Zimbabweans are showing the evidence of having been torn in all directions in the transitional period. They have been scarred by the party political wars since the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from late 2000 onwards first posed an electoral challenge to the Zimbabwe African National Union? Patriotic Front (ZANU?PF). Zimbabweans, as represented in this stratified?random and nationally representative sample from Freedom House, are not sure it seems on what to believe and how to relate to political and economic circumstances.

Heavily armed men, believed to be state security agents, abducted two MDC-T officials in Bulawayo recently, torturing and interrogating them. They were released the next day. According to a statement from the party, Emanuel Kambarami and Andrew Vera were abducted from their homes in Mpopoma by five agents. Kambarami is the chairperson for Mpopoma, ward 9 constituency and Vera chairs the ward’s Youth Assembly.

This analysis of the Constitutional Draft seeks to examine the document from the perspective of what it provides in terms of protection and/or advancement of women’s rights and position in Zimbabwean society. The analysis will address both the process leading up to the compilation of the Constitutional Draft as well as its contents.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to pull out of the inclusive government if his party supporters continue to be victims of political violence. Speaking in Zaka, Masvingo province this weekend, the Premier said he would soon convene an emergency council meeting to decide whether or not to stay in the inclusive government. The district of Zaka witnessed some of the worst cases of political violence during the 2008 elections. A number of MDC-T supporters were petrol bombed and killed during the orgy of violence, largely perpetrated by soldiers and ZANU PF militia.

A High Court judge has endorsed Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s plan to delay by-elections until March next year when he plans to call a general election after arguing that his government was broke. The Supreme Court had in July ruled that the veteran ruler must call by-elections in three parliamentary constituencies that fell vacant in 2009 by September 30. But last week President Mugabe approached the High Court seeking an extension to the last week of March 2013 where he indicated the country would go for harmonised elections.

Residents of Zimbabwe’s cities say that outdated, overflowing sewer systems dirty the streets, contaminate the water supply and threaten their health. City council officials say the government is aware of the problem but can’t afford to overhaul the infrastructure, reports Global Press Institute.

A Zimbabwean independent monitoring group says it will be impossible to hold free and fair elections in March when President Robert Mugabe wants the polls. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network said the call by Mugabe for full elections in the last week of March doesn't allow enough time to establish conditions for a free vote.

An attack on a political rally by uniformed soldiers is stoking fears of a reprise of state-sponsored violence against NGOs, human rights activists and parties opposed to President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF in the lead-up to a referendum on a draft constitution and scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections in 2013. Welshman Ncube, the leader of the smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), addressed a gathering of about 1,000 people at the 21 September rally in Mutoka, in Zimbabwe’s Mashonaland East Province, before the assault occurred.

Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in partnership with the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and Chiadzwa Community Development Trust (CCDT) immaculately hosted a three day 'People's Indaba' at the Harare Crowne Plaza Hotel, from the 11th - 13th September this year. The event, known officially as the 'Zimbabwe Alternative Mining Indaba' (ZAMI), saw over 120 individuals including; Chiefs, Legislators, church leaders, mining communities, community based organizations, regional participants, youth and women activists and media taking part in the indaba.

Recently, Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court unanimously 'chastised' state security agents for torturing Jestina Mukoko, national director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, four years ago, reports blog Africa is a Country. 'They came at dawn, December 3, 2008. Armed men broke into the house of Jestina Mukoko, the only surviving parent of a teenage child who watched, helplessly. They took her, in unmarked cars, and held her incommunicado for 21 days. During that time, they beat her feet with rubber truncheons. They dumped her into solitary confinement. They forced her to kneel on gravel, to endure searing pain.'

The dates for the Second All Stakeholders Conference have once again been moved back, with the select committee blaming a lack of resources for the delay. It had been announced earlier this week that the Conference would be held from 4-6 October. But this has now been delayed until sometime before the end of October.

For Zimbabwe’s gay community, voting season is a time of dread. As political temperatures rise ahead of expected elections next year, gays and lesbians are being targeted by police in an apparent strategy to win over voters. On 11 August 2012, police raided a book launch at the headquarters of the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), an NGO based in Harare that promotes the rights of sexual minorities. The police arrested 44 people, and although none were formally charged, the incident followed a familiar pattern of harassment, beatings and threats against people who openly identify as gay.

A decision by COPAC to exclude civil society organizations from the second all stakeholders’ conference has sparked a firestorm of controversy, with accusations that the move is not only retrogressive, but dangerous. Following meetings of COPAC’s secretariat and the select committee this week it was decided, allegedly because of budgetary constraints, to reduce the number of participants from 2,400 to 2,000. They also decided that each of the three parties will send 600 delegates, with the remaining 200 slots being allocated to Members of Parliament.

Pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) has slammed what it calls a 'disturbing trend' of police intimidation in Bulawayo, after the arrest of another member on Tuesday 18 September. Tuesday morning saw a group of more than fifty WOZA members march together to the Bulawayo offices of the Joint Operating and Monitoring Committee (JOMIC) to deliver letters of complaint about their treatment at the hands of the police. This followed the indiscriminate arrest of WOZA’s leaders, Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu last week.

Zimbabwe’s Information minister has threatened to revoke operating licenses of private newspapers that attack President Robert Mugabe. Media, Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu from President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party told mourners at the burial of a veteran fighter in Zimbabwe’s liberation war that the private media was 'denigrating President Mugabe and the country’s leadership without jurisdiction'.

Zanu-PF has vowed not to give in to pressure to endorse a draft constitution produced two months ago by the constitutional parliamentary committee. But the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wants to put it to a referendum. Political observers have interpreted this as a sign that Zanu-PF will spurn the mediation efforts led by the Southern African Development Community and South African President Jacob Zuma. Earlier this year, Mugabe said his party reserved the right to reject Zuma as the SADC facilitator if he showed 'any bias'.

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela) and villagers living along Save River are seeking a court order to bar three diamond mining companies in Marange district from polluting water sources. In a High Court application last week, Zela and the villagers alleged that Anjin Investments, Marange Resources and Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) were polluting Save, Singwizi and Odzi rivers with sewage, chemicals and metal deposits.

More than 100 people in the Zimbabwean capital Harare and Chitungwiza, a dormitory town 35km southeast of the city, have contracted typhoid this month, and the dilapidated water and sanitation systems are again being blamed for another round of water-borne diseases. According to health officials cited in the local media, 83 cases of typhoid have been confirmed in Chitungwiza and a further 28 in Harare, of which 25 were linked to a supermarket in the Avenues area of the city centre.

Zimbabwean government workers held protests 25 July in Harare against poor salaries after the Finance minister Tendai Biti ruled out an increment this year. The workers are demanding a salary of $564 for the least paid worker and 15 per cent of the basic salary as rural allowance for those working outside urban centres. The lowest paid civil servant earns $296.

A virtual lecture hall, enabling lectures to be streamed to university campuses from around the world, aims to plug the gap in scientific teaching staff at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), which has suffered years of brain drain. The Virtual Lecture Hall (VLH) was launched last month (29 June) at UZ’s College of Health Sciences (UZ-CHS) and Faculties of Science and Veterinary Science, by the UK-based Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) and Econet Wireless, the mobile communications company funding the project.