ONLY a handful of supporters were on show at the National Sports Stadium to watch the match between Zimbabwe Legends against the World Class Legends yesterday, which the tourists won 5-2.

Organisers of the event, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), had — like the last time when an almost similar event was staged — hoped to get another full house.

Paying supporters filled the same venue to the brim in November last year when the Warriors Legends played their Barcelona counterparts.

But an estimated 5 000 attended yesterday’s match at the 60 000-seater stadium.

The opposition coalition the MDC Alliance has lost 90 local government seats before the July 30 harmonised elections after it failed to field candidates.

MDC Alliance spokesperson Welshman Ncube confirmed the matter saying,

I cannot give you the figures off the top of my head, but we did not field candidates in just under a 100 wards.

There are various reasons including individual candidates failing to provide up-to-date rate accounts and the confusion on the day of the nomination court as well as prior to it. In other areas, we just messed up. Read more

National Chiefs Council (NCC) leader Chief Fortune Charumbira has refused to comply with a High Court order ordering him to apologise and renounce his support for Zanu-PF.

The constitution says that traditional leaders such as chiefs must be neutral and impartial.

Charumbira has instead challenged the High Court order saying it was erroneously arrived at.

In his court papers, Chief Charumbira said:

I have been cited as the first respondent in the principal proceedings. As already indicated above, one of the capacities in which I am cited is in my personal capacity.

In my personal capacity, I have committed no infraction of the law whatsoever. The application against me in my personal capacity is therefore completely misplaced. Read more

Sharon Mawedze, the wife of the Harare man who allegedly assaulted Star FM presenter Spencer Banda contradicted her husband Michael Mawedze’s testimony in court.

Mawedze, 41, appeared before Harare Magistrate Amanda Muridzo facing a charge of assault after he allegedly assaulted Banda in May accusing him of having an illicit love affair with his wife. Read more

MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa has conceded that his former colleague Thokozani Khupe poses a threat to the MDC Alliance in the July 30 harmonised elections.

While Chamisa dismissed Khupe as a contender in the presidential elections, he said that her party may dilute votes in the local government and parliamentary elections.  Read more

Defunct Trust Bank Corporation has threatened deputy minister of finance Terrence Mukupe with civil imprisonment for failing to service a $32 593 loan.

The bank alleges that Mukupe defied a 2013 court order from High Court judge Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo compelling him to clear his debt. Part of the bank’s summons read,

You (Mukupe), the defendant are called upon to pay to the plaintiff (Trust Bank) the sum of $32 593,57 with interest thereon at the rate of 5% per annum from April 2, 2013, together with cost of suit due by the plaintiff by virtue of the High Court order dated December 18, 2013 under HC7937/13. Read more

In an article posted on his website last Friday, Eddie Cross said Zimbabwe is in a better place to hold a reasonable election since 1964.

Eddie Cross was quoted saying:

My concern about the real freedom of the voter to exercise their democratic rights in secrecy in a polling station and not face retribution afterwards, remain and whatever happens, will be an unseen factor.

Still, this is Africa and we must allow for a gradual assumption of such rights — after all it took Britain 600 years to get there and we could argue that many older States are still not there in all respects.

The one thing that is true, is that we are in a much better place to hold a reasonable election than at any time since 1964. Read more

Addressing Coalition for Democrats (Code) supporters at a rally at Waterfalls Community Hall over the weekend, presidential candidate Elton Mangoma said MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa is unfit to lead Zimbabwe because he has failed to develop Kuwadzana East constituency as an MP.

Mangoma also said Zanu-PF has failed to solve the problems in Zimbabwe and that only Code has the solutions. He said Chamisa is not educated. Said Mangoma: Read more

Zanu PF National chairperson, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri has claimed that God was waiting for President Emmerson Mnangagwa so that he could shower Zimbabwe with his blessing. Speaking at a rally in Redcliff over the weekend, Muchinguri-Kashiri said,

We are still a virgin country which is yet to be discovered. The country offers limitless opportunities and God was waiting for President Mnangagwa so as to unlock his blessings…He (Mnangagwa) didn’t campaign for the presidency. Read more

A 13-year-old girl has been rewarded by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) for averting a train disaster that could have killed at least 300 people when she was only 12.

Nozipho Sibanda, a form one pupil of Entumbane High School in Zimbabwe, saw a broken railway line in Sawmills last September, an hour before a Bulawayo-bound train from Victoria falls was set to pass.

The girl rushed to inform the station manager at Sawmills railway station and station manager stopped the train that was due to pass on that track within an hour. At the time, she was a 12-year-old Grade Seven pupil at Sawmills Primary School. Read more