The SA Council of Churches (SACC) has urged Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to join a forum for dialogue, a senior SACC official told IRIN on Wednesday. "The forum, which will be quite similar to the South African CODESA [Convention for a Democratic South Africa] talks, has been proposed by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), which has asked us for our support," SACC secretary-general Molefe Tsele said.

UNICEF has announced that almost a million children in Zimbabwe have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Faced with extreme poverty and forced to look after themselves, many have dropped out of school to find money for food. In addition, the problem has been further aggravated by the 1000% rise in school fees this year.

Former employees of three independent Zimbabwean newspapers shut down by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) are struggling to make ends meet. "The situation of journalists and other members of staff who were affected by the closure of the papers is pathetic. We have established that a substantial number of them are living in near destitution," the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists' president, Matthew Takaona, told IRIN.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has announced that Zimbabwe faces a shortfall of 325,000 tons of cereal this year. Despite government predictions for a record 2.4 million tons harvest, the FAO believes the total will be less than half of that figure and predict that 30 to 40% of farmers may run out of food from their own production by the end of July.

Children who "live rough" on the streets of Zimbabwe's capital and other cities, face a multitude of problems – including AIDS. Research by a Harare-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) – Futures International – in May 2004, indicated that at least 12,000 children eke out a living on the country’s highways and byways. Although no official statistics on HIV prevalence amongst street children exist, an NGO in Harare – Streets Ahead – says it helps treat as many as 150 of the children every month for sexually-transmitted diseases.

Zimbabwe's church leaders say there is no chance of free and fair elections next year, and have accused South Africa of complicity in government human rights abuses. Meanwhile, the African Union, meeting in Addis Ababa, said on Wednesday it would not make public the AU Commission for Human Rights report on Zimbabwe and other countries.

Rare species like the black rhino are being wiped out in Zimbabwe because of rampant poaching and human settlement on private game reserves seized by the state, a conservation group said last Thursday. "At the moment the situation really stinks," said Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a wildlife advocacy group. "The reports we're getting from the guys on the ground are that all the wildlife stocks have been completely wiped out in the private conservancies. There's nothing left," he said from his Zimbabwe home.

World Vision

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Human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba has taken the Zimbabwean government to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to answer charges of torture by state security agents while representing an opposition legislator. Shumba, through his legal counsel, David Padilla, brought the action against President Robert Mugabe's regime claiming he was kidnapped, tortured and made to swear allegiance to Mugabe by Zimbabwean security agents while representing MDC St Mary's MP Job Sikhala in January last year.

"I will call him Paul though that is not his real name. Paul is a young man. He spoke with difficulty because both upper and lower jaw had been smashed by his assailants. Clearly imprinted on his back was the mark left by a belt, and his right hand was visibly damaged. His feet were lacerated such that he could only walk with great difficulty. And the reason for this appalling brutality? Paul was known as an MDC supporter in the Lupane area where he lives." 26 June was the United Nations Day in support of the victims of torture, and the occasion was marked by two major events drawing attention to the plight of torture victims in Zimbabwe, reports www.sokwanele.com.

African adults in seven countries are divided over the incidence of unlawful practices, according to a poll by GlobeScan released by the Program on International Policy Attitudes. 56 per cent of respondents say there is less corruption in their respective countries than a year ago, while 38 per cent disagree. Residents of Kenya illustrated the highest degree of confidence in fairness with 84 per cent. Conversely, only 15 per cent of respondents in Zimbabwe agreed with the statement.

Zimbabwean business mogul Mutumwa Mawere is a free man after a South African magistrate dismissed an application by Zimbabwean police for more time to investigate corruption allegations against him while he was on bail, facing possible extradition. Zimbabwean police went before a Randsburg magistrate on Wednesday to request more time and to have Mawere's extradition hearing postponed.

Harare Central Hospital is refusing to allow 28 mothers with newly born babies to leave the institution until millions of dollars are paid for in maternity fees. The hospital says it recovers 87% of the fees through detaining mothers and babies but almost nothing under an older instalment plan. Some of the women in one of the post-natal wards said that they were ordered to stay in the maternity wing by hospital officials after they had said they had no money. At its height the action taken by the hospital in order to recover its fees can only be described as the 'criminalisaton of poverty in Zimbabwe'. The message from the Hospital Authorities was a clear one, if you are poor don't bother coming here, our services are reserved for those who can afford to buy them.

"The People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO) would like to register its grave concern about the CMAG's lack of interest in the persistent violations of the Harare Declaration by the government of Swaziland. PUDEMO is the leading political movement in Swaziland committed to rebuilding a new system of governance based on strong democratic values and respect for human rights. Accordingly, PUDEMO has embraced the Commonwealth Harare Declaration of 1991 which sets a framework for the development of democratic values amongst the Commonwealth states."

Zimbabwe's first national AIDS conference ended in acrimony, with AIDS activists complaining that they had been sidelined from the high-profile event. In a statement circulated among delegates at the three day conference, People Living with AIDS (PWAs) accused the National AIDS Council (NAC) and the Ministry of Health, the co-organizers of the event, of ignoring their inputs while giving medical experts and dignitaries the opportunity to air their views uninterrupted.

