Recent News Reports
- 2010/03/06: BBC: Bitterness and unease in Zimbabwe
After 30 years in power, Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe said this week he was ready to stand for another term as president. BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding finds Mr Mugabe's party in angry mood, and others - the white minority and the former opposition MDC party - full of foreboding.
- 2010/03/05: Guardian(UK): [Letter] Zimbabwe repression
- 2010/03/04: BBC: Gordon Brown has said sanctions against Zimbabwe should not be lifted until human rights and media censorship concerns are addressed
- 2010/03/03: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Crisis Group Say Mugabe Loyalists Still Blocking Reforms
The International Crisis Group (ICG) has warned that Zimbabwe could slide back into turmoil if the military leadership and others loyal to Mugabe are allowed to continue blocking reforms necessary for economic and political stability. In its latest assessment of the country's year old coalition government the ICG said although there have been some achievements made, 'the democratic transition remains at risk, especially from hard-line security officials' fiercely loyal to the 86-year old ZANU PF leader.
- 2010/03/03: AllAfrica: CPJ: In Country, courthouse filming lands journalist in jail
- 2010/03/03: AllAfrica: WhiteHouse: Notice of Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Zimbabwe
- 2010/03/03: AllAfrica: US Gov't: Obama Extends Sanctions Against Zimbabwe's Mugabe
- 2010/03/02: AllAfrica: SW Radio: MDC Officials to Declare Assets Every Year
- 2010/03/02: BBC: Zimbabwe's forgotten children
Zimbabwe, when I was growing up there, was the breadbasket of Africa and had one of the best education systems in Africa if not the world.
The healthcare system was great, too.
For a child born in apartheid-era South Africa, as I was, it was a land of opportunity. After my mother moved to Rhodesia, I received a first-class education, and graduated from university in post-independence Zimbabwe.
It is startling how quickly a society can fall apart.
- 2010/03/01: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Entire Union Leadership in Hiding over Police Threats
- 2010/03/01: BBC: Zimbabwe moves on foreign firms
A new Zimbabwean law that forces foreign-owned companies to sell a majority stake in their businesses to indigenous people has come into effect.
Overseas-owned firms worth more than $500,000 (£332,000) will have five years to sell a 51% stake, upon the threat of jail sentences.
- 2010/02/26: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Zanu PF Wants Retention of Old Executive Order
ZANU PF is seeking the retention of the old executive comprising a president, two vice presidents and cabinet as proposed in the Kariba draft constitution. According to the party's position paper on the new constitution being distributed to its supporters, Zanu PF is against the current system where there is a president and a prime minister.
The party is distributing a summary of its positions on the 17 constitutional thematic areas and it has also prepared responses to the different talking points that the committees crafted for the outreach programme.
- 2010/02/26: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Mugabe Has Left Corruption to Thrive
- 2010/02/25: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Union Leader Back in Hiding after Police Raid
The Secretary General of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) is back in hiding this week after police raided the union's offices on Wednesday.
Gertrude Hambira fled to safety after five men and one woman, who identified themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department, raided the union's office in Harare apparently looking for her. Hambira, who wasn't in the office at the time, is now in hiding fearing for her safety. According to the human rights group Amnesty International, staff at the GAPWUZ head office have since received several phone calls asking for details of Hambira's whereabouts.
Amnesty International has now called on the government to end the harassment and intimidation of GAPWUZ staff, which has been ongoing since last year's release of two shock reports on the plight of Zimbabwean farm workers.
- 2010/02/25: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Bennett's Defence Team Disputes E-Mail Evidence
- 2010/02/19: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Angry Civil Servants Vow to Intensify Strike Action
- 2010/02/19: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Biti Says Talks Have Reached Deadlock
- 2010/02/19: BBC: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to restore Zimbabwe's voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts
- 2010/02/18: AllAfrica: Nation: Tsvangirai in Hospital over [2007] Injury to Face
- 2010/02/17: BBC: Mugabe in diamond export threat
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has threatened to quit the Kimberley Process (KP) - the body which ensures diamonds do not fund conflicts.
"We can sell our diamonds our own way," Mr Mugabe said as he opened a trade and tourism fare in Harare.
