Zim News Blog -NEWS NETWORK

Source: We’re marching to the US Embassy — War vets | The Herald March 12, 2019

Cde Matemadanda

Gwanda Correspondent
THE Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) is organising a nationwide march to the United States Embassy in Harare against illegal sanctions that were imposed on the nation by Western countries.

Speaking during a meeting with the war veterans’ association leadership from Matabeleland South Province at the Gwanda District Club yesterday, Deputy Minister for Defence and War Veterans Affairs Victor Matemadanda, said the date of the march would be announced in due course, but all Zimbabweans were encouraged to attend.

He said the illegal sanctions were behind economic challenges faced by the nation and it was high time people demanded to have them removed.

Cde Matemadanda said the march would be held under the theme, “Zimbabwe United Against Sanctions”.

“The purpose of my visit here is to tell you about the march we are organising. Every Zimbabwean has been affected by sanctions and we have to march to the American Embassy in Harare where we will not ask, but tell them to remove the sanctions. This event will be the mother of all marches. It’s not only for the Zanu-PF party, but it’s for all Zimbabweans.

“We want all unemployed graduates to come in their gowns, artisanal miners, the ill people who can’t afford to buy medicine, grandmothers who are looking after orphans, doctors who are demanding a raise, various political parties and everyone who is affected by the state of our economy which is caused by illegal sanctions to march to the American Embassy and state their case. Right now we are conscientising people so that when the date is announced people will be ready,” he said.

Cde Matemadanda said President Mnangagwa was working to revive the economy, but the sanctions had been imposed deliberately in order to financially disable the President and his Government.

He said as long as sanctions remained, it would be difficult to address the welfare of Zimbabweans, war veterans included. Cde Matemadanda said all political parties and their leaders were expected to participate in the march and advocate for sanctions to be lifted in order to prove that they were concerned about the welfare of Zimbabweans.

“I know that as war veterans you have issues concerning your welfare, but I want us to look into the cause of our problems and try and address it. Our main problem is sanctions and Nelson Chamisa and Tendai Biti recently asked America to extend these sanctions.

“President Mnangagwa has done enough to have the sanctions lifted such as holding free and fair elections, but they have not been removed as the Western countries want their puppets to rule the country. America has no history of bringing peace into any country as they only bring pain and suffering. They want us to surrender our independence in order for them to remove the sanctions, but we won’t yield as we know the blood and sweat that was put into liberating this country,’’ he said.

Cde Matemadanda urged Zimbabweans to desist from blaming the Government for the challenges they were facing as they were caused by Western countries and  former president Mugabe had also crippled the country’s economy during his reign.

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Source: VPs to lead Harare, Byo restructuring | Herald (Top Stories)

Bulawayo Bureau
ZANU-PF yesterday said the dissolution of the party’s structures in Bulawayo and Harare will address problems that have resulted in the party perennially losing elections in the two metropolitan provinces.

Last week, Zanu-PF First Secretary and President Cde Mnangagwa dissolved all the party’s structures in Bulawayo and Harare.

The party announced that further communication on the issue would be released in due course.

In an interview yesterday, the party’s Secretary for Administration, Cde Obert Mpofu, said Vice President Constantino Chiwenga is superintending the party’s affairs in Harare while Vice President Kembo Mohadi has been assigned to oversee structures in Bulawayo.

He said President Mnangagwa’s deployment of his two deputies shows the party’s seriousness in rebuilding structures.

“The party has always performed badly in Bulawayo and Harare in national elections. That is why we have one or two seats in the two provinces. The party is looking at all the operations in all provinces with a view to strengthening them. That’s why you have these initiatives headed by the Vice Presidents. It shows the seriousness with which the party considers structures throughout the country,” Cde Mpofu said.

In the harmonised elections held last year, Zanu-PF only claimed a seat each in both Bulawayo and Harare.

Cde Mpofu said he cannot comment on the assignments of Dr Chiwenga and Cde Mohadi in the provinces.

Prior to dissolving structures in Bulawayo, Cde Mpofu was assigned to address problems affecting the province.

He said money, lies and gossip were weakening the party’s structures in the province.

Cde Mpofu had to censure party members who were angling for the provincial chairman’s post following the death of national hero and Zanu-PF provincial chairman Professor Callistus Ndlovu.

Zanu-PF is set to roll out a nationwide restructuring exercise to strengthen the party’s grassroots structures.

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Source: Heatwave threatens to slash harvests in drought-hit Zimbabwe | Successful Farming

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe  (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Despite a dry year, Sazini Moyo’s maize crop had been pushing up tassels and she anticipated a decent harvest – until her farm outside Bulawayo sweltered through a record five-day heatwave in late February and early March.

Now she fears almost her entire parched crop is a write-off.

“I’m very disappointed, I have lost a lot of money buying expensive seed and fertilisers. All my energy used in tilling the land has gone to waste,” the 40-year-old farmer in Matabeleland South province told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

According to the Zimbabwe Meteorological Services Department, the province this month suffered five consecutive days of temperatures on average 2 to 4 degrees Celsius above the normal March high of 32 degrees.

In low-lying Beitbridge, near the border with South Africa, the high temperature hit 38.7 degrees (101 degrees Fahrenheit), the met office said.

The heat, which made already dry conditions worse, has hit both crops and livestock, said Obey Chaputsira, the administrator for Matobo District, a drought-prone, low-lying area of Matabeleland South.

“The crop situation currently is very bad,” he said, with grazing areas and water supplies for livestock also affected.

Since last year, his area has seen 200 livestock deaths linked to drought, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This month, the United Nations launched an international appeal for $234 million in emergency aid for Zimbabwe, where drought is expected to affect a third of the country’s crop and leave 5.3 million people needing assistance.

Zimbabwe’s annual maize consumption is 1.8 million tonnes but farmer groups said this year’s drought-hit harvest may be less than 1 million tonnes.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said the country had 500,000 tonnes of the grain in strategic reserves.

Joseph Gondo, principal director of the Department of Crop and Livestock, confirmed that the country’s harvests are expected to suffer as a result of the unusual heat.

“Crops that are on the tasseling stages are the most affected by the heatwave. We encourage farmers not to apply fertilisers at this moment,” he said.

Gondo said other districts across the country also are struggling with dry conditions.

“Some farmers have already lost their crops while others continue hoping it rains because their crops still have a chance,” he told Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Food insecurity in both rural and urban areas has increased across Zimbabwe this year, with Matabeleland North and Matabeleleland South provinces hardest hit, according to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee’s (ZimVac) lean season monitoring report for 2019.

Agritex agronomist Kennedy Mabehla said crop assessments across Zimbabwe were underway, with a report on expected yields for the year due out after April.

The dryer and hotter conditions are in line with predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which has said rising emissions could lead to more frequent droughts, hotter conditions and more extreme weather across southern Africa.

Across the globe, the years 2015-2018 have been the hottest four years ever recorded, meteorologists said.

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LOCAL church leaders have called on Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor John Mangudya to apologise for misleading the nation into false belief the bond note was equal to the US dollar. This is after the church leaders under the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) had met the under fire central bank boss on Sunday […]

Cheap imports from South Africa and other countries cited as reason.

Source: Zimbabwe region shutters more than 70 mills | 2019-03-12 | World Grain

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