Zimbabwean Communities Keep Fields Watered Via Solar – The Zimbabwean

Solar power for watering crops isn’t just a pipe dream. In Mashaba, a Zimbabwean village near the town of Gwanda, renewable energy is helping to pump underground water to fields whose farmers previously relied on inconsistent rainfall, or on irrigation using (expensive and hard-to-locate) diesel.

Lydia Ncube shows the crops she has watered through solar-powered irrigation.

PRACTICAL ACTION-DAVID BRAZIER

In 2016, the NGO Practical Action began a project to access abundant water under the sand in the area, using solar mini-grids rather than diesel engines to generate the energy needed. As the solar-grids are now producing surplus energy, it’s not just farmers who are accessing this. Shepherd Masuka, an energy technician for Practical Action, estimates that about 40% of the Mashaba community is hooked up to the mini-grids. This source of power is charged at different rates, for business, social, and domestic users. These range from 10 cents per kilowatt-hour for a school and clinic that are connected to the mini-grids (social use), to 30 cents for shop owners (business use).

Masuka is from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second-largest city. He explains of his current work in rural parts of the country, “my day to day work involves the technical aspects like installation of the solar systems, the transmitter and distribution lines, and also maintenance of the solar system in the electrical network.” It has also involved a lot of community education, from installation and continuing through maintenance. For instance, some residents were understandably cautious about the project because of negative experiences with poor-quality solar products in the past.

A man in a green shirt smiles in front of solar panels

Shepherd Masuka in front of the mini-grid providing clean energy for farmers in Gwanda.

PRACTICAL ACTION-DAVID BRAZIER

The solar system still isn’t flawless. As it’s dependent on the weather, users need backup sources for energy at night. But the solar mini-grids are reported to provide reliable, relatively affordable, and of course environmentally efficient forms of energy.

Masuka previously worked for the conventional power industry, but finds his current role more stimulating. He says, “now with renewable energy, with solar energy, it’s a bit more challenging and interesting. On a daily basis, you are meeting new challenges. You are meeting challenges which you have never experienced before.”

Masuka reports that all of the parts can now be repaired locally, though finding replacement parts was initially an obstacle. Local repairability is an important step forward for the sustainability of the project. Even more important for future durability is local ownership. On June 20, the management of the Mashaba mini-grids and client service was officially handed over to local residents, who were already maintaining the project during Masuka’s absences. The local Community Electricity Supply Company is now officially responsible; this consists of a board of community members, village employees, and representatives of government departments and local authorities.

A man crouches over an irrigation device

Kenneth Moyo, a farmer, demonstrates how the irrigation channels work.

PRACTICAL ACTION-DAVID BRAZIER

Far too many development projects languish after the initial implementation stages, due to lack of funds, repair capacity, or interest. Unused computers or wells are a common sight in many places where development organizations have come in, sparked a flurry of activity, and then left. So it will be interesting to see how the Community Electricity Supply Company fares, and whether this model of technician/NGO transfer can work for other solar energy projects. Practical Action is now operating in other parts of Zimbabwe to spread the ideas and specifications for solar irrigation.

ICC Annual Meeting: Zimbabwe Face Sanctions, NoC for T20 Leagues on Agenda
Zimbabwe fuel prices rise yet again as local currency falters against USD

Post published in: Agriculture

Zimbabwe fuel prices rise yet again as local currency falters against USD – The Zimbabwean

Pump nozzle sucking dollars

Diesel now costs 5.84 Zimbabwe dollars per liter, up from 5.07 dollars per liter, while petrol now sells for 6.10 dollars from the previous 5.26.

Energy regulator the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) announced the new prices on Twitter overnight on Friday, prompting some queries from some consumers who were unhappy with the move.

Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube had said earlier during the week that fuel and electricity tariffs would be reviewed because the current pricing model was no longer sustainable.

Apparently, fuel prices continue to rise in tandem with the foreign currency exchange rate where the Zimbabwe dollar was on Friday trading at 10: 1 U.S. dollar.

