Motlanthe to Appraise AU on Zimbabwe Unity Government

HARARE – South African President Kgalema Motlanthe is expected to table a report at the African Union (AU) summit on the outcome of efforts to form a power-sharing government in Zimbabwe and end political and economic crisis in the country.

Motlanthe holds the rotating chair of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that has been pressuring President Robert Mugabe and his opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai to implement a power-sharing deal they signed last September by form a unity government by next week.

Tsvangirai’s MDC party said on Friday it would join the unity government that will be headed by Mugabe as President with Tsvangirai his Prime Minister. Tsvangirai’s deputy in the MDC, Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara, who heads a breakaway MDC faction will be appointed deputy prime ministers.

* Zimonline

Opposition: "Scorpion Disbandment a Sad Day for South Africa"

Cape Town - President Kgalema Motlanthe's decision to enact the legislation disbanding the Scorpions marks a dark day in South Africa's democracy, opposition parties said on Friday.

But in stark contrast, the move was welcomed by ANC alliance partner the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu).

Motlanthe's decision would have lasting ramifications for the rule of law, judicial independence and the effectiveness of crime-fighting institutions in South Africa," DA spokesperson Dianne Kohler-Barnard said.

"This decision, taken in complete defiance of public opinion, marks a dark day in our short democratic history," she said.

The presidency confirmed earlier on Friday, that Motlanthe had approved the two bills.
Spokesperson Thabo Masebe said the president had approved the SA Police Service Amendment Bill and the National Prosecuting Authority Amendment Bill.

* SAPA

Mbeki Hails MDC Decision to Join Unity Govt

Johannesburg - Former president Thabo Mbeki has described as a "major step forward" the decision by Zimbabwean opposition party MDC to enter into an inclusive government with President Robert Mugabe's party next month.

In a statement on Friday, Mbeki's spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said: "The facilitator of the Zimbabwe Political Dialogue has welcomed [Friday's] decision and looks forward to the implementation of all SADC decisions."

Ratshitanga said Mbeki was also prepared to assist Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change and Mugabe's Zanu-PF "in resolving all outstanding matters".

The two parties have been in a negotiation stand-off for months. Even the government of national unity pact signed in September last year did little to resolve the issue.

But on Friday, following a number of meetings with Mugabe and SADC leaders, Tsvangirai announced his decision to join a unity government in Harare.

* SAPA

Ban Ki-Moon Welcomes the Agreement in Zimbabwe

New York. Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon Friday welcomed Zimbabwe’s opposition decision the country to attend the establishment of united government together with the party of the president Robert Mugabe.

Ban Ki-moon had also appeal the new government to “take every necessary measures to solve the economic and humanitarian crisis in the country as well as to observe democratic freedoms.”

* AFP

MDC and Zanu-PF to Set up Unity Govt at Last

HARARE (AFP) – Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Friday he will join a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, almost a year after disputed polls that plunged the country into crisis.

Heeding a call by Southern African leaders, Tsvangirai told reporters after a meeting of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that he will be sworn in as prime minister on February 11.

"We are unequivocal, we will go into this government," Tsvangirai said after his party's national council agreed it would go ahead with the unity government.

"The SADC (Southern African Development Community) has decided and we are bound by that decision," he said. "February 11 is the swearing in of the prime minister and the deputy prime minister."

Regional leaders, who have long been trying to persuade the MDC to enter government with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, held a crisis summit in South Africa at the start of the week when they urged the feuding parties to implement a stalled power-sharing agreement by mid-February.

Zimbabwe Rivals Set up Joint Monitoring Body

Harare - Zimbabwe's political parties set up a joint body Friday to monitor the implementation of a stalled unity deal between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, a mediation team official said.

Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change agreed to set up a unity government last September, but the deal has since floundered over the division of power between the two rivals.


"It is the first structure to be formed ... and demonstrates the commitment of the parties to ensure that what they agreed to does come to pass," member of the South African mediation team Sydney Mufamadi said at the launch of the committee.

"This signals the commitment of the parties since the signing of the global political agreement, it is indeed a watershed development that this committee has been established," he said.

Regional leaders at a summit in South Africa this week laid out a timeline for Zimbabwe's unity government to be in place by February 13, including the swearing in of Tsvangirai as prime minister.

The opposition said it will decide Friday on whether to join Mugabe in the new government, with party officials indicating deep divisions over the deal.

* AFP

MDC Agrees to Join Zimbabwe Unity Govt

Under severe pressure from Southern African leaders, Zimbabwe's opposition voted Friday to join a unity government under President Robert Mugabe, despite failing to win its key demand for control of the police.

Tsvangirai won his party's backing for the move at a meeting of the party's national council in Harare Friday, although some senior figures are unhappy about joining a government with Mugabe largely in control.

But Tsvangirai believes the alternative, seeing Mugabe form his own government with the blessing of regional leaders, is worse.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change faces isolation in the region unless it complies with a vote by regional leaders that the unity government be sworn by mid-February.

Analysts believe the unity government - agreed last September but bogged down until Friday in a bitter wrangle over cabinet positions - has little hope of resolving the country's entrenched crisis.

They warned that Western aid, desperately needed to rebuild the country, is unlikely while Mugabe retains control of the military and security forces. Western diplomats say aid hinges on evidence of genuine political and economic reform and that Mugabe's history of reneging on promised compromises could be problematic.

However opposition is expected to use its majority to push out controversial Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, responsible for the country's rampant hyper-inflation, who was recently reappointed by Mugabe for a five year term.

* LA Times

Odinga Suggests 'Golden Handshake' For Mugabe

Davos - Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga suggested on Thursday that "dinosaur" Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe should be offered a "golden handshake" to leave office.

He also criticised fellow African leaders without the courage to tell Mugabe to leave and said the world should tell him "the time to go is now, we are ready to give you a golden handshake if you will quit".

Mugabe, in power for nearly 30 years, has seen his reputation plummet from an African liberation hero to a despot who has ruined his once prosperous country.

Some commentators have suggested his reluctance to relinquish power, even after losing the first round of abandoned elections last year, stems from concern that he could face war crimes charges.

Odinga did not specify what the golden handshake, a term from the corporate world meaning a generous severance package, should entail.

