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A LEGAL showdown is looming between Hwange Colliery Company and former workers after the coal mining firm cut electricity to their homes in a bid to force them out of company-owned houses. BY FRANCIS MWINDE Two weeks ago, the colliery company cut off electricity to company-owned houses occupied by former workers following their retrenchment but are refusing to vacate. Four years ago the colliery retrenched hundreds of workers both on compulsory and voluntary bases. Most of them have since gone to their respective homes. However, others are disputing the retrenchment process which they claim was fraught with irregularities resulting in them seeking legal advice on the way forward. Their lawyers, Calderwood, Bryce Hendrie and Partners, wrote a letter advising the company that their ex-employees would continue staying at their respective houses until finalisation of the matter between the two parties. Last week, the lawyers wrote a letter to Hwange Colliery threatening legal action against the company and the respective officers if the retrenched workers were not provided with electricity within forty-eight hours. “The conduct is, with respect, unlawful and constitutes proper grounds for relief at the High Court on an urgent basis. “The law frowns on persons who take the law into their own hands and we suggest that you seek legal advice on how to deal with this matter,” read part of the letter by the Bulawayo-based legal firm. Efforts to get a comment from Hwange Colliery Company were fruitless yesterday.
He replaces Debretsion Gebremichael, whose immunity from prosecution was removed Thursday.
Meanwhile, Amnesty International said Thursday that scores of civilians were killed in a \"massacre\" in the Tigray region, that witnesses blamed on forces backing the local ruling party.
The \"massacre\" is the first reported incident of large-scale civilian fatalities in a week-old conflict between the regional ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), and the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize.
\"Amnesty International can today confirm... that scores, and likely hundreds, of people were stabbed or hacked to death in Mai-Kadra (May Cadera) town in the southwest of Ethiopia's Tigray Region on the night of 9 November,\" the rights group said in a report.
Amnesty said it had \"digitally verified gruesome photographs and videos of bodies strewn across the town or being carried away on stretchers.\"
The dead \"had gaping wounds that appear to have been inflicted by sharp weapons such as knives and machetes,\" Amnesty said, citing witness accounts.
Witnesses said the attack was carried out by TPLF-aligned forces after a defeat at the hands of the Ethiopian military, though Amnesty said it \"has not been able to confirm who was responsible for the killings\".
It nonetheless called on TPLF commanders and officials to \"make clear to their forces and their supporters that deliberate attacks on civilians are absolutely prohibited and constitute war crimes\".
Abiy ordered military operations in Tigray on November 4, saying they were prompted by a TPLF attack on federal military camps -- a claim the party denies.
The region has been under a communications blackout ever since, making it difficult to verify competing claims on the ground.
Abiy said Thursday his army had made major gains in western Tigray.
Thousands of Ethiopians have fled across the border into neighboring Sudan, and the UN is sounding the alarm about a humanitarian crisis in Tigray.
ACCRA — When it comes to food security, the challenge is not always about producing more – it’s also about quality: producing food that is wholesome and preserved safely. About 690 million people go hungry each year. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to add between 83-132 million people to this number based on socio-economic factors. Even before the pandemic, about half of Africa’s citizens were food insecure. And much of Africa’s food is of low quality or lost before it even reaches the consumer. Africa has made some great strides in food production over the last decade even though it continues to be a huge net food importer to the tune of US$47 billion in 2018. But this pandemic has halted successes chalked in fighting poverty and disease and progress towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). COVID-19 is not the only challenge. In the past year, Africa has grappled with locust swarms, droughts, flooding and conflicts which have slashed livelihoods and brought hunger to many in the region. Restrictions on movement during lockdown also impact on commodities like seeds, fertilizers and farming implements which has, in turn, led to decreased food production. Many crops were not readily accessible and farmers struggled to get their produce to markets. And then, adding to the crisis, the continent’s poor storage facilities were not up to scratch. COVID-19 showed the fault lines in our food production systems and this has compromised the livelihoods of millions of farmers. Food systems on the continent — including production, storage and processing, distribution and transportation, retailing and promotion — are dominated by traditional methods which are vulnerable to unexpected crises. The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme, one of African Union’s continental frameworks under Agenda 2063, urges African governments to increase investment for agriculture by allocating at least 10% of national budgets to achieve agricultural growth rates of at least 6% per annum. Also in the declaration on Food security and Nutrition during the COVID-19 pandemic, African ministers of agriculture committed to putting in place measures that will reduce food post-harvest losses and make more food available in the markets. Now, as countries struggle to recover from the impact of the pandemic, there is the need for an action plan to consolidate efforts at these policies. Past interventions for Africa have focused on food production through improvement on crop varieties and yield. But we are not living in normal times. We must do more than simply look at production. Resilient systems need efficient storage and production processes. Post-COVID-19 Africa must invest in appropriate storage technology which is lacking in most developing nations and this causes unnecessary waste and considerable loss to their economies. For example, it is estimated that 60%–70% of food grains produced in developing nations are stored in traditional structures either in threshed or unthreshed at the home. However, most traditional
Washington (AP) — A more conservative Supreme Court appears unwilling to do what Republicans have long desired: kill off the Affordable Care Act, including its ...
