HARARE – Tapera, 26, has no job and already feels like a huge disappointment to his mother and siblings. The thought of them finding out about his drug use clearly causes him even more anguish. He has just finished playing snooker at a nearby bar after taking his daily fix and looks at his friends…
EDITOR — I was shocked to read that teachers who marked Grade 7 examinations were paid a paltry $2 for 11 days’ work. If I was in their shoes, I would have reacted the same way they did. Honestly guys, we might have problems politically, economically or otherwise but we cannot stoop so low as…
HARARE – There was much trepidation among Zimbabwean journalists and publishers when Jonathan Moyo was recently appointed Media, Information and Broadcasting Services minister. This understandable fear stemmed from Moyo’s legacy in this ministry a decade ago, a dark period in the country’s post-independent history that witnessed the forced closure of four newspapers by the government…
HARARE – Scenes of unpaid workers in agitated mood showing up in person to hold employers hostage have not yet become much of a common feature at cash-strapped firms. But simmering discontent might prompt hordes of rankled employees to snap hard on their employers’ heels demanding arrear salaries as happened in post-independence war America when…
HARARE – Vumba’s pristine rainforest — a cradle to some of Zimbabwe’s unique flora and fauna — is under siege. Illegal settlements and poaching are threatening to leave its breath-taking mountains bare. Its Msasa woodlands and Montane forests among where the rare Star of Africa Oak stand are being broken and retreating further into the…
HARARE – I want, no I demand justice for baby X; at what point is life imprisonment appropriate?! “Seven-month old baby raped” said The Herald, “Paedophile gets 20 years” screamed the Daily News. These shocking headlines made the mother in me grieved, I felt pain and revulsion. The lawyer in me wanted to understand what…
HARARE – Justice, Legal & Parliamentary Affairs minister Emmerson Mnangagwa — who officiated as guest speaker at commemorations marking World Day Against Death Penalty in Harare recently told anti-death activists that capital punishment must be completely abolished from the country’s statutes as it is inhuman and degrading. The minister’s call comes barely half a year…
HARARE – Anyone who thinks that the struggle for a better quality of life for the people of any country is less than a “long walk to freedom” (Mandela) is no student of history. I recently watched the story of the abolition of slavery in the film on the life of William Wilberforce in the…
HARARE – The Toyota Raum is an “unassuming” little car. If we were to give it human characteristics, it would be an introvert. Much like my namesake, minister Francis Nhema — quiet but effective in his own way. The car doesn’t have the looks of its more “showy” cousins the Toyota Altezza or the Runx…
MUTOKO – After being employed in Mutoko as a matron of Mother of Peace orphanage home in 1994, Jean Cornneck received her “first baby”, an infant that had been dumped in a village latrine pit. Cornneck recalls that a young girl, gave birth in a toilet and dumped it into the pit, then disappeared into…
