• 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.

12 June 2010

Torture Feared As Zimbabwean Human Rights Defender Farai Maguwu Illegally Taken from Harare Remand Prison by Police. Lawyers Denied Access

Prominent Zimbabwean human rights defender, Farai Maguwu, was last night taken from Harare’s Remand Prison under orders of notorious Criminal Investigating Department Detective Henry Dowa and removed to Harare’s Matapi Police Station, sparking fears that Maguwu is being tortured. His lawyers have thus far been denied access to him.

Maguwu’s lawyer, Tino Bere, was today launching an urgent high court application to secure access, explaining that he had reason to fear that Maguwu’s removal from the remand prison was for purposes of torture.

“We prevented Farai’s possible torture or harassment last week by being present at almost all normal times at the police station. We stopped the costly surveillance and visits because normally, once remanded, the police no longer have control or access to the accused.”

Maguwu had been placed in Harare’s Remand Prison after being denied bail in respect of charges that he communicated false statements prejudicial to the state.

The charges follow a police raid of and seizure of documents from the Mutare-based Centre for Research and Development, of which Maguwu is the director and on Maguwu’s home. Maguwu’s brother and nephew have also been detained.

The Centre for Research and Development monitors activities in the nearby Chiadzwa diamond mining fields, where government security forces moved in to secure the area following a property ownership dispute in 2006 and then forced local residents to work the fields under often brutal conditions.

Prominent human rights groups have alleged severe and recurring abuses, including extrajudicial killings, on the diamond fields and that diamonds are being smuggled out of the area with the knowledge and participation of officials.

The raid and arrest warrant for Maguwu followed closely his meeting with Kimberley Process monitor, Abbey Chikane, a South African businessmen undertaking assessment of whether Zimbabwe has met the minimum standards of the Kimberley Process, a UN-backed initiative intended to halt illegal trade in diamonds.

Earlier this week, Chikane reported that Zimbabwe had met the minimum standards and should be allowed to export diamonds.

Said Nicole Fritz, director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre: “That Farai Maguwu has been taken illegally to the Matapi Police Station and held in cells which the High Court has declared unfit for human habitation; that recurring episodes of torture take place within its cells; that he has been denied access to his lawyers; and that this has been done under orders of Detective Henry Dowa, so renowned for perpetrating abuses against Zimbabwean detainees that he was the subject of an international complaint while stationed in Kosovo under UN authority and so had to hastily return to Zimbabwe; warrants the most serious alarm for the safety and security of Maguwu.

Fritz adds: “There is considerable irony in the fact that as Zimbabwe seeks to show that conditions have changed, that it deserves admission under the Kimberley Process, it makes clear how little has changed: human rights defenders and government critics continue to be silenced and persecuted. It is déjà vu again and again.”

ENDS

Issued by:

The Southern African Litigation Centre
Johannesburg

Further info:

Nicole Fritz
Executive Director
The Southern Africa Litigation Centre
Johannesburg
Tel:  +27 11 587 5000
Cell: + 27 82 600 1028
E-mail:  nicolef@salc.org.za
www.southernafricalitigationcentre.org

• 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

Click here for back copies of the Zimbabwe Weekly Update

• 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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• African leaders at the World Economic Forum on Africa criticised the formation of coalition governments on the continent following flawed or disputed elections. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said he blamed the African Union of failing to instil democracy in its 53 member states.

• South African President Jacob Zuma defended Zimbabwe’s Global Political Agreement (GPA), but said lack of implementation was undermining it.

• SADC chairperson President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo sent an envoy Wednesday to Harare to press for implementation of the GPA and to resolve outstanding issues.

• Political commentator John Makumbe noted Wednesday that fewer than 20 percent of the GPA provisions have so far been implemented.

• Higher and Tertiary Education Minister and President Robert Mugabe’s adviser, Stan Mudenge, said his Zanu (PF) party was the one ruling Zimbabwe while the inclusive government was just administrative.

