Zimbabwe and South Africa in the News

Update 8/21/2018:
The conditions in South Africa now resemble the situation seen in Zimbabwe about 15 years ago.  White farmers are having their property seized, just because they're white, and the assets are being given (by the government!) to blacks, just because they're black.

The rest of this page is about the turmoil in Zimbabwe, the heavy-handed rule of Robert Mugabe, the expulsion of white farmers because they were white, economic collapse, property seizures, and the suffering of the general population.  Somehow the situation hasn't received a lot of attention in the American news media.  Perhaps this is because Zimbabwe doesn't have a lot of oil, or perhaps the U.S. news media, in the era of Barack H. Obama, dare not criticize a black "leader" under any circumstances.

More probably, news about Zimbabwe is suppressed because it is politically incorrect to come out and say that the people of Zimbabwe were much better off under white colonial leadership, back when the country was called Rhodesia.  Mr. Mugabe is still considered a great leader — as good as any other — by many members of the United Nations.  That in itself tells us a lot about the U.N.

Why do I care?  This is what the idea of "reparations" for 19th-century injustices really means.  Mugabe's rounding up and imprisoning the white farmers is justified, in his view, by the whites having taken control of the country about 100 years ago.  Black "leaders" like Louis Farrakhan seem to be delighted by what's happening there.  But it also shows what uncontrolled land grabs and property seizures can do to a country.

The story of Zimbabwe's miserable situation is the story of a power-crazed communist dictator who has single-handedly wrecked one of the strongest and most prosperous countries in Africa.  It is the story of a black racist government that has violently driven out white farmers just because they are white.  It is the story of a country that now endures mind-boggling rates of inflation — where a loaf of bread costs billions (if not trillions) of dollars.  As of 14 November 2008, Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate was 89.7 Sextillion (89.7x1021) percent.  In 2009, Zimbabwe's monthly inflation rate was 79,600,000,000%.  In spite of all the above, it is a story that is all but completely ignored by the American press, primarily — in my opinion — because the villain is a black leftist.

More recently, and more importantly, the situation in Zimbabwe serves as a warning sign to the United States.  The Zimbabwe experience is the story of a power-crazed black president setting himself up as a Marxist dictator and wrecking the economy of a once-prosperous country.  If that doesn't sound familiar, you haven't been paying attention.

This page is mostly about current events.  The situation in Zimbabwe has been headed in the same direction for well over a decade.  More about Zimbabwe's history over the last 50 years can be found here.

(The last time I counted, there were about 524 links on this page.)




Recap and overview:

These articles sum up the current situation and the roots of Zimbabwe's troubles.

(Scroll down for timely news, or click here.)


Dictator Robert Mugabe Is What Happens When A Country Falls For A Charismatic Socialist.  Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's dictator and lifelong communist, died on Sept. 6, 2019, at the age of 95.  In a country where the average life expectancy was only 44 years (according to a 2006 census), he outlived most of his countrymen.  However, his protracted and long life was constructed upon inflicting enormous and unimaginable suffering upon his people and country.  For the rest of us, his incumbency should serve as a constant warning about why we should not fall for the next charismatic socialist who heedlessly promises everything.

Black Rule in Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe — when it was ruled by whites and known as Rhodesia — was the most prosperous nation in southern Africa.  When black rule began in 1980, the country had excellent railroads, good highways, and clean, well run towns.  It was rich in gold, chromium, platinum, and coal, and Rhodesia was such an agricultural success it exported food.  It has now been reduced to a shattered ruin, facing famine, with whites and black dissenters murdered and tortured.  It is fashionable to blame the country's failures on the man who has been president since 1980, Robert Mugabe. [...] Mr. Mugabe is undoubtedly a bad character, but so are most of the people who rule African countries.  It is possible he hastened Zimbabwe's decline but decline was inevitable once blacks took over institutions built by whites.

Diary:  Nightmares in Harare.  I was back in Harare, visiting my grandmother, when the riots began.  My grandmother is in her nineties, and lives in a cluster of cottages in a northern suburb which used, once, to be one of the smartest in Harare.  It's now so rundown that the roads, unlit by streetlamps, are booby-trapped with potholes deep enough to bury a mid-sized treasure chest, but still African tulip trees bloom by the roadside.  The other inhabitants of the cottages are, like my grandmother, white, un-rich and quite spectacularly old, and, unlike my grandmother, liable to refer to themselves as 'Rhodesian'. The complex has a garden surrounded by a rusty electric gate, but, unlike many such complexes, no guard, because we are so far from any possible happening.  This diary is not an account from the heart of the action:  it's an account of how possible it is to be sure of nothing but rumours, as brutality goes on only miles away; of how life goes on, against the backdrop of a dictatorship.

Will Global Warming Destroy the World?  Ask America's Farmers.  Africa must import food staples valued at some $25 billion annually, largely because continental food production, supply, and consumption systems do not function optimally.  Why?  Consider that no nation on that continent can provide its farmers the needed political and societal stability to support a similarly developed agricultural infrastructure.  The examples of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia and once Africa's breadbasket) and Sudan are illustrative of the entire continent's challenges.  Zimbabwe has Africa's most fertile farmland, yet, as a recent exposé explained, "a onetime net exporter of maize, cotton, beef, tobacco, roses, and sugarcane," Zimbabwe now "exports only its educated professionals," who fled by the thousands from decades of corrupt autocratic rule.

Scuttling Sanity to Repeat History and Sink a Country.  On the morning of April 18, 2000, a Zimbabwean farmer, Martin Olds, mounted a defense of his 12,000-acre holding 400 miles southwest of Harare, after 70 men wielding automatic weapons arrived to lay claim to his land.  For two hours, the 43-year-old former Rhodesian soldier used a shotgun and long rifle to fend off the invaders, wounding several while suffering multiple disabling injuries himself.  He died there, his body treated indignantly by his murderers — communist thugs acting under the auspices of then-president Robert Mugabe.  There were no arrests.  Olds's property, like 4,000 other white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe, was swarmed by squatters and ultimately seized by the state for redistribution to those loyal to the ruling ZANU-PF party.  The seizures had predictable results:  mass starvation, economic ruin, and citizens fleeing in droves for fruited plains — mainly South Africa.

Poor Robert Mugabe.  Ironically, the only genuinely free election ever held in the country took place under European rule in April 1979 when a black majority government took power under the leadership of Bishop Abel Muzorewa, only for Mrs. Thatcher to renege on her promise to recognize it.  "The lady who was not for turning" did a double somersault when confronted with the wrath of the African despots, who insisted on Mugabe as the leader of the new Zimbabwe and swiftly moved the goalposts to Lancaster House.  Within those hallowed halls, her Machiavellian foreign secretary, Lord Peter Carrington, stitched up an agreement that (then former prime minister) Ian Smith rejected, but he was quickly drummed out of the negotiations so as not to blow the great con.  John Giles, the Rhodesian legal expert at the conference, also warned against accepting the terms, and he was soon after found dead under highly suspicious circumstances.  Ian Smith was unequivocal in insisting he was murdered.  But Carrington and Thatcher got their way; Britain took back control of the country under the boozy governorship of Lord Christopher Soames and a farcical election was held during which Mugabe's forces ran a violent intimidation campaign that decisively influenced the result in their favor.  When then Rhodesian military supremo Gen. Peter Walls cried foul, called for a rerun, and demanded access to Mrs. Thatcher as previously promised, the door of No. 10 was slammed shut in his face.  A beaming Prince Charles, resplendent in his naval commander's uniform, soon arrived to deliver Rhodesia on a silver platter to a richly undeserving Robert Mugabe, who thus came to power with the blood of thousands of his countrymen on his hands.

When Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa.  These fascinating pictures show a time when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa long before it was left impoverished by Robert Mugabe.  Pictures from the late 1890s and early 1900s show farms, mines and railways being constructed in the southern African nation, when it was known as Rhodesia.  They also show protests calling for independence from colonialist rule as the 20th century progressed before a bloody liberation war started in 1972, led by Mugabe.

The Truth About Mugabe's Land Reform.  As Zimbabweans go to the polls today, it is time to set the record straight about Robert Mugabe's land reform.  Some are now calling it a success.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Do 'the people' get the governments they deserve?  Zimbabwe has been a difficult case from its inception.  The intransigence of the Smith white government created a negative background which Robert Mugabe used to create an anti-white highly centralized government, which proved to be enormously incompetent and unfair — not only to whites, but also to blacks in the country.  Agricultural policies created bad results and much poverty.  Mugabe was charged with human rights violations and economic incompetence.  His people are poor, undereducated, and unhappy.  Per capita GDP is $500 per year, 226th in the world (abysmally low).  Yet Zimbabweans keep electing Mugabe to the presidency.

New York Times Sees "Golden Lining" in Zimbabwe's Brutal Marxist Rule.  Lydia Polgreen of the New York Times recently suggested that the long and bloody rule of Zimbabwe's Marxist boss Robert Mugabe may have a "golden lining" for citizens of that benighted country.  In an incredibly violent continent, Mugabe stands as one of the worst rulers.  Some estimates put the number of Zimbabweans killed by his thugs at around half a million.  Critics of Polgreen's article ask how the torture, enslavement, and murder of millions and the impoverishment of one of the formerly most prosperous nations on the African continent — previously known as Rhodesia — can have any "golden lining."

Robert Mugabe...What Happened?  [Simon] Bright goes back to Mugabe's earliest revolutionary beginnings, with original archival material that is fairly staggering, smuggled out in many cases, long-buried, catalogued and forgotten, hidden for fear of death — given how dangerous negative footage of Mugabe has become over the years since the once-rich resources state transitioned from British Southern Rhodesia in 1980 to what it is now.  Today, Zimbabwe is a robber-baron fiefdom of Mugabe and his favorites.  The farms that were for years the fertile breadbasket of Africa have been ravaged and depleted by squalid mismanagement forced on them by government's ousting and massacre of most white farm owners and their loyal assigns.  Anyone who could flee has long fled.

Becoming Zimbabwe: When Nations Regress.  For those born in the decades following Mugabe's rise to power, we have always known Zimbabwe as the land from which the worst of Africa can be documented.  When reading Conrad's classic, we picture an older Zimbabwe.  Today the only news from the country comes in reporting the number of zeros they occasionally remove from their currency to counter their astronomical inflation (at last report 12 zeros had been removed.)  It is a land with no economy and plenty of corruption, whose only export is human misery photos for National Geographic.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of an 'economic meltdown'.  Zimbabwe's relations with the West became strained after Mugabe's government launched controversial land reforms in 2000, seizing farms from white commercial farmers for redistribution to landless blacks.  Ties worsened when the United States and the European Union imposed targeted sanctions on Mugabe and members of his inner circle following the country's 2002 presidential election dismissed by the opposition as a fraud.  The country is now operating a budget deficit largely financed by the printing of money.

Alone again.  Isolated by the West and the world, Robert Mugabe maintains his grip on a desperate and fearful nation.

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.  As President Jimmy Carter's emissary to Africa, [Andrew] Young played a pivotal role — along with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and other Carter administration officials — in enthroning Mugabe's terror regime and turning much of the Dark Continent into the nightmarish slaughterhouse of chaos and terror it has become.

Published in May, 2000:
Self-imposed starvation.  What's going on in Zimbabwe is part of what has been a general pattern in Africa and elsewhere:  The most productive people are forced to flee.  Not only do white Africans flee, but the most productive black Africans flee, as well.  Black Africans do well when they come to the United States and Europe, while their brethren at home perish.

The great paradox about Zimbabwe's Mugabe:  You may not believe this.  Of all the Heads of State in office today, Mugabe almost certainly is the most educated.  He has seven university degrees.  They are not honorary ones.  They are all earned.  Which brings me to the great paradox about the man.  He is not a simpleton like Idi Amin, nor like Jean-Bedel Bokassa, or Samuel Doe.  So what went wrong?

Botswana and Zimbabwe:  A Tale of Two Countries.  Since gaining independence, one has become a success while the other has become a dismal failure. ... Zimbabwe suffers from an 80 percent unemployment rate and, according to the International Monetary Fund, an inflation rate exceeding 150,000 percent.  Since 1994, the average life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe has fallen from 57 years to 34 years; among men it has dropped from 54 years to 37 years.  Some 3,500 Zimbabweans die every week from the combined effects of HIV/AIDS, poverty, and malnutrition.  Half a million Zimbabweans may have died since 2000, while some 3 million fled to South Africa alone.

Zimbabwe and the Liberal Mind:  Robert Mugabe:  exalted oppressor of the Zimbabwean people, jailer of opponents, suppressor of every human right known to man and then some.  Robert Mugabe, all-round tyrant, despot and jerk, as well as unwitting generator of a certain nostalgia for the bad old days of topees and gin and tonics.  Maybe, after all, we think, watching Zimbabwe's plunge into the Dark Ages, amid economic ruination and the shutdown of civil liberties, black isn't automatically the color of virtue, nor white the color of viciousness.  Maybe the old empires, which certainly had their demerits, had, as well, some good points.  For one thing, they'd allow you a fair trial.

A Heaping Bowl of Mush.  Conditions in the former British colony of Rhodesia could not be more horrific.  After nearly 30 years of independence, presided over by the Marxist tyrant and psychotic Robert Mugabe, the country, once the "breadbasket of Africa," has reverted to something resembling an atavistic state.  The economy is essentially dysfunctional, inflation has wiped out savings and capital, "food shortages" have given way to starvation, and the daily life of most Zimbabweans is a combination of grubbing for subsistence and avoiding the attention of Mugabe's armed thugs.

Mugabe Shuns Tents, Innocence Dies in Egeland's UN Aid Memoirs.  When Jan Egeland arrived in Zimbabwe as the United Nations's emergency-relief coordinator in December 2005, he offered tents to shelter thousands of slum dwellers whose homes President Robert Mugabe had ordered destroyed.  "Tents are for Arabs!" Mugabe said, rebuffing the offer.  "It was one of those situations when you do not know whether to cry, laugh, or shout," Egeland writes in "A Billion Lives," a book chronicling his more than three years as the head of UN efforts to help victims of civil wars, natural disasters and brutish governments.

How paradise turned to poverty.  Last year, Justine Shaw was forced to flee her beloved Zimbabwe.  Like millions of others, she had suffered years of threats, poverty and intimidation at the hands of Robert Mugabe's men.  Here, she recounts how paradise turned to poverty — and her fears for the elderly parents she left behind.

Why the UN is Worthless to Human Existence.  Africa has more natural resources than the United States.  Yet its people wallow in poverty and a horrible existence, not because the land doesn't provide for them, but because of bad governments.  Case in point is Zimbabwe which, by all accounts, should be the richest of all African nations.  It was once called the breadbasket of Africa because of its rich soil and prosperous farmers.  Today, under the brutal, unending dictatorship of insane ruler Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe sits in ruins.

Zimbabwe isn't the only dysfunctional African country.
Some African countries are just not viable, says philanthropist.  [For example, Gambia] is a basketcase whose ruler is an embarrassment to his neighbours.  Heavily reliant on peanuts, Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh wants to rule a petro-state.  Trouble is he can't find any crude oil.

Zimbabwe's 30th birthday:  how did Robert Mugabe turn hope into misery?  On a chilly autumn night a choir of mostly white schoolchildren sang of the Rhodesia they loved — to the obvious embarrassment of whites in the VIP box, who were hearing their country praised like this for the last time.  Then, with voices rising, the youngsters eulogised the new Zimbabwe in the second verse, sending 25,000 blacks into prolonged and ecstatic applause.  Many feared Mr Mugabe, particularly whites, and with the benefit of three decades' hindsight — after murders, expropriations, starvation and economic ruin of both blacks and whites — they appear to have been right.

The Fall of the House of Mugabe.  "Greetings in the name of freedom," proclaimed the newly minted prime minster, Robert Mugabe, during Zimbabwe's independence celebration in 1980.  His words marked one of the most brilliant transitions of power in recent history, as the last conflict of the post-colonial retreat faded into history.  The white rulers of the renegade Rhodesia had ceded power to African nationalists, after assurances by British mediators that free markets and democracy would be preserved.

R.I.P. Zimbabwe Dollar.  As I wrote on 25 June 2008, "Zimbabwe is in the late stages of a classic hyperinflation. ... Inflation is galloping ahead as the supply of Zimbabwe dollars surges and the demand for them shrinks.  Eventually, the currency will totally collapse as people simply refuse to accept it."  In recent months, facts on the ground have validated this prognostication.  The Zimbabwe dollar is dead.

Zimbabwe: From Crisis to Renewal.  Toward the end of the 1990s, the opposition to Mugabe's misrule of Zimbabwe grew in strength.  When he lost a nation-wide referendum on a new constitution in 1999, Mugabe realized that a defeat in the next election was very likely.  He decided to destroy the opposition by expropriating the commercial farmers who formed the financial backbone of the opposition movement.  The frontal attack on property rights of the farmers wiped out much of Zimbabwe's export earnings and sent destructive ripples throughout the rest of the economy.  Land titles became worthless and could not serve as collateral.

On the Measurement of Zimbabwe's Hyperinflation.  Zimbabwe experienced the first hyperinflation of the 21st century.  The government terminated the reporting of official inflation statistics, however, prior to the final explosive months of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation.  We demonstrate that standard economic theory can be applied to overcome this apparent insurmountable data problem.  In consequence, we are able to produce the only reliable record of the second highest inflation in world history.

Mugabe Is the Mobutu of Our Time.  What was once a breadbasket of Africa is now an economic disaster zone.  What was once a reasonably free society is now a police state where armed gangs of government supporters harass, beat and kill opposition members with utter impunity.  As I reflected on what I saw, it struck me how much Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe resembled what I read about the Congo in the final years of rule by another corrupt and megalomaniac dictator -- Mobutu Sese Seko.  Like Mobutu, Mugabe came to power promising a new dawn for a nation that had just emerged from under a white minority rule.  Like Mobutu, Mugabe will leave or be forced out of power amid political repression and economic collapse.

WFP says more than 1 million Zimbabweans need food aid.  More than a million people in Zimbabwe will require food aid between now and March 2012, a United Nations agency said Monday [11/21/2011], despite recent improvements in the country's grain production.  The southern African country has struggled to feed itself since 2000, when President Robert Mugabe began a drive to seize white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks, leading to a sharp fall in agricultural output.

The Editor says...
Let that be a lesson to everyone:  Mugabe thought Zimbabwe would be better off if all the farmers were black.  But it's much more important to have competent farmers than black farmers.  It's a shame that the country has to learn this lesson by starving, but Mugabe got what he wanted, and what he wanted was based entirely on race.

Blood Diamonds Are Mugabe's Best Friend.  Between 2000 and 2008, Zimbabwe collapsed.  The confiscation of white-owned farms precipitated the destruction of its economy; mad monetary policies led to the worst hyperinflation in Africa's history; politically manipulated food distribution caused malnutrition; and, with woeful sanitation infrastructure, the already-weakened population succumbed to a cholera epidemic, plunging life expectancy to 35 years of age.



Timely news and commentary:


State Department slams Zimbabwe after U.S. aid workers deported.  The U.S. State Department on Friday issued a stinging rebuke of Zimbabwe after that country recently deported aid workers. "We take the safety and security of U.S. citizens seriously and demand accountability from the government of Zimbabwe," the State Department said in a statement.  "The people of Zimbabwe deserve better and we will continue to support them as we work to build a more inclusive, democratic society with accountable political leaders and government institutions."  Zimbabwe authorities last month detained and eventually deported officials from the United States Agency for International Development.

US sanctions Zimbabwe president Emmerson Mnangagwa over human rights abuses.  The United States on Monday [3/4/2024] sanctioned Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa, its first lady and other government officials for their alleged involvement in corruption and human rights abuses.  The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on three entities and 11 people, including the Mnangagwas, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and retired Brig.  Gen. Walter Tapfumaneyi.  Mnnangagwa is accused of protecting gold and diamond smugglers who operate in Zimbabwe, directing government officials to facilitate the sale of gold and diamonds in illicit markets and taking bribes in exchange for his services, among other offenses.  President Joe Biden also Monday signed an executive order that terminates Zimbabwe's national emergency and revokes Zimbabwe-specific sanctions.  Now, the administration is using a Trump-era executive order that implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as its authority to issue the sanctions.

Crime is destroying South Africa.  What would you say about a country that in 2023 saw 75 murders and 153 rapes every day for a grand total of 55,000 rapes and 27,375 murders in one year?  I should add that authorities say that many of these crimes go unreported, so those figures are undoubtedly higher.  With that said, I think it would be fair to describe this country as a literal hell on earth.  This country is South Africa, once called the jewel of the African continent.  White farmers and other Whites are getting beaten, raped, and murdered there on an almost daily basis.  Too many live in fear for their safety and lives.  In addition, many are seeing their farms confiscated as happened in another [bad] country called Zimbabwe.  I guess the logical question becomes, where is the world outrage and concern that we saw for years over apartheid in that land?  The harsh reality is, is that the world's media has pretty much chosen to ignore it.  I sense the reason for this attitude is because South Africa is now a Black-run country, and a significant number of the victims are white.  Do you really expect the Media to report that this country has gone down the tubes ever since Black rule took over and that most of the other countries in Africa who received its freedom from the "evil" colonizers are now not fit to live in?

Slavery follows looting in African country as its economy collapses.  Sudan, one of Africa's largest countries, is in the middle of a civil war that has destroyed its economy, driven millions from their homes, and left 60% of its farmland untended.  The Rapid Support Forces, a militia that controls most of the country, used to support itself by looting, taking people's valuable, portable possessions.  But now, the country has gotten so poor that there isn't much portable property to loot.  So the RSF has turned to slavery and kidnapping instead, to raise revenue.

Watch As South Africans Go To War Over Toilet Paper.  A truck accident North of Pretoria South Africa resulted in the locals stealing toilet paper as the truck drivers tried to fend them off.  [Video clip]

Zimbabwe Floats the Idea of Putting Its Currency on a Gold Standard.  Could arguably the world's worst currency become its best?  If Zimbabwe follows through and embraces a plan to back the Zimbabwe dollar with gold, it just might.  Last week, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said officials were exploring ways to introduce a "structured currency," but he didn't explain what that meant.  On Monday (Feb. 12), Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube shed some light on the plan, saying the goal was to "manage the growth of liquidity which has a high correlation to money supply growth and inflation."  The way to do that is to link the exchange rate to some hard asset such as gold.  To do that you have to have some sort of currency board type system in place where the growth of the domestic liquidity is constrained by the value of the asset that is backing the currency.

In South Africa, a great evil is growing fast.  For decades, Westerners were deeply concerned about South African apartheid.  The pressure the West put on that nation finally led to apartheid's end in the early 1990s.  However, a new and very ugly apartheid movement is emerging in South Africa, and no one in the West seems interested in talking about it.  This time, it's whites who are in the crosshairs, and genocide is on the menu, with a radical black communist party poised to become the majority in South Africa's Parliament.  While the end of apartheid was ripe with promise, the fly in the ointment was always going to be communism.  Thanks to the non-stop communist rule of South Africa's ANC party, the country, which is rich in natural resources, is an economic basket case.  The result, especially when focused through climate change madness, has led to the electric grid's collapse across vast swaths of the country, bringing with it water and food shortages.

The Editor says...
No, the fly in the ointment is this:  Racist blacks can't govern.  They proved this in  Rhodesia  Zimbabwe and now they're proving it again in South Africa and Sudan (and Haiti and Chicago).  They chased out or murdered all the whites, and now they're starving.  But at least all the white people are gone.

What's Going on In South Africa?  Other than natural disasters and major loss of life, Americans rarely pay attention to events occurring around the world — especially if it is a slow process, aided by the left.  Such is the case with South Africa.  With the end of Apartheid in the early 1990s, the African National Congress (ANC) won power in 1994 and has never relinquished it.  What has happened since then has been the embodiment of Critical Race Theory in practice, with predictable results.  Americans should pay attention to this, as it will be the endgame in the United States in the not too distant future.  South Africa is beating its carbon reduction goals handily as the power grid is increasingly causing rolling blackouts.  The state-owned energy company Eskom provides 90 percent of the county's electricity.  The blackouts and "load-shedding" are caused by an aging fleet of coal-fired plants that are continuously breaking down due to lack of maintenance, years of underinvestment, and systematic corruption.  Eskom warned then-president Nelson Mandela's administration in 1998 that unless new and more sophisticated power plants were built immediately and infrastructure was upgraded, the electrical grid "would begin imploding within a decade."

Britain is turning into South Africa [which has turned into Zimbabwe].  I feel obliged to say that South Africa is a wonderful country, and a resilient one.  For every horror story you see in the media — most recently the tragic blaze in Johannesburg — there are many things worthy of love.  Nonetheless, three decades after the end of apartheid, it is obvious that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has failed in its historic mission:  to spread the living standards formerly enjoyed by the white minority to the broad mass of the population.  It has, if anything, achieved the opposite, overseeing the dereliction of the infrastructure and human potential on which any such improvement would depend.  Metaphors for this failure are everywhere.  Railways that took my parents to their summer holidays as children now lie rusting and abandoned.  Supermarkets sell asphalt for drivers to fill in potholes for themselves.  Criminal gangs, their numbers buoyed by an unemployment rate above 30%, cut down traffic lights for scrap, steal transformers from power stations and collapse roads with illegal mining operations.

How America Becomes Zimbabwe.  What is the difference between South African politician Julius Malema, who led chants of "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer" during a recent rally of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the political organization that he chairs, and U.S. Air Force general C.Q. Brown, nominated as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose goal as CJCS isn't to increase the combat capability of the Armed Forces, but to ensure that white male officers become a minority at the Pentagon?  Same clown, different uniform.

The New York Times Insists It's Only a Song When It Urges Killing White South Africans.  The New York Times, also known as those wonderful people who brought you Walter Duranty and his minor omission while slobbering over Joseph Stalin in the 1930s of mentioning how Stalin was systematically mass murdering four million Ukrainians via forced starvation, has come up with another pearl of wisdom for we the peasantry.  Did you know that when a radical South African political group demanding the country's white farmers give up their land by any means necessary, including murder, sings a song at their rallies featuring "Kill the Boer," Boer meaning any white person living in South Africa, they don't literally mean it?  It's only a line in a song, you see.  No big.  Nothing literal.  How can it be when some other songs aren't literal?

How Many White Farmers Have Been Murdered In South African?  This Many....  South Africa: 300,000 firearms were seized from White Farmers following a Constitutional Court decision that required the owners to surrender their weapons.  Video:  Each cross symbolizes a White Farmer who was killed life in South Africa from 2018 to 2022.  More than 4000 white farmers have been killed in South Africa since 1994 in farm attacks.  [Video clip]

Funny how no one cares about racism in South Africa anymore.  Remember all the speeches about apartheid?  As I recall, Jesse Jackson got involved in South African politics.  It was the issue of our time, as they often say.  For the record, apartheid was terrible and a correction was needed.  However, it's hard to see what's happening in South Africa today.  The country is a financial mess and the extremes seem to be doing all the talking. [...] It sounds like they are in fact pushing for genocide of white people.

Rally in South Africa with 60k [black] people singing 'kill the white man, kill the farmer'.  Meanwhile in South Africa:  That is not a soccer match or Church gathering, it is radical socialists singing with drooling mouths to kill white people.  [Video clip]

South Africa's Vice President's Detail Drags White Man Out Of Car And Stomps Him Unconscious.  A group of armed plainclothes officers assigned to protect South Africa's deputy president was caught on video dragging a man out of a car and then stomping on his head until he lies motionless, sparking outrage and drawing more attention to the country's problems with police brutality.  The officers are part of the police security team protecting South Africa Deputy President Paul Mashatile, his office confirmed on Tuesday.  There are no indications that Mashatile was present during the incident.  [Video clip]

South Africa's grid is dissolving — climate activists hit hardest.  I ran across this article in Climate Change News decrying the fact that the coal lobby in South Africa is fighting against shutting down the coal industry and replacing it with renewables.  It's a tale filled with evil carbon villains. [...] If only the mean, nasty coal people would let the activists work their magic, all would be rainbows and sunshine and butterflies fluttering in the breeze.  Sad, really, that such mean people are so powerful.  [Tweet]  Of course, the story ignores one minor point:  South Africa's power grid is collapsing, with electricity shut off to residents for 8-13 hours a day.  The problems that most South Africans face these days has nothing to do with carbon "pollution;" it is the fact that they are forced to use candles to light their homes and watch their food rot for lack of refrigeration.  That the coal lobby has any political power at all is a miracle in South Africa.  The country is falling apart before our eyes, becoming a failed state after decades of being one of the only functioning countries on the continent.  The power company?  Apparently not as well functioning as the coal lobby, perhaps because it is run by the government which is a socialist mess.

Fifteen People Get Shot Up At Nightclub In South Africa.  The police in Tshwane have launched a manhunt for a suspect who shot and injured 15 patrons at a tavern in Soshanguve on Sunday night.  According to police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi, police were called to a shooting incident and upon arrival at the scene several people were found with gunshot wounds and were taken to the local clinic and hospital.  [Video clip]

As South Africa collapses, it opts for full, anti-white apartheid.  For a very long time, South Africa was a well-managed country that engaged in immoral racial apartheid.  Blacks were denied all civil rights and were forcibly economically marginalized.  When apartheid finally ended, it seemed as if South Africa could continue to be a well-managed country, only without the evil of racial segregation.  However, with Cyril Ramaphosa, who rose through the communist African National Congress, in charge, the country is violently imploding, and apartheid is back, only this time against whites and Indians.  It became apparent in March that South Africa's power grid is failing.  This was a self-imposed crisis that occurred because South Africa's hard-left government embraced the anti-fossil fuel "green" agenda.  As South Africa is discovering, without a power grid, it's not just the lights that go out.  Everything in the modern world stops: water treatment, refrigeration, medical treatment, and more.

South Africa has new "equity based" water use regs.  You'll never guess what that means.  The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Mr. Mchunu, published his revised guidelines as part of a massive "Government Gazette" on the 19th of May.  Parties who wish to opine or comment on the proposed new guidelines are welcome to do so in written form for the next 60 days.  That sounds all sorts of above board and pretty much like any change in a civic reg.  The "public comment" period — always done.  We've seen enough school board meetings to know how this can go.  But when you rumble on down through what they've laid out as the requirements, perquisites and qualifiers to successfully apply for water use... maybe you wouldn't be so quick to fire off an email, especially if you had livestock to water or a field to irrigate or a well for your family that needs digging.

That's probably the only way to meet this ridiculous goal.
South Africa beats climate goal as load shedding slashes emissions.  South Africa is ahead of its target for cutting emissions of greenhouse gases.  Output of the climate-warming gases from the world's 14th-biggest emitter is already falling even though its Nationally Determined Contribution, a target adopted by the cabinet in 2021, only forecast a decline from 2025.  Regular breakdowns of the coal-fired power plants that supply more than 80% of South Africa's electricity mean that less carbon dioxide is being pumped into the atmosphere and daily rotational cuts of more than 10 hours a day are further limiting emissions from factories.  "It's unintentional," Crispian Olver, the executive director of South Africa's Presidential Climate Commission, said in an interview in Johannesburg on Monday.

Now Progressives are Sneering at Economics.  [Scroll down]  Briefly, the ANC regime in South Africa has followed the progressive line to a T. And South Africa has gone straight to hell, economically and culturally and politically.  Why?  Because the ANC thinks that all you need to do is hand over the levers of the economy to its supporters, and bingo!  Except that everything goes straight to hell.  And plenty of people in today's South Africa are witnessing it.  Does the daughter of an ANC "activist" get it?  No.  Malaika, 30 years after Mandela rose to power, thinks that "the perks of white society are... withheld from her."  And the white progressives!  One of them had a friendship with Mandela successor Thabo Mbeki, but after coming to power, Mbeki never spoke to him again.  ["]This [white progressive] fell into a depression and drank himself to death.["]  Then there's the mixed-race Michael that "after apartheid got a job in land reform."  It all sounded great except that the modern, mechanized farms he handed out to illiterate subsistence farmers quickly went broke.

South Africa's infrastructure 30 years after the end of Apartheid.  [Nelson] Mandela served just one term, but his party, the ANC (African National Congress) has provided every president and government since and faces very little competition in parliament.  What does South Africa look like after thirty years of non-stop ANC rule?  I decided to go down and find out for myself with the question:  What is the state of the rainbow nation thirty years after Apartheid?  How did the fairy story work out? [...] South Africa has been experiencing rolling, planned blackouts, locally called "load shedding", since 2008.  It is a beautiful, eerie experience to drive around a big, modern city like Johannesburg during load shedding.  It is true that the high-end shopping centres, the top hotels, the better restaurants, and upscale homes as well as hospitals, airports (and the presidential palace) use diesel generators or inverters and batteries to keep the power on, but the vast townships are all swathed in darkness, and the street and traffic lights are all off.

The African power grid collapse is spreading.  Last summer, we looked at the collapse of the power grid in South Africa.  The country which previously had the most economically stable and prosperous government in sub-Saharan Africa suffered waves of unemployment and looting as its economy buckled under the strain.  They've managed to put together some foreign aid to apply patchwork fixes since then, but there are still rolling blackouts taking place on a regular basis.  This winter, however, the power grid problems are spreading in one of the more underreported stories of the year.  Zimbabwe and Nigeria are now also experiencing near-total collapses of their power grids.  People who still have jobs are having to work at night because that's the only time there is stable electricity.  Scheduled blackouts frequently last up to ten or even twelve hours per day, and both nations' economies are tanking as a result.

South Africa is in freefall.  I received an email from a South African friend today, infuriated at his country's destruction at the hands of his own government's ideology and incompetence.  This was not hyperbole.  In fact, the power grid is on the verge of complete collapse, which will leave people without food or water, and, when combined with South Africa's decay in all other areas, may lead to civil unrest on a scale that could trigger a full civil war.  As a predicate to this post, it's important to note that, since 1994, when the all-white government finally ended, all South Africa's presidents have come from the African National Congress, a communist front group.  It's also important to note that South Africa, although in chaotic fashion, has been bowing down before "green colonialism."  As I use it, that phrase means that economically fragile countries destroy their energy infrastructure to suit the climate delusions coming from affluent western nations.

The collapse of South Africa.  With so many things going to pieces all around the world these days, it can be difficult to keep track of them all.  Particularly when so much of the global news media's attention is riveted on the war in Ukraine, other things can slip through the cracks.  For example, were you aware that the government of South Africa has basically collapsed?  And it happened fairly quickly.  Take a look at this lengthy Twitter thread from someone who actually lives there.  The government and the police have almost disappeared, the energy grid has imploded, half of the people in the country are out of work and the nation's infrastructure has crumbled.

South Africa — The First Country Built on "Critical Race Theory" — Officially Implodes.  South Africa is disintegrating.  After the jailing of Jacob Zuma, supporters of the former president took to the streets, ostensibly to protest but actually to simply plunder at will.  The official death toll already runs into the dozens, but in a country as violent as South Africa (57 murders a day) the real toll will likely never be known for certain.  [Tweet]  Rioters have plundered shops and entire shopping malls.  When they run out out of normal goods, they steal livestock.  When it's too heavy to carry by hand, they bring a forklift.  [Tweet]  The meltdown in South Africa isn't a natural disaster or a random fluke.  It's a choice.  South Africa was the first modern nation to be refounded on the anti-white principles of critical race theory, and now it is reaping the whirlwind of that choice.  South Africa did everything that is being done in America right now.  As a hyperdiverse multiethnic, multilingual society, South Africa has followed almost every prescription embraced by the globalist ruling class.

South Africa President Ramaphosa Faces Impeachment Over Farmgate Scandal.  Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, may be subject to impeachment after an independent commission determined that he may have broken the law against corruption while looking into a robbery at his farm.  Ramaphosa is accused of covering up a $4 million theft from his Phala Phala farm in the country's northeast in 2020 in what has come to be known as the "Farmgate" scandal.  In addition to cooperating with Namibian law enforcement to capture, torture, and bribe the defendants, claims also include finding $580,000 of this money hidden beneath couch cushions.  Ramaphosa vehemently disputes the accusations and has not been put on trial for any crimes.  He insists that the money came from the selling of the buffalo.  He admits that the crime happened, but he maintains that the less money was taken than was claimed, and he rejects any involvement in a cover-up.

South African Police refuse to investigate murder of white farming family.  The South African Police Service, of which many officers are former Marxist-ANC terrorists trained in the former Soviet Union and East Germany to attack civilians, refused on Sunday to investigate the kidnapping and murder of Dan and Breggie Brand, as well as their daughter Elzabie, in the country's remote Northern Cape province.  The couple's son phoned the police in vain who refused to send anyone out.  Only when volunteer groups complained to a high-ranking officer and exerted pressure through the media, did the police service finally send officers to the crime scene.

Johannesburg's Opposition Government Collapses; [Black] Racist Marxist Party Could Govern South Africa.  The city of Johannesburg, South Africa, which had been governed by an opposition coalition since municipal elections last year, saw its government collapse over the weekend, a sign that the country could be led by a racist left-wing party after the 2024 election.  The liberal Democratic Alliance (DA), the country's largest opposition party, has made steady advances in urban areas over the last two decades.  Last year, it succeeded in taking over the troubled city of Johannesburg, installing physician Mpho Phalatse as mayor.  Johannesburg, the country's economic hub and the most important industrial metropolis on the African continent, has suffered high crime and declining public services in recent years.  The country's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is widely seen as both corrupt and incompetent, using political power to fund its patronage network and neglecting basic government functions.

The Editor says...
It sounds just like Zimbabwe -- or Detroit.

Zimbabwe Hails Success Of Gold Coin Issuance — Lower Denominations Coming.  Declaring its July launch of one-ounce gold coins a success, Zimbabwe's central bank says it will begin issuing and selling coins in smaller gold denominations this fall.  "Following the successful launch of the gold coins on 25 July 2022 and in response to public demand, the bank shall introduce and release into the market gold coins in units of a tenth ounce, quarter ounce and half an ounce for sale with effect from mid-November 2022," Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya said this week.  The coins, which can be purchased from approved banks, were introduced to combat rampant inflation driven by locals exchanging Zimbabwean dollars for US dollars.  In July, Zimbabwe's price inflation rate was over 250%.

Anarchy rules South Africa.  President Ramaphosa, once hailed as the modernising saviour of the country after the depredations of his predecessor, has not turned the country away from its trajectory towards a failed state.  Institutional collapse is obvious in many state and para-state institutions and physical infrastructure is dire.  Those citizens who can afford to have turned to private suppliers of health care, security and education.  Going off-grid is now a staple of dinner conversation.  Recognising the danger of a collapse of the national energy grid, Ramaphosa has belatedly sought support from private energy producers, primarily renewables.  In short, for many years now the country has already been undergoing an Arab Spring of its own as people take charge of their own communities: sometimes orderly, often chaotically and occasionally violently.

Zimbabwe to introduce gold coins as local currency tumbles.  Zimbabwe's central bank said it would start selling gold coins this month as a store of value to tame runaway inflation, which has considerably weakened the local currency.  The central bank governor John Mangudya said in a statement on Monday that the coins will be available for sale from July 25 in local currency, U.S. dollars and other foreign currencies at a price based on the prevailing international price of gold and the cost of production.

In Memory of Those Who "Died Suddenly" in Zimbabwe and South Africa.  The Hwange community has been plunged into mourning following the sudden death of Hwange Colliery Company Limited managing director, Dr. Charles Zinyema.  He was 59.  Dr. Zinyemba collapsed and died at his home in the mining town on Sunday morning and details leading to his death are still sketchy.

South Africa Erects Roadblocks to Stop Wave of Zimbabwe Migrants.  South Africa's government recently erected four separate checkpoints along its border with Zimbabwe in an effort to detect and arrest "hundreds of undocumented Zimbabweans" who have crossed into South Africa illegally in recent days, the online newspaper New Zimbabwe reported on Tuesday [1/4/2022].  South Africa's Department of Homes Affairs funded the construction of the roadblocks, manned by national police and defense forces along with South African customs officials.  Two of the checkpoints are located "at Baobab, one at Musina and another at Mantsole," according to New Zimbabwe.

Death Toll in South Africa Riots Rises to 276, Minister Says.  The death toll from recent riots in South Africa has risen to 276, and police are investigating 168 cases for murder, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday [7/21/2021].  The unrest started as protests over former president Jacob Zuma's jailing two weeks ago in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.  But it quickly escalated into arson and looting, and spread to Gauteng province where the biggest city Johannesburg is located.

