Harare

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday said the country should remain suspended from the Commonwealth. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth in March last year over its poor human rights record.

A Zimbabwe court on Monday postponed till later this week a ruling on an application by the country’s only independent daily newspaper to have confiscated equipment returned, a company official said.

Flipping through the classified advertisements of Zimbabwe’s state-run daily paper The Herald, it is now common to see prices of houses and apartments for sale or lease being quoted in US dollars. Cars are similarly being sold in US dollars or British pounds.

Nine journalists from Zimbabwe’s only independent daily, shut down two weeks ago for operating illegally, have been charged for practising without licences, a lawyer said. The nine journalists were the first out of a list of 45 Daily News journalists whom police want to question.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has called for unity with the opposition as he led tens of thousands of mourners in paying tribute to the country’s late vice president, Simon Vengesayi Muzenda, who was buried in a state funeral broadcast live on national television.

Zimbabwe police are preparing to charge all journalists at the country’s only private daily paper for working without accreditation, a day after the paper’s owners were charged for not having an operating permit. The paper was forcibly shut down 11 days ago for operating illegally under a strict media law.

Zimbabwean civic groups plan to meet this week to find alternative means of publishing information following the closure of the country’s sole independent daily paper, threatening a boycott of a state-run newspaper. Civic organisations expressed fears that they might be the next target in the crackdown on dissent.

A political settlement between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) looks headed for a major breakthrough following an agreement by the two parties to draft a new constitution that would make way for a transitional government, says MDC spokesperson Paul Themba-Nyathi.

President Thabo Mbeki offered his condolences to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on Monday following the death of that country’s vice-president, Simon Muzenda. Muzanda passed away on Saturday following a long illness.

Zimbabwe’s white farmers have been told by the government that they must take the compensation offered to them for their land or risk getting nothing at all, the agriculture minister was quoted as saying in a newspaper report. Many farmers have not collected the money because they are contesting the sums offered.

Zimbabwe’s outlawed independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, is preparing to go to court to challenge the state media commission’s refusal to grant it a licence. The commission denied the Daily News a licence on Friday, scuppering attempts to get the paper back on the streets.

Zimbabwe’s largest daily newspaper was closed down yesterday when President Robert Mugabe’s government refused to issue the licence needed to publish.

Zimbabwe’s vice-president, Simon Muzenda, has died, President Robert Mugabe announced in a speech broadcast on state radio. Muzenda was one of two vice presidents in the southern African country and a vanguard of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party.

Zimbabwe’s embattled independent daily on Friday filed contempt of court charges against police after they refused to allow staff to re-enter their offices, defying a High Court order, said a company official.

Zimbabwe’s sole independent daily, closed by the government a week ago, was still off the newsstands on Friday as police failed to comply with a High Court order to allow the paper to resume operations, a newspaper official said.

Zimbabwean police have arrested about 100 activists and three journalists during a demonstration against the state’s shutting down of the country’s only independent daily newspaper. Their march was to protest the closure of the Daily News and ”the deteriorating political and economic situation”.

Police continued to remove confiscated computer equipment from the offices of the independent Daily News on Tuesday as lawyers struggled to get a court hearing to stop authorities closing the newspaper down, company officials said.

President Robert Mugabe’s government has broken new economic ground by introducing a form of money that financial experts say has been hitherto unknown — the bearer cheque. This is an attempt to alleviate the desperate shortage of cash in the country.

Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has ruled as unconstitutional the arrest and detention of High Court judge Justice Benjamin Paradza early this year for allegedly trying to obstruct the course of justice. The judgement means the corruption charges the judge faced have been dropped.

Police in Zimbabwe on Tuesday raided the offices of the country’s sole independent daily newspaper, shut since Friday for operating illegally, and began to confiscate equipment. The Daily News, which is critical of President Robert Mugabe’s government, was forcibly shut down last week.

Inflation in Zimbabwe hit a highest-to-date 426,6% for the year up to the end of August, according to figures issued on Monday by the government’s Central Statistical Office (CSO). However, analysts say the figures are conservative because they do not take illegal black-market prices for commodities into account.

The editor-in-chief of Zimbabwe’s only independent daily newspaper, which was forced to close by the government last week, has resigned from his post. The Zimbabwean Supreme Court ruled that the paper, which is fiercely critical of President Robert Mugabe, was operating illegally.

Zimbabwe’s sole independent daily newspaper, which has been shut down for operating illegally, will on Monday submit an application to register with a government media commission. A Supreme Court decision stated the paper was operating illegally because it had not registered with the commission.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party on Saturday condemned the forced shutdown of the country’s only independent daily and called on readers to boycott all state-run newspapers.

Armed police in Zimbabwe on Friday shut down the offices of the country’s only independent daily newspaper, a day after a court said the paper was operating illegally, a lawyer for the paper said.

Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has ruled that a private daily newspaper, which is critical of President Robert Mugabe’s government, is operating illegally because it has not registered under tough media laws.

Lawmakers from the world’s poorest nations have vowed to resist fresh attempts by the European Union to bar Zimbabwe from taking part in a forthcoming meeting of the African Carribean and Pacific and European Union nations.

Thousands of Zimbabweans jostled in line outside the South African visa office in Harare on Tuesday to apply for travel permits in hopes of some relief from their homeland’s crushing political and economic crises. Many slept outside the building after South African authorities relaxed visa restrictions.

A Zimbabwean Cabinet minister has said about 30 000ha of farmland have been recovered from Zimbabwe ruling-party officials who had acquired more than one farm under the government’s land-reform scheme. President Robert Mugabe appointed a land review committee earlier this year to investigate, among other things, multiple farm ownership.

Zimbabwe’s opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, is to send delegations to several African countries to brief them on its efforts to end the political and economic deadlock in the country.

Zimbabwe’s fast-track land-reform programme is meant to benefit landless people forced to live in congested communal areas, but many of the supposed beneficiaries are turning their backs on their new land, saying they want to go back to their original homes.