HARARE, July 30, 2010 – Deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara has accused his partners in Zimbabwe’s shaky coalition government of poor leadership and political grandstanding.
Mutambara’s unprecedented attack on President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai ( pictured with Mutambara) comes after the two openly called for elections next year.

“Elections next year are unpractical, we first have to come up with a number of reforms to the electoral commission, the media and other institutions. “They are not confident enough to speak about the national interest, they are just grandstanding,” he charged.

The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has already said it needs between a year and 18 months to sort out the voters roll, the more reason Mutambara argues elections were impossible next year. Mutambara said reforms to these institutions were important to avoid a negotiated settlement that saw losers being retained in government. He warned that if this was not heeded, the 2008 situation would be repeated.

A Belgian company, Kerogems Investment, is establishing a diamond school in Harare to help Zimbabweans acquire world-class expertise in cutting and polishing gems. The Zimbabwe Diamond Education College — to be affiliated to the Diamond Education Colle-ge of South Africa — will open its doors to the public in Mt Hampden next month, according to Kerogems representative Mr Nabil Khalil.

Briefing delegates at a stakeholders’ meeting at Canadile Holdings’ offices in Mt Hampden yesterday, Mr Khalil said he expected to start with “a small school of 40 students”. “We are establishing a school of rough diamond cutting and polishing and this will be done in co-operation with the South African school (Diamond Education College),” he said.

He said the college would recruit experts from India and other parts of the world. “In one month’s time we will be operating at 100 percent,” Mr Khalil told The Herald in an interview after the briefing. Mr Khalil said diamond cutting and polishing courses ranged from six weeks to six months and students would get internationally recognised certificates.

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s troubled farm sector has started to recover from depths plumbed two years ago when it faced a food crisis, but funding problems could cut into programmes helping farmers recover, a U.N. official said. ( pictured a village farmer in Zimbabwe)

“There was an improvement from 1.2 million tonnes to 1.3 million tonnes,” Jacopo D’Amelio, a regional information coordinator with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

“There’s also a feeling that the food security situation is improving from what it was in 2008, when the country had probably its worst output,” he said.

ZIMBABWE has won the bid to host the prestigious 2011 Integrated Resorts Tourism Conference. This was revealed at the just ended Integrated Resorts and Entertainment Conference held in Singapore last week.( pictured Harare Sheraton Hotel)

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority said the country starved off competition from many bidders from different continents. The victory according to the ZTA is a reaffirmation of international confidence in the country as a meetings and conferences destination.

ZTA chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke, who was the head of the Zimbabwe delegation to the conference, said Zimbabwe’s participation at this important tourism convention was two pronged, to learn best sector practices as well as to lure potential investors to Zimbabwe.