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THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) has reportedly refused to restore water supplies to Binga Rural District Council until the local authority has paid at least $300 000 of its $1,5 million debt. BY PRAISEMORE SITHOLE Zinwa cut off water supplies to Binga in September, forcing residents and business operators to turn to boreholes and other unsafe water sources. Binga Residents Association vice-chairperson Samson Sibanda said Zinwa recently met council officials and indicated that it would restore water supplies after the local authority has paid at least $300 000 towards settling the bill. “We met and agreed on the way forward for water to be reopened. Council is the one that owes Zinwa money and not the residents. For water to be reopened Zinwa said they require at least $300 000 from the council,” Sibanda said. “Residents of Masoja area who are affected by the water cut started to protest and demonstrate saying they had been paying council and the issue has to be resolved immediately.” Binga district development co-ordinator Farai Marinyame confirmed that stakeholders met on Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis. “I was not on the ground, but there was a meeting between Zinwa, residents and the council to solve the ongoing water crisis. For now there is still no water as council is still negotiating with Zinwa so that they take that project,” Marinyame said. “The main problem is that residents are not paying up.” Binga RDC chief executive officer Joshua Muzamba said he was still out of Binga. “I am still out of Binga, just look for those on the ground who can give you information,” he said. Zinwa spokesperson Marjorie Munyonga, who previously pleaded with residents to pay up, yesterday said she was out of office and was yet to be briefed on the latest developments.
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.
Animals in the wild are at risk of going extinct due to illicit poaching, and a new breed of rangers is not having any of it. An armed all-female ranger unit in Zimbabwe, the women have made it their job to save the wildlife for future generations while making a new life for themselves as...
The post Meet the 'Brave Ones': The first armed, all-female ranger unit in Africa hunting poachers appeared first on Face2Face Africa.
Voters in Seychelles are casting their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary elections spanning three days.
Saturday was the main and last day of voting. The exercise had opened on Thursday for voters on fringe islands and essential workers such as hospital staff in the Indian Ocean island country.
74,600 people are eligible to vote.
Most of the Indian Ocean islands making up the Seychelles, a prized honeymoon destination famed for white beaches and lush vegetation, are uninhabited and the archipelago's 98,000 residents mainly live on the islands of Mahe, Praslin and La Digue.
The opposition is hoping to unseat incumbent president Danny Faure, in power since 2016. Faure was not elected but took over after his boss, James Michel, resigned as president.
Faure is running under the United Seychelles party, which has been in power since 1977.
His main rival is the Anglican priest Wavel Ramkalawan, who is taking his sixth shot at the presidency and lost by only 193 votes to Michel in an unprecedented second round of voting in 2015.
Virus and economy
The main concern of voters is the economic situation in the country, which has suffered the loss of vital tourism -- its main earner -- because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Seychelles has recorded only 149 mostly imported cases, but the virus has been a key campaign issue, with the health minister banning election rallies which would have been a barometer of support for various candidates in a country without a polling institute.
The campaign has mainly happened over social media, where the opposition and its supporters are the most active, and on television where the country held its first ever debates between the candidates, which proved extremely popular.
Since the start of the pandemic, the economy has slowed significantly, with some 700 Seychellois losing their jobs, according to government figures.
And while average income is among the highest in Africa, the national statistics agency says that about 40 percent of Seychellois live in poverty because of the high cost of living.
Another key theme of the campaign has been corruption, a largely taboo topic in the tiny country where business and politics are often intertwined.
If the church is not hated for the right reasons, is she real? Is she truly virtuous? The word used in the New Testament often refers to “moral excellence.”
By LEKAN OYEKANMI Associated Press LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria's top police official on Saturday ordered the immediate mobilization of all officers to 'reclaim the public space from criminal elements masquerading as protesters' after days of unrest and demonstrations over police abuses that left at least 69 people dead. The police order could further heighten tensions in Africa's most populous country after some of its worst turmoil in years. Nigeria's inspector general of police, M.A. Adamu, ordered colleagues to 'dominate the public space' while announcing that enough is enough, a statement said. Nigerians on Tuesday evening watched in horror as […]
The post Nigeria's police order massive mobilization after unrest appeared first on Black News Channel.
– Recycled water leaders from across the state gathered today in a virtual setting to honor the Dominguez Technology Center in Carson, CA for partnering on a project with West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) and other local agencies to convert its landscape irrigation system to use recycled water.
The 300-acre industrial park, located adjacent to California State University, Dominguez Hills, uses locally-produced, recycled water from West Basin to irrigate the property’s sizable landscape, saving more than 40 million gallons of drinking water per year.
West Basin, a provider of drinking and recycled water supplies for nearly 1 million people in coastal Los Angeles County, nominated Dominguez Technology Center for the Recycled Water Customer of the Year Award.
With the project complete, West Basin now delivers more than 40 million gallons of recycled water per year to 36 different landscape irrigation sites located within the business park’s campus, saving enough drinking water annually to serve more than 400 single-family households.
