Internet service providers in Zimbabwe have warned they will be driven out of business if the government goes ahead with proposed bugging laws that will necessitate the purchase of expensive surveillance equipment, reports said on Thursday.
Zimbabwe is proposing to add another repressive law to its raft of existing media legislation, further narrowing the space for freedom of expression. The proposed legislation appears to be a foregone conclusion, with electronic censorship apparatus already undergoing tests.
Zimbabwe’s rights record was under the spotlight on Wednesday with critics blasting a proposed surveillance Bill and the failure to resettle hundreds of thousands whose homes were razed last year. In a further blow, the economically ravaged country’s once-vibrant tobacco sector hit a new low on the last day of the auction season with sales expected to plummet 31%.
The head of Zimbabwe’s main state grain marketing board has been arrested on graft charges, police said on Saturday, days after another top executive was jailed in a new drive against growing corruption. President Robert Mugabe ordered a crackdown on graft last month to try to resolve Zimbabwe’s economic crisis.
The authorities in Zimbabwe have closed nearly 70 hotels and restaurants in the last week for operating without licences or being used for illicit sex, a minister said on Friday. ”We ordered the closure of these restaurants and some of these small hotels that were being turned into brothels since they were not registered,” Environment Minister Francis Nhema said.
The Zimbabwean army plans to go on a massive recruitment drive next year because veterans of the 1970s war of independence are due to retire from active service, reports said this week. Veterans of the guerrilla war that eventually ousted the white minority government have comprised the highest-ranking officers in the army, state television reported late on Thursday.
The authorities in Zimbabwe have threatened fuel dealers who have refused to cut fuel prices in line with a government directive. State radio said the dealers who are selling fuel for prices of up to 1Â 000 new Zimbabwe dollars ( at the official exchange rate) per litre, instead of the gazetted Z a litre for diesel and Z for petrol, would face legal action.
Zimbabwe has acquired another six jet fighters from its ally China for use by the air force, state media reported on Wednesday. The Herald quoted Defence Secretary Trust Maposa as telling lawmakers that the Chinese-made K-8 jets would be delivered within the next two months.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Security Didymus Mutasa is suing a state prosecutor and a private newspaper for defamation, reports said on Friday. Prosecutor Levyson Chikafu and the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper are each being sued for Z-million (Â 000), the state-controlled Herald reported.
Zimbabwe has slashed fuel prices for private motorists by almost half after gas station owners unilaterally hiked rates in the wake of a serious oil crunch, a state daily reported on Friday. ”Government and the oil industry have with immediate effect fixed the price of diesel at Z (,28) and that of petrol at Z a litre for all users in the country,” the Herald said.
A shock hike in the price of beer announced by the Zimbabwean government last month has virtually emptied most Harare nightspots of revellers. The price hike seems to have taken away the only safe way for most Zimbabweans to bury their sorrows, forcing many to resort to other, not-so-innocent means to find solace.
President Robert Mugabe warned critics on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s army stood ready to ”pull the trigger” against anyone seeking to topple him as a mounting political and economic crisis raises fears of unrest. Opposition leaders this year called for street protests to end Mugabe’s long rule, which they say has reduced the country to an economic basket case.
A Zimbabwe businessman who police say insulted President Robert Mugabe has been arrested under tough security laws that bar any remarks ”undermining the authority or insulting” the 82-year-old leader. Tichaona Muchabaiwa was arrested on the weekend on charges of uttering abusive words about Mugabe, the official Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Monday warned new black farmers to either produce food on farms taken from whites or have the land seized by the government. Speaking at a Heroes’ Day celebration, the long-time Southern African leader also warned that ”economic saboteurs” and illegal money changers will be harshly punished.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday hit out at corruption in the country after reports said security had been boosted around the central bank governor because of his unpopular anti-corruption drive. In a speech to mark Heroes’ Day, Mugabe told thousands of supporters in Harare that wrongful self-enrichment will not be allowed to go unpunished.
