{"id":13942,"date":"2025-10-28T07:18:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T05:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-blaze-engulfs-harare-venue-ahead-of-opposition-press-conference\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:26:39","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:39","slug":"zimbabwe-blaze-engulfs-harare-venue-ahead-of-opposition-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/zimbabwe-blaze-engulfs-harare-venue-ahead-of-opposition-press-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe blaze engulfs Harare venue ahead of opposition press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fire broke out early this morning at the Sapes Trust building in Harare, Zimbabwe, just hours before it was due to host a press briefing by opposition leaders.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The conference, scheduled for 11:00 CAT, was expected to bring together parties opposing President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s bid for a third term.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Prominent critic Ibbo Mandaza raised the alarm on social media in the early hours, describing the venue as \u201cunder attack.\u201d The blaze occurred shortly before Mnangagwa\u2019s State of the Nation address, in which he is set to outline his legislative agenda.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Journalist John Cassim reports that authorities are investigating the cause of the fire. The timing and circumstances have sparked concern among opposition supporters, while the incident has disrupted the planned gathering and heightened tension in Zimbabwe\u2019s already charged political atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13943,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-13942","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"A fire broke out early this morning at the Sapes Trust building in Harare, Zimbabwe","published_date":"2025-10-28 09:17:25","news_description":"A fire broke out early this morning at the Sapes Trust building in Harare, Zimbabwe","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18828,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13942\/revisions\/18828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}