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PANIC has gripped the ruling Zanu PF party after two senior party officials on Sunday tested positive for COVID-19 with confirmed cases likely to go up as results of mass tests done recently continue to pour in. BY MOSES MATENGA Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu and the party’s director for Information Tafadzwa Mugwadi are now in isolation at home together with affected members of their respective families. The Zanu PF COVID-19 scare comes as Zimbabwe has recorded 291 deaths with 10 of them having been recorded on Saturday only. Ministry of Health and Child Care COVID-19 statistics yesterday showed that there are 10 718 cases of the virus that have been recorded throughout the country. However, the country has also recorded 8 880 recoveries. The party’s secretary for Health David Parirenyatwa yesterday told NewsDay in an interview that the party was now on high alert, adding that all measures were being put in place to curb the further spread of the deadly virus at their headquarters situated in Harare, which also houses a number of party bigwigs and staff. The Zanu PF headquarters also plays host to several party meetings. “What we did last time was to screen people and the results are coming in batches and all those who have been found to be positive have been asked to go into self-isolation and to come back after the prescribed date,” Parirenyatwa said without confirming the actual number of those affected. “When we started the COVID-19 tests as a party, the first batch had five cases but that was about two months ago. So we are now going symptomatically and we check on anyone who would have developed the symptoms. The first time, we did a mass test but now we are following the national policy and that is what we are doing,” he said. Parirenyatwa said the party was putting on a lot of measures to reduce the spread of the virus that has already claimed millions of lives internationally. “We are putting a lot of measures now; we screen people at the gate, we do temperature checks and all the normal routine. We are intensifying that and even in our lifts, we have put COVID-19 measures, and as people get into other offices we make sure prevention protocols are observed,” he said. Mugwadi yesterday took to microblogging site Twitter to announce that he was self-isolating at home and is adhering to all medical tips to suppress the virus. “I will adhere to every medical tip as I battle this pandemic with my family,” Mugwadi wrote on his social media account. Acting Zanu PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa was not immediately available to comment on the matter. However, workers at the ruling party headquarters who spoke on condition of anonymity said there were fears that quite a number of people at the party offices could have contracted COVID-19. Most of the officials work from the building and were feared to have been in close contact with the infected. To make matters worse, they were currently reportedly deployed across the country for the party district co-ordinating committee (DCC) elections, whereas a
The president also stressed the importance of keeping the economy open after months of stifling movement restrictions.
He urged citizens not to drop their guard and continue adhering to the health rules, such as wearing face masks and respecting curfew times.
South Africa has recorded just over 800,000 coronavirus infections - more than a third of the cases reported across the African continent - and over 20,000 deaths.
AFP
Next year will mark a century since Albert Einstein accepted his Nobel Prize in physics for the theories that fundamentally changed the way we understand our universe and what we as human beings can accomplish [...]
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent For NBA Legend Isiah Thomas, there’s only one thing better than talking basketball: It’s discussing his beloved sport over a glass of his award-winning Cheurlin Champagne. Thomas, who led the Indiana Hoosiers to an NCAA title and twice guided the Detroit Pistons to an NBA championship, discussed basketball and Cheurlin Champagne with the Black Press during a recent livestream broadcast. “Earlier, I co-founded a popcorn company called Popcorn Indiana, and when I sold that company, I was looking for my next venture to go into,” Thomas remarked. “I looked at the […]
The post Isiah Thomas Talks Basketball and Champagne with the Black Press appeared first on Black News Channel.
The county’s public health director said that measures such as social distancing and wearing face coverings have slowed the spread of the illness, but with more businesses opening and the weather improving, Barbara Ferrer warned against residents gathering with friends and family, but recognized that such gatherings may occur.
Despite the ever-increasing numbers, Ferrer again stressed that the rate of the virus’ spread has been slowed by the county’s Safer At Home orders mandating social distancing and asking people to remain home as much as possible.
Recreational facilities in the county such as equestrian centers, tennis courts and community gardens have been allowed to reopen, with restrictions including face coverings, social distancing and limits on numbers of visitors.
Ferrer also clarified differing orders imposed by Los Angeles city and the county regarding face coverings.
The county order, however, is not as strict, requiring only that residents wear face coverings only when they are in proximity to other people who are not members of their households.
The minister announced Mombasa has the highest rate of Covid-19 deaths recording 27, followed by Nairobi (20) while Siaya, Bomet and Kiambu have one fatality each.
So far, the are 37 active cases of children aged between zero and nine years, 69 cases (10 to 19 years), 238 (20 to 24 years), 268 (30 to 39 years), 172 (40 to 49), 112 (50 to 59) and 76 cases of people aged 60 and above.
