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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.
By your 40th birthday, you might be possible extra financially steady in your profession than you have been in your youthful years which suggests with the ability to afford sure…
Health workers at one of the top hospitals in Zimbabwe downed tools on Wednesday demanding urgent talks with the government after their salaries were abruptly cut by at least 50 percent.
The protests took place in Harare, where nurses, doctors, radiographers, and other support staff demanded answers over the varying deductions including allowances for COVID-19 frontline workers.
The protesting health workers said they were earning between $7,000-$10,000 Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL) per month ($100USD-$130USD) before their earnings were cut to ZWL$3,500-$5,000 (35UD-45USD) amid run-away inflation now at around 900%.
The average salary for a registered nurse in South Africa is R 31.877,95 per month which when converted at the Zimbabwe interbank rate is around 2,500USD, a registered Zambian nurse is earning about six times a Zimbabwean nurse.
If not treaded carefully, protests by these health workers can hamper all efforts to deal with COVID-19 in a country that has confirmed cases rising every day.
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (CMC) – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) says it has joined with a number of firms, including Microsoft, to provide governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with immediate digital solutions, helping to ensure the continuity of administrative procedures during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
It said that the Digi/Gob platform, which is also being developed with the assistance of everis NTT Data, and Microsoft have joined forces to provide governments in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) in providing governments with a turnkey digital solution, free of charge, and will be sharing technical expertise, while the IDB works with governments on the ground to achieve rapid implementation.
Thus, the Digi/Gob platform can help governments continue providing public services in the short term, while paving the way for a more ambitious agenda on public sector digital transformation in the long term.”
“This collaboration with everis NTT Data and Microsoft allows us to help our region's governments serve citizens and businesses as they navigate the pandemic, while accelerating the digital transformation of our public institutions in the long term,” said Moreno.
“This partnership with the IDB and everis will help us enable one such solution for governments in Latin America, responding to a key need for the current situation and also contributing to the future digital transformation of government agencies and institutions,” said Cernuda.
Government has with immediate effect introduced a US$75 Covid-19 allowance for all civil servants while their monthly salaries have been increased by 50%.
All government pensioners will be paid Covid-19 US$30 allowance.
\"With immediate, all civil servants' salaries will be adjusted upwards by 50%.
Additionally; all civil servants to be paid a flat non-taxable Covid-19 allowance US$75.
All government pensioners to be paid a Covid-19 US$30 allowance,\" he said.
Diamond's Back: LisaRaye Announces She's Joined OnlyFans
Some members of parliament recently suggested the idea of government rolling out special incentives for teachers to help uplift their welfare, which, they say will go a long way in boosting the quality of education in the country.
The suggested incentives include a special duty free shop where teachers can buy groceries at subsidized prices, and providing their children with free education.
The MPs' proposals last week, on Friday, June 12, during the approval of an assessment report on issues affecting quality education, follow a request of a monthly minimum salary Rwf80,000 for a primary school teacher by the National Union of Teachers in Rwanda (SNER) in 2016.
\"Because a teacher gets a low salary, we should probably think of something like Umwalimu Shop to help them easily access basic groceries for their families which whelp to improve the quality of education,\" he said.
Umwalimu SACCO offers loans to teachers based on their salary at relatively lower interest rate of 11 percent - compared to loans from other commercial banks whose interest rate is between 14 per cent and 20 per cent
\"If I get a loan, and say Rwf25,000 is deducted from my monthly salary to pay back the loan, I will be getting Rwf25,000 per month, which cannot cover my basic needs such as accommodation and meals,\" he said.
Comedian Kim Wayans revived one of her most beloved In Living Color characters for a new video to encourage the... View Article
The post Kim Wayans revives 'In Living Color' character Miss Benita in voter PSA appeared first on TheGrio.
In 2011 when I worked for the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), we published Kenya’s first ethnic audit of the civil service, which is the largest employer in the country.
While still at NCIC, a colleague would painstakingly go through names in newspapers of candidates shortlisted for jobs in the public service, then look up sadly, saying, “as usual, there is no one from my ethnic community.”
Massive exclusion was clear as only 20 of the then 42 ethnic communities were statistically visible, indeed seven ethnic communities had less than 100 members in the civil service.
Five ethnic communities—Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba and Luo—occupied nearly 70 per cent of civil service positions.
The then Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura took administrative action, reviewing how each ministry or department addressed ethnic inequality and increasing the hiring of under-represented communities.
