An estimated 78 percent of Zimbabweans are “absolutely poor” a UNICEF report said on Wednesday, in yet another reminder to the country’s ruling coalition to stop bickering and cooperate to rebuild the economy to end mass poverty brought by years of recession and political strife. Painting a grim picture of the situation in Zimbabwe dwarfing the much vaunted success of the Harare power-sharing government in stabilising the economy, the report said a burgeoning HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed many breadwinners to leave large numbers of child-headed families and 55 percent of the population living below the bread line. "Currently approximately 78 percent of the population of Zimbabwe is absolutely poor and 55 percent live below the food poverty line," the UNICEF’s Child-Sensitive Social Protection in Zimbabwe report said.

 

Despite the lack of progress in the unity government the MDC led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is set to travel to Europe later this month, to campaign for the removal of targeted sanctions still in place on Robert Mugabe and his inner circle. The lack of political progress has been cited by both the European Union (EU) and the United States as the key reason behind extending the targeted measures, a step taken by both earlier this year. But an MDC delegation, reportedly to be led by Tsvangirai, is now set to travel to Brussels, the home of the EU commission, to plead for the sanctions to be lifted - the MDC’s latest concession to ZANU PF. According to the MDC’s weekly Changing Times newsletter, Tsvangirai will lead a delegation to Brussels on April 21 to persuade the 27 member EU to “lift the restrictive measures imposed on ZANU PF officials over electoral theft and rights abuses.” The MDC said the sanctions issue is one of the remaining outstanding issues in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that has not yet been resolved at the latest round of talks. The party wrote in its newsletter that “ZANU PF has used the targeted sanctions issue as a bargaining chip,” acknowledging that it has been backed into a corner in an attempt to move the talks forward.

 

Gay Zimbabweans face widespread harassment and some have even been raped by those intending to convert their sexuality, the U.S. State Department said in a discussion of its annual human rights report in Zimbabwe. Gay men were forced into heterosexual acts and lesbian women were raped, sometimes by male relatives, to teach them to change their ways, said Amanda Porter, political officer at the U.S. Embassy in Harare and compiler of the report. "Some families reportedly subjected men and women to corrective rape and forced marriages to encourage heterosexual conduct," she said Tuesday. Homosexuals reported widespread discrimination in 2009, the year under review. But the report notes that the conservative southern African country has long frowned on homosexuality.

Hate speech by politicians against the nation's small gay community fueled social pressures on families, Porter said. And crimes against human rights and sexual abuse against gays were rarely reported to police. "Victims are afraid to speak out," she said. Same-sex acts are illegal in Zimbabwe and while there have been no reported prosecutions related to consensual homosexuality in recent years, the offense carries a penalty of up to a year in jail or a fine of up to $5,000.

 

Thursday 8^th and Friday 9^th April

 

South African President Jacob Zuma's credibility is said to be taking a serious blow over his handling of Zimbabwe’s political crisis, as critics warn that the future of South Africa is also at stake. 'Thembiso Msomi, Political Editor for South Africa’s The Times newspaper, wrote in an editorial this week that Zuma’s credibility is being ‘eroded’, warning that he is on the same path as his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki’s policy of quiet diplomacy and his ‘softly-softly’ handling of Robert Mugabe saw him lose all credibility as an effective mediator in Zimbabwe’s crisis. It was hoped that Zuma, who at the time that Mbeki was being pushed out of office was highly critical of Mugabe, would take a strong stance as the new mediator. But he has instead followed a path of appeasement, putting more energy into lobbying for the targeted sanctions against ZANU PF to be lifted, than forcing the party to share power with the MDC. Msomi wrote that Zuma and the ANC have a worrying ‘schizophrenic’ approach
to his Zimbabwean counterpart, a ‘disorder’ demonstrated by the recent ANC Youth League visit to Zimbabwe. Youth League leader Julius Malema was quoted as saying about five months ago that Mugabe ‘must step down’ because “we need a new president in Zim.” But during his visit this weekend Malema changed his tune: “We salute President Mugabe for standing firm against
imperialists. The reason why they want him to go is because he has started attending to the real issues.”