Lifestyle

As we close the year, 2025 has been a year filled with a lot happening in all aspects of our lives from social to businesses. Foreign investment has ramped up notably China investing more in the country (Is it a good thing to have such dependency?) , well a topic for another day. As reported in the media china alone has over 500 new players in 2025 alone further highlighting a trend that has been on the rise and in some instances, unsettling. Well it seems government is taking a turn albeit not in all sectors. Government has banned foreigners from owning businesses in certain sectors giving those who already do to sell off their business, let's take a closer look at what sectors are eing affected by this new laws and what it means for business owners and potential owners.

Have you ever wondered how lightning results, we science has explanations for that but local culture has other explanations too especially during the first days of the rainy season. Zimbabwe is one of the most lightning-struck places on Earth, and a mix of extreme weather and deep-rooted superstition about these lightning strikes doesn't make this any better. To those who have been unfortunate enough to witness a lighting strike closeby will tell that after seeing it upclose you don't really care if it's science or black magic because it's terrifying all the same. So what really is lightning, we are gonna explore both options.

Today’s Tip 💡 Learn effective tips and tricks to maximize your iPhone's battery longevity and keep it running longer throughout the day. Battery life is one of the most important and troublesome issues in our smartphones. Apple in particular has struggled in this aspect with the iPhone known for having weak battery life well that’s mostly due to several reasons which include but are not limited to it’s heavy iOS operating system and animations with gobble up battery life like a fitness guru on steroids. So here are the tips to make your iPhone battery last longer between recharging and make it more durable overall.

A few weeks ago, the government announced the scrapping of some fees and the reduction of fees in a wide range of areas from motorists fees, to city fees and to even business and agriculture fees but despite the announcement these fees had not yet been reduced raising concerns about the disconnection between central government and local authorities. In another move, the government has scrapped eleven licence requirements and consolidated fragmented local authority permits into a single, unitary licence as part of broader reforms to enhance the ease of doing business, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has said.

It all started in the telecommunications industry when StarLink entered the scene ending the monopoly enjoyed by Econet and Netone, we also radical reactions from these companies introducing cheaper solutions something they could have done before be didn’t because there was no real alternative. Now the same strategy will applied to the energy sector, to help end a monopoly with failed service delivery in most instances. Zimbabwe is poised to finally end ZESA Monopoly, as private companies can now buy and sell electricity to citizens. Let’s hope it will have the same impact as StarLink so here is all you need to know.

To say there has been discrepancies on water bills by councils would be an understatement with a lot of inconsistencies and unfair bills often attributed to guess work, as they had to send people to physically do meter readings. Well we don’t need to point out the flaws in this method as sometimes those sent might not be able to actually have readings for each and every household given in some homes there would be no one during the day and several other reasons. As we did with electricity, water bills have finally joined the club starting with Harare. The City of Harare, in partnership with Helcraw Water Pvt Ltd and Laison Technologies, has begun installing prepaid water meters, a move aimed at improving efficiency and promoting fair billing for residents.

For the past few weeks, as we have covered in our earlier articles, the government has been slashing prices on several fees for things like licenses, city parking and more though the price cuts haven’t come into effect. This comes at a time where citizens are suffering with the deteriorating economy and failing to pay some of these fees, another agency has joined the bandwagon to try and ease the financial issues the Citizens are facing. The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) has introduced flexible payment terms for motorists who are in arrears in terms of vehicle licences. The headline is you can now pay in structured payment plans to help everyone clear their debts.

On Friday, Microsoft reminded customers once again that Windows 10 will reach its end of support in 30 days, on October 14. So what will this mean if your PC or laptop is running on Windows 10? We technically you can still use windows 10 on your laptop or pc but after it retires Windows 10, Microsoft will stop providing bug fixes or technical assistance for issues affecting security, stability, or usability. Microsoft also highlighted Windows 10 2015 LTSB and Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2015 will also reach the end of extended support on the same date. So here is all you need to know and if your PC hardware supports, particularly the Truster Platform Module (TPM 2.0) it’s recommended that you upgrade to Windows 11. Let’s dive deep.

Some time ago the US announced a list of 7 African countries where no new visas were to be issued for the time being. So basically this meant that those who wanted to apply for new Visas to go to the United States couldn’t expect for officials. In a surprising turn of events the U.S. government announced official application locations for citizens of seven African countries that currently lack local visa services. This move aims to streamline the visa application process for applicants who previously faced the challenge of traveling long distances to access U.S. consular services. So here is what you need to know.

For centuries the standard world map used in schools, offices and pretty much everywhere has been the Mercator projection, a centuries-old map style from the age of sail, still prevails in the internet age. Just in case you didn’t know, it was drawn that way to be easily used for navigation particularly in the sea so generally some of the countries were distorted and their sizes magnified or reduced in size. For example Africa seems like a small continent but the truth is USA, China, South America and most of western Europe can fit into Africa and still leave some space. Relevant African bodies are pushing for the correction of this centuries old misinformation and introduce a map that truly reflect the true sizes of continents and countries. So Here’s what the African Union wants to use instead.

It seems the telecoms industry is still suffering the consequences of StarLinks’ entry into the ISP sector, so much so that Zimbabwes’ biggest telecoms players are making changes after changes to try and keep up with the changing market. Having previously launched the SmartBiz data plan to try and counter StarLink, Econet is set to launch new data packages. The new data packages will be an improvement to the current SmartBiz, with this change coming based on feedback from customers which means some of your concerns were heard and taken into consideration. Well the devil is in the details, let’s delve deep into the upcoming changes.

At some point you have received suspicious messages on your device telling you that you won a device in a draw you never played or there is some inheritance left behind by a relative without your knowledge. Well some of these scams are nothing new and very simple but nevertheless some still fall for these petty attempts which lack effort and intelligence with most of these scams being contacted on WhatsApp, Meta has decided to take action to try and combat these scams by working on tools to face this problem head. So what are these new tools and how will they work.