News Lelemuku

HARARE, LELEMUKU.COM - A tragic airline crash with far-reaching consequences, cataclysmic cyclones that may be a harbinger of the future, the death of an African icon and a new leader who won the Nobel Peace Prize. These African stories captured the world's attention in 2019, and look to influence events on the continent in 2020.

The battles against extremist violence and Ebola will also continue to be major campaigns in Africa in the coming year.

The crash of an Ethiopian Airlines jet shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa in March killed all 157 passengers and crew. The disaster, which claimed the lives of a large number of U.N. officials, involved a Boeing 737 Max jet and came just five months after a similar crash in Indonesia of the same aircraft.

Boeing was inundated with questions about the safety of its plane. After initially claiming that it was safe, the company was forced to ground the plane after many countries refused to let it fly in their airspace. In December Boeing announced that it would suspend production of the jet.

The air crash was a trial for Ethiopia's reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who later in the year won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for achieving peace with neighboring Eritrea. But Abiy is challenged by often violent ethnic rivalries in his country and elections set for May 2020 will be crucial, analysts say.

Cyclone Idai ripped into Mozambique in March, killing more than 1,300 people, making it “one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere,” according to the U.N. A month later Cyclone Kenneth roared into northern Mozambique, killing more than 50 people.

This was the first time in recorded history that Mozambique had two major cyclones, prompting some to worry that the country, with a 1,000-mile Indian Ocean coastline, may be prone to more storms as a result of climate change.

Across Mozambique more than 2.5 million people remain in urgent need of assistance, according to the U.N. Mozambique also starts 2020 troubled by ongoing attacks on vehicles in the country's central area and by Islamic extremist attacks in the country's north.

Extremist violence continues to vex Africa from the east to the west.

2019 began with extremist violence. In Kenya in January, insurgents launched an assault on a luxury hotel and shopping complex in Nairobi that killed at least 14 people.

The year came to an end with extremist attacks across the continent.

A bomb in Somalia killed 78 people, including many university students, in the capital, Mogadishu, on Dec. 28, the deadliest attack in years. Somalia's al-Shabab, allied to al-Qaida, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

In Nigeria extremists linked to the Islamic State group circulated a video showing 11 hostages, most of them Christians, being executed. They were thought to be killed on Christmas Day. The extremist group, which calls itself the Islamic State West Africa Province, said the captives were executed as revenge for the killing of Islamic State group leaders in Iraq and Syria in October.

In northern Burkina Faso, jihadists killed 35 civilians, most of them women, and ensuing clashes with security forces left 80 jihadists dead, the West African nation's president announced Dec. 24. That attack came weeks after an attack on a convoy carrying employees of a Canadian mining company in which at least 37 civilians were killed in the country's east. Both attacks were by groups numbering close to 100, indicating the presence of relatively large, well-organized extremist groups.

“The startling deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso has been a major development in 2019,” said Alex Vines, director of the Africa program at Chatham House, the British think tank. “There's been a dramatic spike in extremist attacks.”

Frequent attacks in Burkina Faso's north and east already have displaced more than a half million people, according to the United Nations. While Burkina Faso's military has received training from both former colonizer France and the United States, it starts 2020 with little progress in halting the surge in extremist violence.

Congo starts the year waging a different kind of war, a campaign against Ebola, which has killed more than 2,200 people since August 2018. The medical effort to control the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has been severely hampered since the start by the presence of several armed groups in eastern Congo, the epicenter of the epidemic. It was hoped that new vaccines would help control the outbreak more quickly, but the violence has hampered those efforts.

Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, elected in 2019, said in November that he was optimistic that the Ebola outbreak would be ended before 2020, but the epidemic continues throughout eastern Congo.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, re-elected in 2019, said in a New Year's statement that the need to boost his country's ailing economy and create jobs is his biggest challenge for 2020. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, also re-elected, has said that his government has controlled the rebellion by Boko Haram extremists, but violence continues to plague the country's northeast.

