The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) this week strongly condemned the arrest of the Mayor of Harare, Engineer Elias Mudzuri on Saturday 11 January 2003. ZESN said the arrest, for holding a meeting without police clearance, was "ridiculous" as the mayor was an elected representative who was supposed to know the problems and concerns of the people.
Related Link:
* Mayor released without charge
http://irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31694

Zimbabwe appears headed for another season of food shortages in 2003-2004 with poor rains and reduced plantings likely to dent output, a U.S. based food monitoring organisation says. Although Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of southern Africa, sharply reduced domestic food production has forced the country into dependence upon food aid, and nearly half Zimbabwe's estimated 14 million people now face starvation.

A Zimbabwe correspondent for the BBC, Lewis Machipisa, has been accused of spying for the broadcasting station in Zimbabwe. The state owned weekly newspaper The Herald says that Machipisa is now working for the BBC and a London-based community radio station, SW Radio Africa. This was happening despite the "fact" that the government banned the BBC from operating in Zimbabwe, after accusations that the station was peddling "falsehoods". The paper says that Machipisa is now going "underground" in the rural areas, shooting images for the BBC, writing stories and sending them to Britain.

A relieved World Vision says it has resumed its feeding programme in the Beitbridge area in southern Zimbabwe, following a month-long delay in the delivery of food aid from the United States.

Four opposition supporters in Zimbabwe have been arrested after demonstrating in support of the Harare mayor, Elias Mudzuri. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said it hoped to have 2,000 people at the demonstration, but the police banned the protest, and arrested those who turned up.

South Africa had become part of the Zimbabwe problem and its actions were worsening the crisis, said MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai in a meeting with MDC members of parliament in December. Tsvangarai said Pretoria's policy had cast "serious doubt" on the role of President Thabo Mbeki as an "honest broker" in the rapidly deteriorating situation and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. "Pretoria is free to pursue its own agenda. But it must realise that Zimbabweans can never be fooled anymore. Open expressions of solidarity with Zanu PF and Mugabe will never resolve the crisis of governance in Zimbabwe today," he said. In the same speech, Tsvangarai said a cabal within Zanu PF was working with some businessmen, and had "hatched a plan to protect Mugabe and his regime, for political convenience, through a further militarisation of Zimbabwe". Read the full speech by clicking on the link below.

Police fired tear gas and charged crowds with batons to quell rioting in a food line in western Zimbabwe, witnesses and the state-run media said Saturday. The clash involving hundreds of people waiting in the line was the most serious violence since severe food shortages hit the troubled country in recent months.

Munyaradzi Hwengwere, the Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, says that the state owned corporation welcomes the production of programmes on any topic and that the ZBC would not censor programmes. Hwengwere says that it would be a crime for a national broadcaster to limit people's freedom, ideas and creativity.

As Zimbabwe enters 2003, the entire formal business sector is being driven underground and the elite of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party are acquiring revered names on the company register at fire-sale prices. Several hundred, perhaps several thousand, evicted white farmers surreptitiously try to keep some production going, risking jail terms. Independent journalists live in a nebulous state, and the only daily newspaper not controlled by the state is in trouble.

Zimbabweans have had enough of violence, agreed church leaders and civil society actors gathered from across the country at a National Peace Convention in Bulawayo. The group met from 13-14 December, 2002, to develop an action-oriented, non-partisan response to Zimbabwe’s growing crises and spiralling violence.

This is a revised and updated version of A Guide to Press Law in Zimbabwe published by the Legal Resources Foundation of Zimbabwe. As this guide covers the law relating to both print and electronic media this new edition has been entitled A Guide to Media Law in Zimbabwe. This booklet is intended to assist journalists to understand the various aspects of the laws in Zimbabwe that have a bearing on their professional work. Media practitioners in both the print and electronic media can use it as a reference work.

Norna Edwards, the editor of The Mirror, a Masvingo weekly newspaper, was arrested and charged for contravening Section 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Women church leaders in Zimbabwe have declared war on abuse of women and children. The leaders argue that women and children are treated as sex workers.

The Daily News, Zimbabwe's leading daily paper has indicated that it would not register under the controversial law, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act but would instead fight the law in the courts.

Zimbabwe's leading independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, is back on sale after a 10-day strike. The Daily News has been a strong critic of President Robert Mugabe's government, and is the best selling newspaper in the country.

The last vestiges of the independent media in Zimbabwe face new pressure as the government prepares for next week's launch of a repressive new licensing system which will give it the power to close any newspaper and to stop any journalist working.

Zimbabwe's energy minister says that a vital fuel deal with Libya includes conditions the fuel-starved Southern African country cannot meet. Speculation has been rife in Zimbabwe that the deal with Libya, which supplies 70% of the country's fuel needs, has collapsed. Over the past two weeks, the fuel situation in the country has become desperate.

The consistent shortfall of maize in Matabeleland North and South, the reported increase in sale of household assets to buy food, biased access to controlled price foods and the low reported level of access to seed and fertilizer were of "serious concern" with regards the food situation in Zimbabwe. This is according to a report by Fosenet, the NGO Food Security Network, that assessed the food situation in Zimbabwe for November. A summary of the report is available through the link provided.

The much-vaunted New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) faces an assortment of obstacles - including the Zimbabwe crisis - and a range of negative perceptions which hover ominously over it, a business forum on the continental recovery programme heard last week.

Older people in most African societies are a vulnerable group as a result of a lifetime of hardship, malnutrition, and poverty. The Aids pandemic is now posing an additional burden on them. In their old age, when they may require support and expect to be looked after, they have to take on the role of caring for others.