Headlines

ZEC acting illegally on suspending electoral activities: ERC

By Joyce Mukucha While welcoming the efforts of the Government in the fight against Covid-19, the Election Resource Centre (ERC) has urged the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to be compliant with the law in arriving at any suspension and postponement of electoral activities. ERC revealed this after noting with concern the continued use of press…

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Involving Young People Key in Winning the Fight Against COVID-19

By Joyce Mukucha As the world grapples with unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, young people are demonstrating their continued support, leadership, and care in their communities and countries. According to a new UN plan to address COVID-19, young people are some of the most affected populace by the pandemic’s socio-economic impacts. Nevertheless, youths…

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Ncube Blames State for Cynical Abuse of Power

Alpha Media Holdings Executive Chairman, Trevor Ncube has described actions by the State as a chilling attack on freedom of expression concerning the arrest of Advocate Fadzayi Mahere, Job Sikhala, and Hopewell Chin’ono. He said the three have been charged under a law that was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2014 resulting in…

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Emergency Committee on COVID-19 Advises on Variants, Vaccines

By Staff Reporter The COVID-19 pandemic continues to constitute an extraordinary event, a public health risk to other states through international spread, and continues to require a coordinated international response, the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Committee (EC) on COVID-19 has revealed. In a virtual meeting conducted…

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Late Commissioner Shepherd Gwasira’s Productive Farm Downsized

By Staff Reporter The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement intends to withdraw the offer of land made to the late hero and Anti-Corruption Commissioner Shepherd Gwasira in respect of Subdivision 1 measuring 2 757.97HA of CONS of Lot 1 SS Ranch, Rem of SS Ranch and Mete farm in the District of…

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Is it a Crime to Publish False Statement Undermining Public Confidence in a State Agency?

By Veritas Earlier this month reports circulated on social media alleging that a police officer in Harare had struck a woman with his baton and killed a baby strapped to her back.  The Police issued a denial, saying that the police officer had tried to stop a kombi by smashing its windscreen.  Glass fragments hit a woman…

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PWDs Embracing ICTs in Coping With COVID-19

By Joyce Mukucha Signs of Hope Trust, an organisation that inspires, empowers, and serves people with disabilities (PWDs) is decrying the negative impacts posed by the COVID-19 pandemic during the lockdown period and is embracing information communication technologies (ICTs) to reach out to this needy group. In an interview, Signs of Hope Trust founder, Samantha…

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Chitungwiza Municipality Temporarily Closes St Mary’s Clinic

By Joyce Mukucha The shortage of health professionals has forced Chitungwiza Municipality to temporarily close St Mary’s Clinic with immediate effect. Chitungwiza Municipality Acting Town Clerk, Dr. Tonderai Kasu revealed that the shortage of health professional staff is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen front line health workers being infected and others losing…

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Launch of Africa’s Development Dynamics 2021 on Cards

The African Union Commission, in collaboration with the OECD Development Centre, will release the third edition of their flagship report Africa’s Development Dynamics on Tuesday 19 January the occasion of a joint online event open to the press. 2020 marked a turning point for the global economy and for Africa’s development. The continent hit its first recession…

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TBWA Zimbabwe Appoints Patience Chivaviro As Company’s General Manager

The Full Circle Comms Board has appointed Patience Chivaviro as General Manager as from 4 January 2021. Full Circle has in its stable TBWA Zimbabwe – a leading advertising and marketing company and an affiliate of TBWA\Worldwide, Magna Carta Reputation Management Consultants-Ketchum’s Exclusive Affiliate in Africa and Bwanji Digital Agency. Sapi Bachi, managing director at TBWA Zimbabwe,…

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ZNOART provides virtual outreach programmes during the lockdown

By Joyce Mukucha In a bid to address the plight of residents in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, the Zimbabwe National Organisation Association of Residents Trust (ZNOART) has said its outreach programmes will continue to be virtually conducted so as to contain the spread of the virus. The Chairperson for ZNOART, Shalvar Chikomba said his…

