Harare

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he is ready to work with reformists in the ruling Zanu-PF party to end the country’s crisis, but analysts say the former trade unionist will find no suitors in a governing party that considers him severely weakened following a split in the opposition two years ago.

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party stands by its decision to harmonise elections in 2010, saying it showed confidence in the leadership of President Robert Mugabe. Didymus Mutasa, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party’s secretary for administration, said that holding elections in 2010 instead of 2008 was ”ideal”.

China has denied that it is about to begin negotiations for a -billion loan to cash-strapped Zimbabwe, reports said on Thursday. Last week Zimbabwe’s ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa told Zimbabwe’s Herald newspaper that the Asian economic giant had assigned an official to begin talks on the loan with Zimbabwe’s finance minister and central bank governor.

Zimbabwean police have arrested at least 16 000 suspected gold panners and seized more than three kilogrammes of gold in a sweeping crackdown on illegal miners. Among those arrested were dealers from neighbouring Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique caught up in a swoop on illegal traders at newly-discovered diamond fields in eastern Zimbabwe.

A street entertainer put the shell of a broken television over his head, mimicked a TV performer and invited passers-by to do the same to make their children laugh — for a small donation. ”Hey, and you don’t need electricity for this television,” he quipped. His performance gave some Christmas cheer in an otherwise gloomy Harare shopping mall.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday urged Zimbabwe to institute sharp cuts in public spending to prevent a further unravelling of its economy after wrapping up a two-week assessment. ”Going forward, the key will be first to ensure that sharp cuts are made in real terms in fiscal spending,” the global lender said in a statement.

Pushing presidential elections to 2010 could prove costly for Zimbabwe as it is certain to increase negative publicity for a country that will also be eyeing a share of Africa’s first World Cup hosting, analysts warned on Friday. Presidential elections are scheduled for 2008 but could be moved to 2010 to coincide with parliamentary polls.

Ethiopia’s brutal former president Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was this week convicted of genocide, is an unwelcome guest in Zimbabwe and must be extradited to face justice, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe has received a -million grant from the United Nations to bolster its fight against HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, a government minister said on Thursday. ”We signed the agreement with them [the UN’s Global Fund] yesterday [Wednesday],” Deputy Health Minister Edwin Muguti said.

Veteran Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, who is due to step down in 2008 after a 28-year rule, has endorsed the idea of his presidency being extended by another two years. In comments published by the state-run Herald newspaper, 82-year-old Mugabe said it would make sense for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held simultaneously.

Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government is struggling to provide for its army, with most soldiers set to earn salaries far below the breadline next year, according to a report by a special parliamentary committee on defence. Harare has in the past gone out of its way to meet almost every cash request from the Ministry of Defence.

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe has virtually stopped issuing passports and identity cards after running out of funds to import ink and special paper, officials said on Tuesday. Scores of dejected people thronged the registrar general’s office and walked out after officials said they had suspended issuing passports, witnesses said on Tuesday.

Zimbabwe’s finance minister has dismissed rumours he is at loggerheads with central bank Governor Gideon Gono as the country’s economic crisis deepens, reports said on Tuesday. In an interview with the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Herbert Murerwa said he had no problems with the feisty Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe chief.

United Nations special envoy James Morris on Monday told Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that his government should ensure food security in the country of 12-million in order to halt a seven-year economic meltdown. Zimbabwe is in the throes of a damaging economic crisis that has driven inflation to 1 098,8%.

Zimbabwe’s controversial State Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa, was just joking when he criticised South Africa for passing laws allowing same-sex marriage, a Cabinet minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In between scribbling, shuffling small pieces of paper and tapping calculators, the brokers yell loudly, clamouring for attention. It’s another busy day at the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. The bull run here is an odd side effect of an economic crisis that has seen inflation spiral to over 1 000% while unemployment has hit 80% and poverty levels have soared.

Zimbabwe’s top union body on vowed Tuesday to stage new protests against the government, saying it had failed to address the plight of workers reeling under four-digit inflation, high taxes and a shrinking labour market. Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions president Lovemore Matombo expressed outrage at ”the failure by the minister of finance to address fundamental economic issues”.

Zimbabwe now has the world’s highest percentage of children orphaned by Aids, with almost one in every four children having lost at least one parent to the disease, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe is among the countries worst hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic, which kills more than 3 000 people every week.

Zimbabwe, reeling under an economic meltdown, has frozen fees charged by private schools and will impose jail terms on offenders, Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere was quoted as saying on Tuesday. He said many schools had hiked ”their fees and levies excessively, placing themselves beyond the reach of many schoolchildren”.

Zimbabwe’s embattled finance minister has set a Herculean task of slashing four-digit inflation by two-thirds and getting the ruined economy back on track, but experts say his latest Budget is not up to the job.Presenting the Budget for 2007 on Thursday, Herbert Murerwa forecast marginal growth of 0,5% to 1% and added that the country’s astronomic inflation rate would fall to 350%.

Zimbabwe has turned the corner in the fight against Aids, but progress is still being undermined by the state of the economy, President Robert Mugabe said on Friday. In a statement to mark World Aids Day, Mugabe said the country should now focus on behaviour change and address the identified drivers of the pandemic.

Global anti-corruption group Transparency International says corruption is on the rise in Zimbabwe, ranking the country 130th out of 150 countries polled. Transparency’s corruption index ranks countries according to perceived levels of corruption as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys.

Zimbabwe’s finance minister predicted on Thursday marginal economic growth in the coming year and that the country’s four-figure inflation rate would dip to 350% as he presented the budget for 2007. ”The economy is expected to grow marginally by between 0,5% and 1% in 2007,” Herbert Murerwa told MPs in Harare.