By Ignatius Banda

In 2008, bread cost 35 million Zimbabwean dollars and the country began printing large bills like this 100 billion dollar one. / Wikicommons

BULAWAYO, Jan 26 (IPS) – From downtown shops that stock cheap clothing and shoes that fall apart after one wear, to mining concessions in platinum, gold and diamonds – the [...]

By Stanley Kwenda

Francis Tachirev, a fruit seller in Zimbabwe lives in fear of the local police confiscating his goods. / Stanley Kwenda/IPS

HARARE, Jan 19 (IPS) – There are some unlikely comparisons between the work lives of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller who sparked the Arab revolution, and Francis Tachirev, a fruit seller in [...]

By Ignatius Banda

Many Zimbabweans have shunned formal employment. / Stanley Kwenda

BULAWAYO, Jan 18 (IPS) – Tinashe Zuze’s story is a typical one of Zimbabwe’s professionals who have shunned formal employment. Instead of working for someone else, Zuze left his job as a bank teller and entered into the world of "wheeling and dealing" [...]

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Oct 31 (IPS) – As concerns deepen about the quality of education in Zimbabwe, parents can expect an indefinite extension of subsidising teacher salaries as the cash- strapped government struggles to meet the bloated civil service wage bill.

Teacher incentives – a stipulated amount of usually between two to five dollars, which is [...]

By George Nyathi

Zimbabwe's Justice and Legal Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa. / George Nyathi/IPS

HARARE, Oct 10 (IPS) – Zimbabwe’s justice minister is frantically trying to fend off probes into allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe’s regime since the country’s independence in 1980.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa, a member [...]

By Ignatius Banda

High import and customs tariffs have become a huge stumbling block for second-hand clothes traders. / Ignatius Banda/IPS

BULAWAYO, Jul 28 (IPS) – It is becoming increasingly difficult for second-hand clothes traders like Susanne Jabavu to do business because of rising costs to import bales of clothing from neighbouring countries.

As government attempts [...]

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Jun 22 (IPS) – Johnson Gama knows life on the poverty line only too well. A qualified teacher, Gama has in the last few years been unable to survive on his salary despite working in a profession which two decades ago was considered middleclass in Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwean dollar crashed due to [...]

By Stanley Kwenda
JOHANNESBURG, Jun 13 (IPS) – A new constitution, voters’ roll and electoral law, among other things, have to be in place before elections in Zimbabwe can be held but observers doubt if this can be implemented.

The special Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit held from Jun. 10 to 12 in Johannesburg [...]

By Nyarai Mudimu
HARARE, Jun 9 (IPS) – In her glory days, death-row inmate Rosemary Khumalo (66) lived life dangerously on the edge. She was a sanguinary fortune hunter who would resort to anything, even murder, to land her loot, according to court records of her trial.

Her last crime in 1998, which ended with the murder [...]

By Ignatius Banda
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 25 (IPS) – A newly available electronic banking service has received a lukewarm reception from cross-border traders in Zimbabwe’s second largest city Bulawayo, despite it alleviating the need to move around with large sums of cash.

Cross-border electronic card services in different currencies were launched in April in Bulawayo as part [...]

Long-delayed action on rulings by the SADC Tribunal could have long-lasting consequences for human rights and the rule of law.

War veterans associated with ZANU-PF exhuming remains with no regard for preserving evidence or identifying bodies.

A variety of factors make teenaged sex workers are particular vulnerable to HIV.

Women in Zimbabwe’s struggling industries are finding themselves first in the firing line.

Police barred sex workers and a gay group from participating in an event to mark the 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women and Girls.