Denford Magora's Zimbabwe Blog

Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 June 2010


Today, Zimbabwe was flooded with SMS messages claiming that Gideon Gono, the powerful Zimbabwean Central Bank Governor had been in an accident and died.

But a call to my sources at the Reserve Bank only confirmed that the Governor had indeed been in an accident on the road from Chiredzi. According to my sources, as far as they know, Gono did not die in the accident.

Local television news tonight also reported that Gono has not died and is alive and well. He was at work today, according to the news.

The bit about him being at work is rather doubtful because the Governor was indeed in a car accident and was not shown on TV speaking for himself, which is chance he would not have missed, knowing him.

Gono is also known as Mugabe's personal banker and was at one time perhaps the second most powerful central banker in the world after Alan Greenspan, whose word could move the New York Stock Exchange up and down almost at will.

At the height of his powers, Gono was effectively the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, with the power to reduce mere ministers to tears. There was so much animosity towards him that Mugabe posted his own armed and uniformed guards on the pavement outside the Central Bank building on Samora Machel Avenue in Harare. He moved with a mini-motorcade of three cars filled with guards back then.

This was before the advent of the Unity Government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

The armed soldiers have now gone from the pavement but Gono is still guarded by armed officers in his own office.

The messages circulating today may well be just the rumour capital of the world (as Mugabe called Harare) doing its thing. More likely though, it is all about the residual animosity towards the Governor showing in this wishful thinking.

So, ignore the SMS messages and the online newspapers. The truth of the matter is that Gono has actually not died and has just been on an accident, which my sources at the Reserve Bank actually confirm.



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Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 June 2010


Clearly, the knives are now out for those said to be plotting against Morgan Tsvangirai's Life Presidency of the MDC that carries his surname.

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe has fired one of the two heavyweights against him in the party. Elias Mudzuri, the Minister of Energy, is now no Minister at all, "redeployed to the party", according to Morgan Tsvangirai.

Tendai Biti the PM left alone. This is basically a shot across the bow for the Finance Minister. Now he knows Tsvangirai means to be elected president at the next Congress and still has power to destroy careers for the leaders of the MDC-T.

Indeed, the tone of the press conference left no doubt at all that the Prime Minister had said he was firing Mudzuri for incompetence.

Mudzuri also suffered for what Tsvangirai considered bad judgment on his party when he announced to the nation that he had ordered power cuts to be suspended during the World Cup. Only to be called names in public after, on the very first day of the World Cup 2010 tournament in South Africa, huge chunks of residential areas were promptly switched off by ZESA.

Fidelis Mhashu, who was hit on the head by robbers in South Africa a while back, has also been sent out to pasture. Mhashu headed the utterly pointless Ministry of Rural Housing and Social Amenities. His place as Minister in Charge of Mud Huts and Public Toilets will be taken by the clearly demoted Giles Mutsekwa, formerly co-Minister of Home Affairs. We thought Tsvangirai said Mutsekwa was working "fantastically well" with ZANU PF just last April?

Tsvangirai blames him for the open rebellion of the Chitungwiza structures. Mhashu, by the way, is also the National Executive Council member for Chitungwiza in the MDC with a surname.

Gift Chimanikire is rewarded for crossing the floor back from the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara and is now w Deputy Minister in Charge of Mines and Mining Development. I expect ZANU PF will, like they did with his predecessor in the post, Murisi Zvizvai, soon run circles around him, his head spinning so fast he will start to sing the ZANU PF songs and shout "Pamberi na Mugabe!" (Forward With Mugabe).

Obert Gutu, a Tsvangirai favourite and a senator in the bloated twin-chambered Legislature of Zimbabwe.

Thamasanga Mhalangu, the Deputy Minister of Youth to Saviour Kasukwere, fast-becoming a heavyweight who toyed with the Deputy Minister as though he just but a ragged doll.

You will recall that Mhalangu was hauled before the courts by JosephChinotimba (he who farms baked beans) and accused of having stolen the War Veterans leader cellphone. Mhalangu deferentially to see Saviour Kasukwere, the Minister of Youth and his superior and beg him to talk to Chinotimba to drop the charges and show kindness.

The Deputy Minister was eventually acquitted, but the damage had been done.

So, poof! He is no Deputy Minister now. Fired.

The rest of it was simply the moving of deck chairs on the Titanic called the Inclusive Government, scheduled to sink sometime in May 2011.

Elton Mangoma, a Tsvangirai confidant and trusted one, takes the fired Mudzuri's place as Minister of Energy. Lets see if he can give us more electricity than we had been getting from this MDC-T ministry so far. Bets on how long before he starts issuing "orders" for people not to pay their electricity bills while at the same time promising even more electricity.

Teresa Makone, wife of the Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, is now co-Minister of Home Affairs. Lets see if she will be able to see any warrants for the arrest of her supporters before they are executed.

Gorden Moyo, formerly a Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office will now be a proper and full Minister of State Enterprises. Lets see how he manages, if at all.

His place, rather predictably, goes to Jamieson Timba, former Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity. He is a Tsvangirai fan through and through, and an Advisor to the Prime Minister at both government and party level.

Timba will now be Minister of State in the Prime Minister's office.

Zvizvai, his head spinning from the circles run around him during his tenure at the Mines Ministry, has now been thrown into the Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity and Information. It would be good to hear journalists say what this says about Tsvangirai's approach to the ongoing Media Reform process.

Jesse Majome has also been demoted, from being Deputy at the Justice Ministry to being Deputy at the Women's Affairs portfolio. Everyone knows that that this Ministry is a ZANU PF Ministry and all she can do really once she gets there is sit in a corner and keep quiet. That is how it will be.

