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......His mother, he says, built the 700-pupil local school, his father sat on the local council, and whenever his black neighbours need helping out - be it a fellow farmer borrowing a tractor, or the local police borrowing fuel for their cars - it is his door on which they knock. ....He has already handed over another farm he owns to a group of black settlers who turned up in 2006, since when, he says, he has done his best to be neighbourly. He helps prepare the land for cultivation and offers advice when they need it, although driving through...

COTONOU, Benin (AP) -- More than a hundred thousand people in the tiny West African nation of Benin have lost their savings in a Ponzi scheme run by a now-defunct company that appeared to be publicly endorsed by the country's president. The government said in a statement last month that more than 130,000 people gave their savings to Investment Consultancy and Computering Services. Together they lost more than $130 million, the statement said. The corporation was registered as a nonprofit computer service company and was operating illegally as a banking institution. ICC was forced to close July 1, and more...

When it comes to any analysis of the problems facing Africa, Western society, and particularly people from the United States, encounter a logical disconnect that makes clear analysis impossible. That disconnect is the way life is regarded in the West (it’s precious, must be protected at all costs etc.), compared to the way life, and death, are regarded in Africa. Let me try to quantify this statement. In Africa, life is cheap. There are so many ways to die in Africa that death is far more commonplace than in the West. You can die from so many things--snakebite, insect bite,...

When stories are told about African poverty, race often seems to play a large part. Based in Senegal, Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly (previously featured here for his work in DR Congo) traveled to South Africa earlier this year and visited one of a growing number of squatter camps populated mostly by Afrikaners - white South Africans - to document their stories and help show that, despite the fact that impoverished blacks in the region far outnumber whites, poverty is a human issue, not necessarily racial. O'Reilly: "While most white South Africans still enjoy lives of privilege and relative wealth, the...

ZIMBABWE'S coffee production has hit a record low since Independence following the chaotic land reform exercise that reduced coffee growing estates to four from 120. Statistics gathered after a high level coffee stakeholder conference held last week in Mutare show that organic coffee production mostly in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands pl-unged to 300 tonnes in 2010 from a peak production of 15 000 tonnes in 1990 when farmers raked in US$37,5 million from sales. Production has been in freefall for the past 10 years, signalling a threat to the livelihood of both commercial and communal farmers ... Today the coffee sector...

Cape Town - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is stockpiling arms and ammunition and preparing for war, the Democratic Alliance warned on Thursday.... ..."Mugabe is [also] talking to Venezuela, Cuba and Korea to fund a war-chest in preparation for the referendum and election, following the implementation of the global political agreement (GPA) brokered by former president Thabo Mbeki on behalf of SADC."... ...James said Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party appeared to be "mobilising for war against their own citizens"....

ENTEBBE, Uganda (AFP) - Africans must travel to the moon to investigate what developed nations have been doing in outer space, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday. "The Americans have gone to the moon. And the Russians. The Chinese and Indians will go there soon. Africans are the only ones who are stuck here," Museveni said, addressing a meeting of the Uganda Law Society in Entebbe. "We must also go there and say: 'What are you people doing up here?'."

Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has said the new unity government is broke and can not meet trade union demands for higher wages. Mr Tsvangirai said no state worker, including President Robert Mugabe, was earning more than $100 (£67) a month. The unions have called for a monthly minimum of $450 and threatened to go on strike if their demand is not met. "This government is broke, and we are only able to pay the $100 allowance," Mr Tsvangirai told the crowds

Zuma’s blueprint for governance accords fairly closely with the descriptions of early anthropologists: like any African king, he will rely on the counsel of wise advisers. This worries Mosiuoa Lekota, the former ANC hero and now a leader of the breakaway Congress of the People. He points out that the Communist party and its allied trade unions played a critical role in the overthrow of Mbeki and believes the left now controls the ANC. “Even Zuma has said as much,” Lekota noted. “He told the ANC national executive, ‘I owe nobody anything here. The only people I will consult beyond...

When Daleen Joubert heard last week's promise that Zimbabwe's new Government would protect the country's remaining white farmers, she and her husband Willem dared to believe that their ordeal could soon be over. ... On the evening of last week's pledge by Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister in Zimbabwe's coalition Government, to “arrest any further farm invasions” the locks on their farm gate were smashed, the door to Mrs Joubert's elderly father's home was broken down and its contents taken out and dumped. The police, who had taken part in the eviction, left a message for Mr and Mrs Joubert,...

HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe and a longtime opposition leader-turned-finance minister made an unusual joint appeal Thursday for $5 billion (euro3.66 billion) in international aid to revive Zimbabwe's shattered economy. The two men presented an economic recovery program that scraps the stringent price controls which have fueled a black market and spiraling inflation. It also sets up "safety nets and social protection for vulnerable groups exposed to market forces," Finance Minister Tendai Biti said, without offering details. The longtime opponents disagreed, however, over the causes of the country's economic meltdown. Biti said Zimbabwe had to do its part by...

A secret plan has been hatched by by Robert Mugabe's most loyal supporters to evict the last of Zimbabwe's white farmers from their land before his 85th birthday. Their leader is already planning to celebrate the occasion with vast quantities of champagne and caviar, despite half his country facing starvation. But just in case the Bollinger laid on for President Mugabe's 85th birthday does not provide quite enough fizz, his acolytes are preparing an extra surprise for the occasion - a fresh onslaught against Zimbabwe's last white farmers. Police, prosecutors and magistrates loyal to the Zimbabwean president are understood to...

It is the 85th birthday of President Mugabe this month and the zealots of his Zanu (PF) party are determined that it should be an occasion that their great leader will never forget. In recent days they have been out soliciting “donations” from corporate Zimbabwe and have drawn up a wish list that is scarcely credible in a land where seven million citizens survive on international food aid, 94 per cent are jobless and cholera rampages through a population debilitated by hunger. The list includes 2,000 bottles of champagne (Moët & Chandon or '61 Bollinger preferred); 8,000 lobsters; 100kg of...

<p>HARARE -- Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.</p>

Zimbabwe's central bank will introduce a $50 billion note -- enough to buy just two loaves of bread -- as a way of fighting cash shortages amid spiraling inflation. Zimbabwe is grappling with hyperinflation now officially estimated at 231 million percent, and its currency is fast losing its value. As of Friday, one U.S. dollar was trading at around ZW$25 billion. When the government issued a $10 billion note just three weeks ago, it bought 20 loaves of bread. That note now can purchase less than half of one loaf. Realizing the worthlessness of the currency, the RBZ has allowed...

Zim cholera death toll tops 1 100HARARE, ZIMBABWE Dec 18 2008 13:03The death toll from a cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe has soared to 1,111, the United Nations said on Thursday, adding to pressure for a quick solution to the crisis in the Southern African country. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma backed a diplomatic push as the way to end political deadlock and rejected any suggestion of sending troops. The latest cholera figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva included a new outbreak in Chegutu Urban in Mashonaland West, west of Harare, where...

Zimbabwe's highways are littered with police checkpoints, which is discomforting for foreign journalists working there illegally. But they are simply a pretext for extracting food or money from drivers. “What are we having for Christmas?”, one policeman asked The Times. “I'm hungry,” another said bluntly. A third threatened to issue me with a ticket for stopping a yard past the point where he was standing. He then said that my companions - hitch hikers - were “unlawful passengers”. Eventually he backed down, but a black driver would have had to pay. More alarming was when I was flagged down by...

BINDURA, Zimbabwe (Reuters) – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Saturday he would not allow a unity government to reverse his controversial policy of seizing white-owned farmland and giving it to blacks. Speaking at his ZANU-PF party's annual conference, Mugabe said that while he hoped the opposition would agree to form a coalition government, he would not compromise on policies such as land seizures, which critics say wrecked Zimbabwe's economy. "We don't want a unity which is retrogressive," Mugabe told about 6,000 ruling party supporters at this town about 80 km (50 miles) north of the capital Harare. "The biggest...

From The Times December 18, 2008 President Kgalema Motlanthe takes swipe at UK over Robert Mugabe Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg South Africa, the only country with real influence in Zimbabwe, yesterday distanced itself from growing international calls for Robert Mugabe to step down. President Kgalema Motlanthe instead took a swipe at Britain for seeking to impose its will on its former colony and clung to the hope that a moribund power-sharing agreement would be revived and implemented this week despite the main opposition's repudiation of the deal unless real concessions are made. Asked how bad things had to get before...

