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"I didn't know what I was going through, so all my life I have been feeling different, I have faced a lot of stigma and discrimination because most people around me didn’t understand what I was going through, nobody knew that it was an illness until one day when I was very suicidal,."
In May, Burundi held a presidential election which was won by Evariste Ndayishimiye, candidate of the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy - Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) party.
Ndayishimiye was hurriedly sworn in after the untimely death of president Pierre Nkurunziza in June.
Rights violations continue
The Council encouraged donor countries which had suspended aid to Burundi to continue dialogue towards resumption of development assistance.
A report by a UN watchdog in September said human rights violations were still being committed in Burundi, including sexual violence and murder.
The country was plunged into a crisis in April 2015 when Ndayishimiye’s predecessor Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, which he ultimately won in July 2015.
His candidature, which was opposed by the opposition and civil society groups, resulted in a wave of protests, violence and even a failed coup in May 2015.
Hundreds of people were killed and over 300,000 fled to neighboring countries.
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listed property firm Mashonaland Holdings says it has deferred the reconfiguration of the iconic Charter House building in Harare into a hotel to the first quarter of 2021. BY FIDELITY MHLANGA In a statement accompanying the company’s financial results for the year ended September 30, 2020 board chairperson, Grace Bema said the Charter House plan was part of several projects whose implementation had been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The multi-storey Charter House, which towers above a sea of mostly empty high-end properties in central Harare, is one of the oldest real estate gems in Harare. But it has not been spared by an exodus of businesses from the central business district due to congestion and an influx of informal businesses. Many other buildings within this zone have also been earmarked for reconfiguration into other uses, such as residential properties. “The Charter House reconfiguration to a boutique hotel was equally delayed by the pandemic with on-site works now targeted to begin in Q1 2021 (first quarter of 2021),” Bema said. “However, the Bluff Hill cluster housing project is set to commence following the conclusion of the tender process. Construction of a model house for this project is scheduled for completion in Q1 2021. All the bricks required to complete the development have been procured and delivered on site,” she said. “Overall the COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges to the property market, notably the tourism sector which has been left on its knees due to the global travel restrictions as the world grappled to contain the spread of COVID-19. However, the effect on other property market sub-sectors was not as dire as initially anticipated as reflected by the resilient occupancy and collection levels. However, the scaled down business operations due to the pandemic meant that most could not absorb upward rent reviews in a hyperinflation environment, especially when their businesses had been closed for an extended period due to the national lockdown,” she said. Bema said a key challenge for property developers was that construction costs remained high, while property market values were falling, rendering new developments inviable. “At the same time, building maintenance costs have risen sharply as contractors are indexing costs to the United States dollar based on the parallel market. The limited number of projects has also resulted in higher contractor charges in the absence of economies of scale. Resultantly, property owners have deferred non-critical building maintenance works which will likely have an impact on future values,” she said. Inflation adjusted revenue for the period increased by 30% from $133 million to $173 million, mainly attributed to rent reviews implemented during the year. The growth in occupancy levels from 77% to 79,2% also contributed towards revenue growth. Operating expenses to revenue ratio marginally improved from 50,3% to 50,1% as management exploited cost saving opportunities to protect profits. Operating profit to rev
CHICKEN INN are set to absorb veteran midfielder Clemence Matawu into their coaching structures after the ex-Warriors player ended his playing career. BY TERRY MADYAUTA The 38-year-old has decided to end the long and illustrious career which spans more than a decade. Matawu announced that he was done with playing on his social media handles yesterday. Thank You Lord for the blessings “Today I announce my retirement from professional football, it has been a journey filled with all emotions and memories, the journey of a lifetime,” he tweeted. “Since my return to PSL from my European endeavours in 2013, year-in-year-out I contemplated coming to this very hard decision. Would have loved to play until forever, but the robot is saying stop, I guess the playing has to change (sic). “To all the Coaches I’ve had, thank you for your time in shaping me as a footballer and person. To all my teammates good and bad memories, will definitely miss the pre-match rituals and post-match parties regardless of the result, you were like family.” An official at the club yesterday told NewsDay Sport that Matawu would not necessarily leave the club after wedding his playing career. His coach Joey Antipas with whom he had success at Motor Action wants to tap into the player's expertise and experience. He was one of the longest playing players in the PSL, where he played for Motor Action and Chicken Inn. He also played in Poland for Polonia Bytom and Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biala. However the main highlight of his career was in 2006 when voted Soccer Star of the Year. A Chicken Inn official confirmed that Matawu would be retained in the coaching structures. “He had an illustrious career. We respect him and we will miss him but we will remember him for his discipline and his astute leadership qualities,” he said. “He made us what we are. He was a good player for us. And we will do as much as we can to honour him. We are very impressed and it's left to the young players to carry own his legacy and to use what he taught them during his time here. We are not losing him altogether as he will be absorbed into the structures” Matawu graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Sport Science and Coaching last year, becoming one of the few football players who took the academic route.
