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THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has reportedly refused to restore water supplies to Binga Rural District Council until the local authority has paid at least $300 000 of its $1,5 million debt. BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE Zinwa cut off water supplies to Binga in September, forcing residents and business operators to turn to boreholes and other unsafe water sources. Binga Residents Association vice-chairperson Samson Sibanda said Zinwa recently met council officials and indicated that it would restore water supplies after the local authority has paid at least $300 000 towards settling the bill. “We met and agreed on the way forward for water to be reopened. Council is the one that owes Zinwa money and not the residents. For water to be reopened Zinwa said they require at least $300 000 from the council,” Sibanda said. “Residents of Masoja area who are affected by the water cut started to protest and demonstrate saying they had been paying council and the issue has to be resolved immediately.” Binga district development co-ordinator Farai Marinyame confirmed that stakeholders met on Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis. “I was not on the ground, but there was a meeting between Zinwa, residents and the council to solve the ongoing water crisis. For now there is still no water as council is still negotiating with Zinwa so that they take that project,” Marinyame said. “The main problem is that residents are not paying up.” Binga RDC chief executive officer Joshua Muzamba said he was still out of Binga. “I am still out of Binga, just look for those on the ground who can give you information,” he said. Zinwa spokesperson Marjorie Munyonga, who previously pleaded with residents to pay up, yesterday said she was out of office and was yet to be briefed on the latest developments.
Many people have been killed since clashes began on Monday. Scores too had been killed in the run up to the vote as protestors marched against Conde's bid for a third term.
TOMORROW, the Sadc region in an extraordinary solidarity and for the second year running will be demanding that Western economic sanctions against Zimbabwe be unconditionally lifted. Stir The Pot: Paidamoyo Muzulu This is a huge statement and gesture from the region, but Zimbabweans remain split on the issue and are still worlds apart despite the economic and social havoc the sanctions have wrought on the country. At the turn of the century, Zimbabwe embarked on revolutionary land reform programme — a programme that saw a massive seven million hectares expropriated from white commercial farmers for resettlement of landless blacks. The land question was one of the unfulfilled agreements reached at the 1979 Lancaster House independence conference. The United Kingdom (UK) had undertaken to fund the land reform programme and was supported by the United States. However, the Lancaster House agreement had sunset clauses — clauses that controlled how long the transfer of land should take and that whites for the first seven years of independence had reserved 20 seats in the National Assembly. Land was to be bought on a willing seller, willing buyer basis. The process was slow and frustrating, enraging many who had fought in the armed liberation struggle who started accusing their leaders of selling out or getting closer to the former colonisers. The Zimbabwean government acquired about three million hectares of land in the first decade of independence with financial support from the UK. The restless peasants and veterans of the struggle in 1998 started invading white-owned commercial farms and resettling themselves. Seeing an opportunity to revive its waning popularity among the electorate, the Zanu PF administration endorsed the invasions which were chaotic and, in many instances, violent. Zimbabwe became headline news across the world, inviting the wrath of the UK and the US who immediately started imposing economic sanctions and travel restrictions, accusing the Zanu PF administration of violating citizens’ human, property and political rights. Economic sanctions have been a punishment of choice for Americans against governments that upset the global economic structures. Cuba has suffered an economic embargo since 1960 solely because of its communism and nationalisation of land and industries after Fidel Castro assumed power through a war. Iran, too, has suffered the same fate after its 1979 revolution. More recently, socialist administrations of Bolivia (Eva Morales), Venezuela (Hugo Chavez) and Greece (Alexis Tsipiraz) have faced the same fate. Zimbabwe, in a rare diplomatic feat, has gained the support of Sadc and the African Union to have sanctions against the country condemned. Members of Sadc and AU at the 2020 United Nations General Assembly called for the removal of sanctions against Zimbabwe. Among the countries that openly called for the lifting of sanctions were South Africa, Namibia and Kenya. The sanctions against Zimbabwe, like South Africa’s African National Congress’s former leader Nelson Mandela listing as
