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Source: Govt opens up fuel imports | The Herald March 6, 2019

Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Monica Mutsvangwa

Felex Share Senior Reporter
Government has liberalised the importation of fuel with Cabinet yesterday giving big companies with free funds the green light to import fuel for their own consumption. This is meant to augment supply gaps in the market. Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa confirmed the development while addressing journalists after yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

This comes as Cabinet also resolved that the ongoing partial privatisation of ZUPCO, which is in sync with public enterprise reforms espoused in Government’s Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP), be expedited to boost recapitalisation of the company.

On the liberalisation of fuel importation, Minister Mutsvangwa said: “Cabinet received the weekly supply situation report from the Minister of Energy and Power Development. In order to close the fuel supply gaps in the market during the course of the week eight million litres of diesel were released into the market. Following the release of funding by the RBZ, the fuel supply situation is now expected to stabilise as the week progresses. Furthermore, Cabinet has given a green light to large companies such as those in the mining sector to use their funds to import fuel for their use.”

In 2015, Statutory Instrument (SI) 171 was amended to allow members of the public to import up to 2 000 litres of fuel per month for personal use.

However, the legal instrument was repealed two years later through SI 122 of 2017, which stipulated that only companies licensed in terms of Section 29 of the Petroleum Act were allowed to import fuel. The market is currently plagued by intermittent stock-outs, which are negatively affecting individual consumers and businesses.

Energy and Power Development Minister Joram Gumbo said individuals will not be allowed to import fuel on their own.

“Government has given the green light to mining companies and those in the farming sector to import fuel using their own funds,” he said.

“At the moment no individual is allowed to do that. Regarding the issue of diesel, it is true that last week there was shortage of diesel and the His Excellency allowed us to use stragetic reserves to bring in diesel to mitigate the situation as we were allowing oil companies to do their usual ordering of fuel into the market. We hope that come end of week, things will have stabilised for both products.”

Minister Mutsvangwa said Cabinet deliberated on ways of improving ZUPCO operations.

“Cabinet resolved that ZUPCO be capacitated through recruitment and training of critical personnel thereat,” she said.

“It resolved that an electronic ticketing system be introduced to increase revenue collection and service efficiency and that the options to either import finished buses and/or knocked down kits for assembling locally be speedily concluded. Cabinet also mandated the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development together with the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and other related key stakeholders to assiduously work on revamping the country’s urban mass transport system, beginning with Harare and Bulawayo.”

She said for Harare the programme will incorporate aspects such as completion of the Airport Road and the flyover towards Enterprise Road and construction of ring roads and flyovers around Harare to decongest and bring sanity in the Central Business District (CBD).

Installation of an electonic traffic management system consistent with the smart city concept,she said, should also done under the programme.

Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo said the ZUPCO system was progressing well in all urban areas.

“We have been able to cover our vehicle operation costs and that is important,” he said.

“The hiring of those vehicles is like your capital expenditure that we have not been able to cover right now. So there is an element of subsidy that we are doing but we are happy that the operations can cover fuel and salaries. We think we can create a viable system in urban areas. We are fine- tuning because in some areas we put too many buses and we are downsizing. In some areas like Harare we had to increase the number of buses because the commuter omnibuses were having difficulties in accessing fuel.”

He said Government was paying each bus $700 per day.

“We charged a flat rate of $700 RTGS per day, “ said Minister Moyo.

“We expected at that time that each bus will run nine trips but those have not been achieved because of congestion. So the subsidy in the first month was larger than normal but we think that in the next month it is going going to be lower. We are now fine-tuning with the bus owners for us to pay for a bus that has done work.”

The post Govt opens up fuel imports appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

Source: Medicines body blasts Magaya | The Herald March 6, 2019

Walter Magaya

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries founder Prophet Walter Magaya has not yet approached the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe to register his traditional herbs which he claimed cured HIV/AIDS, legislators heard yesterday.

The authority’s managing director, Ms Gugu Mahlangu, said it was strange that despite Prophet Magaya’s claims that the root was indigenous and found in Zimbabwe, the drug was manufactured in India.