Government re-introduction of the forex auction system -- as Zimbabwe effectively re-dollarises - could have disastrous consequences because the country does not have adequate sources of foreign currency, economic commentators have warned.
However, most companies cannot afford the forex auction system and are likely to source forex on the parallel market, fuelling the exchange rate.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance announced the US dollar allowance, while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya introduced a forex auction system and also directed shops to display prices in both local and foreign currency.
The forex trading system has previously failed and was abandoned in 2005 when then central bank governor Gideon Gono replaced it with the exchange rate float.
Last year, the government introduced a mono-currency system, but self-dollarisation was set in motion because the local currency fast lost value, culminating in the government caving in.
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.
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.
BY REX MPHISA SCORES of Beitbridge civil servants continue to live in squalid conditions because government is taking long to officially hand over a cluster of houses built for its workers four months ago. Some of the civil servants blame their housing nightmares on poor distribution and corruption in the allocation of the houses. Some of the affected civil servants include nurses deployed to Beitbridge District Hospital at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The nurses now live in hospital wards, risking contracting and spreading the virus. National Housing minister David Garwe last Friday professed ignorance over the existence of vacant government houses at Beitbridge. “Give me up to Monday and I will look into the issue. I am not aware there are houses that are vacant. I will give you a full answer on Monday. I will call you then,” Garwe said last week. He, however, did not call. The housing project started in 2006 and the last batch of houses was completed four months ago. So acute is Beitbridge’s accommodation shortage that it has compromised the privacy of key staff like magistrates, law officers and Zimbabwe Election Commission officials now renting rooms from residents. A court official who spoke on condition of anonymity said their accommodation problems at the border town were compounded by lack of a housing policy where some junior staffers were living in houses above their grades. “Several people at the district development coordinator’s office live in houses above their grades. Some houses tied to that office are not occupied by civil servants. The problem is at the department of Public Construction which has allowed the rot,” said the official. An investigation by Southern Eye revealed that there were clerks living in managerial houses and one of them had two government houses. A source at Beitbridge Hospital said clerks, who ordinarily should be locals with own accommodation, occupied houses in the nurses’ home, denying deserving nurses. “We have non-essential staff occupying accommodation meant for essential staff. This is because some people employed their relatives who are not local people and have no accommodation. They then give them hospital accommodation at the expense of nurses,” the source said. New nurses at the hospital are worst affected and at times, share small rooms. Head of Public Construction at Beitbridge Addmore Tlou said the new houses were ready for occupation, but they were awaiting directives from their bosses. “We have 29 houses that are ready and we await instructions from our bosses. We are also waiting for water connection from the local authority, but all our systems are in place,” he said. It is, however, understood some civil servants particularly from the President’s Office at Beitbridge have already allocated themselves the new houses. Beitbridge has been experiencing remarkable growth and an increase in civil servants deployment, but the development of government accommodation and social services infrastructure does not correspond with the fast growth and worker deploy
Governor General Sir Patrick Allen says Jamaica should become accustomed to the new way of life ushered in by the coronavirus, which has sent millions of jobs around the world into homes and others into virtual spaces.
Sir Patrick, in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Gleaner, said that even with the pandemic reaching the island, the office of the head of state continues to carry out its full operation, including administrative functions, swearing-in for judges, and handling a flurry of gazettes announcing orders for curfews, quarantine and localised states of emergency.
My work hours have not been lessened as a result of the crisis,” disclosed Sir Patrick, who represents the head of state, Queen Elizabeth, in the island.
We, hopefully, will be a kinder and more gentler society, because this experience pulls all of these qualities out of us, so I do not see why we should revert to those things,” Sir Patrick said.
Sir Patrick called on Jamaicans to exercise tolerance, especially those operating in tight spaces, telling them the viral pandemic will not last forever.
June 5, 1956
OPINION BY: RIVES
Statement of the Case
The purpose of this action is to test the constitutionality of both the statutes of the State of Alabama n1 and the ordinances of the City of Montgomery n2 which require the segregation of the white and colored races on the motor buses of the Montgomery City Lines, Inc., a common carrier of passengers in said City and its police jurisdiction.
