Category: News Feeds

As readers of ATL know by now, or should know if they’re reading ATL, the California Supreme Court has decreed some changes to the California Bar Exam for 2020. Originally set for the end of this month, the Court first deferred the exam to September and now to October. Instead of examinees hacking and coughing around each other, especially now considering the pandemic, the two-day exam will be online.

That’s not the only order the court made. The court also ordered the state bar to expedite creation of a provisional licensure program under supervision to 2020 law school graduates — effective until they can take and pass a California bar exam and expiring no later than June 1, 2022.

But wait, there’s more. The court permanently lowered the “cut score” from 1440 to 1390. There’s so much to discuss that my head is about to explode.

Let’s take the change in the exam date first. It was a foregone conclusion that the bar exam date would be changed; the issue was when? Would it be September as originally thought? Now it’s October, and that date seems fixed. It’ll be online, a first for California and other states who have thoughtfully moved the bar exam date and methodology to accommodate the pandemic.

Moving on to the provisional licensure program under supervision, many questions surround the creation and implementation of such a program. Hopefully, the state bar saw this coming, and creation and implementation of such a program will not gobble up most of the available time, which ends in less than two years.

How will the bar recruit volunteers? Thousands are registered for the bar exam. How many lawyers will agree to supervise? Will there need to be an incentive for lawyers to be willing to undertake that supervision? Will malpractice carriers be willing to add provisional licensees as additional insureds? Or will carriers tell lawyers, “you are on your own, counsel.” I can’t imagine, given our lack of appetite for risk, that many lawyers will undertake supervision without some assurance that by going out on a limb, it will not be sawed off either by the malpractice carrier or zealous bar disciplinary counsel.

And last but not certainly least, the reduction of the infamous “cut score,” from 1440 to 1390, a difference of 50 points. Law school professors, deans, and students should be pleased. But will cutting the cut score really make a difference in the passing rate?

Examinees have always done well on the MBE. It’s the essay portion that snares them. Whether it will continue to so so is anyone’s guess. One hopes that the reduction in the passing score requirement will lead to the admission of more, but I am not so sure.

Over the years, I have critiqued essays for students at various law schools, and the results have been almost uniformly dreadful. As more and more of legal practice is submitted “on the papers,” with oral argument rarely the difference between winning and losing, the ability to write cogently and fluently takes on even greater importance.

Some law students today simply don’t know how to write coherent sentences. Their sentences are run-on, meandering, and don’t get to the point, even if the writer finds it.

Let me be clear. I do not fault law students for this situation. I fault the law schools and the instructors, the latter who are more interested in publishing, in their own scholarship, than in helping students succeed. It’s akin to “we take your money, and you take your chances,” which is not the way it should be. Critiquing exams can be deadly dull and a huge time suck, but if the goal is to get students to pass the essay portion, then law schools and faculty need to step up their game and help students get what they need. If the written bar exam goes away some day, so be it. However, until that day, we’re stuck with what is.

It’s one thing to review past exams and issue spot until you can’t stand to look at one more. It’s another thing to sit at your laptop, see issues and then write, write, write. That is what should make the difference between pass and fail. I have no idea how the bar grades essays, but I would imagine that if most of what they read is dreck, then it won’t matter what the cut score is.

Here’s an example of how discrimination rules the bar exam world, as if it didn’t already rule the practice world, but that’s a topic for another time. No joke. Outrageous, isn’t it?

At least for those states that are providing an online bar exam this summer/fall, women shouldn’t have to deal with the humiliation. What about those who must sit for a Covid-ridden in-person exam? Will there be body searches to make sure there’s nothing that should not be there? Could the Rule Against Perpetuities be written on a tampon? You tell me. Please tell me how taking feminine hygiene products into the testing room encourages cheating.

This is just one more example of how the bias against women lawyers will never change in my lifetime, which is nearer to the end than to the beginning. More than 40 years ago, I had hope. Now, not so much.

Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

1000hrs: Our lawyers are ready. We have Beatrice Mtetwa, Adv Nkomo, Jeremiah Bhamu, Gift Mtisi and Doug Coltart are ready

1002hours : The accused have taken to the holding cells waiting for trial. No time has been given yet as to when the trial will commence

1004hrs; MDC A VP Tendai Biti is in attendance for solidarity and legal advice

1013 hrs: The police have been very cooperative. Some of our comrades have been denied entry at the gate. There is a sizeable number of people in solidarity outside

LIVE UPDATES
There is a lot of confusion at the courts as our President and Convener of 31 July Movement Jacob Ngarivhume and co-accused Hopewell Chin’ono are shunted from table to another. It seems the state is not ready for trial

1057hrs
The court is now seated ready to start. Very few allowed in the court room due to covid 19 safety regulations

1111hrs:

Reza response..
– No double profiling done
– reads out the charges.. Inciting public violence as the main charge.
– gives evidence of the charges by reading tweets purportedly from JN’s twitter handle
– advises the court to keep the accused on remand
Reza and Murombedzi prosecuting for the state. Adv NKOMO in defence

1100hrs
Adv outlines the President’s complaints against the police.
– after arrest he was dumped at law and order for 6 hrs without a charge being levelled against him
– 48 hrs required by the law have lapsed before he appears before you
– he was not allowed access to his lawyers immediately after arrest
– was profiled twice. The police said were not aware of the first profile done by an unknown female officer raising serious security issues

1117 hrs
Reza’s response..
-rejects the placing of client to bail.
– calls Inv Officer Detective Inspector Naison Chirape to the witness stand.
– Chirape says JN must not be given bail as he can abscond. He said many Bishops are in support of JN so the demo with succeed and turn out to be violent
– Chirape reads out JN’s tweets saying the following on these tweets is too much
– Chirape said JN tweets are national and the whole country will follow him in demonstration and coz havoc. He says JN has called for war

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The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) notes the exposé by lawyer Dr Alex Magaisa demonstrating how the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) loan facility designed to support commercial agriculture between 2007 and 2008 was politicised, polluted and plundered.

The exposé shows that the Farm Mechanisation looting is one of the greatest scandals in Zimbabwe post the new Millennium with at least US200 million dollars taxpayers money being looted by government Ministers, ruling party officials, clergymen and many other individuals who are connected to the ruling party.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition calls on the government of Zimbabwe to repeal the RBZ Debt assumption Bill and we, therefore, demand that everyone who benefitted from the loan facility MUST pay back the loans with interests.

We call upon the law enforcement agencies to do all they can to ensure that all the money that can be recovered must be paid back in full, including attaching properties of the individuals who benefitted from defrauding of the Farm Mechanisation loan facility. Now that the list is available, the Coalition expects the police to swiftly act on those who should be held accountable. The admittance by Gono in 2007 that the Farm Mechanisation programme was a loan facility which farmers were supposed to pay back is evidence enough to lay criminal charges against the beneficiaries. And to avoid conflict of interest, all the Judges and officers of the court who benefitted from this state loan facility must recuse themselves.

The shocking revelations only serve to confirm our long-held claims that corruption by the government, ZANU PF heavyweights and their connected elites are one of the largest contributors to the crisis in Zimbabwe.

The high-level corruption in Zimbabwe is going unchecked at a time when the government has failed to pay civil servants and when most of the country’s citizens are grovelling in grinding poverty. What is more embarrassing is that at the time of issuing out these loans, Zimbabwe’s economy was on its knees with rising cost of living, ever-increasing inflation, industrial output at its lowest and a weak local currency.

The Coalition maintains that the government should stem out the growing tide of corruption which has left the country on its knees. Endemic mismanagement has resulted in failure to prioritize pressing needs such as paying salaries of our hardworking civil servants.

Lack of will by the government to act on recommendations from the Auditor General’s office regarding corruption in government departments, including the President’s Office is also a pointer that corruption is going on unabated in Zimbabwe.

