Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Monday called criticism of human rights abuses by his government “divisive falsehoods” and said his administration was under renewed attack from domestic and foreign opponents. Mnangagwa, during a Heroes Day speech in Harare, said the allegations were “unjustified attacks by our perennial detractors, both inside and outside our border”. “The divisive falsehoods and concoctions by renegades and supremacists who want to pounce on our natural resources will never win the day. Truth shall triumph over lies, and good over evil,” said Mnangagwa, who replaced Robert Mugabe after a 2017 coup. Hopes that Mnangagwa would unite a polarised country and revive a stricken economy following the Mugabe era have b
PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa's cautious intervention in the current Zimbabwean crisis has got off to a rocky start, with the opposition warning yesterday that they will not be railroaded to accept any deals that they disagree with, as had happened a decade ago when the country's unity government was put in place. This comes after Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that he had appointed former South African vice president and Speaker of Parliament, Baleka Mbete, as well as former cabinet minister Sydney Mufamadi as his special envoys to Harare - "to identify possible ways in which South Africa can assist Zimbabwe". It also comes as well-placed sources in South Africa have told the Daily News On Sunday that Ramaphosa's surprise move followed preliminary talks within his
South African opposition leader Julius Malema on Sunday urged Zimbabwean youths to take decisive steps to end President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s increasingly autocratic rule, warning that social media activism alone would not bring about the desired change. Zimbabwe is going through its worst economic crisis in over a decade, with inflation of over 700 percent. Many blame Mnangagwa, the 77-year-old successor of Robert Mugabe, for the crisis which has seen doctors and nurses going on an indefinite strike in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. Economic Freedom Fighters leader Malema spoke at a Women’s Day event close to the grave of anti-apartheid icon Winnie Mandela, charging that Zimbabwean women wake up everyday with a threat of arrest, abduction or rape by Mnangagwa’
Opposition MDC Alliance Vice President Tendai Biti has accused the generation of politicians who fought the liberation war of holding the country to ransom and said their primary focus was power retention, state capture and benefiting from corruption under President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Biti slammed the war veterans for holding the country to ransom by claiming they were the liberators of the nation and using that as a launch pad to monopolise key political positions. The former Finance Minister was co-panellist during a Thursday SAPES Trust online Policy Dialogue whose focus was on “What will it take to reach a Settlement in Zimbabwe”. Biti added that the war veterans generation was still fighting a war that was won in 1980. “We still have a few and the few ar
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday officially launched the National Tourism Recovery and Growth Strategy as he led the restart of the sector, whose contribution to the national economy has been heavily crippled by the outbreak of Covid-19. The President also officially reopened the Victoria Falls Rainforest, signalling the country’s readiness to welcome visitors into the prime resort destination. The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the key foreign currency earners in the country and employs thousands of people along the value chain. Despite the Covid-19 dent on arrivals, Zimbabwe expects to leverage on internal competencies around domestic tourism to unlock wider potential and enhance operators’ capacities on the interim. In this regard, the National Tourism Reco
FUGITIVE G40 members, who are hiding in South Africa, are behind the recent anti-Zimbabwe campaign responsible for inventing a non-existent crisis and have been engaging various regional players in a desperate effort to isolate the country. Unbeknown to many users of social media platforms, the cabal of fugitives has hatched a devious blitz on Twitter that gives the impression of a Zimbabwe in crisis. The members of the G40 cabal which had captured the former President during the First Republic recently met African National Congress’ (ANC) secretary-general Elias Sekgobelo “Ace” Magashule of South Africa where they apparently fed him with wrong impressions of the situation obtaining in the country. Messrs Saviour Kasukuwere, Walter Mzembi and Patrick Zhuwao, who
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa's government has been thrown into disarray after a number of ministers and senior bureaucrats were placed in isolation in the past week after either contracting the highly infectious Covid-19 or coming into contact with infected persons. In terms of World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on the control and management of the pandemic, which had as of yesterday claimed 97 lives from 4 395 infections around the country, any infected person should be placed in quarantine until they recover while anyone who has come into contact with an infected individual should be quarantined for at least 14 days until they test negative. The development comes just a week after the death of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement minister Perrance S
OPPOSITION MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has blasted President Emmerson Mnangagwa for labelling innocent citizens as terrorists after they expressed anger over his maladministration. Chamisa accused Mnangagwa of using a primitive way of governance. Speaking for the first time after visiting a number of victims of State-sponsored abductions, torture and arrests in the last week, Chamisa said it was not proper for activists to "stay in mountains" fleeing the regime in a free country. Chamisa, who has been on leave mourning the death of his mother who passed on last month, is expected back in office today at a time dozens of citizens are in hiding facing arrest for allegedly participating or calling for the July 31 protests . "It is not proper to have people in
obert Martin Gumbura will be out of prison in just five years after the High Court slashed his sentence by half following an appeal. The pastor was serving an effective 40-year jail term for rape and will now have to serve half of the years following a successful appeal against his sentence. His lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku says he might have five years remaining considering the remission of sentence. “In the magistrates’ court, he was given 50 years before 10 years were suspended conditionally. “He has been in jail since 2014 meaning that he has already served part of the remaining sentence, also taking into account what it is called remission of sentence. “You will find out that he is left with about five years,” said Madhuku. The appeal was hear
MTV star Lasizwe has been trolled by Zanu PF ghost accounts and was accused of being gay. He was targeted for supporting the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter movement. Lasizwe tweeted ‘I stand with Zimbabwe’ after the #ZimbabweanLivesMatter hashtag trended all over the world in support for Zimbabweans currently experiencing human rights abuses and abductions for speaking against corruption and bad governance. His post was followed by comments, “no gays please, we are Christians” “unfortunately we don’t stand with gays,” “we don’t stand with gays.” Soon after the attacks Lasizwe Tweeted, “The homophobia I am currently experiencing from my fellow african brothers and sisters is heart breaking! We still have a long w
