Week 15
A weekly selection from Zimbabwean newspapers
Food poverty continues to haunt Zim: WB
ZIMBABWE is still far away from reducing food poverty, a latest World Bank (WB) report said. The country’s year-on-year inflation, hovering around 200%, is among some of the world’s highest rates. According to the World Bank, extreme poverty in Zimbabwe worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Yet, the food poverty rate increased steadily in 2010, starting at 23% in 2011, climbing to 30% in 2017 and 38% in 2019, and reaching its peak of 49% in July 2020, soon after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report read in part.
The food poverty rate fell by six percentage points to 43% in 2021 on the back of economic recovery and record maize harvests. This is far from Zimbabwe’s aspiration to reduce the share of the population below the food poverty line to 10% by 2025.
Belarus to exhibit at ZITF for the first time The Herald (state owned)
BELARUS will exhibit at this year’s edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) for the first time ever, as relations between Harare and Minsk continue to grow from strength to strength following President Alexander Lukashenko’s recent State visit.
Zimbabwe will in turn reciprocate the gesture by participating at the Belarus Agriculture Fair 2023 scheduled for some time this month or in May.
Headmen, village heads to get bikes The Herald (state owned)
Headmen will now be allocated motorbikes and village heads bicycles to help them carry out their duties efficiently, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Public Works Marrian Chombo has said.
Responding to a question in Parliament from Zanu PF legislator Cde Cecil Kashiri over Government policy regarding village heads remuneration during the National Assembly’s question-and-answer session she said back pay was now being processed for inclusion in the May pay and the bicycles had been approved. Chiefs recently received vehicles and under the philosophy of leaving no one and place behind, headmen would receive motorbikes and village heads bicycles.
Al Jazeera exposé: Zim in a big hole
INTERNATIONAL watchdogs have developed interest in reports that some of the region’s strongest gold mafia are ruling the dark economy from Zimbabwe, triggering fears that the country’s tug as a pariah State might not end for a long period to come.
This week’s developments followed a swell of anger and outrage in Zimbabwe after the broadcasting of an exposé by Qatar-based television station, Al Jazeera, called Zimbabwe’s Gold Mafia, has shaken the establishment exposing how well-connected individuals were looting gold from the country.
Episodes broadcast so far showed that most of the corruption revolves around people associated or claiming to be closely linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Standing on Joel 2 verse 26, our country will have plenty to eat: ED | The Sunday News (state owned)
ZIMBABWBEANS have a collective duty to modernise, industrialise and grow the country’s economy, which is now “on an irreversible economic growth trajectory”, while the youth and women should take advantage of Government empowerment programmes, President Mnangagwa has said.
Addressing congregants attending the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe Harare District Cluster Easter celebrations at Jonasi Primary School in Seke, Chitungwiza, yesterday, the President said Zimbabwe continues to register significant progress in spite of the illegal sanctions imposed on the country by the West.
700 villages benefit from Presidential borehole scheme The Herald (state owned)
At least 700 villages countrywide have so far benefitted from the boreholes being drilled by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) under the Presidential Rural Development Programme.
In a statement yesterday, Zinwa corporate communications and marketing manager Mrs Marjorie Munyonga said as of April 5, 709 boreholes had been drilled in the country’s eight rural provinces, which are the target of the Presidential Rural Development Programme.
Under this programme, ZINWA is set to drill and equip a borehole for each of the country’s 35 000 villages by 2025.
Why is South Africa not renewing 160,000 Zimbabwean work permits?
Cape Town, South Africa – Thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa face an uncertain future and possible deportation before a June 2023 expiration of their work permits, following an announcement by the home government last year that there will be no extension. The Zimbabwean Exemption Permit Holders Association (ZEPHA) says the number of permit holders is about 160,000, but each person has an average of three to four dependents, effectively putting the numbers of those affected at an estimated figure of close to two million Zimbabweans.
Zimbabwe freezes assets of 4 implicated in gold smuggling, money laundering Aljazeera investigation
Zimbabwe’s central bank has frozen the assets of four individuals who said they assisted a long-running gold smuggling and money laundering ring.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said Thursday it froze the assets of Cleopas Chidodo, David Chirozvi, Mehlululi Dube and Fredrick Kunaka, who told the al-Jazeera television channel they accepted money to assist a gold-smuggling and money laundering ring that has operated for the past 23 years.
The four men, all Zimbabwean nationals, made the statements in a four-part documentary series called ‘Gold Mafia’ that first aired last month.
Potholed Harare-Kariba Highway riles govt
Speaking at the launch of Lake Kariba inshore fisheries management plan (2023-32) in Kariba this week, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said structural challenges like poor road networks were affecting smallholder fish farming.
“As government, we have taken steps to improve our main trade roads, however the Harare-Kariba Road and related secondary roads are in a poor state. This situation will mean limited reach to the markets, as the fish cold supply chain requires a most efficient transport distribution system to allow easy access to markets,” Ndlovu said.
Residents go eight years without tap water
RESIDENTS in Mbundane suburb in Bulawayo have not been able to access clean tap water for the past eight years, forcing them to rely on unsafe sources. Mbundane is located in Lower Rangemore and falls under Umguza Rural District Council. It, however, falls within the Bulawayo master plan approved by the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development in 2004. A resident, Kelvin Muchemwa, said they are forced to walk long distances to fetch water at boreholes.
Umguza chief executive officer Colen Moyo was not available for comment.
Zimbabwe to criminalise foreign recruitment of health workers
Zimbabwe’s Vice-President, Constantino Chiwenga, announced that the country intends to introduce a law that would make it illegal for other nations to recruit its health workers.
The move aims to prevent the loss of valuable healthcare professionals to other countries, which has been a long-standing issue for Zimbabwe’s healthcare system. Local media say more than 4,000 nurses and doctors have left Zimbabwe since February 2021. The UK’s National Health Service has been an attractive destination for Zimbabwean doctors and nurses as wages are far higher than those paid back home.
Lot water project ending Bulawayo water depression
The Lot Water Project has shown its determination in fulfilling its objective of bringing safe water closer to communities in Bulawayo through setting up solar powered boreholes by acquiring its own rig.
Lot Water Project founder, Innocent Hadebe said they had seen the need to acquire their own rig after experiencing bottlenecks and delays in the setting up of boreholes. “Since our formation three years ago we have managed to drill six boreholes but we want to be able to complete the same number of boreholes by September. “We have already written to the Ministry of Education and the Bulawayo City Council requesting permission to set up the boreholes in their schools,” he said.
