Foreign landowners in Zimbabwe will be allowed to appeal against the seizure of their farms in court, a government minister said on Wednesday in what appeared to be a bid to calm outside investors. State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said amendments to the Constitution that block white farmers from such appeals did not apply to farms protected by government-to-government agreements.
Zimbabwe’s domestic debt ballooned by 40% in just one month, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday. Total government domestic debt stood at Z-trillion (-million) as of June 2, up from Z-trillion at the beginning of May, said the daily.
Zimbabwe Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya has restructured the state broadcaster in an apparent bid to wipe out changes made by his controversial predecessor Jonathan Moyo, according to reports on Wednesday. Jokonya said the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings would have a new board of directors.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change will be ”trashed” if it attempts to overthrow the government of President Robert Mugabe, a ruling party spokesperson was quoted as saying on Thursday. Nathan Shamuyarira accused the Brussels-based International Crisis Group of urging the opposition to organise a coup, said the official Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwean churches trying to address the worsening political and economic crises are being thrust into the unfamiliar role of political activism, and are perceived as split along party lines. Church groups perceived to support President Robert Mugabe and those who favour a faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have been attacking each other.
The Zimbabwe government has stationed soldiers and police on roads leading into cities to prevent farmers from moving maize to a black market for the grain in urban areas, forcing them to instead sell to the state-owned Grain Marketing Board, independent news service ZimOnline reported on Wednesday.
Coal supplies to Zimbabwe’s main power stations have been massively scaled down, further crippling electricity supply in the struggling Southern African country. Power cuts took a rapid turn for the worse this weekend, with residents of some parts of Harare and other cities reporting cuts lasting up to seven hours every day since Friday.
Zimbabwe has signed a .3-billion deal with China to set up coal mines and three thermal power stations, a state newspaper reported on Monday. Zimbabwe’s economically ravaged electricity supplier has over the past three months resorted to extensive power cuts for up to six hours as it battles acute power shortages.
The former executive chairperson removed from Zimbabwe’s troubled power utility says his tenure at the helm of the company was a ”nightmare”. Sydney Gata had his post abolished this week when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, which is experiencing serious viability problems, was restructured.
Economically ravaged Zimbabwe’s inflation rate soared to a record high of 1 193,5% for May, officials said on Friday. ”The year-on-year rate of inflation in May 2006 was 1 193,5%, gaining 150,6 percentage points on the April rate of 1 042,9%,” said Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the Central Statistical Office.
A government-appointed investigation team has accused Zimbabwe’s main labour body — which is planning protests later this month — of flouting exchange-control regulations and other gross financial irregularities, the state-controlled Herald reported on Friday.
Public clinics and hospitals in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, are running out of desperately needed drugs to treat tuberculosis as a worsening hard-currency shortage hits state health facilities, it was reported on Thursday. Overcrowding and poor hygiene have seen increasing cases of TB surfacing in Harare.
Zimbabwean rights groups are preparing to fight a new Bill that would allow state agents to eavesdrop on private conversations and monitor faxes and e-mails. The Interception of Communications Bill is the latest in a series of laws critics say are meant to crush government opponents and emasculate the country’s once-vibrant independent press.
Well-known Zimbabwean business tycoon John Bredenkamp has fled the country after the authorities began investigating him for alleged economic crimes, a media report said on Wednesday. Bredenkamp slipped out of the country in a private jet on Tuesday, the Herald newspaper said.
Journalists for Zimbabwe’s state-owned media earn tiny salaries well below the poverty line, a situation that means they can be easily ”manipulated”. Some reporters for the public media are taking home a monthly salary of Zim-million (), a wage that is far below the poverty line of Zim-million, reported the Herald, itself a state-owned daily.
Eighteen people died and 43 were injured early on Tuesday when a truck carrying mourners crashed into a tree in western Zimbabwe, a police spokesperson told Agence France-Presse. ”Eighteen people were killed on the spot after the truck they were travelling in veered off the road and hit a tree,” police inspector Andrew Phiri said.
