News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

Eskom threatens to pull the plug on Zimbabwe

Posted: 20 Oct 2016 06:52 PM PDT

SA’s Eskom and Mozambique’s Hydro Cahora Bassa have told Zimbabwe to pay its electricity bills - or face the consequences.

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Harare - Zimbabwe has been given two months to pay its bills for power from South African power utility Eskom and Mozambique’s Hydro Cahora Bassa (HCB).

Zimbabwe imports at least 30 percent of its power and owes Eskom about R250 million and HCB about R126 million.

Julian Chinembiri, managing director of the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), said this week that arrears were mounting.

He told the Financial Gazette in Harare that both power suppliers had given Zimbabwe a “grace period” to clear arrears.

“Eskom gave us up to December 2016 while HCB gave us up to the end of November to clear the arrears. At the moment we are enjoying stable power supply and we would want to keep supplies as they are and ensure that load shedding does not occur,” he said.

“We have prepayment arrangements with Eskom and HCB.”

Zimbabwe imports about 350 megawatts (MW) of electricity from Eskom and 50MW from HCB. It also generates power from a bank of diesel generators which several Harare newspapers claim is owned by the family of President Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law, Simba Chikore, who was recently appointed to the number two spot in bankrupt Air Zimbabwe.

AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY

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Ugandan woman beheads her two children

Posted: 20 Oct 2016 12:02 PM PDT

“She killed the children, mopped the floor, cleaned the knife, placed the bodies together and had time to change her clothes before taking off.”

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Johannesburg - Ugandan police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the beheading two toddlers by their mentally-ill mother, who is from Kamuli District.

Uganda's Daily Monitor reported on Wednesday that Kamuli District police were investigating why a 25-year-old woman allegedly killed her two children, aged 2 and 4.

“The woman suspected to have mental problems allegedly picked her two children from Bright Future Nursery Primary School in Kamuli on Tuesday only to slaughter them like goats in her father's house in Mulamba Ward in Kamuli Municipality,” reported the Monitor.

After killing the children, the woman who has been operating a drug shop in Industrial Area in Kamuli District, reportedly sent a six year old girl to the deceased's father's home in Kanange, about five kilometres from the crime scene to inform relatives about her offence before she fled.

A police spokesperson, Michael Kasadha, said preliminary investigations indicate the crime was premeditated. At the scene of the crime, both children were found lying on a blanket next to each other covered in blood, their necks having been severed with a knife which was found in a basin.

“She killed the children, mopped the floor, cleaned the knife, placed the bodies together and had time to change her clothes before taking off. This shows that she took her time with no one noticing,” said Kasadha.

He added that police were hunting the suspect, but urged angry members of the public not to take the law into their own hands if they found the woman first.

Meanwhile, the woman's father Haji Yasin Kayima Mawalo said his daughter had been receiving psychiatric treatment from Kamuli General Hospital after suffering from hallucinations.

African News Agency

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Long queues outside Zim banks as cash crisis deepens

Posted: 20 Oct 2016 10:49 AM PDT

Depositors with indigenous banks in Zimbabwe are spending nights in bank queues as the cash crisis in the country deepens.

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Harare – Depositors with indigenous banks in Zimbabwe are spending nights in bank queues as the cash crisis in the country deepens.

People who spoke to the African News Agency in different interviews Thursday narrated how they spent nights on end on pavements in the central business district in Harare hoping to get their hard earned cash from the banks.

The most affected banks are Central Africa Building Society (CABS), People’s Own Savings Bank (POSB) and FBC among other local banks.

“I came from Chawona in Mazowe, but now I don’t have transport money to return home. I only had enough to get me here hoping that I would get my money and be able to go back home,” said a pensioner who spoke on condition of anonymity.

He said he had been to all POSB branches in the CBD and was told there was no cash and was no hope of getting it on the very day.

“I first went to the NetOne branch and we were told there was no money, we went to the Takawira/Union branch and there was also no money, they said they might get some money tomorrow.

