Mozambique’s Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB) power utility has suspended supplies to Zimbabwe over unpaid debt, adding more woes to a country in deep recession and grappling with shortages of hard cash, food and every essential commodity. 

Sources at state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority Holdings (ZESA Holdings) told ZimOnline that HCB switched off supplies to Zimbabwe at the beginning of this month after ZESA Holdings failed to clear an outstanding US$26 million debt that was due last December. 

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BRAZILIAN coach Jose Claudinei Georgini, commonly known as Valinhos, was last night unveiled as the new substantive coach of the Zimbabwe Warriors with the mandate to take them to the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

The 60-year-old coach, an experienced hand who has coached in seven countries during a period spanning 27 years, was handed a roving contract, renewable every year depending on performance, to transform the Warriors from a sleeping giant into a competitive force capable of winning a place at the World Cup finals.

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At least 50% of medical drugs are out of stock in Zimbabwe’s pharmacies because of critical shortages of foreign currency, making life harder for struggling Zimbabweans, it emerged on Tuesday. The few available drugs had shot up in price, putting them well out of the reach of most white-collar workers, the state-controlled Herald daily said.

Desperately-needed drugs for conditions like HIV, diabetes, high blood pressure and epilepsy were now found in only about one pharmacy in four, the paper reported after a snap survey.

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Floods in Southern Africa have displaced thousands of people, drowned livestock and put large numbers of children at risk from serious disease, officials said on Tuesday.

About 1,5-million Zambians may have to flee their homes because of floods that have killed six people in neighbouring Mozambique and cut off vast areas of Zimbabwe.

Zambian state television broadcast images of refugees carrying beds, chickens and goats over their heads as they moved through the surging floodwaters. Half of the country has been put on alert.

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Police were called to churches around the Zimbabwean capital Harare last weekend to halt skirmishes between supporters of a bishop who is a close ally of President Robert Mugabe and followers of a rival cleric, reports said on Wednesday.

Tensions rose after followers of Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga — a supporter of the 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader — insisted on holding services in Harare churches on Sunday even though Anglican authorities have decreed Kunonga is no longer a member of the church.

In September Kunonga announced he was withdrawing the Harare diocese from the Anglican Province of Central Africa, ostensibly because he opposed the church’s stance on homosexuality.

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THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) allowed the $200 000 bearer cheques to remain in circulation after failing to print enough replacement notes, an investigation by The Standard has established.

RBZ governor Gideon Gono said last month the $200 000 notes’ shelf life would end on 31 December last year because unnamed cash barons were holding on to the money.

He announced new $250 000, $500 000 and $750 000 bearer cheques, a stop-gap measure to alleviate the cash crisis.

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MOST tailors are smiling all the way to the bank as the reopening for the new school term draws closer.

Business has been booming for most city tailors with some making as much as over $200 million per week. This is because the price of uniforms has skyrocketed, resulting in most parents especially those with children starting Grade 1 and Form 1, placing their orders with the tailors.

For tailors like Henry Alisi and his colleague Kumbirai Mubaiwa, business has never been better. They are making complete uniforms for schools like Peterhouse, Prince Edward, Highlands Primary, Girls High, David Livingstone, Moffat, Haig Park, Belvedere and most schools in the high-density areas.

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STRIKING magistrates have been awarded a 600 percent salary increment with effect from this month.

According to the new salary schedule released by Government on Friday, a non-degreed magistrate — the entry point — will now earn a basic salary of $316 million which will add up to $460 million when all allowances are factored in.

A degreed magistrate now earns a gross salary of $498 million.

Provincial magistrates will earn between $850 million and $911 million while regional magistrates will now pocket above a billion dollars.

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POLICE are investigating reports of officers demanding bribes from motorists every day on a number of commuter bus routes into Harare, police spokesperson assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said last week.

His comments follow reports of a proliferation of groups of officers setting up permanent fund-raising spots on a number of routes.

“The (police) organisation is determined to weed out such bad apples,” said Bvudzijena, “and we therefore urge the public to report to us all such officers involved in corrupt activities of any nature.

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BULAWAYO – Villagers in most parts of Matabeleland are selling their livestock in South African Rand, citing the volatility of the Zimbabwean dollar whose value continues to tumble against major currencies.

The government already levies “luxury imports” in foreign currency but has rejected suggestions to adopt the more stable Rand to shore up the economy, in free-fall for the past 10 years.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono, has warned against the widespread use of scarce foreign currency in the trade of local goods and services, which he says is illegal.

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