“The National Democratic Project” is in full swing but what does it mean?
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Police are probing the Johannesburg metro police for allegedly using an unauthorised blue light convoy to escort the Zimbabwean police commissioner.
President Robert Mugabe’s plans to keep loyal and long-serving security force chiefs on is fanning new disputes within Zimbabwe’s unity government.
The <i>Mail & Guardian</i> looks at the five power brokers in Zimbabwe’s military.
Zanu-PF rose to the top after Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 by being more centralised, conspiratorial and ruthless than all its rivals.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will return to Zimbabwe on Saturday after spending more than a month out of the country following disputed elections, a party spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced on Friday that the run-off presidential election will take place on June 27.
Zimbabwe’s election commission on Friday confirmed that President Robert Mugabe lost the election held five weeks ago but that his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, fell below the 50% of the vote required to avoid a run-off ballot between the two later this month.
Zimbabweans are bracing for a bloody second round of elections after government sources on Wednesday said a recount of the presidential vote held a month ago showed that President Robert Mugabe lost to Morgan Tsvangirai, but that neither won an outright majority.
President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were to announce victory on Monday in the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections, according to unofficial results leaked from the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission command centres.
To Robert Mugabe, Saturday’s presidential election in Zimbabwe is not so much a vote as war. From his campaign slogan — Get Behind the Fist — to speeches invoking the liberation war against white rule, the president of Zimbabwe has defined his campaign to extend his 28-year rule as the final struggle against British imperialism.
It is a matter of hours to go before voting stations open for Saturday’s elections in Zimbabwe. The Mail & Guardian Online spoke to South African political parties and NGOs ahead of the controversial poll. ”Mugabe will rule again. It would be a miracle if he didn’t,” said the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Musa Zondi.
Zimbabwe’s security forces were placed on full alert on Friday to head off possible violence at this weekend’s elections as President Robert Mugabe’s opponents feared the outcome had already been fixed. With state media predicting a Mugabe win, human rights groups said there was no way the electoral process could be said to reflect the will of the people.
A rights group on Friday urged Zimbabwe’s security forces to defy commanders who have vowed they would support only President Robert Mugabe to rule the country after next week’s poll. ”Go against the orders of your commanders, lay down your arms and rally behind the people of Zimbabwe to foster reconstruction and development,” said the National Constitutional Assembly.
Zimbabwe’s election body has no legal powers to stop security chiefs from threatening to reject an opposition victory in this month’s poll, a senior official said on Tuesday. Analysts say President Robert Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
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/ 27 February 2008
Police in Zimbabwe are ready to use force to quell any violence during national elections next month and any unrest after the poll, the official media reported on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe is accused of holding on to power by using intimidation and rigging to ensure previous election victories.
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/ 20 February 2008
Zimbabwe police have banned the carrying of weapons in public in the capital and the southern town of Masvingo to prevent violence in the upcoming joint presidential and legislative polls. ”Police will use their discretion on any tool that people will be carrying such as walking sticks for the elderly, the blind and disabled, said Harare police commander Isaac Tayengwa.
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/ 7 September 2007
In a bid to ease widespread shortages of goods, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government on Friday announced it was allowing retailers to raise prices by 20%. ”Effectively, the prices of all goods and services that have not been reviewed since June 18 2007 go up by 20%,” the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper said.