Despite the PM saying that this reshuffle and the firings were done for the national interest, the truth of the matter is that the Prime Minister is simply using his power of patronage to reward and punish. He is settling internal MDC-T discord by flexing his governmental muscles.

Here is his statement to the press in full:

Statement by Morgan Tsvangirai, via MDC Press Release:

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to announce a ministerial reshuffle. This reshuffle is about the MDC delivering to the people of Zimbabwe what they are looking for – real change.

Over the past 16 months, we have recorded definite success in certain areas.

• We have brought sanity and stability to the economy.
• We have revived the health sector, which had all but collapsed.
• We have got the schools back up and running, and textbooks distributed.
• We now have independent daily newspapers registered to operate.
• Basic services such as sewerage reticulation, refuse collection and water provision have been restored in many areas.

However, we still have many challenges; and these frankly overshadow our successes to-date.

• The pace of reform has been painfully slow
• Abuses of power are still all too common
• Many people are still struggling to make a living wage, and provide for their families.
• Infrastructure rehabilitation and energy supply continue to inhibit development.

I am acutely aware that these and other challenges have led to a loss of confidence in the new administration amongst the electorate. In response to this, as Prime Minister and President of the MDC, I have just completed a comprehensive review of the performance of the Government, and in particular of my Office and those Ministers who represent the MDC.

As a result, I have decided on a number of changes needed to strengthen the performance of the MDC in government and outside government, in order to deliver real change to the people of Zimbabwe. These changes, are being made with immediate effect, and the new ministers will be sworn in tomorrow, Thursday 24th June.

The changes that are being implemented are as follows:
The following Cabinet Ministers and Deputy Ministers are being redeployed within the Party to strengthen and add momentum to Party programmes:

• Elias Mudzuri, formerly Minister of Energy and Power Development, and the Party’s National Organiser
• Fidelis Mhashu, formerly Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities, and the Party’s National Executive Member for Chitungwiza
• Evelyn Masaiti, formerly Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender & Community Development, and the Party’s Secretary of the Women’s Assembly
• Thamasanqa Mhalangu, formerly Deputy Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation & Empowerment, and the Party’s National Youth Chairperson.

The following will become Cabinet Ministers:

• Jameson Timba, formerly Deputy Minister of Media, Information & Publicity, will become Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office
• Tapiwa Mashakada, will become Minister of Economic Planning & Investment Promotion

The following will become Deputy Ministers:

• Gift Chimanikire will become Deputy Minister of Mines & Mining Development
• Obert Gutu will become Deputy Minister of Justice & Legal Affairs.
• Tongai Matutu will become Deputy Minister of Youth, Indigenisation & Empowerment

The following Cabinet Ministers will change portfolios, as follows:

• Elton Mangoma formerly Minister of Economic Planning & Investment Promotion, will become Minister of Energy & Power Development
• Theresa Makone, formerly Minister of Public Works, will become Minister of Home Affairs
• Giles Mutsekwa, formerly Minister of Home Affairs, will become co-Minister of Housing & Social Amenities
• Gorden Moyo, formerly Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, will become Minister of State Enterprises & Parastatals
• Joel Gabuza, formerly Minister of State Enterprises & Parastatals, will become Minister of Public Works
• The following Deputy Ministers will change portfolios, as follows:
• Murisi Zvizvai, formerly Deputy Minister of Mines & Mining Development, will become Deputy Minister of Media, Information & Publicity
• Jesse Majome, formerly Deputy Minister of Justice & Legal Affairs, will become Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs, Gender & Community Development

Ladies and Gentlemen, the MDC agreed to form this inclusive Government as it represented the most practical means of moving Zimbabwe forward and halt the needless suffering of the people. In undertaking this task I have been humbled and encouraged by the commitment of all members of the MDC’s leadership, both within and outside of Government and I believe we are truly embodying the principles of a Party of Excellence.

I therefore wish to thank those Ministers and Deputy Ministers who are returning to the Party for their commitment and hard work and I call upon those remaining in the Government and our new Ministers and Deputy Ministers to join me in redoubling our efforts to deliver real change to the people of Zimbabwe.

Thank you

You will now almost certainly see the fissures in the MDC-T now erupt out in the open.

The gloves, after all, have been taken off first by Tsvangirai.

He has, in effect, taken the fight to the discontented in his party.

Watch them fight back.


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Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 June 2010

David Makoeya, a South African man in the Limpopo province of South Africa, on the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, was beaten to death this last week by his wife and two children after insisting on watching Germany play Australia in the World Cup on television.

Makoeya, who was 61, had his remote control confiscated by his wife, who insisted that she and the children wanted to watch a gospel show at that time.

Furious, Makoeya attempted several times to take back the remote but failed. At which point he then stood up and changed channels by hand, switching to the Germany/Australia match, to the chagrin of his wife, 32-year old son and 23-year old daughter.

They pounced on him and assaulted him viciously before the son threw him against the wall.

South African police believe that he bashed his head against the wall and fell down unconscious, at which point the family then called the police and an ambulance. By the time the medics arrived, however, the 61 year old was dead.

His 68-year old wife and the 32-year old son are still behind bars, while the daughter has been given bail.

World Cup fever has gripped Southern Africa to alarming levels. Through the night, all over Harare, for instance, one can hear the melodious trumpeting of the Vuvuzela (a plastic horn) being blown by fans watching games on television in their homes, trying desperately to recreate the atmosphere of being right there in the stadium.

So bad has the blowing of horns become that the main South South African Sunday paper, the Sunday Times, for instance, reported this last Sunday that a woman ruptured her throat in a Vuvuzela-blowing contest in that country. She claims she is healing well.

World Cup tickets were being sold at exorbitant prizes in Zimbabwe and only the elite and well-heeled have managed to make it down south to watch some matches live.

