The MDC has unearthed a plot by the Attorney General’s office and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) to secure convictions against MDC MPs in a bid to reverse the MDC majority in Parliament.

Deputy Attorney General, Johannes Tomana is leading the plot in which the Zanu PF regime is planning to secure convictions and lay more trumped-up charges against MDC MPs to reverse our majority in Parliament.

This week five MDC MPs were arrested in Harare during the opening of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe.

Four of them, Pearson Mungofa, the MP for Highfield East, Eliah Jembere, Epworth; Bednock Nyaude, Bindura South and Trevor Saruwaka, Mutasa Central are still in police custody. They were denied bail.

Hon Nyaude was granted bail by a Bindura magistrate but the State has appealed.

Via an MDC Press Release.

Zimbabwe Lifts Ban on Aid Groups, but Its Effects Linger (New York Times)

Zimbabwe lifted an almost three-month-old ban on the work of aid groups on Friday. [...] The effects of the aid restrictions will linger. The United Nations World Food Program had planned to feed 1.7 million Zimbabweans next month, but was unable to deploy its partners on the ground, the suspended aid groups, to identify and register the needy this month. “We will not be able to reach most of those 1.7 million people,” said Richard Lee, a spokesman for the World Food Program. “We will try to reach as many as possible, but we haven’t even begun to do the essential preparatory work.”

Mugabe party says it will not yield to new opposition demand: report (AfricAsia)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s party has rejected new demands by the opposition following meetings with South African mediators to get power-sharing talks back on track, state media said Saturday. “The only new but absurd suggestion from the MDC was that the cabinet be co-chaired by President Mugabe and Tsvangirai,” state daily The Herald quoted a source by Mugabe’s ZANU-PF as saying, referring to MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. “ZANU-PF dismissed the suggestion, not just as insolent, but also stunning ignorance on how government works.”

Mbeki urges Zimbabwe negotiators to end talks (SABC)
President Thabo Mbeki has told Zimbabwe’s negotiating parties that the continent is pinning its hopes on them to find a speedy resolution to the political crisis in their country. Talks to secure a power sharing deal continued in Tshwane yesterday.

The Minister: Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare

Re: Humanitarian Crisis: Urgent Need For Food Aid In Zimbabwe

Reference is made to your letter to all non-governmental organizations involved in humanitarian distribution of food in Zimbabwe instructing them to stop food aid.

Further reference is made to your letter dated 12 June 2008 seeking to clarify your earlier letter, in which you allowed very few Non-Governmental Organizations to carry out food distribution mostly to persons with certain medical conditions and supplementary feeding programs for children.

On the 21st of July 2008, the three parties in the SADC dialogue signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which among other things addressed the humanitarian crisis under section 10.1 (d), as follows;

“The parties agree that, in the interim, they will work together to ensure the safety of any displaced persons and their safe return home and that humanitarian and social welfare organizations are enabled to render such assistance as might be required.” (more…)

Visit the festival page here. It’s all about braais, music, sadza, beer etc – and raising money for Zimbabweans in need. Tickets are £20 in advance or £30 at the gate.  Tickets are also available from various outlets (see website for details).

Press Release from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition:

Heavily armed police officers stormed a meeting of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, in Harare hotel around 12:30 [yesterday] afternoon disrupting proceedings of an Annual General Meeting (AGM) of its membership, gathered for the administrative business of electing new office bearers.

This happened as South Africa’s president Thabo Mbeki, mediator in Zimbabwe’s power-sharing talks, arrived in Zimbabwe for what is expected to be a next leg in his efforts to enforce an unpopular government of national unity.

“They are being very rough, and unreasonable. They are threatening us with arrest and saying that our gathering is illegal”, said Elinor Sisulu, a spokesperson of the group. “This whole attack of civil society flies in the face of the provision the memorandum of understanding of which says that there should be an environment in which social welfare organizations, of which Crisis has a sizeable members who are gathered here today, should be enabled to carry outs their activities without intimidation”. (more…)

‘Nothing will stop Mugabe forming new govt’ (ZimOnline)
[Bright Matonga] told the media: “Nothing is going to stop us from forming a new government. We need to move forward, we need to make sure that Zimbabwe regains its status, we need to work on the economy. People are suffering.” The deputy information minister, who dismissed the MDC as “not serious at all”, claimed Mugabe was given permission by Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders to form a government after Tsvangirai refused to sign a power-sharing deal that was endorsed by the bloc’s leaders at a summit in South Africa.

Listening for the trucks that will bring the food in Zimbabwe (IRIN)
Hungry residents of a village in Masvingo Province, in southeastern Zimbabwe, have acquired an unusual skill: they have learnt to listen for trucks carrying food aid. Elijah Banguza, 69, has become the village expert and can now identify vehicles by their sound, long before they appear on the road used by government and non-governmental organisation (NGOs) trucks. The villagers are waiting for the grain the government promised them, but aid agency trucks have not come down the road since a ban was imposed on NGO operations in June. (more…)

Opposition won’t join Mugabe’s government (ZimOnline)
Zimbabwe’s opposition said on Wednesday it will not join any government formed by President Robert Mugabe before conclusion of negotiations meant to bring the country’s feuding political parties into an all-inclusive government of national unity. [...] “It’s very clear that if he announces the new Cabinet it’s a declaration of war against the people. You can’t just have a Cabinet without a mandate,” said Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, urging the 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader to wait for the conclusion of negotiations.

Mugabe to name Zimbabwe cabinet despite opposition: minister (AFP)
Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will defy the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and form a new government, deputy information minister Bright Matonga said Thursday. “Nothing is going to stop us from forming a new government,” Matonga said in an interview on public broadcaster SA FM. “We need to move forward, we need to make sure that Zimbabwe regains its status, we need to work on the economy,” he said.

Security strongmen put pressure on Mugabe (The Star)
President Robert Mugabe is under pressure from his top military and security advisers to form a government on his own, and ignore the power-sharing talks between his ruling Zanu-PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Intelligence sources said on Wednesday that after Mugabe’s humiliation when he was heckled and harassed by MDC MPs while opening parliament on Tuesday, angry advisers had told the 84-year-old leader to immediately form a government without Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC.

(more…)

Mugabe to name new cabinet, says last was ‘worst in history’ (NewZimbabwe.com)
Robert Mugabe will form a new government soon but he says the main opposition MDC does not want to join the new administration, state media reported on Wednesday.

“We shall soon be setting up a government. The MDC does not want to come in apparently,” the state-owned Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe as telling government officials on Tuesday after opening Parliament. [...]

Mugabe said: “The MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) does not want to come in apparently. This time they have been promised by the British that sanctions would be more devastating, that in six months’ time the government will collapse.

“I do not know when that day will come. I wish (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai well on that day.”

Mugabe ‘to form government alone’ (BBC)
Our correspondent says Mr Mugabe was speaking in bullish mood about forming a government after being booed an jeered by at the opening of parliament by opposition MPs. He looked annoyed and raced through the final lines of his speech and it must have been humiliating for him, as the speech was broadcast live on national television, she says. (more…)