Zimbabwe's longtime ruler, Robert Mugabe, died at age 95 in September. Mugabe, the guerrilla leader who fought to end white-minority rule in Rhodesia and then ruled independent Zimbabwe from 1980 until 2017, left a mixed legacy of liberation, repression and economic ruin.

Zimbabwe begins the new year with severe economic problems including inflation estimated at more than 300% and widespread hunger. In an emergency appeal at the end of December, the U.N.'s World Food Program said that even though the southern African country had suffered a drought, Zimbabwe's food shortages are a ‘man-made” disaster, laying the blame squarely with President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.

The once-prosperous country staggered to 2020 with power shortages lasting up to 19 hours per day and large parts of the capital, Harare, a city of some 2 million people, going without running water. (VOA)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he looks forward to debating his eventual Democratic opponent when he runs for re-election next year, but bashed the independent commission that for decades has arranged the logistics of the debates as politically aligned against him.

"The problem is that the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates is stacked with Trump Haters &Never Trumpers," the Republican president said on Twitter. "3 years ago they were forced to publicly apologize for modulating my microphone in the first debate" against the Democratic nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

As President, the debates are up to me," Trump tweeted, "and there are many options, including doing them directly &avoiding the nasty politics of this very biased Commission. I will make a decision at an appropriate time but in the meantime, the Commission on Presidential Debates is not authorized to speak for me (or R's)!"

Still, Trump said he looks "very much forward to debating whoever the lucky person is who stumbles across the finish line in the little watched Do Nothing Democrat Debates. My record is so good on the Economy and all else, including debating, that perhaps I would consider more than 3 debates."

The commission, created in 1987 by the Republican and Democratic parties to oversee the quadrennial presidential and vice presidential debates, is overseen by prominent Democrats and Republicans and other public figures. Its current three co-chairs are Frank Fahrenkopf, a former Republican national chairman; Dorothy Ridings, chief executive of the Council of Federations of charitable groups, and Kenneth Wollack, a former president of the National Democratic Institute, a non-governmental organization that promotes democracy worldwide.

The commission has already announced plans for three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate next September and October in the weeks ahead of the Nov. 3 national election, with all of them on U.S. university campuses.

The commission acknowledged that in the first 2016 Trump-Clinton debate, "there were issues regarding Donald Trump's audio that affected the sound level in the debate hall," but not on the nationally televised broadcast, which 80 million people watched, the most ever for a presidential debate. The commission did not, as Trump said, apologize for the audio problem in the debate hall.

In response to Trump's tweets Monday, the commission said, "The televised general election debates are an important part of our democratic process. Since 1988, the Commission on Presidential Debates has conducted 30 general election presidential and vice presidential debates. Our record is one of fairness, balance and non-partisanship." (VOA)

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)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has instructed Indonesian Minister of Agriculture Syahril Yasin Limpo to start exporting rice next year.

For the record, the Government has 4,776,000 tons of rice stock despite a deficit between national rice production and consumption in November and December.

According to Syahril, regarding preparation to export rice, Ministry of Agriculture will take several steps starting from seedlings, land preparation, irrigation, so the quality of rice to be exported is on par with that from other countries.

“We have to use trade diplomacy and trade agriculture and I am confident that I will be able to carry out the President’s instruction,” Syahrul said, adding that as many as 100,000 tons up to 500,000 tons of rice will be exported next year.

The Minister added that March and April next year will see the peak of the harvest season with rice production expected to reach more than 4,255,000 tons of rice.

“Therefore, if rice stocks in March alone reach 6,752,000 tons and the consumption is 2,400,000 tons every month, we will have an overstock of rice at 6,800,000 tons,” Syahrul said.

The Minister also ensured rice stocks and food security ahead of Christmas and New Year this year, including those stored in at the warehouse of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), trade warehouses, and in markets with the total amount reaching approximately 4.7 million tons. (Setkab)

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)

WASHINGTON, LELEMUKU.COM - U.S. lawmakers are formally accusing President Donald Trump of misconduct and obstruction, based on what they say is amonths-long effort by the president “to use the powers of his office to solicit foreign interference on his behalf in the 2020 election.”

