Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

SADC Heads of State pose for a group photograph yesterday at their summit in Swaziland, where they once again told Zimbabwe they can help financially and can only try and lobby the west to lift sanctions. Prof Welshman Ncube and Tendai Biti of the MDC said at the meeting that "the sanctions have had an effect on the economy". The Heads of State have pledged to specifically target the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act in the United States, lobbying for it to be repealed. The MDC has now effectively admitted that it has been cut loose by its friends and allies in the West and has to instead seek the intercession of Zimbabwe's neighbours to talk to its former allies in the West about helping the limping Inclusive government. Yesterday, Tendai Biti, the MDC Minister of Finance in this Inclusive Zimbabwean government, together with Robert Mugabe and Prof Welshman Ncube, asked the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State to intercede on Zimbabwe...

Most of you reading this blog know that you can not mistake a call from "The President's Office". Yes, it is that unique number, the one with five zeroes in it (and it is a land line). The presidential switchboard numbers, as you will know, have 7 digits where most others in Harare have six. Well, I was extremely surprised at about 3 p.m. today to get a call from that number and even more surprised that the caller seemed keen to "clear the air" about the meetings I reported on yesterday between Tsvangirai and Mnangagwa. To start with, I was surprised that the caller referred to "the article you wrote in the Zimbabwean". I did not. I have never written for The Zimbabwean in my life, ever. I checked it out later and it turns out the article was taken from this blog by an online newspaper called The Zimbabwe Mail. The Zimbabwean then took the same article from the Zimbabwe Mail. This is now a familiar story with my articles. I must say that I have persona...

This blog has now been proved right yet again and this time it is on the envisaged Zimbabwe Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Morgan Tsvangirai prefers the title Truth and National Healing Commission). Gorden Moyo, Minister of State in Prime Minister Tsvangirai's office, has confirmed to the Standard that Zimbabwe is to hold a "summit" in April in Bulawayo with other stakeholders in order to get a way forward on this process. I told you about all this in my scoop entitled "Zimbabwe To Get Truth Commission" , which was published on this blog last month, on 23 February, to be precise. As I told you in that article, Mugabe has refused to include the Matabeleland Massacres of the 1980s in this process, telling the PM that Gukurahundi had "nothing to do with the MDC" and Tsvangirai has agreed to this.  The PM is obviously trying to make up for this betrayal of Matabeleland by holding the workshop in Bulawayo, the capital city of t...

President Robert Mugabe "went ballistic" on Saturday when he found out Morgan Tsvangirai and Emmerson Mnangagwa have secretly  met up to six times since the MDC leader became Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is said to have met with the ZANU PF heavyweight, who has been confirmed already by Mugabe as his preferred choice for President, in Harare and at a farm in the Kwekwe area. Mugabe, told Saturday in a briefing about the meetings, is reported to have threatened to send the Minister of Defence back into the "wilderness" ( gwenga, was the Shona word Mugabe used, apparently). Although not immediately clear whether Mugabe was told what the mettings were about, he immediately saw this as a threat to his continued grip on power. Mugabe, although he has told Mnangagwa that he will most certainly now take over as head of ZANU PF and eventually President of Zimbabwe, likes things done his way. He believes Mnagagwa and Tsvangirai may be planning to sideline him, now that...

Either the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai have been corrupted by ZANU PF or they were always like this and never really represented the change and seismic shift in focus that Zimbabwe needs in order to rise and start working again. We had interesting meeting with a western diplomat stationed in Harare today and what he had to say reveals just why the west, especially, is not going to come to the aid of the GNU with funds. The western diplomat minutely detailed his country's concerns about the way the MDC is going about things and here are some of the things he says show that Morgan Tsvangirai has either been corrupted by ZANU PF or that the MDC was always a corrupted party and are now simply showing their true colours because opportunity has been granted them The MDC-controlled Harare City Council set the minimum wage for its workers at US$379. This means that the least paid municipal worker is getting this amount from the City Council. The same MDC council had allocated its councillor...

Regular readers will not be surprised that yet another scoop that I published here has now been independently confirmed. The latest in the long line of the scoops I have given you to be proved right is the story that Mugabe wants Roy Bennett to be withdrawn as the MDC nominee for Deputy Minister of Agriculture. This scoop I gave you in the article entitled: Roy Bennett Must Be Withdrawn , which I published here on Thursday, March 5 2009. Well, SWRadio have now independently confirmed this, with an MDC source telling them exactly what I told you. My source was within ZANU PF. When I got the news, I contacted friends in the Prime Minister's office. I remember very clearly that I spoke on the phone with one of the Prime Minister's very close aides only a couple of hours before the crash that killed Mrs Tsvangirai. In that scoop I published on March 5, I wrote : Mugabe considers it an insult to have to swear the man into the office of Deputy Minister of Agriculture. And I am sure ...

Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, is watching with glee as the MDC squirms in the hot seat of government, with the latest blow to Tsvangirai's hope for alleviating the people's suffering coming from the United States Ambassador in Zimbabwe. The Ambassador told SW Radio that sanctions will not be lifted any time soon. The European Union is indeed showing signs of fracturing, which is Mugabe's long-cherished dream and prediction. The Zimbabwean leader has said privately on many occasions that the Nordic countries will be first to break ranks with the EU. He has also predicted that Germany will do the same, once Chinese investments for rebuilding Zimbabwe start coming in. German is an industrial powerhouse, was the thinking, and it would not stand idly by while lucrative contracts were dished out...... So far, ministers from two Nordic countries have come to Zimbabwe, but their commitment has been muted and they are still saying they will help on the humanitarian front o...

Army personnel in uniform engaged in a fist-fight with policemen in uniform in Africa Unity Square in Harare today. Africa Unity Square is right in front of parliament in the capital. The fight apparently started outside CABS in First Street, where the uniformed forces were waiting for the arrival of their foreign currency salary allowances. It is still not clear at this very early stage what exactly triggered it. But you will recall that the last time the police and soldiers clashed in Harare, it was also over money and payment of salaries. I saw one policeman who was bleeding from the head as the fight ended and he was put into a police pick-up truck and driven away. The fight ended when a huge lorry, covered with canvas at the back, arrived at the Square with military police on board. When the truck arrived, some of soldiers quickly disappeared, some going towards First Street and others, crossing the park towards Meikles Hotel. This incident comes as some civil servants also invade...

The Commander of the combined Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwengwa, is so gravely ill that on Friday night, he was admitted to the Manyame Air Force Base Hospital in Harare and was only released on Sunday afternoon.  The General arrived at Manyame Air Force Base with an oxygen mask on him, apparently. The release on Sunday was apparently a self-discharge. Doctors at the hospital had insisted that Chiwengwa needed at least a week under observation in hospital but, "like a true soldier", (according to sources close to him), he checked himself out on Sunday afternoon, saying he had important work to attend to. President Mugabe visited the General alone on the night he was admitted, Friday. I understand the president stayed for close to three hours. The Generals wife, Jocelyn, who nearly assaulted Morgan Tsvangirai at a wholesalers a couple of years back, has not been seen in public for some months and it is rumoured that she is also extremely ill and that doct...

First, some latest news from here in Zimbabwe.  Vice-President Joice  Mujuru put on MDC regalia while Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe put on ZANU PF regalia yesterday. It was all in aid of International Women's Day. The two ladies took the opportunity to preach the new Coalition mantra, calling on supporters to desist from violence. Which is all very well, as far it goes, I suppose. But I do wish the MDC and ZANU PF would stop confusing their followers so. What are the bewildered "Mugabe Must Go" brigade to think now, seeing their own deputy president in the MDC putting on ZANU PF dress with Mugabe's face on it? And the ZANU PF folk? The "Tsvangirai Will Never Rule This Country" brigade, seeing their second-in-command in Chinja gear? It is a curious state of affairs, you'd think. But no. I think the selective arrests of the last few weeks show us what ZANU PF wants. Y es, the MDC may want a peaceful atmosphere in which to campaign next time round, ...

It appears to me that Mugabe is going deaf and I will prove it to you just now. Take a closer look at the picture above. You can click on it or download it to enlarge the pic. Now you will see that Mugabe is actually looking at Biti's mouth while Biti speaks, otherwise he would not be able to understand his finance minister!! When one becomes hard of hearing, they will always resort to some combination of using the hearing they have left and also lip-reading. And Mugabe looks rather frail, do you not think? Mugabe's deafness should surprise no one really, considering we have seen him over the years pretending not to hear the calls of his people and the world to step down. MDC cabinet members have also claimed to me directly that Mugabe regularly nods off in cabinet meeting, the meetings are unruly and generally a dog's breakfast. This could merely be smearing or there could be some truth to it, I thought at the time. But now that I see this pic, I am beginning to think mayb...

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe Minister of Finance, delivering the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today Tendai Biti launched the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today together with Robert Mugabe and Acting Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe. For those present at the ceremony, it was sad to miss Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is recuperating in South Africa and is only expected back in Harare next week. What we got today is really his big Action Plan for Zimbabwe, and welcome news to the ears of the weary citizens of Zimbabwe. But what struck me was Tendai Biti's admission that there are indeed sanctions on Zimbabwe. Previously, the MDC and its supporters have always maintained that these are only "targeted sanctions, travel bans and the like, just a harmless bit of fun at ZANU PF's expense." Biti told the gathering today, " STERP recognises that apart from targeted travel bans, measures have been taken against Zimbabwe, denying the co...

Tendai Biti, MDCs minister of Finance, chats with the man he said last week is now "like a father" to the MDC, President Robert Mugabe. This was at the unveiling of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) earlier today. Mugabe and Biti publicly begged for US$5 billion. But in the background, the MDC have kicked into action a risky strategy to get rid of one man, Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank. Read on. So determined are the MDC to get rid of Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor, that they have now embarked on a risky strategy to force Mugabe's hand. So even as they smiled at each other during the launch of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme today, the daggers are secretly drawn. Tendai Biti says the country is broke, totally broke. There is no money at the Reserve Bank to meet even the most rudimentary needs of government, let alone teachers' US$100 "salaries" (which the teachers want reviewed anyway).  But teachers started re...