A proposed new law that is set to curtail the activities of NGOs in Zimbabwe has grabbed the attention of many among Southern Africa’s human-rights defenders. The NGO Bill of 2004 makes it mandatory for all charities, NGOs and community-based associations to register under a government-controlled authority.
A recent crackdown on men who frequent prostitutes in Zimbabwe has left human-rights activists there a little confused. Is the new approach a victory for those who claim that it is unfair to punish sex workers, if similar penalties are not handed down to their clients? Or is it simply a diversionary tactic by a beleaguered police force that fears it has lost credibility in the public eye?
As the third annual summit of the African Union draws closer, the spotlight is falling on the organisation’s newest branch: the Peace and Security Council, and its proposed standby force. Analysts hope the 15-member council — which still has to be ratified by a majority of AU members — will prove a more powerful and efficient agency than other bodies set up to resolve the continent’s woes.
It wasn’t an instance where absence made the heart grow fonder. A three-day regional conference on improving access to Aids treatments held in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, in March failed to attract a single government representative from the host country. About 150 delegates from elsewhere in the region attended the summit.
”Worse than dogs and pigs” is how Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described homosexuals almost a decade ago, when the gay community attempted to highlight widespread homophobia in the Southern African country. Yet, in subtle ways, things are beginning to change. Intolerance, particularly at the official level, seems to have mellowed into indifference.
Even within its own ranks, Zimbabwe’s ruling party has shown it is intolerant of ambitions hinting at expansion of the country’s tiny independent press. It counts for very little that the government already controls all broadcast media. As the international community marked World Press Freedom Day, Zimbabweans were reminded how their media have been emasculated.
Education for all was the policy Zimbabwean authorities pursued diligently for much of the first decade after independence. The goal was to extend education to the previously disadvantaged black majority. Scores of schools were built and the training of thousands of teachers speeded up. It did not take long to bear fruit. Sadly, those classroom gains are now in jeopardy.
”Deliver us from evil”, a simple prayer from the Book of Matthew in the New Testament — yet one that resonated powerfully in Zimbabwe this weekend. Shaking off interdenominational differences, church officials and members met in two cities on Saturday to intercede against hunger, poverty, corruption and HIV/Aids.
With few obvious hassles, a local pressure group, Bulawayo Agenda, kicked off a string of public meetings late last year. Twenty-nine gatherings, held as part of its "township series", provided residents of townships with a rare platform to speak out on issues of concern.
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/ 20 February 2004
Since its inception in 2000, Zimbabwe’s national youth training programme has been dogged by a welter of criticism and demands for its disbandment. The main complaint is that it is simply a ruse by the ruling Zanu-PF government to brainwash hapless youths, and turn them into a militia for terrorising the opposition.