PRETORIA, LELEMUKU.COM - At least 60 people have been killed and more than 1,000 have fled their homes after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides along South Africa's eastern coast, authorities said on Wednesday.
Most of the deaths were in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in neighboring Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said.
The rains mainly hit areas around the port city of Durban. Multiple dwellings collapsed in mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.
Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings on Wednesday.
Victor da Silva, a resident of the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.
"On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn't stop raining," Da Silva said. "And then an hour and a half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn't stopped.
Authorities in southern Tanzania ordered evacuations of residents from low-lying areas and the closure of schools and offices ahead of landfall of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth on neighboring Mozambique’s coast on Thursday.
"We've decided to evacuate all residents of valleys and other low-lying areas and we advise them to seek refuge at public spaces," Mtwara regional commissioner Gelasius Byakanwa, told reporters.
Johan Fourie said he fled his home in Amanzimtoti, Kwazulu-Natal, just before part of it collapsed.
"I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital," Fourie told eNCA television.
The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the extent of the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.
"As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people," Mabaso said.
Some people were swept away by the water, he added. President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday and was expected in the Eastern Cape in the next few days.
"This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it," he said.
Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean-born software engineer, Hope Ndhlovu, has won the 2019 World Bank Youth Summit Award for developing an application designed to make it easy for people to use public transport in Africa.
The Bulawayo-born young man, who studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Harvard University in United States (US), was among hundreds of people who submitted their Apps for consideration at the World Bank Summitt 2019.
In a message posted on his social media platforms, Ndhlovu wrote, “I had the honor and privilege of pitching my startup Tuverl at the World Bank Youth Summit Pitch Competition Finals in Washington DC, earlier this week. We were 1 of 5 team finalists selected from a pool of 885 applicants from 98 countries.
“My team finished on 1st place and won … It was such a humbling experience for our vision at Tuverl to be validated by the World Bank and the hundreds vibrant young people from around the world who attended the conference.”
Ndhlovu did his secondary education at Mpopoma High School in Bulawayo. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - The family of the late former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has appointed his daughter, Bona Mugabe-Chikore, as the executor of his estate amid the conspicuous absence of the late politician’s sons during the administration of the estate at the Harare High Court on Thursday.
Unlike South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela who wrote a will in 2004 and amended it in 2008 with instructions to distribute at least US$4,1 million to his family, staff, the ruling African National Congress and former schools, the late Zimbabwean strongman, who died September 6THin Singapore after a long battle with prostate cancer, did not write a will, according to his family.
Mugabe was toppled in a defacto military coup in November 2017 having ruled the country since independence in 1980.
The Mugabe family lawyer, Terrence Hussein, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the other children are outside the country but had given written consent that Bona should be appointed executor as per Zimbabwean laws since the late leader did not leave a will.
Former first lady, Grace Mugabe, attended the meeting with the Master of the High Court Eldard Mutasa.
Hussein said, “This is a normal meeting that happens after the death of a person. It is called by the Master of the High Court, and it is called an edict meeting. In that meeting the master sets out the guidelines and parameters of how the estate will be run. He will also appoint an executor who would then do the business of stepping into the shoes of the deceased person and then apportioning how their estate would be wound up and who the beneficiaries will be and how much they will get.”
Hussein confirmed that though Bona had submitted the provisional list of some of the assets left behind by her father, it is going to be a long process.The late president is said to have left behind assets that include US$10 million in cash, 10 cars, a farm, three houses and several housing stands.
Reached by VOA Zimbabwe,Bona Chikore simply said, “No comment.” Other family sources are claiming that the money Mugabe left is only US$7 million.
Former first lady Grace Mugabe is listed as the sole surviving spouse, while Bona, Robert Junior, Bellarmine Chatunga and Russel Gorereza are listed as the surviving children. Russel is the late president’s stepson from the Mrs. Mugabe’s first marriage to Stanley Goreraza.
Where Are Mugabe's Billions?
A leaked diplomatic cable from the American embassy in Harare in 2001 published by WikiLeaks, a website that functions as a clearinghouse for classified or state secrets, said unverified assets linkedto Mugabe amounted to more than US$1 billion in Zimbabwe and overseas.
The cable read:“The full extent of President Mugabe’s assets are unknown, but are rumored to exceed US$1 billion in value, the majority of which are likely invested outside Zimbabwe. Inside Zimbabwe, the bulk of Mugabe’s assets are reported to be in the form of real property -- he and his wife have six residences, including a multi-story mansion still under construction in Harare, in addition to a number of farms around the country.”
A lawsuit filed in Singapore also provided a small glimpse into the wealth of the Mugabe’s. A villa was bought in 2008 by a company called Cross Global and sold in 2010 to a Taiwanese-born South African Hsieh Ping Sung believed to have been a one-time Mugabe confidant and front. The Mugabes sued both Cross Global and Hsieh in 2014 claiming ownership, arguing in court papers that the businessman was just a front. TheMugab’s also admitted to buying another house in neighboring South Africa.
When Washington and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on him, Mugabe openly challenged them to seize any of his assets outside, saying he had none. Mrs. Mugabe also told party supporters in 2015 that her husband was a man of little means who was just passionate about the suffering of Zimbabweans.
