As gays around the world are celebrating their pride, Zimbabwe's only gay and lesbian organisation has received death threats and been told to quit the building that houses its office, SAPA reported on Wednesday.

The 15-nation European Union (EU) this week gave the Zimbabwe government a 60-day ultimatum to end political violence in the country and stop the illegal occupation of farms by its supporters or face tough penalties, 'The Financial Gazette' reported on Thursday. Hardening its position on Zimbabwe, the EU said the government also had to take urgent and concrete steps to protect the freedom of the media, uphold the independence of the judiciary and respect court rulings.

President Robert Mugabe said his government was ready for talks with Britain over land reform, but would not succumb to threats of economic sanctions, Reuters reported on Friday.

Justice Vernanda Ziyambi opened the Seke election petition on 18th June, the only case in which the petitioner is a ZANU-PF candidate and the respondent is an MDC Member of Parliament. In his opening statement, Adam Kara, the advocate for the ZANU (PF) candidate Chiota, told the High Court that due to the absence of names of registered voters on the voters’ roll, persons in the Seke constituency were denied their fundamental right to vote.

British, American and international journalists' groups have criticized Zimbabwe after it ordered the last British newspaper correspondent, the Daily Telegraph's David Blair, to leave. President Robert Mugabe was accused of trying to gag independent reporters before presidential elections next year.

A group of prominent Zimbabweans calling itself Citizens' AIDS Survival Trust (CAST) is lobbying government to evoke section 13 (2) G of the Constitution of Zimbabwe to contain the AIDS pandemic. Section 13 (2) G calls for the suspension of civil liberties in the event of an outbreak of infectious and contagious diseases. CAST has called on the government to declare a state of emergency as the best option to contain the AIDS epidemic.

Propaganda stories in the state owned media about the solar eclipse overshadowed warnings in the private Press of looming food shortages and news of the first victims of government’s renewed clampdown on foreign journalists. And in its efforts to portray Zimbabwe as a peaceful and stable country, the state-owned media ignored yet another spate of political violence widely reported in the private Press.

ZANU (PF) MP for Makoni North Noel Didymus Mutasa was accused in the High Court yesterday of brandishing a firearm and following around MDC supporters on Sunday. Pishai Muchauraya, MDC constituency coordinator in Makoni East and a witness in his constituency’s election challenge made the allegation. Eric Matinenga, the MDC advocate, argued that the incident was relevant to the case because it is “indicative of the respondent’s party. The respondent and his party will not stop at anything to have their way in this constituency.”

In a surprising turnaround, the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has agreed to accept a visit by a group of Commonwealth mimisters - including the British foreign secretary, Jack Straw - to mediate between his country and Britain over Zimbabwe's land reform policy.

Judging by its deafening silence, the government evidently did not believe the 70% fuel price increase warranted an explanation. But none of the media appeared to make any effort to extract one either. The nearest the nation got to being given an official statement on the need for such a massive price hike could only be found in the state-controlled media, from NOCZIM itself, merely explaining that up until now fuel was being sold at below cost and the increase was necessary to restore the company’s viability.

Thank you to Mutuma Ruteere for his editorial. Only a few names and phrases need to be changed to make this an editorial about Zimbabwe. It exposes the same failure of leadership, promoting greed, corruption and human rights abuses instead of economic and social development - leading to the same disastrous results for the majority of the people.

During the 60's to the 80's, the OAU was consistent in assisting liberation movements to create international networks to help them in their struggles against colonial occupation and racism. Surely it would be naive to hope that the new African Union would become a force to assist people to resist the oppression of their own fraudulently elected governments. We have only ourselves to rely on. Are we developing joint strategies, or are we all struggling on our own?

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation (ZimRights), once the leading human rights watchdog in the country, is bankrupt. The human rights watchdog went broke following the withdrawal of funding by its major donors who are unhappy with the organisation's in-house squabbles and the alleged infiltration of the group by agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), the 'Daily News' reported.

The death of another ruling party stalwart, war veterans’ leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, dominated the news in all the media. But it wasn’t just his death that attracted attention; controversies emerged over the cause of his death and the decision to declare him a national hero.

Last week, Judge Ziyambi did not preside over any election–related cases at the High Court. The Marondera East petition was adjourned until after an inspection of the voters’ roll, beginning on June 13th and expecting to last until the beginning of July. In the meantime, on June 14th, Judge Ziyambi is expected to open the Murewa South case. Due to the death of the Minister of Defense, Moven Mahachi, no verdict can be handed down in the Makoni West poll petition because the respondent would not be able to testify in his own defense.

Endless queues at the few Zimbabwean petrol stations with supplies are the most visible signs of an economic crisis that worsens by the day. With no reserves of foreign exchange to buy imports, Zimbabwe has suffered fuel shortages since December 1999. Superficially, this only affects the small minority of people wealthy enough to own a car. Yet the economic slump is so
severe that an entire society is being impoverished.

South African President Thabo Mbeki has told Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to respect the rule of law and publicly assure Zimbabweans and the international community that his government will conduct a free and fair presidential election next year, 'The Financial Gazette' said on Thursday.

Zimbabwe opposition boss Morgan Tsvangirai was in South Africa this week to attend the regional conference of the World Economic Forum in Durban. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader spoke to IRIN about Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis, and next year's make-or-break presidential election.

The deteriorating economic situation coupled with a decline in cereal production is jeopardizing food security in Zimbabwe. Hardest hit will be the urban poor and households in the southern and eastern parts of the country, where a January dry spell was followed by incessant rains in February and March, which resulted in localized flooding. A Special Report issued jointly by FAO and WFP, following a crop and food supply assessment mission to the country, forecasts a drop in cereal production for the current marketing year (April 2001-March 2002) to about 1.82 million tonnes -- down 24 percent from last year. This decline reflects reduced plantings and lower yields.

Government is set to hike tuition fees for students studying at state universities by over 2 500% from August this year, a move that is set to trigger a wave of dropouts and violent protests. Documents in The Standard's possession show that vice-chancellors from state universities recently recommended that students pay up to $70 000 a year, up from the current $1 450 and $1 650 a year, depending on the degree programme.

COSATU condemns the attempt by the so-called war veterans to render unions ineffective. This is basically an attack on the trade union movement and human rights. The ZANU PF and the war veterans approach which shows the extent of their desperations to make themselves relevant after dismally failing the poor and the working class, now has taken an extremely shorted sighted and self destructive approach in trying to win back the working class back to the ZANU PF. Factory invasion and extortion can only lead to more and more potential investors staying away and those with factories packing their bags and heed to somewhere else where there is stability.