Mick Hartley

In Zimbabwe new surveillance laws are imposed:

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has approved a new law allowing the security services to intercept postal, internet and telephone communications.
The law also establishes a state-run communications monitoring centre.

There’s a mass exodus to South Africa:

As conditions in Zimbabwe – where inflation is about 5,000 per cent and unemployment 80 per cent – reach meltdown, the daily influx into South Africa, the continent’s wealthiest country, has reached proportions described as a “human tsunami”.

No one knows exactly how many come each day, estimates vary widely from hundreds to several thousand. But one thing is certain: the authorities are completely overwhelmed. Most try to get work on local farms, others turn to crime and petty theft to survive. A handful makes it to the big cities to join an estimated three million Zimbabweans now living in South Africa.

All tell the same story of unbearable hardship back home and vow to return if deported. “I have been walking for five days. In Zimbabwe things are very bad, so I was coming here to look for work. I just want food and work,” Enoch said. Others crammed on to the back of the pickup. “We are running from hunger. We have no money to buy food, no jobs, and things are getting worse every day. Our children are crying, Zimbabwe is crying. I was praying to find a better life here,” said Goodwill Maposa, 35.

So where’s the man responsible? He’s in Malaysia:

Zimbabwe’s controversial President Robert Mugabe is among African and Southeast Asian leaders meeting in Malaysia this week, aiming to draw up a plan to fight poverty and bolster economic ties.