ZERA in June increased the price of diesel to 5.07 dollars a liter from 4.88 dollars, while the price of petrol rose to 5.26 dollars a liter from 4.96 dollars.

Fuel prices have gone up several times in 2019, starting with a 150 percent increase in January which saw the price of petrol go up from 1.64 dollars per liter to 3.39 dollars when the local currency was still pegged at par with the U.S. dollar.

Zimbabwean Communities Keep Fields Watered Via Solar
Is Zimbabwe on the Right Track into the Future?

Post published in: Business

At Least You Can Talk Smack About The Cops After They Beat You Up

(Image via Getty)

Hopefully, the country will continue to learn about the odiousness of nondisclosure agreements and non-disparagement clauses. Whatever other utility they serve, they’re being used to silence victims at the behest of more powerful interests. People have started thinking about these agreements a lot in light of #MeToo. Yesterday, the Fourth Circuit struck down gag orders as part of police settlements, opening a small window for more coverage of police brutality.

The case, Overbey v. Baltimore, arose after Ashley Overbey called the police to report a burglary. The police beat her up and arrested her.

I suppose I should say that Overbey is a black woman, but if you’ve been paying attention to America, you don’t really need me to tell you that.

Overbey settled her case for $63,000, and signed a non-disparagement agreement. Courthouse News Service picks up the story from there:

Overbey’s story was featured in a 2014 Baltimore Sun article about the city’s excessive-force settlements, and when Overbey defended herself from racist trolls commenting on the newspaper’s now-shuttered online public comment forum, the city withheld half her settlement for violating the nondisparagement clause.

To recap: black woman who called police for help was beat up by police, settled, then got beat up by racist trolls, defended herself, and the police tried to withhold half of her settlement.

The Fourth Circuit did not like this:

“We hold that the non-disparagement clause in Overbey’s settlement agreement amounts to a waiver of her First Amendment rights and that strong public interests rooted in the First Amendment make it unenforceable and void,” U.S. Circuit Judge Henry Floyd wrote, joined by Judge Stephanie Thacker. Judge Marvin Quattlebaum dissented.

The city’s argument — that Overbey was merely exercising her right to refrain from speech in exchange for money — turns previous free speech precedent on its head, the majority ruled.

“At its heart, the right to refrain from speaking is concerned with preventing the government from compelling individuals to mouth support for views they find objectionable,” Floyd wrote, citing the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision Riley v. Nat’l Fed’n of the Blind of N. Carolina, Inc.

“Overbey’s promise not to speak about her case cannot be fairly characterized as an exercise of her right to refrain from speaking, because none of the interests protected by the right to refrain from speaking were ever at stake in the case.”

These gag orders have to stop. Whatever public interest is derived by encouraging parties to settle is outweighed by their use to silence victims, especially in a social media infused world where victims can be bullied and ostracized without even being able to speak up in their own defense.

And that’s just generally. When it comes to the police specifically, nothing is gained from letting them to continue to hide their brutal actions from the general public.

Gag Order Not Enforceable in Police Brutality Settlement [Courthouse News Service]


Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

Why Judge Denied Oracle Suit On JEDI

Oracle headquarters in Redwood City, California.

WASHINGTON: A federal judge rejected Oracle’s arguments that it was improperly excluded from the Pentagon’s $10 billion JEDI cloud computing competition, denying Oracle’s lawsuit against the Pentagon.

The ruling vindicates the father of the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure plan, former Defense Digital Service director Chris Lynch, and clears the way for a final showdown between Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Oracle has not said whether or not it might appeal.

[Click here for our in-depth analysis of the JEDI debate]

Judge Eric Bruggink ruled on two key grounds — technical requirements and conflict of interest — but he was silent on a third: whether the Pentagon’s plan to award the JEDI contract to a single vendor is fundamentally flawed.

