Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sing the National Anthems of their respective countries (top) and in conversation (probably about the "satanic imperialists" (above). Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 April 2010 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe is reportedly "livid but overjoyed" at Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC after the opposition party boycotted all events associated with the visiting Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Tsvangirai, who had been invited to the airport by Mugabe to meet the Iranian president, decided not to show up. He and ministers from his party also boycotted the dinner held at State House, where Ahmadinejad referred to the West and America as "Satanists" and "Satanic". Although Tsvangirai and most ministers boycotted the ceremonies around the visit, the MDC-T co-Minister of Home Affairs and Tsvangirai confidant Eliphas Mukonoweshuro turned up at State House in order to sign cooperation agreements with the Iranian delegatio...

Mugabe's feared bodyguard at the airport for the arrival of the Iranian president. These are the guys who beat you up if you do not pull off the road quickly enough for their liking to allow Mugabe's motorcade to pass. Mugabe and Ahmadinejad at Harare International Airport soon after the Iranian president's arrival. President Ahmadinejad of Iran gives the MDC wave to crowds gathered at the Harare International Airport earlier today, 22 April 2010 The Iranian president inspects the Guard of Honour upon his arrival in Zimbabwe earlier today, 22 April 2010 Harare, Zimbabwe, 22 April 2010 Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in Zimbabwe today and is already talking tough against America and the West (The Imperialists). The street poles in Harare are plastered with pictures of the Iranian President and those of Mugabe, with the flags of the two countries flying on all major roads, including the main road from the Harare International Airport. Ahmadinejad is in Zimbabwe to o...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 April 2010 A Zimbabwean man cycles home, during a break in one of the storms that have been pounding Zimbabwe this April. This is Domboshava, just outside Harare, on 16 April 2010 A schoolgirl plays around on her way back home from school, April 16 2010, Zimbabwe A woman walks out in the Domboshava savannah, just outside Harare, during a break in the heavy storms that have been pounding Zimbabwe of late These children claim they are repairing potholes and they stop cars to ask for donations from motorists for this "voluntary work". In Harare's poshest areas, they can be seen filling potholes with bricks, stones and earth. A few days later, the pothole will be back. Bigger. Deeper. But still they persevere. Motorists think it noble to give them handouts. At least they are not out committing crimes. Remand Prison in Harare. Notorious as a hellhole that has killed many people. As it happens, members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise Group (WOZA) spent the l...

Harare, Zimbabwe 18 April 2010 President Mugabe lights the Eternal Flame (also known as the Independence Flame) at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on 18 April 2010 This young lady had to be held firmly by her shirt in case she lunged at the president!! Security, security, securiy! No one can be trusted around Mugabe, it seems, not even children!! Robert "The Solution" Mugabe addresses the crowd at Zimbabwe Independence Celebration Ceremony in Harare on 18 April 2010. Mugabe insisted that the law compel companies to put 51% of their businesses in the hands of black Zimbabweans will go ahead, despite what Prime Minister Tsvangirai says. The elite Presidential Guard go through their paces at the Independence celebrations in Harare on April 18 2010 Mugabe reads the programme during the proceedings at the National Sports Stadium in Harare to mark independence from Britain Prime Minister Tsvangirai greets President Mugabe upon the president's arrival for Indep...

"Bastard!"- Julius Malema, the South African ANC Youth League president shouts at and insults Jonah Fisher, a BBC journalist at a press conference on Thursday last week at Luthuli House (ANC Head Office) in Johannesburg. Malema says he supports everything Mugabe is doing and that the ANC will support the Zimbabwean president in the next elections in that country. Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 April 2010 The independent media in Zimbabwe today is once again engaged in wishful thinking over the firebrand South African ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, with the Zimbabwe Standard plastering on its front page the header: ANC Dumps Malema Over ZANU PF Stance. The paper's report is based on the fact the South African president, who is also the mediator in Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma, had issued a statement saying that "leaders should think before they speak"and the fact that the ANC spokesman also issued a statement saying Malema's comments on the MDC-Tsvangirai and his beha...

Residents in the Harare high-density suburb of Glen View fetch water from a borehole sunk in the area by UNICEF. The boreholes routinely fail to cope when there is widespread failure of the water delivery system for days on end as is happening now. This means residents resort to unsafe water sources, some even getting their water from open sewage systems that have not been repaired by the City Council despite claims by the Unity Government in Harare of "improvements and progress" Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 April 2010 Vast sections of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital have been without water for more than a week now as the City Fathers in the MDC-T controlled Council adopt the ZANU PF way of not bothering to inform ratepayers of what the problem is or even if it will be solved. With taps in areas as diverse as Kuwadzana, Highfields, Glen Norah and even Chitungwiza completely dry, residents have once again started getting their water from unprotected sources, including the chemically-po...

Bishop Abel Muzorewa in the garden of his home in Borrowdale, Harare. The former Prime Minister died of cancer day before yesterday while mourners were gathered for the funeral of his brother, who had died a few days before. Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 April 2010 Bishop Muzorewa, who was the first black person to become Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (then known as Zimbabwe-Rhodesia), has died. The president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has not sent a message of condolence or acknowledged the death of the Bishop in any way. At least not in public. In private, though, I am told the president reacted to the news by saying that he still thinks that the blood of the "children"who died at Nyadzonya (a camp for Mugabe's fighters in Mozambique during the 1970s which was bombed when Muzorewa was Prime Minister in a Unity Government with Ian Smith) was "dripping from Muzorewa's hands". This is not a surprise. Mugabe considered Muzorewa a worse person than even Ian Smith, who put...

"You must say - "booo"to the white man," Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe (right) seems to be saying to Julius Malema (left), president of the South African Youth League when the two met at State House in Harare on Easter Monday (that's yesterday). Malema insulted the MDC-T of Morgan Tsvangirai, saying they had started it and also said he will continue to sing the song "Kill The Boer (White Man)" despite an outcry over it back in South Africa Harare, Zimbabwe, April 06 2010 South African ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, who has been in Zimbabwe visiting ZANU PF and Robert Mugabe says he will not stop singing the song "Kill The Boer"(Boer being a generic term for white people in South Africa). Malema was responding to reports from South Africa that the killing of Eugene Tereblanche, of the South African White Supremacist organisation AWB, was linked to his singing of the song. "We will continue to sing that song, "he said...