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CHIVHU district development coordinator (DDC) Michael Mariga yesterday stripped two MDC Alliance councillors of their posts and barred them from attending council meetings after they defied orders to resign from the civil service following their victory in the 2018 harmonised elections. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA Edwin Maseva (ward 11) and Emmanuel Punungwe (ward 10), who are both primary school teachers, were stripped of their titles just before the beginning of the Chikomba Rural District full council meeting. Addressing other councillors during the meeting, Mariga said Maseva and Punungwe had failed to comply with a directive from the Public Service Commission (PSC), which ordered them to resign from the civil service 30 days following 2018 their electoral victory or stop serving as councillors. According to a letter dated April 15, 2020, written by the PSC secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe, which Mariga read out to councillors, civil servants serving as councillors would be violating the Constitution and the Public Service Regulations Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 as stated in Circular 10 of November 2018. “Given the fact that it is a misconduct to engage in any other employment or service for remuneration without the written consent of the commission, it is advisable that you act immediately to correct the situation,” the letter read. “For avoidance of doubt, the commission hereby directs that as a civil servant, you should cease to serve as a councillor with immediate effect. Failure to comply with this directive will result in disciplinary action taken against you.” Maseva said Mariga had misdirected himself by relying on an old prohibition order which had been overtaken by events. “We are still in talks with the PSC on this issue and we have also engaged lawyers. As it is right now, the DDC’s dismissal is null,” Maseva said. Punungwe described the decision by PSC to dismiss them from council as part of political persecution of opposition officials. “This is a selective application of the law aimed at pushing certain agendas. I wonder why PSC decided to fire us from council instead of the civil service,” he said. Following the PSC directive, three Zanu PF councillors in Buhera Rural District Council who were also teachers, resigned recently from the civil service to continue serving in council. Follow Florence on Twitter @FloMangwaya
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
At the outset of the pandemic, more African Americans in Mississippi were being infected and killed by coronavirus than white... View Article
The post Mississippi health official links rise in white virus cases over Black cases to mask views appeared first on TheGrio.
The National Assembly and the Senate have differed over the number of persons to be appointed to a panel that will fill four vacancies at the electoral agency.
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa is today scheduled to meet Matabeleland traditional leaders in Bulawayo to, among other things, discuss the emotive Gukurahundi issue, marginalisation and development of the region. This is not the first time that Mnangagwa has met traditional leaders from the region to discuss festering issues in the region, but there is a worrying trend that these indabas are becoming empty talkshows. The President has also met members of the Matabeleland Collective (MC) at the State House in the city not once, but more than twice. In all these engagements, regional leaders have been clear that they will not settle for anything less than a sincere Gukurahundi apology and a truth-telling process led by the chiefs and civic society organisations from the region. They contend that this is key towards finding a lasting solution to Gukurahudi. In all the past engagements, Mnangagwa has skirted over the apology part and rushed to facilitate exhumations and reburials of Gukurahundi victims and issuance of identity documents to the survivors. This has left many affected citizens sceptical over his sincerity in dealing with the issue. They still believe that Mnangagwa, as one of the perpetrators, must not dictate the direction to be taken, but allow them to lead the healing process. In short, he should talk less and listen more. That's true statesmanship. The message has been very clear that the President cannot put the cart before the horse. From Mangwe to Tsholotsho, Bulawayo and Nkayi — demands of an acknowledgment, apology and a truth-telling process before reburials are uniform. Why does he now want to fast-track an issue that is as old as the country’s independence? We wonder why Mnangagwa is not doing the right thing. Mnangagwa should listen to the people who were affected in order to make his meetings meaningful. If the meetings fail to achieve anything, the people of Matabeleland will lose confidence in him and those meetings will be a wasted opportunity to resolve the crisis. Mnangagwa should simply own up to the atrocities, apologise and seek the consent of the victims on how they would want the crisis to be resolved. This is a key ingredient of transitional justice.
RIO DE JANEIRO, (Reuters) - Brazil recorded 30,026 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 571 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
The article Brazil reports 30,026 new coronavirus cases, 571 deaths appeared first on Stabroek News.
In its investigation, TNH obtained information drawn from leaked WHO documents that suggests how some health workers and civil servants profited from response funds; and how, in the rush to scale up a response in an active conflict zone, the WHO paid millions of dollars in inflated per diems to Congolese security forces.
The authors of the draft review commissioned by the UN and NGOs - obtained exclusively by TNH - warn that \"practices implemented during the Ebola response will inevitably have a direct impact on the ability of aid organisations to control corruption within their programmes\".
The UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, acknowledged there had been challenges in the Ebola response - Ituri and North Kivu provinces are relatively remote and located inside an active conflict zone.
