This comparative study assesses the readiness and ability of six African countries - Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe - to respond to the HIV/Aids epidemic. The key issues addressed are: Is the allocation to health, as a per cent of total government expenditure, sufficient? Is enough allocated to deal with HIV/Aids, given the magnitude of the problem.

Civic groups presented evidence on the delay in the entry of new players in the broadcasting sector to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications. The Committee is investigating the delay in inviting and issuing licenses to new players in the commercial and community-broadcasting category. The meeting was held on 5th April 2004 in Harare. The groups included the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)- Zimbabwe Chapter, Radio Dialogue, Global Arts Trust, Voice of the People Trust and the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS).

In a further blow to the independence of the judiciary, the Zimbabwean Government ignored two judicial rulings and used State-controlled media to attack magistrates, stated the Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the ICJ (ICJ/CIJL). On 17 March, Magistrate Judith Tsamba, following a precedent of the High Court in a similar case, ordered the release of prominent businessman James Makamba due to irregularities in his arrest. Despite the Magistrate's order, the police decided to ignore the ruling and immediately rearrested the accused. In a similar case, the Government ignored Judge Bhunu's ruling ordering the immediate release of Phillip Chiyangwa. Mr. Chiyangwa, Chinhoyi legislator and ZANU-PF chairman for Mashonaland West, is facing criminal charges involving the obstruction of justice, contempt of court and perjury.

Zimbabwe used the occasion of International Women's Day to launch its National Gender Policy. Developed in collaboration with UNIFEM, the Zimbabwe Gender Forum and UNDP Zimbabwe, the policy will facilitate gender mainstreaming in all sectors of the economy and government to promote gender equality and redress historical gender imbalances. Contact Nomcebo Manzini on the email address below for more information.

It is retold so often that the account of how an embarrassed government minister rescued a female relative, who had been caught in a police sex worker crackdown he sanctioned, has become something of an urban legend. Some say it is surprising that the woman’s embarrassment - not to mention that of the official - did not lead him to entertain the possibility that police may have acted too arbitrarily when they set out to banish the world’s oldest profession in the 1980s. Officers’ methods included accosting - and even arresting - any ‘suspicious’ woman walking around after dark, especially if she was daring to move about unaccompanied.

For the period February 1-29, The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum recorded 100 cases of political discrimination, 97 cases of freedom of expression violations, 74 cases of torture and 32 cases of assault. Detailing the abuses in its political violence report for February, the forum called upon the responsible authorities to take action regarding the human rights violations cited in this report in terms of bringing the perpetrators to justice. "Failure to do so will create a climate of impunity in which politically motivated violence may thrive. It is imperative that checks be put in place to prevent this prior to the upcoming Parliamentary Elections in early 2005."

Robert Mugabe's government has terrorised almost every single opposition member of Zimbabwe's parliament with violence, intimidation and jail, according to a new report. A survey of 50 of the Movement for Democratic Change's 59 MPs and of 28 of its parliamentary candidates found that all claimed to have personally experienced human rights abuses in the past three years at the hands of the security services and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party. In collecting MPs' accounts of vandalism, torture and attempted assassination for the first time, the Zimbabwe Institute, a non-governmental organisation based in South Africa, said it had revealed the price of standing up to Mugabe.

Civil society in Zimbabwe on Monday condemned a move by the government to amend the Electoral Act, saying the amendment would undermine next year's parliamentary elections. "The planned changes to the Electoral Act will result in the tightening of the operations of the government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and unless there are fundamental changes to the process of holding elections, next year's elections would be easily declared not free and fair," chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Reginald Matchaba-Hove, told IRIN.

A Zambian bank has granted loans of more than 30 million dollars to white Zimbabwean farmers re-settling in Zambia. Zambian state media quotes the Standard Chartered Bank, Stanchart, as saying the money was disbursed between January and December last year.