The so-called new administration led by President Mnangagwa has failed to deliver its promises to uproot corruption in the country as evidenced by an increase in the number of corruption cases including members of the First Family and their immediate connections.

Section 196 of the Constitution provides that public officers in leadership positions must abide by the following principles – honesty in the execution of public duties; accountability to the public for decisions and actions. Section 308 adds that it is the duty of every person who has custody or control of public property to safeguard the property and ensure that it is not lost, destroyed, damaged, misapplied or misused.

The Coalition also highlights the reality that the people of Zimbabwe now know that under Mr. Mnangagwa and the ZANU PF government has been reduced into systemic corruption and web of lies reflected in the many lies and distortions performed by public officials, notably former RBZ Governor Gono who lied to Zimbabwe about the Farm Mechanisation programme.

We, therefore, demand that the Government of Zimbabwe takes corrective measures to bring sanity and soberness to our nation by urgently instituting a Commission of Enquiry tasked with further investigating the RBZ loan saga.

Post published in: Featured

Komichi believes that the organisers of the protest are putting the lives of people at risk for money as the country battles widespread coronavirus infections. Said Komichi:

I don’t know the rationale of this, but this does not smell good. Why put people’s lives at risk for money, why the protests now? As the MDC we will not be part of the charade.-

The Zimbabwe People Party (ZPP) has also distanced itself from the demonstrations.

In a letter to its members, the ZPP said it will not be part to the planned demonstrations, saying the main organiser, Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume, did not outline the safety measures that will be taken to protect the marchers. Part of the statement read:

The ZPP guidelines value the safety of members and Zimbabweans at large and in the absence of Covid-19 safety precautions and guidelines from Mr Ngarivhume, it is hence very difficult for ZPP members to take part because their safety is not guaranteed.

Mr Ngarivhume has also not shown us police approval for the demonstration and issues of a police escort for the demonstration.

Ngarivhume was arrested on Monday alongside corruption whistleblower and prominent journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.

The two were charged with contravening Section 187(1)(a) as read with section 37(1)(a)(i) of the Criminal Law [Codification and Reform] Act, Chapter 9:23, “incitement to participate in public violence’.

Post published in: Featured

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) seems to have extended its activities beyond simply investigating and combating corruption.  For example:

• Recently when the Minister of Health and Child Care was granted bail on a charge of criminal abuse of office, one of his bail conditions ‒ imposed presumably with ZACC’s consent ‒ was that he report regularly to ZACC.  Ensuring that arrested suspects do not abscond seems more a job for the Police than for ZACC.
• Some months ago, its spokesman said that ZACC would be working with the Police to clamp down on landlords who demand payment of rent in foreign currency in contravention of SI 213 of 2019.  Many people would not regard that as corrupt conduct, and might wonder why ZACC was dealing with it.

ZACC is a constitutional body, as we shall explain shortly, and like all other such bodies it can only exercise functions that are given to it by the Constitution or which Parliament confers on it through an Act of Parliament.  In this and subsequent bulletins we shall analyse ZACC’s functions relating to the investigation, prosecution and punishment of corruption and other criminal conduct, and see what if any limits the law imposes on those functions.

Establishment of ZACC

ZACC was originally established as a constitutional commission in 2009 by the 19th amendment to the previous (Lancaster House) Constitution.  Its establishment was only formal, however, because no members were appointed until it was re-established in 2013 by section 254 of the present Constitution.

Functions of ZACC under the Constitution

Section 255 of the present Constitution gives ZACC the following functions:

• to investigate and expose cases of corruption in the public and private sectors,
• to combat corruption, theft, misappropriation, abuse of power and other improper conduct in the public and private sectors,
• to direct the Commissioner-General of Police to investigate cases of suspected corruption and to report to the Commission on the results of any such investigation, and
• to refer matters to the National Prosecuting Authority for prosecution.