What's more, although it is clear that Zimbabwe does not register at all on the radar of World Cup fans in South Africa, Zimbabwean companies have been attempting to cash in on the fever, holding World Cup promotions and so on.

The brain drain that has bedeviled the country, however, means that there are very few savvy marketers left in the country. This is seen in the amateurish attempts by most of these Zimbabwean companies, trying to jump on the latest bandwagon.

They are advertising on Zimbabwe television and in Zimbabwe newspapers, although common marketing sense would tell them to advertise in the South African papers instead.

But, it must be said also that the owners of the businesses in Zimbabwe itself also contribute to this, as they still retain the hyperinflation mentality of having a captive market that has no choice. So, instead of investing in their marketing efforts, they scrimp on expenditure and still expect that a First World audience currently in South Africa will be attracted by their sub-standard and cheapskate efforts!!!

In any case, we have a couple of weeks before the World Cup ends, and when it does, that is actually the time when people will be looking to see what else they can do around South Africa or neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe.

Right now, as evidenced by the death of the Limpopo man, all attention is focused on the game itself and the matches. Someone who would have traveled from Europe or the Americas to watch soccer in South Africa is obviously an ardent fan, who is unlikely to turn his or her attention away from the beautiful game until after the World Cup ends. By then, of course, the cheapskates would have exhausted the few thousand dollars they would have put aside for their "promotions"!!

One thing that is noticeable right now is how, when the countries in soccer are playing, Zimbabwean streets are close to deserted. You see very little pedestrian traffic, although vehicles continue moving as though nothing was going on.

The news of Makoeya's death has predictably made headlines all over the world, since the world media was on edge already, waiting for the notoriously violent South Africa to put on a show of its true violent character during this tournament.

I am sure we will hear more of violence before the tournament ends.


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Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 June 2010


Lets cut right to the chase:

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai lost control of the MDC-T six months ago, it has now emerged.

Yes, the latest news from Zimbabwe is that the Prime Minister lost his party to Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet and a man many believe would make a good president, seeing as he has already done wonders in the private sector, is a staunch christian and is unlikely to filch funds from the state like some of the so-called leaders we have now have been known to do.

News of Strive's takeover of the party has been clouded for some time by the man's aversion to publicity, which causes questions of its own when it comes to an aspiring national leader.

But the details are now so well-known in the upper circles of the MDC-T that even Morgan Tsvangirai now realises that he has lost the battle for supremacy within his own fiefdom.

For instance, Ian Kay, the Marondera farmer and Member of Parliament in Tsvangirai's party, has now been confirmed by four different sources as moving around Mashonaland West openly de-campaigning Tsvangirai, saying the time has now come for the baton to be passed to a new generation of leaders who have fresh ideas and can take the party beyond where Tsvangirai has got it. The belief is that Tsvangirai has essentially reached the apex of his power and ability. He can do no more, even if he wanted to.

The genesis of Strive Masiyiwa's take-over of the MDC-T has its roots in the changing of the constitution of the MDC-Tsvangirai to essentially make Tsvangirai Life President of the MDC-T and perhaps of the country as well, should he take over the presidency from Mugabe and ZANU PF.

Immediately after the unilateral changing of the constitution of Tsvangirai's party, the Econet founder and owner moved to ensure that the support that had been given to Tsvangirai and his party all through the two previous elections was stopped.

The MDC-T as a party started struggling for funds, which is one of the main reasons Tsvangirai was forced into the fatal embrace of Mugabe and ZANU PF. He simply does not care any more.

Masiyiwa is widely spoken of in the MDC-T as one of the main backers of the party financially, pouring funds into that party to keep it afloat and funding the lives and lifestyles of its leaders.

Tsvangirai has already found an angle with which to Masiyiwa, telling a group of businessmen he met in Harare last week that Masiyiwa was even less likely to be palatable than he (Tsvangirai) was because the Econet founder is known to shun supporting fellow black businessmen.

"Muchapedzwa mukatamba naye," Tsvangirai is reported to have observed, meaning: "He will finish your businesses off if you entertain him."

The gloves, then, are definitely off.

It must be said that Masiyiwa has always been careful to keep this personal allegiance and support separate from his business in Zimbabwe, the giant cellphone company, Econet. The reasons are obvious. Even Masiyiwa's managers in the business in Zimbabwe only have suspicions that they can neither confirm nor deny about the link between their leader and the MDC-T.

The camp in the MDC-T which are said to belong to Biti, the Secretary General, is a smokescreen and the MDC-T Secretary General knows this, which is why he has never been forceful enough in his denial of the existence of a camp aligned to him.

Biti is nothing but a front for the ambitions of Strive Masiyiwa. Plain and simple. Biti knows this. Roy Bennett, who is also a Masiyiwa supporter, knows this. Ian Kay knows this. Morgan Tsvangirai knows this.

This latest news on Zimbabwe's opposition politics is even history to ZANU PF, hence the continual targeting of Econet as a business to try and starve the MDC of funds from Masiyiwa.

But ZANU PF knows that this is very unlikely to be effective, because Masiyiwa's wealth is now independent from Econet in Zimbabwe. His cellphone companies in New Zealand, Lesotho and other African countries, as well as his satellite business in the United Kingdom, mean that he was able to continue funding Tsvangirai and the MDC-T even as Zimbabwe experienced an economic meltdown of biblical plague proportions.

In addition to this, Masiyiwa is also a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation, linked to the super-rich Rockefeller family. He is in a league of his own, really.

It now emerges that, because of the immense power wielded by Strive in the MDC-T, most of the disparate groups that were floating around without a leader are rallying to his secret leadership bid.

Anyone who cares to take a bet on the following should send me an email:

At the next MDC-T Congress, Strive Masiyiwa is going to be nominated as President of the MDC from the floor by a delegate from the Midlands. The motion will be seconded by a delegate from Mashonaland East, after which two other delegates, one from Masvingo and another a national leader within the MDC-T current National Council, will also speak in favour of his candidacy.

