No image available
/ 28 November 2007
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Wednesday he would push to create a group of African leaders to resolve a stand-off between Zimbabwe and Britain, which has cast a shadow over a European Union-Africa summit. Wade arrived in Harare after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would boycott the planned December 8 to 9 Lisbon summit.
No image available
/ 28 November 2007
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade will fly to Zimbabwe on Wednesday for talks with President Robert Mugabe in an attempt to resolve a row between Harare and London that threatens to derail a European Union-Africa summit next month. Wade will fly to Zimbabwe after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday he would boycott the planned December 8 to 9 summit in Lisbon.
No image available
/ 28 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s government newspaper offered a chilly, racially tinged welcome on Tuesday to the new United States envoy. The Herald‘s political editor Caesar Zvayi said James McGee had criticised Zimbabwe’s human rights record in statements to the US Senate and, as an appointee of US President George Bush, was likely ”to turn out to be the house Negro”.
No image available
/ 27 November 2007
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed on Tuesday that he will boycott a European Union-Africa summit to be held in Lisbon next month in protest at the participation of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. ”I will not be attending this summit,” Brown said at a press conference at Downing Street.
No image available
/ 27 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s latest inflation figures have been delayed because there are not enough goods in the shops by which to measure price increases, it was reported on Tuesday. There was an ”unavailability of required information, such as prices of goods, due to their shortage”, the Herald quoted Moffat Nyoni, director of the Central Statistical Office, as saying.
No image available
/ 27 November 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said he will attend a European Union-Africa summit in December in Lisbon, triggering a boycott of the meeting by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. ”Yes, I’m going,” Mugabe was quoted on Tuesday as telling Portugal’s Lusa news agency in Mozambique.
No image available
/ 26 November 2007
Zambian Airways is to halt direct flights between Harare and Lusaka next month as the route is no longer profitable, an airline official said on Monday. Zambian Airways chief executive officer Mutembo Nchito said the last flight on the Harare-Lusaka route will be on November 30.
No image available
/ 25 November 2007
Two weeks from hosting the second-ever summit between Europe and Africa, Portugal is scrambling to ensure that Zimbabwe’s contentious presence does not eclipse the chance for a true partnership between the European Union and the world’s poorest continent.
No image available
/ 22 November 2007
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday he was ”very confident” that mediation efforts between Zimbabwe’s government and the opposition would produce a solution to the country’s political crisis. ”They [the talks] have gone very well,” Mbeki said after meeting the two sides.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe will soon issue new bank notes, for the second time in as many years, to try to control rampant inflation and curb black-market trade, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday. The Southern African country is in the grips of a severe economic crisis and battling the highest annual inflation rate in the world, at nearly 8 000%.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
The leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Wednesday that talks with his government over electoral reform have made progress, but added that ensuring implementation will be crucial. He also said the Movement for Democratic Change might shun next year’s election unless it is sure President Robert Mugabe will not rig it.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor said on Tuesday the country would not impose new price controls, easing fears of deeper shortages of basic goods. President Robert Mugabe’s government imposed a blanket freeze on prices of all goods and services in June in a desperate bid to contain the world’s highest inflation rate.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
Zimbabweans endured hours in long queues at banks on Tuesday as a cash shortage forced limits on withdrawals, with the country in the midst of an economic crisis. ”Things have gotten worse since the weekend,” said an official at a bank in central Harare where a queue of customers snaked outside the building.
No image available
/ 21 November 2007
Ian Smith, who defied the world in 1965 when he led 270Â 000 white Rhodesians in a unilateral declaration of independence from Britain rather than accept moves to black-majority rule, has died in South Africa aged 88. State-owned radio ZBC, reporting his death, said ”Smith will be remembered for his racism and for the deaths of many Zimbabweans.”
No image available
/ 19 November 2007
Zimbabwe on Monday delayed the release of inflation data and said it might not be available ”for a while”, fuelling concerns the government had failed in its bid to hold back runaway prices. President Robert Mugabe has made the battle against inflation the cornerstone of his government’s effort to reverse a deep economic slide.
No image available
/ 19 November 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s government published a draft Bill on Monday forcing mining firms to transfer majority shareholdings to local owners, including giving the Zimbabwe government a free 25% stake. The Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill is expected to be presented to Parliament and to be approved before the end of the year.
No image available
/ 18 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s government on Sunday accused Britain of plotting to invade the Southern African state and to kill President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe’s spokesperson, George Charamba, said Harare was ”well aware” that former British prime minister Tony Blair had considered plans for an invasion of Zimbabwe.
