Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog: 4/1/09 - 5/1/09 Live From Harare, Zimbabwe

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 extension of an invitation to Prime Ministers were to be done by the presidents who had been invited.

In other words, he is saying that Mugabe is the one who, if he so wished, could extend an invitation to Tsvangirai for him to attend as part of Mugabe's delegation.

I think that the fact that Tsvangirai phoned Zuma's office to ask to be invited means that Mugabe has not asked his Prime Minister to accompany him.

Apparently, Raila Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, is also in the same predicament.

Things could change, of course and we could well hear that Mugabe has decided to take Tsvangirai along with him after all.

But as things stand right now, it is only Mugabe who has been invited and Tsvangirai is clearly unhappy about this!!!

By saying that only Heads of State and Heads of government are invited, the South Africans are basically saying they do not recognise the Prime Minister as a Head of Government.

Which, I suppose, is correct, since Mugabe chairs cabinet (government), which means he is both Head of State and Head of Government in Zimbabwe. Because he retained his Executive Presidency he retains both titles.

I wonder what this makes the Zimbabwean Prime Minister? Just another Minister? I said in February this year that Tsvangirai's true position is that of First Minister in Mugabe's cabinet and this is being borne out now.

The story is carried by the Independent Online website today and is entitled "Uninvited Guests Cause Havoc"!

Meantime, Dr Simba Makoni has sent a message of congratulations to Jacob Zuma and the ANC on their victory in the elections.

The Zimbabwe Independent Newspaper Confirms Accepting Money From Gono

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 or not (they did and they have accepted and confirmed this). Rather, the issue now is whether acceptance of that money has compromised the paper.

It clearly has, is what I think. It is a fundamental issue of principle that "he who pays the piper calls the tune".

I base this on several publicly available issues:

Last week's issue carried a story that said "double standards" had been "exposed" in the ongoing "cars-forMPs" saga.

In this story, the paper simply parroted Gono's justification and aided and abetted him in his attempts to incite the MPs to rebel against the MDC-T especially, which has made an issue out of this vehicles thing.

It was Gono himself who first highlighted the so-called double-standards in his supplement in the Herald. It was Gono who first called it "double-standards". That story published by the Independent last week was NOT, therefore, news. Gono had made it news on Monday and the paper simply took Gono's position and republished it.

There is a depper issue at stake here. The paper says the money they got from Gono was a "loan". We all know about those BACCOSSI loans. They were effectively free money, given out in Zimbabwe dollars, payable back after a year or so in Zimbabwe dollars at a ridiculously low interest rate.

Because of inflation that affected the Zimbabwe dollar, that money, by the time it is due to be paid back, would be so ridiculously little that even a street kid could pay it off on behalf of The Independent, using proceeds from washing cars in the city centre.

By any definition, therefore, the extension of that loan is a favour from Gono to the paper.

All businesses were struggling back then because of infaltion and it is not the taking of money that is the issue.

No.

The problem comes when the acceptance of that money leads to the compromising of reportage and objectivity. Go back and read Gono's statement published in the Herald on Monday and then read the story the Independent published last Friday on the "double standards" and tell me whose position the paper was defending there.

The writer of the Editor's Memo in today's issue (it's not Vincent, the Editor of the paper) claims some people thought the article was against Gono!!! Yet the paper does not publish a single article, letter or SMS saying this.

Their website, on the other hand, is full of comments that ALL indicate that everyone saw that the story was pro-Gono, even defending him!

The Editor's Memo concentrates instead on a statement by Webster Shamu, the (ZANU-PF) Minister of Information and Publicity who threatened those who report on proceedings in Cabinet meetings with unspecified action. It remains silent on the issue of objectivity with regards to Gono and fails to publish an explanation on the funds they got.

We do not begrduge them the money. They needed it and were in a fix. Like I said, all companies were. But this should not have been at the expense of the objectivity in the way the paper reports.

Of course, the issue of one of their staffers having a house bought for them by Gono as well as the issue of some of the stories on the Reserve Bank Governor being written by the RBZ PR department were always going to be denied.

Yet the benficiary of that house knows very well that just this week, he phoned Gono to complain that the Governor was "exposing" him. Apparently, he thinks my source is Gideon Gono himself!

But those are side issues.

By any stretch of the imagination, acceptance of cheap funds from Gono by the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper means that they are now beholden to the Governor. We would have wished it to be otherwise and we would have wished for the paper to demonstrate this by refusing to play Gono's game of inciting MPs against ministers in order to divert attention from the real issue with those cars from the RBZ.

The paper failed to do that in the current issue.

I must point out that The Independent retains my respect still. They have played and will continue to play an important role in holding public officials to account.

They remain perhaps the best newspaper in Zimbabwe (except when they report on Gono).

By the way, have you noticed that the Prime Minister and his party have now succesfully hoodwinked the people on the issue of these cars? They have gone silent.

Newspapers who should be informing the public (including relatives of MDC-T activists who were killed in June, some in those very cars) have all gone silent about the issue.

The MDC MPs are still driving those cars. They have refused to hand them back.

Tsvangirai has been defied and greed has won out over principle and ethics.

I repeat what I have previously said: those cars are stained with the blood of MDC activists. What the acceptance of those cars by the MDC-T means is that they consider that blood worth less than the comfort and prestige attached to those cars by the party and its MPs.

THOSE CARS HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED and instead of investigating, naming and shaming the MDC-T MPs who are still driving them, the press is being complicit in ignoring this very fundamental issue of morality.