• The MDC-T has reacted to calls by African National Congress (ANC) chairperson Ms Baleka Mbete for Tsvangirai to actively call for the lifting of sanctions. Mbete was speaking in Zimbabwe at the victory celebration of newly appointed Zanu PF chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo.

• Spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said Mbete’s calls were misplaced and South Africa should stay neutral if President Zuma’s mediation was to be successful.

• President Zuma is understood to be planning to visit Zimbabwe to make a final push to achieve an agreement after which he will brief the SADC’s troika on politics, defence and security.

• Tsvangirai said last Monday that efforts had been made to resolve the outstanding issues since Zuma’s visit to Harare in April, but the main sticking points remained. These included the swearing in of deputy Minister of Agriculture (designate) Roy Bennett.

• On the following Monday, Zimbabwean High Court judge acquitted Bennett of terrorism charges and the MDC has called for his immediate swearing in.

• Tsvangirai and his party secretary general, Minister of Finance Tendai Biti, have both denied reports of a power dispute between them.

• A preliminary report from the commission of enquiry established to probe the causes of internal party violence – which led assaults on party director-general Toendepi Shonhe and security director Chris Dhlamini – has been submitted to Tsvangirai.

• A bill to review the targeted sanctions imposed on members of the Mugabe regime (the Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act) has been tabled in the US Congress to try to encourage democratic reforms.

• Firebrand politician and a founding member of Tsvangirai’s MDC party, Job Sikhala, has formed a new political party.

Governance

• Moves to trim the powers of the Attorney General and institute reforms to the operations of his office are at an advanced stage, cabinet members said this week. The post is held by Zanu-PF political appointee Johannes Tomana.

• The cash-strapped prison service are still short of fuel to transport inmates from remand cells and victims of crime are forced to drive the perpetrators to court.

Economy

• President Mugabe and President Jacob Zuma attended the 20th annual World Economic Forum on Africa in Dar es Salaam this week.

• Controversial Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono has kept the top post in a new central bank board named in a bid to restore the institution’s credibility.

• The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) has blamed huge financial losses incurred over the past six years on a directive from President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF government to sell fuel at a loss for six years.

• Air Zimbabwe, which is facing serious financial problems, has failed to pay 409 of its workers after a bid to retrench them fell through.

• The cost of living for April has dropped marginally as a result of improved supply of local products on the market.

• Building societies and savings and loan institutions have resumed making mortgage loans available for the purchase of houses and building plots.

• War veterans Thursday confronted Finance Minister Tendai Biti demanding the government resume paying monthly allowances terminated last year.

Business

• Trading in shares on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) fell by 21 percent last month after indigenisation regulations unnerved already wary investors.

• Zimbabwe has rejected bids for the take-over of state steel maker ZISCO from ArcelorMittal’s South Africa and India’s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd in a move that could slow a drive to attract foreign investment.

• MTN Group of South Africa, which seeks a controlling stake in Telecel Zimbabwe, has reportedly hit a wall with the Harare government signalling it will only be allowed to acquire up to 40 percent of the mobile provider.

• Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile phone operator, spent over US$160 million on network upgrades and expansion in the year to February and will spend US$300 million this year to expand voice and data services.

• Zimbabwe company Solar Solutions Africa has launched distribution of solar-powered mobile phones in the country’s fast-growing telecoms sector, tapping consumer frustration with chronic power outages.

• The head of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said Wednesday that while the economy has mended since the GNU was formed in 2009, neither companies nor government can afford to increase worker pay.

Mining / Diamonds

• Zimbabwe’s largest platinum producer Zimplats Holdings said commencement of a US$445 million project to ramp up production to nearly 300 000 ounces annually was dependent on finalisation of “compliance issues” regarding controversial black economic empowerment laws.

• The US’s new Zimbabwe Transition to Democracy and Economic Recovery Act calls on the Obama administration to address ‘illegal diamond activities that are undermining democratic processes and institutions by pressing for Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Kimberley Process and exploring new targeted sanctions related to such activities’.

• Mines and Mining Development Minister Obert Mpofu on Friday invited the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to submit an application for a mining licence to his ministry and benefit from the lucrative Marange diamond fields at Chiadzwa.

