THE Covid-19 pandemic has paralysed government amid reports that Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi are unwell, while President Emmerson Mnangagwa spent 14 days in self-isolation in Harare after his close security details, cabinet ministers and top bureaucrats tested positive. This means that the country was left on auto-pilot as there was no acting President. Mnangagwa had to cut short his annual leave. Information gathered by the Zimbabwe Independent from senior government and intelligence sources indicates that Mnangagwa's co-deputies are ill. Top businessman and presidential advisor, Kuda Tagwirei, is also battling the deadly virus. Mohadi, acted as president before disappearing from the public scene as he was taken ill. It was not immediately clear if C
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister, Retired Lieutenant General Sibusiso Busi Moyo has died. Moyo succumbed to COVID-19 in Harare on Wednesday morning. He was 61. In a statement announcing Moyo’s death, the Acting Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, George Charamba described the late as a decorated soldier and freedom fighter. Said Charamba: His Excellency the President, Cde E.D. Mnangagwa, regrets to announce the passing on early this morning of Dr S.B. Moyo, our Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. The late Minister succumbed to Covid-I9 at a local hospital. The Nation will be kept apprised of further developments regarding this untimely demise of the late Minister, himself a decorated soldier and freedom fighte
ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has criticised the closure, this week, of South Africa's borders including the Beitbridge Border Post saying the decision was self-hate. The Beitbridge Border Post and at least other 20 other South African borders have been closed to minimise the risk of spreading the Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing a virtual press conference on Thursday, Malema said the closure of the borders announced by South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa was an irresponsible act and called on SADC citizens to find "creative" ways to enter the country. "We condemn the leadership of SADC for failing to mitigate the needs of our people in times of cross border travel particularly at the Beitbridge border. The closing of borders around SADC,
Skeletons are now tumbling in the MDC-T party amid allegations that Mr Douglas Mwonzora, the runaway winner in Sunday’s disputed party presidential elections, misused nearly $6 million of party funds. However, Mr Mwonzora who polled 883 votes to Dr Khupe’s miserly 118 votes, to become the main opposition party president said the allegations are unfounded and meant to tarnish his name. Mr Mwonzora and Dr Khupe were slugging it out against Messrs Morgen Komichi and Elias Mudzuri who respectively got nine and 14 votes in a poll marred by violence including verbal and physical attacks on the former deputy prime minister. The victory of Mr Mwonzora has, however, turned to be a bitter pill to swallow for the losing candidates who want him arrested for allegedly abusing party
Thokozani Khupe has said she regrets ever working with Douglas Mwonzora in the opposition MDC-T after the party’s Supreme Court-sanctioned congress which Mwonzora won turned violent on Sunday. Khupe accuses Mwonzora of being the instigator of the chaos and also of manipulating the electoral process in his favour. The former deputy to the late party’s founding leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has been working with Mwonzora since March this year when the Supreme Court ordered the party to hold an Extraordinary Congress to elect the substantive successor to Tsvangirai. The Supreme Court, like the High Court, had ruled that Nelson Chamisa who leads the rival MDC Alliance was not the legitimate leader of the party after he reportedly attained the presidency unconstitutionally followi
MDC-T Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora was declared the party’s new president following a violent and chaotic election which was held at the Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) over the weekend. The MDC-T party held an Extra-Ordinary Congress (EOC) to choose a new substantive leader to succeed the late Morgan Richard Tsvangirai after the courts declared that Nelson Chamisa was not the legitimate leader of the party. However, the election which pitted acting President Thokozani Khupe against Mwonzora and senators Elias Mudzuri and Morgen Komichi degenerated into a farce as the other three candidates accused Mwonzora of rigging the elections. A disgruntled Mudzuri walked out of the process saying that he would not endorse a fraudulent election. Khupe and Komichi ha
Khupe along with other candidates Elias Mudzuri and Morgen Komichi walked out of the congress in protest at alleged vote rigging. This after Mwonzora allegedly presented a dodgy voters roll. “I have suspended Mwonzora from post of SG with immediate effect and suspended the EOC,” Khupe told journalists at a hastily convened press conference after the fracas. Khupe confirmed that several delegates were beaten and “one person rushed to hospital as we speak. I will be reporting to the police, over the $6 million stolen from our account,” Khupe claimed. Komichi weighed in saying “people who voted today are not our delegates. Some who voted were 10 years in 2014.” There was also a bizarre moment when journalists who wanted to follow Khupe to her pr
IN what insiders and analysts have described as “primitive and a manifestation of a full blown dictatorship” the MDC-Alliance led by Mr Nelson Chamisa has barred its members from discussing party matters on social media platforms. Political analysts who spoke to The Herald described the decision by Mr Chamisa to muzzle free expression and debate in the troubled MDC-A as a reflection of the party leader’s aversion to freedom of speech and expression, tenets the party claims to uphold but had since discarded. As the rot in the opposition deepens, MDC-A members were last week stunned when the office of the party’s secretary general, Chalton Hwende, directed group administrators on popular messaging platform WhatsApp to dissuade members from discussing party polit
The sister to the late socialite and businessman Genius ‘Ginimbi’ Kadungure has dispelled widespread rumors that are purporting that before Ginimbi died, he had declared that he wanted all his designer clothes and expensive clothing labels to be burnt after his funeral. This comes after it emerged that the late socialite had left an unsigned will that stated that his cars must be sold and the proceeds must be donated to charity, his mansion must be turned into a hotel or a museum and his designer clothes must be burned and that his friend Kit Kat was supposed to inherit his Lamborghini. Speaking to the Daily News, Juliet Kadungure rubbished the social media claims that her late brother Ginimbi had instructed the family to burn his designer clothes after his death.&l
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was elected the 46th president of the United States on Saturday, promising to restore political normalcy and a spirit of national unity to confront raging health and economic crises, and making Donald J. Trump a one-term president after four years of tumult in the White House. Mr. Biden’s victory amounted to a repudiation of Mr. Trump by millions of voters exhausted with his divisive conduct and chaotic administration, and was delivered by an unlikely alliance of women, people of color, old and young voters and a sliver of disaffected Republicans. Mr. Trump is the first incumbent to lose re-election in more than a quarter-century. The result also provided a history-making moment for Mr. Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California,