Civil society’s recently expressed fears that next year’s parliamentary elections will not be free and fair were reinforced in the week under review by more news of politically motivated violence ahead of the Zengeza by-election, scheduled for this month-end, reports the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe. “Once again, only the private media reported this news,” noted the MMPZ. “SW Radio Africa was the only organisation to report three new incidents in the constituency, all of which blamed ZANU PF supporters, while MDC activists, including the party’s candidate, were reported as the victims.”.

Recent utterances by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo that he intends to deal with foreign correspondents who he accuses of “externalising” foreign currency and being “mercenaries” must be taken seriously coming from a man who has a history of carrying out his threats. Minister Moyo likens journalists to criminals the state is currently targeting for the so-called “economic crimes” and that they must also be dealt with. He argues that foreign media houses such as Reuters, Agence France Press and others operating in Zimbabwe are keeping “foreign currency” earned in Zimbabwe outside the country.

Zimbabwe's economic crisis has seen deepening vulnerability in urban areas and an increase in the number of malnourished children attending clinics in the two largest urban centres. In its latest situation report the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that "there is an increased need for assistance for malnourished children under the age of five in the cities of Harare [the capital] and Bulawayo [the second city], as evidenced by an increased turnout at clinics".

Zimbabwe's economic crisis has seen deepening vulnerability in urban areas and an increase in the number of malnourished children attending clinics in the two largest urban centres. In its latest situation report the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that "there is an increased need for assistance for malnourished children under the age of five in the cities of Harare [the capital] and Bulawayo [the second city], as evidenced by an increased turnout at clinics".

Morgan Tsvangirai has announced that the MDC is organising a national alliance with other "democratic forces" in Zimbabwe to force Robert Mugabe to come to reason, reports the website Zvakwana.org in their latest newsletter. This grouping of labour, women, activists and others will work out a "programme of rolling mass action designed to push the regime to the long awaited negotiated settlement." "It is impressive that, with two treason charges against him, Tsvangirai continues to speak out boldly and forcefully against the regime. But people - we have to transform these words into action! Last year's "Final Push" failed because neither the people nor the leaders were ready for it," says Zvakwana.

President Robert Mugabe’s atrocious human rights record will come under the microscopic gaze of the UN Human Rights Commission which is meeting in Geneva for the next six weeks. It will be the second time that the UNHRC considered the crisis in Zimbabwe after South Africa in 2002 blocked an attempt by the British to pass a resolution calling on President Mugabe to reform.

With the announcement by President Mugabe that the next Parliamentary elections will be held in March 2005, it seems reasonable to examine the playing field for these elections, and more especially because the MDC has indicated the 15 conditions that need to be addressed before it can consider participating in these elections. These conditions constitute what might be termed the “high bar” for the holding of elections in Zimbabwe. Read the 15 points by visiting www.zwnews.com.

The planned trial of suspected mercenaries in Zimbabwe could raise embarrassing questions for the government over their alleged bid to buy weapons illegally from the state, defence analysts say. The key question will centre on what role President Robert Mugabe's senior aides played in any plans to procure weapons from state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), a cash-strapped agency under the firm grip of the government. Experts said it was difficult to imagine the ZDI would agree a deal to sell arms without the approval of senior government or party officials or without an end-user certificate specifying the final destination of the weapons.

Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform has had a bad press. Reports of violence and intimidation have obscured the reality that formal procedures used to settle black farmers in model villages bear a striking resemblance to earlier colonial procedures. Whilst colonial myths about African farmers as subsistence oriented and inefficient live on, evidence from south-eastern Zimbabwe suggests that the reforms have benefited some poor black farmers.

This was a powerful article (Pambazuka News 147: Open letter to Nkosazana Dlamaini-Zuma and other women in the South African cabinet). I worked in Zimbabwe for many years and I know some of it to be true as I experienced it with women that I worked with. How can we help to disseminate this information within the United States? How can US women influence the political system in Zimbabwe?
PZ REPLIES: We have forwarded this letter to the author and await a reply.

The children living on the streets ran away from their homes into the streets because the house was no longer safe for them. Some survived abuse and others lived with neglect following the deaths of their parents from AIDS. Going to the streets was a way of escaping. When the children arrived on the streets, life was not rosy but rough.