Xenophobia-hit Zimbabweans Saving Country’s Dead Economy

Two decades ago, Trynos Mahamba left Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom, but back home, he has changed the lives of his relatives. Since the day after he left, Mahamba (53) has been sending money home while Zimbabwe’s economy faltered amidst violent land seizures from commercial white farmers during Zimbabwe’s land reform programme.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/05/xenophobia-hit-zimbabweans-saving-countrys-dead-economy/

Zimbabwe’s Press Freedom, One Step Forward, Three Steps Backward

For international journalist Jeffery Moyo, doing his job could land him in prison if Zimbabwe authorities have their way. “Journalism is a crime in Zimbabwe, and the regime is reactive to independent journalism,” says Moyo, an international correspondent for the New York Times and the Inter Press Service (IPS).[related_articles]
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/05/zimbabwes-press-freedom-one-step-forward-three-steps-backward/

Zimbabwe Unsafe Roads Could Drive the Economy Around the Bend

When driving at night in Zimbabwe, watch out for a pair of eyes on the road and slow down. You may hit a giraffe inside a pothole. So goes an often-told joke.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/04/zimbabwe-unsafe-roads-drive-economy-around-bend/

Zimbabwe Elections Rekindle Voter Apathy Concerns

Activity in the streets of Zimbabwe’s second city is testimony to a thriving informal sector where thousands of people eke out a living selling all sorts of wares.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/03/zimbabwe-elections-rekindle-voter-apathy-concerns/

Zimbabwe Crackdown on NGOs Could Impact Election Observation

Zimbabwe is pressing ahead with a controversial bill that critics say seeks to criminalise the operations of nongovernmental organisations working in the country.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/03/zimbabwe-crackdown-ngos-impact-election-observation/

International Women’s Day, 2022
Women Lighting the Way in Off-Grid Zimbabwe

Electricity transmission lines run through Chiedza Murindo’s home in Murombedzi, a small town in Zvimba district in Mashonaland West province, but her house has no electricity. That is the harsh reality for much of Zimbabwe’s rural population, where only 13% of households live without power compared to 83% of urban households.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/03/international-womens-day-2022women-lighting-way-off-grid-zimbabwe/

The Dilemma of Zimbabwe’s Food Security Efforts

On January 10, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) arrested three men found with fertilizer worth about 130,000 US dollars.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/02/dilemma-zimbabwes-food-security-efforts/

Ecstasy as Zimbabwe’s Smallholder Farmers Secure European Pineapple Market

In her wildest dreams, smallholder farmer Sarudzai Sithole never imagined that her pineapples could someday stock the produce section of Europe’s finest supermarkets.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2022/01/ecstasy-zimbabwes-small-holder-farmers-secure-european-pineapple-market/

Zimbabwe’s High-Risk Cross-Border Trade

Thirty-six-year-old Thandiwe Mtshali* watched helplessly as her informal cross-border trading (ICBT) enterprise came to a grinding halt when the Zimbabwean authorities closed the border with South Africa as part of global efforts to stem the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/11/zimbabwes-high-risk-cross-border-trade/

Mounting Scramble for Coronavirus Vaccines in Zimbabwe

More than a month ago, she lost her parents, brother, and wife, to the coronavirus. Then her fiancé battled COVID-19, but 27-year-old Melinda Gavi said she had not contracted the disease.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/10/mounting-scramble-coronavirus-vaccines-zimbabwe/

Zimbabwe’s Urban Sprawl Dilemma

Ndaba Dube, a Bulawayo resident, says he built himself a home on a small piece of land after the authorities kept him on the housing waiting list for more than two decades. The land he chose is in an old township established before Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/08/zimbabwes-urban-sprawl-dilemma/

Charcoal Production Risks Future of Zimbabwe’s Native Forests

Once a week a tonnage of fresh charcoal is dropped off at Sibangani Tshobe's rugged, pit-stop stall by a hired, battered old Bedford lorry. Small, makeshift trolleys — nicknamed Scania's — quickly cart off small loads and disappear into Old Pumula, the oldest suburb in the country’s second-largest city of Bulawayo.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/06/charcoal-production-risks-future-of-zimbabwes-native-forests/

