Versions of Zimbabwe: new approaches to literature and culture is a first of its kind: in a turbulent historical moment, the book asks questions about how Zimbabwe's creative literature may be related to its history and politics. The result of a collaboration of scholars situated both in Southern Africa and overseas, the book addresses Zimbabwean literature and culture from angles that have hitherto remained overshadowed.

Nearly 100 refugees from various African countries were detained in Zimbabwe as part of an ongoing police blitz on illegal housing, a newspaper reported. Ninety-four people from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Eritrea, Mozambique and Rwanda handed themselves over to immigration officials after shack homes they had been living in were demolished in Harare, the state-controlled Herald reported.

The Coordination Office of the Housing and Land Rights Network of Habitat International Coalition (HIC-HLRN) requests urgent intervention in the following situation in Zimbabwe. HIC-HLRN repeatedly has received alarming information from local civil society sources of massive evictions in throughout Zimbabwe that already have rendered 200,000 people homeless in two weeks. Some 30,000 street vendors and people working informally have been detained and if the eviction drive continues, "the estimates are that 2 to 3 million people could be affected, which is about a quarter of (Zimbabwe's) population," as M. Kothari, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing warned in a press conference on 3 June.

"The Broad Alliance hereby confirms that it has called a 2 day nationwide Mass Stay Away from 9 to 10 June 2005. The Broad Alliance is a coalition of democratic forces who have decided to work together for the common goal of establishing a just, prosperous and democratic Zimbabwe." Amongst the aims of the stayaway is to enable Zimbabweans to protest against recent state destruction of peoples' homes and the attack on the livelihood of millions of innocent people in the informal sector. Also available by clicking on the link below are statements by ZimRights and Nango. Lastly, there is a moving account of what it is like to be on the frontline of recent police actions in Zimbabwe.
Further Links:
http://www.kubatana.net
http://www.zwnews.com
http://www.sokwanele.com
http://www.zvakwana.org

Unless the international community starts planning together for a peaceful transition to democracy, Zimbabwe faces chaos and violence as the Mugabe era draws to a close. 'Post-Election Zimbabwe: What Next?', the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the situation in the country since the 31 March 2005 parliamentary elections that confirmed the full control of President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF government. Neither free nor fair, that poll was yet another phase in the crisis that has dominated Zimbabwe's political life for the past five years. But change is coming. "The post-election situation may seem like business as usual, but Mugabe's era is ending", says Peter Kagwanja, Crisis Group's South Africa Project Director. "Both ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) now face existential challenges".

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF is pushing ahead with its plans for constitutional reform, and has approved the creation of a 65-member senate, which will serve as an upper house of parliament. ZANU-PF Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa told IRIN that the party's Central Committee agreed on the creation of the new house last week, and would submit the proposal to cabinet for approval before it was tabled in parliament.

"The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), a socio-economic justice network of Civil Society Organisations in Zimbabwe, joins the many Global Social Movements in protest against the nomination and confirmation of Mr Paul Wolfowitz, as president of the World Bank Group. Wolfowitz was foreign policy advisor to the president of the United States. Wolfowitz’s recent past is well known: he is one of the architects of the “pre-emptive” war strategy used in Afghanistan and Iraq beginning in October 2001."

"Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) notes with grave concern the ongoing unjustified and illegal action which has been taken against licensed flea market operators, tuck shop operators and street vendors by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and Harare Municipal Police in the previous days. In an operation codenamed “Operation Murambatsvina” police descended upon individuals operating within and without greater Harare and, without any lawful order or justification and without following the principles of natural justice summarily evicted the majority of these operators and destroyed or confiscated their goods. This was done even where the affected individuals were able to produce proof that they were legitimately carrying out their business therein."

Anyone wishing to learn Zimbabwe's main language, Shona, now has a new option - the Shona podcast. A podcast is basically a radio show that can be downloaded over the internet and then listened to on a portable digital music player, such as an iPod or an MP3 player.

