The Zimbabwean government is worried by the high malnutrition-related death rate which currently accounts for 25 percent of deaths among children under the age of five, said President Robert Mugabe at the launch of The Zimbabwe Food and Nutrition Security Policy in Harare yesterday.

HARARE — President Robert Mugabe today launched Zimbabwe’s food and nutrition security policy calling on the international community to help fund the country’s agricultural sector to improve the food situation in the country.

Officiating at the launch of the country’s food and nutrition security plan in Harare, President Mugabe urged international development partners to support Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector to improve productivity and promote self-reliance.

Seventy-five on 94 senators approved Zimbabwe’s new Constitution a week after the lower house approved the draft. President Robert Mugabe is now set to sign the draft Constitution into law. In a referendum last March, 94% of voters approved the new Constitution, which will replace the one in force since 1980.

Zimbabwe is an example of political commitment and progress in the AIDS response. Although it is one of the countries most affected by the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, with an adult HIV prevalence of 15%, the country has achieved and sustains universal coverage of treatment to prevent mother-to-child-transmission of HIV (93%) and adult antiretroviral therapy (ART) with 95% of adult Zimbabweans eligible for HIV treatment receiving it.

RAY NDLOVU

As an editor and a reporter are charged, journalists are bracing for more arrests ahead of elections.

The arrest of the editor and chief reporter of the Zimbabwe Independent on Tuesday, four days after Zimbabwe marked World Press Freedom Day, has ignited fears of the onset of a wider crackdown against journalists as the country heads towards a high-stakes ­election.

05/09/2013 16:08 GMT

HARARE, May 09, 2013 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's lower house of parliament on Thursday approved a draft constitution that was overwhelmingly endorsed in a March referendum, paving the way for new elections.

"The number of affirmative votes, 156 is not less than two-thirds of the total members of the house," said parliament speaker Lovemore Moyo in the capital Harare.

All the lawmakers present voted in favour of the draft which needed the assent of two-thirds. The rest of the 210-member chamber were absent or have passed away.

Thomas Chiripasi 08.05.2013

HARARE — The European Union (EU) says it is willing to help fund Zimbabwe’s electoral processes as the cash-strapped unity government considers introducing new mining taxes to raises money to pay for this year’s crucial polls.

The EU spoke as the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) admitted today that it is reeling under a severe financial crisis to pay for the voter education exercise.

Tatenda Gumbo

07.05.2013

WASHINGTON — Parents in most parts of the country are fuming after schools sent home hundreds of pupils on the first day of school over unpaid fees.

Some school administrators claimed a ministry memorandum demanded school fees be paid in full before pupils are allowed into classes.

As a result, some parents in Masvingo Province and other areas this afternoon staged demonstrations, complaining the move by headmasters to send their children back home was unfair.

SADC Executive Secretary Dr. Tomaz Augusto Salomão, and the German Ambassador to Botswana & SADC, H.E Mrs Annett Günther, signed, on April 10, 2013, four agreements formalising support from the Federal Republic of Germany to the SADC Region. The agreements, totaling €44.2 million, cover commitments made in 2010 and 2011 under SADC-Germany Cooperation on the agreed focal areas of cooperation which include:

• Transboundary water management;

• Transboundary management and protection of natural resources;

• and Regional economic cooperation.