In January, David Gressly, the UN's former emergency Ebola response coordinator, told TNH that the attack on the WHO doctor may have been motivated by a desire to divert resources to local health workers.
The outbreak that erupted in North Kivu and Ituri was the first in an active conflict zone, and response operations had to be shut down on numerous occasions because of attacks against clinics and health workers, leading to fresh spikes in Ebola cases and deaths.
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 24 October 2020: As countries across the world ramp up their response to the unfolding second wave of the deadly Coronavirus Pandemic that has killed over one million people, authorities in Sierra Leone have decided its time to scale down the government’s response. This decision was announced by the government’s national spokesman…
By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press LONDON (AP) — A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections. The Gloucestershire Constabulary will patrol routes from Wales and pull over drivers they believe are making long journeys. Travelers without a good excuse will be asked to turn around. If they don't comply, officers will inform their Welsh counterparts so they can take action because Gloucestershire police don't have the authority to fine people traveling from Wales, the department said. The situation illustrates […]
The post No escaping from Wales: UK police to enforce travel ban appeared first on Black News Channel.
Living under a zinc-and-tarpaulin structure and getting stoned at nights by unruly youngsters is really an awful way to live. But this is what 51-year-old Ivan Lawrence, also known as ‘Badcare’, of Lime Hall, St Ann, had to contend with over a...
The Office of the Prime Minister has announced special curfews for Rae Town, Kingston and Cornwall Courts, St James amid an increase in COVID cases in the communities. The curfews take effect Friday at 6 p.m., Friday, October 23 and will run until...
From April to July 1994 Rwanda suffered through a period of government-sanctioned mass murder which resulted in the deaths of nearlyone million Tutsi men, women and children. Most observers point to myriad factors which caused the slaughter including government corruption, longstanding ethnic antagonism, the legacy of colonialism, and competition for scarce farmland. Jean-Damascène Gasanabo, a citizen of Rwanda whose parents and four siblings were killed during the Genocide, offers another explanation, greed and jealousy. His account ofthe Rwandan Genocide, written expressly for BlackPast.org, appears below.
For centuries and even until today after the genocide, the three Rwandansocial groups have lived together, on same hills, dales, and flatlands.Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas live together in every part of the country of thousand hills. The relationship between the three groups was based on everyday life. It is simplistic and naive to argue that the relationshipbetween the people was perfect and that conflicts arose as a result of colonization only. No society exists that has avoided social conflicts among its population. From the pre-colonial period to the 1994 genocide,Rwanda has been characterized by internal conflicts. However, the nature of these conflicts was different in each epoch. Before the colonial period, the conflicts involved different clans such as the Bega and the Banyiginya in which both Hutus and Tutsis were represented. Those conflicts were related to the problems of land or power.
The 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda was the culmination of the hate of Hutus towards Tutsis. It poses two main questions: the first on the relationship between the two groups over centuries, and the second concerns the origins of hate that led to the genocide.
Non-Rwandans and many Rwandan citizens, ask how the relationship developed between Hutus and Tutsis and how that relationship encouraged the genocide that killed about one million Tutsis. I would argue that for centuries, the relationship between Hutus
Faith Education Centre has settled into its new location. The special-needs institution, which launched a GoFundMe campaign on May 21 to relocate from its Willodene, Spanish Town, location, has moved to Innswood Village, also in the Old Capital. “...
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 23 October 2020: Newly appointed United Nations Resident to Sierra Leone – Mr. Babatunde Ahonsi, last Thursday called on President Dr Julius Maada Bio to present his letter of appointment by the UN Secretary General. ”It is with utmost humility and great honour that I present my credentials as the United Nations…
By Associated Press Undefined STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh (AP) — Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday hours after the United States hosted top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region. The heavy shelling forced residents of Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, into shelters, as emergency teams rushed to extinguish fires. Local officials said the city was struck with Azerbaijan's Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, a devastating Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and cluster munitions. Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said other towns in the region were also […]
The post Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh goes on despite US mediation appeared first on Black News Channel.
The bodies of seven health workers and a civilian were found Thursday in a village north of Mogadishu, shocking residents, local authorities and elders said Friday.
\"We found the dead bodies of the seven young health workers and a shop owner outside Golaley village near Balad district, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, a day after they were abducted by men in Somali military fatigues,\" Ahmed Mohamed Muse, a local elder, told VOA Somali.
It was not clear who was responsible for the killing, but local elders, including Muse, accused Somali government soldiers of being behind the attack.
He said the seven slain health workers were with the Zamzam foundation, a local aid group that focuses on health care, education, orphan care and peace building.
