Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

When the SADC Troika Heads of State meeting in Mozambique broke for lunch, Mugabe walked off with the other presidents (seen here during the lunch break with Jacob Zuma opf South Africa and Armando Guebuza of Mozambique (and Troika Chairman). Tsvangirai, as is shown in the article below this one, had to go off by himself. Mugabe's hand is basically strengthened by the SADC Troika position as I explain below Harare, Zimbabwe, 7 November 2009 So. Patrick Chinamasa, one of Mugabe's biggest lapdogs and errand boys, was waxing lyrical yesterday upon his return from the SADC Troika Summit in Mozambique and says ZANU PF is happy indeed about the outcome of the Summit. So is Mugabe, who is now in Sharm el Sheik for the China-Africa Summit. They are very happy in ZANU PF because they now have Morgan Tsvangirai all to themselves. SADC leaders will not even mediate the talks that must now go on between the two main parties. They simply say the two must talk. Apart from sanctions, Tsvangir...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe and Joseph Kabila at State House in Harare yesterday. Mugabe basically told Kabila to butt out of Zimbabwe, saying that Zimbabweans are grown ups who can solve their own problems. This is echoing statements from SADC itself, whose Troika Foreign Ministers said in Harare last week that SADC can only "help Zimbabweans to help themselves".  The problem is that the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, is hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with Mugabe on his own. Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 November 2009 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, has effectively told the Southern African Development Chairman, DRC president Joseph Kabila to "butt out" of the Zimbabwe issue and leave Zimbabweans to sort out their own problems. Mugabe is only doing this because he knows that, if Morgan Tsvangirai is left to him and only him, he would be able to run rings around the hapless Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, who is finding it diffic...

Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo and current Chairman of SADC, seen here with his new bearded look, has arrived in Zimbabwe, playing down the crisis in the country. He will meet with Mugabe and Tsvangirai, Mutambara today but is definitely not here to mediate on the crisis. Mugabe showed his contempt by sending his Vice-president to meet the DRC president, although he has traditionally been on hand personally to meet every single Head of State that has come to Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 November 2009 Joseph Kabila, the young man who was thrust into the presidential seat by army Generals upon the violent assassination of his father, appears to have learned the diplomacy game quickly. Kabila, the current Chairman of the Southern African Development Community, flew into Harare yesterday from South Africa, where he had gone specifically to get orientation on how to handle the Zimbabwe issue from the South African president, Jacob Zuma and to also understa...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 01 November 2009 The massive and prolonged power cuts that are sweeping through the country at the moment are working to Morgan Tsvangirai's advantage and against Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF It appears most people are unaware that ZESA announced massive power disruptions for the next two weeks as they do repairs at one of the power stations in Zimbabwe. Instead, almost to a person, the people I spoke to yesterday all connected the power cuts with the "disengagement" of Morgan Tsvangirai from government. In the last few weeks, power supplies had improved a lot in the capital, especially in the high-density areas, the townships. That the power cuts are regaining their intensity now, when the MDC-T has decided to pull out of government partially (an action most people fail to understand and think of as a complete pull-out from Inclusive Government itself), confirms to people that ZANU PF is not only incompetent to be left to run the country by itself, but al...

Roy Bennett is seen here with Morgan Tsvangirai in South Africa last year. Bennett had fled to South Africa because ZANU PF heavyweights were relentlessly pursuing him after he was released from jail, where he had been sent for assaulting Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. He came back to Zimbabwe around the time of the inauguration of the Inclusive Government, believing that as a member of a party (the MDC) now to be in government, he would be protected. He was alerted to his imminent arrest the day before ministers were sworn in and he tried to flee the country through Charles Prince Airport in a private jet, but was abducted from there and sent to Mutare Prison. His ordeal has been ongoing since then. Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 October 2009 Information just getting to us says Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has "suggested" that it is best for Roy Bennett to be granted bail when he appears before the High Court for his application on Monday. Mugabe still wants to maintain t...