"We are now in the face of transition (in Africa)," Odinga told delegates during a debate at the Davos forum.

"There are the remnants of the past era, the dinosaurs, and Mugabe belongs to that group."
Odinga levelled some sharp criticism at fellow members of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) and castigated a "kid gloves" approach in dealing with Mugabe.

* AFP

Tsvangirai Inclined To Join Government, Faces Party Dissent

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said Thursday it had endorsed the proposal for political power-sharing offered earlier this week by a summit of the Southern African Development Community, but the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of prime minister-designate remained to set the party's position on the deal.

Political sources said Tsvangirai's MDC formation was deeply divided on whether to enter the proposed government of national unity under the terms proposed by the regional leaders on Tuesday.

The latest deal is not so different from earlier iterations, but takes account of the outstanding issues identified by Tsvangirai's party by establishing joint committees on the appointment of provincial governors, ambassadors and other senior officials, and the administration of the country's often-oppressive security apparatus.

Tsvangirai has indicated that he wishes to join the government, and the national executive council of his MDC formation - rival MDC formation leader Arthur Mutambara has long been urging the formation of a government as a moral imperative given the humanitarian emergency - was to gather on Friday to reach a decision in the matter.

Returning Wednesday evening from the SADC summit in South Africa, the opposition leader indicated his position to reporters at the Harare International Airport.

"We have our position regarding certain decisions in that communiqué," said Tsvangirai, who had earlier stated in newspaper interviews his inclination to join the government.

"We however have a national council meeting where we will give a direction as to how we hope to deal with the problems the people are facing. It is a historic decision that we have to make and I hope that the party will be united in ensuring that we respond to the needs on the ground and to the expectation of Zimbabweans," he said.

But MDC sources said there was stiff opposition within the party to Tsvangirai's position by those who believed he should have held out for further concessions from Mr. Mugabe.

Botswanan Foreign Minister Phandu Skelemani also objected to the deal, dissenting with the communiqué issued by his SADC peers. He said it would be better to hold new elections than form a government leaving major issues to be resolved once it is in place.

* VoA

Zimbabwe Abandons Price Controls, Promotes Currency Trading

Bloomberg - Zimbabweans will be able to trade in any currency they choose and the government will abandon price controls with immediate effect, acting finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said today.

Chinamasa, from President Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party, told parliament that price controls would be abandoned because they had “unintentionally’’ harmed businesses and added to Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation.


Zimbabweans will also be allowed to use “multiple currencies’’ for all business, including trading shares on the Harare-based Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, he said, presenting Zimbabwe’s national budget.

The country is in its 11th year of economic recession and has the world’s highest inflation rate, last estimated at 231 million percent in July 2008. It faces almost total collapse of its health, education, power and water facilities as Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change spar over the formation of a power sharing government.

Chinamasa gave a bleak picture of the southern African nation’s economy, saying, “It requires a paradigm shift in terms of acknowledging that we cannot eat what we do not have.”

Most businesses have abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar, which is in short supply because the central bank can’t print money fast enough to meet demand.

Government employees will be paid allowances in vouchers which can be converted into foreign currency “in line with the expected improvement in foreign currency inflows,” Chinamasa said on state radio and television.

The Zimbabwe dollar will not be abandoned. Instead it will operate alongside foreign currencies like the U.S. dollar and the South African rand, he said.

ZCTU Slam Unity Deal, Reiterate Demand for Transitional Authority

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has expressed deep concern at the failure of the recent SADC summit to ensure that a government with a democratic mandate is put in place.

On Thursday Secretary General Wellington Chibhebhe was speaking in South Africa at COSATU House, the headquarters of the Congress of South African Trade Unions in Johannesburg.


Responding to the expected formation of a unity government between the MDC and ZANU PF, the ZCTU reiterated its demand for a neutral transitional authority, whose sole mandate will be to organise free and fair elections under international supervision.

During the joint ZCTU and COSATU press conference the labour unions said 'any unity government that rewards those who lost an election is setting a very dangerous precedent.'

They argued that the agreement seeks to make the loser of the elections a winner, and the winner a loser. The two unions have agreed to support the 'principle' of a unity government only as an interim measure, that will ensure that conditions for a free and fair poll are eventually created.

* SW Radio Africa

Catholics Bishops Warns SADC Over Zimbabwe 'Genocide'

The Roman Catholic bishops of southern Africa have warned the leaders in their region they could be guilty of "passive genocide" by accepting complicity in the dire situation that exists in Zimbabwe.

In a statement made available on 27 January the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference said that Robert Mugabe, who is clinging to power, must step down as president.

They singled out the leaders of the 15-nation Southern Africa Development Community for their failure to mediate a settlement in Zimbabwe.

* Ecumenical News International

U.S. Seeks Strong UN Action Over Zimbabwe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States wants the United Nations to take strong action to push Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to reach a power-sharing deal with the opposition, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

A State Department official said the Obama administration was pushing Zimbabwe's neighbors to use their influence over Mugabe but was also exploring U.N. Security Council action to help ease the economic and humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, in power since 1980, is widely blamed for economic ruin in Zimbabwe, once seen as the region's breadbasket. The country suffers from runaway inflation and a cholera epidemic and its infrastructure and basic services have collapsed.

"We are looking at what can be done and what the United Nations can do to bring added pressure on Mugabe to accept real opposition membership in government," said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to comment publicly.

"Our goal is to get strong, concerted action in the best form possible at the United Nations," he added when asked whether it would be a resolution that included sanctions.

Zimbabwean Negotiators to Meet to Settle Outstanding Differences

It’s been widely reported that Morgan Tsvangirai is likely to agree to the unity deal, as presented by SADC after their summit. But Zimbabweans still wait a final decision as the MDC maintains it is awaiting a mandate from its National Council which meets on Friday.

After a day of confusion and conflicting statements the MDC President was quoted on Wednesday saying he had agreed in principle, and was optimistic that his party would agree to join.


Southern African leaders issued a communiqué on Tuesday stating a unity government will be formed next month, and even the MDC’s closest ally in the region, Botswana, welcomed the outcome of the SADC Summit.