• African Consolidated Resources (ACR)’s Financial Officer Ian Harris, who was abducted Thursday from the company’s offices by members of Mines Minister Obert Mpofu’s private police, the CID Mineral Squad, was subsequently taken into police custody. Harris is being charged with fraud and accused of operating an ACR subsidiary in Chiadzwa, without registration.

• Mining companies are being forced to consider alternative power supplies as the country’s electricity utility (ZESA) struggles to meet demand.

Land / Agribusiness

• Famine Early Warning System (Fewsnet), reports that Zimbabwe has a shortfall of 800,000 tonnes of the staple maize this year.

• Zimbabwe needs to import wheat worth over US$128,8 million to meet an expected shortfall of 339 000 tonnes, which bakers say could cripple operations.

• Zimbabwe has generated US$117,4 million from the sale of 37,9 million kilograms of flue-cured tobacco in both contract and auction systems since the 2010 tobacco marketing season commenced in February.

• In a latest twist to the land scandal in Harare, President Mugabe has used his Presidential Powers to acquire part of the land that is in dispute between his nephew, Philip Chiyangwa, and the city of Harare.

New Constitution

• The Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs heard evidence Tuesday from the Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs and a police Deputy Commissioner on the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s need for additional resources and funding to provide security to the constitution outreach process [US$ 3 million].

• Civil society groups report that Zanu PF is re-training its militias in rural areas to force villagers to push for provisions made in the Kariba draft constitution.

• Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs minister Eric Matinenga says the country will have a new constitution by April next year.

Elections

• Tsvangirai said Monday that an election in 2011 remains a possibility.  However, a growing band of politicians and civic groups say early elections would disturb the recovering economy, current political stability and plunge the country into crisis.

• Retired members of the partisan Zimbabwe Republic police are being recruited in order to get the numbers up from 22 000 to 50 000 by the end of this year in preparation for a possible general election next year.

• The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said democratic elections could only be held after widespread electoral reforms and the writing of a new constitution was complete.

• Zanu-PF MPs expressed deep divisions Sunday over the issue of dual citizenship after registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede said the party should not allow this. The major challenger was senior party member Jonathan Moyo.

Political Violence

• Threats that MDC supporters and officials will be killed after the Soccer World Cup – hosted by South Africa next month – are escalating. Militia bases are reported to be reopening for the training of Zanu PF youth militia.

• Violence resurfaced in the Bikita district when known Zanu-PF supporters who terrorised people in the 2008 elections moved in, boasting that they committed politically-motivated crimes during that period and were never arrested.

Health / Humanitarian

• Food aid partners led by WFP have been providing emergency food relief to about 1.6 million people during the period January to March 2010.

• Some 5 million children will receive urgently needed protection from a growing spread of measles (6 200 cumulative cases) thanks to US$5.6 million from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).
• Africa Fighting Malaria says Zimbabwe’s excellent pre-2000 malaria control programme is now almost at zero.  This poses a possible threat to the country’s neighbours since people travel with the parasite.

• The National Health Trust, a brainchild of Econet, has produced information, education and communication (IEC) material to help raise awareness on typhoid. At least eight people died of the disease in Harare’s Mabvuku and Tafara high-density suburbs this year, while 439 cases have been reported.

• Despite efforts by humanitarian organisations, shortages of food, medical supplies and cleaning materials are causing some of the country’s 15,000 prison inmates to starve in filthy and overcrowded cells.

• The Zimbabwe Prison Service (ZPS) is barring relatives of inmates at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison from bringing food from outside, sparking fears of a repeat of the hunger-related mass deaths that occurred in the prisons last year.

Media

• Police in Masvingo and Bulawayo barred journalists from holding peaceful marches organised to mark World Press Freedom Day

• Fourteen months after the GNU was formed, harassment, arbitrary arrest and the intimidation of journalists remain common. Repressive laws, notably the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, have yet to be repealed.

• Minister of Information Webster Shamu said the long-awaited privately owned daily newspapers, The Daily News and NewsDay, can be expected to be published in June. However, there is still no change to Zanu PF’s monopoly over radio and television.