Prophet Magaya’s company was recently convicted and fined $700 for failing to register the drug which he claimed cured HIV/AIDS. Ms Mahlangu said this while giving oral evidence before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care.

Legislators wanted to know why the authority was not licensing traditional medicines in the wake of the high costs of Western drugs. They also wanted to know what had become of Prophet Magaya’s Aguma.

“Aguma did not come through us. It came through the backdoor when it is supposed to come to us us. Apparently it is from a root that is indigenous to the country but studies, the prophet claims, were done elsewhere. He has not given us the studies yet, so we are still waiting for the product but we were involved in that whole saga because obviously he was making claims,” said Ms Mahlangu.

She said the challenges with traditional medicines were that practitioners were hesitant to submite their herbs to testing.

“Our traditional medical practitioners do not seem keen to come forward to have their medicines for registration. We now have a new avenue that relates to complementary medicine, so they will fall under complementary medicine. We have had one, though, who has come through and he is going to manufacture locally. We have inspected his facility. He was doing it from his garage and we said no and urged him to find a suitable place and inspectors gave him guidelines then he found premises in Murehwa and inspectors went there last week,” said Ms Mahlangu.

“I think inspectors will be assisting him to make sure premises meet the requirements. He will be the first one and we hope he will be the trendsetter. The challenge with complementary medicine is that we do not know about the therapeutic efficacy of the product.

“All we can say is that it appears to be safe. It does not appear to contain any dangerous substances, so it can be allowed to be used,” she said.

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Market analysts expect a self-correction of the price of stocks listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) following the establishment of the real time gross settlement dollar (ZWR) and floating of the exchange rate. Since [...]

Source: Mzembi faces extradition | Herald (Africa)

Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter
The State is starting the extradition process on fugitive former Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi, who is believed to be holed up in South Africa, to bring him to trial on charges of theft of trust property. The allegations against Mzembi, who is on an outstanding warrant of arrest, arose during the time he was a Cabinet minister.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Hoseah Mujaya yesterday granted the State a longer remand period to May 7, following an application premised on the extradition process.

Prosecutor Mr Brian Vito sought for the longer remand period, saying it will allow the State to start and finish the extradition process.

In January, Mzembi’s lawyer, Mr Job Sikhala, claimed in court that his client was critically ill and unfit to stand trial.

The case was deferred several times on grounds that the former minister was too sick to stand trial. Contrary to claims by Mr Sikhala, Mzembi was recently caught on camera fit and jovial in a video believed to have been shot soon after the claims of illness.

This prompted the prosecution to successfully apply for a warrant of arrest. Mzembi is facing $1,6 million theft of trust property charges and another involving $184 336.

He is said to have connived with two others and seized vehicles which, according to the State, should have been surrendered after the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly held in Victoria Falls in 2013.

On the other charge, Mzembi is jointly charged with Margaret Sangarwe and Aaron Mushoriwa. When the alleged accomplices appeared in court yesterday, they successfully applied to have their reporting conditions scrapped.

Through their lawyers, Messrs Farai Mushoriwa and Tapiwa Mudambanuki, they argued that it was not their fault that the State was failing to put its house in order.

But they failed in their bid for refusal of further remand, despite arguing vigorously that they had been on remand for a long time without going to trial.

Mr Mujaya said he was giving the State one last chance to put its house in order.

The State alleges Mzembi obtained $2 million from Treasury to buy 40 LED PVA screens in 2010. The money was paid to suppliers, Shanghai Linso Digital Technology Company, and the screens were recorded in the ministry’s asset register upon delivery.

Mzembi allegedly abused his office criminally by intentionally disposing of 16 screens via donations and loaning or hiring them out to various institutions without Treasury’s approval.

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MDC Secretary-General Douglas Mwonzora has told the veterans of the 1970s liberation war to not stick their noses into MDC business as the party heads to Congress. Mwonzora said the Congress is an internal MDC affair which will be decided only by delegates who are bona fide MDC members. “The war veterans and their party […]