u/YondoBrother

Wicknell Chivayo’s ex-mother-in-law, Tabitha Madzikanda, has been arrested together with his ex-wife, Sonja Madzikanda. They are expected to appear in court on Wednesday. They are facing the following charges:

Tabitha Madzikanda (mother-in-law)

1. Fraud – she accused of attempting to withdraw $1.4 million from Chivayo’s children’s trust fund by trying to remove him as a signatory, allegedly to buy land and build cluster houses.

2. Unauthorised distribution of content – linked to alleged sharing or circulation of material without permission.

3. Undermining the authority of the President – alleged involvement in content or actions seen as damaging to the President’s authority.

4. Digital manipulation / AI-generated images (under investigation) – accused of using AI to fake images suggesting he met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier than he did.

Sonja Madzikanda (ex-wife)

1. Contempt of court (possible charge) – accused of breaching a High Court order relating to access to the couple’s two minor children.

2. Unauthorised distribution of content / undermining authority of the President.

- ZimLive

Telecel Zimbabwe’s survival hanges on securing an investment to settle at least US$50 million for network upgrades while it has a debt of US$240 million.

According to Grant Thornton, a corporate rescue practitioner currently running the company said they are looking for investors in a bid to revive the telecoms company.

Telecel Zimbabwe entered voluntary corporate rescue in October 2025 and has continued to shed its subscriber base in the Q4 which is less than 2% of the national market.

Telecel currently is the only operator recording subscriber loss in the growing market and has not deployed any new infrastructure during the Q4 and has no 5G infrastructure while other telecoms companies continue to roll out LTE and 5G bases.

The decline is even more stark as Telecel contributes only a fraction of national voice and internet traffic as customers move to stronger and reliable networks.

While the corporate rescue gives time to Telecel to try and salvage its declining business, it is still not a solution as capital and credible investors are needed to bring it back to its former self.

The question on many people’s minds is “is this the end” for the corporate as not many changes has been made in the past with many just suggesting the company liquidates as Telecel has been beaten by competitors like Econet and Netone who continue to grow their customer base.

Unless Telecel secures a new capital, upgrades its networks and regains customer confidence, this might be the end of tied largest mobile operator in Zimbabwe.

- Technomag

Hopes of a military coup against President Emmerson Mnangagwa, led by his vice president, General Constantino Chiwenga and his associates, have reportedly been quashed after sources say that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa assured his Zimbabwean counterpart that South Africa will not countenance any unconstitutional removal of a president in Zimbabwe.

Today, President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with Ramaphosa in Harare, where he was received by Mnangagwa alongside businessmen Wicknell Chivayo and Kudakwashe Tagwirei, before the two leaders and the two businessmen flew on a one hour helicopter trip together to Mnangagwa’s farm, Precabe, in Kwekwe.

They toured the farm, where the South African president was shown Mnangagwa’s Ankoli cattle and fish breeding pools. When they reached the ostriches, Ramaphosa is said to have remarked, in a pointed and politically loaded statement, that “nothing and nobody will remove my elder brother from power unconstitutionally.”
The remark was made in the presence of members of the delegation accompanying the two leaders.

“The owner of these ostriches will be president until 2030 if Parliament says so,” Ramaphosa is further reported to have said, reinforcing his assurance to Mnangagwa and those present.

The two leaders then went into a four-hour closed-door meeting, where they were joined by Tagwirei and Chivayo. The meeting was described as highly personal and private, with even the president’s spokesperson, George Charamba, excluded from the delegation for today’s visit.

Sources familiar with the discussions say Ramaphosa made it clear that South Africa would neither support nor recognise a military coup against Mnangagwa.

Those within Mnangagwa’s inner circle were reportedly buoyant after the engagement, interpreting Ramaphosa’s position as a significant reinforcement of regional backing.

They believe that, with South Africa’s stance now aligned with that of countries such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, and, more recently, Botswana, where Chivayo travelled in recent days, Mnangagwa has effectively strengthened his position and insulated his presidency within the region against any potential coup attempt.

What was significant today is that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s trip to Zimbabwe, which I broke last night, was not an official bilateral state engagement conducted at the level of heads of state.

It was a private trip, and sources in Pretoria say that many people in the president’s office, and indeed within DIRCO, the foreign affairs department of South Africa, were not aware of it.

President Cyril Ramaphosa is now back in South Africa after the short visit to Zimbabwe.

- Hopewell Chin'ono

What's happening in South Africa requires all of us to be honest and to understand that two truths can coexist. South Africa has an immigration problem. This is true. South Africa has people who are both Afrophobic and xenophobic. This is another truth. To address what’s going on, we must accept those truths.

The South African government and governments across Africa must have a conversation about the immigration problem. South Africa cannot continue to bear the economic and social cost. And we can't afford to keep gaslighting South African citizens by stating that other Africans helped them during the apartheid struggle. This should never be used to silence them.

African governments must confront the reality facing their citizens and take responsibility for what has caused their citizens to migrate to South Africa. The South African government must also take responsibility for cosying up to other African governments and failing to hold them accountable for destroying their economies and making it hard for their citizens to remain in their countries. The South African government needs to be strong here. It cannot be soft. Hiding behind Pan-Africanist ideals and brotherhood that emerged from liberation movements doesn’t cut it.

We simply can't reduce this immigration problem to pushing narratives such as “South Africans are lazy, HIV-infected, uneducated.” Anyone saying so is dishonest. There is a real crisis. South Africa has remained the most unequal country in the world. The economic pie is largely in the hands of the white minority. Yet we expect the same Black people, who are excluded from accessing this economic pie, to share its crumbs with Africans from other countries. It seems unfair to expect that.

Saying this doesn't mean we do not acknowledge the existence of Afrophobes. They exist. In every struggle, there are people who exploit genuine grievances to drive selfish agendas, hate, etc. Is it right? Never. The South African government and other African governments must deal with Afrophobic and xenophobic actors. Innocent people cannot lose their lives and businesses because governments have failed to address socio-economic conditions.

SA has a crime problem, and it would be disingenuous of SA citizens to say crime is perpetuated by foreigners or illegal immigrants only. There are South Africans who commit crimes, and one cannot solve crime by scapegoating. There is an immigration problem which may potentially lead to crime and that needs to be addressed.

If immigration issues and socio-economic conditions are not addressed, these tensions will keep rearing their ugly heads.

Afrophobic South Africans also need to confront the truth about why they are solely targeting Black immigrants. This pattern mirrors what’s happening in the United States of America, where ICE disproportionately targets Black and Brown people. This disproportionate targeting isn’t random. It’s rooted in anti-Blackness and colonial hierarchies of belonging that code Blackness as foreign, criminal, or disposable. In both SA and the US, immigration enforcement becomes racialised. It has become a tool that punishes skin color by weaponising citizenship status.

It is painful to watch people stripped of dignity and abused simply for being foreigners in South Africa. To find a common path forward, we need to understand these nuances and hold all our African governments accountable. We are where we are because of them!