HARARE – Zimbabwe is abusing the United States dollar and has effectively devalued the currency due to distorted pricing bordered on the hyperinflationary period mentality, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has said. Following galloping inflation — topping 231 million percent — the country abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar to adopt a multi-currency system in 2009 — dominated…
HARARE – Old Mutual’s mortgage lender Central Africa Building Society (CABS) has received a $10 million loan from a French financial institution, Proparco. The facility — with a five-year tenure — is targeted at bolstering long-term financing for Zimbabwean businesses. Proparco is a development finance institution partly held by Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and…
HARARE – Property rentals in Zimbabwe are likely to remain subdued due to high tenant default levels, Zimre Property Investments Limited (ZPI) said. The listed realty group said the failure by tenants to pay rentals, coupled with the prevailing liquidity crisis, is hampering rental revenue growth. Its chairperson Buzwani Mothobi said — in the group’s…
EDITOR — From the frying pan into the fire — this is the adage one can use to describe the clumsy manner in which the Patrick Chinamasa-led committee on State enterprises handled salary rationalisation. As a result, some parastatal and local authorities’ technical bosses are contemplating quitting and if that happens, this could spell disaster…
HARARE – Zimbabwe has become a very interesting case. I recall vividly — though I was young then — that liberation fighters, then widely known as comrades, would stress that the country was endowed with “milk and honey”. Rewind to 1980, the whole country was full of hope as it dawned on people that the…
HARARE – There are ominous signs that the indigenisation programme is beginning to unravel owing to lack of commitment, honesty and accountability on the part of those supposed to drive the programme. For all intents and purposes, the noble programme has fallen victim to a dangerous misconception that distributive nationalism can bring about a national…
HARARE – Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Justice minister, yesterday lauded the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) for opening itself up for criticism in the wake of a controversial general election. Mnangagwa was speaking at a three-day Zec election review conference in Harare, where various stakeholders are free to “openly” criticise how the electoral body conducted the poll….
HARARE – The Constitutional Court has deferred MDC spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora’s case, in which he is accused of calling President Robert Mugabe a “goblin” during a Nyanga rally held in 2009. Mwonzora approached the Constitutional Court, challenging the constitutionality of the charges, arguing that the State was infringing upon his right to freedom of expression….
HARARE – A 31-year-old serial rapist from Epworth was yesterday jailed 37 years on six counts of rape. Pedzisai Chiringwa lured unsuspecting Harare women to his crime scene in Letombo, Harare before raping them. Harare magistrate Fadzai Mtombeni sentenced Chiringwa to 45 years imprisonment before suspending eight years on condition of good behaviour. In mitigation,…
HARARE – Forty-four female legislators yesterday underwent cervical cancer screening at the Parliament Clinic. The legislators, who are members of the Zimbabwe Women Parliamentary Caucus (ZWPC), were led by MDC MP Paurina Mpariwa, who is ZWPC vice-chairperson. Mpariwa said the exercise was a voluntary programme, which was being done by professional medical doctors from Population…