U.N. Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement Thursday that he was shocked by the killings of the health workers.
The ANC has called on Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula not to be distracted by the gossip of a group of \"faceless\" ANC members in the transport department.
By Michael Sznajderman Alabama Newscenter For nearly a decade, the Ballard House in Birmingham’s civil rights district has been a center for community-engaged discussions and learning about the rich tapestry and history of the city’s Black community. Now, the nonprofit that preserved the historic house has embarked on a capital campaign that will fund a […]
By CALVIN WOODWARD and HOPE YEN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A more measured President Donald Trump does not necessarily mean a more truthful one. In the final debate of the presidential campaign, he was loose with facts on the crisis of the time — the pandemic — and much else. Trump did, though, exploit confusion sowed by Joe Biden during the primaries, when the Democrat occasionally made his position on energy sound more to the left than it actually is. Trump accurately called out Biden when Biden denied he had ever vowed to ban fracking. That was never Biden's […]
The post AP FACT CHECK: Trump and Biden in their last clash on stage appeared first on Black News Channel.
by Ben Jealous (TriceEdneyWire.com)—Millions of Americans have turned out in big cities and small towns to protest the killings of unarmed civilians—often Black people—at the hands of law enforcement. If we want our demands for justice and accountability to lead to real policy change, we need to build on that activism by electing public officials … Continued
The post Elect public officials who commit to stopping police killings appeared first on New Pittsburgh Courier.
By REBECCA BOONE and DAVID CRARY Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. coronavirus caseload has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day, the latest ominous sign of the disease's grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge. The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, has grown to 223,995, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins University. The total U.S. caseload reported on the site Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16. The impact is being felt in every section […]
The post US sets coronavirus infection record; deaths near 224,000 appeared first on Black News Channel.
Develop me :Tapiwa Gomo Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the worst crisis the world has experienced since the Second World War. It is also the worst health crisis since the Spanish flu in 1918. The impact of COVID-19 is being felt in different spheres of life. There is no doubt that it has and it will continue to alter the way we live and do business. Nations have been left poorer due to decreased or loss of income. A recovery strategy is needed. As the world grapples with attempts to beat back the impact of COVID-19, this is the right moment to count the costs while chatting a life with and post-COVID-19 recovery. Not doing so would be downright myopicism whose outcome is nothing but a perpetuation of the impact of the crisis. The first priority is, of course, saving human lives which should be the baseline of any social and economic recovery in living with or after COVID-19. It is critical that governments prioritise their people, improving their welfare and preserving the human capital. This is important because the people are the primary and major source of any economic recovery. They are the first capital required to recover or boost economies. Looking after them entails keeping them healthy, fed, alive and capable of providing labour at whatever levels of the economic spectrum. This should not be seen as political but the reality of the order of things. The more people are infected and affected by the pandemic, the less likely economies are able to recover and the higher the welfare burden the government will have to shoulder when they are supposed to focus on economic investment than expenditure. It is even worse when the working age group is the worst affected demographic group as this will mean their dependants will become government responsibility. With proper planning, these can be avoided. The second priority is for governments to think outside the box. After the Second World War, several initiatives kicked in, some of them global, some national and others bilateral. Global governance institutions were established to facilitate, coordinate and support recovery. This included International Finance Institutions to finance this global project. The tenets of colonisation were reframed into what has turned out to be development today. What is critical to note from this period is that big economies were unable to recover without dedicated flows of cheap raw materials from poor and colonised countries. They had that advantage. If the playing field was level, it was an important opportunity for poor countries to bargain better prices for resources needed by big economies. During this COVID-19 period, poor countries need to be more organised, proactive and realise that the demand for their raw materials is coming and it will create an opportunity for better bargaining on the global markets. Better bargaining means a lot more than getting the right prices for their materials. It can be an opportunity to acquire new technology to industrialise and create more economic and employment opportunities for citizens. Western inve
Refusing to accept the Zim dollar and bond notes as payment for goods has landed 102 Zimbabwean business owners and retail employees in trouble, with 28 of these appearing in court as the government enforces acceptance of the fast-falling local unit amid increased dollarisation of the economy.
As Zimbabwe’s economy re-dollarises, some retail outlets are no-longer accepting payment for goods and services in the form of bond notes.
However, John Mangudya, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, has reiterated that Zim dollar and bond notes and coins \"are still legal tender\".
\"Traders and business entities who continue to refuse to accept Zimbabwe currency bond notes and coins as a legal tender in business transactions risk being arrested and taken to court for the law to take its course,\" said the ZRP in a statement on Wednesday.
Denford Mutashu, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries told Fin24 that retailers have to accept the Zim dollar and bond notes to smoothen transactions and payment for goods and services.
