• President Jacob Zuma has both visited and sent negotiating delegations to Zimbabwe over the last few weeks, but the South African leader is being tested by Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party: reported agreements reached on implementation of the GPA were rebutted by Mugabe as soon as the South Africans went home.  The coalition partners failed to meet the March 31 deadline set by Pretoria to complete negotiations.

• The stand-off continued all this week while SADC, guarantor of the GPA, has neither commented on or condemned the situation publicly. President Zuma is due to present a report to the SADC organ on security, defence and politics, which may then call a plenary meeting to discuss the situation.

• Solidarity Peace Trust director Brian Raftopoulos told journalists at the launch of a new report in Johannesburg Wednesday that President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is determined to remain in power at any cost.  “ Be very clear this is a struggle for the state. Any struggle for the state is intense, it is violent, it is problematic, especially when you are fighting a party whose very future is invested in control of the state.”

• The Zimbabwean judiciary has once more postponed the final ruling in the Roy Bennett case which has been adjourned to May 10.  On the same day police served the MDC senator with a new summons on charges of ‘hoarding’ maize he had grown on his farm nine years previously.

• France, which is in charge of granting Belgian visas to Zimbabweans, has declined to issue a visa to discredited Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa as part of a delegation from Zimbabwe to discuss re-engagement plans. However, Chinamasa, who is on the EU travel-ban list, could apply direct to the Belgian Embassy in South Africa.

• Minority partner in the GPA and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara angered his supporters in a speech at a Women’s Day event, when he heaped praise on Robert Mugabe, describing him as “a consistent leader with organizational capacity and strategic vision.”

• South Africa’s ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, visited Zimbabwe to “learn about Zimbabwe’s revolutionary empowerment programmes” from Zanu-PF Youth Minister, Saviour Kasukuwere. Also a controversial figure, Kasukuwere admitted last year that Zanu-PF deployed youth militias to spearhead its violent 2008 pre- and post-election campaign. Malema created controversy by declaring the ANC would start confiscating white-owned farms and nationalising mines in South Africa.

• In-fighting within the re-formed ZAPU party has surfaced, with several suspended officials seeking to sue the party’s chairman, Dumiso Dabengwa over their outstanding grievances.

• Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators (ZILIWACO) members who took to the streets in Masvingo Wednesday claimed sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the West had caused the deaths of half a million people through cholera and malnutrition. The demonstration was called to pressurize Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to push for the removal of sanctions.

Governance

• After a year of delay, two key reform commissions were finally sworn in – the Human Rights Commission and the Electoral Commission. But analysts at legal monitor Veritas say the new electoral commission cannot reform the deeply flawed electoral laws without the consent of Zanu-PF Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa.

• Harare City Council has adopted a report exposing illicit municipal land deals by Mugabe relative Philip Chiyangwa and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo. A local newspaper which covered the leaked report was raided by the police and journalists were interrogated.

• Bulawayo city council has announced plans to purchase six luxury vehicles for its top managers, while the city’s water reticulation system, street lighting, and roads are all in serious disrepair through lack of finances.

• The new constitution-making process became marred in controversy after reports emerged that the committees and MPs involved in the process were paying themselves hefty allowances during the training period. The UNDP and other donors therefore announced they would only fund the 70% of the public consultation programme which deals with the actual constitution-making process. The Zimbabwe government is to fund the remaining 30% of costs.

Business

• The German African Business Association (GABA) cancelled a visit to Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe has become a “no go area” for foreign investors following promulgation of the empowerment laws that give foreign-controlled business up to 2015 to sell a majority stake to indigenous Zimbabweans or face punitive levies and taxes from the government. Norway recently announced that it was putting on hold a US$1,5 million project to assist Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector because of the indigenisation law.

• State electricity utility Zesa is battling to find investors to pay for new generators at Hwange power station, while other generation projects remain unfunded, including the proposed Batoka Hydro Power station, the Gokwe North Power station and a raft of mini hydro power stations across the country.

• Lack of electricity has forced thousands of residents to use wood fuel for cooking, causing massive deforestation as entrepreneurs cut down trees in the countryside to transport to the cities. Environmentalists have warned that 20 percent of forests have been lost to firewood vendors since 1990, and that losses are accelerating by an alarming 16 percent each year.

• Hwange Colliery Company Ltd (HCCL) has resorted to barter trade. It will pay two South African companies with processed coal (coke) to the value of US$4 million, in exchange for repairing its 32-coke oven battery.

• State telecoms regulator Telco has switched off the internet accounts of 200 of ISP Zimbabwe Online’s customers. The Zol account holders have refused to supply their personal details as demanded by the much-maligned Interception of Communications Act. The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) enforces compliance with the Act.

• A shortage of over-the-counter drugs has been caused by the forced closure of pharmaceutical manufacturer Caps Holdings’ factory by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.  This was reportedly due to the production of drugs from the newly-refurbished plant before it had been inspected.

• Taxi bus operators have appealed to Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to stop his police officers forcing the operators to ‘donate’ a routine US$5 bribe at roadblocks in and around Harare and outlying towns.

• Ecoweb, the wholly-owned ISP subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s largest cellular network operator, Econet Wireless, has started implementing a project to install the country’s first mobile WiMAX network.  The new network will be capable of carrying mobile, nomadic and fixed services ranging from individual netbooks to large corporate networks.

Elections

• The Zimbabwe Republic Police has ordered all officers-in-charge to eliminate ‘unpatriotic’ officers from the force as the country prepares for a possible fresh election.  Last week senior police personnel warned officers at Police General Headquarters that anyone who was suspected of supporting any other party than Zanu-PF would be dismissed from the force.

• Hundreds of thousands of ‘invisible’ and ‘forgotten’ Zimbabweans inside the country, disenfranchised by the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2001 and denied many rights, including the right to vote, are lobbying for dual citizenship.  This constituency comprises an estimated two million second and third generation Zimbabweans, many of Zambian and Malawian descent.

Agricultural Sector

• The SADC Tribunal in Windhoek has postponed the hearing of a contempt of court case brought by the Commercial Farmers’ Union against the Zimbabwe government after Mugabe refused to accept the Tribunal judgment outlawing the country’s land reforms. The Tribunal ruled that the “reforms” were “discriminatory, racist and illegal under the SADC Treaty”. The commercial farmers want the Tribunal to grant an enforcement order urging SADC leaders to take measures that might include the suspension or expulsion of Zimbabwe from the regional bloc.

• Lawyers for civil rights group AfriForum seized a luxury property in Cape Town belonging to the Zimbabwe government, in what is a significant step towards gaining compensation for Zimbabwean farmers who lost their land in President Mugabe’s unlawful land reform programme. Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa had no comment on the action, but returned to Harare to ‘consult’.

• South African foreign affairs official Kgomotso Molobi announced that the South African Government would appeal the court ruling in favour of AfriForum.

Political Violence

• On Wednesday the pressure group Restoration of Human Rights (ROHR) reported that Zanu-PF mobs had attacked villages in Mashonaland East, burning houses and a church in Muzarabani district and forcing 16 families to flee. Certain MDC officials have denied that there is organised violence in the area.

• Demonstrations by Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) members were violently disrupted and several student leaders were arrested in Harare and Masvingo. The students were demanding the ‘full implementation of the GPA’ as well as protesting against ‘deteriorating conditions in education’.

• The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) released its report on election violence, rape and sexual abuse, entitled “Fighting for a New Constitution: Human Rights Violations Experienced by Female Members of the National Constitutional Assembly”. The report detailed serial abuse of women by Zanu-PF youth militias, ‘war veteran’ groups and police.

• A grouping of NGOs under the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition say they are seeking an audience with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma over the rising levels of violence and harassment in Zimbabwe.

The Arts

• An exhibition of paintings at Bulawayo’s National Gallery was closed and the artist, Owen Maseko, arrested and charged with ‘inciting violence’. The exhibition theme was the political violence and the Gukurahundi massacres which took place in Matabeleland in the 1980s. Last week in Harare’s Delta Gallery, a photographic exhibition by ZimRights, featuring pictures of the 2008 political violence, was also shut down by police.

Mining

• Mining Minister Obert Mpofu is under scrutiny after a personal multi-million US dollar cash spending spree on property in Victoria Falls.

• Minister Mpofu admitted to the parliamentary committee probing mining activities in Chiadzwa that he had issued licences to two diamond mining firms in Chiadzwa in which it is believed he may have an interest. Although the firms are more than 50 percent owned by the Government, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said there had as yet been no income from the two firms.

• The Parliamentary Committee on Mines’s fact-finding mission to the Marange/Chiadzwa diamond diggings was refused entry to the diamond fields and to the premises of the two firms exploiting the diamond fields. The group of lawmakers and journalists were barred by police on the orders of the Zanu-PF Provincial Governor, the Police Commissioner and Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu.

• The Kimberley Process monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane, said no diamonds from Marange have as yet been certified for sale, but he has submitted a detailed report to the Kimberley Process working committee on monitoring.

