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/ 5 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition MDC were the "closest they have been" to reaching an agreement over key sections of a new constitution this week, but rowed over Western sanctions and presidential term limits. Officials on both sides involved in the talks, mediated by President Thabo Mbeki, report that they have agreed to a set of reforms, further to electoral changes agreed in September, which would form the basis for a new constitution by next year.
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/ 29 September 2007
President Thabo Mbeki has appointed former National Assembly speaker Frene Ginwala to conduct the enquiry into whether National Director of Public Prosecutions Vusi Pikoli is fit to hold office, the Government Communication and Information System said on Saturday.
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/ 28 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s opposition might have agreed to an accommodation with Zanu-PF after the ruling party told South African President Thabo Mbeki’s mediators the next phase of the talks would involve discussions of broader political reforms, opposition sources say. Recently both sides have been keen to play down visions of Mbeki steering the talks.
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/ 25 September 2007
Zimbabwean businesses have warned Robert Mugabe’s government that legislation allowing for the seizure of foreign-owned companies will have dire consequences on an economy that already is ravaged by crisis. Anxiety is rising after the government moved closer to passing the law with a second reading of the Bill in Parliament this week.
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/ 17 September 2007
Stiff challenges to President Robert Mugabe’s controversial economic policies are now coming from within his own party. In a move that is likely to rankle Mugabe, his own legislators on Wednesday summoned the Deputy Minister for Industry and International Trade, Phenias Chihota, to a ruling Zanu-PF party caucus meeting where he was told to ”revise his price controls” and stop ”disruption [to] business”.
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/ 14 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party has called a surprise special congress for December, setting the stage for a showdown between President Robert Mugabe and rivals within his party, who are plotting to oust him. A conference had been scheduled, but a meeting of Mugabe’s politburo last week decided that an extraordinary congress should be called instead.
They have fought over Zimbabwe’s best farms, and now senior figures in Zanu-PF are limbering up for a new battle — this time over an array of foreign assets that will be put up for sale with the enactment of a controversial new empowerment law. Zimbabwe’s Empowerment Minister, Paul Mangwana, has tabled the proposed legislation before Parliament and expects to push it through within the next two weeks.
In the five months since the Southern African Development Community (SADC) asked President Thabo Mbeki to mediate in the Zimbabwe crisis, Robert Mugabe has pushed through legislation entrenching his rule, widened rifts with his opponents and made policy decisions that have deepened his country’s economic crisis.
The 2007 Africa Competitiveness Report — a joint effort of the World Economic Forum, the World Bank and the African Development Bank — identifies low overall competitiveness as one of the main obstacles to maintaining high growth levels across the African continent. Key to encouraging sustained growth is the development of sound business policies.
Four automated teller machines (ATMs) were blown up in separate incidents around the country in the past week. However, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre is confident there has been a decline in such incidents recently, and that the downward trend will continue.