Court proceedings are brought to a halt in Harare’s High Court D where two witnesses, flown in from Switzerland, are to testify in a murder case. The recording equipment has malfunctioned and the Justice Ministry is too broke to replace it. The Swiss ambassador to Zimbabwe, leaves the court and returns moments later with a cable — for which he paid R15 — so that the case can proceed.
Zimbabwe police want to press fresh charges of treason against opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party activists cleared last month on charges of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, authoritative sources told ZimOnline.
Zimbabwe’s overstretched health facilities are finding it hard enough to cater for living patients — but now one hospital doesn’t even have room for the dead. Bodies are piling up on the floor at the morgue at Mpilo Central Hospital in the city of Bulawayo and no more corpses are being accepted, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported.
Prisoners in some of Zimbabwe’s jails have to stay naked because of a shortage of uniforms that highlights deteriorating conditions.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday vowed to crush opposition protests as he hit back at a call for ”democratic resistance” in the Southern African country. It will never happen. ”We will not allow it,” he said, adding: ”If they [the opposition] are looking for death, let them go ahead and follow that route.”
Zimbabwe’s arms cache saga is ”far from over” even though the state has dropped charges against eight of the nine accused, a cabinet minister was reported as saying on Friday. ”People should not read anything into the state’s withdrawal of charges against [opposition] Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists before plea,” said the Manica Post newspaper, quoting Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi.
The knives are out for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono, with Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya the latest among a growing list of senior government officials to criticise the reformist RBZ chief and call for his wide-ranging powers to be clipped.
Weeks after police in Zimbabwe announced they had discovered an arms cache in eastern Zimbabwe, the authorities in Harare say they are introducing new laws to combat terrorism. Under the proposed new laws, the Zimbabwe government will be able to designate any organisation it believes is a ”foreign or international terrorist organisation” and declare it unlawful.
Zimbabwe announced on Sunday that it would set up its own human rights commission as part of its ”quest to create a culture of human rights”, said Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Chinamasa said the decision to create a human rights body came after an influx of ”manufactured” human rights abuses reports by non-governmental organisations in the past six years.
A white security expert arrested more than two weeks ago over a stash of weapons found at his home in eastern Zimbabwe has been denied bail, local reports said on Friday. ”The High Court yesterday [Thursday] denied a bail application by ex-Rhodesian soldier Peter Michael Hitschmann,” the radio said.
For the first time in at least 40 years, supplies of Coca-Cola dried up Wednesday in yet another sign of the crippling economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where people suffer acute bread shortages and farmers warn that worse is yet to come. Harare agents for the United States Coca-Cola company said local production of the drink stopped earlier this month, but refused to give official reasons.
Zimbabwe’s ruling party has accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of advocating war following his call for mass protests and warned of reprisals. The Zanu-PF party said in a statement that Tsvangirai should ”desist from attempts to incite civil disobedience” as it ”could lead to bloodshed and undermine democracy”.
Zimbabwe’s tobacco farmers are this year expected to produce just 55-million kilogrammes of tobacco, the lowest output for years, state radio reported on Tuesday. Tobacco production has been in steep decline since President Robert Mugabe’s government launched a controversial programme of seizing white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to new black farmers.
Zimbabwe State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has warned opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his supporters that the government will crush any mass protests against President Robert Mugabe. Tough-talking Mutasa also said the government is closely monitoring Tsvangirai.
Police in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo on Monday searched the offices of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), apparently looking for weapons, a party official said. ”They have started the search for arms of war at our offices,” said MDC spokesperson Maxwell Zimuto.
Zimbabwe’s veteran opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was on Sunday elected for a fresh tenure to lead his splintered party which has posed the most serious challenge to President Robert Mugabe’s long rule. ”The president has been nominated unopposed,” declared Movement for Democratic Change national chairperson Isaac Matongo after a two-day convention in the capital.
Supporters of Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai opened a two-day congress on Saturday, struggling not only against the autocratic rule of President Robert Mugabe but also against a damaging split in their own party. The meeting is the first since the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) split over whether to contest last November’s elections for a new upper house or Senate.