• Illegal gold panners have descended on two farms near Masvingo, causing massive land degradation and trampling crops. Police have arrested 80 people but the gold rush is attracting hundreds of men, women and schoolchildren every day.

• The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Indigenization under which foreign-owned mining companies would set aside 10 percent of their equity shares for indigenous blacks under the indigenization program. The proposal noted that bodies such as the IMF could fund the purchase of shares for ordinary Zimbabweans who would otherwise not be able to afford them. The proposal was rejected by Indigenisation Minister Kasukuwere.

• The 5 000 workers at Zimbabwe’s massive Shabanie and Mashava asbestos mines have not been paid for 18 months, and are now being assisted by the World Food Programme. The mines were confiscated from businessman Matuma Mawere by the Zanu-PF government and are no longer operating.

Health/Humanitarian

• UNICEF director in Harare, Dr Peter Salama, has called for international aid to restart the measles immunisation program in Zimbabwe, where 183 deaths have occurred in the last few months and fears of an epidemic are rising. Health Minister Henry Madzorera (MDC) said US$ 8.4 million would be required for a countrywide measles vaccination program.

• Thousands of Bulawayo residents who have not paid their water bills are being disconnected by the Bulawayo city council, prompting fears of another cholera outbreak.

Diaspora

• Solidarity Peace Trust has released a new report titled:  “Desperate lives, twilight worlds – how a million Zimbabweans live without sanction or sanctuary in South Africa”.  It details the dire reality facing Zimbabwean immigrants who fled their country seeking safety and work in South Africa, a trend that is still continuing. It also notes that more Zimbabweans have fled their country in the past 10 years than those who fled Mozambique at the height of its long and bloody civil war.  Click here to access the report.

Good News

• The United States government officially handed over a new, upgraded bio-safety, level-two-plus laboratory to the Minister of Health, Dr. Henry Madzorera. The facility at Harare hospital will enhance the capacity of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to offer clinical and diagnostic testing as well as research on indigenous/exotic agents which may cause serious disease after inhalation, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) ,typhoid (Salmonella Typhi),anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) and the H1N1 virus.

• US-based media development organisation Internews Network plans to launch a project to use local media, video and civic networks to promote understanding of Zimbabwe’s national healing and reconciliation agenda. There are no transitional justice mechanisms sponsored by government in spite of the organ on national healing having been set up under the GPA.

• An ex-member of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Office (CIO) has publicly apologised for violence and torture campaigns in which he participated during and after the 2008 elections, saying there were many more in the CIO who felt guilt and shame.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday the inter-party talks had reached a deadlock and were “going nowhere.” Biti called for South Africa and SADC to intervene.

• President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday the extension of targeted sanctions by the EU was a deliberate ploy by the West to undermine development in the country. But he said he would not breach the power-sharing agreement and pull out of the unity government over the issue of sanctions, stating it would be “stupid of us to do so.” The EU extended targeted sanctions by 12 months, but removed six individuals and nine companies from the list.

• South African President Jacob Zuma said the sanctions against Mugabe and his allies were hurting his efforts to create conditions for free and fair elections. Zuma has said the only solution to the outstanding issues in the unity government is a free and fair vote.

• In his 86th birthday broadcast on Saturday, Mugabe defended the law requiring foreign companies to cede 51 percent stake to locals, undermining Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s statement that the law was unworkable and would scare off foreign investors. Mugabe said the law was “irreversible,” and wise investors would continue to put money into the country.

• Members of a US congressional delegation met Thursday with Mugabe and Biti to discuss progress in the inter-party talks. Biti said after the meeting he hoped the delegation would recommend amendments to the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic and Recovery Act, the basis for U.S. travel and financial sanctions.

• Gregory Meeks, leader of the US delegation, said the meeting with Mugabe was “very constructive,” and he “looked forward to working with him.” The delegation, however, said Zimbabwe still had a long way to go in restoring political and economic stability.

• Five new ambassadors and high commissioners belonging to the MDC were on Wednesday officially appointed. This is the first time in thirty years that ambassadors outside Zanu-PF have been appointed by Mugabe.

Governance

• More than two thousand civil servants marched in Harare on Friday and presented signed petitions to Parliament and the offices of finance. The workers are demanding an increase from the current US$150 to US$630. They have vowed to continue with the strike until the government comes up with a better wage offer.

• Zimbabwe’s police force has been ordered to join the civil servants’ strike, despite a law that uniformed forces are not allowed to take industrial action.

• The Zimbabwe/Botswana Joint Permanent Commission will meet in Victoria Falls next week to discuss the diplomatic stand-off between the two countries after the arrest of three Botswana game rangers who accidentally crossed into Zimbabwe. The commission will sit from Monday to Friday.

• China will not provide Zimbabwe with any further loans until it settles its existing debts, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said. Harare owes Beijing an undisclosed amount in unpaid loans given to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority and the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company.

Business

• The Affirmative Action Group said starting next month it would go from factory to factory in cities to help the government enforce the controversial indigenization regulations for black majority control of companies.

• The South African-based company Impala Platinum threatened to call-off any further “expansionary investment” in Zimbabwe pending clarification over the new indigenization policy.

• Two senior managers at the beleaguered Nestle plant in Harare have claimed they were fired for being black, allegations that will likely afford Mugabe’s supporters an opportunity to launch fresh attacks against the company.

• Zimbabwe’s second largest hotelier Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) plans to double its room capacity in the next two years to take advantage of an expected rise in the number of visitors to the region, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

• Harare is the toughest city to live in, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU ranked Harare last out of 140 cities surveyed in its 2010 livability survey, due to the country’s ongoing social and economic crisis.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week restored Zimbabwe’s voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the country is still ineligible for loans until it has paid off the US$1.3 billion it owes in arrears. The IMF said it had restored the country’s voting rights after a request by Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

• The Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced Thursday a 4.7 percent increase in prices in the past two months, but it said the rolling three month average at 1.5 percent is still far from hyperinflation levels.

• Hwange Thermal Power Station has suffered a complete loss of generation, which will likely lead to acute power deficits in the country. A series of faults on the regional power grid left Hwange unable to produce any power. Most cities have for the past week experienced prolonged electricity cuts, sometimes lasting more than 24 hours.

• UNICEF has said that it will stop supplying local authorities with water purification chemicals in March this year, the reason undisclosed.

• The country will look to the Diaspora to help raise US$50 million to help finance the rebuilding of the economy. The floating of a Diaspora Bond will serve as a means to recruit the resources of Zimbabweans abroad in the reconstruction of the country. The bond was first suggested last year in July, but it was put on hold for administrative reasons.

• Tollgates on Zimbabwe’s major roads are earning the government US$1.7 million every month, Transport Minister Nicholas Goche told parliament on Wednesday. Goche said close to US$7 million was raised in the first four months of the tollgates being introduced.

Agriculture

• At least 5 000 families were evicted from their homes and jobs on commercial farms in 2009, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

• The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) of Zimbabwe has issued a report charging that at least 16 Supreme Court and High Court judges have been given property seized from white farmers under the land reform programme, compromising their judicial objectivity in those cases.

• Resettled farmers have allegedly confessed that their participation in the land seizure programme was as a result of spite towards the white community, and not to cultivate the land.

• 77 million kilograms of tobacco was sold on Tuesday, an increase from 56 million sold last year. The increase was due to firming prices in the industry and an increase in the number of farmers.

Law

• The treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett resumed on Monday. It was put on hold two weeks ago due to the civil servants’ strike.

• Zimbabwe’s constitutional revision process has stalled again, this time over a disagreement between the government and donors supporting the project through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Donors are demanding increased accountability, but Zanu-PF is accusing them of trying to hijack the redrafting process.

• The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs last week heard that government must repeal the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) instead of amending it. The committee is conducting nationwide consultations on the oppressive law that limits freedom of expression and association.

• The Zimbabwe police on Thursday night brutally assaulted more than twenty Great Zimbabwe University students in Masvingo who had on Wednesday supported the repeal of POSA.

• The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said last week it was seeking to give voting rights to prisoners and ill persons. ZESN, encouraged by recent reforms to the country’s electoral law, said it would push for other changes to the Electoral Act to give all Zimbabweans a say in the country’s future.

Media

• The new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) launched on Friday, amid hopes it will help reform the media industry in Zimbabwe. But there are questions over the organisation’s commitment to instituting these reforms.

• Zimbabwe has the highest number of journalists in Africa who have been forced into exile during the past decade, many of whom had to abandon journalism as a career, according to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based media protection group.

Violence

• Armed members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) this week forced the closure of Victoria High School in Masvingo, ordering teachers who were conducting lessons to join the civil servants’ strike. The state agents brutally assaulted and injured six of the teachers.

