End-Of-The-Week Highlights

Zimbabwe: Vice-President Joice Mujuru and her husband are said to have objected to the use of violence to intimidate voters before the runoff election next month. The Zimbabwe Independent reports that the objections were raised to Mugabe in a ZANU-PF politburo meeting on Wednesday. Though difficult to verify, if the Mujurus did in fact express discontent over their party’s incendiary campaign tactics, it gives credence to other reports of divisions among the ranks of the ZANU-PF--a serious threat to Mugabe’s power.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting writes that the central committee of the ZANU-PF recently replaced the director of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to ensure that the media stays “on message.” Daily soap operas and other programs have been replaced by documentaries and news coverage glorifying Mugabe.

Former Bishop of Harare Nolbert Kunonga was excommunicated from the Anglican Church, along with several allied priests, for continued support of Mugabe’s violent and oppressive tactics against the wishes of the Church.

MDC presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangirai is set to return to Zimbabwe this weekend. Tsvangirai left the country in early April due to threats to his life, and a previous attempt to return was thwarted by an assassination plot. Tsvangirai has been subject to numerous beatings and detentions at the hands of Zimbabwean security forces throughout his public career.

ZA: Xenophobic attacks in South Africa are spreading at an alarming rate, resulting in a mass exodus of foreigners fleeing the violent mobs. The Western Cape province is readying a defense force to quell the attacks, which seems like a much more reasonable response than asking citizens to combat the mobs themselves. That has to be in the top ten Common Sense Rules to Good Governance: The answer to vigilantism is not vigilantism. In some places, that’s called street warfare.

Darfur: Armed men on horseback ambused a UN peacekeeping force from Nigeria, attacking the troops with AK-47’s and rocket-propelled grenades and stealing their weapons.