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/ 21 November 2005
African governments and the African Union have been petitioned by more than 150 international rights groups to act on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Earlier this year President Robert Mugabe’s government drew flak over its Operation Murambatsvina, which a United Nations special envoy report said destroyed the homes of up to 700 000 people.
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/ 11 November 2005
Alarm bells have been raised over the safety of hundreds of Zimbabwean workers, trade union leaders, students and civil society activists detained during a wave of protests in the country recently. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions information officer Mlamuleli Sibanda said that at least four HIV-positive workers have been denied access to medication or medical assistance since their arrest.
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/ 4 November 2005
Zimbabwe’s intelligence agents have bugged the phones of Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, and have been conducting surveillance on his two Harare homes on the instruction of President Robert Mugabe. A senior Central Intelligence Organisation operative told the Mail & Guardian that Mugabe feared his former protégé was planning to defect from Zanu-PF, taking with him disillusioned sections of the ruling party.
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/ 31 October 2005
Infighting over the Senate elections in Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change could scupper President Thabo Mbeki’s plans to broker multi-party talks with the ruling Zanu-PF. At a meeting at the Union Buildings recently Mbeki impressed on the MDC top brass that a fragmented party would weaken his political leverage over President Robert Mugabe.
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/ 24 October 2005
Academics, economists, lawyers and the Harare-based ambassadors of Britain and the United States have been frantically shuttling between rival factions in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the past week. Political scientist Brian Raftopolous, economics consultant Eric Bloch and lawyer Innocent Chagonda have attempted to mediate tensions over the November 26 Senate elections.
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/ 14 October 2005
The Movement for Democratic Change will boycott the upcoming Senate poll in Zimbabwe, the party’s president, Morgan Tsvangirai, announced recently. This despite the fact that the majority of the party’s national executive council voted in favour of participation. Analysts believe the decision is a double-edged sword that will intensify pressure on President Robert Mugabe.
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/ 11 October 2005
The succession battle in Zanu-PF enters a new phase as power blocs in the ruling party in Zimbabwe jockey for influence on the newly created Senate. President Robert Mugabe ensured his central committee sanction an early poll last Friday, a move seen as an acknowledgement by the 81-year-old leader that he needs to limit dissent.
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/ 29 September 2005
A new wave of land invasions has rocked Zimbabwe, with at least five farmers being forced off their proper-ties in the past week. Armed militiamen, accompanied by the police, army and the Central Intelligence Organisation, have been behind a spate of evictions in the Manicaland district.
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/ 28 September 2005
The threat of violence in Nigeria’s volatile oil-producing Niger Delta has escalated after police said they would charge Moujahid Dokubo-Asari of the Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force with treason. Thousands of Shell employees at the company’s operations in the city of Port Harcourt vacated their workstations as a safety precaution, the company announced recently.
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/ 23 September 2005
Civil society in Zimbabwe is ”taking lessons from history” to chart a mass mobilisation campaign for a new Constitution that will target ruling party Zanu-PF’s traditional strongholds in the rural areas. The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) has been tasked by labour, churches, students and human-rights groups with spearheading the drive.