The government's denials that Zimbabwe is facing deep-seated economic and political crises will only delay the resolution of the multifaceted problems facing the country, analysts have warned. On Friday Western diplomats expressed deep concern over the worsening crisis in Zimbabwe and said President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government must stop using the Covid-19 pandemic to curtail citizens' freedoms Churches, the African Union and United Nations have also spoken out against what they said was worsening repression in Zimbabwe, but the government continues to brush aside the global condemnation. Ibbo Mandaza, a renowned academic, said continued denials that there was a crisis in Zimbabwe were no longer making any sense. "Things on the ground speak for themselves th
MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe and her ally Douglas Mwonzora face a legal and political minefield following the crackdown against MDC Alliance legislators and councillors as part of their turf war against the party's leader Nelson Chamisa. Khupe and Mwonzora have in recent months recalled 21 MDC Alliance legislators and scores of councillors using a Supreme Court ruling that Chamisa's elevation to succeed MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai was null and void. The ruling saw Khupe claiming control of the MDC Alliance despite the fact that the party defeated her MDC-T in harmonised elections two years ago. Mwonzora, who was the MDC-T secretary-general before the 2018 split, is now the party's interim secretary-general. The two have joined forces to launch an onslaught against
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling party has dismissed as “rubbish” a statement by Western diplomats warning Zimbabwe’s government not to use the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to stifle citizens' rights. The statement was delivered while more than a dozen citizens are in hiding for fear of persecution or prosecution for organizing an anti-government protest. Seven countries, including the U.S., have urged Mnangagwa to keep the inauguration pledge he made in 2018 to respect human rights. Western diplomats joined forces in a statement saying their countries would continue to assist Zimbabwe in addressing the humanitarian crisis caused by recurring droughts and the COVID-19 pandemic. “But COVID-19 must not be used as an excuse to restrict citizen
AMID rising tensions in the country, authorities plan to fast-track the Cyber Bill which will punish those deemed to have abused social media or peddled falsehoods against the State and citizens once it becomes law. In addition, the government will also soon introduce the Patriotic Act in Parliament – a law which it says seeks to promote patriotism among Zimbabweans. Speaking in an interview with the Daily News yesterday, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the planned two pieces of legislation had become “priority bills” for authorities. However, government critics fear that both laws will be used to clamp down on dissenting voices in the country – particularly in light of recent accusations that authorities have been guilty of gross human rights violati
The former MDC-T (Tsvangirai) spokesperson Obert Gutu who also became vice president of the now-defunct MDC-T (Thokozani) party, said it would be immoral for the other MDC-T, created by a Supreme Court ruling in March, to replace MDC Alliance MPs and Councillors with its own people. The Khupe-led party recently forwarded a list of 15 candidates it has nominated to fill Senate and National Assembly Proportional Representative seats to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC). Gutu believes that even though the recalls of the Nelson Chamisa-aligned MPs and councillors was lawful, it is immoral and incredulous to replace them with Khupe’s nominees. Gutu wrote on Twitter: Recall of MPs and councillors resonates with law’s dictates. However, a moral issue
Former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi, who is now living in self-imposed exile in South Africa, has said MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa avoided taking tea during cabinet meetings during the GNU era for fear of being poisoned. Chamisa and Mzembi were cabinet ministers during the all-inclusive government between 2009 and 2013. Mzembi suggested that opposition political activists, and even ruling party bigwigs who have succumbed to cancer may have been poisoned, therefore, jailed activists should be wary. Mzembi posted on Twitter: I sat next to Nelson Chamisa in Cabinet, he drank Fanta while we guggled tea for the 5 years and explained to me his poison fears. However, his reference to Mugabe may mean the System and its targets, look where I am, happy he pronounced himself on
The shaky alliance between MDC-T rival faction leaders Thokozani Khupe and Douglas Mwonzora is under threat amid reports that the former angered her colleagues in the Supreme Court-created party over the recent nominations to fill vacant legislative seats. Khupe, who is the party’s interim president, stirred a hornet’s nest with her decision to nominate herself and her inner circle for proportional representation seats which fell vacant following her party’s decision to expel from Parliament MDC Alliance MPs. A senior party official said Mwonzora and other senior MDC-T officials were not amused because Khupe made the nominations without consulting anyone. The official is quoted as having said: She has shown that she is purely a factional leader and doesn’t thin
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa has suggested his predecessor Morgan Tsvangirai was poisoned to his death by then-President Robert Mugabe at cabinet meetings the two late top politicians sat in during the now-defunct inclusive government. The opposition politician made comments while addressing hundreds of mourners at a church service for late MDC Alliance national executive member and human rights activist Patson Dzamara on Thursday. The church meeting was conducted in Glen View, Harare. Chamisa also pointed out Dzamara, who had been diagnosed with colon cancer which later claimed his life, could also have been poisoned. Tsvangirai died in 2018 from colon cancer. The two were fierce anti-Zanu-PF figures. Dzamara is also brother to journalist-turned-activist Itai Dzamara who d
FOREIGN Minister Sibusiso Moyo has emerged as a centre of power in government and the ruling Zanu PF party, and now fancies his chances of becoming Zimbabwe’s next president. This was said by exiled former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo while speaking at the Crisis in Zimbabwe’s Dialogue Series under the theme; “Zimbabwe’s prospects: transition, imperatives and stability” on Wednesday. The Zoom discussion was moderated by broadcaster, Violet Gonda. Jonathan Moyo, who is now in exile in Kenya following a military coup that removed the now late President Robert Mugabe from office, said calls were growing louder for SB Moyo to replace Mnangagwa as Zimbabwe’s next leader. “It’s being whispered widely, and the whispers are getting loud
It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter to you after the tragic news of the passing of a gallant son of the Republic, Patson Dzamara. Equally, I am saddened yet enraged by the callous murder of the MDC Alliance’s Hurungwe District Ward 4 councillor Lavender Chiwaya. My colleagues Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume have spent more than a month in detention while MDC Alliance Youth Organizing Secretary Godfrey Kurauone is languishing in jail. Fellow citizens, I was charged with incitement to commit public violence as defined in section 187(1)(a) as read with section 36(1)(a) of the Code alternatively incitement to commit public violence as defined in section 187(1)(b) of the Code as read with section 36(1)(b) of the Code. Or alternatively, incitement to participa