How 'equity' ideology plunged South Africa into inequality and chaos.  As South Africa erupted into chaos, my thoughts turned to the United States — a great country brought low by the same toxic and demented racial politics that set afire my homeland last week.  As I write, shell-shocked South Africans are trying to muster a response to an orgy of arson and looting.  Cargo vessels are being turned away from some of our largest harbors, because it's too dangerous to unload them.  Hundreds of thousands face hunger thanks to the destruction of warehouses and disruption of food-supply chains.  Tens of thousands of jobs and small businesses have been destroyed; the property damage is incalculable.  Former President Jacob Zuma's refusal to be held accountable for corruption triggered this mayhem.  Rather than face the prospect of imprisonment and disgrace, he seems to have attempted a preemptive coup against his successor.

World in Chaos.  In South Africa, the currency has fallen hard as riots have devasted the country.  They looted the mall, except for the bookstore.  The former South African President Jacob Zuma turned himself in to begin a 15-month sentence for contempt of court.  This has sent the country into a tailspin.  Contempt of court is an abuse of judicial power, for they claim they can lock anyone up for any reason whatsoever.

South African riots and looting leave at least 200 dead.  There's been a substantial breakdown in law and order in South Africa over the past two weeks.  Looting and riots have spread around the country and an estimated 200 people have been killed.  The current government is suggesting the rioting was planned by loyalists of former president Jacob Zuma.  Zuma was president of South Africa for nine years and was dogged with various charges of corruption for his entire career.  Zuma resigned under pressure in Feb. 2018 and prosecutors announced corruptions charges against him the following month.  Zuma attempted to have the charges against him dismissed but South Africa's high court refused in 2019.  In December of 2020 Zuma was ordered to testify to a commission looking into corruption.  But in January of 2021, Zuma failed to show up.  On June 29, he was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to 15 months in prison.  He handed himself over to police on July 7. [...] Zuma's arrest seems to have been the spark that set off what followed.

Video Shows The Longest Line You'll Ever See Outside A Supermarket As Food Shortages Hit South Africa.  A viral video, shared on social media, shows a massive line, most likely miles long, outside a supermarket in South Africa's coastal city of Durban.  A man, who called himself John, said to BBC news:  Middle-class people like me now face shortages.  On Tuesday, I could not get bread and milk until I became aware, through our neighborhood WhatsApp group, of a community organization giving it out.  [Video clip]

Events in South Africa affirm the importance of our Second Amendment.  A friend in South Africa has been keeping me updated about what's going on there.  According to him, it was "a well-planned attempt at provoking a civil uprising."  What's extraordinary, though, is that, wherever armed, law-abiding citizens have been able to make a stand against the violence and anarchy, the rioters are backing down.  My friend forwarded to me a round-robin letter ("the Letter") that South Africans are sharing — and that reflects his experiences. [...] The ostensible reason for the South African riots is the fact that Jacob Zuma, a former president, was finally arrested on corruption charges.  However, according to the Letter, "nobody that I personally know, cares about freeing an ex-president from jail, under whose watch the country turned into a garbage dump."  The looting is comparable to what happened in American cities last year although on a much larger scale.

Why Violence and Looting Have Exploded Across South Africa.  The explosion of looting and destruction which has overtaken South Africa has left the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa shaken and dazed, its credibility and legitimacy undermined.  Ramaphosa's broadcasts to the nation, appealing for calm, full of cliches and generalities, have met with derision.  Nobody doubts that South Africa has reached another Rubicon, one which the ANC (African National Congress) government may be unable to cross.  The explosion of violence followed the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma on a charge of contempt for refusing to appear before the Commission of enquiry into the wholesale looting of the state which took place under his presidency.  Nobody seriously doubts that Zuma stole millions, probably billions of Rands and he still faces a long list of charges for racketeering, money-laundering and sundry other crimes.  But Zuma still has a large following among his Zulu followers and effectively threatened to make the country ungovernable if the government dared to jail him.  Undoubtedly the rioting began as his followers sought to make good on this threat.

Take A Guess Which Stores Remained Unlooted In South Africa.  As most of you have seen by now, not much is left unlooted or un-torched in South Africa.  But there is one shop in all the malls that were left unmolested.  It's the store that could have prevented the coming mass starvation and economic collapse if more South Africans would read.  [Video clip]

South Africa:  Mass Starvation To Follow Now That All Food Supply Chains Have Been Torched And Looted.  The South African government plans to deploy 25,000 troops after days of widespread looting and violence.  The military deployment — to counter riots sparked by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma — would be the biggest since the end of apartheid.  [Video clip]

This Is The Apocalyptic Hell That Is South Africa Right Now, Looks Eerily Like A Typical BLM Riot.  This was the pathetic scene at Watercrest Mall in Waterfall, KZN, South Africa as what looked like a zombie horde looted stores and stole anything and everything from, clothing to refrigerators to entire stoves.  Aidan David, a former police officer and chairperson of the eThekwini outer south community police forum, said he has never witnessed anything like this.  "It just goes to show that our country is ill-equipped, naked and vulnerable to crime and criminals.  We are not ready for this.  We are just sitting ducks," he said.  [Video clip]

South Africa's William Wallace Prepares His Fellow Civilians For War Against The Looting Zombie Horde.  Watch as this South African man, dubbed the William Wallace of South Africa, prepares his locals for battle with the looting horde coming their way to burn and steal everything in sight.  The armed civilians, alongside a few armed police, were able to push back the horde, even teaching a handful a lesson that crime can get [someone hurt].  [Video clip]

Video Shows Armed Vigilantes Driving Around And Shooting At Looters In South Africa.  South Africa is in a state of chaos and unrest ever since the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma on July 7.  As riots, arson, violence and lootings escalate in the country, the Indian community living there faces dangers to their homes and businesses.  In a desperate attempt to protect their businesses from looting, Indians have now stepped up their fight against the arsonists and looters.  [Video clip]

South Africa now suffers just like Zimbabwe did:
South African Farm Attacks In May: 7 Dead; Elderly Farmers Shot, Beaten, Strangled In A Wheelchair, And Hacked With A Machete.  These are the most recent "farm attacks" on whites in South Africa.  [For example,] A guard at a Jabula farm in Limpopo province of South Africa was killed during an attack.  Reports say an unknown number of intruders managed to gain entry to the property by cutting through electric fences.  The attackers opened fire on security guards resulting in one death.  No arrests were made.  The incident occurred June 3, 2021.

January Farm Attacks And Murders — Another Month In The Death Of White South Africa.  A farmer was murdered every 4.7 days in South Africa last year.  Farm attacks in that nation totaled 446 in 2020, or about 1.3 attacks each day on average.  The attacks resulted in 77 murders.  Compared to 2019 when 453 attacks occurred, the number of farm attacks decreased slightly.  However, the number of deaths nearly doubled in 2020.  There were "only" 48 farm murders in 2019.  With few exceptions, attackers were black and victims white.  Farm attacks are an expression of a much wider crime problem for South Africans.  The nation ranks third behind Venezuela and Papua New Guinea as the most crime-ridden of the planet's 195 nations.  The trend is continuing in 2021.

Democrats Introduce South African Style Land Confiscation Bill to Give Land To "Black Farmers".  On November 19, 2020 [U.S. Senator Cory] Booker released a statement about the bill titled The Justice for Black Farmers Act that plans to establish The Equitable Land Access Service system.  This land redistribution system would be led by an Under Secretary of Agriculture for Equitable Land Access.  The bill will be formally introduced in the U.S. Senate on November 30th and features co-sponsors such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand.  Lewis told Red Elephants that "the goals of Booker's legislation aren't all that dissimilar from those of the land expropriation acts enacted by South Africa's ruling ANC government that have accelerated the wanton murder and genocide of white farmers and their families."  South Africa has been one of the most notable countries on the planet that has seen its government use institutionalized racism against its White citizens.  Additionally, the South African government has turned a blind eye to the systematic killings of Boer farmers by black terrorists over the last decade since Apartheid ended.

Zimbabwe agrees to pay $3.5 billion compensation to white farmers.  Zimbabwe agreed on Wednesday [7/29/2020] to pay $3.5 billion in compensation to white farmers whose land was expropriated by the government to resettle black families, moving a step closer to resolving one the most divisive policies of the Robert Mugabe era.

The Editor says...
Now for the bad news:  They'll probably pay off with worthless Zimbabwe dollars!

With Zimbabwe hopelessly lost, we now turn our attention to South Africa:
The Slow and Ugly Implosion of South Africa Continues.  In 2018, Tucker Carlson highlighted the expropriation of land from white farmers in South Africa.  He stated, "As land seizures based on skin color shows, South Africa is once again becoming a place where an entire group of people is targeted for discrimination and violence on the basis of their skin color."  Twenty-six years ago, "South Africans engaged in a peaceful revolution.  As late as the 1980s commentators predicted that any transition from white minority domination and black majority rule would precipitate a bloody civil war.  Instead, in 1994 South Africans replaced president F.W. de Klerk with Nelson Mandela in a free and fair election that astonished the world."  Thus, "South Africans of all races voted in the country's first democratic elections, choosing Mandela as their first black president.  The inhumane apartheid regime seemed to be miraculously ending peacefully, though much work remained to improve the lives of all South Africans."  By the "late 1980s, however, South Africa's economy was in a deep recession and large segments of the country were becoming ungovernable."

South African Police refuse to investigate murder of white farming family.  South Africa's lackadaisical police service, run by ex-terrorists, has again shown that it does not care for the country's farming community who are under constant attack.

The Beginning of the End of Whites in South Africa.  And it's worse than any of us can imagine.  Eighty-four farm attacks since lockdown began, twelve white farmers slaughtered from their land.  The footage of the aftermath of one of the attacks circulating on Telegram and sent to me — too brutal to share.  Only monsters could do such things to the elderly in their own homes.  As many of us celebrated the 4th of July this weekend, there were three murders in two days, one of them so unspeakably cruel that even those hardened to the news of torture of farmers by black gangs have found themselves white-knuckled at the speed of the horror.

The Sneaky Covid War on Cash.  We have seen the death of much of the world's funny money in just the last 40 years.  For example, in Peru, one million Intis would buy a modest home in 1985; five years later it would not buy a tube of toothpaste.  Brazil had so many new banknotes they ran out of heroes to print on them.  In Vietnam in the 1980's, factories had to hire trucks to carry the bags of dongs to pay the Tet (New Year) workers' bonuses.  In 1997 in Zaire, it took a brick-sized bundle of 500,000 notes of the local currency to pay for a meal — no one bothered to count them.  On the Yugoslav border in 1989, tourists foolish enough to change "hard" currency for Yugoslav dinars got 14 cubic metres of dinars.  "Dinars can no longer be measured in millions or billions, but only in cubic metres".  It had become a cubic currency.  These grim records were eclipsed in November 2008, when Zimbabwe suffered inflation of 98% PER DAY.

Zimbabwe stock exchange shutdown: stockbrokers stunned, investors stressed.  Stockbrokers in Zimbabwe are struggling to explain to investors what's happened to their money after the government shut down the stock exchange.  The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange announced Sunday it suspended trading to comply with a directive issued by the Information Ministry late Friday that the bourse close.  It's the latest in a series of measures the government has implemented to try and stabilize the nation's currency.

Zimbabwe Shutters Stock Exchange, Blocks All Mobile Money Payments As Currency Collapses (Again).  For the fifth time in Zimbabwe's history, its currency has just collapsed.  As Decrypt.co's Adriana Hamacher reports, Zimbabwe's government suspended all mobile money payments, including operations by dominant provider Ecocash on Friday.  The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange was also ordered to stop trading, in a dramatic escalation of the nation's currency crisis.  The government claims the move is to avert a conspiracy to sabotage the collapsing Zimbabwe dollar.  But millions of Zimbabweans rely on digital payment operators because obtaining physical cash is so difficult.  Ecocash is also commonly used to buy Bitcoin.  In response, Ecocash has promised to defy the ban.  It maintains that only Zimbabwe's central bank can order it to stop trading.

Zimbabwe Begs For Aid To Avoid "Collapse".  Zimbabwe finds itself in economic dire straits.  Again.  The South African nation which previously wiped out its debt with a historic round of hyperinflation, is trying a different approach this time and is pleading with international institutions to help it eliminate billions of dollars in debt so the country can avoid economic collapse and unlock funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.  Taking a page out of the Italian playbook, finance minister Mthuli Ncube told the IMF, African Development Bank and other institutions in a letter seen by the Financial Times that without urgent aid to clear arrears owed to official lenders, Zimbabwe faced "domestic collapse."

Coronavirus hits African despots hard now they can no longer fly abroad to have expensive medical treatment.  For years, leaders from Benin to Zimbabwe have received medical care abroad while their own poorly funded health systems limp from crisis to crisis.  Several presidents, including ones from Nigeria, Malawi and Zambia, have died overseas.  The practice is so notorious that a South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, a few years ago scolded: 'We are the only continent that has its leaders seeking medical services outside the continent, outside our territory.  We must be ashamed.'

50 trillion dollar note
Coronavirus Is Not Even Close to America's Biggest Problem.  The immediate reaction of our government to the virus threat was to spend massive amounts of money.  The latest news is that politicians plan to "boost" the economy with nearly two trillion dollars in spending and loans.  "The package is coming in at about 10% of GDP.  It's very large," says Larry Kudlow.  For a plan of this size to sound like a good idea, you need to ignore some important economic facts.  Our country has unbelievable levels of debt, and our debt is rising rapidly.  The numbers are staggering. [...] Governments that have tried this approach have ended up with money that looks like this 50-trillion-dollar bill from Zimbabwe.  It's real paper money.  But this $50 trillion wouldn't buy much.  In Venezuela, the inflation rate is around 53 million percent.  That means everything costs more every day.


Zimbabwe facing 'man-made' starvation, UN expert warns.  Zimbabwe is facing "man-made" starvation with 60 percent of the people failing to meet basic food needs, a UN special envoy said Thursday after touring the southern African country.  Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, ranked Zimbabwe among the four top countries facing severe food shortages outside nations in conflict zones.  "The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation," she told a news conference in Harare, adding that eight million people would be affected by the end of the year.  "Today, Zimbabwe counts amongst the four highest food insecure states," she said after an 11-day tour, adding that poor harvests were compounded by 490 percent hyperinflation.

Zimbabwe controversially flies elephants abroad ... probably China.  Zimbabwe has flown up to 30 young elephants to a different country, believed to be China.  The sale has been criticised by animal welfare groups, who say that the animals may be traumatised.  But Zimbabwe's National Parks service argues that it needs to earn hard currency to support other wildlife during a devastating drought which has already killed 55 elephants.

Zimbabwe flag
US Embassy In Zimbabwe:  Tucker Carlson Doesn't Know The Half Of It.  Last week Tucker Carlson fumed with astonishment at a tweet — since deleted — by the US Embassy Harare apparently praising former, deceased Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.  That's certainly what's happening with the US down in Zimbabwe.  Stating, as Carlson did that the Ambassador "should be recalled for that" was not the half of it — he made clear his view that "This is when you know the executive branch of government is completely out of control.  That it's being run by bureaucrats who don't care at all who was elected, who are acting out their left-wing agendas without any restraint". But there's far more going down than that which Tucker Carlson has identified.  For what the bureaucrats of the executive branch are attempting (whilst denying they are doing so) is to support the opposition in Zimbabwe.


Mugabe funeral:  Zimbabwe ex-president laid to rest in Kutama.  Zimbabwe's former President Robert Mugabe has been laid to rest in the rural village where he was born, three weeks after his death at the age of 95.  He was buried in the courtyard of his home in Kutama, about 90km (55 miles) west of the capital Harare.  Mugabe died in a Singapore hospital on 6 September, nearly two years after a coup ended his 37 years in power.  The Mugabe family decided on a private burial in Kutama after weeks of argument with the government.

A look at the shattered Zimbabwe that Mugabe left as leader.  Robert Mugabe took a country shining with the promise of independence and left it economically shattered and in the grip of repression — and yet Zimbabwe continued to crumble so badly after his downfall that some of its people began openly missing his nearly four-decade rule.

Longtime Zimbabwean Strongman Robert Mugabe Dies At 95.  He was a symbol of liberation and hope — a leader of the quasi-Communist ZANU-PF who helped free his country from oppressive British rule, according to the NYT.  Mugabe was 95 at the time of his death.  Later, when food stocks started to run low, Mugabe's true nature became apparent.  He authorized oppressive crackdowns and indefinite detentions of suspected political opponents.  Some suspected him of torture and unspeakable treatment of suspected political opponents.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean leader who helped liberate and destroy his country, dies at 95.  Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president who rose to power as a champion of anti-colonial struggle but during 37 years of authoritarian rule presided over the impoverishment and degradation of one of sub-Saharan Africa's most promising countries, has died in Singapore.  He was 95.  Zimbabwe's current leader, Emmerson Mnangagwa, announced the death on Twitter, but did not disclose the cause.  Mr. Mugabe, who had displayed physical decline over recent years, had been receiving hospital treatment in Singapore since April, Mnangagwa said last month.

Robert Mugabe, socialist curse of humanity, is gone.  Zimbabwe's preening socialist strongman, Robert Mugabe, a man who left his once-prosperous country a hellhole, is gone, and his end didn't come soon enough.  He went out as as one of the world's worst curses against humanity. [...] Mugabe had a free license to disrespect the rule of law inherent in property rights, and then plunder the country, all in the name of 'helping the poor,' justifying his vile acts with virtue-signaling, seemingly with God's imprimatur.  Did the poor get rich from his land expropriations?  Not in the least.  Actually, they got poorer than ever, and millions fled as refugees.  He turned his once-successful country into a miserable failure.

The Editor says...
Mugabe may be gone, but his goons are still in power, and if you don't cry at his funeral, something bad is likely to happen to you.

Senegal sounds a lot like Zimbabwe.
Bad Law Keeps People Poor.  Why does most of Africa stay poor while other parts of the world prosper?  People blame things like climate, the history of colonialism, racism, etc.  But I say Senegalese businesswoman Magatte Wade gives the right explanation:  too many rules.  "Once you hire someone, good luck getting rid of them for any reason," Wade complains.  Her government must approve every firing.  "Then the tax code is so complicated... worth at least two or three truckloads of paper."

African nations get brutal at borders in crackdowns on illegal immigration.  African borders are often a tangle of razor wire, with soldiers at crossing points checking papers, waving on those with valid IDs and turning back the rest.  Even so, an estimated 1,200 undocumented migrants every night cross the Limpopo River, South Africa's equivalent of the Rio Grande separating the U.S. and Mexico.  Most are from Zimbabwe, where shortages of food and fuel and an unemployment rate of more than 80% have sparked a steady exodus to the more stable and more prosperous South Africa.

Zimbabwean Businesses Abandon Local Currency for US Dollars.  With Zimbabwe's economy struggling, more businesses are refusing to accept local currency, taking only U.S. dollars.  As Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare, even some government agencies have started charging in American currency.

The Elephant in the Room.  While human populations and the concomitant demand for land continue to grow in both Botswana and Zimbabwe, so are their elephant numbers.  One estimate coming from the Zambezi Society puts the elephant population of what is now known as Zimbabwe at a paltry 4,000 in 1900, when the country was very sparsely populated.  Against a backdrop of a massive increase in the number of people, there are now over 80,000, and that is despite the culling of roughly 45,000 between 1960 and 1990.  Hwange National Park, which is now home to the bulk of the Zimbabwean elephant population, did not boast a permanent elephant presence until the arrival of the Europeans at the turn of the last century.  They were at a loss as to what to do with an uninhabited wasteland unsuited to agriculture because of poor sandy soils and a lack of water.  A farsighted decision was made to turn it into a viable wildlife refuge through the creation of artificial water holes drawing on subterranean water, and the success was spectacular; too successful, in fact, and thus the present-day problem of too many animals.  Neighboring Botswana, part of the same ecosystem, and about which the present controversy swirls, is home to approximately 130,000 elephants, the largest population of them in Africa, and parts of the country, particularly the Chobe area, are being ecologically devastated as a result of the overconcentration of animals.

Socialism Leaves South Africa In The Dark.  With rolling blackouts that can last for as long as twelve hours, South Africans have grown used to eating by candlelight and heating water the old-fashioned way.  Those who can afford it have been stocking up on generators.  But the demand is so high that it can take a month to even obtain a generator.  It's not just homes and small businesses.  Factories and mines are struggling to maintain the country's industrial base when power can vanish for the entire workday.

Chinese Companies Tear Down Zimbabwe's Environment.  The environmental impacts by some Chinese companies operating in Zimbabwe can only be described as catastrophic, according to leading environmentalist and human rights activist Farai Maguwu.  Maguwu told The Epoch Times that some Chinese companies don't even have proper licenses to operate in Zimbabwe.  And as such, these companies are leaving trails of immense environmental degradation across the country, particularly those in extractive sectors such as gold, diamond, and chrome mining.

The Deadly Truth about South Africa.  The corruption in South Africa is so bad, it's like a noxious fog that has settled on a once peaceful, prosperous, and prejudiced nation. [...] The ANC no longer stands for African National Congress but for Accumulation, Nepotism, and Cronyism.  Corruption is one of the most used words by South Africans.  Of course, this does not surprise anyone since one-party rule always results in cronyism, chaos, and corruption.  The corruption is ubiquitous, especially in the ANC, the political party that has been controlled by Communists from its earliest days and has governed South Africa since the end of the white minority government in 1994.

Will we become like South Africa?  [Scroll down]  Years after my travels to South Africa, the white racist regime fell thanks to the peaceful likes of Nelson Mandela, black domestic violent insurrection and a total economic boycott by Western countries in Europe and the United States.  But when the nation was turned over to the socialist and borderline communist African National Congress and its black constituency, all did not go as planned and hoped for.  Violent crime escalated, and whites fearing retaliation by the now black majority control and government fled South Africa in droves.  And, a big driving force was the related fear that the property of the white minority would be confiscated by the new black majority.  To put it mildly, the law and order, the safety of the citizenry of all races and ethnicities, and the economy of South Africa all suffered greatly — and the nation went into a downward spiral that continues to today.

24 bodies found after Zimbabwe mine disaster; search goes on.  Searchers have recovered 24 bodies from a mine in Zimbabwe that was flooded after heavy rains, trapping dozens of subsistence miners underground.

Is Zimbabwe the Next Venezuela?  Robert Mugabe became the president of Zimbabwe in April 1980, back when Jimmy Carter was still president.  Within two years he had deployed his infamous North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade against minority tribes in Matabeleland in a campaign of deliberate killing and starvation.  The organization Genocide Watch estimated that 20,000 people were ultimately killed.  Mugabe would later launch an insane seizure of white-owned farms.  That led to widespread food shortages and a destructive hyperinflation that resulted in almost-worthless 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar notes in circulation.

Zimbabwe's President Returns Amid Economic Crisis, Crackdown.  Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived in Harare late Monday [1/21/2019] after cutting short his fund-raising trip in order to address the country's economic crisis and crackdown.

Zimbabwe leader warns 'heads will roll' after violent crackdown of protesters.  Zimbabwe's president sent a warning to his security forces that "heads will roll" if the chaos and insubordination seen amid a week of economic crisis and brutal crackdown of protesters continued.  President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who cut short a high-profile fundraising visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to return on Tuesday, called the violence by security forces "unacceptable and a betrayal."

A Letter from Zimbabwe Where the Country is in Total Shutdown.  16 January 2019.  We are now in our third day of complete shutdown throughout the whole of Zimbabwe.  Banks are closed, schools are closed, roads are closed in and out of the main towns and transport systems have shut down.  There are no newspapers to be bought, the Internet has been shut down by the government and everything is at a complete standstill.  People are too afraid to move around as a result of the burning of vehicles by vigilante groups and the complete dearth of any updated information or warnings due to the total social media blackout.  This means that no WhatsApp messages or photos can be sent, no one can access Facebook or Messenger, and the situation is very tense.

US alarmed as Zimbabwe targets, beats activists amid unrest.  The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe says it is "alarmed" by credible reports that security forces are targeting and beating activists and labor leaders.  A local doctors' rights group says it has treated 68 gunshot cases.

$3.33 per liter.
Zimbabwe now has the most expensive gasoline in the world.  Zimbabwe is on a three-day nationwide strike and protests are erupting in the streets after the government of the southern African country doubled fuel prices, making gasoline sold in Zimbabwe the most expensive in the world.  Zimbabwe is in the midst of an economic crisis and a shortage of foreign exchange, which has led to fuel and bread shortages, and many companies have stopped working because they can't import raw materials.  Following hyperinflation in 2009, Zimbabwe abolished its own currency and has been using the US dollar and South African rand instead.  But the economic crisis and foreign currency shortages has prompted the government to say over the weekend that it would introduce a new currency of its own in the next 12 months.

Zimbabwe military quells fuel price protests; several deaths.  Zimbabwe's police and military patrolled the streets of the capital, Harare, Tuesday [1/15/2019] as a helicopter fired tear gas at demonstrators blocking a road and burning tires on a second day of deadly protests after the government more than doubled the price of fuel in the economically shattered country.

Race row in South Africa as health officials advertise for 100 new doctors, but white people are told not to apply.  A race row has broken out in South Africa after health officials advertised for 100 new doctors, but did not allow white medics to apply for specialist roles.  The health department in the KwaZulu-Natal province expanded its registrar programme for 2019 from 314 to 414, but aimed to fill the new posts with only black candidates.  Health bosses said the move was implemented to redress the country's historical racial imbalance of Apartheid that saw most high-ranking positions filed by white doctors.  Campaigners and human rights activists have branded the recruitment policy 'discriminatory, unconstitutional and racist'.

CNN Claims that White Farmers in Africa Defending Land 'Are Racist'.  The race-baiting rhetoric from CNN has officially entered the "unhinged zone."  Ironically, they have made some mad claims in the past.  However, their recent claims have topped the charts of insanity.  CNN claimed in a recent video that whites in Africa who defend their land are "racist."  Additionally, so are whites in America who speak against the white genocide.  The left's disingenuous ignorance knows no bounds.  We are talking about white people who were born and raised in Africa, being killed by the hundreds.  This is nothing short of "white genocide."  Yet it is racist for the farmers to defend their land.  What has become of the US?  These aren't white people that moved to Africa from some other place.

Whites Have No Place in Africa.  On 11 December the South African Constitutional Court delivered a scathing judgment against former president Jacob Zuma's decision in 2014 to support a Mugabe-initiated pseudo-legal maneuver to block a South African Development Community (SADC) tribunal ruling.  This court had been constituted at the time of the formation of SADC and was designed to arbitrate disputes within the member states.  The founding fathers of the community were explicit in the prohibition of any action taken against any person or entity motivated by race.  This worked until Mugabe forcefully evicted 4,000 white farmers on the grounds of their skin color.  When Zimbabwean courts were found wanting, the farmers took their case to the SADC tribunal and won.  Suddenly a deified "freedom fighter" was conclusively proved to be a vicious and destructive racist, that his actions were illegal, and (all credit to the brave judges) his government was instructed to compensate the dispossessed.  This was too much for Mugabe and his regional acolytes, so they simply closed the court and annulled the ruling.

This is only slightly off-topic:
Combating Racism by Slaughtering Sheep.  The scourge of racism has been cured in the best way possible:  through the exuberant application of indigenous culture.  ["]Pandemonium broke out on Clifton's Fourth Beach on Friday [12/28/2018] when demonstrators arrived with a sheep which they slaughtered to exorcise the 'demon of racism.'["]  Clifton is an upscale suburb of Cape Town, South Africa.  It offers the most expensive real estate in the country, and no doubt is chock-full of well-to-do liberals who helped bring down Apartheid.  Uh oh.  We have an intersectionality problem.  Sheep are oppressed too: [...] There followed a melee, as the black supremacists and animal rights advocates hurled obscenities and footwear at each other.  Yet again, we see that leftism can only be used to destroy.

White Genocide?  South African Politician:  Kill Whites, "Their Women," and "Their Children".  "For every one black person we will kill five white people," bellowed the South African political leader.  "We'll kill their women, we'll kill their children, we'll kill anything we find in our way."  The comments shocked many, but here's what's more shocking:  They're not all that unusual in today's South Africa.

'Your time is up' South Africa sets date for white farmer land grabs — March 2019.  South Africa has set a date for when its much-criticised land expropriations can begin after a politician declared:  "Your time is up, white people[.]"  The country's National Assembly approved a proposal to change the constitution to make the so-called reforms legal in a vote of 183 to 77.  This paves the way for land to be taken from farmers without giving any kind of compensation.  And now lawmakers have agreed to set up a committee that will write and introduce a new bill for land expropriations.

Zimbabwe to Compensate Displaced White Farmers.  Zimbabwe's government plans to compensate white farmers whose land was seized during the country's land reform in the early 2000s.  But farmers say the $53 million in compensation is not enough and that land should also be returned to them.  Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.  [Video clip]

Zimbabwe 2.0: South Africa Votes to Confiscate White Minority's Land Without Compensation.  The South African parliament voted on Tuesday to move forward in amending their Constitution to allow for the confiscation of land from their white minority without compensation.  The move has come just twenty-four years after apartheid officially ended.  Whites ended the apartheid system only with the explicit constitutional guarantee that their land would never be stolen, but now that they've become a small minority with rapidly dwindling political power that's all gone out the window.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe no longer able to walk, president says.  Zimbabwe's 94-year-old former president Robert Mugabe is no longer able to walk as his health declines, his successor said Saturday [11/24/2018].

In Zimbabwe, Skyrocketing Prices Evoke Painful Memories.  Prices for some consumer goods are skyrocketing in Zimbabwe, a painful echo of the hyperinflation that ripped through the Southern African country a decade ago.  In October, the cost of certain items — including cooking oil, alcoholic drinks and flu medication — jumped as much as 400%, as many Zimbabweans rushed to liquidate their savings and businesses struggled to pay for imports.  Long fuel lines forced people to fill up their cars on the black market at three times the price.  Some companies have started paying part of their staff's salaries in food, while many stores no longer accept card payments for imported goods.

Rumble in the jungle: Is South Africa heading for imminent property war?  South Africa's controversial land reform that aims to take property and farmland away from white owners without compensation for redistribution among the black population is stirring heated debate in the country.  The reform, which has become a burning issue both domestically and internationally, was pushed by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) earlier this year.  Last month, the country's president Cyril Ramaphosa pledged to speed up implementation of the disputed policy.

'I've heard your cries,' Mnangagwa tells Zimbabweans.  Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly warned his Zanu-PF party heavyweights that he would not tolerate saboteurs manipulating the country's economic crisis to enrich themselves by inflating basic commodity prices.  According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, speaking at a Zanu-PF politburo meeting this week, Mnangagwa said he was aware that some close party officials were using their positions to "create despondency in the country through manipulation of currency market and creating artificial shortages."  "Government is fully aware of the machinations by some detractors and economic opportunists who are bent on creating despondency in the country through the manipulation of the foreign currency market and creation of artificial shortages.  "This has caused untold suffering to our people.  As a listening president, I have heard their cries and my government is determined to provide solutions to these perennial challenges," Mnangagwa was quoted as saying.

Zimbabwean Widows Punished by Tribal Courts for Selling Gold-rich Land.  When massive gold deposits were discovered about a decade ago in Chimanimani, eastern Zimbabwe, the rural district became famous for attracting hundreds of artisanal miners from across the country every year.  Wealthy small-scale prospectors regularly offer residents generous deals for their land, locals say.  To many widows selling their unused land, that kind of money can be life-changing and a source of greater autonomy.  But in recent years, widows in Chimanimani have found that taking a deal can have consequences.  Many say they have been taken to tribal courts by their husbands' families for selling portions of their land.

South African city set to seize land in national 'test case'.  As South Africa's passionate debate over land redistribution grows, one city outside Johannesburg is preparing what the mayor calls a "test case" for the nation — the seizure of hundreds of acres of land from private owners, without paying for it, to build low-cost housing.

Zulu king backs South African white farmers against land seizures.  South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, is taking steps to change that nation's constitution and permit the seizure without compensation of land owned by white farmers.  Notably, the leftists at the Southern Poverty Law Center demand that we avert our eyes from this situation because "white genocide" is a "dangerous myth."  But there is already an ongoing epidemic of murder of white farmers.

Zulu king wants South Africa land reform to exclude his territories.  Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini wants President Cryil Ramaphosa to sign an agreement promising to exclude territories that the monarch controls from a government land reform drive, the eNCA news channel reported on Monday [10/8/2018].

Trump Pulls Back the Shroud on South Africa.  Loathe or admire the apprentice who became the president, all owe a debt to Donald Trump.  Upon telling his secretary of state to home in on fears that Mandela's legatees had declared open season on white farmers and farmland, the habituated tweeter provoked his opposite number to defend what, to many, seems gutter politics.  If a road to Hell is paved with good intentions, another road going to the same venue is paved with bad intentions.  It's the road South Africa is on.  Manipulators of a penniless mass may drum into them having been dealt a derisory thin edge of the wedge.  Do the poor want to go on being pushed around and exploited?  Are they content with being homeless and landless?  Do they want the white Boers to harvest their lavish gift, the farmlands God meant indigenous people to have and to hold?  Do they like being knocked over with a sneeze, or do they want to command respect?  Victims may take back what is theirs by right.

White farmers warn of 'new Zimbabwe' as calls grow for land expropriation in South Africa.  Any aspiring farmer would envy Nick Serfontein.  The Bonsmara cattle he rears on 15,000 acres of pasture in the high plains of South Africa's Free State province are fat and sleek, prize-winning specimens of arguably Africa's finest beef-producing breed. [...] But Mr Serfontein is also a member of South Africa's privileged white minority, who could — if certain politicians get their way — lose everything he has built up for years and receive nothing in return.

South Africa 'unexpectedly' slides into recession as agricultural production plummets in wake of plans to seize white-owned farmland.  [W]ho could have possibly anticipated that threatening to steal (that is, expropriate without compensation) land from farmers who have worked it for generations would cause farmers to cut back on planting, cultivating, harvesting, or shipping crops?  Thus, we have Bloomberg telling us, "South Africa's economy unexpectedly shrank for the second consecutive quarter in the three months through June."  The recession, based on a second-quarter decline in GDP of 0.8%, is entirely due to a steep decline in agricultural production:  "the agriculture market fell back by 29.2 percent, taking 0.8 percent off GDP."  This was entirely predictable.  Half a year ago, I warned that with expropriation of white farmers, South Africa is embarking on a course headed toward disaster.

Africa Destroyed: Poster Child for Liberalism.  The continental catastrophe that has engulfed Africa may go down in history as the greatest politically motivated human calamity of all time.  Hundreds of millions of poverty-stricken people are getting poorer while an ever-diminishing, tiny elite get richer and richer.  Central authority in most countries is dissipating, legal strictures introduced by the colonial administrations have disintegrated, and the rule of "might of right" is back.  Countries in the traditional sense of the word are ceasing to exist as borders are eviscerated by tribal allegiances trumping national identities.  Warlords and tyrannical traditional leaders have assumed control over vast swathes of sub-Saharan Africa, and they rule ruthlessly.  The world rarely and barely gets a glimpse of the blood-soaked barbarities routinely visited upon a multitude of wretchedly poor and defenseless people, and when they do, they respond with little other than the muttering of meaningless platitudes.  The damage being done to the environment through overpopulation, "slash and burn" agriculture, and uncontrolled logging — along with the decimation of wildlife — is sickening, but the "Global Warmists" are silent on this and the "bunny-hugging" so-called "environmentalists" do little other than wring their soft wet hands.

South Africans Push Back Against Lying American Media — White Farmers Getting Killed Daily.  Residents of South Africa are creating videos backing up US President Donald Trump's claims that white farmers in South Africa are being murdered.  In riveting firsthand testimony uploaded to Twitter Monday [8/27/2018], several South Africans pushed back against the mainstream media, testifying violence against whites is on the rise.

Does White Privilege Theory Pave The Way For South Africa-Style Property Confiscation In The United States?  The South African parliament is considering an amendment to their constitution to allow for "expropriation without compensation" of private property for the purpose of "land reform."  Although apartheid ended in the early 1990s, most South African farmland is still owned by whites, and many in South Africa see land reform as a necessary remedy for past injustices committed by white colonists of Anglo and Dutch origin.  While many pundits have been quarreling over whether 74 farm murders last year constitute "white genocide" (the case is weak at best, given the lack of data), the actual policy debate in the country is deeply disturbing on its own, and shows, regardless of what you think about the farm murders, that racial Marxism threatens to bring an economic and human rights disaster upon South Africa. [...] Could a version of South Africa's or Zimbabwe's property confiscation ever happen in America?

South Africa withdraws white farmland redistribution bill.  South Africa has withdrawn its white farmland redistribution bill — six days after Donald Trump warned he was closely studying the situation.  The ruling African National Congress (ANC) said the bill passed by parliament in 2016 enabling the state to make compulsory purchases of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership needed further consideration.  It comes after Trump criticised the country's land reform plans in a tweet that touched on the overwhelmingly white ownership of farmland in South Africa — one of the most sensitive issues in the country's post-apartheid history.

Dear CNN: Blacks Are Taking Land From Whites In South Africa — Is That 'Racism?'.  The Militant Left's racism rules are so jacked up that they don't know how to react to the South Africa story.  The rules that we used to all play by were pretty straightforward.  Treating someone differently (better or worse) than someone else for no other reason but skin color or ethnicity was explicitly racist.  Ah, yes... way back in those far simpler times.  Then someone had the bright idea to connect racism to Marxism thinking.  Now racism is defined through the filter of power and politics.

Zimbabwe opposition rejects ruling and 'false' inauguration.  Zimbabwe's main opposition leader said Saturday [8/25/2018] he respectfully rejects the court ruling upholding President Emmerson Mnangagwa's narrow election win and he called the inauguration set for Sunday "false."

South Africa begins seizing white-owned farms in land redistribution program.  The South African government has begun the process of seizing white-owned farmland, reportedly filing legal papers seeking to expropriate two farms for one-tenth of their estimated value.  The filings, involving two game farms in the northern province of Limpopo, come as the African National Congress government is seeking to amend the country's constitution to allow outright seizures of land with no compensation.  The ANC's leader also has recently argued that pure expropriation is allowed anyway now "in the public interest."

The Genocidal Elite, Part II: The Pains in South Africa.  [J]ust step off a plane in South Africa and witness the cataclysmic collapse of Nelson Mandela's famed "Rainbow Nation."  To no one's surprise, Mandela's vision of "peace and reconciliation" has become increasingly unsustainable as South Africa's heavily socialist economy sinks deeper into recession, putting a huge majority of its black population in poverty, and earning an average annual income far below that of their fellow whites.  Couple this with inflammatory (and incorrect) claims by the ruling government that whites own 80 percent of the land in South Africa — the number is actually closer to 15 percent — and economic anxiety combined with racial tension has produced a political environment deeply friendly to policies and rhetoric directed against the white population.  Most alarmingly, this year, South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the South African constitution would be amended to allow the government to seize white-owned land without compensation:  a move likely inspired by pressure from virulently racist radicals like Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the militant Black First Land First (BLF) movement.  To no one's surprise, this move has caused the South African currency to tank, as the market recognizes the obvious echoes of Zimbabwe.

South Africa farm seizure:  Terrified white farmers plot escape as crackdown looms.  A record number of white South African farmers have put their land up for sale amid fears the ruling party is considering confiscating properties bigger than 25,000 acres.  Tensions among the country's white farming community have been rising since the election of Cyril Ramaphosa assumed office earlier this year and committed his African National Congress (ANC) to land expropriation.

Mnangagwa Declared Winner in Zimbabwe, Opposition Calls Election 'Coup'.  The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission released the results of the presidential election late on Thursday [8/2/2018] and declared incumbent interim President Emmerson Mnangagwa the winner by just enough to avoid a runoff against challenger Nelson Chamisa.  Chamisa's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party immediately rejected the results as "fraudulent" and accused Mnangagwa of staging a "coup."

Zimbabwe Police Try to Stop Opposition From Criticizing Vote.  Hours after President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared the winner of a tight election, riot police attempted to disrupt a press conference where opposition leader Nelson Chamisa denounced the election results.

Related:
South Africa set to amend constitution ... to become a wasteland.  There's no way this is going to work the way they think it's going to work.  Get ready for the "before" and "after" pictures after this one.  South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has announced that his ruling party will move to amend the country's constitution to allow the expropriation of white-owned farmland without compensation.

A Racist Communist Famine Grows in South Africa.  "Strongman politics are ascendant," Barack Obama warned in South Africa.  He spoke passionately about "the politics of fear and resentment" at the Mandela Lecture.  He worried that we were entering a world, "where might makes right and politics is a hostile competition between tribes and races and religions."  While the media used the remarks to attack Trump's meeting with Putin, Obama had shared a stage with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa who had come to power promising to seize land from white farmers.  Ramaphosa was the latest in a series of ANC strongmen, including his predecessor, an alleged rapist, beginning with the Communist terrorist whose legacy Obama was commemorating.