The so-called rebels fully expect that Tsvangirai will try to bus in youths, Mugabe-style, to teh Conference and have them intimidate delegates and eventually cause chaos and havoc, which Tsvangirai will step in to diffuse. He will try to use the incident to tell the delegates that he is (just as Mugabe is in ZANU PF), the single unifying force within the Movement for Democratic Change. He should, therefore, he will argue be allowed to continue as President in order to maintain party unity until state power is gained.

It is unlikely that he will succeed, because it is now clear that several key people in the MDC-T leadership are done with him.

Senator Roy Bennett, for instance, believes that Tsvangirai let him rot in jail and failed to help him with his troubles with Mugabe because the Prime Minister considers the Senator a Masiyiwa person. Hence the misleading talk of Bennett, as Treasurer-General, starving the Tsvangirai MDC of funds because he is mad at him and such.

The funds dried up at source, not from Bennett.

Another recently arrested Member of Parliament from the MDC-T even believes that the arrest was with the concurrence of the Prime Minister and his co-Minister of Home Affairs, because the MP was said to be publicly going around telling MDC-T supporters that Tsvangirai was "just another Mugabe".

The vitriol directed at the Prime Minister in his own party is shocking, to say the least and one has to hear it to believe it. The leaders of the MDC structures have even suggested that Mugabe is a "better dictator" than Tsvangirai.

All that is saving Tsvangirai now is a residual respect being forced on the MDC supporters by the support the Prime Minister has from foreigners who can not vote in Zimbabwe.

The Prime Minister is fighting back.

Understand this, then: when you see people within the MDC-T inexplicably trying to bring down Econet, when you see them complaining about the cellphone company polluting the sites around Harare with their billboards, when you see city council workers being targeted and sometimes fired by an MDC council for allowing Econet to emblazon its colours along Harare's roads, you are witnessing people simply listening to their Masters (Tsvangirai) voice.

As always, there will be snorts of derision, which will dry up once the truth of this article is exposed. Then you will not hear a single comment from the usual Tsvangirai apologists and they will start pretending that even they were for Masiyiwa all along.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 June 2010


Prime Minister Mini-me, Morgan Tsvangirai was at a evangelical function last week with his new girlfriend, Locadia Tembo.

Tembo was reported by The Standard as being in deep conversation with Tsvangirai's daughter, Vimbai throughout the service, which was being conducted Joyce Meyer.

Naturally, there was a photographer just waiting to pounce and the picture duly made it to the front page of The Standard this week.

When contacted for comment, Tembo told the reporter to write whatever they wanted to write because they have been writing all along without talking to her.

Locadia sat just behind Tsvangirai throughout the service, while the PM himself sat with his cose confidant, Ian Makone, who is now Permanent Secretary in the office of the Prime Minister.

The service was heavily advertised in Zimbabwe, with the mobile phone company, Econet, whose founder, Strive Masiyiwa, is a staunch Christian, donating not only billboards but also adverts in the main newspapers.

The relationship between Tsvangirai and Tembo seems to be going on despite the objections of some senior figures in the PM's party, who are against Tembo because she is a sister to a ZANU PF legislator and is seen as having links to senior figures in Mugabe's party. Some have even suggested that she may be a CIO plant to compromise Tsvangirai.

But that is almost certainly just the inherent paranoia that envelops opposition people in Zimbabwe, where they see Secret Police under every bed and behind every door.


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Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 June 2010

Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, on 2 June called a surprise emergency meeting of the MDC-Tsvangirai National Leadership to confront Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance and MDC-T Secretary-General over allegations that the Minister was undermining the Prime Minister and blocking funding.

Tsvangirai produced a report, which he claimed had been compiled by the Security Department of the MDC-T. The report alleged that Biti and his loyalists were busy going around the country "re-organising" party structured to pack them with their own sympathisers ahead of the MDC-T Congress slated for some time next year.

The meeting was attended by Tsvangirai, Biti, Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, Martin Magaya (Chairman of MDC-T in Chitungwiza), Thabani Mlambo (also an executive from Chitungwiza), Shorai Zvavare and Aelxio Muzvindiri (Zengeza East MP for MDC-T).

Tsvangirai opened the meeting by saying he had called the meeting to establish if "if allegations that the Secretary-General and his faction are trying to undermine the authority of the President (Tsvangirai) are true."

Tsvangirai then read the report, which he said had been compiled by MDC-T Security. The document, amongst other things, claims that the Secretary General and his "faction" have been telling donors to stop fund the MDC-T until there is leadership renewal.

The document further alleges that Biti was sore that, last month, youths loyal to Tsvangirai caused havoc at the MDC-T head office, Harvest House during which an alleged Biti ally, named as Shonhe, was attacked. The youths claimed to be obeying the orders of Morgan Tsvangirai in unleashing the violence.

Biti and his allies at the meeting would not take it lying down and instead demanded to know who authored the document. Tsvangirai would not say.

Those present say there was an air of fear about Tsvangirai, who would not ask Biti point blank about the allegations, instead asking the meeting in general whether there was any truth to the allegations.

Tsvangirai is, of course, falling into the classic leadership trap, where all-powerful leaders are told only what they want to hear and nothing more.

Tsvangirai is particularly rattled because the report was heavily informed by his loyalists in Masvingo and the Midlands Provinces of Zimbabwe.

These two provinces are known to be anti-Tsvangirai within the MDC-T. In the Midlands, Tsvangirai's own people publicly stated in 2008 that they had voted for Simba Makoni. The MDC-T leadership in the Midlands say that Tsvangirai is dictatorial and has imposed people in leadership positions. He also stands accused of having barred one member of the National Executive from the Midlands from attending meetings although he has not been formally suspended from leadership or from the party.

