The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Emmerson Mnangagwa

  • Zimbabwean doctors treat 68 people of gunshot wounds

    Zimbabwean doctors on Thursday said they had treated almost 70 people for gunshot
    wounds while police rounded up hundreds after violent protests this week triggered by a steep rise in fuel prices.

    The protests, only five months after six people were killed in post-election demonstrations in August, pose a challenge for President Emmerson Mnangagwa who promised to repair the struggling economy.

    Mnangagwa made the promise after he replaced long-time leader Robert Mugabe following a coup in November 2017.

    Three people died during the protests but rights groups, lawyers and witnesses said scores of people were beaten by soldiers,
    pointing to a heavy crackdown on dissent by security forces.

    State broadcaster ZBC said 600 people, including a prominent activist and an opposition legislator, have been detained over
    the protests.

    A Zimbabwean lawyers’ group said it was so far representing over 130 people arrested for protesting.

    Evan Mawarire, a Harare pastor who rose to prominence as a Mugabe critic and led a national protest shutdown in 2016,
    will appear in court to face public violence charges.

    Courts dismissed two similar charges against him in 2017 for lack of evidence.

    Read Also: Protesters block roads over fuel price hike in Zimbabwe

    The Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) said its members had treated 172 people, some with dog bites
    in private and public hospitals since Monday, when the protests erupted in the capital, Harare, and the second city, Bulawayo.

    “There are cases of patients who had chest trauma and fractured limbs who were forcibly taken from hospital to attend court in
    spite of the advice of doctors,” ZAHDR said in a statement.

    The casualty list included 68 people treated for gunshot wounds, 17 of whom underwent emergency surgery.

  • WHO launches vaccination drive in Zimbabwe to stem cholera outbreak

    The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday started a drive to vaccinate 1.4 million Zimbabweans amid a cholera outbreak that has killed 49 people in the capital Harare so far.

    Almost 140 people have been infected with the disease that is most often transmitted by contaminated water, according to the WHO.
    The vaccination campaign will be rolled out in two rounds, focusing on the most heavily affected suburbs of Harare and Chitungwiza, located 30 kilometres Southeast of the capital.

    To ensure longer-term immunity, a second dose will be provided in all areas at a later stage, according to the WHO.

    The organisation is also working with the Zimbabwean government to provide affected communities with access to clean water and providing antibiotics to clinics, among other measures.

    With almost 8,000 cholera cases suspected, the cash-strapped Zimbabwean government declared a health emergency in early September.

     

    Read also: 2019: Who flies Sokoto APC’s flag?

     

    Cholera can cause severe diarrhoea and vomiting and can be fatal for children, the elderly and the sick.

    A 2008 cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe lasted over a year and killed more than 4,000 people.

    Non-Governmental Organisations have placed the blame squarely on the government.

    Amnesty International said “the current cholera epidemic is a terrible consequence of Zimbabwe’s failure to invest in and manage both its basic water and sanitation infrastructure and its health care system.’’

    Zimbabwe’s once-vibrant economy is in tatters after almost four decades of rule by former President Robert Mugabe.
    Mugabe was ousted in a military coup in 2017 and his former right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, was voted in as president in July elections.

  • Mnangagwa calls for improved sanitation amid cholera outbreak

    President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe on Thursday urged the Harare city council and other local authorities to work on improving sanitation to prevent water-borne diseases.

    The president spoke as a cholera outbreak in the capital Harare has so far killed 25 people and infected more than 3,000 others.

    The president said the government was mobilizing resources to contain the disease and urged the private sector to chip in with financial and material support to fight the epidemic.

    “What is more important is for the councils to make sure that sanitation in their area is up to date and that water is clean.

    “That is a responsibility which the municipalities must make sure is taken care of,” the president said.

    Read Also: Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa re-appoints two vice presidents

    Mnangagwa reassured the nation that the health and wellbeing of citizens will remain a priority under his administration.

    Government has since declared the cholera outbreak a state of emergency while police have banned public gatherings in the capital to contain the disease.

    The outbreak is confined in Harare’s high density suburbs of Glen View and Budiriro but isolated cases stemming from the two suburbs have also been reported in other parts of the country.

    The Harare outbreak has been caused by burst sewers that contaminated borehole water used by the residents.

    Some residents in Harare rely on water from community boreholes and open wells due to intermittent potable water supplies from the council.

