HARARE – The constitution-making process has been a mess thus far, yet the people of Zimbabwe have maintained some measure of hope that sanity will prevail. And that whatever comes out of this process would at the very minimum, allow society to move forward and positively so. Unfortunately, the Copac drama has not stopped as…
HARARE – With a poor 2012 agricultural season having forced Finance minister Tendai to amend his growth forecast for the year from the initial 9,4 percent to 5,4 percent, news coming from his office seems to spell more doom for the sector and the economy. Already under immense pressure to increase funding to the once-vibrant…
HARARE – The rainy season is normally received with joy by many. But, for others the onset of the season can signal the end of life if access to clean water and sanitation is not immediately addressed. Most Zimbabweans still vividly recall ravages of the cholera epidemic which wiped over 5 000 people and left…
HARARE – A fascinating email has been the cause of considerable interest in the last few days. Written by Psychology Chiwanga, the Director of Urban Planning Services (Dups) in the City of Harare. The writer outlines the portfolios he is responsible for in his job. At the end Chiwanga writes: “If you have any…
HARARE – Warnings about the damaging nature of violence during campaigning for the forthcoming election have become topical ahead of the watershed polls to determine popular appeal among parties that promise a decent future for the electorate. The modicum of economic stability that the country has witnessed since the birth of the coalition government could…
HARARE – The organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration (NHRI) has embarked on a research into the genealogy of political violence in Zimbabwe. “The main question about this project is to find out if Zimbabweans are a violent society. The project seeks to find out if violence emanates from our cultural and traditional background,”…
HARARE – The Global Political Agreement (GPA) was signed between the MDC formations and Zanu PF in September 2008 after an internationally condemned and bastardised presidential election run-off in June of that year that was accompanied by colossal pre and post-election human rights violations targeted against suspected regime opponents. In my understanding the GPA was…
HARARE – Most disputed elections in Africa have occurred after incumbents who were not prepared to accept defeat have resorted to various forms of fraud and cheating to forcibly impose outcomes that enabled them to cling to power illegally while overturning the expressed will of the electorate. One dictionary defines rigging as “someone arranging dishonestly…
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe today officially opens the fifth session of the Seventh Zimbabwe Parliament after an inexplicable and inordinate delay. Mugabe’s opening of Parliament comes barely a week after his unsolicited declaration at the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference that the legislature is not “sovereign and cannot dictate the actions of the Global Political Agreement…
HARARE – It was not so long into the inclusive government that its adversaries and at least those who seem to have lost it started agitating for a do-or-die election. This election talk is militating against the performance of the inclusive government. This in turn affected the performance of the economy in many respects. Firstly,…
