwe dollar. “The economics of the bond coins is that they are being introduced to buttress the multiple currency system through the provision of change especially for the US dollar notes which have a smallest denomination in circulation in Zimbabwe of $1,” he said.
Mangudya added that the RBZ was, therefore, addressing the divisibility and store of value qualities of money through the initiative, which has already received significant support from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, business organisations and financial institutions.
“The bond coins will be at par with the US cents, that is trading one for one with US cents,” he said.
He also stated that the new bond coins’ circulation will be limited to Zimbabwe.
The country ditched its local currency in favour of foreign currencies in 2009 after hyper-inflation reached 500 billion percent.
Zimbabwe mainly uses the United States dollar and South African rand for transactions but businesses usually round-off prices and give consumers vouchers or sweets as change because the country lacks coins.
The 50c bond coin will be introduced in March next year.
Mangudya ruled out the return of the local currency saying that it would be “careless” and economic “suicide” as there were inadequate reserves to anchor it and that the country had foreign currency reserves that could only last up to three months.
(Daily News/Additional Reporting)
Acting President Emmerson Mnangagwa has slapped former Minister of State Didymus Mutasa with a blackout by removing police security previously assigned to the latter’s house.
The State Media says Mutasa arrived back to his house on Christmas eve to find his security protection removed(although really was still in India – ZimEye.com can confirm that Mutasa is still in India as at the time of reporting). A State Media source said Mutasa was met with shock upon his return from India. “They went to see him at his house at No. 2 Mbuya Nehanda Drive around 3pm. What shocked Cde Mutasa was to find that his house was no longer guarded by the Police Protection Unit, a privilege he had enjoyed for a long time,” said the source.
Another source said Mutasa wanted to maintain a low profile fearing that he would face a backlash from Zanu-PF followers if they saw him in public places.
“He did not want most people to know that he is back. He just wanted it to be a secret but has no plans to be seen in public yet. I will not be surprised if he boycotts even Parliament when it resumes sitting,” said the source.
Efforts to get a comment from him were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered, the state media reported.
Mnangagwa has already fired warning that those who have sided with Joice Mujuru will be met with punitive action which includes expulsion from the party.
Meanwhile Manicaland provincial chairperson Samuel Undenge earlier announced that the province want him expelled for his continued denigration of the revolutionary party and its First Secretary and leader President Mugabe. The call came after Mutasa accused the party leadership of being undemocratic.
As reports became rife that an Asian plane has gone missing in mid air, and scores of disgruntled Zimbabweans rushing to wish that President Robert Mugabe is in the same aircraft, fears began mounting on where exactly the Head of State is at present.
This reporter set out to attempt locating where exactly Mr Mugabe is.
President Robert Mugabe flew out Zimbabwe on an Asian holiday and it is held due to his long one month stay, he flew private choosing to avoid the official Air Zimbabwe jet he most often charters.
Writing on social networks, Zimbabweans hoped that His Excellency is part of the fate of flight QZ8501. “Dai vaMugabe vakararama vakomana – I wish the President survives,” one Zimbo based in South Africa satirically wrote. Thousand others poured in their emotional comments in near-celebratory mode.
This reporter can however confirm that although the facts at present were not clear, Mr Mugabe cannot have been on the Air Asian flight since he expressed to his office, he is only traveling to rest and will not go beyond one country due to security concerns. This reporter was told by an official in the President’s office that President Robert Mugabe did travel to Singapore. “He went to Singapore for his rest but why do you want to know more than that? It is Singapore and Malaysia chete,” the source said avoiding further questions.
Meanwhile below were the latest facts of the missing jet, as on Sunday morning:
– AirAsia flight QZ8501 bound for Singapore from Surabaya, Indonesia and carrying 162 people on board went missing Sunday morning.
– Contact with the plane was lost around an hour after departure, somewhere over the Java Sea between Belitung island and Pontianak, on Indonesia’s part of Kalimantan island.
– Search and rescue operations have been launched with the Indonesian army as well as Singapore and Malaysia scouring the area around Belitung.
Indonesia air traffic control lost contact with AirAsia flight QZ8501 bound for Singapore from the Indonesian city of Surabaya on Sunday morning.
Search and rescue operations have begun, AirAsia Indonesia said on its Facebook page.
The carrier also released a statement listing 162 people on board, with 138 adults, 16 children and one infant making up 155 passengers along with seven crew members (two pilots, four flight attendants and one engineer).
The nationalities of the passengers and crew onboard include one Singaporean, one Malaysian, one French, three South Koreans and 156 Indonesians. See the full manifest here.
QZ8501 lost contact with Indonesian air traffic control at 7:55am local time, 42 minutes after departure and an hour before it was scheduled to land in Singapore.
Reuters reports that the aircraft was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island, when it went missing.
As expelled former senior Minister of State in the President’s Office Didymus Mutasa is pushed to speak on Israeli company NIKUV and the just ended 2013 elections, a State Media investigation on him has opened a can of worms providing vivid pointers that Mutasa contrary to his previous denials, did promise vast tracts of land as a reward to the late ZEC senior official Shupikai Mashereni for a sterling job in twisting 2013 election figures.
Mr Mashereni died under mysterious circumstances shortly after demanding from Mutasa a 70 hectare Headlands farm promised before the July elections, in February this year. ZimEye.com has in our possession impeccable digital electronic mail records proving how Mashereni repeatedly battled Mr. Mutasa to obtain the promised farm shortly before his sudden death. In the digital electronic mail communications Mashereni further revealed before and after the 2013 elections how the ZEC digitally adjusted figures in advance to ensure Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party win last year’s elections. Subsequently Mugabe won the elections out-rightly with more than 62% of the votes.
While in India, earlier in the week, Mutasa denied ever issuing land to either Mashereni or anyone else. He told ZimEye.com, “I don’t know absolutely anything about it…So kwandiri, I never gave promised anybody any farms,
“That’s not true, as I said to you again and again it’s not true,” he reiterated when asked to clarify what he meant.
Admissions.
Yesterday the State Media reported that Mutasa did indeed dish out farms to various people. Several issue letters issued by Mr Mutasa have been audited showing how using his influence Mutasa allegedly of a truth did parcel out farms in Headlands Constituency to a select group of people who included friends, politicians and close family members.
Said one source, “Most of the farms in the Headlands area are owned by Cde Mutasa’s close relatives. Even some of his relatives who are not resident in Zimbabwe have been allocated farms which they have never set foot on. One example is a farm called Homewood in Headlands which he allocated to his relative who is based in London, but who has never set foot on the farm….
“He has also given offer letters to a number of white farmers in Headlands,” said the State Media source.
Mutasa who was once Mugabe’s highly trusted party official entrusted with top secrets and high profile intelligence operations, has reportedly reached his political grave after Mugabe turned against him during the final weeks running up to ZANU PF’s crunch congress. It is widely held that the recent events are leading to Mutasa opening his mouth further to reveal all that ZANU PF did to unjustly digitalise the results of the just ended elections.
THE Minister of State for Mashonaland West, Faber Chidarikire, is in the eye of a storm after he introduced Acting President, Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife as the Acting First Lady during celebrations yesterday to mark the elevation of Prisca Mupfumira to the Politburo and her appointment as the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services.
It is understood that thousands of people who attended the celebrations that were held at Chinhoyi University of Technology were stunned by the introduction by Chidarikire.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation, a Zanu-PF Central Committe member who attended the celebrations said Chidarikire who was given the task to introduce Mrs Mnangagwa as the Guest of Honour said because Vice-President Mnangagwa was the Acting President, his wife was also the Acting First Lady.
“Everything was going on well during the celebrations until the remarks by Chidarikire. He introduced Mrs Mnangagwa as the Acting First Lady and the people were stunned. He said Mrs Mnangagwa was the Acting First Lady because her husband was the Acting President. There were murmurs of disapproval from many people because this was a first. We have never heard of an Acting First Lady. Some people even started asking around whether that scenario is possible but for some of us we know there is no such a thing,” said the Zanu-PF Central Committee member.
The Central Committee member said some of the people who spoke during the celebrations included the Mashonaland West provincial chair, Ziyambi, who gave the opening remarks, Politburo member Shuvai Mahofa; Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo and Hurungwe East MP, Sarah Mahoka who gave the vote of thanks.
Mupfumira also gave a speech during the celebrations.
Also in attendance were Politburo members July Moyo, Josiah Hungwe, Joram Gumbo, Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Douglas Mombeshora and Chegutu West MP, Dexter Nduna.
Several Central Committee members from Mashonaland West also attended the celebrations.
When he was contacted for a comment yesterday evening, Chidarikire said he made the introduction as a joke.
“That was a joke. I said tiri kuvati Acting First Lady but it can never be. I had joked that nekuti vaMnangagwa is Acting President, saka she is Acting First Lady. It was just a joke and I then corrected that statement that she cannot be acting First Lady because the First Lady is there,” said Chidarikire.
However, another Politburo member who was in attendance and some poltical commentators castigated Chidarikire for what they called a “joke in bad taste.”
“When Chidarikire made the remarks, I couldn’t believe it. I really dont understand why he thought of such a joke. He almost spoiled the celebrations that were going on well. We should respect the First Lady and such jokes border on disrespect,” said the Politburo member.
A political commentator who refused to be named said the incident was not different from the one involving Hungwe who about a week ago, received a serious backlash after equating VP Mnangagwa to Jesus Christ.
“This incident is just the same as the one by Hungwe about a few days ago. Maybe its the adrenalin that will be pumping or it’s just over-excitement which makes politicians to cross the line. Really, what Chidarikire said was uncalled for and was a joke in bad taste.