The structures for the MDC-T in the Midlands are known to "belong" to Biti and to another lady MP in Harare.

In Masvingo, the structures there are said to be for Mudzuri, the MDC-T Organising Secretary who has now been effectively stripped of that title by Tsvangirai. Another Morgan, Komichi, who is nominally deputy to Mudzuri, has been instructed by Tsvangirai to take over the post until the next Congress, when Tsvangirai hopes to whip his supporters into line and have them vote his own choice in the Organising Secretary post.

Compounding Tsvangirai's problems is the fact that people like Roy Bennett, the party's Treasurer-General, are now also suspected of being against the MDC-T president. Bennett is particularly upset that the Prime Minister has not fought hard enough for him to be sworn into government.

He is also upset that, in February 2009, when the Inclusive Cabinet was sworn in, Tsvangirai went ahead to attend the ceremony at State House, joking and laughing with Mugabe while he, Bennett was thrown into police cells in the city of Mutare, where he spent a couple of days and nights with the corpse of a prisoner who had died behind bars.

Tsvangirai believes there is a conspiracy against him at the highest levels of his party but is too scared to take direct action lest it backfires on him.

Worryingly, though, the tiff within the MDC-T is now taking on tribal undercurrents, with Tendai Biti dragging that old ZANU PF trick out of the hat. A source close to the Finance Minister told the Sunday Times of South Africa that Biti suspected that the "conspiracy" against him was tribal because most of those feeding information to Tsvangirai were from Masvingo and Midlands.

It is dangerous ground to tread, obviously. It is the sort of mentality that could take Zimbabwe down the Burundi and Rwanda route.

I do not know what tribe Biti belongs to. Nor do I care.

Unfortunately, the MDC-T is picking up too many bad habits from ZANU PF and this is only one them.

Biti must fight Tsvangirai only the basis of the Prime Minister's increasingly questionable democratic credentials. Tsvangirai is proving to be no democrat.

That the PM is courageous is beyond doubt. But so is Mugabe. Courage to face a formidable enemy does not a democrat make. If anything, tyrannies are established by those so fearless that they care nothing for their own well-being. Witness Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and many others. Very rarely do you get a liberator (courageous by definition) like George Washington, who then goes on to ensure that they are out of a job as quickly as possible.

Today we have career politicians, lining their pockets and that being their only motivation for going into the business in the first place, not public service or the good o

So, instead of conducting "sniffing out ceremonies" at the Party Headquarters, he must simply move into the 21st Century and get with the programme.

Biti must continue to demand that no man can doctor the constitution to give himself Life Presidency within the party, lest the country gets another Kamuzu Banda in Morgan Tsvangirai.



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Harare, Zimbabwe, 12 June 2010

While Econet is claiming that it is now the largest mobile phone network in Zimbabwe, most of its vaunted huge subscriber base have been failing completely to make phone calls since last week.

The company to have greedily chased numbers while completely neglecting its infrastrcuture. While putting out dubious claims of base stations being built, it is clear Econet has fallen into the same trap as befell Netone a year or so ago: failure to invest in infrastructure in order to continue giving service to customers.

Super dividends and profits are being declared by Econet, which it now turns out is a bad move because that money should have gone to ensuring good quality service.

People on Econet right now just get the message: "Disconnecting" when they are trying to call out. This has been happening for a week and just as the World Cup starts.

Previously, these companies (like Econet) could blame their incompetence on the bad politics and the bad economy. But now, they are able to give away millions of dollars in dividends to shareholders and buy fleets of cars of staff members, so there is no excuse. It all boils down to poor planning and taking the market for granted.

In any other country where the mobile phone companies offer world class service, there would have been an explanation to the people in the form ads or some sort of announcement explaining why Econet subscribers are flushing money down the toilet buying airtime and the like.

One person I know, a Finance Director at a local company, says that Econet have now become arrogant because they think they are so big and that Zimbabweans have no choice.

He refuses to spend any more money on Econet airtime and has switched back to NetOne. He is also looking to get a Telecel line and vows he will never return to Econet.

Such is the anger.

But there are graver implications:

The mobile phone company is doing this now, when tourists are expected to come into Zimbabwe during the World Cup in South Africa next door to us. These tourists demand seamless and world-class communications networks, which Econet will not be able to give considering what they are doing to Zimbabweans at the moment.

All that will happen is that stereotypes about Zimbabwe and African businesses will be reinforced.

Econet has, for some time now, behaved with the utmost arrogance and has treated its customer base like idiots.

Should one experience problems with Econet's service, one can rest assured that they will not get their problem resolved. There is no service centre to speak of. Should you call the so-called Customer Care numbers, consider yourself very lucky if you hold on for an hour and end up speaking to a person.

Most people end up throwing in the towel.

One wonders what sort of business sense the people at Econet have.

Of course, government is also to blame. They refuse to open up the market and allow more players in. This is the best way to engender competition. Let the market decide who is good enough to get their money and who is not.

Right now, the three networks are a virtual monopoly and behave as though they are doing the people of Zimbabwe a favour by supplying mobile phone services!!

One of these days, we will get a government that will ensure that the people of Zimbabwe get the country they deserve, no thanks ti Econet or MDC or ZANU PF!!


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A whole cabinet Minister, a man from the Tsvangirai MDC who is now Minister of Energy, Elias Mudzuri, faced the cameras last week and lied through his teeth, as has been proven over the last couple of days.

Mudzuri told the nation that there would be no power cuts and load-shedding for the duration of the World Cup tournament in South Africa, which most people in Zimbabwe will be following. (I myself am not a soccer fan at all, by any stretch of the imagination. I am more a cricket and tennis person and I have actually never attended a soccer match in my whole life. Which means I also have no intention of either following the world cup or watching any of the matches).

