President Robert Mugabe’s supporters have used violence to intimidate opponents in the run-up to next week’s Zimbabwe election, undermining chances of a fair poll, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
A former finance minister challenging Robert Mugabe for the presidency denied on Sunday he was a Western puppet and said such accusations were to divert attention from Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown. Simba Makoni is running as an independent candidate after being expelled from the ruling Zanu-PF party.
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/ 14 February 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year rule as candidates, including his own former finance minister, register on Friday for a March 29 general election. Detractors accuse Mugabe of destroying the economy of this once-prosperous country and rigging the last three major elections.
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/ 6 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s ruling party on Wednesday formally expelled a former ally of President Robert Mugabe for launching a challenge to the veteran leader in next month’s elections, a Zanu-PF official said. Veterans of the country’s liberation war have branded former finance minister Simba Makoni a traitor after he entered the race on Tuesday.
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/ 6 February 2008
Veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war warned a former ally of President Robert Mugabe who will run against him in next month’s elections that he was a traitor, government newspapers reported on Wednesday. Former finance minister Simba Makoni, a senior member of the ruling Zanu-PF, entered the presidential race on Tuesday.
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/ 12 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party will formally endorse President Robert Mugabe this weekend as its candidate for re-election next year, a choice that critics say will prolong the economic crisis ravaging the country. Mugabe (83) has overcome a half-hearted attempt by some top Zanu-PF officials to force him to retire before the March 2008 poll.
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/ 30 November 2007
Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare on Friday to lead a ”million-man march” in support of President Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his rule despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Mugabe (83) and in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking re-election in presidential and parliamentary elections set for March 2008.
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/ 21 November 2007
Ian Smith, who defied the world in 1965 when he led 270 000 white Rhodesians in a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain rather than accept moves to black-majority rule, has died in South Africa aged 88. State-owned radio ZBC, reporting his death, said ”Smith will be remembered for his racism and for the deaths of many Zimbabweans.”
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/ 19 November 2007
Zimbabwe on Monday delayed the release of inflation data and said it might not be available ”for a while”, fuelling concerns the government had failed in its bid to hold back runaway prices. President Robert Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government’s effort to reverse a deep economic slide.
Zimbabwean unions have called off a teachers’ strike after agreeing to a wage deal with President Robert Mugabe’s government, which faces growing pressure from labour amid a deepening economic crisis. Thousands of primary and high school teachers went on strike on Monday to press demands for pay increases.