The president and his allies have been accused of rights abuses in the eastern Marange diamond field.
The KP gave Zimbabwe until June to prove the Marange field was being properly run.
- 2010/02/16: BBC: The European Union has renewed its sanctions against Zimbabwe for another 12 months, saying the unity government had not made enough progress
- 2010/02/15: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Zanu PF Chef Rebuked for Blaming Land Chaos On White Farmers
- 2010/02/15: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Outrage Over Arrests of the Zimbabwean Staff
- 2010/02/15: AllAfrica: x: x
- 2010/02/15: AllAfrica: HRW: One Year On, Reform a Failure
- 2010/02/12: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Fresh Elections 'Only Way Out' for Country, Says Tsvangirai
- 2010/02/10: BBC: The polarised lives of Zimbabwe's rich and poor
- 2010/02/10: AllAfrica: AI: Abuse of Human Rights Continues Under Unity Government
- 2010/02/08: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Two Million Face Starvation As Crops Fail
Bulawayo - Over two million Zimbabweans face starvation before the harvest season in March, a huge jump from the December figure of 1,74 million, a survey conducted by a USAid food monitoring agency has revealed.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) said the number of Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid now stands at 2,17 million.
- 2010/02/05: Guardian(UK): Whitewashing Zimbabwe's history
The film Mugabe and the White African puts a heroic gloss on the colonial attitudes that endure in independent Zimbabwe
- 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: MDC Transport Manager Finally Set Free
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) transport manager, Pasco Gwezere who was arrested last year on allegations of stealing guns from an army barracks, has been removed from further remand by a Harare magistrate.
Gwezere was allegedly abducted from his Mufakose home in October last year by security agents and was held incommunicado at Marimba Police Station for two weeks on charges of breaking into Pomona Barracks and stealing arms of war. He was later transferred to Harare Central Police Station where he was formally charged.
Harare Magistrate Gloria Takundwa this week removed Gwezere from remand after the state failed to provide a trial date.
- 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: GNU Discord Will Prolong Sanctions - Analysts
February 20 is nigh and very important to Zimbabwe!
The European Union will meet and topping its agenda will be Zimbabwe's political crisis
- 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Tsvangirai Rejects Mugabe Directive
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected a circular emanating from President Robert Mugabe's office directing ministers to report to his two vice-presidents -- Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo -- instead of to him as cracks in the shaky inclusive government continue to widen.
- 2010/02/05: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Nation Faces Maize Deficit Again, Despite Govt Claims
- 2010/02/04: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Election Whistleblower Living in Fear After Death Threats
Shepherd Yuda, the 38 year-old former prison officer, famed for exposing how Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party rigged the ballot in the 2008 Presidential run-off, revealed on Wednesday he still receives threatening letters and phone calls.
The clandestine footage Yuda shot inside jail gave incontrovertible proof of how the military hierachy stole the elections for Mugabe by forcing rank and file members of the armed forces to vote for him in front of their superiors.
After the expose, Yuda fled to the UK where he's now in his second year at university studying applied science and forensic investigations. Speaking on the programme, The Hidden Story, he admits paying a price for his actions. He has been receiving torrents of abusive and threatening e-mails since 2008, and his family and close friends have not been spared either.
- 2010/02/04: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Judge Allows Email Evidence Against Bennett
- 2010/02/04: BBC: Mugabe allies block Zimbabwe land audit
A two-year land audit was due to begin in Zimbabwe in February - but an angry reaction from President Robert Mugabe's allies and more attacks on white farmers have put that in doubt.
- 2010/02/01: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Zanu PF's Terror Campaign Threat to Constitution-Making
ZANU PF is reportedly forcing villagers to attend political meetings where they are taught how to respond to outreach teams when they solicit views on the new constitution. The latest reports of intimidation, especially in rural areas, have heightened fears that Zimbabweans will once again be denied the opportunity to freely determine their future.
Consultations on the constitution were suspended two weeks ago after the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (Copac) ran into a number of logistical problems.
The political battles are set to add another dimension to the various issues threatening the historic process.
MDC-T says Zanu PF has conscripted soldiers, youth militia and war veterans, who spearheaded the party's ruthless campaign in the June 2008 polls, to cow villagers into supporting the Kariba Draft.