Despite being the Mugabe regime’s harshest critic in the region, Botswana issued a statement on Wednesday saying it hoped the developments would “move forward the process of resolving the crisis of legitimacy in Zimbabwe and put an end to the suffering and difficult challenges facing people of that country.”

Despite the fact that the MDC is only going to decide on joining a unity government on Friday, the SADC communiqué said the implementation of the agreement is starting this week on Friday with the establishment of a Joint Monitoring Implementation Committee (JOMIC).

This will be followed by other processes to lead to the formation of a government by mid February.

Furthermore the negotiators from all three main political parties are expected to meet on Thursday to discuss the remaining differences. These include consideration of the National Security Bill and a formula for the distribution of provincial governors.

* SW Radio Africa

MDC Deliberates As SADC Region Presses For Unity Govt

The Southern African Development Community is pressing for the installation of a government of national unity in Zimbabwe despite contradictory signals and statements from the Movement for Democratic Change formation of Morgan Tsvangirai, designated as prime minister since the signature of a power-sharing agreement last September.

The Johannesburg Star newspaper quoted Tsvangirai as saying he has agreed in principle to join a government of national unity.

But his MDC formation issued a statement saying that the decision will only be taken Friday when the party’s national council, its supreme decision-making body, assembles.

SADC sources said Tsvangirai moderated his position on joining an "inclusive government" when President Robert Mugabe agreed to reconsider issues including the appointment of the country's provincial governors, its central bank governor and its attorney general.

The SADC sources said the main sticking point concerned the allocation of ministries, which was decided by consensus among regional leaders meeting in a Monday-Tuesday summit, with the proviso that the question could be revisited in six months time.

The leaders were not willing to reverse an earlier decision in effect endorsing the allocation of ministries handed down by Mr. Mugabe last year over opposition objections.

The South African government said power-sharing facilitator Thabo Mbeki’s right-hand man, Sydney Mufamadi, was due to arrive in Harare on Friday to set up a so-called joint-monitoring implementation committee which was provided for in the September accord.

* VoA

Chikane: We Are There at Last in Zimbabwe!

Cape Town - Frank Chikane, the director general in the presidency, and a leading member of the team facilitating the talks towards an inclusive government in Zimbabwe, said on Wednesday: "It has been tough, but we are there."

He was briefing the media in Pretoria and Cape Town on the outcome of the talks which were concluded in the special summit meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Monday, in the face of numerous apparently conflicting reports about what that outcome actually was.

He made it clear that there is agreement on the formation of the all-party government - actually made in Sandton on November 9.

This week's summit was about the implementation of that agreement, and it set the new timetable for the accomplishment of each stage of the agreement.

Chikane explained that the earlier deal wanted the formation of the government to happen before the constitutional amendment was passed by Parliament. But the new timetable calls for the amendment to be passed first.

The very first item in the timetable is the establishment of a joint monitoring implementation committee (JOMIC) which has to be formed on Friday this week.

* News 24

COSATU Vows to Distribute Anti-COPE Booklet

Durban - Cosatu on Wednesday vowed to distribute its anti-Cope booklet to as many places as possible.

"We are also trying to have the booklet [translated] to Zulu. We will be distributing them to as many voters and workers as we can," said the Congress of SA Trade Unions' KwaZulu-Natal secretary Zet Luzipho.

He said the booklet was distributed to the offices of Cosatu's alliance partners. The 14-page document was penned by Cosatu president Sidumo Dlamini and general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi.


It concluded with "Yours truly" and their names. Luzipho confirmed that the booklet was "signed by its president and general secretary".

It is entitled "Defend our Movement: Advance the Gains of Polokwane! Expose and Isolate the Black DA".

Dozens of the maroon booklets - bearing ANC and Cosatu logos - were available at both organisations' headquarters in KwaZulu-Natal this week.

Among other things, it states that Cope could cause "great damage" to trade union federation if it were to come to power in the general election.

* News 24

Obama Mulls a Fresh Approach on Toppling Mugabe

US President Barack Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is considering an unprecedented US-led diplomatic effort to get tough new UN sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe.

The central idea during talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks was to take the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China - which previously supported the Mugabe regime - not to block the initiative.

According to a senior aide present at the White House discussions, the goal of taking the issue of Zimbabwe to the Security Council would be to get approval for a series of strong sanctions, including a ban on any arms sales and foreign investment that aid the Mugabe regime. The advisers also want to expand significantly the number of ruling ZANU-PF party officials subject to sanctions.

In July, after Mugabe was accused of rigging elections to stay in power, China and Russia, which have significant financial interests in Zimbabwe, vetoed moves to impose UN sanctions on the country.

But Mr Obama and his aides believe that with the growing international outcry over conditions there, and the devastating loss of life from the cholera outbreak, Beijing and Moscow can now be persuaded at least to abstain if the issue of sanctions comes to another vote.

"It is predicated on China and Russia going along, and this administration will certainly undertake a new round of constructive diplomacy with Russia and China on a whole range of options," the aide said.

The pressure on China and Russia will be co-ordinated with Britain and France at the UN. "To get even a Chinese and Russian abstention would be a tremendous victory," the aide said.

A key figure in any new approach will be Mr Obama's UN ambassador, Susan Rice, who was assistant secretary of state for African affairs in the Clinton administration and is an expert onZimbabwe.

* The Australian

Next Budget Likely to Show Mugabe's Desperation

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will present its annual budget this week, which analysts expect to contain desperate measures in the wake of economic collapse amid political crisis.

President Robert Mugabe's acting Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa will unveil the 2009 budget in parliament on Thursday most likely in U.S. dollars because soaring hyper-inflation has left the Zimbabwean dollar virtually worthless.

Analysts say the budget -- coming two months later than usual -- would be both a number-crunching exercise and a confirmation that Zimbabwe has been forced to use foreign currencies after the spectacular collapse of its own currency.

The Zimbabwean dollar currently trades at anything up to 40 trillion to the U.S dollar, despite being re-denominated through the removal of 10 zeroes in August. An average worker earns trillions, but struggles to buy a loaf of bread in the few shops that still accept the local unit.

"The situation is so desperate and I think, outside the usual statements about political enemies, we are going to see some desperate proposals to try to get the economy out of this mess," said John Robertson, an economic consultant.

