Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Zimbabwe is in a catch 22 situation as South African banks are derisking from supplying the troubled southern African country with US dollar notes, an official with the central bank told miners Tuesday.

Source: ‘We can’t supply you with dollars anymore,’ SA banks tell Zim | Fin24

Zimbabwe is in a Catch-22 situation as South African banks are de-risking from supplying the troubled southern African country with US dollar notes, an official with the central bank told miners on Tuesday.

Speaking at a post 2019 Monetary Policy Statement review meeting with small-scale miners, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy director for Financial Markets William Manhimanzi said the central bank was struggling to pay miners in hard cash as it was failing to import notes via South Africa.

Zimbabwe pays its gold miners in cash, but has been failing to do so of late as the usual suppliers, South African banks, have been cutting ties amid fears of being fined by the United States’ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Zimbabwe is under United States sanctions and unless otherwise authorised or exempt, transactions involving the greenback are penalised if they involve an entity or individual listed on the Specially Designated Nationals List (a list of individuals and entities under US sanctions).

The nature of the regulations, however, makes it difficult for foreign banks to know whether they are dealing with Specially Designated Nationals or not, hence the decision by most South African banks to de-risk from dealing with Zimbabwean institutions.

“Ordinarily we import the cash from South Africa, and most of the banks, due to what we call de-risking issues, have now given us notice that they can no longer provide our own local banks with cash (US dollars), so we are in a Catch-22 situation,” said Manhimanzi.

He said the only South African bank that was still facilitating cash imports into Zimbabwe was First National Bank (FNB).

“The only bank that remained was FNB, and they gave notice in December 2018 that they would no longer be supplying our own local banks with cash.”

The move has not only affected banks, as money transfer agencies such as Western Union are failing to pay out remittances to beneficiaries due to their inability to bring in cash through their local banks.

The post ‘We can’t supply you with dollars anymore,’ SA banks tell Zim  appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Mnangagwa mirrors Mugabe: Report | Newsday (News)

BY TATENDA CHITAGU

ZIMBABWE’S new dispensation mirrors the previous regime as President Emmerson Mnangagwa – who won a disputed election last year – fails to walk the talk on democratic reforms, the latest annual Freedom in the World Report on political rights and civil liberties by international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Freedom House has indicated.

The report, titled Democracy in Retreat, assessed the state of freedom in 195 countries and 14 territories in 2018. The NGO’s methodology is informed by the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and is holistically applied to all countries and territories, discounting the economic, geographic, ethnic or religious factors for each nation.

“Zimbabwe’s political system returned in some ways to its pre-coup status quo, as the ruling Zanu PF party won deeply flawed general elections following the military’s ouster of longtime President Robert Mugabe in 2017. Despite Mnangagwa’s pledges to respect political institutions and govern in the interest of all Zimbabweans, his new administration has shown few signs that it is committed to fostering genuine political competition, and it has continued to enforce laws that limit expression,” the report
read.

Despite that, Zimbabwe’s rankings improved from being “not free” to “partly free” due to the July 30 2018 elections that sanitised the November 2017 coup.

“Zimbabwe’s status improved from not free to partly free because the 2018 presidential election, though deeply flawed, granted a degree of legitimacy to the rule of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had taken power after the military forced his predecessor’s resignation in 2017,” it says.

However, another report from the Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) – a tool that measures and monitors governance performance in African countries – has listed Zimbabwe as one of Africa’s four most improved countries over the past 10 years.

According to the 2018 annual report, from 2008 to 2017, Zimbabwe posted significant improvements on: safety and the rule of law; increased growth domestic product growth; enjoyed more reliable supply of electricity and improved conditions for foreign investments.

According to Freedom in the World Report, last year, the percentage of countries rated not free was at 25,6%, while those that were partly free was at 30,3%. Those considered free were at 44,1%.

The report says “freedom is in the balance” worldwide because the gains in global freedom are being undone by recent dictatorships in countries, which have been put under the
spotlight.

“While past years saw gains in global freedom, in the last decade the share of not free countries rose to nearly 26%, and the share of free countries declined to 44%. Countries with net declines in aggregate score have outnumbered those with gains for the past 13 years.”

The decline in countries ranked free is also blamed on the election indicators in many countries, while in others presidents want to cling on to power by amending their constitutions even when their term limits have ended.

According to Freedom House, “leaders in 34 countries have tried to revise term limits — and have been successful 31 times — since the 13-year global decline began”. Topping the list is Africa, Latin America, and the former Soviet Union, according to the report.

The post Mnangagwa mirrors Mugabe: Report appeared first on NewsDay Zimbabwe.

The post Mnangagwa mirrors Mugabe: Report appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

The prosecution seeks to add charges of money laundering against Grain Marketing Board (GMB) officials accused of defrauding the parastatal of over $1 million. Basilio Sandamu (64), the non-executive vice chairman of GMB and also the director of Romany Farm Pvt Ltd, and Taona Munzvandi (48), the chief executive officer of GMB Pension Fund, are jointly charged with Korbs Mutandiro (59), one of

Source: Chonzi set to bounce back at Town House | The Herald February 27, 2019

Dr Prosper Chonzi

Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
Suspended Harare City Council Health Services director Dr Prosper Chonzi is set to bounce back at Town House after he was cleared by a tribunal tasked to investigate alleged defiance by city executives to cut salaries in line with a 2013 Government directive.

The public health specialist was temporarily engaged by Government to help with a cholera outbreak which broke out in September last year.

Recent minutes of the Human Resources and General Purposes Committee chaired by Councillor Jacob Mafume showed that the committee considered a confidential report by Rtd Major Matthew Marara, recommending that council notes the outcome of the disciplinary hearing in respect of Dr Chonzi and the decision to clear the senior council employee to resume work once council processes had been completed.

“The acting human capital director reported that our heads of department (Dr Cainos Chingombe and Mr Tendai Kwenda), including the then acting town clerk (Mrs Josephine Ncube) had been suspended from council service pending disciplinary hearings in view of the recommendations of a tribunal that investigated issues to do with executives’ salaries,” read the minutes.

“Two of the suspected executives had subsequently been recommended for dismissal from council service and the matter was currently before the Local Government Board. However, the disciplinary hearing absolved the director of Health Services of the charges levelled against him and, therefore, cleared him to resume duty.”

During discussion, the acting town lerk Mr Charles Kandemiri reported that council’s external lawyers had advised that the city’s chances of success on appeal against the verdict of the disciplinary committee were slim.

They further advised the city to consider the second option in the verdict of reinstating Dr Chonzi.

Following further discussion, the committee resolved to recommend that council notes the outcome of the disciplinary hearing in respect Dr Chonzi and that it clears him to resume work once council’s processes are completed.

An audit report sanctioned by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing noted that the city executives continued to earn between $12 000 and $21 000 from October 2014 to June 2015, as opposed to $10 450 for the highest earner as stipulated by the Government.

The report indicated that council was prejudiced of $550 000.

Government was yet to respond to Harare’s decision to fire the other two directors who were found guilty of maladministration and awarding themselves unapproved salaries.

The post Chonzi set to bounce back at Town House  appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

A Chitungwiza man was yesterday jailed 14 years effective for raping a 20-year-old mentally-challenged woman. Simbarashe Mazoni (28) was convicted by Chitungwiza regional magistrate Mrs Estere Chivasa after a full trial. He was initially sentenced to 16 years in prison before two years were suspended on condition of good behaviour. In passing the sentence, Mrs Chivasa blasted Mazoni for his