BY HARRIET CHIKANDIWA A PRIVATE health facility in Harare, Parktown Hospital, will today offer free breast cancer screening services for both men and women as part of efforts to encourage citizens to undergo early checks for the world’s leading killer disease. This comes at a time breast cancer cases are on the increase, with one in eight women likely to be affected in their lifetime. Men are also at risk, but the chances are slim. The world over, breast cancer is commemorated during the month of October where stakeholders amplify and review their campaign strategies to counter the disease. However, many women still do not have access to correct information on the disease as well as screening and treatment. Senior general nurse at Parktown Hospital, Laurel Hamandishe, said women should take the awareness month as an opportunity for them to go for early and regular breast cancer screening. “Women should do regular breast cancer screening such as mammography. They should know the early signs of breast cancer. They must do daily breast cancer examinations to check for any lumps, nipple shapes and skin texture,” she said. Hamandishe demystified the myth that breast cancer is a death sentence, adding early diagnosis increases chances of survival. She urged women to live a healthy life style, exercise regularly and not to have too much radiation exposure. “To those battling with cancer I say do not lose hope because there are countless ongoing researches, medications and technologies that are being invented daily to tackle such cases. Who knows — maybe soon there will be a cure for cancer,” she said.
DESCENDANT of the Ndebele monarch, King Lobengula, Prince Peter Zwide Khumalo yesterday slammed plans by Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to pump the heavily-polluted Khami Dam water into households to alleviate supply problems.
“The Bulawayo community read with shock in one of the papers about the city’s proposal to use Khami Dam water to supplement the city’s potable water supply,” he said.
“After a series of tests of Khami Dam water, it was recommended that it would never be suitable for public consumption because of its high chemical, organic and microbiological pollution load which was not possible to bring down to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards required for potable water,” he said.
He said the Khami Dam water had high sewage content coming through public water courses such as Khami and Phekiwe rivers and was abused by the Rhodesian security system.
He added that the Bulawayo city fathers should inform the public what methods of treatment they proposed to use to deal with high BOD/COD, E-COLI, suspended solids, odours and water colour to meet WHO standards.
TOP Zanu PF officials in Chikomba district, Mashonaland East province, have been exposed for allegedly demanding bribes from prospective candidates so they could influence the outcome of the party’s looming district co-ordinating committee (DCC) elections. By Miriam Mangwaya The alleged scam was exposed in an audio recording of a telephone conversation between Zanu PF councillor Lovemore Mufamba and DCC aspiring candidate Alfred Pedzisa, which has gone viral. In the six-minute long audio, Mufamba is heard naming three Zanu PF provincial members in Chivhu whom he claimed demanded US$300 from him so that they could disregard CVs for other aspirants. This, they said, would ensure that Mufamba gets a DCC post which was not disclosed in the audio. Mufamba also claimed that the three provincial members namely Moses Mataruse, Clifford Ngirazi and one Songore had the capacity to tamper with other candidates’ CVs and alter their contents in favour of a candidate who would have bribed them. “Each of the provincial members wants US$100, so I am busy looking for someone who can lend me $300 so that I give them and they consider my CV,” Mufamba allegedly said in the audio. “They told me they could access councillor Israel Dhikinya’s CV (chairperson for Chikomba (Rural District Council) and alter it to another less influential post. They can also do that to many other aspirants whom the leadership is not pleased with.” Pedzisa confirmed the authenticity of the recording, but declined to comment on the matter. “I am also an aspiring candidate in the DCC elections hence I cannot comment on the matter. You can get a comment from party leadership,” said Pedzisa who is eyeing the DCC chairmanship. Mufamba also confirmed to NewsDay Weekender that he was the one recorded talking to Pedzisa over the phone. 'I am not worried that the audio was leaked. This is election time, there is a lot of treachery, deceit and blackmailing but the truth always prevails,” Mufamba said. He, however, refused to comment on his fate in the party. Both Mataruse and Ngirazi dismissed claims that they were demanding bribes to influence poll outcomes. They referred questions to the party provincial chairperson Joel Biggie Matiza, who was not picking calls.
