Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Even before election day arrives, Nelson Chamisa's MDC Alliance has effectively donated 18 seats to ZANU PF. The full list of the candidates who appear on ballot papers in every constituency was issued and published by ZEC in all the newspapers in Zimbabwe today and it makes for depressing reading for MDC-Alliance supporters who understand the value of not confusing the electorate, especially in the voting booth where they can not ask anyone what is going on. The MDC Alliance failed to field a candidate in 4 constituencies across the country, including in Mbare, Harare, a traditional opposition stronghold. In a further 14 constituencies, there are 2 MDC-Alliance candidates on the ballot in addition to MDC-T candidates. All indications are that Chamisa has decided to throw all his weight behind his own presidential bid, to the detriment of his alliance and his party. What should worry him more, though, is the presence of the MDC-T on at least 110 constituency ballots...

Part of the crowd waiting to be addressed by President Mnangagwa in Hwange earlier today President Emmerson Mnangagwa abandoned plans to address a rally in Hwange  a few minutes ago, where he was scheduled to speak to supporters who had already filled the stadium. The president was spirited back to Harare without going to the rally after people currently being questioned over the White City explosion revealed that there were also plans to get to him at Hwange. The emergency evacuation of the president puts pressure on military intelligence to quickly lock down the investigation and neutralise the threat hanging over the heads of the President and inner circle. When the information was relayed, attempts were made first to establish what advance security measures had taken place at the stadium in Hwange, with the full intention of letting the president proceed to address the thousands who were waiting for him. However, we are informed that when Vice President Chiwenga was...

Fact: Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa where, when elections are held, citizens, especially on social media, tag foreign ambassadors and foreign leaders to "report" their opponents and their leaders in ongoing inter-party conflicts and disagreements. This fact was brought to my attention at an Africa Day Eve dinner I attended at an embassy in Harare at the end of last month. I raised the issue back them privately with one of our more well-known journalists mostly because I found the discussion that night highly embarrassing for Zimbabwe. It is a betrayal of the mentality that guarantees Zimbabwe will remain a backward backwater of the Global Village, whatever the justification Zimbabweans have for this type of behaviour, which reduces all Zimbabweans, ALL of them, in the eyes of the world. That mentality is, as one diplomat put it at the dinner "an inferiority complex that makes Zimbabweans the most pitiable of our African friends." Take South Afric...

"The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee today approved bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), both members of the committee, to lay the framework for U.S. relations with the government in Zimbabwe. Senators Flake and Coons led a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, in April. The bill updates the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 and sets forth the steps Zimbabwe needs to take to have sanctions on its country lifted, including ensuring the country’s upcoming elections on July 30 are free, fair, and credible." So begins yesterday's announcement from Senator Chris Coons' offices. The amendments to ZIDERA now approved by the main Foreign Relations Committee are sometimes breathtaking in their brazenness and surprising in some instances. Such as, for example, an amendment that commits the United States to Bretton Woods efforts to restructure, resched...

Justice Chigumba, Chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission At a press conference this morning, Justice Chigumba, Chair of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, confirmed what we told you yesterday, that ZEC's official position is that  the voters roll that has been given to the public is the final voters' roll which includes the voters who registered during the verification period. The ZEC Chair says this puts paid to any claims that the voters' roll is fake. The information puts the MDC Alliance at a loss, primarily because they have no way to verify this and have to wait until voting day itself to see if there are any people in any ward who will vote but do not appear on the voters' roll supplied to candidates and the public. The objective of stopping anyone from pulling a move to delay or stop the election using discrepancies in the voters' roll has now been frustrated and neutralised. A court judgement is in place regarding the provisional voters ro...

The Statement by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission asking anyone who wants the Voters' Roll with pictures to bring their own Hard Drive and have it downloaded at the ZEC offices Last week, I advised people in the Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance of the video secured by authorities in which Nelson is apparently openly discussing sabotaging the election. He is recorded talking about options in the video. One of them is to discredit the elections before they are held, in order to bolster a challenge to the legitimacy of the results immediately after they are announced. The objective is to force a GNU or a Transitional Government arrangement to include the Alliance. Chamisa is not trusting the assurances given to him by General Chiwenga about the aftermath of the election in the event of his loss. This explains why even today, Nelson Chamisa went onto his social media platforms to declare that the roll that his Alliance have is a fake one, because it does not include the voters wh...

Three members of the police force (two men and one woman) and four members of the Central Intelligence Organisation are said to be in military custody tonight as investigations into the explosion at White City Stadium have taken a swift turn.  There is uncertainty about where exactly they are being held. A fuming Vice President Chiwenga dismissed earlier attempts by the police to investigate the matter immediately after the explosion. "They must first tell us the results of all the investigations they conducted into previous attempts on Shumba's life. They said they were investigating and we've not heard anything since. We are not fools." Discussions around the incident immediately zeroed in on the fact that there were no policemen in the vicinity of the podium when the attack was launched. Normal procedure is that, as the President and his entourage approach or leave the stage, a cordon of police stands in front of the crowd primarily to hold back any ex...

