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/ 6 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s ruling party on Wednesday formally expelled a former ally of President Robert Mugabe for launching a challenge to the veteran leader in next month’s elections, a Zanu-PF official said. Veterans of the country’s liberation war have branded former finance minister Simba Makoni a traitor after he entered the race on Tuesday.
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/ 6 February 2008
Veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation war warned a former ally of President Robert Mugabe who will run against him in next month’s elections that he was a traitor, government newspapers reported on Wednesday. Former finance minister Simba Makoni, a senior member of the ruling Zanu-PF, entered the presidential race on Tuesday.
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/ 5 February 2008
Zimbabwe’s former finance minister, Simba Makoni, a senior member of the ruling Zanu-PF party, announced on Tuesday that he would challenge President Robert Mugabe as an independent in elections next month. The announcement by the widely respected Makoni comes after the breakdown of talks between the two factions of the main opposition.
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/ 27 January 2008
The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten has been arrested in Zimbabwe on charges of breaking the troubled country’s currency exchange laws and possessing pornography. Police detained Van Hoogstraten after a raid on his home last Thursday, charging him with collecting rent on his properties in foreign currency.
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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.
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/ 15 January 2008
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has defied a ban on reporting from Zimbabwe by staging an undercover trip there which revealed challenges to President Robert Mugabe from within his own party, the broadcaster said on Tuesday. BBC world affairs editor John Simpson spent a week in the Southern African country carrying out interviews and filming.
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/ 15 January 2008
Zimbabwe’s central bank governor is due to appear before a special parliamentary committee next week to give evidence on top officials allegedly hoarding vast sums of cash, official media said on Tuesday. Since late last year thousands of Zimbabweans have struggled to get their money out of banks.
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/ 14 January 2008
Zimbabwean police disrupted several Anglican Church services in Harare on Sunday, arresting at least three priests and a number of parishioners opposed to a pro-government bishop. The priests were dragged out of church because they were conducting services without the authorisation of the police or that of Bishop Nolbert Kunonga.
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/ 10 January 2008
Impoverished Zimbabwean farmers have to show they are loyal members of the ruling party if they want free equipment that the government is offering, and opposition supporters have been threatened with dogs, independent democracy monitors said on Thursday.
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.
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/ 31 December 2007
President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson has accused former colonial power Britain and other Western countries of sabotaging Zimbabwe’s efforts to turn around its economy by offering a safe haven to criminals. The comments came after an MP from Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, David Butau, fled to Britain last week.
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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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/ 4 December 2007
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday expressed his gratitude to European Union and fellow African leaders for enabling him to see off a bid to have him excluded from an EU-Africa summit. ”The sinister campaign led by Britain to isolate us, including the recent attempts to bar us from attending the EU-Africa summit … continues to disintegrate,” Mugabe said in a State of the Nation address in Parliament.
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/ 30 November 2007
Thousands of Zimbabwean war veterans gathered in Harare on Friday to lead a ”million-man march” in support of President Robert Mugabe’s bid to extend his rule despite a severe economic crisis blamed on his government. Mugabe (83) and in power since Zimbabwe’s independence from Britain in 1980, is seeking re-election in presidential and parliamentary elections set for March 2008.
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/ 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.
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/ 15 November 2007
Southern African countries face a ”very real challenge” of regime change encouraged by foreign powers, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said on Thursday. He was opening the ministerial session of the South Africa-Zimbabwe Joint Permanent Commission on defence and security in Vanderbijlpark.
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/ 8 November 2007
A week-long strike by Zimbabwe magistrates over pay could be joined by more disgruntled state employees, increasing pressure on President Robert Mugabe ahead of elections next year, analysts said. The country is grappling with a severe economic crisis that has pushed inflation past 7 900%.
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/ 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.
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/ 27 October 2007
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said he is determined to attend a Europe-Africa summit in Lisbon next month despite pressure from Britain that he be kept off the invitation list. ”Portugal said they would invite me,” Mugabe said in an interview published by state media in Angola on Friday.
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/ 25 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s home affairs minister has dismissed as hearsay claims by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that MDC members are being targeted in violent attacks by ruling party supporters, state media said on Thursday. A delegation from the MDC was on Wednesday summoned to meet Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi.
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/ 16 October 2007
Zimbabwe’s main opposition on Monday accused President Robert Mugabe’s party of treating with disdain key talks by mounting a crackdown on its supporters. ”We continue to receive disturbing reports from across the country of violence against our supporters,” said Nelson Chamisa, the spokesperson for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday called for unity among the country’s main political rivals to revive the country’s moribund agricultural sector. ”Let’s work together, all of us,” Mugabe said at a ceremony in the capital, Harare, where he commissioned a range of farming equipment to be distributed to fledgling farmers.
War veterans in Zimbabwe are planning to stage a ”million-man” march through the streets of the capital, Harare, in support of President Robert Mugabe, state radio said early on Sunday. Veterans of the 1970s war against white minority rule are among the 83-year old Mugabe’s most loyal supporters.
President Robert Mugabe presides over a disaster in Zimbabwe but should still be entitled to attend a forthcoming Europe-Africa summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday. Summing up talks in Pretoria with President Thabo Mbeki, Merkel said she made clear her disquiet about the situation across South Africa’s northern border.
Condemning Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is counterproductive and international powers should instead put their weight behind regional diplomatic efforts to unseat him, Tanzania’s president said on Friday. Jakaya Kikwete insisted the diplomatic approach favoured by African leaders ”will pay dividends”.
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/ 23 September 2007
Zimbabwe’s divided opposition was pressured by international mediators into accepting the framework for next year’s elections in a move that will likely condemn it to defeat, according to analysts. The Movement for Democratic Change made a surprise U-turn last week and voted for the legislation.
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/ 23 September 2007
”Mugabe stands very tall and black,” boasted Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru in Zimbabwe on Saturday. ”Brown stands white and colonial.” It was a reminder of the intensity of the diplomatic row that has erupted over British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s decision to boycott a Europe-Africa summit if Mugabe shows up.
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/ 20 September 2007
Britain will call on the European Union to extend sanctions against members of Zimbabwe’s ruling elite as the country’s humanitarian crisis plumbs new depths, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday. He urged the international community to do everything it can to relieve human suffering in Zimbabwe.
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/ 20 September 2007
The South African Cabinet has welcomed the recent breakthrough by the collective leadership of Zimbabwe on draft constitutional amendments. Zimbabwe’s main political parties have reportedly agreed that President Robert Mugabe should no longer be allowed to handpick members of the lower house of assembly.
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/ 17 September 2007
The humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe has become the world’s worst but is still largely ignored by the international community, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Monday. David Coltart said the crisis in the former British colony had far outgrown the ability of any single nation to tackle.