Legal

• More than 500 MDC-T youths demonstrated in Bulawayo on Friday, demanding the prosecution of individuals behind the Gukurahundi massacres of the 1980s, as well as election-related violence and murder.

• The trial of Harare mayor Muchadei Masunda and eight councillors on allegations of criminally defaming wealthy businessman Phillip Chiyangwa failed to commence Wednesday.  The case has been deferred to May 26.

Education

• The Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe said Monday that government has two weeks to raise salaries (currently less than US200 a month) or face a possible strike.

• At the start of the second school term, scores of students were turned away from government institutions for failing to pay tuition fees and levies.

• Education Minister David Coltart said the education system was still in “free fall”, and most schools were still in a “profoundly shocking” state despite various interventions.

Diaspora

• South African authorities plan to clear the De Doorns refugee camp in the Western Cape before the soccer World Cup starts next month.

The Good News

• Mary Robinson and a distinguished team of African Sisters visited Zimbabwe as guests of both the Gender Ministry and the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration.

• Thirty-five teenagers, all victims or perpetrators of political violence, combined their talents on-stage in one of the unexpected triumphs of the annual Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA).

• The Solidarity Peace Trust, in partnership with the Central Methodist Church (Johannesburg), has organised an interactive exhibition highlighting the plight of Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children who have fled the political turmoil.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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• U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr. has referred to the U.S. Treasury the question of whether prospective National Basketball Association team owner Mikhail Prokhorov has had dealings in Zimbabwe with a business tied to individuals under targeted sanctions

• Former Finance Minister and now leader of the Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MDKD) party, Simba Makoni, said Tuesday that the people surrounding Mugabe, including himself, should have persuaded him to undertake land reform in a way that would have empowered the people. He said the failing coalition arrangement was not the only solution and genuine engagement of citizens across sectors was required.

• Political tension is intensifying in Mashonaland Central between MDC and Zanu-PF supporters, resulting in two provincial leaders from the MDC-T being arrested Tuesday. They are accused of being disrespectful by not standing up when the governor arrived for independence celebrations in Bindura.

• A splinter group of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association, has started a “Heal Our Wounds Campaign”, directed at forcing the British government to give them more compensation for taking part in the liberation struggle.

• The use of child ‘cadet’ soldiers in Zimbabwe’s 30th Independence anniversary celebrations on April 18 has been described as detestable and having no place in a society that is currently engulfed in a low-intensity conflict.

Economy

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Wednesday that conflicting messages from the coalition government have fuelled uncertainty about Zimbabwe’s economic direction and discouraged investors. Zimbabwe stock exchange Chief Executive Emmanuel Munyukwi confirmed this on Wednesday.

• Russia has expressed interest in investing in Zimbabwe’s mining sector as it moves to enhance diplomatic ties. Russia’s ambassador in Harare, accompanied by a delegation from his country, described Zimbabwe as a safe investment destination.

• The Zimbabwe government has denied a report that it has entered a deal with Iran to mine uranium in the country in exchange for oil. Mugabe has expressed support of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme.

• Zimbabwe is still struggling to repay an outstanding loan of 15 million Euros provided by Iran in 2005.

• The government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sino Hydro of China to focus on the expansion of the Kariba South Bank extension through Chinese financial institutions.

• Road accidents claimed the lives of four senior politicians from both Zanu-PF and the MDC-M during the weekend, raising more questions about the state of the roads.

Business

• The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) opened in Bulawayo Tuesday with most of the exhibition space taken by 40 Iranian companies. The fair was opened Friday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

• Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara shocked delegates at the ZITF Business Conference in Bulawayo on Wednesday when he said bad governance, violation of human rights and democracy do not affect investment or the growth of Zimbabwe’s economy.

• Sources said Friday the 2007 Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act will apply to companies with assets of at least US$3 million dollars rather than US$500,000 as specified under regulations published last month.

• The deadline for companies to declare their shareholdings had been extended to May 15. Faced with the threat of the termination of their licences, more than 400 white-owned and foreign companies have submitted black economic empowerment (BEE) plans.

