• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has held out at an olive branch to the MDC-M, the formation led by deputy Prime Minister, Arthur Mutambara. However, this was rebuffed by Mutambara’s secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, despite statements made by MDC-M secretary for legal affairs David Coltart who said he regretted the split and hoped that talks on reunifying the two formations would commence.

• The US State Department on Sunday said the Government of National Unity (GNU) must do more to protect human rights and political freedoms for the visa and financial sanctions against President Robert Mugabe, his top lieutenants and about 200 companies linked to his Zanu PF party to be lifted.

• South African President Jacob Zuma told Foreign Affairs Committee MEPs on his first visit to the European Parliament on Wednesday that the international community should lift the sanctions (travel bans and asset freezes imposed on Mugabe and members of the Zanu PF elite) so as to facilitate efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis.

• European Union President Herman Van Rompuy on Tuesday said the bloc was ready to take a fresh look at the targeted sanctions pending political developments. He said the EU had offered €365 million (US$490 million) over the last 18 months to projects in Zimbabwe aimed at better governance.”

• The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said this week that South African President and mediator Jacob Zuma should see to it that Zanu PF conforms to democratic values before lobbying Brussels and other Western capitals to remove sanctions.

• Tsvangirai dismissed as false assertions that Zimbabwe is under economic sanctions explaining Monday that the West only imposed restrictive measures on Mugabe and his cronies for orchestrating a breakdown in the rule of law.

• The death of Zanu PF spokesman Ephraim Masawi on Saturday has sparked controversy since Masawi, who did not fight in the liberation war, has been granted hero status by Zanu PF and will be buried at Heroes’ Acre.

• Mugabe told the UN General Assembly in New York on Friday that Africa should be given two permanent seats on the UN Security Council, with full powers of veto, plus two non-permanent seats.

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mugabe in a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly stressed the two countries’ eagerness to bolster political and economic ties. In April, Iran and Zimbabwe signed 11 documents for expansion of cooperation between the two countries in different fields.

• Mugabe was forced to cancel a scheduled trip to Ecuador to receive an honorary doctorate from Bishop Walter Roberto Crespo after extensive media coverage exposed the fact that the bishop was a bogus character, previously arrested for supplying arms of war to rebels in Colombia.

Governance

• A combined group of Zimbabweans and internationals has launched an internet campaign to raise 10 000 signatures in support of a petition aimed at forcing Mugabe and Zanu PF to end the persecution of MDC Deputy Minister of Agriculture designate, Roy Bennett.  The campaign has been launched under the care2petition website.  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/263/justice-for-Roy-Bennett/
  

• The Matabeleland Civil Society Consortium has accused Bulawayo police of harassing and intimidating innocent city residents in what is being called an undeclared ‘state of emergency’ following the death of a police chief in an armed robbery.  There is reported to be widespread fear that the subsequent deployment of the army to Bulawayo is a ‘decoy,’ ahead of possible elections next year.

• Questioned about the huge delegations that Mugabe always travels overseas with – 80 officials accompanied him to the UN last week – Tsvangirai said this would have to stop as “we leaders are now talking about accountability in Zimbabwe.”

New Constitution

• Tsvangirai warned that violence and intimidation by the military are hindering attempts to write a new constitution and said he intended to discuss the problem with the president.  He hinted that due to this, the final document might have to be negotiated among political parties.

• Dr Lovemore Madhuku, chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and a critic of the parliamentary-led process, said politicians must swallow their pride and set up an independent commission to complete the process.

• Following the cancellation of 13 public meetings on the new constitution in Harare, Rona Peligal, the Africa director of Human Rights Watch warned Tuesday that Zanu-PF supporters and their allies continue to commit abuses with impunity, while the police remain partisan.  “The government of Zimbabwe needs to put a halt to the attacks and allow the constitutional outreach to proceed without violence,” he said.

• In a report released by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) at the weekend, the pro-democracy group said soldiers, police, war veterans, Zanu PF youth militia and chiefs had led the campaign of violence and intimidation, with the worst affected areas being the provinces of Masvingo, Midlands and Mashonaland Central.

• A coalition of Zimbabwean civil society groups (ZZZICOMP) on Tuesday said it had recorded 2 359 cases of human rights violations at public hearings on the new constitution during August, an increase of more than 50 percent on the 1 555 violations recorded for July.

• Simon Muchemwa of SW Radio Africa warned that Zanu PF, having dominated the outreach meetings in the rural areas, now wants to neutralise the views of the MDC in its urban strongholds, especially Harare. “This is why Zanu PF bussed in people from outside Harare to disrupt the meetings,” he said.

• Co-chairperson of the Constitution Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) management team, Douglas Mwonzora  (MDC-T) called for public statements by all political parties denouncing violence, racism, intimidation and other malpractices during the process. He urged Mugabe as Commander-in-chief of the armed forces to act immediately on the lawlessness perpetrated by them.

• The family of Crispen Mandizvidza, who died after being brutally assaulted by Zanu PF supporters during a constitutional outreach meeting in the Harare high-density suburb of Mbare last Sunday, said they had pointed out the suspected murderers to the police who had refused to take action.

• Monday’s issue of Bill Watch noted that if the Constitutional Outreach Programme was concluded by the end of September, and if COPAC stuck to the agreed timetable – which they deemed unlikely in view of the delays that have dogged the process so far – then the referendum could be expected by May next year.

• A two-day summit on the constitution-making process attended by 300 children from various parts of the country to enable them to contribute their ideas was organised by COPAC and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

• Political analyst John Makumbe noted in an editorial Monday that, despite the Zanu PF-initiated violence and disruptions, COPAC had successfully held outreach meetings in virtually three-quarters of the country, and that people’s views had been gathered and recorded. He said it was essential for the programme to remain on course in order to achieve a new, democratic and people-driven constitution.

Elections

• Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWVA) chairman Jabulani Sibanda, who with Zaka’s Chief Nhema is forcing villagers to attend rallies in Zaka, Masvingo Province, has told villagers that he was sent to warn all sell-outs in the area that Zanu PF is ready to kill them if they fail to join his party before campaigns for next elections begin.

• Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s chief strategists, former Information and Publicity Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo and war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda, are reported to be using the Zimbabwe National Army’s 4 Brigade barracks in Masvingo province to train and indoctrinate hundreds of unemployed youths.

• In a statement released Wednesday, the MDC’s Information & Publicity Department called on the inclusive government, Police Commissioner General, Augustine Chihuri and his machinery to act on Sibanda as a matter of urgency.

• On Monday, Tsvangirai heard the grim testimonies of victims of the 2008 election violence and family members of MDC activists who had been brutally killed by the ruling party.  A group that provides support to violence victims confirmed that more than 20 000 mostly rural victims had sought medical and psychological support at a centre in Harare. Thousands more however still need help.

• “I will not commit anyone to any election if it is a declaration of war, ” Tsvangirai promised. The weekend disturbances have been “a reminder of the dark past and a threat to a bright future”, he said.

• Business groups have written to Mugabe asking him not to call elections. The head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said the country cannot afford elections and is still caught up in a cycle of violence.

• The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) secretary general Kwasi Adu-Amankwah has called on African governments and the wider international community to intervene to stop rising attacks against union activists and other perceived opposition forces in Zimbabwe in the run up to a likely 2011 election.

Economy

• Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief, and European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, informed the GNU on Tuesday that Zimbabwe has provisionally been allocated €138.6 million under the 10th European Development Fund. This comes on top of the current EU financial support and will accompany further progress in the implementation of the power-sharing agreement.

• Central bank governors of 15 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) gathered Monday in Harare for a four-day meeting focused on regional economic integration and monetary policy.

• Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown was caused by economic mismanagement and not sanctions as propagated by Zanu PF, Tsvangirai said Monday at a public accountability seminar.

• At a national budget consultation meeting in Bulawayo, Finance Minister Tendai Biti hit out at policy inconsistencies and failure to resolve outstanding issues by the inclusive government, saying this was scaring away much-needed investment.

• Biti said Zimbabwe is accumulating interest at a rate of about US$300 million annually which is over five percent of GDP. He warned that the country is unlikely to be able to raise funds any time soon to settle the US$6.7 billion bill it owes various international creditors. Government requires US$10 billion in foreign funding to put the economy on a sustainable path to recovery.

• Despite the difficulties, Biti said during the second half of the year the economy had performed well, prompting the ministry to revise growth projections upwards.

• Air Zimbabwe management was given 12 days to pay its pilots who returned to work after they agreed to call off a strike which grounded the carrier’s regional and international flights resulting in an estimated loss of US$8 million dollars in revenue.

Business

• Renewed foreign investor interest in the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has resulted in international investors pumping in US$27.2 million to buy shares on the local bourse in August, up from US$17.7 million the previous month and US$6.6 million in May.

• President Mugabe on Thursday blasted foreign investors who complained about the indigenisation laws aimed at awarding locals a majority shareholding.

• Tsvangirai on Friday told the annual Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe conference that there is no contradiction in government’s controversial indigenisation policy and the desperate search for foreign investors.  “Nobody is going to be asked to part with any share without negotiating for the value of the share,” he said.

Mining/Diamonds

• A package containing 4 000 carats of diamonds worth millions of dollars, believed to have been illegally exported from the Marange diamond fields, is reported to have been seized in Dubai, indicating that international restrictions on sales are doing nothing to stop smuggling.  The United Arab Emirates returned the package to the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) and the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

• Earlier this month Belgian authorities reportedly seized a shipment of suspected Marange rough diamonds sent from Dubai to Antwerp.

• The US State Department held a consultative meeting Tuesday with American diamond dealers to explain its stance on blocking exports of rough diamonds from Marange ahead of a key Kimberley Process meeting.  The meeting also examined ways in which Kimberley Process criteria for certification might be updated.

Land/Agriculture

• Intimidation of the country’s few remaining commercial farmers is once again intensifying, but there have been no attempts from the government, particularly the Prime Minister, to prevent the illegal farm seizures.

• Farming operations were once again stopped on Wantage farm in the Chegutu district by Zanu PF strongman Thomas Shoko Mudavanhu and the local war veteran chairman who arrived in a Botswana registered vehicle. They ordered the farmer to stop planting and said Zimbabwe court orders held no relevance in the country.

• Guards employed by Zanu PF stalwart Nathan Shamuyarira have prevented the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union (GAPWUZ) from giving food aid to hungry former workers at Mount Carmel farm in Chegutu which Shamuyarira seized from its former white owner, Mike Campbell.

• Deon Theron, president of the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU), said the union had tried to get the MDC and the co-Ministers of Home Affairs to intervene but to no avail.  “There is no respect for international Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs), no respect for our own courts, and as long as we don’t have respect for the rule of law, then we are lost,” he said.

Legal

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union and 10 of its members were in Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court yesterday before five judges of the Constitutional Court for the first case in which the GNU is accused of a wide range of flagrant violations of the farmers’ constitutional rights.

• Former Constitutional Court judge Richard Goldstone on Monday said levelling war crimes charges against President Mugabe would not be possible.  He said while there were serious reports about crimes against minority groups during Mugabe’s reign in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s, they fell outside the ambit of the International Criminal Court.

• “Firstly, the court has no jurisdiction on anything that happened prior to July 1, 2002. Secondly, Zimbabwe is not a member of the court and therefore the court has no jurisdiction over any war crimes committed in Zimbabwe,” said Goldstone.

• Harare High Court judge Chinembiri Bhunu is suing Roy Bennett (MDC-T) for US$1 million for remarks allegedly made during a terrorism trial that ended in May.  Judge Bhunu charges Bennett was quoted by the Guardian (UK) as saying he would be denied justice because Judge Bhunu would apply the law “selectively” because he is “compromised” by being a beneficiary of a white-owned farm.  Bennett’s remarks were published a day before he was acquitted of charges by Judge Bhunu.

Health / Humanitarian

• Villagers in some parts of Matabeleland South now accept maize as payment for cattle amid reports that pupils are dropping out of school due to starvation. Aid agencies have of late become reluctant to provide food assistance after Mugabe accused them of nurturing a dependency syndrome among Zimbabweans.

• Desperate and starving Gutu villagers in Masvingo Province have appealed to the MDC to give them food as they are now surviving on wild fruits and tree roots.

• The authorities must halt the pending evictions of up to 20 000 mainly Operation Murambatsvina victims from Harare’s Hatcliffe Extension informal settlement for failure to pay prohibitively high lease renewal fees, Amnesty International said Friday.

• Health officials have been placed on high alert amid reports that at least 19 people have died from a fresh cholera outbreak whose epicentre is at the Marange diamond fields in the Chiadzwa district of eastern Zimbabwe. The latest outbreak has so far affected 18 of the country’s 62 districts.

Diaspora

• The South African government is this week being urged to extend its deadline for Zimbabwean nationals to regularise their stay in the country amid fears that the December 31 deadline is unreasonable.  Zimbabwean immigrants are struggling to get legal documents because the Zimbabwean embassy and consulate in SA are failing to deal with the huge influx.

Wildlife

• South African game farmer Dawie Groenewald, owner of the notorious Out of Africa Adventure Safaris company, who was arrested last Monday for allegedly being the mastermind behind an illegal rhino poaching gang, has links to top officials in Zanu PF, notably Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi. Groenewald’s wife and nine other people, including two veterinarians, were also arrested.

• Senior Zanu PF officials, police and soldiers have been fingered in a fresh wave of poaching in the Beitbridge area where more than 200 zebras have been slaughtered on Denlynian Ranch and Tamari Wildlife Farm during the past two months.

• The invaders also burnt approximately 200 hectares of trees, most of which have been standing for the past 300 years.  Environmentalists warn of an ecological disaster due to the large-scale, indiscriminate cutting down of trees to open up land for tillage when the ecosystem is so fragile that it is only suitable for wildlife farming.

• Thirteen elephants were killed by a gang of poachers in the Hurungwe safari area earlier this month.  An additional ten elephants were burned to death during a bush fire at Derbyshire Ranch in Shangani, Matabeleland South Province.  Seven rhino poachers were arrested recently in the Chiredzi area.

The Good News

• The new audio and digital equipment worth US$500 000 that USAid has donated to Parliament will enhance its ability to make official proceedings in both Houses and in six committee rooms accessible to the media and the public by means of Hansard, Parliament’s website and also by live broadcasts.