Zimbabwe's main opposition party on Wednesday accused the country's judiciary of "deliberately sidelining" electoral disputes. In a recent report the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) noted that 14 of the 39 electoral challenges filed by the party since the 2000 parliamentary poll had not been heard by the High Court.

Health workers in Zimbabwe have called for increased efforts to stem the high number of AIDS-related deaths in the armed forces. The recently released 2003 Zimbabwe Human Development Report claimed that HIV prevalence in the armed forces far exceeded the general population infection rate of 24.6 percent in the general population, and three-quarters of soldiers died of AIDS within a year of leaving the army.

Rights group Amnesty International (AI) has written an open letter to South African President Thabo Mbeki, urging him to intensify efforts to end alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe. The letter, which Amnesty said had been delivered to Mbeki, is to be published in the South African Mail and Guardian newspaper on Friday.

New anti-corruption legislation, effective from this week, which formalises regulations allowing Zimbabwean police to hold suspects accused of economic crimes for up to four weeks without bail is "unconstitutional", human rights activists alleged on Friday. The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Amendment Bill went through parliament this week, despite opposition from some ruling ZANU-PF MPs.

The archives of the regional southern Africa office of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, has some precious photographs that offer a record of women's life experiences in the year 2003. In its own way, each image shows the very different ways women across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region endure a world in which poverty has increasingly determined the extent to which women are able to make choices. In one of the pictures four women in their late 20s and early 30s sit side by side, enjoying a moment of sisterhood in the African sunshine.

A shared experience connects them. They are all determined and gallant activists in the movement of women living with HIV and AIDS, agitating for their rights. Hope glows from their faces. Hope of an imminent victory in a struggle that seeks to set women free from all forms of oppression and injustice. But no amount of creative artistry could have enabled the photographer's lens to capture the story behind Angeline Chiwetani's glasses.

In 1999, the working mother of two young boys learned to be tough. She had hit the hardest of times. Her husband, HIV positive and without treatment, needed constant looking-after. Chiwetani drafted a letter of resignation and handed it over to her employers.

Moving away from a job that provided the family its sole income put Chiwetani's life at its darkest ever. For 12 long and lonely months she was miserable and knew little else but pain, anger and disappointment.

Women and the stigma of AIDS

"My marriage had problems. My husband used to go beyond our bedroom and have sexual relations with other women. I told my family lets talk and adjust the situation and they said I was trying to rule the roost, "says Chiwetani.

"No one came to see my husband except for my relatives and friends. My in laws, his brother and sisters labelled me a city woman. They meant I could go and sleep with any guy, " says Chiwetani, pointing to a kind of isolation that women caring for HIV positive husbands have repeatedly voiced.

Thousands of HIV positive women across the sub-Saharan African region daily suffer the nasty effects of gossip, ugly name-calling and being labelled everything from whore to witches. Their collective experiences show the extent to which addressing AIDS related stigma remains a critical priority for any actions aimed at cutting back the impacts of the epidemic on African women. Eliminating the segregation, isolation, emotional and psychological violence HIV positive women like Chiwetani and their families bear.

Women's resistance to AIDS gains momentum

Chiwetani has become a leader, organizing support and care for HIV positive women and their families and communities. The last four years have seen Chiwetani develop strength and resilience. Her boys, now aged 12 and seven, are at school and their grades have been encouraging. She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the Network for Zimbabwe Positive Women (NZPW+), a not for profit group that supports more than 3000 HIV positive women across the country in various ways.

NZPW+ is supported by UNIFEM, through a special fund aimed at empowering HIV positive women to put pressure on public institutions to safeguard the rights of especially women living with HIV and AIDS.

"We need to get what we need to save ourselves", she says, running off her fingers some of the resources that HIV positive and other women need to secure empowerment and autonomy, "Education is key, so are jobs, access to treatments for the illnesses HIV positive women face and above all social and legal support".

She says a critical factor in providing support is to create a public and private environment that enables HIV positive women to live with their status. " I cannot emphasis how important it is to have stigma reduction programmes. This allows us to come out in the open and talk to some one who can comfort you and help you get over the stress, someone to share with. I opened up because when I got into this situation someone opened to me. I think I would be dead. There is no one to talk to you can get stressed up and have problems."

AIDS and Women's failing rights

Women and girls account for 58 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe that are deeply affected by the pandemic. In some instances girls aged 15 to 19 years are four to seven times more likely to be infected with HIV than boys within the same age group.

This reflects the low and oppressed status of women in Zimbabwe. While Zimbabwe's women have paper rights enshrined in the National Gender Policy, a fracture exists between policy and lived reality. The AIDS pandemic has not only uncovered the very deeply ingrained sexual abuse, gender violence and impoverishment that especially poor black women experience, but it has also served to reinforce and provide new avenues of discriminating women and showing that a critical gap between proclamations and real change remains.

