Jamaican star Charly Black to perform in Zim

HARARE - Rising Jamaican dancehall star Charly Black is set to perform in Zimbabwe on August 8 during the Heroes Sunsplash to be hosted at Long Cheng Plaza.
Thirty-year-old Black, whose real name is Desmond Mendize, will be performing in Zimbabwe for the first time in a gig that has been put together by United Kingdom-based promoters Digital One International and Chipaz Promotions.
Digital One and Chipaz at the weekend released a video of the Buddy Buddy singer confirming his trip to Zimbabwe.
“It’s Charly and I will be performing live in Zimbabwe on the 8th of August. Big up Digital One and Chipaz Promotions. Long Cheng Plaza I will be there for the Heroes Sunsplash,” Black says in the video.
Tickets for the show have already been released. Advance tickets for the show have been pegged at $5 while those paying at the gate will have to part with $10.
Born and raised in the rural parish of Rio Bueno, Trelawny, Black began his music career in the early 2000s when he joined Bass Odyssey Sound System as a selector.
Black, along with Squingy, Dj Mark and Worm, helped cement Bass Odyssey’s place in the world as a top juggling and clashing sound system.
The sound system won many notable clashes by defeating other big competitors like Killamanjaro, Black Kat, Mighty Crown, Sound Trooper, King Addies, David Rodigan and Tony Matterhorn.
Although he remains a member of Bass Odyssey, Black has decided to pursue a career as a recording artist.
He finally got his big break towards the end of 2007 when he released his single Buddy Buddy which won him world acclaim.
With a hit song under his belt, Black, just like Matterhorn, successfully embarked on a journey of evolving from a sound system selector to recording artiste.
Since then he has been releasing songs which have made their mark on the dancehall charts throughout the world.
In Zimbabwe, Black has received a lot of airplay for such songs as Too Blessed, First Time and Ungrateful People.
On his Zimbabwe tour, Black will share the stage with Zimdancehall stars like Soul Jah Love, Seh Calaz, Kinnah, Killer T, Freeman and other rising local acts.

Midzi 'suicide' rocks Zanu PF

HARARE - The family members of Amos Midzi, a top ally of former vice president Joice Mujuru suspected to have committed suicide yesterday, have said they cannot rule out  foul play.
Midzi, 62, a former minister of Mines was found dead in his car near his farm house yesterday, a week after being suspended from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF for allegedly plotting against the nonagenarian.
Villagers found the body of Midzi, the former Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman in his vehicle at his farm in Marirangwe near Harare.
The politician was in the backseat of his SUV, with legs stretched between the front seats.
Some blue sleeping pills were found in the vehicle.
Family spokesperson Stanley Midzi said they did not know whether he took the drugs under duress or it was out of his own free will.
“He did not leave a suicide note,” the younger Midzi told the Daily News.
Stanley said only the post mortem will reveal whether there were other drugs in his system or he had bodily injuries.
Another family member, who declined to be named, said based on findings at the scene, the conclusion can be drawn that the most likely cause of death was a crime.
Stanley, however, said he was aware that his brother was suffering sleeping disorders. He said the disorder started after Midzi was unceremoniously ostracised from Zanu PF.
“You know how the politics of the party have been going on and how he was booted out,” he said.
“For someone who had a passion for politics and someone who started politics in high school at Fletcher High School in Gweru, politics was his life and I know that he was deeply hurt with everything that happened to him.”
Stanley narrated to the Daily News how the family got to find his body after his wife, Alice, had made numerous inquiries over his whereabouts.
He said their nephew, Joel, advised them about the death.
Stanley said the farm manager called Joel in the wee hours of the morning telling him to come to the farm immediately because Midzi’s body had been spotted in the car.
When they failed to open the locked doors of his car, they smashed the windows to gain access. The car keys were initially missing, but police claim they were later found under a mat in the vehicle.
The family spokesperson said it was suspected Midzi drunk a mixture of 500 millilitres of tamaron pesticide and five midazolam tablets.
“The initial picture we have is that he committed suicide,” the distraught brother said.
“The two drugs he took are midazolam which is a sedating drug normally given to people who are having challenges in sleeping. It is also given to a patient who is going for a medical operation to sedate them.
“It is part of the medication that is used to sedate a patient before a procedure. It can also be taken by people who are having difficulty in sleeping. The other liquid was used in the treatment of tobacco called tamaron.”
Several ruling party officials said they were very affected and distraught by the premature loss of the former Zanu PF Harare provincial chairperson.
Born July 4, 1952, Midzi was part of the 89 party officials suspended from Zanu PF recently.
He was slapped with a five-year suspension for being part of the so-called “Gamatox camp” allegedly fronted by Joice Mujuru — which was accused of trying to topple Mugabe from power.
He began his political career in the late 70s and served as deputy minister from 1982, holding several ministerial portfolios after launching his political career.
As Harare chairperson, he became infamous for his fierce run-ins with his jailed rival Godwin Gomwe. First Lady Grace Mugabe later brokered a peace accord between the warring parties.
Rugare Gumbo, spokesperson for the Original Zanu PF (People First), said they had been saddened by the circumstances surrounding Midzi’s death.
“We are saddened with the untimely death,” Gumbo told the Daily News yesterday. “It came as a shock to us. Our thoughts are with the Midzi family. May his soul rest in peace.”
Gumbo said his outfit would meet over the death of Midzi before issuing out a comprehensive statement.

