What's in a name? Married women in Zimbabwe are taking the government to court over a procedure that compels them to adopt their husbands' surnames as a precondition to official documents, including registering the birth of infant children. Under the leadership of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA), the women have embarked on a class action suit meant to free them from the burden of assuming their husbands' surnames before getting a passport or a child's birth certificate.

History tells us that genuine solutions to political crises require dialogue and negotiation - so those African leaders working to bring the parties together in Zimbabwe would appear to be on the right track. But after three years of state sponsored political violence, the prospects of finding common ground between Zanu PF and its opponents diminish daily. Yes, they must pursue workable solutions, but they must also identify the source of the problems and speak frankly against the politics of repression.

President Robert Mugabe's government has refused to issue the licence needed to publish to the Daily News, following the closure of that newspaper last week. By shutting down the country's only privately owned daily publication, the Mugabe regime has struck a blow at the country's struggling free press, which is left with just a couple of independent weekly papers. The Daily News has been shut for the past week and police seized the paper's computers and other equipment in defiance of a high court order that the paper should be allowed to publish.

The Commonwealth is divided by a blistering row over Zimbabwe after South Africa bluntly told Australia to stop trying to prevent President Mugabe attending its December 5 summit meeting in Nigeria. South Africa accused John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, of using “mega-phone diplomacy” after he announced that he had received assurances from Nigeria that Mr Mugabe would not be invited to the biannual meeting of 54 mostly former British colonies.

Police in Zimbabwe have arrested more than 100 opposition supporters trying to hold a rally against President Robert Mugabe. The protesters - organised by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) - were gathering in a square in central Harare when the riot police arrived and broke up the crowd.

A government report into Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme has opened a can of worms, throwing the spotlight on corruption surrounding the ownership of multiple farms by senior government officials and others close to the establishment. To date only one politician has publicly surrendered his extra farms to the state, a month after the expiry of a two-week deadline set by President Robert Mugabe.

He/she will be responsible for providing technical expertise within the project objectives & work plan, coordinating the implementation, supervision and follow-up of the project activities in close collaboration with the administrative coordinator on site. MPH and/or Medical doctor qualified in public health & epidemiology with a minimum of 5 years of field experience particularly in Africa requested.

"The newspaper is banned." With these words the Zimbabwean Government closed the country's leading and most popular newspaper, the independent Daily News, on 12 September 2003. The ban follows a Supreme Court ruling on 11 September that the paper was operating illegally. Plainclothes security police, accompanied by about 20 paramilitary police armed with automatic rifles, burst into the newspaper's offices in central Harare at about 5pm, ordered staff to leave and arrested Nqobile Nyathi, the Editor, and Simon Ngena, the production manager. Please click on the link below to read a host of protest statements from the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), MISA-Zambia, Article 19, International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and World Association of Newspapers (WAN). MISA-Zimbabwe has condemned the action as a serious violation of media freedom and are calling for letters to be sent to Zimbabwe's embassies and high commissions, Members of Parliament in Zimbabwe, the police and relevant ministries, calling upon them to allow the Daily News to continue operating, reminding them that the newspaper is a legally registered company, calling upon them to uphold the rights of the paper to the enjoyment of freedom of expression and desist from harassing media houses on the basis of repressive laws.
Send appeals to:
President Robert Mugabe
Office of the President
Munhumutapa Building
Samora Machel Avenue/ 3rd Street
Harare, Zimbabwe
facsimile: 263-4-708-820

Minister of Information and Publicity
Professor Jonathan Moyo
Office of The President
Munhumutapa Building
Box 777
Causeway
Harare
Phone 00 263 4 706 894, 707 091 –7, 707098

The Chairman
Dr Tafataona Mahoso
Media and Information Commission
P O Box CY 7700
Causeway
Harare
Tel 703 416

The Attorney General
Mr Andrew Chigovera
2ND Floor Corner House
Samora Machel Ave
Box CY 880
Causeway
Harare
Zimbabwe
Phone 00 263 4 77 32 47

Please copy all correspondence to [email protected]

Two photographers, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi of the Associated Press and Paul Cadenhead of Reuters were arrested on 15 September at the offices of The Daily News. The two were taking photos of the police seizing The Daily News’s computers and other equipment. They were immediately arrested and taken to the Harare Central police station were they were charged under the Miscellaneous Offences Act, section 7 for allegedly interfering with police work.

