The Insider

Tsvangirai back at work- Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai is back at work according to his facebook page, and he says “it feels good to be back at work”. Tsvangirai has been ill for the past two weeks and there was a lot of media hype about this. Some media outlets claimed that he had a terminal illness and that he had sneaked out of a medical centre without paying his bill. When it transpired that he had paid the bill, which was more than US$4 000, they questioned why he did not have medical insurance. Tsvangirai was still confined to his home until Saturday according to another posting. He said he could not attend the funeral of liberation hero Dzino because of doctor’s orders: “Today they buried Dzino, a true hero of this country. I ought to have been there with the family and colleagues in the struggle but I had to follow the doctor’s advice to take a rest. Go well son of Zimbabwe. Rest in Peace, undisputed hero of the people’s struggle,” he wrote on his facebook page. Wilfred Mhanda, popularly known during the liberation struggle as Dzinashe Machingura, died on Wednesday last week and was buried on Saturday. Though he was at one time one of the senior commanders in the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, Machingura fell out with the ZANU-PF leadership just before independence because of his support for the Zimbabwe People’s Army which was supposed to have united the fighters of the ZANU and ZAPU.

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Call Jealousy Mawarire what you like, but he did the unthinkable. He forced a national election to be held, legally. Yes, this might have played into the hands of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, but the fact remains, it was done by an individual or a private organisation.

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The politburo of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is meeting today to discuss, among other things, the country’s indigenisation policy. Reports say the politburo might also discuss the coming party congress. There has been no mention of corruption.

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Mines Minister says government might still ban raw platinum exports – Mines Minister Walter Chidhakwa says the government might still ban the export of raw platinum if mining companies are slow to set up a refinery. Mining companies were given a two-year ultimatum to set up the refinery and it expires at the end of this year. They have committed US$100 million for the refinery but Chidhakwa says this is not enough. “I want to see real action on the ground,” he was quoted by The Herald as saying. Chidhakwa also said he was not informed about the proposed investment which was announced by the companies at the Chamber of Mines annual general meeting last week. Zimbabwe, which has the second largest platinum reserves after South Africa, currently has an upper hand over its more powerful neighbour because of a four-month strike that has crippled platinum mining in South Africa. All three major players in Zimbabwe are South-African based companies. These are Impala Platinum, Anglo-Platinum, the world’s largest platinum mining company, and Aquarius which is registered in Bermuda but has its roots in Australia. Implats has the largest operation in Zimbabwe.

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