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BY TAURAI MANGUDHLA FORMER legislator and Monetary Policy Committee member Eddie Cross has made sensational claims that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) was printing $1 billion weekly mainly to buy gold. At the official rate of around 82, this translates to about US$12,2 million weekly and about US$635 million annually. This brought into sharp focus the central bank’s transparency and accountability at a time the government claimed to have stopped its printing press which dragged the country into an unprecedented hyperinflationary environment around 2008. “We have shown that at the RBZ research there is a direct correlation between money supply and the exchange rate and I think that until we stop printing money for various reasons …we print money mainly to buy gold, we print a billion (Zimbabwean dollars) a week,” Cross said in his presentation during an online Big Debate Series, Zimbabwe 2021 Economic Prospects, hosted by Alpha Media Holdings. NewsDay made an attempt to seek further clarification from Cross who said not the entire $1 billion was printed as part of it could be existing resources although he had no information on the standard operating procedure. In 2020, Cross said the RBZ required about $45 billion on top of US$800 million to buy gold. Cross, however, defended the move, saying it didn’t really cause inflation as the money was used to buy an asset easily converted to hard currency as opposed to financing debt. Central bank chief John Mangudya dismissed Cross’ claims. “What I think he meant was that we purchase forex from the market in an amount of $1 billion per week for sale to the auction system,” Mangudya said. “So its net effect is zero on the increase in money supply.” During the debate, other panellists took turns to criticise Finance minister Mthuli Ncube's 7,4% gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for 2021 as well as inflation performance which was largely described as ambitious in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Economist and Africa Round Table Forum chief executive Kipson Gundani said despite positive prospects in mining and agricultural sectors, a serious downside exists on the consumption side because of the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns. “Most entities that rely on domestic driven consumption will suffer a huge knock in 2021,” he said, adding that the economy would grow by 3% at most. He said the 135% annual inflation average could be achieved on the back of depressed local demand due to dwindling disposable incomes. “I think COVID-19 will become a very huge determinant when it comes to GDP and inflationary development,” Gundani said, warning that a managed exchange rate would lead to some point of explosion. Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe chief executive Gloria Zaravanhu said achieving economic growth above 3% would be a tall order due to depressed demand and limited budgetary support as well as water and power shortages. Zaravanhu said tax revenues would be affected by a growing cash economy that was largely dealing in foreign currency and evading tax
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
\"The purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory and its retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his first amendment rights to publish a book and discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and others,\" Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled during a telephonic hearing.
Cohen, who has been held in solitary confinement at federal prison in Otisville, New York, since he was remanded on July 9, will be released by 2 p.m. ET Friday after he takes a test for the coronavirus.
Cohen and prosecutors will have one week to negotiate the terms of his release as it relates to his involvement with the media.
\"Just as you wouldn't have a press conference from a jail cell, you shouldn't be able to have a press conference from your home. You can communicate, you can discuss, you can post on social media, but you can't make a confinement into a free person. You can't make a person confined in jail or at home into totally free person. There's got to be a limit,\" Hellerstein said.
Cohen's attorney called the judge's order a \"victory for the First Amendment.\"
The ruling confirms \"that the government cannot block Mr. Cohen from publishing a book critical of the president as a condition of his release to home confinement,\" Danya Perry, who argued on behalf of Cohen at the hearing, said in a statement. \"This principle transcends politics and we are gratified that the rule of law prevails.\"
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The post Michael Cohen to be released after judge rules his return to prison was retaliatory appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.