MDC stand to lose in by-elections

HARARE - By-elections to be held in Zimbabwe today were almost single-handedly precipitated by Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), even though the opposition party stands to lose from Zanu PF’s anticipated clean sweep of many seats.
More than 400 000 Zimbabweans are eligible to vote in these polls taking place in 16 constituencies.
They were necessitated after Tsvangirai’s party expelled 21 MPs who’d joined (yet another) breakaway faction of the MDC, this time led by the party’s former secretary general, ex-Finance minister Tendai Biti.
The seats were duly declared vacant. But then the MDC said it would boycott the polls because electoral reforms had not been carried out.
The polls are “shambolic and flawed” and the MDC will “never, ever” legitimise them by taking part, spokesman Obert Gutu said last week. Their position is weakened, analysts say, by the party’s insistence on participating in the 2013 presidential elections despite a similar glaring lack of reforms.
Tsvangirai lost those elections, and in the process, lost the hearts of many of those who’d supported him and his party so hopefully after the MDC was formed in 1999.
Some seats are being filled under a system of proportional representation.
Smaller opposition parties will field candidates in contested seats mostly in Harare, Bulawayo and the eastern city of Mutare, where locals speak of a rust-red Hummer belonging to local businessman and Zanu-PF candidate, Esau Mupfumi, doing the rounds, plastered with campaign pictures.
Other parliamentary hopefuls include a hastily-formed coalition of independent candidates.
The ruling party suspects some of the independents are linked to Tsvangirai’s party or to sacked vice president Joice Mujuru.
Mujuru has not confirmed her backing for anyone, despite an oblique hint in a statement last week that she was ready to “serve the nation”.
Mujuru also stressed then that she was enjoying having time to cook for her grandchildren.
After her humiliating ouster just after a Zanu PF congress in December and the loss of her husband in a suspicious fire four years ago, few will blame her.
Zanu PF took 160 seats in the 210-seat parliament in the 2013 polls, and now it stands to gain more.
The party of President Robert Mugabe is already triumphant.
Tsvangirai has “voluntarily” caused the vote, tweeted Information minister Jonathan Moyo, himself standing as a candidate in Tsholotsho, western Zimbabwe.
The dusty rural constituency has benefited from unprecedented attention in the last few weeks; a classroom block has been commissioned, boreholes are being sunk and the local football stadium upgraded.
The ruling party denies allegations of vote-buying.
Moyo said on Twitter this week, “Elections do benefit the electorate and that’s why democracy is good.” But the minister accused two independent candidates of trying to buy votes with elephant meat and mealie-meal donations, the media reported on Tuesday.
Analyst Pedzisayi Ruhanya said: “These elections mean nothing. The behaviour of the regime is not changing. They are elections without a choice.”
And where’s Mugabe in all this? In Egypt, as it happens.

Prophet Magaya launches housing project

Government has applauded a Harare-based cluster home project which is constructing homes in the city saying this will go a long way in fulfilling government’s thrust in providing housing to the people. Planet Africa Business Forum, an initiative of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries church launched its first phase of cluster homes project in Waterfalls where approximately 240 double storey and single storey homes are expected to be constructed by year end. Guest of honour at the official launch of the housing project, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Dr Ignatius Chombo, who was represented by the Principal Director in his ministry Retired Colonel Joseph Mhakayakora pledged to provide more land to the private firm as this will help reduce the housing back log. Planet Africa founder Prophet Walter Magaya said his church was merely taking up government’s call for indigenous players to assist in implementing the country’s economic blue print ZIM ASSET through employment creation, infrastructural development and provision of affordable housing. The first phase of the project is being done in partnership with local players who include CBZ and Stanbic banks.

Prophet Magaya Government has applauded a Harare-based cluster home project which is constructing homes in the city saying this will go a long way in fulfilling government’s thrust in providing housing to the people. Planet Africa Business Forum, an initiative of the Prophetic Healing and Deliverance Ministries church launched its first phase of cluster homes project in Waterfalls where approximately 240 double storey and single storey homes are expected to be constructed by year end. Guest of honour at the official launch of the housing project, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Dr Ignatius Chombo, who was represented by the Principal Director in his ministry Retired Colonel Joseph Mhakayakora pledged to provide more land to the private firm as this will help reduce the housing back log. Planet Africa founder Prophet Walter Magaya said his church was merely taking up government’s call for indigenous players to assist in implementing the country’s economic blue print ZIM ASSET through employment creation, infrastructural development and provision of affordable housing. The first phase of the project is being done in partnership with local players who include CBZ and Stanbic banks.

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