Besides "dollarisation," Mugabe's government is expected to introduce some new taxes in foreign currency -- including income and capital gains -- to try to boost empty state coffers.

Mugabe Insists on Breakthrough Over Unity Govt

HARARE: President Robert Mugabe voiced hope yesterday of a "new chapter" in Zimbabwe after a regional summit on a long-stalled unity government but the opposition said the proposals were below its expectations.

We hope that this will open a up a new chapter in our political relations in the country and in structures of government," Mugabe said in Harare after arriving from the emergency summit held in the South African capital Pretoria.

The 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) gave Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai until mid-February to form a unity government but did not spell out what steps it would take if they did not meet the deadline.

The prime minister and the deputy prime ministers shall be sworn in by 11 February," the SADC said after the marathon meeting, which wound up early Tuesday.

The ministers and deputy ministers shall be sworn in on 13th February which will conclude the process of the formation of the inclusive government," it said.

* Kuwait Times

Tsvangirai to Join Zimbabwe Unity Govt

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to enter a unity government with President Robert Mugabe, a senior advisor to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said on Tuesday night, after months of deadlock over the country's power-sharing deal.

The move comes despite fears that Mr Mugabe will use the arrangement to draw in and marginalise the MDC, as he has done to other opposition groups in the past.


Mr Tsvangirai has consistently refused to join a coalition with Mr Mugabe, who retains strong powers as president under the power-sharing agreement, unless MDC figures are given key cabinet posts, especially the home affairs ministry, which brings control over the police.

But Mr Tsvangirai is under immense pressure from regional leaders to join the government after almost 3,000 Zimbabweans have died of cholera, millions need food aid, and the economy is in a spiral of collapse.

Earlier this week a regional summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Pretoria said that he should be sworn in as prime minister within a fortnight.

The MDC issued a statement yesterday saying the summit's conclusions "fall far short of our expectations", but a source close to the negotiations said Mr Tsvangirai believed he had no alternative but to "give it a try".

He would return to Harare on Wednesday, the source said, ready to be sworn in as prime minister, subject to the MDC's national council endorsing the decision on Friday. Sources in the Zimbabwean capital said he would have majority support at the meeting.

* Telegraph

Pandor: Zimbabwe Solution Must Include Mugabe

Cape Town - A lasting solution to Zimbabwe's problems cannot exclude that country's leader, Robert Mugabe, Education Minister Naledi Pandor said on Tuesday.

She was responding in the National Assembly to a call - by African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe - for Mugabe's removal because he was a "stumbling block" to any negotiated settlement of Zimbabwe's political crisis.

Meshoe had earlier told MPs the Southern African Development Community's leadership, through their reluctance to act against Mugabe, had to share the blame for the suffering of Zimbabwe's people.

He also called for international intervention "before a time bomb explodes in Zimbabwe".

Pandor said SADC leaders had to find "an inclusive" solution to Zimbabwe's problems.
"I can advise him (Meshoe) that I don't believe it would be possible to have a lasting solution that would exclude Mr Mugabe, but indeed a solution must be found," she said.

Her remarks come hours after an emergency SADC summit announced that a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and his opposition rival, Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, was on the cards.

The MDC has dismissed the announcement as "fanciful".

* SAPA

COSATU: COPE a Huge Threat

Durban - The Congress of the People could cause great damage to Cosatu, the trade union's president Sidumo Dlamini says in a booklet.

"If these dissidents succeed, it will roll back the gains workers and the poor have made since 1994... unless we defeat it, even this small splinter could cause great damage to our movement," Dlamini wrote.



Dozens of maroon booklets - bearing the African National Congress and Cosatu logos - were available at the respective headquarters in KwaZulu-Natal this week.

The booklet was apparently written by Dlamini and Cosatu's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi with them ending it "Yours truly" and their names.

Immediate attempts on Tuesday to contact both Vavi and Dlamini were unsuccessful.

* SAPA

Zimbabwe Crisis Deepens Amid Political Uncertainty

HARARE – Thousands of Zimbabwean teachers went on strike for more pay as the new school term started on Tuesday, highlighting the country’s deepening crisis amid uncertainty over the future of a power-sharing deal between President Robert Mugabe and the opposition.

Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders resolved after a marathon summit in South Africa on Monday that Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party and the opposition should form a unity government outlined under a power-sharing agreement.

But the Morgan Tsvangirai-led opposition MDC party said the regional summit had failed to address its grievances over implementation of the deal, raising fears it could refuse to join a unity government seen as the best way to end the country’s multi-faceted crisis.

A brief tour of government schools in Harare and surrounding areas by ZimOnline reporters showed there was no learning taking place, with hundreds of children seen trooping back home because there were no teachers to conduct lessons.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) -- the two unions for the country’s teachers -- said their members had heeded calls not to report for duty until the government agreed to pay salaries in hard cash.

* Zimonline

AU Summit May Force Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Deal

Africa's top diplomat has suggested that leaders gathering at an African Union summit might force a solution to Zimbabwe's political stalemate.

A.U. Commission Chairman Jean Ping also expressed satisfaction with developments in Somalia, despite the fall of a key town to Islamic extremists.



Chairman Ping says African leaders are watching very closely the Southern African Development Community summit aimed at creating a government of national unity in Zimbabwe.

If the regional group known as SADC fails, as reports from Pretoria appear to indicate, Ping says the African Union summit beginning Sunday could take its own action to break the impasse.

"For sure we will ask SADC to make a report and the other heads of state and government will pronounce themselves on this, and a decision might be taken by the heads of state," Ping said. " This is what I think will happen if we follow the regular procedures."

* VoA

Zimbabwe Cholera Death Toll Reaches 3000 Mark

Geneva - The United Nations says there has been a sharp rise in the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe and the death toll is nearing 3 000.

The UN humanitarian office says 2 817 new cases were reported on Monday, taking the cumulative number of infections since the outbreak began to 56 123.

The UN said on Tuesday that a total of 2 971 people were reported to have died by Monday. The figure represents an increase of 102 deaths on the previous day.

The global body says more than one person in every 20 who contract cholera in Zimbabwe is dying of the disease. The usual mortality rate for large-scale outbreaks is 1 in 100.

