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By Staff Reporter

MDC Alliance MPs returned to parliament on Wednesday, amid signs the party could be on its way to dumping an earlier stance to disengage from the house in protest over the expulsion of four party legislators by Speaker Jacob Mudenda some weeks ago.

Among prominent party MPs who attended Wednesday’s sitting were Job Sikhala, Amos Chibaya and Sesel Zvidzai.

Reports say this was a resolution from a national council meeting held Wednesday to have the legislators go back to the house.

Party MPs were in a dilemma on whether to stick by the MDC Alliance boycott stance or save their political lives after reinstated MDC-T secretary general Douglas Mwonzora has threatened a recall of legislators who boycott sitting.

MDC Alliance MPs on the left hand side of the image

By Staff Reporter

MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa on Wednesday took time to visit the Harare Magistrates’ court in solidarity with his lawyer Thabani Mpofu who faces trial for perjury.

Mpofu was arrested on Monday by officers from the Central Intelligence Department’s (CID) Anti-Corruption Unit charged with obstructing the course of justice.

He was taken to court on Wednesday.

Speaking to journalists outside court, Chamisa said late former president Robert Mugabe was a smaller dictator compared to his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Chamisa also blasted Mnangagwa for allowing the national lockdown against the spread of coronavirus to go on with no communication without paying regard to the suffering of the masses.

The opposition leader said time is coming when Mnangagwa will go like other dictators.

“He has taken dictatorship to another level and we will have to make sure that Mnangagwa is shown the way that is shown all dictators. They have to exit the people’s spaces and have to be shown the way and time is coming We are drawing a line in the sand,” he said.

“It is something that we are taking very seriously. We cannot continue like this. We must say; ‘Enough is Enough’. People are suffering. We are seeing this perpetual lockdown. No clarity in terms of when the lockdown is likely to end.

“People are actually locked up in their houses. Their houses have become dens of poverty and prisons where they cannot pursue livelihoods.”

By Staff Reporter

EMBATTLED former Information Deputy Minister Energy Mutodi’s world could be crumbling faster than lightning after the Zanu PF Mashonaland East executive has ordered him to stop conducting any party business pending a disciplinary hearing against him.

Mutodi, party MP for Goromonzi West, was sacked from his top government job by President Emmerson Mnangagwa this past week.

No reasons were given although wide speculation links the excitable politician’s misfortunes to reckless tweets with some bordering on policy issues.

According to party spokesperson for Mashonaland East, Kenneth Mutiwekuziva, Mutodi has been prohibited from participating in any party duties.

The under-fire politician is a member of the Zanu PF’s provincial executive.

Said Mutiwekuziva, “Following the sacking of Dr Mutodi as a Deputy Minister of Information, Publicity (and Broadcasting Services) by His Excellency Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mashonaland East executive committee sat down and deliberated on the issue and agreed that proper disciplinary action should be carried out.

“This prohibition order is in regard to his position as a provincial member in Mash East province.”

By Staff Reporter

BAIL hearing for journalists Frank Chikowore and Samuel Takawira was Saturday pushed to Tuesday with the private media scribes now set to endure three more nights in police custody.

Chikowore works for Voice of America’s Studio 7 while Takawira works for online website 263Chat.

They were arrested on Friday while conducting interviewees with MDC Alliance MP Joanna Mamombe, activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Mamombe at a private Harare hospital.

The state alleges the journalists violated lockdown regulations imposed against the spread of coronavirus through failure to observe social distancing between themselves and the opposition patients.

Chikowore and Takawira were observed conducting the interviews by a police detective who has been deployed to guard the activists.

Claims the state through prosecutor Terrence Mukuze, “On the 22nd of May 2020 at about 08:00 hrs the two accused persons again proceeded to Parktown Private Hospital in Waterfalls.

“The two accused persons knowing that it was not time for visiting patients and that an order has been previously given by the police for them not to enter the said hospital ward without reference to the acting hospital administrator, Mr Stewart Ephraim, unlawfully used the hospital back entrance ordinarily reserved for hospital staff to avoid detection and sneaked into the hospital High Dependency Unit (HDU) ward.”

Police are also keen to charge the activists for violating lockdown regulations after staging an anti-government demonstration in Harare, together with a group of MDC activists.

By Staff Reporter

OVER 200 000 Zimbabweans have each received from government, $180 cushioning allowance against the effects of the Covid-19 induced lockdown.

The allowance is equal to US$3 currently, after exchange rates have surged to $60 to a single US dollar.

Social Welfare Minister Paul Mavima told the media Wednesday the amount has been increased to $300 ($5).

Mavima said the number of vulnerable locals who were promised the amounts was heavily whittled down by government from the initial one million to just 201 000.