• UTC, a transport company linked to Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere, has been taken to court for failing to pay its workers since last year.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti last week Friday released over US$6 million for the laying of a fibre optic cable, connecting the country to the Beira under-sea cable in a project that will dramatically boost internet speeds.

• Biti said Tuesday national labour laws must be reviewed urgently so they are in step with economic realities. He said existing laws put businesses in a precarious position because it is difficult for them to lay off workers, resulting in bankruptcies.

• The Environmental Management Agency (EMA) has ordered the suspension of the ?controversial US$90 million project to dualise the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Airport Express Road in Harare over the non payment of environment impact assessment fees of US$500 000 by the contractor. The project was corruptly awarded to a joint Ukraine/Zimbabwe company linked to Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo.

• Econet Wireless, the country’s largest mobile operator, has launched a free phone service in a major investment into communities.

Diamonds / Mining

• Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said Tuesday ?that the government ‘unanimously’ agreed that the first target of the indigenisation programme will be the mining sector. The world’s two largest platinum miners, Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, have multi-million dollar investments in Zimbabwe, while Rio Tinto has gold and diamond interests.

• The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme has urged that the armed forces leave Marange, but observers say there is still a significant military presence in the district and that diamond smuggling continues.

• Political tension over Zimbabwe’s controversial Marange diamond field surged ?Wednesday as officers of the police’s law and order section tried to serve a summons on parliamentary mines committee member Moses Mare, MDC legislator for Chiredzi South, in connection with a Marange probe.

• A soldier who shot and killed an illegal diamond miner in the Chiadzwa diamond fields before turning his gun on a police constable who tried to disarm him has appeared in court.  The constable is still battling for his life in hospital.

Agriculture

• The China Development Bank (CDB) has offered a US$30 million line of credit to assist in the rebuilding of Zimbabwe’s collapsed agriculture sector in a deal that may see the Chinese institution getting a stake in the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe (IDBZ).

• Ongoing farm seizures in Zimbabwe pose one of the greatest threats to the hopes of a better life by the thousands of people displaced by the country’s political crisis, according to the World Food Programme.

• President Robert Mugabe is one of the biggest landowners in Zimbabwe. A newspaper investigation has found that he and his family own at least 10 farms through Gushungo Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Mugabe’s clan name.

• Dairy farmers here who have been supplying milk to the country have said Zimbabwe’s national dairy herd is down to just 22,000 cows from 192,000 in 2000.

• A Chipinge magistrate had to flee for his life after a group of illegal settlers led by Zanu-PF officials besieged the court building threatening to assault him for ordering their eviction from an estate they invaded eight years ago.

Law

• Harare mayor and eight councillors who carried out an investigation into a municipal land scandal appeared before the magistrate’s court Tuesday facing criminal defamation charges. The report named Local Government and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo and businessman Phillip Chiyangwa among the top government officials who had illegally acquired vast pieces of land in Harare.

• Police have also summoned four journalists from The Standard, a local private weekly newspaper, to testify as state witnesses in the councillors trial which is set for May 6.

• Almost 300 MDC activists in Manicaland province are still to stand trial, a year after police charged them with trying to reclaim their livestock looted by Zanu PF supporters during the election violence in 2008.

• The four Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) who were arrested last week during anti-ZESA protests at the electricity supplier’s headquarters in Harare were finally released on Tuesday, after spending five nights in custody in appalling conditions. They plan to sue the police for wrongful arrest and detention.

• Amnesty International has urged the Zimbabwe police to end their intimidation of activists and stop preventing them from exercising their right to peaceful assembly.

• The Marondera Residents’ Association has dragged the Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo to court over his controversial appointment of ‘special interest’ councillors.

Political Violence

• Zimbabwe has sworn in its first human rights commission, led by and comprised mainly of academics – at a time when academic freedoms continue to be violated.

