Felix Mponda
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/ 6 September 2007

Watchdog: Crumbling Zim ripe for corruption

Zimbabwe’s failing economy and collapsing services have provided an environment ripe for graft, with the impoverished country’s woes facilitating an ever-worsening slide towards corruption. Despite setting up a local graft-busting body in 2004, Zimbabwe appears to be losing the battle against corruption, according to a leading watchdog.

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/ 28 August 2007

Zimbabwe farmers face bleak future

Despite putting on a brave face at the annual Zimbabwe Agricultural Show, farmers in Africa’s one-time breadbasket face a bleak future as they battle power cuts, fertiliser shortages and drought. Hundreds of farmers from across the country have been gathering in the capital, Harare, since Monday for the showpiece agricultural event.

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/ 15 December 2006

Southern Africa mulls circumcision to battle Aids

Southern Africa, the epicentre of the Aids epidemic, on Thursday agreed to look at male circumcision to fight the pandemic in the wake of reports that it could halve the risk of males contracting HIV. The Southern African Development Community said it will develop an HIV-prevention strategy that will be released early next year.

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/ 13 December 2006

SADC debates Aids-prevention strategies

Southern African nations on Tuesday mulled ways to rope high-risk groups into the fight against HIV/Aids in the world’s worst-affected region as they started a three-day meeting in Malawi. The meeting will hammer out a ”comprehensive strategy on how to accelerate prevention”, said a Southern African Development Community official.

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/ 29 November 2006

Judge allows Madonna adoption challenge

A judge in Malawi on Wednesday allowed a coalition of human rights groups to proceed with a legal challenge to United States pop star Madonna’s adoption of an African baby boy. Judge Andrew Nyirenda ruled that the coalition of 67 rights groups could be regarded as ”friends of the court”.

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/ 26 October 2006

End Madonna adoption challenge, says baby’s father

The father of the African baby Madonna wants to mother appealed for an end to legal challenge to her adoption bid, fearing the singer could react by sending the boy back to his impoverished homeland. Speaking on the eve of a hearing in Malawi’s administrative capital, Lilongwe, Yohane Banda said the case should be dropped ”for the sake of my child’s future and health”.

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/ 11 May 2006

Mausoleum to Banda stirs mixed feelings

A mausoleum to Malawi’s founding president and one of Africa’s most repressive leaders, Kamuzu Banda, will be inaugurated on Sunday, stirring mixed emotions over the dictator’s legacy in the impoverished Southern African nation. Banda, popularly known as ”Ngwazi” or conqueror, died in South Africa in 1997 at the age of 99 and was one of Africa’s most controversial leaders.

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/ 31 January 2005

Malawi ruling party not to expel president

Malawi’s ruling party said on Monday it has decided against expelling President Bingu wa Mutharika from its ranks despite a bitter power struggle with his predecessor. Following a day-long meeting on Sunday, the governing United Democratic Front said it is ready to continue talks with Mutharika to try to bury the hatchet.