HARARE – Two crucial days followed each other recently. They both had significance for Zimbabwe: October 24 was Independence Day for neighbouring Zambia, which played a crucial role in our own independence in 1980. Then on November 11, 1965, a group of whites decided to grab independence from the British and declare an independent Rhodesia….
HARARE – Learning is an ongoing process. Last week, my son in grade two refused to go to school until he had something to give to the teacher. He said “I want to donate my sports shorts to some children whose parents are dead”. I asked him why and he told me they had been…
HARARE – Since the July 31 elections, it seems the economy has gone from bad to worse. The little ray of hope created during the coalition government between President Robert Mugabe and long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai has gone. This is a bad start. The circumstances on the ground say it all. When Mugabe’s government took…
EDITOR — The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) has learnt that, there was never a full council resolution to demolish houses deemed to be illegal. However, there is a standing full council resolution on the illegality of structures built incognito, without any council approval. Further to that, a local daily paper carried an article which…
HARARE – Recent pronouncements by government to award civil servants a substantial salary increment beginning January next year come as a huge relief to parents that have been obliged to “top-up” teachers’ salaries. If government lives up to its word, parents could begin questioning the logic and principle behind workers in the same sector being…
HARARE – “I am an African. I was born of the peoples of the continent of Africa. The pain of the violent conflict that the peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also feel.” “The dismal shame of poverty, suffering and human degradation of my continent is a blight…
EDITOR — This is an appeal to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and any other knowledgable financial institution to kindly advise us as the public, and educate us on how to differentiate between a fake US dollar note and a genuine note. As you are aware, if one is found in possession of a fake…
HARARE – How can we ever forget what happened when the Zanu PF government introduced price controls on most food commodities in the mid 2000s? By forcing shop owners to sell goods at prices which were not economically sustainable, supermarket shelves emptied almost overnight. Many supermarkets closed their doors altogether, others even resorted to selling…
EDITOR — I vividly recall President Robert Mugabe saying, at a rally in Gwanda, that schools are not allowed to send back pupils home due to non payment of school fees. This was in line with Zanu PF’s election manifesto. There are many other election promises that he made which I believe the responsible ministries…
HARARE – With a depressed global outlook negatively affecting metal prices and viability of local miners, we would have expected the Zanu Pf-led government to be planning policies that will aid the recovery of the mining sector. But typical of the revolutionary party, its planned policy to ban the export of raw platinum without taking…
