Emmerson Mnangagwa - The African Mirror

Nov

2022

Zimbabwe’s new mineral royalty policy comes into force

ZIMBABWE has passed regulations allowing the state to collect mining royalties partly in the form of minerals, according to a government notice seen by Reuters, as the country seeks to build a reserve of precious metals. The southern African country has struggled to capitalise on its significant mineral reserves and a resource boom due to policy uncertainty, a lack of ancillary industries to support mining, currency volatility and electricity shortages. Last month, Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his government planned to start collecting half of royalties from gold, diamonds, platinum group metals and lithium in the form of the minerals themselves to…

Jul

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe targets a million people

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE is aiming to vaccinate 1 million people against COVID-19 in the next two weeks, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday as he extended tough lockdown measures by another 14 days. Faced with rising infections and deaths, Mnangagwa on June 29 introduced tough lockdown measures that included dusk to dawn curfew and curbs on inter-city travel. Mnangagwa said infections were rising at "an alarming rate" as the more transmissible Delta variant spreads locally. He said the government would inoculate 1 million people during the extended lockdown period. The southern African nation has to date recorded 70,426 infections, a quarter of them…

Jun

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe imposes dusk to dawn curfew

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE’S President Emmerson Mnangagwa has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew, banned inter-city travel and cut business hours with immediate effect in response to increasing coronavirus infections. The southern Africa nation, which has recorded more than 47,000 cases since the outbreak last year, has seen its 7-day average infection rate increasing five times to 727 compared to two weeks ago. Mnangagwa said businesses would now open between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. while a curfew would start from 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Companies would be required to only have 40% of their workforce, he said. The measures would be…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Zim parliament votes for major changes

NEWS

ZIMBABWE's parliament approved legislation yesterday removing a clause in the constitution on electing vice presidents, a move which the opposition says is intended by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to concentrate power in the presidency. The parliament also extended the tenure of senior judges, who will now be appointed by the president in consultation with the judicial service commission, instead of being subjected to public interviews as is the case now. In 2013, Zimbabweans voted for a new constitution including a clause stipulating that the vice president should be elected together with the president, but the clause was suspended for 10 years…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe president gets COVID-19 dose

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE's President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some opposition politicians received China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the tourist resort of Victoria Falls yesterday as part of efforts to encourage citizens to get inoculated. Zimbabwe has registered vaccines from China, India and Russia for emergency use but none so far from Western manufacturers. In a country where suspicion and scepticism often trump facts, Mnangagwa's vaccination at a public event, together with opposition leaders, was meant to assure citizens that the vaccines were safe. The southern African nation had planned to administer the Sinopharm vaccine to 53,000 health workers and selected security forces when…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Sex scandal: Zim vice president quits

NEWS

AFRICAN MIRROR REPORTER A sex scandal - allegedly involving several women - has brought down one of Ziimbabwe’s powerful politicians. Zimbabwe’s vice president Kembo Mohadi resigned yesterday following the emergence of the sensational allegations, some of them including married women. In his resignation letter, Mohadi said he was stepping down from his powerful job to deal with his problems and to avoid compromising the office of the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa as well as the government. Mohadi (70) said he was a victim of distortion, voice cloning, sponsored spooking and political sabotage. “I have been through a soul searching…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe to get 200,000 COVID-19 doses from China

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE will receive 200,000 free doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday, after China and Russia offered shots against the coronavirus to the impoverished southern African nation. Mnangagwa, in a nationally televised address, also said there were plans to vaccinate at least 60% of the population using government and private sector funding. The coronavirus pandemic has increased rapidly in Zimbabwe over the past few weeks, with about 70% of its known 33,964 infections and more than two thirds of the 1,269 deaths recorded since the beginning of January. The Sinopharm vaccine is approved in China for…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe has $100 million to buy vaccines

COVID-19

ZIMBABWE has set aside $100 million to acquire COVID-19 vaccines but the government is still waiting for its scientists to recommend which type to buy, a state-owned newspaper has reported. President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government, which is grappling with an economic crisis and acute shortages of foreign exchange, has been criticised for being too slow to announce its vaccination plans. George Guvamatanga, the ministry of finance secretary, told the Sunday Mail that the government would use funds from a 2020 budget surplus and reallocate some of this year's budget to buy the vaccines. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said in November that…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 floods Zim hospitals

NEWS

MacDONALD DZIRUTWE WHEN Zimbabwe's rich and powerful get sick, they often go abroad in search of the best treatment money can buy; ousted President Robert Mugabe died in a hospital in Singapore in 2019. With travel curtailed by the coronavirus, that luxury is not available, exposing the elite to a truth the majority has long known: Zimbabwe's health system has been crumbling for years and is now struggling to cope with a spike in COVID-19 cases. Anger among overwhelmed medics is adding to broader public dissatisfaction with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who pledged an economic revival after he took over from…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Zimbabwe central bank lets exporters hold dollars beyond 60 days

BUSINESS

ZIMBABWEW's central bank has reversed a decision to force exporters, including mining companies, to sell a large portion of their dollar earnings if they were not used after 60 days. Severe foreign currency shortages are the clearest sign of an economic crisis that has sparked intermittent shortages of fuel, power and medicines in the southern African nation. Critics blame the crisis on financial mismanagement and corruption by the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa. It says the economic troubles are caused by droughts as well as sanctions imposed by Western countries some two decades ago. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John…