Zanu PF has been pushing for the Kariba Draft a document crafted three years ago to be adopted as the new constitution while the MDC-T wants a "people-driven" process.
- 2010/01/29: AllAfrica: SW Radio: MDC Notifies SADC of Deadlock in GPA Talks
- 2010/01/29: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: Derailing Constitution-Making a Key Zanu PF Strategy
- 2010/01/29: AllAfrica: ZimIndependent: GNU Hangs By a Thread
- 2010/01/28: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Key State Witness Exonerates Bennett in Terrorism Plot
An attempt by the state to use the testimony of an arms dealer, wrongfully imprisoned over 3 years ago, is spectacularly backfiring in the High Court.
On Wednesday Peter Hitschmann told the court that MDC Treasurer-General Roy Bennett was not involved in any terrorism plot against Robert Mugabe's regime.
Only a few days ago a judge ruled that the confession from Hitschmann in 2006 was obtained through torture by state security agents.
- 2010/01/28: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Pressure Mounts On Zuma to Act On Zimbabwe
- 2010/01/28: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Outrage As High Court Dismisses SADC Land Ruling
- 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: IRIN: Hope and Crops Scorched Again
- 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Hitschmann Impeached in Roy Bennett's Trial
High Court Justice Chinembiri Bhunu impeached State key witness Peter Hitschmann on Monday, in the terrorism trial of MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett.
The State, represented by Attorney General Johannes Tomana, sought to show the court that the firearms dealer had departed from a sworn statement and was now being 'hostile' to their case. The prosecution had wanted Hitschmann to give evidence in court that would incriminate Bennett, but the firearms dealer has consistently said he was tortured into making a statement against him.
- 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: SW Radio: MDC-T Wants Talks Referred to SADC for Arbitration
- 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: IPS: One Million Casualties of Land Reform
The seizure of large commercial farms - almost all white-owned - has continued despite the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe. The country's farm workers say they are the biggest losers.
The workers say that Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders must intervene immediately to stop the violence against them.
About one million farm workers have been evicted from farms across Zimbabwe since the year 2000, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.
- 2010/01/26: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Zanu PF Official Boasts He Has Authority to Kill MDC Activists
An aspiring ZANU PF MP shocked party activists on Friday last week when he told them he had 'authority and an open licence' to eliminate opponents from the MDC.
Nathaniel Punish Mhiripiri told a ZANU PF meeting at Jani resettlement area in Makoni South that he alone in the area was allowed to kill in the name of ZANU PF.
He also told the meeting he moved around with his guns in his vehicle and was always prepared to deal with 'sell-outs.'
- 2010/01/25: AllAfrica: ZimStandard: Rusape Villagers Face Starvation
- 2010/01/22: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Rusape Farmer Arrested After Week of Harassment
A Rusape farmer who has endured more than a week of intimidation and threats by land invaders was arrested on Friday, for refusing to leave his farm.
Koos and his family have for the past week remained locked inside their home, after a mob of youths invaded the property last week Tuesday. The group, said to be hired by a ZANU PF official know only as Mr Mukomo, assaulted several of the Smits' farm workers and the twin Smit sons in an effort to force the family to flee the property. The youths then cut off all electricity and water supplies to the farm to try flush the family out of their home, where they remained locked inside until Thursday. The invaders also stopped the family feeding and watering their livestock.
The gang of invaders packed up their makeshift camp around the family's home on Thursday, ending a week-long tense standoff. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Deon Theron said that the youths had left, because they weren't paid the promised fee for the invasion.
But the good news was short lived, when Koos Smit was arrested on Friday morning. Theron told SW Radio Africa that while Smit and his family were holed up inside their home, Smit had been subpoenaed by the Rusape magistrates court to face charges for refusing to leave his farm. But because Smit was all but trapped inside his property, which was surrounded by land invaders, since last week, he was unable to attend the court hearing.
- 2010/01/21: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Talks Adjourned Again
- 2010/01/21: AllAfrica: Nation: Country Suspends Constitution Talks
- 2010/01/20: AllAfrica: CPJ: Journalist flees Zimbabwe after death threat
Freelance journalist Stanley Kwenda, a contributor to the private weekly The Zimbabwean, fled the country on Friday after he said he received a telephone threat from a high-ranking police officer, according to the paper’s editor, Wilf Mbanga.