Zimbabwe like most of the countries in the developing world is likely not to meet the targets of the Millennium Development Goals as indeed the past few years have seen the rapid decline in the Human Development Index on many counters. For a generation widely regarded as the only generation with the potential to make poverty history, this remains unacceptable. The bottom line is that we need to see more action being taken on the primary drivers of Global poverty Debt, Aid and Trade. As such Zimbabwe joins the millions of people around the world participating in the Global Call To Action Against Poverty [GCAP] to call for increased and concerted action to eradicate extreme poverty and to surpass the targets of the Millennium Development Goals.

Signs of despair and looming starvation are evident almost everywhere in Zimbabwe's countryside which is suffering from the government's destruction of commercial agriculture and a third successive year of drought. Normally at this time, as the short southern winter begins, people would be completing the harvest of maize, the staple food, and be preparing to deliver their produce to the sole legal grain buyer, the government's Grain Marketing Board.

‘'Do you think I can go for an HIV test and be accepted?” Zitha scoffs at the suggestion. Disabled, and also a single mother, the 44-year-old swears her fear of discrimination is no idle assumption. Rather, it is based on her experience at a test centre she visited last year. ''The attitude was horrible,'' she says. Such fear of condemnation and disapproval is rooted in society's tendency to scowl at evidence of the disabled person's sexuality. Its effect renders disclosure largely unthinkable for those who may test HIV positive.

Zimbabwean security forces have detained a freelance journalist filming police as they cleared Harare's central business district of street vendors, according to a lawyer for the press freedom group MISA-Zimbabwe. The journalist, Frank Chikowore, was being held without charge. "It's outrageous that Zimbabwean authorities would lock up someone who was simply filming the activities of police in a public place," said Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We demand the immediate and unconditional release of Frank Chikowore and an end to this kind of abuse."

Versions of Zimbabwe: new approaches to literature and culture is a first of its kind: in a turbulent historical moment, the book asks questions about how Zimbabwe's creative literature may be related to its history and politics. The result of a collaboration of scholars situated both in Southern Africa and overseas, the book addresses Zimbabwean literature and culture from angles that have hitherto remained overshadowed.

Zimbabwe has put the army and police on high alert as deepening economic and social hardships push public anger to dangerous levels, Zim Online has learnt. Intelligence sources said an ongoing police crackdown against informal traders - the majority of Zimbabweans now depend on petty and informal trade for survival – had raised fears in government security departments of a possible spontaneous backlash by irate citizens.

Paramilitary units armed with batons, riot shields and tear gas patrolled main roads in Harare this week as police warned they would not tolerate protests against their crackdown on street trading - the only livelihood for thousands of poor township dwellers. Police Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said 9 653 people were arrested in the five-day blitz on street vendors.

Zimbabwe's High Court has dismissed a request to accredit journalists of the banned Daily News, according to news reports and Committee to Protect Journalist sources. The ruling came more than a year after the newspaper's owners, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), filed the application. The judge said the newspaper's journalists could not be accredited until the newspaper had been granted registration by the government's Media and Information Commission (MIC). The MIC has thus far denied such registration.

A pioneering community radio station in Zimbabwe has been refused a licence by the country's broadcasting authority, but Bulawayo-based Radio Dialogue has vowed to continue its work. The station was established in Zimbabwe's second city in 2001 but, without a licence, Radio Dialogue has been unable to transmit its programming.

The Zimbabwe Solidarity and Consultation forum is a network of progressive South African civil society organizations, including youth, women, labour, faith-based, human rights and student formations. Over the past months our network has grown rapidly in size and influence, and we say confidently that we have contributed to a much greater understanding of the crisis and challenges in Zimbabwe within our organizations and within the broader South African debate.

This paper from the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa covers the campaign process during the 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections. These elections in Zimbabwe were aimed at offsetting controversies that occurred in the 2000 parliamentary and 2002 presidential elections. Notwithstanding, as campaign issues are not legislated in the Zimbabwe Electoral Act, it was the SADC Principles that provided the basis in creating a peaceful process. This article seeks to examine whether the campaign in the recent parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe conformed to these regional guidelines.