Blue Roof Mansion
The Mugabes’ most prized asset is the so-called Blue Roof Mansion located in Borrowdale Brooke, Harare. A then Yugoslavia-based company, Energoproject, constructed the 25-bedroomed house. The architectural design is Chinese. In 1999, the ruling Zanu-PF party bought the 12-hactare plot and donated it to Mugabe for his retirement home. The Mugabes later bought out and forced out some five families at adjacent properties to construct the mansion.
When Mugabe died, it emerged that the property was still listed in the name of the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, who once threatened to turn the house into a museum, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that the property is now being transferred to the family.
“The latest is that the Blue Roof is being transferred to the late president's family. The process started a few weeks ago and I am sure by now it’s almost concluded or it’s about to be concluded.”
Hussein also confirmed the pending transfer. “I do understand that that process is in the pipeline. I don't believe it's completed yet but I do understand that it is in the pipeline and it is being attended to.”
Constitutional law expert and University of Zimbabwe law Professor, Lovemore Madhuku, says Mrs. Mugabe under Zimbabwe’s inheritance laws is entitled to the mansion.
“The asset that is called the matrimonial home means where he was staying with his wife, that one is taken by the spouse. If the spouse was married, in this case we know that she was married in terms of the Marriage Act, she would get the matrimonial house. Therefore, if the matrimonial home is the Blue Roof, then that means it goes to Mrs. Grace Mugabe.
“Even those who are married under customary law, every surviving wife gets the assets belonging to them in terms of where they were staying. If it is a matrimonial home. The rest of the properties are shared. So even if there is no will, the matrimonial home is a very straightforward distribution of assets.”
Mugabe Multiple Farm Owner
According to the papers submitted to the High Court, the Mugabe family says he owned only one farm,Highfield Farm in Norton, south of the capital Harare, that he bought commercially. But government sources have linked him to more than 10 farms namely:Gushungo Estates (4 046 hectares) in Mazowe; Gushungo Dairies (1 000 hectares); Iron Mask Estate in Mazowe (1 046 hectares); Sigaru Farm in Mazowe (873 hectares); Gwebi Wood (1 200 hectares) in Mazowe; Gwina Farm in Mazowe (1 445 hectares); Leverdale Farm in Banket (1 488 hectares);) and in Norton, they own Cressydale Estate (676 hectares); Tankatara Farm (575 hectares); John O’Groat Farm (760 hectares); Clifford Farm (1 050 hectares) and Bassiville (1 200 hectares), putting the land holding of Mugabe’s family to about 16 000 hectares.
Hussein though says Mugabe was a “modest man” and was not a multiple farm owner. Asked about the alleged multiple farms,“Well there again goes those myths - produce them (farms), show us that they were in his name. Show us that he was allocated them. Nobody is able to come forward with them. So once again, those are myths that were being peddled. But the good thing about it is the truth always prevails.”
Sources close to the former First Family though say some of the farms are listed in the names of his children and widow. Professor Madhuku says trying to tie those properties to the former President is difficult.
“Those are not the assets of President Mugabe. His assets are the assets that belong to him in terms of ownership. If an asset is registered in the name of someone else, then the presumption is that that other person is the owner. Those properties ought to not even be talked about; they should not even be addressed. If for example there is a farm, which is an immovable property registered in the name of someone else tied to a child or spouse that property belongs to that person. It's not his assets.”
Mrs. Mugabe, according to Madhuku, will also inherit the lion’s share of the properties.
However, the government is threatening to seize some of the farms saying it is going to implement a one-family-one-farm policy. Critics of the government say the policy is designed to target the former first lady who allegedly riled the government after refusing to have the late national hero to be interred at the National Heroes Acre in Harare - reserved for the country’s most illustrious individuals.
Though Mugabe’s close allies claim that he lived a modest life, his family is said to have secretly amassed vast wealth, with his widow and children owning Rolls Royces, Porsche and Range Rovers. The Mugabe family also has a stake in the struggling Gushungo Holdings, trading as Alpha Omega Dairy (Pvt Ltd).
Mrs. Mugabe also owns AmaiMugabe Junior School, aprivate school in Mazowe. The extent of the Mugabes’ wealth was also revealed in 2015 when the former first lady sued a Lebanese executiveJamal Joseph Ahmed. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean politician, who fled the country when the Zimbabwe Defence Force staged a defacto military coup that led to the toppling of former president Robert Mugabe, has started campaigning for the 2023 presidential election, in what is viewed by some observers as the rise of a faction of the party once led by former First Lady, Grace Mugabe.
The campaign #TysonWabantu Movement, kick-started today in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, comprising mainly of young people, who believe that former Zanu PF secretary for administration, Saviour Kasukuwere, should lead the nation instead of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his colleague that are regarded by the movement as too old to revive the southern African nation with an almost comatose economy.
Butho Ngwenya, a former Zanu PF activist who is leading the campaign in the city, says they believe that Kasukuwere is the right person to lead Zimbabwe as he is “young, experienced in governmental issues and liked by most people”.
He says Kasukuwere, who was also Zimbabwe’s Youth Minister and was sought by the Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 when the army seized power and forced Mugabe to resign, is expected to return home soon to spearhead the campaign nationwide.
Kasukuwere was among some senior Zanu PF leaders that fled two years ago as the army claimed that they had usurped presidential powers in conjunction with the then first lady and wanted former State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi to succeed Mugabe.
