OPPOSITION Alliance for the People's Agenda (APA) president Nkosana Moyo said the imploding economic and political situation in the country had confirmed his long-held fears that President Emmerson Mnangagwa would be worse than his late predecessor Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa's administration has attracted international condemnation in recent days over an increase in human rights violations following a wave of abductions and arrests of journalists, opposition and civic rights activists. This has seen the opposition and other stakeholders calling on Sadc to intervene to facilitate dialogue to solve the political and socio-economic crises facing the country. Mnangagwa, however, denies there is a crisis. Moyo said Zimbabweans should expect nothing but the worst from Mnangagwa wh
The Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference has urged Mr Emmerson Mnangagwa to respect fundamental human rights. See full statement below: SOLIDARITY STATEMENT TO THE BISHOPS AND THE CHURCH IN ZIMBABWE We, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) greet you in the name of our risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. We continue to note with increasing concern the unabated situation of repression in Zimbabwe, resulting in increasing hardship and suffering to the citizens. We commend you for your prophetic voice in naming and condemning the brutalisation of ordinary people by security forces and the underlying corruption that has led to the total collapse of services to the people by the government. As St. Paul informs us, “we are one body in u
VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga has pleaded with Zimbabweans not to be confrontational whenever they reach a deadlock and also implored citizens to dialogue wherever there is divergence of ideas. Addressing delegates at last week's official tour of the winter maize project at Hippo Valley's Kilimanjaro project in Chiredzi, Chiwenga appealed for amicable solutions to problems afflicting the country. "We have plenty of land, so let's open it. Let's create and give our people jobs here. There is no other country which will be created. God did his job and finished it. He is not going to create another world. Let's forget about it. So our small teapot, let's treasure it. Let's work together. Let's not be confrontational. If there is any problem in
THE opposition MDC Alliance has vowed to fight what it terms “the subversion of the people’s will” by taking back the parliamentary seats which the Thokozani Khupe-led MDC-T grabbed through parliamentary recalls and intends to fill with its nominees. MDC Alliance secretary-general Chalton Hwende said the party was concluding consultations with the electorate to block the unconstitutional and subversion of the people’s will. “The people voted us into office and the Zanu-PF government is trying to block the social contract that we signed with the electorate. This is clearly a subversion of the people’s will. The people are now being forced to be led by the people they rejected in elections,” he said. “We are concluding our consultations
A magistrate on Tuesday ruled that Harare lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa should recuse herself from representing journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, citing her for “scandalising the courts.” Magistrate Ngoni Nduna said Mtetwa had repeatedly carried out actions which undermined the justice system, including describing Chin’ono’s arrest as an abduction. An application for her recusal was made by prosecutor Whisper Mabhaudi last week, at the start of Chin’ono’s latest bid for bail following his arrest on July 20 accused of inciting Zimbabweans to engage in violent protests on July 31. Mabhaudi argued that comments carried on a Facebook page called ‘Beatrice Mtetwa and the Rule of Law’ were tantamount to sub judice. One post on the page read: &l
UNDER-SIEGE President Emmerson Mnangagwa will this Tuesday give his own response to a damning letter addressed to his administration by Catholic bishops over rights abuses and poor leadership under his rule. This was revealed in a tweet Monday by Information Ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana. "Regarding issues around the Pastoral Letter by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference, President @edmnangagwa is going to issue a comprehensive statement tomorrow," Mangwana said. In a pastoral letter week, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference said the country was suffering from "a multi-layered crisis", including economic collapse, deepening poverty, corruption and human rights abuses. The letter elicited a vitriolic response by government th
By Hon Job Wiwa Sikhala 31st July Movement Isolated from family, friends and acquaintances gave me time and opportunity to deeply reflect and search in heart and soul the meaning of everything that is happens in my life and many other Zimbabweans as well. I was six years old in 1980 and l remember vividly my Uncle, the youngest of my father’s siblings Samuel Sikhala who is my closest friend today of all my family members arguing with my father and my other Uncle. The argument was on why it was right to vote for PF ZAPU and Joshua Nkomo for a new independence leadership of our country as they prepared to go to Pamushana Mission to vote. They agreed all of them including their wives, to vote for PF ZAPU. Although young, l understood what they were conspiring to. As a young boy l wa
The Zimbabwe government has launched an astonishing attack on the country's Catholic bishops after the bishops issued a pastoral letter critical of the government. Zimbabwe’s minister of information publicity and broadcasting services, Monica Mutsvangwa lashed out at the bishops: “Ahead of the Catholic Sunday Mass, the government of Zimbabwe draws the attention of the national Catholic congregation shards of a pastoral letter issued under the misguided if evil minded leadership of the Archbishop of Harare,” she said. Mutsvangwa said the government vehemently object to and strongly condemns the pastoral letter of Archbishop Robert Ndlovu of Harare and his coterie of Catholics Bishop prelates. The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference dispatched a stinging pastora
Opposition MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe has claimed that there is no legitimacy crisis in Zimbabwe and told South African envoys to concentrate on allegations of human rights abuses. On Monday, South Africa’s Sydney Mufamadi and former National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete visited Zimbabwe to assess reports of human rights violations perpetrated by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s under-fire administration. MDC-T spokesperson Khaliphani Phugeni told the Daily News that the envoys had to address issues of human rights only adding that there was no legitimacy crisis in Zimbabwe. It is that contestation which has brought polarisation in the country and impending development. It is not fair to contest the President’s legitimacy when the courts ruled in his favour.
SOME MDC Alliance bigwigs are said to be making a determined push to have the coalition's firebrand deputy national chairperson, Job "Wiwa" Sikhala, expelled for his radical political activities and dogged opposition to Zanu-PF and its government. So bad is the situation said to have become for Sikhala, that sources told the Daily News last night, that some of his comrades were even hoping that authorities would manage to fish him out from his current hideout. Sikhala has been in hiding ever since authorities started cracking down on the leaders of last month's failed mass demonstrations. The sources who spoke to the Daily News said senior Alliance officials had recently discussed Sikhala's jettisoning in the party's standing committee (SC) WhatsApp group