“Politicians should learn to retrain themselves when in public because what they say has so many ripple effects,” said the commentator. – State Media
In a bizarre case that left Gokwe’s Dzvoritsvo villagers speechless, a 62 year old man identified as Mukanhiwa Nyambo confessed to have married his 24 year old daughter to a goblin he acquired from South Africa in 1979.
This came to light when his daughter was brought back home by in-laws and her husband after they experienced complications in bed and also failing to have a child in their five year old marriage.
The in-laws stay in the same area of Dzvoritsvo under chief Njelele, a few kilometres from Gokwe town centre.
According to Ramson Kweya a husband to Slyvia, the affected daughter of the man in question, “I have decided to bring back my wife to her parents to have this nightmare solved. I only enjoyed the first week of my marriage before the appearance of this animal like creature. From the time it showed itself, I was never at ease as the thing would sleep between us every time it so wishes,” he said.
Asked to shed light on his daughter’s predicament, Nyambo replied saying this has nothing to do with the press. “This is a private issue my friend. How did you come here, and who invited you in our secret affairs. Ndeve kwa Kweya here vakudaidza kuti vandinyadzise?” asked Nyambo before turning his back on this journalist.
A woman, who identified herself as Aleta Nyambo and also as a sister to Sylvia’s father, told ZimEye that she once told his brother to stop hunting for riches. “He was always in a habit of seeking riches the questionable way, which the whole family was against. He would even visit local n’angas, at a tender age, a situation our late father devastated. Look now all her daughters will never get married,” she said before wiping her tears.
According to information from Dzvoritsvo village head representative, Pauro Dzoto, Nyambo acquired his goblin from SA in 1979 and brought it home to acquire money from nearby businesses in Gokwe. “He confessed before a village court that he will soon return it with two beasts, to a place known to him,” said the village head.
The Nyambo family and their in-laws are said to have agreed to leave their wife in the hands of her father to solve the problem before they can take her back. They are also said to be discussing the reimbursement of a few beasts for the inconvenience caused.
Last week Chief Njelele was quoted breathing fire on all witchcraft practices. He threatened to expel all involved in witchcraft from his jurisdiction.
Nigerian preacher, TB Joshua has provoked controversy after declaring that women who abort babies conceived through rape are committing a “double sin”. TB Joshua waded in to the abortion debate while answering questions from fans on Facebook.
When an online user asked his thoughts on getting rid of a baby in the case of a rape victim, he advised that drawing closer to God was a better alternative. He went on to claim that God often orchestrates situations like rape to change people.
“Committing an abortion when you are raped is a double sin. God often uses foolish things to express himself,” he wrote.
“Many great people and heroes today are products of this background.
“In any way, in any circumstance you find yourself in today as you are reading this note, you have not committed any unpardonable sin. Run to Jesus; don’t run from Him whatever situation you find yourself.”
His comments prompted mixed reaction from the Christian community.
“After all is said, people will still do what’s on their minds. It’s between you and your God,” one commenter said.
Another wrote: “I agree with prophet Joshua..who are we to approve though? Abortion is murder of a baby who knows nothing about his or her coming..I pray not to experience it though.”
A third said: “So in the case of incest the woman should also keep the baby as well? stfu TB Joshua and I feel sorry for those who listen to people like you. Abortion is a women’s [sic] right to choose. Nobody should make that decision for them.”
Joshua’s remarks come days after Pastor Chris Oyakhilome claimed that the decision should be the victim’s.
“It is never mentioned anywhere in the Bible to keep a child from a woman who is raped!” he said. – IBTimes.co.uk
An MDC member from West Sussex in the UK together with his wife are believed to have died in a suicide pact on Christmas Day, leaving behind two young children.
Jan and Julie Tshabalala from Billinghurst were found dead on Thursday morning at their home after celebrating an early Christmas the day before. The couple are said to have taken their children to a relative shortly after their meal before the fateful incident occurred.
A worried family member had gone to the couple’s home shortly after 9am on Friday and saw the bodies through a window before alerting police.
The police spokesman for West Sussex said that Emergency services were called to a house in Groomsland Drive, Billingshurst, just after 9am on Thursday after concerns for a couple there.
“A 33-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were sadly found dead in the property,”he added.
“Officers are working to establish the circumstances of the death but are not looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.”
As the house was sealed off while forensics officers carried out investigations, neighbours spoke of their shock at the tragedy.
Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Post-mortems were due to be carried out yesterday to establish the cause of death.
The cops were still to confirm whether suicide notes had been left.
Neighbours across the board say that they seemed to be a nice, happy couple who kept to themselves but were always pleasant when spoken to.
There were rumours the couple had been in financial trouble, although friends dismissed the idea.
“I am in absolute shock and how tragic for the children. I have never heard of anything like this around here,” said one other neighbour who lived four houses from where the Tshabalala’s live.
The couple’s children thought to be between ages four and seven are said to suffer from disabilities. Their daughter is said to have Cerebral Palsy while their son has learning difficulties.
Several Nigerian buildings have in the five years leading up to the September 12 TB Joshua church house disaster, collapsed, caving in, in ways similar to the SCOAN building, it has emerged. Evidence from historical videos (BELOW) shows how these buildings all caved in due to structural construction defects involving fake cement among other dodgy materials used.
The revelations are likely to disprove suggestions by the Nigerian preacher that a low flying aircraft was responsible for the September 12 collapse.
Construction officials (VIDEO) have described structural defects in the buildings. As in one of the buildings, they had commenced action to verify authorization for the structure and any possible detail before it eventually caved in in 2002.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema will be getting married in Limpopo today.
Malema is tying the knot to his long-time sweetheart Mantwa Matlala in a private traditional ceremony.
Malema has warned that those who arrive at his wedding without an invitation will be turned away.
He says this also applies to his EFF supporters.
“There will be tight security and therefore no one should complain when they’re turned away.”
Malema says his future wife is from a private family and has appealed to the nation to respect his privacy.
“A family that conducts its business in a private manner and it doesn’t seek any limelight.”
The EFF leader says he is delighted that he is ending the year on a high note by marrying the woman he loves.
– EyeWitness News
SOME Zanu PF activists in Chinhoyi have been accused of looting Christmas goodies donated to old people’s homes and children’s orphanage centres in the city.
Chinhoyi deputy mayor Dereck Matapuri and Chengetai Old People’s Home founder Florence Ndlovu confirmed the development during the handover of Christmas presents at Good Shepherd Orphanage Centre on Christmas Day.
“We hear that some people are following us taking the goods we would have had donated. We want to rectify that problem as the intended beneficiaries are being deprived of the donated goods,” Matapuri said. Ndlovu identified two of the culprits as Lainos Chauke and one Chitate.
“Yesterday, there was somebody by the name Chauke (Lainos) and Chitate, who came and took most of goods donated by individuals. This Chitate came daily to take bread meant for the elderly,” Ndlovu said.
Zanu PF Ward 4 councillor Ignatius Zvigadza described the incidents as callous, adding that alleged looting was caused by the absence of legitimate boards to run the affected centres.
“There are these allegations of abuse of donated goods which came to us and we have engaged the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and some traditional donors who have withdrawn their support citing irregularities and unnecessary bickering. Very soon we will find a solution, but firstly, we are going to have a general meeting where a proper committee will be elected,” Zvigadza said.
Last week, Chinhoyi Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund raised $8 000 that was equally shared among four old people’s homes and orphaned children centres on Christmas Day. –
Newsday
The National Capital Region recorded its first swine flu fatality on Friday with a 51-year-old woman from Ghaziabad succumbing to the virus at a private hospital here.
Officials at the Sri Ganga Ram Hospital, where the patient was admitted said the woman had been moved from Columbia Asia Hospital in Ghaziabad a few days ago.
She was in a critical condition and had to be kept on ventilator support.
Meanwhile, all government hospitals have been put on alert by the Delhi Government’s health department. Hospitals have been asked to take appropriate measures to treat swine flu cases.
According to the Directorate of Health Services, six cases of swine flu have been reported in the national capital and its neighbouring region this month.
“This is the first death due to swine flu this year. A total 32 positive cases of swine flu have been reported in Delhi and NCR since January 1 till date,” said Dr. Dalveer Singh, State Epidemiologist, holding the additional charge of Public Health.
The deceased, identified as Sheel Goel, resident of East Model Town in Ghaziabad was admitted to the ICU of Ganga Ram Hospital in a serious condition on December 21.
All India figures have revealed that swine flu has claimed 204 lives from January till November this year. As many as 831 confirmed cases of the outbreak have been reported during the corresponding period.
The maximum number of cases (155) were reported in Gujarat, where 55 people succumbed to the disease followed by Maharashtra with 42 deaths and 112 cases. Karnataka ad Punjab reported 294 cases and 33 deaths and 56 cases and 30 deaths respectively.
According to the data provided by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry there has been an outbreak of the Influenza A H1N1 that causes swine flu since 200910, with sporadic outbreaks being reported from various states including Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharasthra and Kerala.
With PTI inputs
Zimbabwe is one of the last countries of the world where the endangered black and white rhinos can be seen roaming freely. A mystery camp in the Southern part of the country, Amalinda, has within its natural fences this amazing specie (VIDEO). Amalinda also holds the keys to Africa’s history being the “neighbourhood area” of both King Mzilikazi Khumalo and iconic British explorer Cecil John Rhodes. ZimEye caught up with founding director Sharon Stead who explains the mystery behind Amalinda.
FULL INTERVIEW:
QU: Your company specialises in hospitality and marketing Zimbabwe’s heritage sites, is that correct?