The president had sacked his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa and then came back to take the presidential post after the long-time Zimbabwean leader was toppled.
Zanu PF supporters say Kasukuwere and his #TysonWabantu Movement are wasting time as Mnangagwa is expected to win the 2023 presidential poll.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Information Secretary Nick Mangwana were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Kasukuwere’s pseudonym is Tyson.
Ngwenya says they hope to convince Zimbabweans that Kasukuwere is fit for the presidential post. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean politician, who fled the country when the Zimbabwe Defence Force staged a defacto military coup that led to the toppling of former president Robert Mugabe, has started campaigning for the 2023 presidential election, in what is viewed by some observers as the rise of a faction of the party once led by former First Lady, Grace Mugabe.
The campaign #TysonWabantu Movement, kick-started today in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, comprising mainly of young people, who believe that former Zanu PF secretary for administration, Saviour Kasukuwere, should lead the nation instead of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his colleague that are regarded by the movement as too old to revive the southern African nation with an almost comatose economy.
Butho Ngwenya, a former Zanu PF activist who is leading the campaign in the city, says they believe that Kasukuwere is the right person to lead Zimbabwe as he is “young, experienced in governmental issues and liked by most people”.
He says Kasukuwere, who was also Zimbabwe’s Youth Minister and was sought by the Zimbabwe Defence Force in 2017 when the army seized power and forced Mugabe to resign, is expected to return home soon to spearhead the campaign nationwide.
Kasukuwere was among some senior Zanu PF leaders that fled two years ago as the army claimed that they had usurped presidential powers in conjunction with the then first lady and wanted former State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi to succeed Mugabe.
The president had sacked his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who fled to South Africa and then came back to take the presidential post after the long-time Zimbabwean leader was toppled.
Zanu PF supporters say Kasukuwere and his #TysonWabantu Movement are wasting time as Mnangagwa is expected to win the 2023 presidential poll.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Information Secretary Nick Mangwana were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Kasukuwere’s pseudonym is Tyson.
Ngwenya says they hope to convince Zimbabweans that Kasukuwere is fit for the presidential post. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A court in Zimbabwe on Thursday appointed Robert Mugabe’s daughter to identify assets left by the late former leader so they can be distributed to his beneficiaries, his lawyer said.
Zimbabweans are keen to know how much wealth Mugabe accrued during his 37 years in power. Many assume that he and his family amassed a vast fortune - perhaps as much as $1 billion, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable from 2001.
The Master of High Court in Harare appointed Bona Chikore executor of her father’s estate, the Mugabe family lawyer Terrence Hussein told reporters, adding that this had been agreed by family members.
Hussein said Mugabe’s wife Grace and Bona attended Thursday’s meeting at the court but sons Robert Jr and Bellarmine Chatunga were away. They, however, gave written consent that their sister should be appointed executor.
For many years, Mugabe and Grace were widely reported by Zimbabwean and foreign media to have deposited money and bought properties abroad, including in Asia, where they spent most of their annual family holidays. The family has denied this.
But a legal dispute that spilled into the public in 2014 over a $5 million villa in Hong Kong suggested Mugabe’s family had been buying overseas property. The government said it owned the house.
Hussein said journalists and United States and Britain, who were critical of Mugabe, should prove that he had properties abroad so they could be registered with the court.
“This is the good thing about saying falsehoods, those falsehoods will be exposed. Where are the properties?” Hussein said when asked about reports that Mugabe had properties abroad.
Hussein told Reuters on Tuesday that the process of establishing Mugabe’s assets would take some time, casting doubt on a state media report that the former leader left $10 million and some properties in the capital. (MacDonald Dzirutwe/Alison Williams/Reuters/VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - Livestock farmer Siphiwe Moyo walks briskly under the scorching sun until she arrives at a shady tree in the middle of a parched, unplanted maize field.
She is making a second check on three emaciated cows, two of which are pregnant.
Moyo, 59, is relieved to see them still standing. She and her husband, Daniel sometimes have to lift the weakened animals back to their feet three times a day in a frantic bid to keep them alive.
As another drought ravages Zimbabwe, farmers in livestock-rich Matabeleland, in the country’s west, are again counting their losses as animals die from thirst and lack of food.
Zimbabwean farmers, hit by more frequent droughts as climate change takes hold, have made efforts to change livestock practices to better cope with dry times - but not all of the new adaptation strategies are holding up, they say.
As a result, in a region where livestock are a store of wealth for most families, drought is again drying up income and reducing savings, farmers say.
“The cattle are our bank,” Siphiwe Moyo told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, as her cows - two of them pregnant - stood in the shade.
If the cows die, “we will lose five animals in one go”, she said.
Dying Cattle
In September and October, Matabeleland North reported losses of nearly 2,600 cattle as drought dried water supplies and pastures, said Polex Moyo, an officer for the province’s department of veterinary services.
He believes the losses will be even higher, with many livestock “in very poor condition”, he said.
A year ago, by comparison, 766 cattle were lost over the same period, he said.
Cattle are dying in part because cash-strapped farmers can’t afford to buy the supplementary feed their animals need, particularly with the price surging as demand soars, said Kenneth Nyoni, a trader in agricultural inputs.
A 50-kilo (110 lb) bag of commercial cattle feed is now selling for a third more than a year ago, he said.