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7 Digital Health Trends We’ll Keep An Eye On In 2021

Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD Summing up 2020 I was asked many times about the changes COVID-19 have brought about in healthcare. Well, throughout the past year, here at The Medical Futurist we were continuously posting about the technological advancements in the medical field: telemedicine, at-home lab tests, robotics and even doing sports have changed dramatically.  Most of these changes are likely to…

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SARW Appeals for Distribution of the COVID-19 Vaccine to Include Mining Communities

Masutane Modjadji When the first Covid-19 cases were reported in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in March 2020, no one could have prepared for the devastation that the virus would bring. Countries responded swiftly (and rightly so) to the global public health emergency but this has had unintended consequences as a result of the…

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New Laws to Govern Residential Stands Allocation Procedures in Harare

By Staff Reporter The capital city will lead efforts aimed at attracting investment in the country, the Minister of State for Harare Metropolitan Province Honourable Oliver Chidau has said. In that regard, Harare City will implement laws which will govern proper procedures for those who want residential stands and those who allocate them. Hon Chidau…

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UK pledges £4 million (US$5.4 million) to help feed 110,000 food insecure people in urban areas

… Part of a global package worth £47 million to provide food, nutrition, water and shelter to help over 1.3 million vulnerable people in 9 countries and regions, including Zimbabwe. New UN data reveals humanitarian crises are worsening around the world, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, 235 million people are expected to be in need…

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Police’s case against Chin’ono has no legal basis

By Dumisani Muleya (Chairman, Zimbabwe National Editors’ Forum) ON 8 January 2021, Zimbabwean police arrested award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono at his home in Harare for allegedly publishing a falsehood or communicating false information which is prejudicial to the state. After that police also arrested opposition leaders Job Sikhala and Fadzayi Mahere on the same charges….

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Public Health Lock-down Order: Courts, Lawyers, and the Lock-down

By Veritas Two further amendments to the Public Health Lock-down Order have been published in the past few days.  The first, in SI 11/2021 of 5th January 2021 [link], declared courts to be an essential service for the purpose of the Order;  the second, in SI 13/2021 of 8th January 2021 [link], declared legal practitioners to be performing an essential…

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Online voter registration the panacea during COVID-19: ERC

By Joyce Mukucha In 2017, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) adopted a form of electronic registration model named biometric voter registration (BVR) and during these grave times of Covid-19, the Election Resource Centre (ERC) is calling on the national electoral management body to provide citizens with alternative platforms, different from the norm, for them to…

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Zimbabwean girls and young women plead for access to comprehensive SRHR services

By Joyce Mukucha Zimbabwean young women and girls are pleading with the government and other youth-oriented organisations to challenge the legal frameworks that are not favourable for young people to access sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services that lead to many health problems especially when it comes to safe abortion. When faced…

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AWiM working towards addressing disinformation

The African Women in Media (AWiM) is making a concerted effort to ensure that the digital space does not present a design that erodes trust in human rights. The organization is spearheading this by engaging with different feminist movements and other constituencies to champion the feminist internet towards social justice and environmental sustainability. Cyberspace is…

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Determined Mukanganwi Inspiring Women to Become ‘Own Bosses’

By Staff Reporter Being an entrepreneur is not a walk in the garden path, but with the right opportunity, hard work, dedication, commitment, optimism, and a supportive community, it can be very rewarding. Zimbabwean women are increasingly charting their own professional course and embracing the idea of being ‘your own boss’ as a way to…

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The second wave of neocolonialism: The battle to control Africa

By Albert Matongo Africa is endowed with vast natural resources ranging from precious minerals, petroleum, fauna, and flora as well as the land which has been the most contagious issue since the colonial era. Such endowments have been attractions of foreign interest in Africa up to date. However, the latest developments can reveal that foreign…