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• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is said by analysts to be skating on thin ice after he apparently accepted assurances from President Robert Mugabe that he will hand over power should he lose elections – likely to be held next year. Tsvangirai said they had agreed that the losing presidential candidate would not contest the outcome.

• Speaking at The Economist’s Future Summit on Zimbabwe held in Johannesburg Thursday, Tsvangirai hinted of a possible future pact guaranteeing security chiefs immunity from prosecution for political crimes committed in the past as a way to secure their support for a future non-Mugabe-led government.

• Genocide Watch has classified the Gukurahundi massacres of the early 1980s – carried out by Mugabe’s North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade – as a genocide. The group’s chairperson, Professor Gregory Stanton, said the Mugabe regime had been trying to sweep the atrocity under the rug for 30 years but this classification now meant the perpetrators could be prosecuted, no matter how much time has passed.

• South African International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Thursday that the South African government would lobby for the removal of targeted sanctions against President Mugabe and his Zanu PF officials during the 65th session of the United Nations in New York.

• Speaking at the UN, this week, Mugabe claimed his government is unable to meet the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty because of ‘illegal’ sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States and European Union.  Link to video:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8016668/Robert-Mugabe-blames-sanctions-for-Zimbabwes-woes.html

• MDC-T spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the SADC 30-day deadline had passed without any movement because neither the inter-party negotiators nor the principals had met to discuss how to implement the issues before the expiry of the deadline.

• Police have raided the Harare home of Senator Roy Bennett, MDC-T Treasurer-General and deputy Agriculture minister-designate, on three occasions over the past two weeks and have indicated they want to arrest him on unspecified charges.

• The two MDC factions are engaged in informal reunification talks following their acrimonious 2005 split, David Coltart, legal secretary of the MDC-M (Mutambara faction) said.  Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai commented recently that he was not opposed to calls for the factions to reunite ahead of elections.

• According to Sokwanele, a group promoting democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe, Zanu PF is responsible for 90 percent of the breaches of the Global Political Agreement since its inception.  Zimbabwe Inclusive Government (ZIG) Watch is published on the organisation’s website:  www.sokwanele.com

New Constitution

• The troubled constitutional outreach program degenerated into chaos over the weekend when 45 meetings were violently disrupted by Zanu PF hired thugs armed with iron bars, logs and sticks, who led co-ordinated attacks on COPAC officials and MDC supporters.  Truck loads of assailants transported to Harare from the rural areas are believed to have included military personnel in civilian clothing. The police failed to intervene and arrest the perpetrators.

• The COPAC management committee has suspended the programme in Harare pending investigations to probe the violence.

• Co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone (MDC-T) on Monday launched a tirade against Zanu PF for ‘virtually holding the Zimbabwe Republic Police captive.’  She said the police were just as paralysed as most victims of political violence and were too afraid to do their jobs because they received their instructions from the Zanu PF hierarchy.

Elections

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai met with South African President and SADC mediator Jacob Zuma on Wednesday to push for the immediate implementation of the regional bloc’s roadmap towards free and fair elections.  The agenda included discussion on how best to avoid another disputed election.

• Following a surge of attacks on MDC supporters by Zanu PF youths at the weekend, Tsvangirai said Monday that he would not participate in an election threatened by violence.

• Recently appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission chairman, former Harare High Court Judge Simpson Mutambanengwe, said Thursday that rushing to hold a new vote before thorough preparations would inevitably result in a disputed outcome.

• Zanu PF has reportedly moved into an electioneering mode, flighting advertisements in the state-run Herald and Chronicle newspapers.  In this campaign, dubbed “Zanu PF: The unstoppable machine”, voters are warned not to vote for parties “living on borrowed oxygen.”

• Zanu PF has dismissed an opinion poll conducted by the Public Mass Opinion Institute which predicts that the MDC-T will win the next general election, with Zanu PF second and the revived Zapu third, while 40% of the electorate might not vote.

• Conservative Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham says the UK is working with all democratic forces, including SADAC, the UN and the EU, to ensure monitors are stationed in Zimbabwe well ahead of the next elections.

Economy

• According to the 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report released by the World Economic Forum, Zimbabwe is six places down the on the previous year at 136th out of 139 countries.

• The unstable political situation in the country has impacted negatively on the country’s economy since no investor will pour money in a country dogged by political instability, Finance Minister Tendai Biti (MDC-T) said Friday.  He described the country’s economy as a “prisoner of politics.”

• Biti said the country has an external debt of USD 7 billion while the internal debt stands at USD 1, 1 billion. The heavily militarised Marange diamond fields have yet to benefit the fiscus in a meaningful way.

• Delegates at Thursday’s Future Summit on Zimbabwe said that serious doubts remain about investing in the country, until there are visible changes on the ground.

• Sir Richard Branson urged people Monday to invest in Zimbabwe, saying the world is wrong to wait instead of helping the country to revive itself.  Virgin Unite has helped create Enterprise Zimbabwe, a non-profit group connecting philanthropists and commercial investors with business and social development opportunities.

• Zanu PF has lashed out at Branson, saying they will not tolerate “backdoor entry by ‘vultures’ disguised as angels.”

• In Harare on Friday hundreds of civil servants took part in a protest march, demanding pay increases of at least double their current salaries. They said government could use the money from the recent sale of diamonds to fund this.

• Biti said Friday that preliminary reports have indicated there are over 45 000 ghost workers in the civil service and the country will only be able to increase salaries of its workers once the issue has been dealt with.

• It was reported Sunday that the government paid US$400 million for two new Airbus A340-200 aircraft to service Air Zimbabwe’s long-haul routes such as China and the United Kingdom.  More than 40 pilots are on strike because of the non-payment of allowances and salaries owed to them, estimated at US$1.2 million.

• Annual inflation slowed further to 3.6 percent in August, from 4.1 percent the previous month but the month-on-month figure remained flat at -0.1 percent for the third straight month. Despite this, poverty continues to bite with unemployment estimated as high as 94 percent and industry working at less than 40 percent of capacity.  The International Monetary Fund has forecast that growth will be below 2.5 percent this year.

• The failure by the government to approve capital expenditure programmes in electricity generation is now evident, with the State power utility announcing this week an extended load shedding schedule expected to run until December.

• Zimbabwe blew an opportunity to lure international energy investors when it snubbed the first high-ranking Africa-European Union Energy Partnership (AEEP) meeting in Vienna, Austria, this week.

Business

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangiri told delegates at the Future Summit on Zimbabwe that a law to increase local black ownership of foreign firms would be implemented gradually and without forced sales.

• The Affirmative Action Group (AAG) has started visiting white-owned companies in Bulawayo demanding that the firms cede10-30 percent of their shareholding to employees.

Mining/Diamonds

• In a government-to-government deal reportedly signed with China, Beijing will supply Zimbabwe with military hardware in exchange for the right to mine at the Marange diamond fields.  Involving the Chinese People’s ­Liberation Army and Mugabe’s military chiefs, it is believed that the weapons will be supplied to the ­military in preparation for a brutal new crackdown against political opponents.

• Campaign group Global Witness warns that Zimbabwe’s generals are accumulating a secret slush fund from Marange diamond sales which would put the army in a powerful position to dictate the terms of succession after President Mugabe’s death.

• A secret auction of Marange diamonds last weekend (18/19 September) was supervised by Kimberley Process monitor Abbey Chikane.

• The decision by companies mining diamonds in Marange district to build a US$20 million cutting and polishing technology centre in President Mugabe’s home province, over 400 kms from where the gems are being extracted, has caused anger in social and political circles.

• Manicaland provincial administrator Fungai Mbetsa has warned 44 families living near the diamond fields – who are resisting relocation from their villages to be resettled in the Odzi district – that the government programme is irreversible.

• The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines says the country needs between US$3 and US$5 billion to recapitalise the sector over the next five years.  Estimates of the value of the Marange diamond fields are as high as £800bn (US$1 225bn).

• Finance minister Tendai Biti predicts mining output growth of 31 percent this year, boosted by Anglo American’s Unki platinum mine, which goes into operation next month and will produce 60 000 ounces annually.

Land/Agribusiness

• Zanu PF youths who invaded Eldorado Ranch in Macheke last Saturday were chased off the land by heavily armed riot police allegedly sent by President Robert Mugabe.  The owner, Khalfan Khamao, is reportedly close to the Mugabe family.

• Last week the homestead on a Chegutu commercial farm owned by French national and protected by a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed with France was destroyed in a fire.  The owner was forced off her land during March to make way for Senator Jamaya Muduvuri who has previously taken over four productive farms – Twyford is his fifth.

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has been trying to get a moratorium on the continued land invasions and a Supreme Court ruling on the matter is expected later this month. The CFU is also trying to stop prosecutions against several of its members accused of allegedly contravening Section 3(3) of the Gazetted Land Act, by refusing to vacate farms illegally occupied by Mugabe supporters.

• The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Saturday that it was resettling more than 340 Zimbabwean families – almost 1 700 people – displaced by farm violence in the east of the country last year.

• A group of 35 war vets and Zanu PF supporters told a Masvingo magistrate Wednesday that Higher and Tertiary Education minister Stan Mudenge should be arrested instead of them and prosecuted for illegally invading the farm which they had been allocated by government.

• A Christian farmer, Brian Oldreive, who lost his own farm, is transferring his expertise in conservation agriculture to thousands of aspiring farmers, achieving yields of up to 16 tonnes per hectare as opposed to the average subsistence yield of less than 1 tonne per ha.  Website:  www.foundationsforfarming.org

Health/Humanitarian

• Despite the fact that inflation is under control and food is available in the shops, the dumping of unwanted babies continues at the same desperate rate, reports Shengu Dzevena Trust Orphanage on the outskirts of Harare.

Legal

• Tension has heightened between police and Central Intelligence Organization operatives following a round of fatal weekend shootings in Bulawayo that left at least two high ranking security agents dead and many others wounded.

• Police chief Augustine Chihuri has warned dangerous criminals that the police will “shoot to kill” as the country battles an upsurge in armed robberies.

• To mark International Peace Day on September 21, 600 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and their male counterparts (MOZA) marched peacefully to Parliament in Harare to highlight community safety issues and police behaviour in communities.  The police responded by locking up 83 of the participants in filthy cells and beating one member severely.  Amnesty International has called for their release.

Education

• Two students from Bindura University have died after being brutally assaulted last Friday by security guards determined to stop those who had not paid their tuition fees from attending a graduation ceremony. A further sixteen students were injured.

• Education, Arts, Sports and Culture minister Senator David Coltart begin_of_the_skype_highlighting has urged political parties and rural communities to stop violence against teachers during campaigns such as the current constitution-making programme.end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Diaspora

• A Zimbabwean mother who admitted taking part in savage farm evictions lost her bid for asylum in the UK after a High Court judge accused her of ‘crimes against humanity.’  She confessed to beating up ten people – one woman so severely she thought her victim would die – while their homes were burnt to the ground.

The Good News

• The Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), which was ZAPU’s armed wing during the liberation war, has embarked on a peace-building campaign aimed at rebuilding the image of genuine war veterans.  The initiative is anchored in national healing and the ZIPRA War Veterans’ Trust, headquartered in Bulawayo, aims to roll out the programme nationally.

• A Chicago-based aid organization, World Bicycle Relief, distributed 200 bicycles to aids orphans and other underprivileged children to enable them to get to school quickly and safely.  If this pilot initiative succeeds and finds financing, it could be extended to tens of thousands of other struggling Zimbabwean children.

• Last week U.S. Embassy diplomats and staff continued their volunteer mission and assisted with operations at the Tichavaka Brick-making community project in Hatcliffe, an area devastated during Operation Murambatsvina in 2005.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• The SADC organ of the Troika, which met on the eve of the SADC Summit in Windhoek, Namibia, adopted a report on the progress of Zimbabwe’s transitional government compiled by South African President Jacob Zuma.

• President Zuma’s new “roadmap” includes a push for elections, zero tolerance for intimidation and a 30-day deadline for President Mugabe to finally honour his agreements.

• The SADC Summit instructed the three parties in the transitional government to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and clear the way for 2011 elections by completing the writing of a new constitution.

• Faced with rising tensions among the parties over a range of longstanding issues, South Africa said it would step up its mediation efforts. Lindiwe Zulu, the facilitator and President Zuma’s international relations adviser, confirmed that her team would be back in Harare shortly.

• The sixth SADC People’s Summit, held concurrently with the SADC Summit in Namibia under the auspices of the Southern Africa Peoples’ Solidarity Network (SAPSN), warned that governments in the region are silencing dissenting voices increasingly to sustain unpopular regimes.

Legal

• SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao denied Wednesday that the SADC Tribunal had been suspended as claimed by Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa.

• Mr Salamao said the Tribunal’s role and responsibilities were to be reviewed by professionals and experts tasked with providing clear recommendations. The review would be undertaken by a committee of SADC Justice Ministers and Attorney Generals within a period of six months. “In the meantime, they don’t entertain any new cases but they can deal with those they have at hand,” Mr Salamao said.

• Lawyers in South Africa have warned of the negative impact on the region if human rights are not respected and the rule of law is tramped on when it does not suit the rulers in power.

Diplomatic

• Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Sten Rylander and European Union ambassador Xavier Marchal, who have both completed their terms of office in Harare, have been commended for their commitment and invaluable contributions to the country.

• Rwanda has appealed for United Nations intervention in its simmering diplomatic row following Zimbabwe’s refusal to extradite Proitas Mpiranya – believed to be one of the masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide – to the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Governance

• Sanctions imposed on President Mugabe and his close associates will remain until the implementation of democratic reforms in Zimbabwe, US ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray told a roundtable discussion with senior editors in Harare on Wednesday.

• In a complete reversal of what President Mugabe and his partners agreed to at the SADC Troika, Mugabe on Friday vowed not to make any further concessions in the transitional government until Western sanctions are removed.

• These include the appointment of governors from the two MDC formations – one of the outstanding issues in the GPA. The new stance differs with observations made by President Zuma at the SADC Summit that the issue of governors had been resolved.

• In a compromise deal announced last week, the three political parties in the transitional government have agreed to retain controversial George Charamba – accused of churning out hate-speech against the MDC-T – as President Mugabe’s spokesman and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information.

