Since assuming office in November 2017, President Mnangagwa has been known to put in a punishing work ethic in fulfilment of his vision to make Zimbabwe an upper middle economy by 2030. His dedication to duty was apparent even on his birthday.
A home-made hand grenade exploded close to the venue of his rally in Chinhoyi in what the opposition party said was an intimidation tactic by suspected State agents and Zanu PF activists. The grenade was thrown some metres away from Gadzema Stadium in Chinhoyi from a moving Honda Fit vehicle minutes before Chamisa arrived at the venue.
“Pakaipa, pakaipa (all is not well, all is not well),” he said in an interview with NewsDay yesterday. Chamisa also said the repeated attempts on his life and general persecution of the opposition continued to dent the country’s image.
The World Health Organization has activated its emergency response strategy in Zimbabwe to deal with the latest measles outbreak in the Southern African nation. Staffing will be increased as part of the strategy, which has already included vaccinating at least 700,000 children. Despite this campaign, health experts remain concerned about the rapid spread of the virus.
At least 6,444 cases have been recorded since April, when the first infections were reported in Zimbabwe’s eastern province of Manicaland, with more than 700 deaths so far.
Government says it will start distributing food aid to more than two million citizens facing drought-induced hunger from October 1.
Public Service deputy minister Lovemore Matuke said this on Thursday while addressing Senators who wanted to know what the government was doing to assist vulnerable groups.
“With effect from October 1, we are going to distribute food to more than two million families. This programme will roll up to the end of December,” Matuke said. “From January to March, we are going to distribute food to 3,8 million households and it will be on full scale. The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment (ZimVAC) report indicates that a total of 3,8 million households need food assistance.”
In a presentation during last week’s Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) annual congress Delta Corporation CEO Valela, sounded downbeat, as industrialists digested how to fund Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector. From stock markets to pension funds and banks — traditional drivers of companies’ capital requirements — funding has dried up, and firms are looking offshore to fund expansion programmes, the Delta CEO noted. “What we must understand is that the capital base in the country has been destroyed,” Valela said.
Zimbabwe has ushered in a new marriage law that gives equal rights to “girlfriends” and women in registered unions upon the dissolution of a marriage or death of the husband. Marriage Act (Chapter 5:15) was signed May 27 and took effect at the end of August. “The most notable changes in the new law are the recognition of civil and customary law marriage as the same. As under customary law marriages, parties were not considered to be married at law,” Rumbidzai Venge, a lawyer based in the nation’s capital of Harare, told Anadolu Agency.
FORMER Finance minister Tendai Biti says Zimbabwe is losing billions of United States dollars due to opaque mining policies which favour companies under-declaring proceeds from exploiting the country’s resources.
As Zimbabwe counts down to the 2023 elections, civil society is yet again fighting for its very existence. The parliament has, since November 2021, been working towards the amendment of the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act. If passed, the amendments will provide the government additional and extensive powers to control how civil society organisations govern themselves. This poses a serious threat to the constitutionally enshrined principles of freedom of expression, association and assembly.
Zimbabwe cannot pay its civil servants salary increases to meet the poverty datum line because this will fuel inflation, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told the Senate last week. Ncube said as soon as the government announces salary adjustments for civil servants prices go up even before the salaries have been paid. Commenting on contributions from senators during the debate on the supplementary budget he introduced last month, Ncube said the government’s intention is to get to 75% of the PDL (Poverty Datum Line).
EMIGRATION in Zimbabwe is currently at its peak, with indications that the country witnessed a sharp increase in the number of emigrants between 2020 and 2021 largely for employment reasons. Preliminary findings from the 2022 National Housing and Population Census (HPC) indicate that the most emigrants from Zimbabwe were based in the Southern African region and in particular South Africa with 773,246 and Botswana with 47,928. For overseas countries, the United Kingdom had 23,166 emigrants.