The outbreak began in August and spread rapidly because of Zimbabwe's poorly maintained infrastructure and crumbling health care system.

* AP

Tokyo Sexwale Fends Off COPE Attack

Johannesburg - Toyko Sexwale's "witchcraft" comments, which has elicited scathing criticism from the Congress of the People, had been distorted by translation into English, he told SAfm on Tuesday.

"Well, I stand tall having said the following... you must understand that this is a question of getting lost in translation," the ANC NEC member told the radio station.

"We speak rich African languages, mine, Sepedi, Sesotho, Isixhosa. And there will always be the danger... [to try] to make political capital, to reduce very rich expressions said in African languages to a kind of kitchen English.

"We can't speak like that. Now if I say I'm making an appeal, and I use the word "takhathi", they want to say it's witchcraft.

"No, that's wrong. No you're distorting my people," Sexwale said in response to a question about what exactly he had said at a rally on Saturday.

His comments sparked an attack from the Congress of the People, who also laid a complaint with the Commission for Gender Equality, after he was quoted as saying the newly formed party was "parading 'old women' on TV, using them as witchcraft to attract support".

The party demanded that Sexwale retract" these offensive remarks and apologise to the many elderly women who have joined Cope".

Sexwale reportedly said at the rally: "Our mothers are taken, house to house, they are also paraded on TV, these people are performing witchcraft with our mothers... They are liars. You can't have respect for people who use older people in that fashion."

SAfm presenter Xolani Gwala then told Sexwale the word actually meant "witchcraft".

* news 24

Red Cross Short of Zimbabwe Funds

The biggest emergency operation to bring the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe under control may have to cease operations after donations fell millions of dollars short.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, alongside the health ministry, is battling an outbreak that has claimed 2,400 lives. In December it appealed for almost $10m (€7.7m, £7.2m) but has failed to raise even half that amount, Farid Abdul Kabir, head of the charity's cholera team, told the Financial Times.

"Cases are increasing. The rains make it worse and will also bring malaria outbreaks. But the resources are not forthcoming," he said. "Cholera is treatable and preventable - that is the painful part."

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 44,000 cases of the water-borne disease had been reported by January 17. The epidemic has spread beyond Zimbabwe's borders.

"Over two-thirds of deaths are occurring outside treatment centres, suggesting continued, and perhaps increasing, problems associated with the unavailability of healthcare in the country," the WHO found.

* Financial Times

Momentum Builds for Zimbabwe Intervention

WASHINGTON - Calls are growing for the international community to do more about Zimbabwe, and now global human rights leaders including Desmond Tutu are engaging in a "relay fast" and other nonviolent acts to pressure neighboring countries -- particularly South Africa -- to support the Zimbabwean people's struggle for democracy and human rights.

"SADC and African governments must act resolutely to protect the people of Zimbabwe who are being subjected to a passive genocide.

The suffering of the people of Zimbabwe cannot be ignored any longer," says the Save Zimbabwe Now! Coalition in a petition calling for immediate action to resolve the East African nation's political, economic, and humanitarian crises.

In addition to the petition and fast -- which human rights leaders including CIVICUS's Kumi Naidoo and Nomboniso Gasa of the South African Gender Commission are joining for 21 days apiece -- Save Zimbabwe Now! has launched letter writing campaigns and will hold public meetings and rallies throughout Southern Africa.

The coalition of human rights activists is demanding that the regional economic alliance South African Development Community (SADC) and African political leaders abandon the notoriously fruitless policy of "quiet diplomacy" toward Zimbabwe.

Instead, they say, the SADC and other continental powers should staunchly condemn the political violence and the Robert Mugabe regime's violation of regional and international treaties and conventions on human and democratic rights.

* One World

No Progress at Zimbabwe Talks - MDC

Pretoria - A regional summit aimed at pushing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the opposition to implement a power-sharing deal has made no progress, an opposition official said on Monday.

The agreement is seen as a chance to prevent an economic collapse that could put added strain on neighbours which already host millions of Zimbabweans who fled in search of work and, more recently, to escape a deadly cholera epidemic.

An official of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the 15-member regional SADC bloc summit had not persuaded the rivals to implement the power-sharing deal signed last September.

"We are worlds apart. If we were [inches] apart we are now miles apart," the MDC official told Reuters.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai signed the agreement in September, but have failed to agree on control of cabinet posts, with neither side showing any sign of compromise.

"Questions concerning Zimbabwe are continuously being raised in capitals and streets of Africa, with the expectation that the Zimbabwean leadership of all persuasions, under the aegis of SADC, will resolutely resolve the impasse with decisiveness and statesmanship," South African President Kgalema Motlanthe told the summit.

"I trust that we will not fail them."

* News 24

Protesters Arrested at SADC Summit on Zimbabwe

Pretoria - Eight representatives of the Save Zimbabwe Now campaign were forcefully removed from the grounds of the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria on Monday.

The organisation began its protest outside the Union Buildings then moved to the presidential guest house in an attempt to hand over a memorandum of demands to President Kgalema Motlanthe.



It was not immediately known how the protesters had gained access to the secure compound.

The incident occurred just hundreds of metres away from where the SADC countries were locked in talks to find a solution to the political impasse in Zimbabwe.

This impasse had given rise to increasing poverty, the death of thousands due to cholera as well as an ailing agricultural and economic sector.

* SAPA

Opposition Parties Fight IEC Over Expat Vote

Cape Town - The Independent Electoral Commission's regulations barring South Africans working abroad from voting are unconstitutional, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.

Briefing the media in Cape Town, DA Federal chairperson James Selfe said the party last week filed papers in the Cape High Court to have section 33 (1) (e) of the Electoral Act that bars SA expatriates from voting, declared unconstitutional.



"The denial of the right to vote to the vast majority of South Africans was central to the struggle against apartheid. Because of the importance of the right to vote, this right is guaranteed to all adult citizens in the Bill of the Rights," Selfe said.

The Electoral Act only allowed citizens who are abroad on holiday, business, study and international sports, to cast their ballots from outside the country.

