HR abuser Zim elected vice chair of KP

Zimbabwe has been elected vice-chair of the Kimberley Process for 2023 following a vote held in Moscow in November. Russia is the current chair. The Kimberley Process, which was set up to prevent the flow of conflict diamonds, lost significant credibility when it decided to approve the sale of diamonds from the Marange fields of Zimbabwe, a diamond mining area infamous for its human rights violations.

The atrocities committed by the government-run diamond mines in this area continue to this day, with the most recent reports detailing a culture of corruption, violence and appalling torture.

Conditions for rejoining Commonwealth

In response to questions in the UK House of Lords on 23 November 2021, British Commonwealth Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon said Zimbabwe will only be accepted back into the Commonwealth if the Mnangagwa government ends political persecution and respects the rule of law. He also answered questions about the continued detention of MDC Alliance youth activist Makomborero Haruzivishe and the mounting political persecution under Mnangagwa. Baroness Kate Hoey said: “Zimbabwe will only become a democracy if the people have genuinely free and fair elections. We saw that recently in Zambia”.

Open letter to President Mnangagwa

This week marks four years since the 2017 coup that catapulted Emmerson Mnangagwa to the presidency. In an open letter to the president, a young Zimbabwean warns him that he is “failing to comprehend the task at hand and squandering public goodwill”. He asks: “Are you oblivious to the nature of the core challenges that underscore our nation’s fragility: poverty, unemployment and inequality, however the political cards fall, these tripartite issues should cease to define the lives of the people, they must catalyse common purpose and actions. You seem not to be alive to your responsibilities to those you are meant to serve.”

Zimbabwe’s failures under Mugabe

In the 37 years after Independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe would become one of Africa’s classical “big men”, writes economist and commentator Eddie Cross. As such, Mugabe would not tolerate opposition either amongst his own colleagues or from elements in society which differed with him. The first evidence of this started almost immediately when he ordered the creation of a military unit that became known as the 5th Brigade which was carefully selected from his own tribal group and isolated from the rest of the army… For a useful insight into Mugabe’s strategies, brutal programmes and economic failures, read on.

Amendment reflects ZANU PF fears

In the wake of the landslide victory for the opposition in the recent Zambian election, Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party must be concerned about what might happen in the 2023 elections, writes Tony Reeler, co-convener of Zimbabwe’s Platform for Concerned Citizens. In Zambia, a united front to prevent electoral manipulation was hugely successful and the combined force of civil society and the opposition political parties delivered a massive victory for democracy. The proposed amendments to Zimbabwe’s Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act reflect how deeply the Zanu-PF government fears its citizens, he notes.

Liberation movements are dying

NewsHawks, Zimbabwe’s independent online investigative journalism website, notes that South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC) — the continent’s oldest liberation movement — has for the first time since the 1994 democratic elections — dropped below 50% in local government polls after suffering heavy losses, amid rising social discontent and serious voter apathy. This has brought into sharp focus not just the ANC’s waning popularity, but most importantly, the current state of former liberation parties in southern Africa, including Zimbabwe. It is not only the ANC which is in trouble in the region.