Monday, January 26, 2009
Regional leaders meet to tackle Zimbabwe crisis
Regional leaders will push Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition at a summit on Monday to implement a power-sharing deal and save the country from economic collapse. Mugabe will seek approval at the meeting in South Africa to form a government with or without his rivals. The veteran leader and Morgan Tsvangirai, head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), signed the agreement in September but have failed to agree on control of cabinet posts, with neither side showing any sign of compromise.
MoreZimbabwe police block rally
Zimbabwean police called off an opposition rally in their capital yesterday, prompting accusations of political interference on the eve of a regional summit on the southern African nation’s political crisis.Opposition spokesman Nelson Chamisa said leaders of his Movement for Democratic Change had organized the rally in Harare to update members on their position headed into the talks, set to take place in South Africa.
MoreEU tightens sanctions on Zimbabwe
The European Union has tightened its sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, EU officials have said. More than 60 individuals and firms with links to Mr Mugabe have been added to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU or doing business there. Those on the sanctions list are suspected of having links to human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
MoreFriday, January 23, 2009
WOZA leaders in court for remand hearing
On Thursday, a Bulawayo magistrate set aside a ruling on a case against the leaders of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), who are facing two ‘nuisance’ charges for organizing demonstrations. Jennie Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu were arrested in October 2008 and June 2008 and were charged under the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act and Miscellaneous Offences Act respectively. Both draconian Acts deal with issues relating to ‘acting in a manner which is likely to lead to a breach of the peace or to create a nuisance, disturbing peace, security or order of the public’.
MoreRegime plans forced removal of Chiadzwa villagers
Plans are afoot by the regime to forcibly remove 5000 villagers from the Chiadzwa area in Manicaland province, to facilitate unfettered access to the diamond fields. Newsreel learnt on Thursday that a meeting between Governor Christopher Mushowe and some chiefs and headmen from the area is set to be held on Saturday. Almost all those invited, including the provincial administrator and district administrator for Marange, have close links to the Mugabe regime. Sure Mudiwa, the MDC MP for Mutare West which incorporates the diamond fields, said there has been a deliberate plot by the regime to exclude some people from the meeting.
MoreHunger strike for change
Archbishop Desmond Tutu is among activists in southern Africa who have launched a fast and hunger strike in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe. The new Save Zimbabwe Now movement says African leaders must abandon the policy of quiet diplomacy and recognise there is no legal government in Zimbabwe.
MoreSADC to blame for deaths in Zimbabwe, says Machel
“The blood of those dying on daily basis in Zimbabwe will be laid on the feet of Southern African Development Community (SADC) leadership as they are failing to undertake duties they are elected to do” said rights activist Graça Machel in JohannesburgZimbabwe Journalists. Machel who is also a member of elders’s group who were barred from entering Zimbabwe last Novemember by the Mugabe regime was speaking at the launch of a regional fasting that is meant to last for three months over the Zimbabwe crisis. Organisers of this fasting period believe ‘politicians alone could not solve the crisis.’
MoreMore die of cholera
Over 2,700 people are reported to have now died in Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic - a 20% rise in a week, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) says. WHO says about 50,000 people have been infected with the preventable disease. The start of the rainy season could lead to even more infections, as water sources become contaminated, aid workers have warned.
MoreThursday, January 22, 2009
Children on the edge of survival
Zimbabwe’s defunct health system and the growing humanitarian crisis have had a devastating impact on the lives of children, particularly those who are orphaned or vulnerable, and UN officials have warned that child mortality rates will continue to rise. UNICEF executive director Ann Veneman, who visited Zimbabwe recently, told journalists that children’s access to health care and other preventative measures have been made difficult by the collapse of the health services system, the cholera epidemic, the closure of government hospitals, and the economic and food crises.
MoreCholera threat shifts to rural areas
Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic is spreading to rural areas because people with the preventable disease have quit heavily-infected urban centres for the countryside, an agency official said on Wednesday. United Nations agencies say cholera has killed nearly 2,500 people and infected more than 40,000 in the Southern African country, where the health and sanitation systems have collapsed due to an economic crisis.
MoreThe Threat at the end of the Tunnel
Tsvangirai and Mugabe are talking again. It’s a last ditch attempt to agree on a power sharing government in Zimbabwe, and everyone says it’s doomed to failure. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for Morgan Tsvangirai. But there could be a very nasty surprise. Tsvangirai and Mugabe are being watched by President Motlanthe and Ex-President Mbeki of South Africa and President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique. And my advice to Tsvangirai is just this: when and if these Harare talks break down, hitch a lift out of Zimbabwe with one or other president. Stay - and you could be in big trouble.
MoreSave Zimbabwe Now launched
The launch of the movement Save Zimbabwe Now was launched on Tuesday, 21st January 2009, at Central Methodist Mission, Johannesburg. Speakers included:
Graca Machel - Member of The Elders and wife of Nelson Mandela, Kumi Naidoo - Honorary president of CIVICUS, Nomboniso Gasa - Chair of the South African Gender Commission, Bishop Paul Verryn of the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg, Louisa Zonda - Consultant and former CEO of the Human Rights Commission, Pastor Mugabe - Board member of the Zimbabwean National Pastors Conference and member of the Christian Alliance, Makoma Lekalakala - Steering committee member of Ceasefire and member of several women’s and community based organisations and Sipho Theys - Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum.
Parties lobby Sadc leaders
Intense lobbying of Southern African Development Community (Sadc) leaders by main parties is taking place in the run-up to the Extraordinary Summit on Zimbabwe scheduled for next Monday. Both Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change are trying frantically to influence the decision of the 15-member body which guaranteed the Global Political Agreement signed on September 15, 2008.
MoreMDC say no point in talking to ZANU PF before SADC summit
There are reports that negotiators from the MDC-T have declined an invitation from ZANU PF to continue with discussions in Harare, before next week’s extraordinary summit of the SADC Heads of State. After Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai failed to reach a deal on forming a unity government on Monday, the ZANU PF leader told reporters ‘we will continue to discuss here at home and we shall continue exchanging ideas.’
MoreTens of thousands have fled Zim for South Africa in past 5 months
Zimbabwe’s worsening humanitarian, economic and political situation forced over 100 000 people to claim asylum in South Africa in 2008, according to pressure group Human Rights Watch. The group have released a report saying at least 30 000 claimed asylum in the last 5 months of 2008, a period that started after the violent June one man presidential run-off, and this figure was double the total number of Zimbabwean claims made in all 6 of South Africa’s refugee reception offices in 2007. The figure is also more than half of the total number of asylum claims made by all nationalities in South Africa in those offices the same year. It’s now believed there is a backlog of at least 200 000 Zimbabwean asylum cases in South Africa.
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