July 2018

HARARE – High Court Judge Justice Clement Phiri will on Wednesday hear a legal challenge to Zimbabwe’s blanket ban on prisoners being allowed to vote. The judgment expected in the Harare High Court has been brought by convicted “murderers”, Tungamirai Madzokere and Last Maengahama, who claim a ban on them voting in the July 30…

HARARE – Four villagers could face up to three years’ imprisonment after being convicted of killing a specially protected animal. Godfrey Makechemu, 47, Ignatius Maiga, 30, Farai Chauno, 27, and Celestino Shate, 35, were convicted by Masvingo magistrate Peter Madiba after a full trial. Madiba ruled that the quartet, not being holders of a valid…

HARARE – Lord Carrington, Margaret Thatcher’s Foreign minister and one of the chief architects of a peaceful outcome to the 1979 Lancaster House Conference that ushered Zimbabwe’s independence, has died. He was aged 99. The Conservative politician, who was also Britain’s former defence secretary, masterminded an agreement that led to the first one person-one vote…

HARARE – Irate Harare residents have threatened to dump putrid refuse bags at municipal offices around the city to protest delayed rubbish collection over a period of a few weeks. Residents are threatening to take the law into their own hands after rubbish piled up by roadsides in the city, often spilling over to block…

BULAWAYO – ZAPU president Dumiso Dabengwa has been guaranteed to be MDC Alliance president Nelson Chamisa’s mentor and advisor in case the latter wins the next election due in less than three weeks. Poll surveys recently predicted a two-horse race between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Chamisa in the 2018 elections. A political memorandum of agreement…

HARARE – The chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) Justice Luke Malaba has warned newly-appointed magistrates to refrain from corrupt activities. Sixty magistrates were recruited by the JSC recently to plug serious staff shortages that had hit the commission after government had imposed an employment freeze. On Monday, Malaba — who is also the…

HARARE – A number of teachers are unhappy at their exclusion from participating in the forthcoming elections as polling officers. During harmonised elections, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) enlists the services of teachers and other civil servants to work as polling officers. The Daily News can, however, report that while the ministry of Primary and…

HARARE – The rift between the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) and the country’s opposition parties taking part in the forthcoming polls has widened in the wake of the short-message service (SMS) saga that erupted on Monday, the Daily News can report. [Adz]

HARARE – More than six months after former president Robert Mugabe was dramatically ousted from power — and with Zimbabwe’s crunch national polls a mere three weeks away — the nonagenarian continues to hog the limelight in the country’s fluid body politic. This comes as both Zanu PF and the opposition are seemingly unsure about…