• Zanu-PF thugs armed with machetes and barbed wire clubs have gone from home to home terrorising villagers in the Marambapfungwe district of Mashonaland East. MDC supporters have been told that immediately after the South African hosted FIFA World Cup of Soccer, MDC supporters will be killed and their bodies thrown into the Mazowe river or down mine shafts.

• A 25-year old female informal trader, who was among 100 traders brutally beaten last week by war veterans and Zanu PF members for failing to contribute money towards independence celebrations held Sunday, has died.  Five others were seriously injured.

New Constitution

• The European Union has pledged an estimated eight million dollars to the constitutional reform programme’s outreach phase which has stalled due to lack of funds. It is now scheduled to start early May and is expected to take 65 days.

• Lawyers for the three unity government parties have finished drafting talking points or questions that will be posed by constitutional outreach teams in engaging the people on their wishes for a revised basic document.

• Zanu-PF is using soldiers in Masvingo Province to campaign for the adoption of the controversial Kariba draft constitution. Villagers in the Mushandike Resettlement Scheme were threatened with death by soldiers in full military gear if they rejected the Kariba Draft. Four Brigade commander confirmed the presence of the soldiers there but said they were ‘on a training exercise’.

Humanitarian

• With measles continuing to spread across rural parts of Zimbabwe and claim lives, authorities have started to set up emergency clinics. Some 3,000 cases of measles have occurred in 55 of the country’s 62 districts since March, killing more than 200, most of them children.

• Since Independence in 1980, Britain has given Zimbabwe over US$1 billion in aid and ordinary Zimbabweans have expressed their appreciation.  “Despite every provocation and insult from the Zimbabwean government, and because of Mugabe’s utter disregard for his own people, the British government has given Zimbabwe over US$100 million in humanitarian assistance last year: from healthcare and education to providing water, food aid, seed and fertilisers to the poorest households,” wrote an activist representing “The Voice of Democracy” in Zimbabwe.

Media

• Human Rights Watch reports that the unity government still has not implemented promised media reforms and that Zanu-PF still controls most levers of government. Media laws that criminalize any criticism of government are still in place and credentials for international journalists are heavily restricted. At least 15 journalists have been harassed, arbitrarily arrested or assaulted by security forces since the GPA was signed.

• Reporters Without Borders says it’s time for the government of national unity to demonstrate its will to reform press legislation and liberate the country’s media. Zimbabwe is ranked 136th out of 175 countries in its press freedom index.

• Zanu -PF has revived its long forgotten propaganda newspaper, The People’s Voice, a sign that the party might be starting to prepare for a possible election next year.

Education

• Hundreds of orphaned and vulnerable children in Manicaland province have been forced to drop out of school following President Mugabe’s decision to bar non-governmental organisations from offering direct assistance with fees. Nearly a quarter of all Zimbabwean children are orphans.

Diaspora

• Humanitarian organization Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) is scheduled to formally announce a US$ 1.5 million funding to help returned migrant Zimbabweans to resettle. Funding will be channelled through the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Zimbabwe.

• Scores of Zimbabweans were stranded at the Beitbridge Border Post after South African immigration officials refused to accept Zimbabwe’s new Temporary Travelling Document, saying they had not been officially notified.

• The Zimbabwean Consulate has fleeced its South African-based citizens of over R10 million since it began issuing them with Emergency Travel Documents (ETDs) mid last year.

• The Prime Minister’s office said Monday that government is in the process of coming up with a national migration management and Diaspora policy which seeks to comprehensively address the country’s migration and development challenges.

• London-based remittance company Mukuru.com has won South African Reserve Bank approval to assist Zimbabweans in South Africa in tandem with local partner Inter Africa to send financial support to struggling families at home.

The Good News

• Zimbabwe has received a US$13,3 million grant for education and health from Japan that will be disbursed through five United Nations agencies.

• The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has embarked on a US$ 24 million solar energy project to encourage rural people to start income generating projects.

• The SABC’s investigative news programme, Special Assignment, won the Amnesty International Award for Human Rights for a documentary titled ‘Hell Hole’, which lifted the lid on Zimbabwe’s appalling prison conditions and the deaths due to starvation, filth and depravation.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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