Still, barely a day after Mudzuri told his lie at a press conference, ZESA (the Zimbabwe Electricity Sometimes Authority) cut off large swathes of the country and the capital, Harare. From Avondale to Glen Lorne to Glen Norah, the capital was cut off for the duration of the Opening ceremony day before yesterday.

Then, yesterday, as soccer lovers geared to watch opening match between South Africa and Mexco, ZESA made sure it cut off large sections of the capital.

It was a demonstration of either just how contemptuous ZESA is of its own Minister or that the Minister, quite unnecessarily, made promises that he knew would never be kept by his bunch of incompetent idiots at ZESA.

It is a demonstration yet again of how little power the MDC-Tsvangirai ministers in the so-called Inclusive Government have. They are in government only to enjoy perks, travelling all over the world and burdening the country with tens of millions of dollars' worth of travel expenses while ignoring the quality of life of Zimbabweans.

The Minster should have just shut up.

Now ZESA are putting him in his place, showing him who is really boss at the Ministry of Energy, which Mudzuri nominally heads.

The true boss is, of course, ZESA, who do as they wish with no regard to wishes of anyone but their own.

Meantime, those of you outside the country have obviously not seen the ridiculous campaign that ZESA is running in the papers urging Zimbabweans to pay their bills.

It s ridiculous because people are being made to pay for services they do not get. And, for soccer fans (the majority of Zimbabweans), their attitude will be hardened now by the failure of Mudzuri and his ZESA to keep their promise.

I dare say people will be so angry that inflows to ZESA will actually decline in the coming months as soccer fans protest at this shoddy treatment and refuse to reward ZESA incompetence.

The Minister of Energy Lies from the MDC-Tsvangirai will obviously not care one way or the other. He has a generator at home (or several of them) and can watch the World Cup any time he likes on his satellite dish.

The question then becomes: why should voters reward such bare-faced lies? Why should they reward this insult to their intelligence.

The Ministers from the MDC still think that they are in power and have no responsibility to keep promises because no one will ever hold them accountable. They are mistaken.

The worst thing that can happen now (and has already started to happen) is that the behaviour of the MDC will simply convince the people of Zimbabwe that ZANU PF and MDC politicians are birds of the same feather, which is why they are currently flocking together in the so-called Inclusive Government.

Compounding the lie told by Mudzuri, of course, is the fact that it is now winter in Zimbabwe, the time when ZESA normally implements power cuts with reckless abandon.

The root of the problem is sheer incompetence and corruption at all levels of ZESA. The people at the power company are a law unto themselves, backed by thugs in government who believe that their will matters more than the will of the people who elected them.

Of course, nobody elected anyone at ZESA (which, by the way, could have easily finished the rural electrification programme long ago and taken 60% of our population from the Stone Age in which they currently live in the rural areas.


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Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 July 2010


A close confidant and friend of Dr Simba Makoni passed away on Monday night in Harare after a short illness.

Simba Sakutukwa was Head of Logistics during Makoni's campaign for President in 2008 and headed the Administration Cluster of Makoni's party, Mavambo.

He fell ill two about two weeks ago upon his return from Bulawayo where he had gone to set up structures of Mavambo in the company of other party activists.

Sakutukwa was 57 years old and the details of his demise are still coming in.

Dr Makoni issued the following statement on Tuesday:

"Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (M.K.D) President, Dr Simba Makoni, on behalf of M.K.D and his own behalf would like to extend heartfelt condolences to the Sakutukwa family on the untimely death of a National Steering Committee (NSC) member, Mr Simbarashe Sakutukwa. Mr Sakutukwa passed away on Monday, 07 June 2010 after a short illness.

M.K.D has lost a dedicated cadre, with unwavering commitment and unquestionable loyalty to the Party, whose efforts towards achieving a better Zimbabwe for all will forever be cherished. He was fifty seven (57).

Simba Sakutukwa will also be remembered for being one of the founding fathers of Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (M.K.D).

He is survived by his wife, Getrude and five (5) children.

Funeral arrangements will be announced in due course.

May his dear departed soul rest in eternal peace."

Sakutukwa will be buried on Sunday at Warren Hills Cemetery in Harare.

His short illness and subsequent death shocked those who were with him in Bulawayo and even Dr Makoni, since the man did not show signs of being ill in the recent past.

Obviously, this will affect Makoni's organisation tremendously since Sakutukwa was one of the two most trusted people within the Party by Makoni. His business skills had been brought to bear on Mavambo and he was actively taking part in teh roll-out of structures of the party across Zimbabwe.

It remains to be seen whether we will know what exactly happened to him.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 June 2010

A parliamentary committee consisting of MDC and ZANU PF Members of Parliament has proposed that the army presence at Chiadzwa be beefed up to cover even more of the area in order to "curb illegal mining".

Although it had been announced months back that the army was moving out of the diamond fields, the Committee lets the cat out of the bay by not calling for the army to return, but calling for them to remain.

The manner in which the announcement is being made is also rather confusing. The committee is not, in effect, recommending. The language used by the Chairman of the Protfolio, ZANU PF's Chindori-Chininga, suggests that decisions have been made.

One of these decisions is to force whatever investors are given the green light to mine the 75 000 hectares of diamond claims to use security recommended by the government.

The recommendation is already being actioned.

The army "will"train a special unit to secure diamond fields and this elite unit will be the only one approved by the government for the job.

This announcement, which means that the army presence at the diamond fields will become semi-permanent, comes as an activist languishes in jail after having been arrested on charges of giving false evidence to the Kimberley Process.

Farai Maguwu, director of Zimbabwe’s Centre for Research and Development , turned himself into police custody after spending days on the run, during which his car was confiscated.


