Africa

The Zimrights chair, Joel Hita was arrested for holding a meeting convening a sensitization meeting with Masvingo residents on their constitutional rights.

A journalist and activist, Zenzele Ndebele narrowly escaped abduction by two unidentified individuals for doing a film entitled Gukurahundi: A Moment of Madness.

State visit by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinegad.

MDC-T Nyanga North legislator Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the establishment of militia bases by ZANU PF for the training of youth militias. He urged the police to dismantle them.

Back in 2008, President Zuma himself said that "a vibrant media is a cornerstone of any democracy". Surely to shift this cornerstone now is to shake the foundations of our young democracy?

According to The Chronicle (13 March 2010), NGOs use their financial backing from foreign governments to lure starving villagers to parties supported by the NGOs. Three local NGOs are said to have trained hundreds of Zimbabweans and infiltrated them to operate incognito in the constitution-making process. NGOs are also called names “Come elections those same agents or lackeys of imperialists could double their operations of campaigning against…” The government intends to promulgate a legal instrument to regulate all organisations involved in HIV/AIDS.

The external threats or restrictive influnences an be described through the description of events that took place, on May 27, 2010; as The Constitutional Parliamentary Committee (COPAC) re drafted the talking points to come up with twenty six areas.

In Zimbabwe the enviroment for civil society remains constricted. Human rights defenders continue to be unjustifiably harrased and unlawfully detained in prisons and the State Media continues to be bias in there reports, despite the noble intentions expressed in the Global Political Agreement to promote openness and tolerance. There is also an increased onslaught of civil society as enemies of the state and lack of progress on the Global Political Agreement.