Zi.Report Internet Writer

The place is an Internet Café in downtown Harare. Every machine, save for one or two that are out of order, is in furious use. There is a queue of about twenty people outside, anxiously waiting their turn.

Left: Milling around for the next deal outside Ximex Mall in Harare.

This is not an upsurge of Hararians wanting to use Yahoo or Google or to chat with their Diaspora-based family and friends online. This is a new wave of forex (foreign exchange) dealers that have found a way to beat the restrictive banking system. (more…)

Manufacturing in Zimbabwe is not dead. For Zimbabweans whose supermarket shelves bear no local goods at all, this is almost a blasphemous statement.

Ok, perhaps it is very nearly dead, but you won’t see many of the goods produced here sold locally.

They are being exported to South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and further afield to countries across the oceans. That is the only way these businesses can make a profit- export and get paid in US dollars. But that’s not the point I want to make… (more…)

When I first met Rosinah Hove, in 2006, she struck me with her demure brand of confidence and sharp wit. She had just been appointed to the post of Finance Director at Celsys Limited, one of two listed technology counters on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, and she discussed this issue with me in a matter-of-fact manner, as if it was one of those things that just happen in life.

A few weeks ago she was sitting next to Condoleezza Rice and I can picture her seated there unfettered by the whole scenario, chatting about this and that with the most powerful woman in the World. (more…)

Mobile telecommunications companies have increased tariffs by over 1,000 percent in the latest round of increases.

The three mobile telecommunicatons firms, Econet Wireless, Telecel and NetOne announced the charges over the weekend. The tariffs were last renewed in July.

According to the new tariffs, subscribers will now pay between Z$12 (Z$120 billion before revaluation) and Z$18 per minute up from about Z$2. (more…)

They have left Zimbabwe. Friends, family members and people I have worked with.

Left: Zimbabwean Facebookers have set up sixteen Kirsty Coventry fan groups.

Over the last ten years I have been to the airport many heartbreaking times to say good bye to them as they jetted off to destinations all over the world. Then there are those who I never said good bye to. Those who just faded into the crowd- never to be seen again- until I signed up to Facebook and started meeting them all again, one by one. (more…)

We survey the new landscape of online self-publishing that has taken Zimbabwe by storm.

When I was a kid growing up in Bulawayo I woke up one morning to find that the Sunday News- that City’s biggest Sunday newspaper at the time- had published one of the short stories I had submitted to them. I was thrilled.

That was in 1995 and I was in Upper 6 then. As any writer will testify, to find an outlet for one’s work is an ultimate aspiration.

In a time when the printed word was, well, the printed word- it was exhilarating to get printed- and I suppose, thirteen years later, in 2008, it still is. (more…)

Zi.Report  looks at how one innovative Zimbabwean company has used online marketing to fuel its growth and profits.

Left: Milton Kamwendo, Managing Consultant of Innov8

On Wednesday 11th February 2004, the first issue of an electronic newsletter entitled “Unleashing Greatness” went out.  This was a pioneering move from a pioneering young business called Innov8 whose mission was to motivate and inspire people to achieve the best they could in life. (more…)

Chipo Kadzere for Zi.Report

Internet usage in Zimbabwe has grown by 165% over the last three years according to statistics released in March by Internet World Stats. During the same period the Internet penetration (the percentage of people using the Internet) has gone up from 6.7% to 10.9%.

In Africa, Zimbabwe ranks 10th in terms of numbers of users, behind Nigeria (10.0 m), Egypt ( 8.6 m), Morocco (7.3 m), South Africa (5.1 m), Algeria (3.5 m), Kenya (3.0m), Uganda (2.0 m), Tunisia (1.7 m) and Sudan (1.5 m).

(more…)