SADC Continues To "Fix" Tsvangirai

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 declarations by these leaders, who appear to be led in this opinion by King Mswati of Swaziland and Angola.

Angola's Dos Santos has ruled Angola since 1979. He has not attended any of these regional meetings in years and is becoming increasingly reclusive. He runs his country, like Mugabe, through his network of Army Generals, who hold real power in Angola, together with Dos Santos.

I have previously told you to watch very carefully the relationship between Zimbabwe's ZANU PF and Angola's powerful army, but that is another story.

Kikwete, whom the state media called a "friend and ally" of Tsvangirai in January this year, after that call to Mugabe which I published here in December last year, had suggested that the easiest way to help Zimbabwe would be for the regional grouping to help the country pay off its relatively paltry debt to the IMF.

Kikwete argued that, by doing this for Zimbabwe, SADC would not have to come up with the urgent US$2 billion that Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance, the MDC's Tendai Biti, says is needed. That two billion would then be accessible from the IMF, which still insists that Zimbabwe must pay off its debt before it can get balance of payment support and more loans.

King Mswati apparently retorted that Tsvangirai had shown all through the negotiations that he has contempt for the regional grouping and for Africa in general, preferring to "hobnob" with Western countries instead. Tsvangirai must therefore go and get that money from his friends in the west, Mswati said.

He is said to have claimed that Mugabe will not be affected at all by SADC's failure to support Zimbabwe with funds.

Sure enough, to date, SADC has proved unwilling (or unable if you go with the public statements) to make any tangible moves to help Zimbabwe leave behind its travails.

It is an interesting revelation this and shows you just what sort of forces are stacked against Prime Minister Tsvangirai, who is still insisting that he will not pull out of this government with Mugabe, no matter what.

This is also the clearest indication yet that some SADC leaders are deliberately sabotaging Tsvangirai, whom they have never forgiven for his shoddy treatment of the regional grouping.

Mswati, especially, is still sore that Tsvangirai rebuffed him at that meeting in Swaziland, to which the Prime Minister refused to travel, even after the Swazi monarch offered to dispatch his private jet to pick him up in Zimbabwe.

Tsvangirai was pushing for SADC to pressure Mugabe to give him a passport and refused to travel without it. This was before he was sowrn in as Prime Minister.

This latest revealation is also bolstered by the memory of that scathing letter to Morgan Tsvangirai from Thabo Mbeki, who told MDC-T leader that he had contempt for African leaders and thought that countries in Europe were better friends of Zimbabwe than African countries. Mbeki reminded Tsvangirai that "Zimbabwe is geographically located in Africa"

The letter, you will recall, led to Tsvangirai saying he had cut off all communication with Mbeki and no longer wanted him as mediator. But the SADC leaders insisted that Mbeki was still the Facilitator and refused to indulge Tsvangirai.

It is worth noting, however, that Kikwete, who, in my opinion is the most progressive president on the African continent today, had an excellent point.

Zimbabwe can access huge amounts of money from the IMF and the World Bank if it clears its arrears, which are said to be around US$400 million. The IMF has always said that its objections to helping Zimbabwe were based on two things: policy and the outstanding debt.

Now the IMF is praising the policies of the new government, which leaves only the issue of the outstanding arrears. If these are paid off, the IMF will have to find another (new) excuse to deny Zimbabwe access to balance of payment support.

This will expose the real motive behind the refusal to support Tsvangirai's coalition government with Mugabe and could well discredit the Bretton Woods institutions in the eyes of many many countries.

It would have been sensible to accept Kikwete's proposalas as it is the only one that has a snowball's chance in hell of actually helping the reputation of this Coalition government.

But it appears that SADC presidents are still holding a grudge against Tsvangirai.

The Scoops Continue!

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 come to work without their cars for fear that these would be “acquired” forcibly from them.

Also in the last week, I had the pleasure of dealing with extremely professional people, who clearly take pride in their work.

Joan Yarnold of Media24 Magazines contacted me saying they were doing a feature story on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his trials and tribulations and especially concentrating on the grief he has suffered recently, the double tragedy of the deaths of his wife and grandson.

Joan had come across a picture of Tsvangirai holding one his grandsons on this blog. He contacted me to request permission to use it. (Which no Zimbabwean "online newspaper would have done. They would have just stolen it like they steal all my articles).

I directed Joan to the Prime Minister's office, since the picture is clearly part of Tsvangirai's family album and I hold no copyright on it.

Within an hour, Joan had got back in touch with me to say that the Prime Minister had said Media24 should go ahead and use the picture on my blog.

I tell you, the professionalism was refreshing!!

I mention this because I am increasingly feeling pity for some online “newspapers” who, for example, besides stealing the story about the intended firing on Arthur Mutambara from this blog and publishing it on their own sites, also rather pathetically tried to pursue the story, to make it their own and to misled the reading public in the process.

As you are by now aware, these so-called online newspapers subsequently published a "follow-up"story saying that one of the instigators of the rebellion against Arthur Mutambara, Job Sikhala, had been fired or suspended from the MDC party led by the deputy Prime Minister.

It turns out this is nothing but a pack of lies. Sikhala himself, as well as the disciplinary committee of the Mutambara MDC, both denied that any such action had been taken!!

But this pack of lies has already been swallowed by gullible readers, mostly those who hate the smaller MDC for no reason except that the men in it, people like Welshman Ncube, rebelled against the dictatorial tendencies of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and broke away from the main MDC.

