Fresh talks on mending relations between the inclusive government and the European Union have been postponed to a later date, owing to the closure of air space in most European countries.

The six-day airspace shutdown forced the Zimbabwe delegation, which was due in Brussels on Tuesday, to seek alternatives dates. The objective of the trip was to ‘re-engage’ the EU on various issues, including the targeted sanctions against Robert Mugabe and over 200 allies from ZANU PF.

Since 2002 the EU have imposed an assets freeze, travel ban and arms-sale ban on the former ruling party. ZANU PF has been on a constant push for these targeted sanctions to be lifted, but the EU has made it clear that this was not going to happen while serious doubts remain about human rights abuses and the stalling of political reform.

 

Thousands of Zimbabweans have been left stranded at the Beitbridge border post after South African immigration officials refused to recognize a newly introduced Temporary Travel Document. According to reports from the state owned Herald newspaper ‘South African port officials allegedly fired their guns to frighten the affected travellers into crossing back to the Zimbabwean side of the border.’

On the 14th April this year the Registrar General’s office introduced a new Temporary Travel Document, valid for 6 months, arguing it wanted to stop the spread of fake Emergency Travel Documents (ETD’s). Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede convened a press conference at which he hailed the new document as meeting international standards. ‘The new document is machine-readable just like a passport,’ and has ‘invisible marks which can only be detected by the machine at ports of entry,’ he said.