Only 40% of the 11-million hectares of land seized from whites since February 2000 have been taken over by black farmers, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying on Friday. Mugabe told an annual gathering of 100 traditional tribal leaders the government had resumed allocating land after a temporary halt, according to state radio and the official Herald newspaper.
A Nigerian national was arrested on an Air Zimbabwe flight to Harare after he threatened other passengers, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. The man, who was not named, was arrested on Wednesday at Kamuzu International airport in Lilongwe, Malawi, for behaving in a manner that compromised the safety of other passengers, said the newspaper.
Namibia’s justice minister has praised Zimbabwe’s controversial programme of farm seizures, saying newspapers that run negative stories about the country are taken over by forces opposed to the success of Africanism, it was reported on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has ordered Attorney General (AG) Sobuza Gula-Ndebele to drop charges of political violence against ruling Zanu-PF party supporters and state security agents, authoritative sources told ZimOnline on Monday.
At least 250 Zimbabwean medical interns have gone on strike at the financially troubled country’s state hospitals, demanding a more than 700% pay increase, a spokesperson said on Monday. ”The strike started off slowly on Thursday last week, but now everyone has joined in,” said Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa, president of the Hospital Doctors’ Association.
Zimbabwe’s health minister has ordered striking junior doctors back to work, accusing them of ”biting the hand that feeds” them, reports said on Monday. The doctors, based at two major hospitals in Harare, have been on strike since last week, ever since they were informed they were going to be deployed to district hospitals for a year, said the Herald newspaper.
Becoming a millionaire in Zimbabwe is easy these days, but wallets and purses have given way to car boots and suitcases as the crucial accessory for carrying wads of nearly worthless cash. As the country battles hyper-inflation and grinding fuel and foreign exchange shortages amid a seven-year economic slump, ordinary citizens have resigned themselves to wry humour to deal with the situation.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party is planning a major cleansing exercise to remove elements who are tarnishing its image with bad behaviour, President Robert Mugabe told leading party members on Friday. ”You are not being fair — some people are just being crookish,” he was quoted as telling 400 members of his Zanu-PF central committee.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday rebuffed calls to declare a state of emergency to stop the country’s economic freefall as it ”would send the wrong signals”. Instead, the cash-strapped country will ”soldier on” and pursue its policy of finding financial partners in Asia, rather than depend on Western aid, Mugabe told the state-owned Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe has missed its target to raise wheat output to a record 500 000 tons after farmers reduced plantings, raising fears of bread shortages, the official Herald newspaper reported on Friday. Farmers planted about 58 000ha of wheat, considerably lower than the 110 000ha targeted by the government in a bid to boost food security, the newspaper said.
A top official of South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) said in Harare on Thursday that his party supports the appointment of former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa as a mediator in the alleged Zimbabwean crisis with Britain.
A white Zimbabwean security expert who has been in police cells since March for allegedly plotting to overthrow President Robert Mugabe’s government has been denied bail for a third time, reports said on Thursday. Michael Hitschmann was arrested after detectives found what they said was a cache of arms at his house in the eastern city of Mutare.
Zimbabwean police arrested more than 200 activists in three cities on Wednesday as they marched to demand a new Constitution to replace one seen entrenching President Robert Mugabe’s rule, a lobby group said. The National Constitutional Assembly said about 1 060 people took to the streets at midday in the capital Harare as well as in Bulawayo, Mutare, Gweru and Masvingo.
Police in central Zimbabwe have arrested an official from the pro-democracy National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) as the group began muted protests in several cities, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Police in Masvingo city arrested Raymond Muzenda, the NCA’s chairperson for the region.
A legislator from Zimbabwe’s embattled opposition Movement for Democratic Change on Tuesday appeared in court on charges of conspiracy to cause public violence in connection with an attack on the country’s only white female MP, a lawyer said.
Zimbabwe police have banned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai from addressing a rally in a major town over fears he is mobilising support for anti-government protests. Tsvangirai’s main Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has warned President Robert Mugabe to brace for wave of ”peaceful democratic resistance” against his 26-year rule if he continues to resist political reforms.
