Category: zimbabwe

Source: Are Zimbabweans in danger of mass starvation over government Super El Niño unpreparedness?

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Are Zimbabweans in danger of mass starvation over government Super El Niño unpreparedness?
 

 
As global meteorologists issue unambiguous warnings of a severe Super El Niño threatening the 2026/27 agricultural season, a chilling sense of déjà vu hangs over Zimbabwe.
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Climate projections point to an overwhelming probability of prolonged, meteorological drought across Southern Africa. 
Yet, despite these clear early warning signals, those in authority appear to have buried their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. 
We are lulled into a false sense of security while walking blindly into an impending humanitarian disaster.
What makes the coming crisis so terrifyingly unique is that the traditional safety nets no longer exist. 
In previous emergencies, Zimbabweans could count on international humanitarian intervention to plug domestic deficits. 
That buffer has evaporated. 
Facing a historic global financial crunch, the World Food Programme has seen its funding collapse by nearly 40 percent from peak levels. 
The agency is operating under strict emergency triage, reducing rations and dropping millions from its rolls worldwide. 
If a devastating drought strikes, declaring a state of national disaster will not magically bring food aid to our borders. 
The aid pipeline is dry, leaving millions of vulnerable citizens at direct risk of famine.
Even without a Super El Niño, the nation’s food security is already fraying at the seams. 
In Matabeleland, major industrial millers like Blue Ribbon Industries alongside dozens of smaller operations have been forced to suspend operations. 
They simply cannot find local maize to process. 
Predictably, the government has rushed to deny any crisis, insisting that the national silos are overflowing with strategic reserves. 
But these claims of “bumper harvests” crumble under scrutinizing reality. 
Prominent economists like Eddie Cross have publicly questioned these authorities’ glowing statistics.
He has even openly wondered why officialdom insists on fabricating agricultural success stories while we inevitably end up begging for international assistance.
Rather than acting like the biblical Joseph—using current months to actively stockpile grain for the lean year ahead—the government’s policy framework seems explicitly designed to self-sabotage. 
Under Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025, authorities imposed restrictive levies and tight import regulations meant to force processors into local sourcing. 
This policy makes zero sense during an impending shortage. 
Local millers, starved of domestic grain, are crippled by upfront import levies, making it impossible to secure grain on viable commercial terms.
Waiting until the drought lands to scramble for imports will prove catastrophic. 
The Super El Niño will simultaneously hit key global producers like South Africa, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Pakistan, prompting them to restrict exports to feed their own people. 
Meanwhile, nations in South America that might escape the dry spell will command exorbitant prices due to the global deficit. 
With nearly half of our population surviving in extreme poverty, expensive imported grain will sit far beyond the financial reach of ordinary families.
The official defense rests heavily on Pfumvudza, praised by ministers as a silver bullet against climate shocks. 
This relies on dangerous wishful thinking. 
While Pfumvudza is a commendable climate-smart technique for normal rainfall variability, it remains a dryland farming method. 
When a Super El Niño delivers total meteorological drought—weeks without a single drop of rain—no amount of meticulous digging or mulching can extract moisture from scorched earth.
We are dangerously close to repeating the horror of 1992, the year Zimbabwe effectively surrendered its title as the “breadbasket of Africa.” 
Prior to 1992, complacent officials ignored early climate warnings, overstated grain reserves, and exported strategic surplus to earn foreign currency. 
When the sky turned to brass, the country had barely two days of grain left in reserve. 
Over a million head of cattle perished, factories shut down due to water shortages, and the late panic to import food bogged down in regional transport bottlenecks.
Today, officialdom is repeating the exact same playbook of denial, complacency, and administrative blunders. 
While our national conversation remains consumed by economic anxiety, corruption, and political maneuvers, a far more fundamental threat is marching toward us. 
We must wake up, speak out, and demand transparent, accountable answers regarding our national grain reserves before the fields wither.
Failure to demand accountability now ensures that millions will face the terrible consequences of engineered starvation tomorrow.
Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com

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Source: Construction of the Simon Mazorodze–Willowvale slip lane at the Rothmans Interchange progressing well – herald

Freeman Razemba

Senior Reporter

THE construction of the Simon Mazorodze – Willowvale Slip Lane at the proposed Rothmans Interchange, aimed at managing congestion at the intersection, is progressing well, with the contractor on site and carrying out the works in Harare.

