Zimbabwe's unity government has suffered its worst blow since its formation a year ago, according to the Movement for Democratic Change and several Zimbabwean political analysts and commentators. President Robert Mugabe has stripped effective power from three ministries, and assigned them to ZANU-PF ministers. University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masungure says the move stripping power from three MDC ministries was a "unilateralist" action and deliberate effort to tempt the party to quit the unity government. He said there was no rational basis for the new law announced by the government on Friday. He said the move was a violation of the political agreement which brought the unity government into power and is designed "to induce the MDC to walk out as they did in October last year." The MDC disengaged from the unity government when its treasurer, Roy Bennett was arrested.

 

Both Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have recently come out with statements indicating they are contemplating new elections next year given the persistent divisions that have plagued their national unity government. Mr. Mugabe made it clear that he saw elections coming in 2011 whether the constitutional revision process now under way is completed or not. But observers say a new round of elections two years after the formation of the unity government may not be in the interest of either leader – Mr. Tsvangirai given the risk of a repeat of the electoral violence and alleged fraud of the 2008 elections, and Mr. Mugabe the risk he might be roundly defeated at the polls. The president and prime minister met Monday in yet another effort to reconcile their wide differences on a growing range of issues – most recently President Mugabe’s move to shift powers from ministers of Mr. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change formation to those of his ZANU-PF party.

 

Lawyers for a top aide to Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Monday told his treason trial he had no case to answer. "We submit that the facts presented by the state are not sufficient enough to have a conviction against the accused," Beatrice Mtetwa told the Harare High Court.

Roy Bennett, the treasurer of Tsvangirai's party, is accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in 2006 in a conspiracy already dismissed by the courts in an earlier case.

A white former tobacco farmer, Bennett was Tsvangirai's pick for deputy agriculture minister in the power-sharing government with Mugabe, formed last year. Bennett was arrested shortly before he was to be sworn in minister and Mugabe has said he must be cleared by the court before taking up the post. "The entire state case is based on fiction...there is absolutely nothing which the accused is expected to respond to at this stage," Mtetwa said. Last month the court struck out evidence from the main witness in the trial after a judge accepted he had been tortured into testifying.

The case continues on Wednesday. ENDS

 

Music by Prudence', an inspiring documentary about a group of handicapped Zimbabwean musicians, scooped the best prize for a short documentary at the 2010 Academy Awards held in Los Angeles, on Sunday night. The documentary is about singer-songwriter Prudence Mabhena and her marimba group Liyana, who offer messages of hope through their music, despite being neglected by family members, discrimination and living in poverty. The Baltimore Sun newspaper wrote: “She suffers from arthrogryposis, a condition that deforms joints and cost her both her legs. But all the band members survived brutal or apathetic treatment at the hands of parents and/or siblings who regarded them as stains on the family's reputation or drags on the family's fortune.”