There is a joke that Zimbabweans lack so many basic commodities that they do not know which queue to join, but it no longer seems very funny. In Harare’s once comfortable suburb of Greencroft yesterday about 200 people queued outside the supermarket for bread. At the Shell service station next door about 20 lorries and buses were waiting at the diesel pump. At the Mobil station next to that the queue for petrol stretched down the road and out of sight. Bread shortages have been the norm for more than six months in Zimbabwe, but they are now being matched by fuel shortages that threaten to paralyse the country.

Gerry Jackson, the Station Manager of SW Radio Africa, a community radio station based in the United Kingdom and broadcasting to Zimbabwe has vowed that the station will continue broadcasting regardless of a government ban prohibiting Zimbabweans working for the station from visiting the country.

The board of directors and staff of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)have expressed their sadness at the death of Zimbabwean journalist Mark Chavunduka. Chavunduka, 37, died on November 11 at West End Hospital in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, according to his relatives. The cause of death is unknown.

Zimbabwean households already affected by HIV/AIDS and those headed by women, children or the elderly may have difficulty accessing food aid because of stigma, according to a recently released AIDS country profile.

The Zimbabwean households already affected by HIV/Aids and those headed by women, children or the elderly may have difficulty accessing food aid because of stigma, according to a recently released AIDS country profile.

Susan Ndokwe, the chairperson of Chiedza Home of Hope in Glen View, says that the unending food shortages in the country have increased the vulnerability of patients, who need balanced food to boost the immune system. He says most of their patients are no longer able to take their medication on hungry stomachs.

International humanitarian aid agencies fear that displaced farm workers and their families are being forcibly relocated to areas close to the borders of Zimbabwe. It is noted that from there they are being encouraged to leave the country.

"I come to you today to appeal to you for prayers to ease out most serious situation in Zimbabwe and to appeal to you to lobby by all means possible for a peaceful solution to the Zimbabwean crisis. We face an absolutely desperate situation in Zimbabwe and the government is lying to the world about it. Our government continues to engage in lies, propaganda, the twisting of facts, half truths, downright untruth and gross misinformation, because they are fascists." - Archbishop Pius Ncube, Archbishop of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, speaking at the The Archbishop Denis Hurley Lecture, 7th November 2002.

Why don’t more women set up their own businesses? Are programmes aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship among women getting it right? How do cultural ideas about men, women and money affect would-be women entrepreneurs? A recent paper draws on experience with entrepreneurship training for women in Zimbabwe. It found that women face a number of barriers to becoming entrepreneurs, such as their lack of access to education and capital. However, cultural attitudes may be even more important in holding women back. To get more women in business, training programmes need to recognise and challenge restrictive gender norms.

A road show that the MISA-Zimbabwe Advocacy Committee in Bulawayo had planned to hold in the city was banned on Saturday 9 November 2002. MISA-Zimbabwe says the banning of the show is yet another example of the infringement of the peoples right to freedom of association, assembly and expression as guaranteed in section 20 of the constitution.

The current political crisis and its economic consequences dominate all discussions of Zimbabwe’s connectivity markets. The official US$ to Z$ rate is 1:55. The "parallel market" rate is 27 times as high at 1:1500 and steadily falling. Inflation is currently around 200% and the IMF predicts that it will go as high as 520% by next year. Stripping out the impact of inflation, most ICT businesses are actually shrinking in money terms.

The polling period during the recent Insiza by-election was generally peaceful with few irregularities, according to a preliminary report by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN). However, ZESN said the atmosphere had been tense due to the presence of militia, marauding war veterans and pre-election violence. On the second day of polling the MDC candidate had been told by the police not to enter the constituency because he was told his safety could not be guaranteed. "The issue of food shortage and hunger coupled with underdevelopment in the constituency was exploited so as to gain political mileage by the ruling party," said the report.

Nothing smacks of hypocrisy more than a law that purports to afford a profession some protection but which is, in fact, replete with clauses that restrict its practice. It is more serious still if that law attacks one of the most fundamental human rights guaranteed under our constitution– that of freedom of expression and our right to be fully informed. But Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) does precisely this by creating a fictitious privilege out of the practice of free expression and then criminalizing those who violate the provisions of this repressive legislation. Such a law has no place in any democracy.

Among the initial goals of the land reform programme in Zimbabwe was the resettlement of people from densely populated communal rural areas to newly acquired farm land. However, in the rush to implement the government's fast-track land reform programme, this has not happened, say analysts and the would-be beneficiaries of land reform. They also point to signs that cronyism has affected land redistribution.

A November report summarising the status of farm invasions in various regions of Zimbabwe details ongoing theft from farms, harassment of farmers, and provides details of farmers still remaining on their farms.

Chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe were worsening and growing numbers of infants were at risk of serious malnourishment, the United Nations warned on Monday. At least 6.7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, face hunger in the coming months because of a sharp drop in agricultural production blamed on a drought and the government's seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s top expert on Zimbabwe says the country is on the brink of an economic crisis that will make the current hardships seem like child's play. Gerry Johnson, the IMF's resident representative to Zimbabwe, said government mismanagement could soon plunge the nation into a hyperinflationary spiral that would bring the economy to its knees - possibly before year's end.

The Chairperson, the National Governing Council and the Secretariat of the Media Institute of Southern Africa-Zimbabwe Chapter would like to congratulate Mr. Iden Wetherell, the editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, on being honoured by the World Press Review as the Editor of the Year. We believe that such an award is a confirmation of the hard work and commitment to the highest ideals of journalism by the staff at the Zimbabwe Independent and hope that they will continue excelling despite the difficult media environment.

Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) lawyers have told the Zimbabwe Independent that a Supreme Court hearing of the case in which journalists are challenging the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) would open on 21 November.

British America Tobacco (BAT) Zimbabwe Limited, the country's largest cigarette manufacturer, has strengthened its position as a responsible corporate citizen by investing $6 million in a staff clinic.