South African Ruling Party Calls All White People 'Murderers' — Seizes Farms For Redistribution.  We really should care about Africa... these are communist despots we are talking about and they are redistributionist and murderous.  Apartheid may have ended, but now South Africa is swinging the other way big time.  White farmers are furious and the government has announced the seizure of 139 farms to redistribute to black farmers in a supreme incidence of racist social justice.  These farmers did not hurt or kill anyone.  They aren't engaged in racism either, yet they are having what they have worked their whole lives for ripped from them and given to someone else based solely on skin color.  South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last week plans to allow white people's land to be taken without compensation, which will then be distributed to black people in a move that he believes will be good for the economy.  That won't end well for South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) and it will definitely egg on class warfare and violence.  There have already been numerous incidents that I've heard of concerning the murdering of white people in South Africa simply because they are white.

Zimbabwe's leader pleads for peace amid protests.  Zimbabwe's president is warning against making "provocative statements" as hundreds of angry opposition supporters protest in the capital and riot police fire tear gas.

Why are people so angry about Donald Trump's UK visit given we rolled out the red carpet for Robert Mugabe?  The on-off visit of Donald Trump to the UK is happening — but that doesn't mean the controversy has stopped.  Thousands are taking to the street to condemn the arrival of the leader of the free world, while a giant baby blimp has mocked the US president from the sky.  Any yet Britain has entertained some equally controversial world leaders before him.  So why are people so unhappy this time and why didn't Mr Trump get the state visit treatment Britain offered to Robert Mugabe?

Zimbabwe President Uninjured in Blast at Rally.  An explosion at a campaign rally for Zimbabwe's president that injured 49 people will not delay next month's election, officials said Sunday [6/24/2018].  Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa escaped injury in the explosion at a campaign rally in Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold.  State media called the attack an assassination attempt.  The president said there have been "so many" attempts on his life that he is used to them.

White South African farmers claiming persecution at home seek refuge in Australia.  More than 200 farmers from South Africa have applied for humanitarian visas in Australia after allegedly suffering attacks for being white, according to the Australian Home Affairs Ministry.  "The type of criteria they of course have to meet — or the key one — is evidence of persecution, so that's exactly what we will be looking at," Home Affairs Deputy Secretary Malisa Golightly said.  Home Affairs said 89 refugee visa applications relating to 213 people had been received, although they did not specify their ethnicity or any other details.

A Zimbabwe Spring?  New leader embraces surprising freedoms.  Zimbabwe's new president is rolling out freedoms as never seen before in the country recovering from the 37-year grip of former leader Robert Mugabe.

US Senators Call For Credible Elections in Zimbabwe.  Visiting members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee say Zimbabwe's government must ensure free and fair elections if Washington is to lift sanctions.  Jeff Flake and Chris Coons, both members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Saturday in Harare they are happy with how Zimbabwe is progressing since the forced retirement of Robert Mugabe as the country's president last November.

Zimbabwe's Vegan Anti-Poaching Squad.  We meet Margaret Darawanda and Nyaradzo Hoto from the all-female anti-poaching team facing tough challenges in the bush in Zimbabwe.  The squad is called 'Akashinga' which means 'the brave ones' and are trained by a former Australian special forces sniper called Damien Mander.  [Video clip]

Somewhat related:
White South African farmers in fear for their lives as the government prepares to seize their land.  The government of Australia is offering to fast track visas for white South African farmers who are under siege on their own land.  It's a story that's not getting much play in the US — for obvious reasons.  A group representing Afrikanners, the white minority claims that 82 white farmers were murdered just last year with 432 incidents of violence.  The government is challenging those numbers and even whites admit that white farmers are not the only victims of violent crime in rural areas.  But at least some white farmers are living in fear and they are blaming the bill passed by parliament last month that will allow the government to sieze white owned land without compensation.  Many white farmers are choosing to leave and Australia is trying to expedite "humanitarian" visas.

It's Wrong To Ignore Racist Violence Against White South Africans.  White farmers in South Africa face an existential threat, yet the governments of most Western democracies, including the U.S., remain largely silent.  This appalling situation must change.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Roy Bennett killed in U.S. helicopter crash.  Exiled Zimbabwe opposition leader Roy Bennett and four other people were killed in a helicopter crash in a remote northern part of the U.S. state of New Mexico, officials and his political party said on Thursday [1/18/2018].

1st white farmer gets land back under Zimbabwe's new leader.  A white Zimbabwean farmer evicted by gun-wielding police and a mob associated with the ruling party has returned to a hero's welcome, in a sign that the new president is charting a path away from predecessor Robert Mugabe on an issue that had hastened the country's international isolation.

Mugabe's Avoidable Tyranny?  Could Robert Mugabe's calamitous 37-year reign of repression and exacerbated poverty over Zimbabwe, now mercifully ended, have been averted?  I've wondered about this question for 40 years since a boy when I began to follow events in Zimbabwe closely and was distressed by America's role in enthroning Mugabe.  Mugabe at age 94 stepped aside this week after his military and political party finally turned against him.  He ought to have been chased from power long ago.

Robert Mugabe to get $10m payoff and immunity for his family.  Robert Mugabe and his wife will receive a "golden handshake" worth many millions of dollars as part of a deal negotiated before the resignation of the ageing autocrat last week.  The exact sums to be paid to the former president and his wife Grace are still unclear, though one senior ruling party official with direct knowledge of the agreement said the total would not be less than $10m.  The official said that Mugabe, who has been granted immunity from prosecution and a guarantee that no action will be taken against his family's extensive business interests, would receive a "cash payment of $5m" immediately, with more paid in coming months.

Young, Talented, and Jobless:  Young Zimbabweans Desperate for Change.  Zimbabwe has no shortage of energetic, educated young people, many of them college graduates.  But what the country lacks is jobs, and the pressure is on for the new government to turn the situation around quickly.

Ousted Zimbabwe Finance Minister Chombo In Court To Face Corruption Charges.  Former Zimbabwe finance minister Ignatius Chombo, who was among those detained by the military when they seized power before Robert Mugabe resigned this week, appeared in court on Saturday [11/25/2017] to face corruption charges.

Mugabism Without Mugabe.  We need more often to be reminded than informed, said Doctor Johnson, and if anyone needed to be reminded of how fragile and temporary the exercise of power is, and how changeable are courtiers and flatterers, especially of dictators, he could not do better than look at the website of the Bulawayo Chronicle, one of Zimbabwe's newspapers of record.  On November 10, one of its main stories was the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Harare International Airport's change of name to the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, a process presided over by His Excellency Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe himself, who "reiterated his gratitude on behalf of himself, his family and the entire country [for] the honour bestowed on him, saying it has brought joy to all Zimbabweans."

Mugabe Won't Face Prosecution in Zimbabwe, Ruling Party Says.  Former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe won't face prosecution and is free to remain in the southern African nation following his resignation on Tuesday after 37 years in power.  "There aren't any plans for former President Robert Mugabe; he's free to stay in Zimbabwe and he won't face prosecution," Simon Khaya Moyo, a spokesman for the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, said Thursday [11/23/2017] by phone.  "We don't have anything against him or his family.  He's the hero of our liberation."  Emmerson Mnangagwa, 75, is due to be sworn in on Friday to replace Mugabe, who's ruled since independence in 1980.

Mugabe's ex-No. 2 man to become Zimbabwe president on Friday.  Robert Mugabe's former right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa, will be sworn in as interim President on Friday, a day after Mugabe and his wife were granted immunity, allowing the couple to remain in the country.  Mugabe resigned on Tuesday, in a historic moment that brought his 37 years of oppressive rule to an end.  Mnangagwa, returned to the country on Wednesday to take the reins, promising to lead the nation into a "new and unfolding democracy." He spoke in front of throngs of supporters, but made no mention of Mugabe's future.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe resigns, ending four decades of rule.  Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe's president on Tuesday [11/21/2017], a week after the army and his former political allies moved to end four decades of rule by a man once feted as an independence hero who became feared as a despot.

Zimbabwe rejoices as Robert Mugabe finally quits as president, ending 37 years of iron rule.  Robert Mugabe resigned as Zimbabwe's president on Tuesday [11/21/2017], finally swept from power as his 37-year reign of autocratic control and brutality crumbled within days of a military takeover.  The move looks set to end Zimbabwe's worst political crisis since it won independence from Britain in 1980.  The bombshell announcement sparked cheers at a special joint session of parliament convened to impeach Mugabe, 93, who has dominated every aspect of Zimbabwean public life for decades.  On the streets, the news sparked wild celebrations, with car horns being honked and people erupting into ecstatic cheers and frenzied dancing.

Robert Mugabe addresses Zimbabwe after ruling party cuts ties — does not resign.  Hours after Zimbabwe's ruling party voted to oust Robert Mugabe as its leader, the embattled president addressed the political turmoil in the African country in a speech to the nation — but did not say he was resigning.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe defies expectations of resignation in address to nation.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has shocked expectations that he would resign by pledging to remain on as leader of his ZANU-PF party in an address to the nation.  That despite the party removing him as leader earlier in the day.  The party's Central Committee had given the 93-year old less than 24 hours to vacate his office or face impeachment.  The move was an attempt to draw his lengthy reign to a close following a de facto coup.  However when he addressed the nation on Sunday [11/19/2017], Mugabe made no mention of resigning.

Zimbabwe will now seek President Mugabe's impeachment.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe ignored continued calls to step down on Sunday [11/19/2017] — a stubborn defiance that could trigger impeachment proceedings as early as Monday.  Before Mugabe addressed the nation, multiple media outlets cited government sources to report that the 93-year-old despot — under house arrest following an apparent coup — was going to surrender the post he has held since 1987.  But in a speech about political division, Mugabe refused to say he was resigning.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe Has Until Noon to Stand Down or Face Impeachment.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has until noon (1000 GMT) on Monday to stand down or the ruling ZANU-PF will begin impeachment proceedings after the 93-year-old leader defied expectations he would resign.  Mugabe stunned Zimbabweans in a rambling late night Sunday television address by avoiding any mention of resignation, pledging instead to preside over a congress next month of ZANU-PF, which had sacked him as its leader only hours earlier.

Sunday Schadenfreude:  Another socialist monster is gone.  What a pathetic miserable end to one of the world's most odious thugs in power.  Hailed by the left as a new kind of socialist liberationist, he was nothing but a monster, not only to the white farmers he persecuted, but to every citizen in the country, blacks and whites alike.  Mugabe, the Reuters report noted, bragged he had a 'degree in violence.'  He's famous for bringing hyperinflation to a once-prosperous post-colonial African state and destroying property rights in the country, leaving it a smoking ruin.  Zimbabweans of all colors fled the place, many of them escaping under fences to South Africa if not making their way to Europe and a few to the U.S.  He was a rabid identity politician and racist, targeting white-owned farms for expropriation in the name of 'social justice.'  In the process his country was left in rubble.

Mugabe Given Less Than 24 Hours To Quit Presidential Post.  The ruling party of Zimbabwe fired Robert Mugabe as its leader on Nov. 19 and gave the 93-year-old president less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, Reuters reported.  A senior party official said Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy who was recently sacked, will take Mugabe's place.  After 37 years in power, Mugabe faces a deadline at noon Nov. 20.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe to resign after nearly 4 decades in power.  Robert Mugabe, who spent nearly four decades in power, is resigning as Zimbabwe's leader on Sunday [11/19/2017], an official close to the talks told The Associated Press hours after the ruling party fired him.  The ZANU-PF party threatened to impeach Mugabe if he didn't resign by noon Monday.  Recently fired Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa was appointed as the new leader of the party and is expected to lead a new government.  Mugabe is expected to address the nation on Sunday.  Meeting chair Obert Mpofu called Mugabe the "outgoing president" and said Sunday was a "sad day" after 37 years of ruling Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's Coup, Venezuela's Default, And The Ongoing Failure Of Socialism.  As Zimbabwe locked down following a military coup this week, Venezuela defaulted on its debt.  On the surface, these events in these two countries — one African, the other South American — seem to have little in common.  But, in fact, they share two very big things:  Both are socialist, and both are failed states.

Mugabe given until noon Monday to quit as President of Zimbabwe.  Robert Mugabe agreed on Sunday to resign as Zimbabwe's president hours after the ruling ZANU-PF party fired him as its leader following 37 years in charge, a source familiar with the negotiations said.

Robert Mugabe dismissed as head of Zanu-PF.  Embattled Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was on Sunday [11/19/2017] deposed as the leader of ruling Zanu-PF party, and replaced by his former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.  His wife Grace Mugabe was also expelled from the party and banned for life.  Mugabe on Sunday [11/19/2017] met with the army commander who put him under house arrest, while the ruling party opened an emergency meeting to recall the world's oldest head of state as its leader.

Mugabe Fired As Ruling Party Leader:  ZANU-PF Sources.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was fired as leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party on Sunday [11/19/2017] and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy he sacked this month, sources at a special ZANU-PF meeting to decide Mugabe's fate told Reuters.

Zimbabwe Pres.  Mugabe meets with army commander following military takeover.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe met with army commander Constantino Chiwenga Thursday to discuss the country's ongoing turmoil and a likely transition of power following Tuesday's military takeover and Mugabe being forced into house arrest.  The president's motorcade was seen driving through the capital, Harare, earlier in the day, followed by helicopters overhead.  Photos posted to the Zimbabwe Herald showed the pair together at the state house.  Details of the conversation were not made available.

Zimbabweans urge Mugabe to step aside.  Zimbabwe's opposition party on Thursday called for a transitional body to take over the country after the military seized control on Tuesday, plunging Zimbabwe into a political crisis.  The party in a statement suggested the transitional authority be "made up of competent Zimbabweans whose mandate will be to put in place measures to turn around the economy."

Zimbabwe's Mugabe 'under house arrest' after army takeover'.  Zimbabwe's military has placed President Robert Mugabe under house arrest in the capital Harare, South African President Jacob Zuma says.  Mr Mugabe told Mr Zuma in a phone call that he was fine, the South African leader's office said.  Troops are patrolling the capital, Harare, after they seized state TV and said they were targeting "criminals".

Zimbabwe's Military, in Apparent Takeover, Says It Has Custody of Mugabe.  Zimbabwe's military said early Wednesday that it had taken custody of President Robert Mugabe, the world's oldest head of state and one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, in what increasingly appeared to be a military takeover in the southern African nation.  After apparently seizing the state broadcaster, ZBC, two uniformed officers said in a short predawn announcement that "the situation in our country has moved to another level."

Zimbabwe army takes control, Mugabe and wife in custody.  Zimbabwe's army seized control of the southern African country Wednesday, taking President Robert Mugabe and his wife into custody and securing government offices following a night of unrest.  The army took over the state broadcaster, triggering speculation of a coup.  Military supports insisted it was not a coup but a "bloodless correction" of the nation's current political order.  South Africa's president said he spoke to the 93-year-old Mugabe, who was "fine" but confined to his home.  Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Sibusiso Moyo addressed the nation Wednesday morning, saying "the situation in our country has moved to another level" and assured the public that Mugabe and his wife were safe and sound.

Zimbabwe in turmoil after apparent military coup.  Military leaders in the impoverished southern Africa nation of Zimbabwe have staged an apparent coup, placing veteran President Robert Mugabe under house arrest and deploying tanks to the streets of the capital, Harare.

Mugabe Roils Zimbabwe's Succession Waters.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's dismissal of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa fits his strategy of pitting would-be successors against each other and expelling those he deems too ambitious.  While Mugabe may consider elevating his wife to vice president, liberation-era party politics may dictate that his successor not emerge from his family.  Despite Mnangagwa's alleged support from within Zimbabwe's security services, any attempt at a palace coup d'etat would be extremely difficult to execute and would likely fail.

Soldiers On Harare Streets As Ruling Party Accuses Zimbabwe Army Chief Of Treason.  Zimbabwe's ruling party accused the head of the armed forces of treason on Tuesday as troops took up positions around the capital in an escalation of a dispute with 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe over political succession.  Just 24 hours after military chief General Constantino Chiwenga threatened to intervene to end a purge in the ruling party, a Reuters reporter saw six armored personnel carriers on major thoroughfares on the outskirts of the capital.

Think Bitcoin's Getting Expensive?  Try Zimbabwe.  For most investors around the world, bitcoin is a volatile and highly speculative bet.  For Zimbabweans, however, the cryptocurrency seems to offer rare protection from the onset of hyperinflation and financial implosion.  Some are turning to bitcoin out of desperation as their bank deposits lose value almost by the day, while others are using the online currency for housekeeping such as funding family members studying abroad.

Zimbabwe police charge U.S. citizen with anti-government plot.  A U.S. citizen was charged on Friday [11/3/2017] with attempting to overthrow the Zimbabwean government, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in jail, after police earlier accused her of insulting 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe.  Martha O'Donovan, who works for Magamba TV, which describes itself as Zimbabwe's leading producer of political satire, was picked up in a dawn raid on her Harare home, her lawyer said.

WHO rescinds 'goodwill ambassador' appointment of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.  The World Health Organization has rescinded its appointment of Robert Mugabe, the longtime president of Zimbabwe, to a "goodwill ambassador" role.  WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus said in a statement Sunday morning that he had "listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns" in making his decision.  The appointment had provoked global head-scratching and outrage because of Mugabe's track record of human-rights abuses, including violent crackdowns on political dissent, which had earned Zimbabwe international sanctions.

World Health Organisation withdraws invitation to make Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe Goodwill Ambassador after public backlash.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) has rescinded its invitation to appoint Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe as a Goodwill Ambassador for the NCDs in Africa.  WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom tweeted a link to a statement which was posted on the WHO website, informing the public of their decision.  In the statement, he said he had listened to the barrage of abuse directed at the decision and had decided, after talking with the Zimbabwean government, that it was in the best interest of the WHO to rescind the invite to the 93-year-old.

Robert Mugabe Named World Health Organization 'Goodwill Ambassador'.  Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe has been named one of the World Health Organization's "Goodwill Ambassadors," in a move that has puzzled just about everyone on the face of the earth.  Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since 1980, has seen the country essentially fall apart under his leadership.  Life expectancy in Zimbabwe is just 60 years and Mugabe is accused of dozens of human rights abuses.

Robert Mugabe's WHO appointment condemned as 'an insult'.  The choice of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe as a World Health Organization (WHO) goodwill ambassador has been criticised by several organisations including the British government.  It described his selection as "surprising and disappointing" given his country's rights record, and warned it could overshadow the WHO's work.  The opposition in Zimbabwe and campaign groups also criticised the move.

As Zimbabwe Starves, Socialist Dictator's Relatives Import Rolls Royce Limousines.  Socialism has been getting a bad rap lately.  True, it entails poverty and tyranny, and often genocide.  Yes, it recently reduced the wealthiest nation in Latin America to economic ruin.  But it has its positive side.  For example, even as their countrymen starve and hyperinflation has reduced the local currency to worthlessness, socialism allows dictator Robert Mugabe's relatives to live high on the hog.

Zimbabwe plans to rent 102 Cuban slave doctors from Castro, Inc..  Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's 93-year-old dictator, has been a chief client of Castro, Inc. ever since he assumed power in 1980.  And Castro, Inc. cranks out "doctors" from its lousy medical schools faster than bullets from a machine gun.  In fact, it seems that its supply of slave doctors is nearly infinite, given how many of them are constantly being shipped abroad.  Could it be that the production rate of slave doctors is higher than that of any other commodity manufactured or grown in Cuba?

Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Is Hospitalized in South Africa.  Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been hospitalized in South Africa, according to a senior party official.  Luke Tamborinyoka, spokesman for Tsvangirai's MDC-T party, said Saturday [9/16/2017] he was admitted "for a routine medical procedure" and is in "very stable condition."  A senior party source said Tsvangirai, who is considered President Robert Mugabe's primary challenger in elections scheduled for next year, experienced severe vomiting after a party meeting.  Local media outlets had reported Tsvangirai, a former prime minister, was transported Friday to South Africa in critical condition.

The Editor says...
If a person is reported to be in "critical condition" one day, and "very stable condition" the next day, it is easy to surmise that the person has expired.  I've never heard a report in this country that a hospital patient (or anybody else!) was in "very stable condition."

Zimbabwe first lady Mugabe back home despite assault claim in South Africa.  Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe, arrived home in Harare on Sunday [8/20/2017] — but that doesn't mean the controversy she's linked to in South Africa has died down.  In fact, it may be just beginning.  Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwe's longtime ruler, 93-year-old Robert Mugabe, is accused of beating a woman with an extension cord Aug. 13 during a trip to Johannesburg.  Some in South Africa say Mrs. Mugabe should return and face assault charges.

As Zimbabwe's homes go solar, its businesses lag behind.  Old Mutual Zimbabwe Ltd, the country's biggest insurance and property firm, now plans to install up to 20 megawatts of rooftop solar panels on all its commercial buildings over the next two years to help ease a countrywide power crisis that has begun to drag profits down, company officials said.  As state power utility ZESA Holdings struggles to generate enough electricity to meet demand, power outages have hurt businesses in recent years, according to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.

45 killed as bus in Zimbabwe loses control, crashes.  Police in Zimbabwe say a bus traveling to Zambia has crashed, killing 45 people.

Chicago Obama donors tried to strike it rich in Africa.  Shortly after taking office, President Barack Obama made it clear to Zimbabwe that he would keep America's economic sanctions against the nation's leaders in place until they reformed their government's repressive policies.  Around the same time, a cadre of Obama political supporters from Chicago began exploring an array of potentially lucrative ventures in the African nation, everything from manufacturing medical supplies to mining diamonds.  Despite the U.S. sanctions, Americans can legally do business in Zimbabwe as long as their deals don't involve specific people, including President Robert Mugabe, and companies targeted by the sanctions in place since 2003.

What African Airports Taught Me about Obamacare.  [Scroll down]  I was in no hurry to make the embassy connection to seek official sponsorship and entry into Zimbabwe.  However the situation was at their airport, I recommended to my leadership we reject any consideration of rehabilitating or managing Zimbabwe's airport primarily because of its land confiscation policies that targeted white people.  The Obama administration had issues with the Zimbabwe government's confiscation policies, but only on the basis that "confiscation of white-owned farms is contributing to the growing hunger crisis in the region."  Three thousand white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe were subject to a "fast track" seizure program to redistribute farmland to landless blacks. [...] Nothing says, "White people are not welcome here" like a racist law designed to use the power of government to take a white person's stuff.  It was pretty sobering revelation that if you were Caucasian, the government of Zimbabwe (and soon South Africa) could unilaterally confiscate your property — and everything in it or on it — without compensation, solely for redistribution to blacks.

The History of Zimbabwe in Three Headlines.  Once there was a land called Rhodesia, which was known as the Breadbasket of Africa.  Social justice replaced it with Zimbabwe, the history of which can be summed up in three headlines: [...]

Zimbabwe's Mugabe, 92, gets party's nod for 2018 presidential race.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who turns 93 in February, was endorsed on Saturday [12/17/2016] as the ruling party's candidate in a national election scheduled for 2018.  The ruling ZANU-PF party announced its support in the southeast town of Masvingo, where the party's youth wing even proposed that Mugabe should rule for life with broad powers.

Russia, Zimbabwe to join efforts against sanctions.  Russia and Zimbabwe will join efforts against sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union, co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation said on Saturday [4/30/2016].  The Russian delegation headed by Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov has arrived in Zimbabwe's capital Harare on an official visit.  On April 29 Manturov had a meeting with President Robert Mugabe and attended an industrial exhibition.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe will not pick successor, wants to live to 100.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says his successor must be chosen democratically and that his wife will not automatically inherit the role, a warning to feuding members of his ZANU-PF party that he is still in charge after 36 years in power.  The comments from Africa's oldest leader, now aged 92, are his clearest indication that he wants to be president for life.

Zimbabwe president has huge birthday celebration as starving country looks on.  Calling Robert Mugabe "dear father," "his royal highness," and "the Moses of Africa" members of Zimbabwe's ruling party reasserted their loyalty to the longtime leader at the celebration of his recent 92nd birthday.

'Cecil effect': Zimbabwe park may kill 200 lions as discouraged hunters result in over-population.  The largest wildlife reserve in Zimbabwe said it may be forced to cull 200 of its lions after the predator's population "exploded" due to hunters being scared off by international outrage over the killing of Cecil the lion last year.  Bubye Valley Conservancy, which is home to more lions than anywhere else in the south African country, said that the population of over 500 was too much for the reserve, the National Post reports.  The big cats have been decimating the population of antelopes and giraffes, and even wild dogs, cheetahs, and leopards, which have become easy prey after a dry summer left the grass short.

Mugabe First To U.N. Trough In Global Warming Shakedown.  Zimbabwe tyrant Robert Mugabe is asking the United Nations for $1.5 billion a year to feed his people, who he says are hungry due to global warming.  The looting begins.  About a year ago, we said that the global warming scare is not about stewardship of the environment.  It is instead an effort to pull down capitalism and redistribute wealth from rich nations that earned it to poorer nations whose governments impoverish their own people.  Mugabe fully understands the plan and is making his demands accordingly.

Zimbabwe impounds American plane with body and cash on board.  Zimbabwe aviation authorities impounded a U.S.-registered cargo jet, a senior official said Monday [2/15/2016], with a dead body and millions of South African rand reportedly on board.

Police 'take over' white Zimbabwean family's farm to make way for a black British doctor.  The wife of a Zimbabwean farmer evicted from the family plantation by a British GP wept today as she described the trauma of losing everything they own.  Anita Rankin, who has farmed the tobacco fields with husband Phillip for thirty years, said she could no longer cope with the campaign of intimidation from 'thugs' employed by the GP, who is said to be friends with Grace Mugabe.  She told MailOnline:  'This is actually too much for me.  This has been going on for months.  The people have not behaved well towards us.

Dr. Walter Palmer Vindicated in Cecil the Lion Witch Hunt.  Dr. Walter Palmer, who was the subject of a witch hunt by Social Justice Warriors because of the shooting of a lion, in Zimbabwe, Africa, has been vindicated.  The only legitimate reason to fault the good doctor was if he had broken Zimbabwe's arcane hunting laws.  At the time, I argued that a hunter traveling to Africa had to rely on his guides to follow the complex and obscure African Hunting laws.  That is exactly what Dr. Palmer did.  The Zimbabwe officials have now vindicated him.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe: 'We Are Not Gays'.  Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, issued a strong statement to the United Nations during his scheduled public address, telling the body — as well as the world — his country will not accept or adhere to any "gay"-rights provisions in the international charter.

Lion kills guide in Zimbabwe safari park where Cecil lived.  A safari guide has been mauled to death by a lion in the same Zimbabwean national park where Cecil the lion was killed by hunters.  Quinn Swales was taking guests on a photographic walking safari in Hwange national park at dawn on Monday [8/24/2015] when he was charged by the male, according to the Camp Hwange lodge.  The 40-year-old Zimbabwean saved his guests but died of his injuries.

In Zimbabwe, We Don't Cry for Lions.  When I turned on the news and discovered that the messages were about a lion killed by an American dentist, the village boy inside me instinctively cheered:  One lion fewer to menace families like mine.  My excitement was doused when I realized that the lion killer was being painted as the villain.  I faced the starkest cultural contradiction I'd experienced during my five years studying in the United States.  Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people?  That all the talk about Cecil being "beloved" or a "local favorite" was media hype?

Cecil The Lion And Robert Mugabe.  By 1987, when Mugabe became President, he had consolidated his power over every branch of government, and he has ruled ever since.  Today he is the world's oldest national leader.  Four months before a Minnesota dentist killed Cecil the lion, Mugabe celebrated his ninety-first birthday with a feast of wildlife.  The menu included dishes of young elephant, killed especially for a party with twenty thousand of Mugabe's supporters.  Another elephant was killed so that constituents could celebrate, too.  Mugabe was presented with a lion trophy and a crocodile trophy that were to be stuffed.  Mugabe's birthday feast was held just four days before World Wildlife Day, on March 3rd.  "It's time to get serious about wildlife crime," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said at the time.

Country w/72% Poverty Rate and 2 Million Starving Doesn't Care About Cecil the Lion.  The same people who don't care about baby parts being trafficked are very worked up about Cecil the Lion.  As opposed to lions they're not on a first name basis with.  Meanwhile Zimbabwe, where people are living under a dictatorship, where the poverty rate is 72%, 15% of the population has HIV and 2 million people are facing starvation, doesn't care about Cecil.

Zimbabwe President Mugabe Proposes To Obama, Mocks Gay Marriage Supreme Court Decision.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe jokingly said he would travel to the White House and propose to U.S. President Barack Obama, who lauded a historic Supreme Court ruling that made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 American states last week.  The Zimbabwean leader mocked the 5-4 court decision and condemned marriage equality during his weekly radio interview with the country's national radio station, ZBC, on Saturday [6/27/2015], according to media reports.

Zimbabwe offers new exchange rate: $1 for 35,000,000,000,000,000 old dollars.  Zimbabweans will start exchanging "quadrillions" of local dollars for a few US dollars next week as President Robert Mugabe's government discards its virtually worthless national currency.  The southern African country started using foreign currencies including the US dollar and South African rand in 2009 after the Zimbabwean dollar was ruined by hyperinflation, which hit 500 billion per cent in 2008.  At the height of the country's economic crisis, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with banknotes to buy basic goods.  Prices were rising at least twice a day.

Mugabe celebrates 91st birthday with million-dollar bash.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday celebrated his 91st birthday with a lavish million dollar bash that was slammed by the opposition as "obscene" in a country wracked by poverty.  Thousands of supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF, many wearing party regalia emblazoned with the president's image, sang and danced as he arrived for the jamboree at a luxury hotel in the famed Victoria Falls resort.

Robert Mugabe fell over, tried to hide it and ended up becoming a meme.  Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe president and recently elected chairman of the African Union (A.U.), was in Harare on Wednesday to give a speech.  As he walked down from the podium, he appeared to trip and fall.  It was caught on film.  For a 90-year-old man, a trip is understandable.  What's less easy to understand is what happened next:  Zimbabwe's government issued a denial.  "Nobody has shown any evidence of the president having fallen down because that did not happen," Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told the state-owned Zimbabwe Herald, before offering a more obtuse explanation.

'You Can't Trust the White Man': Mugabe Trashes Vice President Amid Purge of Leaders.  Zimbabwe's 90-year-old dictator, Robert Mugabe, is continuing to expand his purge at the highest levels of office, disparaging his vice president, Joice Mujuru, as a politician willing to cooperate with white people.  Mugabe did not mention Mujuru by name, though the Agence France-Presse (AFP) notes that it has become increasingly public that she has fallen out of favor in the leftist government.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe tightens grip on party, to choose successor.  Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has changed the constitution of his ruling ZANU-PF party to allow him to directly appoint his deputies, giving the 90-year-old sole power to anoint his successor, party sources said on Sunday [11/23/2014].

Robert Mugabe's racial decree on whites and land brings backlash.  President Robert Mugabe's statement early this month [July 2014] that whites will no longer be allowed to own land in Zimbabwe, and that any white farmers still left will be kicked out, raised eyebrows at home and abroad.  Now those comments by the long-ruling autocrat are bringing a backlash in Zimbabwe's beleaguered trade and tourism ministries.  One Harare business newspaper calls them "not just racist but also unconstitutional, retrogressive, and detrimental."

Ex-congressman arrested in Zimbabwe.  Former Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-Ill.) has been arrested in Zimbabwe by immigration officers, according to multiple reports. [...] Reynolds resigned from Congress in 1995 after being charged with 12 counts of statutory rape, solicitation of child porn and obstruction of justice.  The former congressman arrived to Zimbabwe in November, and was given a two-week visa, which was renewed and expired on Dec. 10.  He has since remained in the country illegally, the report says.  A source told AllAfrica that Reynolds shot more than 100 pornographic videos and 2,000 nude photos in his hotel room.

Zimbabwe: Foreigners must close shops by Jan 1.  Zimbabwean authorities say they have given foreign shop-owners — mostly Chinese and Nigerian nationals — an ultimatum to shut down their businesses by 1 January.  A top official of the black empowerment ministry said only Zimbabweans had the right to run shops that have sprung up across the country and are termed foreign businesses targeted under the nation's black empowerment laws, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported Friday [11/22/2013].

Zimbabwe to ban platinium exports.  Zimbabwe, the world's number three platinum producer, is determined to ban exports of raw platinum and to force firms to refine locally, the new mines minister told AFP Thursday [11/21/2013].  "We are determined to ensure that a refinery is put up in Zimbabwe," minister Walter Chidakwa said, speaking during a visit to Johannesburg.  "Once you put up a refinery, surely we must put a law that says we do not want our platinum to be exported as raw," he added.

At Zimbabwe golf club, 'foreign' trees exit stage.  A century-old thorn tree with an umbrella-shaped canopy offers shade to players on the 13th hole of Zimbabwe's oldest surviving golf course.  The indigenous tree is going to stay, but "foreign" trees — firs, pines and eucalyptus — that were planted by early white settlers to remind them of their distant origins are now being rooted out.

The Editor says...
If the trees have to be removed because they remind you of colonialism, then perhaps you should stop using electricity, gasoline, indoor plumbing, and the centralized sewer system, and go back to the way your country was run before colonialization.

Activists Call for Condemnation of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.  More than 20 Zimbabwean protesters were physically assaulted by riot police Thursday and Friday, leading human rights activists to call for international condemnation ahead of longtime President Robert Mugabe's speech at the United Nations General Assembly this week.  Demonstrators for the group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were beaten by state security forces Thursday before they could reach Zimbabwe's parliament in Harare to stage a peaceful protest.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe vows to continue sweeping black empowerment.  Zimbabwe's longtime President Robert Mugabe says his party won "a resounding mandate" from voters to complete a sweeping black empowerment program to take over foreign and white-owned assets.

Churches feel vulnerable after Mugabe reelected in Zimbabwe.  The atmosphere in Zimbabwe after the reelection of strongman Robert Mugabe is not one of great celebration, but of tension.  Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the main challenger, says he will not join in a new governing coalition but is contesting the credibility of the July 31 vote in court.  Fears are on the rise in the capital of Harare, reports say, that under one-party rule, a host of Mr. Mugabe's old partners, cronies, henchmen, and friends will start to come out of the woodwork to take advantage of the hour.

Zimbabwe signs secret deal to supply Iran with uranium to build a nuclear bomb.  Zimbabwe has signed a secret deal to supply Uranium to Iran for its controversial nuclear programme, according to a senior Government source in Harare.  Negotiations between the two countries, which would see thousands of tonnes of the raw uranium shipped to Tehran for enrichment, have allegedly been going on for two years, the Times reports.

Zimbabwe President Mugabe declared winner in vote called fraudulent.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the country for 33 years, was reelected president in an election declared a "farce" by rival Morgan Tsvangirai.  Zimbabwe's electoral commission announced Saturday [8/3/2013] that Mugabe, 89, had received 61% of the vote, compared with 34% for Tsvangirai, the current prime minister and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change party, or MDC.

Zimbabwe election was 'huge farce' — Morgan Tsvangirai.  Zimbabwe's election was a "huge farce", Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said, alleging vote-rigging by rival President Robert Mugabe's camp.  Mr Tsvangirai said Wednesday's presidential poll was "null and void".  The largest group of election observers described the vote as "seriously compromised" and said up to a million Zimbabweans were prevented from voting.

Robert Mugabe Slams Barack Obama for Supporting Gay Rights in Africa.  Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe has slammed US president Barack Obama for tying to aid African countries that have decriminalised homosexuality.  Ahead of Zimbabwe's elections on 31 July, Mugabe, 89, has reiterated his previous claim that gays are "worse than pigs and dogs" and said his country will never legalise homosexuality.

Mugabe hunts for internet mole 'Baba Jukwa' revealing his secrets.  President Robert Mugabe has reportedly offered a $300,000 reward to anyone who can unmask an anonymous whistleblower behind a string of leaks about alleged Zimbabwean government assassination plots, corruption and plans to rig this month's election.  The well-informed mole, who calls himself "Baba Jukwa" and appears to be operating from within the heart of the regime, began posting revelations on a Facebook page four months ago.

EU suspends sanctions against most Zimbabwe officials.  The European Union has suspended sanctions against 81 officials and eight firms in Zimbabwe.  The decision followed a "peaceful, successful and credible" referendum on a new constitution earlier this month, the EU said in a statement.  However, sanctions will remain in force against Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and 10 of his top aides, EU sources said.

Christiane Amanpour: Happy birthday, President Mugabe!  I'm trying to imagine Amanpour giving an equally non-judgmental and upbeat birthday tribute to, say, John Boehner.  Amanpour tweeted birthday wishes for the 89-year-old Zimbabwe leader along with [an] online video, which is one dash news report but mostly sounds like a toast at someone's 33 Years of Brutal Power-Mongering Party.

Zimbabwe Is Down to Its Last $217.  There are cash-strapped governments and there are broke governments.  And then there's Zimbabwe, which, after paying last week's government salaries, has just $217 left in the bank.  No, we didn't forget any zeroes to the end of that figure.  Zimbabwe, the country that's home to some of the world's largest platinum and diamond reserves, literally has the same financial standing as a 14-year-old girl after a really good birthday party.

Zimbabwe's largest platinum mine agrees to sell shares to gov't under black empowerment laws.  It is the biggest handover in several years of an empowerment program to force foreign-owned mines to cede 51 percent control to black Zimbabweans.

Group of white farmers plead with William Hague not to lift sanctions on Robert Mugabe.  A group of farmers who had their land seized in Zimbabwe are launching a campaign today to protest against a proposed lifting of sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime by the European Union.  The 11 farmers and their families have won successive court cases over the takeover including one through the legal channels of the World Bank and another presided over by an officially sanctioned judge in Harare.

South Africa's top court slaps down Mugabe's racist land grab appeal.  Zimbabwe's last white farmers were bracing themselves for a backlash yesterday [9/20/2012] after South Africa's supreme court ruled that an ex-farmer can sell a property owned by Robert Mugabe's government to compensate for the seizure of his land.  In a humiliating blow for the ageing president whose land reforms plunged Zimbabwe into economic ruin in 2000, the court turned down his government's appeal against the seizure of a £200,000 house in the Cape Town suburb of Kenilworth.

Toilet deadline means there's a rush to flush.  Bulawayo's 1.5 million residents are being asked to pull their chains at exactly 7:30 pm to beat water rationing.  The "big flush" has been[ ] ordered on the days that follow crippling water cuts in Zimbabwe's second biggest — and certainly its driest — city in the arid south of the southern African country.  The hope is that if everyone flushes together there is less chance of sewer blockages and pipe bursts, the city council said yesterday [9/21/2012].

Robert Mugabe enjoys popularity surge among Zimbabwe's voters.  Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, is enjoying a surge of popularity that could propel him to victory in the country's next elections, an independent poll of voters' intentions suggests.  Mugabe would command the support of 31% of voters in a presidential election, ahead of rival Morgan Tsvangirai on 19%, according to research for the US-based pro-democracy group Freedom House.

Zimbabwe: is it time for British tourists to return?  British tour operators are starting to feature Zimbabwe in their brochures again.  Graham Boynton, who grew up in Bulawayo, considers whether it is right for tourists to return.


Related development:
South Africa Facing White Genocide, Total Communist Takeover.  While most of the world refuses to acknowledge what is happening in largely communist-controlled South Africa, the non-profit group Genocide Watch declared last month that preparations for genocidal atrocities against white South African farmers were underway and that the early phases of genocide had possibly already begun.  In the long run, Genocide Watch chief Dr. Gregory Stanton explained, powerful communist forces also hope to abolish private-property ownership and crush all potential resistance.

Zimbabwe diamond wealth finding way to 'pockets of a few'.  A few hundred metres from the sandy tracks of Sakubva township in eastern Zimbabwe, Chinese workers are putting the finishing touches to a luxury hotel most locals can only dream of staying in.  With its chandeliers, rose-studded tables and junior executive suites, the Golden Peacock Villa Hotel is the latest hideout of strongman Robert Mugabe's diamond barons.

Robert Mugabe appointed UN 'leader for tourism'.  Mr Mugabe, 88, along with Michael Sata, the Zambian president, were honoured by the UN's World Tourism Organisation, when they signed an agreement in the no-man's-land on Victoria Falls Bridge.  The agreement will see the two countries co-host the UNWTO general assembly in August next year.  It is not a formal position, although the UNWTO said Mr Mugabe would receive an open letter like other heads of state who have joined its tourism campaign.

Despot Mugabe, the UN's envoy for tourism!  During his three decades in power, Robert Mugabe has dragged once-wealthy Zimbabwe into the gutter.  His forced seizure of white-owned farms precipitated the collapse of the economy, leading to devastating poverty.  He has the blood of tens of thousands of his people on his hands and is banned from travelling to most parts of the world because of his regime's human rights abuses.

Robert Mugabe back in Zimbabwe and 'fit as a fiddle'.  President Robert Mugabe is back in Zimbabwe and "fit as a fiddle" despite reports that he had been on his deathbed during a trip to Singapore.