These are the same people (it is a group of only twenty or so blinkered Tsvangirai fanatics) who hound websites on the Internet in a forlorn and lonely battle to salvage the reputation of the Prime Minister and his MDC who are now so firmly in the pocket of Robert Mugabe that they are now the dictator’s currency, with which he pays to get out of the isolation the world had imposed upon him.

It is pathetic, really, to see how, while they try (without success) to shout down voices like mine that seek to examine the failures of the MDC in office (they are not in power, only in office), these twenty or so online fanatics (some masquerading as "journalists") swallow these lies published by “newspapers” who pander to their myopic and blind following of the discredited MDC-T . They gleefully read the lies about the firing of Sikhala, absolutely ecstatic that they had now finally found something to take attention away from the failure of their own MDC-T in government.

Well, thank heavens for people like the Zimbabwean professionals at SW Radio. They, like true professional journalists, immediately got in touch with both sides of the story. Sikhala denied that he had been handed a letter suspending him from the party. The MDC itself also denied that it had suspended the Sikhala.

Here is what you need to understand about the dynamics of this phenomenon of Zimbabwean online “newspapers”:

Most of them are one-man bands run by someone holding down a full-time job in the diaspora and trying to make money online through advertising. They probably do not even have enough money to make phone calls back home to verify their stories. They don't have the phone numbers of the political players in Zimbabwe. They have, effectively no way to report from within Zimbabwe.

This has led to them publishing lie after lie after lie. You will recall that earlier this year, the newly appointed Minister Welshman Ncube told a conference that “online journalists and newspapers” lie so much that they have lost all credibility with anyone who is serious about finding out what is happening in Zimbabwe.

This explains the venom that you now see directed at me personally by some of these online papers, even as they steal my stories from this blog and publish them as if I am one of their columnists!

Like I have said before, the only online newspaper that has asked for permission to reproduce my articles is the Zimbabwe Mail. TalkZimbabwe have also approached me, but this is normally on a story by story basis. Everyone else is simply stealing the content and republishing it. Some make a pathetic attempt to insert an “introduction” to my story (which is normally just disparaging comments on my article, without engaging a single fact in it) before reproducing it in its entirety!!

We are now in the process of making moves to ensure that the theft of our copyright material on this blog is brought to an end once and for all. And you can expect that this battle will get very nasty. I fully expect it to get personal, with all manner of personal smears against me. It will be nasty because we are going after the motivations of these online thieves – money (which they get from reputable advertising programmes run by ethical companies like Google, who do not take kindly to anyone making money from their advertising using other people’s copyrighted content).

But we have to protect our intellectual property from people who are to lazy to think or work to make something of their own publishing platforms.

Despite all this, I am happy to report that this blog continues its meteoric rise in terms of readership and remains ranked Number 1 in Zimbabwe and in the top 100 000 in the world. Good going for a one-man effort, which is what a blog is. We have never pretended to be a newspaper, we just have a good nose for scoops.

Expect more scoops. And expect more people to attempt to stop you from reading the truth that we publish here.

I myself never read any of the online stuff, except for SW Radio, Nehanda Radio, VOP, Zimbabwe Mail and yes, the Zimbabwe Times as well as Zimbabwe Metro. Other resources I use now and again are mukoma.com and foreign publications.

No other Zimbabwean online paper deserves my attention, especially since time is so precious here in Zimbabwe these days!!

Meantime, I take my hat off to the professionals at SW Radio who have brought us the truth and exposed the lies being fed gullible people (who had already started rejoicing) on the Sikhala/Mutambara saga.

How Mugabe Has The MDC Where He Wants Them

"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 elections.

Mugabe's purpose in sending the MDC on a wild goose chase after power and positions, the delaying tactics he is playing, the continued persecution of MDC supporters - all this is deliberately designed to ensure that the GNU does not deliver any tangible results and disadvantages Tsvangirai.

Mugabe knows that as long as he continues to behave as he is doing now, foreign funders, the sole hope for a turnaround in Zimbabwe, will keep their hands firmly in their pockets.

That suits him just fine.

Come the end of three or five years, when the next elections are held, he wants to be able to turn to the people of Zimbabwe and tell them that the MDC were given a chance to prove themselves in government and failed.

That is one part of the strategy.

The other part is for him to tell the people that foreign funders are opposed to Land Reform and unless and until land is returned to white farmers, Zimbabwe is in the international doghouse. This, he will say, was the rerason why they refused to support their "surrogate", Tsvangirai in the Coalition government with funds to turn the country's economy around.

The Mass Public Opinion Institute of Zimbabwe has just concluded a comprehensive survey of urban and rural Zimbabweans that confirms that frustration with lack of delivery is already being blamed on Tsvangirai and Mutambara. Mugabe gets away scot-free in this.

(In fact, one of the most common sentiments, very shocking to any democrat in Zimbabwe, is that it is better to stick with ZANU PF at next elections. I urge you to get the results of that survey from MPOI if you can, it will open your eyes to the sentiment in the country much more than reading online propaganda ever will!)

Now, as you well know, pretty much everybody in Zimbabwe is agreed that Land Reform is necessary and can not be reversed.

Even the white farmers from whom land has been forcibly taken without compensation, agree with this.

By telling people that no help will come until land is returned to white farmers and pointing to MDC's failure in government as evidence of this at the next elections, Mugabe is betting that people will then throw their hands in the air and say, "In that case it is hopeless".

