Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Former President Robert Mugabe endorsing Nelson Chamisa today his Blue Roof mansion under the watchful eyes of Grace Mugabe and his first born, Bona Chikore. The choreographed dance between Nelson Chamisa and Robert Mugabe, which started on this last Saturday, came out in the open on Sunday. The two scheduled simultaneous press conferences in anticipation of each other's big reveals. It is a classic Jonathan Moyo move, designed for nothing else but to give the impression of momentum. What this move on Sunday telegraphs is an alarming state of affairs in the opposition camp. Because, you see, this is an extreme move. In other words, a last-ditch effort. One does not go broke unless one knows they have nothing left to lose. Desperate times, they say. Desperate measures. The strategy's risks are not lost on a man of the smarts and intelligence of Nelson Chamisa. Not at all. So, knowing this, aware of the fire-breathing electoral dragons that live down this road, Ne...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa accompanied President Obiang of Equatorial Guinea to former President Mugabe's Blue Roof mansion on Friday morning, but left about an hour and half before Obiang, soon after the small talk, when Mugabe suddenly asked Obiang, "Mr President, please ask your counterpart why he is spying on me?" Impeccable sources confirm that President Emmerson Mnangagwa left Blue Roof, president Robert Mugabe's home, more than an hour before Equatorial Guinea President, Obiang, who he had quietly accompanied to see the former strongman. It was the first time the two had met since Operation Restore Legacy in November last year. Mnagagwa promised to speak to Mugabe after the elections before he left, a position he repeated to Obiang when the two met after the Mugabe meeting. They met at State House for Obiang to report on the outcome of the meeting with Mugabe, which turned out to be mostly a grievance-laden monologue. Obiang relies heavily on Zimbabw...

Saviour Kasukuwere, the exiled former ZANU PF Political Commissar, whose house was riddled with bullets in the opening salvos of the November 2017 Operation Restore Legacy, is seen here arriving in Harare earlier today on a South African Airways flight.  The strategists within the ruling party ZANU PF have come up with the latest masterstroke designed to smash the putative internal revolt and scatter it to the wind. Their trump card is Saviour "Tyson" Kasukuwere. Kasukwere flew in today from self-imposed exile and walked into the country with no incident. This is part of the plan. The strategy is as follows: Kasukuwere is not going to be arrested or taken into custody. He is not going to be molested. This will send a signal to the rest of the G40 supporters in the party and those that had joined the emerging NPF that they really are forgiven and that their best interests lie with ZANU PF. There is been, from what I understand, a bit of back and forth between the...

Although they may appear together in public, it emerges now from a report compiled by the South African Facilitation Team appointed by Jacob Zuma that Morgan Tsvangirai can only get access to Mugabe through the dictator's PA. This state of affairs does not sit well with Tsvangirai and he has made this one of his "outstanding issues" in the current talks going on in Zimbabwe. Why on earth would he think this is more important than the real issues that affect people's lives. Does he think getting direct access to Mugabe will change how the dictator sees him or get him to take the Prime Minister and his party seriously? Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 December 2009 "I meet him (Mugabe) whenever I want," Prime Minister MorganTsvangirai boasted in South Africa back in April this year. Well, it turns out that is not quite the case. The report compiled by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Troika point man on Zimbabwe, Jacob Zuma, this last month says Morgan Ts...

Readmitted: Jonathan Moyo was unanimously taken back into ZANU PF by the Politburo yesterday. He is already hard at work putting together strategies and propaganda to get Mugabe's majority in parliament back. His acceptance also means that ZANU PF has now gained another seat in parliament without having to hold a by-election. Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 October 2009 As was to be expected, ZANU PF has announced that there was unanimous endorsement of the decision to readmit Professor Jonathan Moyo into ZANU PF. The announcement was made by Ephraim Masawi of ZANU PF on Friday. As I revealed a few days ago, this was inevitable, after Mugabe had taken Moyo back into confidence even before the deliberations of the ZANU PF Politburo on his application to rejoin the party. Information was leaked to us that Moyo had already been made a Communications Commissioner in the President's office. This, we were told, was done because Mugabe did not need to notify anybody or consult anyone about peopl...

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...

Professor Jonathan Moyo campaigning in Tsholotsho in March last year. We met up with him at the Growth Point in the area as Simba Makoni addressed a gathering there. It was clear that Moyo was going through the constituency with a fine tooth comb, traversing it in a Landcruiser and going to every hamlet and village. Makoni carried Tsholotsho and Moyo was also reelected. Many people still fail to see the deeper meaning of his move to return to ZANU PF. Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 September 2009 It is now confirmed that Jonathan Moyo has applied to go back to ZANU PF. He will be readmitted, since every single ZANU PF minister, from Didymus Mutasa to Patrick Chinamasa, are all singing his praises. But why is the Professor seeking to go back now? This is a question I have been asked in emails to me the last few days and the answer is simple enough. Professor Jonathan Moyo's ouster from ZANU PF was engineered by none other than the late Vice-president Joseph Msika, who labeled the then Ministe...

President Robert Mugabe "went ballistic" on Saturday when he found out Morgan Tsvangirai and Emmerson Mnangagwa have secretly  met up to six times since the MDC leader became Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is said to have met with the ZANU PF heavyweight, who has been confirmed already by Mugabe as his preferred choice for President, in Harare and at a farm in the Kwekwe area. Mugabe, told Saturday in a briefing about the meetings, is reported to have threatened to send the Minister of Defence back into the "wilderness" ( gwenga, was the Shona word Mugabe used, apparently). Although not immediately clear whether Mugabe was told what the mettings were about, he immediately saw this as a threat to his continued grip on power. Mugabe, although he has told Mnangagwa that he will most certainly now take over as head of ZANU PF and eventually President of Zimbabwe, likes things done his way. He believes Mnagagwa and Tsvangirai may be planning to sideline him, now that...