Daniel Moyo said his family has already sold three goats to buy cattle feed in an effort to keep the three emaciated cows alive, and he expects to sell more goats.
But the struggling cows also are eating some of the family’s own maize meal - a staple food - mixed with salt and maize stalks saved from a 2017 harvest, he said.
“We have never lost animals to drought before because the situation was never this bad,” he said. Another 20 cattle the family owns “are at risk too unless we get rains soon and they have water and grass”, Moyo said.
Moyo’s neighbours in other villages in Nkayi District are already seeing their animals die.
In Tshutshu, village head Mbulawa Sibanda says he has seen 15 cattle lost to drought in the last few weeks.
The bush is filling with rotting animals, and more will die even if rains come, he said, as pastures take time to recover.
Ngwiza Khumalo, the headman of nearby Mhlabuyatshisa village said his community had lost 18 cattle in the last three weeks.
The deaths come as most rivers in the district have dried up and livestock need to travel ever-longer distances in search of water, Moyo said.
Farmers started reducing their herds as the drought hit, he said, but many took action too late.
STRUGGLING FEEDLOTS
A project in Nesigwe village, to put cattle into feeding pens during droughts - a move that cut losses in a previous drought - also has struggled in recent years, said Moyo, who chairs the effort.
When the project was first established in 2015, farmers fed animals in the pens with commercial feed, with the cost offset by the much higher price the fat cattle brought at market in a year when supplies of them were low.
The cash earned from sales then helped feed other animals, keeping more of them alive.
But a devaluation of Zimbabwe’s currency in late 2016 led to the collapse of the project, as the currency farmers brought in from cattle sales couldn’t buy enough feed to keep other animals alive, said Muhle Masuku, a farmer who helped launch the project.
In September, the International Monetary Fund warned that Zimbabwe’s economy was likely to shrink in 2019 as inflation soared to 300%, the highest rate in the world after Venezuela.
A shortage of foreign currency, water and electricity, combined with rising inflation, have sent the costs of goods and services surging in the country, which declared a drought disaster in August.
Reason Ndebele, a farmer in the village of Mtshengiswa, said saving cattle during drought often required hard work as well as cash.
He has hand-dug a well deep into the dry bed of the Tshangani River to provide water for his 25 cattle, and pulls up 30 20-litre buckets of water each day for them.
He sold some animals to pay for supplementary feed for the rest - something not everyone is willing to do, he said.
“Many farmers are not even keen to sell one animal to buy livestock feed and save 20 animals,” he said.
Farmers - many of whom grow crops as well as raise cattle - also are struggling to afford quality seeds and fertiliser this year, local officials said.
“While farmers are losing cattle in Nkayi, many families are also going for days without food and cannot afford to buy inputs to prepare for farming this year,” said Kufakwezwe Ncube, a councillor in Nkayi Urban Ward 29 and former chairman of the Nkayi Rural District Council.
He called for urgent government help to supply food aid. (VOA/Reuters)
GENEVA, LELEMUKU.COM- The United Nations said on Tuesday it was procuring food assistance for 4.1 million Zimbabweans, a quarter of the population in a country where shortages are being exacerbated by runaway inflation and climate-induced drought.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, marked by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and electricity.
“We are very much concerned as the situation continues to deteriorate,” Eddie Rowe, World Food Programme (WFP) country director, speaking from Harare, told a Geneva news briefing.
“We believe if we do not reach out and assist these people then the situation would blow up into a major crisis,” he said.
The 240,000 tonnes of food aid, to be procured on international markets, represents a doubling of the WFP’s current programme in Zimbabwe.
The agency aims to purchase supplies from Tanzania, in the form of maize grain, as well as from Mexico, and pulses from Kenya and potentially the Black Sea area, Rowe said.
Zimbabwe has only had one year of normal rainfall in the last five and “markets are not functioning”, he said. “There are families that go to bed hungry without a meal a day,” Rowe added.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government will scrap its plan to remove grain subsidies next year, a move it says will protect impoverished citizens from rising food prices, state media reported last week.
Rights groups say at least 17 people were killed and hundreds arrested in January, after security forces cracked down on protests against fuel price increases. Police have banned further protests.
“For a country that used to be breadbasket of southern Africa, the situation is nothing short of tragic,” WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher said. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A senior United States official working in Zimbabwe has questioned development aid figures released recently by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2020 national budget statement, saying the funds are less than what his country provided in the 2019 financial year.
In an interview in Masvingo on Tuesday, Deputy Ambassador Thomas Hastings, said the amount of financial aid to Zimbabwe this year was understated by the government.
“… They recently released the total amount of money that we gave in 2019, it was about $330 million. So, it was a bit more than it was in the budget report that’s the total amount that includes our work with PEPFAR (U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), it includes work that we have provided this year for food relief, people who are faced with food insecurity because of the drought and other causes it includes drought and any other causes and it also includes the assistance that was given to people who suffered the consequences of Cyclone Idai. So, putting all the numbers together it was over $330 million this year.”
Thomas said Zimbabwean authorities should include all the development aid provided by the United States in 2019.
“Well, it’s important to include all of the programs and that’s why we recently put the information out there to make sure that the total amount of our assistance was made on to the people of Zimbabwe.”
He could not be drawn to comment on suggestions that the undervaluing of the development aid provided by the Zimbabwean government was being deliberately done by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
“I don’t know about that, you have to talk to the Ministry of Finance about how they came up with all those numbers … when you take the amount of work we do with health, with food assistance and Cyclone Idai and emergency relief, that’s how much it totaled.”
