- President Obama spoke by phone yesterday with South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and said Pretoria had an important role to play in helping resolve Zimbabwe’s political crisis. “President Obama emphasized the importance of South Africa’s leadership role as a strong and vibrant democracy in Africa. The two leaders discussed their shared concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe,” the White House said in a statement.
- Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate has spiked to 94 percent, meaning that fewer than half a million people in the country are formally employed, the UN’s humanitarian arm said today. “At close of 2008, only six percent of the population was formally employed, down from 30 percent in 2003,” said a report from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
- And the dire news continues from Zimbabwe as more than half of the country’s population will need food aid in February and March, the World Food Program (WFP) said on Thursday. The WFP said in a statement that it aims to assist 5.1 million people in February while a group of U.S.-sponsored aid organizations plans to assist 1.8 million more people in the southern African country.
-Steve Wilson
- Uncertainty remains over the future of power-sharing negotiations after the opposition said it would not accept the outcome of last weekend’s regional summit.
- Zimbabwe will present its annual budget this week, which analysts expect to contain desperate measures in the wake of economic collapse amid political crisis.
- Cholera deaths in Zimbabwe have climbed above 3000 as the disease now spreads to rural areas.
- Anti-apartheid activist Kumi is going on a hunger strike to pressure the South African government to demand faster political change in Zimbabwe and urge African leaders to isolate the country’s president, Robert Mugabe.
- The European Union has tightened its sanctions against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, EU officials have said. More than 60 individuals and firms with links to Mr Mugabe have been added to a list of those banned from travelling to the EU or doing business there.
- The Center for Global Development authors a memo to President Obama outlining what the new administration can do to restore democracy in Zimbabwe.
- Most schools in Zimbabwe stayed closed yesterday on the first day of term, presaging a second year in a row of almost no education for the country’s children.
- President Obama wants a fresh approach to toppling Robert Mugabe and is discussing with aides an unprecedented, US-led diplomatic push to get tough new UN sanctions imposed against the Zimbabwe regime, The Times has learned. During talks Mr Obama has had with his top Africa advisers in recent weeks, the central idea they focused on was taking the issue of Zimbabwe before the UN Security Council, but for the first time to combine such a move with an intense diplomatic effort to persuade Russia and China not to block the initiative.
-Chris Scott
I read this story in Sunday’s New York Times on children fleeing Zimbabwe “for lives just as desolate” in South Africa, and wanted to share it here on the ONE Blog.
Below are some excerpts but you can read the full piece on their site.
With their nation in a prolonged sequence of crises, more unaccompanied children and women than ever are joining the rush of desperate Zimbabweans illegally crossing the frontier at the Limpopo River, according to the police, local officials and aid workers.
What they are escaping is a broken country where half the people are going hungry, most schools and hospitals are closed or dysfunctional and a cholera epidemic has taken a toll in the thousands. Yet they are arriving in a place where they are unwelcome and are resented as rivals for jobs. Last year, Zimbabweans were part of the quarry in a spate of mob attacks against foreigners….
South Africa’s national police force is exasperated by the crimes… most victims do not file complaints. After all, they are here illegally, unless remaining in the Showgrounds. “Last week, I had 1,500 ready for deportation,” he said.
The captain stood up, walking over to a computer screen. “We keep photos of the refugees killed near the border.”…
Mention of the children seemed to feed his exasperation. “Street kids, more all the time,” he said. “They come in as if they are playing in a game.”
He asked, “What do we do about these kids?”
-Virginia Simmons
The United Nations is reporting today that approximately 2,971 people in Zimbabwe have now died from a cholera outbreak that has afflicted the country. We’ll keep you posted on this and other developments in Zimbabwe here.
Excerpts below, full report here
The U.N. humanitarian office said 2,817 new cases were reported Monday, taking the cumulative number of infections since the outbreak began to 56,123.
The global body said more than one person in every 20 who contract cholera in Zimbabwe is dying of the disease. The usual mortality rate for large-scale outbreaks is 1 in 100.
