Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Prime Minister `Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice-president Mujuru and Deputy Prime Ministers Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe arrive at the Opening of the Third Session of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday. Members of the Presidential Guard of the Zimbabwe Army take up their positions outside Parliament soon after the arrival of President Mugabe to open parliament in Harare, yesterday President Mugabe whistling to himself as is his custom whenever he inspects the Guard of Honour. Behind him is the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga President Mugabe arriving in his vintage Rolls Royce at the Parliament Buildings in Harare yesterday. Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 July 2010 President Robert Mugabe opened the Third Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday as crowds watched from Africa Unity Square on a giant screen. There was gridlock in the city centre, the traffic jam having been caused by the closing off roads leading to th...

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...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, shadowed by the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwengwa, inspects the Guard of Honour before delivering his speech to open the second session of the seventh parliament of Zimbabwe. Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 October 2009 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, in his speech to parliament today, revealed that his and Tsvangirai's Inclusive Government is working on a "phased ban on the importation of second hand motor vehicles." This was in the section of his speech where he spoke about the increasing number of accidents on Zimbabwe's roads. He and his government apparently are labouring under the illusion that the toll gates they put in place will earn enough to repair our crumbling highways and byways. The Inclusive Government appears clueless and dead to the fact that the money from the toll gates in being abused at source as I revealed here a couple of weeks ago. Not only that, the revenue, once it en...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 September 2009 So yesterday, a full 18 days after I broke the story, the Times of South Africa has finally confirmed that Mugabe is refusing to open the Zimbabwe parliament. I told you all about this on 4 September in an article headlined "Mugabe Refuses To Open Parliament, New Parliamentary Elections Early Next Year" Originally Mugabe had been slated to open the legislature on September 1, but he ran away. Parliamentary officials had already announced that the president would open the new session of parliament on that date. They then had to send letters to newsrooms to say that parliament was going into recess and would instead be opened by Mugabe on September 29. Now Mugabe says he is "too busy". Yesterday, a parliamentary official, Deputy Clerk of Parliament Helen Dingani told the Times that Mugabe responded to the new date by saying it was not convenient for him. He did not offer alternatives or suggestions as to when would be convenient. Re...