At a luncheon after the opening of parliament, Mugabe not only admitted that he did not know how many ministers his and Morgan Tsvangirai's bloated Inclusive Government has, but also distanced himself from his own parliament-opening speech saying "That was not my speech, I was forced to read it. I was reading other people's views." He also falsely claimed Mavambo, the party of Simba Makoni was complaining about being left out of the Inclusive Government, which he said was "also Exclusive". Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 October 2009 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has admitted that his and Morgan Tsvangirai's Inclusive Government is bloated. So bloated, in fact, that he says "I don't know how many minister we have and thoughts they have on development." Admitting to my assessment here yesterday that hi speech was largely a load of nonsense, Mugabe also tried to disown the speech that he delivered in parliament yesterday: "The speech I mad...

Man of the moment: Morgan Tsvangirai has now got massive concessions from Mugabe on the Zimbabwe Media Commission. The new Commissioners, announced here for the first time are largely MDC. Of course, it's quid pro quo for Shamu's appointments, but still a victory for Tsvangirai all the same Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 October 2009 Impeccable sources have just confirmed that Morgan Tsvangirai has won a massive victory during his meeting with Robert "The Solution" Mugabe today at State House in Harare. Mugabe has finally agreed to the appointment of the Zimbabwe Media Commission, which replaces the body that was headed by Tafataona Mahoso, who is now Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. Mugabe will announce the Chairman of the new Zimbabwe Media Commission, which will licence newspapers, later on, but the full list of Commissioners agreed between Mugabe and Tsvangirai today is as follows: Godfrey Majonga (former ZBC newsreader) Matthew Takaona, former President ...

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...

Mugabe appears on CNN last week. He was in New York to attend the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, which he also addressed and predictably lamented sanctions imposed on him and his party. During the interview, however, Mugabe betrayed an aspect of the Inclusive Government that escaped all observers. As I explain below, put together with the behaviour of his spokesman, George Charamba and all the other breaches of the spirit behind the Inclusive Government, it shows us the true state of the health of the Inclusive Government Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 September 2009 Almost everybody failed to notice a very significant aspect of Mugabe's interview with Amanpour on CNN last week. Throughout the interview, not once did Mugabe refer to Morgan Tsvangirai as the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, even though he sought to play up the Inclusive Government as "genuine power-sharing" which should not be "denigrated." When he spoke about Roy Bennett, the Zimbabwe Pre...

Jestina Mukoko soon after she was given bail while getting treatment for torture at the Avenues Clinic. She has now been freed totally by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe, which found that her arrest and detention were illegal and violated her rights Harare, Zimbabwe 29 September 2009 Jestina Mukoko has been freed by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. Mukoko was freed yesterday and the case against her quashed in the grounds that her arrest and detention were unconstitutional. The surprising verdict, granting what is known in legal parlance as "permanent stay of execution", means that Mukoko will not be brought to trial in the case where she and others were facing banditry charges. Mukoko told the media that she "could not believe" that people could charge her with such a serious crime. The Zimbabwe Peace Project Director was abducted from her home in Norton at Dawn in December last year and disappeared for weeks, with the police saying they did not know where she was. She...

Mugabe and Grace arrive at Margarita Island in Venezuela for Africa-South America Summit. Back home, the president appears in no hurry to see to things like the Media Commission and even the Electoral Commission Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 September 2009 I got the emails. Fungi and Paul were especially irate that I had not bothered to update you at all through the day!! By way of explanation: I attended a Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) workshop all day today and then had to go out of town after that. The ZESN workshop was basically an attempt by the NGO to inform intelligent input into the Constitution-making process. Focus was on the various forms of governance, the variety of voting methods around the world and pros as well as cons of all of them. Most parties were represented, but the ZANU PF delegation only arrived ten minutes before lunch. After lunch, one of them took strong exception to one of the presenters calling POSA and AIPPA "draconian". He said his party did ...