The outbreak began in August and spread rapidly because of Zimbabwe’s poorly maintained infrastructure and crumbling health care system.
-Chris Scott
As we continue to monitor the situation in Zimbabwe, there are a couple developments today worth noting:
Word has come that South Africa will host a regional summit on Zimbabwe. This announcement follows a failure in talks between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on forming a power-sharing government.
“The summit of heads of state and government is expected to be attended by all (Southern African Development Community) member states,” the South African Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Zimbabwe is a member of SADC and the statement said the MDC was also expected to attend the summit.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, Mozambique’s President Armando Guebuza and Thabo Mbeki, SADC mediator and former South African president, met the two Zimbabwean sides in Harare last Monday but no agreement was reached.
A unity government is seen as the best chance of preventing total collapse in once prosperous Zimbabwe, where prices double every day and more than 2,000 people have died in a cholera epidemic.
Last week the Executive Director of UNICEF Anne M. Veneman visited Zimbabwe to meet with Mugabe and other key stakeholders The discussions “underscored the humanitarian impact on women and children.”
“The cholera outbreak is the tip of the iceberg,” said Veneman, the first head of a UN agency to visit the country in three years. “The economy in Zimbabwe is crumbling, with the highest inflation rate in the world at 231 million percent. Over half the population is receiving food aid, health centers have closed and when the school term starts there is no guarantee that there will be enough teachers.”
The Executive Director visited a cholera treatment clinic and a care center that is part of a UNICEF supported program that helps 250,000 orphans and vulnerable children.
-Chris Scott
As we continue to keep you updated on the volatile situation in Zimbabwe a report released this week by Roll Back Malaria warns that while the threat of cholera remains in the public eye, a malaria outbreak is very possible. With resources being diverted to fight the rise in cholera deaths, Zimbabwe remains more susceptible to malaria deaths.
Excerpts below, full piece here
[Herve Verhoosel of the RBM Partnership] said that “the surveillance system which helped to monitor and control epidemics has broken down throughout much of the country.
“Large malaria outbreaks could therefore take hold rapidly and claim many victims before the necessary steps can be put in place to halt the spread of the disease.
-Chris Scott
Over three weeks have passed since Zimbabwe’s schools were scheduled to reopen after the Christmas break, raising fears that 2009 will be another lost year for education in Zimbabwe. While the government is saying the extra time is needed for teachers to mark last year’s exams, many teachers are refusing to return to work until the government agrees to pay them in foreign currency, as the Zimbabwean currency has become completely worthless. Teachers are demanding US$2,200 a month before they resume work, a demand that was rejected by the government after being put forward earlier this week by a coalition of NGOs and teachers unions.
From the Zimbabwe Standard:
Prospects that the situation would improve next term have been dampened by the prolonged delays in the formation of a new government, analysts said. “The outlook is gloomy,” said ZIMTA(Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association) acting chief executive officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, who confirmed the latest demands by teachers.
“If the political environment does not change in the few coming days, schools are unlikely to reopen next term.” Teacher organisations estimate that up to 30 000 teachers resigned from government to seek employment in neighbouring countries while others turned to the informal sector as the authorities continued to ignore pleas for better pay.
Meanwhile, private schools have been threatened with arrest by the government if they open their doors as scheduled on Tuesday.
The delay follows a tumultuous 2008 school year that was cut short in October, when schools had only been opened for a total of 23 uninterrupted days. This is compared to relatively high attendance rates only a year ago- a recent UNICEF report found that school attendance in Zimbabwe had dropped from 85% in 2007 to 20% by the third term of 2008. The drop was largely a result of the teacher shortages, which began last March after teachers started striking against poor pay and political intimidation around the elections. Attendance rates are also low because children are needed to help parents look for food or work amidst the ongoing economic turmoil.
After years of surviving despite a crumbling economy and autocratic rule, the most recent political upheaval may have struck a final blow to Zimbabwe’s education system, which was once the envy of its neighbors. Although high level talks are scheduled to resume again on Monday, analysts are doubtful that Mugabe will agree to the opposition’s demand that the government release all detained political prisoners.
-Nora Coghlan