The rise in non-technology companies becoming technology companies has been made possible by the availability of data but close to it is trust, as Juan Jiménez Zaballos, Head of Financial Industry Transformation, Santander Digital Platforms stated in a 2020 Finastra publication.
The 2020 Deloitte Global Marketing Trends Report demonstrated to us that for businesses to gain trust from their customers in the digital age they need to think of and start “Building a structure that systematically builds trust by protecting customer data from both external cyber threats and unethical internal data misuse”.
Apart from building trust with your organisation, data governance will help it automatically comply with most aspects of the Data Protection Act 2019 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR.
With the Data Protection Act 2019 in place and the continued consumer awareness on their rights, businesses urgently require a form of data governance mechanism before it is too late and expensive.
A proper data governance mechanism will help an organisation easily convert to a technology one and will be able to help it utilise its data assets legally and morally.
LOCAL authorities in the country have attributed their poor service delivery record to rising inflation. Mayors Blessing Tandi (Mutare), Lovemore Maiko (Chitungwiza) and Angeline Kasiipo (Kwekwe) made the remarks during a virtual meeting on Wednesday organised by Shoko Festival. BY KENNETH NYANGANI Residents, the mayors said, should not expect miracles from them as they were being affected by the country’s poor economic performance.Tandi said his council was struggling to provide good service delivery due to the country’s tanking economy. “We don’t operate in a vacuum. If the national economy is not performing, why should you expect us to perform miracles when we have high inflation? We need a lot of money to buy water treatment chemicals,” Tandi said. “Our roads are in a poor state because we are not getting enough funds from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration. As council, we should be allowed to collect money from vehicle licences.” Maiko weighed in saying councils do not exist in isolation. He said they were also facing water challenges. “As councils, we don’t live in isolation, with the current economy you should not expect miracles from us, like what Mutare mayor Blessing Tandi has already said, we are struggling to provide service delivery because of the poor state of the economy,” he said. “Look at the rate at which inflation is going up, we also need to pay our workers competitively.” “Chitungwiza was established as a dormitory town of Harare and now has the largest urban population but we don’t have any source of water. We rely on Harare for water distribution and it’s giving us a drop in the ocean,” he said. Kasiipo also said they were failing to perform because of the moribund economy.She, however, urged residents to pay their dues. “We are urging our residents to pay rates, our collection rate is very low, so our residents need to play their part so that we provide good service delivery,” he said.
… had done more for black Americans than any of his … .’
‘Eight in ten black Americans believe that Trump is … saw Donald Trump have African American people, formerly incarcerated, … for criminal justice reform, African Americans overwhelmingly favor his opponent, …
THE local film industry has for long been viewed with different lenses with some analysts saying it was in intensive care unit while others perceive it to be“clinically” dead.
On Saturday 4th July hairdressers and barbers will reopen their doors across England, fifteen weeks since they closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The announcement by the Prime Minister has been welcomed by many who are looking forward to their first haircut in nearly four months. However, these venues will look and operate differently to []
The post Essential advice on staying safe ahead of barbershops and hair salons reopening appeared first on African Voice Newspaper.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia To Sean Broadus and his brother Evan, Ice Cube was more than an icon. He presented as someone to admire – a hope for making it out of the hood. The Broadus brothers live near the Gilbert Lindsay Community Center in South Central, Los Angeles, […]
The head of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) is fighting off allegations of corruption, mismanagement, harassment and political interference.
An internal report by the African Union (AU) criticises Francisco Madeira for mistreating employees - including refusing to provide sanitary towels - using abusive language, hijacking Amisom donations to gain political mileage and taking sides in situations where the mission is expected to be neutral.