The United States in the grips of yet another spike in coronavirus cases, but a member of President-elect Joe Biden's incoming coronavirus advisory board says a four-to-six-week shutdown would get things untracked.
Harare West legislator Joana Mamombe (MDC Alliance)’s trial for breaching the national lockdown regulations will commence on November 24 . HARRIET CHIKANDIWA Mamombe faces charges of contravening section 4(1)(a) of the Public Health (COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order Statutory Instrument 83/2020 as read with section 3 of Statutory Instrument 110/20 for unnecessary movement during national lockdown. It is alleged that Mamombe violated COVID-19 lockdown regulations by leading a gathering of more than 10 people in May this year. Mamombe, together with fellow MDC Alliance activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, are currently appearing in court to answer to a charge of participating in an anti-government protest against hunger during the national lockdown period. The trio is also answering to a charge of publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(ii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act and publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State as defined in section 31(a)(iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act as well as defeating or obstructing the course of justice as defined in section 184(1)(f) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. It is alleged that Mamombe, Marova and Chimbiri, who are victims of torture and abduction, stage-managed their abduction in May this year and lied to their lawyers, relatives and friends that they had been abducted by State security agents.
BY PATRICIA SIBANDA EPIDEMIOLOGY and disease control director in the Health and Child Care ministry, Portia Manangazira, has emphasised on the need for the unification of traditional and conventional medicines in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing a workshop in Bulawayo on Wednesday, Manangazira said there was need to ensure the maximum use of locally available medicines and herbs in the supportive care and management of COVID-19 patients. She said her ministry had harnessed traditional medical practitioners, conventional medical practitioners and their communities together so that dual intervention is done to mitigate COVID-19. “So we must start, we should have continued and furthered that, and today, we would be having even a large manufacturing plant which we say, it's our marula tree or some other nutritious shrub,” she said. “Sometimes we end up having healthy animals and malnourished people and we haven’t really explored that. All I am saying is, we are living and failing to utilise our locally available medicines.” She said it was worrisome that the ministry had not taken traditional medicine on board. “We do have a lot of herbs and they form raw materials for the pharmaceuticals. If I heard correctly, the International Traditional Healers Association leader said uMsuzwane has got some anti-ceptive properties, a bit disappointing is that we have not taken our traditional medicine a step further so that we describe and display the content and the ingredients in the market places.” Manangazira said the late former Health minister Herbert Ushewokunze attempted to introduce the system, but died before his ideas were adopted. “I think we are also in the right place because at some time, we had a former Minister of Health, the late Herbert Ushewokunze. He operated the Marondera Clinic here in Bulawayo and that clinic was unique. It would treat you for modern medicine if you so wished or for traditional medicine and he had labels on his containers, but he died and that practice also died with him,” she said.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent NNPA NEWSWIRE — “The public will immediately notice a vast change in science messaging from the White House,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, told USA Today. “The Biden administration will both convey pro-science messages and model […]
The post Biden Says He’ll Turn to Science and Experts to Defeat COVID appeared first on Voice and Viewpoint.
THE FIRST cruise to resume in the Caribbean has been halted after a passenger tested...
The post First cruise to resume in Caribbean halted after COVID-19 case appeared first on Voice Online.
AP reports that Texas is the first state to reach over one million confirmed cases of COVID-19 according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Texas has now surpassed California, the most populous state, and reportedly has the 10th most cases in the world.
After alleging that Common had her Instagram page reported and sent people to harass her online, she took a dig at his numerous romantic relationships over the years: \"Why do they all leave Lonny?\"
By Miami Times Staff Reporter - Returning nursing home residents won't be tested for COVID-19 - The Gov. Ron DeSantis administration, which has made a concerted effort to scale back restrictions enacted because of the [...]