- 2010/01/20: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Armed Soldiers and Militias Force Villagers to Adopt Kariba Draft
- 2010/01/20: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Talks Resume Wednesday Evening
The negotiators in the power sharing government finally met on Wednesday, for the first time this year, after a number of delays caused by ZANU PF.
- 2010/01/20: AllAfrica: Nation: Zimbabwe PM [Tsvangirai] Rejects Zuma Fresh Poll Calls
- 2010/01/19: AllAfrica: SW Radio: MDC Leadership to Meet Over Delays in GPA Talks
- 2010/01/19: AllAfrica: Nation: Country Faces Mass Starvation
Zimbabwe is facing massive food shortages again this year with crops already wilting in many parts of the country due to a prolonged dry spell.
The United States funded Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET), in its latest forecast predicts that as a result of the poor rainfall and the severe shortage of agriculture inputs, 2.2 million Zimbabweans would need food aid.
This means that people who will need urgent food aid between January and March has increased from the 1.7 million projected at the end of last year.
- 2010/01/19: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Journalist Arrested for Filming WOZA Demo
- 2010/01/19: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Talks Delayed Again As Zanu PF Negotiators Fail to Pitch
ZANU PF negotiators Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche failed to attend Monday's rescheduled start of the Global Political Agreement talks.
- 2010/01/15: AllAfrica: FinancialGazette: Mugabe, Tsvangirai Under Pressure - SADC Abandons 'Quiet Diplomacy'
- 2010/01/14: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Bennett Trial Adjourned to Monday
The terrorism trial of MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett continued in the High Court on Thursday with the prosecution still trying to impeach their own key witness, allegedly for making contradicting statements. At the end of the day the judge postponed the trial to Monday to make his decision.
Prosecutor Johannes Tomana (who is also the Attorney General) had earlier in the week not complied with the rules required for an impeachment and now had to show the court how Hitschmann was departing from statements he made when he was arrested in 2006.
The State's case rests on the evidence of the firearms dealer, who they say implicated the MDC official in a plot to destabilise the former ZANU PF government. But when the trial had resumed earlier in the week Hitschmann reaffirmed what he had been saying all along - that he had been tortured into incriminating Bennett.
- 2010/01/13: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Judge Slams Prosecution in Bennett's Case
High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu on Wednesday dismissed an application by the State to impeach its key witness, Peter Michael Hitschmann, after he distanced himself from statements implicating Roy Bennett in a plot to overthrow the ZANU PF government.
Hitschmann was acquitted in 2006 of the same terrorism charges facing Bennett, although he served time after being convicted of possessing dangerous weapons, despite being a registered arms dealer.
- 2010/01/12: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Prosecutor Moves to Impeach Own Witness in Bennett Trial
The terrorism trial of MDC Treasurer General Roy Bennett took a new twist when it re-opened in the High Court on Tuesday. The State's key witness, Peter Michael Hitschmann, distanced himself from a statement he made when he was arrested in 2006 that implicated the MDC official. This resulted in the State, represented by Attorney General Johannes Tomana, asking the court to impeach its own witness for making contradicting statements.
Leading the defence team, lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa objected, saying the way the State presented its evidence was un-procedural and that in the first instance Hitschmann's statement was obtained "under traumatic and unfriendly" circumstances when he was in the custody of the army, at Adams Barracks in Mutare.
- 2010/01/13: BBC: Witness U-turn boosts Roy Bennett
A key prosecution witness in the trial of Zimbabwean politician Roy Bennett has rebutted much of the state's case.
Prosecutors say Peter Hitschmann stashed weapons for Mr Bennett, an ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who they accuse of a terrorist plot.
But Hitschmann disowned most of the weapons in court, denied ever meeting Mr Bennett and accused the police of concocting a conspiracy.
- 2010/01/04: AllAfrica: SW Radio: Nestlé Renews Operations in Convoluted Agreement
- 2010/01/03: Guardian(UK): Roy Bennett accused of treason says Mugabe will never break him -- MDC minister insists that his trial will not deter him from fighting for justice in Zimbabwe
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Last modified March 7, 2010