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Dawa Health Striving to Eliminate Maternal Health Challenges

By Joyce Mukucha Worldwide, hundreds of mothers are dying daily from pregnancy complications with 99 percent of them in developing countries like Sub Sahara Africa. Statistics indicate that in Zimbabwe and other African countries, the maternal mortality rate is rapidly increasing day by day being fuelled by the low uptake of maternal health services. According…

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Cushion SMEs and Informal Traders: ZITA

By Joyce Mukucha The Zimbabwe Integrated Traders Association (ZITA) has called upon the government to provide finances to small to medium enterprises (SMEs), informal traders, and small businesses for them to stay afloat during the enforced 30-day national lockdown aimed at containing the surge of Covid-19 infections in the country. ZITA highlighted that even though…

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Adopt Zero Tolerance on Corruption: Local Authorities Told

The Government of Zimbabwe has warned councillors and senior management of local authorities across Zimbabwe to desist from corrupt activities forthwith when it comes to investigations and criminal cases indicating that such activities will hinder the attainment of Vision 2030 Agenda. This came out after the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works had noted…

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Chin’ono arrested for the third time in six months

By Kumbirai Mafunda Zimbabwean police on Friday 8 January 2021 arrested and detained prominent freelance journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and charged him with publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State after he allegedly tweeted about the abuse of a minor by a police officer .Chin’ono, who is represented by Harrison Nkomo and Paidamoyo Saurombe…

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Chad: The African Development Bank grants $11.26 million for women and girls’ education

The Project aims to help improve access to quality secondary education in a safe and healthy school environment for 5,000 girls The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) has approved a grant of $11.26 million to the Government of Chad to finance the Girls’ Education and Women’s Literacy Project– the first Bank…

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Policy and strategic framework to ease the impacts of Post-COVID-19 through climate action-based enterprises

By Ecosystem Based Adaptation For Food Security Assembly (EBAFOSA) For a year now, the COVID-19 pandemic has been at the centre of news across the globe and Africa. In Africa where estimates put the effects of the pandemic to affect the economy of Africa to around a fall of 1.4% of its GDP,with smaller economies…

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What if?… a few reflections about where we are with taking agroecology forward as we enter 2021

By John Wilson First, our mindset: I keep finding myself coming back to the question of mindset. Without a change in mindset people don’t get agroecology. But more than that, even those who get it, myself included, are still stuck to some extent in what I’d call a ‘machine mindset’. That was the mindset most…

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Simple Algorithms vs. A.I. And What They Mean For Medicine

Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD Artificial intelligence (A.I.), machine learning (ML) and algorithms; if you are a regular at The Medical Futurist, you’ve come across these terms more than once whether it’s in our articles, videos or e-books. Indeed, our latest e-book about investment in digital health has a dedicated section about A.I. Even The Medical Futurist Institute’s latest…

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Passion Poultry Assisting Women in Agri-Business

By Joyce Mukucha For the past years, Zimbabwe’s economy has been deteriorating with its population facing an extraordinary and multidimensional crisis. Many, especially young people have become victims to the economic meltdown that has seen companies closing and investors leaving in droves with an estimated three million Zimbabweans having crossed the Limpopo River into South…

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Government Urges GMB to Efficiently Execute its Mandate

By Joyce Mukucha The government has challenged the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to execute its mandate by ensuring that it becomes an active participant in driving the nation’s economic vibrance and growth agenda. The Grain Marketing Board occupies a central role in safeguarding the country’s food security but its operational inefficiencies have affected the successful…

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Honor sale to see Huawei plunge out of device top 6

By Chris Donkin Analyst company TrendForce predicted global smartphone production to begin its recovery in 2021 after dropping 11 per cent in 2020, although it forecast further bad news for Huawei with the manufacturer expected to exit its top six list. In its market predictions for 2021 the analyst company said it expected 1.36 billion…

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