Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa effectively put his head on the chopping block this week after he strongly condemned Robert Mugabe’s regime.
Southern African leaders will hold an emergency meeting in Swaziland’s capital, Mbabane, on Wednesday to discuss the crisis in Zimbabwe.
The African Union (AU) on Monday joined a chorus of concern and dismay over the withdrawal of Zimbabwe’s opposition from a presidential run-off.
Zimbabwe’s neighbours closed ranks against Robert Mugabe on Thursday as violence against opposition supporters intensified and spread to new areas.
Mozambique has received nearly 20Â 000 citizens fleeing South Africa, said Deputy Foreign Minister Henrique Banze, adding that the government there had set up three reception centres around the capital Maputo. He denied reports that the Mozambican government had declared a state of emergency.
A controversial shipment of arms from China and destined for Zimbabwe has arrived in Harare, the Weekender newspaper reported on Saturday — apparently thanks to assistance by the South African government. There are fears that President Robert Mugabe is planning to use force to storm back to power in Zimbabwe.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke on Friday with African leaders and former United Nations chief Kofi Annan for their insight into how to end Zimbabwe’s election crisis, her spokesperson said. Rice spoke to Botswana President Ian Khama, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.
A high-ranking delegation of Southern African ministers met Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe on Wednesday to discuss the country’s political impasse ahead of a pending presidential run-off, state media reported. The delegation was headed by Angolan Foreign Minister Jose Joao Bernardo Miranda.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday expressed alarm at reports of rising violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe and said he was consulting with African leaders on how to help resolve the country’s election crisis. "I am deeply concerned at reports of rising levels of violence and intimidation" in Zimbabwe, he told reporters.
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will take its claim of victory in last month’s election over President Robert Mugabe to the United Nations Security Council this week. MDC secretary general Tendai Biti will lead a delegation to New York, where he will tell a Security Council session that the party is not prepared to partake in a presidential run-off.
A top United States official urged African leaders on Sunday to put pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to release the results of the presidential election, insisting the opposition had won. The Southern Africa Development Community ”should ensure that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission releases the results of the elections,” said US Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer.
Resolving the thorny question of Robert Mugabe’s fate may hold the key to breaking the impasse over Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential vote. Mugabe has not himself suggested he would be willing to step aside if he were granted immunity for alleged human rights abuses and allowed to fade into comfortable retirement.
Zambia’s main opposition leader Michael Sata was in a stable condition in Johannesburg’s Milpark hospital on Saturday after having a heart attack. ”He is in the cardiac care unit …,” said hospital spokesperson Amelda Swartz. ”He is going to have an angiogram this afternoon.”
The top United States envoy to Africa said on Thursday that Zimbabwe’s opposition leader won his nation’s disputed presidential election and longtime President Robert Mugabe should step down. The opposition has claimed its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, beat Mugabe outright on March 29.
Post-election violence in Zimbabwe could reach genocidal proportions without intervention from the international community, the country’s church leaders warned on Tuesday. ”We warn the world that if nothing is done to help the people of Zimbabwe, we shall soon be witnessing genocide similar to that experienced in Kenya,” they said.
President Thabo Mbeki must be relieved of his duties as mediator in the current impasse in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in Johannesburg on Thursday. ”We want to thank President Mbeki for all of his efforts, but President Mbeki needs to be relieved of his duties,” he told reporters.
Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders called on Sunday for the rapid release of results from Zimbabwe’s election after a two-week delay that has raised fears of violence. A 13-hour summit in Lusaka also called on President Robert Mugabe to ensure that a possible run-off presidential vote be held ”in a secure environment”.
An emergency summit of Southern African leaders on Zimbabwe’s post-election crisis opened on Saturday with a plea from its chairperson not to turn a blind eye, but President Robert Mugabe stayed away. Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa told Southern African Development Community leaders that doing nothing was not an option.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Saturday there was ”no crisis” in Zimbabwe after holding his first face-to-face talks with Robert Mugabe since the country’s disputed March 29 elections. Mbeki had stopped in Harare on his way to join Southern African leaders in Zambia for an emergency meeting on Zimbabwe.
South African President Thabo Mbeki was to hold talks on Saturday with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe in Harare before heading on to Lusaka for a summit on Zimbabwe’s post-election crisis, an official said. Mugabe has chosen not to attend the gathering of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community.
Police have banned political rallies and the opposition has accused the authorities of waging a violent crackdown as Zimbabwe’s political crisis deepens nearly two weeks after a presidential election that produced no official winner. Zimbabwe’s neighbours hope to find a resolution on Saturday at an emergency summit in Zambia.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who says he won Zimbabwe’s election, has met South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and pressed the key regional leader to use his influence to persuade President Robert Mugabe to step down, an opposition spokesperson said on Friday.
South Africa will work with other countries in the region to ensure the will of the Zimbabwean people is reflected, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Thursday. The country has joined the chorus of international calls for Zimbabwe to release the results of its March 29 presidential election as soon as possible.
A leader of Zimbabwe’s feared war veterans, hard-line supporters of President Robert Mugabe, on Thursday denied the invasion of white-owned farms in the wake of a poll dispute. ”There are no farm invasions in Zimbabwe,” national chairperson of the War Veterans’ Association Jabulani Sibanda told South African Broadcasting Corporation radio.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe faced mounting pressure on Thursday over presidential poll results as rival Morgan Tsvangirai ramped up his charm offensive ahead of a regional weekend summit on the crisis. While Mugabe has lain low at home, Tsvangirai has launched a diplomatic drive in recent days.
The Zimbabwe opposition’s bid to build up pressure on President Robert Mugabe after disputed polls bore fruit on Wednesday as plans were unveiled for a weekend summit to discuss the crisis. The president of neighbouring Zambia said he would gather his peers for talks on Saturday, aimed at breaking the deadlock that has persisted since the March 29 polls.
Zambia has ended negotiations with Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, to finance a $1,2-billion (R9,7-billion) oil-import deal after the two parties failed to reach agreement. Talks between the Zambian government and Stanbic Bank Zambia, a unit of Standard Bank, were initially expected to be concluded by mid-January.
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/ 15 February 2008
Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba must stand trial on charges of stealing almost half a million dollars from the Southern African country while he was its leader, a court ruled on Friday. Magistrate Jones Chinyama set the trial date for Chiluba, who stands charged of theft of public funds with two Lusaka businessmen, for May 5.
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/ 24 January 2008
Zambia’s Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the deportation of a British writer who described President Levy Mwanawasa as a ”fool”, saying the punishment sought was ”disproportionate” to the offence. The full Bench of the court said Roy Clarke should be allowed to stay in Zambia.
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/ 22 January 2008
Jerry Mweemba, an 82-year-old farmer, stoically chews on his pipe as he surveys the line of grass-thatched huts waist-high in brown rainwater in Zambia’s impoverished Mazabuka region. ”Initially, we thought it was the usual rains until we realised that water was entering into our homes,” says Mweemba from under the shade of a large acacia tree.
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/ 19 January 2008
Thousands of people in Mozambique were still trapped in their homes by rising flood waters on Friday as heavy rains continued to pound Southern Africa, heightening fears of a particularly severe flood season. In Zambia, a Care worker said water levels in the south were twice as high as the same time last year.
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/ 18 January 2008
Zambia has declared a national disaster after floods swept through the Southern African nation and several neighbouring countries, killing at least 45 people and destroying roads, bridges, crops and livestock. ”This is a national disaster and it requires concerted efforts of all of us to solve,” Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa said late on Thursday.