You can clearly see the grenade in this screen grab of the incident, showing the grenade as it was flying through the air towards President Mnangagwa. He escaped unhurt. 

Vice President Kembo Mohadi being evacuated from the scene of the explosion at White City Stadium this afternoon. President Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga escaped unhurt. President Mnangagwa and Vice President Chiwenga (obscured by President Mnangagwa in this photo) visiting Mrs Marry Chiwenga, who suffered leg injuries in the explosion   It appears military intelligence have already estabised that a hand-held grenade was thrown at the president by someone on his left as he exited the VIP stage. Closely following him were VP Chiwenga and his wife, VP Mohadi and ZANU PF Chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri. The President, who visited the injured in hospital with VP Chiwenga, was unhurt, as was the Vice-President. Vice President Kembo Mohadi and Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri are said to have got the most serious injuries. Bulawayo has remained calm, even as there is increased military and police presence on the streets.  Those in the VIP tent, closest t...

Only a few minutes ago, a story we have been pursuing for a week now was confirmed: Four Western governments have given an undertaking to President Mnangagwa's government that they would stand by the results of Zimbabwe's election in the event of a boycott by the opposition. "It's a very sensitive matter, you know," said the source who confirmed it to us. "But these governments have all said that nothing that has happened so far on the ground in the Zimbabwe precludes the holding of a free and fair election. On that basis, and provided that there is no violence or other disruptions between now and the election, they will stand by the election results after 30 July." The pivotal argument appears to be that the process so far is above board from what these government can see and what they have been told by representatives on the ground. One of the governments appears particularly exasperated by what they see as the "goalpost-moving, constant...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has ruled out a Coalition or Inclusive Government after the elections. He believes the opposition are trying to cast doubt around the processes leading up to the election so that they find a basis for a dispute in order to suggest an Inclusive Government   In a meeting of what is being referred to as the Kitchen Cabinet of President Mnangagwa, he has explicitly ruled out a GNU or Inclusive Government if he wins the elections to be held next month in Zimbabwe. The "Kitchen Cabinet" is a group of six highly influential people who coalesced around the President even before his ascendancy to the highest office in the land. Only two of them are actual Cabinet Ministers in the current cabinet, from our understanding. One of the group had tackled Mnangagwa specifically about his talk on two different occasions (one of them a public declaration before he formed the cabinet) that he would govern "inclusively". Privately, he had let it o...

Commissioner Netsai Mushonga of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, (pictured) today confirmed our exclusive revelation on this blog that there have been attempts to hack into Voters' Roll already.   Zimbabwe Electoral Commissioner Mushonga confirmed today on Zifm what we revealed in our exclusive post  about attempts to hack into the Voters' Roll when it was made available online and through USSD. Sources had also confirmed that these attempts, which were unsuccessful, contributed to suspicions within ZEC around motivations for what the Commission saw as attempts to stampede it into releasing the roll electronically. Commissioner Mushonga, speaking during an interview on Zifm earlier today, revealed, "When we made the Voters' Roll available online and through USSD (for the verification exercise), there were attempts to hack into it." After the attempts to hack into it, our understanding is that the Chinese cyber experts currently said to be in Zimbabwe...

Senator Coons speaking yesterday at the Confirmation Hearing for Trump Administration Nominee for Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Amb. Tibor Nagay.   US Senator and senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee in America yesterday said sanctions against Zimbabwe must not be lifted until President Mnangagwa “takes concrete action to demonstrate his commitment to pursuing genuine anti-corruption measures” and other concerns he and his colleagues have. Addressing the Trump Administration Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Statr for African Affairs,  Ambassador Tibor Nagy,   in the US Senate, Senator Coons asked: “Do you agree the United States should not relieve sanctions on Zimbabwe until the government takes concrete actions to demonstrate its respect for human rights, its commitment to free and fair elections, and to pursuing genuine anti-corruption measures and a rules-based economy?” Ambassador Nagy concurred with Senator Coons, sayin...

On Monday, 21 May 2018 at around 7:30 in the evening, two private jets out of Mozambique landed at Charles Prince airport on the outskirts of Harare. On Board were 16 Chinese nationals, nine of whom are, according to sources, employees of Guangdong Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre. This comes as we are also being informed that, since the call for people to verify their registration online, the electronic database has come under two unsuccessful attempts to breach it. Credit for that level of security is being given by my sources to the team from Guangdong Information Technology Security Evaluation Centre. It is claimed they are the most sophisticated cyber security experts in the world, feared even by American cyber experts. GITSEC is a contractor of the Chinese People's Army. Also on board were Electrical Engineering University staff, a institution of higher learning for China's armed forces.  "No doubt at all, three of the guys that are from Unit...

This placard at the MDc Alliance March last week tells you all you need to know about the motivation of the opposition. They can read, surely, but of course, when your turn to benefit from corruption is at stake, these guys never let facts get in the way of an argument. After speaking to 3 separate Western Observer Missions on Thursday last week, I am now more convinced than ever that the MDC Alliance of Nelson Chamisa's objections and demands are informed by a fear of loss at the elections. Only on Thursday did I realise that their actions are driven by panic and not by actual facts of the processes. The opposition and certain independent candidates are actually asking ZEC to do them a favour, not follow the law. Because ZEC is actually following the law. The opposition and their fellow travelers prefer to post their "concerns" on twitter, where you are limited to a few characters and where proper analysis can not be done or real questions answered. Unlike reade...

