Springboks captains Siya Kolisi and Eben Etzebeth rolled up to Franco Mostert's hotel room at the crack of dawn to serenade him for his 33rd birthday. The duo busted in while the lock was still half asleep, with Kolisi belting out tunes and Etzebeth clapping along like they were putting on a whole show. The morning surprise basically turned into this wholesome moment that showed how tight the squad stays off the pitch.
Mostert has been grinding with South Africa's national rugby team for years and helped them secure back-to-back World Cup wins. The guy built his reputation on being an absolute workhorse in the forwards who never quits, and his defensive game, plus lineout work, keeps the whole pack running smoothly.
Zimbabwe's finance minister just cranked up taxes on the betting scene, with bookmakers getting slammed from 3 percent to 20 percent of their revenue, while punters are getting hit with a 25 percent cut on winnings instead of the previous 10 percent. Mthuli Ncube said operators have been dodging taxes through shifty accounting, and the industry has been blowing up with 8-10 percent growth without paying its fair share. The bookmaker tax becomes a final payment, though, meaning companies dodge corporate income tax going forward.
The minister also went off about gambling causing addiction problems, debt spirals, and even suicides as the sector keeps expanding faster than regulators can handle. The massive tax jump hits all licensed...
Zimbabwe's exam council dropped Grade Seven results, showing the pass rate dipped slightly to 48.49 percent after hitting 49.01 percent the previous cycle. About 189,000 kids out of 390,000 who sat for tests managed to clear all six subjects, which works out to a half-percent slide, according to board chair Professor Paul Mapfumo.
Education Minister Torerai Moyo hyped up the fact that exams went down without any cheating scandals for three straight years, crediting beefed-up security protocols. He told families to take the scores in stride and keep pushing forward with their academic goals.
Two guys from the Small Grains and Legumes Association Trust just walked free after a Harare magistrate tossed fraud charges over some busted farming deal. Oral Ntsona and Lousthaan Tapiwa Ngoshi got accused by lawyer Standa Sani, who claimed he dropped $13,000 on tilling work for a chia crop that never paid out because frost killed everything, and the insurance supposedly lapsed.
Magistrate Sharon Rakafa said prosecutors didn't prove the pair actually scammed anyone, and the whole mess looks more like a contract dispute than criminal behavior. Sani already won an arbitration case but couldn't collect, and the magistrate basically told him to take it to civil court instead of trying to lock people up over it.
Zimbabwe's energy watchdog just went off on social media posts claiming the government wants to slap taxes on people running solar panels at home. ZERA dropped a statement calling the whole thing completely fake and said there are zero plans to charge anyone for residential solar setups. They pointed out that spreading this garbage actively works against the country's push to get everyone on clean energy by 2030.
The regulator reminded everyone that authorities have actually been making it easier to go solar by letting people import equipment duty-free and allowing homeowners to dump extra power back into the grid. ZERA told people to stop falling for random posts and stick to official sources because the misinformation is causing...
Zimbabwe's manufacturing sector just became the biggest slice of the country's economy after some government number crunching showed it hitting 15.3 percent of GDP, and factory capacity jumped from 52 percent to over 57 percent. Industry minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndhlovu told a business conference in Bulawayo that companies have dumped more than a billion bucks into food processing, cement, steel, and beverage plants.
The government's pushing hard on green industrial policies because global markets are gatekeeping based on environmental standards, and African trade integration under AfCFTA means countries that can't produce sustainably are cooked. They're rolling out a new five-year industrial policy and a local content strategy...
Bulawayo's trying out a corporate-style water authority after city officials checked out how Zambia runs its utilities and came back impressed. Ward 25 councillor Aleck Ndlovu said the plan is to set up a standalone entity that stays fully city-owned but operates more like a business to attract investors and fix the busted infrastructure. The move comes after decades of water shortages that have residents going without basic access while pipes keep bursting and pumps keep dying.
Mayor David Coltart already laid out that the city needs about $14.5 million just to patch up immediate problems with mains and equipment. The water utility model is supposed to help unlock funding without privatizing anything, and they're also looking at...
Gweru's Go Beer Breweries dropped a one-liter bottle called Shikisha into stores as part of their push to grab more market share after reopening last December following a decade-long shutdown. Marketing manager Sam Ganjani said the name comes from Swahili, and the brew is aimed at younger drinkers who want something cheap and smooth for parties and hangouts. The company plans to test it out in Midlands province first before rolling it out to other regions once they get production dialed in.
CEO Edward Rusike thanked customers for backing the brand since they fired the brewery back up and said they're open to feedback as they ramp things up next year. The new bottle joins their existing lineup, like Chihera and Go5, helping them compete...
Young women in Matabeleland South are getting hammered by HIV at rates higher than anywhere else in Zimbabwe, and a health official is pointing straight at poverty as the main culprit. The National Aids Council guy for that province said broke girls are ending up in sketchy relationships with older dudes who have cash, and they can't really push back on safe sex when money's involved. A bunch of them are also crossing into South Africa or Botswana after school, trying to find work, but without papers or skills, they wind up doing sex work and getting exposed.
The region is sitting at 15 percent HIV prevalence with about 93,000 infected people out of 760,000 total. NAC is trying to get traditional leaders involved through some village...
