History Matters

Human Rights Watch has just released a new report on Zimbabwe documenting the problems of law enforcement, human rights abuses, political interference in the rule of law that has besieged the country for the last eight years and beyond. Recommendations are also included for future Zimbabwean governments, the SADC community and international donors. This promises [...]

People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) is a community based NGO that has been working closely with refugees in the Cape Town area. PASSOP is chaired by Braam Hannekom, a Zimbabwean who has been living in South Africa for some time, but is fuelled by a small team and many volunteers. The work [...]

Zimbabwe’s parties are close to breaking a deadlock over a power-sharing deal and “history is being made” at talks between President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition MDC said on Wednesday. MDC chief negotiator Tendai Biti, asked by reporters when talks would be concluded, said: “If you pray hard, tomorrow. History is being [...]

States in Transition Observatory, an ongoing project of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), together with Amnesty International is currently hosting a photographic exhibition at Constitutional Hill exhibiting pictures of victims of torture carried out between the 29 March election and the 27 June presidential election run-off in Zimbabwe 2008. IDASA has made [...]

Imraan Baccus – The Mugabe regime did not, as some will argue, start off well and slowly descend into authoritarianism. It was always ruthlessly and violently intolerant of opposition ….

The recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe National Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)  brings renewed hope for a peaceful transition to democracy in Zimbabwe. The road to this historic agreement was a long and painful process. Many are cautiously optimistic.

Ebrahim Fakir – Politics in Zimbabwe, like politics everywhere, is tendentious and fractious, characterized by ideological nuance, policy variation and contending political trajectories, even within relatively coherent political parties. Zimbabwean politics, however, has displayed these characteristics to an unusual degree. It is a sad history …

Thomas Alberts – The implication that the fate of Zimbabwe is tied to the peculiarities of its ruler’s personality is hardly novel nor unique to Zimbabwe, though the word ‘fate’ might not carry the same weight in democracies as it does in dictatorships. But even in democracies, the politics of saving face is underestimated …

The Social Justice Coalition is planning a Mass Rally for Democracy in Zimbabwe to take place on 30th July.