Login to BlackFacts.com using your favorite Social Media Login. Click the appropriate button below and you will be redirected to your Social Media Website for confirmation and then back to Blackfacts.com once successful.
Enter the email address and password you used to join BlackFacts.com. If you cannot remember your login information, click the “Forgot Password” link to reset your password.
CHIVHU district development coordinator (DDC) Michael Mariga yesterday stripped two MDC Alliance councillors of their posts and barred them from attending council meetings after they defied orders to resign from the civil service following their victory in the 2018 harmonised elections. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA Edwin Maseva (ward 11) and Emmanuel Punungwe (ward 10), who are both primary school teachers, were stripped of their titles just before the beginning of the Chikomba Rural District full council meeting. Addressing other councillors during the meeting, Mariga said Maseva and Punungwe had failed to comply with a directive from the Public Service Commission (PSC), which ordered them to resign from the civil service 30 days following 2018 their electoral victory or stop serving as councillors. According to a letter dated April 15, 2020, written by the PSC secretary Jonathan Wutawunashe, which Mariga read out to councillors, civil servants serving as councillors would be violating the Constitution and the Public Service Regulations Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 as stated in Circular 10 of November 2018. “Given the fact that it is a misconduct to engage in any other employment or service for remuneration without the written consent of the commission, it is advisable that you act immediately to correct the situation,” the letter read. “For avoidance of doubt, the commission hereby directs that as a civil servant, you should cease to serve as a councillor with immediate effect. Failure to comply with this directive will result in disciplinary action taken against you.” Maseva said Mariga had misdirected himself by relying on an old prohibition order which had been overtaken by events. “We are still in talks with the PSC on this issue and we have also engaged lawyers. As it is right now, the DDC’s dismissal is null,” Maseva said. Punungwe described the decision by PSC to dismiss them from council as part of political persecution of opposition officials. “This is a selective application of the law aimed at pushing certain agendas. I wonder why PSC decided to fire us from council instead of the civil service,” he said. Following the PSC directive, three Zanu PF councillors in Buhera Rural District Council who were also teachers, resigned recently from the civil service to continue serving in council. Follow Florence on Twitter @FloMangwaya
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.
Simply one of many WEIRDEST political adverts you will discover in your mailbox. From “No on Measure 26-218” flyer Here is your day by day roundup of all the most…
A director-general at the Commission, was placed on suspension by President Cyril Ramaphosa, over the appointment of his alleged mistress to a high-ranking post
There is no doubt that Michael Jordan is one of the greatest athletes of all time, let alone the best to ever grace the NBA hardwood. But, Jordan does believe that his historical professional career wouldn't be what it is today if he was hooping during the social media era.
Retired civil servants will receive their first pension pay within three months after approval of the benefits if a proposed law sails through Parliament.
THE Westmoreland Health Department is embarking on targeted interventions aimed at influencing behaviour change as part of the fight against the novel coronavirus. Health Promotion and Education Officer Gerald Miller told JIS News that the move comes out of the recent findings of a Knowledge and Attitude Survey conducted among operators of public passenger vehicles (PPV).
During the pandemic, many Americans have relied on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to help with testing, treatment and to cover expenses possibly related to COVID-19, a soon to be “pre-existing” condition. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Black Americans and many other people of color exceptionally hard in the United States. The Supreme Court is … Continued
The post COVID-19, the New Pre-Existing Condition, and the ACA. appeared first on Chicago Defender.
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 24 October 2020: Ghana has recorded total investments of US$869.47 million, with total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) value amounting to US$785.62 million between January to June 2020 as FDI inflow showed rare strength in the final moments of the second quarter of the year, undeterred by the Covid-19 pandemic. The total FDI…
MDC Alliance legislator for Mutasa Central, Trevor Saruwaka has accused some government officials of being 'captured' after they tried to block him from accessing 15 tonnes of rice on behalf of vulnerable communities in his constituency.
She was very patient as I narrated my ordeal at the hands of Mutasa GMB and Social Welfare crew despite instructions from their provincial bosses to release the rice.
He said during the lockdown period, people were visiting his house complaining of hunger and he decided to visit GMB for a courtesy call and checking on whether the rice was still secure.
