Religious groups in Beitbridge are teaming up with cops to fight crime because housebreaking and robberies keep spiking around the border town. The Pastors' Fraternal is running community meetings at the ward level to tackle sexual violence, drug problems with teenagers, and theft cases that get worse during holidays. Pastor Busani Moyo said they want people dropping anonymous tips about criminals instead of staying quiet, and they're pushing for better street lighting in sketchy areas where crimes happen most.
Local MP Thusani Ndou called out residents for protecting criminals even when they're family members, saying rehab beats harboring thieves who'll eventually rob their own relatives. The town clerk confirmed money got set aside...
Zimbabwe's corporate scene needs to start caring about environmental and social governance metrics if they want investor money, and the central bank is pushing a certification program to make it happen. Companies that meet sustainability benchmarks get better loan rates and access to international markets, while businesses ignoring these standards risk getting cut off from capital and trade deals. The Reserve Bank's initiative already has over 90 percent of banks signed up, creating a nationwide framework that connects local institutions to global finance networks.
Former commerce official Louis Herbst said meeting these expectations isn't optional anymore for companies trying to compete across Africa and beyond. Economist Reginald...
India's ambassador to Zimbabwe said his country wants to team up harder on agriculture by sharing tech about AI farming, climate-proof crops, and mechanization. Bramha Kumar told a conference in Bulawayo that India feeds 1.5 billion people with advanced seed systems and IoT sensors that help farmers track conditions and automate equipment. He mentioned India runs over five million biogas plants that turn leftover crop material into renewable energy and fertilizer, and the country leads global production in milk, lentils, spices, and a bunch of other staples.
Kumar said India offers 250-plus scholarships every year for Zimbabwe officials to train in agricultural methods through a program called Itec. The event brought together officials...
Zimbabwe's agriculture minister went off at a conference in Bulawayo about how calling sorghum and millet small grains is completely backwards. Anxious Masuka said the label makes drought-resistant crops sound unimportant when they actually pack better nutrients than corn and handle climate disasters way better. The country pushed traditional grain production from 8 percent of all cereals up to 28 percent over five years, and sorghum output exploded by over 400 percent while pearl millet jumped more than 700 percent last season.
Masuka wants chefs and restaurants putting traditional grains on menus to change how young people think about the food, since most folks still prefer maize and rice. Over 1.3 million farmers in dry regions will...
Zimbabwe and China threw a ceremony in Harare to hand out friendship scholarships and celebrate essay winners who wrote about the 45-year relationship between both countries. Chinese Ambassador Zhou Ding brought up how General Josiah Tongogara trained in China during the 1960s, and he recently helped the general's widow visit the country to honor that connection. Education Minister Frederick Shava told scholarship recipients they need to study hard abroad and bring skills back home to help Zimbabwe hit its development targets.
The essay contest pulled submissions from students across different backgrounds, and the first prize went to Natasha Machaya for her piece on diplomatic ties. Ambassador Zhou said bilateral trade between the...
Zimbabwe's provincial minister for Matabeleland South wants everyone to pitch in to build fancy infrastructure that gets the region closer to middle-income status. Albert Nguluvhe said the new Gwanda Travel Centre proves what happens when the government teams up with private investors through partnerships. Mapinda Investments worked with Gwanda Municipality to turn the old bus terminal into a modern facility with offices, shops, vendor stalls, solar lights, and proper paving.
The upgraded center handles buses running between Gwanda and Bulawayo, plus cross-border transport and local routes. Mayor Thulani Moyo said the town is cleaning up the central business district by giving transport operators and vendors proper spaces instead of...
Zimbabwe's government just gutted licensing fees for tourism businesses and made the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority the main regulator for everything. Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said they slashed local authority permits by half, dropped five-star hotel registration from over five grand to two thousand bucks, and cut game drive permits by 50 percent. Professional tour guide licenses went from 50 dollars yearly to a one-time 20-dollar payment.
The reforms ditched the liquor license requirement since local authorities already handle that, and boat permits got chopped from 600 dollars to nothing. Aircraft registration fees dropped from up to a thousand dollars down to 20 bucks. Investment licenses for special economic zones fell from 50,000...
Matabeleland South is asking for custom HIV programs because their situation hits different than the rest of Zimbabwe. The province sits at 15 percent HIV prevalence, which destroys the national average of 9.4 percent, and officials blame the border crossings at Beitbridge and Plumtree, where families split up chasing better money. Provincial manager Mgcini Sibanda said young women between 15 and 24 are getting wrecked the hardest, with infection rates running about four times higher than men in the same age brackets.
Every single district in the province beats the national infection rate, and Bulilima district topped out at 17.6 percent. The border towns are seeing more sex work and teenage pregnancies because parents are gone working...
A cashier from Zvishavane pocketed over thirteen grand from his employer instead of dropping it at the bank, and the court handed him three years for the stunt. Danda Tinashe Tinotenda was supposed to collect cash from registers at Farm and City Centre and deposit the money into two ZB Bank accounts, but the 21-year-old decided to redirect the funds for himself. The company noticed the missing deposits after running an internal audit, and police arrested him with bank statements proving the theft.
Judges suspended 18 months of his sentence under two conditions: behave yourself behind bars, and pay back every cent before the end of the month. He'll serve an effective 18 months in prison, and prosecutors used the case to remind everyone...
