The firm issued summons in November last year and the bank never responded prompting Seed Co to apply for a default judgement at the High Court.

Justice Charles Hungwe is expected to make a ruling on the chamber application soon.

Artherstone and Cook Legal Practitioners are appearing for Seed Co while Chitapi and Associates are representing the central bank.

In the application, Seed Co submitted: “Defendant was served with a copy of summons on November 2 2009. Although they entered an appearance to defend on November 5, defendant has failed to plead. The defendant has lost right to defend the matter.”

According to the summons, during the 2007 and 2008 farming seasons, the RBZ ordered maize seed from Seed Co International’s Botswana depot.

In 2007, seed valued at US$6 376 350 was delivered to RBZ from Botswana and early 2008 another consignment of seed worth US$6 999 654 25 came in.

RBZ, according to the papers, had paid US$10 million by April 2008, leaving a balance of US$3 634 830 80.

It is Seed Co’s claim that the RBZ undertook to pay the balance in weekly installments of US$400 000 with effect from May 2008.

Seed Co said the payment plan was never fulfilled, prompting the firm to seek the High Court’s intervention to recover the money.

Zimbabwe has scored another first in this regard with Onny.

Onny is a new search engine that is proudly Zimbabwean with a global reach, which is redefining the versatility of a search engine in Zimbabwe and beyond.

Mr Kingstone Kanyile, the brains behind Onny, told this paper that he was inspired to develop the search engine because of his understanding that the power brokers in the new global arena will be the knowledge facilitators because as humanity evolves there are questions that need answers.

He said that Onny was developed to precisely help web surfers to find answers to questions such as: How do I do it? Where do I find it? Who are they? What is it? What is going on?

He said although ignorance will be more tyrannical and enslaving than in the past, Onny is the search engine for serious Internet surfers who have a thirst to acquire knowledge in new ways that will help them innovate and create real opportunities for themselves.

The name Onny means a state of joy in anticipating answers to questions. So Onny primarily seeks to deliver that happiness to all surfers of the Internet.

Onny is different from other search engines in the way all pages and search results are indexed on the web pages.

Onny has been developed to become the darling search engine for all Internet users, knowledge workers, students, businesspeople and communities.

In essence, Onny is for everyone who has a compelling need to keep informed and understand their world to stay ahead.

To access this search engine, you simply log onto www.OnnySearch.co.zw or www.OnnySearch.com

On the home page Internet users can simply tell all their friends about Onny when they click on the “tell a friend” link.

Mr Kanyile said Onny is the first of many innovative IT-driven solutions with local roots and a global impact that the market is going to see coming from his corporation.

Onny is signalling the dawn of a new era for Zimbabwe as we embrace innovative solutions to claim our space on the global arena.

CAPS lost the match 2-0.

The temperamental coach, Chitembwe pulled the middle finger when the match ended as the Green Machine were taunting him. He was however restrained by his assistant Kennedy Nagoli as he tried to scale the perimeter fence to beat up some fans.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police had a hard time trying to contain the crowds as some of the fans vented their anger on club director Farai Jere who had to leave the stadium under police guard. Pandemonium broke out in the stands as the fans traded punches after the match. This is not the first time that Chitembwe has faced sanctions. In 2004, Chitembwe then a player at CAPS United spit at a referee and was banned for two seasons. However the penalty was later slashed as it was felt that it too harsh as he made a living out of football.

This is one of the issues that emerged from the one day training programme
for local editors held in Harare this week. The workshop was organised by
the Public Affairs section of the US embassy in Harare.

The editors, drawn from both the privately-owned and state owned media,
spent a busy day with experts on HIV and AIDS from the Centre for Disease
Control (CDC) looking at some of the critical issues about the virus which
claims thousands of lives every week.

It was clear that the mass media practitioners must have a good grasp of the
major issues related to HIV and AIDS before they could disseminate it to
their readers.

There was agreement that both editors and reporters should give the HIV and
AIDS stories a human face for them to appeal to the readers.

Experts estimate that between 34 million and 46 million people worldwide
were living with HIV and Aids as of December last year. Southern Africa,
which includes Zimbabwe has the highest number of between 25 million and 28
million.

In her lively presentation, Dr Shannon Hader from the CDC pointed out that
while everyone with the Acquired Immune Deficincy Syndrome (AIDS) has the
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), not everyone with HIV has AIDS.

She said people with HIV could live for up to 10 years during which time the
HIV might develop into AIDS.

Eileen Burke noted that since the HIV virus had been discovered in 1984 and
identified as the causative agent of AIDS, there has been an increase of
late of laboratory testing all over the world.

She said that there are two types of HIV which are HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1
has eight subtypes from A to J and in Zimbabwe the HIV-1 sub type C is the
most common.

The purpose of testing, said Burke, was to detect the HIV virus, diagnosis
and treatment of opportunistic infections and to treat and monitor the
disease itself. Burke told the editors that the first stage of most cases of
HIV infection was usually a flu-like symptom lasting up to four weeks.

