With the registry office facing a backlog of 280,000 applications, some people have waited close to a year to work or study abroad
Every morning for the past two months Eldah Makuvise, 35, has braved the cold winter mornings to queue for her passport at the local registry office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Each time she’s been sent away in despair.
Makuvise’s application, like others submitted a year ago, is stuck in a huge passport backlog.
Continue reading...Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia call for embargo suspension to allow sale of hugely valuable stockpiles
Southern African leaders have renewed calls for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade as debate over the “unfair” embargo escalates.
At a wildlife economic summit in Zimbabwe, leaders of the five countries that make up the Kavango-Zambezi conservation area – Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola and Namibia – raised the issue ahead of the August conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Continue reading...Police are investigating suspected misconduct involving millions of dollars of funds from donors
Amnesty International has shut down its Zimbabwe branch over alleged abuse of donor funds and fraud by staff.
The human rights group says it has launched further investigations with the help of police into suspected graft and misconduct involving millions of dollars and Amnesty Zimbabwe has indefinitely been placed under administration.
Continue reading...Southern African countries to appeal to watchdog for permission to sell stockpiled ivory worth more than £230m
Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia are making a fresh appeal for a global watchdog to lift restrictive measures on the trade in raw ivory.
The watchdog, Cites, prohibits unregulated commercial trade in endangered species around the world.
Continue reading...Cyclone Idai washed away the crops that survived a savage drought, leaving 70% of the population in dire need of food
Mutemarare, 61, walks through his corn field, desperately looking for remnants of maize.
He’s not expecting to find any, as most of his crop wilted before reaching maturity, the result of the devastating drought that has hit Zimbabwe.
Continue reading...Global lender says the cyclone affected about 3 million people, damaging infrastructure and livelihoods
A strong cyclone that cut a deadly swath through Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe last month is expected to cost the three countries more than $2bn, the World Bank has said.
Early estimates pointed to Cyclone Idai costing $2bn “for the infrastructure and livelihood impacts,” the World Bank said in a statement after a meeting in Washington on Thursday.
Continue reading...Driven by need, tens of thousands of women are risking death, disease and sexual violence to scrape a living in the country’s informal mining sector
On the outskirts of Durban Deep, an abandoned mining town with a labyrinth of underground tunnels long since abandoned by the big gold companies, Elizabeth goes rhythmically about her work.
Grinding piles of rough stones into white, gold-flecked silt on a large concrete slab, the 40-year-old is one of the ghostly dust-covered zama zamas – artisanal miners, mostly illegal – who have turned to scavenging in disused gold and diamond mines across South Africa.
Continue reading...Lawyers say economically stricken country’s purchase of horsehair wigs made in London evokes spirit of colonialism
Lawyers in Zimbabwe have hit out at a government decision to spend thousands of pounds on wigs made in England for local judges, saying the tradition evokes a colonial past that should not exist in modern Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe’s judicial services commission has placed an order for 64 wigs from Stanley Ley Legal Outfitters in London, at a cost of £118,400.
Continue reading...Devastated areas of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi brace for the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera and malaria
Cyclone Idai’s death toll has risen above 750 in the three southern African countries hit 10 days ago by the storm, as workers try to restore electricity and water and prevent an outbreak of cholera.
In Mozambique the number of dead has risen to 446, with 259 dead in Zimbabwe and at least 56 dead in Malawi.
Continue reading...Rescuers race to reach tens of thousands of people trapped by vast areas of flooding
Idai first hit Mozambique on 4 March as a tropical depression with torrential rain that also affected southern Malawi. It then changed course, moving back over the sea where the storm strengthened to a cyclone with the equivalent force of a category 3 hurricane.
Continue reading...Fears situation far worse than official death toll, as communities ‘totally obliterated’
Entire villages have been destroyed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and most of their inhabitants swept away, as rescuers race to save tens of thousands of people trapped by flood waters from Cyclone Idai.
Testimony collected from areas entirely cut off by flooding shows a situation far worse than indicated by official figures, with estimates from some witnesses suggesting that the death toll will reach the thousands.
Continue reading...Workers appeal for more helicopters as flood waters keep rising after Cyclone Idai
Rescue teams in Mozambique are struggling to reach the thousands of people stranded on roofs and in trees and urgently need more helicopters and boats as post-cyclone flood waters continue to rise.
Mozambique, which was hit by Cyclone Idai over the weekend, has declared a state of emergency and is appealing for international help.
Continue reading...Millions from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe affected as houses and roads submerged
The devastating cyclone that hit south-eastern Africa may be the worst ever disaster to strike the southern hemisphere, according to the UN.
Cyclone Idai has swept through Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe over the past few days, destroying almost everything in its path, causing devastating floods, killing and injuring thousands of people and ruining crops. More than 2.6 million people could be affected across the three countries, and the port city of Beira, which was hit on Friday and is home to 500,000 people, is now an “island in the ocean”, almost completely cut off.
Continue reading...More than 1,000 people are feared dead after Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique on Friday. At least 215 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds are missing across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, according to government agencies and the Red Cross, which said 1.5 million people had been affected. A more precise death toll and the true scale of the damage is not likely to be known soon, as many areas are cut off
• Cyclone Idai: more than 1,000 feared dead in Mozambique
The 100mph tropical cyclone has affected 1.5 million people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe
Continue reading...Aerial footage shows the scale of damage to Beira in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai. Up to 90% of the port city has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Red Cross.
Idai hit Beira last week before moving inland and spreading heavy winds and rain to Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 215 people have been killed by the storm across the affected countries, while hundreds more are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the widespread destruction and flooding
Continue reading...President describes scale of disaster as huge, as Red Cross says most of Beira damaged or destroyed
More than 1,000 people are feared dead in a devastating cyclone that hit Mozambique on Friday, the country’s president has said.
Filipe Nyusi told Mozambican radio he had seen “many bodies” floating in the overflowing Pungwe and Busi rivers. “It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths,” he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.
Continue reading...Senior doctors go on strike as president is warned that lack of medicine could lead to collapse of emergency services
A doctors’ strike in Zimbabwe entered its second day on Wednesday with health workers claiming patients in the biggest state hospital are dying due to a lack of drugs and medical supplies.
Dozens of doctors picketed outside Parirenyatwa hospital demanding improvements and claiming government promises to improve the health service had come to nothing.
Continue reading...Relatives of more than 40 illegal workers say there is little chance of saving them
More than 40 illegal gold miners are believed to have died in Zimbabwe after they were trapped deep underground following a flash flood.
Police, engineers and other miners have struggled since Tuesday to reach any survivors of the accident, which took place in the town of Kadoma, 125 miles (200km) west of the capital, Harare.
Continue reading...Chugging through townships, maize fields and scrubland as the sun rises, Zimbabwe’s only commuter train is cheap and reliable – two qualities its passengers cherish in a downwards-spiralling economy
Each morning sleepy travellers walk to the tracks and clamber aboard Zimbabwe’s only commuter train as it prepares to leave the Cowdray Park settlement at 6am and embark on its 12-mile (20km) journey into Bulawayo, the country’s second city.
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