Sharon: That’s a fairly accurate description; my company comprises of 3 lodges and a touring bus service and the entire collection is marketed by myself and my marketing department to local, regional and international arenas. They are each positioned in iconic areas in Zimbabwe which embrace history, culture and amazing wildlife. It’s a very easy sell.
QU: Please give us a short overview of your company and what it offers to
tourists and local/returning Zimbos. Sharon: It’s probably easier to go onto our website: www.amalindacollection.com but to give you a short idea; we have a lodge in Matopos, Camp Amalinda – it’s our 25 year old flagship. For returning residents, Matopos holds quite a dear place in many hearts because of its spirituality, history and culture. As kids many will remember either camping in the hills, cycling out from Bulawayo or having braai’s in the many picnic spots. I remember having many new years’ parties at Rhodes Grave and Maleme dam. It’s one of the last places in Zimbabwe that you can see rhino, black and white and through our efforts we have been assisting National Parks in rebuilding the fence around Rhodes Matopos National Park in order to further secure this area for the existing rhino. Of course the bushman paintings are phenomenal – still so well preserved and one of our guides at Amalinda is an Archeologist who has fascinating stories of the trials and tribulations of the bushmen. We developed a tour, Mzilikazi Footprint – war of warriors and this is guided by Paul Hubbard, our resident guide and tells the ‘other’ side of history unknown to many Zimbo’s who were taught in ‘pre-Zimbabwe’ schools. In Hwange we have Ivory Lodge which is a wonderful family safari camp offering the Big 4, game drives and game experiences at good Zimbo rates. And close by, we’ve build a 5 star offering called Khulu Ivory, which, only having being rebuilt after a fire burnt it to the ground in May, is now an award winning lodge and has become known as the signature camp of The Amalinda Collection. It offers fine dining, personalized service, private game drives and walks with Pro Guides, Nespresso Machines and mini bars in the rooms – all leveled at the discerning international traveller who aspires to the finer attributes of an old world safari. Tuskers campsite is a perfect place for over-land vehicles who like to go really raw and get close to nature. It’s really suitable for 4×4 safari vehicles but has the added value of hot and cold water showers for the ‘glampers’ (glamorous campers). And there are plans for building a plunge pool in the future.
QU: Please point us to a standard package your company currently offers to
someone visiting the Matopos? Sharon: Currently we offer Zimbabweans with visiting friends and family rates within our rate structure; if you can prove you are Zimbabwean, have a residence permit/work permit you are entitled to a discounted rate which starts from US$150 per person per night. This price includes accommodation and the 3 meals per day and we can add on the extras like game drives and drinks. Matopos and Hwange are great self drive regions and most visitors to these areas are happy to conduct their own activities in the National Park; however, nothing beats being on the back of an open landrover with a professional guide to personally take you to areas you may not have been able to access or wildlife that you may have missed by being in your own vehicle. And options like game drives/walks tracking rhino can be paid for in camp at an extra cost of $65 per person per drive.
QU: You have gone on record saying Zimbabweans should consider returning
home. What gives you the confidence to say make such a bold declaration
since you are a white Zimbabwean and most white Zimbos have left the
country and are generally negative towards the nation’s current status quo. Sharon: It’s a valid question and being the controversial person that I am, I’ll say I have every right and confidence to say just that – I travel the world marketing my country and give talks & presentations on my properties. I see how the rest of the world lives, I speak to foreigners who get bitten by the African bug and can’t ever get the longing and urge to return to Africa out of their blood. They talk to me about not sleeping trying to figure out a way or opportunity to return. Zimbabwe, once known as the pearl of Africa to the travel agents internationally because of the ease of access, wild life splendor and friendliness, hospitality of our people is now back on the map due to the dollarization in 2009. I know that every time I come home from these trips, I thank the Gods above that I am Zimbabwean and that I’m blessed to still live here. Yes, being a white Zimbo has its challenges – we are the minority and are constantly being viewed with suspicion and jealousy In tourism we understand more infinitely the mentality and expectations of the international traveller. Marketing is all about relationships, relationships built on trust and an ability to deliver what is promised. I think that since my company/family have been in the business for 25 years we have stood the test of time, the hardships of what we term “the lost decade” between the years 2000 and 2010 when tourism plunged into almost non existence – those who were able to get through those years, who kept their staff employed, kept their lodges open (at whatever cost) have the edge on relationships with international/local agents.
Ex Zimbos’ are probably the most negative – probably because they feel disenfranchised, they’ve had to leave their homeland (for whatever reason) and still feel bitter – they constantly seek only the negative to justify their reasons for leaving and this is certainly very dangerous for the image of Zimbabwe and the image we, as people who are marketing the country are up against all the time. So I say, don’t throw stones, come back and enjoy your heritage; live precariously through current photos, tell the world how amazing your country is; talk of the wide open spaces, the magnificence of Hwange, Mana Pools and its wildlife, the majesty of the Vic Falls and Great Zimbabwe, of the spirituality of the Matobo Hills and awe-inspiring Gonorezhou. Knowing that the people in these areas are benefiting from tourism should be enough as this is the very topic that the Diaspora seem to be concerned about – they’re concerned for lack of housing, schooling facilities, clinics and that our people are getting enough to eat. Most privately owned lodges and safari operators have a link to some form of social responsibility – they are putting back into communities and wildlife much more than what these areas would see from government, so staying at lodges who have a strong connection to these responsibilities means that the assistance reach is huge. Supporting and staying in these lodges will help, and thats why I’m bold enough to encourage them to come home, on holiday or tell people to do so. Being negative about their homeland does not help this cause.
QU: How accurate are your views on the general Zim experience of life in
general? Sharon: I’m certainly not highly tuned to general life out in the sticks; however through my Trust and the work that we do in the communities surrounding our lodges, I have seen and continue to be sensitive to how tough rural life is. Oh it’s tough, and some areas of Zimbabwe are extremely arid and trying to harvest a living from these areas is almost impossible. These areas should be returned to natural and wildlife areas, we should stop kidding ourselves that people can fetch a life out of these places, just give it back to the wilds. When I’m in the rural areas working on our projects, I’m subjected to a small part of their lives and that’s why The Mother Africa Trust was born. I’ve got a strong passion to empower woman, to nurture their abilities to develop and become a force in society; being a woman in a very much male orientated society has taught me a great deal. I’m really interested in couching and sharing ways for other woman to gain this knowledge in order to level the gender playing fields in business. I hope that, to some extent, my work in these remote areas will have some impact, no matter how small – because if we start small, with time, we can change Zimbabwe, one person at a time.
The Zimbabwean government is selling 62 baby elephants to China, France and the United Arab Emirates, it has emerged.
An initially reported figure of 34 has since been raised to 62 calves being taken out of the country away from their mothers as a catastrophic conflict looms in the countryside and war about to break out between elephants and human beings after the beasts’ “sucklings” began being ‘smuggled’ out away under President Robert Mugabe’s command, as earlier reported.
Elephants who have since been deprived of their babies do not forget and this is very dangerous for future visitors to the tourist resorts, warned animal conservation experts, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force.
“Why is Zimbabwe stealing from the future generation’s natural resources? The baby elephants quite likely won’t survive the trip and the only crime they have committed is being born in Zimbabwe. They are now being sentenced to a life of inhuman treatment. This is very traumatic, not only for the baby elephants but also for their families. Elephants don’t forget and this is very dangerous for future visitors to Hwange,” the ZCTF said in a statement.
In defense of the smuggling, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority chairperson Jerry Gotora however said the exports will be carefully controlled by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The exports are expected to start in the first quarter of 2015 after assessment of their destination.
“Zimbabwe got allocations from CITES to export elephants to suitable destinations and one of the destinations is China,” Gotora was quoted saying. He continued saying they will be sent to the United Arab Emirates who want 15 elephants, China 27 and France between 15 and 20.
Gotora claimed that Zimbabwe has 80,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 42,000 and this was not sustainable in the long run.
Proceeds from the export of the elephants would be used to fund the running of game parks while a portion would be allocated to communities living near the game reserves, he said.
A Bulawayo woman has become the talk of the city after naked photos of her engaging in intimacy with several boyfriends were sent to her exiled husband in South Africa.
The woman who cannot be named for her protection, was also discovered to be HIV positive way before her husband had returned home and the man informed of the same.
Mr Thabisani Bhebhe returning for the Christmas holiday surprised the woman as he unravelled the drama that had been taking place in his absence.
Showing how his wife has been cheating him as he opened up Whatsapp pictures sent to him, a composed but firm Bhebhe proved how the woman had a string of sex-capades with various men within a 20 kilometre radius of Cowdray Park.
Described as light skinned and the most cunning female in the community, Mrs (Name Withheld) was nearly beaten up as Bhebhe poured paraffin all over his bed saying he regrets falling in love with her and she had used African muthi on him but this time the concoction had failed to work as he had been given “holy water” by a prophet which destroyed the juju’s powers.
“I am just happy that people still care about me, if they did not notify me of what my wife was doing behind my back I could be dead by now due to HIV,” he said.
He said he had received the WhatsApp pictures and messages revealing his wife’s infidelity from an unknown source, who only identified herself as a neighbour.
“When I saw the messages I did not want to believe them, until that person told me to call at 11pm saying she was with a man,” Bhebhe said.
“When I called, she did not answer my call and she only responded the following day saying she had been asleep.”
He however soon drove away in rage after burning down the bed and shortly before the police had arrived…
The Zimbabwean government has caused potential chaos in hospitals countrywide after it chopped off doctors salaries by $300.
In an unprecedented move that exposes the Zimbabwe government`s double standards, doctors woke up to the the unimaginable after the public service docked almost $300 from their December salaries effectively ruining their festive season.
