Mighty Metro on Zimbabwe

Stunning piece on Zimbabwe on the front page of todays Metro.

Getting a rare glimpse into the secretive country, the paper highlights the death of Vincent Sibanda, a nine-month-old baby boy and the latest victim of the AIDS epidemic plaguing the country.

Given the near total media blackout across the country and the consequences of dealing with foreign press, the sheer bravery of Vincents dad, Ben, to allow himself to be photographed with his sons coffin cannot be underestimated especially in the light of a new report released by Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) this week.

The article, which was set up by the charity Tearfund, goes onto cite the deepening economic, social and political problems in Zimbabwe all concerns WOZA has raised since its formation in 2003.

To date WOZA has held over 100 peaceful protests and its report looked at the treatment of 400 of its members. It found that:

73 percent have been arrested more than once;

40 percent have been tortured;

50 percent have been detained longer than the allowed 48 hours;

and 26 percent have been injured badly enough to receive medical treatment.

Fingers crossed that Ben Sibanda will not suffer a similar fate for his small act of defiance.