\"Madeira has said several times that Amisom will remain neutral during political disputes between Somali politicians but this has not been matched by his actions,\" says a leaked report filed last week by the Amisom Mission cell analysis chief, Walters Samah.
\"Madeira introduced an erratic management and leadership style, characterised by fear, suspicion, threats, corruption, favouritism, bullying and intimidation,\" the reported added, warning that if unchecked, the mission may fail to use its position to support the political process in Somalia.
Madeira has been the head of Amisom since January 2016 when he replaced Tanzanian diplomat Augustine Mahiga as the special representative of the AU chairperson to Somalia.
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and KATHLEEN RONAYNE Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Joe Biden is confronting the harsh political realities of combating climate change. The Democratic presidential nominee has spent months touting a $2 trillion plan to boost investment in clean energy and stop all climate-damaging emissions from the U.S. economy by 2050. The plan implied that he would wean the U.S. off oil and gas, but Biden wasn't so explicit about the industry's fate — until Thursday night. During the final moments of the presidential debate, Biden said he would 'transition away from the oil industry.' President Donald Trump, […]
The post Biden's warning on oil tests voter resolve on climate change appeared first on Black News Channel.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent @StacyBrownMedia The lines are long, but Black voters are demonstrating their will to vote. In Texas, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana, African Americans’ resiliency and resolve have never been as severely tested. They have gone to great lengths to overcome voter suppression, discouragement, misinformation, gerrymandering, […]
The post Voter Suppression Tactics and Long Lines Fail to Quell Resolve of Black Voters appeared first on Afro.
By Olayiwola Balogun -The #EndSARS protest of the past weeks in Nigeria is threatening the unity of Africa’s most populous nation, as agitation by many of the ethnic nationalities seeking self rule is taking a global dimension. Nigerians in the Diaspora are out protesting across major cities of the United Kingdom, Europe and America demanding […]
The post Nigerians in Diaspora react to President Buhari’s speech on #EndSARS protest appeared first on African Voice Newspaper.
At least six children were killed when gunmen raided a school in Koumba, southwest Cameroon on Saturday.
Fransisca International Bi-lingual Academy was the victim of the attack.
TV pictures showed a blood stained floor in a room littered with classroom furniture.
An eyewitness, a student at the school - told africanews that he had gunshots before running to hide.
\"We were having the French language lesson when we heard gunshots. The teacher was the first to escape and I heard people shouting. When I came back to check, I saw dead bodies in the primary [school] section,\" said the student whose identity we're keeping for his own safety.
Schools in Cameroon's English-speaking regions reopned two weeks after a lengthy disruption by armed violence and the pandemic - with government promising to give protection to education institutions.
Civilian installations as well as military ones have been targeted in Cameroon's conflict. Rights groups have accused government forces and militia fighters of committing atrocities.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack but authorities put the blame on Ambazonia rebels, a loose militia fighting for the independence of northwest and south Cameroon.
\"... I ask the people to stand up to fight these terrorists today in Kumba, we must put an end to this; our children must go to school, they must not be targets because they demand their education,\" said Ali Aonougu, the administrative head of Koumba sub-division.
Hundreds have been killed in the violence which broke out in 2017 and tens of thousands have been displaced.
Queen Shudufhadzo Musida is officially here. Miss South Africa 2020 was announced on Saturday 24 October live from the Table Bay Hotel.
The commitment by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to help increase opportunities and recognize the plight of African Americans as outlined in an exclusive editorial with Black Press USA resonated quite loudly with African American publishers and national board members from the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA).
The tankers that the city council sends to deliver water every few days are often the residents’ only hope for clean water.
After several years of drought and patchy rains, reservoir levels have fallen dangerously low, pushing the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) to limit water supplies in an attempt to conserve the resource until the rainy season starts in October.
Mguni added that the city council had made repeated appeals to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for Bulawayo to be officially declared a water shortage area, which would channel resources toward rehabilitating the city’s water infrastructure.
Simela Dube, the director of engineering services at the city council, confirmed to the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a phone interview that some residents don’t get any water at all because of low pressure in the city’s pumping systems.