ZIMBABWEANS mainly in urban areas are relying on second-hand undergarments smuggled into the country and sold at flea markets across the country as economic hardships continue to take a toll on the population. BY RICHARD MUPONDE This was revealed in an audit report by the Auditor-General Mildred Chiri which monitored the quality of goods imported in the country by the Industry and Commerce ministry between 2013 and 17. According to the report, hard-hit Zimbabweans have resorted to buying second-hand undergarments and clothes being smuggled into the country. Flea markets selling second-hand undergarments and clothes have sprouted in major towns and cities. In her report, Chiri said the Industry and Commerce ministry was not adequately monitoring the smuggling of substandard goods, leading to the proliferation of the second-hand undergarments and clothes which is having a negative bearing on the clothing industry in the country. “Audit also noted that second-hand clothes and undergarments were being smuggled into the country and sold at designated flea markets such as Mupedzanhamo in Mbare (Harare) and Chinotimba Flea Market in Victoria Falls. My visit to Mbare revealed that there were 10 warehouses which were packed to capacity with bales of second-hand clothing,” part of the report read. “In Mutare and Bulawayo, second-hand undergarments were being sold on the streets, despite the ban on the importation of second-hand undergarments through Statutory Instrument 150 of 2011.” She also said there was rampant smuggling of goods along the borderlines, entry points and through transit fraud due to lack of monitoring. “Smuggling syndicates have mushroomed at Zimbabwe’s busiest ports of entry and along the borderlines after government’s enactment of Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016 (repealed by SI 122 of 2017), Statutory Instrument 19 of 2016, Statutory 150 of 2011 which imposed restrictions on imports of basic commodities, second-hand clothes and banning of undergarments,” she said. Chiri, however, noted that in an effort to control the influx of cheaper products which was directly affecting local producers, the Industry and Commerce ministry introduced SI 64 (repealed by SI 122 of 2017). “According to the inspector responsible for anti-smuggling monitoring at Beitbridge Border Post, the introduction of SI 64 necessitated the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee on border management. The role of the inter-ministerial committee is to facilitate identification, prosecution of smuggling offenders and to enable intelligence and security surveillance. The committee is made up of Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe National Army, Mineral Border Control Unit, President’s Office and Zimra [Zimbabwe Revenue Authority],” she said.
In the midst of flu season, Shelby County’s COVID-19 infections remain steady, according to the director of the Shelby County Health Department. “We are fairly stable with a slight increase in the last week. We are running about 220 to 230 cases per day,” said Dr. Lisa Haushalter, who said numbers of cases may fluctuate […]
WELLINGTON, (Reuters) - The West Indies cricket team have been cleared to leave their biosecure facility in Christchurch today after their third round of novel coronavirus tests were negative, New Zealand Cricket said yesterday.
The article Windies cleared to leave isolation in NZ after COVID-19 testing appeared first on Stabroek News.
Brooklyn, NY - Carlos E. Moore, the attorney representing the family of Harvey Hill, is suing Madison County, Sheriff Randy Tucker, and others who are responsible for the beating death of inmate Mr. Hill in May of 2018. On May 5, 2018, 36-year-old Harvey Hill was in John Finnegan’s front yard, his former employer who … Continued
The post New video reveals guards beat Harvey Hill to death appeared first on Atlanta Daily World.
A surprise U-turn as Ziad Takieddine withdraws accusations against French Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy. The latter was under investigations for the suspicious financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by Libya.
The right wing in France has thus called on the judiciary to establish ‘’responsibility’’ in what it sees as a machination against the former French president.
Guillaume Peltier, a member of the French National Assembly tweeted ‘’ Never, we never doubted’’, the truth comes out’’.
His colleague, Damien Abad also said, ‘’ The truth always triumphs. Those who have fomented this plot, in defiance of justice, will have to account for it.\"
On the left wing, Fabien Roussel, National secretary of the French Communist Party , said \"it will perhaps be necessary to know what Takieddine, received between\" the moment when he assured to have given money to Mr. Sarkozy and the moment when he affirmed the opposite.
In November 2016, when Nicolas Sarkozy was running for the right-wing presidential nomination, Takieddine, an intermediary and one of the main witnesses against Sarkozy, claimed to have transported \"a total of five million euros\" in suitcases during three trips between Tripoli and Paris between November 2006 and early 2007.
In an exclusive interview with Euronews in 2011, son of the late Moammar Gaddafi, Saif al Islam said ‘’ Firstly Sarkozy must repay Libya the money he took for his election campaign. We financed his election campaign and we have all the details and we are ready to publish them. The first thing we ask of this clown Sarkozy is that he repay this money to the Libyan people. We helped him become president so that he would help the Libyan people but he has disappointed us.\"
Sai f repeated this in March 2018 when Nicolas Sarkozy was battling his arrest in this case. Back then, an Africanews correspondent reached Saif al Islam again and he repeated the claims.
On Wednesday, Takieddine withdrew his accusations in a video posted by Paris Match and BFMTV.
He has asked his lawyer Thierry Herzog to \"file a ‘demise’ application under examination and to initiate a procedure for slanderous denunciation against Ziad Takieddine\".
In mid-October, Nicolas Sarkozy claimed his \"innocence is again violated\" after new charges were issued against him. This was as part of an investigation into the alleged illegal campaign financing from Libya of his successful 2007 presidential bid.