Calls for Zimbabwean Journalist Jeffrey Moyo to be Given a Fair Trial after Bail is Denied

As international correspondent Jeffrey Moyo was denied bail for allegedly breaching a section of the Zimbabwe Immigration Act by helping two foreign journalists work in the country without proper media accreditation, local organisations have called for his release and for him to be accorded a fair trial.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/06/calls-for-zimbabwean-journalist-jeffrey-moyo-to-be-given-a-fair-trial-after-bail-is-denied/

COVID-19 Locks Down Therapy Support for Zimbabwe’s Trafficking Survivors

Before Zimbabwe imposed lockdown measures last March as part of global efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic, Grace Mashingaidze* would attend workshops in Harare arranged by a nongovernmental organisation assisting trafficked women who had safely made it back home.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/04/covid-19-locks-down-therapy-support-for-zimbabwes-trafficking-survivors/

“In Zimbabwe there is Freedom of Speech, but no Freedom After the Speech”

A long-running gag says “in Zimbabwe there is freedom of speech, but no freedom after the speech”. But for journalists and activists who have been forced to endure nights in the country’s overcrowded and filthy holding cells, this is no laughing matter as prison inmates have no personal protective equipment to guard against COVID-19.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2021/01/in-zimbabwe-there-is-freedom-of-speech-but-no-freedom-after-the-speech/

More Children in Zimbabwe Are Working to Survive: What’s Needed

The ability of Zimbabwean families to take care of children has been compromised by a collapsing economy, compounded by COVID-19. About 4.3 million people in rural communities, including children, are food insecure this year. The World Food Programme indicates that at least 60% of the population of Zimbabwe need food aid.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/11/children-zimbabwe-working-survive-whats-needed/

Punches & Insults: Why Zimbabwe’s Women Candidates Want to Change the Political Playing Field

“I have long given up on active politics,” Gertrude Sidambe, a 36-year-old member of one of Zimbabwe’s opposition parties, tells IPS. When female members of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front complained last month about political violence as male members chose brawn over brains to solicit for positions, the party’s National Secretary for Women’s Affairs Mabel Chinomona advised that they enter the punch-and-insult battlefield and “fight” like everyone else. 
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/11/punches-insults-why-women-in-zimbabwe-want-to-change-the-political-playing-field/

Why a Zimbabwean Farming Project Failed: Lessons for Rural Innovation

Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa commit resources to promote agricultural innovations. This is based on the assumption that rural livelihoods are mainly agricultural and that the innovations will increase agricultural production and household income.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/10/zimbabwean-farming-project-failed-lessons-rural-innovation/

Sustainability of Zimbabwe’s Natural Food Sources take a Knock Amid Growing Economic Crisis

Sarudzai Moyo, a former teacher, has begun a new career as a fishmonger. Once a week she makes the 450km journey from Bulawayo to Binga, on the shores of Lake Kariba, where she buys between 100 and 150 kilograms of fish for resale as the demand for cheaper dietary options increase in Zimbabwe.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/10/sustainability-zimbabwes-natural-food-sources-take-knock-amid-growing-economic-crisis/

Zimbabwe and US Diplomacy – this Time the Fight is About George Floyd

“As tall as he is, if he continues to do that I will kick him out of the country,” thundered Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe in 2008, his anger aimed at the then United States ambassador James McGee after the diplomat questioned the results of Zimbabwe’s 2008 general elections.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/06/zimbabwe-u-s-diplomacy-this-time-the-fight-is-about-george-floyd/

Digital Agriculture Benefits Zimbabwe’s Farmers but Mobile Money is Costly

Shurugwi communal farmer, Elizabeth Siyapi (57) can no longer be scammed by unscrupulous middlemen to sell her crops cheaply. Nowadays, before she takes her produce to market she scours her mobile phone, which has become an essential digital agriculture data bank, for the best prices on the market.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/05/digital-agriculture-benefits-zimbabwes-farmers-but-mobile-money-is-costly/