Robert Mugabe said to be fighting for life in Singapore hospital.  Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe was yesterday [4/9/2012] said to be fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital with an undisclosed illness, amid reports he had agreed to hand over power to his feared Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Zimbabwe convicts 6 of plot to unseat Mugabe.  A Zimbabwe court convicted a group of six activists on Monday [3/19/2012] of plotting to unseat President Robert Mugabe's government using public protests similar to ones that pushed out long-standing autocratic rulers in North Africa last year.

Zimbabwe's land seizures leave workers destitute.  A decade-old program of land sales and seizures in Zimbabwe has left many immigrant farm workers destitute after supporters of President Mugabe took over the land they worked.  Now they are calling for the right to stay.

Gono: Bearer of mixed tidings.  On Tuesday [1/31/2012], Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Gideon Gono, was the bearer of uncomfortable news:  Several downside risks in the country's fragile economy are likely to have potentially "adverse ramifications on the budget".  By implication, there will be an economic slowdown, certainly a dire outcome for an economy whose wounds are still open.  It's not particularly easy to differ with your principal, especially if there are bridges to mend, but, if one's task is to proffer impeccable advice to the exchequer, as the Governor does, there is little reason to muster nerve.

R.I.P. Zimbabwe Dollar.  Zimbabwe failed to break Hungary's 1946 world record for hyperinflation.  That said, Zimbabwe did race past Yugoslavia in October 2008.  In consequence, Zimbabwe can now lay claim to second place in the world hyperinflation record books.

Down the Dusty Road.  [Scroll down]  Author is Sarah Lilford; one of Zimbabwe's most successful outside caterers and events organisers, a third-generation Zimbabwean and member of one of this country's blue-blood "landed" extended families.  Landed, that is, for many decades before the lunacy of the so-called land redistribution "programme" was launched under Zanu PF's greedy politics of envy policy and a rag-tag bunch of penniless so-called war-vets (Sarah amusingly calls them wovets) snatched a century's worth of toil, investment, heartbreak and hope.

Zimbabweans drink more beer as crops continue to fail.  Zimbabweans last year consumed about 1,67-million hectolitres of beer — the highest sales to date in Zimbabwe.  But as beer drinking soared, the output from farms sank to its worst since independence in 1980 — with the exception of 2008, when inflation hit 500-billion percent.  It seems a country of once hard-working peasant farmers is now spending its money in the pub instead of ploughing it into farming as it used to, says Charlie Taffs, head of one of the country's farmers' unions.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe pledges not to step down.  Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's elderly and autocratic president, has pledged not to step down, saying to leave now would be an "act of cowardice".  Mr Mugabe, 87, came to power in Zimbabwe following the fall of Ian Smith's Rhodesia in 1980 and has held on despite reports of ill health and many in his party wanting him to go.

Robert Mugabe loyalists find fast food ad campaign a little hard to swallow.  A militant youth group loyal to Zimbabwe's president has called for a boycott of the Nando's restaurant chain after its new TV commerical depicted the authoritarian president as "the last dictator standing".  The advertisement shows a Robert Mugabe lookalike dining alone at Christmas, his empty table set for departed dictators including Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi.

Nando's pulls Dictator ad over threats.  The "Last Dictator Standing" TV commercial currently running in South Africa will be cancelled, the Nando's restaurant chain said on Thursday [12/1/2011].  "We've noted with concern the political reaction emanating out of Zimbabwe, including perceived threats against Nando's Zimbabwe's management, staff and customers," the company said in a statement.  On Tuesday [11/29/2011], a militant youth group loyal to Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe called for a boycott of Nando's because of the ad.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe in Singapore for check-up: report.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe went to Singapore for a medical check-up last week, a local privately-owned newspaper reported on Sunday [10/2/2011], saying it was the seventh such visit this year by the 87-year-old who denies he is suffering from cancer.

Wikileaks Cable Shows Mugabe Has Cancer.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer and was told by a doctor in 2008 that the disease could kill him within a few years, according to leaked cables obtained by WikiLeaks.  The cable documents the central bank governor, Gideon Gono, telling former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James D. McGee, that the longtime president has "prostate cancer that has metastasized," meaning that it has spread to other organs.

Mugabe Regime Demands More Socialism.  Robert Mugabe's regime is currently pursuing more of the same poison that drove Zimbabwe's economy into the ground.

Firms in Zimbabwe Told to Yield Control to Blacks.  Multinationals in Zimbabwe have two weeks to submit new plans for handing over majority control in local operations to black locals, stirring fresh resistance to a corporate "indigenization" campaign and ratcheting up tensions in the southern African country.  Several multinationals operating in the country said Friday [9/9/2011] they received a letter from Zimbabwe's Minister of Indigenization Saviour Kasukuwere demanding they resubmit plans within 14 days on how they will part with a 51% stake in their operations to government entities or set up share-ownership programs for employees.

Zimbabwe man charged with insulting Mugabe in joke.  Harare court officials on Monday [7/25/2011] ordered a 52-year-old Zimbabwean man to stand trial for allegedly telling a work colleague that President Robert Mugabe's death was imminent in an apparent joke that misfired.

Mugabe 'spends £2 million per month on travel abroad with his huge entourage'.  Tyrant Robert Mugabe spends £2million per month on luxurious foreign travel, according to a Zimbabwean newspaper.  The president splashes cash on first-class jaunts around Africa and Asia, often with an entourage of more than 70, while his country remains desperately poverty-stricken.

Black farmers in South Africa selling farms back to whites.  A document released Wednesday [8/31/2011] shows South Africa's government is far behind land reform efforts, a setback that could prove explosive in a country with staggering inequality almost a generation after white rule ended.  Gugile Nkwinti, the minister of land reform, said black farmers have resold nearly 30 percent of the white farmland bought for them by the government, often selling back to the previous white owners.

In jail: Zimbabwe police sergeant who dared to use Robert Mugabe's loo.  When the call of nature comes, it cannot always be denied.  Few have answered it in such an unfortunate fashion as Alois Mabhunu.  While on duty at a trade fair, the Zimbabwean police sergeant could not hold on and allegedly dashed to the nearest toilet — disastrously, it transpired, as it was reserved for President Robert Mugabe.  He was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of invading the presidential privy.

Zimbabwe panic as ATM spits out old dollar bills.  An ATM in Zimbabwe's capital Harare has been issuing the old national currency, sparking rumours that the defunct bills are back in circulation.  For the last two years, Zimbabwe has used US dollars and South African rand after its world record inflation rates rendered its dollars worthless.

Elephant on the menu for Zimbabwe's hungry cons.  Cash-strapped prison chiefs in Zimbabwe have come up with an innovative plan to provide meat to thousands of hungry inmates — feed them elephants.  President Robert Mugabe's justice ministry claims there are "too many" elephants in Zimbabwe, and culling and cooking them could be a way of supplementing prisoners' meagre diets.  However, the plan has sparked outrage among conservationists.

South Africa Leader Rebukes Zimbabwe Mugabe.  President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, are engaged in a diplomatic battle following the Zanu-PF leader's pledge to "resist renewed pressure by neighboring states for reforms.

Mugabe: Foreign firms must treat Zim as 'senior partner'.  President Robert Mugabe on Sunday [3/27/2011] told foreign investors to embrace Zimbabwe's equity laws and treat Zimbabweans as "senior partners" if they wanted to operate in his country.  "Those whites who want to be with us, those outsiders who want to work with us fine, they come in as partners, we are the senior partner, no more the junior partner," Mugabe said on Sunday at the burial of a party cadre at the national shrine.

Skeleton show backfires on Robert Mugabe.  They are president Robert Mugabe's most gruesome election campaign tool yet — hundreds of skeletons, supposedly from the Rhodesian bush war.  Working without protective clothing or forensic experts, untrained youths loyal to Mr Mugabe, are exhuming human remains from a disused mine in northern Mount Darwin — and displaying them as "evidence" of the atrocities committed in the 1970s by the regime of former Rhodesian premier Ian Smith.

Zimbabwe to sell uranium to Iran.  Zimbabwe is to defy United Nations sanctions in a deal to sell uranium to Iran.  Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Zimbabwe's foreign minister, said the sanctions — which prohibit member states from providing Iran with raw materials that it could use to make a nuclear weapon — were unfair and hypocritical.

Zimbabwe police, military put on show of force.  Zimbabwean police and troops are putting on a show of force in the capital as calls for protests against the longtime authoritarian ruler appear to have gone unheeded.  Armored cars, trucks of riot police and Israeli-built water cannon vehicles have swept through Harare since Saturday, fanning out into townships around the city.  Authorities have given no official explanation for the display of force.

Robert Mugabe will be watching Libya closely.  After several weeks of what was beginning to look like dangerous strategic paralysis, Western leaders appear to be finally gearing up to put a stop to Colonel Gaddafi. ... However, our decision makers should be aware that it is not just Colonel Gaddafi who will be watching closely for the West's response to this crisis, but also dictators outside of North Africa and the Middle East, whose activities are not currently the focus of the world's attention.  Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, for example...

Zimbabwe Activists May Have Been Tortured, Official Says.  The United Nations torture investigator confirmed Monday [2/28/2011] that he had written the government of Zimbabwe to express concern about allegations that state security agents had assaulted the 45 activists who, after watching reports of the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, were recently detained and charged with treason.

10,000 gather for Robert Mugabe's birthday.  Up TO 10,000 Zimbabweans were flocking to Robert Mugabe's 87th birthday party in Harare today — and his supporters have been falling over each other to flatter him.  State radio has been playing Happy Birthday Mr President throughout the week.  Youths from Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party have flighted adverts on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), appealing to locals to hand over "donations" towards the celebrations.

Arrests in Zimbabwe for Seeing Videos.  Dozens of students, trade unionists and political activists who gathered to watch Al Jazeera and BBC news reports on the uprisings that brought down autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt have been arrested on suspicion of plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe government websites brought down.  Cyber activists say they have brought down Zimbabwean government websites after the president's wife sued a newspaper for publishing a WikiLeaks cable linking her with illicit diamond trading.

Zimbabwe says China eyes $10bn investment.  China Development Bank could fund up to $10bn in Chinese investment in Zimbabwe's mining and agriculture sector, a big boost for a country struggling to attract foreign investors, a government minister said on Monday.

Zim central bank axes staff.  Zimbabwe's central bank laid off three-quarters of its workforce — more than 1,400 employees — on Friday [1/28/2011] to cut costs, state media reported.  "At least 1,455 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe employees, representing 75% of the staff, will leave the institution today in the single largest retrenchment undertaken in this country since independence," The Herald newspaper said.

Zim airline boss quits.  The boss of Zimbabwe's debt-ridden national carrier Air Zimbabwe has quit, days after a second strike by pilots grounded several planes, the airline announced on Thursday [12/30/2011].  "The board of Air Zimbabwe would like to take this opportunity to announce that group chief executive officer Peter Chikumba will be leaving the airline with effect from January 1, 2011," the company said in statement.

One-third of Zimbabwe registered voters are dead.  Nearly one-third of Zimbabwe's registered voters are dead, and others appear to be babies or up to 120 years old, researchers said Friday [1/21/2011], calling for the list to be overhauled so that the upcoming election cannot be rigged.

Foreign firms forced to back Mugabe's sanctions protest.  Zimbabwe's defence minister has said that the chief executives of foreign firms will have to go live on national radio to denounce Western sanctions or face losing 90 per cent of their company shareholding to Robert Mugabe.

US cable leaks' collateral damage in Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe's Morgan Tsvangirai's call to public service has been a tortured one, punctuated by death and indignity.  His numerous arrests and brushes with death began in 1997, when he emerged as the unlikely face of opposition to President Robert Mugabe.  That year, Mugabe's henchmen nearly threw Tsvangirai from the window of his tenth floor office.  He would be arrested on four separate occasions in the years to follow.  During one such arrest, in 2007, he was severely beaten and tortured by Zimbabwean special forces at the behest of the ruling political party.

Associated Press photo
Visitors snap up 100 trillion Zimbabwe bank notes.  They're snapping up old, defunct Zimbabwe bank notes, most notably the one hundred trillion Zimbabwe dollar bill, as an economic souvenir.

Mugabe threat to nationalise US and UK Zimbabwe firms.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says his country will nationalise all US and UK companies operating in the country unless Western sanctions are removed.  He told his Zanu-PF party's annual conference it was time to fight the sanctions imposed on him and party leaders.

Mugabe's wife implicated in illegal diamond trade.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's wife was among those who gained millions of dollars from illegal diamonds mined in the east of the country, according to a US cable obtained by WikiLeaks.

How Robert Mugabe tries to control the weather.  Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe not only directs state propaganda, he also controls the national weather forecast, it has emerged.  Senior forecaster Washington Zhakata has revealed weather bulletins have to be "moderated" by Mr Mugabe's cabinet before they can be broadcast on radio.

Zimbabwe's White Farmers Face New Violent Surge.  A Zimbabwean white farmers' organization said Thursday [10/30/2010] they had seen a "renewed onslaught" of farm seizures and attacks, including the slayings of two farmers, in recent weeks.

Robert Mugabe's bloody diamond deal with China.  Buried in the soil of southeastern Zimbabwe is an unimaginable wealth in diamonds which could easily transform the poverty stricken nation into a thriving, modern and affluent society.  When word of the miraculous discovery reached President Mugabe, [he] wasted no time in sending troops to Marange to secure the diamond fields for the benefit of his regime.

US gem trade group bans Zim diamonds.  A major gem trading group on Monday [8/16/2010] banned the sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe's Marange mines, saying the watchdog Kimberley Process could not guarantee they were not "blood diamonds".

Zimbabwe hits paydirt with sale of diamonds.  Zimbabwe has started selling at least a fifth of a $1.9 billion stash of diamonds from a field where human rights groups say soldiers killed 200 people, raped women and enslaved children.

Zimbabweans wash dirty U.S. dollars with soap, water.  The washing machine cycle takes about 45 minutes — and George Washington comes out much cleaner in the Zimbabwe-style laundering of dirty money.

China, Zimbabwe pledge to enhance military relations.  China values its traditional friendship with Zimbabwe and hopes to push forward relations between the two countries as well as the two armed forces, said Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie [in Beijing] on Sunday [6/13/2010].

Kim Jong Il, Robert Mugabe Top List of Dictators.  North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il has been ranked the world's worst dictator, and for the third consecutive year, Somalia has taken top honors among the world's failed states, in Foreign Policy Magazine's annual index.  The piracy and terrorism-plagued nation is followed by four other African nations — Chad, the Sudan, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo — in the top five.

Zim will not take mines — Mugabe.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday [5/28/2010] said the government would not expropriate mining firms under the country's controversial equity laws.  "Government has no intention of expropriating the mining industry.  No mine has been nationalised since independence," Mugabe told an annual congress of the Chamber of Mines in the resort town of Victoria Falls.

Bennett 'to expose' corruption.  A top aide to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said Tuesday [5/11/2010] he would expose "lies, deceit and theft" in Zimbabwe after he is sworn in as deputy agriculture minister.

Roy Bennett speaks out.  Zimbabwe's deputy agriculture minister-designate Roy Bennett was on Monday [5/10/2010] acquitted of a terrorism case that had stifled progress in the country's coalition government.

Zim mining stakes to be 'grabbed'.  Zimbabwe's mining sector will be the first target of the country's drive to force foreign firms to cede a majority stake to locals, the indigenisation minister said on Tuesday [4/20/2010].

Iran, Zimbabwe strike uranium deal.  Iran has struck a nuclear mining deal with Zimbabwe, The Sunday Telegraph reported Sunday [4/25/2010] as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was visiting Africa.  According to the UK paper, the deal was sealed in Teheran in March by a close aide of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe.  The agreement will reportedly entail Zimbabwe to provide Iran with access to deposits of uranium ore in return for oil.

The Editor says...
This article quickly disappeared from jpost.com and was replaced by another article that made no mention of the urianium-for-oil deal.  Mr. Mugabe seems to me to be the sort of person who would have sold rifles to the Indians (200 years ago).  Apparently he will do anything for a buck.

Mugabe urges end to violence on Zimbabwe anniversary.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has called for an end to political and racial violence as the country celebrates 30 years since independence.  Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary, he urged Zimbabweans to "foster an environment of tolerance".  He also said he would press ahead with a controversial plan to hand over foreign-owned firms to black people.

Postcard From Zimbabwe:  Here's a measure of how President Robert Mugabe is destroying this once lush nation of Zimbabwe:  In a week of surreptitious reporting here (committing journalism can be a criminal offense in Zimbabwe), ordinary people said time and again that life had been better under the old, racist, white regime of what was then called Rhodesia.

Zimbabwe white business takeovers suspended.  Zimbabwe's flamboyant black empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere has been forced to temporarily shelve his plan for white business takeovers in the first significant cabinet victory for Morgan Tsvangirai in his 14 months as prime minister.

Mugabe snubs US Congressman Donald Payne.  The U.S. Embassy says Congressman Donald M. Payne is ending a two-day trip to Zimbabwe without the audience he sought with President Robert Mugabe.

Bitterness and unease in bankrupt Zimbabwe.  After 30 years in power, Zimbabwe's veteran leader Robert Mugabe said this week he was ready to stand for another term as president.  BBC Africa correspondent Andrew Harding finds Mr Mugabe's party in angry mood, and others — the white minority and the former opposition MDC party — full of foreboding.

Coup for white Zim farmers:  White farmers whose land was seized in Zimbabwe can be compensated with Zimbabwean assets in South Africa, the North Gauteng High Court ruled on Thursday.[2/25/2010]  The court also ruled that SADC tribunal rulings against the land grabs in Zimbabwe should be registered, recognised and enforceable by the South African government.

Hands off our diamonds, platinum, Mugabe warns Western investors.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Saturday [2/27/2010] defended new laws that force companies to hand control of their businesses to black Zimbabweans, and warned Western investors to keep their hands off Zimbabwe's mineral wealth.

Mugabe defends business takeovers.  President Robert Mugabe defended a law requiring Zimbabwean businesses to be controlled by blacks, underlining differences with his governing partners in an interview Saturday [2/20/2010].

Zim sanctions must go — Mugabe.  President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday [2/17/2010] that he and his partners in Zimbabwe's unity government agreed that "sanctions must go", a day after the European Union extended its restrictions on the country.

First Mugabe took the farms; now it is white-owned firms.  White people will no longer be able to open hairdressers, advertising agencies or bakeries in Zimbabwe under black empowerment regulations hastily signed into law by president Robert Mugabe's side of the government.  Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's estranged prime minister, described the new law as "null and void" because he had not been consulted.  But analysts say he will likely be unable to reverse it.

Secret airstrip in Zimbabwe for arms.  A secret airstrip that would enable clandestine weapons shipments is being built in a diamond field illegally seized by the Zimbabwean army.

Robert Mugabe closes in on last white farmers.  For Ray Finaughty, the dream of farming Africa's rich soil has ended as the campaign to drive Zimbabwe's white farmers from their land enters its final stage.  One by one the last white farmers are being beaten into submission.  Four more had their farms seized by marauding gangs last week.

The Editor says...
I think there are about seven other stories on this page about "the last white farmer" being thrown out of Zimbabwe.  Evidently it's a story the newspapers love to recycle, as they keep discovering more white farmers.

Zim won't honour court's ruling.  A Zimbabwe high court has rejected a southern African court's ruling that blocked the government's move to resettle blacks on more than 70 white-owned farms, state media said on Wednesday [1/27/2010].

Zimbabwe's MDC Roy Bennett trial takes twists.  Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's top aide and designate deputy agriculture minister, Roy Bennett's trial on charges of possessing weaponry, banditry and attempting to commit terrorism has taken a new twist with the state now applying to impeach a key prosecution witness.

Defiant Mugabe attends talks despite travel bans.  President Robert Mugabe arrived in Denmark yesterday [12/15/2009] to attend UN climate talks, despite western sanctions on his travel and public disapproval from Danish hosts.  Denmark's prime minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said Mr Mugabe was allowed to attend the Copenhagen climate conference because of rules that permitted him to attend UN meetings, overriding European Union and United States travel bans.

Robert Mugabe is still the 'real power': UN investigator.  The UN torture investigator has warned that Zimbabwe's fragile coalition government could collapse, saying his expulsion from the nation showed that President Robert Mugabe and his party continued to hold "the real power".

Mugabe faces losing gem lifeline.  Zimbabwe's violence and human rights abuses at a notorious mine may see the Kimberley Process watchdog cut it off from the regulated diamond trade.

New invasions leave 66,000 farmworkers homeless in Zimbabwe.  Over 66,000 farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been made homeless since February and are fighting for survival following a new spate of invasions of white-owned farms, a farm union said Friday [9/25/2009].

Mugabe slams 'bloody whites'.  President Robert Mugabe on Friday [9/11/2009] lashed out at Western sanctions against him, condemning "bloody whites" for meddling in Zimbabwe's affairs, on the eve of a landmark European Union visit.  "Who said the British and the Americans should rule over others?  That's why we say down with you.  We have not invited these bloody whites.  They want to poke their nose into our own affairs.  Refuse that," he said.

Robert Mugabe opponents burned out.  Robert Mugabe's henchmen have been accused of setting ablaze the homes of opponents after fires consumed the farmsteads of two prominent white activists.  Mount Carmel Farm, owned by Mike Campbell, who led a campaign against Mugabe's land seizures, was burnt to the ground yesterday [9/3/2009].

U.S lawmakers support Zimbabwe's unity government.  The largest delegation of U.S. lawmakers to visit Zimbabwe in a decade is calling on the country's leaders to ensure the success of the unity government.  The delegation concluded a two-day visit Thursday [9/3/2009] to monitor the progress of the government formed in February.

Zimbabwe police arrest, release 10 opposition MPs.  Zimbabwean police Wednesday [8/19/2009] arrested 10 opposition parliamentarians from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC, charged them with disorderly conduct and later released them, their lawyer said.  The move is likely to raise tensions in the six-month-old unity government.

Fears of Zimbabwe plot grow after minister is held for stealing old mobile phone.  Tamsanqa Mahlangu, the deputy minister of youth and a member of the Movement for Democratic Change, was held after being accused of stealing a mobile phone belonging to Joseph Chinotimba, a staunch ally of Mr Mugabe and head of the notorious paramilitary war veterans' militia.  Mr Chinotimba claimed that Mr Mahlangu stole the phone, a 15-year-old Nokia, while they were sharing a table at a "national shared vision" conference two weeks ago.  "It's outrageous," said Mr Mahlangu's lawyer, Charles Kwaramba.  "It's a kind of phone no one would take if you gave it to them."

Blair:  Mugabe should be 'toppled'.  Tony Blair has called for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to be "toppled" as soon as possible.  In an interview with German news magazine Stern he said:  "If you can do, then you should do it.  "I think whoever has the possibility should topple Mugabe — the man has destroyed his country, many people have died unnecessarily because of him."

China 'agrees huge Zimbabwe loan'.  China has agreed to give Zimbabwe a loan of $950m (£573m) to help it revive its battered economy, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said.  Mr Tsvangirai had been criticised by supporters of President Robert Mugabe for failing to get more support during his recent trip to the West.  Mr Tsvangirai and Mr Mugabe formed a power-sharing government in February.  The government says it needs some $8bn to rebuild the country following years of collapse.

Jacob Zuma wants immunity for Africa despots.  South African President Jacob Zuma has proposed a new deal for Africa that would allow autocratic leaders immunity from prosecution in exchange for their retirement, a move clearly aimed at the 85-year-old Zimbabwean despot Robert Mugabe.

US wants to back Zimbabwe.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai here on Thursday [6/11/2009] that the United States is looking for ways to "appropriately" back his tense unity government.  Clinton warmly welcomed Tsvangirai, who shares power with an internationally reviled President Robert Mugabe, as a "long-time advocate for his country and the people of Zimbabwe on behalf of human rights and economic opportunity...

$73 million in US aid for Zimbabwe.  US President Barack Obama announced $US73 million in aid for poverty-stricken Zimbabwe after meeting with the long-time opposition leader and now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.  "I have committed $73 million in assistance to Zimbabwe," President Obama said after the White House meeting.

Vancouver world's easiest city to live in, Harare worst: poll.  Vancouver is the world's easiest city to live in while Harare is the toughest, a survey said Monday putting Europe and north America at the top while many African and Asian cities struggle behind. ... In ratings ranging from zero (intolerable) to 100 percent (ideal), Vancouver scores 98 percent, "benefiting from strong Canadian infrastructure," while Harare languishes on 37.5 "thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe."

Robert Mugabe's lecture on running economies.  In an astounding reversal of fortune, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has taken over the leadership of Africa's largest trading bloc, using an address to the first major international conference to be held in his country in years to lecture fellow heads of state on how to run their economies.

Mugabe's State Religion.  Leftist religious groups like the World Council of Churches, guided by Liberation Theology, funded Robert Mugabe's Patriotic Front insurgency in old Rhodesia and celebrated his 1980 accession to power as divinely ordained.  Of course, like other church-backed Marxist guerrillas, Mugabe quickly revealed he's more more despot than populist.

The UN is taking up a collection to clean up Mugabe's mess.
UN launches $718 million Zimbabwe aid appeal.  Zimbabwe's humanitarian situation has deteriorated sharply since the end of last year, U.N. agencies said Monday as they called for more aid for the troubled southern African country.  In a joint statement, the agencies appealed for $718 million for 2009 to provide food, clean water, AIDS medicines and other aid — up from an estimate of $550 million in November.

Zimbabwe's breadbasket farms become spoils of power.  Anticipating a follow-up visit from a truckload of veterans, [Ben] Freeth urged us to leave for Harare.  Foreign journalists are banned from Zimbabwe and face automatic imprisonment in the capital's cholera-plagued and overcrowded jails.

Zimbabwe unity government 'broke', says Morgan Tsvangirai.  The Movement for Democratic Change leader said he, President Robert Mugabe, and all government employees, were on $100 a month (about £65).  "This government is broke, and we are only able to pay the $100 allowance, but when things improve, we want this allowance to graduate into a proper salary," he said at a May Day rally.  "For now, everyone, all of us, including President Mugabe, is getting $100."

Applause for Mugabe at inauguration.  There was a round of applause for President Robert Mugabe as he arrived at the Union Buildings, Pretoria, for the inauguration of South Africa's new President Jacob Zuma on Saturday.  The Zimbabwean leader raised a clenched fist in response to mostly ANC members.

Zimbabwe court orders activists to jail.  A Zimbabwe court on Tuesday [5/5/2009] ordered 18 opposition activists facing charges of terrorism back to prison after they were indicted for trial next month in a move that will spark fresh tensions in the new unity government.  The activists, including leading human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, say they were abducted by state security agents from their homes last year and tortured to force them to confess to planning to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.

China gives $US10 million to Zimbabwe.  China has given $US10 million ($A13.51 million)to Zimbabwe, half of it directly into the state coffers, to help boost the country's troubled economy, a Chinese government official said on Tuesday [5/5/2009].

SA will 'continue to support Zim'.  African National Congress Treasurer General Mathews Phosa said the coalition government in Zimbabwe must be given a chance to succeed, SABC radio news reported on Saturday.

The Editor says...
Is it true that Robert Mugabe hasn't been "given a chance to succeed"?  No, the fact is that Mr. Mugabe was given too many opportunities to succeed, and as a result he became a ruthless tyrant.

US ends Zimbabwe travel warning, sanctions stay.  The United States has scrapped an advisory warning Americans against travel to Zimbabwe but this does not signal a shift in US policy toward the unity government, the State Department said on Friday [4/17/2009].

Zimbabwe 'to re-engage with West'.  Zimbabwe's new coalition government has adopted a 100-day renewal plan aimed at mending ties with the West after years of isolation under Robert Mugabe.

Anti-Mugabe farmer Mike Campbell who stood up to thugs loses his land.  A Zimbabwean farmer who has led the campaign against Robert Mugabe's land-grab policy appeared to have lost his battle after being forced to leave his property by the President's henchmen.

Zimbabwe to arrest farm invaders.  Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday [3/27/2009] warned people invading commercial farms that they were committing theft and would be arrested and prosecuted, appearing to challenge a key feature of President Robert Mugabe's land policies.  The seizure of white-owned farms to give to poor black Zimbabweans has become a controversial but important Mugabe strategy, and his opponents say this has helped to destroy the agriculture sector that was once the backbone of the economy.

Grace Mugabe is immune from prosecution in Hong Kong.  Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe, is entitled to diplomatic status in Hong Kong, making her immune from prosecution for an alleged attack on a photographer for the Sunday Times.  The Department of Justice in the territory issued a statement saying:  "Grace Mugabe is not liable to arrest or detention, and enjoys immunity from prosecution."  These rights come under Chinese regulations on diplomatic immunity and privileges, the department said.

Hong Kong lawmakers urge ban on Mugabe's wife.  Hong Kong lawmakers urged the local government to ban Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe from visiting the city again after she allegedly punched a newspaper photographer.  The pro-democracy politicians issued the calls after Hong Kong authorities decided not to take legal action against the wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's fledgling leaders plead for cash.  Zimbabwe's Finance Minister has warned that the country's power-sharing Government will fail, with potentially disastrous consequences, unless international donors urgently inject cash into its treasury.

From Riches to Rags:  Inflation and Poverty in Zimbabwe.  As bad as things were in Germany in the 1920s, the hyperinflation that has plagued Zimbabwe recently makes the Weimar Republic of that era look like a model of fiscal and monetary integrity.  The tragedy now unfolding in Zimbabwe provides the latest example that a government cannot create prosperity simply by cranking up the printing presses and creating previously unimaginable sums of money.  All that course of action ever does in the long term is destroy the value of the currency.

Tsvangirai assures wife's death was an accident.  Zimbabwe's grieving Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday called on his supporters to accept the death of his wife Susan in a weekend car crash as a genuine accident in an attempt to quash speculation of foul play.

Mugabe's mess.  The horror that is Zimbabwe today can be summed up in the fate of one man who has fought longer, harder and with more courage than most to make the country succeed.  Roy Bennett was a successful farmer whose land was confiscated by President Robert Mugabe, a Marxist neo-Stalinist who rules by fear while wrecking the economy of what once was Africa's most hopeful country.  Bennett, 53, was a police officer in colonial times, and more recently has been elected to Zimbabwe's House of Assembly (parliament) in a heavily black constituency — one of three white parliamentarians.

Car-truck crash kills Zimbabwe prime minister's wife, injures him.  Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was in stable condition and recovering from head injuries Friday night [3/6/2009] after a car wreck that killed his wife, Susan, medical sources told CNN.  The crash, on a busy two-lane highway between Tsvangirai's hometown of Buhera and the capital city of Harare, comes just weeks after the start of a power-sharing agreement between Tsvangirai and his political rival, President Robert Mugabe.

Fatal Tsvangirai crash 'was not accident', says MDC.  The wife of Zimbabwean leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been killed in a car crash in what his party claims may have been an assassination attempt.

U.S.-Tied Truck Hit Zimbabwe PM's Car.  The truck that hit Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's car today belonged to a contractor working for the U.S. and British governments, ABC News has learned from three sources.  The truck hit a pothole in the road, causing it to swerve into oncoming traffic where it sideswiped Tsvangirai's vehicle.  Tsvangirai's car overturned several times.

Zimbabwe PM 'seeks Botswana care'.  Zimbabwean PM Morgan Tsvangirai is said to be going to neighbouring Botswana for medical tests and rest, a day after a car crash which killed his wife.  A source close to Mr Tsvangirai told the BBC he was exhausted and needed time to come to terms with events.

Tsvangirai car crash:  Accident or assassination attempt?  The fatal car accident on Friday night, killing the wife of Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and injuring Mr. Tsvangirai himself, has left many Zimbabweans suspicious about whether this was truly an accident, or an attempted assassination.  Tsvangirai himself says the truck that sideswiped his car, drove "deliberately" at him.  But members of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party say that they are withholding judgment as they carry out their own investigation in parallel with that of the police.

Mugabe wants Zimbabwe's white farmers out.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Saturday that land seizures would continue, and he called for the country's last white farmers to leave.  Mugabe was addressing supporters at a celebration marking his 85th birthday in Chinhoyi, 60 miles northwest of Harare.  "Land distribution will continue.  It will not stop," Mugabe said.  "The few remaining white farmers should quickly vacate their farms as they have no place there."

Mugabe seeks stake in foreign firms.  Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, said yesterday land seizures from white farmers would continue and vowed to press ahead with plans for locals to take majority stakes in foreign companies operating in Zimbabwe.  Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler for nearly three decades, is holding on to power despite economic and political turmoil that have forced him into a unity government with the opposition.

Mugabe birthday celebrated in style.  Robert Mugabe marked his 85th birthday this weekend with a sumptuous banquet in Harare at the start of a week of parties which observers say is a further sign of the Zimbabwean President's defiance in the face of growing criticism of his regime.  His latest show of excess came as Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said "maybe US$5 billion" would be needed to rehabilitate the collapsed health, social and education systems.

The Editor says...
$5 billion in U.S. dollars would be about 1,250,000,000,000,000,000 (1.25 quintillion) Zimbabwe dollars.

Mugabe's new crisis: no cash for birthday.  Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, turns 85 today — but nobody wants to pay for his party.  So far, fundraisers have been unable to raise the £17,500 needed to stage a party in the central town of Chinhoyi next week.

Should I stay or should I go:  what every white Zimbabwean asks.  At one point or another every white Zimbabwean family has had the same debate:  whether to stay in the country they love, as it steadily deteriorates, or whether to cut their losses and move elsewhere.  The young, those concerned about their futures, have mostly chosen to go.

Mugabe's birthday present:  purge of last white farmers.  A secret plan has been hatched by President Robert Mugabe's most loyal supporters to evict the last of Zimbabwe's white farmers from their land before his 85th birthday.  He is already planning to celebrate the occasion with vast quantities of champagne and caviar, even though half his country faces starvation.  But just in case the Bollinger does not provide enough fizz, his acolytes are preparing an extra surprise:  a fresh onslaught against Zimbabwe's last white farmers.

Found:  Robert Mugabe's secret bolthole in the Far East.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace have secretly bought a £4m bolt-hole in the Far East while his country struggles with hyper-inflation, mass unemployment and a cholera epidemic.  The Mugabes' house, in an exclusive residential complex in Hong Kong, was purchased on their behalf by a middleman through a shadowy company whose registered office is in a run-down tenement block.  When a reporter and a photographer called at the house last week, they were attacked by the Zimbabwean occupants.

Robert Mugabe henchmen bent on sabotaging fragile partnership.  Zimbabwe's fledgeling power-sharing Government staggered into its fifth day yesterday as fears grew that a shadowy cabal of President Mugabe's top security bosses are edging towards a military coup.  Roy Bennett, nominated by Morgan Tsvangirai as his choice for Deputy Agriculture Minister, was seized and detained by state security agents on Friday — an act seen widely as an attempt to sabotage the coalition of Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Mr Tsvangirai.

Zimbabwean official charged with terrorism.  A newly nominated Zimbabwean official faces accusations of banditry, sabotage and terrorism, his attorney said.  CNN reported Sunday that Roy Bennett, the former Zimbabwean opposition activist who was to become a Cabinet minister, was charged and arrested Friday.

Zimbabwe Cabinet Pick Faces Terrorism Charges.  Authorities in Zimbabwe have dropped treason charges against a would-be member of the new government, but still plan to bring him to court Monday to face other charges.  Lawyers for Roy Bennett, an MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) party member and ally of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, say he faces charges of attempting to commit acts of terrorism, insurgency and banditry.

Robert Mugabe binges on champagne and caviar as Zimbabwe starves.  It is the 85th birthday of President Mugabe this month and the zealots of his Zanu (PF) party are determined that it should be an occasion that their great leader will never forget.  In recent days they have been out soliciting "donations" from corporate Zimbabwe and have drawn up a wish list that is scarcely credible in a land where seven million citizens survive on international food aid, 94 percent are jobless and cholera rampages through a population debilitated by hunger.

Is Zimbabwe Now a Rogue State?  The situation in Zimbabwe has now reached the point where the international community would be entirely justified in using force to put Robert Mugabe under arrest and place him on trial.  Why do I say this now?  Mugabe's crimes were frightful enough before, to be sure.  But they were the crimes of an elected government, and it wasn't absolutely clear that they exceeded the threshold at which intervention can be justified or, rather, mandated.

Robert Mugabe's wife Grace seizes Zimbabwe farm.  President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace has seized a farm from a high court judge, according to legal and agricultural sources.  Mrs Mugabe, who at 43 is more than four decades younger than her husband, already has a string of properties across the country, taken after Mr Mugabe's loyalists began evicting white farmers in 2000.

7 Zimbabwe opposition members charged in bomb plot.  Seven members of Zimbabwe's main opposition party were the first of dozens of jailed dissidents to be formally charged Wednesday [1/7/2009], and they pleaded not guilty in a bombing plot.

Report:  Mugabe set to form government.  Zimbabwe's main opposition leader has insisted that he will not become prime minister in a government of national unity until disagreements are settled.  There were signs Saturday [1/3/2009] that President Robert Mugabe would press ahead regardless.

White Farmers Confront Mugabe in a Legal Battle.  Edna Madzongwe, president of the Senate and a powerful member of Zimbabwe's ruling party, began showing up uninvited at the Etheredges' farm here last year, at times still dressed up after a day in Parliament.  And she made her intentions clear, the Etheredges say:  she wanted their farm and intended to get it through the government's land redistribution program.

Zimbabwe prosecuting 140 white farmers.  Zimbabwe will prosecute 140 white landowners on charges of failing to vacate their farms under the country's controversial 2000 land reform program, state media has reported.  "A total of 140 farmers are to be prosecuted for failing to vacate farms after being issued with eviction notices," The Sunday Mail said, citing a report presented at the ruling ZANU-PF party's national conference.

Nervous Mugabe to cancel holiday.  Each morning and afternoon, a nauseating ritual is performed in Harare as Robert Mugabe travels in a heavily guarded motorcade between his home and State House.  Police motorcyclists force traffic off the road to allow the presidential motorcade unimpeded progress through the crumbling streets of the capital.  Guarded by truckloads of soldiers, Mugabe sits in the back of a custom-built, armoured and gadget-equipped Mercedes.  A small man in a black Savile Row suit, he is invisible behind the black-tinted windows.  Woe betide anyone who gets in the way — even pointing at the motorcade is an offence that can lead to imprisonment.

Lawyer:  Zimbabwe activist held in notorious prison.  A lawyer says Zimbabwean peace activist Jestina Mukoko is being held in a notorious maximum-security prison despite a court order that she be taken to a hospital.  Human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa says that a colleague tracked Mukoko to Chikurubi prison near the capital, Harare, but had not been allowed access to her.

Tutu says South Africa's legacy 'betrayed' over Zimbabwe.  Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Wednesday [12/23/2008] that South Africa had 'betrayed its own legacy' by failing to remove Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe from power.

Robert Mugabe:  'Zimbabwe is mine -- I will never surrender'.  A defiant President Mugabe scorned the growing international clamour for him to step down, insisting yesterday [12/19/2008] that "Zimbabwe is mine" even as his regime struggled to contain a devastating cholera epidemic that has brought his already ravaged nation to the brink.

Mugabe: "Zimbabwe is mine".  The ever-defiant Zimbabwean president says "Zimbabwe is mine" and no African nation can dare remove him from power except Zimbabweans.

Zim unveils Z$500m note.  Zimbabwe's central bank on Friday introduced a Z$500m note, as the African country struggles to cope with the world's highest inflation and crippling currency shortages.  The half-billon note, worth about $10, was released together with a Z$200m bill, which the central bank said in a statement was introduced for the "convenience" of the public. ... Just last Thursday, Zimbabwe introduced a Z$100m bill that at the time was worth $14.  One week later, it's worth less than 50¢.

Zimbabwe:  Cholera introduced by West.  Zimbabwe on Saturday [12/13/2008] accused the West of waging biological warfare to deliberately start a cholera epidemic that has killed hundreds of people and sickened thousands.  The spread of the disease has focused the world's attention on the spectacular collapse of the southern African nation, which often blames its troubles on the West.

The Editor says...
There is no cholera in Zimbabwe, Mugabe insists.  (See below.)  But if there is, it's because of an evil plot by the U.S.  This is reminiscent of Jeremiah Wright, when he claimed that AIDS was invented by the U.S. government.

Mugabe: 'There is no cholera in Zimbabwe'.  With breathtaking contempt for the suffering of his people, Robert Mugabe declared yesterday [12/11/2008] that "there is no cholera" in Zimbabwe.  As the UN announced that the death toll had risen to 783 and prepared for 60,000 cases, Zimbabwe's autocrat claimed that his country's doctors, with the help of unnamed "others", had arrested the epidemic and with it the West's pretext for regime change.

