Lawyers demanded access to Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday after his arrest, along with dozens of supporters, when riot police crushed an anti-government demonstration in Harare. Tsvangirai has not been allowed to see either legal representatives or medics since he was arrested on Sunday.
She may have forged a successful career in international business but Zimbabwean Pamela Chigwida had no qualms about taking on a new challenge — learning Chinese at the newly opened Confucius Institute in Harare. ”There are lots of business opportunities in China but you can’t do much if you can’t speak their language,” she said.
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/ 21 February 2007
Zimbabwe’s state-run media lavished praise on veteran President Robert Mugabe on the 83rd birthday of Africa’s oldest-serving leader on Wednesday while stores in the capital, Harare, ran out of bread. ”President an unparalleled visionary,” read the headline of the Herald newspaper.
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/ 19 February 2007
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai vowed on Monday to step up the campaign to topple President Robert Mugabe despite a riot-police crackdown that prevented him from holding a major weekend rally. Scores were hurt and about 130 arrested on Sunday as security services used tear gas to break up a gathering of Movement for Democratic Change supporters.
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/ 4 February 2007
The empty chairs in the classroom at Hatcliffe, a township north of the Zimbabwean capital Harare, are a familiar sight in many schools in the economically-blighted country. A few weeks after schools opened for the year’s first term, six pupils in a class of 34 had not shown up and schoolteacher Aaron Maturure was beginning to worry.
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/ 10 January 2007
The doctor at the Parirenyatwa hospital shakes his head in despair as he issues his diagnosis of Zimbabwe’s health service: ”The system has literally collapsed and we are losing lives unnecessarily.” Once renowned throughout Southern Africa for its standards of treatment, the collapse of the health service has mirrored the financial crisis in Zimbabwe.
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/ 18 December 2006
Zimbabwe’s opposition and rights groups vowed on Monday to stage mass street protests against plans by President Robert Mugabe’s supporters to extend the veteran ruler’s term by another two years. The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front has proposed that 82-year-old Mugabe’s term be extended to 2010 by postponing presidential elections.
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/ 15 December 2006
Robert Mugabe dodged speculation on Friday about an extension to his presidency in an address to Zimbabwe’s ruling party after warning potential successors there is no vacancy at the top. The 82-year-old, in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, instead used his annual speech to Zanu-PF delegates to lambaste the one-time colonial masters.
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/ 12 November 2006
The establishment of a new government watchdog to monitor prices and incomes in Zimbabwe is only likely to further accelerate the country’s runaway inflation rate, according to analysts. Officials say a Bill is to be tabled in Parliament shortly for the creation of a prices and incomes commission in a country where the level of inflation crossed the 1 000% mark six months ago and now stands at 1 070%.
Zimbabwean authorities have once again locked horns with the country’s independent media after a state watchdog accused the journalists’ union of disseminating propaganda against President Robert Mugabe’s regime. The complaint was filed against the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists days after a case against an independent radio station was thrown out of court.