The Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, has increased the pressure on President Robert Mugabe by calling for a five-day national strike and urging the people to take to the streets. "Rise up in your millions and take part in nationwide peaceful protest marches for democracy and good governance to encourage Zanu PF (the government party) to take dialogue seriously," he said in an advertisement published in the Daily News Thursday.

The ruling ZANU PF will hold provincial congresses around the country in the next six months to ascertain from party supporters who they want to succeed President Robert Mugabe as ZANU PF president, The Daily News has established.

The only viable solution to end the crisis in Zimbabwe was through a process of serious and sincere dialogue, said Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai at a recent meeting with G8 ambassadors. "Therefore, the urgency of international pressure being exerted to bring Mugabe to the negotiating table cannot be overemphasized. It is the only way to avert a catastrophe. A culture of democracy and political tolerance in Zimbabwe can only take root if all of us accept the principle of dialogue without preconditions, as a way out of political problems," he said.

NGO's have called for an independent audit of the national AIDS fund as they fear that the money might not be reaching the intended beneficiaries because no audit has been done. The call was made by representatives of NGOs in the country who met in Masvingo on Wednesday to discuss the national AIDS policy.

CHIMURENGA is an advertising-free and self-funded quarterly of arts.cultures.politics from Africa for Africa. Contributors to the latest edition include Toure, Kgafela oa Magogodi, Yambo Ouologuem, Zackie Achmat, Elaine Salo, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Kalamu ya Salaam, Gael Reagon, Mukoma wa Ngugi.

The summary illegal deportation in defiance of Supreme Court orders of the London Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe on May 16 raises several serious issues which impact on the treatment of journalists, the rule of law and the conduct of the President and his officials, states the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

The Labour Court ruled the week that the 12-day strike by teachers is illegal and ordered all the strikers to report back to work within 48 hours. Most teachers across Zimbabwe have been on strike since schools re-opened for the second term on 8 May.

Vital documents requested by defence lawyers in the treason trial of the country's opposition leaders have been destroyed, Zimbabwe's top intelligence chief said Wednesday. Retired brigadier general Happyton Bonyongwe, who heads Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), told the High Court that some documents relating to government payments to Canadian-based political consultancy firm, Dickens and Madison, have been destroyed.

Beatrice Mtetwa, a lawyer representing deported Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum, has said that she will petition the High Court to compel the government to bring her client back. Mtetwa says that she will petition so that a High Court order granted by Justice Hungwe on 16 May 2003 barring the deportation of Meldrum is honoured. "The court directed that he should be brought back and I am still pursuing that," said Mtetwa.

The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has sent a letter to each of the G8 heads of state, prior to their Summit at Evian, France from June 1 to 3, 2003, raising concerns about the implementation of the G8's Africa Action Plan in light of the ongoing human rights violations being committed in Zimbabwe. In the letter, the Lawyers Committee urges the G8 members to ensure that the current crisis in Zimbabwe receives sufficient attention at the Summit in Evian. The letter points out that resolution of the crisis in Zimbabwe is not only a legal and moral imperative, but fundamental to the successful implementation of the G8's Africa Action Plan and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

The International Federation of Journalists has described the decision by Zimbabwe to deport Andrew Meldrum, veteran Africa correspondent, as a low point in the continuing struggle for press freedom in the country. "The twilight world of independent journalism has been rendered dark by this malicious and spiteful act from the regime of Robert Mugabe," said Aidan White, General Secretary of the IFJ.

The chairman of the Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona Mahoso, has demanded that journalists recruited by the privately owned Daily News newspaper two weeks ago must surrender accreditation cards issued to them by the MIC.

A series of meetings involving African leaders and representatives from the United States and Britain have taken place in Southern Africa aimed at forcing the removal of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. The plan is to bring in a transitional government in Zimbabwe made up of the ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that will then adopt economic emergency measures. The US is taking a more prominent role in Zimbabwe in exchange for British support for the war in Iraq.

The main opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change ( MDC), says it has plans to make the country "totally ungovernable" with future rounds of mass action. The ratcheting up of pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is "a promise, not a threat", MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi said.

On World Press Freedom Day the Committee to Protect Journalists named Zimbabwe one of the worst places in the world to go about the daily business of being a journalist. And on May 2, Amnesty International released ‘Zimbabwe/Rights Under Siege’, a long, extensively documented report—largely ignored by the American print, broadcast, and cable television media. This report stated: "State repression of the media has never been worse. Prior to independence, the media was strictly controlled by the [white] government of Ian Smith through the use of restrictive legislation to defeat the nationalist movement…However, the past three years have seen a sharp escalation in the government's hostility towards the independent media…”

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has called on the Zimbabwean government to return the confiscated passport and resident permit of Andrew Meldrum, the Zimbabwe correspondent of the widely respected UK based Guardian Newspapers. Mr Meldrum is an American citizen and has lived legally in Zimbabwe for 22 years. The Zimbabwean immigration authorities seized the documents following recent failed attempts to arrest Mr Meldrum at night with a view to enforcing a surprise deportation. His lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa, has also been threatened with detention after she handed in a letter protesting confiscation of the said documents.

A senior police officer has denied knowledge of claims by the State’s principal witness in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, that the British government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were involved in the alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Assistant Police Commissioner Moses Magandi told the High Court that the first time he learnt of the purported British and CIA involvement in the alleged assassination plot was when he read about the allegations in the Press.

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has condemned the continued and systematic harassment of both Zimbabwean and foreign journalists by the Zimbabwean government. In a press statement, the organisations Coordinator Rotimi Sankore stated “the recent attempts by the Zimbabwean immigration authorities to arrest the Zimbabwe correspondent of the UK Guardian Andrew Meldrum is the latest development in a systematic campaign to intimidate the media into not reporting the harsh realities of present day Zimbabwe. The attempted arrests are clearly aimed at facilitating the illegal deportation of Mr Meldrum who has lived in Zimbabwe for 22 years and was acquitted last year by a Zimbabwean court of allegations he reported false information about Zimbabwe.”

When the US State Department's Walter Kansteiner visits the region this week he needs to press President Thabo Mbeki on what the South African leader means by democracy. Does it mean a representative government accountable to voters? Or is having millions of enrolled voters put crosses on ballot papers just the modern equivalent of a mediaeval coronation? Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, of course, is firmly in the mediaeval coronation camp. He began justifying plans for a one-party state right after winning power in 1980, says this commentary for ZWnews.com.

The MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says his party is mobilising its structures for the "final push" in the struggle for the removal of Zanu PF and the establishment of democratic governance in the country.
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