Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Theresa Makone, (above) of the MDC-Tsvangirai and now co-Minister of Home Affairs in Zimbabwe's Coalition Government, ganged up with her relative, the ZANU PF Minister in charge of the Secret Police to "intimidate" police officers and demand the release of the ZANU PF Minister's son, who is in police custody for invading and grabbing a white-owned company. He and an accomplice, Themba Mliswa, who is a nephew of the ZANU PF Minister, are still behind bars, with the Zimbabwe police making public complaints through the state media that the two ministers' actions are "tantamount to defeating the course of justice". The ZANU PF Minister says that is nonsense, while Makone has refused to comment. Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 July 2010 Theresa Makone, the newly-installed co-Minister of Home Affairs in the Coalition Government has already started using her new powers: to demand the release of the detained son of a senior ZANU PF Minister. Makone is wife to the Permanent...

Patrick Chinamasa, seen here arriving to present the Budget that dollarised Zimbabwe's economy on 29 January 2009, is one of two senior ministers from Manicaland who are unhappy that the politics of tribal balance have kept the people from that Province from the top leadership of ZANU PF. There is now open rebellion in the province, with the leadership there convinced that Mugabe has something against people from the area. Hence those anti-Mugabe SMS messages at the last ZANU PF Congress in Harare. Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 January 2010 You all know about the Manicaland Province Chairman for ZANU PF, Basil Nyabadza, who was forced out of his job by the ZANU PF leadership, ostensibly for threatening to nominate Didymus Mutasa for National Chairman from the floor at the December ZANU PF Congress. Mugabe has previously and publicly (during the last election) stated that the Manicaland province is a reactionary and rebellious province that has thrown up "traitors" like Tekere, Mak...

Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe's Minister of the Secret Police (CIO), is seen here visiting the spirit medium who claimed to have found diesel issuing from a rock in Chinhoyi. The Minister has now come out to defy Mugabe, saying he is not in a hurry to replace the Provincial Chairman for his home province, who was forced to resign after refusing to rescind his decision to push for Mutasa to be made ZANU PF National Chairman at the Congress held in December 08, despite clear instructions from the Politburo, handed down with Mugabe himself in the chair. Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 January 2010 Didymus Mutasa, the ZANU PF Secretary for Administration and Minister in Charge of the Secret Police (CIO) has defied a directive issued by the ZANU Politburo. You will recall that the Manicaland Provincial Chairman for ZANU PF, Basil Nyabadza, was being used by Mutasa to campaign for the Minister to be made Chairman of the party, saying the position should not be reserved for a Ndebele person from the former...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has solutions of his own when it comes to Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister who has even been sent bullets in the mail. The just-ended ZANU PF Congress (Mugabe is seen listening to the wrap up yesterday, Saturday 12 December, in the photo above) condemned Tendai Biti in strong language and urged Mugabe not to give in on anything the MDC wants addressed until they get sanctions lifted and stop the broadcasts of independent, foreign-based radio stations which are now referred to by ZANU PF as "pirate radio stations". Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 December 2009 The ZANU PF Congress which ended in Harare yesterday "condemned in the strongest terms" Fnance Minister and MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary-General Tendai Biti over the way he is managing the country's finances. “Congress condemns in the strongest terms, the reckless actions of the Minister Biti’s in particular his abuse of constitutional authority to prevent the release of the US$510 ...

Robert Mugabe drew blood today at the ongoing ZANU PF Congress in Harare. He pushed for the Manicaland Province Chairman, Basil Nyabadza, to fall in line with other provinces or quit. He quit. Mugabe characterised what Nyabadza was doing as divisive and designed to destroy his cherished unity. Any thoughts of nominating Didymus Mutasa as National Chairman from the floor have thus died. Mugabe has brought the party back into his grip once more. Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 December 2009 So, this blog remains the only medium to have told you about the outburst from Basil Nyabadza, the ZANU PF Manicaland Province chairman, at the church funeral of Didymus Mutasa' son. Yesterday, he got his comeuppance, when the ZANU PF Politburo forced him to either retract his statement or leave his post. He chose to leave his post. Mugabe had been shocked two days ago in Harare by the strength of voices being raised in opposition to Simon Khaya Moyo, especially, as Chairman of Zimbabwe's ruling party. Y...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe opens the Chirundu One-Stop Border Post on Friday (above). Today, he spent six and a half hours battling to contain a rebellion within the ZANU PF Politburo but managed to triumph in the end. He will be the candidate for ZANU PF in the next election in Zimbabwe. Same old same old. Whichever way you look at it, this is simply delaying the inevitable. Harare, Zimbabwe, 08 December 2009 The ZANU PF politburo met for more than six hours today and made some decisions that would be stunning for those who do not follow this blog. First, let me remind you that when I broke the story of Mugabe's offer to Dumiso Dabengwa for the the post of Vice President of ZANU PF and Zimbabwe, I also mentioned that Mugabe thought highly of Simon Khaya Moyo, the current Zimbabwe ambassador to South Africa. Mugabe was said by my sources at the time to be opposed to Nkomo and would have preferred Dabengwa or even Khaya Moyo, who many considered a non-factor when I menti...