• Six car loads of ZANU-PF youths on Sunday attacked a Movement for Democratic Change rally at Epworth, a very poor district on the outskirts of Harare. Reliable reports confirm many residents were badly injured by axe and club attacks, which continued into the early hours of Monday morning, with the militia systematically targeting the homes of known MDC members.

Cholera

• Health officials said Wednesday cholera had killed nine people in the southern district of Mwenezi, and said it appeared to be spreading to neighboring regions. A further eight cases were under treatment in the area. Medical teams have been dispatched to contain the disease.

Wildlife

• Zimbabwe game rangers last week killed a Zambian poacher and arrested eight others after a shoot-out in a wildlife park in Binga, north of the country. The game rangers said they recovered twenty elephant tusks, rifles and other arms from the poachers.

Diamonds

• The Supreme Court has ordered the government to stop mining operations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, which legally belongs to African Consolidated Resources (ACR).

• ACR’s lawyers have filed a complaint against a senior police officer over his role in the seizure of diamonds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe offices. The company’s attorneys say Police Assistant Commissioner Freedom Gumbo’s conduct amounted to “contempt of court, abuse of authority and robbery”.

• Authorities said Wednesday they had accepted the nomination of Abbey Chikane, head of the South African Diamond Board, as Kimberley Process monitor for the Chiadzwa fields in a key step toward Zimbabwe exporting diamonds from the fields.

• Mugabe last week threatened to defy the Kimberley Process, saying the country’s diamonds can be sold “elsewhere.” His comments will likely further dissuade potential donors.

• Russian mining company DTZ OZEGO is allegedly secretly mining diamonds at Charleswood Estate, a large commercial farm in Chimanimani confiscated from Roy Bennett. The company is working with senior Zanu-PF officials who have kept the entire operation under wraps. The Center for Research and Development made a site visit to the estate and claims mining activities have been going on for a year now.

The Good News

• A wildlife trust was recently launched in Zimbabwe to help further the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitats. The Animal and Wildlife Area Research and Rehabilitation (AWARE) Trust will offer services such as free veterinary treatment to wild animals and facilitate conservation and education campaigns around animal health and welfare.

• Zimbabwe’s prisons have seen a 93 percent drop in the death rate and are now under-populated by 24 percent, Deputy Justice Minister Jessie Majome revealed in parliament last week. Prior to the formation of the unity government, Amnesty International said 1,000 prisoners were dying every six months in Zimbabwe’s overcrowded prisons.

• Zanu-PF’s supreme decision making body, the Politburo, said there will be no more Global Political Agreement (GPA) compromises until targeted sanctions have been lifted. The sanctions question is not included in any conditions of the GPA.

• A leaked Zanu-PF working document reveals that the party wants “an all-powerful presidency” and has no intention of sharing power in the future.

• The MDC-T standing committee meeting has reportedly said that they want SADC to declare the GPA talks deadlocked.

• A delegation of eight British MPs arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday for a four-day visit to review the effectiveness of British aid to Zimbabwe. The delegation’s report could inform the outcome of the EU’s sanctions review process, which is currently underway.

• Meanwhile Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday urged the EU to maintain sanctions on Robert Mugabe and his inner circle until the GPA is fully implemented.

• The new Zimbabwe Media Commission which is tasked under the GPA with reforming the country’s draconian media laws, and is chaired by Zanu-PF apologist Godfrey Majonga, has yet to convene a meeting. Journalists denounced the body as being ‘very political and partisan’. Leading civic society groups said on Wednesday that repressive media laws would hamper free debate during the outreach programme to gather people’s views.

• Zimbabwe has been included in the African Union’s new Peace and Security Council for a three-year term. Malawian president Bingu Wa Mutharika replaces Libyan leader as chairman of the AU.

Governance

• The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is unable to feed suspects detained in holding cells owing to funding constraints. Operational activities such as transport for officers and crime scene attendance has also been affected. The organization received a budget allocation of US$30 million when it was hoping for US$230 million.

• Civil servants are holding make-or-break talks with government negotiators on Tuesday to demand a four-fold increase in their salaries after a 14-day strike ultimatum passed without any action. Education Minister David Coltart and his Public Service counterpart Eliphas Mukonoweshuro failed to take the civil servants’ grievances to cabinet because it has not been sitting.

• Tension between Zimbabwe and Botswana escalated after three armed officers from the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) were arrested for straying into Zimbabwe. The three scouts were picked up two weeks ago in Kazungula close to Victoria Falls after they allegedly crossed into Zimbabwe by accident while tracking lions that had killed two cows in Lesoma village along the border.

• Police in Masvingo have arrested MDC Masvingo provincial chairman Wilstaf Sitemere on allegations of fraud involving $4 000.

Business

• A new World Bank report reveals that Zimbabwe has very poor investment protection policies. The report, which compared 181 economies worldwide, said out of the total number surveyed Zimbabwe stood at 119. It came way behind such nations as South Africa, Botswana, Angola, and Namibia.

• Citing strong growth in its Zimbabwe operations, LonZim reported a return to profit for the year ended 31 August 2009. LonZim reported  a pretax profit of £1.08 million, compared with a £1.09 million loss in the preceding year. Shares were buoyed by the positive results, climbing nearly 9% following the announcement. The company’s subsidiaries have successfully  positioned themselves to be ‘first back to market’ in Zimbabwe.

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has proposed changes to the Labour Act that might see men taking paternity leave, on the grounds that present regulations are discriminatory and disadvantage women. The proposals have already been submitted to the Minister of Labour Paurina Mpariwa.

Economy

• Finance minister Tendai Biti is in Washington lobbying the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore the country’s voting rights and offer lines of credit. The IMF suspended Zimbabwe’s voting rights in June 2003 after the country’s economy collapsed and government fell behind on debt repayments. Zimbabwe owes the IMF US$139 million under the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility – Exogenous Shock Facility.

• Electrical power shortages in Zimbabwe will continue according to a Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) report. The report reveals that only one generator is working at Hwange and the other five have tripped due to ‘system failure’.

Constitution

• A compromise position has been reached on the issue of official rapporteurs on the constitutional outreach teams. Two members of each of the 70 outreach teams will be appointed by the Constitutional Parliamentary Committee.

• Prime Minister Tsvangirai, speaking at the World Economic Forum, said he expects the constitutional referendum to be conducted in October this year, allowing general elections to be held in 2011.

• Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has demanded $3 million in payment to release 1000 police officers to accompany outreach teams during the constitution making process. The committee is also expected to provide food and transport for the officers. Parliamentary Select Committee co-chairman Douglas Mwonzora said he did not understand why civil servants should be paid extra, and such large amounts, for what should be a national duty.

• The bunfight over allowances for the outreach teams continues: over 300 MP’s and Senators will earn between US$65 and US$300 per day in allowances for participating in the 65-day constitutional outreach programme. The number of legislators increased from 50 to 300, a move that nearly led donors to withdraw their funding.

• Zanu-PF soldiers, youth militia and war veterans are reportedly forcing villagers to attend political meetings where they are cowed into supporting the Kariba Draft. Zanu-PF has been pushing for the draft to be adopted as the new constitution, while the MDC wants a “people-driven” process. Youth militia bases in the Masvingo and Nyanga are reportedly being reactivated, with soldiers seen to be training the youths.

Agricultural Sector

• The government has signed a US$56.3 million fertiliser and seed deal with the African Investment Group (AIG) that will help ease the current shortage of the commodity, which was threatening the 2009-10 farming season.

• The continued farm invasions have resulted in more than 1500 farm workers losing their jobs in January alone, the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz) has said. Gapwuz secretary general Gertrude Hambira said farm disruptions had a devastating impact on workers. About one million farm workers have been evicted from farms across Zimbabwe  since the year 2000, according to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre.

• Two Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) members were arrested on Thursday on dubious ‘contempt of court’ charges after coming to the assistance of four other farmers who were all convicted for refusing to leave their properties. Magistrate Samuel Zuze, who ordered the evictions and arrests, is a beneficiary of one of the properties in question.

• Zimbabwe Defense Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa says the national army will be used to ensure the controversial land reform program is never reversed. CFU leader Deon Theron said the statement was “extremely worrying.”  He said he believed the statement was ZANU-PF policy.

• Hundreds of illegal settlers have invaded the western part of Burma Valley, one of the country’s leading banana producing areas and a once vibrant farming area, choking one of the sources of water in the area. Some of the settlers have invaded farms that are already under new black owners. Meanwhile the Zimbabwe ambassador to Tanzania Edzai Chimonyo continues to occupy Fangudu Farm in the valley, ownership of which is protected by a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA).

Law

• At least 4,000 churchgoers held an open-air protest service in Harare on Sunday to protest police harassment and the continued occupation of the Anglican cathedral by excommunicated bishop and Mugabe crony, Nolbert Kunonga.

• Police officers armed with batons this week drove out 60 children from a nursery school at Karoi Anglican church because their parents do not support Kunonga’s bid to seize control of the church.

