A South African mediation team was in Zimbabwe on Saturday as part of efforts to resolve the country’s political crisis.
If this is the endgame for Robert Mugabe’s regime, the brutality of the tactics employed reveal his determination to win at any cost.
”They hunt the opposition. They said they ate human liver and drank urine during the war and so they were prepared for war again.”
Conflicting messages emerge from Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the country’s run-off presidential poll draws closer.
Zimbabwe’s neighbours closed ranks against Robert Mugabe on Thursday as violence against opposition supporters intensified and spread to new areas.
SA President Thabo Mbeki has urged Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe to cancel next week’s presidential vote and negotiate a deal with the opposition.
Jacob Zuma said he did not expect a free election run-off in Zimbabwe ahead of a meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe.
The soldiers and ruling party militiamen herded the people of Rusape to a field at the back of the local sports club and made their point clear.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has accused foreign aid agencies of using food as a weapon to try to remove him from power.
A defiant President Robert Mugabe on Saturday vowed he would ”go to war” if he lost the presidential run-off due to take place in less than two weeks.
President Robert Mugabe vowed on Saturday that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change would never rule Zimbabwe.
The whereabouts of Tendai Biti, secretary general of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), are still unknown a day after his arrest.
The current climate in Zimbabwe was ”not at all” the proper one for an election, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe’s opposition feared a new crackdown on on Monday as authorities vowed to ”get tough” on perpetrators of political violence.
Zimbabwe’s opposition had a successful day of campaigning despite attempts by ruling party militants to thwart election activities, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials said on Sunday.
As Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe rolls out his strategy to hang on to power, attacks on his opponents are getting bloodier by the day.
Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change on Saturday insisted that its leader had sent a letter to President Thabo Mbeki asking him to step down as Zimbabwe mediator.
Zimbabwean police arrested a prominent opposition lawyer on Saturday in a dawn raid at his home.
Zimbabwean police on Friday detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the second time this week after blocking him from reaching a campaign rally for the June 27 presidential run-off vote.
Zimbabwe’s harassment of diplomats and aid groups shows it will fail to respect the rule of law during the June 27 presidential election run-off, the country’s main opposition party said on Friday.
Zimbabwe’s presidential election run-off should be scrapped to prevent further bloodshed, the ruling-party defector who came third in the first round said on Thursday.
Zimbabwe authorities intensified a pre-poll crackdown on Wednesday, detaining the opposition chief for several hours.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to send up to 400 observers to this month’s run-off poll in Zimbabwe, double the number who oversaw the first round.
Civil and human rights groups predicted more chaos after Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off takes place, saying on Tuesday they do not believe President Robert Mugabe will step down if he loses. However, it is ”critical” for the election to go ahead so a winner can emerge, said Gorden Moyo, from Bulawayo Agenda.
A Zimbabwean court sentenced three South Africans to jail terms of between six and seven-and-a-half months after they were found in possession of ”illegal transmitting equipment” belonging to the Sky television channel, Sky said on Tuesday.
The leader of a rebel faction of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party was freed on bail on Tuesday after his arrest over a written attack on President Robert Mugabe. A Harare court ordered Arthur Mutambara, head of a splinter faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, to pay Z-billion (about ) and report to police each Friday.
Zimbabwean police have arrested at least 70 suspects following attacks on liberation war veterans and ruling-party activists in the Buhera district, a state daily reported on Monday. ”So far more than 70 suspects have been arrested in connection with the cases,” police Deputy Commissioner General Levy Sibanda was quoted as saying by the Herald.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe flew into Rome for a global food summit on Sunday, his first official trip abroad since elections condemned by Western and opposition leaders as fraudulent. A British Foreign Office spokesperson said: ”It is a matter of concern to us and we would prefer that he did not attend.”
The Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has told President Thabo Mbeki that he is no longer fit to serve as the region’s mediator in Zimbabwe’s political crisis owing to a ”lack of neutrality”, and that ”there will be no country left” if Mbeki continues to side with President Robert Mugabe.
The leader of a rebel faction of Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change became the most senior opposition politician to be arrested when he was held on Sunday over a written attack on President Robert Mugabe. Arthur Mutambara was picked up at his home in Harare, his party and lawyer said.
Hundreds of women converged on a stadium on the outskirts of Harare on Saturday to pray for peace ahead of the country’s tense presidential run-off amid mounting political violence. Zimbabweans go to the polls on June 27 for a second-round presidential election between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
A senior Zimbabwean army official has publicly urged soldiers to vote for President Robert Mugabe in next month’s presidential election run-off, a state daily reported on Saturday. "We have signed and agreed to fight and protect the ruling party’s principles of defending the revolution," Major General Martin Chedondo was quoted as saying.