President Robert Mugabe’s supporters have used violence to intimidate opponents in the run-up to next week’s Zimbabwe election, undermining chances of a fair poll, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
Zimbabwe’s election body has no legal powers to stop security chiefs from threatening to reject an opposition victory in this month’s poll, a senior official said on Tuesday. Analysts say President Robert Mugabe faces the strongest challenge to his 28-year rule in presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections on March 29.
Thousands of teachers in Zimbabwe’s state schools have ended a three-week strike after being awarded a 754% salary increase by the government, their union said on Friday. ”We urge teachers to return to work,” said Raymond Majongwe, secretary general of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe.
State media in Zimbabwe on Friday accused prominent South Africa-based Mail & Guardian publisher Trevor Ncube of donating R300Â 000 to President Robert Mugabe’s rival Simba Makoni two weeks ahead of scheduled parliamentary polls.
Zimbabwe’s police chief says his force will not allow British and American ”puppets” to take power in Zimbabwe, sending an ominous signal to opposition leaders ahead of March 29 polls, reports said on Friday. Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri is the third service chief to come out in support of Robert Mugabe.
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has awarded large pay hikes to civil servants, including teachers, ahead of March 29 polls, local news reports said on Wednesday. Addressing a rally on Tuesday at a school in Inyathi, in the country’s Matabeleland North province, Mugabe said he had signed the new salary schedule earlier in the week.
Zimbabwe’s Electoral Commission has put too few polling stations in the cities, where the opposition has strongest support, an independent election monitoring group said on Tuesday. The group said Harare had 379 polling stations for about 760 000 registered voters — or 22 seconds for each vote if there was maximum turnout.
Zimbabwe’s government on Tuesday sought to allay fears over a new equity law to give locals a controlling share in business ownership, saying it would not lead to expropriation of foreign-owned firms. "This is not going to be expropriation," Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana told a news conference.
A new equity law passed by President Robert Mugabe to ensure the population gets a majority stake in public-owned firms will plunge Zimbabwe into deeper economic woes, analysts predicted on Monday. "It will entail the destruction of the economy," Harare-based economist Godfrey Kanyenze said.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has admitted for the first time that famine exists in his country. ”There is hunger in the country and a shortage of food,” he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mail. Observers say the admission is unprecedented as Mugabe has previously dismissed reports of famine as ”Western propaganda”.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has handed out millions of United States dollars worth of imported brand new agricultural equipment, vehicles, generators and cattle in what critics said was a massive vote-buying exercise ahead of elections this month.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a Bill giving local owners the right to take majority control of foreign companies, including mines and banks, a government newspaper reported on Sunday. Analysts fear the move could sound the death knell for an economy that is struggling with the world’s highest inflation rate of more than 100Â 000%.
European Union member states and the United States have been excluded from a list of observers who will be invited to monitor the March 29 general elections in Zimbabwe, the government announced on Friday. The only European country that had been invited to send monitors was Russia, while the Commonwealth was also left off the invitation list.
President Robert Mugabe, on the campaign trail ahead of March 29 elections, acknowledged acute shortfalls in local food production and said Zimbabweans were being sent to neighbouring countries to speed up the delivery of imported food, state radio reported on Thursday.
A well-known Zimbabwean journalist is challenging a year-long work ban imposed on him by the state media commission despite the recent relaxation of press laws, it was reported on Thursday. Lawyers for Brian Hungwe gave the Media and Information Commission until Wednesday to lift a ban on the reporter.
Simba Makoni’s decision to enter the presidential race is a ploy by former colonial power Britain to divide Zimbabweans, a state-controlled newspaper reported President Robert Mugabe as saying on Wednesday. Mugabe told ruling Zanu-PF supporters at a rally that voters have to ”bury British regime-change schemes”, the Herald reported.
Former Zimbabwe finance minister Simba Makoni has said there will be no backlash against veteran President Robert Mugabe if he topples him at this month’s general election. ”President Mugabe is someone who has a very special place in our history,” Makoni said in an interview, ruling out retribution against Mugabe.
