The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Zimbabwe

  • Economic growth: Mnangagwa urges officials to adopt new culture

    President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe has urged public officials to adopt a new culture of facilitating economic growth in the country, warning that incompetent people will not be tolerated in the new political dispensation.

    Officially opening the 59th edition of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) in Zimbabwe’s second city, Mnangagwa said the officials should change their work ethic to facilitate both domestic and foreign investment and the ease of doing business.

    “My government will not tolerate any form of public lethargy, undue delays, bottlenecks, bribery and corruption.

    “Those that will be impediments in the economic growth agenda will fall by the wayside.

    “Residual resistance of any kind is unacceptable. The mentality of them and us must end. Sustainable economic growth will be achieved by us together – government, the private sector and foreign investors alike,” he said.

    The fair began on Tuesday with focus on sustainable industrial development and running under the theme “Sustainable Industrial Development – Inclusive, Competitive, Collaborative”.

    Chinese companies, together with others from countries such as Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, Japan, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey and Zambia, are exhibiting at the fair which ends Saturday.

    Mnangagwa also reiterated that Zimbabwe was safe for business and that private property rights would be protected.

    “Ladies and gentlemen, we continue to invite both domestic and foreign investors to tap into the diverse opportunities offered in Special Economic Zones and open economy in general,” he said.

    He added that following his recent visit to China, the establishment of a tourism and financial economic zone in the premier resort town of Victoria Falls would be speeded up.

    A Chinese multinational group is expected to build a multi-billion-dollar special economic zone in the town.

    Mnangagwa also called for viable industrialisation strategies which he said were fundamental for value addition and beneficiation of natural and home-grown resources.

    “I therefore exhort all players in industry and commerce to produce quality goods, to increase capacity utilization, think outside the box and come up with solutions that reduce production costs and enhance product competitiveness,” he said.

    Industry must also adopt viable policies and business strategies that foster export-led growth, he added.

    He said to ease foreign currency and liquidity challenges bedeviling the country, industry and commerce should be export oriented.

  • Govt that feeds 7.5 million people not anti – youths – Lai Mohammed

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed on Friday, said it is wrong for people to tag President Muhammadu Buhari or his government as anti –  youths.

    Mohammed said Buhari-led administration is committed to youth development, stressing that this informed why the government has engaged 100,000 unemployed graduates and feeds 7.5 million people daily.

    The Minister who made this known  while fielding questions from reporters  in Abeokuta, the  Ogun State capital, during  the on- going African Drum Festival, wondered why a government that is doing all of these should be deemed anti – youths.

    He dismissed reports quoting President Muhammadu Buhari as describing all Nigerian youths as lazy, saying the spinning is the work of people who have made twisting of whatever the President says, as their “full  – time job.”

    He noted that the social investment programme of Buhari’s administration has  continued to generate jobs and created opportunities for the increasing youth population while the empowerment programmes have also been providing soft loans to over 400,000 youths.

    “Some people have just made it their full-time job these days to scrutinise and twist whatever the president says out of context.

    “I wonder how a government that has employed 100,000 unemployed graduates and also feeds about 7.5 million people daily could be tagged anti-youth.

    “Our social investment programme have continued to generate jobs and created opportunities for our teeming youths while our empowerment programmes have been providing soft loans to over 400,000 youths.

    “Millons of families and individuals have also continued to benefit from our Conditional Cash Transfer initiative.

    “This is a government that is so concerned and passionate about youth development and it is not right for people to begin to quote Mr President out of context and thereby incite the youths against the government.

    “Critics should judge us by our actions and not by their emotions, ” he said.

    The minister noted that the drum festival had continued to grow better and larger since its first edition in 2016.

    “The festival which started in 2016 as solely Nigerian affair is now drawing participants from African countrie.

    “I am sure that with the complexities and nature of those in attendance this year, the festival will soon become a global affair,” he said.

    On the drum festival, Mohammed described drum as a connecting cord  that  binds the African continent together.

    He said the festival would ensure that the continent did not completely lose touch with its past.

    He said Africa should consider ways of adding values to drum for preservation in the light of the incursion of other musical instruments from the western world.

    “We have learnt from this festival that drum is not just for music but there is something deeper and connecting about drum as far as Africa is concerned.

    “It is so central and significant to the lives of various communities in Africa because it serves as an instrument used to herald different situations like wars and festivities and people can interpreted it when it is beaten.

    “What we are doing with this festival is to go behind and beyond drum and see what exactly it means for Africa.

    “As I look at the drums from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana and others, I see something connecting us by their shapes, build and other features.

    “We will continue to spend time, energy, funds and other resources to explore the role and  importance of drums, particularly in the African context.

    The festival commenced on Thursday  with 20 states, 40 African countries as well as about 30 individual cultural groups in attendance. It  would end this Saturday.

  • Afreximbank’s $1.5b facility for Zimbabwe

    The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) will arrange between $1 billion and $1.5 billion of funded and guarantee facilities to support businesses interested in investing in Zimbabwe, its President, has announced.

