News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

70% of Zimbabweans live in poverty

Posted: 26 Sep 2016 12:41 PM PDT

The Zimbabwean government requires about $2.7 billion to implement poverty relief measures for the more than 70 percent of its population living in poverty.

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Harare - More than 70 percent of Zimbabweans are living in poverty and the government requires about $2.7 billion to implement its Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy in the next two years, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Monday.

Speaking at the launch of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in Harare, Chinamasa said this was despite the fact that poverty reduction had always remained government’s top priority.

“Poverty eradication strategies and interventions have always been embedded in all the economic reform programmes government has been implementing since the attainment of independence in 1980,” Chinamasa said.

“While over the years government has succeeded in halving the population in extreme poverty from 44 percent in 1995 to 22 percent in 2012, however, poverty levels as measured by the Total Consumption Poverty Line has remained high at over 70 percent.”

Chinamasa said the effects of the country’s economic crisis were mostly felt in the social sectors, where thousands were losing their jobs, children were dropping out of school and hospitals and clinics were running without adequate drugs.

“This I-PSRP, therefore, focuses on specific short term measures but with long term impact on the livelihoods of the population, in particular vulnerable segments of our society,” he said.

Chinamasa said of the required $2.7 billion, $800 million had already been raised, leaving a funding deficit of $1.9 billion. He said the bulk of the money would go towards funding agricultural production to ensure household food security.

“Proposed interventions are centred on guaranteeing food security through special maize production, enhancing productivity, expanding irrigation rehabilitation and development in view of the risks associated with climate change, providing access to sustainable and affordable capital, access to markets for agriculture commodities and revival of agricultural parastatals,” he said.

Chinamasa said strategies would also prioritise interventions in the productive sectors of manufacturing, mining, energy, information communication technology, and tourism, small to medium enterprises, inclusive banking, indigenisation and economic empowerment as well as housing among others.

The private sector, he said, should also play a big role in reducing poverty through the creation of employment.

Zimbabwe’s economy has been on its knees ever since the country embarked on a controversial land reform exercise which saw white commercial farmers brutally driven out of their farms to make way for thousands of land hungry blacks.

Millions of Zimbabweans have fled the country to neighbouring South Africa and Botswana, with others going abroad were they are doing menial jobs after industry collapsed, rendering millions jobless and hungry.

Things got worse during the 2007 and 2008, only to be rescued by The Government of National Unity (GNU) which stabilised the economy until 2013, when Zanu PF controversially won general elections which the opposition parties disputed. The majority of the people, mostly in rural areas, are living on less than a dollar a day.

African News Agency

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Opposition man 'assaulted by Zanu-PF supporters'

Posted: 26 Sep 2016 04:48 AM PDT

Retired Brigadier-General Agrippa Mutambara, Zimbabwe's former ambassador to Mozambique, has been assaulted, allegedly by Zanu-PF supporters.

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Harare - Retired Brigadier-General Agrippa Mutambara, Zimbabwe's former ambassador to Mozambique, has been assaulted, allegedly by Zanu-PF supporters.

A former ambassador for 21 years, Mutambara together with other Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) supporters were said to have been brutally assaulted by axe-wielding suspected ruling party supporters.

The Joice Mujuru-led ZimPF spokesman Jealousy Mawarire wrote on Twitter: "Retired Brigadier General Agrippa Mutambara and other ZimPF supporters were brutally and savagely attacked by axe wielding Zanu PF youths who had invaded Obert Mutasa's plot at Dunaventy Farm in Guruve today (Sunday)."

A Toyota Landcruiser V8-200 Series belonging to Wilbert Mubaiwa had its rear windscreen shattered in the melee, while another Toyota saloon was said to have been burnt.

Mutambara reported the matter to the police and had to seek medical attention.

ZimPF said they would "not be deterred" and no amount of "violence or intimidation would derail the freedom train".

In March this year, suspected Zanu-PF youths invaded Mutambara's Bindura Farm, accusing him of having crossed the floor and supporting an opposition party.

Mutambara, whose nom-de-guerre during the war of liberation was Comrade Dragon Patiripakashata, said at the time that the ruling party youths invaded his farm, saying they had been sent by Mashonaland Central Zanu-PF provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios and Zanu-PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere to take over the farm.

