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.
This statement contradicts the position of other Roman Catholic bishops in Ghana who have labelled homosexuality a crime.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
Say goodbye to that brillo pad on your face.
THE majority of residents in Zimbabwe’s major urban areas are drinking sewage-contaminated water due to poor management systems by local authorities, Auditor-General Mildred Chiri has revealed in her latest audit report. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA An assessment by the Auditor-General on six major cities in the country showed that urban local authorities were failing to attend to sewer blockages within 24 hours, resulting in raw sewage mixing with drinking water. This ultimately gives rise to outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as typhoid, dysentery and cholera, among others. Unattended sewer blockages also result in sewage back-flowing, which further weakens the pipes, according to the audit findings for the period 2013 to 2017 following a public outcry over sewer bursts. “The assessment of the urban local authorities’ management of sewerage system revealed a number of weaknesses which contributed to the increase in the number of sewer blockage complaints from consumers,” Chiri said. “If local authorities fail to attend to blockages within the stipulated eight to 24 hours, raw sewage is lost into the environment before reaching the treatment plants, thereby contaminating water bodies. “According to interviews conducted, engineers cited that they were doing more of reactive maintenance rather than planned maintenance.” Results of the assessment also showed that Harare, with the highest population of over 1,5 million people, records the highest number of sewer blockages on average each year, which places residents in the capital city at high risk of contracting waterborne diseases. The United Nations Environment report of 2013 ranked Lake Chivero, Harare’s main water source, as one of the most 10 polluted lakes in the world. Statistics from the audit show that Harare discharges about 4 000 megalitres of raw or partially-treated water into water systems. In responding to the audit, city fathers blamed residents over sewer blockages, citing dumping of kitchen utensils and other items in sewage pipes as the major contributor to infrastructure damages. Although with a higher population, the audit report said Bulawayo had a better sewer system compared to other councils. In 2013 alone, 560 people died of waterborne diseases, while close to 600 000 others contracted the diseases countrywide. In 2008, five years before the audit, Zimbabwe recorded its worst cholera outbreak, which claimed over 5 000 lives, with Harare’s Budiriro and Glen View high-density suburbs the worst hit. Harare and Bulawayo are staring another crisis due to recurrent water shortages, with Harare declaring incapacitation to buy water treatment chemicals. Last week, Harare City Council confirmed four cases of typhoid, a bacterial infection that can be transmitted through contaminated water. The local authorities do not have modern equipment and technologies for sewer system inspection and maintenance and Chiri stated that the government was losing about US$194 million annually owing to poor sanitation practices. The Auditor-General also noted that poor service
Texas on Wednesday became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and California closed in on that mark as a surge of infections engulfs the country from coast to coast. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said all restaurants, bars and gyms statewide will have to close at 10 p.m. starting […]
By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden feels at home on Capitol Hill, but the place sure has changed since he left. The clubby atmosphere that Biden knew so well during his 36-year Senate career is gone, probably forever. Deal-makers are hard to find. And the election results haven't dealt him a strong hand to pursue his legislative agenda, with Democrats' poor performance in down-ballot races likely leaving them without control of Congress. The dynamic leaves Biden with little choice but to try to govern from the vanishing middle of a Washington that's been badly ruptured […]
The post Biden's plea for cooperation confronts a polarized Congress appeared first on Black News Channel.
MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa yesterday said he stood in solidarity with people who fight to promote professionalism at the courts. BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA Chamisa yesterday attended the bail hearing at the Harare Magistrates Court for incarcerated journalist Hopewell Chin’ono who is accused of posting tweets which the State alleges jeopardised the trial of Henrietta Rushwaya in her gold smuggling case. “I am here in solidarity with those who fight to promote professionalism and ensure justice prevails,” he said. Chin’ono, however, is arguing that his tweets do not constitute an offence as he was merely performing his duty as a journalist. He refused to name his sources from the National Prosecuting Authority, whom he claimed had told him that the State was not going to oppose Rushwaya bail, saying he was exercising his journalistic privilege. Chin’ono, who is being represented by Beatrice Mtetwa and Gift Mtisi, filed an application for a bail and awaits ruling from Magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa today. This is the second time Chin’ono has been arrested this year, after being arrested in July ahead of the foiled July 31 protests and accused of plotting to remove President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Bahrain's Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, one of the world's longest-serving prime ministers who led his island nation's government for decades and survived the 2011 Arab Spring protests that demanded his ouster over corruption allegations, died on Wednesday. He was 84. Bahrain's state-run news agency announced his death, saying he had been receiving treatment at the Mayo Clinic in the United States, without elaborating. The Mayo Clinic declined to comment. Prince Khalifa's power and wealth could be seen everywhere in this small nation off the coast of Saudi […]
The post Bahrain's long-serving prime minister dies at age 84 appeared first on Black News Channel.
