Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

The laughter has now died between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, with the announcement today that people hired by the MDC element of the Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe will be barred from entering government buildings and handling state papers. Mugabe has unilaterally decided to resolve one of his own "outstanding issues" without any agreement with the MDC-Tsvangirai. The "parallel government" is now being dismantled. Harare, Zimbabwe, 27 November 2009 This latest Zimbabwe news is simply shocking. The Public Service Commission of Zimbabwe, led by Mariyawanda Nzuwa, one of Mugabe's most powerful officials, has just announced that it now  bar all people hired by the two MDC formations in Government from handling Government documents and from entering government buildings. It is an unprecedented move, especially the banning of these appointees from entering government buildings. Even a hobo, a street kid, can enter government buildings. They are the property of any Zimba...

The ZANU PF militia seen here beating up opposition supporters in June last year are part of the 16 000 people Mugabe's party has put on government payroll. The men and women being beaten had paid their taxes in order to pay the salaries of these men. Isn't it ironic (with apologies to Sheryl Crow). Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 After the revelations yesterday about the refusal by the Public Service Commission of Zimbabwe to hand over their schedule of the civil service to World Bank Consultants, the MDC-T Minister in charge of the Public Service held a press conference where he effectively backtracked on his earlier demands. The World Bank will not be conducting the audit, after all. The Minister, Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, had written to Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the Chairman of the PSC, bemoaning the fact that he was refusing to comply with requests from the World Bank consultants hired by Tsvangirai to do the civil service audit. "Such an approach by the PSC (the refusal to ...

Finance Minister Tendai Biti (above), has identified civil service reform as a crucial area to be given special attention and Morgan Tsvangirai bemoaned last month the existence of more than 16 000 ghost workers (mostly ZANU PF Youth Militia) on government payroll. One of Mugabe's most senior people, however, has effectively ensured that the audit never takes place, after refusing to cooperate with a World Bank technical team appointed by Tsvangirai. Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 November 2009 One of the men I exposed earlier this year as the three men who actually run Zimbabwe has overruled Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Minister of Public Service and blocked the World Bank from conducting an audit of the country's civil service. Mariyawanda Nzuwa, the Public Service Commissioner in Zimbabwe, has refused to hand over the list of civil servants requested by the World Bank, which has been appointed by the government to provide technical assistance on a civil service audit exerc...

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...