Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

A ZANU PF Minister has now admitted to parliament that Mugabe hired more than 13 000 youths just before the violent June 2008 presidential election "run-off". These youths were used to commit such acts as you see in the photo above: women and men being brutally beaten on the buttocks for supporting the MDC-T or Simba Makoni's presidential candidature. Some of the victims got their arms cut off in an act called "Long Sleeve, Short Sleeve". Long Sleeve was the cutting off of the entire arm, while Short Sleeve was the cutting off of the hand. The victims were asked which they preferred before they were mutilated. The youths hired by Mugabe's party are paid through taxes contributed by the people they mutilated. These youths will not be fired, says the Ministry of Youth. Instead, their status will be "regularised". Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 December 2009 In an admission that people were hired by government to terrorise the MDC-Tsvangirai and its supporters,...

Jabulani Sibanda (left as you look at the picture), seen here with self-styled Commander of Farm Invasions, Joseph Chinotimba, presided over a meeting in rural Zimbabwe where orders were issued to kill all MDC office bearers in the area. MDC officials have now fled the province and are being houses in safe houses in Harare, too scared to go back, after their homes were raided by gun-totting gangs the night of the meeting. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 On Friday 13 November, just a few days ago, Jabulani Sibanda, the leader of War veterans in Zimbabwe, held a meeting at Chawarura Business Centre in the rural ZANU PF stronghold of Muzarabani. It was resolved at the meeting to kill all MDC officials in Mashonaland Central province. The meeting was also attended by Chief Chiweshe as well as a District Administrator from the area, identified today as Mike Mazai (eggs). That very night, around midnight, six men, two of them heavily armed, stormed the home of the MDC Muzarabani District ...

"If you thought a beating on the buttocks was bad last year, this year, it will be a bullet in the head". According to the MDC Secretary for Welfare, this is what ZANU PF youths, accompanied by military personnel, are telling people in the rural areas, in a systematic and methodical intimidation campaign being carried out despite wishful thinking within the MDC-T ranks that they will be able to triumph at the next elections. The MDC-T has written and complained about this to the Minister of Youth (a ZANU PF member) and have been told to go and tell someone who cares. Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 October 2009 The MDC-T has written to Saviour Kasukuwere, a ZANU PF Minister in charge of youths to complain that it's supporters in the rural areas are being massively intimidated by ZANU PF Youths, who are going around the country accompanied by soldiers and "army details". Ian Kay, the MDC-Tsvangirai Secretary for Welfare wrote to Kasukuwere last week saying: "The inform...

While Morgan Tsvangirai tours the region looking for diplomatic support, Mugabe and ZANU PF are busy buying votes and loyalty as evidenced by their actions in the last two days. Mugabe's party is telling struggling farmers that they can not get farming inputs because the MDC-T and the Prime Minister are still campaigning for sanctions in order to continue hurting the people so that they vote for the MDC. Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 October 2009 Only a day or so ago, I reported on this blog that ZANU PF was distributing 10 000 bags of farms inputs (seed, fertiliser and the like) in Uzumba, which is a stronghold of theirs. I said it was quite clear that ZANU PF was busy buying the loyalty of voters now, preparing the ground for the next election. As most of you know, ZANU PF campaign tactics hinge on two things: buying loyalty/votes and intimidation (which often escalates into violence). Now, it emerges that just yesterday, Ephraim Masawi, a senior ZANU PF member and Mugabe confidant, was a...

Villagers suspected of being MDC supporters were not only thoroughly beaten up (as in the photo above, showing accused MDC supporters with broken arms), but they also had their property stolen in the confusion. Those seeking to get back what was taken from them, in the mistaken belief that their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has the power to protect them now that he is Prime Minister are themselves being arrested and tried for "disturbing the peace." 88 such MDC supporters are due to stand trial on 28 October for going to a village in Nyanga to demand the return of their property. Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 October 2009 Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights have just reminded the world that the mass trial of 88 villagers in Nyanga facing extortion charges for demanding the return of their looted property from ZANU PF supporters last year will start at the end of this month. They were supposed to go on trial last month, but the Magistrate allocated the case in the mountainous and picturesqu...

MDC-T supporters and others accused of being such camp outside the US Embassy in Harare on July 3. Post election violence had got so bad that they fled their rural homes to come and sleep in the open outside the embassy in order to avoid ending up looking like: ...........this victims of last year's election violence, Gift Mutsvungu, whom the MDC-T said "suffered" before he was kille d Often, just a word from Mugabe suffices. In 1985, he told a rally in Chitungwiza: " Ngatichigoborai zvigobo zviri mumunda medu" - meaning, "Let us get rid of the tree stumps in our field. The next night, countless families in the cities were thrown out of their homes by masked ZANU PF supporters. Most had their furniture thrown out, the doors locked and their keys swallowed by ZANU PF supporters. Targets were supporters of Ndabaningi Sithole and Abel Muzorewa. There was a pile of Ndonga (Mwenje) and Dzakutsaku t-shirt at the local dump the by morning. Fast Forward to 200...