"Except for South Africans serving in diplomatic missions, these are the only permissible grounds for applying for a special vote if one is outside the country," Selfe said.
The restrictions gave rise to all sorts of anomalies and unintended consequences, "which are clearly unconstitutional".

"It discriminates unreasonably between various classes of South Africans temporarily outside the country," Selfe said.

Meanwhile, the Freedom Front Plus said it would submit an application to the Constitutional Court in a bid to have the same regulation declared unconstitutional.

* SAPA

Illinois Governor Considered Oprah for Senate

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Gov. Rod Blagojevich tells ABC that he considered appointing Oprah Winfrey to the empty U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama.

He tells "Good Morning America" that the idea of nominating the talk show host came to him as he explored potential candidates for the job that federal prosecutors allege he tried to sell to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich says "she was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators."

The governor says he worried that the appointment of Winfrey might come across as a gimmick and the talk show host was unlikely to accept.

* AP

SADC Summit on Zimbabwe Gets Underway

Johannesburg/Brussels - The European Union slapped Zimbabwe with more sanctions Monday, just as Southern African heads of state met in South Africa in yet another attempt to eke a compromise from Zimbabwe's rival leaders on power-sharing.

Monday's extraordinary summit of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) that is being attended by both Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai, is the bloc's third such summit on Zimbabwe in under a year.

At previous SADC summit Mugabe's peers have drawn scorn for refusing to condemn him, despite his attempt to cling to power in the wake of an election defeat last year.
The foreign ministers of the EU's 27 member states condemned Mugabe's regime for "its ongoing failure to address the most basic economic and social needs of its people" and "the ongoing violations of human rights."

A further 60 people and companies allied to Mugabe had their assets frozen and were banned from travel in the EU, bringing to around 170 the number of individuals and entities, including Mugabe himself, on the EU blacklist.

At least seven heads of state or government are attending the talks being hosted by South African President Kgalema Motlanthe at the presidential guesthouse in Pretoria.
The summit is aimed at getting Mugabe and Tsvangirai to implement the power-sharing accord they signed four months ago.

* DPA

Mugabe and Tsvangirai Held a Secret Meeting Last Week

HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe acceded last week to a secret meeting with his rival, pro-democracy leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe state media reported on Monday as meanwhile Southern African leaders were about to meet on the Zimbabwean crisis.

The Herald, controlled by Mugabe's ZANU(PF) party, said the meeting took place at Tsvangirai's request, and was held on Thursday at Zimbabwe House, one of Mugabe's official residences in central Harare.

It said the Mugabe appealed to Tsvangirai to be sworn in immediately as prime minister in terms of the stalled power-sharing agreement between the two rivals.

The newspaper said Mugabe told Tsvangirai that he should "accompany him (Mugabe) over the road to State House," the government's ceremonial and diplomatic reception residence which lies opposite Zimbabwe House, "to be sworn in as prime minister." Tsvangirai rejected the plea, the Herald said.

The power-sharing agreement, signed last September 15, proposes Mugabe as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister.

The disclosure came as a summit of regional leaders on the stalemate in the implementation of the agreement, was about to convene in Pretoria, the South African capital.

Until now, Mugabe's spokesmen have bluntly denied that Mugabe would agree to Tsvangirai's request for a tete a tete to break to break the deadlock, following a failed SADC mediation attempt here on Munday last week.

* DPA

All Set For the SADC Summit on Zimbabwe Impasse

Pretoria - An emergency SADC summit to address the ongoing political impasse in Zimbabwe is expected to convene around 11:00 in Pretoria on Monday.

The extraordinary summit, announced last week after power-sharing talks between the country's three political leaders again deadlocked in Harare, will see heads of 15 Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries attempting to find a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe.


Last Friday South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the answer to the problem could not be dictated by SADC, but only by the country's three leaders.

It was hoped that Zanu-PF leader and President Robert Mugabe and the two Movement for Democratic Change faction leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, would all be in attendance.

"SADC wants a solution, but unfortunately the position is not in SADC's hands... if it was we would be having a solution [by now].

* News 24

Mugabe to Form Govt After SADC Summit

JOHANNESBURG (AFP)--Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe will form a government after Monday's regional summit in South Africa with or without a deal with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, a minister said.

"This summit is the last summit that is going to discuss this issue of an inclusive government. If it does not work today, definitely when the president comes back here, he has to form a new government with or without Morgan Tsvangirai," deputy information minister Bright Matonga said.

"The way forward, soon after this summit, whether there is an agreement or there is no agreement, President Mugabe is going to form a cabinet, 15 cabinet ministers, eight deputy ministers of ZANU-PF," he said in an interview on public broadcaster SA FM.

"He will obviously try to leave room for (the Movement for Democratic Change leader) Tsvangirai so that whenever he changes his mind...but that is not going to be for too long. He will then come to join the all inclusive government. There has to be a government whether there is MDC or not," he said.

A summit of Southern African leaders will on Monday in Pretoria renew efforts to break Zimbabwe's political deadlock, as Mugabe comes under increasing international pressure.

Mugabe and rival Tsvangirai signed a deal more than four months ago to share power and form a unity government, but it has yet to be implemented because of the failure to agree key posts.
The pact has floundered since last September over which party will control top public posts, including the home affairs ministry which oversees the police.

The latest attempt by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community, or SADC, to forge a breakthrough comes one week after talks in Harare between the rivals collapsed in acrimony.
Monday's summit in Pretoria will be hosted by South African President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Botswana's Khama to Attend Zimbbawe SADC Summit

Gaborone: Botswana, a vocal critic of neighbouring Robert Mugabe’s rule, called yesterday on the eve of a crisis summit for regional leaders to “go to the core” of Zimbabwe’s political deadlock.

Today’s 15 state gathering in South Africa will be only the second such summit attended by President Ian Khama, whose government has been one of the few in Africa to speak out against Mugabe.

“People in Zimbabwe are suffering because people do not agree. SADC must listen to both parties,” acting Botswana foreign affairs minister Dikgakgamatso Seretse said. “We want SADC to go to the core of the disagreement so that an all inclusive government will be established and bring normalcy and end the ordeals of the Zimbabweans.”

The extraordinary Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit was called in another regional effort to salvage Zimbabwe’s floundering power-sharing deal after mediated talks failed in Harare last week.

