Gogo Va-JUKWA

22/08/2022

RUGARE KWAMURI VAZUKURU VANGU

24/09/2020

BREAKING NEWS
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume wins recall case
High Court has granted an Interdict to Minister of Local Gvt to stop recalling Mafume, and at the same time reinstate Bulawayo ward 4 Councillor Arnold Batirayi and Mutare Ward 12 Councillor Simon Chabuka.

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10/09/2020

tsvee kuita zve covid vourairana ma sports pa chivhu apo (if you know you know)

18/08/2020

Magistrate Ngoni Nduna rules that lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa stands down from representing journalist Hopewell Chin'ono and directs that the Law Society of Zimbabwe should cancel her licence for "scandalising the court"

18/08/2020

Mutsvangwa Faces The Axe
Norton legislator Temba Mliswa has become the first Member of Parliament to call for the discipline of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services minister Monica Mutsvanga following her "reckless" statement over the Catholic Bishop’s concerns about the country’s state of affairs.

As calls to censure Mutsvangwa increase, respected academic Professor Jonathan Moyo has also urged Mnangagwa to sack her or risk cutting short his own stay in power over her tribalistic rants against Ndebele people.

"After Monica Mutsvangwa's unprecedented genocidally and tribally framed diatribe against Archbishop Ndlovu, Ndebeles and Catholic Bishops, Mnangagwa has no option but to fire her or risk expediting his now inevitable ouster," said Moyo.

Mliswa said it was necessary for Mnangagwa to consider the voices of the clergy by having an engagement with them as he is also a God fearing person.

On Saturday Mutsvangwa lashed out at the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishop’s Conference (ZCBC) president Archbishop Charles Ndlovu over a statement condemning continued human rights abuses perpetrated by Mnangagwa’s government and rampant corruption by describing ZCBC as “genocidal and evil-minded”.

“Government statements from people with a hidden agenda or on a payroll do not serve the situation or the country well. I’m hopeful Mnangagwa will correct the position and deal decisively with Hon. Monica Mutsvangwa for such indiscipline and insensitivity. The Church has a right to speak on behalf of the people and engagement is key; appropriate action must be taken,” Mliswa said.

Mliswa affirmed that the role of the church in intervening over a crisis that has hit the country was prudent as the church was the people’s grievance ear piece.

“Intervention and opinion of the Church and various other respected authorities is important for government engagement. I’d encourage President Emmerson Mnangagwa to set up a meeting to hear people’s grievances through the Church leaders. We can’t constantly ignore when people are going through a tough time.”

“As a Methodist, he could allow the church to facilitate & preside over such meeting. “The voice of God is the voice of the people” and as a God fearing man. Such meeting is important,” he said.

Mliswa said the situation in the country no longer permits government officials to issue irresponsible averments in a bid to try to silence those airing out their disgruntlements.

“Reckless government statements are unnecessary at this stage. People are suffering and it must be acknowledged. It’s not a political impasse, but an economic challenge that needs to be addressed. If an economic problem is left to fester it becomes political by its very nature.”

He said despite, engaging the Church, Mnangagwa must continue conversing with other bodies that can give him the actual status on the ground and not only to rely on presidential briefs which could mislead him.

“As well as the Church, I’d go on to urge Mnangagwa to continue to engage groupings like POLAD, Traditional Leaders and War Veterans and so on for a more holistic perspective as I’m not confident briefings he currently receives reflect the situation on the ground, they seem more mischievous,” Mliswa said.

Mnangagwa is expected to give a comprehensive statement over the ZCBC impasse Today, following a huge backlash over Mutsvangwa’s misguided statement in response.

28/07/2020

Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa is accused of trying to destroy opposition and silence dissent using COVID-19 as an excuse.

The accusations are not new.

Political arrests and crackdowns on demonstrations have become common. But the recent arrest of investigative journalist Hopewell Chin'ono has brought back Zimbabwe into the international spotlight.

Chin'ono is accused of inciting public violence. He denies the allegations and says journalism is being criminalised.

He has written articles alleging corruption in multimillion-dollar deals to combat coronavirus that have been awarded to powerful individuals close to the government.

20/07/2020

https://www.newzimbabwe.com/watch-journalist-hopewell-chinono-abducted-says-lawyer/

Spread This NewsBy Staff Reporter FREELANCE journalist Hopewell Chin’ono’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has made claims the fearless journalist was abducted by detectives from his Harare home. Chin’ono, a private media journalist who has unsettled the Zanu PF administration through continued reporta...

13/07/2020

There is no dispute about the depths of political, ethical and economic degradation of Zimbabwe after two and a half years of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency.

