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/ 20 September 2007
British Airways (BA) is to halt direct flights between Harare and London next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Thursday. BA’s regional commercial manager, Steve Harrison, told the official New Ziana news agency that the last flight on the London Heathrow-Harare route will be on October 28.
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/ 19 September 2007
Bread queues snaked their way outside supermarkets in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Wednesday, where few people appeared to have heeded a call by unions for a two-day general strike. Traffic was heavy in the city centre, with minibuses heavily-loaded. Most banks, shops and stores were open for business.
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/ 18 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party reached an agreement on Tuesday with the government on the adoption of a Bill that paves the way for joint presidential and legislative elections next year. In a surprise move announced in Parliament, senior members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said they would not try to block legislation to amend the Constitution.
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/ 18 September 2007
Seventeen Zimbabwean police officers have been arrested on charges of corruption and trading in diamonds while guarding a mine in the country’s eastern district, police said on Tuesday. Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said three of the suspects were found with 30 diamonds when they were arrested last Saturday.
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/ 17 September 2007
The Zimbabwe government’s threat to take over companies defying controversial price controls is not a joke, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted as saying on Monday. Obert Mpofu told the ruling Zanu-PF party members meeting at the weekend in western Zimbabwe that the government had already started identifying companies it plans to take over.
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/ 17 September 2007
Cash-strapped Zimbabwe plans to build a Z-trillion (US,3-billion) games village in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, reports last week. The games village, to be funded by private developers, will be built on a 100ha plot near the southern city of Masvingo on the shores of scenic Lake Mutirikwi, the official Sunday Mail newspaper said.
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/ 17 September 2007
The government is refusing to tackle increasing water shortages and instances of waterborne diseases in Bulawayo because of a struggle over control of the city’s water supply. Unless local officials hand over control of the water supply to a government agency, the central authorities have said they will not help the residents of the second-largest city.
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/ 16 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s main labour union will go ahead with a two-day strike next week despite government signals the wage freeze that triggered the protest would be relaxed, a top labour official said on Sunday. President Robert Mugabe’s government ordered a price freeze in June as part of ongoing efforts to stem rampant inflation, which is running above 7Â 600%.
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/ 16 September 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is consolidating his hold on power as he ruthlessly tackles his arch-critics ahead of 2008 polls in which he is a candidate, analysts say. His latest victim is former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, one of his strongest critics, who resigned this week from his post in the aftermath of an alleged adultery scandal.
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/ 14 September 2007
Pets are being slaughtered for meat in shortage-stricken Zimbabwe and record numbers of animals have been surrendered to shelters or abandoned by owners no longer able to feed them. Vets have also run out of the drug used put down the animals and are relying on donations from South Africa.
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/ 13 September 2007
President Robert Mugabe on Thursday fired a broadside at Western media for biased coverage of events in Zimbabwe, ignoring an adultery case involving his staunch opponent, former archbishop Pius Ncube. ”If one of my own ministers does mischief and takes another person’s wife, it will be carried on television and they will say this is what Mugabe’s ministers are doing,” Mugabe said.
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/ 12 September 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s government introduced a Bill to Parliament on Wednesday that would give the leader room to choose a successor if he were to retire. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa introduced the Bill in Parliament and said debate on the proposed law would start on Tuesday.
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/ 12 September 2007
Former archbishop Pius Ncube, a leading critic of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who resigned after an adultery scandal, was forced out by the Vatican, a news report in Zimbabwe said on Wednesday. In an article headlined ”Pius forced to resign”, the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper said Ncube (60) had been pressured to leave by the Vatican.
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/ 11 September 2007
Archbishop Pius Ncube, a leading critic of President Robert Mugabe, resigned on Tuesday after an adultery scandal but said he would not be silenced by the ”wicked regime”. Ncube stood down as archbishop of Bulawayo after state media in July published photographs of him in bed with a married woman.
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/ 11 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Tuesday accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of bribing traditional chiefs by giving them brand-new vehicles ahead of elections due next year. Thirty-eight chiefs were given the open-backed vans on Monday at a ceremony in the capital.
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/ 11 September 2007
Mozambique has doubled power supplies to its neighbour, Zimbabwe, which has been hit by massive power cuts, news reports said on Tuesday. The new deal came although Zimbabwe power company Zesa Holdings, which earlier this year declared itself broke, has an outstanding -million debt with Mozambican power supplier HCB, the official Herald newspaper said.