Reviving Zimbabwe’s moribund economy would require inflation-battered citizens to swallow the bitter pill of reduced state spending and higher interest rates to attract foreign cash, analysts say. The ousting of veteran President Robert Mugabe is essential to pave the way for reforms to put the country back on track, they believe.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s deputy, Joyce Mujuru, has thrown her weight behind the veteran ruler’s bid for a sixth term, dispelling speculation linking her to Mugabe’s rival, Simba Makoni. Mujuru was quoted by the state-owned Herald newspaper on Monday as saying: ”Firstly, you should vote for comrade Mugabe”.
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/ 29 February 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday predicted victory in presidential and parliamentary polls next month as he launched the election manifesto of his ruling Zanu-PF party. ”We certainly are going to win,” the 84-year-old leader told thousands of supporters at a rally in the capital, Harare.
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/ 29 February 2008
The head of Zimbabwe’s prison service has ordered his officers to vote for President Robert Mugabe and said he will resign if the opposition wins next month’s election, official media reported on Friday. The Southern African country holds joint presidential, parliamentary and council elections on March 29.
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/ 28 February 2008
Murowa Diamonds — Zimbabwe’s sole operating diamond miner — recorded a 40% drop in production in 2007, owing to frequent power failures and machine breakdowns, the company said. Murowa is 78% owned by London-based mining firm Rio Tinto.
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/ 28 February 2008
Child rape has increased by 42% in Zimbabwe, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday, linking worsening child abuse and domestic violence to family tensions caused by the nation’s economic meltdown. Unicef launched a new ”Stand Up and Speak Out” campaign to fight what it called the ”staggering statistics on the unspeakable evils of child abuse”.
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/ 27 February 2008
Police in Zimbabwe are ready to use force to quell any violence during national elections next month and any unrest after the poll, the official media reported on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe is accused of holding on to power by using intimidation and rigging to ensure previous election victories.
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/ 23 February 2008
As many as 10 000 people began gathering on Friday in a town in southern Zimbabwe for President Robert Mugabe’s 84th birthday celebrations, state radio reported. Organisers of Saturday’s ceremonies said they raised about Z-trillion for the bash — the equivalent of about R1,9-million at the dominant black-market exchange rate.
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/ 22 February 2008
President Robert Mugabe should retire before he faces defeat in elections next month, an aide to a rival whom the Zimbabwean leader branded a ”prostitute” said on Friday. Mugabe hurled the insult at former finance minister Simba Makoni on Thursday in a television interview and vowed to humiliate the opposition.
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/ 22 February 2008
President Robert Mugabe on Thursday compared ex-finance minister Simba Makoni to a ”prostitute” and said he was surprised by Makoni’s decision to challenge him in March presidential elections. In his first reaction to Makoni’s announcement to stand for the presidency in polls on March 29, Mugabe said his decision was ”absolutely disgraceful”.
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/ 20 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation vaulted to 100Â 580,2% in January to set a new world record, but it is still unlikely to cause sleepless nights to President Robert Mugabe’s government facing elections in about five weeks’ time. The jump in inflation is alarming even in the context of Zimbabwe’s extraordinarily collapsing economy.
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/ 20 February 2008
Zimbabwe police have banned the carrying of weapons in public in the capital and the southern town of Masvingo to prevent violence in the upcoming joint presidential and legislative polls. ”Police will use their discretion on any tool that people will be carrying such as walking sticks for the elderly, the blind and disabled, said Harare police commander Isaac Tayengwa.
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/ 18 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s ruling party, shaken by internal divisions and a potentially strong election challenge to President Robert Mugabe, will expel candidates running against its official nominees in the March vote, the official media said on Monday. An independent observer group, meanwhile, has reported widespread vote-buying attempts.
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/ 14 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s annualised inflation rate rose to a record 66 212,3% in December, dealing another blow to President Robert Mugabe’s efforts to pull the once prosperous African nation’s economy out of a deep crisis. Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government’s effort to reverse an economic slide.
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/ 14 February 2008
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is facing the most serious challenge to his 28-year rule as candidates, including his own former finance minister, register on Friday for a March 29 general election. Detractors accuse Mugabe of destroying the economy of this once-prosperous country and rigging the last three major elections.