In the budget statement, Ncube indicated that Zimbabwe this year obtained development support from USA amounting to $252,722,653.
Information secretary Nick Mangwana and Finance Minister Ncube were unavailable for comment as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones.
The Chinese government recently questioned figures indicating that they provided only $3,631,500 for development support instead of over $136 million.
In response, the Zimbabwean government promised to look into the issue. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services’ Twitter handle, the government said, “Govt has noted the query raised by @ChineseZimbabwe regarding bilateral aid figures captured in the 2020 National Budget Statement. Necessary consultations are underway to establish a common accounting position. We thank the Chinese Govt for their support.” (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - Zimbabwe's former President Robert Mugabe left behind $10 million, 10 cars, a farm and several homes, but apparently no will, his estate revealed Tuesday.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported Tuesday that Mugabe's daughter, Bona, registered the estate with the High Court on behalf of the family.
The family's lawyers say they are still searching for a will but if one is not found, the estate will be divided between former first lady Grace Mugabe and four children.
Mugabe died in September at a Singapore hospital two years after he was forced out of office by his Zanu-PF party and the military.
Mugabe has long been rumored to have amassed a massive fortune during his 37-year rule.
A 2001 diplomatic cable sent by the U.S. Embassy in Harare and released by WikiLeaks said Mugabe was rumored to have more than $1 billion worth of assets in Zimbabwe and overseas, which "include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas, and castles in Scotland.”
News of his wealth comes days after the United Nations warned that millions of people in Zimbabwe are facing food insecurity.
“Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation," and the number of people needing help is "shocking" for a country not in conflict, Hilal Elver, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food, said. (VOA)
GENEVA, LELEMUKU.COM - United Nations aid agencies are expressing deep concern for the safety of civilians in Tripoli as fighting moves closer from the outskirts to the center of the Libyan capital. Troops fighting for renegade general Khalifa Haftar began their battle to seize Tripoli on April 5.
U.N. aid agencies are particularly worried about the situation of some 4,000 refugees and migrants, most from sub-Saharan Africa, who are held in government detention centers in and around Tripoli. Of particular concern are more than 1,500 believed to be trapped in several places of detention close to where the clashes are occurring.
U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Liz Throssell tells VOA her agency is in contact with Libyan authorities, working to guarantee the safety of those detained near the combat zones.
“This includes advocating with the authorities to allow the relocation of vulnerable individuals to the gathering and departure center," she said. "As you can imagine, this is complicated by the severely restricted access amid the security situation. And, to date, we have facilitated relocation of about 150 vulnerable refugees from the Ain Zara detention center.”
Throssell says the UNHCR has set up a hot line for refugees and internally displaced people stuck in areas of conflict seeking assistance. She says her agency has transferred medicine and medical equipment to the Ministry of Health. This is to support emergency units and hospitals around Tripoli.
The World Health Organization reports the number of people killed since the conflict erupted April 5 now stands at 174, including 14 civilians. More than 750 have been wounded.
Despite the dangerous security situation, the International Organization for Migration reports one bit of good news. It says it was able to organize a humanitarian relief flight Monday to repatriate 136 migrants to Nigeria. (Lisa Schlein-VOA)
ALGIERS, LELEMUKU.COM - The head of Algeria's constitutional council stepped down Tuesday after weeks facing the ire of protesters, state television reported.
Tayeb Belaiz informed the council, which will play a key role in upcoming presidential elections, that "he presented his resignation... to the head of state".
Algerians have called for Belaiz and other top figures to quit in mass demonstrations which prompted the departure of veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika earlier this month.
Protesters have targeted the "3B" -- Belaiz, Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui, and Abdelkader Bensalah who served as upper house speaker until being appointed interim president after Bouteflika's resignation.
Bensalah has defended his appointment under constitutional rules and has pledged a transparent vote, to be held on July 4.
The constitutional council is tasked with vetting election candidates, as well as ensuring the regularity of the polls.
Belaiz has served as a minister almost without interruption for 16 years and was appointed head of the constitutional council for the second time on February 2.
Later that month Algerians took to the streets to rally against Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term in polls initially schedule for April.
The demonstrations swelled and spread nationwide, with protesters calling for a broad overhaul of the political system following the president's departure. (VOA)
NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - The United Nations said Monday that the five-year-old conflict in Yemen has taken a "devastating toll" on the country's children, with thousands killed, maimed and recruited to fight since the war began.
"The impact of this conflict on children is horrific," Virginia Gamba, U.N. special representative for children and armed conflict, told a meeting of the Security Council. "All parties to the conflict have acted and reacted militarily to events resulting in the use and abuse of children in multiple ways."
Since monitoring began in Yemen in April 2013 (before the conflict fully erupted) until the end of the 2018, Gamba said more than 7,500 children have been killed or maimed and more than 3,000 have been verified as recruited or used, and there have been more than 800 documented cases of denial of humanitarian access to children.
Gamba said children reportedly have been forcibly recruited from schools, orphanages and communities to fight on the front lines, man checkpoints, deliver supplies or gather intelligence.
Last year, over half of the children recruited were under the age of 15. During that period, the U.N. says more than 200 were killed or maimed while being used by the warring parties.
