Zimbabwean security forces raided the headquarters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Saturday and picked up scores of party youths attending a meeting, a party spokesperson said. Dozens of police in riot gear cordoned off the area around the First Street shopping mall in central Harare.
Zimbabwe’s soldiers are not starving, a government minister was quoted as saying on Friday, refuting press reports that the army was running out of food and might have to suspend training of recruits. ”It is not true that the soldiers are starving as reported,” Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said.
Recruits at Zimbabwe’s notorious youth camps live in substandard barracks, get very little food and may be at risk of sexual abuse, a new report said on Thursday. Trainees at the National Youth Service camps, set up to supposedly instil patriotism in young Zimbabweans, frequently go to bed hungry, according to a parliamentary report.
Momentum is building to start South African-brokered talks to resolve Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis. But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has again refused demands that before talks proceed, it recognise President Robert Mugabe as the nation’s legitimately elected leader.
Zimbabwe’s white commercial farmers have reported an increase in invasions on their farms ahead of a deadline for them to leave land due to be taken by President Robert Mugabe’s government. Mugabe’s government has given hundreds of white farmers until August to vacate the farms.
Fed up with your tenants? Just take off their roof. That’s what one frustrated Zimbabwean landlord did last week, reports said on Tuesday. The landlord hired workers from the low-income Kuwadzana suburb in Harare on Friday to remove tiles from a house he was renting to four families, press reports said.
Zimbabwe will cooperate with South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to mediate between the government and the opposition but would not welcome any ”parallel initiatives”, state media reported on Saturday. Southern African leaders asked Mbeki in March to mediate between the government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party remains committed to negotiations with the government despite an intensified crackdown in which many of its members have been arrested or detained, it said on Friday. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says more than 600 opposition supporters have been abducted and tortured by government agents since February.
A reporter with one of Zimbabwe’s official newspapers got ”a taste of state medicine” last week when police angrily confiscated his camera and press card after a Cabinet minister accused him of spreading falsehoods, it was reported on Friday.
Zimbabwe’s cost of living doubled in a single month in April as annual inflation surged to 3Â 713,9%, a further sign of economic turmoil in a country where four in five people are jobless. The Central Statistical Office said on Thursday prices jumped by 100,7% last month after a 50,5% rise in March.
Zimbabwe farmers have only planted 10% of the targeted winter wheat-crop hectarage just two weeks before the recommended planting deadline lapses, official media reported, stoking fears of bread shortages. The Southern African country has grappled with shortages of food since 2001.
Zimbabwe has dropped charges against the lawyer representing former British special forces officer Simon Mann, state media reported on Wednesday. Mann is fighting extradition to Equatorial Guinea to face coup-plot charges. His lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, was arrested on Monday night for allegedly falsifying information on a visa application.
Dozens of doctors at four of Zimbabwe’s largest state hospitals began striking on Tuesday to demand higher pay, their spokesperson said. ”It’s the same old story. We are asking for a salary review as government doctors are surviving on less than one United States dollar a week,” Hospital Doctors’ Association president Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa said.
Authorities in Zimbabwe have yet again had to delay the release of annual inflation figures amid fears the new figure could be as high as 3Â 000%, reports said on Tuesday. Inflation figures are supposed to be released on the 10th of each month, give or take a day for weekends.
The Zimbabwe government plans to expand the controversial youth training programme, the recruits of which have been criticised for serious rights violations, reports said on Monday. The announcement by Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere in Monday’s official Herald newspaper comes less than a year ahead of crunch presidential and parliamentary polls.
Lawyers for jailed Briton Simon Mann, the alleged mastermind of a foiled coup in Equatorial Guinea, have launched a bid to stop his extradition from Zimbabwe to the West African state. ”We have filed an appeal in the High Court,” his lawyer, Jonathan Samkange, said on Friday. Harare magistrate Omega Mugumbate on Wednesday granted an application for Mann’s extradition.
Zimbabwe’s state power utility sought to allay fears on Thursday of wide power cuts, saying households would not automatically see daily power cuts but would not be guaranteed supplies during the winter cropping season. Zesa Holdings said the cuts would be subject to demand from wheat farmers who need electricity to irrigate their crops.
