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BEIRA, Mozambique (Reuters) – Rescuers said they would reach hundreds of people on Monday still stranded more than a week after a powerful cyclone struck Mozambique and swathes of southeast Africa, as roads started to [...]

Source: Cyclone Idai may affect fuel supplies Fuel | Daily News

AS Zimbabwe seems to be on the verge of yet another fuel crisis, government has rubbished claims there will be another outage in the country. This comes after fuel pumps have been seemingly running dry with local commuter omnibuses draining the frustrated commuting public — hiking bus fare prices by 100 percent under the guise of fuel shortages.

At the same time, one of the country’s largest fuel retailers, Total Zimbabwe, recently released a warning letter of a possible shortage of fuel due to the destruction caused of Cyclone Idai, which left a lot of infrastructure in the Mozambican port city of Beira ruined.

“They (people) should not listen to that but they should listen to what we release as the government ministry responsible for fuel supplies in the country,” said Energy ministry deputy minister Magna Mudyiwa, speaking at the 46th Southern African Power Poll (Sapp) executive committee meeting in Harare.

Cyclone Idai knocked down the Companhiado De Pipeline Mozambique-Zimbabwe (CPMZ) control room at Beira in Mozambique last week, affecting the pumping of fuel and natural gas to Feruka Oil Refinery in Mutare.

CPMZ controls the fuel pipeline from Beira to Feruka in Mutare.
Fuel retailers have already been struggling to keep up with demand and the wrecking of the fuel pipeline from Beira to Zimbabwe could compound the delicate situation. While conditions of the fuel pipeline are yet to be established Mudyiwa said that precautions to safeguard the pipeline had already been taken before the Cyclone closed in.

“The pipeline had been shut down on March 15 in anticipation and as a safety precautionary measure but what we got is that were the pumping is done is where they haven’t resumed pumping,” she said.
Mudyiwa added that the CPMZ is currently working to resuscitate the control room pump while the actual pipeline was not damaged during the cyclone.

“They are trying to sort out a few challenges that they have been facing and we hope the worst scenario that we can get is that they resume pumping by April 8 but we anticipate that it can be earlier,” Mudyiwa said.

Meanwhile, government has also been struggling to pay heavy foreign currency premiums for fuel imports.
The new Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) which has opened a new exchange rate under the interbank market exchange rate has also compounded the situation and fears of another fuel price hike are looming.

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Source: Will ED deliver on Byo promises? | Daily News

LAST week President Emmerson Mnangagwa made an unprecedented move to lure the much radical and vocal Matabeleland civic society to his Bulawayo State House.

Here, Mnangagwa judiciously allowed the civic society members who had been given a rare opportunity to directly outpour their burning issues and reveal what was burning in their hearts. It was a first for both parties as this never happened during former President Robert Mugabe’s 37 years rein.

Some of the key issues that featured prominently in the discussion is the decriminalisation where those affected by Gukurahundi should be allowed to discuss their experiences without fear of being arrested.
The issue of reburials also came up with families of victims asking to be allowed to exhume and rebury their loved ones in order for them to find healing and closure.

Another issue was access to documentation where families of Gukurahundi victims should be assisted with death certificates that clearly state the causes of death. While there was nothing new on these demands, the difference now was that instead of using the usual radical form of advocacy like demonstrations and using the media to deliver their demands or petitions, this time they had come face to face with the highest office.

By any measure of doubt, the issues highlighted above have been some of the burning issues that had created bad blood between government and civic society in Matabeleland. Though shrewdly, Mnangagwa was equal to the task promising to fulfil almost the entirety of their demands. Whether he will fulfil or not, the nation waits to see.

Political analyst Vivid Gwede said while Mnangagwa promised to meet their demands, it might have all ended at the meeting.
“I think that Mnangagwa is trying to continue with the image that he is a listening president, but we have not seen substance in that rhetoric.

“Currently, there is a call for national dialogue in the country and we are not seeing progress in that. “The issue of Matabeleland requires genuine efforts at truth-telling and national healing.  “Yes, Matabeleland civic groups must be heard, but there is need for a genuine, open and holistic approach to achieve national healing as required by the constitution,” Gwede said.

Another political analyst Thomas Sithole said Mnangagwa was simply trying to break with the past. “Efforts to engage government in the past by civic society always hit a brick hall. It’s encouraging to see that Mnangagwa seems willing to engage and listen to civic society.

“He is obviously pitching as an engaging and listening leader who is doing things differently given his predecessor’s stance and attitude towards civic society that he saw as agents of regime change.
“However, it shall be noted that while some civic society members became closer to some political formations as a result of the struggle referred to above, the mainstream civic society remains non-partisan and impartial,” Sithole said.

Matabeleland Collective spokesperson Dumisani Nkomo however defended their meeting with Mnangagwa saying as civic society they were non-partisan. “We are not partisan; we are not an appendage of any political party.

“Whenever we have issues we address them to the relevant person that’s how advocacy work in any part of the world.
“For instance the issue of Gukurahundi, we invited Mnangagwa and we spoke clearly about it, just like we did on devolution and other issues because we feel it’s him who should address those issues.

“And trust me we are going to hold the government accountable on those issues,” Nkomo said.

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Source: We are not Zanu PF, Khupe's MDC says | Daily News

THE Thokozani Khupe-led MDC has dismissed claims they are working with the ruling Zanu PF party alleging those spreading such rumours are being “jealous” of its leader.

The party’s spokesperson Webster Dube said Khupe will not sell out the people’s struggle for money or power by “forging an alliance with Zanu PF. Khupe was constitutionally elected as the president of the MDC at the Bulawayo Stanley Square Congress of April 2018.
“We state unequivocally that we are not Zanu PF.”

He said those who continue to spread the “unfounded, malicious and defaming rumours” are being used by certain political parties whose members are jealous of Khupe because of her political and personal accomplishments.

Dube maintained that Khupe is participating in the national dialogue to contribute to home grown solutions to the problems facing the country and not to seek political office or praise from President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Khupe is one of the 2018 presidential candidates that are taking part in national dialogue at Mnangagwa’s invitation.
“She fully understands that wishing for government’s failure is signing a death certificate of Zimbabweans because if government fails, it is the ordinary men and women on the street that will suffer,” Dube said.

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NORTON legislator Temba Mliswa (INDEPENDENT) was involved in a road traffic accident as he was doing errands to do with the funeral of a colleague. Inviolata Dumbutshena, herself a lawyer by profession and the grand daughter to Zimbabwe’s former Chief Justice Enoch Dumbutshena, died in a horrific car accident on Saturday afternoon along Chatsworth/Mvuma road. […]

The National Assembly portfolio committee meetings and Senate thematic committee meetingslisted below, to be held this week at Parliament in Harare, will be open to the public.

Source: Open Committee Meetings: Monday 25th to Thursday 28th March – The Zimbabwean

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Fears of diseases creating another crisis as clean-up operations after the devastation of Cyclone Idai continue in the affected countries.

Source: Disease fears creating crisis in aftermath of Cyclone Idai | eNCA

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President Emmerson Mnangagwa will continue hiring expensive private planes when he is travelling until the government gets him a dedicated presidential jet or until the country has a functioning national airline. This is the message coming from Mnangagwa's spokesperson George Charamba who was responding to questions on why Mnangagwa was using expensive private jets. Mnangagwa […]

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