Cholera outbreaks have claimed the lives of about 40 people in Zimbabwe and international NGO Save the Children UK (SCUK) has warned that if the disease spreads to urban and former commercial farm areas it could be disastrous.

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF holds its annual conference in the southern city of Masvingo on Thursday, but has ruled out any debate on the issue of a successor to President Robert Mugabe.

On 30 November the Administrative Court reserved judgement in the associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) case against the Media and Information Commission (MIC) in which it sort an order from the court to publish its two newspaper titles, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday. The ANZ sought the court order despite appeals to the Supreme Court by the state that the papers remain shut.

Government efforts to stifle peaceful public protest during the week once again found support from the media it controls - the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Authority - which censored the violent nature of the police crackdown on nationwide street protests organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and supported by civil society groups, according to the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe in its latest review.

This background paper from the IDS "Biotechnology and the policy process in developing countries" project examines the perspectives and participation in agricultural biotechnologies projects of resource-poor farmers in the Wedza district of Zimbabwe. Farmers in this region are faced with tremendous farming challenges that are adversely impacting on their livelihoods

Following the much disputed victory of Robert Mugabe in the long awaited March 2002 presidential elections, several major elections have been held in Zimbabwe. These elections have been influenced by four main factors. These are violence, voter apathy, the economic crisis, and the on and off again talks between the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front (Zanu- PF), says a report from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network on the post-election environment.

"Charges against leaders and activists of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and other civic societies, arrested on Tuesday November 18, 2003 were dropped this week. The activists were arrested for demonstrating against government’s mismanagement of the economy, high inflation and taxation. We applaud the individual officers within the Attorney General’s department whose decision it was to decline to prosecute some of Zimbabwe’s illustrious human rights defenders." Clicking on the link below will take you to the full press statement, a further statement by the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights on the arrests, and a report on the humanitarian crisis facing Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will not attend the upcoming Commonwealth summit in Nigeria next month, ending weeks of speculation that the government's last-minute attempts might secure him an invitation.

Reporters Without Borders has urged the Zimbabwean authorities to drop charges against 14 people who were arrested for circulating an e-mail message criticising President Mugabe's economic policies and calling for his departure. They were all released on bail but have been ordered to appear in court on 26 November.

The Zimbabwe authorities are investigating the conduct of the judge hearing the case against the Daily News after he allegedly said he would rule in favour of the newspaper and allow it to publish again, the state-run Herald reported.

The faltering Zimbabwe public health system has been further reduced as nurses and senior doctors join junior and mid-level doctors on a month-long strike. The nurses briefly joined the doctors striking last month for higher pay. They returned to work after being promised an 800% pay rise. But the strike was on again after pay checks last Thursday showed no increase.

Shadreck Pongo, a photojournalist with the Standard newspaper, was severely assaulted and injured by the police on 18 November in Harare while covering a nationwide demonstration organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Riot police apprehended him while he was shooting photographs of demonstrators and pulled him into a police truck where they severely assaulted him.

In a country where Mugabe's regime ruthlessly controls all radio and television output, and where the only independent newspaper has recently been shut down, SW Radio Africa is the only independent voice. It broadcasts not from Zimbabwe but from the third floor of an office block in a grimy suburb of north-west London. And it is run not by hardened political hacks or opposition party activists, but by a group of DJs turned journalists, most of whom made their names playing pop songs on Zimbabwean state radio in the 1980s and 1990s.

Zimbabweans view the country's banking industry as being very corrupt according to a recent survey of the sector. Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ), a subsidiary of the international anti-corruption movement, commissioned the survey in collaboration with the Mass Public Opinion Institute.

"The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition is outraged at the continued detention of its Chairperson, Professor Brian Raftopoulos, Vice-chairperson, Ms. Jana Ncube, Coordinator, Dr. John Makumbe, Chairperson of the NCA, Dr. Lovemore Madhuku, Chairperson of Harare Residence Association, Mr. Mike Davies, NCA activist Tabitha Khumalo, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions officials such as Wellington Chibhebhe, Lovemore Matombo, Lucia Matibenga, Raymond Majongwe and scores of others from around Zimbabwe."

"Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders and other civic society leaders were arrested for protesting on 18 November 2003 and we are therefore calling for a stayaway to be held on Thursday 20 November and Friday 21 November 2003."

Zimbabwe has been experiencing a number of problems in recent years. This is due to both man-made and natural causes leading to human suffering and at times death. The major problems can be traced back to the rejection of a government sponsored constitutional reform that was followed by “fast track” land reform as the government blamed commercial farmers for its demise.

Finger pointing, chaos, violence, and destabilization of the political and socio-economic environment followed this process. Civic society and the international community responded by putting pressure on the government to respect the rule of law, central to the Abuja agreement brokered by Nigeria and South Africa. To worsen matters, Zimbabwe experienced a serious drought in the 2001/02 agricultural season.

