January 2017

HARARE – Defiant Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) chairperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa, has escalated his savage assault on President Robert Mugabe, saying yesterday the increasingly frail nonagenarian was willingly being led astray by “compulsive plotters” in the warring Zanu PF. This comes as Africa Confidential, the UK-domiciled specialist publication on Africa, reported at the…

HARARE – Ghana’s newly-inaugurated leader Nana Akufo-Addo has apparently pledged to help opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to ensure that Zimbabwe stages both free and fair polls in 2018. This emerged after Akufo-Addo and the Movement for Democratic for Change (MDC) leader had engaged in what was described as “private but comprehensive discussions” in Accra on…

HARARE – Popular preacher,  Walter Magaya, leader of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries yesterday accused a top Harare police officer and some Harare residents of orchestrating a $500 000 extortion plot against him prior to sensational accusations that he had raped a Midlands State University student. Magaya was arrested in August on allegations…

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s dairy business — Alpha Omega Dairy (Private) Limited — is among 20 companies that have been granted approval to import milk powder duty-free. The provision was gazetted on Friday under Statutory Instrument 159 of 2016. The Government Gazette stated that Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa had suspended duty for various powdered…

HARARE – The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has announced that it will auction vehicles that were abandoned at Plumtree Border Post within 30 days, if the owners do not claim them. Some of the cars have been at the border post — separating Zimbabwe and Botswana — since 2012. Zimra is responsible for assessing, collecting…

HARARE – Hard-pressed Harare City Council (HCC) is considering hiking water tariffs as part of measures to shore up its dwindling revenues. According to the local authority’s finance and development committee minutes for December, councillors argued that the increase will enable HCC to provide better services. “The HCC presented their 2017 budget proposal to the…

MUTARE – An activist — Lynette Mudehwe — who was arrested during a protest against Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko’s lengthy stay in a luxury hotel is suing the State for $17 000. Mudehwe and several other protesters demanded that Mphoko vacates the upmarket hotel where he had been holed up for nearly two years and…

HARARE – Our News Editor, Gift Phiri, spoke to MDC vice president Nelson Chamisa, who accompanied party president Morgan Tsvangirai to Saturday’s inauguration of Ghana’s new President Nana Akufo-Addo in Accra. Below are excerpts of the interview. Q: How would you describe Tsvangirai’s engagement with Ghana’s new president? A: Very successful endeavour and enterprise. It…

HARARE – A Chibi High School Lower Six Arts student has launched a website targeted at assisting other pupils with study material as well as provide a live chat platform that allows them to interact and share ideas. Collins Jimue — who single-handedly developed the website, studyandrevision.co.zw, from scratch — said he created the portal…