What is President Robert Mugabe up to? Two events in the past fortnight lay bare the wily octogenarian’s strategy. On Monday he attempted to play the statesman. In an act of showmanship, he tried to give opposition leaders tractors and other equipment. In the same week his Cabinet authorised a raft of constitutional changes, which point to a far more sinister strategy.
South African trade unions have launched one of the biggest national strikes of the post-apartheid era in a move widely seen as spearheading the left’s challenge to win control of the ruling African National Congress ahead of next year’s presidential election. Public-service unions seem determined not to back down on their demands.
Zimbabwe’s government this week said it had signed a "social contract" with business and labour unions, a deal it says will effectively bring an end to years of political and economic crisis within the next six months. But one of the key partners denies ever agreeing to any such deal, while a 50% increase in electricity charges by the state power utility just days after the announcement means industry will find it impossible to keep its pledge to freeze prices.
Zimbabwe’s remaining foreign investors, who have chosen to ride out the world’s fastest economic decline, could see their patience rewarded with the seizure of at least half their assets if radicals in President Robert Mugabe’s government have their way. Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana is set to push a new law through Parliament whose ”various measures will accelerate the implementation of the indigenisation”.
A Zimbabwean magistrate’s court ruled this week that suspected mercenary Simon Mann, who is serving a four-year jail term for purchasing arms without a valid certificate, can be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to face trial on charges of plotting to overthrow the government there.
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/ 5 February 2007
The United Democratic Party (UDM) will not be participating in this year’s State of the Nation debate unless it is allocated reasonable time to raise its supporters’ issues, the party’s leader, Bantu Holomisa, said on Monday. According to the UDM leader, Parliament on Monday informed him that his party has been given only one minute to participate in the debate scheduled to take place on Friday.
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/ 10 January 2007
Zimbabwe’s attempt to strip newspaper owner Trevor Ncube — publisher of the <i>Standard</i> and the <i>Zimbabwe Independent</i> in that country and the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> in South Africa — of his citizenship threatens the ownership of his newspapers and media freedom, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) warned on Wednesday.
The Mail & Guardian scooped three awards, more than any other single media organisation, at the regional finals of the inaugural Vodacom Journalist of the Year awards. Robert Kirby, the M&G‘s columnist, also won a Thomas Pringle Award this week for his TV column, Channel Vision.
A United States envoy said Pakistan’s president assured him that he wants to do everything he can to avoid war with India. Richard Armitage also said the US military effort against al-Qaida has not been affected by the rising tension between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat emerged apparently unhurt on Thursday from his damaged headquarters compound after Israeli troops ended a six-hour siege that left one of his security guards dead — flashed a victory sign as he was greeted by about 100 cheering civilians.