• Police in the Midlands province have been instructed to monitor and arrest members of the MDC, civic organizations, and NGOs holding public meetings. According to a radioed message sent to all police stations in the Midlands province last week, police commanders were being directed to closely monitor all meetings to be held by the ‘opposition’, NGOs and the civic society.

• Three war veterans on Friday took Masvingo governor Titus Maluleke hostage for hours demanding money from him to bury bodies of former freedom fighters who did not get decent burials in the province. They were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct likely to disturb public peace.

• Attorney-General (AG) Johannes Tomana last week failed to extract a confession from key state witness Peter Hitschmann during Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett’s treason trial. Tomana was given the chance to cross-examine Hitschmann after High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu declared him a hostile witness.

Violence

• Aspiring ZANU PF MP Nathaniel Punish Mhiripiri told a ZANU PF meeting at Jani resettlement area in Makoni South that he had ‘authority and an open licence’ to eliminate opponents from the MDC, claiming he was allowed to kill in the name of ZANU PF. He also told the meeting he carried his guns in his vehicle and was always prepared to deal with ‘sell-outs.”It’s either you are ZANU PF or an enemy’, he said. Mhiripiri was once a Selous Scout in the Rhodesian army.

• Political violence has resurfaced in Tsvangirai’s home district Buhera, where ten families have been left homeless after their homes were burnt down. A local chief said there have been increased political tensions in the area.

• The South African government is being pressured to release a potentially explosive report by four retired generals sent to investigate post-election violence in Zimbabwe during 2008. The report has been kept hidden from the public for over a year. The South African History Archive and the Southern African Centre for the Survivors of Torture will ask the Pretoria High Court to force the government to release the report, which was commissioned by SA premier Thabo Mbeki.

• Evidence is emerging that individuals wanted for crimes of genocide in Rwanda are being employed by Zanu-PF for ‘dirty jobs’ in the youth militias that have terrorised MDC supporters since the 2008 election.

Health Crisis

• A malaria outbreak has hit Mashonaland province, with a number of people feared dead in farming communities.

• Japan on Tuesday donated US$1.4 million to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Zimbabwean government to help buy vaccine to contain a measles outbreak that has killed more than 50 children countrywide. Most of them had not been vaccinated because their parents are members of an Apostolic Faith sect, which discourages medical treatment.

• Cholera still lurks in Zimbabwe and the same problems that helped drive the last cholera epidemic remained unresolved. According to a report by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the cholera fatality rate of 1.8 percent, although lower than last year, is still too high.

Education

• Zimbabwe may already have up to two million illiterate people and the number is rising. Last year 700 000 pupils in their mid-teens were scheduled to write the school-leaving Ordinary level examinations but three quarters of them were unable to. In 2003, the adult literacy level was estimated at 90.7 percent, one of the highest in Africa.

• Zimbabwe student leaders held a crisis meeting with Tsvangirai last week after it emerged that 28 percent of students had dropped out of the University of Zimbabwe because of a lack of foreign currency to settle tuition fees. The university opened last Monday but students have been struggling to raise fees of between US$300 and US$1500.

Diamonds

• A secret mile-long airstrip near Chiadzwa is under construction. Aerial photographs confirm the field will be capable of accommodating jets and cargo aircraft. Diplomatic sources speculate that such a facility would enable the shipment of arms, possibly from China, in direct exchange for newly-mined diamonds. Click here for more info >>

• Hundreds of illegal diamond panners and foreign dealers have besieged Chipinge, Chimanimani and unsecured parts of Chiadzwa. Investigations are currently underway. Most of the diamonds are believed to be finding their way to Mozambique’s Manica Province where a willing market is reportedly available.

• Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court has ordered the central bank to safeguard millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds from the Chiadzwa diamond fields amid an ownership battle over the mines. The chief justice said a neutral party should keep the diamonds pending a resolution of the dispute.

• The World Diamond Council (WDC) has called on international buyers to shun Zimbabwean diamonds until ‘human rights concerns’ have been dealt with and full compliance with the Kimberley Process has been achieved.

Wildlife

• National Parks rangers have shot five lions that killed four people in the northeastern district of Kanyemba. The lions were thought to have strayed from nearby hunting areas.

The Good News

• United States Ambassador Charles Ray said on Friday the U.S. would help Zimbabwe restore basic services in the health sector. He handed over 50,000 personal protective clothing kits for influenza preparedness donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

• The Australian government, instrumental in getting Zimbabwe kicked out of the Commonwealth, has agreed to now provide assistance to Zimbabwe. It will undertake projects to help with taxation laws as well as water and sanitation technical expertise.

• Two former Arundel school students have raised the country’s flag high when they were nominated for entry to Oxford University. The 2009 Rhodes scholars of the year, Mutsawashe Mutembwa and Sarah-Jane Littleford, will be part of  the 200 scholars nominated from 13 different countries.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com

• Inter-party talks were again adjourned on Wednesday and are expected to resume in two weeks.

• MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said that the party is losing patience and allegedly wants to declare a deadlock in its negotiations with Zanu-PF. It plans to refer the agenda to SADC and South African President Jacob Zuma. The MDC appears to be standing its ground on key issues it wants resolved despite a plea by Zuma last week that it be ‘flexible’.

• The MDC (Tsvangirai formation) last week lost its majority in the Lower House of Assembly. It is now left with 95 seats, one less than Zanu-PF’s 96 seats. The MDC-M (Mutambara formation) holds 8 seats, and normally votes with MDC-T (Tsvangirai formation).

• A senior British diplomat in Harare said on Friday the UK wants to see the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), as well as human rights and economic reforms, before it backs the lifting of sanctions.

Political Violence

• Gangs of Zanu-PF-sponsored thugs, led by the son of MP Aquiline Katsande, are terrorising villagers in the Mudzi district. George Katsande has threatened to shoot anyone supporting the MDC, adding that he is ‘above the law’.

Economy/Business

• Zimbabwe’s economy appears to be recovering from its disastrous collapse over the last 10 years. Economic analysts say prospects of opening new a business in Zimbabwe are better compared to previous years as the business environment has improved. According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the manufacturing sector’s operation has improved to about 35%.

• Mwana Africa, a mining company based in Johannesburg and London, has led a resurgence in mining exploration, which had virtually come to a standstill before the government of national unity was installed early last year. Mwana Africa PLC is a pan-African, multi-commodity resources company.  Its principal operations and exploration activities cover gold, nickel and other base metals, and diamonds in Zimbabwe, the DRC, South Africa and Ghana. Mwana was the first African owned and managed mining business to be listed on London’s AIM market.

• However, critical to Zimbabwe’s recovery is a return to the rule of law and economic openness.  Zimbabwe was in 2009 ranked 178 out of 179 countries in the Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries according to criteria in both categories. Zimbabwe was in the same position in 2008.

• Workers at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) are threatening to strike after not being paid since November 2009. Tourism officials meanwhile have admitted that there are hardly any passenger coaches in service.

• Zimbabwe is currently negotiating with Botswana over the building of a fuel pipeline linking Harare with Francistown. The pipeline is aimed to be a continuation from the existing Harare-Beira pipeline, which Zimbabwe uses to import its fuel. Botswana also wants to import electricity by financing the rehabilitation of Bulawayo’s long-mothballed thermal power station.

• The national fuel distribution parastatal, NOCZIM (which has not been audited for 20 years or more) is being restructured by the new Minister of Energy, Elias Mudzuri, to resume its original role as sector regulator and developer. The Minister said that NOCZIM should restrict its market operations to just retailing fuel, instead of crowding out competition by being distributor, wholesaler and retailer.

Diamonds

• The government has sent evaluators to monitor diamond production and sales at Chiadzwa to ensure operations at the controversial diamond field comply with Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) requirements.

Agricultural Sector

• South African civil rights movement AfriForum has served papers on the Zimbabwean government over its land-seizure programme. The High Court in Pretoria issued an order last week granting three farmers leave to add the Zimbabwean government to an application to register in South Africa the 2008 SADC Tribunal ruling against the seizures.

• A Rusape commercial farmer was arrested on Friday for refusing to leave his De Rust tobacco farm. Koos Smit and his family were barricaded in their house for more than a week after Zanu-PF youths invaded their farm. Smit has been released on bail.

• Theft and vandalism of equipment from former commercial farms has hindered government efforts to repair and develop irrigated crops in the country over the past decade. The huge Wenimbi Dam near Marondera lies unused due to cancellation of irrigation projects by the Department of Water Development.

• The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) allegedly lost fertiliser worth thousands of dollars through vouchers fraudulently acquired from banks under the US$210 million agricultural support facility.

• The Grain Millers’ Association (GMA) of Zimbabwe has asked government to lift a ban on genetically modified grain amid a looming shortage. The Association wants to mill the GM maize instead of importing it ready-milled. GM whole grain is not allowed into Zimbabwe because it may find its way into farmers’ hands and be sown as a crop.

