President Robert Mugabe and his chief rival will attend an emergency summit of Southern African leaders to present their conflicting views of the crisis paralysing the country in the wake of hotly contested elections, spokespersons for the men said on Thursday. The opposition has said it will not take part in an election run-off.
South African Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni has raised the repo rate, at which the South African Reserve Bank lends money to banks, by 50 basis points to 11,5% following a two-day meeting of the bank’s monetary policy committee. The prime overdraft rate therefore increases to 15%.
A Zimbabwean court on Monday released a United States journalist and a British national on bail after charging them with reporting on the March 29 elections without accreditation, their lawyer said. "They have both been released on Z$300-million bail," lawyer Harrison Nkomo told journalists outside the court.
Lawyers for an award-winning <i>New York Times</i> journalist and a Briton held in a Zimbabwe jail complained on Monday that they were being given the run-around as their clients spent a fifth day behind bars. Meanwhile, two South African satellite technicians were formally charged with defeating the ends of justice.
Julius Malema has been elected as African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president at the league’s national conference at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. Malema received 1Â 883 votes, it was announced on Monday, while the other candidate, Saki Mofokeng, received 1Â 696.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai visited South Africa on Monday for private meetings in his first foreign trip since the March 29 presidential election, a party official said. Meanwhile, about 200 Zimbabwean exiles gathered at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Monday to hand over a petition to President Thabo Mbeki.
Kgalema Motlanthe, deputy president of the African National Congress (ANC), on Sunday criticised the ”state of disorder” that characterised the ANC Youth League’s (ANCYL) national conference in Bloemfontein. Outgoing ANCYL president Fikile Mbalula said that ”forces” had tried to disrupt the congress but that they had failed.
Zimbabwe’s opposition claimed a clear lead over President Robert Mugabe and his party as pressure mounted on Monday evening for the swift announcement of full results from presidential and parliamentary polls. Earlier on Monday, the United Kingdom-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting said that Mugabe was to announce victory.
President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF party were to announce victory on Monday in the country’s parliamentary and presidential elections, according to unofficial results leaked from the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe Electoral Commission command centres.
The opening day of Heathrow airport’s new Terminal Five descended into chaos on Thursday, with flights cancelled, baggage delayed and long queues, while protesters rallied against further expansion. British Airways, the only airline using Terminal Five, was forced to cancel 34 flights and apologise for "teething problems".