No dispute because his own ministers and advisors publicly admit the state is on the brink of collapse due mainly to the grand corruption of the country’s ruling class. Worse still for Mnangagwa, many junior officers share the view that he and the predatory elite that he leads are steering the country into the abyss.

READ MORE Zimbabwe: Hear the voice of God

It is this message from the junior officers and the ranks of the military that is unsettling the generals, with whom Mnangagwa has shared the spoils of state capture. Although Mnangagwa and his deputy General Constantino Chiwenga were once seen as inseparable allies, the looming failure of the Zimbabwean state is sharpening the elite’s sectional and divergent interests.

By allowing corruption to rip through the system, from illegal gold and diamond exports to arbitrage between the US dollar and the latest version of Zimbabwe’s currency, Mnangagwa has undermined his own praetorian guard.

Hollowed out and looted, the state can no longer look after its own soldiers and police, and their families; let alone address the spectre of mass starvation and a public health emergency haunting over half of Zimbabwe’s 16 million people.

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READ MORE Zimbabwe: the secrets behind Mugabe’s demise

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube wrote to the IMF last month lamenting that the “…economy could contract by 15-20% during 2020 with very serious social consequences. Already 8.5 million Zimbabweans (half the population) are food insecure.”

So bad is the situation, wrote Ncube, that Zimbabwe’s state could implode and threaten security in neighbouring states. He warns: “… the global pandemic will take a heavy toll on the health sector with many lives lost and raise poverty to levels not seen in recent times, including worsening food security.”

This ranks as a tragic admission of political defeat.

Mnangagwa and his military allies insisted they had organised the overthrow of Robert Mugabe in 2017 to stamp out corruption, to open the country for business and hold free and fair elections. On their own admission they have failed.

Shingi Munyeza, a kingpin of Zimbabwe’s business class and a member of Mnangagwa’s advisory council, describes how the government is leading Zimbabwe into perdition: “These are the last kicks of a dying horse, of a system that is evil and corrupt… our state is captured by cartels who are operating with those who are in power, strong men, to the detriment of the rest of us,” he says in a remarkable indictment of a government he had worked with closely.

READ MORE Zimbabwe is among African states least ready to tackle coronavirus

“They move from state capture to state abuse where citizens are being abused, physically, emotionally …. there is nothing that passes on to the ordinary man or ordinary woman and then it moves on to state failure which I believe is where we are heading now[…].”

A senior pastor in the Faith Ministries Church as well as a wealthy businessman, Munyeza is now prophesying the fall of Mnangagwa’s government over social media. It resonates strongly with the military, some of whose top officers are said to be backing him.

Why sound the alarm bells now after years of elite plunder of Zimbabwe? Some, at least, in the predatory elite are seriously rattled by the prospect of state collapse and their own survival in a new order.

READ MORE Coronavirus: Ease sanctions for Zimbabwe and Sudan pleads AU Chair

Last year’s revolution in Sudan offers several parallels. A grassroots movement, outside the confines of traditional opposition parties, brought together trades’ unionists, professionals and community activists across the country, building from the street level in the regions until it became an unstoppable national force that saw Omar al-Bashir ousted.

Under al-Bashir’s regime, Sudan’s deep security state, with its myriad militias and spy networks, electronic surveillance and capacity to wage civil wars in four regions simultaneously was still a more formidable apparatus than Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation and its many proxies.

Yet it was the combination of Sudan’s economy going into free fall – mass demonstrations were triggered by a threefold increase in the price of bread – and deepening schisms between rival wings of the security state that opened the avenue for its revolutionaries to race on to the national stage and force out the political leadership.

READ MORE Zimbabwe: corruption and patronage do more damage than sanctions

If anything, economic conditions in Zimbabwe are currently worse than those in Sudan under al- Bashir. At least Sudan’s regime had some regional sponsors such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Mnangagwa’s government evinces no regional solidarity.

South Africa, whose ministers worry about the worsening instability and grand corruption north of the Limpopo, make ritualistic complaints about the unfairness of sanctions that bar Zimbabwe from borrowing from the IMF.

In truth, President Cyril Ramaphosa is concerned about Harare’s debt mountain with South Africa and a growing tide of Zimbabweans heading south to compete in the local labour market.

At home in Zimbabwe, the continuous profiteering and nepotism in the awarding of state contracts while half the country faces what the UN euphemistically calls ‘food insecurity’, tells people that the Mnangagwa government has reached a low level of morality. Some of his oldest allies now fear popular retribution, and they can’t rely on the fracturing security services to protect them.