Out of Kenya’s 47 counties, 23 have had cases of the virus with the majority, at 83 per cent, reported in Mombasa and Nairobi.
Nairobi is leading with 470 cases followed by Mombasa at 331, whole Kajiado is third with 43 cases.
Machakos has three cases, Garissa, Bungoma, Homa Bay, Siaya two cases each while Meru, Bomet and Isiolo have single cases.
BY MOSES MATENGA SHARP divisions have emerged in the ruling Zanu PF party with hardliners rubbishing South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s efforts to intervene in the Zimbabwean crisis while moderates have welcomed the move. The hardliners, led by presidential spokesperson George Charamba yesterday said South Africa was too young a democracy to intervene in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs and had no capacity to help any Sadc country, except simply offering solidarity messages. But in sharp contrast, Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu said the ruling party had no qualms with the coming in of an African National Congress (ANC) delegation to meet “whoever they want”. This discord in the ruling party came following Ramaphosa’s announcement on Monday that he would soon dispatch his special envoys back to Harare to meet all key stakeholders, including the opposition, civic society and the church to resolve the deep-rooted crisis before it morphs into a regional crisis. Charamba said South Africa’s actions raised suspicion that Pretoria was being used as a pawn in United States diplomacy, adding that only Zimbabwe had the capacity to play a stabilising role in the Sadc region. “Lastly, whence comes this impression that South Africa can intervene in Zimbabwe, assuming there are grounds for such intervention?” Charamba tweeted yesterday under a pseudonym @Jamwanda2. “On what basis, what might, what capacity, beyond that of solidarity, camaraderie and good-natured concern by a neighbour? South Africa is the youngest State in our region. It faces myriad problems of along apartheid. It has no capacity to help any African State in Sadc, beyond friendly solidarity.” South Africa last month deployed three envoys to Zimbabwe after its own ruling ANC party and the international community raised alarm over worsening human rights violations under Mnangagwa’s watch. The position was taken after ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, chairperson of the international relations committee Lindiwe Zulu and Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Naledi Pandor warned that the Zimbabwean crisis could spill into the region. Mnangagwa has, however, denied that the country is in a crisis. “Let that sink into minds of all and sundry. In any event, Zimbabwe, alongside many Sadc countries which got their independence before South Africa, has gone quite some way in resolving its colonial legacy and empowering its people, something the ANC government is grappling to do just now,” Charamba added. “South Africa is no donor State in Sadc. If anything, its long apartheid legacy makes its post-1994 sub-regional role quite problematic for the rest of Sadc States who know the continued dominance of Afrikaner capital in Sadc.” South Africa got her independence in 1994. But Mpofu yesterday said Zanu PF had no qualms with the coming in of an ANC delegation as they always met as “sisterly parties”. “We are always collaborating with the ANC on a regular basis and this is really not a new development as indicated by yourselves. We are col
The Pan-Africanist Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, is seeking a second term in the upcoming presidential election on Monday. Although often positively-viewed by many other Africans on the continent and abroad as a Pan-Africanist, his win is not guaranteed in his home country as he must succeed in convincing Ghanaians that he is still the same worthy candidate for whom the majority of the population voted four years prior. Early Days and Career Début
Born in 1944 in the capital, Accra to a family of the national political elite, Akufo-Addo saw his own father Edward Akufo-Addo become president in the late 1960s as a member of the \"Big Six\" i.e. the fathers of independence of the nation of Ghana. Educated in London, Akufo-Addo he worked as a lawyer in France and England — specialising in human rights before returning to Ghana where he eventually became involved with the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 1992 when the country returned to democracy following decades of military rule.
His career path as a lawyer then as a member of parliament and minister garnered Akufo-Addo a strong anti-corruption reputation which resulted in high expectations for his presidency.
According to Kwesi Jonah, a researcher at the Ghana Institute for Democratic Governance, \"Everyone saw him as the one who would be able to put an end to corruption.\"
Accusations of mission obstruction by the special prosecutor — who resigned a month later, to oversee a corruption investigation initiative appointed by Akufo-Addo upon his election in December 2016, raised questions about the authenticity of his presidential brand amongst the Ghanian public.
Presidential Term Overview
Kwesi Jonah believes that the 76-year-old Ghanaian president was in a better position to win the election than he is today. President Akufo-Addo had promised to improve education accessibility- a sector which has seen success, and create job employment as a substantial percentage of Ghanian youth is without work.
An asset for the president, in a country where 18 to 35-year-olds represent more than half of the electorate.