[Footnote]
n1. Title 48, § 301(31a, b, c), Code of Alabama of 1940, as amended, which provide:
§ 301(31a). Separate accommodations for white and colored races. -- All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races, but such accommodations for the races shall be equal. All motor transportation companies or operators of vehicles carrying passengers for hire in this state, whether intrastate or interstate passengers, shall at all times provide equal but separate accommodations on each vehicle for the white and colored races. The conductor or agent of the motor transportation company in charge of any vehicle is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the division of the vehicle designated for the race to which the passenger belongs; and, if the passenger refuses to occupy the division to which he is assigned, the conductor or agent may refuse to carry the passenger on the vehicle; and, for such refusal, neither the conductor or agent of the motor transportation company nor the motor transportation company shall be liable in damages. Any motor transportation company or person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars for each offense; and each days violation of this section shall constitute a separate offense.
The provisions of this section shall be administered and enforced by the Alabama public service commission in the manner in which provisions of the Alabama Motor
Zimbabwe's security forces sealed the country's major cities without notice amid claims of plots to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.
Government buses - the only mode of public transport allowed under a lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19- were being forced to drop off passengers at the check points.
The government has issued conflicting statements on the heightened security clampdown, but President Mnangagwa's spokesman George Charamba said it was meant to stop an uprising.
Unions representing other government workers also threatened to roll out protests in the coming days.
President Mnangagwa's government is under increasing pressure to deal with a worsening economic situation characterised by raging inflation.
Gabriel Okara , in full Gabriel Imomotimi Gbaingbain Okara (born April 21, 1921, Bumodi, Nigeria), Nigerian poet and novelist whose verse had been translated into several languages by the early 1960s.
A largely self-educated man, Okara became a bookbinder after leaving school and soon began writing plays and features for radio. In 1953 his poem “The Call of the River Nun” won an award at the Nigerian Festival of Arts. Some of his poems were published in the influential periodical Black Orpheus, and by 1960 he was recognized as an accomplished literary craftsman.
Okara’s poetry is based on a series of contrasts in which symbols are neatly balanced against each other. The need to reconcile the extremes of experience (life and death are common themes) preoccupies his verse, and a typical poem has a circular movement from everyday reality to a moment of joy and back to reality again.
Okara incorporated African thought, religion, folklore, and imagery into both his verse and prose. His first novel, The Voice (1964), is a remarkable linguistic experiment in which Okara translated directly from the Ijo (Ijaw) language, imposing Ijo syntax onto English in order to give literal expression to African ideas and imagery. The novel creates a symbolic landscape in which the forces of traditional African culture and Western materialism contend. Its tragic hero, Okolo, is both an individual and a universal figure, and the ephemeral “it” that he is searching for could represent any number of transcendent moral values. Okara’s skilled portrayal of the inner tensions of his hero distinguished him from many other Nigerian novelists.
During much of the 1960s Okara worked in civil service. From 1972 to 1980 he was director of the Rivers State Publishing House in Port Harcourt. His later work includes a collection of poems, The Fisherman’s Invocation (1978), and two books for children, Little Snake and Little Frog (1981) and An Adventure to Juju Island (1992).
At least six children were killed when gunmen raided a school in Koumba, southwest Cameroon on Saturday.
Fransisca International Bi-lingual Academy was the victim of the attack.
TV pictures showed a blood stained floor in a room littered with classroom furniture.
An eyewitness, a student at the school - told africanews that he had gunshots before running to hide.
\"We were having the French language lesson when we heard gunshots. The teacher was the first to escape and I heard people shouting. When I came back to check, I saw dead bodies in the primary [school] section,\" said the student whose identity we're keeping for his own safety.
Schools in Cameroon's English-speaking regions reopned two weeks after a lengthy disruption by armed violence and the pandemic - with government promising to give protection to education institutions.
Civilian installations as well as military ones have been targeted in Cameroon's conflict. Rights groups have accused government forces and militia fighters of committing atrocities.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities put the blame on Ambazonia rebels, a loose militia fighting for the independence of northwest and south Cameroon.
\"... I ask the people to stand up to fight these terrorists today in Kumba, we must put an end to this; our children must go to school, they must not be targets because they demand their education,\" said Ali Aonougu, the administrative head of Koumba sub-division.
Hundreds have been killed in the violence which broke out in 2017 and tens of thousands have been displaced.
