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BY NIZBERT MOYO/RICHARD MUPONDE/HARRIET CHIKANDIWA FORMER Health and Child Care minister Henry Madzorera has rapped government and questioned its commitment to addressing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic after the number of deaths breached the 1 000 mark on Sunday. Madzorera, who was the Health minister during the Government of National Unity (GNU) from 2009 to 2013, said government should come up with the necessary policies to reduce the number of COVID-19 deaths in the country. He said citizens had been complying with the COVID-19 regulations, whose objective was to flatten the curve of infections, but poor strategies to deal with the pandemic had resulted in an escalation in the number of deaths. “The problem is that we are just on COVID-19 lockdown period (30 days), but we are not doing the other necessary things to ensure that the lockdown works and flattens the curve,” Madzorera said. “I think people are trying hard to isolate themselves, observe general personal hygiene, churches have stopped, we have less funeral gatherings, but people are being constrained by the government which is failing to do its bit in terms of massive testing and isolation,’’ he said. The former Health minister said the country did not have enough resources to get everyone tested, adding that prolonging the lockdown period would be suicidal as government had failed to provide social safety nets to the struggling public. “People will start dying from hunger and starvation without even violating the COVID-19 regulations and businesses are going to fold,” he said. Other health analysts said complacency and failure by the government to listen to advice had led to more COVID-19 deaths. Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Solwayo Ngwenya said the country was paying a heavy price for allowing festivities and opening borders. “It started with the reopening of schools in October and then the opening of borders, allowing flights in. So inevitably, they brought in a lot of infections from South Africa over merrymaking at the Christmas holidays and the people disregarded COVID-19 regulations during the period holding by parties and so on,” he said. Itai Rusike, the executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, said politicians were not an essential service and should stay at home. “Politicians are not immune to COVID-19 infections, hence, must also take the disease seriously by adhering to all the World Health Organisation recommended guidelines and also stay at home during this lockdown in order to avoid further loss of lives. “Most of our politicians are old, while others have underlying medical issues which make them very vulnerable to COVID-19 infections,” Rusike said. Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZimbabwe
A Nigeria Railways Corporation official said the train departs Ibadan for Lagos at 8am daily with a return trip scheduled at 4pm.
The Lagos-Ibadan expressway is notorious for heavy trucks and traffic gridlocks that can stretch for several kilometres.
The Lagos-Ibadan line is the first part of a new 2,733km Lagos-Kano standard gauge line. The total cost of the project was valued at $11.117bn.
CASSAVA Smartech Zimbabwe’s mobile money platform EcoCash is leading the way in maintaining social distancing for its customers and employees through the use of self-care platforms. With the world changing rapidly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, EcoCash has made it its mission to stay up-to-date with the latest customer self-service behaviour trends, which are changing fast. The changes can be seen in the way people think, plan and work. One of the key consumer behaviours that have emerged amid the COVID-19 crisis is that though people are staying physically apart, they are still connected with each other virtually. They are discovering new connections and maintaining the old ones via various video meeting applications such as Zoom, Google Meeting and Teams, among others. One critical consumer behaviour arising out of the new normal is that consumers are increasingly preferring to be more self-reliant. Cassava Smartech Zimbabwe chief executive officer Eddie Chibi said the group tapped from COVID-19 lockdown experiences to enhance EcoCash’s self-service portals to provide customers with instant access to information, allow personalisation and save valuable time and organisational resources. “As a customer-focused company, we are always looking for new ways to improve our products and offer better customer experience. To achieve these goals, we have to keep on challenging ourselves regarding how we work, so that we continue to improve and find ways to make things easier, simpler and more convenient for our customers,” he said. Chibi said Cassava’s intention is for the whole of Zimbabwe to go digital and ensure that customers do more online. “They can pay their bills, pay for goods and services and do so much more using digital platforms. In fact, the change in consumer behaviour is necessary, given the global situation we find ourselves in today,” he said, adding that customer safety should remain a priority. In the past few months, Cassava witnessed an increase in the adoption and acceptance of its digital channels. This has seen the group making available multiple digital touchpoints such as chatbots, web and USSD self-care, and other social media-based helplines for customers convenience and efficiency. Customers can now easily register on EcoCash by simply dialing *151# without going to any physical shop. EcoCash said in light of global trends, the company was planning to increase the use and adoption of self-care platforms for the majority of its products. Several studies have revealed that self-service portals improve general customer experience. The acceleration of self-care platform usage comes at a time EcoCash is in a drive to register as many subscribers as possible on its mobile money platform. EcoCash chief executive officer Natalie Jabangwe said the company remained committed to achieving financial inclusion for every Zimbabwean. “At EcoCash, our objective remains to improve financial access for the unbanked and banked in our drive to achieve 100% financial inclusion in this market,” she said. EcoCa
(Jamaica Observer) Reigning Miss World, Jamaica's Toni-Ann Singh will serve an extra year as the international pageant will not be staged due to the current pandemic.
The article No Miss World this year! Jamaican Toni-Ann Singh to reign an extra year due to COVID-19 appeared first on Stabroek News.
Italy Fabio Aru, the 2015 Vuelta a Espana winner, has joined South Africa's only elite World Tour team, Qhubeka ASSOS.
Resian Samoire Leteipan is a name with its own story.