Zimbabwe’s central bank chief urged a collective fight against the ”inflation dragon” on Friday, saying it still posed a major threat to the economy despite falling to just under 1Â 000% recently. ”The successive modest decline in annual inflation over the months for June and July is a welcome development,” Gideon Gono said in a statement.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday he was in good health, and denied suggestions in web-based media that he had left the country at the weekend to seek medical treatment. State television said Mugabe returned home after a three-day private visit to Malaysia to join his wife who had accompanied a group of local students to a university there.
Zimbabwe security agents have seized more than Z-trillion in old banknotes at the country’s main airport in a drive against money laundering, state media reported on Wednesday. The official Herald newspaper said the agents intercepted the money at Harare International airport on Tuesday as it was being smuggled back into the country.
Zimbabwe is this week expected to seal a -million deal with Russia for the supply of five Ilyushin and Tupolev commercial airplanes as President Robert Mugabe’s government steps up efforts to strengthen economic ties with East European and Asian countries, sources told independent news service ZimOnline.
Fuel retailers in Zimbabwe have hiked prices by up to 50% as the Southern African country faced fresh shortages amid rampant inflation and a devalued currency, a state-run daily reported on Tuesday. ”Diesel and petrol prices went up at the weekend from about Z 000 (,60) per litre to between Z 000 and Z 000,” the Herald newspaper said.
Zimbabwe’s book fair, once Africa’s proudest annual literary celebration, now has only one tale to tell — the decline of a country brought to its knees by political and economic woes. The cultural life of the Southern African country — books, music, film and theatre — is being strangled by a severe economic crisis many critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Poachers have killed at least nine rare black rhinos in a conservation area in central Zimbabwe, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Monday. Poaching is said to be on the increase in cash-strapped Zimbabwe where wildlife officials battle with ever-dwindling resources that stop them from effectively safeguarding rare game.
Charges of attempting to obstruct the course of justice have been dropped against Zimbabwe’s justice minister because no magistrate is prepared to hear the case out of fear, it was reported on Wednesday. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa was facing charges of attempting to influence witnesses in a political-violence case that involved the country’s Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party is to set up a political school to train cadres along the lines of China’s communist party, it was reported on Wednesday. Elliot Manyika, Zanu-PF’s national commissar, made the announcement following a lecture by visiting academics from the Communist Party of China, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe’s central bank devalued its dollar by 60% on Monday after announcing it had decided to knock three zeros off all banknotes to help consumers cope with hyperinflation of nearly 1Â 200%. ”With immediate effect the inter-bank exchange rate has been adjusted to the trading level, after the removal of the three zeroes,” central bank head Gideon Gono said.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) plans to get older women to strip during forthcoming anti-government protests, a party official was quoted as saying on Friday. Women are the weapons the MDC will use to put the right leader in power, the Manica Post newspaper quoted MDC official Grace Kwinjeh as saying.
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa announced new measures on Thursday to raise state revenues in the face of rampant inflation, including extra levies on fuel and the construction of toll gates on all major highways. Taxes on gasoline and diesel will increase and eight new toll gates will be added, he said.
Zimbabwe’s junior information minister, Bright Matonga, and a co-accused were granted bail of Z-million () on Wednesday following their arrest for corruption. Police detained Matonga as well as Charles Nherera, chairperson of the state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company, late on Tuesday in the capital.
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor Gideon Gono has become so unpopular that some ruling party officials want him dead, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying in the Herald newspaper on Wednesday.
Millionaire Zimbabwean businessman John Bredenkamp was freed on bail late on Tuesday after four days in custody. Bredenkamp (66) was arrested in a dawn raid on Friday at his farm outside Harare for suspected tax evasion, foreign currency and passport violations. Bredenkamp told reporters he did not regret returning to Zimbabwe last week to confront the accusations against him.
President Robert Mugabe opened a new legislative year on Tuesday with a low key speech to Parliament, blaming economic problems on Britain and other Western critics of his human rights record. Zimbabwe is in a state of economic collapse, suffering from the world’s highest inflation rate — more than 1 000% — and shortages of all basic goods.
Authorities in Zimbabwe have suspended all sales of ivory in a bid to stop underhand deals, it was reported on Monday. The decision was reached after a meeting between the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and the recently established Zimbabwe Ivory Manufacturers’ Association, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.