Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Mini-Me: Tsvangirai is increasingly sounding and behaving like Mugabe now. This last week, he was at it again in an interview published by the Zimbabwe Independent in which he said Home Affairs was working fantastically, presumably referring to the continued harassment of his supporters by the police and the judiciary Here's a shocking excerpt from an interview Tsvangirai had last week and published by the Zimbabwe Independent on Friday: Peta:  During negotiations you demanded control of Home Affairs and the police but you reluctantly settled for sharing it with Zanu PF. How has that worked? Tsvangirai : It has worked fantastically. The two ministers have worked very co-operatively together. So, what about Jestina Mukoko? And Ghandi Mudzingwa, who complained bitterly against the MDC-T Minister of Home Affairs when he was rearrested? Tsvangirai : The recent arrests were not political arrests. They were procedural matters. If you are given bail in a lower court and then indicted to a...

With the failure by the MDC to bring in foreign aid and balance of payment support and the "pesky" demands by the MDC for equitable distribution of government posts, Mugabe and his crew have now decided to keep the MDC in government busy by inciting civil servants labour unions to march and protest against the ministries responsible, all held by Tsvangirai's party. Within a week or two, armed forces may be brought into play, to complain also about their measly salaries. Mugabe feels he no longer needs the MDC in government, since they have proved incapable of loosening the pruse strings of the West and Bretton Wooods. In a move incited by the Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, Mariyawanda Nzuwa, George Charamba (Mugabe's spokesman) and Misheck Sibanda, the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, civil servants marched to the offices of two MDC-T ministers complaining about their "poor" salaries. The brains behind this scheme are now planning on roping in th...

Morgan Tsvangirai at the MDC National Congress today. He told the gathering that there was still no rule of law in Zimbabwe. But he insists he will not leave government, that the democratic process is "irreversible". He is dealing with a chameleon who has a long history of paranoia, as related here today. It was in 1982 and Simba Makoni was Zimbabwe's Minister of Industry and Trade. There was a shortage of mealie-meal in the country. Dr Makoni says, "There was an explosion of spending power after independence in the hands of the people, so more could afford to buy roller-meal as opposed to milling their own meal." Mugabe did not see it this way. He accused the (white) milling industry of sabotage, saying they were creating a shortage of meal in the country in order to make the government unpopular. He threatened to take over the milling companies. Makoni clashed with Mugabe in a cabinet meeting over the issue, telling the then Prime Minister Mugabe that he could...

The"Rt Honourable Prime Minister" (as Mugabe prefers to address Tsvangirai in public now) seen here at the press ocnference where he announced that media was reformed on January 11. George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, has since told the world that the Rt Hon. PM was talking nonsense and journalists still needed to be accredited and registered A poll conducted by the Wits University and the Institute for the Advancement of Jornalism finds that the majority of respondents think that Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai's Unity Government are not sincere about media reform. The poll, published here , finds that 42.9% of respondents think that "moves towards media reform in Zimbabwe are a cynical attempt by the new unity government to fool the world" . Another 22% say the moves are doomed to fail. Only 28.8% think the moves "are a hopeful sign". This comes in response to Tsvangirai telling a press conference where he announced his capitulation to Mugabe on Pe...

In a shocking about face, the MDC told the media yesterday that they could live with Gideon Gono because they can "manage and control him" through a revision of the Reserve Bank Act. This is coming just two days after the Service Chiefs waded into the fray in support of the cornered Governor. This has clearly rattled the MDC-T. Tsvangirai, especially, seems so mortified of upsetting the Generals. He told the New York Times this year, "We had won the election but did not have the support of the military" in justifying why he decided to play second-fiddle to the man he had defeated at elections. "We can not unravel the tentacles of the State without Mugabe," Tsvangirai said. But the party still insists that Tomana is not up for negotiation and must simply go. So, what if the Generals come out in public support of the Attorney General as well? The MDC-T will retreat sharpish as well? Like they have just done on Gono? There will be an excuse. Perhaps one is b...