The report, released Tuesday by the House Intelligence Committee—which is controlled by opposition Democrats—is titled “The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report.”

Republican members of Congress say the Democrats uncovered no smoking guns that would merit Trump’s impeachment.

Democrats disagree. “The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election. These investigations were designed to benefit his 2020 presidential re-election campaign,” according to a statement released by Adam Schiff, Carolyn Maloney and Eliot Engel, who respectively chair the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees of the House of Representatives.

“The evidence is also clear that President Trump conditioned official acts on the public announcement of these investigations: a coveted White House visit and critical U.S. military assistance Ukraine needed to fight its Russian adversary,” the statement adds.

The Democratic lawmakers also accuse the president of engaging “in categorical and unprecedented obstruction in order to cover up his misconduct.”

White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham is rejecting the report’s conclusion.

“At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump,” she said in a statement. “This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing.”

Schiff told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference that if Congress does not punish Trump for soliciting foreign interference in a U.S. election, "we are begging for more of the same." (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)

LOS ANGELES - A quake with a magnitude as large as 7.1 jolted much of California, cracked buildings, set fires, broke roads and caused several injuries, authorities and residents said.

The quake, preceded by Thursday’s 6.4-magnitude temblor in the Mojave Desert, was the largest Southern California temblor in at least 20 years and was followed by a series of large and small aftershocks.

It hit at 8:19 p.m. and was centered 11 miles from Ridgecrest in the same area where the previous quake hit. But it was felt as far north as Sacramento, as far east as Las Vegas and as far south as Mexico.

Early magnitude estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey wavered between 6.9 and 7.1. It was measured at 7.1 by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Agency.

Multiple injuries, fires

The area in and around Ridgecrest, trying to recover from the previous temblor, took the brunt of damage.

Megan Person, director of communications for the Kern County Fire Department, said there were reports of multiple injuries and multiple fires, but she didn’t have details.

The county opened an emergency shelter. Meanwhile, a rockslide closed State Route 178 in Kern River Canyon, where photos from witnesses also showed that a stretch of roadway had sunk.

San Bernardino County firefighters reported cracked buildings and one minor injury.

In downtown Los Angeles, 150 miles away, offices in skyscrapers rolled and rocked for at least 30 seconds.

Gov. Gavin Newsom activated the state Office of Emergency Services operations center “to its highest level.”

“The state is coordinating mutual aid to local first responders,” he said.

Lucy Jones, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology and a former science adviser at the Geological Survey, tweeted that Thursday’s earthquake was a “foreshock” and that Friday’s quake was on the same fault system as the earlier quake.

“You know we say we have a 1 in 20 chance that an earthquake will be followed by something bigger? This is that 1 in 20 time,” she tweeted.

Firefighters around Southern California were mobilized to check for damage.

An NBA Summer League game in Las Vegas was stopped after the quake. Speakers over the court at the Thomas & Mack Center continued swaying more than 10 minutes after the quake.

In Los Angeles, the quake rattled Dodger Stadium in the fourth inning of the team’s game against the San Diego Padres.

The quake Friday night happened when Dodgers second baseman Enrique Hernandez was batting. It didn’t appear to affect him or Padres pitcher Eric Lauer.

Hours earlier, seismologists had said that quake had been followed by more than 1,700 aftershocks and that they might continue for years.

Jones said aftershocks from the new main quake could occur for three years.

Changes to alert system

Earlier Friday, Los Angeles had revealed plans to lower slightly the threshold for public alerts from its earthquake early warning app. But officials said the change was in the works before the quake, which gave scientists at the California Institute of Technology’s seismology lab 48 seconds of warning but did not trigger a public notification.

“Our goal is to alert people who might experience potentially damaging shaking, not just feel the shaking,” said Robert de Groot, a spokesman for the USGS’s ShakeAlert system, which is being developed for California, Oregon and Washington.