    The worst cholera outbreak in the country in 2008 killed 4,000 people.

  • Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa re-appoints two vice presidents

    Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, on Thursday re-appointed his two vice, Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi.

    Chiwenga was Zimbabwe’s defence forces chief who led the military intervention which toppled former President Robert Mugabe.

    The two vice presidents were sworn into office by Chief Justice Luke Malaba at the State House in the presence of Mnangagwa and other senior government officials.

    Read Also: President congratulates Keita, Mnangagwa on election victories

    Mnangagwa had earlier been sworn-in on Sunday after the constitutional court dismissed opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s petition challenging his election victory in the July 30 polls.

    He first appointed the two vice presidents in November 2017 when he took over from former President Mugabe, who resigned after a military intervention that ended his 37 years rule.

    Mnangagwa is still to appoint his cabinet.

  • Zimbabwe’s opposition candidate challenges election result, inauguration halted

    Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa, filed a court challenge on Friday against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s election victory, halting the President’s inauguration slated for Sunday.

    The first election since Robert Mugabe was forced to resign after a coup in November last year had been expected to end Zimbabwe’s pariah status and launch an economic recovery but post-election unrest has reminded the country of its violent past, Reuters reported.

    Chamisa’s lawyer, Thabani Mpofu, said he had asked the Constitutional Court to nullify the July 30 vote and that his application meant Mnangagwa’s swearing-in had been halted.

    Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi told Reuters Sunday’s inauguration “would no longer happen” until the case is finalised.

    “On the basis of the evidence we have placed before the court, we seek in the main relief to the effect that the court should declare the proper winner and the proper winner is my client.

    “In the alternative, we seek that there be another election which complies with the dictates of the law.

    “There is no inauguration that will take place until the matter is determined by the court,” Mpofu told journalists outside the court.

     

     

  • UK calls for calm after post-election violence in Zimbabwe

    UK has called on Zimbabwe ’s political leaders to ensure calm and restraint after three opposition protesters were killed in post-election clashes in Harare.

    Troops opened fire to clear the capital’s streets of demonstrators who accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling party of trying to rig Monday’s election.

    “Deeply concerned by today’s violence in Harare. Call on Zimbabwe’s political leaders to take responsibility for ensuring calm and restraint at this critical moment.

    We’re monitoring the situation closely,” Harriet Baldwin, a minister in Britain’s Foreign Office said on Twitter late.

    Zimbabwean soldiers ordered shopkeepers to close and leave the center of the capital, two store-owners said, the day after three people were killed by troops sent in to disperse crowds of opposition supporters.

    The Zimbabwe Election Commission is expected to start announcing the results of Monday’s presidential election, which the opposition says has been rigged in favour of Mnangagwa.

    Gunfire crackled as troops, backed by armoured vehicles and a military helicopter and some with their faces masked, cleared the streets of opposition protesters.

    The unrest started soon after Nelson Chamisa, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), declared that he had won the popular vote.

    After burning tyres in the streets, scores of his supporters attacked riot police near the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC) headquarters. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannon.

    “I was making a peaceful protest. I was beaten by soldiers,” said Norest Kemvo, who had gashes to his face and right hand. “This is our government. This is exactly why we wanted change.

    They are stealing our election.”

    Mnangagwa said the violence was meant to disrupt the election and blamed the MDC leadership.

    “We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process,” Mnangagwa said, according to ZBC.

    Chamisa’s spokesman, Nkululeko Sibanda, told newsmen the army’s reaction was unjustified.

    “Today we saw the deployment of military tanks and firing of live ammunition on civilians for no apparent reason.”

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Zimbabwe’s political leaders and people to exercise restraint and reject any form of violence.

    Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the army had been called in to ensure “peace and tranquillity”.

    Read Also: Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa casts vote as voting gets underway

    Charamba said the troops were deployed at the request of police who could not cope with the violence, and will remain under police command.

    As gunfire reverberated through downtown Harare, Mnangagwa called for calm and urged patience while results were collated.

    Many protesters accused the army of unprovoked brutality.

    “We had no weapons. Why are the army here beating us? shooting us? This is not an election it is a disgrace on our country,” one young man, Colbert Mugwenhi, said.

    A Reuters witness saw soldiers with sticks beat two people and counted at least five trucks full of soldiers.

    “We are tired of them stealing our votes. This time we will not allow it, we will fight,” said a protester who wore a red MDC beret in central Harare.

  • Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa casts vote as voting gets underway

    President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe cast his ballot Monday morning in the first post-Mugabe election in Kwekwe in his home province of Midlands.

    His main rival Nelson Chamisa of the opposition MDC Alliance also cast his vote in the capital Harare.

    Mnangagwa told reporters soon after casting his vote that Zimbabwe was enjoying an unprecedented democratic space.

    He also said former president Robert Mugabe was entitled to express his views.

    Mugabe, ousted in November last year following a military intervention, said Sunday he will vote for the opposition, dumping the ruling ZANU-PF party which he founded in 1963.

    “I can assure you that this country is enjoying democratic space which has never been experienced before. The former president has his right to express his views,” Mnangagwa said.

    Zimbabweans are voting to choose a president, National Assembly members and councilors.

    There are 5.6 million people registered to vote in the polls.

    Voting is scheduled to end at 7 pm.

  • Mugabe-era Minister jailed for corruption in Zimbabwe

    A Former Energy Minister Samuel Undenge ,who served under Zimbabwe’s ex President Robert Mugabe was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to four years in jail on Friday.

    His lawyer said that this is the first conviction of a Mugabe-era official since he stepped down.

    Mugabe resigned in November after 37 years in power following a military coup.

    His former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa took power, vowing to root out corruption in a bid to attract investors to an economy crippled by a decade of hyperinflation and a sharp shortage of foreign currency.

    Undenge, was accused of issuing a12, 650 dollars contract without due tender to a company that did not work.

    His lawyer Alex Muchadehama told Reuters that he would appeal the court’s decision, saying the sentence was “shocking’’.

    He will however only serve two and half years of the four year sentence after the court said 18 months would be conditionally suspended.

    Read Also: Mugabe returns to Zimbabwe after seeking health care abroad

    Former foreign minister Walter Mzembi faces charges of “criminal abuse of office’’ and former finance minister Ignatius Chombo has been charged with fraud when he tried to defraud the central bank over a decade ago.

    They both denied the wrongdoing.

    The Southern African nation is to choose a new president and members of parliament on July 30, in what is expected to be a close race between Mnangagwa’s ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

    A poll published on Friday showed the vote would provide no clear winner, with 40 per cent of voters choosing Mnangagwa and 37 per cent his opponent, Nelson Chamisa.

     

    NAN

     

  • Mnangagwa files papers to contest in upcoming Zimbabwe poll

    President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zinbabwe on Thursday filed his nomination papers to contest as the ruling party’s presidential candidate in elections set for July 30.

    His papers were filed by his election agent and justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi who immediately declared that the ruling party ZANU-PF was ready for the polls.

    Mnangagwa becomes the party’s first presidential candidate after former president Robert Mugabe resigned in November last year amid a military intervention, which ended his 37 years’ stay in power.

    “We send our papers Wednesday as the law allows us to submit our papers a day before for scrutiny and when we came in today (Thursday) our papers were in order and it was announced that we had filed our papers successfully,” Ziyambi told reporters.

    Read Also:Zimbabwe has moved on from Mugabe’s era – Mnangagwa

    Mnangagwa’s main challenger, 40-year-old leader of the opposition MDC Alliance, Nelson Chamisa, also filed his papers with the Nomination Court.

    His papers were filed by his election agent Jameson Timba.

    Three other presidential candidates including former Zimbabwean vice president and leader of the opposition National People’s

    Party Joice Mujuru also filed their nomination papers.

    The nomination courts are sitting countrywide Thursday to receive papers of candidates that will contest in the presidential, National Assembly and council elections.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe to hold elections July 30

    Zimbabwe President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said on Wednesday the Southern African nation would hold its general elections on July 30.

    The elections will be the first since the army forced former President Robert Mugabe to resign last November.

    Mnangagwa, who became President following the military take-over, has promised to deliver free and fair elections to win over Zimbabwe’s critics at home and abroad, Reuters reported.

    Missing from the July ballot for the first time in 20 years will be Zimbabwe’s foremost political gladiators, Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, who died from cancer in February.

    The vote will pit Mnangagwa against a clutch of opponents including 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa from the MDC.

    In a brief statement in an official government gazette, Mnangagwa said he had fixed July 30 “as the day of the election of the president, the election of members of the National Assembly and election of councillors.”

    Prospective candidates will be registered on June 14.