Former statistician-general Pali Lehohla has said in order to build consensus and rebuild South Africa better, the country needs to be explicit about its challenges and paths towards solutions.
BY FREEMAN MAKOPA ZIMDANCEHALL icon Winky D has disclosed that the country’s music industry was in a serious crisis due to the impact of COVID-19, whose lockdown measures have included the prohibition of public gatherings. For the majority of musicians in Zimbabwe, public live shows have traditionally been their major income stream. Winky D’s manager Jonathan Banda said to a greater extent, Zimbabwe was lagging behind in terms of the requisite technology for ideal online shows. “The development model we all try to follow is what they call modernisation. If you are looking at Zimbabwe, we are trying to catch up, we are trying to replace whatever it is which is in place, the infrastructure technology, and we are still growing in terms of such things that’s the honest truth,” Banda said. He said the brutal truth revealed by COVID-19 was that artistes were vulnerable. “This situation has shown us that anything can happen life and there is need to balance a whole lot of things and it has shown us that artistes have no safety as it where be it institutionally or organisationally,” he said. “Besides the fact that there are a lot of initiatives, let’s face it, yes, it’s not normal for everyone and as artistes it has shown that we are vulnerable, it’s like we are saying right now I have strategy because now I am eating bread yet it’s the only thing I can afford.” Banda expressed fears that music would be one of the last industries to open up given that it thrived on crowds and public gatherings. “Most of what we are doing now is administrative and the way things are I think it could be the last industry to be considered in terms of operations because it gathers a lot of people so let’s just be sober and sincere with ourselves,” he said. Online performances, which several musicians have taken up, could not be classified as an alternative as it was the only option at the moment. “We have this misconception that we should be growing better even when things are wrong. Personally, I want to dismiss the issue of using online platform as a strategy, but as the only available option that’s there for us right now, we never anticipated this, things are really not well for us, but we continue working,” he said. Banda said since the lockdown, their work was more administrative although some musicians say they are using the lockdown to pen new tracks. He said Winky D had always been writing songs even before the lockdown. “We can’t even say nowadays he is writing songs because he always writing and it’s not a new thing and it’s a process. For an artiste, if you establish yourself, it’s not about releasing something, but the impact of the output,” he said. Banda underscored the need for the sector to invest in local resource utilisation, adding that going online would leave some of their fans out in the cold in view of high data charges and poor internet connectivity. “So really, we are trying and we are saying to ourselves I think there are certain areas that we really feel we should invest in. First and foremost, we should look at local
BY CLIFF CHIDUKU PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa marked his triumphal entry into the citadel of power in 2017 by declaring that he would open the country up for business, thus promising a departure from the ruinous policies of his predecessor the late Robert Mugabe who he upstaged in a military coup. Optimism engulfed the southern African country as Zimbabweans braced for the possibility of a break from the past and the mantra: Zimbabwe is open for business became a slogan. Investors trooped to Harare to scout for opportunities, but to their surprise, they found the same faces of the old epoch circulating overhead like vultures angling to swoop over a prey. Mnangagwa’s approach was anchored on luring investors to resuscitate the economy which had been in stagnation for a long time. It was clear that the country’s vast mineral resources would be a magnet to investors, both well-meaning and unscrupulous. Investors came in their hordes, far and wide from Russia, China, United Arab Emirates, South Africa and United Kingdom. Locals could also not be left out. To put icing on the cake, the government also promised the privatisation of State-owned entities which had been under-performing and bleeding the economy. The government owns operations in mining, telecommunications, agriculture and manufacturing. On the local front, there has been one investor who appears to be scooping anything in his way — Landela Mining Ventures. Landela, owned by business tycoon Kuda Tagwirei, has been on a buying spree. Tagwirei is one of Mnangagwa’s advisers. Earlier last year, Landela completed the takeover of Metallon Corporation’s Shamva Mine, formerly owned by South African businessman Mzi Khumalo. In October 2018, the government put some Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) mines on sale. Within a month of inviting bids, 151 bidders had shown interest. However, by March 2019, the government withdrew the sale, saying it had not attracted enough quality bids. While Landela was not one of the original bidders, government later announced that Tagwirei’s firm had won the bid. Before inviting bids, the government engaged German consultancy firm DMT GmbH & Co to look into the state of the assets and determine how ZMDC’s fortunes could be turned around. DMT GmbH & Co produced a report noting that: “ZMDC was unlikely to get investors as the State had too much involvement in the mining industry…” Last July, Landela entered into an agreement to acquire four idle gold mines under State-run ZMDC, among them Jena in Silobela, Elvington in Chegutu and Sabi in Zvishavane. Since 2014, these assets have been lying idle owing to financial constraints and lack of markets. Landela chief executive David Brown, former Impala Platinum Holdings CEO, said the deal was a game-changer. “We want to become a significant player in the gold industry in Zimbabwe,” said Brown, who is also chairman of Great Dyke Investments, a Russian-backed company that is developing one of Zimbabwe’s biggest platinum mines. “We have a significant amount of resources that are avail
Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris has promised the Biden-Harris administration would make college free for low-income students.
[ANGOP] Luanda -- Angola's major diamond cutting and polishing plant being built in northeastern Lunda Sul province will only be complete in the first semester of 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Angop learned.
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has announced the resumption of services, as well as how many people have crossed the border.
Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers... View Article
The post Harris becomes first Black woman, South Asian elected VP appeared first on TheGrio.
