Unhappy soldiers and police flee Zimbabwe’s misery in droves  ~ Business Day
More than 3500 disgruntled junior officers and police are said to have abandoned Zimbabwe’s security forces over the past two months in protest at poor working conditions and low pay. Junior officers were unhappy with their low salaries and poor working and living conditions, as their superiors remained loyal to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government, said sources in the Zimbabwe National Army and Zimbabwe Republic Police, who preferred anonymity.

ZANU-PF militia re-deployed, violence flares up again ~ Zimbabwe Tribune
Politically motivated violence has erupted again in Zimbabwe following the failure by SADC’s African leaders to break a month-long cabinet posts allocation deadlock between the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). In Epworth, fifteen kilometers southeast of Harare, ZANU-PF militia units redeployed to their torture bases went on the rampage Wednesday, October 29, assualting perceived MDC supporters in the restive, impoverishing township. (more…)

The US volunteer surgical team, Operation of Hope, founded by Dr. Joseph Clawson, will be in Harare offering free surgeries for children and people afflicted with facial deformities. Typical deformities include, but are not limited to, cleft-lip and cleft-palates. To learn about and see samples of these deformities, please visit www.operationofhope.org. All potential cases will be evaluated by Operation of Hope Doctors on Sunday, November 2nd, 8am at the Harare Central Hospital in the pediatric ward.

This visit will be the fourth trip made by Operation of Hope dating back to October of 2006. The surgical team is very excited to once again help those in need and offering some relief to the families of Zimbabwe. If a candidate is selected for surgery, they will be placed on a surgery schedule that runs between November 3rd to November 14th. No age or location rules apply. Anyone from anywhere who can get to the hospital, with a facial deformity will be evaluated free of charge.

Issued by Jennifer Trubenbach, Executive Director, Operation of Hope, Mobile – +263 91 2 723 755, E-mail: jennifer@operationofhope.org

Website: www.operationofhope.org

Operation of Hope Press Release

UN chief hits out at Mugabe over impasse ~ Business Day
Laying the blame for Zimbabwe’s power-sharing impasse squarely at President Robert Mugabe’s door, United Nations (UN) Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that Mugabe had disappointed the international community. The UN chief had been discussing Zimbabwe’s crisis with other leaders and dispatched his senior adviser to Harare. Yesterday he said at a regional summit in the Philippines that Zimbabwe’s crisis talks “have been taking too long”. “I sincerely hope that President Mugabe will no longer disappoint the international community,” Ban said. “He should meet the expectations of the international community.”[...] Referring to a full, emergency SADC summit called for next week, possibly in SA, Ban said: “Now that the SADC has decided to convene their full summit meeting, I hope these leaders — considering their responsibility to see peace and stability maintained in their region — should take very decisive measures to help resolve this crisis.”

Zimbabweans Fighting HIV/AIDS Turned Away As State Clinics Close ~ VOA News
In another blow to Zimbabwe’s tottering health care sector, the opportunistic infections clinics at Parirenyatwa and Harare hospitals in the capital and Chitungwiza Hospitals in the nearby satellite dormitory town have been forced to close their doors after their doctors and nurses joined a widening strike by health professionals. (more…)

‘Tsvangirai won’t attend summit without passport’ ~ ZimOnline
Zimbabwe’s opposition MDC party said on Tuesday its leader Morgan Tsvangirai will not attend an extraordinary summit of the regional SADC grouping that will discuss the country’s stalled power-sharing deal if he is not issued a passport. [...] “We will not travel on an emergency document. It’s an insult,” said Biti, adding that the matter of Tsvangirai’s passport was now a “political issue” and not just a simple case of whether the MDC leader was given the travel document.