THE Zimbabwe national cricket team is seeking inspiration from past failure as it embarks on a tour of Pakistan where it will play three important one-day internationals (ODIs) against the hosts as well as the same number of T-20 Internationals. BY KEVIN MAPASURE Zimbabwe missed out on the 2019 International Cricket Council World Cup in England following a heartbreak that saw the team unexpectedly losing to minnows United Arab Emirates in a match the country needed to win to clinch one of two play-off tickets to the global party. The then Heath Streak-coached side found itself having to go through the rigours of the play-offs after failing to make it among the top seven sides in the ODI rankings. Having learnt from past experience, this time the team is aiming to make it among the automatic qualifiers on Pakistani soil. Ahead of the series, Zimbabwe Cricket’s mantra has centred on earning an automatic World Cup spot and captain Chamu Chibhabha has stressed the point at every opportunity. “Its very crucial for us to play really well. Super League games are very important when you consider the fact that we have to qualify for the World Cup,” Chibhabha said after the team’s training session on Wednesday. “We would rather qualify directly as opposed to having to play in the qualifiers because that’s a lot of pressure.” For him, the qualifiers are a dangerous route to try and qualify from where they have to face lesser sides that will be playing with freedom, while a full-member side will be carrying the weight of expectation, which can be destructive as Zimbabwe discovered at Harare Sports Club in 2018. Zimbabwean cricketers acknowledge that they launch their campaign in the tough conditions of the Asian flat wickets, but they retain the confidence that they can upset the odds and pull off some important wins. “We would love to get a couple of wins under our belts which makes life easier for us to qualify for the World Cup,” Chibhabha said. Chibhabha is one of six players that toured Pakistan in 2015 and he was the highest run scorer for Zimbabwe in the ODIs despite him experiencing the heartbreak of falling for 99 in one of the matches. “From our experience in 2015, we know we are going to play on a flat wicket — some might have spin on them, slow and turning, but we are expecting a lot of runs on the board in the series,” he said. “Obviously, it’s going to be hot, but it’s not as bad as we expected. We will be playing day-night matches, so dew is going to be a huge factor.” The first ODI will be played on October 30 and the last two will be contested on November 1 and 3. Zimbabwe has got a lot of experience among its ranks, with Brendan Taylor coming in as one of the players that were not part of the 2015 tour. In 2015, Taylor had just started on a Kolpak contract in England, while Test skipper Sean Williams was part of the previous trip. It seems former skipper Elton Chigumbura is in a last chance saloon, having struggled with injuries in the last couple of years. He was one of the stand-out performers in the last ser
JUSTICE minister Ziyambi Ziyambi yesterday told Parliament that government had no immediate plans to abandon the Zimbabwe dollar, totally crashing any hopes by civil servants of having their salaries paid in United States dollars. BY VENERANDA LANGA Ziyambi was responding to a question by Bulawayo East MP Ilos Nyoni during the National Assembly question and answer session. “Government has no desire to abandon the Zimdollar,” said Ziyambi, which then prompted Kambuzuma MP Willias Madzimure to ask the minister if he was aware that shops preferred the US dollar and, therefore, civil servants needed their salaries to be in forex in order to survive. “The MP is aware that when COVID-19 came, the Minister of Finance allowed the use of free funds. There was no pronouncement to say that we are going back to the US dollar that we do not produce. Our desire is to stabilise our currency so that the earnings of our people are not eroded. At no point are we going to abandon the idea of our currency,” Ziyambi said. Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya then asked him to explain when the US$75 COVID-19 cushioning allowance for civil servants would reflect in their nostro accounts. In response, Ziyambi said: “A policy position was taken to pay a 50% salary increase and US$75 COVID-19 allowance for three months to civil servants. Regarding the modalities, that is not my job to say.” Harare East MP Tendai Biti then fired another salvo: “The Ministry of Transport through Statutory Instrument 161/2020 has announced that all vehicle number plates must be paid for in US dollars, and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe through its auction floors is trading in foreign currency and has obliged all shops to display prices in US dollars and local currency and so are we going to officially dollarise?” Ziyambi responded: “Let me repeat – government has no plans to abandon use of the Zimdollar and we are working to ensure it is the sole trading currency.” In another matter, MDC Alliance proportional representation MP Lindiwe Maphosa asked Acting Health minister Amon Murwira to explain how government planned to resolve the health workers’ strike and demands to be paid in US dollars at a time when COVID-19 cases were rising daily. Murwira said government was in dialogue with the health workers and that it was imperative for them to be at work. “We had a wonderful conversation and are going to map the way forward based on availability of resources – the answer is as soon as possible and it could be now,” Murwira said. Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe was also asked by Chikwinya to explain why police and soldiers were moving around telling people to wrap up their activities in 10 days because after that no one would be allowed into the central business district. Kazembe responded: “I heard about this issue today from you. We will check whether that really is happening.” Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema was asked to explain what was going to happen to November examinations since government has deferred opening of schools. “Schools are not a
Preamble
Be It Resolved, That the Negro people of the world, through their chosen representatives in convention assembled in Liberty Hall, in the City of New York and United States of America, from August 1 to August 31, in the year of Our Lord one thousand nine hundred and twenty, protest against the wrongs and injustices they are suffering at the hands of their white brethren, and state what they deem their fair and just rights, as well as the treatment they propose to demand of all men in the future.