INSOFAR as all the promises that government has made to Matabeleland, it is clear that it is not sincere given its failure to honour most of them.From 1980, it was clear that the population of Bulawayo would grow naturally and also as a result of socio-economic factors such as rural to urban migration. The government should have planned to increase the water delivery capacity of the city. It never did that. Instead, it just remembers the issue towards elections or whenever government officials go to Bulawayo. There are always two things that the Zanu PF officials talk about when they go to Bulawayo or Matabeleland in general.They talk about Gukurahundi and water. They know that these are the most contentious issues which people in the region die to have resolved or addressed. They speak like they will bring solutions tomorrow when they know very well that they are only using the issues as a bait to get into the hearts of the people of Matabeleland. Whenever the late former President Robert Mugabe visited Bulawayo, he spoke about Gukurahundi, marginalisation, water problems, but after leaving the area, he would forget altogether to deploy the resources to address the challenges. Now we have a new President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was in Bulawayo on Friday to meet the Matabeleland Collective, a consortium of civic society organisations in the region, to discuss Gukurahundi and marginalisation. He promised to launch a programme for the issuance of identity documents to Gukurahundi victims and also to intervene in the water problems bedevilling the city. But it’s known that Mnangagwa has been in government and top decision-making positions in Zanu PF since independence and during all that time he didn’t use his influence to resolve the water and Gukurahundi issues in the region. People of Matabeleland have since realised that most of the promises made by Zanu PF politicians are mere political gimmicks to hoodwink the gullible ones and win votes. There is absolutely no genuineness in what Zanu PF officials say. In a show of discontent, the people of Bulawayo have continued to vote for the opposition since the birth of the MDC party in 1999, which is a sign that they have had enough of Zanu PF’s empty promises. People are fed up with this kind of attitude and it’s time government gets things done. If Mnangagwa still wants to at least maintain the little remaining relations with Matabeleland, he should not make empty promises about resolving the water crisis and Gukurahundi issue.If ever he makes a promise, he should walk the talk.
By Joseph G. Phillips Sports Editor The University of Illinois Fighting Illini fired head coach Lovie Smith on Sunday, December 13, after four seasons with the institution. Athletic Director Josh Whitman said in a statement, Smith led the Illinois football program with unquestioned integrity during his nearly five years of service. “I have tremendous respect for […]
Good morning, California. It’s Monday, July 20. Parents scramble for alternatives Lucia Soares helps her two younger children, Emily, 9, and Daniel, 16, with schoolwork in their Modesto home. Photo by Anne Wernikoff for CalMatters It’s official: At least 90% of California students will begin the school year with online learning. The order, which Gov. […]
The post For 90% of students, school will be online appeared first on Black Voice News.
TWO elderly female amputees from the Kitson Town community in St Catherine have received wheelchairs through a collaboration involving the Social Development Commission (SDC) and Food For the Poor (FFP).The needs of the two women came to the attention of the SDC through their work with the Kitson Town Central Citizens Association, after which they sought help from FFP, and the charity organisation donated the wheelchairs.
The president of the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association (SLMDA) has criticised the government’s decision to spend much needed cash on luxurious Toyota SUVs, estimated at almost $2 million, instead of buying medicines and PPEs for hospitals.
Last month, the government of president Julius Maada Bio imported dozens of luxurious Toyota SUVs for the use of government ministers and staff managing the COVID-19 Emergency Response.
“Today 30th June marks the end of the initial 3 – month agreement by government of Sierra Leone with Healthcare workers on COVID-19 allowances.
Commenting on the government’s purchase of 30 luxurious SUVs, a local journalist wrote: “Whilst other countries have government officials cutting down on their salaries to help their governments tackle huge burden on poor citizens, ours are here importing very expensive vehicles claiming to fight Coronavirus Pandemic in Sierra Leone.
“Now to the relevance of the vehicles, I stand to be corrected here, but almost all the management staff of Covid-19 in Sierra Leone already have official vehicles in their service to the state.
Young people are growing up in an environment ruled by digital devices, the internet and social media.
Research evidence indicates that using the internet and other technologies such as video games and computers has become a daily routine for many children and adolescents from high-income to low-income countries.
Although an estimated 60% of the population is made up of young people, there is little known about how they use digital technology every day.
Children's access to digital technology
My study found that a growing number of Nigerian teens have access to digital technologies, particularly mobile phones and the mobile internet.
