Gift Phiri

While getting his hair cut at a barber shop, a Zimbabwean activist was taken by five men - and has never been seen since.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, is suing Munn Marketing for Z$100-million (about R109&nbsp;000) for allegedly distributing in Zimbabwe the <i>Sunday Times</i> of South Africa -- a newspaper he is also suing for carrying an allegedly defamatory article. Moyo said the article insinuated that he does not care about the people of Matabeleland.

Outspoken Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube secretly met Prince Charles and briefed him about Zimbabwe's deepening economic and social crisis at the royal's London home. Archbishop Ncube, a fierce critic of Mugabe, told Prince Charles that Mugabe was slowly joining the elite squad of tragi-comic African dictators.

Controversy surrounding Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo's purchase of the Patterson farm in the Mazowe district has deepened amid disclosures that he violated government policy and set a bad precedent for land reform. Moyo is also entangled in a row over the subdivision of a farm in Hwange where illegal poaching is reported to be rampant.