In addition to partnering with property owners Watson Land Company and Carson Companies, West Basin worked closely with private water purveyor California Water Service – which owns the recycled water distribution pipeline within the site – to provide the campus with recycled water.
On Saturday 4th July hairdressers and barbers will reopen their doors across England, fifteen weeks since they closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The announcement by the Prime Minister has been welcomed by many who are looking forward to their first haircut in nearly four months. However, these venues will look and operate differently to []
The post Essential advice on staying safe ahead of barbershops and hair salons reopening appeared first on African Voice Newspaper.
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…
[Africa In Fact] Tanzanians are heading to the polls on the 28th October. The ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party has governed Tanzania since independence in 1961, and is the second longest-ruling party in Africa.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE OPPOSITION MDC Alliance vice-chair Job Sikhala yesterday walked out of the tall walls of Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison after he was granted $50 000 bail by High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere, who blasted the State for bringing unsubstantiated allegations to court. The opposition leader was arrested last month on allegations of fleeing from justice and plotting to subvert the government. “Sikhala’s arrest was a coincidence as the police stumbled upon him while on another mission not related to him. His fleeing was not that of a fugitive, but was running away from unidentified men he reported to be following him and not the police,” Justice Ndewere ruled. The judge said the police should have called his lawyer if they were seeking him, but they did not and misdirected themselves by relying on a vague Press statement they issued. As part of his bail conditions, Sikhala was ordered to surrender his passport to the clerk of court, report thrice a week at St Mary’s Police Station and was barred from posting political audios and videos on social media. In a related matter, MDC Alliance secretary-general Chalton Hwende, who also faced charges of trying to subvert government, was removed from remand by Justice Webster Chinamhora after the State failed to provide him with a trial date more than a year on. Hwende, who was represented by Harrison Nkomo, had been on remand following his arrest in connection with January 2019 protests over the fuel price hikes. Hwende was one of several MDC Alliance legislators’ activists and supporters arrested in connection with the protests.
Life as we know it changed in March as South Africa went into lockdown for hospitals to prepare for Covid-19. In a matter of days, we saw businesses setting up their employees at home, and schools sending children home with lists of activities and reading material.
At the courts and polls, President Trump and his allies move to limit voting. The GOP cites fraud, but voting rights advocates see an old foe: voter suppression.
MUTARE-BASED freelance journalist Sydney Saize has sued Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri and State security agents for humiliation and unlawful arrest in Chimanimani while investigating alleged theft of Cyclone Idai donations last year. BY KENNETH NYANGANI The matter was heard on Thursday by High Court judge Justice Hlekani Mwayera who reserved judgment on whether it should to a full hearing. The journalist is claiming $500 000 damages. Saize cited Muchinguri, State Security minister Owen Ncube, Sports minister Kirsty Coventry, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Phillip Vallerio Sibanda and Central Intelligence Organisation director-general Isaac Moyo as respondents. Muchinguri and Sibanda, who were represented by lawyer Mutumbwa Mugabe, raised preliminary objections that the case should not go to a full hearing. Mugabe told Justice Mwayera that Saize in his summons to sue the State security agents did not name the officers who harassed and arrested him. Saize’s lawyer Passmore Nyakureba of Maunga Maanda and Associates said the arguments raised by State were meant to delay the finalisation of the matter. “These arguments are ill taken, they are meant to delay the finalisation of the matter because my client complied with everything the State needed,” Nyakureba said. “He was unlawfully arrested by officers from the army, Central Intelligence Organisation and from the Border Gezi while doing investigative journalism on Cyclone Idai donations to verify if allegations that they were stolen were true.” Saize claimed that on April 11, he travelled to Chimanimani to investigate alleged theft of Cyclone Idai donations by State security agents and government officials. It is alleged that while interviewing the survivors at Ngangu Primary School, the journalist was arrested by some members of the security forces. He was detained at Ngangu Primary School and some officers later forced him to accept a food donation and ordered him to sign for it before posting messages on social media that he had stolen the donations. Saize was handed over to police in Chimanimani who refused to open a docket against him, saying they recognised him as an accredited journalist.
The quarrel is over the rate at which Ethiopia fills the reservoir behind the dam and its effect on water supplies downstream in Sudan and Egypt—for who the Nile is the primary water source.
On and off since construction started, Egypt has threatened to go to war to secure continued access to the Nile waters.
If Egypt attacked Ethiopia, the antiquated idea that the Nile is a common good to which all have natural rights would collapse.
The Nile has two major tributaries—the White Nile is the headwaters and primary stream of the river, and the Blue Nile, containing 80 per cent of the water and originates in Ethiopia.
For now, Uganda should be able to collect custodian’s fees from South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt, and invest it in protecting the polluted Lake Nalubaale from which the Nile flows, and the real estate of the river that sits on its territory as it flows north.
[DW] Washington plans to lift sanctions on Sudan in return for compensation for terror victims, making the African country a pawn in the US election campaign. Experts say this approach to sanctions in Africa needs to change.
