LATEST FROM ZIMBABWE

Dear friends

ON 22 January 2009, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum hosted an open meeting on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe. The meeting, which was chaired by the immediate past chairperson of /The Forum/ Noel Kututwa and was addressed by Blessing Gorejena /Programme Lawyer/ with the Forum and Gabriel Shumba of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum reiterated the recent Civil Society’s call on the African Union to take a strong stand on the crisis in Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Civil Society requests to the African Union can be obtained by writing to us.

On 22 January 2009, our member organization, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) issued an alert wherein they advised that newspaper companies have now been licenced to sell newspapers in forex. The Herald now sells for US$1 while the Financial Gazette was being sold for US$2. MISA-Zimbabwe has noted that while this is likely to help media houses to remain viable, it has expressed concern over the fact that the majority of Zimbabweans will be kept in the dark on developments on the socio-economic and political front due to the unaffordablility of the newspapers by the ordinary person.

On 22 January 2009, the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) reported that its leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu had appeared at Bulawayo Magistrate Court for trial on allegations of disturbing peace, security or order of public. We attach the press statement. The matter was postponed to 27 January 2009 for a ruling after the defence lawyer, Kossam Ncube applied for a discharge arguing that demonstrations by their nature are public and are held in public places and will therefore cause some public disturbances. We attach the press statement.