Week 30
Een wekelijkse selectie artikelen uit Zimbabwaanse kranten
Casual labour tops household income for rural Zimbabweans
Casual labour remains the dominant source of income for rural households with 40 percent of families reporting it as their primary means of livelihood last year and this year according to the 2024 Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) Rural Livelihoods Assessment Report.
Remittances from within Zimbabwe also play a crucial role, contributing to the income of 21 percent of households in 2024, up from 18 percent in 2023, an increase that reflects the growing importance of domestic remittances in sustaining household livelihoods.
Will Zimbabwe’s Gukurahundi genocide survivors get justice?
For decades, justice has eluded the thousands of people who were killed by a feared army unit in Zimbabwe’s southwestern and central provinces in the 1980s.
Some 40 years after the murders, Zimbabwean authorities last week launched a “community engagement” programme that officials say will promote “healing, peace and unity” in the survivor communities.
However, many of those affected are sceptical, and say justice cannot come from a government made up of officials who are alleged to have been involved in the killings, and one they say has not yet fully recognised the weight of the atrocities committed.
Between 1982 and 1987, the Fifth Brigade, a North Korean-trained unit of the Zimbabwean army, cracked down on mostly Ndebele-speaking communities in the southwestern provinces of North and South Matabeleland, as well as the Midlands province located in the central area.
No Need For Excitement Over “Undelivered Vehicles”, Guvamatanga Tells Auditor General
The 2023 report by Auditor-General Rhea Kujinga, presented to Parliament, exposed how the government had paid substantial sums of money for a range of items, including 97 vehicles and medical and ICT equipment, but the suppliers failed to deliver these goods to various government ministries and departments.
As reported by NewZimbabwe.com, during a familiarisation tour of the Finance Ministry by the Budget and Finance Parliamentary Committee on Monday, Guvamatanga said that out of the 97 vehicles reportedly undelivered to various ministries and departments, about 20 vehicles were still to be delivered.
WFP appeals for US$409m to alleviate hunger
The World Food Programme (WFP) says it requires US$409 million to scale up its initial response to provide general food assistance to over 4,5 million people in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe until March 2025.
The southern region is currently battling an EI Nino-induced drought. Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have declared national drought disasters.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has since requested over US$3 billion from well-wishers in a bid to marshal resources and avert starvation.
Meanwhile, the United States Agency for International Development (USAid) has said 500 000 people are set to receive humanitarian support during the lean session.
Dedollarisation requires US$2,5bn: Govt
ZIMBABWE needs over US$2,5 billion in foreign currency reserves to be able to fully de-dollarise, the government has revealed, discounting sentiments that the exercise can be taken anytime soon.
The revelation comes at a time when Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa hinted on the removal of the United States dollar if the new currency, Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) remained stable and grew in value.
Last year, the government announced that it had a clear and transparent plan to move away from using the United States dollar to prevent continued exchange rate volatility.
This plan involved introducing ZiG, which debuted in April and backed by commodities and forex. Treasury and the central bank are expected to implement supportive policies to strengthen ZiG to get it internationally accepted, leading to the multicurrency regime being scrapped.
However, this has been a tall order as the market continues to overwhelmingly prefer forex with several companies adopting the greenback as a reporting currency, post the ZiG introduction.
Byo water kiosks run dry
Bulawayo water kiosks are empty with the local authority struggling to ensure they are filled up to meet demand as residents grapple with the worst water crisis in years.
Council established water kiosks in 2021 in a bid to address water shortages in the city, caused by low water levels at its supply dams.
The 2021 water crisis triggered a typhoid and dysentery outbreak that killed 13 and infected more than 1 800 residents in Luveve high-density suburb and surrounding areas.
Currently, residents are going for several days without water.
The council has so far decommissioned one of the supply dams, Umzingwane.
Council has warned that Upper Ncema and Lower Ncema will likely be decommissioned around August.
A timely reminder
New United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Pamela Tremont, says the ball is in Zimbabwe’s court to create an investor-friendly environment to lure the much-needed foreign direct investments.
Last year, Zimbabwe attracted FDI of US$588m, up from US$395 million in 2022, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
At the centre of Zimbabwe’s plan to attract foreign investors must be the respect for human rights, investor-friendly laws, creating certainty and combating corruption, Tremont said during her maiden Press conference on Thursday.
Food politicisation worsens hunger situation
Rampant food politicisation by suspected Zanu PF activists has worsened the hunger situation amid claims that communities badly affected by drought are receiving few cups of grain not enough to see them through.
The El-Nino induced drought has left millions struggling to survive, with the government estimates showing that more than half of the population will require food aid.
Heal Zimbabwe Trust (HZT) advocacy officer, Tapiwansahe Chiriga, told NewsDay that the inadequacy of food aid in rural areas has become increasingly apparent.
“It’s really sad what is happening in the rural areas,” Chiriga said.
Hurungwe villagers oppose Chinese cement plant
The Zimbabwe National Organisation of Associations and Residents Trust (ZNOART) has petitioned the government to reconsider the construction of a proposed cement plant by a Chinese firm in Hurungwe district, Mashonaland West, amid environmental and health concern fears.
The proposed US$1 billion plant will be situated in Magunje.
In a petition dated July 19 addressed to the Local Government ministry and copied to the Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister for Mashonaland West, Marian Chombo, ZNOART warned that the construction of the cement plant near Kemureza Dam could lead to pollution of the water source and environmental degradation.
Pelandaba West residents cry foul
Residents of Pelandaba West in Bulawayo have appealed to the city council to fix the drainage and sewer system in the suburb.
Ward 18 councillor Felix Takunda Madzana said he has been sent from one office to the next whenever he visits council offices over outstanding drainage system works.
“We forwarded the matter to the City council, but they distanced themselves and said the developer of the area who was given a tender was the one responsible for providing all the services,” said Madzana.
“The painful thing is that no one is being accountable now yet the residents paid for those services when they bought the stands.”
Zim records jump in school dropouts
More children are dropping out of school across the country due to financial challenges and early marriages, with Mashonaland Central province leading the statistics, a new report has shown.
A latest Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) 2024 report says 25,8% of school-going children in Mashonaland Central are not attending school.
Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South follow closely with 25,2% and 25,1% of children out of school, respectively.
Education Coalition of Zimbabwe executive director Elvis Chitsungo recently said over 2,7 million children were not attending school, raising serious concern about the state of education in the country.
US sticks to its guns: Democracy key to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery
During a press conference in Harare, Ambassador Tremont pointed to the United States as a model for economic prosperity, highlighting its commitment to upholding democratic principles and the freedoms enshrined in its constitution.
“These are the rights and protections that the Zimbabwean people fought and died for in the liberation struggle,” Trentmont said. “These rights, freedoms, and principles are the pathway to economic prosperity. In our experience, the freedom and inclusion of the entire population into the economic system is what led us to be the economic prosperous country we are today, and that’s what we recommend to Zimbabwe and other countries.”