Construction of a network of seismic-monitoring stations for the West Coast is just over half complete, with most coverage in Southern California, San Francisco Bay Area and the Seattle-Tacoma area. Eventually, the system will send out alerts over the same system used for Amber Alerts to defined areas that are expected to be affected by a quake, de Groot said.

California is partnering with the federal government to build the statewide earthquake warning system, with the goal of turning it on by June 2021. The state has spent at least $25 million building it, including installing hundreds of seismic stations throughout the state.

This year, Newsom said the state needed $16.3 million to finish the project, which included money for stations to monitor seismic activity, plus nearly $7 million for “outreach and education.” The state Legislature approved the funding last month, and Newsom signed it into law.(VOA)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - The Indonesian Constitutional Court or Mahkamah Konsitusi (MK) has rejected a lawsuit filed by Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidate pair Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Uno on the 2019 Presidential Election’s result.

“(the Court) has adjudicated and decided to reject all the plaintiffs’ claims,” Chief Justice of the MK Anwar Usman said when reading the ruling of the Court, at the Constitutional Court Building, Jakarta, Thursday (27/6).

The decision affirmed the result of national election vote recapitulation of the General Election Commission (KPU) announced on Thursday (21/5) which declared Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidate pair Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Ma’ruf Amin as the winners of the 2019 Presidential Election.

MK argued that processing Prabowo’s claims on alleged structured, systematic and massive electoral fraud is not their authority, but the Elections Supervisory Agency’s (Bawaslu). In the meantime, the authority of MK based on provisions of the laws is on election’s vote-counting dispute.

In addition, MK also explained that the plaintiffs have failed to present proper evidence to support their claims, thus the Court declared the case did not have proper legal standing.

Previously, MK has considered accepting Prabowo-Sandi revised version of their lawsuit which was submitted on 10 June 2019, though Constitutional Court Regulation Number 4 of 2018 stipulated that MK shall not allow plaintiffs of Presidential Election dispute case to revise their file. (Setkab)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - In a bid to formulate good regulations to support small businesses in the country, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) welcomed the representatives of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) associations at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Tuesday (18/06/2019).

The associations participated in the meeting are the Indonesian Micro and Small Businesses Association (Hipmikindo), the Indonesian Small and Medium Enterprises Association (AKUMINDO), the Indonesian Micro, Small and Medium Industries Association (Akumandiri), and the Indonesian Micro and Small Businesses Association (Hipmikimdo).

“There are currently around 62.9 million MSMEs in Indonesia. I think we have to seize the opportunity to develop these industries,” President Jokowi said.

On the occasion, the President would like to hear opinions from the associations regarding types of incentives they need from the Government. However, he warned them that although incentives are needed, too many incentives may weaken their entrepreneurial skills. (Setkab)

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Inpex Corporation announced today that it has signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Indonesian authorities (the authorities) on behalf of the contractors with the endorsement of Shell Upstream Overseas Ltd. (Shell) on the basic principles regarding a revised Plan of Development (POD) for the Abadi LNG Project (Project).

The Project involves developing the Abadi gas field in the Masela Block located in the Arafura Sea, Tanimbar Islands, Maluku Province, Indonesia. Inpex, as the operator of the Project and on behalf of the project’s contractors, Inpex and Shell has been engaged in discussions with the authorities with the aim of submitting the revised POD.

The HOA outlines the terms agreed upon with the authorities following discussions held after the completion of Pre-FEED work on a revised POD to achieve an economically competitive project. The cost estimation in the revised POD of the Project which will include the construction of onshore LNG plant, gas pipeline, and offshore facilities, is contained in the agreed terms of the HOA.

The signing of the HOA acknowledges agreement between the parties of a revised POD that is sufficiently economically competitive. Inpex will now commence the process of submitting the revised POD for approval as well as amending and extending the Masela Block production sharing contract (PSC).

“The execution of the Heads of Agreement, which follows a series of constructive discussions with the Indonesian government, positions the Abadi LNG Project as an economically competitive project by international standards. Inpex appreciates and values the proactive intervention of His Excellency Ignasius Jonan, Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources and the Indonesian government, and looks forward to maintaining close and cooperative relations,” said Takayuki Ueda, President & CEO of Inpex, who attended the signing.

