Kubatana.net is a website node based in Harare, Zimbabwe, for non-governmental organisations active in areas relating to civil liberty, human rights, justice and good governance. Kubatana also conducts training in net activism and designs websites for organisations in the NGO sector that are striving for the protection of democracy in Zimbabwe. Many of the finest Zimbabwean websites like WOZA, MDC and Crisis Zimbabwe were created by the Kubatana team. In a country where government has seen fit to nozzle the independent press and curtail freedom of expression, Kubatana fills the valuable role of ensuring that vital information reaches the people who need it. There are brief summaries of most of the civicbased organisations operating in Zimbabwe, archives of legislation and reports on this legislation, updates on access to treatment issues for people living with HIV/AIDS and commentaries on civil rights campaigns. (Keith Goddard)

The Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe, aims to strengthen the use of email and Internet strategies in Zimbabwean NGOs and civil society organisations. Kubatana makes human rights and civic education information accessible to the general public from a centralised, electronic source.

Immediate objectives of the project are to:

- Develop a central Zimbabwean development and human rights portal: the portal will contain editorial material highlighting the work of the organisations hosted on the portal—“kubatana” means “working together”.

- Develop an electronic fact sheet for each organisation hosted on the portal.

- Develop an e-activism page for on-line campaigns.

- Link existing Zimbabwean NGO and civil society web sites to the portal.

- Advertise the portal widely: locally, regionally and globally.

By focusing solely on Zimbabwe and being committed to the regular updating and development of the portal, we believe that Kubatana.net is the most important source of Zimbabwean human rights and development information on the Internet. Kubatana is offering advice on web hosting and other Internet and email related issues with the aim of demystifying the process of getting started on the Internet.


Links: http://www.kubatana.net/

The Kubatana Project (ZW) was founded and established in March 2001 by two Zimbabwean women, Bev Clark and Brenda Burrell. They still run the organisation, but are now helped by a part-time administrative assistant and freelancer writers. During recent years, Zimbabwe has been increasingly recognised as a country where free expression and human rights are at risk. During most of President Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe, freedom of the press was imperfect, but better than in most African nations. However, that began to change when the independent press started to challenge President Mugabe. The government, threatened by loss of power, responded by cracking down on the press. A month before the elections in March 2005, the government enacted the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act that imposes heavy fines and jail terms of up to two years for “abuse of journalistic privilege”, including the publication of “falsehoods”, or statements that the Government deems to be untrue. The Kubatana Project’s website, Kubatana.net, provides a web presence to 230 civil and community based organisations of Zimbabwe.