Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Dr Tafataona Mahoso has been appointed the CEO of Zimbabwe's new Media Commission, despite having vied for the Chairmanship of the same body, losing out to Godfrey Majonga. Mahoso is known as the "Media Hangman " because he ran the previous Media and Information Commission which presided over teh closure of several newspapers in Zimbabwe as well as the banning of several journalists from practising their craft. Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 May 2010 If proof was needed that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T are just passengers in the so-called Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe, then it was provided this last week by the appointment of Dr Tafataona Mahoso as the Chief Executive Officer of the new Zimbabwe Media Commission, which was supposed to usher in a new era of media plurality and democracy in Zimbabwe. Mahoso is accused by his detractors of being a "media hangman"in his previous incarnation as Chairman of the now defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC), which pr...

Displaying that he is still, as he said after swearing in Morgan Tsvangirai, "firmly in charge", Mugabe has done some deft moves on Jonathan Moyo. ZANU PF insiders are still reeling from the president's latest shock move, which has been taken "subject to approval" by the party, although we know that they will now be presented with a fait accompli. They will have no option but to accept Mugabe's appointment. Independent newsrooms all over the country (all three of them) are trembling at the prospect of Moyo's antics now that he is back. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 September 2009 Without waiting for the so-called formal process of debating Jonathan Moyo's readmission into ZANU PF, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has already chosen Jonathan Moyo to be his new information Supremo. The decision was made on Thursday afternoon, I am told. Webster Shamu, the current Minister of Information posed a bit of a problem for Mugabe, however. Shamu, formerly known a...

George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman (above), launched a broadside at Morgan Tsvangirai in a humiliating diatribe on the front page of the Herald on Thursday, but it now appears the Prime Minister has won out in that particular battle. Charamba refused to give Tsvangirai his due title of Prime Minister and said he should "get it through his head" that the outstanding issues will not be resolved because Tsvangirai had not managed to get sanctions lifted Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 September 2009 Fuming at the humiliating diatribe from Robert Mugabe's pit-bull terrier, George Charamba (presidential spokeman in Zimbabwe), Morgan Tsvangirai has managed to get what insiders are calling a 'grovelling apology" from George Charamba. A couple of days back, Charamba tore into the Prime Minister, not even dignifying him with the title of Prime Minister and saying he should "get it through his head" that Roy Bennett was not being sworn in and that his governors and all...

Morgan Tsvangirai is greeted earlier today (June 8 2009), by the Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende upon his arrival for their meeting. No aid has been pledged by the Dutch yet, with the country's Development minister saying yesterday they will wait and see The humiliating position in which Tsvangirai finds himself was demonstrated over the weekend when he was defeated by a non-entity, Tafataona Mahoso, who got assistance from George Charamba in his mission against Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai told reporters when he announced his capitulation to Mugabe on Permanent Secretaries, Ambassadors etc that there was no need for journalists to accredit themselves and that the Media Commission of Mahoso was now null and void. Some journalists took the government to court because they wanted to cover the Comesa summit and they were being asked to register, accredit and pay US dollar fees for the privilege. Tsvangirai, as Prime Minister, was the one being taken to court by the journalists. Ot...

Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter supposedly from Gideon Gono to PM Tsvangirai, which the Prime Minister has denied receiving, was in fact written by Mugabe Spokesman George Charamba as a propaganda ply. It has worked spectacularly The letter circulating online purportedly from Gideon Gono to Prime Minister Tsvangirai is fake. Sources close to the Governor say the Governor has disowned the document and says he has not written to the Prime Minister. Gono claims that his issue is being handled by the dictator and the Prime Minister and he had no reason to appeal to a man whom he knows definitely wants him out of office - Morgan Tsvangirai. Impeccable sources now confirm that the letter originated from the office of Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba. Charamba, a propaganda man, has repeatedly suggested to Gono that he should fight back by telling the world the true facts around the US$1 billion  credit lines and STERP that are Gono's achievements. The embattled Gove...

Not long ago, Dr Simba Makoni spoke about what he called the "classic Yes Minister style" of Zimbabwe's government. For those who do not know, Yes Minister is a British comedy set in Whitehall, the seat of the government of the United Kingdom. In the comedy, people like Sir Humphrey actually run government business, telling a minister what he can and can not do, getting up to all sorts of tricks to ensure that their agenda (which they say is the national agenda), carries the day. Dr Makoni mentioned the issue of speeches, for instance. When he took over at the Ministry of Finance, he found that his speeches were written for him by the civil servants.  Worse, these speeches would not be given to him until just before he got into his car to go to the function where they were to be delivered. To get around this, and being a fully technologically literate person, he asked for a computer to be put into his office. He also demanded that the computer be given Internet and intran...

George Charamba, aka Nathaniel Manheru, who bade us farewell in the pages of the Mugabe newspaper, The Herald last Saturday, has smuggled himself back into the newsroom under yet another alias, Eagle Eye. No one is fooled No sooner had we bade farewell to the son of Manheru, Nathaniel Manheru than he replaces himself with.....himself. This time, though, under another name, the Manheru name, soiled by its partisan defence of tyranny, is no longer comfortable in the stench-filled corridors of this new sulphourous concotion called the Coalition Government. This time, George Charamba, Mugabe's spokesman, now optimistically calls himself "Eagle Eye". (I think "A View From The Gutter" is more appropriate.) Worse, he is feeling more provocative than ever before , ending his long missives with "Pamberi chete-chete" - the ominous slogan of ZANU PF during that run-off electoral con job in June 2008. Back then, the full slogan was "Mugabe chete-chete" -...