This works against the MDC because it is seen, even by its supporters, as having the favour of western powers. Hence, the impression that the MDC support from the West is based on the hope that Land Reform will be reversed would be fatal, because it will cast doubt on the motivations of those western powers who are seen to favour the opposition party.

The result will be voters abandoning all hope that the MDC would indeed be able to get financial support from the west if they get into power. They would not be able to get it if the condition is that they must reverse Land Reform.

This is because it is unthinkable for the MDC to return farms to white farmers without sparking civil war in the country.

So, the continued bad behaviour by Mugabe has nothing to do with protecting his power. It has everything to do with the next elections, weakening the MDC in the eyes of voters. As long as the MDC can not deliver on its promises, as long as they are paralysed by the diversions of power-struggles, the world is not stepping in.

Like I said, this plays into Mugabe's hands.

The puzzle though is why Tsvangirai can not see this. Why are the MDC allowing themselves to be caught up in this nonsense? It is quite clear this is a battle they are not going to win. So what's the deal?

The trappings of office have become so comfortable that they are willing to limp along for the rest of the life of this GNU creature, even if they emerge from it completely discredited, shattered and mortally wounded?

Your guess is as good as mine.

By the way, it is my birthday tomorrow, 28 April, so I will be living it up, do not be surprised if there is no post to the blog as a result.

And also, ComOne's internet connections basically went offline on Sunday, which means, for those who rely on the Government gateways for internet and especially those who use those wireless modems that had become popular in Zimbabwe, there is no internet.

I left those days behind me a long time ago. My Internet Service Provider connects directly to satellite, so I am immune to those interruptions now!!

Is The Gun Tsvangirai Using To Shoot Himself In The Foot Loaded

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? The continued arrests of his supporters?

Was it not only two weeks ago that a policeman told the MDC-T MP for Chipinge, while arresting him at a funeral of an MDC-T supporters to "go and report to your Prime Minister"?

This was with his approval?

All of these things Mugabe is doing, and is Tsvangirai saying that they are being done with his approval?

It appears so.

You see, the fact that the Prime Minister refuses to face reality, buries his head in the sand like an ostrich and insists that there actually is such a thing as a "coalition" running Zimbabwe is the reason why this government is going to fail.

What exactly has Tsvangirai seen to convince himself that things are moving in the right direction? Mugabe's continued intransigence is a good sign and augurs well for the future?

MDC supporters are being arrested in Mbare, Buhera, Chipinge, Mt Darwin and many other centres in Zimbabwe. He thinks this is moving in the right direction?

Did Mugabe not tell Tsvangirai as recently as Monday last week that he (Mugabe) is the one in charge and can make any changes and appointments and gutting of ministries as he sees fit?

Yet the Prime Minister tells gullible suppporters in Chinhoyi that there is nothing Mugabe does without his approval.

The danger is that he will be believed, and his supporters will start thinking that their own continued persecution and prosecution is being done with the approval of the leader of their party.

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Meantime, can the Minister of Finance get to the bottom of the four or five buckets of diamonds that are in the vaults of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe?

Whose are they?

What are they being used for?

Seeing as a few are being sold at a time to finance a parrarel government being run by Generals and ZANU PF, is this not proof positive that Mugabe is intent on ensuring that the MDC-T finds its own sources of funds to run government, while the money from the Chiadzwa diamond fields is used to bolster and strengthen ZANU PF.

At the same time, we must not forget that some of that money if finding its way into the pockets of individuals.

Clearly, the MDC-T is not in control, otherwise they would have known about those buckets of diamonds and investigated them.

Or perhaps they do and, seeing as they are totally powerless when it comes to the Generals, the Defence Forces and the entrenched interests of ZANU PF, there really is nothing much they can do except look the other way?

Which would of course, mean that they are not in any way part of this government.

Let us face facts: MDC-T and MDC-M (both PF) are nothing but the errand boys of ZANU PF, being sent overseas to get the finances to resurrect the economy.

Beyond that, they can not claim to be a part of this government. Beyond that, they absolutely no power to do anything.

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And at the same rally in Chinhoyi, Tsvangirai basically admitted defeat on the continued land invasion controversy. His bluster of previous weeks, threatening to "arrest farm invaders" (he has as much authority to order the police to arrest anyone as he does to order the sun to stop shining) has now given way to reality.

Tsvangirai told the rally that his government will now focus on those who have multiple farms (they are all ZANU PF and will tell him to take a hike) as well as those who are not producing anything on their farms (ditto).

The issue of continued invasions has now been put to the side. Now Tsvangirai has set himself up for embrassment on another front.

I just hope the gun he is using to shoot himself repeatedly in the foot is not loaded.

How Gono Corrupted The "Independent" Media & Stole Government Funds

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 friend Vincent Kahiya, the editor of the Independent about this ealier this morning and he says the paper did apply for BACCOSSI money but he does not know whether they got it or not. The application would have been handled by Raphael Khumalo, the Group's Managing Director.

I do know that Trevor Ncube is perhaps the only newspaper owner in this country who genuinely lives by the creed of Editorial independence and never interferes in the workings of his editorial teams. So it could well be that he does not even know of the goings-on here.

In another shocking show of just how wide Gono had spread his patronage tentacles, it is also emerging that the Governor gave BACCOSSI money to the Zimbabwe Independent as well as The Financial Gazette. Gono owns the Gazette.