Several inferences can be drawn from the way the Constitution expresses these functions:

1. ZACC can investigate and combat corruption and other improper conduct in the private sector as well as in Government.
2. Theft, misappropriation and abuse of power do not necessarily constitute corruption (otherwise they would not have been mentioned separately).
3. Even though they may not be the same as corruption, ZACC can combat theft, misappropriation and abuse of power.
4. ZACC can also combat “improper conduct”, which is not necessarily criminal conduct.
5. ZACC can instruct the Police to investigate cases of corruption;  it does not have to do the investigations itself.
6. On the other hand, ZACC does not have power to prosecute criminal cases, but can only refer cases to the NPA for prosecution.

One further point is that section 342(2) of the Constitution gives all constitutional bodies, including ZACC, “all powers necessary for them to fulfil their objectives and exercise their functions.”

Another point is that section 321(1) of the Constitution states that an Act of Parliament may confer additional functions on constitutional commissions.  Parliament did this for ZACC when it enacted the Anti-Corruption Commission Act in 2004 [link].

Functions of ZACC under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act

Section 11 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act sets out what it calls “the objects” of ZACC [they are really functions].  The first of these is:

“to promote the investigation of serious cases of corruption and fraud”

This suggests that ZACC should concentrate on serious cases, not petty ones ‒ and in a later bulletin we shall deal with the different sorts of corruption that are legally recognised.  Note, incidentally, that the objective mentions corruption and fraud separately, indicating that Parliament did not regard all cases of fraud as necessarily involving corruption.

Section 12 of the Act gives ZACC additional functions, in particular the monitoring of procurement systems of public and private institutions.  Procurement in Zimbabwe and elsewhere is a particularly fertile field for corruption so it is little wonder that the Act mentions procurement specifically.

The Schedule to the Act gives ZACC the following powers, amongst others:

• To recommend that the Police arrest and detain people suspected of committing offences relating to corruption as well as a long list of disparate offences such as money-laundering, possession and dealing in dangerous drugs (other than cannabis), illegally exporting grain, contravening the Exchange Control Regulations, and stock theft.  [As we have said before, we shall discuss the definition of corruption in a later bulletin but it may be noted here that by listing these crimes separately Parliament has acknowledged they do not necessarily amount to corruption.]
• To obtain search warrants [Only to obtain search warrants, it should be noted, not to conduct searches.]
• To enter premises and require people there to answer questions about crimes related to corruption [But, it should again be noted, there is no power to search the premises].
• Through the National Prosecuting Authority [the NPA], to seek court orders for the confiscation of proceeds of corruption.  This does not mean the NPA must seek a court order if ZACC asks it to;  ZACC must persuade, rather than compel, the NPA to seek the order.

It should be noted that in this outline of ZACC’s constitutional and statutory functions we have not mentioned ZACC’s important advisory and educational functions.  Both the Constitution and the Anti-Corruption Commission Act give ZACC powers to make recommendations on ways to enhance integrity and accountability in the public and private sectors, to promote public awareness about corruption and its harmful effects, and to assist in the formulation of systems and procedures to prevent corruption.  We have not mentioned these functions because in this bulletin we are concerned with ZACC’s powers in relation to the investigation, prosecution and punishment of corruption and other criminal conduct.

Additional Power of Arrest given to ZACC officers

ZACC officers have the same power of arrest as police officers.  They were given this power by SI 143 of 2019, which declared them to be peace officers for the purposes of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [CP&E Act] [link].  We explained the effect of this declaration in our Commissions Watch of the 17th July 2019 [link], but briefly the CP&E Act gives police officers and other so-called “peace officers” the same power to arrest criminals and suspected criminals.  Hence the declaration of ZACC’s officers as peace officers effectively equated them with police officers in regard to their powers of arrest.