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai can no longer make senior appointments in his party and government without consulting the party’s National Standing Committee (NSC), as part of measures to stem growing factionalism.

Economy

• Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has appointed committees dominated by allies of President Mugabe to help the government set minimum shareholdings in various segments of the economy to be allocated to black investors. The appointees include former defence force officials known to have spearheaded violent campaigns in the 2008 presidential election run off.

• Large multinational corporations targeted for indigenisation include cigarette manufacturer BAT Zimbabwe, which is 80 percent British-owned; UK-controlled financial institutions Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank, food group Nestlé Zimbabwe, mining giants Rio Tinto and Zimplats, and AON Insurance

• The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency reported that the annual inflation rate in July stood at 4,1%, declining from 5,3% the previous month. Food inflation eased from 7,39% in June to 7,11%.

• The cash-strapped Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe board has ordered the central bank to cut — with or without packages — three quarters of its staff to match its scaled down operations and avoid a ballooning retrenchment bill.  The visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) team made similar recommendations.

• The RBZ has also started has started repossessing top of the range vehicles it donated to parastatals and several government departments in the run-up to the 2008 elections.

• The beleaguered Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) said Friday it would comply with an order from Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) to reduce tariffs and reverse some of the excessive, inaccurate bills it gave to consumers.

• Reports show that rural poverty is deepening, with more rural people – many of whom live on less than one US dollar a day – being more vulnerable today than at Independence, increasing the spectre of instability as resources continue to be plundered ahead of development.

Business

• Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi’s son Lieutenant-Colonel Engineer Saadi Muammar al-Gaddafi and a delegation arrived in Zimbabwe on Thursday for a five-day visit to explore business opportunities

• Production at Rio Tinto Zimbabwe’s Murowa diamond mine increased by 28%, although it generated a loss of US$5 million due to a ban on the export of diamonds from Zimbabwe among other factors, the Rio Zim unit said on Friday.

• Kingstons Ltd, a giant provider of stationery partly owned by government, had 18 vehicles attached by First Mutual Limited (FML) recently over a US$130 000 debt amid reports that it owes creditors over US$1,5 million. The company has been struggling to pay its workers for several months

Mining/Diamonds

• A third layer of hardliners has been added to the powerful grouping of cabinet ministers/top civil servants and retired senior military officers who have effectively taken control of the diamonds, from mining in Chiadzwa to the final sale of the gems at the new Zimbabwe Diamond and Technology Centre near Harare. They are allegedly using the proceeds to boost the depleted Zanu PF party coffers and generate cash to fund Mugabe’s election campaign. For further details:

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news230810/diamond230810.htm

• Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa has threatened action against Farai Maguwu, the director of the Centre for Research and Development and his alleged backers after Mr Maguwu’s appointment as the focal point person for the Kimberley Process by the umbrella body for non-governmental organizations, NANGO.

• According to mining minister Obert Mpofu, the August 11 auction of Marange diamonds raised US$56.4 million, of which the government will receive US$30 million.  This differs from an earlier estimate by finance minister Tendai Biti that the auction raised US$46 million, with US$15 million coming into government coffers.

• Zimbabwe sold 900 000 carats of  what Mines minister Obert Mpofu said was just part of a six million stockpile after a protracted battle to get certification from diamond regulator, the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme. Finance Minister Tendai Biti says of the US$45 million realised from the sale, government pocketed US$15 million.

• The financial scandal rocking the state-owned Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) has deepened amid further revelations that the company’s suspended top managers, including CEO and general manager Dominic Mubayiwa, invested millions of dollars in the money market while the corporation’s mines were being closed.

Land/Agriculture/Food Security

• Zimbabwe is ranked among the top 10 countries in danger of hunger this year, according to a new reported published by British risk analysis and rating firm Maplecroft. The United Nations estimates that more than 1.68 million Zimbabweans will need food and agricultural assistance next year.

• Zimbabwe’s wheat harvests are expected to hit an all-time low of 11,000 metric tonnes in a nation that needs at least 250,000 tonnes annually.

• The 3,7 million litres of milk currently being produced each month falls below the monthly demand estimated at an average of 5,5 million litres, Dairibord Holdings Limited has reported.

• Workers at Gushungo Dairy Farm, which was taken from its legal owners by the Mugabe family, have accused their employer of unfair dismissal. Both permanent and seasonal workers said they were sent on forced unpaid and indefinite leave a fortnight ago and food rations were stopped as business was said to be “low”.

• According to the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement, the three leaders of the transitional government have finally agreed to set up an independent Land Commission whose main task will be to oversee the implementation of the long-awaited audit to rid the country of multiple land owners.

• A Zanu PF MP behind the illegal seizure of a farm in the Somabuhla district, who has committed ongoing vandalism and acts of violence to intimidate the owners and their workers, has snubbed a High Court order protecting the land from invasion and refused to leave the property on Monday. The farm owner is a South African citizen who should be protected by a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA) signed between South Africa and Zimbabwe and ratified in May.

New Constitution / Escalating Violence

• Violence related to the constitutional outreach exercise has become so severe in Manicaland that MDC officials on the teams have resolved not to hold meetings in the affected areas. MDC Senator Patrick Chitaka said several MDC members have been hospitalized after attacks when they spoke out during outreach meetings. Reports have been made to the police and details provided of some of the perpetrators but once again there have been no investigations or arrests.

• The General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) has raised concerns about “rampant” intimidation and harassment of farm workers in constitutional outreach meetings, mainly in Mashonaland farming areas.

• Seven members of the MDC who had been abducted at gunpoint by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives were finally found dumped at Catchway police station in Manicaland province last week.

• Villagers apprehended a group of axe-wielding militants who attempted to disrupt a constitution-making outreach preparatory meeting in Nyanga North constituency and handed them over to the Nyamaropa Police Station.

• Human rights group Amnesty International last week expressed its concerns about worsening human rights abuses in Manicaland and other parts of the country during the ongoing outreach exercise.

• A coalition of Zimbabwean churches, civic and human rights bodies, women’s organisations and student and labour movements is campaigning for the devolution of power with a proposal that the country’s proposed Constitution should provide for provincial assemblies to be elected on a system of proportional representation.

• Christians in Zimbabwe, who are being mobilised to participate actively in the making of the new constitution, are also being encouraged to set the groundwork for national reconciliation and healing

Elections / Pre-election Violence Threats

• A row is brewing within the transitional government over the timing of the next elections and the level of SADC’s involvement in any such polls. While President Mugabe is resisting significant SADC involvement, Prime Minister Tsvangirai believes that SADC, as guarantors of the GPA, should play a central monitoring role.

• Speaking at the SADC Summit, President Zuma said the troika of the organ on politics, defence and security should persuade SADC to “draw up guidelines for free and fair elections where intimidation and violence would not play any part and where the result of such elections would be credible.

• The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) says electoral authorities should do away with postal votes for police force members and instead introduce a new “special voting” system where they cast their ballots two days before polling day instead of 30 days ahead for postal votes.

• The MDC-T says its supporters in Mudzi and Mutoko districts of Mashonaland East province are living in fear as Zanu PF is ordering them to renounce MDC membership or face political violence as in 2008.

• The Union for Sustainable Democracy has been inundated with statements of concern from Johane Masowe Church members who are worried about Zanu PF’s infiltration of their church and escalating intimidatory tactics ahead of possible elections.

• Zimbabwe has still not joined the ranks of the 147 nations who have signed up to the United Nations Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.  The 147 nations include 47 out of 53 African states.

Education

• About 30 percent of Zimbabwe’s 90 000 teachers are unlikely to be retained for the third term which begins next month as the government battles to afford salaries of temporary teachers and other qualified members who have recently joined the profession.

Diaspora

• At least 20 000 failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers in the United Kingdom could be deported before the end of the year. To assess claims that despite the formation of the transitional government it is still unsafe for them to return home, Britain has sent a fact finding mission to Harare from its Border Agency.

• Since January, 14 795 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants have crossed into South Africa over the Limpopo river at Beitbridge, the SA army said on Tuesday.

Sport

• Zimbabwe’s cricket team has offered to tour Pakistan to raise funds for the victims of the country’s massive floods, despite the suspension of foreign visits following a militant attack last year.

The Good News

• Primary education is to benefit from the distribution of 13 million textbooks made available through the Basic Assistance Module (Beam) programme between the government and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

• To boost Zimbabwe’s self image, the African Centre for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has launched a nationwide campaign where local churches, aid groups and government agencies are working together to rid the streets of trash.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• South African President Jacob Zuma dispatched a top envoy to Zimbabwe last week in yet another attempt to kick-start the stalled talks. Former Transport Minister Mac Maharaj arrived Tuesday and met separately with the three party principals.

• A political storm is said to be gathering on whether Zimbabwe should be on the agenda of the SADC Summit in Namibia on 16/17 August.  South Africa reportedly wants to bridge the divide between Zanu PF and its partners ahead of the summit.

• Following recent talks with a delegation of Zimbabwean officials, the European Union has proposed a mechanism to allow individuals and companies under EU travel and financial sanctions to approach Brussels on an individual basis and present documentation as to why their names should be taken off the list.

• Civil society organisations were outraged by the Zimbabwe cabinet’s decision to deny National Healing Minister Sekai Holland permission to address a transitional justice workshop in Johannesburg last Monday.

Diplomatic

• During President Mugabe’s address at the funeral of his sister Sabina, he lashed out at Western powers over sanctions imposed on Zanu PF, saying the European Union and United States were simply bent on driving him out of power.

• On Wednesday, Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi, summoned the German, European Union and United States envoys to berate them for leaving early from the burial in protest at the president’s speech.

Economy

• Iran has extended a 40-million-euro line of credit to Zimbabwe to finance energy, banking and industrial projects, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Iran, Nicholas Kitikiti, said Wednesday.

• Industry Minister Welshman Ncube (MDC-M) said constant and erratic power cuts by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) were suffocating efforts to revive industry by damaging new and expensive industrial equipment “sometimes beyond repair”.  He said industry was operating at around 10 percent of capacity.

• Zimbabwean State Enterprises Minister Gorden Moyo said Monday the government will commission independent audits of floundering state enterprises to assess the value of their assets and to determine the extent of corrupt activities in the country’s parastatals, many of which are on the verge of collapse.

• At least seven banks have failed to meet the prescribed minimum capital requirements set by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) last year and have been directed to raise cash from shareholders or bring in new partners.

• RBZ Governor Gideon Gono said the central bank would intervene to force banks to slash “punitive” lending rates of as high as 50 percent.

• Gono was reported last week to be resisting an International Monetary Fund (IMF) audit of the bank’s finances, following revelations it was looted by senior Zanu PF officials.

• More than 1,000 RBZ workers have been receiving Zimbabwe dollar salaries despite the rest of the country converting to foreign currency transactions in March last year.  Arbitrator George Nasho Wilson ruled Wednesday that the central bank should start paying the affected workers in foreign currency.

• Youth Development, Indigenization and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told Zanu PF youths in Matabeleland last Wednesday to identify businesses, especially mines that are under performing or closed, and to reclaim them.

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said Thursday that political meddling has delayed the naming of a foreign investor needed to help resuscitate the state controlled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO Steel) which is close to collapse due to mismanagement and excessive government interference.

• National Railways of Zimbabwe workers have threatened to down tools in protest over late salary payments which are also two thirds less than the prevailing poverty datum line, estimated at US$480.

Business

• The RBZ reported that trade on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) has contracted 19 percent since December, while market capitalisation shrunk to US$3.19 billion in June from nearly US$4 billion at the beginning of the year.

• The ZSE has asked government to back down on indigenisation regulations compelling foreign-owned companies that include listed concerns to dispose of a controlling interest to cash-strapped local investors.

• Vice President Joice Mujuru said Saturday that firms would now be privatised or commercialised to make Zimbabwe great once again. She said senior ministers were trying to block top projects instead of helping the nation’s indigenisation and privatisation programme and stressed that her door was open to all investors who felt they were being sidelined.

• Zimbabwe Investment Authority (ZIA) has reduced the approval period of investment projects to 10 days from over seven weeks as it moves to implement structural reforms aimed at encouraging investment into the country.

• Foreign direct investment in 2009 totalled US$60 million, an increase of US$8 million from the US$52 million recorded the previous year, according to the World Investment Report released by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

• Barclays Bank has entered into a £1,5 million (about US$2,3 million) three-year partnership with Junior Achievement (JA) worldwide as one of the ways to tackle the issue of youth unemployment in Zimbabwe.  The bank is also developing innovative computer-based technology to reach rural areas.

Mining/Diamonds

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti said last week that, at the very least, the system where the country gets only royalties from foreign mining firms needs to be reviewed.

• During his address at the funeral of his sister Sabina, President Mugabe said the newfound diamond wealth must benefit the nation not just individuals and urged greedy politicians to blunt their appetite for individual wealth.

• Police have come up with fresh charges against Centre for Research and Development director Farai Maguwu.  Maguwu was arrested following allegations he passed on false information on human rights violations in the Chiadzwa district where the Marange alluvial diamond field is located.  He was eventually released on bail mid July. The police now claim he will be arrested and charged with possession of a stolen Mercedes Benz vehicle.

• The Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) has welcomed the agreement reached by the Kimberley Process (KP) that will enable the renewal of rough diamond exports from Marange.

Land/Agribusiness

• The European Union has ruled out supporting newly resettled farmers until the Zimbabwe government carries out a long-delayed audit agreed to by the coalition government to eliminate multiple farm owners.

• Zimbabwe will need about US$264 million to import about 800,000 tonnes of maize and 339,000 tonnes of wheat to meet the annual national requirement, the Commercial Farmers’ Union said Wednesday.

• Top EU officials have told a ministerial delegation from Zimbabwe to first pay compensation to Dutch farmers whose land was expropriated under the land grab before development aid can start flowing to Harare.

• Three farmers whose farms were seized by the Zimbabwean government will apply for a special order to recover legal costs in the Pretoria High Court, their attorney Willie Spies from AfriForum said Monday.  He said although the government brought the action against the farmers, the auctions of the Cape Town properties were in fact organised by German banking group KFW Bankengruppe to collect a judgment debt of €40m (about R400m).

