Latest from Zimbabwe

Dear friends

With the extra-ordinary SADC Summit having come and gone, political parties are busy responding to the SADC Resolution. Civil Society Organisations have come up with various responses to the SADC Resolution. The South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) described the situation in Zimbabwe as nothing short of passive genocide and called upon SADC to stop supporting and giving credibility to the illegitimate Mugabe regime with immediate effect. The Bishops said failing this, SADC Leaders must accept complicity in creating the conditions that have resulted in starvation, displacement, disease and death for ordinary Zimbabweans. The press statement can be viewed SACBC's website via the following link;
http://www.sacbc.org.za/Site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=203&Itemid=100

On 30 January 2009, our member organisation, the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) issued its Weekly Media Update wherein they highlighted the censorship by the government media of reports of the First Lady Grace Mugabe's violent tendencies following an alleged assault on photojournalist, Richard Jones, in Hong Kong on January 15th as an illustration of the extent to which these so-called news organizations are subject to control by Zimbabwe’s authorities – and why they need to be freed from this grip. We attach the Weekly Update.

On 30 January 2009, our member organisation, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) issued an alert advising that the bail application in the matter of detained executive director of our member organisation, Jestina Mukoko of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) was postponed to 2 February 2009 after the court ruled that the defence should first file a written response on issues raised by the state against her quest to be granted bail. The state is arguing that that no bail application can be made at the stage as Mukoko has not been formally remanded by the court. The alert can be viewed on the following link;
http://www.misazim.co.zw/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=438&Itemid=1

On 28 January 2009, our member organisation, the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) reported that defence lawyer Kossam Ncube had to rush to the High Court during an adjournment to get an order to postpone the trial after Magistrate Msipa hearing a case involving Jeni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu had remained adamant that the trial would proceed despite an application for deferment so that the defence lawyer could be adequately instructed. A related statement issued by WOZA is available on their website;
http://wozazimbabwe.org/

On Wednesday 28 January 2009, the United Nations reported that the Cholera death rate in Zimbabwe was five times higher than in the rest of the world. UN radio reported that while in Zimbabwe every one in 20 people who contracted the disease died, throughout the world the rate for large scale outbreaks was one in every one hundred. The radio further reports that more than 3000 people have died from the disease while over 57000 have been affected. The story can be accessed via the following link;
http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/regions/AF.html

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