The paymaster garnished the doctors dues for allegedly participating in a constitutional 17 day strike where they demanded improved working conditions. The move to deduct from the doctors salaries came as a huge surprise after the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) had reached a painful compromise with the Ministry of Health and Child Care and the Health Services Board to get the doctors back to work while negotiations continue.
ZHDA is shocked at the move as it becomes the first time ever in the history of the country that workers can be punished for exercising their constitutional right. As ZHDA we feel that this move is a direct violation of labour rights and total disregard of the country’s constitution and sabotage of social services delivery in the country.
The action also comes hard on the heels of President Mugabe’s call for accelerated implementation of ZIMASSET. The ZHDA is currently engaging with it’s membership to determine the way forward but all the association’s chapters have said that this is a declaration of war with doctors. ZHDA is also waiting patiently for the courts to rule on this unjust punishment to doctors as we have since launched a urgent High Court application to reverse the decision. The ZHDA therefore urges President Mugabe as he cleans up government of incompetent staff to consider looking at ineffective institutions like the Health Services Board and officials in the Ministry of Health and Child Care because they have proved that they are not only incompetent but inept.
-Report By Francis Rwodzi
Villagers from Nyele area in Plumtree were left shocked when a man was found dead five days after he left his home heading to a clinic suffering from a toothache, in mysterious circumstances now attributed to so called “goblins”.
Tinaye Khuphe from Nyele village had been missing for five days and his body was found lying in a bushy area near his homestead.
Neighbours have reported that Khupe had been missing since Thursday when he left his home going to the clinic and never returned, even though he was spotted earlier within the area by several people.
A police source said Khupe’s body was discovered on Tuesday afternoon near his homestead and investigations were being carried out to establish the cause of death. It is alleged that the body did not have any scars which has given rise to rumours that he was attacked by so called super human creatures.
Headman Mzanyana described Khuphe’s death as a mystery, while villagers suggested that he might have been attacked by goblins. The headman said that Khuphe’s family were planning to engage the services of a traditional healer to untangle the mysterious death.
Nyele councillor Emmanuel Moyo said according to Khuphe’s relatives, he left his homestead on Thursday going to the clinic after complaining of a toothache. Khuphe never returned home on that day despite being seen by villagers walking around the community.
“Khupe was first seen by his niece after he had gone missing for a day. She told him that everyone was looking for him but he insisted that he had to escape from the village as some “short” people were hunting him down and he fled from his niece.
“From there he went to his neighbour’s homestead and told them that there were mysterious people who were hunting him down. They tried to convince him to return to his homestead but he fled from the house,” narrated Moyo.
Moyo also stated that Khuphe feared that the people who were hunting for him would ambush him. The next thing Moyo received news from villagers that Khuphe’s body has been found close to his homestead.
Khuphe’s body did not have any scars on it to show that he could have been murdered and his body was lying there on the ground with no signs of a struggle.
People considered the state in which they found Khuphe and the allegations he was making that there were people who were after him and concluded that he might have been attacked by goblins”. said Councilor Moyo.
The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) says 2015 will see the aggressive implementation of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET) blue print to reduce unemployment levels.
The implementation of ZIM ASSET is gathering momentum with various organisations embarking on value-addition strategies while government has removed taxes for rough diamonds sold for local beneficiation.
The decision by fiscal authorities has been described as a clear commitment which various organisations should take seriously in creating employment opportunities through attracting new capital.
ZNLWVA chairman Christopher Mutsvangwa said 2015 is set to be an exciting year as the implementation of the economic blue-print will intensify.
ZIM ASSET is premised on four economic clusters namely the infrastructure, value-addition, social and food security with a view to create two million jobs in the next five years.
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ZBC
ZANU PF Turncoat and Deputy Director of Information Psychology Maziwisa at the ZANU PF Congress
ZIMBABWE government adviser Psychology Maziwisa has made a startling report about sexual advances he encountered as the favourite “adopted” son of the disgraced English cricket writer, Peter Roebuck.
Psychology Maziwisa, 30, a lawyer, broke his silence just over six weeks after Roebuck died under mysterious circumstances in Cape Town.
Roebuck fell from his hotel room window as police were about to arrest him on charges of indecently assaulting Zimbabwean student Itai Gondo.
Maziwisa admitted, in a tell-all interview published by the Sydney Morning Herald, that Roebuck – who paid for his university education in KwaZulu-Natal – had fondled and kissed him passionately.
Maziwisa and other young men, who were “adopted” by the cricketer and lived at his home in Pietermaritzburg, initially described him as a caring father figure. But now details have emerged of how he beat them with a black plastic tube on their bare buttocks.
Maziwisa was a 16-year-old pupil at St Joseph’s Orphanage in Harare when he met Roebuck in 1999. There, he claimed, the former county cricketer kissed him passionately.
He said he accepted the “affection and sexual interest” because he “had to look at the bigger picture” – his mother had died and his father was begging on the streets.
Roebuck paid for his schooling and, later, his father’s funeral. Maziwisa later headed the home in Pietermaritzburg where other young men stayed, thanks to the cricket writer’s financial support.
It was there, in 2005, that Roebuck declared his true feelings as they sat on a bed, claimed Maziwisa.
“He looked me in the eye … by that time he had his hands in my pants … he said: ‘Look Captain, I have got something to tell you. I hope you are comfortable with it. I have been meaning to tell you I love you.’
“He was hugging me and putting me by his chest, feeling me. I think that day he was ready to have sex with me, had I agreed, but I did not and told him so.”
Maziwisa this week spoke briefly to the Sunday Times.
“As you will understand I am just a little bit reluctant to share any further information,” he said. “There is stuff that is out there that I’ve already said, you could just use that.”
Roebuck ended the friendship with Maziwisa after he started working for the government in Zimbabwe.
In a tribute to Roebuck, published three days after his death, Maziwisa called him “a caring man in a league of his own who believed in the simple truth that everyone deserves a chance”. He said the 55-year-old had 35 Zimbabwean youths in his “capable care” at the time of his death.
Maziwisa was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying Roebuck spared him the humiliation of being caned on his bare buttocks.
Roebuck told him: “All these other guys, I cane them on their naked buttocks, but I’ll not do that to you, I respect you. You are my number one, I started with you.”
Tatenda Chadya, a law graduate who lived under Roebuck’s roof since 2005, this week said Roebuck was “a kind and caring person who devoted his hard-earned life savings to create opportunities and hopes in the lives of many students.” He poured cold water on the claims made by Maziwisa.
“In all the years that I have stayed with him I did not hear or see anything of that [sexual] nature,” he told the Sunday Times.
George van Niekerk, a director at the law firm instructed by Roebuck’s family to uncover the facts around his death and wind up his estate, said on Friday that the family denied reports of a rift between them and Roebuck. – Timeslive This article appeared first in the South African Timeslive publication on the 8th January, 2012.
74 people have been killed during this festive season up from 64 people killed during the same period last year.
There were more people killed during Christmas eve, the latest figures reflect.
2015 has shown a sharp rise in the number of people killed in road accidents. A recent analysis by the state media shows that most people were killed on Christmas Eve. This was attributed to the fact that more people would be travelling to various destinations to enjoy the holidays with their loved ones
The police have turned down a robbery and assault report which the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe have made.
The police report arose from the violent invasion by over 12 roudy assailants last week at a party the organization was having in Harare.
The incident saw more than 35 members of the gay community being severely assaulted by the gang.
The injured were rushed to a private hospital where they were treated and discharged.
On Christmas day GALZ went to Milton Park police station and made a formal report of robbery and assault (RRB 2296392) which was later dismissed by the police on reasons that an organization cannot be assaulted.
A legal practitioner, Tonderai Bhatasara who is also a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights representing GALZ confirmed that ‘my clients were advised to make individual reports’.
“The police insisted that the members should come forward individually and make the formal police report. They have since done that and we are now waiting for the police to do their job”,said Bhatasara. “They took with them medical reports as part of the evidence that they were indeed assaulted,” he added.
GALZ could not however reveal the total amount and quantity gadgets which they said were stolen by the assailants.
A Harare man has been praised for single-handedly repairing roads neglected by the City Council, closing up potholes on his own.
The man only referred to as Soul, received worldwide recognition for paving a whole street on his own.
Report by Linda J.
It’s Christmas Eve and today’s story from Zimbabwe is a message about levels of gratitude and the questions we should really be asking ourselves……
Driving home yesterday after a last minute Christmas run on the dreaded shopping mall with my two daughters I was wondering how to stretch the last remaining cash among the things that still needed to be purchased and planned for. Then we saw this man (in the picture) on the road.
Dear people of the world let me introduce you to Sole. Or is it Soul? I never asked him how to spell his name. We know him, this vagrant-looking man. He has been working on our road for the past week. This is a typical road in Zimbabwe during the rainy season when the torrential rains open up craters in the tarmac which are intermittently and un-enthusiastically repaired by the City Councils. Enter Sole and many men like him. They forage for bricks and stones, use broken buckets or torn boxes to bring sand and soil to their road of choice, prop up their sign and then work begins. The sign is always hand written and varies from “Voluntary work PLZ help” to “I am not a thief I am a worker plz support me”
They chip and fill and scratch in the dirt, they pack pieces of brick into the pothole like a jigsaw puzzle and then add stone and sand and finally pack it all down with rich red earth and begin work on the next hole. In the photo you can see the fruits of Sole’s labour in the filled pothole next to him, his pile of work material, his sustenance for the day in the Mazoe orange bottle (tap water) and the state of the road with many more holes to fill. When he first came to our road last week I stopped to chat to him, to thank him for his help and to pledge him $1 per day that I found him working there. A typical scenario for a man like this is that he might earn $5 in a day which will feed him for a week so he stops work for the week, until the money runs out. I thought my promise of $1 a day might keep him out there a little longer, in the limelight and hopefully the target of other grateful drivers charity and generosity.