• Following threats by Germany to withdraw aid, the Mugabe government ordered an armed gang off three agricultural plantations in eastern Zimbabwe belonging to German national Heinrich von Pezold.

• The Cotton Ginners Association of Zimbabwe has taken steps to stop a Chinese firm, Sino-Zimbabwe Holdings, from using political muscle to clandestinely purchase cotton from farmers already contracted by local industry.

Humanitarian

• A senior United Nations Development Programme officer in Harare announced the launch Tuesday of a revised US$500 million appeal for humanitarian aid (previously US$370 million) to cater for the remainder of the year.

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates more than 1.3 million people in the rural areas will require food assistance in early 2011.

• Last week the Minister for Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, told ambassadors from donor countries they must keep government informed of their activities.  This includes the total funding brought into the country and the names of NGOs they are partnered with.

• UNICEF reports that Zimbabwe has over 50,000 child-headed families and that an average of 100,000 children are living without parental care.

• The Zimbabwe Association of Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation, an NGO dealing with prisoner welfare, estimates there are more than 300 children in the country’s notorious prisons, the majority whom are less than two-years-old.

• The Solidarity Peace Trust has released a report titled ‘A fractured nation: Operation Murambatsvina five years on’. It assesses the effects of the operation during which more than 700,000 people were left homeless and an estimated 2.4 million lost their livelihoods.  To access the report:  www.solidaritypeacetrust.com

New Constitution

• The MDC-T has accused Zanu PF of launching “Operation Vhara Muromo” (“Operation Close Your Mouth”), to stifle public comment on the revision of the constitution.

• MDC sources warn that state security agents, soldiers and Zanu PF militia members are attending outreach meetings and systematically intimidating members of the public to ensure only approved Zanu PF views are expressed.

• The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe has charged that a new wave of violence is rising against teachers, intended to suppress non-Zanu PF views on constitutional revision.

Elections

• South African mediators must press for the de-militarisation of Zimbabwean state institutions before the country goes to next elections, the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD), a leading South African think-tank, said last week.

• Fresh elections should take place only after all measures to ensure free and fair polls, including compilation of a new and accurate voters’ roll are complete, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said Thursday.

• Addressing a rally in Makokoba, Bulawayo on Sunday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told about 10,000 MDC supporters that Mugabe and his party have no power to set fresh elections dates without consulting him.

• The harassment of MDC members is continuing across the country amid widespread fears that Zanu PF has started an early election campaign.

Political Violence

• In June alone, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) recorded 1,174 victims of human rights violations. Most of the violations were directly linked to the constitution-making process outreach programme.

• Since 2008, the ZPP said that 43,933 human rights violations have been recorded while the cumulative toll of violations on the distribution of food and other forms of aid since January 2008 has risen to 10,986.

• At least 22,000 victims of the 2008 political violence have so far sought treatment for injuries and trauma at a counselling and rehabilitation centre in Harare, which says it is still recording fresh cases. Of these, only 10,200 received “proper physical and psychological treatment”.

Legal

• The postponing of MDC-T treasurer Roy Bennett’s acquittal case “indefinitely” by the Supreme Court last Wednesday has ensured that Bennett will not be sworn in to his post as Deputy Agriculture Minister in the near future.

• At the weekend, an international lawyers’ group released a report titled “A place in the sun; A report on the state of the rule of law in Zimbabwe after the Global Political Agreement”. It noted that the culture of impunity on the part of the police and the state security forces remains unchanged, while “the majority of the senior judiciary remains fundamentally compromised by state patronage, grants of land and other gifts given to them by the former government.”

• The lawyers’ report also noted that incidents of extra-judicial killings, kidnapping, torture and other serious human rights abuses continue to occur, and that they “remain un-investigated by the authorities.”

• Concern is being raised over the South African government’s intention to seek a legal opinion on the legal reach of SADC over Zimbabwe’s refusal to honour the SADC Treaty.

Health

• According to the latest Zimbabwe Food and National Nutrition Survey, launched Friday, the prevalence of chronic malnutrition is now at 33.8 percent.

• Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda warned at the weekend that there is a serious water crisis and that Harare is once again facing a major cholera threat.  The UNDP estimates that 6 million Zimbabweans lack access to safe water.

• A cholera outbreak in villages in and around the Marange diamond field has left 80 people hospitalized and led authorities to set up emergency treatment centres. Entering the military controlled zone to provide emergency aid remains difficult.

• A malaria outbreak has resulted in 117,038 cases and 183 deaths since the beginning of the year.

• The Ministry of Health has announced plans to do away with hospital and clinic fees for pregnant women in a bid to reduce maternal deaths, particularly in rural communities.  It will look to international donors for funding.

Media

• Zimbabwe’s media regulator said Friday it had granted licences to four new media houses:  two news agencies – Cable News Agency and the African Open Media Initiative, as well as a sports magazine and a lifestyle publication.  This brings to eight the number of new players registered.

• The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) expressed concern that the infamous Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), “two pieces of legislation have presided over the shrinkage of media space within our country” are still in place.

The Good News

• The European Commission (EC) has adopted a €15 million (US$19, 4 million) aid package for Zimbabwe to address the ongoing humanitarian needs. The money will be deployed towards the re-establishment of essential health and water supply services and to provide food assistance, short-term food security and livelihood support.

• The ambitious Bulawayo Water and Sanitation Emergency Response (BOWSER), announced by the Australian government in July, is now supporting a 4.6 million Australian dollar (US$4 million) programme to unblock more than 200 kilometres of choked sewerage pipes, rehabilitate water treatment plants and repair pipeline leaks.

• The United States and Canadian embassies on Thursday officially handed over a grinding mill and various water and sanitation facilities to Tose Respite Care Home, a center for mentally and physically handicapped people based in Harare.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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Politics

• South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma is reported to be increasingly frustrated by Zimbabwe’s inability to implement the 2008 power-sharing agreement. At the end of June he wrote a letter to Harare’s feuding leaders in which he firmly set out the limits of Pretoria’s mediation role in the long-running political wrangle.

• Another Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit scheduled for August might be forced to put Zimbabwe on the agenda if President Zuma fails to persuade the wrangling principals to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Governance

• Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) boss Paradzai Zimondi, one of the country’s top security commanders, has told his subordinates he will remain in charge of the country’s jails for as long as President Robert Mugabe is in power.

• Police stood by as scores of rowdy Zanu PF youth militia disturbed the opening of parliament in Harare on July 13. Clad in party regalia, clutching bottles of soft drinks and empty alcohol bottles, the youths denounced Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his party, the MDC, as President Robert Mugabe inspected a presidential guard of honour nearby. 

Economy

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti said the economy would grow by 5.4 percent this year.  The new figure is lower than the 7.7 percent the government had initially predicted, although it remains higher than the 2.2 percent expansion predicted by the IMF.  Biti said inflation showed signs of resurgence, reaching 6.1 percent on an annualised basis in May, up from 4.8 percent the previous month, but was projected to drop to 4.5 percent by year-end.

• Zimbabwe’s entire rail network faces collapse because of neglect, dealing a blow to the country’s economic recovery efforts, Mike Karakadzai, general manager of the state-owned National Railways of Zimbabwe, said last week.

Mining / Diamonds

• Zimbabwe cannot account for US$30 million earned from exports of its controversial Marange diamonds, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said last month. He noted that future alluvial diamond mining would have to be done by or through the government to curb leakages.

• After two days of discussions in Moscow, the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) decided it would uphold the Kimberley Process (KP) compliance report on Zimbabwe authored by Abbey Chikane, a South African national. Chikane said the country had met the minimum conditions set by the regulator and could start gem exports.

• IDMA’s president, Moti Ganz, called on the industry to allow Zimbabwe to export Marange diamonds to help Harare raise money for economic recovery. However, he said it must be made clear to the trade that non-KP certified rough diamonds remain – and must remain – strictly prohibited.

• During early July, the European parliament passed a highly critical resolution regarding the Mugabe regime’s plundering of diamonds for financial benefit.

• Willie Nagel, founding father of the Kimberley Process, warned that Zimbabwe was not adhering to the “clean trade” system but said that unless the country was swiftly bought back into the international fold, it would destabilise the market by saturating the world with non-approved diamonds.

• KP chairman Boaz Hirsch said delegates at the Tel-Aviv meeting on June 30 had not been able to reach a consensus on Zimbabwe and were continuing to meet.  The United States, Australia and the European Union reiterated concerns that Zimbabwe had not met the minimum requirements of the KP.

• Human rights groups have confirmed that abuses continue to take place in the Marange diamond fields. They cite the massacre of hundreds of illegal diggers and say soldiers are still engaging in forced labour, torture and harassment.

• There are growing fears that profits from the industry could be used to fund President Mugabe’s cash-strapped Zanu PF party at the expense of the country’s rival-in-government, the Movement for Democratic Change.

• On July 4 it was reported that President Mugabe and his ministers were preparing to sell Marange diamonds despite the ban of the sale of the “stolen goods” by the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.

• According to Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu there are more than six million carats “waiting to get into the market” from Zimbabwe.

• Centre for Research and Development director and activist, Farai Maguwu, arrested early June for allegedly publishing false reports about human rights violations in the country’s eastern Marange diamond field, was released this week on US$1,500 bail on a High Court order. Maguwu, who became very ill, spent five weeks in police custody in Mutare and Harare.

Agriculture

• At the International Trade Union Federation Confederation in early July, Gertrude Hambira, secretary-general of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), criticised the land reform programme. She said it had triggered countless barbaric acts and left hundreds of thousands of workers jobless.

• Citing continued human rights violations and the persecution of trade unionists, she called for a genuine land reform programme that would bring greater social justice without violating human rights.

• Zanu PF stalwart and controversial Minister of State for Presidential Affairs in the President’s Office, Didymus Mutasa, has allegedly threatened to cause the arrest and detention of police officers who dare to assist besieged white commercial farmers in reclaiming their properties.

• In a twist of events, two war veteran association leaders appeared in court Friday on charges of facilitating the return of evicted white commercial farmers to their farms in the Umguza district of Matabeleland. They are alleged to have instructed Zanu PF supporters who invaded one of the farms in 2000 to move out. Bail was granted and their trial was set for July 19.

• A white South African farmer, Mike Odendaal, was wrongfully arrested earlier this month on charges that he refused to vacate his farm despite holding a court order barring Zimbabwean land invaders from moving onto his property. Diplomatic intervention by South Africa’s ambassador in Zimbabwe, Prof Mlungisi Makalima, finally helped to secure his release.

• Police charged a Zanu PF politician, Temba Mliswa, with defrauding two white farmers of more than US$20 million worth of property including tractors, vehicles, cows and bulls in a case that gave a rare glimpse into how members of President Mugabe’s party looted white farms. This case appeared to be a result of Mliswa’s public clash with powerful Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri.

• Botswana has placed its health and border personnel on high alert amid fears of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in southern Zimbabwe.

New Constitution

• Zanu PF plans to block any draft constitution that does not reflect the views and values of the party, a top official has said, signalling more problems ahead for Zimbabwe’s troubled constitutional reforms. Zanu PF now controls enough parliamentary seats to block the passage of a new constitution.

• Three top local pro-democracy and human rights groups dispatched 420 people around the country during the first week of July to monitor the government-led constitution making process.
• The monitors from the Zimbabwe Peace Project, Zimbabwe Election Support Network and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights reported administrative chaos dogging the constitutional outreach exercise and widespread intimidation, with President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party instructing villagers what to say during meetings to gather the public’s views.

• Five of the monitors were arrested by police in Midlands province, barely 48 hours after the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) leading Zimbabwe’s constitution reforms assured civil society groups that they were welcome to monitor the reforms.

• Amnesty International warned early in July of a surge in political violence in Zimbabwe as President Robert Mugabe’s supporters intensified their campaign to silence opponents during the outreach exercise.

• The MDC-T launched an audacious rescue mission on July 8 to free a 16-year-old activist who was abducted by Zanu PF elements in Concession, Mashonaland Central province. The activist was abducted from Msengezi farm when he was delivering party material for the outreach to a ward chairman in Zanu PF territory. He spent almost 12 hours in captivity.

• Zanu PF last week bussed 60 people from Quill farm in Marondera to participate at an outreach meeting held at a primary school in Mashonaland East, while civil servants from the school were excluded from the programme.

• Speaking on condition of anonymity, a teacher said: “At the moment there is no freedom of expression, people cannot risk death so they would rather keep quiet, even it is something as important as the constitution.”

• Silas Gweshe, the MDC-T Secretary for Mashonaland East Province who has been following the constitution outreach programme closely, said this week there were increasing doubts that the draft constitution would truly reflect the views of Zimbabweans, especially in Mashonaland East where turnout is largely low and views are expressed on a party position basis. “If civil servants are barred from participating in such an important national event then we have to rethink the whole outreach process,” he said.

Elections

• Planned new voters’ rolls that list voters according to polling stations could worsen electoral violence by making it easier for perpetrators to identify and target perceived political opponents, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has said.

• The current, and highly controversial roll maintained by the Registrar General’s Office, includes 82 456 people aged between 90 and 100.

• Information and Publicity Minister and Zanu PF political commissar Webster Shamu has ordered DJs at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s four radio stations and the two television channels to play Zanu PF propaganda jingles he produced at least twice an hour per shift. The launch of the jingles is believed to be in preparation for a possible election next year.

Legal

• President Mugabe has invoked the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to stop any legal action against the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) after the central bank was slapped with several lawsuits for failing to pay its creditors.

• Seven alleged coup plotters implicated in then Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s bid to oust President Mugabe in 2007, have been finally cleared of the charges by the High Court. However, they were not released as they face another charge of attempting to escape from lawful custody.

• Zanu PF presidential affairs minister, Didymus Mutasa has slammed the police and made pointed remarks against Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, accusing him of abusing the penal system to settle personal scores. Mutasa said the police were harassing his son, Martin Mutasa, and his nephew, Temba Mliswa, a notorious Zanu PF activist, who are both behind bars for alleged fraud committed in the acquisition of a vehicle repair company – Noshio Motors.

• Eight University of Zimbabwe student activists appeared before a Harare magistrate on July 8 on charges of participating in an illegal gathering after a ZINASU demonstration in March. The students have been on remand since March when they were arrested at Parliament Building for demonstrating against the abuse of human rights in the country.

