CHINA BEGAN SEVERELY RESTRICTING the export of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as gowns and masks, months before notifying the world of the outbreak of Covid-19, it has emerged.PPE exports to the US fell by around 50 per cent between August and September of 2019, in a significant drop which raised alarm bells at key US government agencies.China also started to buy up global PPE stocks in Europe, Australia and the US around the same…

ZANU PF stalwarts and ex-ministers in the current administration and late former President Robert Mugabe’s government are plotting a political comeback after they were cleared by the politburo to contest in the party’s central committee elections set for today and tomorrow, NewsDay Weekender has learnt. Some current ministers, who also did not meet the party’s selection criteria, were also plotting to make some inroads into key party organs. This followed a decision to waiver restrictions,…

ZIMBABWE DEPLOYS MILITARY in newfound oilfields along the Zambezi basin. ZIMBABWE’S military incursion into the Mashonaland Central province for a routine training exercise is part of efforts by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) to familiarise itself with the area as the Southern African country stands on the verge of discovering oil reserves along the Zambezi basin. The operation is meant to secure what may turn out to be oil reserves in Muzarabani. Before publication, efforts…

ZIMBABWEANS LED MAIL INTERCEPTION fraudsters who terrorised northern England Proceeds of crime proceedings have begun against mail interception fraudsters who targeted mainly rural addresses across the North East. Two leading members of the gang were jailed and three accomplices received suspended sentences after they were convicted at Durham Crown Court earlier this year. The court heard their crimes involved them intercepting postal deliveries to remote addresses, many of them farms, with exterior mail boxes. Letters…

CHAMISA’S LAWYER says he faces ‘extortionate’ means PROMINENT attorney Advocate Thabani Mpofu, involved in a wrangle with Zimbabwean-Croat Joseph Crnkovic, a former finance officer for Chegutu-based mining company Dallaglio Investments, over allegations that he received a bribe to conceal racism allegations levelled against the company and its chief executive Michael Fowler, says he is facing “extortionate means” from his accuser. Mpofu bitterly complains to the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) that he faces extortionate means…

‘ NELSON CHAMISA is a dictactor’ -Dr Pedzisayi Ruhanya says As cracks continue to widen in the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), one of the party’s key advisors, who is also University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Dr Pedzisayi Ruhanya has warned that CCC leader, Nelson Chamisa, was fast precipitating into a dictator. Adding that Chamisa’s “machiavellain politics” were contradictory to democratic principles. Ruhanya further bemoaned that the main opposition under Chamisa had lost the collective values…

PRESIDENT Mnangagwa’s son-in-law Gerald Mlotshwa captures Trevor Ncube’s media group PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son in-law Gerald Mlotshwa – a prominent lawyer married to the ruling Zanu-PF leader’s daughter Farai – has now formally bought a significant equity stake at the privately-owned multimedia house Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) owned by local publisher Trevor Ncube. This comes amid a cocktail of operational challenges within the company after it emerged this week that management told representatives of workers…

ZIMBABWE HAS BEEN RANKED AS THE most “repressed” State globally amid concerns over a shrinking democratic space in the country following a sustained assault on the opposition and civic groups. Government is now pushing to have the Private Voluntary Organisations (PVOs) Amendment Bill enacted into law to regulate the operations of civic groups, accusing them of pushing a regime change agenda. According to a new watchlist by global human rights watchdog CIVICUS Monitor, Zimbabwe’s civic…

The Harare manager shot a man in the head in a drunken bar row, a court heard on Monday.Service manager Leonard Dahwa, 54, was denied bail by Harare magistrate Taurai Manuwere after he was charged with attempted murder. He was remanded in custody to October 12.The National Prosecuting Authority said Dahwa and victim Wellington Mavaza, 28, were drinking beer at Nyangani Nightclub in Warren Park 1 on September 21 when Mavaza had a misunderstanding with…

MAN shot dead in break-in at Central Intelligence Organisation deputy director Gatsha Mazithulela, Harare Home. The incident took place at around 2AM on Thursday at Mazithulela’s Crichton Road residence in the Groombridge area of Mt Pleasant. The former National University of Science and Technology vice chancellor, who was appointed to the role in January 2020, was unharmed in the incident. Neighbours said they woke up to the sound of gunfire, and before long the Mazithulela…