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GWERU residents yesterday urged the council to give incentives to people who pay their bills in United States dollars, saying such a move would enable the local authority to collect revenue in foreign currency. BY Stephen Chadenga The residents made the call at a consultative meeting for the 2021 budget. Gweru United Progressive Residents and Ratepayers Development Association Trust executive director David Chikore said council should charge less in US dollars to encourage ratepayers to settle their bills in hard currency. “Since council has adopted dual pricing we propose that instead of billing the US dollar component using the interbank rate, they can lower it a bit compared to the RTGS$ charge,” he said. “By introducing incentives council will be able to directly get revenue in US dollar and pay its suppliers without hassles. Without incentives people will continue opting to pay in Zimdollars.” Mayor Josiah Makombe said his council would consider the proposal. He said council was also working on ways to implement the payment of tariffs in the 2021 budget in a manner that would ease the burden on ratepayers. “That is a welcome move by residents to propose for incentives to those residents who settle their rates in US dollars and we are going to seriously consider it,” Makombe said. “We will do everything as a local authority to make sure that we implement payment methods that ease the burden on our residents.”
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.
BY Stephen Chadenga At least 75 cattle have succumbed to drought in parts of the Midlands province in the past two months and farmers have been urged to de-stock and by supplements for the remaining beasts. Midlands provincial crops and livestock officer, Madeline Magwenzi said four areas in the province were the worst affected. “We have over 75 cattle that succumbed to drought in the past two months and these are mainly in Kwekwe, Mberengwa, Zvishavane and Zhombe,” she said. “These deaths were recorded since August to date due to the drought. Grazing is not available and of low quality.” “We urge farmers to consider de-stocking by selling older stock and use the proceeds to buy stockfeed.” Magwenzi said there was need for a subsidy for stockfeed to enable farmers to buy it. “We should go back to a situation we had before where there was a subsidy for concentrates,” Magwenzi said. Early this year, there were reports that farmers particularly in Gokwe North and South as well as Mberengwa were selling cattle at giveaway prices due to shortage of pasture.
THE MDC-T's extraordinary congress set for year-end faces a fresh hurdle with members who constituted the party’s Midlands provincial executive in 2014 demanding that MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa be among the candidates eligible for election.
Since the launch, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has expanded. They are expected to grow more in the near future. With time many improvements have been made and together they are making cryptocurrency more lucrative. The year 2020 was a rollercoaster ride for the world. It made the world stagnant for some time and that caused the unemployment of millions of people globally. Governments were left with a public crisis during this pandemic. The public crises emerging from the COVID-19 is no more a problem because cryptocurrency and blockchain technology aided in solving them. The technology that was launched in 2009 has now grown up into a more advanced form. This article will tell you how? Acceptance of cryptocurrency in 2020 will likely nurture the governments and financial institutions to look upon digital money as a way to distribute aid. Those times were a critical phase for everyone so the government had to take steps to help people. The government made use of these virtual currencies in helping people with their daily expenses. Everything was ordered online because of the lockdown. So the bills were paid online as well. People could easily pay those bills with the bitcoin aid they got from the government. The outlook for 2020. By taking the help of these latest innovations people became aware of these. The awareness created further implementations in the post coronavirus world. Here is how. Tracking system. Blockchain is a brilliant technology that has been used in tracking records of various corona patients. In Asia however, the records for the financial aids were saved on this master ledger helping the government in distributing properly. Many insurance companies in the future have decided to use this technology in order to keep track of financial claims. In the future, the governments of different countries will use this leverage blockchain system to track other data as well. In the coming year, there will be a globally distributed ledger database for all the coronavirus patients that will help in all research purposes. It will promote data accuracy and transparency between all countries to conclude better results. Increase in financial services by the institutes. During the pandemic, many people used cryptocurrency for the sake of their health. However, very soon people will use them more because of the feasibility. Banks would jump to provide digital currency services because people want more contactless payments. Digital wallets will emerge to facilitate people during payments that do not include their names. Improvements for frauds. The blockchain keeps the records of people safe and secure. However last year some fraud cases were reported. The competent people in the crypto world have started making modifications to make this system secure. It is comparatively more easy and safe to use. So many people will implement cryptocurrencies as a means of payment so that they can be protected from fraudsters. Advancement in public banking. There are many people with low income and some even do not have