• A Zanu-PF activist, Goodson Nguni, has threatened Finance Minister Tendai Biti with “war” if he allocates money for the land audit. The activist said the US$31 million allocated to the land audit should be given to new black farmers. On October 7 last year, the European Commission (EC) said it was prepared to fund a land survey in Zimbabwe if government was willing to implement an “inclusive, transparent, and comprehensive land audit” as provided for in the Global Political Agreement (GPA).  Land audits in 2003 and 2004 incriminated 178 high-ranking Zanu-PF officials who violated the rules on land resettlement.

• Chief Ringisai Chikukwa in Chimanimani is leading a group of traditional leaders who are pushing for the return of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett to his Charleswood farm in the area. The farm falls within the chief’s traditional territory.

Health

• Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health said it would not force members of religious sects to have their children vaccinated. Thirty-two children have died of measles in recent days in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, mostly from families belonging to the Apostolic Faith sect, which is opposed to vaccination.

Education

• An estimated 10 000 teachers are needed nationwide, with some rural schools left with either very few or no teachers at all. The most acute shortage is teachers for Science, Mathematics and English. The teacher shortage is due to problems dogging the re-engagement system that aims to bring teachers back to the fold.

• The University of Zimbabwe is seeking US$400 000 to renovate its halls of residence and kitchens which have been closed since 2006. The buildings are in disrepair due to years of neglect during the country’s political and economic turmoil of the past decade.

Law

• High Court Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, on January 25 declared firearms dealer Peter Michael Hitschmann an adverse and hostile witness in the treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett. State prosecutor, Attorney-General Tomana proceeded with the impeachment process and cross-examined Hitschmann.

• Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga dismissed reports that the committee managing the constitutional revision process has been suspended. He said the process has merely been paused to attend to administrative and budget issues.

• Parliamentary constitution select co-chair Douglas Mwonzora, facing sudden charges of insulting Mugabe for allegedly calling him a ‘goblin’ two years ago, says the charges are a ploy by Zanu-PF to divert attention from the process of redrafting the constitution. Mwonzora faces a maximum penalty of one year in jail if found guilty.

• Mwonzora also said his committee ignored a petition by the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe to include more women in the process because it believed it was another Zanu-PF ploy to distract it from carrying out its work. Zanu PF had failed to nominate its quota of women to the thematic committees, he said.

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) faces the seizure of its property under a court order obtained by an agricultural equipment dealer who claims the central bank never paid him the US$2.1 million owed for a delivery of 60 tractors. The RBZ is reportedly close to collapse due to large amounts of unpaid debt incurred by several of Gideon Gono’s quasi-fiscal projects. These included the Productive Sector Facility, Basic Commodity Supply Side Intervention (Bacossi), Local Authorities Reorientation Programme (LARP), the Farm Mechanisation Programme and the Agricultural Support Enhancement Facility, which were financed by printing money.

• A senior immigration officer has gone into hiding after he allegedly issued 26 Bangladeshis with visas without authority. It is believed he operated in a syndicate that has seen Bangladeshis, Pakistanis and Somalis entering the country, mostly through illegal entry points, en route to South Africa.

Media

• Zimbabwe’s former ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa, has accused Zimbabwean journalists of bowing to western powers and being too quick to criticize their government. The remarks drew angry protests from Harare journalists.

• Two of the top-scoring candidates for the new Media Commission have been sidelined, and are protesting that their non-appointment was a result of ‘political horse-trading’.

Diaspora

• South Africa’s Methodist church said on Friday that prominent Bishop Paul Verryn, suspended earlier this week, is facing charges of breaching church rules. Verryn is well known for turning his Johannesburg Central Methodist church into a sanctuary for more than 3 000 homeless refugees, mostly Zimbabweans. The disciplinary hearing is scheduled to take place on February 8. Messages of support for Bishop Verryn are pouring in from around the world.

Wildlife

• Fifty families in Guruve have fled their homes after stray lions killed three people. The displaced villagers are being housed at a nearby school.

• The 2009 sport hunting season was severely affected by uncertainty surrounding issues in the GPA, the Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe (SOAZ) has said. The association said the industry operated at about 45 percent capacity during the last season.

• The Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force reports escalating incidents of poaching within Charara and Hwange National Parks, apparently with the collusion of parks wardens.

The Good News

• A project in Bulawayo is using treated wastewater creatively to ease water scarcity and help about 1 000 residents grow food and earn a living. The 350-hectare Gum Tree Plantation Allotment project aims to boost food security in the city.

• The United Nations (UN) has approved an additional US$5 million from its Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) to finance the operations of the World Food Programme (WFP), whose Zimbabwean operation is currently facing a funding crisis and needs up to US$50 million.

• St John Ambulance on Saturday opened a new first aid training centre, which will enable the charity to increase the number of first aid and home-based care courses it offers. St John in Western Australia also donated three fully equipped ambulances to the charity.

• A serious cholera epidemic was expected in 2010, but the disease has so far lain low. This season the case fatality rate has dropped from 5.1 percent to 3.4 percent. Only ten of the country’s 62 districts have been affected by the current outbreak, compared to 51 districts last year, a World Health Organisation (WHO) bulletin said.

• The MDC-T is moving quickly to investigate and deal with corruption charges that were raised by the African Caribbean Pacific/European Union joint parliamentary assembly in Brussels.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com

This week ZBC TV and Radio get the perjury prize for a change. Their whole week has been dedicated to shouting about how Minister Biti is ‘witholding funds’ for agricultural inputs. This, accompanied by threats that ‘we cannot tolerate this any longer’ have the ordinary folk wondering if Zanu-PF are actually trying to stir up the anger of the masses in order to create a volatile situation they can then exploit. (see Dirty Tricks Manual, page 1)

In addition, this week proved once again that Mugabe and his band are thoroughly versed in the evil art of propaganda. As the infamous Nazi media boss Joseph Goebbels said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

The other theme this week was spouted by the state-owned Herald, which in typical insane fashion, blamed the sanctions for the deadly cholera epidemic. Huh? And Taffy Maho-so-so, in his weekly drivel in the Sunday Mail, merely copied and pasted – yes, word-for-word – a third of his article from the previous week. (He gets paid for word count, obviously). Plus like Goebbels he knows his job is to repeat, repeat, and repeat the same lame fibs all the time. Below we give you a few of the lies in all their unabashed glory, and the scoop on what’s really going on.

The Lie
ZBC: Finance Minister Tendai Biti is sabotaging the season’s agricultural inputs, by withholding funds, so that whites can go back to their farms.

The Reality
Minister Biti has released all the available funding for seed and other farm inputs, and encouraged the NGOs to distribute as much as they can. What the minister is holding back on, is using that big IMF loan that Zanu-PF is dying to get their hands on. Biti has repeatedly warned that Zimbabwe is in extreme debt already (six thousand million US$) and we should not take on more. And ZBC’s deeply flawed logic – withhold inputs so that whites can return – is just so twisted as to be pure Zanu-PF.

The Lie
The Herald: …people ululate at that nonsense forgetting that because of these illegal and cruel economic sanctions relatives succumbed to cholera last year.

The Reality
Let’s get this straight: you’re saying travel and shopping sanctions, targeted at a tiny group of Zanu-PF elite, caused a cholera epidemic? Or that the embargo on weapons did it? That’s just plain absurd, and a waste of ink. The sanctions are neither illegal nor cruel, unless of course you think that not buying new shoes in Paris is a terrible deprivation.

The Lie
Mahoso: The people of Zimbabwe made a tragic mistake…by voting indifferently and indecisively in March 2008

The Reality
What is this drivel, Daffy? There was nothing indifferent or indecisive about their vote. They decisively voted for Tsvangirai and for change. Period.

The Lie
Zanu-PF youths: The Kariba draft is the country’s current constitution.

The Reality
The Lancaster House constitution (amended many times to suit Zanu-PF) is the current constitution. The Kariba draft is being put to the people before it is adopted as the official constitution of Zimbabwe. But Zanu-PF youths are lying to people in Chiadzwa, making them believe that the Kariba draft is final and already the current constitution. They’ve also allegedly been forcing people to meetings where they demand them to adopt the Kariba draft as the constitution. It also shows that they don’t know what the word ‘draft’ means.

The Lie
The Herald: MDC-T’s new demands are aimed at collapsing the inclusive Government.

The Reality
It’s just the opposite. The MDC’s demands are aimed at making the government more inclusive, as up until now Zanu’s still been calling the shots.

The Lie
Mahoso: [The MDC] relegates the popular masses to the role of spectators who must be impressed through propaganda, deception, media stunts and lies.

The Reality
Stick the label where it fits, Taffy. That’s a perfect description of Zanu-PF’s  strategy of trying to fool all the people all the time.

“The isolation of Zimbabwe must come to an end,” said Tsvangirai, speaking at a seminar in Cape Town. “There is need for reconstruction and rehabilitation back home. The Diaspora has an obligation.