Impediments to effective digital participation
Despite the presence and potential impact of technology in their lives, the children's digital practices are hampered by a lack of proper support from their homes and in school.
A 21-mile-long (35 km) column of trucks lined a major highway between Kenya and Uganda on Saturday, a sea of diesel engines and goods headed west but stopped at the border for time-consuming coronavirus tests.
The drivers, stuck on portions of highway between Eldoret, Kenya and the border town of Malaba, told Zenger News that Kenyan authorities are denying them access to food, water and lodging.
As a 21-mile (35 km), days-long traffic jam slows trucks headed from Kenya to Uganda, drivers who test negative are issued travel passes.
Authorities in Uganda are also confiscating cookers at the border, citing security issues, according to truck driver John Omondi.
(Edited by Ford Fischer)
The post VIDEO: Truckers in 21-mile traffic jam for COVID-19 testing without food or water at Kenya/Uganda border appeared first on Zenger News.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, food donation organised by the Rotary clubs of Thika and Thika West, with support from the Bank of Africa, is going on.
The Kenya Network of Women with Aids (Kenwa), with offices at the heart of Kiandutu, tells of people with HIV who are in dire need of medicines.
Ms Josephine Wanjiru, who is in-charge of Kenwa in Kiambu, says: \"Since Covid-19 was first reported in Kenya, the government forgot that other ailments exist.
People are dying in the slums for luck of HIV drugs, and they will continue to die if the government does not act fast\".
Benjamin Githae of Rotary District 9212 said that the food distribution mainly targeted the blind, those engaged in prostitution and people living with HIV.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior Correspondent - “The convention will continue to teach us that joy is a quality of the heart. It is something that we have inside even [...]
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AFP) - Since the novel coronavirus first hit the shores of the Dominican Republic in March, Luna Veras, a transgender sex worker, has struggled to put bread on the table. Between fear of COVID-19 and a nightly curfew, her business has dropped by 80 per cent.
Marc Morial, National Urban League’s dynamic president and former New Orleans mayor. BY REV. WATSON HAYNES, President & CEO, PCUL ST. PETERSBURG - The unpredictable and unprecedented difficulties of this year have brought unsettling changes to our individual lives and to organizations like the Pinellas County Urban League (PCUL) This year will always be remembered as […]
President Donald Trump and Republicans manufactured a mirage. Over their four-day convention this week, Trump and his allies treated the coronavirus pandemic as nearing its end. Peaceful protesters' causes were ignored as they were lumped in with destructive rioters. Trump was cast as the architect of the greatest economy in history, but blameless in its collapse. And his Democratic opponent, […]
By JOE McDONALD AP Business Writer BEIJING (AP) — China eked out 2.3% economic growth in 2020, likely becoming the only major economy to expand as shops and factories reopened relatively early from a shutdown to fight the coronavirus while the United States, Japan and Europe struggled with rising infections. Growth in the three months ending in December rose to 6.5% over a year earlier as consumers returned to shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas, official data showed Monday. That was up from the previous quarter's 4.9% and stronger than many forecasters expected. In early 2020, activity contracted by 6.8% in […]
The post China economy grows in 2020 as rebound from virus gains appeared first on Black News Channel.
Nairobi — Public transport in Uganda will resume on June 6 in new measures outlined by President Yoweri Museveni on Monday to relax a lockdown imposed in the country in coronavirus containment efforts.
Upon the successful issuance of masks, the public transport will resume in the country except in the districts along border points with neighboring countries, Museveni indicated.
At the same time, he noted that shops selling general merchandise will be opened except for those located in shopping malls, shopping arcades and food markets.
\"Once the issue of masks has been addressed, shops selling general merchandise will be opened except for those in shopping malls, food markets and shopping arcades.
\"We shall now not allow lorry drivers to enter the country until their results are out,\" he noted adding that testing at the borders will be expedited.