Former President Robert Mugabe has sent communication to the current ZANU PF government demanding that he be given an undertaking that he would not be buried at Heroes Acre when he does eventually pass away. Both President Mnangagwa and Vice President Chiwenga have ignored the communication. In a 5 page document, the former President also complains that he has not yet been given his gazetted benefits. He also complains that, since the departure of Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the new government Paymaster will not take his calls or heed his complaints. The former President, who the recent Afrobarometer survey revealed is still "trusted" by about 30% of registered voters, states that the terminal benefits and gratuities that President Mnangagwa gazetted are yet to be implemented. The provision of an office and staff are yet to be implemented. The number of staff he is entitled to, according to his letter, is also being ignored. Of all the benefits gazetted for an ex-pres...

You will recall that, after the 2013 elections, our analysis of the reasons behind the results of that election were the most quoted and cited by international media, from The Guradian & The Times in London to the New York Times and Washington Post, Sunday Times of South Africa and many others. Reuters also picked it up and distributed the analysis widely. So readers, we are reading the tea-leaves again and we will meet here when the results are announced. But we will be doing so to do what we did in 2013, which is basically to point out why our reading was, yet again, correct. And how it was, yet again, ignored by those who can most benefit from it. There is one particular bomb in the MPOI/Afrobarometer survey released in Bulawayo on Thursday, June 07 2018 as Zimbabwe prepares for an election to be held on July 30 this year. Basically, everyone, including MDC Alliance people, has missed this particular bomb. Buried in the results are results that will see Nelson Chamisa ge...

Nelson Chamisa, seen here at the launch of his manifesto for the 2018 elections, during which he vowed to establish diplomatic diplomatic relationships with Israel. The reasons behind that announcement are actually laughable. Pic by: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi (probably the best photo journalist working in Zimbabwe today!) It is difficult to believe that rumour, juvenile speculation and basic stupidity would inform the strategy of an organisation like the MDC, which is supposed to be a lofty embodiment of not only intelligence, but also the democratic principles we all want in Zimbabwe. But here it is. It has happened and it is happening. Nelson Chamisa of the MDC-T and Alliance declared at his party manifesto launch yesterday that his Alliance would immediately establish diplomatic relations with Israel if he is elected to the presidency of Zimbabwe. Shallow analysis of this move by almost every other so-called analyst has declared that this was done by the MDC-T in order to curr...

Nelson Chamisa, seen here with his main rival for the leadership of the MDC-T, Douglas Mwonzora, has made the one mistake that ZANU PF has been praying for him to make Emmerson Mnangagwa and his strategists have been praying for what happened today to happen. I could never understand why the strategists always factored this particular development into their scenario planning but, just as they assured ED and Chiwenga, it has come to pass. Which means that, despite what anyone may tell you, right now, Nelson Chamisa and the MDC Alliance are playing ZANU PF's game. And when you play someone else's game, you are guaranteed to come to grief. I will be here after the elections to remind you that I said what I am about to say. The embrace between Nelson Chamisa's MDC Alliance and the Robert Mugabe-sponsored NPF has basically sounded the death-knell for the Alliance and for Nelson Chamisa. As I write this, a well-planned strategy is being executed in all parts of the...

Suspected G40 supporters have had their belongings thrown out of their homes, themselves kicked out and locked out. It echoes back to the 1985 elections, when Mugabe's "messiah" complex started setting in. That spirit can not be allowed to come back. So, suspected G40 supporters have had their property thrown out of their homes and locked out of their own homes in this winter. Allegedly by ZANU PF supporters. Yes, Saviour Kasukuwere may be back in the country and yes, his arrest last week may be because he and his brother, Dickson Mafios, may be suspected of playing for Bhora Musango or NPF or even MDC Alliance, but there are certain standards of decent human behaviour that no sane human being can condone. This, chucking people of their homes in this cold winter, can not be condoned by anyone, let alone a ZANU PF that is cleansing itself and forging a new trajectory of our national discourse and politics. Pictures are already making the rounds from human right...

The Zimbabwe Independent newspapers, part of the stable of rabidly pro-Nelson Chamisa newspapers owned by Alpha Media Holdings, has a prominent full page article in today's issue which claims that Britain as well as diplomats in Zimbabwe generally, have abandoned the MDC-T amidst concerns about lack of capacity to deliver on the change Zimbabwe needs. The paper claims that Britain wants Mnangagwa to be president of Zimbabwe after the elections, saying they trust him to deliver on the issues that would turn Zimbabwe around. The shift happened in 2013, apparently. Below is the full text of the article in the Zimbabwe Independent : BY KUDZAI KUWAZA   Britain has shifted its foreign policy on Zimbabwe which was previously anchored on seeking to influence on seeking to influence political change via opposition political parties, and is now pushing for change from within ZANU PF - the same template the West used to catalyse reform in the Soviet Union.  Change i...