Gamba called out the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels for recruiting the majority of the children, followed by the Popular Resistance, Yemen Armed Forces and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
"The numbers I present to you today represent a mere fraction of violations committed against children in Yemen," she told council members.
In addition to harm to child soldiers, Gamba said of the more than 7,500 children killed or maimed between 2013 and 2018, nearly half of the casualties were caused by Saudi-coalition airstrikes.
Another 40 percent of such casualties came in ground fighting, including shelling and mortars. Gamba said Houthi rebels were largely to blame, followed by Yemeni government forces, among others.
It is not the first time the U.N. has called out the Saudi-led coalition or the Houthis for harming Yemeni children. But while both sides say they avoid harming civilians, the toll continues to rise. Redeployment of forces
The U.N. has been working to end the conflict. On Monday, special envoy Martin Griffiths offered a glimmer of hope that the parties might be ready to take a first step away from the battlefield.
He told council members that both the Saudi coalition-backed Yemeni government and the Houthis have accepted a detailed redeployment plan to begin moving their fighters away from the crucial Red Sea port city of Hodeida.
"We will now move with all speed toward resolving the final outstanding issues related to the operational plans for phase two, redeployments and also the issue of the status of local security forces," Griffiths told the council in a video briefing from Amman, Jordan.
The parties committed to the plan at talks in Stockholm in December, but efforts to implement the agreement have failed. Griffiths expressed some confidence that they would go forward now.
"When — and I hope it is when and not if — these redeploys happen, they will be the first ones in this long conflict," he said.
Griffiths acknowledged that the "the war in Yemen … shows no sign of abating," and said there needs to be real progress on the military redeployments before the focus can shift back to the political track.
U.S. Acting U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen welcomed Houthi acceptance to phase one of the withdrawal plan and said Washington would be "watching closely to see if they make good on that agreement." Funds urgently needed
Meanwhile, U.N. humanitarian operations in Yemen are at risk of running out of money in the coming weeks.
In February, international donors pledged $2.6 billion for Yemen relief operations. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — who are prosecuting the war against the Houthis — pledged an additional $1 billion.
But U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock said that nearly four months into 2019, the response plan has received only $267 million in actual funding.
"U.N. agencies are rapidly running out of money for essential relief activities," he warned.
The country, which is facing a cholera epidemic, could see 60% of its diarrhea treatment centers close in the coming weeks if money is not received. U.N. food programs, which provide emergency food assistance to more than 9 million people every month, would also be impacted.
"Closing or scaling back such programs — at a time when we are struggling to prevent widespread famine and roll back cholera and other killer diseases — would be catastrophic," Lowcock said.
He also warned that a potential environmental disaster is brewing off of Yemen's Red Sea coast.
Lowcock said that an oil tanker used as a floating storage and offloading facility, and which is 8 kilometers off the coast at the Ras Isa terminal, is old and has not received any maintenance since 2015. It has about 1.1 million barrels of oil on board.
"Without maintenance, we fear that it will rupture or even explode, unleashing an environmental disaster in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes," Lowcock said.
A Saudi Arabian-led coalition began bombing Houthi rebels in support of Yemen's government in March 2015. Since then, the U.N. estimates more than 10,000 people have been killed, mostly due to coalition airstrikes. (VOA)
WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - The number of measles cases worldwide nearly quadrupled in the first three months of the year compared to last year, the World Health Organization reported Monday.
The United Nations agency, citing preliminary data, said that more than 112,000 cases of the preventable but highly contagious disease have been reported across the globe in the January-to-March period.
WHO called for better vaccination coverage against measles, which can kill or leave a child disabled for life.
Over recent months, WHO said spikes in the disease have occurred "in countries with high overall vaccination coverage, including the United States ... as well as Israel, Thailand, and Tunisia, as the disease has spread fast among clusters of unvaccinated people."
"While this data is provisional and not yet complete, it indicates a clear trend," WHO said. "Many countries are in the midst of sizeable measles outbreaks, with all regions of the world experiencing sustained rises in cases."
The agency said the reported number of cases often lags behind the number of actual cases, meaning that the number of documented cases likely does not reflect the actual severity of the measles outbreaks.
For three weeks in a row, U.S. health authorities have added dozens of new reports of measles to its yearly total, now at 555, the biggest figure in five years. Twenty of the 50 U.S. states have now reported measles cases.
More than half of the U.S. total — 285 cases — have been reported in New York City. Officials in the country's largest city last week ordered mandatory measles vaccinations to halt the outbreak that has been concentrated among ultra-Orthodox Jews in the city's Brooklyn borough.
City health department officials blamed anti-vaccine propagandists for distributing misinformation in the community. (VOA)
KAMPALA, LELEMUKU.COM - Ugandan security forces are searching for an American tourist, her driver and the four gunmen who abducted them inside a national park on Tuesday. The gunmen have demanded half a million dollars to release the captives.
Ugandan police say a group of three tourists and their Ugandan driver were out in Queen Elizabeth National Park at about 2:00 p.m. Tuesday when the unidentified men held them up at gunpoint.
They say the gunmen kidnapped an American, identified as 35-year-old Kimberly Sue Endecott, and the driver, Jean Paul. The other two tourists, an elderly couple, were freed and later informed park officials of the abduction.
