BULAWAYO, 31 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Reviled by both sides of the political divide in Zimbabwe, sacked information minister Jonathan Moyo is back at the centre of controversy, promoting a "third way" to break the logjam between the ruling party and its main opposition.

Moyo, the only independent candidate to win a seat in the parliamentary elections in March, argues that his United People's Movement (UPM) offers an alternative to ZANU-PF's 25-year grip on power, and the labour-backed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which has lost three elections in a row since 2000, in ballots many regard as rigged.

Although the initiative has stirred discussion in a country suffering triple-digit inflation, food shortages, savage unemployment and critical foreign exchange shortages, the debate remains coloured by the image of Moyo himself - first a staunch former critic of the government, then one of its most ardent ministers, now a new party leader.

JOHANNESBURG, 31 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The number of mainly black workers evicted from farms has increased since South Africa's democratic era began in 1994, primarily due to perceptions of political and economic risk, says a new study.

According to the National Evictions Survey, conducted by the Nkuzi Development Association and Social Surveys, just under 1.7 million people were evicted from farms in the period between 1994 and the end of 2004, compared to 942,000 in the previous decade.

Researcher Marc Wegerif told IRIN that in terms of the manner in which people were booted off the land, "nothing has changed since the end of the apartheid era". Only 1 percent of those evicted from farms were involved in a legal process challenging their evictions.

JOHANNESBURG, 30 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Zimbabwean human rights activists condemned sweeping constitutional amendments approved by parliament on Tuesday, arguing the government has undermined basic freedoms.

Describing the proposed changes to the constitution as the "worst piece of legislation yet", Joseph James, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, said lawyers "across political and ideological lines" had, for the first time, taken a stance against the new legislation.

"It is worse than the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), as the current legislation attacks the very basis of our constitution," he commented, in reference to two controversial laws that limit freedoms of association and expression.

ABIDJAN, 30 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Blaming rebels and opposition parties, South Africa said on Tuesday it was ending its mediation in the Cote d'Ivoire crisis and it was now the UN's call whether elections aimed at restoring peace to the West African nation could be held on schedule on 30 October.

"We have fulfilled our obligations and now it is up to the African Union and the United Nations," Lesoana Makhanda, an Abidjan-based member of the mediation team, told IRIN.

The African Union mandated South Africa to help end the standoff in Cote d'Ivoire after a flare-up in violence last November. The country has been split into a government-run south and a rebel-held north for the last three years, with some 10,000 UN and French peacekeepers in between.

Fresh elections are at the heart of the international community's blueprint for peace, but progress towards that goal has been slow.

With exactly two months to go before the planned ballot, a voter register has not been drawn up, the National Electoral Commission supposed to supervise the elections has not got off the ground and deadlines in the disarmament process have fallen by the wayside.

ADDIS ABABA, 30 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi described as "garbage" on Monday an EU election report that raised doubts over the fairness of the country's recently concluded national polls.

"The statement, in my view, shows that the mission has turned out to be something worse than a farce," he said at a news conference in Addis Ababa, the capital.

"We shall, in the coming days and weeks, see what we can do to expose the pack of lies and innuendoes that characterise the garbage in this report," he added.

The EU's chief election observer, Ana Gomes, said on Thursday that key aspects of Ethiopia's 15 May parliamentary elections had failed to meet international standards. She reported widespread human rights abuses and said opposition members were arrested and witnesses to election violations intimidated.

Meles said: "What the implications of this will be in terms of relations between Ethiopia and the EU we will have to wait and see. But I don't think you will be surprised if Ethiopia were to insist that it should not be patronised."

BUJUMBURA, 30 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Two vice-presidents, one of whom is a woman, were sworn on Monday in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura, at a joint session of parliament.

First Vice-President Martin Nduwimana, a Tutsi from the Union pour le progress national party, was made in charge of political affairs. Second Vice-President Alice Nzomukunda, a Hutu from President Pierre Nkurunziza’s ruling party, the Conseil national pour la defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD), is to head social and economic affairs.

Under the terms of the new post-transition constitution, the president must choose a Tutsi for first vice-president and a Hutu for second vice-president.