GWERU council engineer Robson Manatsa has resigned barely two days after another top official was suspended on graft charges, with sources indicating that more senior employees were likely to quit to avoid being sacked following a damning audit report implicating most of them. BY BRENNA MATENDERE Early this week, estates and evaluations manager Gibson Chingwadza was suspended by acting town clerk Vakai Douglas Chikwekwe on allegations of presiding over shady activities that prejudiced the broke local authority of US$300 000 revenue. Manatsa, who did not give reasons for his resignation, walked out at a time when an internal audit, led by ward 11 councillor Albert Chirau, in its report linked him to corrupt activities at the local authority. These included allegations that he violated procurement regulations in purchasing a JCB backhoe loader that turned out to be second-hand, yet council paid for a brand new one. The engineer was accused by the internal audit team of “serious negligence leading to the death of eight people in Gweru due to typhoid last year”. Investigations showed water pumped by council from a reservoir in Mkoba was not treated. The town engineer was also accused of influencing the employment of line department workers with no requisite qualification as well as engaging graduate engineers to supervise senior staff in the department among other allegations. Mayor Josiah Makombe confirmed that Manatsa had tendered his resignation. “I can confirm that the town engineer has resigned. He did not give detailed reasons for his resignation, but I just hope that maybe he got a better paying job elsewhere. I really cannot speculate on why he left the city council even though it is true that he had been fingered on corruption issues by an internal audit we carried out,” he said. Substantive town clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza is also still on suspension over a slew of corruption charges, some of which touched on her failure to effectively supervise the engineering department that was then led by Manatsa. When contacted for comment, Manatsa said: “I am in a meeting, please call later,” before hanging up. He did not respond to written questions sent to his mobile phone. Further efforts to contact him did not yield results as his phone was on voicemail.
A NEW militant group, Poverty Liberation Movement, was launched in Harare yesterday to effect citizen arrests, strategic boycotts and other punitive actions against cartels and known corrupt individuals in order to fight poverty.
The interim chairperson of the movement’s Harare chapter, Obert Masaraure, told the media that their project would be a holistic movement which would rigorously advocate for opening of the informal economy and demanding immediate disbursement of social security to cater for pensioners, people with disabilities and all other vulnerable groups.
“We want to effect citizen’s arrest, strategic boycotts and other peaceful but punitive actions against known cartels and corrupt individuals.”
Masaraure said the movement’s constituents included trade unions, student movements, informal trader’s organisations, youth organisations, social movements and professional bodies and have a common agenda to fight poverty.
Social right activist Pride Mkono, who is the spokesperson of the movement, said going forward, they would tighten screws around cartels that corrupt government officials.
GWERU City Council has imposed an over 100% tariff hike for high-density suburbs, while those for business vary. BY BRENNA MATENDERE The local authority cited the runaway inflation for the increases in a development which is set to pile more misery on financially-constrained residents, the majority of whom are informal traders currently barred from working in town. Mayor Josiah Makombe said the upward review of the tariffs could not be avoided. “We must not blame anyone for the tariff hike, but the economy itself. There is nothing we can do to cope with the rising inflation that has made prices of everything go up, mostly water chemicals. If you go into the shop, everything has gone up since beginning of the year when our 2020 budget was introduced,” he said. However, residents said they should not be overburdened by further increases in tariffs and urged council to focus more on income-generating projects. Reward Mhuri, secretary-general of the Gweru United Residents’ Association (GURA), said council was increasing tariffs at a time there was evidence of misuse of public funds by the local authority. “I have evidence that some residential stands which were sold have not been accounted for. The money was misused. This is the money that should help council remain afloat, among other income-generating projects, and not hike tariffs for residents who are struggling,” he said. GURA chairperson Charles Rutsate urged council to revive its business enterprises to get money to fund its operations. “We have an example of Go Beer Breweries, which was a council company. They could revive it and use the money for operations than relying on rates alone,” he said. According to the new tariff schedule, fixed sewage charges in high-density suburbs will now be $70,99, up from $35,47, while reconnection for faulty sewer lines will rise from $982 to $20 013,46 for commercial companies. Refuse collection in high-density suburbs will now cost $85, up from the current $34,35. Burial fees for adults will be $1 891,88 from $1 261,25 while for still-born children, it will be $945,94, up from $630,63.