After the second day he recognizes us and waves as we go past. This was Day 4. And as Sole painstakingly rebuilds my road I am grateful that each day my car can roll easy over a little bit more of it.
Yesterday as Sole came into view I slowed the car down for the usual $1 and typical Shona greeting “Maskati Sole maswera se?”
“Maskati Madam taswera” (or something like that!!!)
By now, on this Facebook page, I must come across as a “bleeding heart” woman destined to distribute her hard earned money $1 at a time but that is not the case.
The point I want to make is the wonderful positive unshakeable outlook of my country’s people. Like the post about the vendors, here we have a whole voluntary workforce of impoverished destitute people yet are they begging? No. Are they thieving? No. Are they having a nervous breakdown while their family rushes around them in support? No. They do not have the luxury of a support network and the very nature of Zimbabwean people has been hailed as their biggest downfall. We do not have an aggressive people who rise up in rebellion like the Mau Mau, Hutus or Tutsis, we don’t even have a people who are comfortable to protest their living conditions or human rights but we do have a very brave people who stand up for each other but have been left cowering under a tyrant’s regime so alien to this same nature. They have been criticized and castigated as not warlike enough, not motivated enough, yet Zimbabwe is one of the lowest crime country’s in the world. I have a friend who was robbed at gun point once a few years ago. The thief apologized to her for any trauma , explained that his children were starving and when she asked for her Grandmothers ring back for sentimental reasons he sympathetically sifted through the pile of jewelry to find it for her. This is the nature of crime here unless politically motivated.
Another common sight on our streets are the dustbin foragers. Starving people who have no other option but to sift through our trash to try to find food or usable or salvable items. They are wonderful recyclers these dustbin people. They take the plastic bottles and glass jars to refill with wares and resell them. And on the occasion that I might have handed over my $1 to one of these their humble gratitude and unfailing “God bless you madam” is absolutely illuminating in graciousness. If I was foraging in a dustbin and someone arrived in a car to hand me a paltry $1 would I be so magnanimous in gratitude? I’m not sure I would have that grace….
Yes life here is hard. But when I start to feel sorry for myself or my kids because I can’t take them on a skiing holiday or even to the beach then I just have to drive past Sole and his brethren and acknowledge the immense and humbling gratitude with which he receives his daily dollar. The girls and I left Sole yesterday and then Cami piped up “Mum I have a really big T shirt that I think would fit him, should I give it to him?”
We arrived home on our newly leveled road and the girls dived into their cupboards while I raided the food pantry. The bag Sole is holding in the picture is the offering from a household of women including shirts, socks, a towel, blanket and food for a good Christmas meal and a few days more. Who am I to worry about whether I have the right dress for Christmas Day or if I have enough stuffing to fill the turkey? At the end of the day Sole is no different to me, he shows up for work in the best clothes he has and does the best with what he has at that time. And at some point in that day the Universe blesses him with a drive past from a harried mum who takes a moment to try and make his life a little better for a day or two.
Isn’t that what life is all about? Yes there are so many different levels of it but if one just gets up and goes out to work with the tools and ability one has then the Universe cannot help but respond, whoever you may be.
This then is my Christmas Eve message. It is a Zimbabwean story and a proudly Zimbabwean message. We may be governed by tyrants, victims of the highest unemployment records in the world but we take our responsibility for this. This is or country and I’m proud to say that these are our countrymen and women. From Sole through to the business moguls who have built empires here. We have an entire older generation of men and women who couldn’t leave when the many crunches came, many of our pensioners live frugal lives far removed from their earlier years. Life is hard for them too. But across this diverse Zimbabwean people neither the unemployed nor the businessman nor the pensioner look for unearned assistance. We don’t whine and blame and wait to be saved by the World Bank or the U.N or the human rights agencies. (Well I might whine a bit…!) Whoever we are we get up and go out, we do our very best with what we have and at the end of the day that’s enough. Whether it’s enough to feed us for that day or take our dream holiday, it’s enough. But it is the people like Sole (or is it Soul?!) and the dustbin people who show me this. I don’t look at them as vagrants and potential thieves, I see them as people just like me, making the very best of a very bad circumstance and I am uplifted. If they can do it, so can I. And if I can make a difference, no matter how small, in a single life with my single dollar then this is what I must do. It is not charity, it’s simply recognition for the sweat and labour of that person who is trying to make my life better too…..This is what it means to be human. And critically, this is what it means to be Zimbabwean.
Zimbabwe’s dancehall giants SoulJah Luv, Extra Large and Madiz, are from today (Friday) landing in the UK for splash shows slated for Leicester, Leeds, and Birmingham.
ZimEye.com can reveal the musicians (pictured) flew out of Harare on Christmas day en route to Manchester where they will soon head to Leicester for the first show. The string of performances are stretching into the New Year with SoulJah scheduled to grace the final slamming on crossover night. The preliminary show line up is as follows:
Leicester 26TH Dec – at 73b Churchgate, LE1 3AN (10pm till late).
Leeds 27th Dec – St Barthelomews Parish Hall, Westlet Road, LS12 1SR. (10pm till late).
Birmingham 31 Dec – Honey Club, 30 Bristol Street, Birmingham, B5 7AA. (10pm till late).
Meanwhile a Glasgow, Scotland show previously scheduled has been cancelled due to venue complications.
In an embarrassing u-turn attributed to a disastrous planning failure at the inception of ZANU PF businessman Billy Rautenbach’s Green Fuel project, the Zimbabwean Government has reduced mandatory fuel blending using ethanol from 15% to 5%, the company having succumbed to a mere seven days of rainfall.
Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Udenge was forced to make an announcement just before Christmas due to the disaster that would have seen long petrol queues emerge. Udenge told reporters in Harare Wednesday that ethanol production at the Billy Rautenbach owned Green Fuel Company in Chisumbanje was on halt because of the rains which has made the entire field inaccessible.
“With the onset of the rainy season, heavy rains have been falling in Chisumbanje for the past week, rendering the fields inaccessible to cane harvesters due to the wet clay soils. This, in turn, has resulted in reduced production of ethanol,” said Udenge.
Business analysts argue that the development demonstrates how ill-prepared the investor was from the onset in this project which was rushed using powerful politicians and there were evidently no viability and environmental impact assessments done as is now clear since operations have been stopped by a mere 7 days of rain. The MDC-T has stood its ground arguing that Rautenbach should not have been given extra-preferential treatment and in a recent development former ZANU PF Mash West chair Temba Mliswa threatened to expose politicians linked to the mandatory blending scandal which has resulted in Green Fuel’s petrol being labelled “Rautenbach’s Urine”.
Meanwhile Udenge continued in his announcement saying, “once the rains stop and the soils dry up enough, cane harvesting and ethanol production will immediately resume.
In May 2013, the government, through the second respondent (ministry of Energy and Power Development) published the Petroleum ‘Mandatory Blending of Anhydrous ethanol unleaded petrol’ regulations Statutory Instrument 17 of 2013.
The regulations sought to establish the mandatory blend and compulsory blending of petrol in Zimbabwe with 5% ethanol fuel.
The government then later on, using Section 4 of the regulations gave Green Fuel a licence for a joint venture to supply ethanol fuel.
Government later on made it mandatory for ethanol-blending on E10, E15 and E20 petrol grades.
President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace is a woman of substance and her reputation has been soiled by media hawks, writes UK based analyst Bernard Bwoni.
Grace, Bwoni says “is an inspiring pacemaker with a meaningful and proven track record of community” work. By Bernard Bwoni
Here is a woman of substance, a woman with a charitable disposition and a woman of tangible and visibly irrefutable influence. Whilst the distinction between those who serve the self and those who serve others is often obvious, in this ‘global village’ that dividing line is often deliberately obscured and determined by those who carry the world media key. Any Internet search engine on Dr Grace Mugabe will 99.99% of the time carry headlines portraying an uncaring and over-indulgent First Lady. Behind the media extracts and sensational headlines there is a intelligent woman of meaning, real meaning very much in touch with the grassroots, a passionate and caring wife, mother to her own children and orphaned children and a highly innovative business-minded philanthropic mother of the nation. Her selfless sacrifice to needy and orphaned children remains cushioned from reporting by those who paint the erroneous and dishonest picture of a substance-free shopaholic. The fact of the matter is that Dr Grace Mugabe is a progressive prime mover, the mother and the brains behind a well-run Children’s Home in Mazowe and currently in the process of building a school and working on plans for a University that will benefit present and future generations of Zimbabwe. She is an inspiration to all women in Zimbabwe and mother to many neglected, abandoned and deprived children. She is an inspiring pacemaker with a meaningful and proven track record of community and grassroots work through her charity work.
Dr Grace Mugabe has often described herself as a ‘workaholic’ and that is fully backed by results of her hard work on the ground. On top of running her children’s home and working on other charitable projects she is also a successful dairy farmer with over 2500 dairy cows. Dr Grace Mugabe has the charitable bone permanently etched right down to her spirit and listening carefully to her recent meet the people addresses minus the specifically nit-picked sound-bites and riveting headlines in most opposition and international media sources there indeed is profound depth and a genuine desire to uplift and upgrade the lives of the disadvantaged and unprivileged. She has prioritised commitment to challenging the degeneracy currently bedevilling the nation and addressing issues affecting ordinary citizens on a daily basis. She has challenged corruption, she has challenged inconsistencies in terms of service delivery and she has ruffled the cushy culture of impunity that has been rooting itself freely in some sections of the upper echelons of power in Zimbabwe. Dr Grace Mugabe has put emphasis on keeping the people of Zimbabwe informed and instilled genuine commitment to challenging the decadence.