    Speaking during a special session on “Doing Business in Zimbabwe” at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan, Dr. Oramah said the facilities would be arranged under ZimOpen, an inward investment support facility, which Afrexim-bank was putting in place in collaboration with the government of Zimbabwe.

    Oramah told the session, chaired by President Emmerson Mnanga-gwa of Zimbabwe, that ZimOpen was aimed at de-risking eligible inward investment into Zimbabwe, catalysing trade finance inflows and increasing the availability of U.S. dollar liquidity in order to assure investors of more predictability in exit possibilities and terms.

    “As Zimbabwe opens its doors to business once again, many entrepreneurs and potential investors seem eager to join the party, but their enthusiasm is often constrained by risk considerations,” he stated. “Afreximbank is working on a vast programme of guarantees which would mitigate the investment and country risks.”

    The President said Afrexim Bank came with strong credentials on Zimbabwe, noting that over the past 20 years, the bank had disbursed more than $7 billion to Zimbabwean entities in the public and private sectors without suffering any credit losses.

    Earlier, President Mnangagwa made a presentation on Zimbabwe’s social and economic development agenda and discussed initiatives the government was taking to promote investments.

     

  • Zimbabwe, Malawi ban South African meat products

    Zimbabwe, Malawi ban South African meat products

    Zimbabwe and Malawi on Tuesday banned South African meat products following the outbreak of the listeria disease that has since been linked to meet products from a South African company.

    Malawi Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) stated this in a statement in Lilongwe.

    CFTC has called all retailers, wholesalers and distributors to get rid of all meat products from the South African company, Tiger Brands Unit of Enterprise Food and RCL Foods.

    The statement further adds that the CFTC will inspect all business places to ensure that the banned meat products have totally been removed from the shelves of all shops.

    Read Also:  Zimbabwe arrests university chief over Grace Mugabe’s degree

    Since the government of South Africa linked the outbreak to one of its own meat production companies and instituted a recall of all the meat products involved, many southern Africa countries, have banned meat import from South Africa.

    The countries are Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi.

    Also, Zimbabwe had joined other countries in banning imports of processed meat products from South Africa after a deadly listeria outbreak there, Zimbabwe’s ministry of health said in a statement on Tuesday.

    South Africa on Monday said cold meat products were to blame for delays in tracing the cause of the world’s worst listeria outbreak, which has killed 180 people in the past year.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe arrests university chief over Grace Mugabe’s degree

    Zimbabwe arrests university chief over Grace Mugabe’s degree

    The Vice Chancellor of Zimbabwe’s oldest university has been arrested over the controversial award of a doctorate to former First Lady Grace Mugabe.

    Anti-Corruption Commission spokeswoman, Phyllis Chikundura, said Levi Nyagura of the University of Zimbabwe was arrested Friday.

    Mugabe, whose husband resigned in November under pressure from the military, received a doctorate in 2014 amid allegations she did not study for it. Former President Robert Mugabe was University Chancellor.

    Chikundura says the university should provide the “paper trail” showing Grace Mugabe’s registration and academic progression.

    Sociology department lecturers said they have no records of Mugabe’s work.

    Fears that the unpopular Mugabe was positioning herself to succeed her 93-year-old husband as president led the military to step in last year.

     

  • Zimbabwe offers to pay for Tsvangirai funeral expenses

    Zimbabwe offers to pay for Tsvangirai funeral expenses

    Zimbabwe is ready to help foot the bill for the funeral arrangements of Morgan Tsvangirai in a tribute to the opposition leader who died after a long battle with cancer, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

    Tsvangirai’s death on Wednesday in a South African hospital cast his Movement for Democratic Change party into unknown territory less than three months after the army ousted Zimbabwe’s veteran ruler Robert Mugabe.

    Arguably Zimbabwe’s most popular politician, Tsvangirai’s career was ultimately defined by his tussles, bother literal and figurative, with 93-year-old Mugabe, who resigned after a de facto coup in December.

    Read Also:  Zimbabwean Breakingopposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is dead

    “The Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria has been instructed to help in any way appropriate in the circumstances, including assuming the costs that are attendant to the proper handling of the body of the late (Tsvangirai),” said George Charamba, who is also the presidential spokesman.

    Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has made no public statement yet on the former trade union leader’s death but postponed a trip to Bulawayo in the south of Zimbabwe due to other “pressing commitments”, the state-owned Herald newspaper said.

    Elections are due within the next six months in Zimbabwe and Tsvangirai’s illness and now death leaves his party in disarray, to the advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party, now led by Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s former deputy.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe ’s anti-graft agency investigates Grace Mugabe’s PhD

    Zimbabwe ’s anti-graft agency investigates Grace Mugabe’s PhD

    Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption agency is investigating whether former first lady Grace Mugabe was wrongly awarded a university doctorate more than three years ago, an official said on Tuesday.

    Grace, whose efforts to take over the leadership of the ruling ZANU-PF party prompted a de facto military coup against her husband, then-president Robert Mugabe, in November, graduated in 2014, just months after she had registered to study at the University of Zimbabwe.

    Up to now, her dissertation for the doctorate has not been published and is not available in the university library, as such academic qualifications usually are.