Tsvangirai is in South Africa for two days of meetings with leading figures from the Zimbabwean Diaspora, to discuss ways to accelerate economic growth in the country. The meetings, hosted by the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), began in Franschoek yesterday, and included Zimbabweans who fled the violence and economic meltdown from 14 different countries.

Emphasising the need for reconciliation, Tsvangirai said Zimbabweans need to stop criticizing President Robert Mugabe and instead focus their energies on reconstructing their lives in their home country. “The mantra of ‘Mugabe must go’ has to stop,” he said. “You must come home. Home is always best.”

Tsvangirai said the government had to play its part in formulating policies that will take the country forward.

“It’s a two way process,” he said.

He also assured the crowd, composed primarily of members of the Zimbabwean diaspora, that should there be an election next year, all Zimbabweans would have the opportunity to vote.

“The vote will be available to every Zimbabwean who wants to exercise it, whether in the country or not,” said Tsvangirai. “There are more than 4 million of you, of course we want your vote.”

Tsvangirai said that the transitional government is on the whole making clear progress.

“Over the last ten months, having been part of the government, there have been definite positives,” he said. He cited improvements in hospital and school conditions, shops stocked with produce, and the containment of cholera. But he did acknowledge there were still challenges to overcome.

“We are still facing erratic violence and political abuse,” he said.

The Prime Minister also drew some laughs from the crowd when asked by an MDC supporter why he was not president, despite winning the election last year. “If it were that simple, if it were only a question of voting,” said Tsvangirai. “Winning an election and winning power are two different things evidently.”

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced on Friday that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would disengage from Robert Mugabe’s “dishonest and unreliable” Zanu-PF party until outstanding issues in the power sharing agreement are resolved. The pullout, from cabinet but not from government, poses the biggest threat to the fragile power sharing agreement since its formation in February, and the stalemate could halt all government business. The move was sparked by the detention of senior MDC aide Roy Bennett ahead of his terrorism trial, now scheduled for Nov. 9. Bennett was subsequently released on bail. He faces weapon and terror charges that he denies and that the MDC say are false.

• Zimbabwe’s cabinet is meeting on Tuesday without ministers from the MDC. Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba told the state media that as far as he is concerned, Tsvangirai is still Prime Minister until he communicates his disengagement from government in a formal manner. “Government is not run through media statements,” said Charamba. Charamba said that any decisions taken during today’s parliamentary session would be binding.

• As for Mugabe’s reaction to the pullout, Charamba said that Mugabe was spending time arranging scholarships for students and welcoming soccer players in Zimbabwe for a regional tournament. “As for this needless excitement from (Tsvangirai’s party), I suppose the president will find time when the right time comes,” Charamba said.

• Tsvangirai traveled to Mozambique yesterday to meet with President Armando Guebuza, head of the South African Development Community (SADC), to urge the regional bloc to mediate the threatening crisis. He is also set to meet with SADC chairman Joseph Kabila and Angola President Jose Eduardo Santos, as well as South African President Jacob Zuma.  Tsvangirai “would use this opportunity to brief other SADC leaders on the problems affecting the inclusive government. It’s entirely up to SADC to rescue the situation,” said James Maridadi, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson.

• The European Commission (EC) on Monday urged SADC and the African Union (AU) to intervene to stop the collapse of the unity government. In a statement. the EC urged SADC and the AU “to do all that they can to assist the different parties to the GPA to resolve their differences for the benefit of the Zimbabwean people.”  SADC, that brokered the power-sharing agreement, is together with the AU a guarantor of the pact.

Cholera

• The clock is ticking as Zimbabwe races to prevent another cholera outbreak. Repair work is currently underway on Harare’s faulty sewage system, which is blamed for causing the cholera epidemic that last year killed more than 4,200 people. The leaky pipes need to be fixed before the rainy season starts in November, when health workers fear another outbreak could occur.

Violence

• An MDC Mutoko councilor, Chamunorwa Mundete, was besieged in his home in the middle of the night by more than 10 armed Zanu PF supporters, who threatened to kill him if he continued to support the MDC. “I was saved by the darkness as it was around 3 A.M when the thugs came. I left with only the clothes that I am wearing and I am staying with some relatives here in Harare,” said Mundete, the councilor for Ward 28.

• Zimbabwe has invited a U.N. expert on torture to visit this month. It is the first time the country has issued an invitation of this nature to an independent U.N. Human Rights Council expert. Manfred Nowak, expert on torture and other inhuman punishment, will inspect police stations and prisons, and will meet government officials, national human rights institutions and present a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council. “This mission is a positive sign of the Government of Zimbabwe’s willingness to engage with the U.N. Human Rights System and permit open and unfettered access to places of detention,” Nowak told Reuters.

• A farm worker on Karori Farm in the Headlands was recently brutally raped by three soldiers in an attempt to force her boss to abandon his property. Crops were also looted in the attack.

Commercial Farming Sector

• Ben Freeth, a white Zimbabwean whose farm was burnt down in August, said his trip to the US was “very productive.” Freeth, who returned on Friday, met with several US senators and aides close to President Barack Obama, who he said were all interested in the SADC Tribunal ruling, which protects 77 commercial farmers. He traveled to Washington D.C. to urge the Obama administration to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government to stop the seizure of the last remaining white farms.

• The European Union (EU) has offered to fund the proposed land audit, and the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe (CFUZ), which represents white farmers who have lost their farms as a result of Mugabe’s land reform programme, is demanding that the government proceed immediately with the audit. “We want a land audit done as soon as possible. Our concern though is that the audit will not be done by a truly independent team according to international standards,” said Deon Theron, president of CFUZ. The Zimbabwean government recently announced that it was hoping to establish an independent land committee made up of permanent secretaries and other senior government officials to spearhead the land audit.

Business

• Swiss multinational Nestle on Friday turned away 20 000 litres of milk from a farm owned by Grace Mugabe, after bowing to global pressure two weeks ago to stop sourcing milk from Mugabe’s Gushongo Dairy Estate. A tanker of milk allegedly arrived at the company’s depot in Harare, but spent the entire day outside the building after management refused it entry. The company has received numerous threats, primarily from Zanu-PF youths and government officials, since it ceased buying milk from Gushongo. The youth allegedly threatened to take over the company.

• The mobile market penetration rate increased from 14% in February to 21% in August. The dollarising of the currency earlier this year has led to sizeable investments in the sector as mobile operators have implemented programmes to expand their subscriber base. The operators are locked in a battle to gain control of the once struggling market.

Economy

• Zimbabwe’s monthly inflation was at -0.5 percent in September compared to 0.4 percent in August, Central Statistical Office data showed on Friday. The drop was primarily due to a decline in food prices.

Education

• The Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council (Zimsec) said last week that only 139 000 out of 380 000 Ordinary and Advanced Level students had registered for this year’s public examinations. The council said 120 400 Ordinary and 18 500 Advanced Level candidates registered for the examinations compared to 239 430 and 138 000 last year. The low number was as a result of high examination fees, which were US$10 and US$20 per ‘O’ and ‘A’ Level subjects, a fee most parents could not afford.

• South Africa’s largest food retailer, Shoprite, said it is no longer pursuing investment opportunities in Zimbabwe, citing political and economic “uncertainty.” Shoprite/Checkers planned to buy OK Bazaars, Zimbabwe’s second largest supermarket chain, despite the recent designation of the Meikles/TM supermarkets Group by Zimbabwe government interests.

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe froze two of Nestlé’s bank accounts after the Swiss multinational bowed to global pressure last week and said it would stop sourcing milk from a farm owned by Grace Mugabe, President Robert Mugabe’s wife. The company’s accounts were later freed, but some see it as a warning shot to the company by Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Gideon Gono.

• President Mugabe stated that Government has cherry-picked two investors to take over the exploitation of the controversial Chiadzwa Diamond Fields in a ‘joint venture’ with the Ministry of Mines. Meanwhile Justice Charles Hungwe two weeks ago delivered a landmark judgement confirming Africa Consolidated Resources (ACR)’s right to claims in the mining area.

• Barclays bank introduced ATM withdrawals for owners of Visa credit cards. The facility will assist tourists.

Government

• Zimbabwe is still one of the worst governed countries in Africa, according to a report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. The 2009 Ibrahim Index of Governance ranked Zimbabwe 51 out of all the 53 African countries, beating only Chad and Somalia respectively. The rankings are based on the 2007/2008 period, prior to the formation of the unity government.

• Wildlife conservancies are at risk after the government adopted a new, controversial, land ‘reform’ policy aimed at ‘resettling’ the wildlife sector, as the countrywide rush to grab any remaining commercially viable land continues.

Economy

• Zimbabwe’s finance minister Tendai Biti said on Monday that he would quit if he were asked to reinstate the local dollar, which he scuttled in order to halt hyper-inflation. He said talks on the possible return of the Zimbabwe dollar should only start at the end of next year.

• The finance minister also said that he will not authorise the use of $500 million in IMF funds until the after the national budget is finalised, presented and approved in November.