Immediately after the Financial Gazette got these BACOSSI funds, Gono apparently went to the paper's management and asked for all of it to be paid back to him personally, saying that the paper owed him dividends. I understand the management had no option but to hand over a large part of those funds.

Effectively, then, it means Gono paid himself personally through the Gazette on the pretext of giving the paper government funds to keep their operations going.

This information is thrown sharply into the spotlight today when you look at the way the Zimbabwe Independent covers Gono's battle with Tendai Biti in today's issue of the paper, effectively rallying to Gono's cause in his fight against Biti.

The Indy reports that there was pandemonium in cabinet on Tuesday when Tendai Biti moved a motion in the cabinet meeting to have Gono investigated for borrowing more than five billion United States dollars between 2004 and 2008.

The same story confirms what I told you yesterday about ZANU PF "heavyweights" being opposed to the Governor and failing to defend him in his battle against the Finance Minister.

It emerges in that story that Biti was openly suppported in his proposal to investigate Gono by Herbert Murerwa, Saviour Kasukuwere (known to friends as Tyson), Francis Nhema and Sithembiso Nyoni.

Mugabe apparently opposed the proposal in cabinet. He was supported in this by Mnangagwa, Mumbengegwi, Didymus Mutasa and Stan Mudenge.

Mugabe told Biti that he had no right to investigate Gono and that he would not approve such a move. According to the Independent, Mugabe said any moves to do this would result in the collapse of the Inclusive Government.

Tellingly, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai remained absolutely silent throughout the exchanges and did not speak up at all to support Tendai Biti's quest.

But I think the real story of the day here is the fact that Gono has managed to get all of Zimbabwe's media into his pocket. This corrupt and decietful man is now calling in those favours, it appears, and the Independent itself also carries a story today entitled "Hyprocrisy Over Reserve Bank Cars Exposed".

The article seeks to paint ministers and others as being hypocritical because they have more than one car each from Gono while they are insisting that MPs should return the vehicles that the Governor gave them.

I am afraid Gono has compromised these ministers and the paper lists Prados, Toyota Fortuners and others as cars given to these ministers by the Governor.

Nelson Chamisa apprently not only got a Prado (4x4) but is also driving a Mercedes Benz ML320, a very sleek and luxurious all-wheel drive.

Others who got Prados include: Herbet Murerwa, Theresa Makone, Henry Dzinotyiwei, Fidelis Mhashu, Ignatious Chombo, Welshman Ncube, Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga, Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo and Senate President Edna Mdzongwe.

What you see happening now is that Gono is calling in his favours, if these allegations of funding newspapers are anything to go by.

In a democracy, the subverting of independent critical voices is an unforgivable sin for all who believe in freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It compromises the public's watchdogs and makes it impossible to hold public officials to account.

Gono, by buying influence with the papers, is essentially buying public opinion and this is a subversion of democracy.

The sooner this man goes the better. He has to be chased out of town and if this government is to collapse because of that, as Mugabe threatened in his Tuesday cabinet meeting, then so be it.

Gono Terrorises RBZ Staff

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 inception.

The staff at the RBZ say they feel terrorised by Gono.

More importantly, though, this move betrays the fact that the cars given to parliamentarians have not been returned.

Why?

Because these cars that will be surrendered by RBZ employees today are being offered by Gono to even more MPs. Not all MPs got cars the first time around, so Gono is now telling the legislators that he has even more cars for those MPs who did not benefit from the first round of his patronage.

Clearly, Gono is trying to thumb his nose at the Minister of Finance and he is clearly playing with fire.

Mugabe, you will notice, has not come out publicly to say anything about Gono. He has refused to grant Tsvangirai and Biti their wish of firing Gono immediately, it now emerges, not because he still suppports the Governor, but more because of his own pride.

The issue now is only about Mugabe's authority and Gono is benefiting by proxy.

However, as I told you earlier this year when the Tsvangirai and Biti first demanded Gono's head just after the GNU was formed, Mugabe had told them that they should not use past deeds of Gono (his financing of ZANU PF's bloody presidential run-off) to oust him.

He had demanded that they show whether he would be insubordinate to the new dispensation or had committed any crimes.

Well, it appears that the RBZ staff are now bringing out the cans of worms.

Apparently, there is currently a fleet of brand new Toyota Hilux Vigos and Isuzu KB twin-cabs parked at BAK storage in Harare which were imported by Gono.

The keys to these cars have now been confiscated by ZIMRA, the revenue authority in Zimbabwe, because Gono was refusing to pay taxes on them. He had reached a stage, basically, where he thought he was above the law.

As one source pointed out to me, avoidance of taxes is a "cardinal sin". And so it is. The Governor, who all along has sought to convince us that he occupies a moral high ground, who denied for ages that he buys foreign currency on the black market, is refusing to pay taxes on cars that he imported?

Does he still seek to lead us to believe he is blameless when we now know that one of the MPs acting as his cheerleaders made a lot money through getting bagfuls of freshly printed Zimbabwe dollars, which he used to purchase foreign currency on the black market for Gideon Gono and the Reserve Bank?

Does he still think he occupies a moral high ground? I think not.

Tendai Biti told Cabinet that Gono was running a parallel government. The extent to which he was doing this can be illustrated by the following example I got from a source today:

When Leonard Tshumba left RBZ, he had 600 employees at the Central Bank. Now, Gono has expanded the staff complement at the Reserve Bank to 6000. That's right, the staff complement at the RBZ is now 6000.

