Pindula

The Zimbabwe Online Content Creators (ZOCC) has reported podcaster Owen Madondo, popularly known as DJ Ollah 7, to the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) for allegedly barring journalists and independent content creators from covering the funeral of the late businessman Wicknell Chivayo.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has set new fuel prices effective 8 October 2026, with diesel and petrol blend prices remaining above US$2 per litre. Under the latest review, diesel now costs US$2.04 per litre, while petrol blend is priced at US$2.05. ZERA’s previous review, on 17 September, set diesel at US$2.08 per litre and petrol blend at US$2.06, meaning the latest prices represent slight reductions for both fuel types.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs has withdrawn a directive on accepting asylum applications that its Director-General issued on 28 September following a Constitutional Court ruling. The directive was issued to all Refugee Reception Offices (RROs) to implement the court’s 7 July judgment in the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town case.

Former Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Bulawayo provincial chairwoman Tendai Luba Masotsha has defected to ZANU PF. Masotsha, a vocal opposition activist in the MDC, MDC Alliance and later CCC and a critic of the ruling party, announced her move on Tuesday when she was welcomed at ZANU PF headquarters in Harare. She described it as a “conscious, patriotic” decision influenced by development under President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed businessman and ZANU PF Central Committee member Kudakwashe Tagwirei as Minister of Economic Development and Investment Promotion. To make room for Tagwirei, Mnangagwa has split the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion in two. Mthuli Ncube stays on as Minister of Finance, while Tagwirei takes over the economic development and investment portfolio.

The Kingdom of Eswatini has denied reports that third-country nationals deported there from the United States were secretly released into South Africa. In a statement issued on Wednesday, 7 October, Acting Government Spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said the three men, who arrived in Eswatini under a bilateral arrangement with the US, had left voluntarily and returned to their home countries at different times in recent weeks.

Wicknell Chivayo’s cousin and business partner, Joachim “G6” Chivayo, stunned mourners at a funeral service at Chivayo’s Gletwyn home on Thursday, 8 October, when he claimed Wicknell had squandered US$5 million meant for the Gwanda Solar Project. The power plant has still not been built. Joachim said that after Wicknell’s company, Intratrek, won the contract to build the 100MW Gwanda solar plant, the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) paid it US$5 million to prepare the site for construction.

The High Court has quashed the conviction and the effective 15-year sentence imposed on former Old Mutual manager Musa Nyasha Dube Manyika for raping a University of Zimbabwe student, after finding serious defects in the trial record. Manyika, 43, was convicted in March on two counts of rape, relating to alleged incidents in 2022 and 2024, and sentenced to an effective 15 years in prison. The High Court set aside the proceedings in the magistrates court and ordered his immediate release.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Tafadzwa Muguti, has ordered the withdrawal of licences for businesses in Masvingo accused of increasing building material prices to take advantage of the damage caused by Monday’s hailstorm. More than 17,000 households were affected by the storm, with many left with broken window panes or without roofs.

The government has renewed its warning to Zimbabweans about fake job offers and human trafficking. The Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Zhemu Soda, said on Thursday, 8 October, that criminal networks promising well-paid work abroad are becoming more sophisticated, and that some recruits have been sent to front lines without any military training. He said the government had raised the alarm before, but the networks’ growing sophistication called for fresh vigilance.