Mandla Akhe Dube

A Zim trained journo based in Timaru

[FeelGoodThoughts @feelgoodtale]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN 1930's, 1940's, 50's, 60's, 70's and Early 80's !!!

First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine ..medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitch-hiking .. As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun. You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because...... YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

You would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach you all day. And you were OK. You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem . You did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........

YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them! You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents you played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever! The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were

[The Christian Nationalist Party @the_christnats]

80,000 Christians worshipping God in the Netherlands, what a glorious sight!
Europe is Christian 🤍✝️

[Sky News @SkyNews]

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband: 'I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere, who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people. We hear you. You were right'

https://t.co/jjI7yFVsAf

📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602

[Team South Africa @OfficialTeamRSA]

55 Test wins as captain. Passing the legendary John Smit to become the most successful Springbok captain of all time. 🇿🇦🐐

History rewritten once again by Siya Kolisi.

#TeamSA #ForMyCountry

[Rohoza (Дев'ятий) Mykhailo 🇺🇦🇱🇹🇨🇦 @Oct7NeverForget]

After becoming president, I asked my bodyguards to take a walk with me through the city. After the walk, we went to a restaurant for lunch. We sat down in one of the central restaurants, and each of us was asked what we wanted to order.

After a short wait, the waiter brought our meals, and at that moment I noticed a man sitting alone at the table directly in front of us, waiting to be served. Once he received his food, I told one of my soldiers:

“Go invite that man to join us.”

The soldier walked over and delivered my invitation. The man stood up, picked up his plate, and sat beside me.

Throughout the meal, his hands trembled constantly, and he never raised his eyes from his food. When we finished eating, he waved goodbye without even looking at me. I shook his hand, and he left.

One of the soldiers said to me:

“Madiba, that man must be very sick. His hands wouldn’t stop shaking while he was eating.”

“Not at all,” I replied. “The reason for his trembling is something else.”

They looked at me in confusion, and I explained:

“That man was a prison guard at the jail where I was imprisoned. After the torture sessions I endured, I would often scream and beg for water. He would come to humiliate me — he laughed at me, and instead of giving me water, he urinated on my head.

He was not sick. He was terrified and shaking, perhaps afraid that now, as President of South Africa, I would send him to prison and do to him what he once did to me — torture and humiliate him.

But that is not who I am. Such behavior is not part of my character or my ethics. Minds that seek revenge destroy nations, while those that seek reconciliation build them.”

— Nelson Mandela

[Mandla Akhe Dube @MandlaAkheDube]

@Savheya_Happie Datsun 120Y aka Nissan 1200

[Mai Ropa @dr_mairopa]

We are in Gwanda for the 2026 edition of the Surgical Society of Zimbabwe Surgical outreach. Bringing Specialist surgeons directly to the people. Our Surgical teams will be providing free Surgical services to the communities around Gwanda, Mandisa and Filabusi. Our aim is at least 100 people over 2 days! Thank you to the surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses,trainees who kindly donated their time, skills and energy. Thank you to all our partners for the generous sponsorship. *all images with permission* @MoHCCZim @CelebrationHlth @DMDzimbabwe

[Savheya VeFashion @Savheya_Happie]

Book iri rakaita kuti vamwe vatange kuita maskits nekuimba😂

[COZWVA @cozwva]

Zvobgo: "Mr speaker Sir half of the people in this August house, are stupid."

Speaker: "Mr Zvobgo can u pliz reverse your statement"

Zvobgo: "I reverse it your honour, half of the people in this august house are not stupid"

Continue to rest in peace, Legendary Dr Edson Zvobgo

[Sophie Mokoena @Sophie_Mokoena]

Brian Tamuka Kagoro Human Rights activist. Powerful remarks at the end of the Human Rights Conference in Gaborone Botswana. #sabcnews

[Prof. Arthur G.O. Mutambara @amutambara]

AGO Mutambara at 60: History and Reflections

Yes, 2026 is the year that I turn 60. It has been quite journey starting from the the 11 years spent in Mutambara village (Chimanimani, Zimbabwe).

Thanks to those who attended the special dinner organised by Jackie.

Your messages and remarks at the event are greatly appreciated.