From there it could take up to 10 years before this develops into fully
blown AIDS. She said people should have a balanced diet that ensures a high
count of the CD4 white blood cells that can effectively fight the HIV and
AIDS virus.

Dr Sue Laver said the media had a key role to play to bring about behaviour
change in people as one way of preventiong the spread of HIV and AIDS.

She gave several examples of what could be done by people to bring about
this behaviour change. These include talking to one’s partner about the risk
of HIV and AIDS, avoiding risky situations, use of condoms and getting
tested for HIV.

“Changing behaviour means changing the way we think, feel, speak, act and
accessing goods and services,” said Dr Laver.

Dr Charity Alfredo, who spoke on Care and Treatment of HIV and AIDS patients
noted that tuberculosis (TB) was the most common opportunistic infection in
HIV.

“At least 70 percent of TB patients have HIV,” she said.

But she added that TB could occur at any stage of the HIV disease and that
it can be treated even without anti-retroviral drugs.

She said effective anti-retroviral drug (ARV) treatment requires life long
therapy with at least three different drugs and strict adherence to
treatment.

The use of ARVs suppressed the replication of HIV in the human body, said
Alfredo.

Derick Leach Dallas, 56, was allegedly shot after he failed to pay
$5 000 charged by Jansen for repairs undertaken on his motor vehicle.

Jansen wanted to use the money to buy his girlfriend a birthday present.

He allegedly shot Dallas in the head at point blank range outside his home
in Greendale.

The alleged murder weapon was a pistol borrowed four days earlier from
Jansen’s friend, Zane Rooney.

Rooney, who lives in Avondale, has not been located by the police.

After the shooting Jansen allegedly drove to Lake Chivero where he dumped
the pistol and a revolver he bought from an army general in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo last month.

It was not specified which army the general serves in.

By yesterday afternoon the police sub-aqua unit was still trying to recover
the firearms from Lake Chivero.

Harare magistrate, Dominic Muzawazi, remanded Jansen in custody to 12
November.

He advised Jansen’s lawyer Obey Matizanadzo of Coghlan, Welsh and Guest to
apply for bail from the High Court.

Muzawazi declined to confirm statements recorded by the police from Jansen
as accurate to allow Matizanadzo time to go through them.

Confirmed statements can be produced in any court as evidence without need
for substantiating them.

Matizanadzo was engaged by Corry Jansen, the accused man’s grandfather, at
the last minute.

The senior Jansen sat in the gallery throughout the proceedings yesterday.

Alvis Chimwaradze, the prosecutor, said Jansen, a motor mechanic, met Dallas
sometime in August along Marion Edwards Road in Greendale and agreed to
repair his sports car, a Nissan 300ZX.

After repairing the car, Jansen charged Dallas $10 700 for the job.

Dallas said he would settle the amount a month later, but asked Jansen to
tune the engine as well.

Dallas later agreed to sell Jansen the car for $200 000. Jansen allegedly
gave Dallas $10 000 as part payment.

Jansen said he would pay the remainder on return from the DRC, where he went
sometime in September leaving the car at a friend’s house in Greendale.

While Jansen was in the DRC, Dallas collected the car from the friend’s
house.

Jansen returned from the DRC on 20 October and offered US$400 (about Z$22
000) towards the purchase of the car. After converting the money at some
rate the two agreed the balance outstanding on the purchase price was Z$90
000.

Jansen left with the car after the two men agreed that a change of the car’s
ownership would be effected once he paid the balance.

Last Friday Jansen drove to Dallas’ house at number 98 Bishop Mount Road
armed with the pistol and revolver to demand the $5 000 for the engine
tune-up on the car when it still belonged to Dallas.

After scaling the wall to the house, Jansen summoned Dallas outside.

Dallas refused to pay the money resulting in a heated argument in which
Jansen allegedly pulled out the pistol and shot Dallas killing him
instantly.

He then drove to Lake Chivero where he allegedly dumped the pistol and
revolver, before handing himself over at Rhodesville police station.

But the 15 civic groups reacted angrily, saying they would reject any attempts by government to stop them from providing voter education to the electorate. In a statement issued last night, the organisations said it was their constitutional right and obligation to educate and inform society on the laws of the country, including electoral laws, and on citizen rights and responsibilities. The civil groups say that the move denies citizens of their constitutional right to freedom of expression, association and information. The statement noted ‘the extremely poor performance of government in voter education in recent elections and the critical role played by civic groups in providing what is an essential component of free and fair elections’.

The civic groups said they would be seeking an immediate clarification from the government. ‘The groups reject unreservedly any allegations that the voter education provided by civic groups is partisan and call on the Minister of Information and Publicity to retract this unsubstantiated and malevolent allegation. ‘The groups will take all measures to defend their legal and social rights and responsibility to inform and educate the public,’ the statement said.