No image available
/ 18 November 2007
Robert Mugabe’s vice-president has endorsed the veteran Zimbabwean leader’s candidature for presidential elections next year and has suggested he should even rule until he dies, a report said on Sunday. Joseph Msika said no-one was so far challenging Mugabe’s bid to seek a sixth consecutive term and urged supporters to endorse him at a ruling party congress.
No image available
/ 17 November 2007
Africa’s insistence that Robert Mugabe be invited to a summit in Europe is a matter of principle and not a sign of support for the Zimbabwean leader or his government, the chairperson of the African Union (AU) said on Friday. The prospect that Mugabe could attend a European Union-AU summit in Lisbon next month has threatened to derail the meeting.
No image available
/ 16 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s annual inflation shot to almost 15 000% last month, almost double the previous month’s rate and the worst mark yet in the country’s struggle with hyperinflation, according to reports on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent quoted official sources as saying annual inflation in October reached 14 850%.
No image available
/ 15 November 2007
President Robert Mugabe on Thursday commissioned the first biodiesel production plant in oil-starved Zimbabwe, vowing that the country will ”never collapse”. ”As a nation we have once again demonstrated that the ill-fated sanctions against the innocent people of Zimbabwe can never subdue our resilience,” Mugabe said at the plant’s official opening.
No image available
/ 15 November 2007
A white Zimbabwean farmer is set to go to court in Namibia next week over attempts by the Zimbabwean government to seize his land, the first case to be heard by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) tribunal. William Michael Campbell (75) faces criminal charges in Zimbabwe for failing to vacate his farm.
No image available
/ 11 November 2007
Zimbabwe marks the 10th anniversary this week of ”Black Friday”, when its currency plunged a record 72%, an episode widely regarded as the precursor of its subsequent economic meltdown. Under pressure after street protests, President Robert Mugabe ordered unbudgeted payouts for 50 000 of war veterans.
No image available
/ 9 November 2007
Zimbabwe police on Friday brought in for questioning an editor and two executives from two leading independent media houses. Hama Saburi, editor of financial weekly the Financial Gazette, said he and the newspaper’s chief executive were on their way to a police station for apparently violating government price controls.
No image available
/ 6 November 2007
The annual conference of the International Bar Association, the world’s biggest meeting of lawyers, was officially opened in Singapore recently by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. Yew, Singapore’s long-time ruler and a lawyer by training, was in no mind to soft-peddle his prescriptions for the island state’s success. ”If I had permitted freedom of expression,” he confidently announced, ”I would not be here tonight and neither would all of you.”
No image available
/ 6 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court, regarded as a handpicked ally of President Robert Mugabe, has backed controversial legislation that allows the government to take farm equipment belonging to white farmers, in the name of the regime’s often-violent campaign to seize white-owned land.
No image available
/ 4 November 2007
Zimbabwe’s judicial system has ground to a halt following a nationwide strike by magistrates, judges and prosecutors for higher wages, according to state radio on Saturday. A junior magistrate earns the equivalent of about a month, while a high court judge is paid about .
No image available
/ 3 November 2007
Trevor Ncube’s article ("Opportunity knocks for Zimbabwe", October 5) cannot go unchallenged. One would have expected him to make use of his lofty position to differentiate clearly the forest from the trees where the situation in this wretched country is concerned, writes Ketayi Makosa.
No image available
/ 2 November 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is ignoring approaches from former South African president Nelson Mandela to step down, reports said on Friday. The Zimbabwe Independent, quoting unnamed sources, also said that former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan had tried to meet with Mugabe to discuss his retirement.
No image available
/ 1 November 2007
A failed British bid to exclude Robert Mugabe from an upcoming European summit played straight into the hands of the Zimbabwean president, who gained instinctive support from his African peers, analysts said. Portugal said on Wednesday that invitations would be issued to all African states who would be free to decide themselves on the composition of their delegation.
No image available
/ 1 November 2007
A decision by the European Union to allow Robert Mugabe to a summit is a rare diplomatic coup for Zimbabwe’s leader whose relations with the West have plummeted almost as fast as his country’s economy. In power since the former British colony won independence in 1980, Mugabe has shown no sign of mellowing in his old age.
No image available
/ 31 October 2007
European Union and African ministers met in Accra, Ghana, on Wednesday to decide whether to risk a diplomatic storm by inviting Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to an EU-Africa summit. Britain has said it will boycott the proposed summit in Lisbon if Mugabe attends. Some African nations have said they will stay away if the Zimbabwean leader is not invited.