Debate and Commentary
HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe: whose side is the government on?
Sokwanele - 02 December 2005 It’s World AIDS day today, and Zimbabweans can enjoy a rare piece of encouraging news. This year’s AIDS epidemic update report, released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), claims that there is evidence for the first time that prevention programmes initiated are finally helping to bring down HIV prevalence in some countries, and Zimbabwe is one of the countries mentioned.
Read MoreDeath toll mounts for Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina victims
Sokwanele - 25 Nov 2005 If anyone thought for a moment that the suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina ("Sweep away the filth") was over, or had abated, they would be seriously mistaken. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Read MoreCan Zimbabwe become Africa's Cuba
Mukoma Ngugi 7 November 2005 Since my return from Zimbabwe, I have found that amongst my colleagues, I am expected to either applaud or denounce Mugabe’s Zimbabwe upon their asking what I found. Any sign of hesitation has been dooming and fatal. No matter who is asking the question, my hesitation seems to affirm the position he or she brought to the table. Since for the most part no one has let me tell them what it is I think I found, I offer them this essay as an elaboration of that hesitation with the hope that we can re-open up a dialogue that does right by Zimbabwe.
Download DocumentThe Loss of Property Rights and the Collapse of Zimbabwe
Craig Richardson (Cato Journal) - Fall 2005 What in the world happened to Zimbabwe? Although the country certainly had its share of difficulties during the first 25 years since independence in 1980, it largely dodged the famines, civil strife, and grossly mismanaged government policies so common in other sub-Saharan African countries. Through the 1980s, its annual real GDP growth averaged over 5 percent, and unlike other African countries agricultural yields were large enough to allow the country to export grain. In the following decade, economic growth slowed, and government policies were less than efficient, but Zimbabwe still managed to grow an average of 4.3 percent, in real terms. The government also offered free education and relatively good access to medical care. Population growth was slowing, and foreign direct investment increasing. With rich mineral assets, an educated workforce, and beautiful natural wonders, Zimbabwe appeared to have the best chance to be an African success story.
Download DocumentVorster’s betrayal is lesson for Mbeki
As the political, economic, and social situation in Zimbabwe continues to worsen, SA’ relationship with the Mugabe regime is doing increasing damage to the bold and hopeful initiatives towards African stability and development that our government, and our president in particular, have undertaken. We need leadership that is prepared to accept that even the parties of liberation can lose elections and fall from power.
Read MoreThe Way Forward is Clear
Welshman Ncube, MDC - 25 September 2005 On September 11 the MDC celebrated its sixth anniversary. This milestone represents a remarkable achievement considering the democratic regression of Zimbabwe’s legislative and political environment since the MDC was formed. It should also serve as a timely reminder to Zanu PF that the MDC’s presence on the political landscape is not transient but permanent.
Read MoreZimbabwe's Constitutional Reforms: A Missed Opportunity and a Recipe for Disaster
11 September 2005
Read MoreFolk tales: a creative device
Chenjerai Hove - 12 August 2005 I remember many years ago being accused of being too critical of President Robert Mugabe’s leadership style and economic and social policies. The usual accusation was: you are being too harsh with this government. If Mugabe goes, there is no one intelligent enough to take over, the arguments went. To which I responded that there were over twelve million Zimbabweans capable of running the country since that is the only job for which one does not need any formal qualifications.
Read MoreWith Mugabe, adjusting your diplomatic volume has no effect
Tim Cohen - 29 July 2005 WHAT should SA do about Zimbabwe? It is pretty well obvious that this is the most intractable issue of regional politics today.
Read MoreMan-made tsunami engulfs urban poor
IRIN Special Report - 21 July 2005 The physical evidence of the scale of destruction in Zimbabwe's informal settlements is plain to see: row upon row of what were once the homes of the urban poor demolished by government bulldozers or the bare hands of the residents on the orders of the police.
