Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Morgan Tsvangirai has phoned Jacob Zuma's office to request an invitation to the newly-elected South African president's inauguration on Saturday. SA Foreign affairs say that they have invited Mugabe because protocol dictates that only Heads of State and Heads of Government are invited . Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and leader of the MDC-T which is now in a coalition with Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF has called the office of Jacob Zuma begging for an invitation after he was left off the invitation list. According to the Independent of South Africa, Tsvangirai was not invited because he is not a Head of State. Mugabe, as Head of State in Zimbabwe, has instead been invited. The paper reports that Department of Foreign Affairs in adamant that, according to protocol, only Heads of State and Heads of Government are invited, hence no invitation was sent to Tsvangirai. South African Foreign Affairs spokesman, Ronnie Mamoepa is quoted by the paper as saying the exten

This is a photo of the Zimbabwe Independent newsroom. The paper has confirmed in today's issue that they got money from Gono "to buy newsprint". But questions surrounding whether this has compromised the paper's reporting on Gono (especially with regards to his fight with Finance Minister Tendai Biti) remain . The Zimbabwe Independent, which I revealed on this blog last week had accepted money from Gideon Gono, confirmed the accuracy of that statement in their Editor's Memo in today's issue. The paper really does not address the issue, only saying that Gono himself has previously revealed the information and that it is not a secret. Granted, it is not a secret and my story also made revealations about how Gono gave government money to his own paper, The Financial Gazette, which money he immediately claimed back from the paper in his personal capacity as shareholder. He claimed the paper owed him dividends. At issue, however, is not whether the paper accepted o

It was at this SADC Heads of State Meeting (where Mugabe attended as the Head of State of Zimbabwe and seen here flanked by Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and the absolute monarch of Swaziland, King Mswati III), that SADC leaders openly declared their continued contempt for Morgan Tsvangirai. The presidents of Angola(through a representative), Namibia, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, the absolute monarch of Swaziland, the Prime Minister of Lesotho openly declared at the last SADC Heads of State meeting that the regional body should do absolutely nothing to help strengthen Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe. This was on March 30, apparently, at a SADC Heads of State meeting in Swaziland. It has emerged that Jakaya Kikwete, the president of Tanzania, whom I told you very last last year had personally called Mugabe with regards the disappearance of Jestina Mukoko and Gandi Mudzingwa, had made a very sensible suggestion at the meeting, which is what prompted the open declar

Arthur Mutambara is seen here with harassed, assaulted Zimbabwean farmer, Ben Freeth. We broke the story about the intended recall of Mutambara by his party right here on this blog last week on Wednesday. This blog continues its fine tradition of publishing scoops and inside information that is being proved true left right and centre. Just in the last week we brought you two such scoops.  On Wednesday, I published a story scoop here telling you news about the imminent "firing" of Arthur Mutambara, Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister. The very next day, on Thursday, Zimbabwe Financial Gazette carried that story on their front page!! Then on Friday, we brought you the story about the Reserve Bank Zimbabwe Governor asking all his staff to return their cars to the Reserve Bank Sports Club so that he could offer even more cars to even more MPs.  On Sunday, two days later, the Standard confirmed that story and did an even longer piece on the issue, saying some of the RBZ staff had

"Hmmmm, how will make sure this never works" - Mugabe is plotting still and all the "problems" within the GNU are serving a purpose, but it is not the power, as the MDC, its supporters and almost everyone else thinks. Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, must be very pleased with himself. I did tell you in February that Mugabe's sentiments, expressed in a birthday interview with ZTV, that the payment of civil service salaries was not "sustainable" because there was no money was basically an admission that he would behave atrociously all the way through this GNU and hence ensure that no donors came in with money to support its operations. It is turning out that way. The MDC has fallen into the trap of thinking that all these fights are about power. They are not. Mugabe is terrified that the Coalition Government will actually bring results, strengthening Tsvangirai's hand in the process and putting him in a very strong position for the next electi

Morgan Tsvangirai arrives at Chinhoyi Stadium on Saturday to address supporters who had gathered for the 10th anniversary of the formation of the MDC. Ten years: which also means, according to the MDC constitution, which restricts the president of the party to two five-year terms, Tsvangirai must now step down. But, like Mugabe, it appears the Prime Minister is refusing to go. Handiende ! Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told a gathering in Chinhoyi (which has gone for some weeks without water and is seeing an increase in the ancient, embarassing disease of cholera) that his and Mugabe's "Inclusive" government is working fine. "There is nothing Mugabe does without me approving," he said. Really? What about Gideon Gono? The appointment of permanent secretaries? The gutting and disembowelling of Nelson Chamisa's Information Communication Technology ministry? The continued prosecution of MDC activists including Tsvangirai's very close aide, Gandi Mudzingwa?