BULAWAYO residents have engaged private laboratories to run independent tests on the city’s water after five children reportedly succumbed to diarrhoea due to contaminated water being pumped to Luveve high-density suburb by the local authority.
The five children are said to have died between Thursday last week and Sunday, with residents insisting that “the cause might be the contaminated water they receive from council”.
It has been more than a fortnight after the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) first reported that it had collected samples for testing following complaints from residents who got sick after consuming tap water.
“We have engaged private laboratories and the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) to run tests on the water specimens that we have acquired from Luveve residents and other areas in Bulawayo as well,” Ndlovu said.
“After attending to these several reports and witnessing the contaminated water, it is distasteful for the local authority to release a statement that places the fault on the residents’ containers, citing them as the reason why they are falling sick and suffering from diarrhoea.”
Mutare: A local Old People's home located is struggling to make ends meet during the lockdown period as donor support has dried up.
Zororo Old People's Home in the oldest high-density suburb of Sakubva houses over 14 elderly people who rely on support from various donors across the city.
However, since the announcement of the country's lockdown by government to curb the spread of Covid-19, the home has been facing myriad challenges, chief among them dwindling food stocks and funds to procure medication for inmates.
Mutare Ward 1 Councillor Thomas Nyamupanedengu confirmed the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted on the operations of the Old People's Home.
Normally, the home is supported by local donors but due to the lockdown, most businesses were affected,\" said the councillor.
BY PATRICIA SIBANDA EKUSILENI Hospital in Bulawayo, which is currently being used as a COVID-19 facility, will become a National University of Science and Technology (NUST) specialist teaching centre when the coronavirus curve flattens. The chief executive of the hospital Absolom Dube revealed this last Friday during a tour by a ministerial taskforce to assess the health institution and progress made in operationalising the facility which had been lying idle for a long time. Dube told journalists that the government had already decided on what the hospital would be after the pandemic. “On the issue of what the hospital will become after COVID-19, I can say the Cabinet has already approved that NUST is going to take over and use it as a specialist teaching hospital,” Dube said. “We are working towards mobilising resources so that by November 30, the hospital is fully functional. We feel it is possible because we have some funds that we have been pushing for,” he said. Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister Judith Ncube hailed COVID-19 frontline workers for a sterling job despite the dangers of the pandemic. She said more beds were needed in order to ensure the hospital facilities can adequately cater for COVID-19 patients. “Our wish as a government is that if we happen to get a patient with COVID-19, that person should be well treated, well received, and well taken care of, and we are doing our level best in Ekusileni, United Bulawayo Hospital and Thorngrove Hospital to treat patients,” Ncube said. Initially, the government had promised that Ekusileni Medical Centre would be opened by the end of June for the first time in nearly 20 years after its closure due to obsolete equipment, in order to make it a coronavirus treatment centre. The hospital is believed to be the brainchild of the late former Vice President Joshua Nkomo and it currently operates at only 25% of its capacity.
In light of the proliferation of North-South Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), that is, agreements between the developed countries and the less developed, it is important that trade policy negotiators look at data provisions in these agreements with a tooth-comb.
Perhaps EAC and other African countries can draw inspiration from the EU, who have the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which have a framework for protections of citizens’ personal data as well as measures aimed at preventing transfer of data to third countries.
Could the developed countries then be exploiting this lacuna in the EAC data protection regime, in the trade agreements?
For instance, the US-Kenya FTA, according to the US Department of Commerce, aims to, among other things, “establish state of the art commitments to ensure Kenya refrains from imposing measures that restrict cross-border data flows and does not require the use of installation of local computing facilities”.
This is all the more reason these agreements and others that will come to the African continent should be thoroughly scrutinised with the needs of the African countries in mind given the insufficiency of data security laws on the continent.