071219 JEDI Ruling by BreakingDefense on Scribd

First, the judge says Oracle had conceded that, at the time it submitted its JEDI proposal, the company could not meet one key requirement — one of seven mandatory “Gate Criteria.” Specifically, Oracle didn’t have enough data centers in enough widely separated locations to keep the cloud service operating in case of a massive disaster. As the official solicitation puts it under Sub-Factor 1.2, a qualified bidder must show its “data centers are sufficiently dispersed and can continue supporting the same level of DoD usage in the case of catastrophic data center loss”; other documents strongly imply that one of the catastrophes JEDI must endure is a limited nuclear strike.

That’s not the kind of thing most commercial customers think about — but it’s entirely relevant to a system that will provide intelligence data to combat units worldwide, all the way down to foot troops carrying backpack mini-servers. Since the judge found this requirement to be reasonable, and since failing any of the seven Gate Criteria would disqualify the entire bid, he ruled it doesn’t matter whether or not Oracle was treated unfairly on any other grounds. It would have lost regardless.

“Because the court finds that Gate Criteria 1.2 is enforceable, and Oracle concedes that it could not meet that criteria at the time of proposal submission, we conclude that it cannot demonstrate prejudice as a result of other possible errors in the procurement process,” Bruggink wrote in his preliminary ruling this morning.

Second, Bruggink rejected Oracle’s claim that the selection process was biased against Oracle by Defense Department employees with ties to presumptive favorite Amazon Web Services. New revelations about one official in particular, Deap Uhbi, had delayed the trial so the Pentagon’s Inspector General could investigate the matter. The IG ultimately ruled Uhbi and others had not improperly influenced the competition.

Interestingly, however, Bruggink doesn’t refer to the IG investigation, only to an earlier investigation by the JEDI contracting team itself: “We conclude as well that the contracting officer’s findings that an organizational conflict of interest does not exist and that individual conflicts of interest did not impact the procurement were not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” That implies he doesn’t think the late-breaking evidence is relevant.

A third area where Bruggink was silent — as our colleagues at FedScoop were the first to point out — is whether the Pentagon has the right to award the entire JEDI contract to a single vendor. Congress had earlier required multiple awards on this class of contract, to ensure competition. But the law left the Defense Department the right to waive that requirement in certain cases, which it did on JEDI. Some prominent lawmakers felt the Pentagon had abused the privilege, arguing that leading businesses now routinely rely on multiple cloud providers.

JEDI defenders retorted that it will not replace all of the Defense Department’s current 500-plus cloud contracts, leaving plenty of room for other providers where appropriate. Even Oracle’s own bland statement this morning acknowledges those other opportunities: “We look forward to working with the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and other public sector agencies to deploy modern, secure hyperscale cloud solutions that meet their needs.”

How many cloud providers JEDI actually requires is the kind of technical and operational question where federal judges are loathe to second-guess executive branch experts. If an agency says “we need this to work this way,” it’s a steeply uphill battle to convince a judge to rule “no, you don’t.” So while Bruggink’s silence on this matter is worth noting, it probably reflects his reluctance to say anything about it if he didn’t have to.

Congress, however, need not show deference to the Defense Department.

This is what it’s like shopping in Zimbabwe – where no one knows what anything costs – The Zimbabwean

A shopper in front of a Pick n Pay store in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)

  • Zimbabwe adopted the Zimbabwean dollar, and banned the use of the US dollar and the rand, at the end of June.
  • We went shopping in Bulawayo to see what impact the currency change has had.
  • We found widespread price confusion, many closed outlets and early-morning buying of basics as shoppers worry that their money will lose value during the day.

Last month, Zimbabwe banned the use of the rand, the US dollar, and other currencies as legal tender in the country.

For the past decade, the government has allowed these currencies as legal payment after its own dollar became worthless.

Its interim currency – the Real Time Gross Settlement dollar (RTGS) or “zollar” – was renamed the Zimbabwean dollar, and is now the only legal currency that can be used in the country.

This has sparked renewed fears of hyperinflation and is creating confusion among shoppers.

Business Insider South Africa went shopping in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, this week to see first-hand the impact of the currency change.

We found that businesses are struggling to operate after the currency change – and that many have closed up shop.