MDC contradicts SADC on deadlock ~ The Zimbabwe Times
The mainstream MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai has vehemently denied claims that the current dispute between the party and Zanu-PF has narrowed to only a single ministry. The MDC says the parties are in fact yet to agree on all the 31 ministries proposed in the new power sharing arrangement. This, it says, is among six outstanding issues still to be concluded before the new government can successfully be constituted. “There is an attempt to ignore or overlook these fundamental principles and hence the claim in some circles that only the portfolio of the Ministry of Home Affairs is outstanding,” MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti told reporters at a media briefing in Harare Tuesday afternoon. “Nothing can be further from the truth. The entire gamut of ministries is still open.” (more…)

Fellow Zimbabweans, members of the media fraternity, the Extra-Ordinary Summit of the SADC Organ on Politics Defence and Security Cooperation Troika concluded in the early hours of the 28th of October 2008. In the communiqué released by the Troika, pursuant to this summit, the Troika has decided to refer the Zimbabwe issue to a full summit of SADC which should be held as soon as possible.

On our part, we thank the Troika for yet again sacrificing their time,patience and experience on the issue of Zimbabwe, more particularly,President Monthlante of South Africa and President Guebuzza of Mozambique and every other leader who attended the summit. Zimbabwe is privileged that it can count as friends, countries in the region and distinguished African statesmen such as President Guebuzza and President Monthlante. It is regrettable that the Troika could not narrow the gaps between the Zimbabwe parties. In our view, an urgent summit towards the resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis is paramount. Zimbabweans are suffering and dying. The State has dismally failed to provide the least basic social amenities and our people have been reduced to a primitive mode of production in depths that have not been known even in many warring situations. (more…)

Twenty (23) men and women have been hospitalised and seven (7) arrested after ROHR Zimbabwe demonstrated in Harare today. Four (4) people are missing after having been reportedly abducted by Zanu PF operatives. The four are Moses Mutasa from Hatfield, Tinei Tinarwo from Glen Norah, Mr Ncube from Dzivarasekwa and Adam Muchiriri from Hatfield. (more…)

The drama of the crisis intensifies as the consequences of meltdown that seem to be delayed forever, are now clearly evident. There is a free-for-all in the market place as businesses fight for survival whilst the economy struggles to find a way forward in the chaos.

Probably the single biggest obstacle to some form of immediate relief is the daily cash withdrawal of 50 000 which only buys 8 slices of bread. Entrepreneurs and shady dealers abound feeding off the crisis as they emerge as the only people making money within the collapsing system.

Very few businesses accept cheques now and demand massive protection against inflation within their Zim-dollar pricing mechanism, which places goods at up to ten times the cost of neighbouring countries. This forces the consumer to pay in forex and the irony is that those in formal employment cannot access forex whilst those supported by the diaspora can, and so the tables turn again amid the confusion and the implosion. (more…)

Zimbabwe’s Tsvangirai says no deal just to satisfy mediators ~ AFP
“We don’t want our issues to go outside Africa,” [Tsvangirai] added. “When they (the regional leaders) come on Monday we shall respect them.” But, he said, if the diplomatic moves of the South African mediator Thabo Mbeki, were misdirected, there would be no deal. He said his party had one message for Mbeki: “Quiet diplomacy has its limits, we give him all the respect (but) we may end up abandoning quiet diplomacy when we realise quiet diplomacy is being led for wrong approval.”

Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF warns Tsvangirai ahead of talks ~ AFP
Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF chief negotiator in the power-sharing talks issued a stark warning to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of key talks Monday on a unity government. “If Tsvangirai does not stop campaigning for sanctions against Zimbabwe to further cripple the country’s economy, then we are headed for trouble,” Patrick Chinamasa told AFP. And he warned Tsvangirai against a boycott of the talks, after he failed to attend last Monday’s meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in Swaziland. “We trust that Tsvangirai will not treat Monday’s troika meeting with the same contempt and utter disrespect that he did with the Swaziland meeting,” Another boycott by him will irreversibly strain ZANU-PF’s patience and will be the last straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Chinamasa. (more…)