Zimbabwe

There is deep distrust of an IMF & World Bank designed programme that could offer Zimbabwe debt relief. Credit: ZIMCODD

ZIMBABWE: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Arrears?

Faced with nearly six billion dollars of external debt, Zimbabwe's national unity government is considering applying for Highly Indebted Poor Country status.

Since 2000, up to 75 percent of farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been evicted by govt-sponsored land seizures. Credit:  IRIN

ZIMBABWE: One Million Casualties of Land Reform

The seizure of large commercial farms - almost all white-owned - has continued despite the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe. The country's farm workers say they are the biggest losers.

Agnes Maziya at the Gum Tree Plantation Allotment. Credit:  Busani Bafana/IPS

ZIMBABWE: Water Scarcity No Obstacle To Bulawayo Farmers

A project in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, is creatively using "marginal water" to ease water scarcity while helping residents provide food and earn a living.

Journalist Stanley Kwenda fled Zimbabwe after receiving death threats allegedly from a senior policeman. Credit: Ephraim Nsingo/IPS

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: New Threats to Media Freedom

Death threats allegedly made by a senior police officer to a journalist and the arrest of a photographer, all in the space of a few days, have heightened fears of a new onslaught on the country’s media.

In some Zimbabwean schools students are not allowed to speak openly about HIV/AIDS or condoms. Credit: IRIN

ZIMBABWE: Training Teachers to Cope with HIV-positive Students

Eleven-year-old Memory’s grandmother wanted her to drop out of school because she is not going to live long enough to complete her studies. And the ridicule and stigma Memory endures at school because of her HIV status does not make her education seem worthwhile. Especially since this ridicule comes from her teacher.

ZIMBABWE: Constitutional Reform Resumes

Months of delays may prove to have strengthened the process of producing a new constitution for Zimbabwe. When a 65-day public consultation finally begins, citizens will be primed and ready.

ZIMBABWE: Economy Crippled By Political Uncertainty

The Zimbabwean government has been working hard to attract international investors to revive the country’s failing economy. Success on this front in 2010 may hinge on the coalition government convincing investors their capital will be secure.

POVERTY-ZIMBABWE: Multiple Appeals to Support Zimbabweans

While food is readily available in shops and some political and economic stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups such as children and people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage of food.

Zimbabwean writer and human rights activist Elinor Sisulu found the report difficult to read. Credit: Sholain Govender-Bateman/IPS

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Mugabe Orchestrated Rape – AIDS-Free World report

"When the tenth man finished raping me they said they were going to rape my daughter. I cried out but I could not even stand up at this time...they raped my daughter (while) I was there and I couldn’t do anything to stop them. My daughter was five years old..."

ZIMBABWE: Watchdog Groups Urge Ban on Diamond Exports

The past week brought new scrutiny of Zimbabwe's human rights record with the deportation of a senior U.N. official sent to investigate torture there, and demands by a coalition of civil society groups that the international community address human rights violations stemming from Zimbabwe's lucrative diamond industry.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Unity Govt In Chaos

Zimbabwe's eight-month-old inclusive government suffered its biggest setback to date, when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) was partly disengaging from the government.

Chidavaenzi's Chengaose Foundation Trust is spearheading an initiative to restore agricultural productivity in Shamva district. Credit:  Vusumuzi Sifile/IPS

WATER-ZIMBABWE
: New Wells Protect Environment, Build Peace

Twenty years ago, Isaac Chidavaenzi would worry when his neighbours set up vegetable gardens on river banks, trying to get closer to water sources. The number of gardens on the rivers' banks has now decreased, but Chidavaenzi is even more worried.

EDUCATION-ZIMBABWE: Students Quit Classes – and Country – As Crisis Deepens

Schooling is increasingly becoming a privilege of the rich, , Zimbabwean parents and teachers' unions complain.

US-ZIMBABWE: Yearlong Sanctions Bring Few Reforms

More than a year after the signing of an agreement to bring democracy to Zimbabwe, the United States continues to maintain sanctions against the southern African nation.

No books, no teachers, no school - Denzil Maruva enjoyed time off during a strike. Half of all primary schoolchildren won't graduate. Credit:  Stanley Kwenda/IPS

ZIMBABWE: Board Gives School System Failing Marks

Primary and secondary school education in Zimbabwe has "fallen woefully behind" other southern African countries due to shortages of textbooks and other materials as well as deteriorating working conditions and resultant low morale for teachers.

Rights groups say allowing Zimbabwe to flout a SADC tribunal ruling against land seizures will undermine respect for rights throughout the region. Credit:  Stanley Kwenda/IPS

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zimbabwe Must Abide By SADC Decisions

Condemning Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from a regional tribunal which ruled its state-orchestrated land seizures illegal, civil society groups have said the country should abide by decisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or pull out of the regional body entirely.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Zimbabweans Rubbish SADC’s Sanctions Call

The unresolved issues plaguing Zimbabwe’s coalition government are set to drag on after southern African leaders once again failed to call President Robert Mubage to book for reneging on his coalition promises.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: No Treatment for Sick as State Doctors Strike

Before, Zimbabwean families would take their ill relatives to rural clinics where medication was readily available and payment plans lenient. But now they are taking them there to die.

Community-led initiatives have so far not extended to maintaining public toilets like this one. Credit:  Ignatius Banda/IPS

ZIMBABWE: Neglect Sanitation at Your Peril

A functioning public toilet has become a rare sight in Bulawayo. Across this southern Zimbabwean city of about two million residents, public toilets have all but stopped functioning, the buildings now more useful as platforms for graffiti and campaign posters than as public conveniences where people answer the call of nature.

Lovemore Madhuku: wants independent body to steer drafting of new constitution. Credit:  Stanley Kwenda/IPS

ZIMBABWE: New Constitution: Civil Society ‘Taking Charge’

Barely two weeks after the start of an official process to draw up a new constitution for Zimbabwe was delayed by supporters of Robert Mugabe, it faces another challenge: civil society organisation have launched a parallel constitutional project, saying the unity government's parliamentary-led procedure is undemocratic, defective and will produce a flawed document.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: An Old Question Returns: What Peace Without Justice?

Today is the first of three days dedicated to national healing in Zimbabwe. For the man charged with steering reconciliation in Zimbabwe after the recent bloody struggle for power, it is walk down a familiar path.

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