HARARE – The move by government on Tuesday to lift indefinitely the ban on the importation of groceries and other basic commodities with immediate effect could prove to be the solution to the obtaining shortages and price hikes. Government had, in 2016, promulgated SI 64 as a way of protecting local industry players who had…
HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has made a lot of promises ever since he came to power in November 2017, and again when he was elected in the disputed July 30 election. One of Mnangagwa’s proclamations in his first days in office was that his administration would take corruption head-on. The president even published a…
HARARE – The furore surrounding Acie Lumumba’s out-of-the-blue appointment as head of the newly-created Finance ministry communications committee is not only disappointing but also shows, rather painfully, that our Cabinet ministers are not reading from the same script. If it is indeed true that Finance minister Mthuli Ncube unilaterally appointed Lumumba without consulting the Information,…
HARARE – Recent events in government have been largely surprising as those tasked with crafting policies that will turn around the fortunes of the country battle to achieve their goals. No sooner than Finance minister Mthuli Ncube had introduced the controversial two percent tax on electronic transactions — which took effect last week — did…
HARARE – When the new dispensation was ushered in following Robert Mugabe’s resignation last November, it rode on the narrative of restoration to win people’s hearts. True, there was need for restoration on a number of fronts starting with the political that had been poisoned by deadly factional fights that cost Zimbabwe over five years…
HARARE – The European Union Observer Mission’s (EU OM) final report showed the ruling Zanu PF dominance in the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe was achieved, not by popular vote, but a cocktail of manipulation. While the reaction by the ruling class and its media mouthpieces swiftly conveyed its revilement by the report, nothing unusual is…
HARARE – The Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) once again proved to the entire nation that they are the best when it comes to poor planning. Over the years, Zifa has made classic boobs in the administration and running of national teams but Tuesday night’s events at the National Sports Stadium left a lot to be…
HARARE – The government has stolen $220 from me. Yes, the very government mandated to provide me with a constitutionally-guaranteed right to health has failed me. I have a $220 hole in my home economics budget right now because I have been forced to source US dollars from the black market because pharmacies have rejected…
HARARE – Recent events in the country will leave anyone — including those outside Zimbabwe’s borders — having a rethink on our citizens’ claims to being one of the most literate nations on the continent. No-one would doubt that things are so bad in the country but surely there is something that government can do…
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s failed populist-based land reform is a salutary lesson for South Africa on how land reform must be pragmatic, safe-guard commercial agriculture and focus on boosting ordinary subsistence, small, medium and emerging black commercial farmers already committed to farming. In 2016, then Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe declared a state of disaster for agriculture,…