Health

• More than a third of Zimbabwe’s children aged below five are malnourished, according to new data released last week by the government and the United Nations Food and Nutrition Council (FNC).

• Cases of malaria recorded in Zimbabwe between February and May this year are more than three times the number of cases recorded during the same period last year

Education

• Zimbabwe’s once vaunted public education sector remains in a “catastrophic state” and is short of cash to revamp dilapidated schools or lure back experienced teaching staff, Education Minister David Coltart said Wednesday.

Media

• The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe chapter said Thursday it was concerned that President Mugabe did not mention the Freedom of Information Bill among the Bills to be discussed in Parliament.
• He referred only to the Media Practitioners Bill which seeks to repeal the part of the Access to Information and the Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which deals with the registration of journalists and privacy issues.

Xenophobia

• Many Zimbabweans living in Gauteng province in South Africa have fled their homes as sporadic incidents of violence have broken out after the country’s successful staging of the Soccer World Cup.

• Reports from the Johannesburg area indicate that gangs are moving door-to-door robbing terrified foreigners of household goods like televisions and refrigerators, and of cash.

• Refugee aid groups warned recently of a possible new wave of xenophobic attacks after the World Cup.

Tourism

• Tourism group Tourvest’s newest venture, a luxury tented camp in its concession in the Victoria Falls National Park costing “just over $1 million (R7.6m)” to develop, has already been fully occupied on several days since its opening on July 6.

The Good News

• The deal to export wildlife to North Korea has been called off in a move described as good news for Zimbabwe by wild life conservationists.  Efforts are now underway to urgently raise £18 000 for funding the immediate release of most of the captured wild animals and care for the two young elephants.

• The International Co-ordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme has declared Zimbabwe’s Middle Zambezi Valley a Biosphere Reserve.  The only other Biosphere Reserves in the Southern African region are in South Africa and Malawi.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• The MDC has formally protested the recent spate of arrests of its MPs and officers by Zanu PF-partisan forces. At least 6 MDC legislators have been incarcerated on flimsy charges in the last week. South African President Jacob Zuma, the regional mediator in Harare’s power-sharing arrangement, is expected to respond to the complaints.

• The three principals in the Inclusive Government finally met to ‘discuss outstanding issues’ and examine the GPA negotiators’ report on progress, which President Zuma has to present to the SADC Summit in August. The political leaders reportedly declared a deadlock after their four-hour meeting and agreed to refer the issue to President Zuma to mediate in the power-sharing dispute that has dodged the shaky coalition government since its formation over a year ago.

• President Zuma’s facilitation team was due in Harare on Monday 14 June in a follow up to the principals’ meeting. The continuing deadlock will have to be reported formally to President Zuma and then to the SADC Organ Troika with a view to a SADC Summit. No reports had been received at time of closing this week’s summary.

• The South African government was ordered by its High Court this week to release a report that was kept under wraps on Zimbabwe’s disputed 2002 elections, after a successful court bid by South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper.

• Former President Thabo Mbeki commissioned two South African judges, Deputy Chief Justice  and Constitutional Court Justice Sisi Khampepe, to make the report but has suppressed its results. The 2002 elections were marred by vote rigging, intimidation, violence and fraud by the Mugabe government, but Mbeki’s administration officially recognised the election as ‘free and fair’.

• Information Minister Webster Shamu (Zanu PF) has blocked the building of a much-needed clinic in the Chegutu East district by an independent Namibian-based businessman, Charlton Hwende. Hwende claims that since Zanu PF operates on the patronage system, he is not being allowed to make improvements in his home area. He was also been prevented recently from repairing a communal cattle dipping tank and supplying the necessary chemicals, again by Shamu who is the local MP.

Governance

• Government’s ‘commercialised’ vehicle supply parastatal, CMED (known unofficially for decades as the Crashed Mercedes Exchange Department), is being audited but as a result of ‘poor record-keeping’, 19 vehicles have ‘vanished without a trace’ in Harare province alone. The Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report says that CMED (Pvt) Ltd. does not even have an assets register, while the financial statements show that 50 percent of the company’s stated assets consist of moneys owed (debtors).

• Over-zealous policemen opened fire on a commuter omnibus in Harare city centre, shooting out the back tyres as the targeted vehicle, which was being apprehended for not having a valid licence, sped off. Police are conducting an ‘anti-congestion’ drive but taxi drivers complain that the everyday fines are simply an ongoing means of fundraising for traffic police. Harare ratepayers’ associations are calling the police ‘a public danger instead of public protectors’.

• Harare City Councillors have revealed that municipal land has been sold to Chinese and other foreign nationals in contravention of city regulations and apparently on the orders of Zanu PF Minister of Local Government and Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo.

Diplomatic

• A Foreign Affairs row unfolded this week as President Mugabe, who has unilaterally made military, trade and investment protection deals with North Korea, has unilaterally overturned a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement which was signed recently by Prime Minister Tsvangirai with South Korea.

• The new Tory government in the UK has stated that there will no change of policy on Zimbabwe (and on the issue of targeted sanctions) despite President Mugabe inferring that he would find it easier to deal with the Conservative party than the former Labour administration.

• President Mugabe arrived at the FIFA World Cup official opening in Johannesburg with an entourage of over 50 officials, family members and hangers-on. All were uninvited except the Presidential couple and Foreign Affairs Minister Mumbengegwe, and were turned away by match officials.

New Constitution

• The MDC has accused Zanu PF MPs of attempting to stall the start of the Constitutional Outreach programme next week by demanding increased daily allowances. This comes after Zanu PF-instigated violent disturbances in the countryside, where villagers are being coerced to stay silent during the outreach program. The party also noted that the state-controlled media has deliberately ignored publicizing the outreach exercise.

Agriculture

• The South African government is being urged to immediately intervene in ongoing attacks against South African farmers in Zimbabwe, where at least 16 people, including five South African citizens, have faced aggressive land seizures in the past week. South African interests are meant to be protected by a signed and recently ratified bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA) between the two countries.

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has predicted its lowest ever winter wheat output of about 10 000 tonnes this year, due to lack of funding and continued upheavals on commercial farms. The amount represents just one week’s supply for Zimbabwe which may have to import up to 400 000 tonnes of wheat to meet consumption demands.  In 2000, wheat production was 250 000 tonnes.

• Zimbabwe’s annual national maize requirement is 1,8 to 2 million tonnes, with only 700 000 – 800 000 tonnes produced this year. In 2000, maize production was 2 043 200 tonnes.  Food aid organisations estimate that over 2 million Zimbabweans will soon face starvation.

• Zimbabwe has earned US$199.26 million from the sale of 65.3 million kg of flue-cured tobacco since the season began in mid-February, according to a story in The Herald.

• Trevor Gifford, a former president of the CFU, was forced off his farm in the Chipinge district on Sunday evening by Zanu PF thugs and was forced to sign over the rest of the contents of his house and the farm to the ‘new owners’.

• The revived Zapu party has joined hands with war veterans in Bubi-Mguza, Matabeleland North, to form resistance groups and block attempts by senior Zanu PF and army officers to evict the remaining white commercial farmers in that area, reports Zimbabwe’s newly launched, independent daily, NewsDay.

• Huge resentment against Zanu PF is building in the Masvingo area, where starving villagers are being denied food aid on the grounds of being “MDC sellouts”, while unscrupulous businessmen are forcing the desperate villagers to trade their cattle, at ruinous rates. A live beast, worth between US$200 and US$300, is swapped for a US$40 bag of meal.

Diamonds/Mining

• South African diamond executive Abbey Chikane, the Kimberley Process monitor in Zimbabwe, said that “Zimbabwe has satisfied minimum requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) for the trade in rough diamonds.”

• Watchdog group Global Witness, which is a member of the Kimberley Process Group, rejected Chikane’s claim that Zimbabwe’s diamonds are clean and said state-sponsored violence and human rights abuses are still taking place in the Marange diamond fields, located in the Chiadzwa district of Eastern Zimbabwe. They said that Chikane’s recommendation could still be reversed as a decision has not yet been taken.

• The Diamond Trading Company (DTC) warned its Sightholders that any purchase of goods from Zimbabwe’s Marange fields “will be deemed in contravention of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme,” until they are approved by KP Working Group on Monitoring (WGM) which will meet in Tel Aviv on 21 June.

• Diamond researcher and human rights defender Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Research and Development in Mutare, and who has been behind bars for a week, was denied bail in Harare on Thursday and remains in custody. Maguwu was arrested shortly after giving evidence to KP monitor Abbey Chikane about the irregular situation in Marange. Maguwu’s lawyer has applied to the High Court to challenge the magistrate’s ruling and obtain bail. Maguwu is due to travel to Tel Aviv to present his findings on Chiadzwa.

• On Friday evening, Maguwu was illegally taken from Harare Remand Prison to a known torture centre, on the orders of Detective Henry Dowa. Nicole Fritz of the Southern African Litigation Centre pointed out in a strongly worded statement that if Zimbabwe is trying to show that there are no more human rights abuses around Chiadzwa, they have just proved the opposite.

• Gold and platinum exports have been the main drivers of mineral exports valued at over US$1 billion for the period January to May 2010.

In The Courts

• Mines Minister Obert Mpofu, who owns several large buildings in Bulawayo city, is evicting his tenants, The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Time Bank, for non-payment of rentals.

• In a victory for women’s rights, a landmark Supreme Court ruling has allowed that a Zimbabwean mother has the right to seek a passport for a minor child without involving the father. Former independent MP Margaret Dongo, with the help of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers’ Association, filed an application with the Supreme Court in 2006.

Wildlife

• Ivory poachers have slaughtered 10 elephants in the Gonarezhou (“Place of the Elephants”) National Park. FN rifle cartridges were found at the scene. Tusks were removed and the carcasses left to rot. Zimbabwe’s National Parks Department is meanwhile sitting on stocks of 34 tonnes of raw ivory. Conservation groups have offered a reward of US$1 000 for information leading to the arrest of the poachers.

The Good News

• Zimbabwe will return to Test Cricket in 2011, having implemented the recommendations of an ICC task force which visited Zimbabwe in November 2008.

• Zimbabwean farmer and human rights activist Ben Freeth was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire award) in the Queen’s birthday honours list “For services to the farming community in Zimbabwe”. British-born Freeth initiated a successful lawsuit against the Mugabe government through the SADC Tribunal, an international court located in Windhoek, Namibia.

• NGOs Mercy Corps and CADEC are operating a successful Food for Work programme in Chinhoyi whereby women and unemployed youths embark on municipal clean-up operations in exchange for grocery vouchers.

• Discussions on the critical South African negotiators’ report aimed at moving Zimbabwe out of the current political deadlock were again put on the backburner pending Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s return from Ghana.

• Mediation by the South African facilitation team under President Jacob Zuma’s leadership is dependent on the principals discussing their negotiators’ report, compiled in April.

• Police arrived at the home of Iain Kay, Marondera Central MP with a search warrant for items including cocaine, smuggled goods and unlicenced firearms, as well as unregistered and expired drugs. The medicines in his possession were confiscated and he was detained at Harare Central Police station, although the church which donated the medicines has all the necessary clearance and documentation. Kay, who has previously been held on trumped up charges, was granted bail of US$500 Tuesday and had to surrender his passport.

• Zimbabwe’s political climate has not changed significantly for the international community to remove targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party top brass, the Zimbabwe Europe Network (ZEN) has said.

Governance

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) is being investigated by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) for allegedly importing 75 vehicles without paying duty. Some of the unmarked vehicles, imported through Imperial Motors, were allegedly used in Zanu PF’s terror campaign during the 2008 elections.

• Imperial Motors is a supplier of vehicles to government departments including State House, the President’s Office, the army, police and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.

Media

• NewsDay, the first independent daily newspaper to hit the streets since authorities forced the Daily News to close in 2003, was officially launched Monday by Alpha Media. This milestone was marred Friday when police detained staff, vendors and a truck laden with promotional copies. They were released three hours later.

• Workers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) are said to be threatening strike action after accusing management of looting licence fees and splashing out on luxury cars, while failing to pay salaries on time.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is considering introducing a staff-monitored programme (MTP) for Zimbabwe as it warns of “debt distress”. Zimbabwe is burdened with arrears of more than US$4.5 billion.

• The MDC expressed concern regarding the continued power cuts that have virtually brought business to a standstill across the country. It said the disruptions by ZESA were a threat to industry and that the load-shedding schedules were shambolic.

Business

• Indigenisation and property rights issues have become the centre of Zimbabwe and Botswana’s Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) negotiations that are supposed to result in a deal by year-end. Negotiations between the two countries stalled seven years ago following concern over Zimbabwe’s land reform programme. The Botswana government and investors are seeking clarity on the controversial indigenisation regulations.

• Attorney-General Johannes Tomana said last week that Zimbabwe’s top business moguls, Mutumwa Mawere, James Makamba and John Moxon, could still faced arrest upon returning home even after they were despecified by authorities. He said the despecification did not absolve them of charges that could still arise from allegations of externalisation of foreign currency and defrauding government.

• Kingdom Bank founder Nigel Chanakira has failed to pay US$22,5 million to Meikles Ltd in order to finalise the demerger of Kingdom Meikles Africa Ltd, prolonging one of the most bitterly fought corporate fights, a top Meikles Ltd official last week. As a result, KFHL would remain a “subsidiary” of Meikles Ltd.

• Zambezi Airlines have introduced an airline in Zimbabwe to fly the Harare- Johannesburg route, the airline said Friday.

Mining/Diamonds

• Kimberley Process (KP) Civil Society Coalition and the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) on Friday demanded the release of diamond activist, Farai Magawu, director of the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), who was forced into hiding and then arrested by police Thursday.

• The groups also demanded that KP monitor for Zimbabwe Abbey Chikane suspend all monitoring activities in the country until the government can re-assure diamond activists that their work will be carried out without any hindrance.

• Chikane told journalists in Harare after meeting Parliamentarians on 27 May: “Zimbabwe is on track to meet the KP requirements. I am yet to produce my report to the KP in which I will make the recommendations for it (Zimbabwe) to start trading in rough diamonds.”

• The police raid on CRD’s office followed Farai Maguwu’s meeting with Chikane, and CRD’s announcement that 2 000 carats per day were being smuggled from the Marange fields.

