Sometimes our fate is written in our names. Never has this been truer for Morgan Tsvangirai, whose name means "sea dweller" and "the edge of sea". Tsvangirai talked up a storm at the congress of his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change as he tried to paddle his divided party to shore, warning the government of a "cold season of democratic resistance".
In the latest power play in the divided Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the Morgan Tsvangirai faction has hand-delivered letters to estranged office bearers Gibson Sibanda and Welshman Ncube, inviting them to attend the party’s congress at the weekend. Paul Themba-Nyathi, a spokesperson for the pro-Senate MDC faction, however, dismissed the Tsvangirai overture as a ”hoax”.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, his eyes fixed on his legacy, has engaged President Thabo Mbeki to broker ”dialogue” with Britain that could end hostilities with its former colony. Mugabe accuses his arch-nemesis, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair, of being the major driver of mobilising international opposition to his rule.
”We must recognise and respect each other. We must understand what unites us: the need to fight and defeat the Zanu-PF regime, the Zanu-PF culture. I do not have time to condemn and fight other soldiers,” says Arthur Mutambara, the new president of the pro-Senate faction of the MDC.
Swaziland’s oldest opposition group, the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress, will register as a political party to test the kingdom’s controversial new Constitution. The new basic law, endorsed by King Mswati III earlier this year, makes provision for freedom of assembly, but remains mum on whether it is legal for political parties to contest seats in Parliament.
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/ 27 February 2006
Ten-year-old Zimbabwean Dianna Matika, who had a heart ailment, is one of the confirmed fatalities after an earthquake measuring 7,5 on the Richter scale hit Southern Africa in the early hours of Thursday morning. The girl from the eastern Zimbabwean city of Mutare died three minutes after the quake struck.
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/ 22 February 2006
Two new developments in the morbid world of undertaking are breathing new life into the coffin trade, which has seen prices rise exponentially, with even poor families spending up to R20 000 for a casket. The Eco-Friendly Coffin and the Every-Body DIY Coffin aim to make the business of dying not only affordable but also environmentally friendly.
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/ 10 February 2006
One of the 16 accused of a spate of petrol bombings in Swaziland has pleaded guilty to charges of high treason. He has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with the option of a R10Â 000 fine. Mduduzi Dlamini admitted to bombing the Sandleni constituency centre last August.
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/ 6 February 2006
The Media and Information Commission finally registered journalists at the Zimbabwe Independent on January 31 after refusing to accredit them recently. The commission, created through the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act , took issue with a story the newspaper ran last year and over a misunderstanding about the paper’s shareholding.
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/ 21 December 2005
The Movement for Democratic Change’s Paul Themba Nyathi had his passport confiscated on December 9 this year. He spoke to the <i>Mail & Guardian</i> recently.