House of Horrors: Seen here is the entrance to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, with an appropriately torn-up ZANU PF campaign poster in the foreground. It has now emerged that Gideon Gono has not only given money to the independent media, but he has also bought a journalist at one of the independent newspapers a house, throwing objectivity into the dustbin. On Gono, therefore, the public no longer has a watchdog in the mainstream media Several impeccable sources are now confirming that the Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, has essentially put all the media in his back pocket. Gono allegedly bought a house in Bulawayo for a reporter on the staff of the Zimbabwe Independent, owned by Trevor Ncube and all the stories on him that are published in that paper are written by Kumbirai Nhongo, the former Business Editor of Zimbabwe Television, who is Gono's spokesman at the Reserve Bank. These stories are then given a byline belonging to a staffer on the The Independent. I spoke to my frien

Gideon Gono and Robert Mugabe in a warehouse where Gono had stashed basic commodities as part of his quasi-fiscal operations, which are now threatening his job. This was a couple weeks after the bloody June 27 presidential election run-off, during which Gono also provided cars and funds to ZANU PF for their murderous campaign Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono has thrown the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe staff into panic and despair. Earlier today, Gono ordered all RBZ staff to surrender their vehicles and park them at the Reserve Bank Sports Club along Sherwood Road in Malbereign in Harare. This directive applies to all staff except Directors and Senior Managers at the RBZ. Most of the staff are in despair because these were their only means of transport and, as Zimbabweans know very well now, staff at the Central Bank have also not been paid their salaries because Tendai Biti has managed to cut off all revenue-generating schemes that Gono had prior to the Inclusive Government's incepti

Happyton Bonyongwe, the Director General of Zimbabwe's Secret Police, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is seen here trying to earnestly convince Mugabe of something in July last year, soon after that bloody Presidential election run-off. With them is General Constantine Chiwengwa, the Commander of Zimbabwe Defence Forces I told you at the end of my post yesterday that I would bring you a developing story regarding the Zimbabwe Prime Minister and the Secret Police, the CIO. I could not post that last night as promised, mostly because I was verifying the story and I only managed to speak to the Prime Minister's office this morning. The thing is, yesterday, information coming to us directly from Chaminuka Building, the CIO Head Office, was that the Secret Police were stopping MDC-T MPs who accepted those Reserve Bank cars and were confiscating them on the orders of the Prime Ministers. "This is a direct order from the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe," we were told.

Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister and President of the MDC, Arthur Mutambara, is seen here with Ben Freeth, a white farmer under siege at his farm and whose photo I have published here before, showing him beaten black and blue by people who are after his farm, which has been gazetted by Mugabe for forcible acquisition. Mutambara's future is now under threat. Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the MDC-M is about to be fired and recalled by his party. A rally scheduled for this weekend in the satellite town of Chitungwiza is the platform at which this action will almost certainly be taken. Spearheading this rebellion is former St Mary's MP Job Sikhala, who is the one organising the rally. Top of the grievances is that Arthur Mutambara, Prof. Welshman Ncube and other MDC leaders now in government have abandoned the party. One source put it this way: "We are now headless chickens. We have no leadership as far as the people are concerned." Sikhala and his fellow plotte

Proof that things that things are being done the ZANU PF way in the Incusive Government of Morgan Tsvangirai. These banners are a staple of ZANU PF functions and are printed at ZANU PF companies. They were prominent at the Independence Celebrations on Saturday, where Morgan Tsvangirai was in attendance. The Prime Minister's office told the Zimbabwe Standard that, although Morgan Tsvangirai had begged Mugabe to be allowed to address the gathering, Mugabe told his Prime Minister to bugger off, sit there and listen There is apparent confusion about whether MDC MPs have returned the bloodstained cars they got from Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono to Tendai Biti's office. Or to anybody for that matter. The MDC are patently lying. None of the parties involved, not ZANU PF, not MDC-T, not MDC-M - not even parliament, have revealed the number of MPs from the Tsvangirai MDC, especially, who have accepted the cars. Nelson Chamisa, that disemboweled Minister of Nothing, who is also the s

Morgan Tsvangirai is seen here on Saturday arriving at the National Sports Stadium for the Independence Celebrations, to be welcomed by his deputies, Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara. Tsvangirai and Biti are doggedly pursuing Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor, who is now in panic mode and trying to blackmail ZANU PF MPs into saving his ski n I can honestly say that I have never done an article on this blog that generated as much "live" feedback as the story below, in which I told you all about Gono trying to take the fight to Tsvangirai and Biti by drawing in a large number of people into his battle with the two men. Most of the feedback was in the form of phone calls from Zimbabweans within Zimbabwe. (After a while I started asking myself why so many people seemed to know my cellphone number!) Several of the callers (all of whom were, in the traditional Zimbabwe style, very friendly) complained that I update the blog late. They want their analysis and scoops first t