Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube told business people at a Bulawayo budget meeting that Zimbabwe is about to hit a golden era with single-digit inflation expected by early 2026 for the first time since 1997. The government dropped the ZiG currency back in April 2024, and inflation already fell from 95.8 percent down to around 19 percent by the end of last year. GDP growth averaged 5.6 percent under the National Development Strategy 1 program despite global chaos from COVID and commodity price swings.
Ncube said the 2026 budget still has room for tweaks before Parliament votes on it, since stakeholders are pushing back on things like gold royalties and electricity costs for the 24-hour economy push. The minister mentioned 42 percent of...
ZANU-PF is going hard with door-to-door campaigning for the Nkulumane Constituency by-election after the seat opened up when CCC legislator Desire Moyo died. Candidate Freedom Murechu said the party hit up almost three-quarters of voters through house visits since people stopped showing up to rallies, and they dropped water tanks plus cooking gear after residents complained about shortages during the canvassing runs.
Murechu claimed the grassroots hustle lets them actually talk to people without messing up their schedules, while party officials like Jabulani Sibanda and Mnothisi Nsingo showed up at meetings to flex about solarizing boreholes and installing water infrastructure. The ruling party thinks the opposition is falling apart...
Former Warriors midfielder Esrom Nyandoro thinks assistant coach Kaitano Tembo could be the secret weapon for Zimbabwe's Africa Cup of Nations run in Morocco. Nyandoro said Tembo's background playing at elite African competitions, plus his knowledge of South African Premiership players, gives head coach Marian Marinica a serious advantage when preparing the squad for their group matches against Angola, South Africa, and Egypt.
Nyandoro pointed out that predicting tournament outcomes is basically impossible after watching teams like DRC advance from group stages without scoring a single goal at the last edition. He told the current Warriors squad to forget about past statistics and just focus on getting results since any team can pull...
Bulawayo small businesses are trying to cash in on the holiday season by targeting all the weddings, parties, and events happening while people blow their bonuses. Sithabile Bhebhe from the Bulawayo Chamber of SMEs said entrepreneurs need to get creative with their offerings and push deals on social media to compete with big retailers. She mentioned that consumer protection still matters even during discount season, like making sure products are safe and customers can get refunds on busted items.
Bekezela Dube, who runs Magic Signs, said her printing shop is swamped with orders for event materials and had to bring on extra workers. Samkeliso Nyambiri from Liso Clothing is dealing with back-to-back requests for wedding and lobola...
Police are warning Zimbabweans to stay alert during the holiday season because crime usually spikes when families bounce to rural areas or vacation spots. Inspector Nomalanga Msebele from Bulawayo said criminals lurk on social media looking for people posting their travel plans, then target empty houses for break-ins and theft. She told residents to keep their vacation details off the internet, lock everything up tight, and get neighbors or cops to check on their property while they're gone.
The other massive concern is road safety since companies are shutting down for Christmas and the New Year. Authorities said more than 80 percent of crashes come from driver mistakes, with bus operators racing each other on highways and putting...
The Bulawayo Arts Awards ceremony is going down with a heavy dose of remembrance this year, honoring five legendary artists who died recently. The organizers renamed major award categories after Ishmael Muvingi for dance, Desire Moyo for poetry, Pathisa Nyathi for literary work, Babongile Sikhonjwa for radio DJing, and Sihlangu Dlodlo for theatre. Most of them had actually won BAAs before, which makes the whole thing hit different.
The renamed awards will have proper competition this year, keeping these artists' legacies alive through new talent getting recognized. Meanwhile, voting opened up for the People's Choice Award with 25 nominees in the running, featuring names like Black Diva, DJ Mzoe, Mjox, Percy Soko, and Band of Misfits...
AFCON kicks off in Morocco with 67 years of continental football history backing it up, and Egypt sits at the top with seven titles, while Cameroon grabbed five and Ghana landed four. The tournament evolved from political statements during decolonization into pure sporting drama that reflects African identity through generations of play across North Africa, West Africa, and Central Africa.
Egypt dominated hard between 2006 and 2010 by winning three straight championships, but recent years showed power shifting when Senegal finally broke through after decades of near misses and Zambia pulled off an emotional win near the site where their 1993 squad died in a plane crash. South Africa's 1996 victory after apartheid ended turned the...
Zimbabwe's skills minister, Paul Mavima, says the whole brain drain panic is overblown because professionals working overseas actually bring back knowledge that helps local development. The government wants to flip the narrative and treat diaspora workers like a resource instead of a loss, pointing at how China sent people abroad to learn tech before bringing them home to scale up the domestic industry.
Over a thousand Zimbabwean engineers and skilled workers are scattered across places like the UK and Australia right now, and Mavima figures remote collaboration through internet platforms can tap that expertise without forcing everyone to physically return. Some have already come back and are applying their international experience to...
South Africa ran the G20 summit and apparently pulled it off without drama, which surprised people who expected a mess. Gina Din was on the ground in Johannesburg, watching delegates handle debt reform and climate stuff with actual focus instead of performative nonsense. The Ubuntu philosophy got applied beyond just talking points, and it kept discussions grounded when things could have gotten spicy over US representation gaps.
African institutions like the AU and AfCFTA got spotlight time because mineral resources matter for global energy transitions. The continent holds cobalt and lithium that power batteries, so leverage exists if coordination stays tight. Gender-based violence made the agenda as a governance problem instead of...