\"I sent a messages to District Development Coordinator Tendai Kapenzi and District Social Welfare Officer Phebion Nyangani and Mutasa GMB manager one Machekera informing them of my intention to start rice distribution early on Tuesday 27.
\"Mutasa District Government, social welfare, GMB, and those who played a part in trying to deny me my allocation of 15 ton rice for the people of Mutasa Central.
LAGOS, Nigeria (AFP) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has faced a jihadist insurgency and economic recession, but youth protests that have spiralled into widespread unrest appear to be his biggest challenge yet. The 77-year-old former military ruler has drawn fierce criticism for his slow response as the shooting of demonstrators unleashed chaos in Africa's largest city, Lagos.
In a statement, Garcetti said, “I’m sickened by the bribery and corruption described in federal indictments, and I support Council President Nury Martinez’s call for Jose Huizar to step down from Los Angeles City Council.
Responding to the request by the council president, Huizar said week he would “limit my participation” in council activities amid the federal probe, which is focused on alleged bribery of city officials by well-heeled developers.
Prosecutors allege in the court papers that the developer took Esparza and the unnamed council member on more than a dozen trips to Las Vegas between 2014 and 2017 and provided them with “flights on private jets, hotel rooms, spa services, meals, alcohol, prostitution/escort services and casino gambling chips.”
In his plea agreement, Esparza admitted to participating in a criminal enterprise led by his one-time boss, described as a former chairman of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee and only named in court records as Council Member A. Esparza worked for Huizar, former chair of the PLUM committee, until he left the councilman’s office in January 2018.
The charge against Esparza came nearly two weeks after federal prosecutors entered into a plea agreement with real estate development consultant George Chiang, who admitted his role in a bribery scheme allegedly involving a council member thought to be Huizar, with the goal of advancing large-scale development projects.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Our courts are deteriorating quickly to an anti-worker mindset. Over the past four years, two very conservative Supreme Court justices have been appointed, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, moving the Court further to the right and further away from protecting our rights. And a third anti-labor judge will likely be railroaded through in advance of the election. In addition, more than 50 judges for the United States Courts of Appeals, more than 135 judges for the United States District Courts, and two judges for the United States Court of International Trade have been appointed during the current term. In consequence of these numerous court appointments, our courts are turning in a detrimental way against fair labor practices and human rights. Through your vote in November, you can help fend off further anti-labor control of decisions and policy.
Living under a zinc-and-tarpaulin structure and getting stoned at nights by unruly youngsters is really an awful way to live. But this is what 51-year-old Ivan Lawrence, also known as ‘Badcare’, of Lime Hall, St Ann, had to contend with over a...
A MEDICAL doctor employed by the Health and Child Care ministry at Beitbridge District Hospital has publicly declared her poverty and begged for help via Twitter.
“My name is Dr Sandra Kudzai Wayerera currently working at a district hospital in Zimbabwe.”
She is indeed one of the five medical doctors at Beitbridge District Hospital, two of whom are female.
Recently, the Defence and War Veterans deputy minister Victor Matemadanda came under fire for his government’s improverishment of medical doctors.
Matemadanda had gone on Twitter announcing his donation of food hampers to doctors at Gokwe District Hospital, but former Health deputy minister in the 2009-13 government of national unity Henry Madzorera slammed the Zanu PF-led government for allegedly allowing doctors to become destitute and live on handouts from top officials.
