Zimbabwe is ramping up efforts to connect all health facilities to the internet to support the rollout of the Impilo, an electronic health record system.
This ambitious initiative is part of a broader digital health strategy aimed at modernising healthcare infrastructure.
Impilo is a system designed to improve efficiency in the health sector through enhancing data collection, management, patients’ care as well as improve communication between health practitioners and patients.
Deputy director in the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s health informatics and data analytics department, Dr Robert Gongora, said while progress has been made in implementing the programme in 1 179 facilities in 45 districts across the country, connectivity remained a challenge.
“We are harnessing the ever-improving technologies that give us internet connectivity,” he said.
He Ministry of Health and Child Care announce that the current cholera outbreak has affected the districts of Bikita, Bindura, Chiredzi, Chipinge, Kariba, Goromonzi, Mazowe and Shamva.
The farming town Glendale in the Mazowe district, located about 70 kilometers north of Harare, is one of the epicentres of the cholera outbreak. Residents there are appealing to the government to take urgent action to end the spread of the disease.
People there are forced to navigate pools of sludge after the government left burst pipes neglected for months. Human waste carrying disease agents have apparently been contaminating freshwater sources this way in Glendale and beyond.
He flagship United States aid programme on HIV/AIDS is in jeopardy, a senior Republican warned on Thursday, after U.S. officials said four nurses in Mozambique performed abortions that are banned under the multibillion-dollar program that has saved millions of lives globally.
Service providers that get funding through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are barred from providing abortion services under rules against U.S. foreign assistance being used for abortion-related activities, but the programme has still faced criticism from anti-abortion Republicans.
Chinese investments in Zimbabwe have not improved the lives of ordinary citizens, the United States ambassador to Harare Pamela Marie Tremont said, highlighting rising poverty and worsening inequalities despite significant financial inflows.
“The number of people living below the poverty line has doubled since 2011 despite the significant Chinese investment here,” Tremont said during a podcast interview with J. W. Oliver
“Welfare equality in Zimbabwe is actually getting worse. The rich are getting richer. The poor are getting poorer.”
Tremont pointed to weak regulations as a key issue, particularly in the mining sector, where labour rights are often ignored, and workers face dangerous conditions.
That the economy is underperforming is evident despite claims to the contrary by monetary and fiscal authorities.
At the heart of the struggles firms face is an overvalued local currency, a taxation regime that punishes the compliant and rising informalisation that threatens to choke formal players.
Inside a month, seven firms — Khayah Cement Limited and Beta Holdings and its five subsidiaries — have slipped into corporate rescue as they seek to restructure affairs and continue as solvent businesses.
IMARA Asset Management says more firms will opt for corporate rescue and retrenchments to survive the tough economic environment headlined by rising informalisation.
The call by Imara comes as the informal sector is now estimated at 70% of the economy, a hurdle for authorities in collecting taxes.
There has been a spike in the number of formal businesses choosing to enter corporate rescue to rejig their operations after being stung by the rising informalisation.
The High Court has ordered Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution minister Marian Chombo to pay lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa US$100 000 accrued in legal fees after her law firm represented her in divorce proceedings with former Cabinet minister and ex-husband Ignatius.
High Court judge Justice Joel Mambara ordered Chombo to pay the money including interest.
On September 2, 2014, Chombo signed an acknowledgment of debt, agreeing to pay US$100 000 in two instalments of US$50 000 each. The first instalment was due on September 31 and the balance was to be paid by mid-December of the same.
Chombo, however, failed to honour the acknowledgment, prompting Mtetwa’s firm to issue summons in January last year seeking settlement of the debt.
At law, there are only 3 methods by which one can hold, use or occupy state land. These are by way of an offer letter, a permit or a lease. There is no law that empowers the state to give out title deeds for agricultural land. The Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act says this expressly.
Ownership in state land vests in the State by operation of law in terms of section 72(4) of the Constitution. All the previously held title deeds for this land were endorsed accordingly. Check the Deeds Office. How would you purport to undo all that and start issuing new title deeds? There’s no legal mechanism by which such conveyancing can validly take place.
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch is concerned about the Zimbabwe government’s current plans, overseen by the highly controversial and US sanctioned businessman, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, to issue “title deeds” for farms that already have legally issued title deeds owned by former white commercial farmers, small holders, members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) whose properties were seized, and others.
Zimbabwe Government’s newly issued “title deeds” unbankable and worthless
These title deed owners have not been compensated for their land, despite having final and binding court judgments which confirm that such original title deeds are still bona fide.
At an event on President Mnangagwa’s Precabe farm near Kwekwe on Friday 20 December 2024, a handful of farmers, including Mnangagwa, received “title deeds” to the farms they are currently on.”
Last week, Zimbabwe witnessed an embarrassing and yet frightful spectacle unfold at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Precabe farm in Kwekwe where the stage was set for the creation of a demi-god and fake opposition politicians bared themselves.
Over 200 ruling Zanu PF legislators and 14 opposition pretenders converged at the farm, ostensibly for a field day event, which was, in fact, a political meeting to endorse the extension of Mnangagwa’s presidency beyond the constitutional term which ends in 2028.
Scenes at this shindig were reminiscent of the last days of the late former president Robert Mugabe. Literally possessed with “patriotism”, ED’s bootlicking clique went down on their knees to beg him to rule forever and at any cost, while opposition charlatans led by Sengezo Tshabangu sang their hearts out for the cause.
As First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa prepares to visit Domboshava Show Grounds today, residents are questioning whether she will traverse the severely damaged Domboshava Road or opt for a helicopter.
The road, located only 36 kilometers from Harare, has become a symbol of neglect, riddled with large potholes and poor drainage.
Whether Auxillia Mnangagwa will face the same challenges as ordinary citizens or bypass the road issues altogether remains to be seen. Meanwhile, residents are calling for sustainable solutions to fix one of the busiest roads in the area.
In 2024, Zimbabwean authorities acted to undermine democratic processes, repressed civil society and restricted political pluralism. They continued to weaponize the criminal justice system against perceived critics and the political opposition. Impunity for the ruling party ZANU-PF violence, intimidation, harassment, and repression against opposition members and civil society activists restricted civic and political space.
Child labor remained a serious problem, with children participating in hazardous work in tobacco farming and other sectors. School fees continued to pose a barrier to education. Pregnant girls and adolescent mothers continued to face challenges continuing formal education.