A partial recount of Zimbabwe’s disputed presidential election has been completed and verification of the results by the candidates will start on Tuesday, an election official said on Monday. The month-long wait for results from the March 29 election has led to a tense political stand-off that has raised fears of bloodshed.
South African President Thabo Mbeki’s failure to criticise neighbouring Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe has weakened his international stature, analysts said. Once hailed as a leader focussed on Africa’s revival, Mbeki’s silence on Zimbabwe has been blamed either on misplaced loyalty or crippling deference.
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.
The United States’ top diplomat for Africa said on Sunday any national unity government in Zimbabwe should be headed by opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who Washington believes won a March 29 election. Election officials said they hoped to compile statistics from the presidential election by Monday for verification by the candidates.
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.
President Robert Mugabe’s party has failed to secure control of Zimbabwe’s Parliament in a partial recount of the March 29 election, results showed on Saturday, handing the ruling party its first defeat in 28 years. Results of a parallel presidential poll have not been released and Mugabe has been preparing for a run-off against Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition.
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.
President Robert Mugabe appeared unlikely on Saturday to win back control of Parliament in a partial vote recount after a police crackdown on members of the opposition, which accuses him of stealing the poll. About 13 seats have been recounted so far. Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF must win nine of 10 remaining constituencies to take back control of Parliament.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday rejected foreign criticism of his country as international pressure mounted for him to stand down. "Zimbabwe has a history and heritage and it will never be afraid. Zimbabwe is not for sale and Zimbabwe will never be a colony again," Mugabe said at the opening of an international trade fair in Bulawayo.
Each day, Edwin Makotore’s wife and children hit the streets to earn cash so he can pay for the privilege of working. The 38-year-old father-of-two is the only one in the family with a full-time job, but by the time he has met the soaring cost of travelling to work in a small Harare supermarket, paid out of wages wildly out of step with the 165Â 000% inflation rate, Makotore is out of pocket.
Armed riot police raided the headquarters of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday and detained scores of people, officials said. Dozens of riot police detained about 100 MDC supporters who were bundled into a crowded police bus before being taken away, a witness said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will present a set of proposals to the Foreign Affairs Ministry on how the government can resolve Zimbabwe’s electoral crisis, the party said on Friday. The proposals include the possible suspension of Zimbabwe from the African Union, arms embargoes and the severing of diplomatic ties.
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.
A shipment of Chinese arms bound for Zimbabwe will be recalled after South African workers refused to unload the vessel and other neighbouring countries barred it from their ports, China said on Thursday. The recall came in addition to Western pressure over Zimbabwe’s election crisis.
African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma said on Thursday it is not yet the time to impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe in the wake of its undecided presidential election. ”I do not think we have reached the stage of an arms embargo in Zimbabwe,” Zuma told journalists during a visit to London.
A crisis in Zimbabwe? What crisis? This question was debated by three high-ranking Zimbabwean opposition politicians at the <i>Mail & Guardian</i>’s Critical Thinking Forum in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening. "We expect too much of South Africa," said one panellist. "There is a limit to what South Africa can do."
Ahead of talks in London with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma on Wednesday refused to condemn Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe over the ongoing failure to publish presidential election results and widespread post-election violence.
Media bodies in Zimbabwe on Wednesday deplored a government crackdown on journalists and warned the safety of reporters was under threat in the aftermath of disputed elections. ”The security and safety of journalists is under serious threat in this country,” said Takura Zhangazha, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.
Regional countries should mediate negotiations in Zimbabwe for a transitional government of national unity led by President Robert Mugabe to organise new elections, a pro-ruling party academic said on Wednesday. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change and Mugabe’s Zanu-PF are locked in an election stalemate.
Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Helen Zille was emerging as a person who would go to extremes to cover up the truth, a former member of the DA said on Tuesday. ”[She is] a person who criticises the judiciary and the media because their duties do not fit her political agenda,” Kobus Brynard, a Western Cape MPL for the African National Congress, said.
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.
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader pushed the United Nations on Monday to intervene to end his country’s election crisis as President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party flatly denied it was behind a rise in post-poll violence. Meanwhile, the row over a partial recount of the March 29 poll rumbled on.
A Chinese ship carrying a shipment of arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was not in South African territorial waters, a Defence Ministry spokesperson said on Monday in reaction to a claim that the An Yue Jiang was ”passing through South Africa’s territorial waters” in violation of a court order.
Twenty-eight Zimbabwean activists were charged on Monday over post-election violence as Britain condemned a ballot recount as an attempt by President Robert Mugabe to "steal" the vote. The hearing at the Harare Magistrates’ Court came as Mugabe’s government rejected allegations that it was arming groups of vigilantes.
Zimbabwe’s Health Minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa, armed himself with a Kalashnikov and threatened to kill opposition supporters forced to attend a political meeting unless they voted for President Robert Mugabe in a second round of the presidential election, according to witnesses.
Zimbabwe’s opposition alleged widespread irregularities as the partial recount begun on Saturday of votes cast in the presidential and parliamentary elections held three weeks ago, including ballot boxes with seals broken before they were delivered for the count or with no seals at all.
A Chinese ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe, which was turned away from South Africa, is heading to Angola in hopes of docking there, the transport minister of Mozambique said on Saturday. The ship left South African waters on Friday after a court refused to allow the weapons to be transported across South Africa.
Supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF have set up a network of torture camps where they have been assaulting opposition activists, a leading rights group said on Saturday. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that suspected supporters of the opposition were being rounded up and then beaten.
Zimbabwean election officials are expected on Saturday to begin a partial recount of votes from the March 29 elections despite opposition protests and widespread fears the political stalemate could erupt in violence.The recount in 23 of 210 constituencies could overturn the results of the parliamentary election.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe came out fighting on Friday in his first major speech since disputed polls, fending off criticism over his rights record and accusing Britain of stirring up unrest. But Mugabe did not speak about the outcome of the March 29 presidential elections, the results of which are still to be announced.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille on Friday urged President Thabo Mbeki and national conventional arms-control committee chairperson Sydney Mufamadi to stop the transfer of arms aboard a ship, the An Yue Jiang, in Durban harbour to Zimbabwe. The ship has been at anchor off the port of Durban since Monday.
Ordinarily, this time of the football season would be about which of the traditional top-three teams are best placed to win the Premier Soccer League (PSL) championship. But it increasingly appears that not all, if any, of the three teams that have dominated the PSL honours will make it to the top eight of the log.