Sanctions

• The US and the UK showed skepticism last week following Mugabe’s overture for better relations, stating that he first needs to honour the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Mugabe said at the opening of parliament that he was prepared to re-engage the West, calling an end to sanctions against Zimbabwe.

Education

• Around 8000 teachers who fled election violence last year and only returned to work in 2009 have gone months without pay as punishment for their alleged support of the MDC. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Secretary General Raymond Majonwe said in an interview last week that he believed the aim was to frustrate the teachers and show up the MDC minister of education, sport and culture David Coltart. “It’s political,” said Majongwe. “We are aggrieved because 5 000 of the 8 000 teachers who have not been paid are our members. This is why they are being victimized.”

• Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) workers went on strike last week demanding that the lowest paid employee’s salary be increased from US$115 to US$400. With the public examinations looming, Zimsec is urging the government to address the workers’ concerns.

• A recent survey by PTUZ revealed that up to 75 percent of the 300,000 children who could sit their O and A Level examinations in November had failed to register because of the exam fees. Students learning in rural areas and on farm schools are the worst affected, with those coming from poor urban areas accounting for a substantial amount of the victims, The number of students who could not afford to write their examinations this year was “the highest in the history of the country” said a PTUZ statement.

• Ten Zimbabwean students at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa  have been kicked out of a (taxpayer-funded) Presidential Scholarship programme, for allegedly supporting the MDC. Robert Mugabe gained a BA degree, specializing in education,  from Fort Hare in 1951.

Legal

• Several top officials and Mugabe loyalists being sued for torture will not receive legal assistance from the state. The officials are being sued by seventeen human rights activists, including Jestina Mukoko. All were acquitted of terrorism charges after being abducted, tortured and incarcerated for months. The defendants who include the police chief and security and defense ministers, will face the charges (worth $500 million in damages) on their own. It seems even the party can see their actions are indefensible.

• Two important cases will commence this week in Mutare and Harare. Deputy Agriculture Minister Designate Roy Bennett, who was arrested in February as he prepared to leave for a holiday in South Africa, faces trial for allegedly being in illegal possession of weapons and for allegedly contravening immigration laws. The state seems to have no evidence but is trying to further delay proceedings by indicting Bennett for trial in the High Court. Meanwhile in Harare, leading human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama is standing trial on Wednesday for alleged contempt of court.

Cholera Warning

• Health experts and aid agencies have repeated warnings of a possible cholera resurgence in Zimbabwe, blaming the current water and sanitation problems in the country. “The circumstances that led to the cholera outbreak [last year] are still there today,” said Farid Abdulkadir, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) disaster management coordinator, at a meeting on regional water integration held in Randburg, South Africa. Nine new confirmed cases of the disease were reported last week in Musikavanhi district of the Manicaland province.

Commercial Farming Sector

• The European Union is providing 15.4 million euros to aid small-scale Zimbabwean farmers. The aid, in the form of seed and fertiliser, aims to boost grain production and is set to benefit 176,000 households. “This programme is part of a wider EC policy aiming at moving this country from food aid to food security,” said Xavier Marchal, head of the European Commission in Zimbabwe. The aid is part of a $74 million fund created by donors, which include the World Bank and Britain’s Department for International Development. The fund is expected to help produce about 450,000 tons of the staple maize crop and meet a quarter of Zimbabwe’s annual requirements.

• The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany has written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding a halt to the grab of white farmer Charles Lock’s farm by Brigadier Mujaji. The German embassy warned that the grab of the property, Karori farm was illegal as the property is protected a German-Zimbabwean Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement.

• Ben Freeth, a white Zimbabwean whose farm was burnt down in August, traveled to Washington D.C. last week to urge the Obama administration to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government to stop the seizure of the last remaining white farms. “The United States is the biggest bilateral donor to Zimbabwe and it’s really important that they put pressure on the government to ensure the court judgment is respected,” he said. In November last year the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ordered the Government of Zimbabwe to allow 75 white commercial farmers to stay on their land but the seizure of protected farms and ongoing harassment has continued.

• The European Union (EU) has offered to fund the proposed Land Audit.

Media

• Mugabe’s Information Minister Webster Shamu appointed eight former senior military officials to six boards of government-controlled media organizations, a move that the Media Institute of Southern Africa has condemned as the “militarization of the media.” Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said that the new boards would have to be revised, as he and his deputy, Arthur Mutambara, had not been consulted.

• While it stalls the appointment of the Media Commission as the new licensing body, government warned Trevor Ncube, owner of the Mail and Guardian and the Zimbabwe Independent, not to launch his new Zimbabwean daily newspaper, Newsday, without a license. The government recently launched two new publications without licenses.

• Robert Mugabe and a large entourage turned up in Geneva to attend an International Telecommunications Union showcase and mystified delegates with a speech condemning the use of radio as a channel for ‘obnoxious regime change agendas’.

Politics

• Party leader and Prime Minister in the GPA, Morgan Tsvangirai, embarked on a series of ‘public consultations’ regarding whether the people wanted the party to stay in the GPA. No feedback has yet emerged; Tsvangirai instead telling rallies to expect ‘free and fair elections’ in two years’ time.

• The Vice-Presidential succession is not yet settled but the Zanu-PF Matabeleland caucus nominated one of their own: ZanuPF party chairman John Nkomo, to take over the late Joseph Mskika’s slot at the top. Nkomo is a former member of ZAPU in Matabeleland, as was Msika. But the Mashonaland caucus is said to be backing Defence Minister Emerson Mnangagwa for the job. As the Minister of the Interior in the eighties, Mnangagwa was the mastermind of the Matabeleland Gukurahundi killings in which over 20 000 people are estimated to have died.

• A  damning audit of the country’s voter’s roll was issued by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU). The report revealed that around 75 000 people over 100 years of age were still registered, and many duplications existed. Worse, in some constituencies, the number of votes cast in the 2008 elections were more than double the number of registered voters. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has refused to release the detailed results of these polls.

• The MDC has dropped from its constitution a clause limiting the party president’s terms in office, thus extending Morgan Tsvangirai’s possible tenure to beyond 2011.

Jonathan Moyo was last week re-admitted into Zanu-PF, and the move appears to have given our favourite political chameleon even more incentive to do what he does best: spread lies. In his latest column for Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail, he accuses Finance Minister Tendai Biti of “dangerous treachery” and of trying to “destroy” the government. So we couldn’t resist: We made our own polygraph. Here are his lies, and the accompanying truth.

The Lie

Zimbabwe is not a “poor little struggling failed state”

The Reality

Let’s break that sentence down, shall we?

“Poor”:  Zimbabwe is approximately $5.7 billion in debt; it’s the first country in the 21^st century to hyper-inflate; and more than 85% of the population lives below the Poverty Datum Line (PDL)

“Little”: Well, it’s not exactly big. At 39 0000 square kilometers, it’s 82 9090 square kilometers smaller than its neighbor South Africa. And if we’re talking little in terms of population size, well it’s certainly become exceedingly little in the past ten years. In 2000, the population was around 13 million. Now it’s around 7 million, the majority having fled to South Africa.

“Struggling failed state”: Hyperinflation; massive debt; rampant unemployment; frequent cholera epidemics; overcrowded, disease-ridden prisons; a collapsed education system…the list goes on. That is Moyo’s idea of a successful state?

The Lie

Biti is calling Zimbabwe a “poor little struggling failed state”

The Reality

Minister Biti is not calling Zimbabwe a “failed state.” He is instead proposing to apply for debt relief under the World Bank’s HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Country) status facility. With it’s massive debt, Zimbabwe can be classified as this. Mozambique took the HIPC route in 1998 to great success, and the same could be true for Zimbabwe. But Moyo and Zanu-PF don’t want the world to see the extent of their failure, corruption and greed.

The Lie

Biti is a “pliable sellout”

The Reality

Jonathan Moyo is a pliable sellout

The Lie

His tired mantra that foreign lending institutions, NGO’s and the MDC are all plotting to overthrow the current regime

The Reality

They are struggling for democracy, rule of law, and a respect for the constitution-making process, which are all in sorely lacking in Zimbabwe. But the Zanu PF branch of government does not respect these basics of a functional society, and that is what these organizations and the MDC are trying to put in place.

The Lie

Regime change is evil and not welcomed by most Zimbabweans

The Reality

Uh.., J.M., we know that most of your time is spent plotting how next to puzzle us with your erratic political moves, but seriously, where have you been? In the face of intimidation, ballot-rigging and violence, the Zimbabwean people, your people, voted overwhelmingly for regime change in last year’s elections. They wanted it, and still do. It’s no fun being unemployed (94% of the population), starving (50% at risk) and knowing that you most likely won’t live past the age of 35 years (the average life expectancy). Because that is the reality for most Zimbabweans, so you’re a tad off mark with that statement.