What on earth was he doing with all these people? What on earth, in fact, is he doing with them still.

Anyway, the real story here today is that the Governor is now seeking to aggravate the Finance Minister further by offering even more cars to even more MPs.

Morgan Tsvangirai, of whom I said earlier that he is nothing if not doggedly determined, appears to still want to pursue the man and his angle is still that economic recovery is impossible with Gono at the Central Bank.

On the other hand, like I told you before, it is clear that Gono is being left to swing by ZANU PF. Have you heard a single "heavyweight" in ZANU PF speaking up on his behalf? Have you heard a single ZANU PF minister defending him?

He only has this one MP whom he bought with bags of Zimbabwe dollars used to purchase forex on the balck market!

We are set for interesting times ahead.

Tsvangirai Setting CIO On His Own MPs?

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.

Which meant that the Prime Minister was using the CIO against his own MPs.

Now, Tsvangirai may be many things but he is not stupid.

I found it difficult to believe that he would do something so damaging to his personal image, especially considering that during the negotiations, he said the CIO had to be disbanded (which it hasn't been).

Sure enough, this morning, the PM's office denied this was the case, although they still will not reveal which MPs, if any have returned the cars and fail to account for the fact that the committee in parliament on which six of their MPs sit has issued a statement saying they will not be returning those cars.

As regular readers of this blog will know, the CIO has now lost favour with Mugabe. The dictator is now using Military Intelligence and Law and Order policemen for the work that CIO used to do.

As you will also recall, the Director General of the CIO was fired last year by Mugabe, who accused him of being sympathetic to Makonis bid for the presidency. He was only reinstated after the direct intercession of General Chiwengwa, but Mugabe has now basically cut that organisation off.

They are in the dog house.

What is happening, therefore, is that the operatives within CIO are now seeking to ingratiate themselves with Tsvangirai and this may well have been part of that.

There is also the view that this might have been an attempt to discredit this blog by feeding us false information, which would throw into question the reliability of our information and analysis here.

I have never relied on a single source except in very exceptional circumstances, so I went ahead and spoke to the PMs office as well as to two other people within the CIO itself.

The net result is that it is clear the info was wrong.

However, what is still fact is that the MDC-Tsvangirai are lying that their MPs have returned those cars.

They have not.

And that story has now died down. No one seems to be pursuing it on behalf of the public, who have a right to know the truth.

I believe this is wrong. The taking of the cars was wrong. The lie is wrong and public officials should be held to account when they lie like this, which is why I followed up that story and will continue to do so until we know for certain that those cars have been returned.

I expect they will never be returned. Greed now rules the roost within the MDC parliamentary caucus.

The Prime Minister's office told me this morning that we should not listen to Hlongwane, the ZANU PF head of the Committee in parliament that is leading the rebellion against the return of the cars.

Yet they within the MDC-T are not being transparent about this at all.

We need to know how many MDC-T parliamentarians took those cars. How many have returned them? To whom have they been returned seeing as Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister to whom Gideon Gono said the cars should be returned, has said he does not want them surrendered to him and the speaker of parliament has said he also does not want them.

To whom have they been returned?

They have not been returned. And we will not allow the opposition to pull wool over our eyes on this one.

They owe it to the people murdered in those cars to be as transparent about this as possible, to have a sense of shame and moral outrage about it and return those cars.

They are blood cars.

Zimbabwe: Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara About To Be Fired

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 plotters are say that Mutambara has not bothered to report back to the grassroots of the party since the formation of this inclusive government. They claim that when the negotiations leading to the current Inclusive Government started, Mutambara told provincial leaders that the national leadership would be reporting back to the party grassroots on progress.

Instead, they claim, Mutambara is now busy enjoying the trappings of office and mollycoddling the dictatorship of Mugabe and has completely abandoned the structures of the MDC, which he is leader of and which is unofficially called the MDC-M.

It still remains to be seen whether the rally called by Sikhala goes ahead and whether he succeeds in his quest to recall Mutambara from the leadership of the party and from the Deputy Prime Ministership.

I doubt the action will succeed because these guys from both MDCs have been embedded into the ZANU PF so thoroughly that it is shocking.

Speaking of being embedded:

There is a development here involving the Prime Minister's office, which has only hours ago been exposed to be using CIO for certain activities. As usual, I will not publish until I have confirmed this with a couple of other sources.

You can expect that shocker to be on this blog sometime tonight.

MDC-T Lying About The Blood-stained Vehicles Given To Their MPs

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 spokesman for Tsvangirai's party, announced that the opposition MPs had returned the cars. He did not say who they were or how many had originally taken the cars.

Still, he says the cars have been returned by the MPs.

To whom?

Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance, to whom Gono said the cars should be delivered, said yesterday in an interview with the state media that he did not want those cars anywhere near his offices.

He said the vehicles should instead be delivered to parliament, to be left in the custody of the Speaker of Parliament.

The Speaker of Parliament, the MDC Tsvangirai's Lovemore Moyo, responded by telling the state media that he also did not want them in his custody.

He says this issue has nothing to do with him and he does not want to get involved. Gono and Biti should sort out their own mess, is his stance.

So, this begs the question: if the cars have not been delivered to Biti's office and they have not been delivered into the custody of the Speaker of Parliament, to whom did these MPs who supposedly returned them hand them over?

We know that they are not back at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

They are still with their new owners, the Members of Parliament.