PAN-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom has won the prestigious Environmental Stewardship Award for excellence in Environmental Management Practices. BY Harriet Chikandiwa The award was presented by CSR Zimbabwe in partnership with the Environmental Management Agency. It is awarded for achievement in protecting natural resources, reducing impacts to the environment and promoting environmentally sustainable operations. “We are honoured to be recognised for our efforts in this area. Liquid Telecom Zimbabwe has made substantial strides in creating an environmentally-friendly business, and we believe that it is this ongoing commitment that is helping to deliver accelerated economic development in Zimbabwe and expanding job opportunities for its youth,” regional chief executive officer of Southern Africa at Liquid Telecom Wellington Makamure said. The Environmental Stewardship Award is in recognition of organisations that have displayed leadership in environmental compliance — associated with the organisation’s activities including the creation and implementation of an environmental awareness management programme. “As the chosen recipient of this year’s award, Liquid Telecom was commended for continuously reviewing and enhancing its environmental and safety risk registers by identifying potential impacts and risks of its activities and end products,” Makamure said. He said the company had put measures in place to mitigate against any potential environmental and safety threats while complying with environmental legislation and international best practice. “Liquid Telecom values its employees, contractors, customers, and the environment in which we operate. We, therefore, recognise the importance of continuously reviewing our integrated approach to safety as well as responsible and sustainable environment management,” Makamure said. Follow Harriet on Twitter@harrietchikand1
[Capital FM] Nairobi -- A police officer and his wife were on Sunday found dead in Kwale in a suspected murder and suicide case.
The 12 Days of Christmas: The average Georgian drinks for 4 days in a row over the holidays, reveals survey. Almost half of respondents say drinking at Christmas is a family tradition. Over 1 in 3 say they gift booze to loved ones at Christmas. A quarter admit they spike their morning coffee with alcohol during … Continued
The post The 12 Days of Christmas: The average Georgian drinks for 4 days in a row over the holidays appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.
By ZEKE MILLER | Associated Press WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump celebrated the expected approval of the first U.S. vaccine for the coronavirus Tuesday as the White House worked to instill confidence in the massive distribution effort that will largely be executed by President-elect Joe Biden. Trump said the expected approvals are coming before most […]
ZIMBABWE’S home based footballers are set for a further and probably lengthy period on the sidelines after Zifa turned down the government’s proposed road map to the resumption of football at competitive level. by KEVIN MAPASURE The government proposed a Premier Soccer League tournament initially contested in a mini league format in different parts of the country before regional winners met for the semi-final and the finals. All matches would have been played in a bio-bubble to try and curb the spread of the coronavirus. But Zifa have since shot the idea down, despite having appeared to have warmed up to it earlier and are now working towards the resumption of football at all levels in March. Zifa’s proposal now faces resistance from the government, who insist that football should only be played in a controlled environment, which brings up the bio-buddle concept that Zifa cannot fully fund. SRC board member Nigel Munyati said that by turning down the government proposed road map, Zifa will only delay the return of competitive action since government will insist on starting with the topflight in a controlled environment before cascading to the lower leagues. Last week, Zifa wrote to its affiliates proposing that they start training on January 4 to prepare for the resumption of competitive action during the first week of March. “The minister (Kirsty Coventry) was very concerned that we were going towards the end of the year (and) there were no tangible efforts to resume football. So the minister came to us and asked for ideas on how we could implement the resumption of football,” Munyati said. “That is how the mini league and the bubble concept came about. So we consulted and spoke to various stakeholders in football and the idea was that we would cascade it. We start with the main league which is the PSL and see how we can resume PSL in a managed and safe environment. There was no way we could say Zifa everyone can start playing football, so we asked them to work with us in this proposal which they agreed to and were actually going to implement. PSL was very happy, I can tell you that today.” He said that Zifa made a surprise U-turn having initially agreed to the proposal. “For some reason, Zifa despite us being in meetings with the minister where they also agreed to the concept, they now seem to feel that it wasn’t the right approach and they are now calling it elitist. So what we had hoped that after we had resumed PSL the next level would have been Division One, so since we didn’t do that it means come next year, we are going to have to do something that follows the same steps and all it does is further delay the resumption of football. They are basically telling the minister that we don’t like your idea and that’s why we are where we are today.” After it became clear that Zifa had abandoned the mini league and were working towards resumption in March, some PSL clubs have since abandoned training. Follow Kevin on Twitter @KevinMapasure