Recent media reports have revealed that some African countries are pushing for Zimbabwe’s readmission into the Commonwealth Councils in December alleging that the country’s state of affairs has improved. But the situation on the ground, particularly the continued erosion of basic human rights, proves otherwise. For example, The Daily News reported on September 9 that Martin Mukaro of Chitungwiza was arrested for faxing documents containing information on pre-election conditions at a phone shop at Manica House in Harare. He was charged with breaching the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and is currently out of custody on $10,000.00 bail.

The history of Zimbabwe has always been reflected in its oral and written literature. Much of the serious fiction written in the 1980s and early 1990s focused on the effects of Zimbabwe's war of liberation. Little has yet been written about post-independence Zimbabwe and the complex and challenging issues that have arisen in the last twenty years. This anthology of twenty-two short stories provides a representative sample of the range and quality of writing in Zimbabwe at the turn of the century, and an impressionistic reflection of the years since independence in 1980.

The majority of evidence seems to indicate that the Zimbabwe Government has failed to abide by Commonwealth Principles enshrined in the Harare Declaration, the Millbrook Commonwealth Action Programme on the Harare Declaration, the Abuja Agreement itself and subsequent communiqués in the form of the Marlborough House Statement on Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Mid-Term Review Statement. This is according to a background paper from the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, entitled “Zimbabwe, the Abuja Agreement and Commonwealth Principles: Compliance or Disregard?”

Relations between Botswana and Zimbabwe are reported to be deteriorating as the Botswana government continues to construct an electric fence along the two countries' border. Botswana is fencing out the increasing numbers of Zimbabweans fleeing their country's economic and political collapse.

Is land reform compatible with wildlife management? Zimbabwe is seeking to combine the redistribution of large, 'under-utilised' landholdings to smallholders, with wildlife management, which needs extensive land holdings to be viable. Whilst one stresses direct redistribution, equity and land for crops, the other emphasises maximising foreign exchange earnings, encouraging public-private partnerships and relies on trickle down. This paper by the Department of Sociology at the University of Zimbabwe considers why Zimbabwe is attempting to combine the two, and whether it is possible.

We are looking to recruit a development worker to work with the Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information and Dissemination Service (SAFAIDS) providing in-house training and mentoring to staff in writing, editing, materials production and communication skills. The postholder will also contribute to develop information strategies. You will have a minimum of 3 years' direct work experience in writing, editing, assessing information needs, repackaging, publishing and targeting materials for a diverse audience. Solid knowledge of gender and HIV/AIDS as development issues and experience in training or mentoring are essential.

The ruling Zanu PF party will at the end of this month start holding district and provincial elections throughout the country, in a move party insiders say could be aimed at consolidating the party’s structures before President Robert Mugabe leaves office, The Standard has learnt.

On March 18, 1975, Herbert Chitepo, a Zimbabwean nationalist in exile and chairman of the war council that struggled to liberate Africans in white-ruled Rhodesia, was killed by a car bomb. Since then, there have been four separate published confessions to his assassination and at least as many accusations and innuendos about who was responsible for the crime. Luise White in The Assassination of Herbert Chitepo, does not set out to resolve questions about who was guilty and who was accountable for this horrible murder. Instead, with a presentation that is as much murder mystery as history writing, she uncovers what is at stake in so many confessions to Chitepo's murder and why his assassination continues to incite conflict and controversy in Zimbabwe's national politics today.

Church leaders in southern Africa have accused the Zimbabwean government of sacrificing an entire generation of young people to maintain its grip on power. In a chilling report, the Solidarity Peace Trust documents how children as young as 10 are being drafted for military training.

In 18 months, Amani Trust, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to the assistance of victims of violence in Zimbabwe, has documented 16 cases of rape. Sixteen - not even one a month. Not enough to make the case for the systematic rape of women during Zimbabwe's political crisis. Not enough to make anyone sit up and take notice. However, this relatively small number belies the degree to which women have been and continue to be targeted in the continuing political violence.

Sexual assault is prevalent in Zimbabwe, according to rights groups. Concubinage in youth militia camps and the governmental use of rape as a means of punishing female political dissidents are both forms of the problem.