Harare - While Zimbabwe's government was backtracking on President Robert Mugabe's denials about his country's cholera outbreak, one minister was accusing Britain of 'planting' the cholera in Zimbabwe's soil to achieve 'genocide.' Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu also accused what he called 'gun-boat' Western media outlets of passing off photos of victims of conflict in other parts of Africa as Zimbabwean cholera victims. 'They take photos of people dying in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Darfur (Sudan) and say these are cholera victims from Zimbabwe. CNN please stop those pictures,' he appealed. Ndlovu was addressing a government press conferences...

Zanu-PF leader Robert Mugabe's government backpedalled Friday on his claim that Zimbabwe had defeated cholera, after the remarks sparked an international outcry, including comparisons with Hitler. In a nationally broadcast speech, Mugabe claimed on Thursday that "there is no cholera", even as the United Nations announced the death toll was nearing 800. "I am happy to say our doctors have been assisted by others, and WHO [the World Health Organisation] and they have now arrested cholera," Mugabe said. His spokesperson, George Charamba, said in the state newspaper the Herald that the president had spoken with "sarcasm", and accused Western media...

In Zimbabwe, these days, if you do not die from the cholera you may just find a swifter death. But in spite of the former “breadbasket of Africa” having become the poorest nation in the world with a four digit inflation index, in spite of brutal repression, blatant human rights violations, murder, and rape the United Nation’s infamous Human Rights Council is obsessed with Israel and its right to defend itself against terror… With thousands of people dying of cholera (because hospitals are bankrupt and have no supplies) with no relief in sight, with no sign from Mugabe that he...

With sewage running in the streets of Zimbabwe, children playing in standing water, no way of boiling water, no chlorine, shortages of medicines and everything from forks and spoons to professionals and volunteers, we are watching Zimbabwe die a slow and horrible death.

Play Video Video: Zimbabwe cholera death toll rises Reuters Play Video Video: Elders on Zimbabwe crisis BBC HARARE, Zimbabwe – Police wielding guns and riot sticks skirmished with unarmed soldiers in Zimbabwe's capital Monday, after frustration over unpaid wages touched off a riot. Police took away one civilian hit by a bullet. Trouble began when soldiers attacked money changers and stole cash after being unable to draw their wages at banks. Zimbabwe's dire financial situation has triggered a cash shortage, making it impossible for people to get access to enough money to survive. Associated Press reporters watched as hundreds of...

The African National Congress, under pressure over the amount of land still in white hands, called on Sunday for the scrapping of laws allowing farmers to set a price for land to be redistributed to black South Africans. "The willing-buyer/willing seller clause has to be abandoned," said a statement after South Africa's governing alliance held a summit to review economic policy driving the country forward after elections in 2009. ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the current situation where 87% of the country's land still resided in the hands of 50 000 white farmers, 14 years on from the end...

Dear Family and Friends, The October clouds are gathering over Zimbabwe and darkening skies tease us with promises of rain every afternoon. Its a brutally hard time of year. Searing heat, scorched ground and a desperate shortage of water makes it almost impossible to keep anything going. And yet, as the clouds get darker, heavier and lower the time of renewal is almost upon us and the signs of the new season are all around us. Bright yellow weaver birds with deep black face masks are busy weaving strips of grass into intricate nests which they hang upside down from...

Dear Family and Friends, If you come first in a running race, why would you give ninety-nine percent of the gold medal and prize money to the person who came second? The answer is obvious but as each day passes it seems the real winner, and the will of the majority of Zimbabweans is not going to be respected. The people and political party who came second in Zimbabwe's March 29th elections are simply not going to step down and their refusal to accept defeat has sent us into a dizzying collapse out of all control. The rich are getting...

Shiny brown seedsSaturday 30th August 2008 Dear Family and Friends, It's a noisy afternoon as I sit writing this letter. The Msasa trees are throwing out their seeds in preparation for the new season. Every few seconds another pod loses control and cracks. There is a distinct click and then the pod splits, curls and falls onto the hard, dry ground, scattering shiny brown seeds into the dust. Summer is almost upon us and change is in the air. Smoke is also in the air as yet again uncontrolled fires burn in every direction and on every horizon but we...