Find below pictures and a video from the event, including history and reflections at 60:

https://t.co/9EQUG7tIQM

[Students Christian Movement of Zimbabwe @SCMZimbabwe]

The Students Community have joined the national solidarity call on Friday, 21 August, we join citizens across Zimbabwe in mourning the victims of the Kariba disaster.

🖤 Wear black
🕯️ Light a candle
🙏 Pray for the departed
🕊️ Observe a moment of silence
@Zinasuzim @zccinzim

[Zenzele @zenzele]

Samora Machel Junior sings along to Miriam Makeba’s 1989 rendition of “A Luta Continua” at the just-ended Samora Machel Symposium in Makhanda

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

Watching this video posted by HSTV really broke my heart because I simply put myself in this man’s shoes and imagined someone coming to my home and destroying it. Imagine spending your savings, perhaps everything you have worked for over many years, building a home for yourself and your family, only to stand helplessly and watch it being demolished. His anger is understandable.

But we must look beyond the heartbreaking images of this particular house being destroyed. The bigger issue is the culture of lawlessness that we have repeatedly spoken about in Zimbabwe. ZANUPF and the government have enabled an environment in which politically connected land barons can operate with impunity, selling land to desperate citizens, producing questionable or fictitious paperwork and leaving ordinary people to carry the devastating consequences when the authorities eventually act.

There are fundamental questions that must be answered. How was this house allowed to be built in the first place without council approval? If there was no approval, where were the authorities when construction started? A house does not appear overnight. Foundations are dug, bricks are delivered, walls go up, roofing is installed, electricity and other services may be connected, and people eventually move in. At what point did the responsible authorities intervene?

And if there was council approval, then an even more serious question arises: why is the house being demolished today? Who approved it, on what basis was it approved, and who must be held accountable if that approval was improperly issued?

That is why simply focusing on the demolition misses the bigger story. The real scandal is the lawlessness that has taken root in our country, where people can use their party political connections to do things they would never dare to do in a properly functioning state governed by the rule of law. When political affiliation becomes more powerful than the law, ordinary citizens inevitably become the victims.

The consequences go beyond illegal land sales. They destroy public confidence in institutions. People lose faith in councils, law enforcement agencies and ultimately the judiciary because, case after case, they see the enormous influence that political elites can exercise over institutions that are supposed to protect everyone equally.

A functioning state cannot allow land barons to sell people land illegally for years and then arrive at the end of the process to punish only the families who built homes there. Accountability must travel all the way up the chain. Who sold the land? Who produced the paperwork? Who authorised construction, if anyone did? Which officials knew what was happening? Who protected the land barons? And why were they allowed to continue operating?

I feel deeply sorry for this man. He may have spent everything he had building that house, and today he is standing among the ruins wondering what comes next.

The most painful question he asks in the video says everything: Where is he going to sleep tonight?

That is the human cost of lawlessness.

[Mandla Akhe Dube @MandlaAkheDube]

Rest in peace Rev Murombedzi Kuchera

[Zimbabwe Council of Churches @zccinzim]

Condolence message on the passing of Reverend Dr Murombedzi C. Kuchera

[Hopewell Chin’ono @daddyhope]

My deepest condolences to the Highlanders family and to the families of the deceased. It is an unimaginable tragedy for a football club to lose its chairman, vice-chairman and treasurer in a single road accident on the same day.

My thoughts and prayers are with their loved ones, their friends, the Highlanders fraternity and the entire Bulawayo community during this heartbreaking time. May they find strength, comfort and peace in the days ahead.

May the souls of the departed rest in eternal peace.

[Mandla Akhe Dube @MandlaAkheDube]

@MinistryofTID Why start on multiple road projects while many are stalled? For example, Bulawayo Victor Falls.

[Mandla Akhe Dube @MandlaAkheDube]

Ah, ZRP?

[Duma Gideon Boko @duma_boko]

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥: 𝐊𝐚𝐳𝐮𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝟐𝟒/𝟕 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

Round-the-clock operations will enhance trade efficiency, strengthen regional connectivity and accelerate economic growth.
🇧🇼🇿🇲

#KazungulaBridge #OneStopBorderPost