adminOlympic Games team named
Harare Bureau
SWIMMING icon Kirsty Coventry will lead a small Zimbabwe team of seven athletes at the 2012 Olympic Games in London later this month.
New player enters hotel industry
Business Reporter
Bulawayo will soon have another hotel following the conversion of a block of flats into a budget hotel.
Zambezi water for Bulawayo in three years
Temba Dube
THE $1,2 billion National Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (NMZWP), which has been on the cards for 100 years, is set to be completed in three years following the coming on board of the Chinese government.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s put Zimbabwe above all else
In life, a person has many choices. One can choose their friends, a career, wife, husband or the religion they want to follow.
Jabula Inn holds another Macheso show
Entertainment Reporter
ALL roads on Sunday will lead to Esigodini as Alick “Extra Basso” Macheso and the Orchestra Mberikwazo hold a show at Jabula Inn, fresh from their United Kingdom tour.
No comment on Malema remarks: ANC
Johannesburg — The ANC said yesterday it will not respond to expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s remarks about President Jacob Zuma because he is no longer a party member.
Gumbo’s team selection biased: fans
Sports Reporter
SOCCER fans in Bulawayo yesterday blasted Warriors’ coach Rahman Gumbo for what they termed biased selection of the squad that will play at an invitational competition in Botswana next week.
Put national interest first — President
Takunda Maodza in Gweru
PRESIDENT Mugabe has implored Zimbabweans to put the well-being of the country ahead of foreign interests.
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces made the plea during the pass out parade for Regular Officer Cadets at the Zimbabwe Military Academy in Gweru yesterday.
“I wish to remind all Zimbabweans throughout the length and breadth of our country and, indeed those outside the country that we should always put the well-being of our country first in everything we do.
“We should never, ever, put foreign interests ahead of those of our own people, be it in the constitution-making process, which is underway, in negotiating contracts, offering opinions and comments on our country even in sporting and other social activities. Remember that no country can develop against a background of self-hate and pity within its own fabric,” President Mugabe said.
The President reminded the graduands that the country continues to bear the brunt of illegal economic sanctions imposed by Britain, the European Union, US and their allies.
“Contrary to the misguided views of some citizens of our country, these sanctions are not targetted but seek to hurt our economy as well as our people,” he said.
President Mugabe said many companies have closed down leaving people unemployed while those that have continued to operate are doing so far below their optimum capacity as a result of the illegal economic embargo.
Council fines illegal: Parly
Lloyd Gumbo
Herald Reporter
The Parliament’s Legal Committee has declared all forms of fines charged by local authorities through by-laws as unconstitutional.
The committee said only a court of law, has the mandate to impose fines that exceed Level Three (US$20).
Councils, the committee noted, could only impose fines below US$20, which would also be subjected to court reviews.
This means that council fines for clamping and towing vehicles are illegal because they do not go through the judicial system.
However, the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe dismissed the assertions saying there was no provision in their by-laws to go through the court process.
Ucaz president and Masvingo City Council Mayor Femias Chakabuda urged legislators to understand council by-laws.
“Our fines are gazetted, our MPs should learn to read our by-laws so that they know because there is no provision that we are supposed to go through court processes,” Mayor Chakabuda said.
“When we gazette those fines they don’t say anything, they only raise these arguments when there is a problem. Each MP is from a local authority and they are under a councillor so they should interact with them.”
Harare City charges about US$56 for clamping vehicles and US$120 for towing the vehicle away.
Government urged to support farmers
Herald Reporters
GOVERNMENT should not hesitate to subsidise farmers in order to boost production on the farms as this is the norm elsewhere in the world, the Zanu-PF secretary for Land Reform and Resettlement Cde Ignatious Chombo has said.
Cde Chombo, who on Monday met with provincial governors from all the country’s provinces and the Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Herbert Murerwa to discuss administrative issues affecting land reforms, said the meeting was of the view that Government was not funding agriculture.
The meeting called on the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti to release funds for agriculture on time.
“Farmers are not being supported in any way by Government. Government should not hesitate to subsidise farmers as this is the norm everywhere. In the EU farmers are subsidised.
“For instance, each cow in France is subsided to the tune of $2,50 a day,” he said.
Cde Chombo said cotton prices were low because local farmers were competing with subsidised products on the international market.