The City of Milwaukee has canceled trick-or-treating this year as Wisconsin's surge in coronavirus cases shows no sign of improving. Milwaukee will not have designated trick-or-treat times like it has had in the past and the activity will not be sanctioned by the city’s Health Department since it is deemed high-risk during the coronavirus pandemic,... [Read More]
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said his proposal to tighten COVID-19 measures on Harare and Bulawayo would worsen the country’s economic challenges and called on Zimbabweans to brace up for more suffering. BY MOSES MATENGA Zimbabwe is facing its worst crisis in a decade with its currency plummeting while inflation is running at 737,26% amid a critical shortage of hard cash. Speaking at State House in Harare yesterday, Mnangagwa conceded that Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment, coupled with cash shortages, fuel challenges and other problems had been dire even before the pandemic which has worsened the situation. Coronavirus infections breached the 1 000 mark this week with 20 deaths, prompting a tightening of the regulations governing movement of people. “Initially, I declared a national lockdown because we were on a very weak platform to fight the pandemic. When the machinery to capacitate our systems began to work, I relaxed the systems as recommended by WHO (World Health Organisation). But now with the surge, I am likely to impose further restrictions,” he said. “We have to choose between having to suffer for a period and salvage (ourselves) and we pick up the pieces and move on or relax to save the economy and have the frustrations where most of our loved ones among ourselves perish,” Mnangagwa said. “My belief is that even before the arrival of the pandemic in Zimbabwe, we had problems with the economy. It is most critical that we save lives so that we can sit around to discuss restructuring and construction of our economy.” Government on Tuesday announced that it would tighten lockdown measures in Harare and Bulawayo in the wake of a spike in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, the majority being local transmissions. The announcement came when opposition parties and citizens were warming up for protests against his government on July 31 over the deteriorating economic situation in the country. Observers have accused Mnangagwa of trying to use COVID-19 restrictions to foil the protests after his government admitted the planned demonstrations posed a huge threat to the ruling party’s hegemony. But Mnangagwa said economic revival, under the circumstances, should be second priority as there was need to protect the people from the ravaging COVID-19. “I say this because I feel I have to move the nation on the need to save lives as a priority and protect the economy as a second priority.” Government has since 2018 blamed sanctions and natural disasters such as Cyclone Idai, drought and of late economic saboteurs from within the governing party as the economy continued to fail. The economic situation has worsened, with nurses and other health workers on strike for the last three weeks demanding payment in United States dollars. Government last week only paid cushioning allowances of $1 200 for teachers and $5 000 for police officers while soldiers got $8 000. The disparities in the allowances for civil servants angered teachers and observers who felt that the government was divisive and appeasing the security
Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow says voters who have been required to be in self-isolation or have tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-1) ahead of the November 11 general elections, will not be allowed to vote.
By Associated Press Undefined ROME (AP) — In much of Europe, city squares and streets, be they wide, elegant boulevards like in Paris or cobblestoned alleys in Rome, serve as animated evening extensions of living rooms, places to gather and be seen, areas to laugh, chat and drink with friends. Yet with the continent hit hard by a surge of record new daily infections, European governments have once again put limitations on how residents live and socialize. In response, AP photographers across Europe delivered a snapshot of how Friday evening — the gateway to the weekend — looks and feels […]
The post AP PHOTOS: Virus makes Friday nights empty, quiet in Europe appeared first on Black News Channel.
In its investigation, TNH obtained information drawn from leaked WHO documents that suggests how some health workers and civil servants profited from response funds; and how, in the rush to scale up a response in an active conflict zone, the WHO paid millions of dollars in inflated per diems to Congolese security forces.
The authors of the draft review commissioned by the UN and NGOs - obtained exclusively by TNH - warn that \"practices implemented during the Ebola response will inevitably have a direct impact on the ability of aid organisations to control corruption within their programmes\".
The UN's emergency aid coordination body, OCHA, acknowledged there had been challenges in the Ebola response - Ituri and North Kivu provinces are relatively remote and located inside an active conflict zone.
In January, David Gressly, the UN's former emergency Ebola response coordinator, told TNH that the attack on the WHO doctor may have been motivated by a desire to divert resources to local health workers.
The outbreak that erupted in North Kivu and Ituri was the first in an active conflict zone, and response operations had to be shut down on numerous occasions because of attacks against clinics and health workers, leading to fresh spikes in Ebola cases and deaths.
Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom , Strijdom also spelled Strydom (born July 14, 1893, Willowmore, Cape Colony [now in South Africa]—died Aug. 24, 1958, Cape Town), prime minister of the Union of South Africa (1954–58) noted for his uncompromising Afrikaner sympathies. As head of the government, he translated this attitude into a vigorous program of apartheid, or separation of the races.
