February 2017

HARARE – Activist clergyman and founder of the laudably patriotic #ThisFlag movement, Evan Mawarire, made a surprise return to Zimbabwe yesterday evening, and was immediately arrested by State security agents at Harare International Airport. Mawarire’s lawyer, Harrison Nkomo, told the Daily News last night that the State had re-instated its previously unsuccessful charges claiming that…

HARARE – Economists and leading opposition figures say Zimbabwe is heading for a disaster of mega proportions if Zanu PF remains fixated on its seemingly unstoppable tribal, factional and succession wars, and the country’s economic meltdown is not arrested soon. This comes as poverty continues to ravage millions of hapless citizens — with many choosing…

HARARE – A top UK envoy began a two-day visit in Zimbabwe on Monday to gauge its progress in its re-engagement with the international community and assess the human rights situation, a rare visit by a top UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) leader in a decade. Karen Pierce, UK FCO chief operating officer, is…

HARARE – Zimbabwe has begun trials to computerise police roadblocks in a bid to reduce the number of security checkpoints on the country’s roads, Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo told Parliament yesterday. Chombo was responding to MDC legislator Nelson Chamisa on what government was doing to reduce police roadblocks that the Kuwadzana East MP said…

HARARE – Epworth and Mabvuku-Tafara parents have petitioned Primary and Secondary Education minister, Lazarus Dokora, over the directive to have levies administered by government and not by School Development Committees (SDCs). The parents argue the move is unconstitutional and tantamount to “stealing” from them. Traditionally, levies have been managed by SDCs, channelling them towards  development…

HARARE – The Constitutional Court (Con-Court) yesterday reserved ruling in an application in which a Harare man, Mathew Sogolani, is challenging the recitation of the national pledge by school children. The pledge, which pupils have to recite every day before they start lessons, was introduced at the beginning of the second school term last year….

HARARE – The National Vendors Union of Zimbabwe (Navuz) has petitioned government ministers and the police to block Harare City Council (HCC)’s blitz against them. Council and the police launched a blitz to drive vendors out of the Harare CBD as part of desperate measures to contain a typhoid outbreak. In the petition — addressed…

HARARE – Hard-pressed national airline, Air Zimbabwe (Air Zim), is struggling to pay $3,5 million it owes the International Air Transport Association (Iata), Parliament’s transport committee has said. Iata suspended Air Zim from its account settlement system in 2012 due to non-payment of fees, dealing a major blow to the airline that has been battling…

HARARE – Harare boreholes confirmed to be contaminated will be decommissioned, council spokesperson Michael Chideme has said. This comes on the back of a typhoid outbreak — believed to have been caused by contaminated borehole water — in Mbare, which has so far claimed two lives. In relation to that, Health minister, David Parirenyatwa —…

HARARE – Zanu PF women’s league has said it will soon meet to finalise a planned campaign to mobilise support for 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe ahead of the 2018 elections, a senior official has said. The league’s secretary for finance, Sarah Mahoka, told the Daily News that now that President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace —…