President Robert Mugabe’s new push to get tough on the economy may bring short-term political benefits but is likely to leave Zimbabwe in even worse straits as its economic infrastructure collapses. Mugabe this week warned that he was ready to nationalise firms accused of ”dirty tricks” against his rule.
President Robert Mugabe on Monday made a rare gesture of acknowledgement to the opposition, saying despite political differences with his government, they remained Zimbabweans. Mugabe frequently uses public occasions to lambaste the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Zimbabwe farmers have only planted 10% of the targeted winter wheat-crop hectarage just two weeks before the recommended planting deadline lapses, official media reported, stoking fears of bread shortages. The Southern African country has grappled with shortages of food since 2001.
Zimbabwe’s mining sector faces a debacle as a skewed exchange rate and heavy borrowing hit an industry that has become the top foreign currency earner, the mining chamber said on Thursday. Mining is the only sector that still has foreign investors after the collapse of the main agriculture sector.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will attend a regional meeting in Tanzania this week, official reports said on Tuesday, as pressure mounts on African leaders to tackle his controversial rule. Mugabe will brief leaders from the Southern African Development Community at the special summit, the official Herald newspaper said.
Zimbabwe’s food crisis will worsen this year because of a drought that has decimated maize and other key crops, a government minister said on Tuesday amid rising tension in the economically depressed African country. Zimbabwe is struggling with an economic crisis marked by chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency.
Zimbabwe accused opposition supporters on Thursday of waging a militia-style campaign of violence against the government, amid rising world condemnation of President Robert Mugabe’s latest crackdown on dissent. Police officials said three officers had been badly hurt in a petrol-bomb attack in the capital, Harare, late on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s inflation hit a new record on Friday and analysts say it is a pointer that President Robert Mugabe’s government is fast losing the battle to turn around a crumbling economy threatening its rule. The Southern African nation is in the throes of a deepening economic crisis dramatised by the spiralling cost of living and a government crackdown on political opponents.
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/ 16 February 2007
Zimbabwe has drastically hiked prices for the staple maize, adding a new potential inflation risk for consumers already battling the fastest rate of price rises in the world. President Robert Mugabe also publicly criticised his axed finance minister, labelling his policies a ”disaster”.
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/ 29 January 2007
A handful of army doctors struggled to cope with emergencies at Zimbabwe’s largest public hospital on Monday as regular doctors pressed on with a five-week strike that has all but paralysed public medical care. Officials said there are about seven army medical personnel at Harare’s Parirenyatwa Hospital doing a job normally carried out by more than 120 doctors.