Mwanawasa dies in French hospital

Zimbabwe annual inflation soars

HARARE - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate soared to 11.2 million percent in June, state media reported on Tuesday quoting figures from the central statistical agency.

"Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation surged in June to 11.2 million percent," The Herald reported.

"It gained 9,035,045.5 percentage points from the May rate of 2,233,713.4 percent."

Once a regional economic model, Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis with an astronomical inflation rate and at least 80 percent of the population living below the poverty threshold, often skipping meals and walking long distances to stretch their income.

Minister named in land municipal farm invasion

BULAWAYO - Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, has been named in the controversial invasion of a municipal farm near here by some 3 000 Zanu PF supporters and civil servants in May.

This was revealed by Lillian Kandemiri, a Zanu PF Women’s League official in Bulawayo, who led the invasion of the property just before the presidential election run-off in June.

The allocation of plots on Bellevue Farm, situated 10 km south-west of Bulawayo along the Bulawayo-Plumtree Road, by Kandemiri, apparently with tacit support from the Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial executive, triggered widespread suspicion that the party was hastily dishing out land in a bid to dilute the popularity of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in its traditional stronghold ahead of the run-off.

Zimbabwe a hot ticket for those willing to take risks

LIKE millions of Zimbabweans living abroad, Leslie Maruziva follows the tortuous power-sharing talks going on at home. He wonders about leaving London and going back. But for now, he is unconvinced.

Up to four million Zimbabweans are estimated to live outside the country, in neighbouring South Africa, Mozambique or Botswana, or further afield in Britain, the United States and Canada, while around 13 million remain at home.

If President Robert Mugabe were to step down or agree to share power with the opposition, which boycotted June elections condemned internationally as unfair, many might decide to return to Zimbabwe. But until there are guarantees about the pace and extent of change, most will hold off.

WOULD SOMEONE ELSE HAVE DONE BETTER?

A number of people have been mentioned as possessing the leadership qualities capable of guiding the Zimbabwean ship safely into calmer waters from the choppy seas in which it now seems destined to sink.

Few citizens can now doubt the inevitability of that catastrophe, notwithstanding the positive spin pronounced by the super-optimists on the outcome of the Zanu PF-MDC talks, now entering their umpteenth month.