Mozambique rail firm keen to cut Spoornet wagon link

(Reuters) - Mozambique's state-run railway company said on Friday it was investing $30 million to upgrade its commercial fleet in a move to cut $100 million in wagon hiring fees charged by South African rail freight firm Spoornet.

CFM, which operates the African nation's railways and ports, plans to refurbish 820 refurbished wagons with the investment, more than doubling the current number that travel lines to South Africa and Zimbabwe, spokesman Antonio Libombo said.


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Zimbabwe imports 200,000 tonnes of Tanzania maize

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe is importing 200,000 tonnes of maize from Tanzania as it battles food shortages which critics largely blame on President Robert Mugabe's policies, state television said on Wednesday.

Critics say Mugabe plunged the southern African state into economic crisis by seizing productive white-owned commercial farms and giving them to inexperienced black farmers who have left the country needing to import food since 2000.


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Zimbabwe hikes gold price 10-fold to stop smuggling

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's central bank raised on Wednesday the local price of gold nearly 10-fold in a bid to curb smuggling and boost sagging deliveries.

The precious metal is the main source of hard currency for the struggling southern African nation, accounting for a third of its export earnings.


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Zimbabwe paves way for nationalising private firms

(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government has set up a state company to seize control of private local and foreign firms that President Robert Mugabe's administration says are engaging in "economic sabotage" in a bid to end his rule.

Mugabe threatened last month to seize private companies for "dirty tricks", including hiking prices and cutting output, which he says are part of a Western-backed "regime-change" agenda led by Zimbabwe's former colonial master Britain.


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