Land invaders, led by a character called "Landmine", broke into the house of Ben Freeth (seen here injured at the SADC Tribunal hearing that ruled in his favour) and threatened to eat his children on Tuesday night this week The white Zimbabwean farmer who was visited by Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara a few weeks back had a torrid Tuesday night this week. Ben Freeth, who has been beaten up before by Mugabe's land invaders and who has a SADC tribunal ruling in his favour, had burning tyres dragged through his house that night. The invaders beat drums and rang bells, clanging metal objects together to intimidate the farmer. The leader of the invaders, called Landmine, took the phone Freeth was using to call the police and would not give it back. Police later arrived and "led out" the invaders without arresting them. Landmine returned the phone, according to Freeth, after police asked for it back.  A little while later, after the police had gone, Landmine an...

Jestina Mukoko at her first release into hospital. She was later re-arrested and then again given bail. But the charges still stand and the trial dates have been set. This case dovetails with that of Roy Bennett, which Mugabe's men seek to expand. Which begs the question: Will Bennett actually ever be sworn in? On April 20 this year, a Monday, Robert Mugabe took Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai into his "confidence". In December last year, I told you that Mugabe's Plan B, in case Tsvangirai agreed to join government, was to isolate the Prime Minister, to get him stranded in office. The idea is to so paralyse the MDC-T with the charges of insurgency and banditry that the Prime Minister will find himself without a party backing him. What Mugabe told Tsvangirai was that some of his "hardline" people were talking "nonsense" about him (Tsvangirai) being involved in the alleged banditry plots. He asked the Prime Minister to leave them to him, he should g...

While Tsvangirai is busy defending Mugabe and saying he is not the problem but the solution, that solution is harassing Tsvangirai supporters and arresting his spiritual adviser. But MDC-T supporter say Tsvangirai must stay on, like an abused wife sticking around for "her children". He should walk. He paralysed Mugabe last year and this year, for seven months. Yet he thinks he has no option? Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's pastor has been abducted and disappeared, according to an MDC press release published by SW Radio. It must be those hardliners and "residual elements" that we keep being told about. Almost certainly, MDC-T supporters will defend all this, asking the world what they expect Tsvangirai to do. Do we not know that there is 30 years of entrenched rule to fight against and so on. Of course, this marriage is on the rocks. But we are told time and again that the groom has been a bachelor for thirty years and is not used to having a wife lounging aro...

This was the moment power was swiped from Morgan Tsvangirai's hands: the Mugabe inauguration on June 29 2008. Looking on as General Chiwenga congratulates the dictator are Air Marshal Perance Shiri and General Sibanda of the Army. Now they have come out in vocal support of Gideon Gon o What did I tell you? I told you at the weekend that Gideon Gono, in putting his resignation to the president at his home in Helensvale, had said no ZANU PF leader was standing up for him even as he was vilified in public by the MDC-T. He is said to have told the dictator. that he felt he was not wanted anymore. On Monday, Mugabe duly oblidged and made a public statement (below) at the funeral of the Governor's brother. By now, if you have not been on Mars, you know what the old dictator said. But, just as I said, now others are coming out of the woodwork. Service Chiefs, no less, Prime Minister Tsvangirai's nemesis, have come out in support of the man at the burial of the same brother. Air Vi...

Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe arrives for the funeral of Gideon Gono's brother on Monday. He told the gathering that Gono would not go anywhere, saying he never stole "even a cent" of anybody's money. The State media today carries a story that implicates Tendai Biti in the "manufacturing" of evidence against Gideon Gono . The case has been taken to the courts. On trial is a Prison Officer, Fibion Makoni, who is alleged to have gone into the cell of a former RBZ employee, Joseph Banda, who was arrested for stealing farming implements from the Reserve Bank. The prison officer is alleged to have told the prisoner that he had been sent by Minister Tendai Biti to get information on the corruption of Gideon Gono at the Reserve Bank. He was told the Finance Minister would get him good lawyers and get him off the hook in the courts if he squealed on Gono. Obviously he refused. And that is why the prison officer is now in jail. It shows one thing: human na...

Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono got what he wanted today. Mugabe, for the first time since the Inclusive Government was launched, publicly stated that the Governor is not going anywhere. This comes hot on the heels of the resignation of the RBZ governor at the president's mansion in Helensvale. Gono, as I told in a previous article on this blog, complained to Mugabe on the day that no one from ZANU PF was standing up for him despite the fact that he was being "victimised for supporting them." It appears Mugabe took this a direct challenge. It is also probable that, just like the rest of the people in ZANU PF, he has now heard of Gono's fear that Mugabe may well sacrifice him to Biti and Tsvangirai in return for getting much-needed aid from outside Zimbabwe. This was a real fear in the Gono camp. It appears the Governor got even more rattled when Morgan Tsvangirai announced that agreement had been reached on Governors, who would be laid off and paid off. Gon...

Street Theatre: It is Africa Day In Zimbabwe today, a Public Holiday. Here,  you see a crowdthat was  gathered today in First Street watching a group that conducts street plays on First Street in Harare. They seemed to be enjoying themselves fully. The group performs comedy daily on the pedestrian-only First Street. And this is a scene from Glen Norah, a high-density area of Harare today, where residents gathered at the Community Centre in Glen Norah B to fetch water from a Borehole dug by UNICEF. This particular area of Harare has gone for three days without electricity and they last saw water in their taps, they say, last year in July. This is happening while, as you can see at the very top of these photos, treated water is left to gush out of pipes all over the city. I took these pictures today and the ones of the treated water gushing away were all taken within one block between Eastgate and Parliament in Harare. CONDOLONCES: It is also with a very heavy heart that I announce the d...

Here's yet another scoop from this blog! Following hot on the heels of my scoop that the letter supposedly written by Gono was in fact written by George Charamba and is designed simply to expose the fact that the MDC-T "has done nothing since assuming power) Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, handed a letter of resignation on Saturday morning to dictator Robert Mugabe just as he was about to leave for his rural home in Zvimba from his Helensvale home. Gono lives just up the road from Mugabe in the posh area and delivered the letter personally to Mugabe. In a move that shows just who it is that is scuppering the Global Political Agreement, Mugabe is said to have refused to accept the resignation. Gono, however, was insistent that no ZANU PF minister is standing up for him, not one is fighting from his corner except President Mugabe himself. But the dictator, who has told Gono that he must hold his horses because the fight here is between the dictator and Tsvang...

Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter supposedly from Gideon Gono to PM Tsvangirai, which the Prime Minister has denied receiving, was in fact written by Mugabe Spokesman George Charamba as a propaganda ply. It has worked spectacularly The letter circulating online purportedly from Gideon Gono to Prime Minister Tsvangirai is fake. Sources close to the Governor say the Governor has disowned the document and says he has not written to the Prime Minister. Gono claims that his issue is being handled by the dictator and the Prime Minister and he had no reason to appeal to a man whom he knows definitely wants him out of office - Morgan Tsvangirai. Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter originated from the office of Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba. Charamba, a propaganda man, has repeatedly suggested to Gono that he should fight back by telling the world the true facts around the US$1 billion  credit lines and STERP that are Gono's achievements. The embattled Gove...

SADC Heads of State at a meeting of the regional body in Swaziland after the formation of Zimbabwe's Coalition Government. The regional body says there is no deadlock in Zimbabwe "The first hundred days of Zimbabwe's Unity Government were given the seal of approval by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which dismissed any notion that the fledgling government was facing difficulties - a view not shared by Western donors," reports IRIN, the United Nations news service. Tomaz Salomao, the Executive Secretary of the regional body, told the news agency yesterday that SADC was happy with the strides made by the Zimbabwe Unity Government so far, according to a story issued by IRIN here . The Executive Secretary says no deadlock has been declared to them "but we are happy with what they have achieved so far." As I told you before, Tsvangirai appears to be working against his own party on this supposed deadlock. He is happy to let Mugabe get the Perma...