Botswana’s stance on Zimbabwe has resulted in strained relations between the two countries, with Harare accusing Gaborone of harbouring opposition military training camps to overthrow the Mugabe regime. Last year, Khama snubbed a SADC general summit because of the circumstances in which Mugabe had been re-elected.

* AFP

Hong Kong Govt Rapped Over Student Bona Mugabe

Hong Kong: The Hong Kong government was yesterday urged to review a decision to allow the daughter of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe live and study in the city.

Bona Mugabe — whose father is banned from travelling to Britain, the US and Europe — has been studying at the University of Hong Kong since the autumn, according to the Sunday Morning Post newspaper.

The presence of Bona Mugabe in Hong Kong emerged after her 43-year-old mother Grace 10 days ago allegedly assaulted freelance photographer Richard Jones as he took pictures of her shopping while on a visit to the city.

Robert Mugabe also reportedly visited Hong Kong in August - when his daughter would have first arrived to take up her university place — before being refused permission to fly on to China for the Olympic Games.

Senior Hong Kong legislator Emily Lau Wai-hing called for a review over the decision to admit Bona Mugabe, who is studying under an assumed name and whose identity is not known to fellow students.

Australia last year deported eight students whose parents were senior members of the Mugabe regime, saying it wanted to prevent those involved in human rights abuses giving their children education denied to ordinary Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe is currently in the grips of a cholera epidemic and has been in political turmoil since Mugabe last year refused to accept the outcome of a presidential election apparently won by his rival Morgan Tsvangirai.

Asked about Bona Mugabe’s admission, a University of Hong Kong spokeswoman said: “We believe that education should be above politics and young people should not be denied of the rights to education because of their family background or what their parents have done.”

* DPA

Zimbabwe Cholera Epidemic 'Yet to Peak'

The UN said on Friday the number of cholera cases recorded since August reached 50 003 on Thursday. The death toll through Thursday was 2 773.

At a briefing in Geneva on Friday, Dr Tammam Aloudat, a Red Cross health emergencies expert, said the number of cases could go beyond the "nightmare scenario" peak of 60 000 the UN health agency predicted a few weeks ago.

The UN said that despite a huge international campaign by aid agencies and donors, supplies of clean water are erratic, many cholera treatment centres lack food and medicine and Zimbabwean doctors and nurses struggle to get to work, in some cases because their salaries don't cover bus fare.

The Red Cross federation said its response was being hampered by lack of funds.

In December, it appealed for about $9m for what it expected to be a seven-month fight against cholera in Zimbabwe.

Donors have come up with only about 40% of that.

* News 24

Zuma: ANC MPs Must Shape up or Ship Out!

Johannesburg - ANC president Jacob Zuma warned party members who wanted to be in Parliament but were not doing a good job that they could be asked to leave even if it meant "losing the friendship of those comrades."

He spoke at the opening of the ANC's National List Conference in Kempton Park, saying people who were appointed to leadership positions should be driven by a need to serve the country and not personal ambition.

He said members of Parliament would be watched closely as even one person's inefficiency could affect the whole organisation.
He said the ANC would kick out inefficient members to make way for those able to do the job.




* Rapport

Sceptism as SADC Leaders Meet Over Zimbabwe Impasse

The wrangling keeps politicians from grappling with Zimbabwe's dizzying economic decline. That means more death from disease and hunger in a nation that once exported grain and boasted health, sanitation and education systems that were the envy of it

Leaders of the Southern African Development Community nations will discuss the crisis tomorrow, but they are unlikely to do more than make their usual call for President Robert Mugabe and his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, to implement a power-sharing agreement reached last September.

In their latest face-to-face meeting, Mugabe and Tsvangirai remained at an impasse after talks that stretched from Monday afternoon into the early hours of Tuesday.

Since then, Zimbabwe's factions have only hardened their positions.Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, says Tsvangirai should join him in a unity government and work out any reservations later.

Tsvangirai refuses to enter a government before attacks on his supporters end and until he is assured members of his party will have an equal share of key government posts.

* The Scotsman

‘‘Dollarisation’’ of Economy Hitting Zimbabwe's Poor Hard

HARARE (IPS) - The collapse of the Zimbabwean economy has led to the ‘‘dollarisation’’ of the economy – and even to what some, who have still maintained some sense of tragicomedy, call the ‘‘petrolisation’’ of the economy because of the re-emergence of barter trade.

Lynette Sarimana works for an accounts firm in the capital Harare where she is being paid with fuel coupons.

‘‘For us it is the ‘petrolisation‘ of the economy because we are paid with fuel coupons which we exchange for groceries, ’’ was her sardonic comment on the situation. Zimbabwe is suffering world record inflation, which has made it even harder for many businesses to budget or plan ahead.

The Central Statistical Office put the inflation figure at 231 million percent when it was last calculated in July 2008.

According to a recent report by the international civil society organisation Civicus, ‘‘most retailers are not accepting Zimbabwean currency. Goods are being sold mainly in US dollars and South African rand, which has pushed up the prices of basic food items, water, fuel and medicines, putting them out of reach for ordinary people.’’

Harare-based economist Martin Tarusenga told IPS that, ‘‘the economy of Zimbabwe has collapsed. Hyperinflation has led in part to the unofficial dollarisation of the Zimbabwean economy, forcing many people to resort to the use of foreign currency.

Tough Talk, Uncertainty, as Zimbabwe Rivals Face SADC Summit

The ruling ZANU-PF party of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai were hardening their positions on Friday with an extraordinary summit of the Southern African Development Community on tap Monday, but voiced uncertainty as to what happens if the power-sharing process ends.

Political sources said it will be up to the SADC leaders gathering in Pretoria, South Africa, to unblock the stalemate between Mr. Mugabe and Tsvangirai over the terms on which they might form a government of national unity to address the country's deep crisis.

Politicians on both sides of the divide said they did not know where the country would go next if the two leaders cannot overcome their differences with SADC's help.

The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported that Mr. Mugabe has declared that his main purpose in going to the summit is to ask Southern African leaders to give him a green light to form a government without the participation of Tsvangirai's MDC formation.

