ZIM TOURISM MINISTER SACKED
HARARE - President Emmerson Mnangagwa fired Tourism Minister Prisca Mupfumira on Thursday, a statement from Zimbabwe's presidency said, after she was detained over the disappearance of millions of dollars during her time as Welfare minister.
Prisca Mupfumira is facing seven corruption charges linked to $94 million missing from the country's pension fund.
She was "removed ... from the office of cabinet minister and minister of government with immediate effect," the statement said, without giving more details.
Mupfumira was arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission in July, becoming the first sitting minister of the ruling ZanuPF party to be jailed for graft under Mnangagwa's new administration.
Mupfumira was sacked as Social Welfare minister by ex-president Robert Mugabe weeks before a military-led coup that toppled the longtime ruler in November 2017.
After the putsch she was re-appointed with a new portfolio.
Mnangagwa has identified endemic corruption as a major contributor to the country's economic woes and vowed to root it out.
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans will have to pay more for mobile calls after the country's telecoms regulator hiked tariffs by 182 percent. The latest adjustment will see on-net calls per minute cost 48 cents (Zimbabwean dollars), up from 17 cents.
The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) justified the upward tariff adjustment as a way to keep operators viable amid increasing costs of doing business.
The last tariff adjustment was in April 2019, following what Potraz called "the introduction of market determined interbank exchange rates as well as cost movements during the year 2018 and fuel price increases in January 2019."
In a circular announcing the tariff hike, Potraz Director General, Gift Machengete, said the operating environment has since changed for operators due to inflationary pressures bedevilling the economy. –
Prisca Mupfumira is facing seven corruption charges linked to $94 million missing from the country’s pension fund.