• A leaked document compiled by the police for Joint Operations Command (JOC) is also said to be behind the crackdown on the CRD, the most important civil society organisation monitoring human rights abuses at the diamond fields.

• On Monday, a Mutare Magistrate freed Maguwu’s younger brother, Lisben, on US$20 bail. Lisben had been charged with obstructing the course of justice after he allegedly tried to prevent the police from arresting his brother. Lisben was remanded out of custody to June 14.

• Rio Tinto’s diamond unit in Zimbabwe says it has begun work on a US$300m expansion programme to raise output six-fold. Neils Kristensen, head of Murowa, the 300,000-carat-per-year diamond mine in southern Zimbabwe, said at a weekend mining conference the firm had begun preparatory work for the planned expansion.

• President Robert Mugabe told the conference Friday his government would not expropriate mines and said he realised the need to promote the industry’s growth when applying the law.

• Murowa is also talking to government about the state’s decision last week to ban diamond sales, including from Murowa, until diamonds from the controversial Marange fields are certified by global industry regulators.

• Aim-listed resources investment company Sable Mining said Tuesday it would acquire an 80 percent interest in Monaf Investments, which holds the Lubu coal concession in the Bulawayo mining district.

• Parliamentary mines committee member Moses Mare said workers at Shabanie Mashaba Mines have not been paid in more than a year although managers receive hefty salaries while the mining operation – seized several years ago from businessman Mutumwa Mawere – grinds to a halt.

• Reports indicate some of the mine shafts have been flooded with water, submerging machinery worth billions. Zimbabwe’s formal mining sector employs some 45,000, contributes around 50 percent of exports, and comprises nearly 20 percent of GDP.

Land/Agribusiness

• Charles Taffs, the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) Vice President said last week that the eviction of white farmers and their workers had intensified over the past 10 days, further threatening Zimbabwe’s fragile food security.

• He warned that Zimbabwe will produce less than 10,000 tonnes of wheat –a third of national requirements — because of lack of security of tenure caused by evictions and electricity blackouts.

• Aid agency officials report that Zimbabwe is appealing for about a million tons of food aid this year.

• Last week in Matabeleland North, police went to Felton farm, broke into the house where Inyathi farmer Mike Huckle’s staff live and told them they had one hour to vacate the farm. Huckle, a South African resident, is theoretically protected by the recently ratified bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA).

• Also last week, police and four impatient beneficiaries switched off the electricity on Highfields Farm in the Nyamandhlovu district, cutting off water for thousands of chickens, hundreds of head of cattle and sheep in pens, the vast majority of them belonging to settlers. Additionally 35 settler homesteads were also rendered waterless. The SPCA was called in to assist.

• Evicted Shamva farmers Gary and Jane Sharp won a court case Wednesday allowing them to return to their farm to collect their belongings. However, as Mrs Sharp walked out of the court she was forced into a police van and held at Shamva police station overnight.

• Last week a group of between 30 and 50 Zanu PF youths spent the day trashing and looting the homestead of Mrs Helen Newmarch, a widow who owns a small farm close to Marondera.

• The SADC Tribunal in Windhoek sat again on Tuesday 1 June to consider an application to hold the Government of Zimbabwe in contempt of the SADC Tribunal and to obtain an order to refer the “matter” urgently to the SADC Summit. The Zimbabwean government boycotted the hearing and judgement was reserved.

• The power-sharing government has delayed an audit of the country’s controversial land reforms due to funding problems, Lands Minister Herbert Murerwa said Thursday.

• Zimbabwe’s sugar output fell 13 percent to 259,000 tonnes during the season ended March 2010 due to low cane yields caused by the limited and delayed application of fertilisers and herbicides. Sugar production has remained below 300,000 tonnes for the past decade following the disruption of commercial agriculture.

New Constitution

• Reports have been received country-wide that Zanu PF has stepped up its intimidation tactics ahead of the constitution making process scheduled for next month.

• Last week a high-level undercover delegation was sent into Epworth, a Harare shantytown, by the Union for Sustainable Democracy. The delegation was shocked by repeated accounts of how Zanu PF thugs are threatening to mete out violence on anyone who defies their formula for the constitution-making process.

Elections

• President Mugabe has lost the confidence of women, according to a recent poll that projects he will win only 9 per cent of their votes in a future election.

• The poll, conducted by the International Centre for Transitional Justice, IDASA, the Research and Advocacy Unit and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, predicts that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai would win 51 percent and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara just 3 percent.

• Speaking in the Ghanaian capital Accra where he was attending a Ghana-Zimbabwe business summit, Mutambara said his country would not rush into holding fresh elections, contradicting indications by his coalition partners that the next ballot would be held in 2011.

• Interviewed last week, Tsvangirai said elections would be held after the constitutional reform process. “You cannot talk about a date for the elections when the constitutional reform process has not been carried out,” he stressed.

• The MDC-T MP for Mabvuku/Tafara, Shepherd Madamombe, has died, bringing to 15 the number of vacant Senate and House of Assembly seats. The constitution requires that a by-election be held within 90 days of a parliamentary seat falling vacant, but shortages of money and a gentlemen’s agreement by coalition government parties have resulted in a moratorium on by-elections.

Political Violence

• UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston last week said countries with a track record of election violence should draw up plans for dealing with future violence, including creating non-partisan taskforces to probe murders and other poll-related crimes. Zimbabwe was one of eight countries named.

• Human rights violations rose five percent in April, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) reports: 959 cases were recorded compared to the 908 for March. The abuses included assault, intimidation, unlawful detention, harassment, torture and murder.

• Female Zanu PF youths who were trained to terrorise suspected MDC supporters in the run up to 2008 presidential elections are once again threatening MDC supporters and activists who survived their brutal beatings.

• Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) Zimbabwe reports that outbreaks of violence targeted against vulnerable victims of political violence across the country has reached intolerable levels. ROHR has expressed outrage at attempts by the Ministry of Home Affairs to ban peaceful protests calling for an end to Zanu PF led violence.

• The MDC has published additional names of perpetrators of violence on their ‘roll of shame’ list, including a colonel in the army who is accused of leading Zanu PF youths in murdering and raping MDC activists in the Buhera district.

Legal

• One of Africa’s largest banks, Standard Bank, was right to close the accounts of John Bredenkamp, one of Zimbabwe’s richest businessmen, because of his links to President Mugabe, South Africa’s Supreme Court has ruled.

• Freelance journalist Stanley Gama last week appeared in court, together with four other journalists from The Standard newspaper, as state witnesses in the criminal defamation case against the Harare Mayor and eight councillors. The Mayor and councillors are alleged to have defamed businessman Philip Chiyangwa when a 54-page report compiled by the council accused Chiyangwa of corruption.

• Former legislator Abednico Bhebhe has dragged the country’s co-Home Affairs Ministers to court after police in Nkayi district barred him from holding a campaign rally in his former constituency Wednesday.

Health

• By the end of Day 7 of the World Health Organisation’s Measles Immunisation and Child Health Days Campaign for 2010, a total of 3,580,441 children had received measles vaccination and 1,219,419 had been given vitamin supplements.

• Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera has dismissed reports that health institutions are dispensing expired malaria drugs and rapid diagnostic kits.

Education

• Tensions between students and college authorities countrywide are running high over exorbitant tuition and exam fees, which students say they cannot afford to pay. With those too poor blocked from writing exams, clashes are being reported at different colleges and universities.

Wildlife

• As Lake Kariba rises after record seasonal rains in central Africa, animals are being stranded on an island that has shrunk to about one-third of its original size.

• At least 200 animals are in immediate danger of starvation and funds are being raised by conservationists, including the SAVE Foundation of Australia, to take hay bales and food blocks to those which remain on the island.

Sport

• More than 50,000 jubilant fans packed the National Sports stadium in Harare Wednesday to watch five times world champions Brazil take on the Warriors. Brazil beat Zimbabwe 3-0 in this warm-up match ahead of the World Cup which begins in South Africa on June 11.

• Cara Black was knocked out in the third round of the women’s doubles at the French Tennis Open, the first time the Zimbabwean has failed to make into the quarter finals of the grand slam event since 2005.

The Good News

• Operation Hope, a solution to combat one of the major causes of climate change, has been named the winner of the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge. At its core the organisation’s winning strategy transforms parched and degraded Zimbabwe grasslands and savannahs into lush pastures with ponds and flowing streams, even during periods of drought. Operation Hope was awarded US$100,000 to further develop its work at a ceremony last week in Washington DC.

• Zanu PF is turning to the Communist Party of China as preparations for a possible election in Zimbabwe gain impetus.  As a result of the memorandum of understanding signed, the Communist Party of China will help train Zanu PF leaders in party building, rejuvenation and mass mobilization, as well as information and communication management.

• Australia has taken a tough stance on Zimbabwe, demanding that President Robert Mugabe must “move off the stage” before the international community can bankroll the country’s reconstruction and revival.

• Dumiso Dabengwa, leader of the re-formed ZAPU, announced his party is suing the government for the return of properties confiscated shortly after independence in 1980 by Zanu PF.

• A survey by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe found that 85 percent of the 2,000 women polled did not think that the government represented them, as women were not consulted during the negotiations leading to the formation of the GPA.

• A faction of the Apostolic church in Mutare reported that one of their prophets and outspoken MDC member exiled in Mozambique has been abducted by Zanu PF operatives. It is not clear what the motivation could be apart from intimidation of the sect.

• Two student leaders from the Zimbabwe National Student’s Union (ZINASU) were hospitalised on Friday after they were abducted before addressing a student’s gathering in Masvingo. The pair was severely assaulted by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives.

Governance

• The Zimbabwe government has revoked the specification of prominent businessmen Matumwa Mawere and James Makamba. The de-specification clears the way for former Schweppes, First Bank and Shabanie Mashaba Mines boss Mawere, and former Telecel chief Makamba, to return to Zimbabwe and reclaim their confiscated assets. Maware says he will have to fight the state in court to recover his.

• Zimbabwean MP Willas Madzimure, who is also the chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption, has urged the legislature to adopt measures that will force all MPs, judges and senior state officials to declare their assets. He said his constituency believes that some politicians have corruptly amassed wealth outside of the public scrutiny.

• The City of Harare’s Finance Director, Cosmos Zvikaramba, has resigned amid reports of his involvement in corrupt deals during his tenure of office. Zvikaramba was infamous for taking directives from Local Government Minister Chombo instead of being accountable to his superiors at Town House.

Diplomatic

• Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the USA gave in to an insulting outburst at an Africa Day event in Washington, heckling from the floor and calling Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson a ‘house slave’. He also accused America of trying to colonise Zimbabwe, before leaving the room.

• Australia’s Foreign Affairs minister has stated that there will be no increase aid or lifting of sanctions against Zanu PF human rights abusers until Mugabe has stepped aside and genuine reform is implemented in Zimbabwe. “The coalition government has failed to implement the global political agreement in full because of Mugabe. He should move off the stage if the country is to re-engage with the international community,” he said.

• Meeting in South Africa, the Group of Elders, which includes former US President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Graca Machel, voiced their great concern Monday at the slow pace of implementation of the GPA, and warned that it would be premature to hold elections in Zimbabwe without electoral reform.

Mining / Diamonds

• Abbey Chikane, the Kimberley Process (KP) monitor is in Zimbabwe on his second visit to assess whether operations at Marange comply with KP standards.Chikane has made sensational revelations about how state security agents managed to open his bag without his consent and photocopy some correspondence, which was later publicised through the state media.

• Mines Minister Obert Mpofu told the state-owned Herald newspaper that he had “suspended all diamond exports from Zimbabwe with immediate effect until the issue of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) has been sorted out.” Meanwhile the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) in Mutare published a report saying that up to 2,000 carats of diamonds extracted in Marange are being smuggled out of the country each day, a significant proportion to the Gulf region.

• Police then raided the CRD offices in Mutare to arrest the director Farai Maguwu. Failing to find him, they visited his home and in his absence arrested his younger brother on charges of ‘obstructing justice’. Lisben Maguwu was released on bail on Monday, while Farai Maguwu is assumed to be in hiding.

• A man from Zimbabwe’s eastern Mutare city has pressed charges against the police after he was allegedly brutally assaulted by a group of officers who mistook him for an illegal diamond miner.

• Over 1,700 families have been ordered to vacate their villages in Chiadzwa by next Tuesday, apparently to pave the way for more controversial diamond mining in the area.

• President Mugabe told the Chamber of Mines’ annual Congress in Victoria Falls that the Government would not expropriate or nationalize mines, but said that “The implementation of the empowerment initiative will take cognisance of the need to promote growth.”

• Mining company RioZim, which announced plans to build a US$3 billion coal-fired power station in Zimbabwe, has also announced a rights issue which aims to raise US$40 million to restart its gold, nickel, and coal mining operations and commence chrome mining.

Legal

• Two workers at the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) have been charged with an additional crime: ‘undermining President Robert Mugabe’. The GALZ members, Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, were arrested last Friday when police stormed the organisation’s Harare offices claiming they were looking for dangerous drugs and pornographic material. They were released on bail after a week in jail. Homosexuals have also been victimized recently in Uganda and Malawi.

• MDC Senator Morgan Komichi has also been charged with ‘insulting President Mugabe’, by singing a song at a rally in Bindura in January. The song contains a line which translates as “”Grace’s husband reminds me of my donkey which died a long, long time ago”.

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union has announced it will sue the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for millions of dollars in export earnings which were looted from their foreign currency accounts before the formation of the inclusive government in 2009.

• MDC parliamentarian, Pishai Muchauraya of Makoni South has been summoned to appear in court to face unspecified charges. “Most of the many cases brought against MDC MPs have been thrown out by the courts, but Zanu PF wants to revive them in the belief there would be convictions this time around,” said Muchauraya. Mugabe has just appointed one of his most pliable loyalists, George Chiweshe, as Judge President of the High Court.

Economy

• The chief executive officer for the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) said that Zimbabwe has not entered into an agreement with Eskom to export electricity to South Africa during the World Cup. Zimbabwe would only play the role of being a transporter of power from other countries to South Africa, he said.

• Zimbabwe is enduring an acute energy deficit, with only two operational generators at Hwange thermal power station producing just 70Mw instead of its capacity 750Mw.