President Mugabe has recently said that he will export his diamonds one way or the other, with or without Certification.


He has showed in recent memory that he is capable of thumbing his nose at international conventions and getting away with it.


Reports now indicate that Zimbabwe may be on the verge of exporting around 60 000 carats without certification.

Once again, the issue of sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, which ZANU PF now say are being bent to benefit only the MDC side of the Inclusive Government, has motivated the boldness in showing the world the finger.

There is nothing anyone can do about it because Mugabe is still very much in control and all these are his attempts to force the world's hand.

Of course, should they not oblige, smuggling the diamonds means that the proceeds also become murky. Where will they be taken to? Who will ensure that income from teh Black Market is properly accounted for.

And why should it be?

There is an election afoot, less than a year from now. ZANU PF will need to fund that election. There is likely to be no money of substance coming from outside Zimbabwe or even to be raised within ZANU PF ranks.

Everything, absolutely everything, you see happening between now (when the world is distracted by the World Cup in South Africa, and May next year, is a campaign. Especially from ZANU PF.

There is method to the madness.

Even teh banning of the export of diamond sales announced this last month by the government was also designed to achieve something: by denying even legitimate operations like Rio Tinto and Murowa the right to export, the government was, clearly, building a Coalition of the Unwilling to fall into line against the Kimberley Process, to unite with Government and the Chiadzwa operations in calling for a speedy licensing process.




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Marondera farmer and MDC-Tsvangirai MP, Ian Kay, has been arrested by Zimbabwe police who raided his home in the extremely posh Harare suburb of Helensvale (where Mugabe also lives now in his private mansion after abandoning State House and turning it into an office).

The police say that they were looking for "offensive material", including pornography, drugs and even weapons of war.

There is no word on whether they found any titillating stuff at the MPs house, but the fact that they have arrested him is very telling. Police have him at Harare Central on charges of distributing expired medicine (which he says he was donating to his constituency, because the hospitals have no medication to speak of).

Of course, there is more to this than first meets the eye.

First, sources within ZANU PF are clear why this had to be done, even if they admit it only off-record: "After using sanctions to destroy the health system, these Rhodesians want to import medicine to give to people so that the MDC is seen as caring for the people while ZANU PF is painted as failing to run the hospitals."

They argue that he should have given the medication to clinics and hospitals through the Ministry of Health, which is controlled by the MDC. But the police claim he was not doing this because the medication has expired and would not be accepted.

It is ironic that this arrest coincides exactly with his previous arrest, when he was moved from one police station to the other in the Mrewa area and his constituency in order to deny him access to any supporters or lawyers. It was also around 4 June last year that his story was being reported and tracked.

That the police made the current warrant valid for such a wide array of offences betrays the fact that they were determined to nail the man. It is the classic style of throwing as much mud as possible, secure in the knowledge that some will stick and will take time to clean off.

This arrest is linked to two issues: first the acquittal and subsequent messy handling of the appeal process by the Attorney General (who, by the way, has now taken to giving opinion to the courts in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe!) in the case of Roy Bennett, the MDC-Tsvangirai Treasurer-General charged with plotting to overthrow "The Solution".

Second, it is also part of the process of trying to emasculate the MDC and is the clearest indication yet that Mugabe us determined to hold elections in March or April next year.

The campaigning starts now and part of that process is ensuring that the MDC is deprived of the people within its ranks who would be able to fundraise for the party.

By distributing the medication, Kay was seen to have already started campaigning.

Roy Bennett, you will also recall, faces another charge at the moment apart from his terrorism charges: that of keeping maize (corn) illegally at his farm. (Again, the motive being to make sure he did not use the food to buy loyalty and votes in the area where he is almost certain to contest again.

As I mentioned in a post on this blog last year in February, Kay, it was said within ZANU PF, had been implicated by Gandi Mudzingwa as part of a group of officials securing resources for the very crime that Roy Bennett was (and is still being) tried for.

Apart from wanting to humiliate Tsvangirai, showing him up as a powerless Prime Minister, the idea is to also cripple the MDC organisationally. With party officials in government, distracted by government business, too busy enjoying the trappings of office (flying off to all corners of the world etc), the few heavyweights left in the party to look after party business will find it very tough going as Mugabe and ZANU PF prepare for elections.

Curiously, Morgan Tsvangirai, perhaps realising that opposing the holding of early elections would be futile since he has no power to stop Mugabe calling a General Election, has now also joined the ZANU PF chorus calling for elections in 2011.

Mugabe would have preferred to have them earlier, as early as 2010 and he was only talked out of it by Jacob Zuma.

Mugabe's intelligence, which told him in 2008 that he was going to lose the election or at least come up level with Tsvangirai, now tells him that he could actually win the election if it is called next year, with the acute economic problems that made everyday life having largely been mitigated by the adoption of the dollar.

The strategy for ZANU PF for the 2011 has already been leaked: Mugabe and senior leaders will only repeat at rally after rally that the United States dollar (or multi-currency system as Mugabe prefers to put it, avoiding naming the Imperialist dollar) will remain the monetary policy of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabweans, you will be surprised to know, simply care about this and little else, used as they are to measuring political success or acceptability by how much they fill their bellies.

What is certain after all is said and done is this: Kay, Bennett and others within the MDC will be dealing with court cases and other such distractions until new elections are called.

It is called defeat by other means and the process started the day Morgan Tsvangirai agreed to become Prime Minister.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 June 2010


On Monday this week, Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe who is in bed with the MDC-T of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, reportedly came out to express open hostility towards the Prime Minister, telling to "go and report to the British and the Americans" that he (Mugabe) was refusing to swear in Roy Bennett and reverse the appointments of senior judges (which Mugabe did without consulting Tsvangirai).

