A theatre company in Zimbabwe has been banned from performing a satirical play that deals with political issues, believed to be hitting too close to home, its producer said on Monday. The company, Rooftop Promotions, said it was due to go on a nationwide tour in June with the play, Super Patriots and Morons, which dramatises life in an unnamed African country under an iron-fisted dictator.
Most of the 46 private schools closed down by the government in Zimbabwe last week in a row over tuition fee increases have reopened, school officials and state media reported on Monday. The state-run Herald newspaper said 43 of the schools have been allowed to reopen, and most have had their fees slashed by the government.
A court in Zimbabwe on Friday ordered prison authorities to remove handcuffs and shackles from 70 suspected mercenaries being held on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, a lawyer said. The men have been kept in shackles after the government said it had uncovered a plot by the men to break out of jail.
A Zimbabwe court on Thursday ordered the reopening of one of the country’s top private schools, among 46 institutions closed by the government for hiking tuition fees without official permission. The victory may open up the floodgates for similar court action by other schools affected by the government decision.
‘Racist’ Zim school to fight closure
A top school in Zimbabwe was planning court action as most private schools in the southern African country remained closed on Wednesday after the government ordered them to shut down for hiking tuition fees without its permission. ”The majority of schools are still closed,” said an official with the Association of Independent Trust Schools, which represents the country’s 46 private schools.
Zimbabwe’s state-appointed media licencing body has threatened to cancel the licence of an independent weekly that it alleges has violated the country’s tough media laws. The Media and Information Commission has given the paper, which publishes on Fridays, seven days to give reasons why it should not be closed.
Mugabe threatens another newspaper
President Robert Mugabe’s government on Tuesday closed most private schools after ordering them to slash their fees, in a move that stopped about 30 000 children attending school on the first day of the new term. Outside the Christian Gateway junior school, parents stared on Tuesday at a sign reading: ”School closed until further notice.”
Prosecutors told a Zimbabwe court on Monday that 70 suspected mercenaries charged with plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea were planning to break out of jail and would from now on be held in leg irons. The state prosecutor said information was received about a plan to airlift the men from Chikurubi Maximum Security prison.
President Robert Mugabe’s government said on Monday it will shut down another independent newspaper under draconian press laws on the same day as the world marked International Press Freedom Day. The chairperson of the state’s Media and Information Council said the Tribune is operating ”illegally”.
Zimbabwe: So this is democracy?
Journalists in Zimbabwe still risk arrest and imprisonment if they publish anything the government deems untrue or unfairly critical, with no sign of a let-up in a two-year-old crackdown on the media. Despite calls for a review of the media laws that came into force in 2002, journalists say there is little hope that the regulations will be changed under President Robert Mugabe.
The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, arrived in Zimbabwe on Wednesday as the government, which is holding 70 men suspected of plotting to topple Nguema, altered its list of designated extradition countries to include the West African nation.
Zimbabwe’s government said on Tuesday it had revised its extradition policy in order to extradite 70 suspected mercenaries accused of plotting a coup in the oil-rich west African nation of Equatorial Guinea. An official notice said Zimbabwe drafted an extradition treaty for the first time with Equatorial Guinea, effective immediately.
Zimbabwe’s finance minister appeared in a Harare court on Monday to face charges of illegally funnelling close to ,5-million of foreign currency out of the country, following his arrest at the weekend. He has been charged with four counts of contravening exchange control laws, and one count of contravening citizenship laws.
Zimbabwe Minister of Finance, Chris Kuruneri, who is building a R30-million mansion in one of Cape Town’s most affluent areas, was arrested on Saturday on allegations of dealing illegally in about -million in foreign currency, police confirmed. Kuruneri was appointed finance minister in February.
A Zimbabwean court on Friday ruled that the 70 suspected mercenaries charged with plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea could receive food from outside sources to supplement their prison rations. The men say they are not used to the food given to them in prison and therefore required supplements.
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor on Wednesday announced new measures to tighten the operation of locally-owned banks, blamed for plunging the country into economic crisis. Central bank chief Gideon Gono said bank owners would no longer be allowed to hold management positions.
President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party in Zimbabwe plays host to a conference this week of former liberation movements in Southern Africa to make the case for land reform, a senior party official said on Tuesday. The three-day conference opening in Harare is meant to ”strengthen” the struggle against the remnants of colonialism.
The opposition mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, said on Friday the Zimbabwe government had formally dismissed him from office. Mudzuri said he had received a letter late on Friday afternoon from local government minister Ignatius Chombo, which said: ”The president [Robert Mugabe] has directed that you vacate your office with immediate effect”.
The United Nations Human Rights Commission has given Zimbabwe a clean bill of health by deciding against an international probe into alleged acts of politically motivated violence and other abuses, Harare’s state-run press said on Friday.
Twenty-seven largely African and Asian member states on Thursday rallied around a ”no action” motion.
Sixty-three people, 48 of them children, died from hunger last month in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, a health official was quoted as saying in a newspaper report on Friday.
Zimbabwe police have arrested a man in connection with last month’s slaying of an opposition member during a tension-filled by-election that was won by the ruling party, a police spokesperson said on Tuesday. Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said a 43-year-old man was arrested near the capital, Harare.
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has vowed that his ruling Zanu-PF party will crush the opposition in next year’s general elections, the state-run Herald reported on Saturday. Mugabe said a Zanu-PF party victory in a recent by-election had set panic among the opposition, which lost its seat in Parliament.
Zimbabwe’s real gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by about 30%, while poverty levels have doubled over the past five years, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF also reports that school enrolment has fallen by 35%, and inflation has doubled each of the last three years to reach 600%.
The Zimbabwean government has nearly quadrupled President Robert Mugabe’s official salary and backdated the increase to January 1, the state Herald newspaper reported on Saturday. Mugabe’s general allowances for housing and living expenses were doubled, according to a government notice issued in the Herald.
Zimbabwe’s finance minister has denied claims that he violated Zimbabwe’s currency laws when buying a seaside mansion in Cape Town, countering allegations in South Africa media that the real estate deal was illegal, a government newspaper reported on Thursday. Reports of the minister’s property have been the talk of Harare’s business and social circuit.
Zimbabwe government lawyers said on Monday that prison authorities were unable to ferry 70 alleged mercenaries, accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, from jail to a magistrate’s court because the jail only had one functioning truck.
A fourth set of charges — this time under draconian Zimbabwe state security legislation — has been brought against 70 alleged mercenaries said to have been part of a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. The 70 have been in detention for more than 10 days since they were arrested at Harare international airport .
The Harare court appearance of 70 men alleged to be mercenaries involved in a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea was called off on Wednesday as new charges under anti-subversion laws were prepared.
Sixty-seven suspected mercenaries along with their three-man flight crew completed formalities on Monday ahead of a court appearance on immigration and firearms charges, their lawyers said.
Sixty-four suspected mercenaries allegedly hired to overthrow the government of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, along with their three-man flight crew, were expected to make sworn statements on Friday. Meanwhile, a United States official has denied the US was involved in the alleged coup plot.
An aircraft seized by the Zimbabwe government on Sunday was carrying men believed to be linked to a South African mercenary company and to the elite British Special Air Services regiment, the Zimbabwe government said on Tuesday night.
Zim plane definitely not South African
Three Zimbabwean women activists were arrested while distributing pamphlets advertising a Women’s Day march in the second city of Bulawayo, a lawyer representing the three activists said on Monday. She said the pamphlet called on women to march in Bulawayo and Harare to push for a new Constitution in Zimbabwe.