As crucial municipal polls got underway in Zimbabwe on August 30 and 31, gender activists could only marvel at how little inroads women have made in politics. Of the outgoing 333 urban councillors in the country, a mere 14 percent were women. The highest number was in Harare which had six female councillors out of a total of 50. Women constitute 54 percent of the population in Zimbabwe. From a pool of over 500 candidates who contested the elections, 67 or about 10 percent were women. Even fewer won the elections.

Painted hunting dogs, also known as Cape hunting dogs or African wild dogs, so named for their individual and elaborate skin markings, are some of the most maligned of Africa's predators. What is known about them now is that they are very social animals living in large packs numbering up to 40. There is usually one breeding female in each pack, which gives birth to a litter of up to 10 pups at a time that the whole pack takes turns in looking after. The dogs used to be a common part of the African wilderness. But with the advent of the European colonisation, they were branded vermin and mercilessly persecuted, to the extent of being eradicated from national parks.

The United Nations Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU) in Zimbabwe has been forced to close its provincial field offices, which coordinate and monitor the use of donor-funded humanitarian aid. In the latest Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation Report released this week, the RRU said the government had requested that its "field offices be closed from mid-August". "The government of Zimbabwe's position is that not all procedures for the establishment of this field presence had been properly followed.”

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) consolidated its hold in urban areas defeating the ruling ZANU PF party in council elections held last weekend, in a development analysts said reaffirmed the opposition party as a major player in resolving Zimbabwe's fast deepening crisis. Analysts said Zimbabweans' show of faith in the MDC, which now controls 11 of the biggest cities and towns in the country, should nudge President Robert Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party into talks to find a political settlement to the country's crisis.
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* Visit http://www.kubatana.net/html/archive/breaking.asp for the latest election results and breaking news.

Sympathetic accounts of the rise and rise of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe are few and far between. The anger that he has managed to generate has left little room for debate, and even more frightening, for criticism in Zimbabwe itself. He has ruled by fear and patronage, and he has maintained his political isolationism through invoking the unresolved land question and suppressing dissent. Stephen Chan is not a Mugabe hack. He does however attempt a reasoned look at history, politics, economics and war to develop a profile of arguably one of the most controversial leaders in Africa today.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has revealed that he intends to expand his propaganda campaign to continental proportions with the help of satellite communications. Reportedly, Moyo and his Tanzanian counterpart signed an “agreement to co-operate in the media field”, which would see the two set up a 24-hour satellite news channel. ZTV quoted Moyo as saying the station will help in telling the “true African story”. Moyo did not clarify what he meant, but in the past the government’s spin doctor and the media he controls have narrowly defined such issues as the ‘African story’ from a ZANU-PF point of view while dismissing all other interpretations as neo-colonialist and pro-Western, reports the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe.

Figures released by the government last week showing a drop in the number of Zimbabweans infected by HIV/AIDS were only a correction of flawed estimates from previous surveys and did not mean the prevalence of the disease was declining in the country, HIV/AIDS experts said.

Nearly 20 000 people have been improperly registered as voters for this week’s urban council and parliamentary by-elections, while another 1 700 who voted last year and in 2000 are missing from the voters’ roll, according to figures released by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). MDC director of elections Remus Makuwaza said the 1 700 voters whose names were missing from the voters’ roll were discovered in Harare Central constituency alone.

Zimbabwe's brain drain has hit the medical profession particularly hard. More than 80% of doctors, nurses and therapists who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe medical school since independence in 1980 have gone to work abroad, primarily in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, according to recent surveys.

In Zimbabwe, 1.5 million voters will go to the polls at the weekend in urban council elections. Over 1300 seats are at stake. Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the MDC or Movement for Democratic Change, has decided to take part in the elections despite ample evidence of state-sponsored violence, harassment and padding of the voter rolls. The poll is taking place in a climate of fear, widespread hunger, and economic collapse.

High-ranking government officials in both Namibia and Zimbabwe have lashed out recently against the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). MISA reports that, on 14 August, Namibian President Sam Nujoma launched a verbal attack against the organisation as well as "The Namibian" newspaper and its editor, Gwen Lister. The president condemned MISA, which he said was only out to insult him and other heads of state, and accused "The Namibian" and MISA of being "unprofessional" and "reactionary." Nujoma also instructed reporter Andreas Frai of the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) not to work with MISA anymore.

The Media Monitoring Project has deplored recent incidents in which journalists from the privately owned media were allegedly harassed and assaulted by overzealous members of the police force and supporters of ZANU PF. The Daily News reported that a journalist with the Kwekwe based privately owned Midlands Observer, Flata Kavinga, sustained “a deep cut on the head and sustained multiple body injuries” after he was assaulted by suspected ZANU PF supporters. According to Kavinga, the suspects accused him of peddling messages that were anti-government through his paper and through the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) T-shirt he was wearing. The police confirmed the incident.

AFRODAD is seeking a dynamic self-starter to fill this challenging post. You will be responsible for developing and implementing AFRODAD's Lobby and Advocacy Programme, and for managing a highly skilled team of Project Associates working on various development policy issues. An excellent communicator and networker, you will be comfortable representing the AFRODAD network at high-level meetings and policy consultations. You will also have experience of writing policy briefs and position papers for diverse audiences, strategy development, fundraising, and budget management.

A Civil Society Organisation (CSO) concerned with good local governance would like to engage a Finance Officer immediately. Reporting to the Chief Executive and working closely with the Finance Committee and the Management Committee, the Finance Officer shall be responsible for, amongst other duties, Developing budget proposals in liaison with the CEO and delegated officials; Identifying and developing strategies for financial assistance.

“I am a woman from Zimbabwe trying to confront my past and future, as my country sinks into chronic crises. I will introduce myself as Deborah Sibate, which is not my real name. I was born in the Western region of Zimbabwe, Mathebele land. I am 48-year-old mother, who urges for an impediment to be placed over the abuse of women rights in the land of my origin.”

Zimbabwean civic leaders called at a recent symposium for an end to political violence, the repeal of repressive legislation and the opening up of political space, while also calling for the African Commission on Human and People's Rights to immediately release the report of the findings of its mission to Zimbabwe.
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* COMMISSION BLOCKS DAMNING REPORT
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=7415

Several non-governmental organisation (NGO) networks in the SADC region have issued an open letter to their heads of government, focusing on ongoing events undermining civil liberties and civil society in Zimbabwe and Swaziland. The open letter emerged from a workshop convened by CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation at a gathering of the SADC Council of NGOs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Tuesday 19 August.

On the eve of the annual Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Tanzania, Amnesty International called on SADC leaders to jointly and publicly express their concern regarding Zimbabwe's deepening human rights crisis.
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* SADC RALLIES ROUND ZIM
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=7429

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has threatened to hit his opponents with "the full wrath of the law" if they tried to destabilise the nation. He said this on Tuesday just hours after Zimbabwe's opposition party offered a political truce with the government. Before Mugabe delivered his speech, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced that its lawmakers would not boycott Mugabe's speech - as they usually do - but would remain in parliament as part of an effort to build goodwill to end the political standoff.

The general response by black Zimbabweans to the dire conditions in which they try to survive, and to the hate-speech against minorities with which they are daily bombarded, must constitute final, irrevocable proof that apartheid was unjustified and unjustifiable. The overall refusal by Zimbabweans to give way to hate-crimes against officially-designated scapegoats - whites, Jews, Asians, homosexuals - is the great "positive" news, to which the media do not give sufficient prominence.