Activists, journalists and opposition politicians who point out this waning morality in our country under Mnangagwa’s rule are beaten, tortured and killed. As the European colonialists found out, Zimbabweans are slow to anger but when they decide to fight, they become an implacable force.

READ MORE Mugabe’s death is an awakening for Zimbabwe’s diaspora youth

Mnangagwa and his allies are about to discover that they too will be held accountable for the destruction of our country and the theft of our future.

Mnangagwa did the exact opposite of fighting corruption. The government reinforced a system of primitive accumulation in which a narrow predatory elite – of which he is patron – benefits from corrupt state contracts and tenders.

Economic policy is used to benefit Mnangagwa’s business cronies such as Kudakwashe Tagwirei and his Sakunda Fuels. Tagwirei made so much money from Sakunda’s monopolistic position as a supplier of fuel and farm inputs for the state-sponsored Command Agriculture programme that it was able to finance Mnangagwa’s and ZANU-PF’s election campaign in July 2018.

Now Mnangagwa’s regime is repaying Tagwirei, ensuring the central bank offers him opportunities for arbitrage and money laundering opportunities. Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, an opposition who chairs the Public Accounts Committee in parliament, told parliament that the government, aided by finance minister Ncube and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya, have tipped the country back into the economic abyss of 2008 – mass unemployment and hunger, hyper-inflation and a worthless national currency.

READ MORE Zimbabwe’s EcoCash woes show dangers of early reliance on mobile money

They facilitated the grand theft of citizens’ bank balances by reintroducing the Zimbabwean dollar currency while allowing their business allies to access the state’s reserves of US dollars, and to benefit from the arbitrage between the two currencies. This corruption system built around the relaunch of the Zimbabwean dollar, which cost our people US$500m in stolen state resources, guaranteed the new currency was strangled at birth.

By late May, Mangudya claimed an official exchange rate of Zim$25=US$1 – in reality it was taking over Z$70 to buy a US dollar, and the rate has since been falling daily. Inflation has skyrocketed to at least 700%, second only to Venezuela.

So far Mnangagwa seems impervious to the consequences of this economic incontinence, seeing no need to rein in his extravagances. He has been renting luxury jets from as far as the United Arab Emirates to take him on 400 kilometre trips within Zimbabwe.

He has appointed several ministers known to be corrupt. His top appointees have looted some $300m from the citizens’ pension fund with no official inquiries; let alone prosecutions.

As a smokescreen, he appointed a presidential anti-corruption team that delivered nothing whilst his reconstituted Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission acquired the ‘catch and release’ moniker.

25/06/2020

Forex exchange auction trading system off to a good start

The foreign exchange auction trading system has made a good start when it kicked-off in Harare today (June 23, 2020), without any great difficulty.On its first day, bids worth about US$11,4 million were submitted to the auction through registered dealers (banks), of which tenders worth about US$10,3 million were allotted foreign currency (forex).

The highest bid was ZW$100 to the United States dollar (US$), while the lowest bid was ZW$25,5 to the US$, giving a weighted average rate of about ZW$57,4 to the US$ which was in line with market expectations.

Until the next auction on Tuesday (June 30, 2020), forex trades will be at ZW$57,4.

Raw materials took up about US$2,9 million of the allotted amount, followed by machinery and equipment at US$2,4 million. Other successful bids were for food and beverages (US$1,4 million), services (US$1,4 million), consumables (US$1,3 million), portfolio investments (US$436 million), etc.

The forex auction replaced the fixed exchange rate regime that had to be discarded by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) after it became obsolete due to hyperinflation.

In 2004, the Bank under Dr Gideon Gono had attempted a limited version of the system called the Managed Foreign Exchange Auction System, but abandoned it after the market scorned at attempts by the authorities to manipulate the rate.

This time around, the Central Bank which is now under Dr John Mangudya has gone full steam ahead with the auction system for most of the external payments, except for those to do with central government, promising not to interfere in its operations.

At ZW$57,4 to the US$, the rate is much lower than the ZW$105 to ZW$120 range obtaining on the alternative market, which begs the million dollar question; who is buying forex at that steep price and for what purpose?

While the Financial Intelligence Unit is still searching for answers to these knotty questions, word has it that the parallel market rate is being manipulated for either speculative or political reasons. The latter has unnerved the government which threatened to come hard on "economic saboteurs".

With Tuesday's auction producing a rate of ZW$57,4, the authorities will certainly claim that their suspicions have been substantiated. It is also improbable that there is appetite for genuine business transactions at ZW$105 to ZW$120 without pricing the final product out of the market, considering that aggregate demand has hit its lowest ebb.

