News stories by Ephraim Nsingo, page 2

Mbuya Erica Chirimanyemba is a marvel among women, and men! Watching her digging holes in dry ground earlier this year, her neighbours thought the old lady had gone berserk. But 60-year-old Chirimanyemba was putting an alternative farming technique into practice.

Death threats allegedly made by a senior police officer to a journalist and the arrest of a photographer within four days have heightened fears of a new onslaught on the country’s media.

Zimbabwe's eight-month-old inclusive government suffered its biggest setback to date, when Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai announced that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) was partly disengaging from the government.

As Botswana prepares for general elections in October, gender activists are protesting against the lack of female parliamentary candidates.

While the international theme for World Press Freedom Day was 'Fostering Dialogue, Mutual Understanding and Reconciliation', the Botswana government and the media seemed to take the opposite route - taking turns to snub each other’s calls for dialogue.

The closure of two major mines and the scaling down of operations at most mines in Botswana have had a knock-on effect beyond miners in this southern African producer of diamonds.

The high profile trial of former Debswana Managing Director, Louis Goodwill Nchindo, could open a can of worms about the shady activities of senior government officials in Botswana, officially Africa's least corrupt country.

‘‘The situation is now very bad, very bad for workers. It is no longer about the workers alone, it is about the government, the companies, everyone. We need to talk. Dialogue is the only solution.’’

The spirits of a nation were lifted when Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the main section of the Movement for Democratic Change declared that his party would enter a unity government under terms negotiated at a special regional summit.

In November 2007, Zimbabwe's then Minister of Finance, Samuel Mumbengegwi struggled through the reading of the 2008 budget, his tongue tripping over figures in the trillions and quadrillions of Zimbabwean. So embarrassed was Mumbengegwi that he even shied away from announcing the total budget figure of 7.84 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars, then a record amount.