The unreported Grace Mugabe has community work credentials and her recent meet-the-grassroots addresses focused on practical issues that affect people in the local communities on a daily basis. She met with Cross Border Traders and tackled pertinent issues that affect this important entity in the Zimbabwe economy. In Zimbabwe over 5.8 million people are employed in the informal sector and this contribute significantly to the social and economic functioning of the state. These are relevant and befitting issues to be thrust on the forefront of the national discourse and come up with solutions to address them. Her encouragement and advice to the Cross Border Traders to accept slow growth as opposed to quick economic gains is sound economic advice. Any business is a process where you lay the foundations and from there that is where the take-off happens. She made sound and welcome promises of championing for the traders to get land and start producing which will enhance livelihoods. She has been talking about facilitating women to be given land, focusing on the productive agriculture sector and indigenous Zimbabweans becoming self-sustaining and self-reliant. She is talking about real wealth creation as opposed to the retrogressive notion of mere workers who do not own the means of production. In another address in Gwanda Dr Grace Mugabe touched on a number of very important issues and highlighted the importance of education and humanity. She said that ‘’Education without humanity is useless, even if you educated, you need to be humane and don’t lead children astray’’. These are pertinent issues that do not get any media attention. She talked about the importance of family, the ravages of child abuse and domestic violence. She also challenged government’s policy of demolition of illegal residential structures without finding alternatives for them. She did not condone the illegal structures but her argument was that alternatives were needed for those displaced. The problem is that by destroying the structures you create another problem of homeless people. Now these are issues that no ‘global media’ will highlight about the First Lady. She has spoken incessantly about women’s issues and the need for women to be educated and to have land to help improve their economic prospects. It is unfortunate that many have tended to focus only on the stirring headlines and the Peta Thornycroft cock and bull stories instead of the depth and wealth behind most of Dr Grace Mugabe’s addresses.
She does possess a clear awareness of Zimbabwe’s economic policy as evidenced in another of her addresses where she highlighted the importance of the country’s look east policy and the implementation of the country’s economic blueprint ZimAsset. One of the key issues she has consistently and passionately focused on has been the issue of corruption and the negative image it portrays about the country. She has persistently stressed the negative outcomes of letting corruption go unchallenged as it undermines the trust people have in government and some individuals in positions of authority resources that could have been used for collective national benefit towards individual gratifications. Beneath all the negative and biased representation of the First Lady there is breath and depth, a solid commitment to addressing the issues of the downtrodden and bringing to the foreground all these issues. The reassuring thing about the First Lady is that it is not all empty words, she is a woman of action and she has the substance-endowed charitable curriculum vitae to back it. She is upholds the very same principles as her husband President Mugabe who has dedicated his entire life liberating and empowering the indigenous African peoples and redressing the inequalities created by the colonial system. In another of her meet the people addresses Dr Mugabe lamented the case of those resettled farmers who were reluctant to seize the opportunities presented to them. She like President Mugabe has emphasised the urgent need to start unlocking, dismantling and restructuring the previously biased system which still continues to tie down African minds and limiting their potential to enhance themselves. No gimmicks but this as real as life itself gets, the freshness and reality of the grassroots, physically touching the ground and tackling issues head-on. There is a lot more substance behind those dramatic news headlines and sensational media clips.
bernardbwoni.blogspot.com
Another accident occured on Seke road on Christmas day. Details were sketchy at the time of writing while blood and goods were strewed all over the place.More to follow
Meanwhile the state media reported that 17 people died on Christmas eve alone.
FULL REPORT:17 People died on the Christmas Eve bringing the number of people killed to 64 since the beginning of the festive season.
Road accidents continue to claim more lives during the festive season amid calls for every road user to change their attitude.
Police statistics indicate that night driving coupled with human error has contributed much to the number of accidents.
Police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi reiterated the need for every road user to value the sanctity of human life.
Masvingo province, probably with one of the busiest roads, recorded the highest number with 15 people killed followed by Matabeleland South province which has 10 people while Harare and Mashonaland East province recorded 8 people each.
Mashonaland Central province has the least number with one person killed.
This year tops the number of fatalities as 64 people have been killed compared to 56 during the same period last year.
443 people have been injured up from 293 last year.
A Zimbabwean Man is on the run after allegedly crashing a hired car into a kerb in Leeds.
The driver fled the wreckage, leaving police officers guessing last night.
He had been driving the car in Dewsbury road at around midnight when his car hit a kerb before spinning and landing on its roof.
The impact of the crash was such that the roof was flattened into such shape on-lookers expressed doubts anyone could have survived.
An Ambulance rescue team (video) dispatched to the scene found no sign of human life inside the vehicle.
Police shut the road temporarily as emergency services dealt with the aftermath looking for possible casualties.
Officers confirmed the vehicle was a hired car.
Man loses leg in near-fatal accident at Timsite Enterprises.
As anarchy, chaos and looting of gold at the illegal Chinese owned Timsite gold mill in Bindura continue, there was a near fatal accident as gold panners were caught in a stampede competing against each other. One known illegal gold dealer is lucky to be alive though seriously injured when he was run over by a 10 tonne round mill-wheel while panning for gold in the Mill.
Miraclously only one of his legs was crushed.
The man was whisked away to a private hospital in an attempt to evade NSSA and the local Mines Inspector, ZimEye.com can reveal.
Timsite has one of the worst safety records in the country. Earlier in the year a customer was crushed to death in one of the mills.
Timsite is one of the 11 companies closed down by government for non compliance with government requirements.
However the company receiving support from named politicians and senior government officials defied the order and has been operating illegally. Gold panning and externalisation has reached unprecendented levels with the commissioning of the Cyanidation Plant.
It has been found that government is being prejudiced of millions of dollars.
The ZimEye Media Team would like to wish all our valued readers and contributors a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year. ZimEye strives to provide the best news content and forum facilities for our readers. Zimbabwe Amhlope, Makorokoto eGoredzva!
Zimbabwe’s new Indigenisation minister says foreigners should feel lucky that they are getting such a large amount of shares in local businesses.
Zimbabwe’s new Indigenisation Minister Christopher Mushowe says foreign investors are “very lucky” to get 49% shares in businesses they have set up, the Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.
In his first comments on President Robert Mugabe’s indigenisation policy since his appointment earlier this month, Mushowe said: “In fact 49% is the maximum [for foreign shareholding] and 51% is the minimum [for indigenous holding].” Scare away foreign investment
Under the laws, whites and foreigners are obliged to arrange for locals to take over 51% of large companies they own. Critics say the regulations, which came into effect in 2010, scare away foreign investment.
“So it’s not cast in concrete that it’s 49%, it can be one percent because it is the maximum and 51% can be 99% because it’s the minimum,” the indigenisation minister reportedly said.
Mushowe’s comments appeared to be in direct response to hints from new vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa earlier this week that the authorities would “relax” indigenisation laws.
Would-be investors have previously criticised the government for sending out conflicting signals on indigenisation.
Mushowe replaced former indigenisation minister Francis Nhema, who was sacked as part of Mugabe’s ongoing purge of ruling Zanu-PF party officials linked to Joice Mujuru, Zimbabwe’s first ever female vice-president, who was sacked for allegedly trying to oust the president. She and her allies deny the charge. – Sapa
President Jacob Zuma has hinted he may be ready to take a fifth wife to accompany him through old age.
During a visit to a Durban township Tuesday in KwaZulu-Natal, the 72-year-old said in Zulu “Angakayakhi indlu yokugugela… laba ngisabathathile nje” (I do have wives but I’m yet to marry my last one).
The crowd, most of them elderly, laughed and cheered, The Star newspaper reported.
Zuma, who on Sunday said he was in “perfect condition” after a stay in hospital in June, had earlier given a speech about the need to respect and tend for older people.
Sihawu Ngubane, a professor at KwaZulu-Natal University, was quoted by the newspaper as saying it was fairly standard among Zulu people for a man who practises polygamy to take a last wife for his last years, sometimes the younger sister of one of his wives.
“They call the last wife ‘indlu yokugugela’ (the home in which I will age in) because the responsibility of looking after the husband in their old age predominantly lies with the junior wife, who is often younger than the other wives and more agile in case there is an emergency,” he said.
Zuma, who has around 20 children, has married six times but currently has four wives on the state’s budget, despite criticism from some tax-payers.
Anwa Dramat
South Africa’s head of the Police special investigating unit who presided over the illegal deportations of countless Zimbabweansin 2010, Anwa Dramat, has been suspended.
South Africa’s Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko told the Bloomberg publication, Dramat has been laid aside while government probes allegations of his involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals.
Dramat was suspended for 60 days yesterday from Dec. 23, Musa Zondi, spokesman for the police, told the publication via phone today from Pietermaritzburg in the eastern KwaZulu Natal province.
“He has been placed on precautionary suspension pending the investigation and finalization of claims regarding the alleged rendition of Zimbabwean nationals from South Africa without there being the right processes and protocols followed,” Zondi reportedly said.
Dramat is accused of alleged involvement in apprehending and deporting Zimbabweans back to their home country in 2010, according to the police. The suspension follows a probe conducted by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate earlier this year, Zondi said. – Bloomberg
Zimbabwe’s cricket off-spinner Malcolm Waller, has been banned from the game for cheating on spinning during a match last month.
A sitting of the ICC ruled yesterday Waller committed a spinning offense.
“The analysis revealed that all of his off-spin deliveries exceeded the 15 degrees level of tolerance permitted under the regulations,” the ICC said in a statement yesterday.
