adminEDITORIAL COMMENT: Council must find ways of empowering residents
So much attention has been paid to the phenomenon of rural poverty with various interventions being implemented to ameliorate its impact though at times this has been done at the expense of the urban poor, who are somehow considered to be well-off by policy-makers.
Divine Jewels Choir caught in China storms
From Daisy Jeremani in Ordos, China
ZIMBABWE College of Music’s Divine Jewels Choir failed to take off for home after their plane was grounded in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, due to heavy rains and storms that killed 13 people in Beijing on Saturday.Byo Youth Games team camp dates set
Sports Reporter
TEAM Bulawayo will on 31 July go into camp in preparation for the Zimbabwe National Youth Games set for Bindura from 4-11 August.
Beijing gets heaviest rains in six decades
The heaviest rain in 61 years in the Chinese capital Beijing has left 10 people dead as of 2am on Saturday, according to a report by the China Network Television (CNTV), a national web-based TV broadcaster owned by the state-owned China Central Television.
Farmers blast Minister over agriculture funding
Chronicle Reporter
FARMERS in Matabeleland region have castigated the Government for failing to come up with clear-cut funding for agriculture, saying the nation was headed for a food crisis.
The dry Matabeleland region is facing a critical drought due to poor rains last summer, which has also seen livestock farmers relocating their cattle to areas with pastures to avert death.
Presenting his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Statement in Parliament last week, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the country’s economy was underperforming and farmers would have to partner other sectors for financial back-up.
Minister Biti said the second round of the crop assessment and livestock report showed that agriculture production shed about 13,2 percent and is expected to decline to 5,8 percent.
The sector was initially expected to register 11,6 percent growth according to 2012 budget predictions and farmers said it declined because of lack of commitment from Government.
Speaking in separate interviews, farmers and farmers organisations’ leaders expressed disappointment about a lack of commitment to agriculture by Government.
They said the 2012 budget gave them false hope as nothing had been fulfilled while the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement had cast into doubt any hopes of a revival of the agricultural sector.River Ranch Mine applies for liquidation
Gwanda Correspondent
The owners of River Ranch Diamond Mine in Beitbridge have filed for liquidation after negotiations with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to take over the mine failed.
Prophet in court for rape
Beitbridge Reporter
A 30-year-old self-proclaimed prophet in Beitbridge was on Friday arraigned before the courts for allegedly raping and impregnating a local woman during a “cleansing ceremony” in a bushy area in Makakavhule village.
US cinema attack ‘planned for months’
Aurora — The shooting suspect who went on a deadly rampage inside a Colorado theatre planned the attack with “calculation and deliberation”, police said, receiving deliveries for months which authorities believe armed him for battle and were used to rig his apartment with dozens of bombs.ZPC Kariba beat Young Warriors
Harare Bureau
THE Young Warriors were left with a lot of work to do ahead of their African Youth Championships second round, first leg tie against Angola later this month after going down 2-0 to Northern Region Division One side ZPC Kariba in a friendly match at Chaminuka in Kariba yesterday.
Tourism registers phenomenal growth
Business Reporter
THE country’s tourism industry experienced a significant upsurge in arrivals during the first half of the year as the economic situation continues to improve and stabilise, an official said.