• The International Monetary Fund has recommended that Zimbabwe should stick with its current use of mixed hard currencies including the U.S. dollar and South African Rand until the country has instituted sound fiscal policies and reformed its central bank.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti, speaking at the African Development Bank annual assembly in Ivory Coast on Tuesday, has revised upwards the country’s 2010 economic growth forecast to about 7 percent citing improved foreign investment inflows and increased donor assistance.  However, accumulated interest is pushing up public debt and currently totals around US$6.2 billion, higher than previous estimates.  The current account deficit is estimated at US$ 1.9 billion.

• Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has told foreign banks operating in Zimbabwe that if they are not willing to provide working capital to businesses they should leave the country. In an apparent attempt to regain credibility with workers, he has blamed the banks for failing to rescue firms which have collapsed or have been laying off workers to survive. He boasted that banks may ‘be nationalized’ if they do not fund failing businesses.

• The state-run Herald newspaper reported in its business section that cash shortages were taking a heavy toll on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in a surge of profit taking. Liquidity shortages are placing strain on the banking sector and causing interest rates to rise to as high as 40 percent.

Business

• Chinese firm Sinosteel Corp which owns Sinosteel Zimbabwe Chrome (formerly ZIMASCO) says all furnaces are now operating at full capacity and the company is working on expanding output of the smelting plant by about 30 percent to 50,000 tons of ferrochrome per annum.

• Air Zimbabwe is facing a Parliamentary investigation for gross mismanagement and possibly corruption. The inquiry has been prompted by complaints from workers who face retrenchment.

Media

• Zimbabwe’s Media Commission has finally granted licenses to four private daily newspapers, including the previously banned and bombed Daily News and the Daily Gazette, which ceased publication in 1995. New titles are the Mail, a Zanu PF Youth League paper, and NewsDay a newcomer which promises ‘balanced’ reporting. No new broadcasters have yet been licensed.

Agriculture

• The inclusive government has abandoned Operation Maguta/Inala as it moves ahead to implement short-to-long-term drought mitigation strategies following crop assessments by three ministries revealing that over 205,000 households face starvation this year. President Mugabe in 2005 launched the command agriculture operation under the military arguing that the move was aimed at ensuring food security and a surplus for export.

• Illegal evictions of commercial farmers took place in the district of Inyathi (Matabeleland North) with convoys of armed police arriving at farms without warning and evicting the owners at gunpoint. Oscardale Farm, Riverbank and Felton farms were all targeted during the weekend of 25 May.

• At Cedor Park farm in Nyamandhlovu near Bulawayo, the owner James Taylor was arrested at the weekend and charged with ‘occupying State Land without a permit’. Taylor is diabetic and was refused medication by the acting Officer in Charge. Taylor’s son who went to the police station to assist his father was also detained. Both men were released on Monday.

• Two similar incidents occurred the same weekend in the Shamva North constituency in Mashonaland, this time with so-called ‘war veterans’ accompanied by Zanu PF youth militias carrying out the attacks.

Health/Humanitarian

• Amnesty International and the Coalition Against Forced Evictions this week called on the Zimbabwean government to provide adequate alternative accommodation or compensation to those left homeless and jobless after Operation Murambatsvina.  The programme of mass forced evictions five years ago left more than 700,000 people homeless or jobless, or both.

• The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking an estimated US$17 million in humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe, which the group said this week is still ‘fragile’. The country is facing current acute emergencies on several fronts, including ongoing measles (5 million children at risk), cholera (23 districts) and typhoid outbreaks, the silent but devastating HIV and AIDS epidemic, vulnerable children and the plight of displaced persons.

• The World Health Organisation reports that 2.9 million children were vaccinated in the national immunisation against measles campaign last week.

• Incessant power cuts have impacted heavily on the operations of Chinhoyi provincial hospital, which recently was forced to throw away stocks of food, blood and critical drugs that had gone bad when refrigeration units were cut off. Bodies in the mortuary are also decomposing.

Diaspora

• Diaspora groups in the UK have joined together in order to combine their views and recommendations via the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group (ZDFG) which will present a united voice when engaging with the UK Government.

The Good News

• While on a three-day state visit to South Korea, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was conferred with an honorary doctorate in law by Pai Chai university in recognition of his contribution to the development of Zimbabwe.

• The Zimbabwe national cricket side trounced India’s junior national side with 10 balls and six wickets to spare in the first of two matches in a Tri-nations which includes Sri Lanka.

• Tourism has picked up with a surge in bookings by South Africans who apparently intend to holiday away from the crowds during the FIFA World Cup in June/July.

• Zimbabwean athlete Stephen Muzhingi won the world-famous South African Comrades Marathon, held in KwaZulu-Natal, for the second year in a row.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has commended President Mugabe for resisting alleged political interference by the Western powers, pledging Tehran’s continued support for Zimbabwe.

• Dr Simba Makoni, interim leader of the newly launched Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn political movement, has called for massive demonstrations similar to the Red Shirt protests in Thailand against the inclusive government, which he says has failed.

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has called for fresh elections to choose the country’s next leader, citing “lack of progress” in the inclusive government.

• Job Sikhala, who on May 8 launched a new political party, the MDC-99, was arrested Friday by heavily armed police. He is to be charged under Section 20 of the discredited Public Order and Security Act (POSA).

• Zimbabwe Inclusive Government Watch, a document which monitors violations of the GPA and is published by the Sokwanele website, reported that from April 2010:In cases of violence, intimidation, hate speech and abductions, Zanu PF was accountable for 90.9 percent.  In cases of subversion of legal processes and of harassment through the courts of MDC supporters and politicians, Zanu PF was accountable for 100 percent of the breaches.

• The MDC-T leadership addressed thousands of supporters at more than 30 “Real Change” rallies held across the country to update the nation on key national issues.

• The MDC-T said that moving its deputy Minister of Agriculture (Designate) Roy Bennett to another ministry would be a serious breach of the GPA. Under the GPA neither the President nor his party can veto Bennett’s appointment.

• The MDC-T has expelled five youths, allegedly behind the assault of MDC Director General Toendepi Shonhe at its Harvest House headquarters in Harare.

Governance

• The Norwegian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Gunnar Foreland, has criticized the three leaders for delaying full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

• The GPA provides for an anti-corruption commission, but 15 months down the line the commission has still not been formed and the ruthless plundering of the country’s resources by President Mugabe’s inner circle continues.

Economy

• ZESA currently cannot meet domestic power needs with industry and commerce almost crippled by inadequate electricity supplies. The state-run utility is producing 1,100 megawatts compared with a national requirement of 2,000 megawatts and is obliged to import electricity from Mozambique and Zambia.

• Mining company RioZim, which is sitting on 1.3 billion tonnes of coal reserves, said Tuesday it had teamed up with South African investors to build a US$3 billion thermal power station in central Zimbabwe. The proposed power station would have a capacity of 1,400 megawatts, sufficient to meet Zimbabwe’s electricity demand.

• State-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), now operating at 30 percent capacity and laying off thousands of workers, is planning to sell a 49 percent share stake in an effort to raise capital to pay US$270 million in debt.

• NOCZIM is also negotiating with the government to retain a controlling 51 percent stake in the enterprise after raising equity capital.

• The Development Bank of Southern Africa on Tuesday availed a US$500,000 grant to the Zimbabwean government to fund a feasibility study of the Harare-Chirundu highway dualisation. Carrying the bulk of traffic between South Africa and countries to the north of Zimbabwe, it is set to cost an estimated US$1.3 billion.

• Prime Minister Tsvangirai has urged SADC water ministers meeting in Bulawayo to expedite signature and ratification of the Zambezi Commission protocol so the region can tap the potential of the Zambezi river for the benefit of all.

• Tsvangirai travelled to Seoul this week on a three-day official visit. It is expected that the high-level meetings will result in the signing of a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA).

• The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) has raided a car dealership in Harare and stopped the auction of 75 cars as part of investigations into alleged tax evasion by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Business

• Zimbabwe has finally ratified a BIPPA signed with South Africa last November.

• Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has extended to end June the deadline by which all businesses must submit plans on increasing black ownership.

• The business community and the MDC have proposed that the requirement for a 51 percent indigenous stake in all companies be replaced with a level of participation determined on a sector-by-sector basis.

• Zimbabwe’s hotel group Meikles Africa will spend $53 million by end-March 2011 to revamp its hotels and supermarkets, the company’s chairman said Wednesday.

Mining/Diamonds

• Mines and Mining Development permanent secretary Thankful Musukutwa has asked the Finance ministry to slash the pre-exploration levy for new mining projects as the US$100 000 charged for Exclusive Prospective Orders (EPO) is inhibiting new investment in mining, especially under-capitalised local miners.

• The Chamber of Mines on Wednesday proposed a compromise in the government’s drive to force foreign firms to give 51 percent stakes to locals, saying 15 percent local shareholding for mines was enough.

• Although power cuts and lack of funding slowed down recovery of the country’s mines – most of which closed in 2008 at the height of the economic crisis – the chamber says gold output will be significantly higher than last year’s 4.2 tonnes. At its peak, Zimbabwe produced about 29 tonnes of gold annually.

• Impala Platinum’s Zimbabwe unit, Zimplats Holdings, is considering setting up the country’s first metals refinery, where its plans a US$500 million mine expansion.

• The government is illegally exporting Chiadzwa diamonds through the back door to Dubai in violation of a Supreme Court ruling.

• Government and controversial diamond firm Canadile Miners have established a joint venture for the construction of a multimillion-dollar Diamond Technology Centre for processing of the gems in Zimbabwe.

• African Consolidated Resources (ACR)’s prospecting programme is yielding positive results. CEO Andrew Cranswick says gold, diamond and base metals prospecting is ongoing.

• Jonathan Samkange, the lawyer representing Africa Consolidated Resources CEO Andrew Cranswick, was briefly arrested by police in Harare on Monday, in a move he says is continuing harassment by the police.

• ACR official Ian Harris is still out on bail after being arrested for allegedly fraudulently acquiring the Chiadzwa diamond claim, through an ACR subsidiary.

Land/Agribusiness

• The loss-making state-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has no money to pay farmers who delivered their produce during the just-ended season. Furthermore, seed and fertiliser stocks at depots countrywide are inadequate for the crucial winter cropping season.

• The Zimbabwean Government will have to pay out at least US$70 million should a renewed claim by three applicants against President Mugabe’s government and its “unlawful land-reform programme” succeed in the SADC Tribunal.

Tourism

• The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is processing requests for loans amounting to over US$30 million from local tourism operators.

New Constitution / Political Violence

• Security for the outreach process has become a major concern amid reports from various provinces that alleged Zanu PF supporters are intimidating and assaulting those who may resist adoption of the Mugabe-backed Kariba draft constitution.

• Members of the Zimbabwe National Army are leading a campaign of violence and intimidation in the Manicaland province. Soldiers, with the help of war veterans and Zanu PF supporters, are using threats and physical violence ahead of the delayed constitutional outreach exercise.

• Members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and Zanu PF top brass are instructing local traditional leaders to bar constitutional reform process meetings organised by civic society and non Governmental Organisations in Mashonaland Central Province, traditional leaders have reported.

• The government will provide US$350,000 to the partisan Zimbabwe Republic Police to fund “security arrangements” for the outreach phase of the constitutional  revision process now scheduled to begin June 15.

• The National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO) said on Thursday it is considering pulling out of the country’s constitutional making process because politicians have taken over the process.

• Dozens of people in Epworth near Harare have been savagely beaten, many raped and others forced to flee their homes in a tide of low-key violence perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters against the MDC.

Elections

• In Johannesburg, a legal case regarding the release of a report by two of South Africa’s top judges on the fairness of the 2002 presidential election in Zimbabwe is underway. The Mail & Guardian newspaper has applied for access to the report.

• The financially crippled Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), sworn in on March 31, has resolved to source funding from international donors.

Health/Humanitarian

• Norway is to increase its humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe in 2010 by NOK 10 million, to NOK 30 million since up to 2.5 million people will need food aid in 2010.

• Zanu PF officials and war veterans in Mberengwa district in the Midlands province are blocking food aid to HIV/AIDS orphans demanding that they should first join the party’s youth league.

• The government supported by Hellen Keller International, World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF on Monday launched a nationwide measles vaccination campaign. More than US$8 million has been spent to on vaccines and logistics to ensure the campaign reaches remote populations. Immunisation points have been set up at all hospitals, clinics, community centres, churches and schools.

• May 18 marked the fifth anniversary of Operation Murambatsvina when the Zanu PF government began demolishing informal settlements across the country, leaving more than 700 000 people without homes or livelihoods, or both. Five years on, the victims are still struggling to survive in plastic shacks or tents without basic essentials.

Legal

• President Mugabe has unilaterally appointed three High Court judges, including controversial former elections chief George Chiweshe, who presided over the flawed 2008 elections, to head the country’s High Court.  As this violates the GPA, Prime Minister Tsvangirai has protested strongly and wants a meeting with Mugabe this week.

• According to legal monitor Veritas, the law allows the State to appeal to the Supreme Court against Roy Bennett’s acquittal, but only if given permission to do so by a Supreme Court judge. The hearing is likely to be held during the next few weeks.

• Lawyers for Bennett are planning to sue former information minister Jonathan Moyo  and state media journalists for allegedly peddling falsehoods against him.

• A Harare court has ordered an investigation into the alleged torture of two former soldiers accused of stealing weapons at Pomona Barracks last year.

• The Deputy Sheriff of Cape Town will proceed to auction Zimbabwe government properties after Harare failed to defend a R400 million lawsuit by German development bank KFW Bankgruppe.

Media

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he would this week summon the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) to ascertain why it hasn’t issued a single licence since it was appointed nearly three months ago.

• Donors are said to be refusing to financially back the newly created Zimbabwe Media Commission due to the appointment of Zanu PF sympathiser and media hangman Tafataona Mahoso as CEO.

• Concern has been expressed over the increasing range of the state broadcaster after new transmitters were installed last week.

• Police in Gweru have clamped down on a community radio station by denying them clearance to hold a road show this weekend.

Education

• UNICEF has provided over US$50 million to improve the pupil-textbook ratio.