An empty Pizza Inn outlet during a Tuesday lunchti

An empty Pizza Inn outlet during a Tuesday lunchtime where the buy-one-get-one-free special previously attracted long lines from shoppers (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)

All of the formal and informal retailers we spoke to are struggling to adapt to the new currency regime. Because many consumers are stuck with foreign currencies they are not allowed to use any more, there has been a cash crunch, few people have money to spend and many shops have closed temporarily,

Those businesses that are still operating, re-adjust their pricing every morning – but there seems to be mass confusion about what the Zim dollar is really worth, and how products should be priced:

Prices crossed out on clothing items at Edgars bra

Prices crossed out on clothing items at the Edgars branch in Bulawayo while staff await pricing instructions from their head office. (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)

Line at a Bulawayo petrol station while attendants

A line at a Bulawayo petrol station while attendants wait for pricing instructions (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)


Some stores used estimates from the fluctuating black market US dollar to Zimbabwe dollar exchange rate.

A shoe store in Bulawayo displays new prices in Zi

A shoe store in Bulawayo displays new prices in Zimbabwe dollars, the prices marked in yellow are yet to be changed from US to Zimbabwe dollars. (Lindiwe Mpofu)

The Zimbabwean dollar is currently estimated to trade at Z$9.99 to the US dollar in the Zimbabwean black market.


Several informal businesses have, however, ignored the directive and continue to use foreign currency pricing

An informal barbershop’s price list in Harare (Lin

An informal barbershop’s price list in Harare (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)


Quoting prices in foreign currency is a criminal offence. At some of the informal stores and produce stalls we found that prices were not on display – but shoppers were quoted prices in rand, and also had to pay in the South African currency.

Stall owners say they buy their products from neighbouring Botswana and South Africa, mostly in rand, and that they couldn’t afford to buy new stock if they accepted Zimbabwean dollar.


We noticed some panic buying early in the morning, with some people stocking up on basics as they fear their money would lose value throughout the day.

There were also widespread shortages in basic commodities:

A bread shelf at T.M- Pick n Pay Supermarket in Bu

A bread shelf at T.M- Pick n Pay Supermarket in Bulawayo, one hour after opening time (Lindiwe Mpofu, Business Insider South Africa)

He was moved by compassion when he saw him
Zimbabwe hikes fuel price again after minister says it’s still cheap

Post published in: Business

Zimbabwe hikes fuel price again after minister says it’s still cheap – The Zimbabwean

This after the finance minister said fuel was considerably cheaper than in neighbouring countries.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced the biggest fuel price hike in January — a 150 percent increase — which sparked deadly protests by financially struggling Zimbabweans that left more than a dozen people dead after an army clampdown.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority said late on Friday that effective Saturday, petrol would cost 6.10 Zimbabwe dollars ($0.70) a litre, up from 5.26, while the price of diesel had been increased 13 percent to 5.84 Zimbabwe dollars.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was quoted in a daily newspaper as saying he would be happy if the price of fuel was equivalent to $1 per litre.

While Ncube wants fuel prices to reflect import costs, many Zimbabweans can barely afford to pay them when the unemployment exceeds 80 percent and the entry-level wage for a government employee is about $49 a month — enough to buy a car tyre.

But with no sign of an end to rolling power cuts in the southern African country, demand for fuel has risen as businesses resort to more expensive diesel-powered generators.

Analysts say this is increasing the price of doing business, with companies likely to pass the cost to consumers, who are already grappling with inflation of nearly 100 percent.

There were long queues at service stations selling fuel early on Saturday.

Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company to audit lifestyles – The Zimbabwean

This is among a raft of measures meant to stem the theft of gems, the Zimbabwe Independent learnt this week.

As revealed in February, substantial quantities of diamond ore were stolen from the ZCDC in January by a gang of armed men in millitary gear which overpowered the company’s security staff and held them hostage before escaping with valuable gemstones.

The January robbery was followed by yet another heist at the ZCDC in March, where a gang of armed robbers, in a similar style, overpowered the security staff in the mining area, and escaped with precious ore. The ZCDC said on both accounts the criminals only got away with “valueless” dump tailings.

