Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

28 people have died in Chimanimani, Manicaland province, as inclement weather conditions occasioned with Cylone Idai continue to affect Zimbabwe, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Mike Madiro has said. The deceased include three learners at St Charles Lwanga High School and 10 victims from Ngangu Township. However, many people are still missing, raising fears the […]

Forty three (43) people have been injured in an accident involving a CAG bus in Kadoma this morning. The bus, heading to Harare from Victoria Falls, overturned and rolled three times before landing on its wheels, injuring all the 43 on board. Police spokesperson for Mashonaland West Province, Inspector Clemence Mabweazara said the driver may […]

Zimbabwe’s ministry of information announced on Twitter that so far the number of deaths is confirmed at 24.

Source: At least 24 dead, dozens missing after cyclone hits parts of Zimbabwe | eNCA

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Source: Churches ask UK to remove sanctions | Daily News

Churches yesterday met British head of Political and Public Affairs John Culley to follow-up on a petition against sanctions which they said were hurting ordinary Zimbabweans.

The meeting was held at the British Embassy in Harare and was attended by Zimbabwe Amalgamated Council of Churches (ZACC) members, the African Union’s (AU) Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) members and country representative Tamuka Magwenzi among others.

Briefing journalists after their meeting, Zacc head of media Davison Gomo said the churches told the Brits about the adverse impact of sanctions on trade, investment inflows, and the country’s political risk profile and reputation. Gomo said churches also queried why other countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and DRC were not placed under sanctions yet had serious human rights violations during elections, including xenophobia.

This comes after the United States (US) and European Union (EU) also extended sanctions for another year citing gross human rights violations. Zacc patron Jimayi Muduvuri called for the pin-pointing of the villains so that they don’t include ordinary Zimbabweans in the equation.

Culley reportedly insisted that the sanctions did not hurt ordinary people and singled out targeted people such as Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Foreign Affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo, Defence Forces commander Valerio Sibanda and Lands minister Perrance Shiri as the people targeted by the special measures and other State entities.

The British diplomat also emphasised that the sanctions were imposed as a result of electoral theft, the crushing of civil liberties and rights abuses, which the regime continues to do.  Culley reported said the August 1, 2018 and January 2019 violent army crackdown prompted superpowers to relent on removing sanctions from Zimbabwe.

“They believe that there are circumstances that still justify the continuance of sanctions,” Gomo said.  “The costs that arise from sanctions are just too huge for a small country like us to bear…the sanctions don’t comply with international law…they are not legitimate… as there is no provision in the United Nations (UN) for unilateral sanctions except as authorised by the UN security council.”

The churches will also be meeting the US and EU next week on their quest to call for the removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe.

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Source: Innscor records $64m profit | Daily News

INNSCOR Africa Limited (Innscor) recorded a 167 percent increase in profit to $64,011 million for the six months ended December 31, 2018 compared to a $23,963 million recorded in prior period driven by double-digit volume growth across all categories.

Addington Chinake, Innscor’s chairperson, said revenue was up 61 percent to $489,893 million for the period under review compared to $304,806 recorded in prior period. He said during the review period, foreign currency supply to support both working capital and capital expenditure requirements difficulties led to production constraints and delays in a number of capital projects although policy changes worked for the better.

“These policy changes also sparked a wave of increased consumer demand, and volumes were generally very firm across the group’s entire portfolio during the period,” he said. Chinake said consolidation of both Prodairy and Probottlers, following restructures, also added to the growth in revenue, as did the improvement in the Irvine’s business as it continued its recovery from the Avian Influenza epidemic encountered in 2017.

“Group’s well-priced raw materials pipeline, distortions in margins arising from stock replacement policies, an improved sales mix, continually improving factory efficiencies, volume-driven conversion and distribution efficiencies, and the lag in inflation on operating expenditure, translated to improved margins and a satisfactory growth in operating profit over the comparative period,” he said.

The listed group’s capital expenditure was at $27,801 million, driven by significant increases in costs of imported items and deployed towards improving efficiencies, innovations and new capacity at National Foods, Natpak and Irvine’s. Assets increased to $712,636 million during the review period compared to $565,143 million reported in prior period.

Chinake said availability of foreign currency will continue to dictate the pace at which Innscor executes its capital expenditure projects.
He said the firm welcomes the recent Monetary Policy Statement as it is a large user of foreign currency and said this seeks to provide a transparent mechanism for importers to access currency from the market, whilst providing exporters value for their foreign currency earnings.

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