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/ 18 January 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki met his Zimbabwean counterpart on Thursday after local media reports that he was stepping in to break a deadlock in talks aimed at ending Zimbabwe’s political and economic crises. Mbeki met with Robert Mugabe at a hotel for four hours and also met with members of the political opposition.
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/ 17 January 2008
South African President Thabo Mbeki travels to Zimbabwe on Thursday to meet officials of the ruling Zanu-PF and main opposition parties after reports that a deal to end a political crisis was imminent. Mbeki has been mediating talks between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s government and the Movement for Democratic Change for nearly a year.
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/ 16 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s main opposition said on Wednesday it planned a protest next week to demonstrate against a crumbling economy and press for a new Constitution it says will guarantee free and fair elections scheduled for March. Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said earlier this month the party might boycott elections scheduled for March.
The main faction of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Thursday vowed to boycott presidential and legislative polls in March if the nation’s Constitution was not overhauled. Mugabe has said that elections will be held in March and that the opposition would only have themselves to blame if they do not adequately campaign.
Talks between President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe’s opposition are deadlocked because the ruling party is refusing to implement a new transitional constitution, main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed on Wednesday. ”Mugabe and Zanu-PF want a false election,” Tsvangirai said. ”We are deadlocked on key issues.”
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/ 30 December 2007
Bare supermarket shelves, bank queues and burst riverbanks — for many Zimbabweans a bad year ended in a bad way. At least 27 Zimbabweans died in floods this month while thousands have spent precious holiday days in bank queues, waiting for scarce cash.
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/ 27 December 2007
After a year which saw the official inflation rate surge to 8 000%, shelves run dry and opposition leaders beaten up, few people in Zimbabwe can wait to see the back of 2007. While President Robert Mugabe hopes to secure a seventh term of office in elections next year, he is unlikely to trade heavily on his government’s recent economic performance.
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/ 18 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s government has amended security and media laws that critics say have helped him entrench his rule. The changes to the Public Order and Security Act were agreed at talks, brokered by South African President Thabo Mbeki, between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
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/ 5 December 2007
Zimbabwe’s former colonial master lost the stand-off over whether he or the British prime minister would attend an upcoming European-African summit, Robert Mugabe declared on Tuesday. Mugabe also said his nation, suffering chronic shortages of basic goods and worsening power and water outages, continued to defy predictions of economic collapse and social upheaval.
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/ 7 November 2007
Police torture and brutality are rife and High Court orders are openly disregarded in Zimbabwe, pointing to a ”grave constitutional crisis”, according to a report released on Wednesday. The most worrying aspect is open attacks on members of the legal profession, said advocate Andrea Gabriel.
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/ 27 October 2007
President Robert Mugabe has dismissed claims by the Zimbabwe opposition that its supporters are victims of politically motivated violence, state media reported on Saturday. Mugabe challenged the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to substantiate allegations of attacks on its followers, the state-run Herald newspaper reported.
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/ 24 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had secured a promise from the government on Wednesday to investigate charges of escalating violence against their supporters. After a meeting with Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, senior MDC figures said they had been assured they were not regarded as ”enemies”.
Women are being regularly tortured by Zimbabwean security forces for their opposition to President Robert Mugabe’s regime, a report by a leading rights group charged on Tuesday. ”Many of us have been detained more than once and suffered extreme abuse perpetrated by state actors,” Jenni Williams, national coordinator of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, said.
Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have withdrawn ”terror” charges against 22 opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists because of insufficient evidence, defence lawyers said on Tuesday. The activists were arrested in March as President Robert Mugabe’s government launched a crackdown on the opposition, which saw MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai severely beaten.
Zimbabwe’s opposition parties will pull out of South African-brokered talks with the government of President Robert Mugabe if violence against them is not halted. Zimbabweans are still being beaten and killed by Mugabe’s militias despite negotiations between his government and opposition parties, said a senior member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
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/ 16 September 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is consolidating his hold on power as he ruthlessly tackles his arch-critics ahead of 2008 polls in which he is a candidate, analysts say. His latest victim is former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, one of his strongest critics, who resigned this week from his post in the aftermath of an alleged adultery scandal.
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/ 6 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s police formally accused the country’s main opposition leader on Thursday of ”disorderly conduct” in connection with his recent tour of stores hurt by the government’s controversial price freeze, his lawyer said. Morgan Tsvangirai was quizzed by police for nearly an hour in the capital and then released from custody, one day after being instructed to appear.
Zimbabwe’s state media on Wednesday called on the government to sever ties with Australia, accusing Prime Minister John Howard’s government of seeking to topple veteran President Robert Mugabe. ”There is no need to continue keeping up appearances when diplomatic ties between the two countries have irrevocably broken down,” the state-run Herald said.
At the beginning of March, Robert Mugabe’s regime launched a physical assault on the opposition. The unintended consequences have been sweeping.