We complain:
1. That nowhere in the world, with few exceptions, are black men accorded equal treatment with white men, although in the same situation and circumstances, but, on the contrary, are discriminated against and denied the common rights due to human beings for no other reason than their race and color.
We are not willingly accepted as guests in the public hotels and inns of the world for no other reason than our race and color.
2. In certain parts of the United States of America our race is denied the right of public trial accorded to other races when accused of crime, but are lynched and burned by mobs, and such brutal and inhuman treatment is even practiced upon our women.
3. That European nations have parcelled out among them and taken possession of nearly all of the continent of Africa, and the natives are compelled to surrender their lands to aliens and are treated in most instances like slaves.
4. In the southern portion of the United States of America, although citizens under the Federal Constitution, and in some States almost equal to the whites in population and are qualified land owners and taxpayers, we are, nevertheless, denied all voice in the making and administration of the laws and are taxed without representation by the State governments, and at the same time compelled to do military service in defense of the country.
5. On the public conveyances and common carriers in the southern portion of the United States we are jim-crowed and compelled to accept separate and inferior
LOS ANGELES — City Councilman Jose Huizar, long considered the central figure in a nearly two-year federal bribery and corruption probe at City Hall, has been arrested at his Boyle Heights home.
Justin Kim, a former City Hall fundraiser, pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge for arranging a $500,000 bribe for a council member.
The council member in Kim’s case was not identified, but details in court papers pointed squarely at Huizar.
Prosecutors allege in the court papers that the developer took Esparza and the 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.”
The court papers cite text messages between Esparza and the council member following the Australia and Las Vegas trips, detailing efforts to cover up the payments and expenses they received from the developer.
In the following article Ginger Adams Otis, a staff writer at the New York Daily News and a longtime city reporter, describes her more-than-decade-long research following the evolution of a landmark civil rights case brought by the Vulcan Society, a determined group of activist black New York City firefighters. In 2005 the Vulcan Society sued the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the then-Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, for racial discrimination. The lawsuit was settled in the Vulcans’ favor in 2010. It took until 2013, however, for hiring to begin again. At the same time, the city and FDNY challenged the part of the ruling that found them guilty of intentional discrimination. The parties were getting ready to take that particular claim to trial again when Mayor Bill De Blasio came to power in 2014. Within three months, the city reached an accord with the Vulcans to settle the intentional discrimination lawsuit. While following the case, Adams discovered the incredible stories of the first African Americans who joined the fire department, beginning with William Nicholson who joined the department in 1889. Otis wrote Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest to describe the history of black firemen in the New York City Fire Department.
In 2004 my first regular reporting gig for a newspaper in New York City, New York was for a century-old broadsheet known as The Chief-Leader. Owned by the same family since the early 1900s, The Chief, as it was called, dedicated itself to covering the city’s municipal workforce. My job was to report on all things related to the Fire Department of New York (FDNY).
On my first day, my boss tossed a press release on my desk and told me to get moving. A group of black firefighters known as the Vulcan Society, which I had never heard of before, was going to be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall. Intrigued, I picked up a notepad, grabbed a pen, and took off.