The 30 year old can still apply for re-assessment but may struggle to make it for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand which is starting on Feb. 14. cheating? … Zim cricket…
The International Cricket Council has an acceptable style of spinning considered generally conventional according to standards. According to the standards, the cricketers are not supposed to extend their arms as they deliver the ball, what appears to be a grey area in the cricket-world.
To date others investigated for the same offense, Saeed Ajmal (Pakistan), Sachithra Senanayake (Sri Lanka), Kane Williamson (New Zealand) have been banned from bowling
Below is a list of Cricket rules as compiled by the Marylebone Cricket Club:
Mode of delivery
(a) The umpire shall ascertain whether the bowler intends to bowl right handed or left handed, over or round the wicket, and shall so inform the striker.
It is unfair if the bowler fails to notify the umpire of a change in his mode of delivery. In this case the umpire shall call and signal No ball.
(b) Underarm bowling shall not be permitted except by special agreement before the match.
Fair delivery – the arm
For a delivery to be fair in respect of the arm the ball must not be thrown. See 3 below
Although it is the primary responsibility of the striker’s end umpire to assess the fairness of a delivery in this respect, there is nothing in this Law to debar the bowler’s end umpire from calling and signalling No ball if he considers that the ball has been thrown.
(a) If, in the opinion of either umpire, the ball has been thrown, he shall call and signal No ball and, when the ball is dead, inform the other umpire of the reason for the call.
The bowler’s end umpire shall then,
(i) caution the bowler. This caution shall apply throughout the innings.
(ii) inform the captain of the fielding side of the reason for this action.
(iii) inform the batsmen at the wicket of what has occurred.
(b) If, after such caution, either umpire considers that, in that innings, a further delivery by the same bowler is thrown, the procedure set out in
(a) above shall be repeated, indicating to the bowler that this is a final warning.
This warning shall also apply throughout the innings.
(c) If either umpire considers that, in that innings, a further delivery by the same bowler is thrown, he shall call and signal No ball and when the ball is dead inform the other umpire of the reason for the call.
The bowler’s end umpire shall then,
(i) direct the captain of the fielding side to suspend the bowler forthwith. The over shall, if applicable, be completed by another bowler, who shall neither have bowled the previous over or part thereof nor be allowed to bowl any part of the next over.
The bowler thus suspended shall not bowl again in that innings.
(ii) inform the batsmen at the wicket and, as soon as practicable, the captain of the batting side of the occurrence.
(d) The umpires together shall report the occurrence as soon as possible after the match to the Executive of the fielding side and to any Governing Body responsible for the match, who shall take such action as is considered appropriate against the captain and the bowler concerned.
Definition of fair delivery – the arm
A ball is fairly delivered in respect of the arm if, once the bowler’s arm has reached the level of the shoulder in the delivery swing, the elbow joint is not straightened partially or completely from that point until the ball has left the hand. This definition shall not debar a bowler from flexing or rotating the wrist in the delivery swing.
Bowler throwing towards striker’s end before delivery
If the bowler throws the ball towards the striker’s end before entering his delivery stride, either umpire shall call and signal No ball. See Law 42.16 (Batsmen stealing a run). However, the procedure stated in 2 above of caution, informing, final warning, action against the bowler and reporting shall not apply.
Fair delivery – the feet
For a delivery to be fair in respect of the feet, in the delivery stride,
(a) the bowler’s back foot must land within and not touching the return crease appertaining to his stated mode of delivery.
(b) the bowler’s front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised
(i) on the same side of the imaginary line joining the two middle stumps as the return crease described in (a) above and (ii) behind the popping crease.
If the bowler’s end umpire is not satisfied that all of these three conditions have been met, he shall call and signal No ball.
Bowler breaking wicket in delivering ball
Either umpire shall call and signal No ball if, other than in an attempt to run out the non-striker under Law 42.15, the bowler breaks the wicket at any time after the ball comes into play and before he completes the stride after the delivery stride. See Appendix D. Laws 23.4(b)(viii), 23.4(b)(ix) and 10 below will apply.
Ball bouncing more than twice or rolling along the ground
The umpire shall call and signal No ball if a ball which he considers to have been delivered, without having previously touched bat or person of the striker,
either (i) bounces more than twice
or (ii) rolls along the ground
before it reaches the popping crease.
Ball coming to rest in front of striker’s wicket
If a ball delivered by the bowler comes to rest in front of the line of the striker’s wicket, without having previously touched the bat or person of the striker, the umpire shall call and signal No ball and immediately call and signal Dead ball.
Call of No ball for infringement of other Laws
In addition to the instances above, No ball is to be called and signalled as required by the following Laws.
Law 40.3 – Position of wicket-keeper
Law 41.5 – Limitation of on side fielders
Law 41.6 – Fielders not to encroach on pitch
Law 42.6 – Dangerous and unfair bowling
Law 42.7 – Dangerous and unfair bowling – action by the umpire
Law 42.8 – Deliberate bowling of high full pitched balls
Revoking a call of No ball
An umpire shall revoke his call of No ball if the ball does not leave the bowler’s hand for any reason.
No ball to over-ride Wide
A call of No ball shall over-ride the call of Wide ball at any time. See Laws 25.1(Judging a Wide) and 25.3 (Call and signal of Wide ball).
Ball not dead
The ball does not become dead on the call of No ball.
Penalty for a No ball
A penalty of one run shall be awarded instantly on the call of No ball. Unless the call is revoked, the penalty shall stand even if a batsman is dismissed. It shall be in addition to any other runs scored, any boundary allowance and any other runs awarded for penalties.
Runs resulting from a No ball – how scored
The one run penalty shall be scored as a No ball extra. If other penalty runs have been awarded to either side these shall be scored as stated in Law 42.17 (Penalty runs). Any runs completed by the batsmen or any boundary allowance shall be credited to the striker if the ball has been struck by the bat; otherwise they shall also be scored as No ball extras.
Apart from any award of 5 penalty runs, all runs resulting from a No ball, whether as No ball extras or credited to the striker, shall be debited against the bowler.
No ball not to count
A No ball shall not count as one of the over. See Law 22.3 (Validity of balls).
Out from a No ball
When No ball has been called, neither batsman shall be out under any of the Laws except 33 (Handled the ball), 34 (Hit the ball twice), 37 (Obstructing the field) or 38 (Run out).
Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has caused a scene in ZANU PF by dumping Professor Jonathan Moyo and three other allies, for the first time excluding them from his close circuit private invitations.
By Faith Zaba| WITH each passing week after the Zanu PF congress, it is increasingly clear cracks are developing and widening within the broad anti-Joice Mujuru alliance of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, as the First Lady’s key allies publicly express discontent about the new arrangement in which they feel they got a raw deal in the sharing of spoils.
Politburo members Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao, Saviour Kasukuwere and Oppah Muchinguri are reportedly unhappy with the outcome which has seen the centre of power shifting from fired vice-president Mujuru to Mnangagwa, and not Mugabe as they had planned.
Mnangagwa raised tensions after he overlooked the so-called “gang of four” when he sent out invites to the bash in Zvishavane two weeks ago to celebrate his appointment to the vice-presidency, and other parties which had been lined up for Kwekwe and Zvimba.
A close Mnangagwa ally said this week: “The gang of four is unhappy with the shift of power to Mnangagwa, hence the attacks directed at him which we have seen in the state media of late. They are also angered by their failure to make the celebrations’ guest list.
“It is not a coincidence that two articles appeared in the Sunday Mail this week with the same message. It is clear that it was something planned. You can see that there is a problem and the alliance is coming apart.
“We wonder why they are panicking and what has compelled them to comment on the succession issue. We also wonder what their real agenda is.”
In an interview with a state weekly, Moyo said Mnangagwa’s rise to the vice-presidency did not mean that he would automatically take over from Mugabe when the 90-year old leaves office.
Moyo said both the Zanu PF and country’s constitutions did not prescribe that Mugabe should select his successor, an argument that was supported by Zhuwao in his weekly column published in the same issue.
“It would be unconstitutional and indeed undemocratic for the president to do that (select his successor). As such, those who want the president to designate a successor are either charlatans or enemies of constitutionalism and democracy,” Moyo said.
“And in the case of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the current succession provision does not allow for automatic elevation, but requires the political party of the previous incumbent to nominate the successor in accordance with its internal constitutional procedures, and the Zanu PF constitutional procedure provides for the convening of an extraordinary congress to elect a successor should that be necessary.”
Concurring with Moyo, Zhuwao described as “mischievous” assertions that Mnangagwa would automatically take over from Mugabe by virtue of being a VP.
“The appointments are not about succession, nor are the appointments about succession’s toxic cousin, factionalism,” he said.
“Zanu PF’s congress decisively dealt with factionalism and such divisive tendencies in a systematic and institutional manner by resolving to institutionalise a single source of power through amendments to the constitution.
“Zanu PF must never allow the re-emergence of alternative centres of power.”
Party insiders said this week mutual suspicion and tension were rapidly breeding in the alliance.
“Jonathan Moyo is not happy with the position he got in the politburo and Zhuwao and Muchinguri are so disappointed after all the running around they did for the Mnangagwa-Grace alliance,” said a politburo member.
“In fact, the tensions are beginning to play out in the public media as shown by attacks on (politburo member Josiah) Hungwe and the two articles attacking Mnangagwa at the weekend in the state media, which was used to mutilate Mujuru.”
Hungwe likened Mnangagwa to “Son of Man”, a biblical reference to Jesus Christ.
“The Mnangagwa faction is not happy with the attacks and it is clear that they are an indirect attack on the VP. They are now accusing Mnangagwa, as they did Mujuru, of creating another centre of power.”