The abduction happened in the Ishasha section of the park, which sits near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“The kidnappers, using the victim's phone, have demanded $500,000," Polly Namaye, the police deputy spokesperson told reporters. "We strongly believe that this ransom is the reason behind the kidnap."
Now, the phone is switched off, meaning authorities have to wait for kidnappers to get back in touch.
Security agencies including the president's Elite Special Forces, the tourism police and the regular police are searching the national park, an area that covers 2,000 square kilometers, in hopes of rescuing Endecott and Paul.
They are hoping the gunmen do not cross into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, which is just 18 kilometers from the kidnap scene and stretches into Congo.
In 1999, armed Hutu fighters from Congo entered Bwindi Park and killed eight tourists and four Ugandans.
Namaye says police suspect Endecott, Paul and the kidnappers are still somewhere in Queen Elizabeth Park.
“We strongly believe that the perpetrators and the victims could still be trapped within our search area and we are hopeful that our efforts will lead to their successful and safe recovery.” said Namaye.
Uganda earns about $1.3 billion per year from tourism.
Bashir Hangi, the spokesperson for the Uganda Wildlife Authority, acknowledged the kidnapping could hurt the tourism industry but said tourists need to be cautious when traveling in national parks.
“Maybe we need to appreciate the fact that these people did not have a ranger guide, the time they went for a game drive. And why do we have guns in the park? It’s to protect our visitors, not only against wildlife but also against such illegal armed entrants in the parks," said Hangi.
Meanwhile, in an advisory, the U.S. embassy in Kampala has asked Americans to exercise caution when traveling in Queen Elizabeth National Park due to ongoing security activity. (VOA)
STOCKHOLM, LELEMUKU.COM - They're angry at their elders, and they're not taking it sitting down.
Students worldwide are skipping class Friday to take to the streets to protest their governments' failure to take sufficient action against global warming.
The coordinated "school strikes," being held from the South Pacific to the edge of the Arctic Circle, were inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who began holding solitary demonstrations outside the Swedish parliament last year.
Since then, the weekly protests have snowballed from a handful of cities to hundreds, driven by social media-savvy students and dramatic headlines about the impact of climate change.
Thunberg, who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was cheered for her blunt message to leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland this year, when she told them: "I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day."
Friday's rallies are expected to be one of the biggest international actions yet. Protests were under way or planned in cities in more than 100 countries, including Hong Kong; New Delhi; Wellington, New Zealand; and Oulo, Finland.
In Berlin some 10,000 protesters, most of them young students, gathered in a downtown square, waving signs with slogans such as "There is no planet B" and "Climate Protection Report Card: F" before a march through the capital's government quarter. The march was to end with a demonstration outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office.
Organizer Carla Reemtsma, a 20-year-old university student, said social media had been key in reaching people directly to coordinate the massive protests in so many different locations, noting that she was in 50 WhatsApp groups and fielding some 30,000 messages a day.
"It's really important that people are getting together all over the world, because it's affecting us all," she said. Critics, supporters
Some politicians have criticized the students, suggesting they should be spending their time in school, not on the streets.
"One can't expect children and young people to see all of the global connections, what's technically reasonable and economically possible," said the head of Germany's pro-business Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner. "That's a matter for professionals."
But scientists have backed the protests, with thousands signing petitions in support of the students in Britain, Finland and Germany.
"We are the professionals and we're saying the young generation is right," said Volker Quaschning, a professor of engineering at Berlin's University of Applied Sciences.
"We should be incredibly grateful and appreciative of their bravery," said Quaschning, one of more than 23,000 German-speaking scientists to sign a letter of support this week. "Because in a sense, it's incredibly brave not to go to school for once."
Scientists have warned for decades that current levels of greenhouse gas emissions are unsustainable, so far with little effect. In 2015, world leaders agreed in Paris to a goal of keeping the Earth's global temperature rise by the end of the century well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Yet at present, the world is on track for an increase of 4 degrees Celsius, which experts say would have far-reaching consequences for life on the planet.
"As a doctor, I can say it makes a big difference whether you've got a fever of 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) or 43 C (109.4 F)," said Eckart von Hirschhausen, a German scientist who signed the call supporting striking students. "One of those is compatible with life, the other isn't." Other action
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have publicly welcomed the student protests, even as their policies have been criticized as too limited by environmental activists.
In France, activist groups launched legal action this week for failing to do enough to fight climate change, citing a similar successful effort in the Netherlands.
In Germany, environmental groups and experts have attacked government plans to continue using coal and natural gas for decades to come. Activists say that countries like Germany should fully "decarbonize" by 2040, giving less-advanced nations a bit more time to wean themselves off fossil fuels while still meeting the Paris goal globally.
Other changes needed to curb greenhouse gas emissions include ramping up renewable energy production, reining in over-consumption culture now spreading beyond the industrialized West and changing diets, experts say.
"The fight against climate change is going to be uncomfortable, in parts, and we need to have a society-wide discussion about this," said Quaschning.
That conversation is likely to get louder, with several U.S. presidential hopefuls planning to campaign on climate change.
Luisa Neubauer, one of the Berlin group organizing Fridays for Future, said politicians should take note of the young.
"For the European elections in May, we're urging everyone to think about whether they want to give their vote to a party that doesn't have a plan for the future and the climate," she said. (VOA)
ABUJA, LELEMUKU.COM - Twenty people are confirmed dead in the school building that collapsed in Nigeria on Wednesday, and most of them are children, an official said Friday.