Conclusion

We are now in a position to sum up ZACC’s functions in regard to the investigation, prosecution and punishment of corruption and other crimes [which for convenience we shall call “corrupt conduct”]:

• ZACC can investigate and combat corrupt conduct in both the public and private spheres.  This power includes:

o   The power to arrest suspects.  Like all ZACC’s powers, the power of arrest must be exercised in accordance with the law, in particular the CP&E Act.  This means that arrests must be reasonable and must be done only to prevent suspects escaping or to prevent them committing further crimes or interfering with evidence.  Suspects must be told why they are being arrested and their rights must be explained to them, in particular their right to remain silent and to consult their lawyers.  Suspects who are arrested without an arrest warrant must be brought to a police station [not ZACC’s offices] as soon as possible and brought to a court for remand within 48 hours.

o   The power to obtain search warrants.  While ZACC can obtain warrants, its officers cannot search premises under a warrant because only police officers can do that in terms of Part VI of the CP&E Act.

o   The power to enter premises and to question people.  Note that ZACC’s officers can ask questions, but cannot search the premises.  Note too that no one is compelled to answer ZACC’s questions, not even suspects:  they have a right to silence under the Constitution.

o   The power to instruct the Commissioner-General of Police to investigate particular cases.  The Commissioner-General must comply with the instruction.

o   The right to recommend that the Police arrest people suspected of corrupt conduct.  The Police are not obliged to act on any such recommendation, because their powers of arrest are discretionary under the CP&E Act.  A police officer cannot be ordered to arrest a person, unless a warrant for the person’s arrest has been issued ‒ and ZACC does not have power to issue arrest warrants.  ZACC’s officers do however have power to arrest people, as explained above.

• ZACC has no power to prosecute cases.  That is a power reserved to the NPA.
• ZACC has power, through the NPA, to seek court orders for the confiscation of the proceeds of corruption.

In exercising these powers ZACC should remember that it is supposed to concentrate on serious cases of corruption, as suggested by section 11 of the Anti-Corruption Act.  In the next bulletin in this series we shall look at what amounts to corruption in law, and whether the law classifies corruption according to its seriousness.

To be Continued in Part 2

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

Post published in: Featured

Russia’s Alrosa (MCX:ALRS), the world’s top diamond producer by output, has begun prospecting and preliminary exploration works for deposits in Zimbabwe, as part of a partnership with the country’s Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).

The move is a welcome boost to the southern African nation’s attempts to expand diamond mining revenues. Zimbabwe first began allowing foreign companies to dig up precious stones in 2018, opening the door to private investors.

Mines minister Winston Chitando said at the time that his office was considering letting foreigners hold majority stakes in local operations on the condition that part of their output is reserved for domestic downstream industries.

“Following the signing of a joint venture agreement with Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company to develop diamond deposits, we are progressing well towards the initiation of the full-scale prospecting works this year,” Alrosa’s deputy chief executive, Vladimir Marchenko, said in the statement.Alrosa opened an office in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare in 2018. First employees arrived early last year and the joint venture with ZCDC was formalized in December.

Most of Zimbabwe’s diamond fields are in Marange, in the eastern part of the country, where production is dominated by ZCDC.

In 2008, hundreds of artisanal miners were killed and thousands had to leave their homes as the military, under the former government of dictator Robert Mugabe, forced them to leave Marange.

International advocacy groups accused Mugabe of looting about $2 billion from the diamond-rich fields. The European Union lifted sanctions that curbed diamond exports from Zimbabwe at the end of 2013.

In early 2016, however, Mugabe evicted all diamond miners after they declined to merge with ZCDC.

Sector boost

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took office in 2018, has moved to end the country’s international isolation and attract foreign investment to boost an economy in tatters.

Campaign group and accountability watchdog Global Witness has said that Mnangagwa’s handling of the nation’s diamond industry would be the ultimate test for his commitment to economic reform and anti-corruption.

According to the organization, good governance of the country’s diamond sector is a barometer of the direction that Zimbabwe is taking more broadly in the post-Mugabe era.

“It will attest to the credence of President Mnangagwa’s claims of a zero tolerance approach to corruption and transformed economic governance,” Sophia Pickles, Campaign Leader at Global Witness, said.