Assuming this to be the case, black market rates may come down significantly in the coming days provided the RBZ does not interfere with the system's functionality. This should not be difficult to achieve.

To meet its forex requirements on a monthly basis, Zimbabwe requires between US$80 million and US$100 million. This figure includes the forex needs of companies that have the resource in their Nostro accounts.

If you are to exclude those with the forex in their Nostro accounts and, therefore, do not qualify for the auction, this open tender should cater for a gap of between US$40 million and US$50 million, monthly, which is within what the country can afford, even under the obtaining difficult economic circumstances.

The onus is therefore on the Central Bank to maintain high levels of transparency to guard against the manipulation of the auction system while ensuring that the resource is being utilized efficiently. For the auction system to operate efficiently and effectively, it must gain credibility, which is a by-product of transparency which RBZ Governor, Dr Mangudya and his team at the Apex Bank have promised to uphold.

It is also important for the forex accessed through registered dealers to be applied consistent with the documentation lodged for this purpose. Bidders should be tightly monitored through documentation requirements such as evidence of paid up tax, deposits with the commercial bank filling the application, and import and export invoices. Those who stray beyond the red-line must face the music, with the law being applied without fear or favour.

Disqualification from the auction system should also not be done on an ad hoc basis lest it will be construed as attempts to forestall the continued depreciation of the Zimbabwe dollar. Justifiable grounds must be given for those whose bids are thrown out.

But like with any new system, there are bound to be some imperfections that need refinement: For example, that the lowest bids start at US$50 000, clearly shuts out smaller companies.

In future, the auction should lower the entry thresholds to accommodate the smaller operators, who may end up quenching their appetites for forex on the alternative market or having to consolidate their invoices, which is cumbersome.

It is also important to maintain transaction costs within reasonable levels and ensuring that the processed involved in preparing bids – from the application procedure to the bidding process – is streamlined so that it does not act as a disincentive to use of the auction.

It is to be expected that while the auction system should take care of all forex requirements, for now priority must be given to critical imports and not luxury items.

It is sickening to note that the country spends in excess of US$2,2 billion or 42% of its total imports on commodities that can be produced locally which, inter alia include cereals, vegetables, mushroom, paper, tooth picks, pampers, chewing gums, etc.

While it may seem reasonable not to accommodate these in the early stages of the auction when it may be vulnerable to speculative pressures, inevitably the system must be liberalised to increase competition and drive players from the parallel market, while also decreasing the volatility of the rate.

That way, the auction system can assist achieve the steadiness of the exchange rate which is sine quo non to price stability and the general cost of living.

25/06/2020

Swarms Of Locust Invade Zimbabwe’s Lowveld

Swarms of locusts have reportedly invaded Zimbabwe’s southeast Lowveld – Malilangwe and Gonarezhou catchment area – this Tuesday.

It is unusual to have a locust invasion in Zimbabwe, let alone in the middle of winter when the savanna scrub is almost dry.

It is not yet clear where the locusts are coming from, how large are the swarms or the harm they have covered so far.

25/06/2020

Zimbabwe Hikes Fuel Prices By Over 100 Per Cent

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has announced new fuel prices effective Wednesday, 24 June 2020.

A litre of diesel now costs ZWL$62.77 in local currency and US$1.09 in foreign currency.

Petrol has been priced at ZWL$71.62 in local currency and US$1.28 in foreign currency per litre.

The new prices were announced a few hours after the central bank abandoned the fixed exchange rate of US$1: ZWL$25 and adopted a Foreign Exchange Auction Trading system which set the official Zimbabwe dollar exchange rate to the US dollar at $57.36.

23/06/2020

There were reports that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had fired the Health Minister Obadiah Moyo who is being accused of charges related to criminal abuse of office in connections with a Coronavirus tender awarded to controversial company Drax International.However, it has since come to light that the letter that was circulated on social media is a copy and paste of same letter that was used when Priscah Mupfumira was fired.

Moyo was arrested on Friday evening and later set free on Saturday on ZWL$50,000 bail.

The statement on the firing of Health Minister, Dr Obadiah Moyo is in fact not true, for now.

It's a copy & paste of same letter that was used when Priscah Mupfumira was fired.

22/06/2020

Obadiah Moyo arrest drama: Details emerge- Brings own mattress and blankets to cell

Government officials allegedly put pressure on police to release Health minister Obadiah Moyo after his detention on Friday over the $60 million Covid-19 medical supply scandal amid fears his case will collapse due to interference.The were alleged attempts to take Moyo out of Harare's Rhodesville Police Station on Friday night as some unnamed government officials wanted him to spend the night at home before his court appearance yesterday.

According to officials close to the case, the minister was arrested in the evening by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc), but was only booked into the cells at 2am.

