Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

With civil society organisations like the National Constitutional Assembly of Zimbabwe "ready to die for a new constitution" not based on the dismal Kariba Draft agreed to between Mugabe and Tsvangirai in 2005, the process that was supposed to have started this month is now suspended. This comes as it is alleged that US$4 million given to the process has been "looted" and not a single thing required for the "outreach" purchased Harare, Zimbabwe, 21 January 2010 What did I tell you about celebrating "announcements of intentions"? Amid reports that US$4 million already given to the Constitution-making process for Zimbabwe's new Constitution, parliament has announced that the process has been suspended "indefinitely" until certain issues are sorted out. "All constitutional programmes have been suspended by the management committee. They felt there were other issues which needed attention before the outreach programme begins. ...

Finance Minister Tendai in parliament: His proposed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Bill now faces certain death after ZANU PF announced over the weekend that they will oppose that Bill unless it is amended to their liking. The ridiculous claims from ZANU PF are that the Bill targets an individual (Gideon Gono) and have, therefore, nothing to do with reform of the institution itself. They have also expressed alarm at Tendai Biti's characterisation of the Bill as a "transitional mechanism". As a result of this, ZANU PF sees regime change skeletons in all manner of closets! Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 November 2009 ZANU PF MPs have now openly come out to say that they will scuttle the Reserve Bank Bill being proposed by Finance Minister Tendai Biti of the MDC. They claim the bill is aimed at an individual and not the institution. In addition, they are arguing that it puts too much power in the hands of the Minister and is contrary to regional best practise, which is to give the Central B...

Members of the National Constitutional Assembly seen here protesting are unlikely to swayed by the weak statement from Advocate Matinenga today. Matinenga is the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs and he has issued a statement to the media trying to counter another statement earlier this week from ZANU PF's Minister Mangwana in which he demanded that the Ministry of Finance give the Committee US$4 million in order for ZANU PF to participate. The two contradicting statements means that the fight over the funding of the process by donors is not resolved, as the government is so broke it can't even pay attention (to service delivery). Harare, Zimbabwe, 11 September 2009 Advocate Eric Matinenga, a minister in the party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC, called a press conference at which he tried to pick a fight with Minister Mangwana of ZANU PF, who demanded US$4 million from the moribund and broke Inclusive Government in order to allow the process to ...