Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council (NAC) would continue distributing money from the national AIDS fund, despite recent allegations that politics had "infiltrated" the organisation.The NAC will provide Z$7.8 million (US $146,000) in funding for home-based care services for people living with HIV/AIDS and children orphaned by the disease in 84 districts throughout the country, a local state-controlled newspaper reported on Sunday.

Joseph Mwale, a member of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization, has declared Chimanimani, a plantation and farming region in eastern Zimbabwe, off limits to the private media. The move has forced a private company, Radar Holdings, to cancel a planned media tour.

The government-appointed Media and Information Commission is reported to have set 21 November 2002 as the last day by which journalists should have submitted application forms to be accredited under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The original deadline was 31 October 2002.

The forthcoming Insiza parliamentary by-election has been further exposing the media’s manifest failure to cover elections adequately. All media have been enmeshed in reporting the violent political rivalry between ZANU-PF and the MDC, at the expense of covering important electoral processes, says the Media Monitoring Project.

Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council will provide $7.8 million in funding for home-based care services for people with HIV/AIDS and children orphaned by the disease in 84 districts throughout the country.

The impasse between striking teachers in Zimbabwe and the government over better pay continued on Tuesday as a further 230 teachers were served with letters of suspension. So far close to 700 teachers have been ordered not to turn up for work following a break-down in talks between the government and the Progressive Teacher's Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), the union told IRIN.

Nathan Shamuyarira, the first information minister in the post-independent Zimbabwean government told journalists in Kadoma that if he were still running the media in the country he would have called for tougher pieces of legislation to regulate the media. Shamuyarira was responding to questions from journalists on whether or not it was necessary to have a repressive media law such as the Access to Information and the Protection of Privacy Act.

The responsibilities of the Program Coordinator include program planning, reporting and development, personnel management, and commodity control. The Program Coordinator will be responsible for efficient management of the program budget, coordination of human and material resources, and control of all USAID donated commodities.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) alleged on Sunday that voters in a key southwestern by-election have been bribed with food and intimidated into voting for the ruling party. Voters in the poor, famine-hit rural district of Insiza were told "they will be given maize only if the Zanu PF candidate wins," the MDC claimed in a statement.
Related Link:
MDC Election agents purged
http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=5436

A Daily News crew covering a demonstration by secondary school students was detained in a Harare suburb. The crew of three, that included reporter, Henry Makiwa, photographer, Aaron Ufumeli and driver, Trust Maswela were arrested for "inciting students to protest".

Failing to recognise women as farmers in their own right is tantamount to failure to recognise their existence. The 1951 Land Husbandry Act made the economic and social position of women precarious. The legislation perpetuated and compounded the subordination of women under the patriarchal system that was justified under the guise of "respecting" African customs.

Zimbabwe is currently facing an enormous governance, economic and social crisis that is seriously threatening to destroy much of what Zimbabweans have achieved since our national independence 22years ago. There is a serious concern shared among development actors that sustainable development can not be achieved under these conditions. The environment within which NGOs/Civil Society groups are operating is becoming increasingly restrictive.

Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI-Z) say that the youth are not adequately 'captured' in the national policy making framework. Gender mainstreaming has been taken into account in recent times, but there is not a corresponding acceptance that policies should also be sensitive to the needs of the youth as a disadvantaged group.

The unique nature of farm worker communities makes them particularly vulnerable to the effects of HIV/AIDS and the lack of traditional safety nets within these communities increases the vulnerability of children, especially orphaned children. Future interventions to respond to the needs of child headed households will need to balance material and psycho-social aspects in order to avoid undermining existing coping mechanisms. Supporting community-based responses will involve long-term capacity building and training and require thorough support and follow-up, according to a study by the Farm Orphan Support Trust of Zimbabwe (FOST) on child-headed households on commercial farms in Zimbabwe.

The Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo and his Permanent Secretary Gorge Charamba have launched a scathing attack against the Financial Gazette and private media journalists for what the two called "treasonous" and "anti government" reporting. The two have warned that the government will not brook any criticism and appropriate measures will be taken against "errant" journalists.

Blessing Zulu, a reporter with the Zimbabwe Independent and The Daily News Chief Reporter, Pedzisai Ruhanya, were threatened by police officers when they went to cover the funeral of opposition Member of Parliament Learnmore Jongwe, who died in remand prison on Tuesday 2 October.

Joseph Mwale, a member of the Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has declared Chimanimani, a plantation and farming region in the east of Zimbabwe, a no-go area for the private media. The move has forced a private company, Radar Holdings, which was planning a media tour of its plantations that were gutted by fire, to shelve the tour.

Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe say their supporters are being harassed by backers of the ruling party ahead of a local election in Matabeleland province in the southwestern part of the country. Opposition spokesman Paul Nyathi said 11 members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) were arrested on Sunday in the Insiza district of Matabeleland and are now in police custody.

The World Organisation Against Torture has called on activists to write to the Zimbabwean government urging them to guarantee that teachers’ leader Raymond Majongwe is given a fair trial before an impartial and independent civil tribunal and that 627 teachers dismissed for striking are reinstated.

While the food shortage in Zimbabwe attracts major international attention, the internal displacement situation unfortunately remains poorly documented, says the Global IDP Project in its October review of the country.