He only went into detention after his family brought a mattress and blankets, the sources said. Moyo only slept for about five hours before he was taken to Zacc offices at around 8am.

The sources said there was haggling between the police and Zacc with the anti-graft body insisting that Moyo should be detained overnight.

Moyo used his official vehicles to go the Harare magistrates' court.

He was released on $50 000 bail by chief magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi after prosecutors gave their consent.

Zacc spokesperson John Makamure and police spokesperson Paul Nyathi both professed ignorance about the drama surrounding Moyo's detention.

The insiders, however, said it was linked to squabbles between Zacc and the President's Office, where some officials allegedly tried to block the minister's arrest.

When he arrived at the courts, Moyo remained in his car for close to three hours before his case started after lunch.

Prosecutors immediately consented to bail on condition that he surrendered his passport, title deeds of a property in Eastlea in the name of his wife Memory Moyo as surety and that he reports at Zacc offices three times a week.

After he was released on bail, Moyo's aides were seen carrying a heavy box full of cash to pay for the minister's freedom. The clerk of court, however, preferred electronic payment and the box was ferried back to Moyo's vehicle.

Laying out the charges, Prosecutors said sometime in March last year, Moyo was approached by Delish Nguwaya, a country representative for Papi Pharma LLC, who proposed to supply the government with medicines and sundries through a US$15 million loan facility.

Moyo allegedly agreed and instructed former Health ministry permanent secretary Gerald Gwinji to process the paperwork and award the tender to the company under a direct purchase.

It is alleged that on March 20 last year, Gwinji wrote a letter to Treasury requesting that due diligence be undertaken on Papi Pharma LLC before it could be contracted.

But Moyo, using his position and influence, directed Gwinji to engage Papi Pharma LLC before a response on the due diligence had been received from Treasury.

On March 25, Gwinji allegedly received a response from Finance permanent secretary George Guvamatanga requesting to be furnished with competitive international prices for the various medicines outlined in the schedule by Papi Pharma LLC.

On Moyo's instruction, Gwinji directed Natpharm GM Flora Sifeku to proceed with the procurement process with Papi Pharma.

As a result, prosecutors said on May 29, NatPharm used a direct purchase method and awarded the tender to Papi Pharma LLC before due diligence was concluded.

On June 14, Foreign Affairs permanent secretary James Manzou produced an adverse report on Papi Pharma that indicated the company and its director Klodian Allajbeu were linked to a terrorist group known as the Gulen Movement.

According to the charges, Moyo "showed favour to Papi Pharma", causing a potential prejudice of US$15 million to the government.

On the second charge, prosecutors said on August 22, Nguwaya visited Moyo in the company of Illir Dedja, a Drax Consult SAGL representative, where the two presented a letter of expression of interest in the supply of drugs worth US$20 million under Drax.

Moyo allegedly gave the letter to then permanent secretary Agnes Mahomva for processing after his approval. Mahomva then asked Treasury to conduct a due diligence on Drax. On September 19, Guvamatanga received a response from the President's Office, with indications that the business activities of the company could not be ascertained. Guvamatanga allegedly wrote to Mahomva advising that it was not advisable to engage Drax due to an adverse due diligence report.

But the following day, Moyo phoned Guvamatanga indicating that new information showed that Drax had been cleared.

Moyo allegedly exerted pressure on his subordinates, particularly Mahomva, to award a tender to Drax for the supply of medicines through NatPharm during meetings he held in his office with officials from the ministry, Natpharm and Drax.

On December 11, NatPharm and Drax entered into a contract and the company supplied medicine and surgical sundries worth US$2 733 980, of which US$2 million was paid by Treasury into Drax's Hungary account.

Prosecutors said Moyo's conduct caused a potential prejudice of US$17 266 020.

Moyo allegedly facilitated another contract for Drax International LLC to supply drugs worth US$40 million despite the fact that the company had failed a security check.

Treasury, however, ordered the cancellation of that contract, but Drax supplied Covid-19 test kits valued at US$987 720, which were procured after the contract was cancelled.

On May 8, Moyo allegedly gave an instruction for Guvamatanga to facilitate clearance of the test kits which were being held at the airport that had been supplied under Drax's cancelled US$40 million contract.

Prosecutors said on the same day, Moyo personally handed over an invoice worth US$987 720 to Guvamatanga from Drax.

Moyo claimed there were 15 000 test kits at the Robert Mugabe International Airport, but when he went to check the consignment, Guvamatanga discovered that there were only 3 700 test kits.

Nguwaya is already in detention over the scandal.

16/06/2020

fun with street slang