Soldiers assault state radio DJ for wearing camouflage.  Tafadzwa Sikwila, a DJ employed by ZBC's Power FM Radio, sustained serious head injuries after being brutally assaulted by four Zimbabwe National Army soldiers in Gweru on 25th October.  According to reports which only surfaced this week the soldiers accused him of wearing replica military camouflage trousers, without permission (under Zimbabwe's obscure defence Act, civilians are prohibited from wearing camouflage).
Source:  DX Listening Digest, December 10, 2008.

Rift widens as the African Union stands by Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.  The international rift over how to deal with Zimbabwe widened yesterday after the African Union rejected proposals for tougher action against the regime even as President Bush joined calls for Robert Mugabe to step down.  "It is time for Robert Mugabe to go," Mr Bush said in Washington.  "Across the continent, African voices are bravely speaking out to say, 'Now is the time for him to step down'."

Stop The Genocide -- Get Rid Of Mugabe.  Another humanitarian crisis has hit Zimbabwe, where hundreds, maybe thousands, are dying from cholera.  Will its Marxist president ever be held responsible?

Zimbabwe cholera death toll reaches 775; pressure mounts on Mugabe to quit.  The death toll from Zimbabwe's cholera outbreak has risen sharply, the United Nations said Wednesday, reporting 775 deaths and 16,141 cases of the waterborne disease in the southern African country.  Cholera has spread rapidly in Zimbabwe because of the country's crumbling health-care system and the lack of clean water.

EU gives 9 million euros to Zimbabwe to help deal with cholera.  The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission, said Tuesday [12/2/2008] it was providing 9 million euros (11.4 million dollars) in funds to help Zimbabwe deal with a cholera outbreak that has claimed nearly 500 lives so far.

Kenya PM calls for Mugabe removal.  Power-sharing in Zimbabwe is dead and it is time for African governments to oust President Robert Mugabe, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said.  His comments are some of the strongest by an African leader against Mr Mugabe, says the BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi.  "It's time for African governments... to push him out of power," Mr Odinga said after talks with Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Robert Mugabe appeals to Britain for help with cholera crisis.  Robert Mugabe's regime declared a national emergency and appealed for international help to combat rampant cholera yesterday in an unprecedented acknowledgment of its failings.  With the official death toll from the cholera epidemic reaching 570 and 13,000 people infected, the Government admitted that Zimbabwe's once-proud medical system had collapsed ...

Zimbabwe introduces 200m dollar note.  Inflation-wracked Zimbabwe plans to introduce a 200 million dollar note just days after a 100 million dollar note came into circulation, the government has announced.  The 200 million dollar note, announced in a notice in the government gazette on Friday, will bring to 28 the number of notes put into circulation by the central bank this year alone, as the country struggles with the world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent.

Calls grow for Robert Mugabe to be removed by force.  Britain and America added their voices yesterday [12/5/2008] to increasing demands for the removal of President Mugabe, by force if necessary.  David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said that the world was "watching with horror the worsening situation in Zimbabwe", and assured the country's neighbours that there would be massive support for the removal of his "rogue" regime.

British woman, 74, beaten to death in 'Wild West' Zimbabwe.  A housewife described as a "nice old lady" was beaten to death and her husband left in critical condition after an "extremely violent" attack highlighted Zimbabwe's decline into lawlessness.  Mary Austen, a 74-year-old Briton, was murdered on her farm near Kwekwe, in the centre of the country, and her body discovered two days later.  By then her husband, Neville a 77-year-old Zimbabwean, could not move or speak.

Ban, Mugabe Discuss Power Sharing Deal.  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon held secret talks with President Robert Mugabe yesterday [11/30/2008], asking the Zimbabwean leader to conclude a power-sharing deal with opposition parties.  The two men met "one-to-one" for 30 minutes yesterday on the sidelines of a U.N. development meeting in Doha, Qatar.

Carter, Annan, others refused entry to Zimbabwe.  Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Saturday [11/23/2008] that he and others planning a humanitarian mission in Zimbabwe had been refused entry to the impoverished African country.  Carter and two other members of The Elders group — former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and rights advocate Graca Machel, who is married to Nelson Mandela — had planned to assess the country's humanitarian needs as Zimbabweans are stalked by disease and hunger while political crisis occupies its politicians.

Carter states the obvious...
Carter warns situation appears dire in Zimbabwe.  Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday the crisis in Zimbabwe appears "much worse than anything we ever imagined" after the government there blocked his weekend humanitarian visit.  Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and child advocate Graca Machel called for southern African leaders to halt the "deep suffering" in Zimbabwe, where the U.N. says more than 5 million people face imminent starvation.

Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF to form new government.  Zimbabwe's ruling party has vowed to form a new government "forthwith", brushing aside the objections of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to a power-sharing deal.  President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF announced today that it would follow the recommendation of regional leaders who called last weekend for a government to be formed immediately.

UN agency struggles for donations as need to feed Zimbabwe grows.  The UN's World Food Programme warns that it will have to cut food rations for hungry people in Zimbabwe this month in order to make its stretched resources go further.  The relief agency reports that it will have to feed four million people in November, compared with the two million people who received rations in October, the first month it was operating on a large scale in the country during the current crisis.

Zimbabwe compromise call rejected.  Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected a compromise plan aimed at breaking the country's political deadlock.  A summit of southern African leaders had told Zimbabwe's rival parties they should share control of the disputed home affairs ministry.

Zimbabwe attacks 'kill dialogue'.  Renewed violence has ended hopes of negotiating an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis, the country's main opposition party has said.  The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) blamed President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party for an "orgy of brutality" across Zimbabwe.

Mugabe supporters grab one of Zimbabwe's last white-run farms.  A leading Zimbabwean farmer working some of the country's last productive land has had his property invaded by allies of Robert Mugabe.

The Editor says...
Reporters found the "last white farmer" about six months ago, or so they claimed.

Zimbabwe riot police use violence to quell fresh protests.  Robert Mugabe's riot police returned to their violent ways yesterday [10/14/2008] as Thabo Mbeki, the South African mediator, sought to break Zimbabwe's political deadlock.  Four students were injured when they tried to deliver a petition to Parliament in Harare protesting at the failure of most of the country's universities to open at the start of the new academic year.

Zimbabwe shops stop accepting local currency.  For cash notes, which the price rises mean are in appallingly short supply despite the printing presses working overtime, on Sunday £1 was worth around Z$110,000.  But for cheque transfers, £1 brought anywhere from Z$8 billion to Z$32billion.  At independence in 1980, the Zimbabwe dollar was worth more than the US dollar, but Robert Mugabe's regime has destroyed the economy, with the slide accelerating in recent years, months and weeks.

Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, where baked beans cost $30 billion.  At the TM supermarket in Borrowdale, in Harare's western suburbs, many shelves were bare yesterday.  But a kilo of mince cost Z$490 billion, a kilo of sausage Z$170 billion, and a tin of baked beans Z$30 billion.  Despite Zimbabwe's desperate shortage of food, heavy import duties have been slapped onto edible products, and a litre of imported orange juice cost an eye-watering Z$303 billion.

Aid agencies:  5 million face starvation in Zimbabwe.  Death is stalking Zimbabwe's children, as a potentially catastrophic famine gathers momentum.  Aid agencies say that half the population, about five million people, face starvation, two-thirds of children are out of school and water shortages have led to deadly cholera outbreaks.

Mugabe 'has killed power share deal'.  Zimbabwe's power-sharing agreement was branded dead in the water by opposition leaders today ahead of mediator Thabo Mbeki's arrival for talks soured by President Robert Mugabe's ministerial allocation.

Mugabe regime cancels the school year.  Since the school year began in January, Zimbabwe's 4.5 million pupils have had a total of 23 uninterrupted classroom days, teaching unions say — a sorry state for a country that once had the highest standard of education in Africa.  President Robert Mugabe became an African hero of rare distinction when he carried out a big expansion of the education system in the early years of his rule.  But, as with most of the country's infrastructure, that system is now collapsing.

Zimbabwe parties fail to break impasse.  Zimbabwe's opposition renewed a call today [10/7/2008] for regional mediators to help break an impasse over a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, after weekend talks ended in deadlock.

Robert Mugabe's marauders seize their last chance to grab white farms.  [Kevin] Cooke's Goeie Hoop (good hope in Afrikaans) farm is just one of those caught up in a new wave of land grabs by President Mugabe's henchmen.  The confiscations have been caused by fears that the creation of a power-sharing Government could mark an end to an eight-year campaign of seizures against the country's white-owned farms.  Some white farmers, whose property was occupied by squatters in earlier land invasions, now find themselves the victims of fresh invasions by new bands of squatters belonging to Mr Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party.

Power-sharing deal in trouble after Mugabe demands all ministries.  The Zimbabwe government's power-sharing agreement appeared near to collapse yesterday [9/30/2008] after President Robert Mugabe demanded the right to appoint all key cabinet ministers, threatening to render the opposition powerless.

5.5 million Zimbabweans facing food crisis:  Tsvangirai.  A power-sharing government must be formed in Zimbabwe over the next few days to avoid a humanitarian crisis in the south African nation, its new prime minister designate said Saturday [9/27/2008].  Zimbabwe's farming, mining and other industries have come to a near standstill as the country's economy continues to crumble, Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters in Harare.  An estimated 5.5 million people will require food aid in the coming months as a result, said Tsvangirai, who is leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change.  "I've had the opportunity to meet with food security experts, the food manufacturing companies and farmers to ascertain the qualities of food available," he said.

Zimbabweans overwhelm banks to withdraw cash.  Banking authorities raised the daily withdrawal limit in Zimbabwe, prompting tens of thousands to line up Monday in desperate hopes of getting enough cash for groceries before spiraling inflation eats away more value.  New rules went into affect the day President Robert Mugabe returned from the U.N. allowing withdrawals of up to 20,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$35).  The old 1,000 Zimbabwean-dollar limit was barely enough to buy a newspaper.  The limit and the fact that Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate, officially 11 million percent, unofficially much higher, has meant long lines at banks most days.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe slams West at U.N..  Zimbabwe's president is lashing out at Western powers and accusing them of genocide and mass destruction.  In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, Robert Mugabe also called for the removal of U.S. and British sanctions.  Those sanctions target individuals and companies seen to be supporting Mugabe's regime.  They were tightened after elections this spring that were widely viewed as a sham.

Zimbabwe power-sharing deal faces disaster.  Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal is close to collapse after only 12 days because Robert Mugabe and his generals are determined to thwart it, Western diplomats said yesterday.  "We are looking at the possibility of this thing failing," a senior diplomat told The Times as Mr Mugabe demanded an end to the "illegal and unilateral" sanctions at the UN General Assembly in New York last night.

Will Robert Mugabe wriggle out of deal?  Zimbabwe's bitter political rivals are expected to sign a landmark power-sharing agreement today designed to end months of violence and years of economic misrule.  President Mugabe and the Opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, are to initial the deal to set up a transitional government at a ceremony in Harare in the presence of regional heads of state, including South Africa's President Mbeki, who mediated the accord.

After 28 years, Robert Mugabe agrees to share power.  President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and his bitter enemy Morgan Tsvangirai agreed a deal last night [9/11/2008] that looks likely to end the octogenarian leader's 28-year monopoly on power in his shattered country.

Zimbabwe opposition wants new vote.  Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai today [9/8/2008] called for fresh elections, supervised by international observers, if deadlocked power-sharing talks do not reach a breakthrough.

Mugabe's threat could end power-sharing negotiations.  Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, said he will name a new cabinet if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai refuses to sign a power-sharing deal by Thursday, the state-owned newspaper reported on Thursday — a deal that both sides have confirmed would leave Mugabe himself in command.

Zimbabwe doctors' advice:  Don't get sick.  The advice of doctors to Zimbabweans is, don't get sick.  If you do, don't count on hospitals — they're short of drugs and functioning equipment.  As the economy collapses, the laboratory at a main 1,000-bed hospital has virtually shut down.  X-ray materials, injectable antibiotics and anticonvulsants have run out.

Zimbabwe travel ban lifted by Foreign Office.  The [British] Foreign Office lifted its ban on travel to Zimbabwe this week following a decrease in violence in the country, although warnings remain against visits to some areas.  The lifting of the ban was welcomed by African tour operators.

Okay, but...
Who goes on holiday to Zimbabwe?  The Foreign Office warns against all but essential travel to Zimbabwe, but according to the country's tourism chiefs, thousands of people from overseas still head there every year.  So who are Zimbabwe's tourists and why do they go?

Boo and hiss as much as you like, Robert Mugabe's still in power.  Zimbabwe sailed into uncharted waters this week with only one thing certain:  President Mugabe's hand is still firmly on the rudder.  Although his ruling Zanu (PF) party lost the position of Speaker of Parliament on Monday for the first time since independence in 1980, talk of it being the endgame for the octogenarian's brutal rule is premature.

Zimbabwe swimmer gets cash prize.  Kirsty Coventry won all of Zimbabwe's four medals at the Beijing games, taking them to 38th in the medal table.  She was given the money, worth £54,890, in a suitcase by the governor of the central bank. ... It was rare praise for a white Zimbabwean, our correspondent notes:  Mr Mugabe has spent much of the last 10 years repossessing white owned farms and railing against Britain and the West.

Zimbabwe farmer victim of latest Mugabe land eviction.  Kobus Joubert, who is in his 70s, is a former president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, whose members used to earn 40 percent of the country's export earnings before Mr Mugabe destroyed commercial agriculture with the seizure of white-owned land.  He once farmed 1,200 acres, but he and his wife Maryanna have been left sleeping in a lorry, loaded with a few meagre possessions they have been able to salvage.

Impoverished Zimbabweans are killing elephants, claim activists.  Elephants in Zimbabwe are being shot and eaten as wildlife is decimated by the impact of the country's economic crisis, activists claimed today [8/14/2008].  Almost 2,000 elephants have been killed in and around the Hwange national park in north-west Zimbabwe this year, the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force claimed, adding that the country's national parks department intended to authorise the shooting of 1,000 more by the end of the year.

Robert Mugabe 'strikes deal to exclude Morgan Tsvangirai'.  Robert Mugabe last night appeared to have ensured his political survival by splitting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.  A senior member of Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF) party said that the 84-year-old dictator had agreed to set up a coalition government with Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a breakaway faction of the MDC with ten seats in Parliament.

Talks in Zimbabwe falter as Tsvangirai refuses to concede power to Mugabe.  Talks to end Zimbabwe's political crisis were bogged down yesterday [8/11/2008] as Morgan Tsvangirai resisted intense pressure to agree to Robert Mugabe retaining much of his power.  A second day of gruelling negotiations broke up last night without agreement and Mugabe gave a downbeat assessment, saying they were not making progress at present but that he hoped differences "will be overcome" when the talks resume today.

S. African President Arrives in Zimbabwe for Inter-Party Talks.  South African President Thabo Mbeki has arrived in Zimbabwe to meet with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in an effort to broker a power-sharing deal between them.  Mr. Mbeki arrived in the capital, Harare, Saturday amid reports that the two sides are close to an agreement.  The state-run Herald newspaper quotes a presidential spokesman as saying the talks represent a milestone in relations between the two parties.

Mbeki in Zimbabwe for power-sharing talks.  Zimbabwe mediator South African President Thabo Mbeki arrived in Harare on Saturday for power-sharing talks amid growing optimism over an agreement, witnesses said.

Beijing sends Mugabe packing.  Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, has been forced to return home following intense political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party not to attend Friday night's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

China pumps money into Zim.  China has further strengthened its ties with Zimbabwe after Chinese mining giant China Jiangxi Corporation for International and Technical Cooperation (CJIC) announced plans to form a joint venture company with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC) to mine chrome in Zimbabwe.  According to a report carried by The Zimbabwe Guardian on Wednesday [8/6/2008], CJIC has agreed to bankroll the development of two chrome mines.

Red Cross appeals for money to feed millions of Zimbabweans.  The Red Cross in Zimbabwe on Wednesday issued an emergency appeal to donors for 26.6 million dollars for food aid to Zimbabwe, saying millions in the politically and economically unstable country faced hunger. … The number of people in need could rise to up to 5.1 million, almost half the population, by the end of the year, the IFRC noted.

Risks of Inflation:  new Zimbabwe bank notes.  "One major commercial bank said its automated teller machines are not configured to dispense multi-zero withdrawals and freeze in what it called a "data overflow error."  Software writers are busy writing programs to try to overcome the problem."

Zimbabwe's Money Worth More As eBay Novelty Than As Actual Money.  Amid Zimbabwe's mind-boggling hyper inflation, a new 100 billion dollar bank note has more value as a novelty item on eBay than on the streets of the capital.  The note, launched this week, is worth enough to buy a loaf of bread — if you can find one on Zimbabwe's depleted store shelves.  Meanwhile on eBay, the bill was on offer for nearly US$80.

Mugabe's no Einstein.  With talks in South Africa set to resume this weekend on Zimbabwe's impasse, strongman Robert Mugabe has suddenly rediscovered his nation's disastrous economy.  Not that Mr. Mugabe has applied the right lessons.  On Wednesday [7/31/2008], the regime rolled out an old classic in government economic illiteracy — a new zim dollar that simply knocks 10 digits off the old currency's denomination.  So, a loaf of bread that previously cost Z$50 billion now costs either $50 billion of the old zim dollars, or $5 in new ones.

200 billion dollars for a loaf of bread.
Obsolete coins cause chaos at Zimbabwe tills.  The central bank, overwhelmed by stratospheric inflation, this week cut 10 zeros from the currency and reintroduced coins made obsolete in 2002 when they became worthless.  A $1 coin now is worth 10 billion of the old dollars.  On Friday [8/1/2008], about 20 $1-coins — or 200 billion Zimbabwe dollars — could buy a loaf of scarce bread if it could be found in a downtown supermarket.  That's about $5 at the official rate and $2 at the black market rate that better reflects the value of the currency.

Zimbabwe to remove 'zeros' from currency.  Previous currency reforms have failed to tame Zimbabwe's inflation — officially pegged at 2.2 million percent a year but estimated by independent analysts to be closer to 12.5 million percent.  It also has become virtually impossible to get access to cash as the country's economic collapse worsens.

U.S. Must Give U.N. the Boot.  I've demanded it before, to no avail.  Now, the U.S. should again consider getting out of the U.N., and the U.N. out of the U.S.  What better timing than in a transitional election year?  Nothing of lasting importance ever happens at the U.N. Why throw good money after bad?  The straw that broke this camel's back has been the U.N. refusal (or inability) to do anything about the brutal dictatorship in Zimbabwe….

Zimbabwe army nearing collapse as recruits lack basic training.  President Robert Mugabe relies on the army to keep him in power and its generals are now believed to be the most powerful men in Zimbabwe.  While they have grown rich, hyperinflation now exceeding two million percent has impoverished their troops.

South Africa tells Robert Mugabe to surrender.  The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has been warned by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, that he faces prosecution for the crimes he has committed during his 28 years in office unless he signs a deal to give up all effective power.

Robert Mugabe forced into talks with opposition.  Beijing put pressure on Mr Mugabe to begin talks because of fears that the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe risked overshadowing the Olympics, according to government and diplomatic sources.  China's leaders, who have have long enjoyed a close relationship with Zimbabwe's beleagured president, feared growing protests in the run-up to the Games and so leaned on Mr Mugabe to agree to the historic talks which began on Thursday.

Mugabe's power ploy:  [Scroll down]  The ruling elite are not troubled.  Some make good money out of Zimbabwe's ruin.  They are shifting their money overseas; sending the Zimbabwe dollar on down.  They can always bring a little foreign exchange back and buy a few trillion dollars to pay servants and purchase food and black-market fuel.

EU hits Zimbabwe with enhanced sanctions package.  The European Union stepped up sanctions against Zimbabwe yesterday [7/22/2008], in an effort to increase pressure on Robert Mugabe a day after he signed a pact to enter power-sharing talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Zimbabwean currency Army may go unpaid as sanctions dry up supply of paper for Zimbabwe banknotes.  The Zimbabwean government is struggling to find enough cash to pay its workers, and more importantly the military, after it was forced to cut back on printing money because sanctions have severed its supply of banknote paper from Europe.

The Editor says...
That's a lot of zeros.  If inflation doesn't slow down, they may have to start using floating-point numbers!

Mugabe's thugs waved through Australian skies.  Air Zimbabwe is using Australian air space to ferry military officials and war veterans responsible for political violence in Robert Mugabe's repressive regime to China.  Flights from Harare, also carrying tonnes of illicit goods including ivory, gold and diamonds, pass directly through Australian air space en route to Singapore, before touching down in Beijing and southern China.

Threat of mass starvation looms in Zimbabwe after latest harvest fails.  Millions of Zimbabweans are threatened with starvation after the widespread failure of the latest harvest brought on by the government's disastrous mishandling of land redistribution, and food shortages in the shops caused by hyperinflation.  The United Nations says hundreds of thousands of people require food aid immediately because they have harvested little or nothing in recent weeks.

Zimbabwe Rivals Sign Agreement.  Zimbabwe's feuding political leaders appeared jointly for the first time in years on Monday to sign a preliminary agreement laying out terms for negotiations to wrest their land out of political chaos.

Zimbabwe leaders agree talks pact.  President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai have signed a deal outlining a framework for talks on Zimbabwe's political crisis.  The pair — who shook hands after the signing — have been locked in a bitter dispute over this year's presidential elections.

Mugabe's Post-Election Media Blitz:  In the face of growing condemnation from the international community, President Robert Mugabe is appealing to the Zimbabwean public for support as he battles for legitimacy.  In what amounts to an after-the-fact election campaign, the state-owned media have gone into overdrive to try to salvage Mugabe's battered image after the second-round presidential election held on June 27.

Mugabe is, and remains illegitimate.  The Junta in Zimbabwe received a shot in the arm when its "look east" policy yielded the most rewarding political fruits at the United Nations meeting in New York last week.  A motion to impose international sanctions against Mugabe and 13 of his hardliners failed in the UN Security Council when it was opposed by China and Russia, permanent members with veto powers supported by South Africa and current Chair of the Council Vietnam.

Mugabe threatens to seize foreign firms.  Zimbabwe will transfer ownership of all foreign-owned firms that support Western sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government to locals and investors from "friendly" countries, a state newspaper reported on Sunday [7/20/2008].  The southern African state is struggling with an economic crisis many blame on Mugabe's policies, which has left it with an inflation rate of over 2.2 million percent and chronic shortages of food and other basic needs.

Synopsis from DX Listening Digest.
New Chinese Jamming Equipment for Zimbabwe?  The Harare Tribune says that the Zimbabwe government recently received another shipment of jamming equipment from China.  Landing records, shown to the newspaper's reporter at Harare International Airport by port authorities, confirmed that the government received the equipment on 17 May.  The newspaper says that both Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa have taken on to broadcasting on multiple frequencies in order to beat the jamming operation carried out by the CIO with the assistance of the Chinese attaches.

Inflation under-estimated at 2.2 million percent.  Economists believe the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which released the new figures, was conservative.  The real inflation in the country is around 10,500,000 percent.  Rising costs are forcing retailers to increase prices a number of times a day for goods purchased with billion dollar bank notes and the number of people falling into poverty is on the rise.

Zimbabwe releases $100 billion note.  Zimbabwe, grappling with record 2.2 million percent inflation, has introduced a new 100-billion-dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages.  The new note will go into circulation on Monday [7/21/2008], the central bank said in a statement cited by state media.

Sharing power with Mugabe may be the only option.  Zimbabwe's beaten down opposition may end up being forced to accept what it swears is unacceptable — a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe.

Come in Zimbabwe, are you there?  Zimbabwe has been having a lot of problems lately.  A sketchy election, violence and astronomical inflation.  Along with all that, it has become [nearly] impossible to get a call through to the country.  I've been trying to get someone in Zimbabwe on the line for our show and I keep running into a wall of busy signals!

Zimbabwe government puts inflation rate at record 2.2 million percent.  Zimbabwe's official inflation rate has escalated to 2.2 million percent, driving the cost of a loaf of bread to about one-third of a teacher's monthly salary.  But independent economists swiftly dismissed the government's figure, saying the true rate was several times higher and rising faster than ever.

We should never expect justice from the UN.  So, Russia and China have vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution to impose international sanctions on key members of Zimbabwe's government.  The British government's entire diplomatic strategy on Zimbabwe has thus ignominiously collapsed.  This is a particular humiliation for Gordon Brown after he thought he had persuaded all the G8 countries — including Russia — to back punitive measures against the Mugabe regime.

So Popular and So Spineless.  Welcome to a world of too much Russian and Chinese power.  I am neither a Russia-basher nor a China-basher.  But there was something truly filthy about Russia's and China's vetoes of the American-led U.N. Security Council effort to impose targeted sanctions on Robert Mugabe's ruling clique in Zimbabwe.

Stop the press:  Mugabe out of Monopoly money.  It has come to this — Zimbabwe is about to run out of the paper to print money on.  Fidelity Printers & Refiners, the state-owned company that tirelessly churns out bank notes for the Mugabe regime, was thrown into a crisis early this month after a German company stopped supplying bank note paper because of concerns over Zimbabwe's recent violent presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent by international observers. … The highest denomination [of Zimbabwean currency] is now $50 billion (worth $US1 on the street).

Battered but not beaten, Zimbabwe farmers seek justice.  It was a frigid June night at Pickstone Mine in Zimbabwe when 67-year-old Angela Campbell — soaking wet, her arm broken and a gun to her head — signed a document vowing to give up the fight for her family's farm.  The kidnappers demanding her signature at gunpoint were "war veterans" from President Robert Mugabe's heyday as a liberation hero, and they made it clear that her refusal would mean more beatings.

Inventor Bayliss hits out at Mugabe's radio ban.  Inventor Trevor Bayliss has hit out at the "horrible cruelty" of Robert Mugabe in banning Zimbabweans from using his wind-up radio.  The man credited with changing the lives of thousands of Africans with the clockwork radio said he only found out about the Zimbabwean President's crackdown on independent media from a friend.  "I was absolutely shocked and appalled," said the 71-year-old from Twickenham.

Russia, China Veto UN Sanctions for Mugabe Regime.  Russia and China vetoed proposed sanctions on Zimbabwe on Friday [7/11/2008], rejecting U.S. efforts to step up punitive measures after the African nation's disputed presidential election.

The UN fails again.
Zimbabwe says sanctions failure a victory over racism.  Zimbabwe on Saturday [7/12/2008] welcomed the failure of a Western-backed U.N. Security Council resolution to impose sanctions over its violent presidential elections, calling it a victory over racism and meddling in its affairs.  Russia and China on Friday vetoed the resolution, which would have imposed an arms embargo on the southern African country and financial and travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and 13 other officials.

Did someone mention The UN?

Support grows for UN sanctions against Zimbabwe.  A majority of U.N. Security Council member countries support a proposal to sanction Zimbabwe and freeze the assets of President Robert Mugabe, French and U.S. officials said Tuesday, but Russia warned it might veto the plan.  A vote on a U.S. draft resolution calling for sanctions over state-sanctioned election violence in Zimbabwe is expected later this week.

Zimbabwe sanctions could lead to civil war, Mbeki warns leaders.  South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, was given a fierce grilling by G8 leaders yesterday [7/7/2008] at a private meeting at which they told him that they did not believe his mediation efforts in Zimbabwe were succeeding.  They also rejected his suggestion that Robert Mugabe remain as titular head of Zimbabwe.

Tyrant thrives as world looks away.  The 30-year friendship between South African President Thabo Mbeki and [Robert] Mugabe is the reason Mbeki was the wrong person to be appointed to mediate Zimbabwe's conflict.  Mbeki has refused to criticise Mugabe throughout the Zimbabwean crisis, nor has South Africa seriously attempted to put economic pressure on Zimbabwe despite the obvious butchery of Mugabe's regime.  Mbeki's policy of "quiet diplomacy" is a synonym for inaction.

Robert Mugabe uses food as weapon as famine looms.  A crop assessment by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says that the country that once fed scores of famine-stricken African nations will harvest only 575,000 tonnes of maize, the national staple, from last summer's crop — only 28 percent of the grain needed to feed the country's estimated 11.8 million people.

Mugabe thugs raping teens:  aid staff.  Dozens of teenage girls have been made pregnant after being taken into the bush and raped in torture camps by President Robert Mugabe's youth militia operating near Mudzi, a town 160km northeast of Harare, human rights workers allege.  Amid the continuing chaos, there are as yet no clear statistics, but the sharp rise in teenage pregnancies seems almost certain to have been repeated elsewhere in rural districts.

Forbidden Voices From Zimbabwe.  From a back room in a London commuter town, a secret radio station is broadcasting the voice Robert Mugabe's government doesn't want his people to hear.

Mugabe pardons Zanu thugs.  With almost as much indecent haste as he inaugurated himself as president, against the wishes of the people of Zimbabwe, the leader of military junta, Robert Mugabe, has declared a blanket amnesty that will free hundreds of Zanu (PF) thugs who may have been convicted for state-sanctioned violence in the aftermath of the March 27 elections.

UN lines up big names for key role in pincer move to oust Mugabe.  Pressure was mounting last night for the key role of mediating an end to the crisis in Zimbabwe to be taken out of the hands of Thabo Mbeki, the President of South Africa, whose "softly softly" approach to Robert Mugabe has been condemned worldwide.  The UN's push for greater involvement came amid mounting frustration with the failure of current mediation efforts.

UN Security Council May Not Sanction Mugabe.  Long accused by critics of a timid approach to the crisis in Zimbabwe, the government of neighboring South Africa is now leading opposition in the U.N. Security Council to U.S.-led efforts to impose sanctions against Robert Mugabe's regime.

Robert Mugabe sails through summit unchallenged.  A defiant Robert Mugabe has sailed unchallenged through the first test of his presidency by his peers.  Freshly sworn in after a single candidate election, he received a leader's welcome when he strode into the African Union summit in Sharm el-Sheikh yesterday and emerged unfazed, his authority intact.

Iran 'respects' Zimbabwe poll result.  Iran today said it "respects" the outcome of Zimbabwe's one-man presidential election which saw veteran incumbent Robert Mugabe stay in power but was denounced as a farce by the West.  "We respect the will of the Zimbabwean people expressed in the second round of the presidential elections, whatever it is," foreign ministry Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

Mugabe aide tells West:  'Go hang'.  A spokesman for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has rejected Western criticism of the country's disputed presidential run-off election.  At an African Union summit in Egypt, George Charamba said the West had no basis to speak about the situation — and can "go hang a thousand times".

Zimbabwe white farmers beaten up by Robert Mugabe's regime plead for help.  Ben Freeth and his parents-in-law Mike Campbell, 75, and Angela Campbell, 70, were set upon by a gang of thugs armed with hunting rifles and shotguns when they returned to their farm near Chegutu, 60 miles west of Harare on Sunday.  "As I was driving in they shot my vehicle," Mr Freeth said last night from a hospital in Harare.

The Editor says...
This is the peculiar thing about press coverage from Zimbabwe:  Supposedly the last of the white farmers had been driven out weeks ago, yet the reporters keep finding more white farmers.

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe 'a hero', say African leaders.  African leaders gathering for a summit have greeted President Robert Mugabe as a "hero", dashing hopes that Zimbabwe's regime would come under immediate international pressure.

Street Vendor Arrested For Listening To Voice Of America.  Police in Harare have charged a street vendor for listening to a special news programme on Zimbabwe broadcast by the Voice of America, as President Robert Mugabe's government tries hard to limit alternative information available to voters ahead of a run-off presidential election next week.  The vendor, Noel Tichawana, who was arrested about three weeks ago will appear in court on 15 July to answer to charges of committing criminal nuisance after he was caught listening to the programme, Studio 7, that broadcasts political, economic and general news on Zimbabwe.

If you own a satellite dish in Zimbabwe, you may have your home burned down.  Residents from the mining town of Kadoma awoke Friday morning [6/20/2008] to the sound of Zanu PF thugs demanding they pull down their satellite dishes or risk having their homes burnt down.

Zimbabwe Central Bank Seen Constrained In Money-Printing Operations.  The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's main monetary tool for years has been the printing press as it has churned out ever-higher-denomination notes reflecting hyperinflation that economists now estimate is running as high as 10 million percent a year.  But European pressures have cut the RBZ's off from its German banknote paper supplier, limiting its options.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe Says Opposition Must Accept Him as President.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says the opposition must accept him as the country's leader if it wants to hold talks on ending Zimbabwe's political crisis.

Hidden Camera Footage Shows 'Vote-Rigging' in Zimbabwe.  A British newspaper says secret footage taken at a Zimbabwean prison shows how a supporter of President Robert Mugabe rigged the country's June 27 runoff election.  The Guardian newspaper says former prison guard Shepherd Yuda shot the film for the newspaper six days before the presidential run-off vote and smuggled it out of Zimbabwe.

Windup Radios Are Banned In Zimbabwe.  Authorities in Zimbabwe have banned wind-up receivers, a favourite among nongovernmental organisations seeking to promote access to information in rural areas.  Their presence has often spawned listening clubs accused of tuning in on "illegal" foreign news bulletins broadcast through shortwave or AM.  Instead of batteries, which are almost unavailable in Zimbabwe, the low-priced gadgets are powered by human muscle.

VOA Expands Coverage Of Zimbabwe's Run-Off Election.  The Voice of America (VOA) has expanded coverage of Zimbabwe's presidential run-off election to provide up-to-the-minute, multi-media news and information to millions in the country, which has experienced a surge in political violence.

Heads roll at ZBC.  A total of eight senior journalists have been suspended at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) amid accusations they are sympathetic to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). … Their suspension follows that of former chief executive Henry Muradzikwa who was fired last month for allegedly failing to ensure a victory for President Robert Mugabe who was trounced by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Pressure Ramped Up on Zimbabwean Media.  As President Robert Mugabe intensifies his crackdown on political dissent in the run-up to the second round of the presidential election, the media have become prime targets.  Journalists have been arrested, articles rejected by the state press, and a shipment of newspapers set alight in the government's attempts to silence voices critical of Mugabe.

Daily Media Update No. 57:  Enjoying a monopoly on the local news market again today, the government dailies, The Herald and Chronicle took the opportunity to distort the critical verdicts of all three African observer missions and downplay almost universal condemnation of Friday's presidential run-off, particularly by regional leaders attending the African Union summit in Egypt.  Instead, the papers continued to pervert any truthful interpretation by focusing on the few selective statements endorsing Robert Mugabe's return to the presidency.

Weekly Media Update #2008-16:  MMPZ condemns in the strongest terms the frightening transformation of the public media into becoming the purveyors of appalling hate messages against critics of the ruling party and its political opposition, the MDC, and particularly its presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Hopes fade for deal in Zimbabwe election crisis.  African efforts to encourage a deal between Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his opponents showed no results Tuesday [7/1/2008], while Mugabe's spokesman defiantly said his boss has no plans to step down and told Western critics they can "go hang."

Canada condemns Zimbabwe polls, imposes sanctions.  Canada on Sunday condemned Zimbabwe's one-man election as "illegitimate" and announced a series of sanctions as President Robert Mugabe was sworn to a new term in Harare.

Mugabe sworn in as president for further five years (1st Lead).  Incumbent Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was sworn as president for another five years Sunday [6/29/2008] at a ceremony in Harare after sweeping the polls in a go-it-alone presidential election run-off.  The BBC reported that Mugabe had been hastily sworn in after the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) released the results.

Defiant Mugabe sworn in as president, again.  Once feted as a champion of democracy, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has been denounced around the world after an election in which he is accused of using brutal violence to maintain his hold on power.

Tsvangirai rejects invitation to Mugabe inauguration.  Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Sunday rejected a government invitation to the inauguration of President Robert Mugabe for a new term and called on Africa not to recognize his re-election.

Zimbabweans stuck dealing with the devil.  The farcical presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe has come and gone.  Predictably Zanu-PF used all sorts of intimidation tactics to force people to the polls so Robert Mugabe — the only candidate after last Sunday's withdrawal by Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai — will win by a wide margin.

Zimbabwe's last white farmer forced to quit.  Zimbabwe's once proud white farming community is facing extinction, as President Robert Mugabe steps up his campaign of violence and intimidation on all fronts.

Mugabe's British Enablers:  "We've done enough damage.  All we can do is send food," writes Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, regarding the crisis in Zimbabwe.  The "we" is not Robert Mugabe or his ZANU-PF thugocracy, as you might suspect, but the British.

Leftists are to blame for Robert Mugabe's blood-letting.  A few years ago, when the tyrant of Zimbabwe was moving from being wicked to being downright evil, I wrote that we should invade Harare, depose him, and supervise free elections.  Invited to appear on a BBC programme to defend this stance, I was assailed by an "Africa expert" who told me that diplomatic pressure on Mugabe was bound to work, that the idea of sending the Parachute Regiment in to sort the monster out was offensively colonialist, and that I was wrong.  White liberals like him are as much to blame for the terror, starvation, brutality and genocide that now scar this once-rich and stable country.

Mandela joins chorus against Mugabe.  Former South African president Nelson Mandela has broken his silence on Zimbabwe, blaming the country's crisis on a "tragic failure of leadership".  At a celebrity fundraising dinner in London to mark his 90th birthday, Mr Mandela referred to Zimbabwe as he detailed a string of problems faced by the world.

No Sir!
Mugabe criticized by Mandela, loses knighthood.  Queen Elizabeth II stripped Robert Mugabe of his ceremonial knighthood on Wednesday [6/25/2008], revoking the honor amid new attempts to rebuke the president of Zimbabwe and express revulsion over human rights abuses in his country.

Mugabe rival quits election race.  Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he is pulling out of Friday's presidential run-off, handing victory to President Robert Mugabe.  Mr Tsvangirai said there was no point running when elections would not be free and fair and "the outcome is determined by... Mugabe himself".

Tsvangirai calls for international intervention in Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe's Presidential run-off poll is in tatters after the chief challenger to dictator Robert Mugabe pulled out of the race in a move to protect the people of Zimbabwe from escalating violence.

Zimbabwe opposition leader pulling out of election.  Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of Zimbabwe's violence-wracked presidential runoff Sunday [6/22/2008], declaring that the election was no longer credible and the loss of life among his supporters was simply too high.

Zimbabwe's collapse is no longer question of if, but when.  For a man who has battled for nearly a decade to become President of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai's decision to pull out of the race against Robert Mugabe only days before polling must have been the toughest of his career.  The former union boss has suffered arrest and beatings at the hands of his rival.  His supporters have been murdered, arrested and tortured.  Many wanted him to continue the fight until election day on Friday, but he reached the conclusion that staying in the presidential race would only lead to more bloodshed.

We're eating Zimbabwe's food... as its people starve.  Supermarkets have been condemned for selling produce from Zimbabwe at a time when many in the stricken country are going hungry.  Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and others are selling vegetables and fish exported amid the violence.  Foreign currency from such deals is understood to be propping up Robert Mugabe's regime.

Thabo Mbeki tries to stop Zimbabwe poll.  South African President Thabo Mbeki has sought to cancel Zimbabwe's presidential runoff next week in favour of talks on forming a unity government.  Mr Mbeki, appointed mediator for Zimbabwe's crisis by the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, visited the neighbouring country on Wednesday [6/18/2008], holding separate talks with President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Africa turns up heat on Zimbabwe.  African states monitoring Zimbabwe's election campaign have added their voice to growing international pressure over the presidential run-off vote.  The head of a troika of observer states told the BBC violence could make a free vote impossible but his concerns were dismissed by the ruling Zanu-PF party.

'Only God' will oust Mugabe.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said today [6/21/2008] "only God" could remove him from office, in comments ahead of next week's presidential runoff election.  "The MDC will never be allowed to rule this country — never ever," President Mugabe said in a meeting with local business people.

Zimbabwe's voters told: choose Mugabe or you face a bullet.  The soldiers and ruling party militiamen herded the people of Rusape to an open field at the back of the local sports club and made their point crystal clear.  "Your vote is your bullet," a soldier told the terrified crowd.  Everyone knew what he meant.

War crimes warning to Robert Mugabe as terror grows.  With just a week to go before Zimbabwe's run-off elections — and with the body count growing — President Mugabe has been warned that he could be hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague over the atrocities inflicted on his opponents.  A key Western diplomat, speaking yesterday on condition of anonymity, said:  "He needs to know he is moments away from an ICC indictment."

Robert Mugabe lashes out at aid agencies.  President Robert Mugabe has accused foreign aid agencies of using food as a weapon to try to remove him from power, state media has reported.  Mr Mugabe, whose government ordered aid agencies to stop work on June 4, has himself been accused by Western countries and human rights groups of using food as a political tool ahead a June 27 presidential election re-run.

Mugabe rules out change of power in his lifetime.  With less than two weeks to go before an election run-off for the highest office in the land, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Saturday [6/14/2008] ruled out a change of power in his lifetime.  Mugabe dismissed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, saying:  "These pathetic puppets taking over this country?  Let's see.  That is not going to happen."