Read MoreRebuild Zimbabwe from the bottom up - Norman Reynolds - 21 July 2005
Rebuild Zimbabwe from the bottom up - Norman Reynolds - 21 July 2005 WHEN a neighbouring government comes begging — having broken all the rules of international membership and turned against its people — for the means to keep its economy going and to feed its people, what does one do?
Read MoreFormer-Councillor Laban's Occasional Newsletter - 15 July 2005
A sometime bulletin of discussions, resolutions, events and happenings pertaining to Ward 7, Harare (Avondale, Alex Park, Strathaven, KG6 Barracks, etc.)
Read MoreAU likely to duck tough choices at summit - 01 July 2005
AVOIDING taking decisions and playing for time are often strategies that can have high costs, but are the only ones possible if there is no will and if divisions are not to be opened. At next week’s African Union (AU) summit in Sirte, Libya, any decision to condemn Zimbabwe for human rights abuses will be sidestepped.
Read MoreWhere is the Church? - Sokwanele - 30 June 2005
Robert Mugabe's purge of the poor, code-named "Operation Murambatsvina", which has cut a swathe of destruction across the country and displaced more than a million Zimbabwean's from their homes and workplaces, must rank as the greatest single terrorist act for which he is ultimately responsible after Gukurahundi - the brutal campaign of the mid 1980s led by the notorious Fifth Brigade which resulted in the slaughter of between 20,000 and 40,000 Matabele.
Read MoreNow it's a crime against humanity - Allister Sparks - 29 June 2005
When I interviewed President Thabo Mbeki in late 2002 for my book on the making of the new South Africa, Beyond the Miracle, the conversation turned edgy when I asked about his silence on the gathering crisis in Zimbabwe.
Read MoreOn becoming a Chinese Colony - Sokwanele - 21 June 2005
"We are a sovereign nation! We will never be a colony again!" This slogan drove ZANU PF's 2005 election campaign; and it was followed by a frenzied attack on Tony Blair and his treasonous accomplices of imperialism within Zimbabwe. The thousands of school children forced to listen to such rantings have never experienced being a colony and surely do not understand the concept of sovereignty. But it becomes increasingly apparent that few of those who shout from the rooftops about our much vaunted sovereignty understand it either. They do not understand that sovereignty in today's globalised community holds little meaning for many nations, and even less for a country with a collapsed economy. But even worse, as they boast disingenuously of Zimbabwe's sovereignty, they are busy selling what little remains of it to a different coloniser - the Chinese.
Read MoreUN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture - Sokwanele - 26 June 2005
It was on June 26, 1987 that the United Nation's Convention against Torture first came into force and in 1997, to highlight their plight, the UN General Assembly officially proclaimed June 26 as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Sadly only 130 of the 190 UN member states have so far ratified the Convention. Zimbabwe is one of those states which have not.
Read More'Operation Murambatsvina': An Overview and Summary - Sokwanele - 18 June 2005
On 25 May, Africa Day, the Government of Zimbabwe began an operation labelled "Operation Murambatsvina". While Government has translated this to mean "Operation Clean-up", the more literal translation of "murambatsvina" is "getting rid of the filth". The operation has continued throughout the month of June, and has affected virtually every town and rural business centre in the country.
Read MoreThe Zimbabwe Question - Andrew Alexander - 13 June 2005
“As Africa and China strategies are debated within the Bush administration, a key calculation will be whether a failed state in Africa is more threatening than a stable, Chinese-aligned country.” This is the opinion of Drew Thompson who is a China expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Although he was referring to Sudan, where the Chinese have made significant oil-related investments, the same question could be asked of Zimbabwe.
Read More"Quiet diplomacy in Zimbabwe: a case study of South Africa in Africa" - 23 May 2005
Paper presented at Wits by Tom Lodge
Read MoreDegrees in Violence - Sokwanele - 20 May 2005
It was Robert Mugabe himself who once famously boasted that he had many degrees in violence.