The Government recently announced that preparatory work for the construction of two additional interchanges at the junctions of Simon Mazorodze and Willowvale roads, and Simon Mazorodze Road and Remembrance Drive had started, amid revelations that four more such structures are in the pipeline to ease congestion, reduce carnage and modernise the country’s infrastructure.

The interchanges will be at the Mabvuku junction; Harare Drive-Mutare Road; Harare Drive-Liberation Legacy Way; Nemakonde Way-Harare Drive; Sam Nujoma-Harare Drive; Westgate Traffic Circle; Kuwadzana Traffic Circle and Churchill/Liberation Legacy Way.

This is also part of wider efforts to improve the country’s infrastructure.

In a statement, the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development said, “Steady progress continues on the construction of the Simon Mazorodze–Willowvale Slip Lane at the Rothmans Interchange construction project, a key infrastructure project aimed at improving traffic flow, enhancing road safety and delivering a more efficient road transport network.”

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Source: Construction of another interchange at Seke Road-Delport Road now underway – herald

Freeman Razemba

Senior Reporter

PLANS to construct another interchange at the Seke Road-Delport Road junction are now underway as the Government moves to ease traffic congestion in the area.

Construction of Delport Road, which will link the Mabvuku side of Mutare Road with Seke Road and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Expressway, has also started.

The new road is expected to provide an alternative route for motorists travelling towards Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and, further on, Chitungwiza, helping to reduce pressure on existing routes.

The project is part of efforts to develop a network of interconnected roads that gives motorists alternative routes and reduces the concentration of traffic at major junctions.

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development confirmed the developments in a statement.

The ministry said the planned infrastructure was expected to improve traffic flow and enhance connectivity in the eastern and southern parts of Harare.

“An interchange is soon to be constructed at the Seke Road-Delport Road junction. The project includes constructing Delport Road from Mabvuku (off Mutare Road),” the ministry said.

This development comes after the construction of the Mabvuku Interchange, which is now 58 percent complete, is expected to ease congestion, reduce accidents and improve the movement of traffic along one of the capital’s busiest corridors.

Completion of the project is set for the end of November.

The key to the project is to separate traffic travelling straight along the highway from vehicles turning into and out of Mabvuku.

Once complete, the Harare-Mutare Highway will pass over the junction, allowing traffic travelling between Harare and Mutare to continue without being interrupted by vehicles turning into the suburb.

Motorists entering or leaving Mabvuku will instead use slip lanes underneath the elevated highway, with traffic lights controlling vehicles joining or leaving the main road.

This is designed to eliminate some of the points where vehicles previously crossed each other’s paths, which engineers identified as major sources of congestion and accidents.

The Deputy Director of Construction in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Engineer Virginia Mawere, said the project was specifically designed to separate traffic movements at the busy junction.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona said the Government wanted the various projects to work together rather than operate as isolated road upgrades.

“As we open this interchange, we also need to open the Jaggers, which is the Harare Drive junction; and not only that, we also have to connect traffic going towards the airport to Chitungwiza using Delport Road,” he said.

At the Mabvuku Interchange, construction has progressed fairly well. The project began in September 2025.

However, the importance of the interchange also extends beyond commuters travelling between Mabvuku and Harare.

The Harare-Mutare Highway is part of the Beira Corridor, carrying substantial commercial traffic between Zimbabwe and Mozambique through Forbes Border Post.

The volume of heavy trucks using the route, Eng Mawere said, meant the interchange had to be designed to withstand significant loads.

“This is the route that then leads to Forbes Border Post, leading all the way to Beira,” she said.

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Source: ZBC to conduct door-to-door licence inspections in Harare estates – herald

Ivan Zhakata

Herald Correspondent

THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has announced a comprehensive door-to-door inspection campaign to verify TV and radio licences across multiple residential communities in Harare.

According to a letter from the ZBC Licensing Inspectorate dated 3 September 2026, the exercise will run from Monday 7 September to 18 September 2026.

Inspectors will visit households in Borrowdale Brooke, Pokugara Residential Estate, Arlington Estate, Madokero Estate, Aspindale Park, Carrick Creagh Estate, Westgate, Greendale, and Pomona, among others.

“Inspectors will be checking for valid ZBC licences and will also be issuing licences to households that have not yet purchased or renewed their licences,” read the letter signed by Tinos Sada, ZBC acting manager, licensing operations.

ZBC has formally requested estate management, residents’ associations, and security personnel to facilitate inspectors’ access to properties where required.

This enforcement drive follows ZBC’s recent expansion of its monitoring fleet to 15 vans and intensified compliance operations across the country.