The Lie

The MDC is running a parallel government with the help of foreign lending institutions

The Reality

A completely unfounded allegation, with no evidence to support it. If anyone is trying to run a parallel government, it’s Moyo and his party of the moment Zanu PF. Here’s why: By spreading hate speech, Moyo aims to divide the inclusive government by maligning ministers and officials; Zanu’s refusal to integrate the MDC as completely as the GPA outlined; the daily battles to allow the MDC to participate fully as a governing partner; Chinamasa’s recent withdrawal from the SADC tribunal without cabinet approval. Also, foreign lending institutions have refused to deliver on funding unless the unity government makes more progress, so the MDC actually has an incentive to be more fully part of the government, not less.

The Lie

Biti is guilty of hate speech

The Reality

Well if anyone could recognize hate speech, it’s our favorite hatemonger J.M. He’s guilty of hate speech in this very column, making generous use of derogatory terms when accusing Biti of…hate speech. The irony is hard to miss.

The Lie

Punctuation, particularly the full stop, is unnecessary and bothersome, as shown in the first paragraph of Moyo’s most recent column: “The saying that when things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something summarises the mood of Zimbabweans who, while hoping the new political dispensation and economic revival will get better, fear that their optimism overlooks the danger that the policy treachery of Finance Minister Tendai Biti could plunge the country back into the abyss unless something is done to expose him and his external regime-change handlers who are busy setting up a parallel government in Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s office via a web of subversive NGOs.”

The Reality

Can we breathe yet? We like the full stop. It’s important, and necessary if you want your sentence to make sense. Although even with full stops, Moyo would still confuse us.

The Lie

It is okay to abuse the English language

The Reality

It is not okay (albeit highly amusing) to use inappropriate or juvenile adjectives like “malicious footprint”, “creepy distinction” or “weird” standards. J.M., you’re a grown man, not a ten-year-old.

Reading this week on the Lie-O-Meter:  8 out of 10. Well done Mr. Moyo, we reckon you have earned your salary and privileges with this one!

Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA) to form an inclusive government was signed by Zanu-PF and the two formations of the MDC on 15 September 2008.  President Robert Mugabe (Zanu-PF) and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (MDC-T) were sworn in on 11 February 2009.

Population

• 2000:  12.5 to 13 million
• 2009:  7-8 million (independent analysts’ estimate)
• 2009:  Diaspora:  at least 4 million people internationally, majority in South Africa

Economy

Prior to 2000, Zimbabwe was one of Africa’s strongest economies. But over the past decade, it has had the worst economic performance of all countries for which comparable data exists.

• The country’s real decline in economic output is estimated at more than 25% over a 25-year period.
• Export levels are down to US$1,4 billion compared to US$2,8 billion in 1999.

Rebuilding the Economy

• Zimbabwe’s finance minister Tendai Biti said that the country will grow by 6 to 7% in 2009 and that growth could rise by as much as 15% in 2010. But the International Monetary Fund forecast that Zimbabwe would experience a GDP growth of only 3.7% this year.
• Zimbabwe still faces a total debt of approximately $5.7 billion
• Energy sector:  Over US$3,3 billion required in next six years to boost aggregate energy supplies at major power plants.
• Health sector:  US$600 million needed to revive collapsed health sector
• Educational sector:  US$438 million is needed to stabilise the education sector for the first six months [David Coltart, Education Minister]

Hyperinflation

Zimbabwe is the first country in the 21st century to hyper-inflate. It has become a de facto dollar state as a result of chronic hyper-inflation that has eroded the local currency, the Zimbabwean dollar.

• Hyperinflation has produced an 80% decline in living standards over the past 10 years.
• Between 1997 and 2007, cumulative inflation was nearly 3.8 billion percent

Commercial Agricultural Sector

• Between 2000 and 2001, the value of commercial farmland fell by 75%.

Farm invasions are illegal in terms of Zimbabwean law. The targeting of white farmers for eviction by the state or anybody else is a violation of the November 2008 ruling by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in Windhoek.  The ruling declared Mugabe’s farm redistribution programme discriminatory and illegal under the SADC Treaty to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.

• The burning of Mike Campbell’s farm in September is the latest example of the violation of these rulings. The government is refusing to recognise the SADC Tribunal judgement protecting Mike Campbell’s farm and the 77 other farmers who joined the case, and the SADC Tribunal ruling of 5 June 2009 that the Zimbabwean government was in contempt of its November 2008 ruling.

2009:

Only around 200 to 300 white commercial farmers are left in Zimbabwe, as opposed to 4,500 when the invasions began in 2000, and most have only small portions of their original landholdings left.

2008:

• Maize and soya bean production declined by more than 50%
• Tobacco and coffee production declined by more than 75%
• The commercial beef herd declined by more than 80%

Mining

In 2000, Mugabe said mines could be targeted after farm seizures were complete and in 2007 he said diamond mining would be reserved for the government after the state took back a concession following the discovery of the Marange diamond field by African Consolidated Resources.

• The mining industry at its peak accounted for about half the country’s foreign currency earnings and contributed over seven per cent of the GDP before Zimbabwe’s economy plunged in 1997.
• The Zimbabwean gold industry was once the third biggest in Africa, after South Africa and Ghana.
• Zimbabwe, SA and Russia are the only three countries with significant reserves of platinum – the metal used to curb car pollution.

Tourism

Prior to the land invasions, which began in February 2000, mining, agriculture and tourism were the country’s three largest foreign currency earners.  By August 2001, average occupancy rates had declined by 67%, with most overseas cancellations resulting from negative publicity.

In May this year, the European Union urged authorities in Harare to impose a moratorium on all land invasions on farms and conservancies, saying this could improve Zimbabwe’s tourism profile.

Xavier Marchal, head of the EU in Zimbabwe, said: “If there is no wildlife, there is no tourism and there are no investors.

• 1999: Nearly 600 000 tourists visited the country
• 2007: Less than 200 000 tourists visited the country

Humanitarian crisis

• Since 1998, life expectancy has declined from 55 years to 35 years.
• Nearly 50% of the population is at risk from malnutrition and starvation.
• The United Nations (UN) inter-agency humanitarian mission to Zimbabwe has called for an additional $350 million from donor countries to help feed 7-million starving Zimbabweans over the next two years, saying the prospects for the harvest season to alleviate the food crisis are grim.
• 2008: Poverty Datum Line:  more than 85% of Zimbabweans live below the PDL.

Unemployment

• 2009: 94% of the population is unemployed. In South Africa and Botswana, unemployment is estimated at 25% or less.
• In 2002, a bill forbidding unions from striking was passed.

Health Crisis

• Most Zimbabweans now have no access to healthcare.
• 1.7 million people between 15 and 49 years are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS.
• TB:  Over 100 cases per 100 000 population, highest WHO risk category
• Malaria:  2.7 million cases (WHO estimate).
• Zimbabwe suffers the second-worst maternal mortality rate in the world after Sierra Leone, with an estimated 130 out of every 1,000 babies dying shortly after birth.

Cholera Update

World Health Organisation (www.who.org) update of 27 February 2009:

• Confirmed cholera deaths since August 2008:      3,894
• Reported cholera cases since August 2008:       84,027

July 2009:  The cholera epidemic resulted in more than 100 000 cases and over 4,200 deaths between August 2008 and July this year.

A possible cholera outbreak is looming, with nine new confirmed cases of the disease reported in Musikavanhi district of Manicaland province. The lack of clean water throughout much of the country will reportedly make another outbreak inevitable.

Only 23% of the population has access to safe drinking water.

Plight of Children

• 1985:  Child mortality:   59 per 1 000 (Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980)
• 1999:  Child mortality: 102 per 1 000
• 2008:  Child mortality: 150 per 1 000
• Orphans:   1.7 million children (estimate)
• 28% of children under the age of five are malnourished (estimate)
• According to the charity organisation Save Children, 10% of the children in Zimbabwe will not live to the age of five.
• Of the children under age 5 who die, nearly half the deaths are from easily preventable neonatal causes and pneumonia.
• For children who survive the early years, more than 6 in every 1,000 are born into a family in which the mother dies during delivery, while more die sometime during their childhood from HIV/AIDS.

State-sponsored Violence

• More than 600 lives have been lost to state-sponsored violence.
• More people have been killed by Zanu-PF since independence in 1980 than died in the liberation struggle.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum established that during 2008 alone there were 6 politically-motivated rape cases, 107 murders, 137 abductions and kidnappings, 1 913 assault cases, 19 instances of disappearance, 629 cases of internal displacement and 2 532 violations on freedoms of association and expression.  These were only the reported cases – many cases are not reported due to the fear factor.

Police officers are responsible for some of the most serious human rights and rule of law violations in Zimbabwe today. The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has consistently shown disrespect and contempt for the law, lawyers and judicial authorities to an extent that has seriously imperilled the administration of justice and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.

(Ref:  International Bar Association: Partisan Policing: An Obstacle to Human Rights and Democracy in Zimbabwe)