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Okay, so maybe it was fear that prompted him, or a guilty conscious. But no matter the
motive, Gweru Mayor Josiah Makombe has rejected a $150 000 Mercedes Benz
earmarked for him as an official vehicle and also vowed to block plans to buy top-of-the-
range vehicles for the city’s top six directors, NewsDay reports. Following an exposé by
Southern Eye on Wednesday of the intended purchases of a Mercedes Benz and 4X4
vehicles that were put forward by management as part of the 2019 budget, Makombe
convened a hastily arranged press conference at town house to make the
announcements. “We are not going to buy the vehicles. The directors are entitled to the
cars by virtue of their contracts,” he said. "But I will politely inform them that vehicles will
only be bought when we have fulfilled our obligations on service delivery, such as
maintenance of street lights, smooth water and sewer services as well as road
rehabilitation. These are the immediate priorities my council will put first."

Everybody wants ‘em
But nobody’s got ‘em. We’re talking about those precious USAs of course. Teachers
demonstrated last week to demand their salaries in USDs. And when word got out some
private schools wanted to ask for fees in USDs the Herald reported that "Government
has issued a stern warning." On this, Fadzayi Mahere had 3 questions: 1. The US
Dollar is legal tender in Zimbabwe. What law prohibits demanding payment in this form?
2. What did the Finance Minister think would happen after his announcement that RTGS
money is not at par with the USD? 3. Why does Govt always deal with symptoms &
never the root?

Sound familiar?
An opposition legislator has been charged with undermining authority of or insulting
President Emmerson Mnangagwa after he allegedly accused the President of being
devoid of solutions to fix Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights reports. Prosecutors claim Joel Gabbuza (MDC-Alliance, Binga South) unlawfully
& intentionally made an abusive, indecent or obscene statement about Mnangagwa
when he allegedly told mourners at a funeral that Mnangagwa’s govt is clueless in
solving Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, which is marked by fuel & drug shortages.
Gabbuza, the prosecutors charge, told mourners that the fuel shortages in Zimbabwe
had forced him to travel to neighbouring Zambia to source fuel for use during the
funeral.

Army testifies about 1 August
Testifying at the Commission of Inquiry into the 1 August shootings yesterday, General
Valerio Sibanda said: “We would have been very foolish as the Defence Forces to give
orders to the troops to open fire on the civilians with all these people (election observers
and foreign journalists) in the country. We would have been out of our minds to give
such an order.” He said minimum force was applied, at worst warning shots were fired.