Briton Simon Mann was denied bail by a Zimbabwean court on Thursday pending an appeal against his extradition to Equatorial Guinea to face coup-plot charges. ”The court is of the view that the applicant is not suitable for bail,” ruled magistrate Omega Mugumbate. ”The court thus declines to grant the application.”
A Zimbabwean court has turned down a request to allow two sister newspapers, which were shut down by the government four years ago, to resume publishing, media reports said on Thursday. High Court Judge Anne-Mary Gowora on Wednesday dismissed an application by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe for its newspapers to be deemed registered.
Zimbabwe’s government announced 20-hour daily electricity cuts for households across the country on Wednesday as supplies are shifted to irrigate the winter wheat crop amid persistent food shortages. The country has already been experiencing power cuts due to the declining capacity of its aging power plants.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Wednesday accused President Robert Mugabe’s government of continuing a crackdown on opponents and called for an African Union crisis summit to resolve the country’s problems. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says Mugabe’s government has intensified a crackdown on its members.
A Zimbabwe court agreed on Wednesday to extradite a Briton wanted on coup-plot charges in Equatorial Guinea, rejecting defence arguments he would not receive a fair trial. Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer, has been held in Zimbabwe since he was convicted in September 2004 of attempting to purchase weapons without a licence.
Nurses at Zimbabwe’s major government hospitals are not reporting for work because they cannot afford transport costs due to low wages, the country’s health minister said. David Parirenyatwa told the official Herald newspaper that many nurses at state-run hospitals were suffering.
Armed police violently broke up a demonstration of lawyers wearing traditional legal gowns outside Zimbabwe’s High Court on Tuesday and took several away and beat them, the independent Law Society and witnesses said. One group was taken to open grassland in the Eastlea suburb of Harare where they were assaulted, said attorney Beatrice Mtetwa.
Zimbabwe’s poverty line shot up by 82,88% as soaring inflation wreaked havoc on daily life, figures from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) showed on Tuesday. A family of five now requires ZÂ 715Â 000 a month to meet its most basic needs, said acting CSO director Moffat Nyoni in a poverty analysis report.
The ruling party has resolved differences over a power struggle to succeed President Robert Mugabe and backed him to stay in office for another six years. Didymus Mutasa, the powerful number three official in Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party, said Mugabe’s succession was now off the agenda.
A rogue buffalo killed three people in Zimbabwe’s wildlife-rich Zambezi Valley, including a husband and wife working in their fields, a newspaper reported on Monday. Thirty-three-year-old Adam Wesile was killed as he tried to rescue his wife, Felistas, from the buffalo in their cotton field in Mushumbi, northern Zimbabwe, said the Herald.
A Zimbabwean court has ordered the release of two opposition lawyers arrested in the capital last week after challenging a ministerial certificate. The lawyers, Alec Muchadehama and partner Andrew Makoni, were arrested late on Friday after challenging the certificate issued by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi barring the courts from granting bail to their clients.
At least 40 rare black rhinos have been poached in Zimbabwe in national parks and private game reserves in the last three years, reports said on Saturday. Zimbabwe’s black rhino population is under siege from poachers, Melody Maunze of the Harare office of the WWF was quoted as telling the official Herald newspaper.
A young Australian diplomat on her first foreign posting is lucky to be alive after being severely mauled by lions at a game park near the Zimbabwean capital Harare. She and other embassy staff were taken into a lion pen by a handler when a lion suddenly pounced on her head and shook her.
Zimbabwe prosecutors on Wednesday urged a court to accept Equatorial Guinea’s request to extradite a Briton wanted on coup-plot charges, but defence lawyers said the request lacked merit. Simon Mann, a former British special forces officer, is being held at a top security prison in Zimbabwe.
A top official and strategist in Zimbabwe’s main opposition movement led by Morgan Tsvangirai has died, leaving a big gap in the party ahead of general elections next year, a party spokesperson said on Wednesday. Isaac Matongo (60), a former trade unionist and chairperson of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, died early on Wednesday.