    Read also: New Zimbabwean Govt. declares Mugabe ’s birthday as public holiday

    “We indeed received a report from the sociology department at the university on how Grace Mugabe received her doctorate and that is what we are investigating,” said Goodson Nguni, the head of investigations at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

    Local media reports say the sociology department told the commission that Grace’s doctorate was “suspicious” and needed to be investigated.

    Grace, who was called “Dr Amai” – or “learned mother of the nation” – by adulating followers, has previously defended her academic record and last September told a ZANU-PF rally that she had earned her doctorate even though her detractors thought otherwise.

    Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was on the receiving end of vicious attacks by Grace last year, succeeded 93-year-old Mugabe as president in November.

    Grace has not appeared in public since November 15, when army tanks rolled into the capital and confined Mugabe and his family at his luxurious mansion in Harare.

    NAN

  • Crocodile kills 90-year old tourist in Zimbabwe

    Crocodile kills 90-year old tourist in Zimbabwe

    A 90-year-old tourist was killed and another tourist left on life support when crocodiles attacked them as they paddled an inflatable boat in Zimbabwe ’s Matopos National Park, a parks official said on Friday.

    John Bowman, 90, and Rosemary Mitchell, 65, were canoeing at Mpopoma Dam, a known crocodile hotspot, when their boat was attacked, Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said.

    Bowman and Mitchell are both Zimbabwean.

    “The crocodiles attacked the air-pumped boat they were using until it punctured. Their colleagues noticed that they were struggling and drove to seek help.

    Read also: Zimbabwe President appoints VP as defence minister

    “When the park rangers arrived at the dam, Bowman and Mitchell were still under attack from the crocodiles,” Farawo said.

    Crocodile attacks are common in parts of rural Africa south of the equator.

    They spike around this time of the year when hatchlings emerge and females leave their nests, which they have guarded without eating for three months.

    “The rangers had to shoot at the crocodiles to disperse them and rescue the two and take them to hospital where Bowman died before arrival.

    “Mitchell has life-threatening injuries and remains in intensive care unit in Bulawayo,” Farawo said.

    Crocodiles typically grab their prey by a limb and spin them in a “death roll” which subdues the victim by drowning.

    NAN

  • Zimbabwe President appoints VP as defence minister

    Zimbabwe President appoints VP as defence minister

    Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed Vice President, Retired Gen. Constantino Chiwenga as the country’s defence minister.

    Acting Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Justin Mupamhanga, said in a statement on Friday that Mnangagwa had also put Co-Vice President, Kembo Mohadi in charge of National Peace and Reconciliation portfolio.

    The two vice presidents were sworn in on Thursday by Chief Justice Luke Malaba.

    Mupamhanga noted that “in terms of Section 99 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe may assign functions to vice presidents to assist him/her in the discharge of his/her functions.

    Read also: Ex army boss sworn in as Zimbabwe VP

    “The president may also assign functions to vice residents including the administration of any ministry of department or Act of Parliament.”

    President Mnangagwa took over from former president Robert Mugabe in November after Mugabe resigned following military and public pressure.

    (Xinhua/NAN)

  • Mugabe flies to Singapore for medical checks

    Mugabe flies to Singapore for medical checks

    Former president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe has left the country for medical checks in Singapore, his first foreign travel since the army forced him from office in November, a state security official said on Tuesday.

    The 93-year-old, who ruled the southern African nation for 37 years, resigned after the army and his ruling ZANU-PF party turned against him when it became clear that his 52-year-old wife, Grace, was being groomed as his successor.

    Until recently, Mugabe had a reputation for extensive and expensive international travel, including regular medical trips to Singapore, a source of public anger among his impoverished citizens.

    The official said he left Harare with Grace and aides on Monday evening, the official said.

    He is expected to make a stop-over in Malaysia, where his daughter, Bona, is expecting a second child.

    “He has gone for a routine medical trip to Singapore,” said the official, who has organized Mugabe’s security protection but who is not authorized to speak to the media.

    “He was due for a check-up but events of the last few weeks made it impossible for him to travel.”

    The trip means Mugabe will not be in Zimbabwe when ZANU-PF endorses President Emmerson Mnangagwa as its leader and presidential candidate for 2018 elections during a one-day special congress on Friday.

    The security official would not say how Mugabe was traveling although the privately owned NewsDay newspaper said he was on a state-owned Air Zimbabwe plane.

    Mugabe was granted immunity from prosecution and assured of his safety under his resignation deal, a source of frustration to many Zimbabweans who accused him of looting state coffers and destroying the economy during his time in power.

    Another government official told Reuters in November that Mugabe had been due to travel to Singapore on Nov. 16 but was unable to leave because the military had confined him to his private home the previous day.

    George Charamba, a senior information ministry official, declined to comment.

    Under Zimbabwe’s Presidential Pension and Retirement Benefits Act, a former head of state is entitled to perks including limited foreign travel and medical insurance.

    “These are very standard features of a retired president,” another government official said, trying to head off any controversy.

    “You are making a storm out of nothing.”