INASMUCH as I would want to support those that are calling for the removal of the so-called illegal sanctions, can someone from Zanu PF or government educate some of us about the impact of these sanctions so that we get to understand how they are affecting ordinary citizens.
Some of us believe that Zimbabwe is not under sanctions that warrant international attention.
The ordinary Zanu PF supporter in the streets of Harare is failing to explain the implications of these sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States of America and the European Union.
I have read about targeted sanctions that are prohibiting some targeted Zanu PF-linked entity and individuals from doing business with some Western companies or governments and that includes travel restrictions for President Emmerson Mnangagwa and some Zanu PF officials linked to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
I am not seeing these travel bans affecting mobilisation of food aid from international NGOs and governments.
The travel bans and targeted restrictions were a direct response to the wailing by Zimbabwean citizens over abuse of government funds and gross human rights violations.
Unjustified arrests, disappearance and detention of human rights defenders make us believe there is a need for punitive measures against the perpetrators or suspected architects of these abuses.
The so-called re-engagement crusade led by Foreign Affairs minister Frederick Shava is a wild goose chase because as long as the red flag is still up over the unwarranted incarceration of CCC MPs Job Sikhala, Godfrey Sithole and the Nyatsime 13.
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My advice is that the new dispensation should stop State-sponsored violence like the Matobo skirmishes that left opposition legislator Jasmine Toffa brutalised and hospitalised.
The denial to accredit journalists from the independent Press to cover a Zanu PF event is a serious violation of media freedom.
The attack on VOA journalist Godwin Mangudya in Kuwadzana while covering a Zanu PF event is another good example of an unrepentant political party in office.
Zanu PF must repent first before embarking on fruitless re-engagement errands.
Camping at the US embassy without sanitary facilities will never help remove the targeted restrictions even if we are to sing and dance all night to all sorts of music.
Stop the corruption, human rights abuses, abuse of office and account for the missing activists if the re-engagement effort is to bear any fruit. -Kurauone Chihwayi
Punish Zimsec officials who leak exams
THE leaking of Ordinary Level examination papers has become a common practice among schools affiliated to the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec).
As a citizen and parent, it is upsetting to see how invested the authorities are in punishing rather than dealing with the root of the problem. The Zimsec move to punish exam cheats is so severe and it fails to address the problem.
This culture has been reoccurring for years, and it is certain students are not to blame, but the Zimsec system is.
Learners are at the receiving end and probably do not know where these offices are located, so why arrest them? It is certainly embarrassing and a threat to the reputation of our education system.
Increasing the penalties for students who have been given or sold examination papers will not change the fact that Zimsec must be responsible for the examination leaks.
Thorough investigations should be conducted and it is high time punitive measures were put in place for all involved. And it’s about time Zimsec paid markers as well, as this will reduce any reason to solicit funds or engage in corrupt activities.
Zimsec must stop using our children as scapegoats for its failures. -Anonymous parent
Africa endowed with minerals
AFRICA’S mining industry is the largest in the world. Africa is the second largest continent with 30 million square kilometres of land, which implies large quantities of mineral resources.
For many African countries, mineral exploration and production constitutes significant parts of their economies and remains key to economic growth.
Africa is richly-endowed with mineral reserves and ranks first or second in quantity of world reserves of bauxite, cobalt, industrial diamond, phosphate rock, platinum group metals, vermiculite and zirconium.
Africa has the world’s richest concentration of minerals and gems, with gold being the continent’s main mineral.
In South Africa, the Bushveld Complex, one of the largest masses of igneous rock on earth, contains major deposits of strategic metals such as platinum, chromium, and vanadium — metals that are indispensable in tool making and high tech industrial processes.
The Bushveld complex is about two billion years old.
Another spectacular intrusion of magmatic rocks composed of olivine, augite, and hypersthene occurred in the Archean Eon over 2,5 billion years ago in Zimbabwe.
Called the Great Dyke, it contains substantial deposits of chromium, asbestos and nickel.
Almost all of the world’s chromium reserves are found in Africa.
Chromium is used to harden alloys, to produce stainless steel, as an industrial catalyst and to provide corrosion resistance.
Unique eruptions that occurred during the cretaceous in southern and central Africa formed kimberlite pipes — vertical, near-cylindrical rock bodies caused by deep melting in the upper mantle.
Kimberlite pipes are the main source of gem and industrial diamonds in Africa.
Africa contains 40% of the world’s diamond reserves, which occur in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In South Africa, uranium is to be found side-by-side with gold, thus decreasing costs of production. Uranium deposits are also found in Niger, Gabon, the DRC, and Namibia.
South Africa alone contains half of the world’s gold reserves.
Gold deposits are also common in Zimbabwe, the DRC and Ghana.
Alluvial gold (eroded from soils and rock strata by rivers) can be found in Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, and Gabon.
As for other minerals, half of the world’s cobalt is in the DRC and Congolese cobalt-bearing geological formations extend into Zimbabwe.-Enock