Read MoreMugabe looks east, turning his back on reality - 11 May 2005
CHINA’s recent supply of two MA60 planes, six fighter jet trainers to Zimbabwe, and sophisticated jamming and snooping equipment to its intelligence agency, has given President Robert Mugabe’s “look east policy” a dramatic impetus against a background of Harare’s isolation from the west.
Read MoreAgitator, Facilitator or Benefactor?: Assessing South Africa's Zimbabwe Policy - 21 April 2005
Greg Mills' (The Brenthurst Foundation) testimony to the House Committtee on International Relations, Sub-Committee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations - Washington DC
Read MoreZim elections expose Africa to ridicule - 21 April 2005
The upshot is that the South African government and SADC have seriously compromised their credibility in global eyes by rubber-stamping a process that even domestic observers within Zimbabwe have disputed
Read MoreThe Loss of Property Rights and the Collapse of Zimbabwe
Cato Journal, Vol 25 No. 3 (Fall 2005)
Download DocumentA sad year for press freedom in Zimbabwe - 06 January 2005
In its State of the Media report in Zimbabwe for 2004, the Media Institute of Southern Africa paints a frightening picture of the state of press freedom in the country. Not only have several independent newspapers been shut, and journalists arrested and harassed under a spate of new draconian laws, but the public is facing a barrage of propaganda in the absence of alternative media. A new Bill is also in the pipeline, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill, which allows for prison terms of 20 years for the publication, or communication of a statement prejudicial to the state. State repression, through legislation and intimidation has become a major issue as the country moves towards the March elections. The report also gives a detailed list of scores of journalists who have been attacked, beaten, banned, deported and harassed. (Full Media Institute statement on Legalbrief site, www.legalbrief.co.za)
Read MoreNGO Bill - the trap is set - 8 October 2004
A STORY is told of a man who set up a mousetrap (riva/isifu) to catch a troublesome rat that was ransacking his granary at will. When the rat discovered the trap he ran to cockerel to advise him to put it down.
Read MoreDialogue of the mute - 1 October 2004
THE Zimbabwean crisis has been raging on for over four years now, with various attempts at resolution having been tried at different levels to no avail.
Read MoreCounter invading ZANU PF turf (Part 2) – 22 January 2004
After fortifying its traditional support base as we saw last week, ZANU PF is now making some very interesting manoeuvres to try and win back the loyalty of the country’s intelligentsia and the urban electorate, which is the MDC’S traditional support base.
Read MoreSurvive together — or die alone – 22 January 2004
FRIENDS of mine are rushing off to the rural areas to secure for themselves plots of land where to grow crops to stave off hunger and starvation. These are professional media workers retrenched for political reasons or made redundant when their publications folded up in our shrinking economy.
Read MoreCounter invading ZANU PF territory – 15 January 2004
In the revolution of any nation or community of people, there are certain landmark historical processes and or events which any political leader can ignore at their own peril.
Read MoreBBC in depth on Zimbabwe.
The BBC has a series of background articles on land, elections, international relations.
Read MoreZimbabwe: Increased securitisation of the state?
ISS Situation Report, September 2005 by Chris Maroleng
Download DocumentThe Impact of "Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order" in Zimbabwe
Report released by Action Aid in combination with the Zimbabwe Peace Project and the Combine Harare Residents Association in August 2005
Download DocumentCrime of Poverty: Murambatsvina Part II
Solidarity Peace Trust report - October 2005
Download DocumentThe Senate Issue Was The Straw that Finally Broke the Camel's Back
MDC Press Statement 4th November 2005
Read MoreUNDERMINING OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS BY SOCIETY AT LARGE
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Press Statement
Read MoreThe Loss of Property Rights and the Collapse of Zimbabwe
Cato Journal, Vol 25 No. 3 (Fall 2005)
Download DocumentZimbabwe opposition party members seek gagging order against leader
Cape Times 05 December 2005
Read More