President Robert Mugabe's Cabinet has legislated minimum wages for Zimbabwean industry without reaching agreement with labour and business, the 'Financial Gazette' reported on Thursday.

International NGOs working in Zimbabwe are preparing food distribution and food for work programmes despite the government's reluctance to admit to a food crisis.

Violence on Zimbabwe's mainly white-owned farms is dramatically worse since President Mugabe signed the Abuja Agreement, according to a survey of commercial farmers.

Zimbabwe is set to bounce back into the international limelight, albeit for the wrong reasons, when the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the internal disciplinary body of the Commonwealth, pays a visit to the country this week to assess the current political situation.

Should farming be allowed in Zimbabwe’s wetlands? The wetlands - or vleis - are used by smallholders for dry season vegetable production and economic returns are high. Colonial administrators cited the risk of environmental degradation to prevent farmers from using the vleis. Today, the government and scientists disagree on the desirability of maintaining the unpopular, and increasingly flouted, prohibition on their use.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday threatened to nationalise businesses that closed because of strict price controls on basic commodities issued last week, agencies reported.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has petitioned Parliament to ban the deployment of soldiers to curb civic disturbances.

In an effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council (NAC) met AIDS organisations to set in motion a process to facilitate HIV/AIDS prevention and care by district HIV/AIDS committees throughout the country.

The Supreme Court’s ruling granting the government temporary relief from an earlier interdict preventing it from acquiring commercial farms, attracted wide media attention. The state media focused on comment from government officials and those individuals and organizations sympathetic to the ruling party to give the impression of unanimous approval.

Deliberate acts of arson, violence and intimidation have become the norm on the country's commercial farms - dashing hopes that the situation would normalise after the signing of the Abuja accord last month.

The Zimbabwean government is considering banning civic groups, churches and aid agencies from conducting voter education programmes because they have "hidden agendas".

Influential leaders of Zimbabwe's ruling party and senior intelligence officers hatched an "Idi Amin-type" plan to expel almost all white farmers from Zimbabwe by December if international efforts to resolve the land crisis failed, but the plan has apparently been abandoned.

Zimbabwe's fast-track land resettlement programme is putting pressure on the country's game reserves, some of which are near collapse. In Bubiana, its second largest game reserve, the endangered black rhino population is being rapidly depleted due to poaching.

Britain is concerned that the Zimbabwean government has so far failed to honour its pledge made at Abuja last month to restore the rule of law.

Limited sanctions should be imposed to prevent Zimbawean President Robert Mugabe thinking he has free run to intensify repression when the international community is focused on Afghanistan, say observers.

Salary : £21,479 to £24,129 p.a.
Location : Harare, Zimbabwe
Closing Date : 19 Oct 2001
Posted on : 8 Oct 2001

The view from one of Zimbabwe's beleaguered commercial farmer's houses is a constant reminder of what he has lost. From the front window he can clearly see what was once a rolling field of lush green wheat. It has been reduced to a bed of dry stalks after pro-government militants drove cattle through the field.

The Zimbabwean government has ruled out establishing an Independent Electoral Commission to conduct next year’s presidential election and instead is formulating a code of conduct to clamp down on activities of Zimbabwean and foreign election observers.

Observers are growing increasingly anxious about food shortages in Zimbabwe, and some now say that preventing starvation next year in the country will require external help.

News of a fresh dispute within the opposition MDC provided the state media with a golden opportunity to pursue its agenda of recent weeks to discredit the party and add their own embellishments portraying the organization as violent, divided and tribalist.