Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

On 15 July this year, a full two weeks before the 2018 harmonised election in Zimbabwe, we warned on this blog that Nelson Chamisa was running a criminal election campaign by neglecting the parliamentary poll and focusing only on his presidential ambitions.  ZANU PF subsequently won a two-thirds majority in parliament and there is now talk of them changing the constitution to make 55 the minimum age for anyone to qualify to run for the presidency of Zimbabwe. You will find no sympathy here for the position the MDC finds itself in as a result of this. When we wrote that article, we were insulted by the usual suspects, MDC and Chamisa cult followers for whom any constructive criticism of their cult leader is heresy. It bears repeating that not everyone who criticises you is your enemy. But the opposition in Zimbabwe believes it is all knowing, is guided mostly by its uneducated, shallow-thinking support base that can not think beyond its next hunger pains. ...

Not one person has actually seen the psychology behind the type of handshake displayed by VP Chiwenga against Nelson Chamisa here. Even Chamisa does not realise he is being pulled down and forced to bow. Those who underestimate the General do so at their own peril. He staged probably the smartest dethronement of a leader anywhere in the world in the last 45 years.  The biggest advantage the MDC ever had was that people believed that they and only they would be acceptable to the West and international community. It led people to believe that only by supporting and voting for the MDC could they see economic improvement in Zimbabwe. That argument and that advantage has been spectacularly demolished by President Emmerson Mnangagwa since November 2017. The president is flying high right now. Very high. The international community is embracing him, much to the consternation of the opposition, especially the MDC-T. The MDC Alliance of Nelson Chamisa has been hoist ...

Mugabe nephew and prominent businessman, Philip Chiyangwa (above) is now locked in a fight with the Mayor of Harare, Much Masunda, over a land deal that the mayor wants investigated in order to establish how hectares of prime land could be handed over to a private business concern in Harare. Chiyangwa has reportedly now politicised the matter, writing to ZANU PF leaders accusing Masunda of persecuting him for being a member of ZANU PF Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 January 2010 Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda has launched a probe into a deal which handed Philip Chiyangwa, Mugabe's nephew and prominent Zimbabwean business almost 25 hectares of prime land in Harare. I have previously reported on the scandal surrounding the land deal on this blog , after ownership was disputed, with one company saying the land, formerly a per-urban farm, was rightfully theirs and Chiyangwa saying he has bought that land and is the rightful owner. Chiyangwa, upon hearing of the probe launched by the Harare City C...

New Year Message from Dr Simba Makoni – Interim President, Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (MKD)   As 2009 has drawn to a close, and we welcome the year 2010, I take this opportunity, on behalf of the National Steering Committee ( NSC ) of our Party, to extend cordial greetings to all the people of Zimbabwe . The year 2009 started on a positive and optimistic footing for all of us, on the back of two landmark occurrences, viz : ·                     the abandonment of the worthless Zimbabwe Dollar, on January 29 2009 , by the then ZANU (PF) regime; and, ·                     the installation of the Inclusive Government, on February 13 2009 .   Unfortunately, that optimism quickly faded away, as members of the so-called Inclusive Government wasted no time to settle into their relatively more comfortable positions, and engaged themselves in fierce struggles for power, and bigger shares of the meager national resources.   Much to the dismay and disbelief of all of us, the new me...

All grandiose talk of housing construction from Mugabe's government so far has been nothing but hot air. Private developers, people like Philip Chiyangwa, for instance, with his Pinnacle Properties, tend to do a much better job. But now Mugabe has decided to make yet another grand announcement about handing over a thousand hectares to the Angolans and Chinese to build whole towns. I am sure it is the last time we will hear about it, although the Chinese are likely to take the land anyway and do something else with it. Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 December 2009 Zimbabwe's government (still a ZANU PF government now getting Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC to do its bidding), has given a Chinese/Angolan company - Sonangol - one thousand hectares of land, purportedly to build new towns around the capital Harare. The land, in Mt Hampden (which Cecil John Rhodes' European settlers first targeted as the capital of a new Rhodesia or Zambezia) and Mazowe, is imply just a gift at the moment and...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 October 2009 The highly inefficient and struggling Zimbabwean National Airline, Air Zimbabwe, is set to be privatised, according to the Zimbabwe Inclusive Government (which is still operational, by the way, because the MDC "disengaged" from ZANU PF and NOT Government). Last week, I told you about the airline's failure to pay its workers since February this year, when the Inclusive Government was formed. The airline previously relied on Gideon Gono and the Reserve Bank for funds to pay salaries and operating costs. It emerges now that the airline has a debt totalling US$28 million. They can not retrench staff because they do not the money for the required retrenchment packages. (like other government-owned companies, the airline has an unhealthy and bloated staff complement as a result of ZANU PF patronage). The culture of entitlement at the airline and in ZANU PF generally has seen the workers gang up through their union to resist any move to retrenc...

Police in Zimbabwe, like the riot squad seen above, have shot into a crowd of protesting workers at Shabani Mine. The incident, which the MDC minister in charge of Home Affairs says shows that the "Police are refusing to reform", highlights the uselessness of the MDC in the Inclusive Government and confirms my analysis last year that gaining sole control of the Ministry of Home Affairs or not would make no difference for the MDC because they had botched the negotiations in the first place and signed a GPA that was slanted heavily in favour of Mugabe and ZANU PF, despite winning elections. Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 October 2009 Shabani Mine workers had not been paid since February this year. So they went on strike. They convened a meeting on 25 September, a few a days ago, where they were assured their managers would address them. They came, they sat, they waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, one of them, Alois Zhou, went over to the policemen and Shabani Mine guards to ask ...