He said they told him the farm belonged only to Zanu-PF members, but they only left after the ringleaders had been taken away by the police.

African News Agency

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Botswana president pilots children on joyride

Posted: 26 Sep 2016 03:36 AM PDT

Botswana President Seretse Khama Ian Khama flew a group of secondary school students over Gaborone in his private aircraft.

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Gaborone - Botswana President Seretse Khama Ian Khama at the weekend flew a group of secondary school students over the capital Gaborone in his private aircraft as a token of appreciation for their excellent musical performance of the national anthem earlier.

Khama, who is a certified pilot, flew the Ralegonyane Junior Secondary School Marimba Group. The gesture was in appreciation of the way the group played the national anthem at the official opening of the Gaborone International Air Show early on Saturday.

In a statement, the Office of the President said Khama, who was pleased with the performance of the school band, decided to take them on a joy-ride over Gaborone to show his appreciation.

"His Excellency, Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama, this evening (Saturday) took the opportunity to fly the Ralegonyane Junior Secondary School Marimba Group, which played the National Anthem at the Gaborone International Airshow, on a plane ride over Gaborone," the President's Office said.

"The team was very happy to have flown for the first time, with the President personally piloting them."

Khama has a decorated history of flying, which dates back to his days at the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), where he flew several models and variants of fighter jets. He regularly conducts his own private civilian flights around Botswana.

African News Agency

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Gabon court throws out challenge to election

Posted: 26 Sep 2016 12:02 AM PDT

Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo says.

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Libreville - Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo said, as soldiers patrolled and military aircraft flew over a capital that has been bracing for another explosion of violence.

The Constitutional Court late on Friday threw out a challenge against the election results by rival Jean Ping, enabling Bongo to extend his family's dynastic 50-year rule over the small, oil-producing central African country.

Ping swiftly rejected the ruling as biased, and many Gabonese feared a return to the violence that killed at least six people - Ping's supporters say it was more than 50 - when the result was first announced at the start of the month.

But in a nation that usually manages to avoid the massive bloodshed that afflicts other countries in the region, like Congo and Central African Republic, when power is contested, Bongo said he was confident of a peaceful resolution.

"It is business as usual. We are not worried about this state of crisis," Bongo told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday. "I think that we will go back to normal... Gabonese are peace-loving people."

On Sunday, soldiers deployed along main roads and a helicopter hovered over Ping's headquarters. A fighter jet roared above the city. The red and white taxis that normally ply its palm-lined seaside avenues were mostly absent.

"Things are not normal. The people's voice was stolen," Richard Obame, 46, an unemployed Ping supporter, said, after the jet noise had died down.

"If it was calm, would we need the military presence on the streets and the helicopters above the house of Mr Ping?"

And yet Ping, whom authorities have threatened to arrest for inciting violence, has so far refrained from calling people on to the streets. That raises the possibility of a peaceful resolution, although Ping insists that the will of the Gabonese people be respected.

A statement from the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday said he welcomed "the call by the president-elect for national dialogue."

"It is of utmost importance that all actors demonstrate maximum restraint," it added.

Ali Bongo came to power in a contentious 2009 election following the death of his father Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon for 42 years and to whom Ping himself was very close.

"Bongo Junior", as he is nicknamed, is showing signs of wanting to handle opponents in much the same way his father did: by bringing them into the tent. On Saturday he called for members of opposition parties to come and join his cabinet.

Communications minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze was quoted on France's Journal du Dimanche website on Sunday as saying that from next week there would be "an open government, with members of the opposition, civil society and independent personalities."

Whether this will be "business as usual" for Gabon and the Bongo dynasty may partly depend on the international reaction.

Gabon has never had a poll that international observers judged free and fair, and Western powers, especially ex-colonial master France, always looked the other way.

But on Saturday France and the European union both expressed "doubt" about the poll, which swung it for Bongo on a province, Haut-Ogooue, that gave him 95 percent of a 99.9 percent turnout.

Bongo pledged to address some of the issues that have fuelled anger in the country of 1.8 million, like youth unemployment and over-reliance on dwindling oil revenues.

"We want to move from just enjoying the profits of oil to an economy where we can also start producing," Bongo told Reuters. "Manufacturing is very important ... We are also inviting the national and international business community to invest. They want to find a country that is in peace and stable."

Reuters

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