Sexist attitudes and sinister patriarchal practices that privilege men have kept women and poor, rural women in particular, in positions of deep disadvantage. Not only has this made women more vulnerable to HIV infection, but also forced women and girls into working as unpaid, unrecognized home nurses carrying the burden of community based care programmes.

The phenomenal sacrifice women of the sub-region make in nursing the AIDS affected, without appropriate training, equipment, food, water, firewood, money, medications or recognition, is a stunning sign of service. Yet it is also a form of exploitation that reveals the marginalisation of women and girls in societies that accept that women are unequal citizens who should be made to accept labour: washing soiled bedding and clothing, whipping wounds and sores, burying the dead without coffins, caring without knowledge or information or protection has led to a trauma so deep it is difficult to see recovery of families and communities from the burden.

AIDS, Women and the Family

As her husband's health deteriorated Chiwetani sent messages to his family requesting support. The harsh advice that came back was: "Go and stay in the village, near a grave," she says. The family did not want, in the event of her husband's death, the responsibility of moving his body from the city to the village where the funeral was bound to be.

On July 23 2000, while the rest of Zimbabwe was consumed by the headiness surrounding the constitutional reform debate and parliamentary elections, Chiwetani's husband died. "It happened in our house. When I sent a message to his brother the words that came back were "Tell her I am waiting for my wife to finish the laundry", she says.

In a short space of time Chiwetani had gone from wife to widow. No sooner had her husband's coffin been lowered into the grave that new difficulties emerged. A tug-of-war surrounding property believed to belong to the deceased put further strain on already mangled family relations.

HIV and AIDS? The Experience of Widows

"When I went home for the funeral, there was a lot of talk about how I had killed my husband and made him sick", explains Chiwetani. "My husband had amended his Will and reversed certain sections. The Will had been stamped by his lawyers. The family was not very happy that the children and I had been left with everything.”

Bitter inheritance disputes, that often leave widows and their children dispossessed and may even result in fatalities, have been the subject of extensive research by regional feminist networks such as the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust, WLSA. The network, along with women's rights groups across the continent, has lobbied for legislative reforms that protect the property and inheritance rights of widows and children. AIDS Activists such as Chiwetani have recently added their weight behind the demands for just inheritance laws and legal practice before both civil and traditional courts.

"Zimbabwe's inheritance laws are very clear: widows and children are the rightful heirs to the deceased's estate, where there is a Will, its contents are meant to be respected,” says Arnold Tsunga, Co-ordinator of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR). "Yet more than half of all inheritance disputes have women and girls as complainants. This is partly due to the prejudice women and children encounter through sexist legal practice and customary law that favours men as heirs."

Chiwetani couldn't agree more. "Wills are very important. They prevent people from grabbing property from widows at the time of need,” she says about the strategy that worked for her and her children. "Now that I have my life and our network is growing, my main worry is treatment for the women on whose behalf I have dedicated my life to.”

Women and AIDS Treatment Campaigns

With more than half of the people living with HIV and AIDS being women, treatment campaigns can no longer afford to sideline women's demands for appropriate care through service centres that meet the very specific needs of women.

As the UN's World Health Organisation rolls out its "3 by 5" campaign, which aims to have 3 million people on treatment by 2005, the momentum steadily gathering in the region to demand treatments will need to ensure that a significant number of the beneficiaries of treatment are women and girls living with the HIV.

"Treatment is something to do at all costs," says Jephias Mudondo, director of the Family AIDS Counselling Trust (FACT). "People are dying unnecessarily. The solution is political commitment. Commitment with action.”

"Women are more affected in a lot of ways. Even in infection by older men. Married men go out and get infected. A married woman is the most vulnerable person. When positive they carry all the burden. Poverty does not have access to treatment in the country. We have a programme of volunteers taking place. Of 600 volunteers only 10 are men. The rest are women. Community care impacts on them. When they get ill who do they get support from?"

AIDS and the Ballot Box

It has been both difficult and painful to comprehend the world's impassivity when millions of women and girls continue to die of AIDS that has come about as a consequence of gender discrimination. Any other form of oppression would have caused massive outrage. The race, sex and class factors that have for the past two and a half decades allowed African women to die slowly, one at a time, from the casualty and shame of AIDS cannot go ignored.

On the eve of the National Conference on HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe that ran June 15 to 18 women's rights activists showed their collective indignation at the deeply rooted gender and human rights violations that have allowed the full horror of this mammoth plague to emerge. Not providing early, affordable and accessible treatment, along with the resources so necessary for the disease's elimination has proved to be extremely costly and damaging.

As Zimbabwe moves closer to Parliamentary Elections planned for March 2005, which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women, AIDS is steadily graining momentum as an issue of governance and democracy. Political will to tackle gender segregation in the context of AIDS will determine which way the millions of women whose lives have been rocked by the disease will cross their voting cards. After all, women command 52% of the vote.

* Isabella Matambanadzo is Zimbabwean Feminist Activist. She is currently the Executive Director of the Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) a women's pressure group that since its establishment in 1990 is committed to empowering women to make informed choices and decisions.

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