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Source: The phrase ‘touch not the anointed’ was never meant to shield leaders from criticism and accountability

Lies are the tools of the weak and insecure.

When political propagandists weaponize sacred scriptures to intimidate citizens, they perform a calculated act of spiritual fraud.
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​A recent post by a pro-regime campaigner declared President Emmerson Mnangagwa “the anointed,” warning that opposing him invites a deadly curse. 

By celebrating the tragic death of vocal critic Blessed “Bombshell” Geza as proof of divine wrath, this display is a textbook study in autocratic manipulation.
By brandishing the biblical mandate “touch not my anointed,” political sycophants and self-serving religious leaders build a fortress of fear around power.
They seek to transform civic questioning into a spiritual sin and portray public accountability as rebellion against God. 
But a rigorous reading of scripture exposes this narrative as a complete inversion of the truth: “the anointed” in this text are not the political rulers, but the ordinary citizens themselves.
Found in Psalm 105:15, the declaration commands: “Touch not my anointed ones.” 
​To understand how thoroughly this passage has been hijacked, look at the text for what it actually says. 
In Psalm 105, “my anointed” does not refer to kings, presidents, or religious patriarchs.
It refers directly to the ordinary citizens—the vulnerable, everyday people stripped of state power. 
Just three verses earlier, the psalm explicitly describes these people as “few in number, indeed few, and strangers in the land,” wandering as defenseless nomads from nation to nation. 
The rulers are not the anointed; the rulers are the potential oppressors.
The ordinary citizens are undeniably the anointed.
The text states plainly that God “suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he rebuked kings for their sakes,” commanding those rulers, “touch not my anointed.” 
Therefore, “touch not my anointed” was never a shield to protect those in authority from public criticism. 
It was a divine warning issued directly to political and religious leaders, ordering them to stop abusing, exploiting, and oppressing the people.
This spiritual fraud is just as rampant in the church as it is in the state. 
Pastors, prophets, and church founders routinely weaponize this same verse to create an untouchable caste, muzzling congregants who dare to ask hard questions. 
They weaponize stories like Miriam being struck with leprosy after confronting Moses, falsely framing her divine judgment as proof that questioning leadership invites a curse. 
But Miriam was judged for racial bigotry and personal envy over Moses’ leadership—not for demanding moral accountability or transparency. 
Misapplying her story to suppress questions about financial opacity, moral rot, or dictatorial church governance is a gross theological distortion.
But whether invoked by a state propagandist to protect a politician or by a clergyman to hide misconduct, using this verse to evade scrutiny is an identical theft of a title that belongs strictly to the collective body of believers and citizens.
Regime propagandists take a text explicitly written to protect defenseless citizens from tyrannical rulers and flip it upside down to protect tyrannical rulers from defenseless citizens.
When a politician or state actor claims to be “the anointed” to silence public scrutiny, they are usurping a title that belongs to the people they govern. 
Even when individual figures in biblical history were anointed for specific roles, their position never conferred immunity from moral evaluation, verbal confrontation, or public opposition. 
When King David abused his power, the prophet Nathan did not stay quiet out of fear of a curse; he walked directly into the palace and publicly exposed the king’s corruption.
Elijah openly confronted King Ahab over his tyranny, and John the Baptist condemned King Herod’s moral decay. 
The entire biblical tradition demonstrates that divine authority is never a blank check for unchecked power. 
If “touch not the anointed” meant that citizens must remain silent in the face of misrule, then every true prophet in history died in violation of God’s command.
Political and religious elites love quoting this text precisely because it offers the ultimate shortcut to unchecked dominance. 
By claiming a divine mandate, a ruler attempts to neutralize constitutional checks, judicial oversight, and democratic opposition. 
It allows corrupt systems to frame economic mismanagement, systemic looting, and human rights abuses as divinely sanctioned, while painting citizens who demand basic dignity and justice as enemies of God.
God does not expect leaders to reign as untouchable demigods above the law. 
Divine standards demand that leaders act as humble public servants who execute impartial justice, defend the poor, and remain fully answerable to the people. 
When rulers weaponize faith to shield their misrule, responsible citizens are not called to passive submission. 
God expects citizens to act as active custodians of righteousness—testing every authority, speaking out for the oppressed, exposing corruption, and standing firm against tyranny. 
Silence in the face of state-sponsored injustice is not piety; it is cowardice.
The people are the anointed, and power must answer to them.
Power must answer to justice.
Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to contact him on +263715667700 or mbofana.tendairuben73@gmail.com

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