In Pumula South, resident Nelson Mande Lunga told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that he stopped getting running water in his home weeks before the city started limiting water supplies to one day a week.
The leaders of Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt agreed that Ethiopia will delay filling a mega-dam on the Blue Nile and return to talks aimed at reaching an accord on use of the river's waters, according to statements from Cairo and Khartoum.
The announcement late on Friday was a modest reprieve from weeks of bellicose rhetoric and escalating tensions over the $4.6bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Ethiopia had vowed to start filling at the start of the rainy season in July.
There was no immediate comment from Ethiopia on the agreement, beyond a tweet from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that described an African Union (AU) summit discussion about the dam as \"fruitful\".
Ethiopia won't fill the dam before inking the much-anticipated deal, Hamdok said in a statement, adding: \"Sudan is one of the biggest beneficiaries from the dam and also one of the biggest losers if risks are not mitigated, thus it urges Egypt and Ethiopia to the impending necessity ... of finding a solution.\"
Sticking points in the talks have been how much water Ethiopia will release downstream from the dam if a multi-year drought occurs and how Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan will resolve any future disagreements.
[Africa In Fact] Tanzanians are heading to the polls on the 28th October. The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has governed Tanzania since independence in 1961, and is the second longest-ruling party in Africa.
NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker is being heavily praised for her professionalism after making her debut as moderator of a presidential debate, the final […]
St Andrew South Member of Parliament Mark Golding has proposed that the Government introduce a threshold to exempt micro businesses and small non-governmental organisations such as churches from the Data Protection Act.
With the passage of the legislation in Parliament on Tuesday, Golding said he had pointed out, during the committee’s deliberations on the bill, that it would be extremely difficult to get many micro operators to comply with the law.
Under the new legislation, a data controller could be any small business or church that has computers and stores information on its workers, clients, or, in the case of the religious body, its congregation.
Himself an attorney, Golding indicated that the law sought to strike a balance between freedom of the press and the role of the media and how they use information versus the rights of citizens to maintain privacy regarding their own data.
“If my data is abused in any way, is shared without my information, I must be able to have an originated private right of action to sue anybody, private business or even the Government, as we were able to legislate in the Fair Competition Act, to recover damages for such abuses,” he added.
MOST Jamaicans agree with the postponement or cancellation of mass gatherings and events as a means of limiting the spread of the novel coronavirus, a survey by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) has found.
Protesters are using a variety of technology tools to organize rallies, record police violence and communicate during the marches sweeping the U.S. and other countries following the death of George Floyd.
Organizers are also using Telegram, an app that allows private messages to be sent to thousands of people at once, creating channels for specific cities to give updates on protest times and locations, as well as updates on where police are making arrests or staging.
One New York City Telegram channel for the protests grew from just under 300 subscribers on Monday to nearly 2,500 by Friday.
In one Telegram channel, the ADL found, participants suggested murdering protesters, then spreading rumors to blame the deaths on police snipers.
“Good time to stroke race relations” and “post black live’s don’t matter stickers,” a user posted – with misspellings – to the Reformthestates Telegram channel, according to the ADL.
By REBECCA BOONE and DAVID CRARY Associated Press BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The U.S. coronavirus caseload has reached record heights with more than 83,000 infections reported in a single day, the latest ominous sign of the disease's grip on the nation, as states from Connecticut to the Rocky Mountain West reel under the surge. The U.S. death toll, meanwhile, has grown to 223,995, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard published by Johns Hopkins University. The total U.S. caseload reported on the site Friday was 83,757, topping the 77,362 cases reported on July 16. The impact is being felt in every section […]
The post US sets coronavirus infection record; deaths near 224,000 appeared first on Black News Channel.
[DW] Washington plans to lift sanctions on Sudan in return for compensation for terror victims, making the African country a pawn in the US election campaign. Experts say this approach to sanctions in Africa needs to change.