Forty-three other people were rescued, Lagos State Health Commissioner Jide Idris told The Associated Press. The disaster occurred in the heart of Nigeria's commercial capital.
Officials have said the three-story residential building had been marked for demolition and that the school was operating illegally on the top two floors. It is still not clear how many people were inside when it collapsed.
Rescue crews halted their search Thursday, saying they had reached the building's foundation without finding any other victims. Some anguished families protested and sifted through the rubble for any sign of their children.
Building collapses are all too common in the West African nation, where new construction often goes up without regulatory oversight. Official moved through the neighborhood on Thursday, marking other derelict buildings for demolition.
Adeyemo Sunday, the father of twins, mourned one of his sons. The other was pulled out alive, he said.
Sunday said his family lived on the building's second floor and he sent his boys to school there so they wouldn't have to travel far.
Another parent, Yewande Ogunsanwo, said her son remained in critical condition Thursday.
"Let's thank God for God, he's getting better but his condition is so critical," she said. "The pain is too much."
The collapse came as President Muhammadu Buhari, newly elected to a second term, tries to improve the distressed infrastructure in Africa's most populous nation. (VOA)
DAKAR, LELEMUKU.COM - Vote counting has begun in Senegal after a peaceful day of voting in Sunday's presidential election.
Polls closed at 6 p.m. local time and preliminary results are expected as soon as Monday or Tuesday, according to CENA.
After three weeks of campaigning, long lines of voters formed early Sunday to either support incumbent Macky Sall's bid for re-election or replace him with one of his four challengers - Idrissa Seck, Ousmane Sonko, Madické Niang or Issa Sall.
The election process was smooth and there were no major disruptions in the election process, Doudou Ndir, president of Senegal's electoral commission (CENA) told a press conference.
"Our observations show everything is proceeding in good conditions, peacefully, calmly," Ndir said.
President Sall, 56, cast his ballot in his hometown of Fatick early Sunday. "I hope that at the end of this day, the Senegalese people will be the sole winner," he said after voting.
"What we all have in common is our country, and we want a candidate who will work for it, for our Senegal," Mbéne, an 18-year-old student who voted for the first time Sunday, told VOA Afrique after casting her ballot for Sall.
Though some will renew their support for Sall, some young voters are pledging their support to the youngest of the candidates, Ousmane Sanko, 44, who is promising drastic changes from the current system.
"The system has been in place for 60 years with the same men, the same heads, and we need to break from this," Pape Amadou Diop, a student in Dakar, said after voting for Sonko, whom he calls the "perfect representation of hope in Senegal."
Approximately 15,000 voting stations were expected to be open Sunday. CENA chief Ndir said that by noon, about 30 percent of eligible voters had cast their ballots.
A candidate must win more than 50 percent of Sunday's vote to be declared Senegal's president. If no one wins an outright majority, then the top two contenders will face off in a run-off vote in March. (Salwa Jaafari-VOA)
KHARTOUM, LELEMUKU.COM - Sudan's state-run news agency says a parliamentary committee tasked with amending the constitution to allow President Omar al-Bashir to run for another term has abruptly canceled its meeting.
SUNA says the meeting was scheduled for Sunday but has been postponed for "emergency reasons." It says a new date will be announced later.
Sudan has been rocked by a wave of protests since December calling on al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, to step down. Activists say at least 57 people have been killed, but the government tally stands at 30.
Al-Bashir has vowed to run for another term, saying the country can only change leadership through elections. (VOA)
HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A Zimbabwean man claims that the ruling Zanu PF party gave party supporters army uniforms during recent public protests over the high cost of living sparked by fuel price increases of 150 percent announced by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
According to the privately-owned Standard newspaper, Shepherd Magorimbo, who was arrested in Harare while dressed in an army camouflage after allegedly robbing some people in Harare, is facing charges of armed robbery.
The newspaper reports that the Zanu PF Youth League member told prosecutors that “we were given the uniforms at the party office.”
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo was not available for comment.
State security agents claimed recently that some protesters stole arms and uniforms at army barracks, which they allegedly used to gun down at least 12 people in some parts of Zimbabwe.
But the opposition dismissed the remarks as misleading and designed to protect the army.
The Movement for Democratic Change led by Nelson Chamisa says latest reports pinning the army to some atrocities committed by state security agents, some of the in army uniforms, indicates that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces are now an extension of the ruling party.
“There has always been a conflation between Zanu PF and the state agencies. And this is something that we have been crying about as opposition and also as citizens of this country that we need to separate the state from the party that is called Zanu PF. But what we have been witnessing for a long time is that you can’t separate Zanu PF from the army, which makes the military not so professional at all.
“It is true that what we have been witnessing in the last four weeks was not only being perpetrated by the army but by Zanu PF youth too. At times Zanu PF youth were actually commanding the people that were causing all the confusion in the country.”
However, Believe Gaule of the ruling Zanu PF party’s powerful Central Committee, said his party had nothing to do with the distribution of army uniforms.
“Zanu PF is not part of that rubbish. I think those (claiming to have received uniforms from the ruling party) are being used by the opposition. They have a hidden agenda. Zanu PF does not distribute army uniforms. We did not do that and we won’t do that at any time.” (VOA)