Joseph Chinotimba (above), the so-called Commander of Farm Invasions and his band of Ware Veterans have now come out in opposition to God and Fate, declaring that Mugabe should be president of Zimbabwe "forever and ever", basically declaring the Zimbabwean dictator immortal. This shaking of spears comes ahead of ZANU PF's Congress in December this year, at which Mugabe is already guaranteed continued leadership.  Harare, Zimbabwe 24 November 2009 The Zimbabwe War Veterans Association, a mainstay of Mugabe's support base, has come out in support of him and other leaders nominated by ZANU PF provinces to the party's so-called Presidium. Joseph Chinotimba, he of straw suits and hats, self-styled Commander of Farm Invasions, issued a statement yesterday  saying he and his fellow "freedom fighters" are behind Mugabe "forever and ever." We will have to see what God says about that. The semi-literate statement from Chinotimba says: "As war vetera...

Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe's Minister of the Secret Police in Zimbabwe, shocked mourners at the burial of his son in Rusape day before yesterday. It was evident that his relatives and those who are his neighbours do not like the Minister at all. The burial took place at a plot owned by the Minister, although no one lives there anymore, amidst local rumour that the plot is a haven for ghosts. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 An extraordinary thing happened at the funeral of Didymus Mutasa's son in Rusape  yesterday. Wing Commander Mutasa, the ZANU PF senior Minister's first born son, a good man by all accounts, was buried at the family plot, where no one lives because Mutasa has abandoned it and now lives at his farm in Headlands. Mutasa's first wife is also buried at the same plot. But the funeral was embarrassing for the Minister (he is in charge of the CIO, Zimbabwe's Secret Police), because the villagers refused to dig his son's grave, saying they did not know ...

Jestina Mukoko and her fellow abductees arriving at court on December 24 last year, the first time they were seen in public after they had disappeared from their homes and places of work. They had been held incommunicado for up to three months, with the police saying they did not have them in their custody. The case against them (a banditry charge) was quashed by the Supreme Court because their "arrests" had been illegal and the group is now suing the Minister of State Security and his fellow conspirators for the abductions and illegal detentions. The State has abandoned the Minister, refusing to defend him in the lawsuit. Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 October 2009 Johannes Tomana, the Zimbabwe Attorney General, under fire from the MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti who want him fired, has, in a shock move, left the Minister of State Security, Didymus Mutasa, exposed in the courts, refusing to defend him in a lawsuit filed by Jestina Mukoko and others. Mukoko, who was facing charg...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, seen here swearing Vice-president Joseph Msika into office in October last year, put on a bizarre display at the home of the late Vice-president in Mandara, Harare, today. Harare, Zimbabwe 05 August 2009 President Mugabe has just left the Msika home where he put on a bizarre display, impersonating the dead man for a good ten minutes or so. Mugabe, who arrived with his wife also left it to Didymus Mutasa, one of the old members of ZANU PF and a member of the Politburo, to announce that the Vice President has been declared a National Hero by that ZANU PF body. But most people present were stunned by Mugabe's lengthy impersonation of "Joe" (which he says is how he always addressed the late VP). In the impersonation act, Mugabe said, amongst other things: "I hear Muzenda's voice calling (Simon Muzenda was another of Mugabe's Deputies who died a few years ago) and I have listened. I leave Mugabe, (John) Nkomo and others. Zim...