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Source: ZESA proves changing one man at the top can transform an entire nation

The post ZESA proves changing one man at the top can transform an entire nation appeared first on Zimbabwe Situation.

HARARE – Ghana has postponed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s planned state visit, citing heightened diplomatic sensitivities following recent anti-immigrant protests in South Africa that have led to the repatriation of hundreds of Ghanaian nationals.

The visit, originally scheduled for the first week of August, had been expected to provide an opportunity for the two countries to ease growing diplomatic tensions and reinforce bilateral economic and political cooperation.

However, Ghanaian authorities said the prevailing climate surrounding xenophobia made it inappropriate to proceed with the visit at this time.

Government spokesperson Felix Kwakye Ofosu told the BBC that Accra had formally communicated its position to Pretoria.

“We sent them a communication indicating that it would be best to defer the visit in view of the present climate around xenophobia,” he said.

South Africa, however, disputed suggestions that President Ramaphosa had been turned away, maintaining that the postponement was mutually managed through diplomatic channels.

Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Pretoria remained committed to strengthening relations with Ghana despite the recent tensions.

“The two countries will continue to engage through diplomatic channels to identify a mutually convenient date,” Magwenya told the BBC.

He added that President Ramaphosa had postponed the visit rather than having it rejected by Ghana.

Relations between the two African economic powers have come under strain following weeks of anti-immigrant demonstrations in South Africa, where foreign nationals, including Ghanaians, have reportedly been targeted.

The unrest has prompted the Ghanaian government to repatriate more than 900 of its citizens from South Africa, while additional return flights are expected in the coming weeks.

Accra has also summoned South Africa’s envoy over the safety of Ghanaian nationals living in the country.

The diplomatic tensions intensified after Ghana condemned the killing of 40-year-old Ghanaian national Bahiru Isak in Khayelitsha, alleging the incident occurred during anti-immigration protests.

South African authorities have rejected claims that the death was linked to the demonstrations, insisting investigations have not established any connection.

Earlier this year, Ghana formally appealed to the African Union to intervene over recurring xenophobic attacks on African migrants in South Africa, arguing that such incidents undermine continental integration and economic cooperation.

Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Minister Samuel Ablakwa said the repeated attacks on African nationals were inconsistent with the African Union’s principles of solidarity, brotherhood and regional unity.

The latest diplomatic disagreement comes at a time when both Ghana and South Africa are seeking to deepen intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), with business leaders warning that prolonged political tensions could undermine investor confidence and regional economic integration.

Despite the postponement, officials from both governments have indicated that diplomatic engagement will continue, with a new date for President Ramaphosa’s visit expected to be agreed through bilateral consultations.

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HARARE – Zimbabwe is upgrading its mineral testing infrastructure in a renewed effort to curb revenue leakages from lithium exports, improve transparency in mineral valuation and maximise earnings from one of the country’s fastest-growing mining sectors.

According to Business Insider Africa, the government is investing in modern ore-testing laboratories to strengthen the accuracy of mineral assessments, enabling authorities to properly value lithium and associated rare minerals before they are exported.

The programme, being implemented by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development in collaboration with the Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), will begin with the expansion and modernisation of the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Harare before being rolled out to laboratories across the country.

The enhanced testing capacity is expected to improve accountability throughout the mining value chain, reduce the risk of undervaluation of mineral exports and ensure Zimbabwe receives appropriate royalties from lithium and other strategic minerals.

Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said the government was investing in laboratory infrastructure to better identify the wide range of valuable minerals contained within lithium ore.

“On the issue of minerals in a multi-ore body that we call lithium ore, there are other rare minerals in there being separated,” Prof Ncube said, as quoted by Business Insider Africa.

“For pure lithium, the beneficiation story is the story; it will continue. For lithium ore, as the Government, we are investing in and setting up laboratories to test the ore so we can set the right royalties for these other minerals.”

He acknowledged that lithium ore contains numerous associated rare minerals whose commercial value has yet to be fully determined.

“However, it is clear that the list of rare minerals is long and we may need more capacity and support to really know what is in this ore, but it will start with investment in testing labs.

“We are doing this as Government through the Ministry of Mines, and we are collaborating with our universities like the University of Zimbabwe and the School of Mines, among others,” he said.

Permanent Secretary for Mines and Mining Development Dr Thomas Utete-Wushe said the upgraded National Metallurgical Laboratory would become Zimbabwe’s principal reference facility for mineral testing across the entire mining value chain.