Mugabe says war vets ready to fight.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe said on Friday liberation war veterans would take up arms if he loses a June 27 presidential run-off vote.  Mugabe told youth members of his ruling ZANU-PF party in Harare that the veterans had told him they would launch a new bush war if the election was won by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, whom he accuses of being a puppet of the West.

Mugabe Readies For War Against His Own People.  With only a fortnight until the runoff election, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is vowing to go to war if his countrymen vote him out of office.  In an interview with a government newspaper, Mugabe said, "It will never happen that this land which we fought for should be taken by the MDC so that they can give it back to our former oppressors, the whites."

Thabo Mbeki blocks UN Zimbabwe agenda.  The horrors of Zimbabwe's political violence will not feature on the agenda of the UN Security Council meeting overnight after South African President Thabo Mbeki blocked an attempt to put the crisis on the program.  The Security Council will now discuss only the humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe, separating it from the ongoing political violence in the lead-up to the presidential runoff.

Treason charge for Zimbabwe opposition No. 2.  President Robert Mugabe's regime struck at his rivals Thursday only two weeks before Zimbabwe's presidential runoff, twice detaining his challenger and jailing the No. 2 opposition leader to face treason charges.  The U.S. ambassador, meanwhile, said 20 tons of American food aid heading to impoverished Zimbabwean children had been seized by authorities last week and given to Mugabe supporters at a rally.

Mugabe stripped of US degree.  The University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees has revoked an honorary degree awarded two decades ago to Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe. … The university has never before rescinded an honorary degree.

Where's the outcry over Mugabe's murderous turn in Zimbabwe?  Zimbabwe … has spiraled downward into disaster.  Thirty years ago, the nation was stable and productive, a net exporter of food blessed with a small class of educated black professionals ready to form its governmental bureaucracy.  Now Zimbabwe is beset by a thuggish regime that has ushered in starvation, hyperinflation, rampant unemployment, political oppression and corruption.  Yet the tyranny of Zimbabwe's black president, Robert Mugabe, has met with little reaction from America's black elite.

Barclays accused of giving Robert Mugabe 'financial lifeline'.  Barclays Bank is being accused of giving Robert Mugabe's government a "financial lifeline" in the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential election, it emerged yesterday [6/13/2008].  Barclays' Zimbabwean subsidiary lent the Mugabe regime $46.4 million (£23 million) last year through its purchase of government and municipal bonds and is one of the main contributors to a government-run loan scheme for farm improvements, the Agricultural Sector Productivity Enhancement Facility.

Zimbabwe Police Raid Christian Offices.  Police raided Zimbabwe Christian Alliance offices on Monday [6/9/2008] and arrested five staff members for interrogation, the group reported. ... The raid was performed by Zimbabwe's riot police, which are well-known loyalist to President Robert Mugabe.  ZCA claims that at least one of its staffs was assaulted before its workers were taken to the Harare Central Police station for questioning.

Opposition councillor's son burnt alive by Mugabe militia.  For a wad of worthless Zimbabwean banknotes, President Robert Mugabe's militias burnt six-year-old Nyasha Mashoko to death.  The target of the ZANU-PF thugs had been the boy's father, Brian Mamhova.

Mugabe officials 'steal' Tsvangirai's armoured BMW.  Zimbabwe's ruling party has been accused of car theft after an armoured BMW, confiscated by police last week from the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was spotted being driven by its officials.  A spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, Nqobizitha Mlilo, said the BMW X5 was impounded by police on 6 June when Mr Tsvangirai was detained for several hours at Esigodini police station in south-western Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe's militia burn opponent's wife alive.  The men who pulled up in three white pickup trucks were looking for Patson Chipiro, head of the Zimbabwean opposition party in Mhondoro district.  His wife, Dadirai, told them he was in Harare but would be back later in the day, and the men departed.  An hour later they were back.  They grabbed Mrs Chipiro and chopped off one of her hands and both her feet.  Then they threw her into her hut, locked the door and threw a petrol bomb through the window.

Mugabe no longer in charge.  The campaign of terror sweeping Zimbabwe is being run by a junta who took over the country after Robert Mugabe's shock election defeat in March.  Details of the organised violence are contained in a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch and corroborated by senior Western diplomats, who describe the situation in Zimbabwe as a "military coup by stealth", The Australian reports.

State-sponsored explosion of violence in Zimbabwe to stop a fair vote.  Human Rights Watch allege the militia struck a deal to help Mugabe win the next election through violence and intimidation.  The violence which has been sweeping Zimbabwe since the controversial election win for Robert Mugabe in March is the result of an organised military coup, according to a human rights group.

Has Robert Mugabe effectively been replaced in a military coup?  The Zimbabwean government's campaign of terror against opponents is being run by a military junta that seized power in a secret coup, according to new claims today.  So if Robert Mugabe is not in control, exactly who is?  There has been a military coup by stealth, according to the Times today, and the Telegraph and the Independent on Friday [6/6/2008].

Zimbabwe's Stark Choice:  Vote for Mugabe or Starve.  [U.S. Ambassador James] McGee told reporters during a videoconference from the capital, Harare, this morning [6/6/2008] that his embassy has solid evidence that in order to receive food aid from the government, Zimbabweans must first show their party registration cards.  If they have a card from Mugabe's ruling party they can have access to food, but if they only have opposition cards they must turn over their national identification cards in order to receive the food they need.

Zimbabwe bans rallies by political opponents.  The opposition said today that its rallies had been banned indefinitely three weeks before the presidential runoff, while the U.S. ambassador accused President Robert Mugabe's regime of using food as a weapon to stay in power.  U.S. Ambassador James McGee said the regime is distributing food mostly to its supporters and that opposition supporters are offered food only if they hand in identification that would allow them to vote.

Cops slash tyres on visiting diplomats' cars.  Zimbabwean police detained US and British diplomats for several hours today, slashing the tyres of their cars after they visited victims of political violence ahead of a presidential vote, the US embassy said.  The US ambassador blamed the attack on President Robert Mugabe's government, which it accuses of trying to intimidate opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's supporters ahead of the June 27 run-off election.

Mugabe, Ahmadinejad excluded from UN dinner.  The Italian and UN hosts of a UN crisis summit on rising food prices excluded the leaders of Zimbabwe and Iran from the opening dinner today [6/3/2008].  Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe is able to attend the meeting only because an EU travel ban on him does not apply to UN forums.

Zimbabwean Police Detain Tsvangirai for the Second Time This Week.  Zimbabwean police have detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai for the second time this week, after blocking him from reaching a campaign rally.  Officials for the Movement for Democratic Change party say Mr. Tsvangirai was taken to a police station Friday in the village of Esigodini, in southern Zimbabwe.

Opposition Leaders Gloomy on Run-off Election.  Zimbabwean opposition leaders have expressed deep pessimism over the potential of the June 27 presidential election run-off to end the country's political crisis.  Speaking at a session of the World Economic Forum on Africa, they differed, however, on suggestions that the elections should be postponed and a government of national unity formed.

White farming couple beaten and kicked off land.  William Rogers and his wife, Annette, were threatened by three Robert Mugabe supporters, who told them:  "We are like hungry lions."  Dozens of Zimbabwe's last white farmers have suffered similar ordeals since Mr Mugabe lost the presidential election's first round in March.  Scores of black opposition supporters have been murdered and thousands beaten, abducted or tortured.

Report:  Zimbabwe releases opposition leader.  Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been released after a short police detention as he campaigned, his spokesman said Wednesday [6/4/2008].  Tsvangirai and a group of about 14 officials with his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) had been held at a police station in Lupane.

No action on Mugabe knighthood.  British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday he was against "immediate action" to strip Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of an honorary knighthood awarded in the early 1990s.  He was "less interested in the symbols than the substance," Brown said in parliament, in response to a call by Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg to rescind the title.

Mugabe's presence 'obscene'.  The presence of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe at a United Nations summit on food security in Rome is "obscene", Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Monday [6/2/2008].  Mugabe, who has presided over the collapse of his country's agriculture, arrived in Rome on Sunday for a summit of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.

Mugabe the Obscene.  Yes, a dictator who uses starvation to scatter and kill his own people making an appearance at an international conference devoted to raising food and feeding the hungry is an obscenity — though I add, without cynicism, that the situation isn't all that unusual.  Petty tyrants, terrorist enablers and tribal killers cluster about the wine and cheese smorgasbords of international community fetes and summits.

Mugabe unwelcome at global food summit.  Western leaders attacked Zimbabwe's president for participating in this week's U.N. summit on the global food crisis while his people are going hungry.  Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said it was "obscene" that the man "who has presided over the starvation of his people" would be attending the three-day conference.

Outrage over Mugabe and Ahmadinejad's presence in Rome.  Western leaders expressed outrage today as Robert Mugabe flew into Rome in defiance of an EU travel ban to attend a United Nations world food summit while millions of people are starving under his brutal rule in Zimbabwe.  A spokesman for Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, said: "We think it's particularly unfortunate that he has decided to attend this meeting given what he has done in relation to contributing to difficulties on food supply in Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe's Mugabe in Rome for food summit.  The Italian and U.N. hosts of a U.N. crisis summit on rising food prices on Monday left the presidents of Zimbabwe and Iran off the guest list of a ceremonial dinner for the leaders attending the meeting.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is able to take part in the conference only because an EU travel ban on him does not apply to U.N. forums.

Murdered by Mugabe's mob:  Tonderai Ndira will not be campaigning when Zimbabwe votes again.  He will not rally his neighbourhood, as he did two months ago, for one last push against an unwanted regime.  Instead, he is buried in an unmarked grave in the Warren Hills cemetery in Harare.  A week on from his funeral, only his brother knows for sure which of the mounds is his.  He will not leave a marker because he believes state agents are still not finished with the murdered activist.  They would like to dig up his brother's remains to remove the incriminating evidence.

Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Zimbabwe.  [President Bush is extending] for one year the national emergency with respect to the actions and policies of certain members of the Government of Zimbabwe and other persons to undermine Zimbabwe's democratic processes or institutions.

The Editor says...
I can see how the situation in Zimbabwe should be of great concern to our elected officials, but how does it qualify as a national emergency in this country?

Vote for Mugabe or quit the military:  General.  A top Zimbabwe army general called on the nation's soldiers to vote for Robert Mugabe in a presidential runoff or quit the military, the official media reported Saturday [5/31/2008].  Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Martin Chedondo told troops at a target-shooting competition to leave the military if they did not support Mugabe, the state Herald newspaper reported.

Z$1bn note highlights a foe that Robert Mugabe cannot threaten with violence.  President Mugabe has so far seen off his foes with a combination of violence, bribery and treachery.  But there is one problem that is impervious to his usual strongarm tactics:  Zimbabwe's decrepit economy.  The currency crashed unstoppably through a new low this week, passing 1 billion Zimbabwean dollars to £1, after the weekly Zimbabwe Independent quoted officials in the government statistics department as saying that inflation for the first three weeks in May was 1,700,000 percent.

Mugabe will never step aside for Tsvangirai:  wife.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will never vacate his office for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai even if he loses a run-off election next month, his wife said.  Grace Mugabe told followers of her husband's ZANU-PF party that Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) would not be allowed to take power under any circumstances.

The United States Must Increase the Pressure on Zimbabwe.  Mounting state-sponsored political violence leads even Mugabe's staunchest supporters to question whether elections held under current conditions could produce a result with even a modicum of legitimacy.  With the United Kingdom serving as the current President of the United Nations Security Council and the United States poised to take over in June, these countries should use their position on the Council to bring increased U.N. pressure and attention to Zimbabwe.

Regime coup threat if Mugabe loses poll.  Zimbabwe hangs in dangerous political limbo:  the ruling clique clings to power amid rumours of a coup if the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, loses the presidential run-off.  His opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, far from facing down military hardliners, has returned to Harare after weeks of self-imposed exile, fearing assassination.  As regional leaders dither, a new wave of systematic abductions and killings of top opposition activists suggests a regime unwilling to leave office, even if it loses the second round, scheduled for June 27.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe threatens to expel US ambassador.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is threatening to expel the U.S. ambassador, criticizing him for advice he has given Mugabe's opponent in a presidential runoff.  Mugabe says Ambassador James McGee publicly urged opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to return to Zimbabwe to lead his embattled supporters.  Tsvangirai returned Saturday after more than six weeks abroad.  Mugabe says that if McGee continues offering advice to Tsvangirai, he will kick McGee out of the country.  Mugabe, speaking Sunday [5/25/2008] at the formal launch of his election campaign, also ridiculed claims the opposition leader was the target of a military assassination plot.

Tsvangirai:  I'm going back home.  Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday [5/22/2008] that he would return home this weekend after nearly a month and a half out of the country despite fears of an assassination plot.

A loaf of bread costs 200,000,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
Zim inflation a million percent.  Weary Zimbabweans are facing a new wave of massive price increases that put many basic goods out of their reach.  Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572% based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs.  As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars.  A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.

Arms ship destination a mystery.  The location or future destination of a Chinese ship carrying arms and ammunition destined for Zimbabwe was unknown, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITWF) said on Thursday.  ITWF spokesperson in Durban, Sprite Zungu, said:  "We are not 100% sure where the ship is going.  We know that it left Luanda on May 4.  That's all."

'Snipers primed' in Zimbabwe plot.  Zimbabwe's opposition has alleged the military is plotting to assassinate its presidential candidate using snipers. … "We know there are 18 snipers, and the military intelligence directorate is in charge of this," MDC Secretary General Tendai Biti told reporters in Nairobi.

South Africa seeks to end anti-foreigner attacks.  Clashes pitting the poorest of the poor against one another have killed 22 people in South Africa and underscored bitter frustration with the government's failure to deliver enough jobs, housing and schools.

New unrest as black South Africa vents its anger on immigrants.  Some three million Zimbabweans have fled to South Africa from the political and economic terror waged by president Robert Mugabe.  They have been joined by an estimated one to two million economic migrants from Mozambique and Malawi.  In a country with 40 percent unemployment, ordinary black South Africans have accused the foreigners of stealing their jobs, houses and women.

Zimbabwe's half-a-billion dollar note:  Zimbabwe has introduced a new half-a-billion dollar bank note in a bid to tackle cash shortages fed by rampant inflation, the central bank said today [5/15/2008].  "Introducing the new 500,000,000 bearer cheque for your convenience," read a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe full-page advert in the state daily, The Herald, displaying specimens of the new note.  The note, comes into circulation 10 days after the introduction of a quarter-of-a-billion one early this month.

Mobs kill 7 in anti-foreigner violence in South Africa.  Mobs rampaged through poor suburbs of Johannesburg in a frenzy of anti-foreigner violence over the weekend, killing at least seven people, injuring dozens and forcing hundreds to seek refuge at police stations.  The attacks capped a week of mounting violence that started in the sprawling township of Alexandra.  Angry residents there accused foreigners — many of them Zimbabweans who fled their own country's economic collapse — of taking scarce jobs and housing.

Zimbabwe's Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans.  The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital.  Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

Definition of terrorism
This is the definition of "terrorism" found on page 1346 of
Funk & Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the English Language (1949).

Mugabe rejects election observers.  Zimbabwe will not invite election observers from Western countries to monitor a presidential run-off unless they remove sanctions, state media said today, rejecting Opposition demands.  Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said Zimbabwe would not bow to pressure to invite election monitors from Western countries and the United Nations.

Zimbabwe farm workers 'forced to flee'.  Around 40,000 Zimbabwean farm workers have had to flee as a result of the violence inflicted by Robert Mugabe's mobs since the country's general election in March, a union leader has said.  Farm workers, whose livelihoods have been destroyed since Mr Mugabe began his assault on white-owned land in 2000, are often supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Mbeki, Mugabe meet in Zim.  SA President Thabo Mbeki on Friday [5/9/2008] held intensive talks with veteran counterpart Robert Mugabe over Zimbabwe's post-election crisis as doctors reported a dramatic rise in violence.  Mbeki, the southern African region's chief mediator on Zimbabwe, went straight into talks with Mugabe after arriving in Harare for his first visit since the announcement of presidential election results.

Zimbabwe Youths Kill Opposition Activists.  Gangs of youths loyal to Zimbabwe's ruling party beat to death 11 opposition activists in a remote town this week in an escalation of post-election violence, opposition party officials and witnesses said Wednesday [5/8/2008].

South Africa Plays Ball with Dictators.  Friends of Zimbabwe have long hoped for a peaceful transfer of power in that country.  But in spite of losing the March 29 elections to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the regime of Robert Mugabe is clinging to power.

Zimbabwe announces poll results.  The long-awaited results of Zimbabwe's presidential poll have been announced, with the opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai winning 47.9%, forcing a second round.  Election officials say Mr Tsvangirai beat President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%, but neither candidate passed the 50% threshold for an outright win.  A spokesman for 84-year-old Mr Mugabe says he will stand in a run-off vote.  But Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the result was "scandalous daylight robbery".

Zimbabwe's MDC Vows to Boycott Runoff With Mugabe.  Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will boycott a second-round presidential election, his party said, after the Electoral Commission ruled he lacked the majority needed to defeat incumbent Robert Mugabe.  The decision to hold a runoff, rather than declare Tsvangirai the winner of the March 29 vote, is "theft," Tendai Biti, secretary general of the Movement for Democratic Change, told reporters at a news conference in Johannesburg, in neighboring South Africa.

Zimbabwe releases $250m bank note.  Zimbabwe's central bank, grappling with record-breaking inflation, has introduced a 250,000,000 dollar note.  "The reserve bank of Zimbabwe's governor Gideon Gono has unveiled a new 100 million and 250 million dollar ... note and this will be in circulation starting (Tuesday)," reported state television.  The report said the new note was for "the convenience of the banking public and the corporate sector".

Arms Ship Waits Off Luanda, Say Unionists.  The Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe is anchored off Luanda and shows no sign of returning to China, says the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF).  In a statement issued on Thursday [5/1/2008], the ITF general secretary, David Cockroft, said the federation trusted that the vessel, the An Yue Jiang, was waiting only to refuel and "that no attempt will be made to land any of its cargo of arms."

Zimbabwe postpones poll count.  Zimbabwe's election commission extended the reign of Robert Mugabe yesterday [4/30/2008] when it again postponed the verification of results from the March presidential elections.

Mugabe invents coup plot as poll chaos continues.  [Scroll down] The purported authors of the documents say they are forgeries, and not very good ones.  The signature on the Downing St letterhead printed in the Herald newspaper bears no resemblance to Brown's.  But that has not stopped Mugabe's government from presenting the documents to regional leaders as "evidence" that the MDC is trying to rig the election.  The first appeared in the Herald a few days after the election, once Mugabe got over the shock of defeat and decided to fight on.

South Africa shields Robert Mugabe at UN.  South Africa led efforts to block the dispatch of a UN envoy to Zimbabwe yesterday [4/29/2008] as the UN Security Council met on the election stand-off for the first time.

Babies seized by Robert Mugabe's forces as Zimbabwe hounds voters.  Scores of children and babies have been locked up in filthy prison cells in Harare as Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, sinks to new depths in his campaign to force the opposition into exile before an expected run-off in presidential elections.  Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six were among the 250 people rounded up in a raid on Friday [4/25/2008], according to Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).  Yesterday they were crammed into cells in Southerton police station in central Harare.

Mugabe parliament loss confirmed.  The party of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has failed to regain its parliamentary majority after a partial recount of votes from polls last month.  Zimbabwe's Electoral Commission said results were unchanged in 18 of 23 seats where recounts had taken place.  Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF needed to win nine seats to regain its majority, lost for the first time since 1980.  The opposition MDC says it also won presidential polls, although those results remain unreleased.

Angola to allow arms ship to dock.  Angola's government has authorised a Chinese ship carrying arms destined for Zimbabwe to dock, although it says it will not be allowed to unload weapons.  In a statement, the government said the vessel would only be allowed to deliver goods intended for Angola.  On Thursday [4/24/2008], the Chinese authorities said they would recall the ship to China after port workers in South Africa refused to unload the weapons.

Huge arrest tally as Zimbabwe police round up opposition.  Heavily armed police raided opposition headquarters in Harare today, arresting scores of people, said officials.  Independent election observers were also reported to have been hit.  Police seized material on vote counting from both offices.  Some 200 people were arrested in the raid on opposition headquarters, according to party officials.

Excuses ring hollow as the world idly waits for Mugabe's disaster.  A decade ago I travelled through Zimbabwe, where I befriended a family with whom I have stayed in contact until this day.  Zimbabwe was a very different place then to the country that now stands on the precipice of a major humanitarian disaster. … Tourism, of course, no longer exists in the Zimbabwe of today.  The place is in economic ruins, with agricultural production having almost completely halted, inflation running at more than 165,000 percent, and widespread food shortages.  My friends no longer live in Zimbabwe.  They fled the country, like a third of the population have, a few years ago.

Arms ship exposes Robert Mugabe's link to Chinese firm.  The boycott of a Chinese ship laden with weapons for Zimbabwe has cast new light on the connections between the African country's president, Robert Mugabe, and a secretive Chinese arms-trading firm with a controversial track record from the Congo to Darfur.  The ship steamed towards China last week after dock workers in Durban refused to unload it and a South African court blocked the transit of its cargo of mortar and small arms ammunition.

Tsvangirai won clear victory in Zimbabwe:  US envoy.  The United States government called time on Robert Mugabe's 28 years as leader of Zimbabwe Wednesday [4/23/2008], saying he had clearly lost an election last month and his opponent should now head a new government.  After talks with officials in neighbouring South Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said the people of Zimbabwe had voted for a change on March 29 even though results have still to be announced.

Zimbabwe's church leaders warn the world: intervene to avert genocide.  Zimbabwe is a deeply religious country.  Daily discussions of the country's crisis end with Zimbabweans, black and white, saying:  "We can only pray."  So when the leaders of Zimbabwe's churches unanimously warn that the country faces "genocide" unless the international community intervenes, it is an important moment.

Robert Mugabe's men seek coalition to run country until new poll.  Zimbabwe's state-run media floated the idea yesterday that Robert Mugabe would annul last month's presidential election and stay as President of a national unity government while preparations for a new poll are made.  The proposal was put forward in an opinion piece in the Herald newspaper, regarded as a mouthpiece for and barometer of opinion in Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF) party.

Thousands flee Robert Mugabe's terror mobs.  Mobs loyal to President Robert Mugabe have forced about 3,000 refugees to flee their homes as a national terror campaign gathers pace across Zimbabwe.  Gangs from the ruling Zanu-PF party are ranging across rural Zimbabwe, hunting down supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).  Their victims are fleeing into the capital, Harare, seeking safety and treatment.

US trying to stop Chinese arms ship docking in Zimbabwe.  The Bush administration is intervening with governments in southern Africa to prevent a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe's security forces from unloading its cargo, The Associated Press has learned.  At the same time, the State Department's top Africa hand, Jendayi Frazer, plans to visit the region this week to underscore US concerns about the shipment.

Chinese Supply of Weapons to Zimbabwe Blocked.  A small arms-laden cargo ship making its way around the southern tip of Africa after several countries refused it permission to dock has become a symbol of China's willingness to arm some of Africa's most questionable regimes.

Neighbouring states show impatience with Robert Mugabe.  The leader of South Africa's ruling party called yesterday for a new African initiative to solve Zimbabwe's crisis as neighbouring states showed increasing impatience with President Mugabe.  In what analysts said was unprecedented action towards Mr Mugabe by his neighbours, maritime states around landlocked Zimbabwe all refused to allow a Chinese ship carrying arms to the country to unload.

China may recall Zimbabwe weapons.  The ship carrying weapons to Zimbabwe may return to China after being prevented from unloading in South Africa, a Chinese official has said.  Zambia's president has called on other African countries not to let the ship enter their waters, in case the arms escalate post-election tensions.

Chinese ship flees with arms for Mugabe.  A Chinese ship carrying weapons for the Zimbabwean government has fled South African waters before a sequestration order could be placed on its cargo.  Germany's Central Bank sought the cargo of the An Yue Jiang as compensation for non-repayment of a £30 million loan made in 2000 to shore up the collapsing state-owned Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Corp, the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times reported yesterday [4/20/2008].

Zimbabwe arms ship heads for Angola, Mozambique says.  A Chinese ship carrying arms to Zimbabwe which was turned away from South Africa is heading to Angola in hopes of docking there, the transport minister of Mozambique said on Saturday [4/19/2008].  The ship left South African waters on Friday after a court refused to allow the weapons to be transported across South Africa, SAPA news agency said.

Zimbabwe Opposition:  10 People Killed in Violence Since Election.  Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change says 10 people have been killed in political violence since last month's disputed elections.  A spokesperson for the opposition party reported the deaths Sunday [4/20/2008].

It's Mugabe or death, voters told.  Zimbabwe's Health Minister armed himself with a Kalashnikov and threatened to kill opposition supporters forced to attend a political meeting unless they voted for Robert Mugabe in a second round of the presidential election, witnesses say.

Zimbabwe opposition turns to UN.  Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has urged the United Nations and African Union to intervene in the crisis over his country's elections.  He told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he felt African efforts to obtain the release of results had made "no progress", a UN statement says.

Zimbabwe Opposition Meets With UN Secretary-Genera.  Zimbabwe's opposition leader has appealed to the U.N. secretary-general for the United Nations and the African Union to intervene in his country's post-election crisis.  Morgan Tsvangirai held talks with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for half an hour on the sidelines of a U.N. development conference in Ghana Monday [4/21/2008].

Zimbabwe:  Ballot Recount Discovers Cases of Fraud in Election.  Zimbabwe's deepening political crisis is far from over after a partial recount of votes in last month's general elections unearthed far reaching irregularities including claims that ballot boxes were tampered with.  There is growing impatience over the Zimbabwean authorities' seeming reluctance to conclude the electoral process, which initially indicated that beleaguered President Robert Mugabe's 28 year old rule had finally ended.

Chinese troops are on the streets of Zimbabwean city, witnesses say.  Chinese troops have been seen on the streets of Zimbabwe's third largest city, Mutare, according to local witnesses.  They were seen patrolling with Zimbabwean soldiers before and during Tuesday's ill-fated general strike called by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).  Earlier, 10 Chinese soldiers armed with pistols checked in at the city's Holiday Inn along with 70 Zimbabwean troops.

The Editor says...
If it costs 15 million Zimbabwe dollars to buy a hamburger, imagine what it costs for a night in the Holiday Inn.

Zim arms ship seeks port.  There were conflicting reports on Saturday [4/19/2008] about the destination of a Chinese ship carrying weapons destined for Zimbabwe, after it left South African waters. An independent human rights group monitoring the vessel warned that any country that allows the arms to be transferred to Zimbabwe would be in violation of international law.

Chinese weapons head to Zimbabwe.  A Chinese cargo ship believed to be carrying 77 tonnes of small arms, including more than 3 million rounds of ammunition, AK47 assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, has docked in the South African port of Durban for the transport of the weapons to Zimbabwe, the South African Government has confirmed.  It claimed it was powerless to intervene as long as the ship's papers were in order.

Robert Mugabe 'mobilising command centres for national terror campaign'.  Hundreds of "command centres" led by war veterans in police uniforms are being established across Zimbabwe to wage a national terror campaign, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.  These centres are responsible for keeping President Robert Mugabe in power through intimidation, violence and ballot-rigging.

Defiant Robert Mugabe says Britain is trying to 'steal our country'.  President Mugabe launched a bitter attack on Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler Britain today in his first major speech since disputed elections last month.  The 84-year-old strongman told a crowd of 15,000 cheering supporters marking Independence Day that London was paying the population to turn against him.  "Down with the British.  Down with thieves who want to steal our country," he said.

South African union refuses to unload Chinese arms destined for Zimbabwe.  A South African union has refused to unload arms from a Chinese ship destined for Zimbabwe, in a politically charged move challenging President Thabo Mbeki's handling of relations with the neighboring state.  Unions have been highly critical of Mbeki for not taking a tougher line against President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who is locked in an election stalemate with the opposition over the delay of results from a March 29 election that has raised fears of violence.

Mugabe had come close to handing over power, says Tsvangirai.  Zimbabwe was close to a smooth hand-over of power from Robert Mugabe to Morgan Tsvangirai before talks collapsed, the opposition leader claimed last night.  Morgan Tsvangirai said his Movement for Democratic Change party was approached by Mr Mugabe's envoys about forming a unity government that would include members of the ruling Zanu-PF party, only a day after the disputed March 29 election.

South Africa's Support for Zimbabwe Seems to Wane.  This morning's urging from abroad for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe contained familiar words almost three weeks after an election — "release the results as a matter of urgency" — but the sender this time was South Africa, his neighbor to the south.

South Africa steps up pressure on Zimbabwe.  South Africa appeared to have markedly toughened its stance on Zimbabwe today [4/17/2008] when a government spokesman urged Robert Mugabe to release the results of last month's presidential elections as soon as possible.

Zimbabwe strike flops.  An opposition general strike to demand the release of Zimbabwe's delayed election result flopped on Tuesday [4/15/2008] and the ruling party in neighbouring South Africa called the situation "dire".  Fears of a crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's government and the desperate need of many Zimbabweans to make enough money to survive in a collapsing economy undermined the strike.

Mugabe's judges reject poll petition.  Zimbabwe's High Court last night predictably dismissed a petition by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to order the immediate release of results from the March 29 presidential election.  The court, stacked with appointees of Robert Mugabe, awarded costs against the MDC, a decision likely to appeal to the Zimbabwean despot, who now has even more time to rig the poll in which MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed victory a week ago.

Mugabe opponent beaten to death.  The ex-soldiers came for Tapiwa Mbwada late on Saturday.  Mr Mbwada was the organising secretary for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Hurungwe East, northern Zimbabwe.  The attackers beat Mr Mbwada to death, according to the party's secretary for welfare, Kerry Kay.

Zimbabwe to pursue partial vote recount.  Zimbabwean authorities said Sunday they would recount the votes from nearly two dozen parliamentary races as the ruling party sought to overturn election results that cost it control of the legislature for the first time in the nation's history.  As Zimbabwe's election crisis headed into a third week — with the results of the presidential vote still not released — southern African leaders held an emergency summit in neighboring Zambia and called for the swift verification of the results in the presence of all parties.

Regional peers avoid call for Mugabe to resign.  Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa had called the emergency summit with 48 hours' notice.  Afterward, his foreign affairs minister told reporters there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, echoing statements made by South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Southern frican Leaders Press Zimbabwe.  After a marathon session to address Zimbabwe's political impasse, southern Africa's political leaders on Sunday [4/13/2008] urged the government of President Robert Mugabe to permit representatives of the opposition to be present when vote tabulations are verified, handing the opposition a substantial victory.  Zimbabwean election officials have yet to announce the winner of the presidential election held two weeks ago, spawning widespread suspicions that Mr. Mugabe was refusing to accept his own defeat.

Consider the source.
Zimbabwe 'vote rig document found'.  Zimbabwe's state television reported today [4/13/2008] that it had unearthed a secret document written by the opposition detailing plans to rig the March 29 elections.  The document, allegedly written by Tendai Biti — second only in the Movement of Democratic Change (MDC) to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai — "had clear details on how to rig the elections", the report said.  The document stated that a number of teachers employed by the electoral commission as election officials had "agreed to overstate the vote" for a payment, Zimbabwe Television reported. … Zimbabwe Television is a mouthpiece for President Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF.

Zimbabwe bans political rallies.  The decision came amid confusion over whether President Robert Mugabe would attend a regional summit on the crisis, in Zambia at the weekend.  The results of the election, held 13 days ago, have yet to be released.  The opposition Movement for Democratic Change has called for a strike starting on Tuesday [4/15/2008] to pressure the authorities.

Zimbabwe opposition opts out of runoff.  The Movement for Democratic Change says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29 vote outright, and has accused Mugabe of delaying the results to give ruling party militants time to intimidate voters and ensure he wins a second round.  On Thursday [4/10/2008], the opposition leadership met and resolved not to participate in any runoff presidential vote.

Mugabe To Explain Himself To Neighbors.  The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says its candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, won the March 29 vote outright, and accused Mugabe of delaying the results so he can orchestrate a runoff and give ruling party militants time to intimidate voters and ensure he wins a second election.  With no resolution in sight, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa called an emergency summit of the Southern African Development Community for Saturday to discuss the crisis.

Zimbabwe crisis deepens with arrests.  Zimbabwe's opposition has accused President Robert Mugabe of unleashing a campaign of violence since the March 29 elections and called on African states to intervene to prevent widespread bloodshed.  The Movement for Democratic Change, which claims to have won the presidential and parliamentary polls, said Mugabe was trying to provoke a backlash as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency that could help him prolong his 28 years in power.

Inside Zimbabwe, the backlash begins.  The patients at Louisa Guidotti hospital said there were eight men, one carrying a shotgun, another with an AK-47, others with pistols, and they went from bed to bed forcing out anyone who could walk.  Nurses were dragged away from the sick.  Motorists driving by the hospital, 87 miles north-east of Harare, were stopped and taken from their cars.  About 70 people were gathered in the grounds.  Then the lecture began.  "This is your last chance," said one of the armed men.  "You messed up when you voted.  Next time you vote you must get it right or you will die."

Mugabe's recipe for power:  rob whites, bash blacks, rig rules.  To guarantee his survival, Mugabe will now rob the whites, beat the blacks and rig the rules in his favour.  These methods saved him from oblivion after he lost a referendum in 2000.  Everything indicates that Mugabe is now resorting to them once again.

Old Anger Over Land Is Mugabe's Weapon.  Analysts are divided on whether the scare tactics will work.  Short of simply faking results, Mugabe can't dramatically better his performance without reclaiming the ruling party's traditional strongholds, many of which voted for the opposition in the first round.  The date of the second round has not yet been set, nor have the official results been announced, though both sides agree that Tsvangirai got more votes than Mugabe in the first ballot.

In Zimbabwe, Hope Has Turned To Silent Terror.  By late in the afternoon on 30 March — the day after the election — the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, an independent body charged with overseeing the poll, was in a position to make a cautious estimate of the result.  It judged that Morgan Tsvangirai had secured almost 60 percent of the vote, more than double that of Robert Mugabe with 27 percent.  Sources say that when this news was brought to the President his first reaction was genuine incredulity.  He is now so out of touch, and so used to winning elections, that he had felt confident of a comfortable majority.  Incredulity swiftly turned to anger, and Mugabe grimly ordered the Electoral Commission to declare him the victor.

War veterans lay siege again to Zimbabwe white farmers.  They arrived in the dead of Monday night — around 100 of them — outside a white-owned tobacco farm near the Zimbabwean capital Harare, kicking at the gate and singing Chimurenga (liberation war) songs.  The farmer, who cannot be identified for security reasons, knew four of their leaders.  They were local men, he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

Zimbabwe court could force release of election results.  Zimbabwe's High Court ruled Monday [4/7/2008] that it can force the country's electoral commission to release the results of the March 29 presidential election, but it is still unclear if the court will do so.  The court is expected to announce Tuesday morning if the matter is urgent, or whether the petition will be added to the long list of other matters on the court's docket.

Mass murder — what mass murder?, asks Robert Mugabe.  In a rare interview, Robert Mugabe reveals just how unrepentant, cut off and menacing he is.

Zimbabwe's war veterans set their sights on white farms.  Militant supporters of Robert Mugabe descended on some of Zimbabwe's last white-owned farms yesterday in an orchestrated campaign of intimidation designed to keep him in power.  The invasions, which sparked memories of the farm seizures that ultimately brought the economy to its knees, got under way as the ruling party and the Opposition both launched legal battles over the release of election results.

Zimbabwe Ruling Party Prepares Runoff.  A week after Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition party made a strong showing at the polls, it was clear the 84-year-old Mugabe still had at his disposal the feared veterans of the bush war that helped end white minority rule, as well as the backing of the equally feared security forces.  Offices of the main opposition party were ransacked Thursday [4/3/2008] and police detained foreign journalists.

Mugabe Won't Quit, Will Compete in Runoff, Party Says.  President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe won't quit and will compete in a runoff if official results show that no candidate won a majority in the March 29 election, a ruling party official said.

Zimbabwe's ruling party demands recount.  President Robert Mugabe's ruling party demanded a vote recount and a further delay in the release of presidential election results, the state Sunday Mail newspaper reported, prompting outrage from the opposition party.

Police block Zimbabwe's opposition from entering court.  Police blocked the entrance to Zimbabwe's High Court building in Harare on Saturday [4/5/2008], preventing lawyers for the country's main opposition party from entering and pressing for the publication of presidential election results. … The Movement for Democratic Change party wants the court to force Zimbabwe's electoral commission to publish the tally of the March 29 presidential vote.

Robert Mugabe emerges as Zimbabwe 'crackdown' begins.  Robert Mugabe has appeared in public for the first time since Zimbabwe's bitterly fought weekend election as his party said it was confident of him winning a second round in the presidential contest.  In a sign of growing confidence that the 84-year-old leader could yet cling on to power, his Zanu-PF party said it was ready to fight on despite losing control of parliament.

'Crackdown' in Zimbabwe as Police Raid Hotels.  Raids on opposition party offices and the rounding up of foreign journalists are threatening to push Zimbabwe further toward confrontation between current President Robert Mugabe and the apparent winner of national elections.

This sounds to me like an admission of guilt.
Mugabe:  I will quit, as long as I do not face prosecution.  Robert Mugabe's aides have told Zimbabwe's opposition leaders that he is prepared to give up power in return for guarantees, including immunity from prosecution for past crimes.  But the aides have warned that if the Movement for Democratic Change does not agree then Mugabe is threatening to declare emergency rule and force another presidential election in 90 days, according to senior opposition sources.

NYT journo arrested in Zim.  A New York Times correspondent who has been covering Zimbabwe's elections was among two foreign journalists arrested on Thursday [4/3/2008] for operating without accreditation, police and the newspaper said.

Riot police raid Zim hotels.  Several journalists, including an American reporter, have been detained in Zimbabwe during a police search for journalists covering the country's elections without accreditation, media and diplomatic sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.  The York Lodge, a hotel popular with Western journalists, was raided on Thursday evening by police, the hotel confirmed.

Opposition offices raided in Zimbabwe.  Intruders ransacked offices of the main opposition party and police detained foreign journalists Thursday in an ominous sign that President Robert Mugabe might turn to intimidation and violence in trying to stave off an electoral threat to his 28-year rule.

Britain's $2.2bn Zimbabwe rescue.  Britain is working on an unprecedented £1 billion-a-year ($2.2 billion) international emergency aid and development package to rescue the ruined Zimbabwean economy, reports said yesterday.  The scale of the program — nearly triple the aid presently going to Zimbabwe — means it will be co-ordinated by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Union and UN, London's Guardian newspaper said yesterday [4/3/2008].

The Editor says...
Is it too late for re-colonization?

Mugabe to go down fighting — experts.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is likely to resist pressure to make a graceful exit and go down fighting in an election runoff with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, analysts said on Wednesday.  "Mugabe is a high stakes political gambler, and I think he is going to go for it with everything he can marshall.  But I don't think he can reverse his fortunes," said Brian Kagoro, a lawyer and political commentator.

Mugabe's Ruling Party Loses Parliamentary Majority.  President Robert Mugabe's ruling party lost its parliamentary majority in Zimbabwe, election officials announced, as reports that he may relinquish his 28- year grip on power swept the country.  The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which won the most seats in parliament, said that its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, 56, had also beaten Mugabe, 84, in the presidential race.

Zimbabwe election may go to runoff.  Signs continued to point Monday to either a runoff or outright defeat for longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in the weekend presidential election, but no final overall count was released for a second straight day.

Mugabe, from 'wise' to wastrel.  In September 1983, President Reagan hosted Zimbabwean Prime Minister Robert Mugabe at the White House, praising the three-year-old southern African country as a bulwark against Soviet influence and praising his guest for his "wise leadership in healing the wounds of civil war."  A quarter-century later, the 84-year-old Mr. Mugabe, now the country's president, is fighting for his political life.

Zimbabwe on a knife edge as fears deepen that result is being rigged.  From the deserted streets of Bulawayo to the fetid slums of Mbare, Zimbabwe was waiting on tenterhooks last night to discover the fate of President Mugabe as he appeared to be heading towards election defeat.  With official counts trickling out of Harare, the clamour grew for the authorities to tell the people what they already knew from their own polling stations:  that for the old tyrant, the writing was on the wall.

By hook or by crook in Zimbabwe?  The MDC says that its leader and presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, was ahead in the race for the presidency.  The MDC has tallied results that were posted outside polling stations in some parts of the country, especially in the urban areas where the opposition is strong. … Results are yet to be announced from some parts of the rural areas and, it is widely assumed, officials loyal to the ruling ZANU-PF party of Mr Mugabe are arranging some way to keep their man in office.

