Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has ‘spiced up’ a one day retreat for ministers and parliamentarians, saying talk about holding elections next year were misplaced. Mutambara said that if elections are held next year they would likely produce more people like him, who got into government through the backdoor, as a result of fraudulent elections. The Deputy Prime Minister was giving his closing remarks at a retreat convened by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in Harare on Monday. Tsvangirai had organised the retreat to try and defuse mounting tensions between the ministers and the backbenchers, represented by parliamentary portfolio committee chairpersons and the three parties’ chief whips. Both ZANU PF and MDC-T have indicated that they want elections to be held next year. Robert Mugabe went further to say elections will be held next year with or without a new constitution.

 

Zimbabwe's strict security and media laws criticised by opponents as undemocratic will be relaxed by the end of the year, an official document showed on Monday.

The unity government formed last year by President Robert Mugabe and his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has stabilised the economy but has yet to implement many of its agreed political reforms. The fragile coalition has been marred by policy differences between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) but its new programme sets a target of the end of this year to repeal and amend contentious security and media legislation.

 

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai moved Monday to defuse simmering tensions between ministers and legislators clashing over supposed rudeness and unresponsiveness in parliamentary question time. Political sources said some ZANU-PF ministers asked the prime minister to rein in house members they charge have been asking rude questions. Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu in particular has objected to accusations from members that he has acted less than transparently in his handling of the Marange diamond field. Mr. Tsvangirai told ministers and legislators that Cabinet members had complained that the House was subjecting them to “unnecessary scrutiny and inquiry.” On the other hand, he said, legislators said ministers have either not shown up or been unresponsive to questions.

 

Consumer prices in Zimbabwe picked up 1 percent from January to February - but the 12-month rate remained in negative territory at -0.7 percent due to the significant price declines seen in the first part of 2009. But the flattering effect of early-2009 disinflation is now wearing off month by month - 12-month inflation in January was a negative 4.8 percent. Though prices are generally on the rise, Chief economist Prosper Chitambara of the Labor and Economic Development Institute of Zimbabwe told VOA Studio 7 reporter Patience Rusere that the country is doing well compared with others in the region. Businessman and Affirmative Action Group Matabeleland director Sam Ncube told Brenda Moyo that businesses have shown restraint in pricing. ENDS