“The Ministry has resolved to capacitate and expand the National Metallurgical Laboratory in Harare into a comprehensive national reference laboratory capable of testing minerals across the entire mining value chain, from exploration samples to beneficiation and final product analysis,” Dr Utete-Wushe said.

He said the initiative forms part of a five-year development programme financed with support from MMCZ.

According to Dr Utete-Wushe, significant progress has already been made through the procurement of advanced analytical equipment, including an X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer, an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES), and a Carbon and Sulphur analyser.

The latest investment comes as global demand for lithium continues to rise, driven by its critical role in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage systems.

Zimbabwe, which possesses some of Africa’s largest hard-rock lithium deposits, has intensified efforts to move up the mineral value chain by promoting domestic processing and beneficiation instead of exporting raw materials.

Earlier this year, the government suspended exports of raw lithium concentrates amid concerns over revenue leakages and alleged irregularities in the marketing of the strategic mineral.

The move followed an earlier policy announcement that Zimbabwe intends to prohibit lithium concentrate exports from January 2027 in order to encourage local processing and increase value addition.

However, mining companies have since requested an extension of the implementation deadline to around the middle of 2027, arguing that additional time is required to complete processing facilities currently under construction.

By strengthening laboratory infrastructure and mineral analysis capabilities, the government hopes to improve investor confidence, ensure fair pricing of strategic minerals and secure greater economic returns from Zimbabwe’s expanding lithium industry, Business Insider Africa reported.

The post Zimbabwe Deepens Lithium Beneficiation Push with Modern Ore Testing Facilities appeared first on The Zimbabwe Mail.

HARARE – Ministers on Tuesday said Air Zimbabwe will resume direct flights between Harare and London by the end of this month, ending an absence from the route stretching back nearly 15 years.

Information minister Zhemu Soda, briefing journalists after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, said the airline would utilise a leased Airbus A330-300 aircraft from Spanish carrier Plus Ultra with a combined 302 seats, configured with 30 business class and 272 economy seats.

“The nation is advised that the airline will resume operations by end of July 2026…,” Soda said.

The airline would initially operate three weekly frequencies between Harare and London on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Air Zimbabwe last operated scheduled flights to London in December 2011, using Boeing 767-200 aircraft, before it mounting debts, creditor claims and operational challenges forced the route’s suspension.

At its peak, the airline flew six times weekly between Harare and London and also ran charter services linking the UK with Victoria Falls.

The airline has remained on the European Union’s Air Safety List since May 2017 over unaddressed safety deficiencies, and is separately barred from operating commercial services to, from and within the UK.

Under an Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance (ACMI) wet-lease arrangement, however, regulators permit banned carriers to exercise traffic rights using aircraft supplied by an approved operator – in this case Plus Ultra, which is providing the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance while flights operate under Air Zimbabwe’s flight code. The arrangement was brokered by Chapman Freeborn Aviation Services.

The relaunch forms part of a wider restructuring drive by the Mutapa Investment Fund (MIF), Air Zimbabwe’s shareholder, which has repeatedly flagged the London route as central to the airline’s recovery.

Industry data shows the Harare-London city pair generated roughly 108,000 two-way passengers in 2025 despite the absence of a direct service, with most travellers connecting through Addis Ababa, Dubai, Doha, Johannesburg or Nairobi.

The route is also seen as significant for Zimbabwe’s horticultural export trade, which previously relied on the direct London link to move fresh produce to British markets within 24 hours of harvest.

The airline has missed previous timelines for restoring the route, including an earlier target of June 2026 and widely-reported plans for a July 1 launch.

Source: ZimLive

The post Air Zimbabwe to resume Harare-London flights by end of July, cabinet says appeared first on The Zimbabwe Mail.

HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law constitutional amendments extending presidential terms from five to seven years, allowing him to remain in office until 2030, and abolishing the direct popular election of the president in favour of a vote by parliament.

Both houses of parliament, dominated by the ruling Zanu PF party and its proxies, approved the bill late last month. Mnangagwa’s assent to the Constitution of Zimbabwe (Amendment) Act (No. 3), 2026 – published as Act No. 6 of 2026 – was announced in a special government gazette on Tuesday.

The National Assembly voted 226 to 41 on 30 June to accept the changes proposed by the Senate, which had passed the bill 75 votes to 4 on June 24.

The raft of changes, labelled a “constitutional coup” by critics, extends the presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years, meaning the last of Mnangagwa’s constitutionally limited two terms, due to end in 2028, is now extended to 2030.

The new section 92 does away with direct presidential elections, introduced in 1987, replacing them with election by MPs sitting jointly in the Senate and National Assembly, held after every general election or whenever a vacancy arises.