I was one of just a few reporters who showed up that day. Undoubtedly,
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said his proposal to tighten COVID-19 measures on Harare and Bulawayo would worsen the country’s economic challenges and called on Zimbabweans to brace up for more suffering. BY MOSES MATENGA Zimbabwe is facing its worst crisis in a decade with its currency plummeting while inflation is running at 737,26% amid a critical shortage of hard cash. Speaking at State House in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa conceded that Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment, coupled with cash shortages, fuel challenges and other problems had been dire even before the pandemic which has worsened the situation. Coronavirus infections breached the 1 000 mark this week with 20 deaths, prompting a tightening of the regulations governing movement of people. “Initially, I declared a national lockdown because we were on a very weak platform to fight the pandemic. When the machinery to capacitate our systems began to work, I relaxed the systems as recommended by WHO (World Health Organisation). But now with the surge, I am likely to impose further restrictions,” he said. “We have to choose between having to suffer for a period and salvage (ourselves) and we pick up the pieces and move on or relax to save the economy and have the frustrations where most of our loved ones among ourselves perish,” Mnangagwa said. “My belief is that even before the arrival of the pandemic in Zimbabwe, we had problems with the economy. It is most critical that we save lives so that we can sit around to discuss restructuring and construction of our economy.” Government on Tuesday announced that it would tighten lockdown measures in Harare and Bulawayo in the wake of a spike in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, the majority being local transmissions. The announcement came when opposition parties and citizens were warming up for protests against his government on July 31 over the deteriorating economic situation in the country. Observers have accused Mnangagwa of trying to use COVID-19 restrictions to foil the protests after his government admitted the planned demonstrations posed a huge threat to the ruling party’s hegemony. But Mnangagwa said economic revival, under the circumstances, should be second priority as there was need to protect the people from the ravaging COVID-19. “I say this because I feel I have to move the nation on the need to save lives as a priority and protect the economy as a second priority.” Government has since 2018 blamed sanctions and natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai, drought and of late economic saboteurs from within the governing party as the economy continued to fail. The economic situation has worsened, with nurses and other health workers on strike for the last three weeks demanding payment in United States dollars. Government last week only paid cushioning allowances of $1 200 for teachers and $5 000 for police officers while soldiers got $8 000. The disparities in the allowances for civil servants angered teachers and observers who felt that the government was divisive and appeasing the security
WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - Their final debate behind them, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden are packaging their divergent personal styles and policy prescriptions into closing messages for the final sprint to election day.The novel coronavirus was a central topic for both candidates yesterday as Trump headed to Florida and Biden prepared to address the topic in Delaware.
EDITORIAL COMMENT THE realisation of “The Africa We Want” or Agenda 2063 will remain a mirage with several African countries, including Zimbabwe dented by reports of human rights abuses, human trafficking, police brutality on citizens, torture and several other vices that will never lead to achievement of Africa’s 50-year development trajectory. There have been so many hashtags calling for sanity and an end to brutality in Africa which include #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, #EndSarsNow, #CongoIsBleeding, #AmINext, #AnglophoneCrisis, #RapeNationalEmergency, and several others that show the deep-seated problems bedevilling Africa and that will retard its economic and human development agenda. Of course, one may argue that even Europe and the United States have their own problems and there are several hashtags pertaining to those, but the difference is that their economies are developed, and besides, it is always good to copy the best practices. For Zimbabwe in particular, what is saddening is that the government seems to be focusing on the wrong priorities. While it is true that sanctions hurt a nation, it is an open secret that the biggest sanction is government itself which has outrightly refused to listen to the complaints of its citizens. The fact that the government does not want to listen to teachers, doctors and other civil servants when they cry about their poor working conditions, means that the government is their biggest sanction from achieving the development they want. What is more disturbing is that while government will lure other African countries to support its October 25 anti-sanctions agenda, and is also counting on citizens to do so, it is the same government that denies civil servants and other dissenting voices in the country the right to air their own grievances. In Parliament last week, Norton MP Temba Mliswa bluntly said if the Zanu PF government wants MPs to join their cause, then they must first sort out the welfare issues of MPs who are earning $18 000 which is far below the poverty datum line of $20 000. It is sad that Zimbabwe and other African countries like Nigeria which are experiencing human rights abuses are signatories to different African Union (AU) charters like the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, the African Continental Free Trade Area, and several other AU and United Nations charters that emphasise democracy and respect for human rights, but none of those provisions are being implemented. The country has come up with economic blueprints, like the Transitional Stabilisation Programme and its successor the National Development Plan which emphasise re-engagement, democracy and achievement of economic development. This can only be possible if there is a buy-in from citizens. After all, those that implement government policies are mostly the underpaid civil servants that have been crying out for living wages. Africa needs to increase peace and reduce conflicts if it is to achieve the objectives of Agenda 2063. All development should be people centred.
