Country

By Ignatius Banda*

BULAWAYO , May 22, 2012 (IPS) - Gertrude Mkoloi earns a living harvesting maize on a small piece of land in rural Zimbabwe. Or at least she used to.

Deep in rural Binga, more than 400 km from the country’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, Mkoloi stared blankly at her maize crop, scorched brown by the sun during what was meant to be the rainy season.

"This is what I have for my labour," she said, pointing to charred maize stalks that failed to grow tassels – a cluster of male maize flowers required for pollination.

Tatenda Gumbo & Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye | Washington

The Zimbabwe National Water Authority or ZINWA has begun a national exercise to register boreholes throughout the country as the water crisis continues to affect many in the cities.

Under new rules, the water ministry now requires all borehole owners, including companies, drillers and water bottling companies to have them registered.

Those who want to sink boreholes, companies and individuals alike, will have to apply to get a license from the ministry.

By Madalitso Mwando

Low-rainfall areas of southern Zimbabwe have long been considered suitable for cattle ranching. Yet experts and the Ministry of Agriculture are alarmed by the loss of fodder as rainfall in the region reduces, and are also worried about the impact on the region’s livestock farmers.

Read the full article on AlertNet.

05/21/2012 10:26 GMT

HARARE, May 21, 2012 (AFP) - Zimbabwe's justice minister said Monday that reports of torture and violence against political activists were "lies", during a visit by UN rights chief Navi Pillay.

"There is no state-sponsored violence, these are all lies. We told her that there are no torture chambers in Zimbabwe," Patrick Chinamasa said after an hour-long meeting with the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Officials in Masvingo Province, south-eastern Zimbabwe, have confirmed a fresh cholera outbreak in the sugar-producing town of Chiredzi, which has killed two people since Monday.

About a 100 cases have been recorded, and authorities are blaming the recurrence on serious water shortages.

The outbreak is particularly bad news for the town, which lost more than a dozen lives to the epidemic last year. Health officials have since deployed teams to administer treatment and assess the situation.

HARARE - Zimbabwe's finance minister has ruled out holding elections this year, saying the troubled nation does not have enough money to fund the polls. He blamed the problem on diamond mining firms failing to pay the government its share of revenue.

Addressing journalists in Harare, Finance Minister Tendai Biti said it was essential that the country’s precious stones help turn around the nation’s fortunes. As a result of diamond revenue not reaching the treasury, Biti said, there will be no elections in Zimbabwe this year.

Jonga Kandemiiri | Washington

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network has launched a program to empower electoral administrators in the country ahead of possible early elections that President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF party want held this year, though many believe the polls will only be called next year.

Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe, has expressed shock at the sorry state of Bindura Provincial Hospital where taps are dry and there is only one ambulance. The largest referral hospital in Mashonaland Central also experiences frequent power cuts, which severely affect service delivery.

“I am shocked to be told that they do not have either water or electricity and I wonder how they operate. I am going to talk to the Minister of Water (Sipepa Nkomo) to make sure they drill boreholes here,’’ Khupe said during a recent tour of the province.