In summary Oregon led with transparency in reporting workplace outbreaks. California shields businesses so as not to shame them. The distinction has workers and public health experts worried. California and Oregon were lauded for their early response to the pandemic, with swift and broad shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus. In reopening their […]
The post Oregon posts workplace outbreaks, California has no such plan appeared first on Black Voice News.
BY BRENNA MATENDERE THE striking nurses, who were struck off the July payroll, have vowed not to return to work until the new Health minister Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has addressed their demands. Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) president Enock Dongo confirmed the position yesterday. Dongo said being struck off the payroll had not rattled the majority of health workers who are demanding personal protective equipment (PPE) and salaries in United States dollars from their employer, before they could resume their duties. “We are still on strike and we are on day 52. The majority of public hospitals are literally closed and patients are being referred to private health centres. Some patients are actually dying because they do not afford to pay the forex charges at the private hospitals, but as nurses we cannot call off the strike at this stage,” he said. “Government has not done anything to meet our demands which are US dollar-pegged salaries or provision of adequate personal protective equipment. Actually the skeletal staff of nurses which is attending to emergency cases at the hospitals does not have adequate PPE. “So if we wake up tomorrow and call off the strike, it will be a disaster in public hospitals with the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases among nurses. Government must just meet our demands, then we can call off the strike.” He said all nurses on strike were removed from the government payroll last month. “It’s true that all of us on strike have been struck off the government payroll. However, we are not going to give in to such intimidatory tactics and go back to work. What we are supposed to do at hospitals in fulfilment of our duties does not tally with what we will get at the end of the month in form of salary, so we better stay home until government comes to the negotiating table to iron out our grievances,” Dongo said. At the beginning of the strike, government refused to pay the nurses in forex as per their demands, setting the stage for the impasse. Chiwenga is yet to give direction on the way forward regarding the strike since his shock appointment last week.
A Zimbabwean rights group on Tuesday accused Chinese-run mining companies of \"rampant abuse\" after two workers were shot and wounded, allegedly by their Chinese boss, after they complained about outstanding wages.
He allegedly tried to sack some of the most vocal workers, leading to an argument during which Zhang allegedly shot one of them in both thighs.
A second worker had a bullet graze through his chin, said police.
On Tuesday the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association (ZELA) slammed the ethics of Chinese employers in the country.
\"The problem of ill-treatment of workers is systematic and widespread and what that (shooting) incident did was to expose the rampant abuse of workers,\" Shamiso Mutisi, deputy director at ZELA, told AFP.
Nairobi church faces eviction from public land after losing suit
Tuesday, May 26, 2020 0:01
By JOSEPH WANGUI
Bishop Arthur Kitonga of the Redeemed Gospel Church.
FILE PHOTO | NMG
The Redeemed Gospel Church Nairobi is facing eviction from a piece of public land that it was illegally allocated by the defunct City Council in the populous Umoja II Estate 22 years ago.
Though the church defended the allocation for the parcel as legal the Land Court has ruled it was unlawful since the property was reserved for a community social hall in the expansive residential area.
In restoring the land to community utilisation, the court relied on evidence from three reports that had recommended revocation of the title the church held as well as the allotment letter.
The National Land Commission (NLC) also investigated the legality of the allocation of the suit property to the church under its power to review grants and dispositions of public land.
The alleged financier of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Felicien Kabuga, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday as he made his first appearance at a UN court after a quarter of a century on the run.
Once one of Rwanda's richest men, Kabuga allegedly helped set up hate media that urged ethnic Hutus to \"kill the Tutsi cockroaches\" and funded militia groups.
Now in his 80s, he was arrested in France in May and transferred to the court in The Hague in October to face charges of a key role in the killing of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
The frail Kabuga sat in a wheelchair behind a glass screen in the courtroom, wearing a coronavirus mask. A court official helped him adjust his headphones.
His defense lawyer Emmanuel Altit said Kabuga was \"very tired\" and \"preferred not to speak\" when asked by judge Iain Bonomy if the former businessman wanted to enter a plea.