After graduating from Victoria College, Stellenbosch, he moved to Pretoria (1914), where he entered the civil service. Three years later he qualified in law at Pretoria University and began a successful practice at Nylstroom, Transvaal. Strijdom became increasingly interested in politics, however, paying particular attention to the rights of his fellow Afrikaners. In 1929 he was elected to Parliament as a member of the National Party from Waterberg, a seat he continued to hold until his death. His tenacity in political matters led to his characterization as “the Lion of Waterberg.”
Strijdom was a loyal follower of J.B.M. Hertzog, prime minister and leader of the National Party, until 1934, when Hertzog and Jan Smuts entered into a coalition. For a time Strijdom was the only member of Parliament from the Transvaal to support Daniel F. Malan’s Purified Nationalist Party, contributing much to its victory in the election of 1948. He was rewarded with the post of minister of lands and irrigation in Malan’s Cabinet. In that office for six years, he became well known for advocating white supremacy in South Africa.
After the retirement of Malan, Strijdom succeeded him as head of the party and on Dec. 3, 1954, assumed the office of prime minister. Strijdom’s rise to power represented a victory for the party’s more extreme Transvaal faction over the moderate Cape faction. As a result, he pursued a policy of strict apartheid, which was furthered by radically changing the composition of the Senate in 1955 so as to ensure the necessary two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament. The following year the Cape Coloured
By Associated Press Undefined STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh (AP) — Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday hours after the United States hosted top diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region. The heavy shelling forced residents of Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, into shelters, as emergency teams rushed to extinguish fires. Local officials said the city was struck with Azerbaijan's Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, a devastating Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and cluster munitions. Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said other towns in the region were also […]
The post Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh goes on despite US mediation appeared first on Black News Channel.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
In terms of new thinking and ideas on how to rescue the private sector from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, I must say that the government has scored very poorly.
When we were coming up with measures to save companies from the impact of the coronavirus, we didn’t think about specific sector interventions.
Had we even as much as debated , injected new and fresh thinking about the impact on some of the most affected sectors such as travel, hotels and tourism, Norfolk wouldn’t have suspended operations.
If you have been following the news from Britain, you must have come across the news that the government there is thinking about establishing a $25 billion taxpayer funded sovereign wealth fund to buy out and inject long-term equity into struggling family-owned companies whose collapse would disproportionately harm the economy.
We need to come up with specific sector interventions where companies in specific sectors are supported by being given long-term capital after being assessed in terms of employment, pre-Covid 19 turnover, and tax compliance.
AN increase in the number of novel coronavirus cases has prompted the Government to place the areas of Rae Town in Kingston and Cornwall Courts in St James under 'special area curfew', the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) announced yesterday.The curfew, which took effect at 6:00 pm yesterday, will remain in effect until 5:00 am on November 6, 2020, the OPM said in a release.
In the following article Ginger Adams Otis, a staff writer at the New York Daily News and a longtime city reporter, describes her more-than-decade-long research following the evolution of a landmark civil rights case brought by the Vulcan Society, a determined group of activist black New York City firefighters. In 2005 the Vulcan Society sued the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the then-Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, for racial discrimination. The lawsuit was settled in the Vulcans’ favor in 2010. It took until 2013, however, for hiring to begin again. At the same time, the city and FDNY challenged the part of the ruling that found them guilty of intentional discrimination. The parties were getting ready to take that particular claim to trial again when Mayor Bill De Blasio came to power in 2014. Within three months, the city reached an accord with the Vulcans to settle the intentional discrimination lawsuit. While following the case, Adams discovered the incredible stories of the first African Americans who joined the fire department, beginning with William Nicholson who joined the department in 1889. Otis wrote Firefight: The Century-Long Battle to Integrate New York’s Bravest to describe the history of black firemen in the New York City Fire Department.
In 2004 my first regular reporting gig for a newspaper in New York City, New York was for a century-old broadsheet known as The Chief-Leader. Owned by the same family since the early 1900s, The Chief, as it was called, dedicated itself to covering the city’s municipal workforce. My job was to report on all things related to the Fire Department of New York (FDNY).
On my first day, my boss tossed a press release on my desk and told me to get moving. A group of black firefighters known as the Vulcan Society, which I had never heard of before, was going to be holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall. Intrigued, I picked up a notepad, grabbed a pen, and took off.
I was one of just a few reporters who showed up that day. Undoubtedly,
