Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

"Oh my God! Is that a gun you are holding, Morgan!" Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai are shown here before they came into office (but not power) in the Inclusive Government and before Tsvangirai doctored the MDC-Tsvangirai constitution to abolish term limits for the presidency of his party. 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 b...

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister, holds up the briefcase containing the 2010 National Budget last Wednesday at parliament. Biti is now being accused by ZANU PF of underfunding or denying funding to critical areas of reform, such as media. Mugabe's party has now found a new voice on sanctions, with the Zimbabwean dictator due to tell South African facilitators today that sanctions are the real reason why reform can not be implemented and that not even the MDC-T Minister of Finance, who should be funding these reforms, is also finding it tough-going with the "sanctions" in place. Harare, Zimbabwe, 08 December 2009 The Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, Tendai Biti, has frozen media hangman Tafataona Mahoso and his new Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe out of the National Budget, a revelation that also explains why Mugabe is now so virulently anti-Biti that he wants him reassigned or fired by Morgan Tsvangirai. Mahoso has requested US$156 000 but only got US$39 000 f...

Mugabe appears on CNN last week. He was in New York to attend the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which he also addressed and predictably lamented sanctions imposed on him and his party. During the interview, however, Mugabe betrayed an aspect of the Inclusive Government that escaped all observers. As I explain below, put together with the behaviour of his spokesman, George Charamba and all the other breaches of the spirit behind the Inclusive Government, it shows us the true state of the health of the Inclusive Government Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 September 2009 Almost everybody failed to notice a very significant aspect of Mugabe's interview with Amanpour on CNN last week. Throughout the interview, not once did Mugabe refer to Morgan Tsvangirai as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, even though he sought to play up the Inclusive Government as "genuine power-sharing" which should not be "denigrated." When he spoke about Roy Bennett, the Zimbabwe Pre...