Harare

Five members of South Africa’s governing African National Congress party have arrived in Harare, the first group of foreign observers in Zimbabwe to monitor the March 31 vote, an electoral official said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe, under close scrutiny in the region to measure whether it will hold free and fair elections, has invited 45 foreign observer teams for the parliamentary polls.

The Zimbabwe High Court on Wednesday reduced by four months the sentences of a group of suspected mercenaries jailed over an alleged coup plot in the oil-rich state of Equatorial Guinea, a court official said. The official said the men would be freed into the custody of Zimbabwe’s immigration department for deportation to South Africa since they have been declared illegal immigrants.

Zimbabwe’s former information minister Jonathan Moyo, who was sacked after falling out of favour with President Robert Mugabe, has taken legal steps to stop his eviction from a government house, a state-run daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has blasted ruling party officials for selling secrets to foreign governments in his first reaction on an alleged espionage ring involving senior Zanu-PF members and a South African spy. The state-run Herald daily on Monday quoted the octogenarian leader as saying that nobody involved in spying would be let off the hook.

Five years after Zimbabwe launched a controversial land-grab programme to redress colonial imbalances, thousands of white farmers have mounted a last-ditch battle to fight a state bid to have them legally endorsed. ”We are fighting an attempt to legitimise an illegal process,” said Mike Clark, an official of the Commercial Farmers’ Union.

An recently established independent paper in Zimbabwe, the Weekly Times, has been shut down for allegedly violating the country’s tough media laws, its owner, Godfrey Ncube, said on Saturday. The paper is the fourth to be closed in the Southern African country since the enactment of the media laws in 2002.

Zimbabwe’s former captain Heath Streak has signed a contract to rejoin the country’s cricket squad following his axing last year over a row about racial bias in selection, Zimbabwe Cricket said on Friday. Streak is one of the most senior players to return to boost the Southern African nation’s flagging fortunes.

A military court on Thursday fined and demoted two Zimbabwean army officers after one of their subordinates accidentally shot 14 spectators during a mock battle at a fair last September. They breached the Defence Act by failing to carry out ”necessary safety precautions”, including ensuring that their troops would not use live ammunition during the show.

Zimbabwean rebel cricketer Andy Blignaut has rejoined his country’s cricket squad and signed a contract, following his axing last year over a row about racial bias in selection, Zimbabwe Cricket said on Monday. Blignaut is one of 15 mainly senior players who were sacked after they demanded the reinstatement of former captain Heath Streak.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe on Sunday prepared to celebrate his 81st birthday, launching a fresh attack on British Prime Minister Tony Blair and hitting out at his sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo. Mugabe also described the relationship between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and former colonial ruler Britain as ”treasonous”.

The Russian Federation is the only European country among 32 nations invited by President Robert Mugabe to observe next month’s crunch parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe, state radio reported on Saturday, quoting Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge. Of the 32 invited countries, 23 are from Africa, five from Asia, three from the Americas and Russia.

An outgoing lawmaker and senior official in President Robert Mugabe’s party charged with spying for neighbouring South Africa has been freed by the High Court. Phillip Chiyangwa is alleged to have led a spy ring with five others, including Zanu-PF party security officials, diplomats, and a banker.

Zimbabwe police wearing riot-control gear on Thursday beat up protesters, arresting 14 of them, during a march in downtown Harare to demand free and fair elections, the organisers said. Police charged on the 200 protesters as they approached a city park, distributing flyers and carrying placards during the march organised by the National Constitutional Assembly.

A villager in northeastern Zimbabwe was killed when five landmines he dug up to use against marauding elephants exploded in his arms, news reports said on Wednesday. Christian Munetsi had planned to use the mines to protect his maize field from elephants that roam the remote Rushinga district.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party has accused some NGOs, labour bodies and SA’s main opposition of plotting to unseat his government. The manifesto said Western ”sponsored phoney non-governmental organisations have been campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change”.

Zimbabwean police on Monday questioned Jan Raath, correspondent for German news agency DPA, and three other journalists over allegations of ”spying” and of working illegally as reporters. The questioning was the latest in what observers said appeared to be a new crackdown by President Robert Mugabe’s government on foreign correspondents.

President Robert Mugabe on Friday sharply criticised US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying she was a ”slave” to white masters in Washington who had branded Zimbabwe an outpost of tyranny. If Zimbabwe were indeed a tyranny, said Mugabe, ”the first person to lose his head would be Ian Smith”.

President Robert Mugabe’s government has earmarked 12-billion Zimbabwe dollars to buy food aid for needy Zimbabweans who are going to the polls next month, the state-run daily The Herald said on Friday. About 1,5-million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid ahead of the next main harvest due in April.

Thirty youths from President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF were denied bail on Thursday following their weekend arrest in Zimbabwe for beating up opposition supporters and stabbing a police officer. The young Zanu-PF members commandeered cars from local residents and attacked opposition supporters.

A prize-winning track athlete who competed in women’s events was actually a man, a court in Zimbabwe has been told. Samukaliso Sithole, who competed in domestic and regional competitions, faced charges of crimen injuria, or psychological offence, in the second city of Bulawayo.

A Zimbabwean court on Tuesday convicted two senior members of President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF and a banker who have admitted to selling state secrets to South Africa, a prosecutor said. ”Because of the different and various degrees of moral reprehensibility, they have received various and different prison terms,” he said.

Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party called South African cleric Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu a ”sellout” on Tuesday, for saying that Zimbabwe made a mockery of African democracy. The Nobel Peace laureate made the remarks in a weekend newspaper article, prompting senior Zanu-PF officials to respond with a stinging rebuke.

Zimbabwe ruling Zanu-PF has fired the seventh of its 10 provincial chairperson — nearly two months after he was arrested for allegedly spying for neighbouring South Africa. Wealthy lawmaker Philip Chiyangwa has lost his post as chairperson of the Mashonaland West province.

Parliamentary elections will be held across Zimbabwe on March 31, President Robert Mugabe has announced amid fears the polling could be as violent and flawed as the last vote. In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the opposition came close to toppling Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, despite electoral rules seen as biased in the ruling party’s favour.

A brand-new umbrella grouping of collapsed Zimbabwean banks got off to a rocky start after one of its partners went to court to try to break free from the new banking group, a daily newspaper said on Tuesday. The Royal Bank filed a suit in the Harare High Court on Monday against a central bank decision to place it under curatorship.

The government on Monday denied Zimbabwe faces a hunger crisis and accused a United States-funded famine early warning unit of exaggerating food shortages to cause panic. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network said 5,8-million people in the country of 12,5-million will need food aid to avert starvation before the next harvests in April.