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ZIMBABWE has never been the same after March 30, 2020. Ever since then, the country has been in a lockdown and normal life in a constitutional democracy has been severely pared in the name of combating the global COVID-19 pandemic. STIR THE POT: PAIDAMOYO MUZULU The pandemic has been a godsend intervention for leaders with an autocratic inclination across the world. They did not take time to impose strict lockdown measures, restriction of rights and, in some instances, imposed martial law. Zimbabwe was no exception to this league of autocrats, notwithstanding the fact that two years earlier, in November 2017, it had experienced a coup that promised the flourishing of democracy. It was a coup that was well-choreographed for both the international and domestic audiences. It was a televised revolution or better still a social media phenomenon. There was no time to think for most, they just soaked in the moment. A moment for many in the opposition had planned for nearly two decades — to see the late former President Robert Mugabe’s departure from politics. For the majority, it was a question of change, but no one knew what that change meant. They wanted Mugabe to go. Zimbabwe experienced two worst military-backed crackdowns on protests since independence in 1980. The first one was on August 1, 2018 and January 15, 2019, apart from Gukurahindi. The security forces that killed protestors in cold blood are yet to face justice despite the Kgalema Motlanthe commission recommendations that they be brought to book. The flowers of the phony-revolution had wilted within seven months of the coup, making a joke of the statement that there was a new dispensation in the country. Opposition supporters had experienced firsthand the brutal excesses of the regime, either through abductions, torture or political persecution in the courts. Political parties could not hold rallies. They could not, and still can not petition or demonstrate against the government during the lockdown period. The opposition has been denied political oxygen and metaphorically dying slowly, gasping once in a while on social media but the damage has been done. At a political level, Zanu PF has been energising its base through Pfumvudza. It is meeting its supporters under the guise of an agricultural support scheme, yet the opposition in urban areas has been denied the same opportunity, worse still, after the lockdown affected the informal sector. Informal trading has changed and most likely for good as less than a quarter of the traders who were operating before lockdown might return to business after restrictions are removed. The anger in urban communities is palpable but it is not harnessed or directed at real issues. It has lacked leadership to marshall it into one giant wave and hence the ripples that we see once in a while that are quickly snuffed out. Zanu PF behaviour is targeted at self-preservation than building democracy. Even with a two-thirds majority in Parliament it is afraid to hold, long overdue by-elections. The by-elections have the potential of
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
(Reuters) - Former test batsman Mohammad Wasim has been appointed Pakistan’s chief selector, succeeding Misbah-ul-Haq, until the 2023 World Cup in India, the country’s cricket board said yesterday.
The article Wasim named Pakistan’s chief selector until 2023 World Cup appeared first on Stabroek News.
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[Cameroon Tribune] The Abakwa boys played a 0-0 tie with Kaiser Chiefs of South Africa on Saturday December 5, 2020 in the second leg preliminary in Johannesburg.
[Ghanaian Times] The Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Josephine Nkrumah has advised the citizenry to guard the country's peace, unity, stability and eschew violence after declaration of presidential results by the Electoral Commission (EC) of the just-ended polls.
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The EFF has reiterated its call for the removal of all colonial and apartheid statues, saying South Africa's heritage is one of “dispossession.
[The Herald] The Zimborders Consortium has secured nearly US$300 million for the upgrade and modernisation of Beitbridge border post, the country's busiest inland port of entry and one of the region's key transit points, the company has revealed.
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Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said the total number of COVID-19 cases were at 814 565 on Sunday 6 December 2020.
Zimbabwean street vendor Memory Chauke did not get very far when she hopped over a fence into neighbouring South Africa on the first day its borders reopened after a six-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
South African patrol guards had anticipated that Zimbabweans would resume illegal crossings into the country to buy goods as soon as travel restrictions were lifted.
Hundreds were arrested. They had tried to smuggle groceries back to impoverished Zimbabwe, where an economic downturn and rampant hyperinflation have destroyed livelihoods.
Chauke was caught on the way back to her village, on a gravel road around 500 metres (1,640 feet) away from the official Beitbridge border post. She looked sombre and exhausted as she sat under a large thorn tree, surrounded by grocery bags.
Chauke said it was the first time she had been arrested during crossing.
\"I always run,\" she told AFP. \"Today, I didn't manage. The 45-year-old mother of five had just walked more than 20 kilometres (12 miles) to South Africa's northernmost town of Musina and bought goods she planned to resell in Zimbabwe for a profit.
\"Where we stay there is no food, there is not enough food so we are hungry,\" she said. \"We come to nearby shops and buy cheaper food, then go back to Zimbabwe.\"
Others sat on the ground alongside her, clutching recently purchased pots, maize meal, fuel and even sofas and a bed as they awaited their fate.
Many Zimbabweans rely on goods bought from richer South Africa for basic supplies, and informal cross-border trade is a lucrative business.
Some traders go as far as risking the treacherous crocodile-infested Limpopo river which divides the two countries to reach more affordably-priced South African stores. \"It's so dangerous but there is nothing I can do,\" said Chauke, who had not dared to venture across the border since South Africa locked down on March 27.
She hoped to beg for forgiveness and \"go back to my kids\".
- 'A hungry stomach' -
South Africa, the continent's hardest-hit country by COVID-19, reopened some land borders as well as its three main airports on October 1.
Zimbabwean authorities had also planned to resume international travel on the same day. But the Beitbridge border post, one of the Africa's busiest crossings, has remained shut on the Zimbabwean side.
Private vehicles were stopped at the gate and told to turn back. Only commercial trucks, which were already exempt from travel restrictions, were allowed through.
\"We haven't opened the Beitbridge border as yet,\" Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe told local media on Thursday, without giving a reason for the delay.
South African border patrols said they still intercepted many Zimbabweans jumping the fence on Thursday.
\"There was a slight increase in numbers but for most of them it was with regard to the groceries,\" military official David Mathetsha said.
\"A hungry stomach is capable of doing anything,\" he explained, adding that officers had confiscated a variety of goods and bulk purchases.
Mathetsha
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