ZANU-PF chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa told VOA that this was mere speculation. But he reiterated that the longtime ruling party, which lost control of parliament in March elections, would not meet the demands Tsvangirai has insisted must be met in order for his MDC formation to join a government - especially the equitable distribution of top posts.

The rival MDC formation of Arthur Mutambara has said it would not join without Tsvangirai - but Mutambara has blasted both Tsvangirai and Mr. Mugabe for what he characterized as their irresponsibility for failing to form a government given the country's parlous state.

* VoA

Dlamini-Zuma: Only Zimbabweans Can Resolve Their Problems

Pretoria - Only the leaders of Zimbabwe and not the Southern African Development Community (SADC) can solve the political impasse in the country, South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Friday.

Speaking at a media briefing in the capital, following talks with her Danish counterpart, Dlamini-Zuma said the solution to the power-sharing deadlock in the country lay squarely in the hands of its leaders: Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsvangirai and Morgan Mutambara.

"SADC wants a solution but unfortunately the position is not in SADC's hands... if it was we would be having a solution [by now]. "It is in their hands... they are the only three people [who can find a solution]."

Dlamini-Zuma was speaking ahead of next Monday's SADC extraordinary summit - convened primarily to discuss and help find a solution to Zimbabwe's political and humanitarian situation.

While Dlamini-Zuma said it was hoped a solution would be found, Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Per Stig Moller reiterated that the solution should respect last year's election which saw Movement for Democratic Change leader Tsvangirai trump Zanu-PF's leader Mugabe in the polls.

Moller said he understood it was an African problem which required an African solution and therefore hoped SADC could use its influence to guide the country's leaders.

* News 24

ANCYL President Malema Rape Comments Slammed

Cape Town - An anti-rape group on Friday slammed comments by ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, who suggested that the woman who accused ANC president Jacob Zuma of rape had a "nice time" with him.

The comments were made at a meeting with 150 Cape Peninsula University of Technology students on Thursday afternoon, the Daily News reported.

"When a woman didn't enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money," Malema said.

Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust director, Kathleen Dey said Malema had no right to dictate how a woman who had been raped should behave.

Controversial rape charges were brought against Zuma by HIV-positive "Kwezi", as she identified herself. He was acquitted in 2006 but widely criticised for testifying in court that showering after sex was sufficient protection against infection.

Malema, who has had his own share of controversial statements said that "you can't ask for money from somebody who raped you".

"While I appreciate Mr Malema's wish to defend his party's leadership, his comments unfortunately show a clear disrespect for women and a limited understanding of the complexities of rape." said Dey.

It was a busy day for the notorious Malema. According to the report he also addressed about 1 000 ANCYL volunteers in Nyanga where he defended Zuma against pending corruption charges.
He said the ANC president had done nothing wrong in his relationship with Schabir Shaik.
"How many of you have helped wash a comrade's car or pay their children's school fees. That's how the ANC taught us. It then means we are all corrupt, because that's how we live."

* News 24

Southern African Leaders Prepare for Zimbabwe Crisis Summit

Southern African leaders are to hold a summit in South Africa Monday aimed at reviving deadlocked negotiations over a unity government in Zimbabwe. But parties to the talks are not optimistic saying positions have hardened since a power-sharing agreement was signed four months ago.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, left, and new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pose after signing the power-sharing accord, 15 Sept 2008Zimbabwean leaders continue to express hope that they will reach an agreement and negotiations continue behind the scenes since the Zimbabwe crisis talks ended in a deadlock Monday in Harare.

Yet President Robert Mugabe of ZANU-PF and Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change say they will not compromise further when Southern African leaders meet in Pretoria Monday to try to break the deadlock.

A Professor at England's Kent University, Alex Magaisa, says Zimbabweans are losing hope that the dispute can be resolved by the Southern African Development Community."Zimbabwe has reached a cul-de sac [dead end] with SADC," said Magaisa.

"It's not going to do anything new. I don't think the MDC can expect anything positive that can come out of SADC as far as its interests are concerned. What is there on the table is what is there. I don't think it's going to change."

* VoA

Over Fifty Thousand Cholera Cases in Zimbabwe

Geneva - More than 50 000 people are now infected with cholera in Zimbabwe's epidemic, which has so far killed 2 773 people, the latest figures from the World Health Organisation said on Friday.

Most alarming, according to Red Cross Red Crescent health experts, is a mortality rate of 5.7%, an indication that the outbreak is still far from under control, the IFRC said.

"Overall, this signifies a 20% increase in cholera deaths over the past week and rings alarm bells about the need to push back this epidemic and better fund the humanitarian effort on the ground."

"Because of the severity of this outbreak, we fear that it will take many more weeks to get it under control," said Tony Maryon, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) team in Zimbabwe.

* AFP

De Klerk: Lets the Expatriates Also Vote

Cape Town - Former president FW de Klerk called on Thursday for South Africans living abroad to be given the right to vote in the upcoming national election.

In a letter to the chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Brigalia Bam, De Klerk said it was wrong that prisoners could vote but not citizens living overseas.
"Prisoners in South Africa have this right but somehow South Africans working and staying overseas are denied the constitutionally guaranteed right to vote," he said.

The letter argues that the Constitution gives all citizens an equal right to vote, and that not allowing those who live abroad to cast their ballots, is discriminatory.

South Africans living abroad were allowed to vote in the country's first democratic elections in 1994, but five years later the external vote was severely restricted.

This remained the case in 2004, to the dismay of opposition parties who say it disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of South Africans.

De Klerk urged Bam to reconsider the matter urgently "since immediate steps will have to be taken to register" South Africans living abroad in time for the election.

* SAPA

Obama Tackles Gaza and Afghanistan

Washington - Taking on two of his toughest foreign policy challenges, President Barack Obama pledged to find a new course in Afghanistan and to help Israel achieve a broad peace with the Arab world.

On his second full day in office, Obama on Thursday also sought to reverse one of the most contentious policies of the Bush administration by signing an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorist suspects while leaving undecided how to dispose of unresolved war crimes cases there.

The new commander in chief visited the State Department to underscore a major theme of his young administration: that diplomacy will play a more central role in American foreign policy - not just in seeking peace in the Middle East but also in defending the United States against global terrorist threats.

* AP