Utilizing the knowledge and experience gained through operating the Ichthys LNG Project, Inpex will continue to work closely with its partner Shell to make the necessary preparations to commence FEED work after receiving approval of the revised POD and reaching an agreement with the authorities on the PSC amendments and extension.

Commenting on the signing, Clare Harris, Shell’s Executive Vice President, Venture Development said, “The Heads of Agreement is a significant milestone in the development of the Abadi project, an important economic opportunity for Indonesia. We look forward to continuing our collaboration and support of Inpex as the Joint Venture aims to develop a competitive project.”

The Project is the first large-scale integrated LNG development project operated by Inpex in Indonesia and follows on from the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG Project in Australia. The Project is expected to produce approximately 9.5 million tons of LNG per year.

The Abadi gas field features excellent reservoir productivity and has one of the world’s largest reserves, raising expectations of efficient development and stable LNG production operations over the long-term.

The Project will provide significant contributions to the Republic of Indonesia and bring multiplier effects to Indonesia particularly in the eastern region. The impact of this matter on the company’s consolidated financial results for the year ending December, 2019 is nil.

Inpex Corporation is Japan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, and a mid-tier E&P player just behind the world’s oil majors. Inpex is currently involved in approximately 70 projects across more than 20 countries, including the Ichthys LNG Project in Australia as Operator.

Through sustainably growing its oil and gas development business, developing a global gas value chain business and reinforcing its renewable energy initiatives, Inpex aims to become a leading energy company and continue providing a stable and efficient supply of energy to its customers. (Inpex)

SURAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - To celebrate Eid Day this year, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and First Lady Ibu Iriana on Wednesday (05/06/2019) headed to their hometown Solo, Central Java Province.

The President and his entourage departed from Halim Perdanakusuma Air Force Base Jakarta at 14.07 Western Indonesian Time.

Arriving at Adi Soemarmo Air Force Base at 15:00 Western Indonesian Time, the President and Ibu Iriana met with the locals at Grha Sabha Buana before heading to their private residence in Solo area.

Accompanying the President and the First Lady on a flight to Central Java was Minister of State Secretary Pratikno. (Setkab)

JAKARTA, LELEMUKU.COM - In a bid to anticipate vehicle density on the Trans Java Toll Road during mudik (annual exodus ahead of Eid-al-Fitr) period, the Government suggests travelers to take non-toll road on Java’s southern route.

“The national road (non-toll) in the southern lane can be an alternative route for mudik travelers. Besides taking the toll roads, I also recommend to use national roads during the mudik period,” Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said after inspecting Nagreg intersection, West Java, Wednesday (29/5).

The Minister has predicted that Java’s southern coastal areas such as Nagreg, Tasikmalaya, and Garut have less traffic congestion than other areas. He also added that travelers can enjoy the beautiful coastline along the road which can be a pleasant choice to make.

Budi estimated that mudik flow will occur on Friday (31/5). Therefore, Ministry of Transportation has issued Regulation of Minister of Transportation Number 37 of 2019 on Traffic Regulations during the 2019 Eid-al-Fitr Transportation Period in order to provide security, safety, and to smoothen the flow of vehicles on the road. For the record, Bandung-Nagreg-Tasikmalaya route is one of the roads affected by traffic restrictions.

“The ban for heavy vehicles operations, except for trucks that carry staple foods, will take place from 30 May to 2 June,” Budi said.

On that occasion, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Puan Maharani appreciated parties involved in the traffic regulations during Eid exodus, especially in the West Java’s southern route.

“The National Police Traffic Corps has cooperated with the regents, local governments, and other related ministries to smoothen the mudik traffic flow,” Puan said, adding that the Government also provides health posts for the travelers.

After inspecting the route, the entourage also had the opportunity to visit  Eid integrated posts established by the Bandung Resort Police in Cikaledong, Nagreg, Bandung District. (Setkab)