“The payments for this month started last week where people are receiving $180 for this month and all the 201 000 people will receive this amount each.

“As of June 1, 2020, the amount has been upped to $300 person. The programme will continue until the end of the year, funds permitting,” he said.

The Zanu PF led government has been criticised for poor economic policies that have greatly incapacitated the state in terms of driving economic progress and providing safety nets for vulnerable citizens.

By Staff Reporter

FIRED information deputy minister Energy Mutodi claims three MDC Alliance activists who were abducted and subjected to acts of brutality and sexual abuse by suspected state agents met their misfortune in a currency brawl with their artisanal miner lovers.

Mutodi said this in a tweet Wednesday, not too long before his own ministry announced he had been fired from his government job by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

MDC MP for Harare West Joanna Mamombe (Pictured), party activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were allegedly seized from police custody by suspected state agents who went on to drive them outside Harare to be horrendous acts of abuse accusing them of staging an anti-government protest in the city’s Warren Park suburb moments before.

The three have been hospitalised for injuries sustained from the abuses.

By Staff Reporter

CONTROVERSIAL information deputy minister Energy Mutodi has been fired from his government job by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

His sacking was confirmed in a ministry of information press statement Wednesday evening.

By Staff Reporter

ZANU PF top politician and former youth league boss Absolom Sikhosana has died.

He was 71.

According to Bulawayo provincial affairs minister Judith Ncube, the Politburo member and war veteran died at the United Bulawayo Hospitals Friday night.

“He died last night at the United Bulawayo Hospitals where he had been admitted since Monday,” she said.

Ncube described Sikhosana as a great man.

“He was so friendly to everybody, free to talk to anytime, he was that type of a leader and leading from behind. We have lost a great man,” she said.

By Staff Reporter

MDC MP Joanna Mamombe and two female party activists Friday narrated horrendous acts of being seized from the hands of the police and transported to spots while blind-folded and also tied with sacks to be subjected to torture and sexual abuse.

According to party leader Nelson Chamisa, Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were arrested by police on Wednesday but were soon to land in the hands of suspected state agents who later tortured and left them for dead.

“This is inhuman and degrading treatment. This is torture against girl children, torture against the country,” Chamisa told journalists at a private Harare hospital where he had visited the three.

Mamombe and the two youth leaders were reported arrested Wednesday at a roadblock by police who later denied they had the activists in their custody.

The three were coming from an anti-government demonstration they had staged in Harare’s Warren Park suburb.

They were later dumped near Bindura Thursday night after enduring acts of torture.

“Assuming that they had committed a crime, they were supposed to be taken to a police station, tried and sentenced. But this is a continuation of an ugly past,” Chamisa said.

“You won’t believe it. They are shaking. They are so scared when you open the door, they feel like running away.

“Cecilia said she can identify one of the suspected state agents who used a gun through their annal passage. It is unheard-of.

“They said, ‘we know that you are being sponsored as MDC to cause mayhem, and we want to fix you’.”

Chamisa blamed the act on President Emerson Mnangagwa and his regime.

“Mr Mnangagwa is aware of these things because the same pattern has been used for the past years. We have seen that across 2019, crocodile prints are all over and he cannot deny it,” he said.

“They have the audacity to lie to the entire world that this is self-inflicted, and it is false abductions, when it is so clear that those who doing it are doing so on behalf of Mnangagwa.

“This evil is persisting because we as Zimbabwe have not come out to say enough is enough,” he said.

“What we saw is so disturbing. It is embarrassing that a man would tie women up in sacks and go on to suck their breasts while assaulting them for the entire night.”

In a statement Friday, Information Ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana said government was investigating the incident.

He appealed for information that would help police establish the facts behind the incident.

By Staff Reporter

GOVERNMENT has appealed for information on the alleged abduction and torture of MDC Alliance MP for Harare West Joanna Mamombe and two party youth leaders on Wednesday.

Mamombe, together with Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova were reported missing on Wednesday, moments after they had staged a demonstration against government in Harare’s Warren Park suburb.

The main opposition claimed via social media the three had been arrested by police who issued conflicting statements on whether or not they had the young politicians in their custody.

The activists were Thursday night said to have been dumped near Bindura ‘badly injured’, with claims of abduction and torture by suspected state agents.

Government has since responded, distancing the state from the incident.

Information permanent secretary Nick Mangwana Friday issued a statement appealing for information that would bring to light, what could have transpired.

“Government will uphold the law and constitutional safeguards contained therein, and if any law has been broken, the law will be enforced.

“We are calling on the three citizens to work with the law enforcement agents in order to bring the truth to light and we are appealing to anyone with information concerning the case to make a report with the police,” Mangwana said.