The Conversation Around the world, hundreds of thousands of children are not free. They are deprived of their liberty in settings such as migration holding camps and criminal justice processes. According to the United Nations (UN) Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty, there are about 410,000 children detained in the criminal justice system every
By Mpumelelo Mkhabela Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa threatened to “flush out” his opponents who mounted peaceful protests against the country’s deteriorating political and economic situation. His policy of “flushing out” is reminiscent of the apartheid era of torture, lengthy detentions and disappearances of political opponents. It is also a brutal reminder of Marumbatzvina – Robert
By Jamie Mighti It is time to stop turning a blind eye to what is going on in Zimbabwe, where the government has shown over and over that it is violent and willing to do anything to stay in power, writes Jamie Mighti. Am I my brother’s keeper? This moral question is one that often confronts
By Alex T. Magaisa Lessons from the Farm Mechanisation Scandal The big story this week is the demonstrations which were scheduled for 31 July 2020. It’s the day that the regime blinked first and revealed the extent of its vulnerability and insecurities. However, before we get to that, it’s appropriate to round up the Farm
By Panashe Chigumadzi MOST worryingly for the corrupt and clueless government, even the security forces deployed to crush dissent are suffering. On 20 July, police in Zimbabwe arrested and detained the journalist Hopewell Chin’ono. The prominent investigative reporter had blown the whistle on $60 million corruption scandal in June. They also detained Jacob Ngarivhume, leader
By Panashe Chigumadzi THE political arena in Zimbabwe is a de facto male space in which women play very peripheral and insignificant roles. Author and scholar Panashe Chigumadzi sums the situation up in an op-ed article, writing that It is not the place of women to rule, especially over men. Women who dare to aspire
By Tendai Mazenge The main problem affecting our nation is our silence when everything around us has gone wrong. The political situation in our country is not right. People who dare speak about the evils of our government are abducted, tortured and thrown into prison. We need to stand up against these injustices. I believe
News24 The Republic of Zimbabwe enforced one of the strictest nationwide lockdowns in Africa on Wednesday after the number of active coronavirus cases surpassed the number of recoveries in the country. However, activists and commentators believe the new lockdown measures were introduced in light of the arrest of award-winning Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono and a
TimesLive Under cover of Covid-19, Zimbabwean authorities are preparing to arm the police with state of the art crowd control equipment to “crack down on lockdown violations” although the real agenda appears to be to quash opposition demonstrations. The opposition has called for street protests on July 31st given the deepening economic crisis and perceived
Alex T. Magaisa In 2007/08 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ran a scheme which was ostensibly designed to support commercial agriculture. At the time, Zimbabwe was undergoing a major land revolution, with significant changes in land ownership under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) The government was that the new farmers needed support from
By Alex T. Magaisa IN 2007/08 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe ran a scheme which was ostensibly designed to support commercial agriculture. At the time, Zimbabwe was undergoing a major land revolution, with significant changes in land ownership under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). The government’s view was that the new farmers needed support
By Alex Magaisa This week, I participated in a Zoom Policy Dialogue Forum organised by SAPES, the Harare-based think-tank led by Dr Ibbo Mandaza. The dialogue was moderated by journalist Violet Gonda. My brief was to lead a discussion on constitutionalism and the military. It was a fascinating conversation in which former Minister, Professor Jonathan
By Alex T. Magaisa The Bizarre and the Absurd Zimbabwe has had its fair share of political absurdities but the current year is serving a bizarre and perplexing menu. To appreciate the absurdities of what’s going on in Zimbabwe’s opposition, one must take a brief historical tour of events and circumstances leading to the present
Daily Maverick BUT realising his dream of shared prosperity will be no easy task for Chakwera. He inherits a country deeply divided, politically, regionally and ethnically. Malawi’s newly-elected President Lazarus Chakwera speaks, rather bemusingly, with the accent and cadence of an American civil rights leader, presumably because of his theological studies there in the 1990s.
By Chris Bishop AS I write this a huge load of farm machinery is lurching across the Indian Ocean in the bowels of a transport ship bringing with it a supreme irony. The shipment is part of a plan by a far off country, on the road to Russia, bent on teaching Zimbabwe – a
By Tsepang T. Nare and Abel Mavura Its not just about dreaming that creates a visionary but its the art of one’s dream that creates a leader who is so rare. For a person with a disability (PWD), like any other, has that dream to live a life of dignity, where he/she is appreciated and
Gulf News 34 tonnes of gold is smuggled out of the nation yearly. Gulf News sniffs out the trail HARARE: Still filthy from their work in the mines — clothing sodden with sweat and slime — the men regarded us suspiciously as we walked towards the shallow open pits in which they stood knee deep and panned for gold
Alex T. Magaisa THE first part of this BSR explains the objections to the proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 2 Bill, which is presently before Parliament. I should refer readers to more detailed commentary on this proposed amendment which I did in a series of BSRs in February. The first BSR gave a broad overview of
By Farai Nhende A cursory glance at the history of post independent Zimbabwe provides compelling evidence pointing to the fact that there has been little in the way of organized or galvanized civic action against bad governance, either in its broadest sense or within the ambit of more context specific scenarios of holding to account
By Greg Mills and Ray Hartley If ever there was a time Pretoria needed to show true togetherness with the people of its northern neighbour, it is now. In the early hours of a November morning in 1995 in Auckland, New Zealand, Nelson Mandela roused his foreign minister, Alfred Nzo, and began one of the