\"Given the situation, I would be grateful if you could consider this lack of response as a plea of not guilty on all the counts, under the rules and procedures,\" Altit told the court.
Kabuga, who until his arrest near Paris was one of the world's most wanted men, had already denied the charges in his court appearances in France.
The Rwandan faces seven counts including genocide, incitement to genocide, extermination, and persecution.
The UN court will later decide if he will be transferred to its branch in Tanzania for trial.
'Contributed to deaths'
The UN says 800,000 people were murdered in a 100-day rampage that began in April 1994 in Rwanda, in scenes of horror that shocked the world.
An ally of Rwanda's then-ruling party, Kabuga allegedly helped create the Interahamwe Hutu militia group and the Radio-Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM), whose broadcasts incited people to murder.
The lengthy indictment, read out by a court official, said that \"RTLM broadcasts contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of persons identified as Tutsi civilians.\"
The radio station also identified the hiding places of Tutsis where they were later killed, it said.
Kabuga controlled and encouraged the station's content, failed to stop the broadcasts, and defended it when the minister of information criticized the broadcasts, the indictment said.
He is also accused of helping to buy machetes that were distributed to militias and ordering them to kill Tutsis.
Kabuga spent years on the run using a succession of false passports, with investigators saying that he had been helped by a network of former Rwandan allies to evade justice.
Following his arrest in a small apartment near Paris, his lawyers argued that Kabuga -- who says he is aged 87 but according to the arrest warrant is 84 - should face trial in France for health reasons.
But France's top court ruled he should be moved to UN custody on a warrant issued in 1997 by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Kabuga was initially to be transferred to the UN court's facility in Arusha, Tanzania, which took over the ICTR's duties when it formally closed in 2015.
But a UN
Cryptocurrencies have prodded the world with the benefits. Everyone is crazy to know and learn about these currencies. The noise made by the profits that caused people to earn is enough for them to tap into the crypto world. 2020 is marked by the serious pandemic that caused various businesses and projects to decline. Many lost their assets and now when things got better, the people start earning to sustain. Many of the people are concerned with the investments. It is one of the wisest decisions to invest in cryptocurrencies. If you want to invest then you must invest in digital assets. It is a better option than investing in other businesses. People are not unaware of the popularity it is gaining day by day. Many people have now started educating themselves in the crypto world. Some take help from the platforms. Beginners usually use the bitcoin digital platform to ease all the obstacles they encounter during investments. The most renowned cryptocurrency called the bitcoin was released in 2009 but not many people knew until 2013. After 2013 the real rise of these currencies began. Since then all the years it expanded and the growth cannot be ignored. Many analysts predict that cryptocurrencies would have a good future. Even in 2020, the price fluctuated to $12000 recently. If the previous patterns are traced then the prediction about them is optimistic. The blockchain technology of bitcoin made it popular and due to this technology people believe it to be safe and secure. However other currencies have made their mark too and are predicted to be a rise in 2020. Let’s have a look. Bitcoin (BTC). When you hear the term cryptocurrency, bitcoin is the currency that comes in your mind. This is because of the popularity it has gained. It is the oldest currency and still dominant globally. Therefore, bitcoin will definitely rise in 2020. It will be the best decision to invest in bitcoin that has already made many people kings by just investing a few bucks. Ethereum (ETH). Ethereum became the second largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin. 2018 has been the year having the meteoric rise of Ethereum where it reached $1423. Ethereum is a bit advanced from bitcoin due to more enhanced blockchain technology. By using Ethereum you can build your own cryptocurrencies. Ethereum is easier and must be looked into for the investors who are planning to invest in 2020. Ripple (XPR). Ripple made a huge jump in 2017 when it started from zero to $2.4 within the same year. While the price dropped in 2018. But still, nothing to be sad about? You can still invest in 2020 because it may rise this year giving you huge profits. Ripple is also used as a payment system for transacting international payments safer. How awesome is this when you come to know that your payment with ripple gets transferred within seconds despite taking long days? Litecoin (LTC). Litecoin cannot be ignored. Like Ripple, it also showed great performance in 2017. It started at $4 and grew up to $ 358. However, it dropped in 2018 but the game is not over yet. You can inves
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