The Law Society of Kenya has filed a case challenging the legality of an Executive order issued by President Uhuru Kenyatta that allegedly sought to place the Judiciary, commissions as well as independent offices under ministries and government departments.
Through lawyers Manwa Hosea and Arnold Ochieng, the LSK terms the move as unconstitutional since the executive arm of government cannot restructure or assign functions to other arms and independent commissions.
The LSK claims the disputed Executive order No. 1 of 2020 offends the principles of the constitution, doctrine of separation of powers, democracy and independence of constitutional offices.
According to the LSK, the May 11 Executive Order titled 'The Organisation of Government' can impair the independence of the Judiciary, commissions and independent offices.
The order, the LSK argues, places the various tribunals, constitutional commissions and independent agencies under the control and direction of the respective departments.
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Associated Press MOSCOW (AP) — Authorities in Kyrgyzstan on Saturday called an early presidential election for January after the nation's previous president was driven from power by protests triggered by a disputed vote. The Oct. 4 parliamentary election was swept by pro-government parties and triggered protests by the opposition, who rejected the official results as rigged. Demonstrators freed several opposition leaders, including Sadyr Zhaparov, who was quickly named the new prime minister. On Oct. 15, President Sooronbai Jeenbekov was forced to step down under pressure from demonstrators and Zhaparov became the acting head of state in Kyrgyzstan, […]
The post Amid turmoil, Kyrgyzstan sets presidential vote for Jan. 10 appeared first on Black News Channel.
In a statement, Garcetti said, “I’m sickened by the bribery and corruption described in federal indictments, and I support Council President Nury Martinez’s call for Jose Huizar to step down from Los Angeles City Council.
Responding to the request by the council president, Huizar said week he would “limit my participation” in council activities amid the federal probe, which is focused on alleged bribery of city officials by well-heeled developers.
Prosecutors allege in the court papers that the developer took Esparza and the unnamed council member on more than a dozen trips to Las Vegas between 2014 and 2017 and provided them with “flights on private jets, hotel rooms, spa services, meals, alcohol, prostitution/escort services and casino gambling chips.”
In his plea agreement, Esparza admitted to participating in a criminal enterprise led by his one-time boss, described as a former chairman of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and only named in court records as Council Member A. Esparza worked for Huizar, former chair of the PLUM committee, until he left the councilman’s office in January 2018.
The charge against Esparza came nearly two weeks after federal prosecutors entered into a plea agreement with real estate development consultant George Chiang, who admitted his role in a bribery scheme allegedly involving a council member thought to be Huizar, with the goal of advancing large-scale development projects.
Haile Selassie I , original name Tafari Makonnen (born July 23, 1892, near Harer, Eth.—died Aug. 27, 1975, Addis Ababa), emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 who sought to modernize his country and who steered it into the mainstream of post-World War II African politics. He brought Ethiopia into the League of Nations and the United Nations and made Addis Ababa the major centre for the Organization of African Unity (now African Union).
Tafari was a great-grandson of Sahle Selassie of Shewa (Shoa) and a son of Ras (Prince) Makonnen, a chief adviser to Emperor Menilek II. Educated at home by French missionaries, Tafari at an early age favourably impressed the emperor with his intellectual abilities and was promoted accordingly. As governor of Sidamo and then of Harer province, he followed progressive policies, seeking to break the feudal power of the local nobility by increasing the authority of the central government—for example, by developing a salaried civil service. He thereby came to represent politically progressive elements of the population. In 1911 he married Wayzaro Menen, a great-granddaughter of Menilek II.
When Menilek II died in 1913, his grandson Lij Yasu succeeded to the throne, but the latter’s unreliability and his close association with Islam made him unpopular with the majority Christian population of Ethiopia. Tafari became the rallying point of the Christian resistance, and he deposed Lij Yasu in 1916. Zauditu, Menilek II’s daughter, thereupon became empress in 1917, and Ras Tafari was named regent and heir apparent to the throne.
While Zauditu was conservative in outlook, Ras Tafari was progressive and became the focus of the aspirations of the modernist younger generation. In 1923 he had a conspicuous success in the admission of Ethiopia to the League of Nations. In the following year he visited Rome, Paris, and London, becoming the first Ethiopian ruler ever to go abroad. In 1928 he assumed the title of negus (“king”), and two years later, when Zauditu died, he was crowned emperor
The prominent SA actor who was arrested with four others in Limpopo for illicit cigarette trade has been revealed as a Skeem Saam actor.
Social grant fraud has been reported the most between the financial years 2017/18 and 2020/21, according to the Public Service Commission's quarterly bulletin.
