WEEKLY NEWS ROUND-UP

Monday

Border testing and movement controls in place for months are being tightly enforced for travellers crossing into Zimbabwe, especially on the southern and western borders, in the wake of the discovery of a new Covid19 variant in South Africa and Botswana.

Officially designated Omicron, a“variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation, it has already seen a bloc of southern African countries being walled off by most of the world with direct flights banned and those flying in from these countries forced to undergo compulsory quarantine.

Prominent Banker Mr Douglas Munatsi (51) died early yesterday in a mysterious fire that authorities say is now under investigation. Munatsi, who was the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA), triggered an outpouring of grief with President Mnangagwa describing his demise as a shocker.

Wednesday

Lockdown measures have been tightened to deal with the threat of a fourth wave of Covid-19 infections driven by the Omicron variant and complacency, with returning residents and visitors now to undergo mandatory quarantine upon entry into the country.

Curfew has also been extended from 9pm to 6am, and business hours adjusted from 7am to 7pm.

Thursday

The Government will continue providing non-monetary incentives to its workers and constantly improve their salaries as they are the vital cog in the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

Commissioning 13 buses and 30 service vehicles for the Public Service Commission (PSC) at Morris Depot in Harare yesterday, President Mnangagwa said incentives remain available for civil servants.

Civil servants’representatives are generally excited that their members have started withdrawing their US dollar bonuses, but are upset that some banks are deducting significant bank charges in spite of receiving an instruction that accrued charges should not be deducted from bonuses.

These are bank charges of anything between US$100 and US$200 on accounts that were opened last year.

The account holders then retained the accounts although there was no money in them and the banks continued to levy charges, only to collect these when the bonus money arrived.