The gang of four is also unhappy with the blocking of people perceived to be enemies from accessing Mnangagwa.
The barred included Mines deputy minister Fred Moyo, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa Isaac Moyo, Industry deputy minister Chiratidzo Mabuwa and Mberengwa North MP Tafanana Zhou. – Independent
FORTUNE MBELE | BONGANI Mafu was officially unveiled yesterday as the new Highlanders head coach for the 2015 Castle Lager Premier Soccer League season at the team’s clubhouse.
He signed a one-year contract from January 1 to December 31 2015 after which his performance would determine whether he will be given another stint with the Bulawayo giants.
Mafu was given the first 10 matches to assess his performance in line with the club’s target, which is not necessarily to win the league, but to win back the hearts of Highlanders family.
“We hereby today (yesterday) present formally and officially the man who will coach the team for the 2015 season. We are here to formalise the whole process,” said club chairman Peter Dube.
“We are unveiling none other than Bongani Mafu as the new coach of Highlanders Football Club. We have made all considerations and felt we have accommodated so many of our interests and aspects of the club. We believe he is highly qualified to generate the ambition. He has the background of the club other than being a die-hard supporter.”
Dube said the rest of the technical team would be announced in the first week of January and Mafu would be involved in hunting for his lieutenants with the executive having the final say.
Former manager and club chairman Ernest “Maphepha” Sibanda and ZPC Kariba manager Partson Ndabambi are tipped to take over from Willard Mashinkila-Khumalo.
Former Highlanders captain Dazzy Kapenya has been touted to take over as assistant to Mafu with Bosso reportedly courting back goalkeeper’s coach Tembo Chuma who had also crossed the floor to ZPC Kariba.
Dube said in his stay in the UK, Mafu dealt mostly with junior players and it was in that vein that he fitted well into the system as Bosso aims to revive the once-vibrant junior policy.
In an advertisement that Highlanders flighted a few weeks ago for the job of technical manager, Bosso stated that the incumbent “. . . should have coached at premier league level and be able to direct football development structures”.
“He goes on to fit the bill of junior policy,” Dube said.
“He has dealt with mainly young players in his entire life. We are hopeful that the culture and the nature of the club will thus be uplifted although he may need to be reminded, but he knows what it entails. He has been exposed to football standards that are at a higher level. We will help him 110% to get those results.”
Mafu said he was ecstatic to be joining the Highlanders family after many years abroad, having left the country when he was coaching Zimbabwe Saints, a team he helped survive relegation.
“I am an elated man,” he said.
“It is a pleasure for me to stand in front of you and tell you that I am the new Highlanders Football Club coach. I have been in the game for a long time, having coached locally, in Botswana and in Europe.
“I appreciate the pressure that comes with coaching Highlanders, but I embrace the challenge. They (other clubs) are going to struggle to beat me. My aim is to play excellent and disciplined football and win all the games. The other thing is to change the players’ mentality into knowing that football is work.
“I believe we have good players. What we have to change are ideologies, behaviours and approaches to give out the best possible.”
Mafu holds a Uefa B Licence, German International Licence, Zifa Level IV coaching certificate and has been attached to Italian giants AC Milan.- SouthernEye
A MWENEZI divorcee with a penchant for bestiality will spend the next four months in jail after he was caught having sex with a neighbour’s donkey. Sinos Mvuto of Petronella Ranch, who divorced his wife of ten years in 2006, had turned his neighbour’s female donkey into an “obedient lover”.
Mvuto was convicted on his own plea of guilty to a count of bestiality when he appeared before Masvingo magistrate Tafadzwa Mhlanga on Monday. Mhlanga convicted and sentenced Mvuto to six months in jail.
He suspended two months for five years on condition of good behaviour. In mitigation, Mvuto said: “I divorced my wife with whom I had three children years ago. It could be insatiable sexual appetite that drives me to do this because I don’t have a specific reason,” said Mvuto.
Mhlanga said Mvuto had not only degraded himself through developing intimate feelings for an animal but he also earned the whole family including his children a bad name.
“What you’ve done is unimaginable. It is weird and the court wonders how you proposed to the donkey. By nature a donkey produces a savage kick on its mate.
“The court also wonders how you survived those kicks. You’ve done something that shows high degree of cruelty against animals, you deserve to be in solitary confinement,” said Mhlanga.
Prosecuting, Fidelicy Nyamukondiwa said on November 30 at around 12PM Mvuto was walking in the bush when he saw three donkeys belonging to his neighbour, Douglas Musara, 46.
“Upon seeing the donkeys the sex-starved Mvuto approached a jenny which he held on the back before mounting. He had sex with the donkey once but before he could finish the mission, Mvuto was caught red-handed having quality time with the animal by Musara and his wife, Tisisine Musara,” said Nyamukondiwa prosecuting.
“Upon realising that he was caught, Mvuto dismounted from the animal and took to his heels but not before leaving behind his jacket which was used as an exhibit in court.”
A formal report was made leading to Mvuto’s arrest. chronicle
Expelled ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa has spoken out for the first time, to a Zimbabwean journalist, on his filing a whistle-blowing report against his boss Robert Mugabe to the regional body, SADC. Until today, Mutasa had kept his press addresses on his SADC action confined outside the Zimbabwean community.
Speaking exclusively to ZimEye.com early Wednesday morning, Mutasa stated that there was nothing wrong with him expressing his opinion as a citizen of Zimbabwe.
When asked on the veracity of his having sent a report to South African President Jacob Zuma through that country’s media, Mr Mutasa said, “I don’t know; it is quite possible. But there is nothing wrong about that[voicing my opinion].”
When asked for clarification if he meant that there was nothing wrong with him exercising his citizenship rights, Mutasa added, “Exactly, and also to point out that what has been done is wrong.”
Asked if he will be seeking an appeal Mutasa said that he was not intending to pursue such an option. “I am not going to appeal at all,” he said in a suddenly toned-down voice.
He was quizzed on if and when he will be returning to Zimbabwe and to which he replied saying, “my wife is in hospital. I will be returning as soon as she has recovered.”
Mutasa who Mugabe has humiliated and dumped was until a few weeks ago Mugabe’s most trusted right hand man. The ZANU PF ruler would personally deploy him to fight white farmers on behalf of the Zimbabwean government at the World Bank Court and also to carry out acts of terror code-named “Gamatox”.
In the same interview [FULL RECORDING to be webcasted Wednesday afternoon) Mutasa spoke not only on his looming expulsion from ZANU PF, but also on the promised 70 hectare farm of the late ZEC Information Boss Shupikai Mashereni who mysteriously died shortly after requesting the promised farm from Mutasa in February (WATCH THIS SPACE FOR HIS FULL COMMENTS). He also spoke about his nephew Temba Mliswa and his allegedly meddling with the law on Mliswa’s seizure of British businessman Paul Westwood’s company. More to follow on the burning saga….
Newly-appointed Zanu PF secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo faces a possible purge following reports linking him to ousted former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s camp.
Report by Newsday| Chombo who took over from Didymus Mutasa following a massive Zanu PF purge that has so far claimed the scalps of Mujuru, 16 ministers and nine provincial chairpersons over allegations of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe — has also been accused of flouting the party’s constitution and imposing his preferred candidates as central committee members for Mashonaland West Province.
A coterie of disgruntled Zanu PF activists has petitioned the party’s presidium demanding that proper elections be held in the province.
In a terse letter to Mugabe dated December 9 2014, which is in our possession, the group, which comprised of chairpersons drawn from Kadoma district, alleged Chombo flagrantly flouted party rules and regulations to impose his preferred candidates into the central committee at the just-ended Zanu PF congress held in Harare.
“The recently-held Zanu PF central committee elections had some senior party members flouting laid-down party rules and regulations to their liking (sic),” read part of the petition.
“While elections were held in all other provinces, it was a different case in Mashonaland West where candidates were handpicked as is always the case with Cde Chombo and [ousted] Cde Webster Shamu.
“This resulted in some areas like Kadoma Urban having two members who reside in the same cell being handpicked as central committee members.”
Chombo could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The petitioners added that Chombo always presided over “dubious” internal polls in Kadoma where he allegedly bragged about his penchant to consolidate his power base by imposing his loyalists to key party posts.
“This time it was Cde Rosa Ngomalala and Cde Leonard Whenjere who reside in the same cell, same branch and same district. It looks like he [Chombo] has a hidden agenda,” further reads the document.
They also allege Chombo belongs to the faction aligned to Mujuru as evidenced by his imposition of Ngomalala who last year was campaign manager for deposed Women’s League provincial chairperson Constance Tsomondo-Shamu, the wife of dislodged national political commissar Webster Shamu.
Both Shamu and his wife were fired in the run-up to the party’s congress for allegedly fanning factionalism and their alleged links to the Mujuru camp.
Also, Mhondoro-Ngezi MP Mike Gava, who was recently fined for violating the Firearms Act, was ineligible to hold a post in the central committee due to the criminal record, the petition further stated.
Gava, who was also allegedly roped in by Chombo, lost in the Youth League elections to Lotious Takarusikirwa in a move that had riled “tried-and-tested” veterans of the revolutionary party.
Zimbabwe’s largest mobile-phone network operator, Econet, has finally bowed down to a Postal and Tele-communications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) directive as they yesterday announced they were slashing down their voice tariffs by at least 30%.
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In an embarrassing u-turn attributed to a disastrous planning failure at the inception of ZANU PF businessman Billy Rautenbach’s Green Fuel project, the Zimbabwean Government has reduced mandatory fuel blending using ethanol from 15% to 5%, the company having succumbed to a mere seven days of rainfall.