Riot police in Harare townships amid poll tensions.  Riot police in armoured carriers were deployed in two of Harare's restive townships on Monday night [3/31/2008] amid long delays in issuing Zimbabwe's election results which have raised tensions.

Zimbabwe's meltdown in figures:  In 1987 inflation averaged 11.9 percent.  It surged to an official record of 100,586 percent in January 2008, but economic experts say the real rate is much higher.  Average life expectancy dropped from 63 years in 1990 to 37.3 years in 2005, according to World Bank and U.N. figures.

Zimbabwe opposition claims victory.  President Robert Mugabe and his ruling party were defeated in presidential and parliamentary elections, according to the opposition and independent observers, but there was deafening silence Sunday from the Zimbabwe Election Commission, which released almost no results.  Tension was high here in the capital, as large numbers of riot police patrolled deserted streets after dark.  There were also reports of riot police in the crowded urban townships.

Zimbabwe announces first results.  Zimbabwe's election commission has announced the delayed first results of presidential and legislative elections.  The 24 parliamentary constituencies were equally split between President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Deal 'close' for Mugabe to leave.  The outline of a deal has almost been reached for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to step down, opposition sources have told the BBC.  They say representatives of Mr Mugabe, military chiefs and the opposition have held meetings chaired by South Africa since Saturday's elections.  The sources said Mr Mugabe would make the announcement on television, but his aides have denied the reports.

MDC:  No Mugabe talks.  Zimbabwe's opposition MDC party on Tuesday denied reports it was in negotiations with the governing Zanu-PF on a handover of power by President Robert Mugabe.  Asked about a story on the New York Times website saying Mugabe's advisers were talking to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on a transfer of power, party spokesperson Nelson Chamisa told Reuters:  "I can confirm that there are no talks with Mugabe."  He added:  "We were also surprised by those reports but that is not true."

Mugabe 'chose poll rig over coup'.  Zimbabwe's ruling party edged ahead of the main opposition yesterday in official election results, amid reports that President Robert Mugabe and the security forces had decided to rig the outcome of the poll as an alternative to a military takeover to keep him in power.  Riot police in armoured carriers patrolled two of Harare's opposition strongholds overnight, and residents were told to stay off the normally bustling streets.

Ghosts who walk into the Zimbabwe polling booths:  On Saturday morning I found myself heading to the polls clutching the old Rhodesian identity card of Fraser Johnston, born in Johannesburg in 1922, died in 1998.  "Try it," said his son, who lent me the card.  "I want to see if it's really that easy to cheat the system."  It was intended not as a prank but as a serious test of the voting system.  If I could pass myself off as an 86-year-old white Zimbabwean, it would stand as compelling evidence of serious fraud built into the electoral framework.  Johnston's son wanted me to expose this.

Rice:  Mugabe Regime Is A "Disgrace".  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday branded Zimbabwe's president a "disgrace" to his people and to Africa, and expressed concerns about verifying whether the country held free and fair elections.

Desperate Robert Mugabe recruits dead voters to rig election.  Zimbabweans began queueing before dawn yesterday to cast their votes in an atmosphere of open defiance as people dared to think the unthinkable -- that they could finally oust Robert Mugabe after 28 years. ... Fed up with the lack of food and inflation of 150,000%, people seemed undeterred by the presence, as in previous elections, of army trucks patrolling the streets with water cannons and jets circling the skies.

Delays cause concern in Zimbabwe poll.  Regional observers endorsed Zimbabwe's elections as credible and fair on Sunday but long delays in issuing results stoked concerns that President Robert Mugabe was trying to cling to power by rigging the result.

Charges of fraud in Zimbabwe vote.  Zimbabwe's opposition accused President Robert Mugabe of rigging the country's election to stay in power despite economic disaster and African observers also said they had detected fraud.

Morgan Tsvangirai claims victory in Zimbabwe.  Desperate Zimbabweans turned out in their thousands in an attempt to vote President Robert Mugabe out of office and put their country on a path to a new era.  Many queued from the early hours of the morning to vote for a new president, parliament and councils at more than 9,000 polling stations in what promised to be an historic election, with clear signs that many former supporters had finally turned against Mr Mugabe.

Robert Mugabe, poised to steal another election, has led his nation to ruin.  I remember crisscrossing the continent [in the 1980s] as Africa correspondent for a British newspaper, and each time I returned to the newly renamed capital of Harare (previously it had been Salisbury), I was reminded that in comparison to what surrounded it, Zimbabwe was like Switzerland.  The roads were well maintained, the elevators worked, electricity was constant, you could drink the water, the steaks were world-renowned.  The Zimbabwe dollar was at near parity with its American namesake.  Fast forward to today, and the country is unrecognizable.

Mugabe hands out cars ahead of poll.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, facing the toughest election battle of his 28 years in power, handed out hundreds of cars to doctors on Thursday [3/27/2008] in what opponents say is a vote buying campaign.  The main opposition group said it had uncovered more evidence that Mugabe planned to rig Saturday's presidential election, in which he faces old rival Morgan Tsvangirai and ruling party defector Simba Makoni.

'Israeli spies helping Mugabe'.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has enlisted the services of Israeli computer experts with links to the Jewish state's Mossad spy agency to help steal a weekend vote, the opposition said on Thursday [3/27/2008].

In Zimbabwe, bread costs Z$10 million.  In her pink-and-yellow Indian sari, Neeti Patel sees the customers come into her shop, look longingly at the sandwiches, and walk back out empty handed.  It's not that her prices are high — a sausage sandwich sells for a mere 30 million Zimbabwe dollars, or about $1.25.  The problem is that Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation — now the world's highest, running at more than 100,000 percent a year — keeps her costs rising.  A 30-pound bag of potatos cost 90 million in the first week of March.  Now that same bag costs 160 million, and her potential customers simply don't have the money.

Mugabe seeks election price cuts.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has threatened to force businesses to cut prices ahead of the 29 March elections.  Prices have again shot up after Mr Mugabe awarded huge pay rises to teachers and civil servants last month.

White farmer faces prison in Zimbabwe for refusing to give up dairy land.  A white farmer is set today to become the first member of his community to be jailed for challenging President Mugabe about the right to continue producing food in a country stricken by shortages. … Mr Theron has a herd of 400 dairy cattle on his 400-hectare farm in the Beatrice district, about 70km south of Harare.  It supplies 8,000 litres of fresh milk to Harare — 2 percent of the daily consumption of the capital — every day.

With election near, economy free-falling, Zimbabwe survives on black market.  On a typical workday, Lovemore Vambe will make dozens of clandestine phone calls that lead to a handful of illegal transactions.  He'll conspire with colleagues, sidestep police or bribe them if necessary, and come home in the evening with a few dollars in his pocket.  That's enough to make the rent and keep his eldest child in boarding school.

Zimbabwe ballot papers spark row.  Zimbabwe's main opposition party has accused the government of printing millions of surplus ballot papers for the presidential and legislative polls.  The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says leaked documents show nine million papers have been ordered for the country's 5.9 million voters.  But, the head of the electoral commission rejected suggestions that the extra papers might be misused.

Robert Mugabe grip on power rocked by surging opposition.  With elections only eight days away, President Mugabe looks like being overwhelmed by a wave of support for the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as the 84-year-old leader's grip on power falters.

Mugabe amends electoral laws.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has amended electoral laws to allow policemen into polling stations later this month to "assist" illiterate people to vote, state radio said on Tuesday [3/18/2008].  The amendment, which was published as a presidential proclamation on Monday [3/17/2008], comes less than two weeks ahead of make-or-break polls on March 29.

President Robert Mugabe 'raises the dead' to secure electoral victory in Zimbabwe.  Zimbabwe has the highest proportion of elderly voters in the world, according to the voters' roll being used for elections next week.  A glance at one page of the roll yesterday for a ward in the Mount Pleasant suburb of Harare turned up a Fodias Kunyepa, who was born in 1901.  Over the page was Rebecca Armstrong, born 1900.  [Both are dead.] … Opposition campaign workers say that the voters' roll is stuffed with the names of the dead, of non-existent people, of those with fake identity numbers and with names repeated numerous times in different constituencies, sometimes in the same ward.

Trouble brews for Mugabe in heartland.  [Simba] Makoni, President Robert Mugabe's former finance minister, left the party a month ago to challenge him for the presidency in the March 29 elections.  When he made a joke of Mugabe's totem, he got loud, derisive laughs.  They clapped and cheered when he scorned the situation where a box of matches now costs $Z2 million.

We are facing food crisis, admits Mugabe.  Robert Mugabe has, for the first time, admitted that Zimbabwe faces a grave food crisis amid the collapse of the country's agriculture.  But he blamed it on "racist" Britain trying to oust him at this month's presidential election.

Mugabe poll ploy strips white firms.  President Robert Mugabe has signed a new law requiring foreign and white-owned businesses to hand over 51 percent control of their operations to blacks.  The move has allowed the Zimbabwean despot to shore up his election campaign with handouts of imported vehicles, machinery and cattle paid for with millions seized from private companies and local and international aid agencies.

President Mugabe chooses Sudan and Libya as referees in election.  Britain, continental countries and others critical of Mr Mugabe will be banned from sending monitors to oversee the freedom and fairness of the poll.  Sudan and Libya have been chosen "on the basis of objectivity and impartiality in their relationship with Zimbabwe", Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, the Foreign Minister, said.

Planeloads of cash prop up Mugabe.  Money that is being used to prop up President Robert Mugabe's brutal regime, keep his military onside and win over voters in the run-up to Zimbabwe's elections this month is being printed by a German company.  With inflation topping 100,000% and the highest value 10m Zimbabwe dollar note worth just 20p, heavily guarded planeloads of banknotes are flying into Harare almost every day to keep up with the demand.  Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Munich company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is receiving more than €500,000 (£382,000) a week for delivering bank notes at the astonishing rate of Z$170 trillion a week.

Mugabe begs China for £25bn to fix economy.  A desperate Robert Mugabe has asked China for a £25 billion loan to help repair Zimbabwe's shattered economy. … Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate reached 100,580.2 percent last month.

Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital stops operations.  Due to a breakdown of equipment and shortages of drugs, Zimbabwe's biggest state hospital had stopped surgical operations, a rights group said Sunday [2/24/2008].  "There is a critical shortage of items ranging from anaesthetics to surgical equipment at Parirenyatwa Hospital," said Douglas Gwatidzo, chairperson of Zimbabwe Doctors for Human Rights.

Mugabe's poll party costs trillions.  The Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, has celebrated his 84th birthday at a rally aimed at boosting support before elections next month.  Saturday's bash in the southern town of Beitbridge on the border with South Africa cost $Z3 trillion -- the equivalent of $272,360 at the dominant black-market exchange rate.

Zimbabwe inflation passes 100,000%, officials say.  The official rate of annual inflation in Zimbabwe has rocketed past the 100,000% barrier, by far the highest in the world, the state central statistical office said yesterday.  Second-placed Iraq has inflation of 60%, according to international estimates.  In a brief statement, the statistics office said inflation rose to 100,580% in January, up from 66,212% in December.

The Tragedy of Africa:  African leaders, and many people on the left, blame Africa's problems on the evils of colonialism. … [But] colonialism cannot explain Third World poverty.  Some of today's richest countries are former colonies, such as:  United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.  Some of today's poorest countries were never colonies, such as:  Ethiopia, Liberia, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan.  The colonialism argument is simply a cover-up for African dictators.

Zim cash
You'd think he won the lottery!  In most parts of the world, a man carrying around this many millions of dollars might be thought to be rich beyond his wildest dreams.  Not, however, in Zimbabwe where an inflation rate of 100,500 percent has brought a level of poverty beyond the long-suffering citizens' worst nightmares.  Yesterday this man in the capital Harare was barely able to carry the vast amount of money he needed for a simple shopping trip to buy groceries.  On paper he was a millionaire several times over.

Dying Silently in Zimbabwe.  One of the most reckless and cruel acts of government is the destruction of a currency.  During the hyperinflation of Germany's Weimar Republic, the number of marks in circulation went from 29 billion in 1918 to 497 quintillion in 1923. … This kind of hyperinflation is rare in history, but we are seeing it once again, in Zimbabwe.  Government officials claim an inflation rate of 66,212 percent (most months they refuse to release inflation figures at all).  The International Monetary Fund believes the rate is closer to 150,000 percent — about the level reached by Weimar Germany.

Stating the obvious...
Time for Mugabe to Go.  Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe from the bread basket of southern Africa into a basket case.  He has seized land for political purposes, displaced hundreds of thousands of suspected political opponents, trampled freedom of the press, crushed opposition demonstrations and rigged elections.  At 83 years old, he is intent on securing yet another five-year term as President even as the people suffer from punishing economic collapse and ruthless repression.

Zimbabwe ruling party expels Mugabe challenger.  Zimbabwe's ruling party announced Tuesday it had expelled ex-finance minister Simba Makoni for challenging Robert Mugabe as the veteran leader expressed confidence of victory at upcoming national polls.  Nathan Shamuyarira, a spokesman for Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), said Makoni would remain banished even if he did not file his nomination papers as required by Friday [2/15/2008].

Simba Makoni to stand against Robert Mugabe.  A new opposition leader emerged in Zimbabwe today when a former ally of Robert Mugabe said that he would challenge him for the presidency.  In a surprise announcement in Harare, Simba Makoni, 57, a former finance minister and member of the ruling Zanu-PF party's politburo, said that he would stand as an independent candidate in the elections due on March 29.

Zimbabwe bank issues $10 million bill — but it won't even buy you a hamburger in Harare.  Forget the glitzy restaurants of New York and London:  only in Zimbabwe would a hamburger actually cost millions of dollars.  The central bank of the southern African country has announced that tomorrow it will issue a 10 million Zimbabwe dollars note.  The move increases the denomination of the nation's highest bank note more than tenfold.  Even so, a hamburger in an ordinary cafe in Zimbabwe costs 15 million Zimbabwe dollars.

The world's top 10 dangerous destinations:  (#9) Zimbabwe:  Anti-western sentiment prominently expressed by officials, out-of-control inflation and oppression employed by the government to silence dissenting voices are common in Zimbabwe.

Your U.N. at Work.  The public housing in question includes the notorious 1930s-era St. Bernard complex, which was already in a bad state before Katrina hit and an even worse state after it.  The local housing authority intends to replace the complex with mixed-income housing developments, and in the meantime is granting housing vouchers to former tenants.  But some of the new housing will be offered at — horrors! — a "market rate," to which the U.N. naturally objects.  We don't remember the U.N.'s human-rights czars being quite so vocal when Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe evicted 200,000 people from their homes in 2005.

Birthday bash for Mugabe.  Birthday celebrations for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who turns 84 next month, are to be held in Beitbridge town on the border with neighbouring South Africa, reports said on Saturday.  The celebrations, organised by the 21st February Movement, are held every year in a different town or city.

Zimbabwe to issue new banknotes.  Zimbabwe is to issue new banknotes in an effort to tackle the serious cash shortages afflicting the country.  From Thursday [12/20/2007], notes worth 250,000, 500,000 and 750,000 Zimbabwean dollars will enter circulation.  At the same time, the highest value note now in use — the 200,000 dollar bill — will be phased out, despite only being introduced in July.

Robert Mugabe's cronies plot his downfall.  Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF party will meet today [12/13/2007] to acclaim Robert Mugabe as its candidate for next year's presidential elections — but behind the chants of victory and denunciations of its enemies, the organisation is utterly divided.

From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe.  As President Jimmy Carter's emissary to Africa, [Andrew] Young played a pivotal role — along with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and other Carter administration officials — in enthroning Mugabe's terror regime and turning much of the Dark Continent into the nightmarish slaughterhouse of chaos and terror it has become.

Merkel Accuses Mugabe of Damaging Image of Africa.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on European and African leaders on Saturday, Dec. 8, to push for a renewal of democracy in Zimbabwe, saying the world could not look on as democracy is "trampled underfoot."

How to be a mad dictator:  Chávez parallels Mugabe.  Mugabe, like Chávez, took power after elections that were widely agreed to have been fairly conducted.  Over time his governing philosophy came to consist of an economic nationalism underpinning a state socialist system, mobilised by exploiting resentment towards a privileged minority (the whites), treacherous elites (journalists) and interfering foreign powers (Britain).

US to slap new sanctions on Zimbabwe.  The US plans in the next few days to slap new travel and financial sanctions on about 40 more people with ties to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, said a senior US official overnight.  "The goal is to highlight the absolutely abysmal human rights situation in Zimbabwe," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Torture is Robert Mugabe's election weapon.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has stepped up the use of torture against political opponents, civil rights protesters and students in an attempt to clamp down on dissent ahead of next year's elections.

A stricken nation waiting to die.  Zimbabwe … has deteriorated dramatically since March.  It is closer than ever to complete collapse, according to the International Crisis Group.  Inflation has soared from 1,700 to 15,000 percent.  Draconian price controls have emptied the shops because producers cannot cover their costs.

Cameron critical of China's aid to Mugabe.  David Cameron has urged China to halt its direct aid to Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.  During a three-day visit to China, the Tory leader said they had a "global responsibility" to use their growing economic might to promote security in places such as Zimbabwe, Sudan, North Korea and Burma.

Mugabe's "march of a million" draws ordinary crowd.  Copied from the 'million man march' organized in 1995 by Louis Farrakhan, leader of the black American militant 'Nation of Islam' movement in Washington DC, the Zimbabwean version, held at the same venue as Mugabe's heroic 1980 return, managed to collect about 10,000 people, journalists present agreed.

Big Zimbabwean march for Mugabe.  Thousands of supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe have staged a huge march in the capital, Harare.  They were backing Mr Mugabe's bid for re-election next year. ... BBC southern Africa correspondent Peter Biles says many of those marching are thought to have been bussed into Harare from outlying areas.

Elephant Shot Dead in Zimbabwe After Party Shenanigans.  Tusker, a towering 50-year-old bull elephant who had become a favorite of safari camp visitors in Zimbabwe, was shot dead after New Year's party-goers provoked the animal to trampling several cars, conservationists said Monday [1/7/2008].

'Zim economy to grow 4%'.  Zimbabwe's economy is expected to grow by 4% next year buoyed by growth in the agriculture and industrial sectors of the economy, Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said. … The southern African nation is in the throes of an economic crisis characterised by escalating inflation now believed to be above 15,000%.  Mumbengegwi said Zimbabwe's inflation will slow to 1,978% next year but analysts say this is an ambitious target.  This is not the first time President Robert Mugabe's government has set the bar too high for itself.

Zim slashes zeroes again.  Zimbabwe prepared on Friday [11/23/2007] to slash three more zeros from its currency for the second time in a year, as inflation soars in the crippled economy.  Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono said after months of planning, the issue of new currency bills was "imminent," state television and radio reported.

Mugabe grabs platinum and diamonds.  President Mugabe unleashed a devastating new blow to Zimbabwe's mortally wounded economy yesterday [11/20/2007], announcing a new law giving the state a controlling stake in mines operating in the country.  Under the Mines and Minerals Amendment Bill, the Government can take over 51 percent of companies mining strategic fuels and minerals, taking 25 percent without paying.

Mugabe should be president for life, says his deputy.  The practice of limiting presidents to a couple of terms in office is 'a luxury' and President Robert Mugabe should continue to rule until he dies, according to Zimbabwe's vice-president.

Former leader of Rhodesia Ian Smith dies.  Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian prime minister who unilaterally declared independence from British rule, has died aged 88.  Smith ruled the country for 15 years from 1964 to 1979, in an ultimately futile effort to prolong white minority rule.  During that turbulent time he fought a guerilla war against fighters from the majority black population.

Ian Smith:  Ian Smith, who died yesterday aged 88, was the Prime Minister of Rhodesia and an ardent advocate of white rule; in 1965 he unilaterally declared independence from Britain, and over the next 15 turbulent years fought an increasingly bitter war against African nationalist guerrillas, a war that cost between 30,000 and 40,000, mainly black, lives — but it was a struggle he eventually lost, paving the way for the country's independence as Zimbabwe.

Mugabe signs in a successor law.  Zimbabwe's president has signed into law an amendment to the constitution that allows him to choose a successor if he decides to retire mid-term.  Robert Mugabe's choice would then be voted in by parliament which is dominated by his Zanu-PF party.

Mbeki too close to Mugabe to be an effective mediator for Zimbabwe.  The South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who has been entrusted with finding a solution to Zimbabwe's political crisis, sees Robert Mugabe as his father figure, according to a biography.  As one of the last independence leaders still running his country, the Zimbabwean leader enjoys elder statesman status among many Africans.

Barclays bankrolling Mugabe.  Barclays bank is bankrolling President Robert Mugabe's corrupt regime in Zimbabwe by providing substantial loans to cronies given land seized from white farmers.

Mugabe's patience wearing thin.  In a bid to fight Zimbabwe's record inflation rate, the 83-year-old president imposed sweeping price slashes in June and then a six-month price freeze that resulted in widespread shortages of basics like bread, flour, cooking oil, margarine, meat and even shoes. In the past month, some goods have crept back onto shop shelves in small quantities and at high prices.

Zimbabwe is a laughing stock, says Mugabe.  The malnutrition that afflicts millions of Zimbabweans has reduced the country to a "laughing stock", President Robert Mugabe has admitted.  Distributing equipment to black farmers resettled on land seized from white owners, he said:  "We have become the laughing stock because of hunger.  We all need to eat, whether you are Zanu-PF or MDC.  Let's unite."

What fools!
'Miracle' fuel that made a mockery of Mugabe.  When Nomatter Tagarira, a spirit medium, claimed that she could conjure refined diesel out of a rock by striking it with her staff, ministers in Robert Mugabe's Government believed that they might have found the solution to Zimbabwe's perennial fuel shortage.  After witnessing her apparently miraculous gift they gave her five billion Zimbabwean dollars in cash (worth £1.7 million at the start of the year but now worth one seven-hundredth of that) in return for the fuel.

This sounds like a story out of a thousand-year-old newspaper.
Mugabe tied to 'fuel-from-rocks' suspect.  President Robert Mugabe has said ministers at a Cabinet meeting he chaired agreed to pay two head of cattle and three buffaloes to a woman who claimed she could produce gasoline out of rocks, the official media reported Friday [11/16/2007].  Mugabe later ordered the woman's arrest on fraud charges.  The Herald newspaper, a government mouthpiece, reported the woman claiming to be a tribal healer, known in the West as a witch doctor, also took large sums of money….

Witch doctor arrested by Mugabe for claiming to extract diesel from rocks.  President Robert Mugabe has said ministers at a Cabinet meeting he chaired agreed to pay two head of cattle and three buffaloes to a woman who claimed she could produce gasoline out of rocks, the official media reported today [11/16/2007].  Mugabe later order the woman's arrest on fraud charges.

White farmers in court for growing crops.  Ten white farmers appeared in court in Zimbabwe yesterday [10/5/2007] accused of growing crops on their land — in a country where millions of people will need food aid within the next few months.

Zimbabwe to introduce new currency.  Zimbabwe is to introduce a new currency by the end of the year in an attempt to control the country's extreme rate of inflation, the governor of the country's central bank has said.

Zimbabwe 'running out of bread'.  Reports from Zimbabwe say bakeries have run out of flour and there will be no bread in the foreseeable future.  The Agriculture Ministry has confirmed that this year's wheat harvest yield of 145,000 tonnes is only one third of the country's requirements.

Zimbabwe MPs back takeover of white firms.  White Zimbabweans found themselves a step closer to losing control of their businesses to black people yesterday [9/27/2007] as a result of new government legislation.  The ruling Zanu-PF party in parliament approved the indigenisation and economic empowerment bill on Wednesday night.  The proposed law calls for white owners to hand over 51% of their business interests to black people.  Opposition MPs walked out of the sitting, saying the bill was racist and unconstitutional.

Mugabe:  a tyrant from the start.  As Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, presides over what might be the most rapid disintegration yet of a modern nation-state, it has become de rigueur for journalists, politicians and academics to offer what has become a near-universal analysis:  Mugabe, who has ruled his country uninterrupted for 27 years, was a promising leader who became corrupted over time by power. … But this popular conception of Mugabe — propagated by the liberals who championed him in the 1970s and 1980s — is absolutely wrong.

How Mugabe is Destroying The Zimbabwean Economy.  "Bread, sugar and cornmeal, staples of every Zimbabwean's diet, have vanished, seized by mobs who denuded stores like locusts in wheat fields," reported [Michael] Wines.  "Meat is virtually nonexistent, even for members of the middle class who have money to buy it on the black market.  Gasoline is nearly unobtainable.  Hospital patients are dying for lack of basic medical supplies.  Power blackouts and water cutoffs are endemic."

Mugabe slams Bush over human rights.  Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, accused U.S. President George W. Bush of "rank hypocrisy" on Wednesday [9/26/2007] for lecturing him on human rights and likened the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison to a concentration camp.

Zimbabwe's Mugabe tells US and Britain: Keep Out!.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday [9/26/2007] told Britain and the United States to stay out of his country's business, and said a recent agreement on constitutional changes with the country's opposition showed Zimbabwe could manage its own problems.

'Half of Zimbabwe will soon need food aid'.  Half of Zimbabwe's people will be dependent on emergency food aid next year, a senior British diplomatic source has said, in a damning indictment of President Robert Mugabe's regime.  Of an estimated eight million Zimbabweans still in the country, "we know we'll be feeding four million people by January or February, possibly more", the official said.

Hungry Zimbabweans target giraffe.  A giraffe that strayed into a township close to Zimbabwe's capital has been rescued after residents tried to kill it for its meat, local media reported.  The animal was put under police guard before wildlife officers removed it.

Zimbabwe and Iran mull coalition against 'global bullies'.  The leaders of Zimbabwe and Iran are looking to form a self-styled "coalition for peace" after receiving a joint tongue-lashing from US President George W. Bush, officials said Wednesday [9/26/2007].

The Editor says...
If you like shortwave radio, you should make a habit of reading DX Listening Digest, edited by Glenn Hauser.  The September 23rd edition included this shortwave reception report:
12035 kHz, SW Radio Africa. 1833-1859* September 21. Very interesting talk by man in English, obviously by telephone, who trashed Robert Mugabe, saying how the 85-year-old leader employs a witch doctor full-time; wakes up at night "talking deliriously to some invisible person;" feels guilty about having an affair with his secretary while his wife was dying and now the secretary has signed a million dollar tell-all book deal abroad; donated a lot of money to the Catholic Church as a guarantee so "he won't burn in hell." Sign-off with Zimbabwe song and announcer saying that they are on the air 7 pm to 9 pm (local time) on "multiple frequencies on 25 [meter band]." It has been quite a while since I have heard such great entertaining clandestine radio. Very clear reception.
The Editor goes on to say...
Ordinarily, this web site is not used to promulgate ad hominem attacks based on hearsay, but in this case, I have made an exception.

Zimbabwe 'close to collapse'.  Zimbabwe is "closer than ever to complete collapse" under the weight of a deepening economic crisis that threatens to destabilise southern Africa, an independent report said today [9/18/2007].

Mugabe uses water as weapon.  Robert Mugabe is using water as a tool of repression in Bulawayo, the largest urban area in Zimbabwe controlled by a council of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the President's critics say.  In the early summer heat of the semi-arid western provinces of Matabeleland, the city of about 800,000 people is fast running out of water.

Africa summit in jeopardy as Brown vows to boycott Mugabe.  Gordon Brown has thrown plans for a summit of African and European leaders into turmoil by vowing to pull out if Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe takes part.  The Prime Minister, normally keen to promote Africa, believes that his boycott would be followed by several European allies and is hoping that the threat will stop Mr Mugabe from being invited.

Has The Sun Set On Zimbabwe?  In August 2007, one quid would get you about $511 Zimbabwean dollars.  Of course, who knows what the exchange rate will be next month.  But with inflation estimated at anywhere between 4,500% and 9,000% (possibly much higher) and the government printing money as if it were newsprint, the days when one wanted to be paid in Zimbabwean dollars are long, long gone.

Violence looms as Zimbabwe runs out of food — except for the elite.  Two things have happened:  inflation has rocketed and, according to the Government, the country will run out of wheat in three days.  Zimbabweans appear set to face an almost total absence of food and ordinary household goods.  An eruption of public anger, to be met with violent suppression by Mr Mugabe's security forces, is likely to follow, observers say.

Zimbabwe buys Heinz cooking oil company.  The Zimbabwean government has bought the 51 percent stake owned by HJ Heinz in the country's biggest cooking oil manufacturer, it announced.  The move is the first acquisition by the Harare authorities since a law targeting foreign companies and requiring all firms to be majority-owned by Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe inflation hits record.  Zimbabwe's inflation — already the highest in the world — hit 7,634.8 percent in July, reminding Zimbabweans there is no relief in sight from daily hardships including chronic food, fuel and foreign currency shortages.  Although the government says the inflation figure is correct, many analysts and critics say it is likely much higher.  The International Monetary Fund said last month inflation may reach 100,000 percent by year-end.

Zimbabwe on brink of collapse.  Zimbabwe's economy is sliding toward anarchy and could fall prey to warlords and violent tribal tensions by year's end, it was reported Sunday [8/19/2007].  Western diplomats fear Zimbabwe's business, agriculture and financial industries will fail, triggering a collapse of the authoritarian government of President Robert Mugabe, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Mugabe charm 'irresistible'.  Zimbabwe's main opposition on Wednesday complained that excited police joined in a march in support of President Robert Mugabe even though they have banned hundreds of opposition demonstrations.

40% of Zimbabweans mentally ill.  About 40% of Zimbabweans suffer from mental disorders, ZimOnline reported on Friday [8/24/2007].  World Health Organization consultant Dickson Chibanda ascribed this to the current economic hardships in the country and the effects the 2005 Murambatsvina slum eviction program.

35 Zim prosecutors quit.  More than 35 prosecutors have quit the attorney general's office in Zimbabwe this year, leaving the Justice Ministry facing a serious staff squeeze, said reports on Tuesday [8/21/2007].  The ministry's acting secretary Maxwell Ranga said:  "Since the start of the year, we have lost about 35 prosecutors countrywide.  They have resigned."

Regional leaders say Zimbabwe's problems 'exaggerated'.  Southern African leaders failed Friday to heed calls for strong action against the embattled Zimbabwean government, saying the ailing country's problems were "exaggerated".

No pressure on Mugabe from summit.  Southern African leaders are putting no public pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to solve his country's dire political and economic crises. … Inflation stands at about 4,500% in Zimbabwe and food shortages are common.

Two die in sugar stampede.  Two people including a 15-year-old boy have died during a stampede by people wanting to buy sugar in Zimbabwe's second city, it was reported overnight. … Several others were injured in the incident.  Many retail shops across Zimbabwe have run out of basic commodities such as meat, corn meal, sugar, cooking oil and flour after the government directed retailers and manufacturers to slash prices by half.

Mugabe cheered at African summit.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe received the loudest cheers Thursday [8/16/2007] at the start of a southern African summit where his country's economic and political turmoil top the agenda.

Thousands arrested as Mugabe issues warning on prices.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has warned businesses to comply with a controversial price freeze, after his security forces arrested more than 7,000 people for violating the new policy over the past few weeks.

Zimbabwe crisis hits hard as pubs dry up.  Zimbabweans have been struggling with severe shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency, and now the few pleasures of life are rapidly disappearing.  Mr Mugabe has warned businesses they will face dire consequences if they ignore his price-capping campaign, another bid to tame the world's highest inflation rate that has cut supplies of maize-meal, milk, sugar and meat.

51 Zimbabwe bus drivers arrested as transport crisis bites:  report.  Fifty-one bus drivers were arrested for overcharging this weekend in the Zimbabwean capital Harare as riot police were brought in to control crowds of desperate travellers, official media reported Sunday.  Thousands of would-be travellers were stranded at Harare's main railway station, unable to catch trains for the holiday weekend, according to the Sunday Mail.

Let's recap the obvious...
Zimbabwe threatens whites on evictions.  President Robert Mugabe's government has warned it will arrest white Zimbabwean farmers resisting evictions from new land targeted for black farmers, state media reports.  Critics say Mugabe's controversial seizures of productive commercial farms from hundreds of whites and low output from new farmers has plunged the southern African state into a severe economic crisis in the last seven years.

Mugabe's decree on prices puts Zimbabwe economy in a tailspin.  Robert Mugabe has ruled over this benighted country, his every wish endorsed by Parliament and implemented by the police and military, for more than 27 years.  It appears, however, that not even an unchallenged autocrat can repeal the laws of supply and demand.

Mugabe says he will print more money.  President Robert Mugabe has promised to print more money to fund municipal projects, a government newspaper reported Saturday.  The pledge came despite hyperinflation that has created severe shortages of cornmeal, meat, milk and other staples.  Meanwhile, water shortages worsened due to pump breakdowns, and a senior government official said kidney patients were dying for lack of dialysis machines.

Mugabe's elite shops in style as a nation starves.  Robert Mugabe's local supermarket is unlike any other shop in Zimbabwe.  Elsewhere there are empty shelves where bread, butter, sugar, meat and the staple maize meal should be.  But at the Spar in Borrowdale Brooke — a suburb of the capital, Harare, near the President's palatial home — almost anything is available, including focaccia, sun-dried tomatoes and cigars.

Babies abandoned as police beat mothers.  A group of nursing mothers were ordered to put down their babies by Zimbabwean police before being beaten for hours.  The six women were among 160 people rounded up at the offices of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an organisation dedicated to constitutional reform, after activists tried to hold a demonstration.

Mugabe vows to save sick economy.  Strict price controls will continue as Zimbabwe tries to turn around an ailing economy, President Robert Mugabe has said at the opening of parliament.  The country, once the bread-basket of the region, is suffering crippling food shortages and rampant inflation.  Mr. Mugabe blamed droughts and sanctions for their economic woes and said they faced continued hostility from the UK and her Western allies.  A bill to nationalise foreign firms, including banks and mines, is planned.

Mugabe says military refused UK coup bait.  President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday [7/18/2007] that Zimbabwe's military had rejected British encouragement to stage a coup and warned his government would press ahead with a price blitz that has left shop shelves empty.

Mugabe warns firms against halting production.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday [7/6/2007] told manufacturers to carry on with normal production despite an official price freeze, warning that his government would seize firms that stopped producing basic goods.

Carter's Role in Zimbabwe:  President Carter's most recent moralizing on American foreign policy in the Middle East is exasperating particularly in light of President Mugabe's misrule of Zimbabwe, where Mr. Carter's role in bringing the dictator to power has been mostly forgotten.  Mr. Mugabe is one of the nastiest dictators in Africa — he has inflicted a "silent genocide" by starving his own people.  The effects of his authoritarian rule have been made all the worse by his staying power.

Zimbabwe's silent genocide:  At every hut, every village, it is the same story.  Plumtree and Figtree sound as if they should be verdant places but severe drought has left the area, like much of southern Zimbabwe, with 95% crop failure.  People sit with dazed expressions, fuddled with hunger.  The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that 4 [million] people will need food aid.

Zimbabwe bans bulk buying as shops run empty.  Zimbabwe authorities ordered businesses yesterday to stop selling basic goods in bulk to avert shortages after an official price freeze triggered a frenzied buying spree that has emptied most shop shelves.  President Robert Mugabe's government last week ordered businesses to roll back prices to June 18 levels after wild increases of up to 300% within a week following the plunge of the local currency on a thriving black market.

Zimbabwe Government Official Humiliates Dell.  Outgoing US Ambassador Christopher Dell was yesterday humiliated by a senior foreign affairs official for making disparaging remarks about the Zimbabwe Government.  Addressing guests at his residence to mark the United States Independence Day, Mr Dell took a swipe at the Government, boasting that it would fall in six months' time.

What $1,500,000 is Worth:  With banks restricting withdrawals for individuals to $1.5 million a day, grocery shopping has become something Zimbabweans dread. … Just last week a 2 kg packet of rice cost $700,000 and a single withdrawal could only buy two.  Due to the new price controls the very same packet now costs $300,000.  An extra three packets can be bought at least when available.

Zimbabwe is going out of business -- everything's half off.
Shops emptied as panic grips Zimbabwe.  Panic buying swept through the streets of Zimbabwe yesterday, as stores ran out of basic goods and shopkeepers complained that they were selling goods at a loss after the government ordered prices to be halved in a last-ditch effort to tackle hyper-inflation.

Mugabe's 'inflation police' raid shopkeepers.  Plain-clothes police sought to enforce Zimbabwe's new price controls by raiding shops yesterday [7/2/2007] as President Robert Mugabe's regime waged a desperate struggle against soaring inflation. ... They roughed up shop owners and staff and arrested 20 businessmen.  Shoppers swarmed over supermarket shelves in the capital, Harare, intent on grabbing "bargains".

Mugabe invited to Lisbon summit despite ban.  Portugal is prepared to invite President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to a summit of European and African leaders in Lisbon this year despite an EU travel ban and sanctions against the 83-year-old dictator and figures in his regime.

Tutu says Mugabe needs face-saving options.  South African Nobel peace prize laureate Desmond Tutu said on Wednesday Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe needed face-saving options for there to be a chance of him stepping aside.

Zimbabwe general linked to coup 'murdered'.  One of Zimbabwe's top soldiers has been murdered after being linked to an alleged coup plot, according to senior military sources.  Brig-Gen Ambrose Paul Gunda was buried yesterday a week after reports of a plot to topple President Robert Mugabe caused fevered speculation in the capital, Harare.

Mugabe threatens to seize foreign firms.  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday threatened to seize foreign companies, including mines, that have raised prices and cut output in an economic "dirty tricks" campaign to oust his government.  Mugabe, 83, in power since independence in 1980, accused former colonial power Britain of seeking to overthrow him.

Mugabe gives tractors to party loyalists.  Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, is trying to shore up his regime by giving farm machinery to loyalists — many of whom do not even own farms — as millions of his people face starvation.

Zimbabwe to localise company ownership.  President Robert Mugabe's government is seeking to transfer majority control of "public companies and any other business" to black Zimbabweans, a move critics say could deepen the country's economic crisis.  A bill the government made public on Monday will be presented to parliament proposing indigenous black Zimbabweans will get at least a 51 percent share of those companies.

Zimbabwe dollar crashes to a new low.  Black-market exchange rates — fuelled by the central bank buying at the illegal rates to pay the mounting debts of crumbling state fuel and power utilities — rose to more than $Z300,000 ($1450) to one US dollar in large offshore deals, one trader said yesterday [6/22/2007].  The official exchange rate is 15,000:1.  "It's gone crazy," said the trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.  "People are holding out for the highest bidder and mentioning as much as 400,000:1, which could be tomorrow's price.  It's changing by the hour."

Mbeki to report on Zim progress.  South African President Thabo Mbeki will report to African leaders at the end of next week on the state of negotiations to solve Zimbabwe's political crisis. … Southern African states named Mbeki as mediator earlier this year at the height of an international furore over the Zimbabwe government's brutal clampdown on opposition leaders.

Zimbabwe 'will collapse in 6 months'.  Inflation is likely to bring Zimbabwe's economy to a standstill within six months with the possible paralysis of President Mugabe's Government and civil unrest, international aid agencies warned their staff yesterday.  The country's plight is likely to force Mr Mugabe to introduce emergency rule, said a group representing 34 organisations, including the United Nations, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Oxfam.

Army officers seized over Mugabe 'coup plot'.  Seven serving and former officers of the Zimbabwe army have been charged with planning a coup d'etat against President Robert Mugabe.  The men were arrested in stages, beginning on May 29, and appeared twice in closed hearings at Harare magistrates' court earlier this month.  Journalists and family members have been barred from the hearings and the case has now been referred to the Harare high court, where the accused are expected to apply for bail today [6/14/2007].

Thousands 'facing starvation'.  A poor harvest combined with the economic crisis will leave more than a third of Zimbabwe's population in need of food assistance by early next year, according to the UN.

Zimbabwe targets 25% inflation by year-end.  Zimbabwe's government has promised to reduce monthly inflation to below 25% from the current 100% by year-end after signing a price and wage protocol with business and labour to halt a deep recession.

How I raped and tortured for Mugabe.  [A man named] Washington was a member of the secret police who committed unspeakable crimes on behalf of the African dictator.  He escaped — but continues to be tormented by what he did.

Mugabe stripped of degree by Edinburgh.  President Mugabe of Zimbabwe has become the first international figure to be stripped of an honorary degree by a British university.  The Edinburgh University Senate decided at a special meeting yesterday to withdraw the degree it awarded to Mr Mugabe in 1984 for services to education in Africa.  A letter will be written to him, asking that the degree be returned.

Mugabe forces on 'high alert'.  President Robert Mugabe has urged Zimbabwe's security forces to remain on high alert to thwart attempts to topple his government by the opposition and his Western foes, official media reported today.

Zimbabwe riot police raid opposition headquarters, arrest dozens of activists.  Riot police in Zimbabwe raided the headquarters of the main opposition party Saturday and arrested dozens of supporters, a spokesman said.  Nelson Chamisa said close to 200 supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change were seized in the raid on the party's headquarters in central Harare.