Alrosa has committed to invest $12 million in Zimbabwe from 2020 to 2022. Most of the diamond fields are in Marange in eastern Zimbabwe, where production is dominated by ZCDC.

Post published in: Business

Zimbabwean authorities are demanding the country’s biggest mobile money platform to give up half of all transaction files for 2020 to law enforcement agents under a crackdown the operator says violates telecom user data privacy rights. It comes as the beleaguered government clamps down on anti-government economic protests and the media, including the arrest of a well-known anti-corruption journalist.

The EcoCash platform, with 7 million active users as at the end of March this year, is the most used mobile money service in Zimbabwe but the government now alleges EcoCash has been complicit in money laundering activities which resulted in foreign currency mopped up from the streets through agents and bulk payer lines being externalized from Zimbabwe.

On Friday (July 17) , police agents descended on the company’s head office in Harare armed with a search and seize warrant to confiscate data files containing subscriber and transaction details for the period January to June 2020. This has raised concerns over data privacy and protection of subscriber details as well as transaction information that is now in the hands of police and could be publicly used as evidence against EcoCash in court.

The government has been at odds with the EcoCash for several months as its currency crisis and economic woes have spiraled out of its control. Last month Zimbabwe’s central bank slammed EcoCash for running, what it called, a Ponzi scheme.

EcoCash, which has been a solution to the country’s cash shortages for a long time, is alleged by the government to be fueling street market foreign currency rates. The authories says these functionalities were being abused by street currency dealers who were covertly abusing overdrafts and airtime credit facilities to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar.

“Full subscriber details of each user means they have your name, cellphone number, address and all EcoCash records. This is a far reaching breach of privacy.”

The July 17 raid has forced Econet, the mobile operator which holds the EcoCash subscribers, to challenge the government’s search and seize warrant in Harare courts, where it has argued that the warrant be set aside. In a country where people are sensitive about private information falling into the wrong hands, ordinary Zimbabweans, opposition activists and data privacy campaigners are against the latest move by the government and the Harare High Court now has to determine on government having access to such personal data.  Econet argued in its court filing on Monday that the directive by the government for it to hand over sensitive subscriber and transaction data was “unlawful” and constituted “a violation of the applicant’s right to privacy and also the right of privacy” of its subscribers.

“Full subscriber details of each user means they have your name, cellphone number, address and all EcoCash records. This is a far-reaching breach of privacy. Imagine what Zimbabwe police can do in this authoritarian environment with such extensive data,” says Fadzai Mahere, law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe and spokeswoman for the main opposition MDC Alliance party.

The political temperatures are boiling over in Zimbabwe ahead of opposition backed anti-government protests scheduled for July 31. The pressure around this has seen Zimbabwean authorities arrest the lead organizer of the protests, Jacob Ngarivhume and prominent journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono who is also an anti-corruption whistleblower on social media. Zimbabwean police said the two had been arrested for “incitement to participate in public violence”.

Even as health workers protested this month on over economic hardship during coronavirus, Mnangagwa’s administration says any future protests and demonstrations should be put on hold as coronavirus cases have been spiking, with local infections also rising and bringing total number of infected to nearly 2000 amid more than 25 deaths.

“The arrests of Chin’ono and Ngarivhume are designed to intimidate and send sending a chilling message to journalists, whistleblowers and activists who draw attention to matters of public interest in Zimbabwe,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International director for East and Southern Africa.

Post published in: Featured

I address you once again to share and give an update on where our Nation stands in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Worldwide, confirmed Coronavirus infections continue to increase, with over 600,000 lives lost to date. Global recoveries from the virus stand at slightly over 8,1 million, up from over 6,8million recorded up to last week.

On our African continent, cases of infections are rising at an alarming pace. By yesterday, Africa had recorded over 721,000 cases, up from 443,412 recorded cases from the previous week. More than 15,100 deaths have been reported so far, with recoveries at 380,253 cases.