Dear Family and Friends, Our days and weeks blur into ongoing nightmare as we reel from one crisis to another. I'm not talking about the politics of our country where talks have either collapsed or stalled, or become corrupted - at this time it's not really clear what is happening. The only hint we are getting that any chance of a deal or coalition between the two main parties is collapsing, is the barrage of blaming and finger pointing against Mr Tsvangirai that is being aired by the State controlled ZBC radio and television. The crisis that I'm talking about...

Dear Family and Friends, The will of the people. It is impossible to believe that 140 days after Zimbabwe voted for an MDC Parliament and an MDC President the will of the people has yet to be accepted or implemented. After nearly five months we remain locked in a truly horrible state without sworn in legislators, without a parliament and without legitimacy. Everything around us is falling apart so fast now and yet the people and party in power for the last twenty eight years simply refuse to go. The electricity is now off more than on - in my...

Letter from Zimbabwe sent by John Winter I reckon that these are the last days of TKM and ZPF. The darkest hour is always before dawn. We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next… I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when 100 riot police came in with AK47's and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was "too close to the airport", so we are feeling extremely insecure...

Once, albinos used to seek shelter from the sun. Now they have gone into hiding simply to survive, after a series of killings linked to witchcraft. In Tanzania, 25 albinos have been killed in the past year. The latest victim was a seven-month-old baby. He was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor peddling the belief that potions made from an albino's legs, hair, hands, and blood can make a person rich. Sorcery and the occult maintain a strong foothold in this part of the world, especially in the remote rural areas around the fishing and mining regions of Mwanza,...

Land reform in South Africa is a key ANC policy but it is going badly wrong. Rosie Goldsmith, Reporter for Radio 4 Crossing Continents, met black claimants and white farmers who are caught in the struggle over land. Bernhard Mojapelo is university educated, with a good job in the city. But his main passion in life is for a vast stretch of barren rural scrubland. Thanks to South Africa's land reform, he and his tribe have been able to lodge a claim for it. "Land is a source of life," Bernhard says. "When we were dispossessed and driven away from...

Nigeria has earned the equivalent in today's terms of nearly $1.2 trillion from oil production over the past four decades, the sort of money that enabled oil-producing Gulf states like Qatar to develop some of the strongest economies in the Arab world. But its four state-owned refineries are not fully operational, largely due to mismanagement and vandalism, its distribution network is chaotic, and it relies heavily on fuel imports, which cost around $4 billion each year.

may not be surprising that, as befits any mad dictator, President Mugabe is now the proud owner of a palatial £4.5 million mansion in Harare and a similarly lavish country hideaway, each fitted with the latest electronic security systems, including anti-aircraft missiles. But why should all this have been provided for him by the People's Republic of China? The explanation lies in a deal struck in 2005 whereby Mr Mugabe handed over to China his country's mineral rights, including the world's second largest reserves of platinum, worth £250 billion.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- Zimbabwe's troubled central bank introduced new $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy. The new bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were already on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday. As high as they are, though, the new bills still aren't enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can only buy four oranges. The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate...

Zimbabwe’s EnablerBy Brett D. Schaefer and John J. Tkacik, Jr.The Heritage Foundation | 7/17/2008 For decades, China has been a stalwart ally of Robert Mugabe. This relationship began in the 1970s, when China armed Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) guerrillas against white rule in Southern Rhodesia.[1] Subsequently, it was no surprise when China and Russia vetoed a July 12 United Nations Security Council resolution to sanction Mugabe and key figures in his government for their role in unleashing a campaign of violence and intimidation that forced opposition presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangarai to withdraw from last month's Zimbabwean run-off...

  Private jets, Bugatti cars, a shark-filled aquarium and enough bank accounts to paper the new luxury yacht - the extraordinary capacity of some African leaders and their families for apparent self-enrichment has been laid bare in a French lawsuit over allegedly stolen state money. Following an inquiry last year by the French fraud body OCRGDF, an anti-corruption campaign group has accused a string of African politicians of plundering vast sums from the often struggling economies of their countries. (edit)The richest parts of France are teeming with homes, cars, boats and other expensive baubles belonging - in practice, at...

Britain and the US have condemned Russia and China for vetoing a draft UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the veto was incomprehensible. The US said it brought into question Russia's reliability as a G8 partner. Zimbabwe and its main ally South Africa welcomed the result. Zimbabwe's Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the resolution as a Western plot and welcomed its rejecton.... There has been growing international criticism of Zibabwe since the re-election of Mr. Mugabe in a run-off boycotted by the opposition. The opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement...