In the aftermath of the robberies, the ZCDC board subsequently sacked its top executives, led by the then chief executive Morris Mpofu. Mpofu has since been dragged to the courts to answer allegations of corruption, specifically that he approved diamond sales to a blacklisted dealership.

The ZCDC’s acting chief executive officer Roberto di Pretto said that the mining firm would bolster its security system through the adoption of automated technology, while evaluating the assets of its employees, through a “lifestyle audit”.

“We are looking into the process of automation of the value chain which includes the sort-house and all other highly sensitive areas,” De Pretto said, noting that suspects implicated in the two heists were apprehended and appeared in court.

“We are also carrying out multi-layered extensive surveillance and thorough vetting of employees including lifestyle audits. The security around Chiadzwa is being enhanced through additional technological systems with a view to raise our security to world-class standards around the clock.”

The heists, which were preceded by the massive management shake-up at the state-owned mining enterprise, saw the 69th session of the United Nations (UN) plenary resolving to deliberate on whether Zimbabwean diamonds should be classified as conflict gems during the inter-governmental organisation’s 74th general assembly meeting agenda in March.

The meeting, bringing together heads of state from the UN’s 192 member countries, is scheduled to run from September 17-24 this year in New York, United States.

The development follows intense lobbying by a grouping of international civil society organisations affiliated to the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) urging the UN to review its definition of conflict diamonds in order to encompass Zimbabwe’s gemstones.

Zimbabwe will be barred from trading on the formal market, if the move by a consortium of civil society organisations sails through.

Under KPCS rules governing the international trade in the precious mineral, diamond mines must have tight security.

The robbery incidents add impetus to calls for the KPCS to widen the definition of conflict diamonds to also cover those being mined in Zimbabwe, which various interest groups say are being used to finance President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s violent suppression of dissent.

Currently, the organisations feel the definition of conflict diamonds — that they are gemstones which originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognised governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the UN Security Council — is inadequate.

This year, the ZCDC has conducted three diamond auctions with receipts from cumulative sales yet to be consolidated to determine how much the country has generated from the marketing of the precious mineral. Another auction sale will “soon” be conducted this year.

ZCDC, which was established in 2017 following the controversial termination of licences held by seven entities operating in Chiadzwa, is currently sitting on a 3.2 million carat stockpile.

SAA has R1.1bn stuck in cash-strapped Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

According to SAA Regional Manager, Winnie Muchanyuka, the funds are in Zimbabwean banks.

Zimbabwe is facing severe foreign currency shortages. Foreign currency is needed to transfer the proceeds of local ticket sales to airlines outside the country.

The forex shortage has seen the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issue an exchange control directive to banks to move funds to its coffers, in a development that is likely to further delay the payment.

The RBZ guaranteed that the funds will be paid to the beneficiaries in US dollars, a move that is meant to preserve value after the country introduced a local currency as the sole legal tender, abandoning its former multi-currency system.

SAA said it will comply with the directive to move the funds to the central bank.

“SAA will comply with exchange control regulations of the land and as such the debt will be moved to Reserve Bank as per statute, we await instructions from the bank as to how the process will flow,” said Muchanyuka.

Another South African-owned company, Nampak Zimbabwe, has since agreed with the RBZ terms for its $57m (R793m) trapped in Zimbabwe.

The Reserve Bank will pay Nampak International the amount owed by the Nampak Zimbabwe in quarterly instalments over three years.

“An agreement was reached between Nampak Zimbabwe, Nampak International and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe,” said Keith Nicholson, company secretary for Nampak Zimbabwe, is reported to have said.

Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company to audit lifestyles
How to speak Zimbabwean

Post published in: Business

The Biglaw Firm Garnering The Most Respect In Private Equity

Why Law Firms Are Moving to the Cloud

Why Law Firms Are Moving to the Cloud

Cloud-based practice management software can help meet the growing expectations of clients, staff, and an increasingly competitive legal marketplace. Download the guide here to learn how.

Cloud-based practice management software can help meet the growing expectations of clients, staff, and an increasingly competitive legal marketplace. Download the guide here to learn how.