To buttress this, today, state media reports that the Parliamentary Committee in charge of the welfare of legislators has announced that they will not return the cars until "the last tractor" given out during the Farm Mechanisation Programme is returned to the authorities, as per Gono's provocative document issued on Monday.

Chaired by a ZANU PF legislator, the Committee also includes six MPs from Tsvangirai's MDC. So, while Chamisa is claiming that MDC MPs have returned the cars, his own MPs in this Committee are declaring that they have not returned them and will not do so.

The MDC-T basically want to claim the moral high ground while they sit in a sewer of moral filth. They want to mislead the public. Can't blame them: they are used to having their cake and eating it.

They are being aided and abetted in this by "journalists" on all sides, in and outside Zimbabwe, who have prostituted themselves to the MDC-T and now act like Public Relations operatives of Tsvangirai's party.

The worst culprits appear to be online media, who have been at the forefront of spreading the disinformation that the MDC-T has now developed a moral spine and has returned the murderous vehicles.

This diversionary tactic is not working within Zimbabwe, although it may work with people living outside our borders, who have swallowed this tripe.

There are substantive issues at stake here that should be engaging our attention.

Such as, for instance, the null and void statements from Tsvangirai. We were told there was a meeting on Monday of all the principals and their underlings at Zimbabwe House, Mugabe's preferred office.

Have you heard anything since? No.

And that is because the MDC-T has been defeated in its quest to reverse Mugabe's actions on Nelson Chamisa, the permanent secretaries and a whole host of other things that they said were "outstanding issues."

The dictator has asserted his dictatorial authority and the MDC-T are powerless to do anything about it.

I keep bringing this up because, while the attention of the new government of Morgan Tsvangirai is caught up in these fruitless power games, people are still dying, service delivery is still suffering, Zimbabwe is still teetering on the brink.

In essence, even on the things the MDC-T has power to make a difference, they are sitting back, letting the country go to the dogs because they believe it more important to fight for cushy jobs (in which they will do nothing, just as they are doing nothing in the cushy jobs they already have at local government and national government level).

This government, on both the MDC and ZANU PF side, is not interested in changing the fortunes of Zimbabwe. The MDC should bear the maximum blame here because, when you look at it, they indeed have done nothing in the ninety days they have been in power.

The dollarisation of Zimbabwe (allowing use of foreign currency) is NOT their policy. It was announced in January by Gideon Gono and Patrick Chinamasa, then acting minister of Finance (both of whom are ZANU PF).

That dollarisation was announced while Tsvangirai and his supporters were refusing to join the Inclusive government because they had not been given comfortable enough seats on the gravy train.

That dollarisation is the most significant policy initiative in Zimbabwe for some years now and it has indeed started lessening the suffering of the people through filling supermarket shelves. But it is woefully inadequate.

The payment of salaries to civil servants in foreign currency? That was also Gideon Gono and Patrick Chinamasa, ZANU PF people. The only difference is that ZANU PF announced this policy move saying the civil servants would be given "vouchers" with which to purchase groceries at shops selling in foreign currency, whereas Biti then came in and said no vouchers would be given and the civil servants would instead access the US$100 as hard cash from their banks.

Even the MDC councils, who have been in control for years now, still sit back and watch as the cities rot, with burst water pipes all over Harare wasting hundreds of thousands of litres of treated water. This while high-density, poorer townships go without water for months on end, fuelling diseases like cholera.

The truth of the matter is that the MDC have no ideas about turning this country around, except for asking the West to give them money, which money will, as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, be abused, "eaten" and misappropriated as well by the new crop of MDC administrators, since they have now shown that they are as corrupt as ZANU PF

Panicking Gono Is Blackmailing His ZANU PF Friends

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 skin

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 thing in the morning!

I shall try harder!

But the reason for the excitement against Gideon Gono is understandable.

In my article below, I explained to you that Gono had cornered Biti and Tsvangirai by extending the vehicle scandal to touch on the Farm Mechanisation Programme (which saw a vast number of MPs and ordinary supporters of both MDCs, as well as ZANU PF, Mugabe's party, receive free tractors, ploughs, pick-up trucks, combine harvesters, Cultivators, disc harrows, seed, fertiliser and a whole lot of other stuff.

Gono also warned that companies that had been given BACCOSSI money (US dollars mostly, given to Zimbabwean manufacturers of basic commodities to allow them to buy raw materials and spare parts at vastly state-subsidised rates) should be ready to return the millions of dollars advanced to them at a moment's notice.

The Governor sought to draw in the army, ministry of defence....in fact, everybody who has ever benefited from the programmes of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

Most of these are ZANU PF people.

But now for the really interesting background that I did not have before.

It appears that Tendai Biti and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, especially, are very cool customers in all of this.

Tsvangirai is doggedly pursuing Gono with a strategy of stubborn, unrelenting pressure, which he is applying to Mugabe at every single Monday meeting the two men have. (You will recall that Tsvangirai reports on his business to Mugabe every Monday).

Refusing to be rebuffed, Tsvangirai is pressing home the need to re-look at the Governor's role in any future fortunes of Zimbabwe. Consistently, he is telling the dictator that Gono is a stumbling block to Zimbabwe receiving money from donors and the Bretton Woods institutions and hence, to recovery.

So, Gono is panicking.

What Tsvangirai is not aware of yet is that, even within ZANU PF, Gono is fast losing friends. He has alienated some very influential party leaders who are now quietly stocking up the fire under Gono by urging MDC parliamentarians to go ahead and propose a parliamentary investigation into the governor.