BY RICHARD MUPONDE HARARE, renamed from the colonial Salisbury, in the early days of independence, was widely referred to as the Sunshine City owing to its squeaky-clean streets and orderly, smart and clean residential suburbs. Harare’s cleanliness and orderliness echoed throughout Sadc, and undoubtedly contributed to “The Jewel of Africa” moniker accorded the country by statesmen like Tanzania’s former President, the late Julius Mwalimu Nyerere. Sadly, the city has over the decades deteriorated to some stinky hellhole that nobody can be proud to be associated with. Old timers get nolstalgic about the old Harare when today they come across huge mounds of garbage at street corners, minefields of potholes, total absence of street lighting and a literal invasion of pavements by poverty stricken vegetable and other vendors. In the past the city fathers used to collect garbage every week which was a well-planned and monitored programme of servicing the suburbs where refuse trucks had a timetable for collecting garbage. However, things have gone out of hand as garbage heaps grow at every street corner in the central business district. Litter bugs go scot-free with no one to enforce by-laws against littering resulting in a health time bomb. The influx of vendors in the central business district (CBD) has also exacerbated the problem as they dump garbage anywhere near their operating sites without care or worry. Meanwhile council does not collect its movable bins placed at strategic points in the city making Harare an eyesore. During the lockdown period council workers took advantage of the absence of people in the CBD and cleaned it up, but that has all come to naught as the situation has returned to original dirty settings. A resident of Kuwadzana, Admire Mutengiwa, said the city council was letting residents down by not collecting garbage when every month it billed them for a once a week refuse collection. “The way the council is operating is short-changing ratepayers. I think it is wise for them not to collect our money if they can’t collect the garbage. Heaps of garbage are piling on every open space in this suburb and around the whole city. Organisations such as Environment Management Agency (EMA) should fine the council heavily because it is the one driving residents to dump garbage everywhere,” he said. Mutengiwa’s sentiments were echoed by Kelvin Pamire, from the same suburb, who said litter bugs should be arrested and the city council fined for polluting the city with uncollected garbage. “Law enforcement should take its course and those littering the environment should be brought to book. Council shouldn’t be spared because it is the driving force behind all this mess,” Pamire said. Precious Shumba, director for Harare Residents Trust (HRT), said refuse collection was virtually non-existent in Harare. “Uncollected garbage continues to pile in open spaces, at shopping centres, street corners in other residential places and the Avenues area. Residents are charged for once a week refuse collection on their monthly bi
A FACE mask, whether made of cloth or disposable material ,should not be worn for more than four hours, after which it ceases to be effective in containing the spread of the coronavirus. Senior Public Health Nurse Charmaine Vassell-Shettlewood...
WESTERN BUREAU: WITH THE COVID-19 death toll in the United Kingdom now over 50,000 and new positive cases steadily increasing, British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad has revealed that medical experts are now testing sewage and treatment...
Rescue teams out in force on Wednesday in the Mediterranean as they tried to save some 88 people, including children and babies, who have been shipwrecked on a flimsy boat that gave way.
The Open arms vessel said it recovered five bodies and that the rickety boat collapsed and tipped them into the sea.
The Spanish NGO managed to distribute waistcoats and masks in the moments before the ground sank.
It is the second migrant boat that the organisation's vessel has rescued in less than 24 hours.
Several miles away it was a similar situation but on a different boat. Some 13 people drowned off the Libyan coast while it managed to save 85 who were adrift and in danger of sinking in international waters.
Their boat was badly damaged, with water and gasoline spilled inside.
The NGO has criticised the fact that the countries of the Mediterranean have abandoned these people and have not moved government relief teams.
Since the start of the year, more than 575 migrants have died while trying to reach Europe, according to the UN's Migration body the IOM.
The rescue ship set sail from the port of Barcelona (northeast Spain) on November 4 bound for the central Mediterranean, where in recent days it was waiting to receive a request for help.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week to 709,000, a still-high level but the lowest figure since March and a further sign that the job market might be slowly healing. Yet the improvement will be put at risk by the sharp resurgence in confirmed viral infections to an […]
BULAWAYO City Council has expressed reservations over expending resources to a project spearheaded by First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa to transform a refugee centre at Chambuta in Chiredzi into a rehabilitation facility for street kids. By NQOBANI NDLOVU Government first announced plans to transform the refugee centre into a facility for children in 2015, but the project failed to take-off. Auxillia, through her Angel of Hope Foundation and the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare ministry, is now spearheading the project. Latest council minutes show that the ministry on October 22 sent an SOS to the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) seeking material and financial support to ensure the project becomes a success, but councillors turned down the request. “Discussion ensued and councillor Mlandu Ncube was concerned that Bulawayo had a lot of responsibilities that it was failing to fulfil. Council was facing a lot of financial challenges. He was against the idea to pledge assistance to renovate the home,” the council minutes read in part. “Council could only assist in terms of painting the block. Alderman Siboniso Khumalo shared the same sentiments with Ncube, saying that in Bulawayo there were homes which council was failing to assist as well as other service delivery responsibilities it could not meet.” Bulawayo street kids are housed at Emthunzini Wethemba, but the facility faces viability challenges, forcing the homeless to escape back to the streets. Town clerk Christopher Dube, however, argued that council had a responsibility to pledge assistance in the spirit of the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe. “It was, therefore, resolved to recommend that the council be granted authority to pledge assistance in the form of painting the block that it adopted at Chambuta Children’s Home.” In its SOS letter, the ministry said it was mandated under the Children’s Act (Chapter 5:06) to care for and protect the homeless through the Department of Social Welfare. “It is in this light that all urban councils are being called upon to commit their resources towards renovations and future maintenance of Chambuta Children’s home to ensure sustainability of the project,” the ministry wrote to the BCC. “Please note that your commitment in the project will leave its mark in improving the lives of this vulnerable group from our communities taking into cognisance the fact that the children currently housed at the institution had been living and working on the streets of all urban centres countrywide.”
A MUTARE woman is facing murder charges after stabbing her sister’s nine-month-old baby accusing her of crying non-stop. BY KENNETH NYANGANI The accused Natasha Mugwenjere (32) yesterday appeared before Mutare magistrate Prisca Manhibi who remanded her in custody to November 23. The court was told that Mugwenjere was a mental patient. The State alleges that on November 9, Charlotte Muromba left her daughter in the custody of the accused. The mother of the now-deceased had reportedly gone to fetch water at a nearby borehole. The baby reportedly began to cry and this irritated the accused, who stabbed her twice on the chest with a knife. When Charlotte came back, she found her baby bleeding. They rushed her to Mutare Provincial Hospital where she was pronounced dead upon arrival.
