Going into the African Union summit in Banjul, The Gambia, Zimbabwe’s beleaguered President Robert Mugabe already knew that he would once again escape censure by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights for his controversial slum clearance plan that displaced more than 700 000 people.
Battling to keep pace with hyper-inflation, the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank plans to introduce a million bank note in September, after introducing a 000 note just last month. Bearer cheques were meant to have a three-month life span, but have replaced the now worthless paper currency.
Zimbabwean authorities are considering grounds for extraditing suspected mercenary Simon Mann to Equatorial Guinea as they want him to stand trial for masterminding a botched coup. Equatorial Guinea Attorney General José Olo Obon forwarded a 200-page dossier to the Zimbabwean attorney general last week.
United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has emerged as the new hope to resolve the hitherto intractable Zimbabwean political and economic impasse. After numerous failed diplomatic attempts to have Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe vacate his seat, Annan is expected to bring a political deal to Harare later this year.
A by-election in the Harare township of Budiriro will offer the clearest barometer yet of the electoral support that the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions command. That is if voters are not confused by the bizarre phenomenon that the MDC logo will appear twice on the ballot paper.
The controversial United States ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, has again defied Harare by publicly accusing the government of ”burgeoning corruption”. Last November, Zimbabwe threatened to invoke an unspecified clause in the Vienna Convention on diplomatic guidelines to expel Dell for ”meddling” in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs.
Barely two weeks after meeting and assuring President Thabo Mbeki of their strength and unqualified support, the pro-Senate faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change is on its political death bed, analysts predict. The Mail & Guardian has been informed that 10 or more legislators in have already made known their intention to jump ship.
A farm meant to be a showpiece for the Zimbabwean government’s land reform programme is lying derelict because three senior Zanu-PF ministers have looted essential equipment. Members of the military disclosed this to Vice-President Joice Mujuru during her tour of Manicaland recently. Army units are routinely deployed by the government to run appropriated enterprises and intimidate the populace.
As all hopes of economic and political salvation fade, President Robert Mugabe’s Cabinet members are turning to God. Six years into the country’s worst economic recession, six key members of the ruling Zanu-PF party are now messengers of God. But what is not clear is whether this latest development is coming from the heart or is driven by politics.
Court proceedings are brought to a halt in Harare’s High Court D where two witnesses, flown in from Switzerland, are to testify in a murder case. The recording equipment has malfunctioned and the Justice Ministry is too broke to replace it. The Swiss ambassador to Zimbabwe, leaves the court and returns moments later with a cable — for which he paid R15 — so that the case can proceed.