Smiling at each other while holding knives behind their backs, the parties to the Inclusive Government are engaged in shocking dereliction of duty. While the country is burning, they are piddling. Not everything that must be done requires donor funds and that is where we need to start. Let the new blood show that it is indeed new, instead of giving the same politics as ZANU PF and The Solution. Harare, Zimbabwe, 27 September 2009 It is now apparent to any thinking Zimbabwean that neither Robert Mugabe nor Morgan Tsvangirai are capable or even willing to bring real change to the people of Zimbabwe. There's proof. There is a stalemate as I write, between the two, over the so-called "outstanding issues." They are barely talking to each other now. Mugabe has set up his own guerilla cabinet whose sole purpose is to ensure that ZAU PF retains active control in all ministries and arms of government. Which leaves the MDC ministers mere shadows, puppets on a string, like what is h...

The Party of confusion and expediency: Having signed the Kariba Draft Constitution, the MDC, in an effort to to pander to populist opinion, is now effectively campaigning against itself, as with this poster at a rally in Bulawayo. What were they thinking when they signed the Kariba Draft. Did they not know its draconian provision for presidential powers? They did. So have truly had a change of heart or are simply trying to sway with the wind. The party can not leader and now it thinks that jettisoning its own leader will make it more appealing against a resurgent threat from civil society and parties like Simba Makoni's Mavambo which, in terms of the numbers of paid-up members, is now the largest in Zimbabwe. Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 September 2009 In a shocking revelation, it has emerged that almost 95% of the two Councils of the MDC, The National Executive and the National Council, are now so anti-Morgan Tsvangirai that it is now virtually guaranteed the man will lose his job in the ...

This was Morgan Tsvangirai launching a fresh, new 100-day plan (more like a wish-list I said back then and I have been proved right). Now he tells us he can not fulfill any of his promises unless he gets Governors, ambassadors and Roy Bennett is sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture. But, more disturbing is the move to boycott new elections that Mugabe hinted at during his address to the ZANU PF Women's League last week Harare, Zimbabwe, 22 September 2009 First of all, you should know that we are having immense challenges with our internet connections in Zimbabwe right now. Even normally reliable routes are proving a challenge. So much for Nelson Chamisa's promise of having improved the internet connections by 60% within 100 days. Those 100 days are gone and we are back to square one. It is ZANU PF all over again. Except this time, it is a creature called MDC-PF. But to my point here today: This is a poser, is it not? Yesterday, the MDC, through its spokesman, the Minister...

It turns out the recent upsurge in violence against the remaining white farmers has been sanctioned by government in a top secret document that was presented to the cabinet at the end of August this year. That document has now been leaked to the Times of South Africa, sparking an investigation into MDC ministers, who are suspected by ZANU PF of leaking it. Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 September 2009 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe on Friday ordered an investigation of all MDC ministers in the Inclusive Government after a cabinet paper was leaked to the Times of South Africa. The paper that was leaked to the South African newspaper is on land invasions and it was presented to cabinet at the end of August by Herbert Murerwa, the ZANU PF Minister in charge of lands and resettlement. It was supposed to be a secret paper. Added to this, because it was presented to cabinet and deliberated there, it is supposed to be protected by the Official Secrets Act. Murerwa calls for the intensification ...

Johannes Tomana, Zimbabwe's Attorney General, was revealed today to have embarked on a naked assault on the MDC structures all over the country. The intention is to humiliate Morgan Tsvangirai, showing him that, even if he stays as Prime Minister, nothing has changed and he can not protect his own people. Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 September 2009 The disputed Attorney General of Zimbabwe, Johannes Tomana, is now on a mission to openly show contempt for Morgan Tsvangirai and to utterly humiliate him in the eyes of his followers and the world at large. The renewed assault also explains Tsvangirai's statement yesterday in Bulawayo that his party members are being victimised. Here's the deal: As you know, I am in court tomorrow with Dr Makoni to answer charges under the Public Order and Security Act. But it does not end there. The Attorney General has now revived hordes of cases against mostly MDC Tsvangirai MPs and members under the same draconian. Hundreds of people will be dragged...

Johannes Tomana (above), the Zimbabwe Attorney-General, has now been declared to be above the law by the government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. Since Tsvangirai has publicly stated that "there is nothing Mugabe does without my approval", we can a\only assume that he is fully in agreement with this latest travesty of justice Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 August 2009 The government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe have now publicly stated that Attorney General Johannes Tomana is above the law. The announcement was made by Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice in this moribund Inclusive Government. Here's the background: Last month, parliament (where MDC still hold a sliver-thin majority) agreed to motion by MDC-T parliamentarian Tongai Matutu to "condemn the unwarranted convictions (of MDC supporters and activists) and selective applications of the law" by the Attorney General. The motion also called for the "immediate withdrawal, reversal and q...

Morgan Tsvangirai, who, it turns out has lied to Zimbabwe three times now in the last two months, is seen here leaving No 20 Downing Sreet after meeting Gordon Brown. It is now clear that the Prime Minister also wishes to be a dictator: "You'd better listen to me," as he said to Zimbabweans who booed him last weekend On three seperate occasions this year, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told the media, the nation (at the May Day Rally at Gwanzura stadium, in the presence of Dr Simba Makoni and thousands others) and in a meeting with the leadership of the National Constitutional Assembly, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai stated that the Kariba Draft Constitution would NOT be used as the basis for a new Constitution. He lied. Last week, his party, the MDC-T, as well as MDC and ZANU PF, published the Kariba Draft as an insert in the State media. The draft is now officially the basis for any new Constitution. It may look like thePrime Minister and his party have capitulated ...