The combined effect of the above mentioned problems resulted in, predictably, serious problems of food shortages, unemployment of over 70 %, high inflation of over 525,8 %, increased poverty of over 80 % of the population living below the poverty line and lack of foreign currency.

The most affected by this crisis have been the poor, especially in rural communities. Their only means of livelihood is subsistence agriculture. Hence, the drought dealt a big blow to their welfare since they now have to rely on a very imperfect and unreliable market for supply of food and other basic commodities. Food inflation continues to rise despite the Government's efforts to arrest it with price controls and price freezes. This, obviously, has serious gender implications. Women, children, the disabled, terminally ill and the elderly have to bear the biggest burden. In rural Zimbabwe a lot of households are female headed as the husbands are employed in urban areas. This means the mothers have to fight a lone battle in providing for the family and the father is not available to fend for the day-to-day needs of the family.

Some traditions and customs in the Zimbabwean culture expose children, particularly girls, to abuses. For example, practices like kuzvarira, which literally means swapping the girl child for food to save a starving family, condemns the girl to perpetual suffering. She is forced to marry early and is therefore denied a chance to prepare for her future through attending school. The marriage is often to a very old husband – not of her choice – and it is mostly polygamous, making life a living hell for the young girl. Those who don't find themselves in this predicament may still suffer in different ways. Some are forced to drop out of school as resources run dry in the family. Child labour is rampant in the country and is actually rising due to food shortages.

Some women and girls walk into loveless, unplanned marriages due to desperation. Their aim is to escape starvation but, unfortunately, they expose themselves to abuses by their husbands who can take advantage of their desperation at will. Prostitution becomes another option for others who fail to make ends meet. Hunger knows neither limits nor dignity and induces reckless and dangerous behaviour.

The forced marriages and prostitution put women in danger of contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD), or worse still HIV/AIDS. This partly explains why HIV/AIDS cases have been on the increase in the country. In fact, the district hospital in Insiza district reported an increase in cases of STDs and HIV/AIDS related aliments amongst girls as young as 12 years old. More and more people are going to die due to food shortages as rational behaviour has been suspended. Desperation is now leading them to take dangerous or risky decisions.

Unscrupulous business people have been quick to take advantage of the suffering people, making matters even worse. The writers of this report witnessed a pathetic situation in rural Zimbabwe (Chiendambuya in Makoni district) where a miller approved to mill and sell maize meal at controlled prices by the Grain marketing Board was selling the product at nearly double the price. Not only was he overcharging, but was selling off his truck in the bush. The people - estimated to be 90 % women - had to wrestle for the scarce commodity and each time the driver thought the situation was getting out of hand he would drive away for a distance of about a kilometre.

The poor villagers - comprised of the elderly, the disabled, pregnant, sick and those carrying babies - would race each other to the truck where they would buy on a “first come first serve” basis. It was a sorry sight to see people undertake such a physically demanding exercise. This is a typical survival of the fittest scenario where vulnerable groups like women are obvious losers. The few who are young and energetic outrun the vulnerable, thus buying most of the food, since they were able to catch up with the lorry and join the queue more than once.

Each day, mostly women and children are seen in queues as early as 4am at retail and wholesale outlets in anticipation of deliveries which usually do not come. Often they go back home empty handed, depressed and dejected, yet continue to hold hope that one day Zimbabwe will be back on track as the food basket for Southern Africa.

Zimbabweans can no longer afford to buy basic food stuffs in the shops as the rate of inflation has continued to escalate with the latest figure rising by 70,2% from 455,6% in September to 525,8 percent in October 2003. (The Herald of November 20 2003). To overcome these hardships, people are engaging in illegal activities. Some are selling gold on the black market and illegally exporting it to neighbouring countries. Others are doing fuel deals and some have joined the money lending business where the poor are being exploited with interest rates in the range of 30 – 80% per month. Also the banks have significantly increased their borrowing rates, which range from 129 to 169% per annum. Therefore this will mean that the rich will be the richest and the poor will be the poorest. It is the hope of every Zimbabwean that the National budget to be tabled in Parliament today – November 20 2003, will come up with favourable solutions to revive the economy.

* The author, who lives and works in Zimbabwe, did not want her real name used for political reasons.

* Please send comments on this editorial - and other events in Africa - to

Zimbabweans continue to face a particularly severe humanitarian crisis, with nearly half the population having had their livelihoods eroded by severe macroeconomic decline and precarious food security, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

You are invited to attend an evening briefing hosted by the Zimbabwe Advocacy Campaign which will be addressed by the regional spokesperson of the 'Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition' with a response from a representative of South African civil society on their position on transition and democracy in Zimbabwe.