Morgan Tsvangirai himself has been busy galivanting around the world, visiting, amongst other countries, South Korea and the United States last month.

Tsvangirai, who was in South Africa last week (at taxpayers' expense) had written to Mugabe saying asking for their Monday meetings to be resumed "as a matter of urgency upon my return from South Africa".

The letter itself, apparently, was what raised Mugabe's bristles. He told senior ZANU PF ministers that the Prime Minister was behaving as if he had power to order the president around. He said he was sick of it and would put the PM in place at the next meeting.

On Monday, Mugabe at first kept Tsvangirai waiting for some time at State House before summoning him into the presidential office at the official residence, where Tsvangirai found the president reclining on the familiar green high-back chair.

Tsvangirai was armed with demands for the Mugabe to reverse the appointments of judges like Justice Chiweshe (who withheld presidential election results in 2008 for weeks on end) to the Supreme Court. He also wanted Mugabe to honour his pledge to swear in Roy Bennett as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, now that the man had been acquitted.

Surprisingly, Mugabe, on the Bennett issue, apparently came clean and said the acquittal of Bennett had been "a mistake."

ZANU PF sources say that Bennett's acquittal was only made possible because the MDC-T Treasurer General had publicly announced (in an press interview) that he would withdraw his nomination to the Deputy Ministerial post if he were acquitted.

"But then, he broke his promise and started demanding that he be sworn in after he had been acquitted."

It turns out that the initial refusal by the Attorney General to appeal the decision to acquit Bennett had been based on the same assumption. Quite tellingly, ZANU PF privately say that the decision not to appeal was supposed to be a show of "good faith", which Bennett and Tsvangirai "spurned".

"They thought that they now had an upper hand. They forget that we are still running this country so the president must remind them who is boss."

Of course, the promise not to insist on being made Deputy Minister of Agriculture, which Bennett made in an interview, was not official communication at all and the Prime Minister and his party insist that they never told their partners in crime (ZANU PF and the MDC-M) anything of the sort.

The president and his party feel shortchanged.

A couple of days after Bennett was acquitted and just after Nelson Chamisa, the MDC-T spokesman said they now wanted Bennett sworn in, the government-owned Herald newspaper ran a full page article saying "Bennett will not do". The article explained that the man was a known soldier of the Rhodesian army before independence in 1980 and that the intelligence services also knew that he had been part of a group that worked to sabotage Zimbabwe after independence. Bennett, in that article, was said to be "unrepentant"about his "Rhodesian past".

The move to appoint Justices seen as being sympathetic to ZANU PF and Mugabe was designed specifically to show the MDC and Morgan Tsvangirai that ZANU PF still owns the courts, it is now clear.

The argument put to me just yesterday by a very senior ZANU PF figure was this:

"Even in America, which Tsvangirai admires so much, the president of the day appoints Supreme Court judges and other Justices. He appoints people who agree with his world-view. This is how conservatives appointed on the US Supreme Court were able to force George W Bush into power even though he lost the election. Those judges were put in place by the likes of Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush when they were still presidents. So Tsvangirai should should not complain that President Mugabe and ZANU PF are packing the courts with sympathetic judges. Its how politics in done even in the so-called democracies that the MDCs admire so much."

The President, during Monday's meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai also turned the tables on the Prime Minister, saying the MDC-T had done nothing about the removal of sanctions which has been accepted as an outstanding issue.

Tsvangirai replied by saying that he had called publicly for the removal of the sanctions and that Mutambara had also done the same.

Mugabe responded by asking, "Yes, but what have you said in private?" Mugabe claims to "know"that Tsvangirai urged the USA to maintain pressure and the sanctions during his meeting with Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in Washington a couple of weeks back.

The matters remained unresolved at the end of the meeting, with Tsvangirai saying to Mugabe that it was perhaps time to call a SADC (Southern African Development Community) Special Summit to discuss these issues.

Mugabe replied, "Perhaps we should do that..."

He knows of course, that the MDC-T, by agreeing to have the sanctions as part outstanding issues, put themselves in a corner because they took responsibility for them. His hand was strengthened when the former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom in the previous Labour government said that his government would be guided by the MDC on whether sanctions were lifted or not.

The truth of the matter as things stand now is that the "outstanding issues"will remain as such until the next elections. Mugabe is determined that he has given in on enough matters to the MDC and giving in on anything more would strengthen the hand of the MDC in the eyes of the people, especially the MDC's constituency.

The judges should prove handy when the elections are called next time and a dispute over results arises (and it will certainly arise, mark my words).



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Five-times Soccer World Cup Champions, Brazil, clobbered a hapless Zimbabwe team in Harare yesterday in front of President Robert Mugabe, who arrived at the stadium waving the Zimbabwe flag and hoping for an upset win by the Zimbabwe Warriors team.

Of course, nothing of the sort was ever going to happen.

Unlike our superlative cricket team, the Zimbabwe soccer team are perennial losers, hopeless against even such teams as Zambia and South Africa.

Still, it was a good Public Relations opportunity for President Mugabe, who was able to sit through the match and play the man of the people, watching the game with thousands of his fellow Zimbabweans.

Brazil won the encounter 3-0.

The game was one of the most watched in Zimbabwe's history, with the government declaring a half-day holiday for all civil servants. Private companies were also largely deserted as it seemed every single middle and upper manager working in Harare was at the game.

The interesting thing is that not one of them expected Zimbabwe to win. The attraction was in watching the former world champions on Zimbabwe's own turf - a once in a lifetime opportunity, as the local papers put it, with the main daily newspaper, The Herald, saying it was an encounter that people would be telling their grandchildren about.

Security was at almost paranoid levels at both the Brazil team's hotel and the National Sports Stadium itself. Fans who had hoped to get autographs never got a chance to get close to the players at all.