Top news items in major Zimbabwean media outlets

HARARE, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The following are news highlights in Zimbabwe's major media outlets on Monday:

-- State social security provider, the National Social Security Authority of Zimbabwe, has finally established much-awaited pension and health insurance schemes for the informal sector.

The schemes will come as a boost to most informal sector workers and self-employed actors who have failed to access facilities from mainstream insurance firms that require consistent income. (The Herald)

-- The Zimbabwe government on Sunday launched a 67,000-hecatre command wheat program at a farm in Chakari, about 150 km west of the capital Harare, which at minimal yield is expected to significantly cut the country's cereal import bill.

Vice President Constantine Chiwenga said at the launch that the program is part of government efforts to re-position Zimbabwe as the bread basket of southern Africa. (The Herald)

-- Zimbabwe's capital city Harare is offering a 30 percent discount to rate payers who settle their bills in full as it entices them to pay their outstanding bills.

The council is owed over 733 million U.S. dollars by government, businesses and residents. (The Herald)

-- Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party is in turmoil over its May 5 primary elections as senior party officials are battling to calm down angry members who are accusing the party's provincial chairpersons of favoring their allies. (The Daily News)

-- Zimbabwe's war veterans have, in a rare show of solidarity, ganged up with opposition parties in a fresh campaign to strip former President Robert Mugabe of his multiple farms for redistribution to millions of deserving Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association spokesperson Douglas Mahiya confirmed the development Sunday, with the opposition MDC-T and little-known Zimbabwe Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) saying they stood ready to join the campaign to dispossess Mugabe of his reported 20 farms and leave him with one in line with government's one-man-one-farm policy. (NewsDay)

-- Disgruntled ZANU-PF supporters from various provinces have appealed for President Emmerson Mnangagwa's intervention to stop known G40 members from manipulating the candidates' selection process ahead of the party's internal polls set for May 5 this year.

National ZANU-PF Aggrieved Voters' Association chairperson Austin Chindega told journalists Sunday that the party risks being hijacked by G40 members, whom he claimed are now dictating terms and declaring their seats as uncontested.

G40 was a faction in the party that was fronted by former First Lady Grace Mugabe. (NewsDay) Enditem