He also pledged to diversify the Ghanian economy which has been dependent on primary resources (gold, cocoa and, more recently, oil), and to reduce taxes in the private sector to encourage investment.
Since his election in 2016, although President Akufo-Addo has managed to contain the increase in debt and inflation, more than half of voters believe that he has failed to improve their standard of living and create jobs — according to a survey conducted by Afrobarometer in 2019.
Economically, Ghana has taken a giant step forward in the last decade, but the country - just like most other countries, has been very much affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with its economic growth this year expected to fall to 1.5%, the lowest rate in 37 years.
Another Four Years as President?
Nevertheless, the President’s swift handling of the coronavirus crisis has been applauded both in Ghana and abroad. In particular, the
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that leaked matric papers will be rewritten later this month.
We are just days away from CyberNight – the official Cyberpunk 2077 launch party. CDPR also teamed up with Twitter Gaming for a surprise.
[Nation] The government borrowed an average of Sh2.62 billion daily within four months this year as its appetite for loans to finance ambitious capital projects amid the Covid-19 pandemic continues.
THE ruling Zanu PF party has repeated its call for financial services group Old Mutual Zimbabwe (OMZ) to be delisted from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and proposed that a new bourse be opened and trade only in United States dollars. BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA The party blames Old Mutual for causing “runaway inflation through illegal parallel exchange market rates” and yesterday, it issued another statement to “clarify” last week’s outburst. “Zanu PF is totally opposed to the fungibility of the Old Mutual shares and to this end it reaffirms its policy position that the ZSE should compulsorily de-list the Old Mutual Limited shares from trading on the ZSE,” acting party spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said. “To protect the interests of the 30 168 shareholders of Old Mutual Limited, Zanu PF is recommending to its government that it sets up a stock exchange which will trade only in US$. Old Mutual Limited can then be allowed to migrate, find home and trade on such a foreign currency-denominated counter in Zimbabwe.” He said trading on other counters had been normal and was recommending that trading be resumed after government shut down the ZSE trading last month in a bid to arrest the fall of the local currency against major currencies. Zanu PF’s ire against OMZ is due to the Old Mutual Implied Rate (OMIR), a comparison of the price of shares of the company’s listing in the United Kingdom, South Africa and locally. The OMIR has been used by analysts (not by Old Mutual itself) as an indicator of the value of the Zimbabwe dollar against the greenback, which the government has blamed for the rapid loss of value of the local currency. Bizarrely, Chinamasa said setting up a foreign exchange-denominated stock exchange would be an appropriate institution for raising and attracting foreign direct investment into Zimbabwe despite shutting down ZSE, a move which local stockbrokers have confirmed is already sending investors away in droves. “Companies that want to invest in Zimbabwe and require foreign currency would then list on such a stock exchange to attract foreign direct investment in foreign currency for investment. The details of implementing this recommendation are left to the government including the timeframe within which this recommendation can be implemented,” Chinamasa said. “It is the desire of Zanu PF that implementation be in the shortest possible time to avoid undue disruption to inflows of investment capital. Zanu PF says an emphatic NO, to self-enrichment through speculative trading and externalisation.” OMZ is one of the biggest companies in Zimbabwe and is a subsidiary of Old Mutual Limited South Africa, a large pan-African investment, savings, insurance, and banking group. OMZ has since issued a statement saying it remained committed to serving its customers and to contribute to the development and growth of the economy.
Kenya is reporting a decline in coronavirus cases, and hospital admissions for Covid-19 have fallen sharply, but some frontline health workers say infections are going undetected and could even be rising.
Libya’s battle against the coronavirus is being threatened by wars and division.The government is struggling to deal with an outbreak in the deep desert south.
The North African nation first reported cases of the virus in late March.
Then it seemed relatively contained as cases were very low compared to neighbouring countries.
Recently, the situation has rapidly changed with dozens of covid-19 cases being reported in the south’s largest oasis city of Sabha.
The UN-backed government, the GNA registered some 393 infections and five deaths nationwide on Friday, around half of them in Sabha.
Climate threats are currently high across much of Africa, with floods, droughts and the biggest locust outbreak in generations.
Increased restrictions on movement due to COVID-19 may intensify the effects and put people at even more risk.
Major desert locust outbreaks across East Africa are threatening food security in at least eight countries and are projected to continue spreading.
Sudden onset climate change disasters such as extreme temperatures, landslides, droughts, wildfires, floods or hurricanes are the top drivers of internal migration.
In sudden onset climate disasters, people mostly flee to the nearest safe location or where there's aid.
[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Lockdown school closures fuel sharp rise in the number of children working at diamond mines in the war-torn country, researchers say