A candidate needs more than half of the valid votes cast by MPs to win, with a run-off between the top two candidates if no one secures a majority in the first round. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will administer the process.

A person elected president must give up their seat in parliament, and any vacancy in the presidency must be filled within 30 days – during which no law introducing “substantive policy changes” may be passed.

However, opposition lawyer Doug Coltart has warned that the same provisions open the way for a president to begin a fresh seven-year term whenever elected by parliament, potentially allowing MPs “to continually renew their own mandate without ever returning to the electorate.”

“It’s an interpretation that we are now going to have to fight,” Coltart said.

Tendai Biti, leader of the Constitution Defenders Forum, said: “These amendments shift power and control to the few rag tag bandits that have made billions from looting the state.

“They create a clear pathway to power for syndicates and fat cats, unapologetic gold smugglers using expensive private jets to ferry gold bars from different disparate African state houses to the murky corridors of Dubai’s underworld.

“They allow the complete privatisation of power, pushing away power and legitimacy from millions of Zimbabweans to those that will be able to control the process and outcomes of any party primary election process. Democracy has been commodified.”

Section 120 is amended to expand the Senate from 80 to 90 members, adding a new category of 10 senators appointed directly by the president “for their professional skills and other competencies” after consultation with the National Assembly – a provision critics say further tilts the upper chamber toward the executive.

A new section 43A strips the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission of its long-standing role over the voters’ roll, transferring responsibility for registering voters and compiling and maintaining voters’ rolls and registers to the Registrar General. Correspondingly, section 239 is amended to repeal several of ZEC’s functions outright.

A separate new section 159A creates a Delimitation Commission to take over the redrawing of electoral boundaries from ZEC, chaired by a sitting or former Supreme Court judge (or someone qualified for that role) appointed after consultation with the Judicial Service Commission, alongside five other members with expertise in demography, public administration, cartography and a representative of the National Chiefs Council. The timeline for completing delimitation exercises is also extended from six to eighteen months.

The Act creates a new post of Judge President of the Supreme Court, who will head that court under the Chief Justice, who remains head of the judiciary overall and in charge of the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court’s minimum bench is set at five judges besides the Chief Justice and Deputy Chief Justice, and it gains a new discretionary jurisdiction to hear “any other matter” if it grants leave to appeal on a point of law of general public importance.

Public interviews for judicial officers have been scrapped. The president will now appoint the Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice, the two Judge Presidents and all other judges after consulting the JSC.

Part 6 of Chapter 12 of the Constitution, which established the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, is repealed entirely, with related conflict-resolution and healing functions folded into the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission’s mandate. The Zimbabwe Gender Commission, by contrast, survives, its proposed repeal in the original bill was dropped after a National Assembly amendment retained it, which the Senate subsequently endorsed.

Section 277 introduces gender and youth quotas for local councils elected through proportional representation, at least 30 percent women and 10 percent youth aged 18 to 35, while section 285 extends the term of the National Council and provincial assemblies of chiefs from five to seven years, mirroring the changes to presidential and parliamentary terms.

The changes have been sharply criticised by opposition figures, lawyers and church leaders. The Zimbabwe Heads of Christian Denominations, an umbrella grouping of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and UDACIZA, warned in a February pastoral statement that the amendments should not be enacted without a referendum, cautioning that bypassing Mnangagwa’s own past pledges to respect term limits “would deeply wound the nation’s trust.”

The Zimbabwe Council of Churches separately called the bill “morally indefensible” in April, while six war veterans and other applicants have mounted Constitutional Court challenges arguing the changes to entrenched term-limit provisions can only be made through a referendum under section 328.

Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has countered that lengthier terms for the president and parliament will remove “toxicity” from local politics.

“That five-year election cycle has proved too short for the work of building and developing the nation,” he told MPs.

“The divisive method of electing the president and the restless electoral cycle within which we have done that, do not stand apart. They reinforce one another to the detriment of the national interest in general and the development of the country in particular. That is the mischief which parliament has a constitutional duty to remedy.”

Zimbabwe’s opposition, weakened by years of repression and tainted elections, charges that the amendments will further entrench Zanu PF’s grip on power.

Mnangagwa, 83, came to power in 2017 in a military-backed coup that ousted Robert Mugabe at the age of 93 after 37 years in power.

Source: ZimLive

The post Mnangagwa signs into law Constitutional bill extending his rule to 2030, scrapping direct presidential vote appeared first on The Zimbabwe Mail.