The Zimbabwe government plans to push legislation through Parliament to permit it to monitor telephones and e-mail messages, local reports said on Friday. The Interception of Communications Bill is due to be debated by parliament soon, said the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper. Parliament is dominated by President Robert Mugabe’s party.
Delegates began arriving in Harare on Friday for a weekend conference at which opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appeared certain to retain his post as leader of his faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). At least 10 000 delegates are expected to attend the conference that will see elections for all major party positions, said MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa.
Sweden on Thursday urged President Robert Mugabe’s government to mend fences with the West as it joined a United Nations humanitarian drive to help Zimbabweans. The Swedish donation of -million followed a United Nations appeal last year for humanitarian assistance to millions of Zimbabweans reeling from poverty, food shortages and galloping inflation.
An earth tremor shook parts of eastern Zimbabwe and Mozambique on Wednesday, less than three weeks after an earthquake hit the same area, state television said. ”There was an earth tremor in some parts of the country at around 2pm,” the state-controlled Newsnet said.
Zimbabwe faces a shortfall of 1,1-million tonnes of the national staple maize this year, the United States-based food-monitoring Famine Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) said. Fewsnet said the southern African country is most likely to harvest 700 000 tonnes of maize for the 2005/2006 farming season.
The state of Zimbabwe has withdrawn charges against an opposition MP and two party officials, arrested over an arms cache linked to a plot to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, and freed the three, their lawyer said on Wednesday. ”Giles Mutseyekwa and two other accused had their case withdrawn before plea.”
Zimbabwe will this coming winter implement a drastic power-rationing programme which will see whole cities and regions of the country switched off for periods ranging up to five hours, the state-owned Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC) said on Monday.
At least seven illegal gold panners have died in the past week just over Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique after heavy rains brought chaos to the area, reports from eastern Zimbabwe said on Friday. There are fears the casualty figure could be much higher.
Zimbabwe’s inflation rate hit an all-time high of 782% in February, according to government statistics released on Friday. ”The year-on-year rate of inflation in February 2006 was 782%, gaining 168,8 percentage points on the January rate of 613,2%,” Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the Central Statistical Office, said.
Lawyers for a group of men arrested after the discovery of an arms cache in Zimbabwe’s eastern city of Mutare were on Thursday still waiting for access to their clients, one of the lawyers said. ”We’re still waiting to get access to the accused,” said Tafadzwa Mugabe. He said it was not clear how many had been arrested.
Police discovered a weapons cache in eastern Zimbabwe and linked it to a little-known group that state radio identified on Wednesday as the military wing of the main opposition party. A spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rejected allegations it was linked to an armed group.
Security forces in Zimbabwe have discovered a stash of weapons in the east of the country and arrested a former member of the colonial Rhodesian forces over the find. The cache comprised a Kalashnikov 47 assault rifle, seven Uzi machine guns, four FN rifles, 11 shotguns, six CZ pistols, four revolvers, 15 tear gas canisters and several thousand rounds of ammunition.
Zimbabwe’s national blood transfusion service has been crippled by a lack of foreign currency and mobile teams have stopped collecting blood, local reports said on Tuesday. Mobile blood collecting teams bring in about 70% of Zimbabwe’s national blood stocks, the state-run Herald said.
Foreign big game hunters bid ,5-million to shoot leopards, lions, elephants and buffaloes in Zimbabwe this year, the state media reported on Sunday. In an annual state auction for hunting trophy ”bags” on Friday, 64 local agents and foreign hunters, including bidders from Austria, Germany, Russia, Spain and the United States, paid a fixed fee of four-million Zimbabwe dollars () for a licence to kill a lion.
Zimbabwe will amend its mining laws to allow the government to demand a 51% share in some foreign-owned mines, an official announced on Friday. ”The government wants to be an active participant in the mining business … In effect I am saying the principles to the Amendments of the Mines and Minerals Act have been presented and approved by Cabinet,” Mining Minister Amos Midzi told reporters in Harare.