“When I came here I was given a number in the morning and we have been sitting here all day without getting anything. Now I’m hungry and thirsty and I don’t have even a penny to buy myself something to eat or drink,” he said.

The man, in his late sixties, said if he failed to get the money, he had no option but to sleep on the pavements as he could not go back home because he did not have any cash on him.

“If I don’t get the money again today I will just find somewhere to sleep and try again tomorrow; there is nothing I can do, i don’t have money to go back home,” he said.

Another man, who also requested not to be identified, said he had come from his rural home in Mt Darwin on Monday and had not managed to get a cent.

“There is nothing back home, the family has nothing to eat and we have no money for transport. Today I walked from Epworth where I was put up because I no longer have any bus fares. We left Epworth at 2:30 am and arrived here when it was still a bit dark” he said.

He said no one from the bank had even explained anything to them, saying they were just waiting and hoping that one day they would get some money.

“We have been sitting here since morning and we are no longer sure if we’ll ever get the money, we are all starving now and we are going to sleep on empty stomachs,” he said.

At the CABS First Street branch, a few people were still milling around hoping that the bank would receive some cash before the close of business, while the doors to the ATM were locked.

“I have been here since morning and they told us that they have not yet received any money, but they have not told us what time or when they are expecting the money. I first went to the Central Avenue branch but I was told they only served 400 people per day and there were already more than 400 people when I arrived,” said a man from Domboshava.

He said he was given number 27 at the First street branch and had been waiting the whole morning without luck.

“I will wait here until three and if there is no money I will return home to Domboshava but I don’t know if i will be able to come back because I don’t have any bus fare anymore. I came here on Tuesday and got just $100 and it is not enough,” he said.

Traditional leaders were also not spared as evidenced by Headman Mazingizi from Guruve who spent three nights at a POSB branch in Harare.

“They are saying there is no money and we have been coming here everyday for the past three days and failing to get any money,” he said.

He expressed concern that his subjects did not have a representative during the time he was in Harare waiting for his money, adding he was contemplating going back empty handed as he had lost any hope of getting anything.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Deputy Governor, Khupukile Mlambo, told a National Economic Consultative Forum meeting in Harare last week that the cash shortages would only end if the country increased manufacturing for export.

He said the depreciation in value of both the South Africab rand and the British Pound, coupled with the end of the tobacco selling season, had exacerbated the liquidity crisis.

“We are no longer an economy that is dependent on manufacturing exports, we are totally dependent on the four commodity exports; tobacco, gold,platinum and chrome and these are not performing well,” he said.

African News Agency

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Tourist trampled to death by elephant in Kenya

Posted: 20 Oct 2016 12:48 AM PDT

A Belgian tourist was trampled to death by an elephant near Kenya's famed Maasai Mara wildlife reserve, police say.

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Nairobi, Kenya - A Belgian tourist was trampled to death by an elephant near Kenya's famed Maasai Mara wildlife reserve, police said on Wednesday, the second such incident in a month.

"He was badly injured by the rogue elephant and succumbed to injuries at the Talek Health Centre," a police officer in the area said on condition of anonymity.

The death of the Belgian man on Monday in circumstances that remain unclear comes a month after an Italian man was trampled in the Tsavo National Park, southeast Kenya, while trying to take a photograph of an elephant.

Kenyan daily The Standard reported that in a separate incident on Tuesday, a Kenyan secondary school student was killed by an elephant on the way to school.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) warned in a statement on Wednesday that a fierce drought gripping the country was pushing wildlife further from their traditional habitats in search of food and water, increasingly bringing them into contact with humans.

"From the cases recorded by KWS, it is evident that there has been an increase in reported incidents of conflicts compared to past years; the notable ones being attacks on people, property destruction, livestock predation and crop raiding," said the statement.

KWS warned that such interactions were likely to increase and urged caution in high-risk areas.

AFP

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