Zimbabwe author wins Caine prize

12 July 2011 Last updated at 14:20 GMT NoViolet Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe and studied in the US Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo has won this year's Caine Prize for African Writing, regarded as Africa's leading literary award.

The ?10,000 ($16,000) prize was given for her story Hitting Budapest about hungry children from a shantytown who steal guavas from an upmarket suburb.

She told the BBC: "I try to write stories that don't normally get told."

The chair of judges said the gang of "poor and violated" children were "reminiscent of Clockwork Orange".

"The language of Hitting Budapest crackles," said judge chair Hisham Matar, who announced the winner at a prize-giving ceremony in the UK city of Oxford on Monday evening.

"This is a story with moral power and weight, it has the artistry to refrain from moral commentary. NoViolet Bulawayo is a writer who takes delight in language."

At the beginning of the story, first published in The Boston Review last year, the narrator explains why the children are heading for Budapest: "There are guavas to steal in Budapest, and right now I'd die for guavas, or anything for that matter."

"There they encounter this lady from London who is more interested in taking their picture, which I guess happens when Westerners go to Africa, but she fails to realise that they are hungry," Ms Bulawayo told the BBC's Network Africa.

One of the children is a 10-year-old girl who has seemingly been made pregnant by her grandfather.

"It's very, very wrong but in this environment it's normalised," she says.

Ms Bulawayo says she identifies with the characters - Darling, Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Stina and Sbho - and in the story she is "marrying the personal with the imaginary".

"Some of these incidents in Hitting Budapest are taken from my own life - the stealing of guavas to begin with, growing up less privileged and having these dreams."

NoViolet Bulawayo was born and raised in Zimbabwe and recently completed a masters degree at Cornell University in the US.

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Top Zimbabwe minister acquitted

28 June 2011 Last updated at 15:55 GMT Elton Mangoma is one of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's key allies in the cabinet Zimbabwe's Energy Minister Elton Mangoma has been acquitted of corruption charges.

He was tried over a multi-million dollar fuel deal negotiated with a South African company.

The High Court in Harare ruled that Mr Mangoma did not benefit from the deal and did not flout tender procedures.

Mr Mangoma is a founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, which has been in an uneasy coalition with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF since 2009.

'Ignorant and vindictive'

The BBC's Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare, says the judge threw out he case, ruling that Mr Mangoma had no case to answer.

The energy minister said the verdict showed that the MDC was being "persecuted", but he would press ahead with his job in the power-sharing government.

"These is no need to be bitter when dealing with ignorant and vindictive people," Mr Mangoma said.

Leading members of Zanu-PF party had called for Mr Mangoma to be charged following claims of irregular fuel purchases from neighbouring South Africa.

Zanu-PF members said tender procedures had been violated and only a small amount of the fuel had been delivered despite the payment of several million dollars.

Mr Mangoma ordered the fuel at the height of a fuel crisis in Zimbabwe in January.

He was arrested in March and escorted from his offices by three plain-clothes officers.

Another MDC minister, Jameson Timba, was arrested last week for allegedly calling Mr Mugabe a liar.

But a court later ordered his release, saying his arrest was illegal.

The coalition government, which came to power after disputed elections in 2008, has helped stabilise the economy.

But the administration has been fraught with squabbles over introducing reforms.

Mr Mugabe has been pushing for polls this year, but human rights activists have been worried about reports of increased political harassment of his opponents.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, argues without a new constitution and electoral reforms, forthcoming polls will not be free and fair.

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Zimbabwe PM 'a security threat'

23 June 2011 Last updated at 10:38 GMT Morgan Tsvangirai urged army chiefs to stay out of politics to allow a level playing field A top army officer in Zimbabwe has accused Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of being a security threat.

"He takes instructions from foreigners who seek to effect illegal regime change," Brig-Gen Douglas Nyikayaramba told the state-run Herald paper.

His comments come after Mr Tsvangirai urged military chiefs to remove their uniforms if they wanted to challenge him politically in forthcoming polls.

Mr Tsvangirai joined a unity government with President Robert Mugabe in 2009.

The coalition, which took power after disputed elections in 2008, has helped stabilise the economy and reduced political violence.

But the administration has been fraught with squabbles over introducing reforms.

Mr Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party have been pushing for polls this year, but human rights activists have been worried about reports of increased political harassment of his opponents.

The prime minister's party - the Movement for Democratic Change - wants security forces to stay out of politics and to not publicly support Mr Mugabe in the next election.

Many of Zimbabwe's security chiefs fought with President Mugabe during the 1970s guerrilla war against white minority rule and remain fiercely loyal to him.

The army was said to have been involved in systematic attacks on Mr Tsvangirai's supporters after he won the first round of the 2008 election.

According to the AFP news agency, Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba has recently been removed from the constitution-making body after saying Mr Mugabe should remain in power for life.

'Nonsense' Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the 2008 run-off vote against Robert Mugabe because of political violence

He repeated his view to the Herald: "President Mugabe will only leave office if he sees it fit or dies. No-one should be talking about his departure at the moment. We will die for him to make sure he remains in power.

Brig-Gen Nyikayaramba dismissed Mr Tsvangirai's comments at a rally over the weekend as "nonsense".

"Tsvangirai doesn't pose a political threat in any way in Zimbabwe, but is a major security threat," he said.

"We are dealing with a national security threat, which can only be dealt with by people in uniform.

"If it was a normal political environment, one would hope to retire at some point and join politics."

The MDC argues without a new constitution and electoral reforms, forthcoming polls would not be free and fair.

Mr Mugabe and his allies say Zimbabwe's economic problems are the result of a plot to oust him because of his policy of seizing white-owned land.

His critics accuse him of turning what used to be be on Africa's most developed economies into a basket case.

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