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/ 10 September 2007
Aids drugs — some of them contaminated, diluted or faked — are being sold at flea markets and hairdressing salons in the face of growing shortages in clinics struggling under Zimbabwe’s economic crisis, the Health Ministry said. State media quoted Minister of Health David Parirenyatwa on Monday as appealing to people living with HIV/Aids to buy their medicines from registered pharmacies.
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/ 10 September 2007
The ruling party in Zimbabwe has agreed to enforce age limits for its powerful youth wing in what analysts say may be a move to rein in over-ambitious leaders embroiled in the Zanu-PF’s messy succession debate, it emerged on Monday. Leaders of Zanu-PF’s youth wing must now not be older than 30 years, according to a report in Herald newspaper.
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/ 7 September 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s exchange-rate devaluation and promises of tax relief were dismissed on Friday by Zimbabweans weary of an economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation and severe shortages. His government’s latest bid to ease the economic turmoil, announced in a supplementary budget on Thursday, highlighted the worsening plight of the Southern African nation.
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/ 7 September 2007
In a bid to ease widespread shortages of goods, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government on Friday announced it was allowing retailers to raise prices by 20%. ”Effectively, the prices of all goods and services that have not been reviewed since June 18 2007 go up by 20%,” the government mouthpiece Herald newspaper said.
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/ 6 September 2007
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi on Thursday massively devalued the local dollar in a bid to attract scarce foreign currency to the official market. In a supplementary budget speech broadcast live on state radio, Mumbengegwi said the Zimbabwe dollar would now trade at 30Â 000 to the United States dollar, down from 250.
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/ 6 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s police formally accused the country’s main opposition leader on Thursday of ”disorderly conduct” in connection with his recent tour of stores hurt by the government’s controversial price freeze, his lawyer said. Morgan Tsvangirai was quizzed by police for nearly an hour in the capital and then released from custody, one day after being instructed to appear.
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/ 6 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s failing economy and collapsing services have provided an environment ripe for graft, with the impoverished country’s woes facilitating an ever-worsening slide towards corruption. Despite setting up a local graft-busting body in 2004, Zimbabwe appears to be losing the battle against corruption, according to a leading watchdog.
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/ 6 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s police have summoned the main opposition leader for questioning on Thursday on his tour of shops to assess the impact of President Robert Mugabe’s controversial price freeze, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Zimbabweans have struggled to buy basic goods since Mugabe’s government ordered businesses to slash their prices to mid-June levels.
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/ 5 September 2007
The number of people facing serious food shortages in Zimbabwe is expected to grow to 4,1-million over the first quarter of next year, the Canadian ambassador to the African country said on Wednesday. ”This figure is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months,” Roxanne Dube said at a ceremony where Canada donated ,3-million to the World Food Programme.
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/ 5 September 2007
One of Zimbabwe’s main bakeries has warned it has enough flour to last for just two more days, reports said on Wednesday. Lobels Bread has already sent hundreds of workers on forced leave and has almost exhausted its reserve stock of flour, a company executive was quoted as saying.
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/ 4 September 2007
Petrol shortages mean long and chaotic lines at bus stops for Zimbabwean commuters. On Tuesday, they learned that once they manage to board a bus, chances are 50-50 the driver is unsafe or unlicensed. The Transport Ministry gave driving tests to 9 674 public transport drivers and nearly half failed.
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/ 4 September 2007
Officials from soccer’s governing body, Fifa, will visit Zimbabwe next week to assess capacity to host fans from the 2010 World Cup to be held in neighbouring South Africa, Zimbabwe’s tourism authority said on Tuesday. The country hopes to cash in on its proximity to South Africa — the first African country to host the event.
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/ 4 September 2007
Zimbabwe is likely to offer tax relief in a supplementary budget on Thursday but may have to print more money to keep cash-strapped government departments running ahead of elections in 2008. The Southern African country is suffering inflation of more than 7 000%, fast eroding income for workers struggling to feed their families.
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/ 3 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s government has taken over United States food giant HJ Heinz’s 49% stake in the African nation’s leading cooking oil maker for ,8-million. The transaction is the first major deal involving the takeover of a firm following President Robert Mugabe’s vow to give Zimbabweans greater control over foreign-owned assets.
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/ 1 September 2007
Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on Friday hailed President Robert Mugabe’s land seizure drive, saying Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector was one of Africa’s most developed. Obiang, who arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday on a state visit, said his tiny but oil-rich country stood to benefit from Harare’s agriculture experience.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe survived years in colonial prisons and still more years of international isolation. He has weathered the challenge of a now weak and divided opposition, seen pressure from Western powers fade, and maintained support from neighbouring countries that still regard him as an African liberation hero.