Britain says the crisis in former colony Zimbabwe is a result of bad policy and not a bilateral dispute between the two nations as President Robert Mugabe claims, it was reported on Friday. British Embassy in Harare spokesperson Gillian Dare told the Herald newspaper that there was no need for mediation between Zimbabwe and Britain because Zimbabwe suffers from a purely internal crisis.
Zimbabwe is facing billions of dollars in foreign debt while internal debt has risen to the highest figure since independence from Britain in 1980, its central bank said on Thursday. Statistics by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe showed that the crises-hit Southern African country owed ,9-billion against export receipts, while internal debt rose to -million.
Police in Zimbabwe are hunting the attackers of a prominent white opposition lawmaker amid calls for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai to step down, reports said on Thursday. Trudy Stevenson, the MDC legislator for Harare North, was attacked on Sunday in the Harare township of Mabvuku by a group of about 40 youths.
The main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change launched an investigation on Wednesday into a brutal attack on a prominent lawmaker in a rival opposition faction. The leader of the MDC’s main faction, Morgan Tsvangirai, appointed a panel of lawyers and human rights experts to investigate the attack on Trudy Stevenson.
Well-known Zimbabwean opposition legislator Trudy Stevenson has been attacked with stones and a machete by youths belonging to a rival opposition faction, reports in Harare said on Tuesday. Stevenson had to be rushed to a private Harare hospital on Sunday after the attack, which left her with a deep gash to her head.
President Robert Mugabe may have bought himself more time after skilfully evading United Nations pressure by persuading the world body’s Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to cancel his visit to Zimbabwe and instead back mediation between Harare and former colonial power London, analysts say.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has held talks with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Gambia, and Annan will definitely not be going to Harare later this year, Zimbabwe state television reported late on Saturday.
Zimbabwean prison officials on Saturday released three South African spies who were jailed for life in 1988 for murder and sabotage, a state daily reported. ”Three South African spies, who were jailed for life in 1988 for murder and sabotage … will be released today [Saturday} from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison following a Presidential pardon,” the Herald reported.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday left for Gambia to attend an African Union summit and ”might” meet United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan there, a top official said. ”When he [Mugabe] attends these meetings … he might meet him [Annan],” acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana told the media.
Splits are deepening in Zimbabwe’s ruling party over the continued tenure of the extravagance-loving mayoress of Harare, reports said on Friday. The central committee of the Harare branch of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) has passed a vote of ”no confidence” in Sekesai Makwavarara, state ZBC radio reported.
An Air Zimbabwe plane experiencing engine failure burst two tyres during an emergency landing at the north-west resort of Victoria Falls, state-run media reported on Thursday. An unspecified number of passengers complained of minor injuries during Wednesday’s landing, according to the Herald, a government mouthpiece.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe was still not sure if he would meet with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan at the upcoming African Union (AU) summit in Gambia this coming weekend, a party spokesperson said on Wednesday. Reports from South Africa have suggested Mugabe would meet both Annan and South African President Thabo Mbeki on the sidelines of the AU summit in Banjul.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF on Sunday said most Zimbabweans are grateful for its rule and dismissed as insignificant a new opposition political party launched at the weekend. The United People’s Party was launched last Saturday by former Zanu-PF provincial chairperson Daniel Shumba.
A Zimbabwean court on Monday moved the trial of an ex-Rhodesian soldier accused of masterminding a plot to topple President Robert Mugabe to the eastern city of Mutare, officials said. Peter Hitschmann was arrested in early March along with seven others, including an opposition parliamentarian.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Sunday urged churches to help state efforts to revive the country’s ruined economy but warned that priests who dabbled in politics could face a ”vicious” backlash. ”We cannot do without each other as the church and the state,” Mugabe told thousands who gathered at a stadium outside the capital Harare to pray for an end to Zimbabwe’s deepening economic and political crises.
The Zimbabwe government has paid out Z-billion (,4-million) to 206 white farmers whose lands were seized under the land-reform programme, money which the farmers criticise as being too little, reports said on Friday. The total works out at an average of Z,1-billion ( 000) per farmer at the government’s official rate of exchange.