Zimbabwe to bond university students, radio report says.  Zimbabwe's top university students could be forced into the civil service and banned from emigrating in a new scheme designed to stop penniless professionals escaping the country, it was reported Sunday.

Zimbabwe's inflation rises to 3,714 percent in April.  Zimbabwe's annual inflation surged to 3,714 percent in April, ahead of a new pricing and incomes law approved by President Robert Mugabe in a fresh bid to rein in the inflation spiral.

Zimbabwe short of bread and flour.  Zimbabwe's agricultural sector has been in decline since the government's chaotic seizure of white-owned farms began seven years ago.  The government blames shortages of fuel and fertiliser, but disturbances are still reported on commercial farms.

UN denies helping Zimbabwe diamond smuggling.  The United Nations said today an independent probe was being conducted into whether UN vehicles were used to smuggle diamonds from a mine in Zimbabwe.  Spokeswoman Michele Montas confirmed that Larry Johnson, the deputy legal counsel, had received a letter alleging that at least one vehicle from the UN Development Fund (UNDP) was involved in the smuggling.

Why Africa won't rein in Mugabe.  When African leaders nominated Zimbabwe — a country with 2,200 percent inflation, looming famine, and authoritarian tendencies — to chair the UN Commission for Sustainable Development this past week, they may have been sending the world a message.  By giving Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe the yearlong chairmanship, Africa has signaled defiance of the West, which has attemptedto isolate Zimbabwe for alleged human rights abuses and economic mismanagement.

Mugabe ban to stop food aid.  Zimbabwe has cancelled the licences of all aid groups, accusing them of working with the opposition to oust President Robert Mugabe, sparking fears the ban could cut food supplies to hundreds of thousands of people in the nation dependent on handouts.

Fears of top UN role for Zimbabwe.  Western countries are concerned about the expected appointment of Zimbabwe to head a key UN body, the Commission on Sustainable Development.

Zimbabwe to chair major UN body.  Zimbabwe has been elected to head the UN's commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) despite strong objections from Western diplomats.  They had said Zimbabwe was unsuitable because of its human rights record and economic problems.  It is suffering food shortages and rampant inflation.  But Zimbabwe has dismissed such criticism, calling it an insult.

The Editor says...
How much do government officials know about "sustainable development" when their country has the world's highest inflation rate?

A Zimbabwean U.N.  One hundred ninety-two members to choose from, and what nation does the United Nations come up with to head its commission on "sustainable development."  Zimbabwe.  We kid you not.

Australia to fund Mugabe opponents.  As Zimbabwe criticised Australia's government for stopping the country's world champion cricketers from touring in September, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Canberra was determined to assist Zimbabweans battle abuses under Mugabe.  "Under the disastrous rule of the Mugabe regime, ordinary Zimbabweans have borne the brunt of famine and near total collapse brought on by the regime's destructive and callous policies," Downer said.

Fleeing Mugabe — no fence too high for border jumpers.  On the 27th anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence this week, hundreds of young Zimbabweans were scouring the 150-kilometre-long barbed-wire border fence with South Africa for holes through which to wriggle free of the hardship wrought by President Robert Mugabe. … Zimbabwe is haemorrhaging citizens, mostly the young and able-bodied, to its wealthier neighbour, as many as 49,000 a month, according to some estimates.

Zimbabweans 'must make a stand'.  His telephones are tapped.  His elderly mother has twice been subjected to terrifying visits from Zimbabwean state security officials.  There have been threats to withdraw his passport and his name appears on a death list of prominent opponents of President Robert Mugabe.  But Pius Ncube, the 60-year-old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo, remains defiantly unbowed as his country descends into chaos.  He has called for mass street protests to force Mr Mugabe from office.

US reveals its efforts to topple Mugabe regime.  The US admitted openly for the first time yesterday that it was actively working to undermine Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe.  Although officially Washington does not support regime change, a US state department report published yesterday acknowledged that it was supporting opposition politicians in the country and others critical of Mr Mugabe.

Shops drop out of Zimbabwe strike.  Approximately 75 percent of shops in Harare, Zimbabwe, are defying the country's trade unions by opening on the second day of a massive strike.  More than 80 percent of Zimbabweans live in poverty and many say they cannot afford to miss a day's work for the strike, which was organized to protest the economic troubles in the country, the BBC reported Wednesday.

Black market economy thrives in Zimbabwe.  The economic chaos engulfing Zimbabwe has turned even a mundane task such as renting a car into an unachievable dream for the average law-abiding citizen.  A car rental company on Saturday [4/7/2007] quoted a day rate of 690,000 Zimbabwe dollars to hire a basic model, plus a deposit of 25 million Zimbabwe dollars.  This is the equivalent of a staggering $2,760 per day — plus a deposit of $100,000 — at the official exchange rate, but only about $35 and $1250, respectively, on the black market.

'Mugabe has pushed us to stand up and fight'.  Despite his apprehension, the police officer was determined to expose a growing disenchantment within the ranks of Zimbabwe's police and suggested that many of its members might stand aside if the people rose up against their 83-year-old President.  That he was prepared to take such an enormous risk is a measure of how Mr. Mugabe's grip on power is weakening.  It also helps to explain why the Zimbabwean President wants to import 2,500 Angolan paramilitaries to shore up his regime.

Abducted and branded by Mugabe's hit squads.  The whipping and beating came first, but it is the branding of Leonard Dendera that has left the most visible scar.  As his attackers intended.

Angola sends 'Ninja' paramilitaries to bolster Mugabe's security forces.  About 2,500 Angolan paramilitary police, feared in their own country for their brutality, are to be deployed in Zimbabwe, raising concerns of an escalation in violence against those opposed to President Mugabe.  Kembo Mohadi, Zimbabwe's Home Affairs Minister, confirmed their imminent arrival, with 1,000 Angolans expected on April 1 and the rest in batches of 500.

The Editor asks...
What is Mugabe's connection to Angola?

Zimbabwean Opposition Leader Released.  Zimbabwe's main opposition leader was freed from several hours in police custody, but nine others detained in a raid were charged Thursday in what the government alleged was a terror campaign, opposition officials said.

Britain keeps up pressure on "vulnerable" Mugabe.  The government kept up pressure on Zimbabwe on Monday, saying it would work to isolate an increasingly vulnerable President Robert Mugabe and calling on African nations to confront him.  Mugabe's government has been widely condemned for violently suppressing a March 11 rally in which scores of Mugabe opponents were arrested and later appeared in court showing signs they had been beaten.

Edinburgh moves to strip Mugabe of degree.  Amid mounting international fury over the chaos and brutality Mugabe has unleashed on his people, Edinburgh University admits it is "reviewing" the 1984 doctorate for "services to education in Africa".

Mugabe hiring 'hit squads'.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is using "hit squads" to crack down on opposition politicians and activists, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in an interview published today.  Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Tsvangirai said:  "Instead of random beatings at police stations, (Mugabe) is now using hit squads, unidentified men, unidentified vehicles."  "But we know these are units of state agents that have been given this assignment."

Growing Condemnation for Mugabe's Regime.  The 1,700 percent a year inflation isn't only unconscionable, it is incomprehensible unless it is translated from economist-speak (inflation) into its grinding, ground-level reality: mass poverty and starvation in a nation that was once a regional breadbasket.  In March 2002, 55 "old" Zimbabwean dollars bought a U.S. dollar.  In March 2007, it takes 259,793 "old" Zimbabwean dollars to buy a buck.

Mugabe threatens diplomats with expulsion.  Zimbabwe's foreign minister summoned western diplomats to a meeting yesterday [3/10/2007] to warn them they would be expelled if they gave financial or diplomatic support to opposition activists.  Simbarashe Mumbengegwi said President Robert Mugabe would not hesitate to kick out any diplomats who interfered in Zimbabwe's domestic politics.

Mugabe critic is beaten up at airport to silence plea for world help.  The incident appeared to show that President Mugabe was determined not to let his critics leave the country and spread word of the current crackdown.  Four members of the Opposition were prevented from travelling abroad at the weekend.  Rashweat Mukundu, of the Save Zimbabwe coalition, said:  "This is an attempt in stopping the world from seeing what exactly the brutality is that was subjected on civic activists."

Zimbabwe is Africa's shame, Tutu declares.  Opponents of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe have vowed to drive him from office saying the state was already at "war" with its own people.

Zimbabwe:  A Tragedy in Progress.  Robert Mugabe, 83 years old, now in the twenty-seventh year of his reign as prime minister, then president of Zimbabwe, is once again maneuvering to extend his longevity in that office.  Cleverly, as Mugabe usually acts when he isn't simply brutal, the self-ordained "father of Zimbabwe" has had floated the idea of rescheduling to 2010 the presidential election due at the end of his term in 2008 in coordination with the parliamentary elections.

Mugabe tells critics to 'go hang'.  Mr. Mugabe added that he would continue to accept humanitarian aid from the West as long as it did not "indulge in our politics".  More than 80% of Zimbabweans are living in poverty, with chronic unemployment and inflation running at more than 1,700% — the highest in the world.

Protesters greet "tyrant" Mugabe on Namibia visit.  Rights activists in Namibia on Wednesday [2/28/2007] shouted "tyrant" and waved placards condemning Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms in a protest to mark the Zimbabwean leader's visit to the southwestern African nation.

Mugabe Gets Ready to Eat Cake While Fellow Zimbabweans Can't Find Bread on Shelves.  Zimbabwe's economy is so dire that bread vanished from store shelves across the country on Wednesday [2/21/2007] after bakeries shut down, saying government price controls were requiring them to sell loaves at a loss.  The price controls are supposed to shield consumers from the nation's rampant inflation, which now averages nearly 1,600 percent annually.

Where are the Africans to condemn this despot?  He shall eat cake.  The 83rd birthday festivities on Saturday [2/24/2007] of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will be a grand affair, with the finest food and drink, and lavish celebrations, in the manner to which the Most Consistent and Authentic Revolutionary Leader has become accustomed.

Zimbabwe's Inflation Rate Skyrockets.  Huge price increases for bread, electricity and meat drove Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate to 1,593.6 percent, the Central Statistical Office was quoted Tuesday [2/13/2007] as saying.  The figure for January 2007 represents a 312.5 percent increase on the December rate, the biggest leap in 17 months.  Economists have said there could be hourly price increases in stores by May or June, the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported last week.

France snubs Mugabe.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has not been invited to attend an Africa-France summit this week, marking a shift from the last meeting when he was welcomed, said the French presidency on Tuesday [2/13/2007].  Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, attended the last Africa-France summit hosted by France in 2003 despite criticism from Britain.

$1.2 million sought for Mugabe birthday.  Supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe have launched a drive to raise $1.2 million to celebrate his 83rd birthday next week amid the country's worst economic crisis, a Zimbabwean newspaper reported Monday [2/12/2007].

Economic free fall in Zimbabwe.  For close to seven years, Zimbabwe's economy and quality of life have been in slow, uninterrupted decline.  They are still declining this year, people there say, with one notable difference:  The pace is no longer so slow.  Indeed, Zimbabwe's economic descent has picked up so much speed that President Robert Mugabe, the nation's ruler for the past 27 years, is starting to lose support from parts of his own party.

Zimbabwe threatens white farmers.  Zimbabwe's national security minister has told the country's last remaining white farmers that they will be jailed if they refuse to abide by a deadline that passed over the weekend for them to leave their farms, according to a newspaper report on Monday [2/5/2007].

Zim hikes TV fees 2,500 times.  Watching television in Zimbabwe will soon be unaffordable for many after the authorities upped radio and TV licences by 2,500 times, said reports on Thursday [1/25/2007].  Radio listeners will now have to pay $200 a year up from eight US cents, reported the state-controlled Herald newspaper.  That is equivalent to nearly a month's salary for teachers, nurses and junior doctors, who are struggling to make ends meet in Zimbabwe's high-inflation environment.

Zimbabwe to let some white farmers keep land.  Zimbabwe will allow some white farmers to keep their land despite previously ordering them to turn over the properties to the state under a controversial land redistribution program, a government minister has said.

Mugabe blamed for justice collapse.  Zimbabwe's justice system, once considered a model for the rest of Africa, has collapsed after being starved of funds by President Robert Mugabe's government, one of the country's most senior judges has claimed.  In an unprecedented attack on the government by the judiciary, Judge Rita Makarau told an audience of officials of the ruling Zanu-PF and diplomats that the justice system was so corrupt it undermined the country's democracy.

Mugabe poised to take over goldmines.  About 20,000 miners have been arrested in police raids across Zimbabwe.  Their detention, in one of the largest police actions in the country's recent history, has left thousands of families without any support at a time of rampant inflation and a desperate shortage of maize meal, the staple food.

Massive emerald rush in Zim.  At least 3,000 people have joined a new rush for emeralds in eastern Zimbabwe, a few months after diamonds were discovered in the area, it was reported on Friday [1/5/2007].  In July, villagers in impoverished Marange district discovered diamonds and sparked a massive diamond rush, which brought untold wealth to dozens of previously-poor households.

Millions missing, but UN ignores Zimbabwe's quiet genocide.  Suffer the little children is a phrase never far from your mind in today's Zimbabwe.  The horde of painfully thin street kids milling around you at traffic lights is almost the least of it:  in a population now down to 11 million or less, there are an estimated 1.3 million orphans.  Go to one of the overflowing cemeteries in Bulawayo or Beit Bridge, and you are struck by the long lines of tiny graves for babies and toddlers.  Hyena attacks on humans, previously unheard of, are increasingly common.

Mugabe makes life a misery in Zimbabwe.  [R.W.] Johnson reports on how a once prosperous African nation is reduced to a wreck, where starvation and brutality are the norm and the state treats ordinary people as its enemy.  Millions have fled Zimbabwe, or died from hunger, disease and violence.  Life expectancy is barely half what it was 15 years ago, and the economy has shrunk by 40 percent this century.  And it is all the work of dictator Robert Mugabe and his henchmen….

Mugabe's party resists bid to extend his rule.  Despite claims by Mugabe to the contrary, the Zanu-PF conference held on 15-17 December failed to endorse the veteran leader's proposal to lengthen his rule from 2008 to 2010.  The Zanu-PF chairman, John Nkomo, confirmed that the conference did not pass the measure, referring it instead to the party's central committee.

Mugabe consolidates power, but economy seen doomed.  Embattled President Robert Mugabe has consolidated his grip on power with support from his party to extend his rule by two years to 2010, but analysts say this will also delay the recovery of Zimbabwe's crumbling economy.

Zimbabwe Leader:  Dissent to Be Crushed.  President Robert Mugabe said Wednesday [12/20/2006] his government will not tolerate dissent created "under the guise of freedom of expression."  Mugabe, in his annual state of the nation address to parliament, said law enforcement agencies will continue to crush dissent in the troubled southern African nation.

Desperate Mugabe allows white farmers to come back.  President Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe, which has mounted a six-year campaign to seize white-owned farms, is beginning to allow some white farmers to return to their land as the country faces starvation and economic collapse.

Many on the brink of starvation in embattled country.  A few miles south of the empty luxury hotels in this once-dazzling tourist spot, dozens of gaunt young men survive by scavenging food from the town dump.  Allan Sibanda, 23, has been coming here on and off for the past five years, scuffling with baboons and vultures for the least-rotten scraps.  Since mid-summer, garbage has been his sole source of food, he said.

British tycoon seizes TV crew in battle over Mugabe film.  British property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten had a Channel 4 film crew put under house arrest in Zimbabwe when he discovered that they intended to make a documentary critical of Robert Mugabe.  Hoogstraten, who owns a vast estate and other businesses in Zimbabwe, told reporters he had arranged press accreditation for the crew in return for an assurance it would be positive about the Harare regime.

White Zim farmers get leases.  Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe issued on Thursday [11/09/2006] long-term leases to land, which had been confiscated from white farmers, warning the former owners not to expect government compensation.

Fleeing Mugabe:  Crossing the Limpopo.  Somewhere out there is Zimbabwe's border with South Africa.  This trodden earth is now being called Africa's Rio Grande as thousands of impoverished Zimbabweans flee the meltdown of their country and seek illegal entry to the promised land.  It is a frontier of renegade soldiers, human traffickers, embattled farmers, crocodiles and leopards.

This is what happens when you defy the Zimbabwe Government.  The beating stopped as the sun began to go down.  After two-and-a-half hours, the fourteen men and one woman held at Matapi police station in Mbare township, Harare, had suffered five fractured arms, seven hand fractures, two sets of ruptured eardrums, fifteen cases of severe buttock injuries, deep soft-tissue bruising all over, and open lacerations.

U.N. envoy urges Mugabe to act on Zimbabwe food.  U.N. Special Envoy James Morris on Monday [12/11/2006] told Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe it was important to ensure food security if the country's battered economy was to rebound from a deepening recession.

Mugabe feted as nation fails.  Zimbabwe has the highest inflation and lowest life expectancy in the world, not to mention the highest percentage of orphans.  So desperate is the shortage of food that President Robert Mugabe's own guards have been spotted shooting squirrels in Harare's Botanical Gardens. However, Mugabe, 82, may be rewarded by being made president for life at his party's annual conference this week.

Coal-rich Zimbabwe faces acute shortages.  Drastic coal shortages despite massive natural deposits have had a ripple effect throughout Zimbabwe's economy and ruined a deal to renovate the country's biggest steelworks, the government has acknowledged.

'Let Mugabe stay in power'.  Forcing President Robert Mugabe out of power could compound Zimbabwe's political crisis and even lead to civil war, said Mozambique's respected former president Joaquim Chissano on Monday [9/18/2006].

The $100,000 note that won't buy a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe.  The 100,000 Zimbabwean dollar note which went into circulation this week was officially worth just over 50p.  Yesterday [6/6/2006] on Zimbabwe's burgeoning black markets it was valued at about 16p.  In a country stricken by 1,000 percent inflation, the world's worst, the new note will not even buy a loaf of bread.

Unionists deserved beating, says Mugabe.  Zimbabwean trade union leaders who say they were severely assaulted by police after trying to stage a protest over wages had defied authority and deserved the beating, President Robert Mugabe has said.  A Harare magistrate has ordered a probe into charges that a dozen leaders of the main Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were tortured and "excessively and brutally" assaulted in detention after police stopped their September 13 demonstration.

Outcry from opposition as Mugabe gives himself extra time in power.  President Robert Mugabe sought to extend his rule for another four years yesterday when his regime announced that Zimbabwe's next presidential election will be postponed.  Mr Mugabe's present term of office ends in 2008.  But the 82-year-old leader, who won a violent and widely condemned presidential election four years ago, is about to rewrite the constitution and give himself the option of staying in power beyond this limit.

Leading Playwright Arrested.  Artists, like journalists, civil activists, judges, and farmers are being persecuted by a government that has branded any dissenting voices as enemies of the state.  Laws have been passed to restrict the freedom of information, association, and expression.  Zimbabweans are slowly being hounded into submission, subjected to unbridled fear, violence, and punitive laws.  Plans are underway to pass a law to legalize wiretapping and eavesdropping, as well as sanctioning government monitoring of all electronic and postal mail.

Freedom of Expression Under Attack.  Zimbabwe enjoys the unenviable honor of having the highest rate of inflation — nearly 1300 percent — for country not at war.  Unemployment is at 80 percent and threadbare measures have failed to restore the country's economic fortunes.  The press has been watching and writing, much to the chagrin and annoyance of the government.  But to anyone reading and listening to the sanitized news as fawningly portrayed by the government news agencies, all is well in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe's Term Creates Zimbabwe Divisions.  Mugabe has been president since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980.  Zimbabwe suffers crippling unemployment, ranks among the lowest nations in life expectancy, and has a 1,090 percent annual inflation rate, the highest in the world.  There are acute shortages of gasoline, hard currency, food and essential imports.

Meet Mugabe's Victims.  Many wonder why Zimbabwe has not experienced an armed revolt under Mugabe.  One hears the complaint, especially among blacks in the region, that Zimbabwean blacks are too docile, too kind, too respectful of authority for their own good.  "The people are resigned," a Zimbabwean journalist told me.  But there are other reasons a coup — at least a coup emanating from the military or security forces — is unlikely.  One is the lingering awe for Mugabe as liberation leader that some still no doubt feel.  The most acute reason, however, is that any dissent within the security forces, even from low-ranking officers, is met with a strong show of force.

Zimbabwe:  Rate Cut Sparks ZSE Orgy.  The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) raced to new peaks this week on the back of Monday's huge interest rate cut and easier liquidity conditions.  The ZSE's benchmark industrial index closed at a rebased 137,266.79 points yesterday [8/2/2006], up 15.91 percent on the previous day and an astonishing 56 percent since Friday as investors predictably sought sanctuary from a raft of monetary measures announced by central bank governor Gideon Gono on Monday.

Zimbabwe is 'as bad as it can get'.  Living conditions have worsened in Zimbabwe, where most of the 700,000 people who lost homes or businesses in mass evictions last year were still struggling to find shelter, a United Nations housing expert said today [6/2/2006].  Miloon Kothari, the UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, said most of those displaced by President Robert Mugabe's May 2005 eviction campaign remained homeless, in resettlement camps or were living without food, safe water or sanitation.

Zimbabwe debates 'oppressive' bugging laws.  Proposed telecoms interception laws in Zimbabwe have created a furore with the government apparently awarding itself unlimited snooping powers.

Urban Renewal, Mugabe Style:  Bulldozing your political enemies.  Mugabe claimed the operation was a revolutionary new method of urban renewal.  Families had 30 minutes' warning before their homes were bulldozed.  He labeled the campaign "a vigorous clean-up campaign to restore sanity," which, if Mugabe's own erratic behavior over the past year is any sign, has yet to show results.

Not all seized farms are being used according to Mugabe.  Only 40 percent of the 25-million acres of land seized from whites since February 2000 has been taken over by black farmers, President Robert Mugabe was quoted as saying on Friday [7/21/2006].

Zimbabwe eyes plan to spy on its own citizens.  Times are hard and getting harder in Zimbabwe, where people too proud to cry about hunger, joblessness and misrule could soon find it too dangerous to joke about them.  Parliament plans to debate proposals next month to empower the secret police to eavesdrop on mail, e-mail and phones without any court approval. … A package of other security and media laws has done away with freedom of press and speech.  People cannot protest against the government or hold political gatherings without prior police approval.  Clergymen have been arrested for holding unauthorized prayer vigils.

Zim set for 'dramatic recovery'.  Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by more than a third during a recession which has lasted for eight years, with inflation running at a world record of nearly 1,200% and unemployment estimated at about 70%.

Government spooks run the economy.  In an implicit recognition of the deteriorating economic crisis, government has established emergency sub-committees under the shadowy Cuban-style Zimbabwe National Security Council to run the economy as part of measures to arrest a worsening meltdown.

She stood up to Mugabe — but it was her party that did this.  As she lay in a Harare hospital recovering from severe head injuries and surgery on a broken arm yesterday [7/4/2006], Trudy Stevenson was still amazed that she had lived to tell her story.

Mugabe seizes black farms to drive his maize economy.  Lot Dube's crops of onions, tomatoes and sweet potatoes were growing nicely when soldiers marched into Insiza district, in the south of the country, set up camp and declared that all crops other than maize would be destroyed. … Just for amusement, they forced him to pick stones off his field, while neighbouring farmers — some of them women — who refused to uproot their own vegetables and fruit trees were beaten until they submitted.

Mugabe

Pictures show destruction of Zimbabwe clearances.  Human Rights Group Amnesty International released satellite images today [5/31/2006] showing the obliteration of a large community during last year's settlement clearances in Zimbabwe that made some 700,000 people homeless.  The particularly graphic before and after shots show the destruction of the Porta Farm settlement 20 km west of Harare that was until last year home to up to 10,000 people.

Zimbabweans have the 'shortest lives'.  Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live until 40, a new UN report says.  Zimbabwe's women have an average life expectancy of 34 years and men on average do not live past 37, it said.  The World Health Organisation report said women's life expectancy had fallen by two years in the last 12 months.

Desperate mothers throw away 20 babies a week as Zimbabwe starves.  The dumping of babies, along with what doctors describe as a "dramatic" increase in malnourished children in city hospitals, is the most shocking illustration of the economic collapse of a country that was once the breadbasket of southern Africa.

US renews Zimbabwe sanctions.  US President George Bush has extended by one year a series of sanctions against Zimbabwe officials, including President Robert Mugabe, deemed to be undermining democracy in that country.

Zim wants foreign currency.  All foreigners seeking treatment in Zimbabwe's troubled state-run hospitals must now pay their fees in foreign currency.

Blair brands Zim a 'disgrace'.  British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a strongly-worded attack on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday [4/19/2006], calling his regime a "disgrace" that had brought the country to its knees.

How Bad Is Inflation in Zimbabwe?  At a supermarket near the center of this tatterdemalion capital, toilet paper costs $417.  No, not per roll.  Four hundred seventeen Zimbabwean dollars is the value of a single two-ply sheet.  A roll costs $145,750 — in American currency, about 69 cents.

There are 50,000 whites left in Zimbabwe.  Fewer than 50,000 whites remain in Zimbabwe, down from a peak of 293,000 under white rule, according to an analysis of the most recent census published in a state-run newspaper on Monday [8/22/2005].

China and Zimbabwe love affair turns sour.  As China's President Hu Jintao flies in to Seattle today [4/19/2006], American critics are looking sharply at Beijing's cosy relationships with African leaders.  Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation wrote in The Weekly Standard that China was "shoring up some of Africa's most odious regimes".

As Zimbabwe starves, Mugabe followers plan to eat cake.  Robert Mugabe is 82 today, and the children of the 21st of February Movement are getting ready to party with a jamboree of cakes and fizzy drinks.

Zim says aid agencies must stop crop forecasts.  Zimbabwe's government has said aid agencies do not have permission to compile food production forecasts after some organisations projected the country faced a huge grain deficit, local reports said on Wednesday [4/12/2006].

No Coke is a sign of Zimbabwe's tough times.  For the first time in at least 40 years, supplies of Coca-Cola dried up Wednesday, another sign of economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where people suffer acute bread shortages and farmers warn of worse to come.

Sucking up to Mugabe:  Robert Mugabe was on typically outrageous form last week.  Invited by the United Nations on a jolly to attend the 60th anniversary of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, the Zimbabwean president laid into his old foes. … Quite what the UN was doing inviting this corrupt and vile man to attend the event is beyond comprehension.  For him to use the occasion to blame others for creating hunger is beyond parody.

The Politically Correct Ethnic Cleansing of White Farmers in Zimbabwe:  CNN, which gave us minute-by-minute emotional reports when it thought Albanians were being "ethnically cleansed" in 1999, has not considered ethnic cleansing of Whites in Zimbabwe newsworthy.  [They] did not report that Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace Mugabe, demanded, and got, the keys to a $100 million, 27-room mansion.

Zimbabwe Hails Reprieve As Victory Over "Colonialism":  The Zimbabwe government has greeted with triumph news that it won't be punished by the Commonwealth for flawed elections that returned President Robert Mugabe to power.

"Race Cleansing" in Zimbabwe:  UN Sees No Evil.  The world condemned White Apartheid in South Africa.  International boycotts were organized against South African gold, products and stocks.  But Robert Mugabe is black and the world is silent.  Where is the United Nations?  Where is the indictment of Mugabe before the new International Criminal Court?  Where are the peace keeping missions?  Where is the outcry for economic sanctions?  Where are the boycotts?

Zimbabwe reparations:  Shakespeare Maya, Zimbabwe's leader of the opposition National Alliance for Good Governance, opined, "This land was stolen from our ancestors, and it follows that those who hold it now are thieves."  It's this vision that has prompted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to target 95 percent of white-owned farms for redistribution.

Mugabe to ask whites back in land grab U-turn.  President Robert Mugabe has begun to reverse his "insane" land grab and offer some white farmers the chance to lease back their holdings in Zimbabwe.  With the fastest shrinking economy in the world, Mr. Mugabe has had to backtrack on six years of chaos and his own determination to rid the country of all white farmers.

'White farmers are irrelevant'.  The government on Friday [2/10/2006] described Zimbabwe's remaining white farmers as unrepentant and irrelevant, and rejected their pleas for a halt to land seizures.

Zim cuts army by 25%.  Zimbabwe has cut its army by 25% in recent years, trimming the strength of one of the key bulwarks of President Robert Mugabe's long rule, say reports on Thursday [2/9/2006]. … There had recently been signs that the military was growing concerned over the lack of progress in resolving Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis.  The country had food shortages, triple-digit inflation and a jobless rate above 70%.

Mugabe lays off 10,000 soldiers.  Zimbabwe says a lack of enemies is behind its decision to fire 10,000 soldiers, or a quarter of its army, but insiders say fear of a coup by junior officers is behind the bloodletting.

Mrs. Mugabe is no Saint, Either.  Grace, Zimbabwe's first lady, nicknamed the "first shopper" is said to have spent £200m just on the fuel for shopping trips abroad in her private jet.  Asked how she justified such extravagance while her people starved, she replied:  "I have very narrow feet, so I wear only Ferragamo."  She met Mugabe, 40 years her senior, when he was married to his first wife, Sally.  No one knows what happened to Grace's first husband and child.

Mugabe's minions are living in terror.  I believe that the general paranoia among members of the Zanu regime and its armed forces is because they live with fear, if not outright terror, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 52 weeks a year.  This is bound to have an adverse effect upon their health and mental stability.

Delusionary, insulting liberals. The sheer audacity and ignorance of those statements is breathtaking, to say nothing of its elitism.  Let see … a productive white family, which considers itself "African," is forced to "flee" their home country because a black is elected president.  But, as long as power and land are returned to blacks, everything is OK.

Zimbabwe Set to Grab Fertiliser Companies.  The Zimbabwean government is taking over three private fertiliser companies, a move many observers say is tantamount to nationalisation.

The Average Zimbabwean lives to 33.  Zimbabwe's political and economic turmoil has dealt a crippling blow to the health sector, with life expectancy plummeting by 30 years and an HIV/Aids timebomb threatening to explode, according to a health advocacy.  Zimbabweans can now only expect to live to 33 years, 30 years less than in 1998.

Mugabe takes a swipe at Zimbabwe's last white farmers.  Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe lashed out Saturday [12/10/2005] at the few remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe at the end of a three-day ruling party conference.  Mugabe said Zimbabwe had to look after its own people's interests first before those of white people.

Angry Mugabe tells US ambassador to "go to hell".  President Robert Mugabe told the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe to "go to hell" on Tuesday [11/8/2005], after the envoy blamed the country's economic and political crisis on mismanagement and corrupt rule.

Zimbabweans Form Lines for Food, Not Votes.  Embattled Zimbabweans showed little enthusiasm Saturday [11/26/2005] for a new Senate, forming longer lines in some areas to buy scarce food supplies than to vote for a body criticized as a costly ploy to strengthen President Robert Mugabe's grip on power.

Zimbabwe to Process Newly Found Uranium.  President Robert Mugabe has said Zimbabwe will process recently discovered uranium deposits in order to resolve its chronic electrical power shortage, state radio said Sunday [11/20/2005].

Patients turned away:  Zimbabwe's hospitals can't afford medicine, equipment.  More than 23% of Zimbabweans are believed to carry HIV, with at least 3,000 AIDS-related deaths a week.

Zimbabwe 'unable to feed troops'.  The army in Zimbabwe is no longer able to feed all its soldiers, military analysts in southern Africa have said.  The Institute for Security Studies, based in South Africa, told the BBC that the army had run out of money to buy adequate daily rations.

UN wants $30 million for homeless in Zimbabwe.  The United Nations appealed for nearly $30 million in humanitarian supplies for the most vulnerable people evicted from urban slums in Zimbabwe, according to a letter circulated on Tuesday [9/27/2005].

War on poverty:
Zimbabwe arrests 22,000 in slums.  Zimbabwe police have arrested more than 22,000 people as a fierce blitz on illegal stores and shantytowns gathers pace, sending homeless people fleeing for the countryside, the state Herald newspaper said Wednesday [6/1/2005].

Mugabe plays the great leader as he bulldozes thousands of homes.  Jobs are hard to come by after six years of economic collapse that has led to 80 percent unemployment.

Silent diplomacy can't stop Mugabe's mission to destroy homes and lives.  In the maze of narrow streets of Makokoba, Bulawayo's oldest township, I see armed police, in riot gear and vivid blue helmets, intimidating families who have been ordered to knock down their own homes. … At the largest store the shelves have been empty for weeks of staples such as flour, cooking oil and soap.

Leo Mugabe nabbed for smuggling flour.  Robert Mugabe's nephew Leo Mugabe was arrested Tuesday [10/18/2005] on allegations of smuggling scarce flour to neighbouring Mozambique.  The Makonde North legislator exported 600 bags of flour worth a staggering Z$500 billion (US$7m).  With the country having to endure chronic bread shortages, questions are being asked on how he managed to get 30 tonnes of a controlled product across the border.

Mugabe gives farms to military.  About 6000 members of the Zimbabwean military are to receive plots of land under the government's land reform program, President Robert Mugabe said.

Zimbabwe is destroying urban vegetable gardens.  Zimbabwe police have extended a demolition campaign targeting the homes and livelihoods of the urban poor to the vegetable gardens they rely on for food, saying the crops planted on vacant lots are damaging the environment.

Mass panic grips Zimbabwe banks.  Hundreds of Zimbabweans have besieged several new banks to withdraw their money amid rumours they are going bust.

Ruin By Design.  Atrocities under Mugabe are nothing new.  Since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, Mugabe has ruled with what is apparently the prime directive of remaining in power, whatever the cost.

Zimbabwe comes full circle:  [Robert] Mugabe has created a disaster for both black and white Zimbabweans in the name of reparations and land redistribution.  He has outdone the injustices of Cecil Rhodes, who by the way, was an avowed racist.  Members of his ZANU-PF party have torched at least 10 million acres of cropland and prevented millions of others from being farmed.  Per capita income, $380 a year, is about half of what it was just five years earlier.  On top of that, inflation has reached 125% and is climbing.

Mugabe's regime admits Zimbabwe's people are starving.  The Robert Mugabe regime, which recently declared that all its people were "extremely happy" and did not need any foreign aid, has made a sudden U-turn and admitted it needs to feed 2.2 million starving citizens.

Anti-intellectualism among the academic elite.  Jon Entine, in his book "Taboo:  Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports And Why We're Afraid to Talk About It" (1999), says, "All of the 32 finalists in the last four Olympic men's 100-meter races are of West African descent."  The probability of such an outcome by chance is all but zero.  The genetic physiological and biomechanical characteristics that cause blacks to excel in some sports — basketball, football and track — spell disaster for those who have aspirations to be Olympic-class swimmers.  Entine says, "No African American has ever qualified for the U.S. Olympic swim or dive team.

With Zimbabwe's health sector in ruins, witchdoctors are busy.  The collapsing health sector in Zimbabwe, once among the best in Africa, is forcing thousands of the sick and elderly to seek out traditional healers or "witchdoctors" for treatment, human rights groups say.

Mugabe arrests Zimbabwe opposition leader.  Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader was arrested today [06/02/2003], as the authorities sought to crush a week of anti-government demonstrations and strikes.

Dragged off and deported:  The Guardian's Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was deported last night even though three separate court orders were made prohibiting his expulsion.  After spending 23 years reporting on the country, Meldrum was manhandled into a car outside the offices of Zimbabwe's immigration service, driven to the airport and put on a plane to London.

Zimbabwe's Coming Holocaust:  Six Million Targeted for Extinction by Starvation:  The administrative secretary of the ruling ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe, Didymus Mutasa, has declared that the country would be better off with 6 million of its citizens dead.  Now the government is distributing food only to Shona speakers, condemning the populations who voted for the MDC to death by starvation.

Mugabe's Final Solution:  President Mugabe is terminating whites in Zimbabwe.  He is illegally seizing their farms and encouraging his thugs to use beatings, murder and rape to terrorize whites into acquiescence.  Mugabe's land theft doesn't even have the cover of redistribution.  All news reports say the farms are being taken by Mugabe, his family members and top cronies.

Mugabe's ethnic cleansing campaign:  Mugabe is little more than a thug who has been trying to save his own political hide by blaming his nation's problems on those whites who stayed on after he came to power.

Mugabe men "use rape as revenge":  Hundreds of girls as young as 12 are being raped or forcibly kept as concubines in rural Zimbabwe by President Robert Mugabe's youth militia as part of a campaign that human-rights lawyers have branded "systematic political cleansing" of the population.

Blacks take over farms as whites flee police:  At least 20 white farmers were rounded up and flung into police cells across Zimbabwe as hundreds of new black farmers, the beneficiaries of recently-appropriated white-owned land, celebrated their new opportunities.

White Farmers Pack Up and Leave Homes in Zimbabwe:  "Ethnic cleansing is exactly what it is.  There's no other term for it."

White-farm land-grab set for Namibia:  192 properties listed for Zimbabwean-style confiscation.

Zimbabwe Leader Shrugs Off Criticism From "White" West:  Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has accused "white" Western countries of leading a racist campaign to undermine the sovereignty of the troubled southern African nation.

Mugabe jails whites staying on farms:  Zimbabwean police arrested and imprisoned 47 white farmers as President Robert Mugabe stepped up his agricultural-redistribution program and declared all-out war against farmers refusing to leave their land.

Can Blacks Govern?  Zimbabwe, formerly the very prosperous country of Rhodesia, has been in a destructive tailspin since the English colonials turned the country over to the black locals in the late sixties.  It is now in the final stages of complete social and economic collapse.  The killing of the remaining white settlers, who built the country and are the country's only source of wealth, is in process, condoned by the government leaders.

Media abandon Zimbabweans:  Although conditions in Zimbabwe continue to deteriorate — with ongoing seizures of white-owned farms, state-sanctioned murder and harassment, and a dangerous famine — the misery has failed to gain the attention of the establishment Western media, leaving many inside the nation feeling hopeless and abandoned.

Powell Heckled at Earth Summit:  Mr. Powell brought howls of protest when he said Zimbabwe had brought its population to the brink of starvation with its controversial land reform policies.

Nation of Islam Leader Backs Zimbabwe Land Campaign:  U.S. radical black leader Louis Farrakhan, on a three-day visit to Zimbabwe, gave his backing to President Robert Mugabe's land seizure campaign.



Similar things brewing in South Africa?

Zimbabwe-style land grab in South Africa?  The mantra heard in the malls, shops, churches and pubs around South Africa goes like this:  "What's happening in Zimbabwe can't happen here."  Unfortunately for freedom-loving South Africans, it has indeed begun — the taking by force of white-owned farmland by blacks.

'We will seize white farms'.  [The South African] Government has been quick to dismiss comparisons with Zimbabwe, where a similar campaign was marked by violence and has been blamed for the economic meltdown of the country.

I'm no Mugabe, but I have sympathy for what he has done, says Zuma.  Jacob Zuma, South Africa's former deputy president and the man many predict will succeed Thabo Mbeki as president, has dismissed fears that he is a new Robert Mugabe in the making — a populist who will pander to the mob, push white farmers off the land and introduce hard-line, Left-wing economic policies.

South Africa lifespan down to 51.  Life expectancy in South Africa is down to 51, after being 64 years in 1990.  South Africa has the world's second heaviest caseload of HIV/Aids, behind India, and the highest proportion of population infected with the disease.



"Where evil men would seek to perpetuate an unjust status quo, good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice."


– Martin Luther King Jr.  


Other Resources:

Rhodesians Worldwide Magazine was started 22 years ago by Geoff Hill in Australia and it quickly grew into a substantial contact magazine aimed at the Rhodesian Diaspora.

The Zimbabwe Situation news site.

The Media Monitoring Project (Zimbabwe)  is an independent Trust that works to promote freedom of expression and responsible journalism in Zimbabwe.  It aims to achieve this through monitoring and analysis of the news and current affairs output on domestic radio and television, and in the print media.  Its findings are made public through the publication of weekly media updates.  [Note:  Very sluggish web site.  Probably undergoing denial-of-service (or other) attack by the Zimbabwe government.]

DX Listening Digest.  Very often when there is a communications blackout in some part of the world, as there is in Zimbabwe, the best way to get fresh information is through shortwave radio.  One of the best sources of information about what can be heard (or has been heard recently) on the shortwave bands is the DX Listening Digest.

More Zimbabwe news items.

Free Zimbabwe:  A world wide effort to promote genuine democracy in the Southern African nation of Zimbabwe.  Freedom loving Zimbabweans are under attack by a desperate tyrant who will stop at nothing to retain control of his corrupt regime.  It is time for the world to raise our voices and lend our support for true democracy in Zimbabwe.

Rhodesian Information and Links Page.

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Updated March 9, 2024.

©2024 by Andrew K. Dart