Our country, as of this morning, had recorded 1,713 cases, up from 985 cases recorded by last week. This means the number of positive cases increased by over 600 in just one week. During the same period, the number of deaths rose from 18 to 26. Meanwhile, recoveries rose from 328 to 472 in the same week. However, for the first time local transmissions now exceed imported cases, the former standing at 872, and the latter at 841. Another worrisome development is that more and more, cases of local transmissions are being reported at places of work. Covid-19 is thus no longer a problem out there, far and beyond our borders; rather, it is now here amongst us and in our communities.

South Africa, which is both our neighbour and our major trading partner, ranks fifth globally on number of infections, after the United States of America, Brazil, India and Russia. The affinities and intense, multi-layered interactions between our two countries mean we have a very serious situation on our doorstep. This is coupled with an upsurge recorded in all our other neighbouring states.

Therefore, this sobering reality means that we can no longer be complacent, and that requires urgent and decisive measures.

Fellow Zimbabweans,

These urgent and necessary measures will entail curtailing the freedoms we have always enjoyed, and had grown accustomed to. From now on, these freedoms stand suspended and deferred, in the interest of all of us; indeed in the interest of our children and our Nation which must survive, thrive and prosper beyond this pandemic. No responsible Government places its citizens in harm’s way, hence my Government will do all it can to preserve and protect THE RIGHT TO LIFE.

Accordingly, Government has decided on the following measures which take full effect from tomorrow, Wednesday 22 July 2020, until further review and notice:

1–All non-working sections of our population will be required to stay at home; except for purposes of securing food, water and health services.

Where travel and social contact becomes essential and inevitable, every Zimbabwean should and must uphold the four requirements set out by the World Health Organization, W.H.O., which are:

a–Wearing masks or equivalent protective materials;
b–Observing strict standards of hygiene, including the washing of hands or use of sanitizers;
c–Mandatory screening in all public places and buildings;
d–Social distancing in all public places and at all times;

2–With effect from tomorrow Wednesday 22 July 2020, all business premises must operate from 0800HRS until 1500HRS, with the exception of providers of essential services.

3–As of tomorrow Wednesday 22 July 2020, all our Security Services must enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew set to come into force daily between 1800HRS and 0600HRS. Only essential services are exempt from this curfew.

4–All business operations and premises are required to observe and enforce World Health organisation anti-Covid-19 standards which include observing social distance at workplaces, wearing of masks at all times, regular screenings and strict hygienic standards at workplaces;

5–Only registered SMES which have been allocated workspaces will be allowed to operate, and must comply with the parameters and protocols set by the World Health Organisation.

6–Our food markets will remain open and operational, and must observe set measures, rules and requirements meant to uphold public health. Suppliers to markets should be facilitated to reach the markets, including by our Security Forces;

7–Inter-city/town public transport and inessential transport to all rural areas remain banned.

8–All approved buses and vehicles for public transport should ensure and enforce public health standards, including the screening of passengers before boarding, and the disinfecting of all public vehicles after each round trip;

9–Public gatherings for social, religious or political purposes remain banned. Funeral gatherings remain curtailed, in line with public health requirements.

10–Desertion from places of quarantine by returnees and infected persons, resulting in the exposure of innocent lives to the virus will be considered a criminal act and invite very robust response from our law and public health-enforcement arms.

11–Anyone who knowingly exposes, aids, abets, or infects innocent persons, whether by breaching conditions of isolation or by encouraging actions which undermine public health measures which Government has announced or undertaken, will be liable, and severely punished accordingly.

My Fellow Zimbabweans,

These measures are being taken for our collective safety. As Zimbabweans, we have to win the war against the Covid-19 pandemic. We must minimize loss of lives. I, as your President, will come back to you to announce the easing of these public health measures, once the situation has improved. Let all of us, for now, unreservedly comply with these measures.

Together in unity, love and a shared sense of responsibility, we shall overcome and save ourselves, our families and our Nation.

God bless Zimbabwe.
I thank you.

________
Stay Safe – Stay Home – Covid-19 Kills

Post published in: Featured