Five people were killed and 24 others injured when a freight train rear-ended a passenger train on Saturday in southern Zimbabwe, state television reported. ”The derailment occurred after a goods train that was travelling from Rutenga to Gweru rammed into the back of a passenger train,” the broadcaster said.
Zimbabwe’s state-run power company Zesa Holdings has warned of more electricity blackouts over a forex crunch, which is hampering the overhaul of damaged generation and distribution equipment, as the country’s economy teeters on the brink of meltdown.
Zimbabwe’s invitation to United Nations chief Kofi Annan to visit the country still stands, but may no longer be relevant, a senior government official was quoted as saying on Thursday. There has been some confusion over whether Annan is still expected in the Southern African country.
A man who gunned down a white Zimbabwean farmer four years ago has been sentenced to death by the Zimbabwe High Court, reports said on Wednesday. Munetsi Kadzinga (31) was sentenced to death by high court Judge Bharat Patel on Tuesday after he was convicted of murdering farmer Charles Anderson in 2002, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported.
President Robert Mugabe’s government is heightening repression against Zimbabwe’s opposition and critics of the veteran leader’s long rule, analysts say. Last week, the government published proposed legislation that would give it the authority to monitor phones and mail — both conventional and electronic.
Authorities in Zimbabwe want all political parties to be registered to prevent ”rogue parties” contesting future elections, reports said on Monday. Zimbabwe is deeply divided between supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea signed an agreement that will see the two countries trading energy resources, Zimbabwean radio reported on Monday. But the authorities stressed it was a ”purely commercial agreement” and there was no indication that the deal might involve the extradition of Simon Mann.
Zimbabwe’s government has published a Bill that, if passed by Parliament, would enable state agents to eavesdrop on private conversations and monitor faxes and e-mails, a state daily reported on Saturday. Rights groups have slammed the proposed law as further tightening President Robert Mugabe’s iron grip on the media and communications.
Zimbabwe says an invitation to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is no longer valid following reports that Annan might use the visit to press President Robert Mugabe to step down after more than two decades in power. ”Zimbabwe is not a UN issue,” Mugabe spokesperson George Charamba was quoted as saying in state media on Thursday.
The government of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said it would ”descend” on schools in the country that hiked fees without permission from the authorities, it was reported on Thursday. The threat appears to be directed mainly at private schools, which are often run by trusts in Zimbabwe.
A by-election in the Harare township of Budiriro will offer the clearest barometer yet of the electoral support that the two Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) factions command. That is if voters are not confused by the bizarre phenomenon that the MDC logo will appear twice on the ballot paper.
Zimbabwe’s biggest labour federation on Saturday threatened to call massive demonstrations against the government over poor salaries and worsening living conditions for workers in the country. Meanwhile, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change also said it will push ahead with plans for anti-government protests.
Police in Zimbabwe have arrested two South African immigration officials and their Zimbabwean counterpart as they tried to smuggle cigarettes and ivory across the border into South Africa, a media report said on Saturday. A police spokesperson said He said 412 cartons of cigarettes and five bags with more than 100 pieces of ivory ornaments concealed under blankets were discovered.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has donated 100 computers to 10 schools in Harare ahead of a parliamentary by-election in a key suburb, reports said on Friday. Voters in the low-income suburb of Budiriro are due to go to the polls on Saturday to fill a parliamentary seat left vacant by the death of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change MP Gilbert Shoko.
Songs, plays and heart-rending testimonies on Thursday marked the first anniversary of Zimbabwe’s demolitions blitz, which left hundreds of thousands homeless and destitute. Reti Chakadenga, a former house owner now living among the destitutes on the banks of a river on the outskirts of Harare, sniffed and battled to hold back tears.
Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless has acquired a 65% stake in ST Cellular of Burundi, one of four licensed operators in the Central African country. ”The investment in Burundi is part of our expansion strategy to invest and grow in targeted emerging markets in Africa and beyond,” said Zachary Wazara, Econet’s executive director.