Breaking news. Nothing follows other than background on Mugabe...as of yet.

http://www.un.org/webcast/

Dozens of teenage girls have been made pregnant after being taken into the bush and raped in torture camps by President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia operating near Mudzi, a town 100 miles northeast of Harare, human rights workers allege. Amid the continuing chaos, there are as yet no clear statistics, but the sharp rise in teenage pregnancies seems almost certain to have been repeated elsewhere in rural districts. Some of the victims will have contracted HIV-Aids, which has ravaged Zimbabwe for years and helped reduce average life expectancy to 34 for women, the lowest in the world. ... There are...

ZIMBABWE'S government said today that the G8 leaders' rejection of President Robert Mugabe's legitimacy and threats of financial measures against his regime are racist and an insult to African leaders. "They want to undermine the African Union and (South African) President Mbeki's (mediation) efforts because they are racist, because they think only white people think better," said Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga. "It's an insult to African leaders," Mr Matonga said. Mr Matonga insisted that Mr Mugabe, elected last month in a widely denounced one-man vote, was the southern African nation's rightful leader. The party has often said Mr Mbeki...

Robert Mugabe has taunted Gordon Brown over the suggestion that British companies will have to reconsider doing business in Zimbabwe. Speaking at a rally after he arrived back in the country from an African Union summit in Egypt, Mr Mugabe targeted the Prime Minister, who has refused to recognise the octogenarian as Zimbabwe's legitimate leader after last week's uncontested presidential poll. "The British are threatening to withdraw their companies," Mr Mugabe said. "We say: The sooner you do it the better. Please Mr Brown, withdraw all your companies from Zimbabwe." Lord Malloch Brown, the Foreign Office minister with responsibility for...

Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has rejected forming a unity government if he is not recognised as the winner of presidential elections. African leaders called for a unity government days after Robert Mugabe won a run-off boycotted by the opposition. Mr. Tsvangirai, who won the first-round vote, said the African Union should appoint another mediator to join South Africa's leader Thabo Mbeki. Earlier, a spokesman for Mr. Mugabe welcomed the AU call for dialogue....... Mr. Tsvangirai said the resolution did not acknowledge the illegitimacy of the 27 June run-off vote. "The resolution endorses the concept of a government of national...

HARARE, July 1 (Reuters) - Armed groups attacked and seriously wounded at least three white farmers in Zimbabwe after last Friday's run-off presidential election, a farmers' union said on Tuesday. Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said the farmers were abducted, assaulted and thrown off a moving vehicle in Chegutu district, 100 km (62 miles) west of Harare. "Serious injuries have been inflicted on all three, all of whom have sustained serious head injuries," it said in a statement.

Ben Freeth did not expect to be alive today.

Ben Freeth did not expect to be alive today. Just after midnight this morning, the white farmer was lying face down next to a bonfire, beside Mike and Angela Campbell, his wife's parents. He had no idea where his own three small children and his wife, Laura, were, only that a marauding band of loyalists from the ruling ZANU-PF party was hitting all the white farms in their district near the town of Chegutu, about 60 miles southwest of Harare. The three had been abducted from their farm by an armed gang and brought to their base. By midnight, they...

Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe 'a hero', say African leaders By David Blair, Diplomatic Editor Last Updated: 8:47PM BST 30/06/2008 African leaders gathering for a summit have greeted President Robert Mugabe as a "hero", dashing hopes that Zimbabwe's regime would come under immediate international pressure. President Omar Bongo of Gabon, who has held power for 41 years and won a series of widely criticised elections, gave his public backing for Mr Mugabe as leaders met in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. "He was elected, he took an oath, and he is here with us, so he is President and we cannot...

With pomp, ceremony and a massive dose of defiance, His Excellency Commander Robert Gabriel Mugabe was yesterday sworn in as Zimbabwe's president. Inside the oak-panelled rooms of State House, as fighter jets roared overhead, he declared himself winner of an election in which he was the only candidate. Even before he took the oath, he had set in motion bloody recriminations against those who worked against him. Secret documents outlining the strategy against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have been seen by the Mail. They reveal that, in the runup to the polls, Mugabe had plotted to 'eliminate MDC...