So far, the numbers I am told of seem to indicate that any parliamentary action against Gono would get bi-partisan support and garner a two-thirds majority.

Claims that have been passed on to me that Gono has also fallen out of favour with Grace Mugabe can not be confirmed. It is said that the speech given by Grace Mugabe earlier this year in which she demanded that those in ZANU PF who were engaged in corruption should be investigated was directed at the Governor.

Gono's document, apparently, is a challenge to his former friends in Mugabe's ZANU PF party. He is bitter at what he sees as "being sacrificed by my comrades." He feels hard done by, that people whom he sought to bribe with all these goodies now appear willing to sacrifice him to Tsvangirai and Biti.

The call to return all the stuff he gave them should be seen in that light. He is looking for sympathy and support.

The Reserve Bank Governor still has another ace up his sleeve (although it appears as though this will not help him), and that is to come out publicly and name people who benefited from such schemes as the buying of foreign currency on the black market by the Reserve Bank.

For instance, some of the people who benefited from this include a sitting MP from ZANU PF, a former Zimbabwe Television reporter who made his fortune through the scheme of being given freshly printed Zimbabwe dollars to source foreign currency on the black market for Gono and the Central Bank.

The lack of transparency with this black market forex scheme meant that a lot of people were left with "change" running into tens of thousands of US dollars from the black market after changing the "hard to come by" Zimbabwe dollars on the black market.

You will recall that during that period, Gono squeezed ordinary Zimbabweans, refusing them access to their own Zimbabwe dollars from their bank accounts, so hard Zimbabwe dollar cash was in very short supply and yet was what was used in day-to-day trading.

The Governor is now threatening to let all of these things become public unless ZANU PF parliamentarians ( most of whom got money from Gono for their general election campaigns in March 2008) protect him from the MDC in parliament.

Ultimately, though, Gono is looking directly to Robert Mugabe, who, it is a well-known fact, does not take the embarrassment of ZANU PF as a party lightly.

By threatening to open this can of worms, which has the potential to bring ZANU PF crashing down in the legislature especially (although perhaps not at the courts, knowing what we know about the Attorney General), Gono is trying to force Mugabe's hand, to get him to move unilaterally to quash all investigations and protect his banker from scrutiny.

Tellingly, Gono, in that document he released yesterday, says his activities should not be seen in the context of normal central banking operations, saying that the real problem he faced was "political in nature", even before the Inclusive Government and hence, he had to act in a "political manner" in responding to the "challenges."

This subject, ladies and gentlemen, is actually too big to be covered in one article and I expect that I will be doing another piece again tomorrow unless something else crops up.

********************************

MEANTIME, THOUGH, I now have it on very good authority that the announcement that Thabo Mbeki was going to come to Zimbabwe to "define Mugabe's powers in the context of the Global Political Agreement (GPA)" was nothing but CIO and ZANU PF disinformation.

ZANU PF wanted this to happen, absolutely certain that Mbeki would take the (correct) legal position that Mugabe's presidential powers remain intact and, as he heads cabinet, has the authority to make changes to ministries as he did with Chamisa's.

But it could only happen if the Prime Minister falls into the trap and agrees to ask Mbeki to come back to Harare to deal with the matter.

But the Prime Minister moved quickly to dismiss the disinformation. He may have actually wisened up on this one and it appears as though, for the first time, he has anticipated the dictator and has a wonderfully workable counter-strategy.

Hence, he is insisting that, yes, he knows that Mugabe has all of those LEGAL powers, but that this is not a legalistic matter, rather a moral one.

He intends to keep hammering home to Mugabe that, although he has the "legal" powers, he must approach this whole matter from the moral viewpoint: there are things he can do to ensure that money is unlocked by the international community.

If Mugabe relents on some of the "smaller issues", Tsvangirai tells the dictator, then the job of asking for donor funds to revive Zimbabwe would be that much easier.

Tsvangirai's problem, however, is that Mugabe apparently believes that no matter what he does, the West will not come in to help the Inclusive Government.

He is still of the view that the fight with Britain and America is about land and he is actually hoping that Tsvangirai fails to convince the donor nations to help, so that he can turn around to the electorate and the African constituency and tell them, " I told you this was about Land Reform....they will not help us until we give back the farms to white farmers."

I think the one thing even Tsvangirai's enemies agree on is that the man has a dogged determination.

It appears he is putting this to good use here, unrelenting even as he uses a pinhead to poke the ZANU PF lion repeatedly.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he may irritate it into moving, even if it is just for a bit.

I think we have entered a very interesting time in the affairs of Zimbabwe and the next couple of weeks, while not delivering a clear verdict on whether ZANU PF stands or falls, should indicate to us just how much moral power the Prime Minister can wrestle from the ruling party, in the name of asking for space to right the economy.

The only let-down may be from the West, who may indeed refuse still to listen to him and resist all efforts to bring in money to help the economy.

If they do that and continue on that path, they may well be sabotaging the Prime Minister at a time when he is emerging with what I personally see as the strategy that has the best prospect for success.

It appears he has found a ZANU PF weak spot and that spot is Gideon Gono, who is being abandoned by people with ZANU PF, although not yet by Mugabe. If Tsvangirai succeeds on Gono, it would be correct to say he would have badly wounded ZANU PF. Whether the wound would be fatal will then depend on what he (Tsvangirai) does for an encore.

Brace yourselves, Zimbabwean politics is about to get even more turbulent!

Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog

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