Environment / Wildlife

• A six-nation wildlife crime crackdown across southern Africa, and including Zimbabwe, has resulted in the seizure of nearly 400 kilos (882 pounds) of elephant ivory and rhino horn with a market value of more than US$1 million, the location and closure of an illegal ivory factory, and the arrests of 41 people.

• Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said at the weekend that the export of six animal species, including two infant elephants, to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was a “purely business” transaction.  An international campaign to save the elephants has been launched by Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force and Elephant Voices.

Sport

• North Korea will not be preparing for the World Cup finals with a visit to Zimbabwe, ending fears over a potentially controversial trip.

• The International Football Federation (FIFA) says it is preparing to bus Zimbabweans into South Africa next month to fill up empty seats in the new Polokwane, Nelspruit and Port Elizabeth stadiums during World Cup.

The Good News

• The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) handed over 693 housing units on May 13 to nearly 700 families, all victims of the 2008 floods in the eastern Chipinge district.  The homes were built in partnership with government’s Civil Protection Unit.

• A Zimbabwean wine maker has scored a first by making two of the three official World Cup wines. Tariro Masayiti, 37, works for Paarl-based wine-maker Nederburg.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• The three principals in the Harare coalition government have still to meet to discuss the final report on the GPA submitted by South Africa’s SADC-mandated facilitation team last month. Team leader Lindiwe Zulu said, “It is our hope that they meet soon to accept our final report, work on the recommendations of the report and indicate what they intend to do on the outstanding issues (in the GPA).”

• After an emergency council meeting at the weekend, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai called for an immediate SADC summit to resolve outstanding issues and the stalling by Zanu PF on the GPA, together with a “road map to an election and guarantees to the legitimacy of this election.”

• The European Union and South African ministers’ dialogue meeting in Brussels issued an appeal to Zimbabwe’s political leaders to fully implement the GPA and resolve the disagreements holding back democratic reform in the country.

• US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Tsvangirai on Monday to discuss ways of aiding Zimbabwe and fostering democratic reform.

• Tsvangirai reiterated his party would not change its position on appointing Bennett to the cabinet.

• On Thursday, Zanu PF ministers boycotted the bi-weekly Council of Ministers, chaired by Tsvangirai and convened to assess implementation of cabinet decisions.

• MDC founding member Job Sikhala’s new party is to be controversially called the MDC-99, after the year the MDC was formed, bringing the number of MDC groupings to three. Sikhala’s platform is to ensure that perpetrators of political violence face justice.

• Zanu PF party mouthpiece Jonathan Moyo startled readers of the Sunday Mail by claiming that ‘compelling developments in our body politic point to the real possibility that even God may also be Zanu PF’.

Governance

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti stated that he will put a halt to excessive or unauthorised foreign travel by government ministers, which has drained the fiscus of some US$30 million over the last 6 months. He also indicated that the civil service audit to uncover ‘ghost’ workers was complete and would be released soon.

• President Mugabe left on a five-day trip to Teheran at the invitation of controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The G15 developing countries summit will also be attended by the Presidents of Algeria, Brazil, Senegal, Venezuela and Sri Lanka.

• Thousands of former National Youth Training Service recruits and Zanu PF youths, who were improperly recruited into the public service, thronged several banks in Harare this week demanding their salaries. The youths, who are illegally employed by the Ministry of Youth as Zanu PF ward, district or provincial youth officers, brought business to a virtual halt at some banks and nearby shops as they violently demanded their salaries.

• Zimbabwe will conduct its fourth population census in August 2012, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) has said. Commentators observe that this may reveal the true number of economic emigrants and younger citizens without ID documents inside Zimbabwe.

Economy

• According to the Reserve Bank, Zimbabwe’s total national debt as at March 31 was US$5,84 billion, up from US5,7 billion in January. US$5,3 billion is external while US$513 million represents domestic liabilities.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti proposes that Zimbabwe should adopt Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief, so that resources can be spent on health, education and other social services. Zanu PF ministers say they will oppose the initiative.

• Zimbabwe’s Central Statistical Office reports that year-on-year inflation rose from 3.5 percent in March to 4.8 percent in April, although food prices showed signs of easing.

• The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is considering a deal to sell some of its already inadequate capacity to its largest creditor, Eskom of South Africa, which needs extra supplies for winter heating during the Soccer World Cup period. 

• At a recent government briefing it was revealed that 99 percent of the National Railways of Zimbabwe’s rolling stock, track and equipment is past its design lifespan. The parastatal needs US$150 million to rehabilitate its commuter and freight services.

Business

• Telecel International will sell a 20 percent stake in its mobile subsidiary Telecel Zimbabwe to locals to comply with the country’s telecommunications regulations. Several Zanu PF party billionnaires, including Leo Mugabe, are vying for the shares.

• AGRIBANK has announced it will cut its branch network by 25 percent, closing ten branches and shedding jobs in a move to lower costs. CEO Sam Malaba said that the bank suffers from under-capitalisation.

• Delta Beverages attracted investors’ attention after publishing an impressive set of financials which showed volumes increasing 99.7 percent.  However, shortages of power and water are resulting in frequent shortages of beer and dry pubs around the country.

• Business interests in Matabeleland North have pledged support in terms of vehicles, fuel and funds to police in their province. The local police commissioner said that his force will be targeting thieves who steal unguarded national infrastructure such as copper telephone cables, electrical supply cables and National Railways of Zimbabwe cables and equipment.

• Software piracy is an epidemic in Zimbabwe, according to a report released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). Zimbabwe is ranked second worst offender worldwide with a score of 92% after Georgia (95%).  Unemployment in Zimbabwe is above 90 percent.

• The Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group (ZABG) is almost bankrupt, with potential liabilities of more than US$12 million due to alleged mismanagement of depositors’ funds and lavish spending on management perks.

Mining/Diamonds

• Chinese nationals with military links are being issued with permits by Zimbabwe National Army Commander Constantine Chiwenga to mine diamonds in Marange. In exchange, China is supplying the ZNA with military hardware like vehicles, guns and bomb materials.

• Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development (CRD) warns that around 2000 carats a day of Chiadzwa diamonds find their way to local and foreign illegal buyers, contravening the Kimberley Process.

• The Reserve Bank estimates that Chiadzwa diamonds ‘should provide over US$1 billion per month in revenue.’ If diamond revenue sales were harnessed for the benefit of the whole economy, GDP could jump from the 2008 level of US$3.2 billion to at least US$16.7 billion.

• Zimplats Holdings, the largest platinum producer, has put on hold a US$445 million expansion programme pending finalisation of the controversial black empowerment regulations. The proposed project includes development of an underground mine, construction of a 35 000 megalitre dam, 1 125 employee houses and creation of 1 000 jobs.

• Mineworkers have called off a strike, a union official said Monday, ending a protest that paralysed the country’s gold mines which are battling to recover from a decade-long economic crisis.

Land / Agribusiness

• ZIMSTAT will conduct surveys in the agricultural sector where production has shrunk by more than 60 percent due to the violent land grab.

• Since the formation of the GNU in February 2009, commercial farmers’ organisations say invaders have raided at least 150 of the 300 remaining white-owned commercial farms.

• The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has presented a comprehensive document to 50 Embassies, the World Bank, Southern African Development Community and GNU seeking a way forward for resolving conflict and restoring the agricultural sector.

• Zanu PF has unilaterally decided that only ten white commercial farmers should be allowed to remain in Mashonaland Central province, according to reports from the CFU.

• An increasing number of violent robberies has been recorded on commercial farms – sixteen cases over the last few weeks, mainly in the Midlands area. It is believed that the attacks form another tactic in the Zanu PF campaign to force farmers off their properties.

• Zanu PF sympathizer Wilfred Chagwedera has been ordered by High Court judge Justice Joseph Musakwa to vacate Friedenthal farm near Beatrice, which belongs to the family of CFU president Deon Theron.

New Constitution / Violence

• Campaigns of intimidation are taking place in Manicaland, with war veterans’ association leader Jabulani Sibanda forcing villagers to attend ‘educational’ meetings on the controversial ‘Kariba’ draft constitution, which seeks to retain an all-powerful Presidency.  The villagers have been warned it is a matter of ‘life or death’ for Zanu PF.

• Youth militia continue to terrorise rural people in Mudzi and Muzarabani while campaigning for the ‘Kariba’ draft constitution.  Lists of people attending meetings on civic education, or those organized by NGOs, are being compiled, with threats of expulsion from their villages or death if they speak during the (constitutional) outreach meetings.

• Former Irish President and past United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson says that international observers must be deployed to Zimbabwe to monitor the constitution-making process. This is in response to reports of growing violence and threats by President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, aided by the military.

Elections

• Tsvangirai told reporters Monday he hoped the country’s constitutional revision process would be completed by year-end so that a new round of elections can be held in 2011.

• Mugabe and Zanu PF have reportedly developed cold feet over holding early elections after a recent poll showed that Tsvangirai would win by a massive 88 percent.

• Zimbabwe’s Restoration for Human Rights (ROHR) organisation has expressed fears that with or without a new constitution the likelihood of election violence is very high since the infrastructure of violence is still intact across the country.

• ZAPU chairman Dumiso Dabengwa has called for fresh elections, saying that “The inclusive government has failed totally.”

Legal

• The Roy Bennett saga: On Monday, Attorney-General Tomana said he would not appeal the dismissal of treason charges against MDC senator and party treasurer Roy Bennett.
• On Tuesday, Bennett said that if he were appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture, he would be “able to expose a lot of the lies, deceit and theft that is taking place in Zimbabwe.”
• On Wednesday, Tomana’s office applied for permission to appeal the High Court Judge’s decision in the Supreme Court. Bennett attempted to retrieve his confiscated passport but found it had been taken by one of the prosecutors, without permission from the court.  Bennett’s lawyers submitted papers opposing the application to the Supreme Court and calling for an investigation into Attorney-General Tomana’s behaviour.
• On Thursday, South African President Jacob Zuma’s team of facilitators said they would engage Zanu PF over the Justice Minister’s decision to challenge Bennett’s acquittal.
• On Friday, Bennett’s lawyers filed a charge of theft against the Attorney-General’s office over the senator’s missing passport.

• George Chiweshe, the man accused of organising the rigging of the 2008 presidential election and thus forcing a run-off, is to be appointed Judge President of the High Court, according to high-level government sources. If the appointment by President Mugabe goes ahead, it will be in contravention of the GPA as the MDC has not been consulted.

• A civic group of taxpayers has filed a lawsuit against the Inclusive Government over the ‘illegal’ appointment of ten government ministers, posts which were not part of the GPA and therefore are constitutionally ‘null and void’. Controversial Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is one of these extra ministers.

• Another ‘quasi fiscal’ enterprise by the Reserve Bank under Gideon Gono has had its assets attached by creditors. The bank’s transport company owns one hundred buses which are being seized in part payment for a US$1.5 million debt to a South African seed company.

• Irregularly-retrenched employees of Air Zimbabwe have engaged lawyers to attach the airline’s assets as compensation for almost US$5 million in unpaid salaries and allowances.

• KFW Bank, a German development bank, has attached Zimbabwe government-owned property in South Africa over a €59 million loan to Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. The bank will cooperate with AfriForum, which has already attached four Cape Town houses.

Health/Humanitarian

• Zimbabwe is facing a cereals deficit of 459 000 metric tones, the World Food Program (WFP) said in a new report released Monday.

• Last year the United States funded over US$300 million in humanitarian aid and health assistance for Zimbabwe.

• UNICEF is currently supplying water treatment chemicals to over 20 local authorities, spending over US$3 million each month on the service.

• The Zimbabwean Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the WHO and UNICEF, will launch a 10-day national immunization campaign from May 24 through June 2, aiming to vaccinate 5 million children against a range of diseases, including deadly measles.

Education

• Education Sports and Culture Minister, David Coltart is working to introduce civic education into the country’s curriculum which will see children being taught tolerance and respect for human and property rights.

Media

• The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) last week postponed a crucial workshop to expedite the licensing of new newspapers, due to financial problems. It still has not received its 2010 National budget allocation of US$ 47 000 and has yet to license new media houses since it was officially appointed in February.

Diaspora

• The Legal Resources Centre has threatened to take legal action against South African authorities over the expulsion of over 500 refugees from a safety camp in De Doorns, Western Cape. The refugees were displaced after violent xenophobic attacks in November last year. Breede Valley Mayor Charles Ntsomi said the municipality needed to close the camp ‘before the Soccer World Cup’.

• Foreign migrants and refugees in South Africa have been warned to prepare for a wave of xenophobic attacks immediately after the World Cup, a consortium of leading migration organisations said this week.

• A shocking report released by Medecins Sans Frontieres reveals that destitute and desperate illegal immigrants crossing the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa are being ambushed, robbed and sexually abused by organised HIV-positive gangs on the South African side. Rape victims include men, women and children.

• MSF says as many as 300 Zimbabweans are arriving in South Africa each day to apply for asylum at Musina, close to the Beitbridge border post.

• A UNDP working paper on diasporan remittances recommended that Zimbabwe should allow dual citizenship and postal voting to incentivise foreign currency remittances and direct investment from Zimbabweans living outside the country.

Wildlife

• Conservationists are protesting the export of wild animals, including elephants, from Hwange National Park to North Korea. Animal welfare experts warn that many of the animals being removed from the park will not survive the shock of capture, sedation and air transportation, let alone the conditions at North Korean zoos, which do not meet international standards.

• Conservation groups estimate that half a million wild animals have been lost to poaching in the country’s national parks over the past decade, with local communities and the army being the main offenders.

The Good News

• The National Democratic Institute (NDI), a US pro-democracy group, presented one of its highest honours, the Averell Harriman Democracy Award, to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday.

• Prominent Zimbabwe human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has been awarded the 2010 International Human Rights Award by the American Bar Association (ABA).

• Internet money transfer company Mukuru.com has launched a project to aid disadvantaged musicians in Zimbabwe by helping to sell their music online and paying them 80 percent of the proceeds every month via the company’s SMS-Cash system.

• Hotel occupancy at Victoria Falls has increased to 85 percent ahead of the FIFA World Cup in June. Ten years ago, Zimbabwe drew 1.4 million tourists who generated US$400 million for the economy. Last year, only 223 000 tourists came, generating just US$ 29.1 million.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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