Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

It is puzzling how President Mnangagwa is now flinching from making the bold decisions that are needed to start Zimbabwe on a path to recovery. The most glaring dropping of the ball is the refusal or reluctance to demonetise the Bond Note. It can only be because he wants to protect and encourage corruption and black market activity, fuellled by a criminally negligent Dr Mangudya at the RBZ President Emmerson Mnangagwa is in the process of undoing an image that he had carefully built up since November last year and which had brought him massive support and goodwill that he should have capitalised on to correct market sentiment. But he has dropped the ball so massively that even his own supporters are beginning to have second thoughts. They are beginning to think that there was nothing to all the talk and display of resolve except a desire to win the election and become President. Fundamentally, the problem with Zimbabwe at the moment is the complete lack of confidence in Pre...

Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono is now one of the top five elected officials within ZANU PF in Manicaland. Which may well be the clearest indication that he is preparing to exit the Central Bank. Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 November 2009 The Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, whom Mugabe insists is an impartial civil servant who only does his job has been elected to the position of Finance Secretary for ZANU PF Manicaland Province. The Governor hails from that province. The election of Gono into this provincial office is only a step towards prominence in ZANU PF on a national stage. He is already there as Governor right now, but we can almost certainly say that he will not be that for much longer. His acceptance of the post signals that he considers his own fate inevitable and perhaps Mugabe has even had a word with him regarding his departure. And depart he will now almost certainly will. The MDC-T, if they are clever, will point to this as a sign that the man is not just a civil servant ...

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...

With Zimbabwe's roads still in a deplorable condition, littered with potholes such the one in Harare City above shown in this picture, a senior ZANU PF minister and trusted aide to Mugabe has publicly demanded that Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono return US$7 million that he siphoned from a bank account belonging to Zimbabwe's Roads Agency. He is threatening to let Tendai Biti loose on Gono is the Governor continues to ignore letters sent to him demanding repayment of the misappropriated money. Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 October 2009 A senior ZANU PF minister has turned on Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe in parliament, saying he had stolen money from the bank account of the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (ZINARA) and was refusing to give it back. Minister of Transport and Communications Nicholas Goche (also a negotiator for Mugabe in the negotiations with the MDC, leading to the formation of the Inclusive Government) told a Parliamentary Committee that Gono ...

His Excellency, the Other President of The Republic of Zimbabwe, Finance Minister Tendai Biti, is seen here addressing parliament. ZANU PF is now trying to find ways to implement the wide powers Mugabe has secretly given to Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank. The latest effort, though, is clumsy, relying as it does on a redundant Reserve Bank Act. Biti appears unfazed by all this noise Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 October 2009 We have, yet again, been proved right. This time, it is the Gideon Gono and Reserve Bank versus Tendai Biti saga. As I told you last month, Mugabe has secretly bolstered Gideon Gono's powers to be almost on par with those of Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance and MDC Secretary-General. It is the implementation of these powers that is proving a prickly pear. Hence the resort to legalistic contortions. Today, ZANU PF, through the state media, is attempting revisionism at its most ridiculous. They now claim that the Reserve Bank Act give Gideon Gono and not Ten...

Gideon Gono was de facto Prime Minister under the previous government, with enough power to get Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa fired. Now he is defying the new dispensation with the full backing of Mugabe and ZANU PF. But going public with his criticism of Tsvangirai and Biti, he draws a line in the sand. This fight is only just starting Harare, Zimbabwe, 09 October 2009 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono says while ZANU PF was "building" the economy, the MDC was "destroying" it. Speaking to Godfrey Marawanyika of AFP yesterday, Gono also rejected calls for his resignation or sacking, saying, "I am definite that the removal of sanctions was mentioned in the GPA and not me." In other words, he is now parroting the ZANU PF and Mugabe line that sanctions are the real outstanding issue in the GPA, since it is mentioned and that he is not an issue because he was never mentioned in the GPA. He also labels the calls for his sacking and the arguments ...

This is the true President of The Republic of Zimbabwe now - Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister, at least as far as the economy and the lives of Zimbabweans are concerned. He has just blocked another US$300 million from Afreximbank negotiated by Gideon Gono for Zimbabwe and there is nothing Mugabe, Gono or anyone else in ZANU PF can do about it. AS I have said before, it just goes to show that this is now the most powerful MDC minister in the government, more powerful than even Prime Minister Tsvangirai himself. MDC supporters and ordinary in Zimbabwe are absolutely in awe of him for standing up to Mugabe and Gono, who previously held sway over the country between the two of them Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 October 2009 Gideon Gono and ZANU PF are fretting today because they say Tendai Biti has blocked the release of US$300 million from Afreximbank. At issue is the debt Zimbabwe already has with that Bank, which is standing at US$56 million dollars. Gideon Gono, who had been negotiating with ...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 September 2009 With apologies to Oscar Wilde, we can call this latest development "The Importance of Being Tendai Biti". The Reserve Bank was literally in tears yesterday as it told State media that Gideon Gono has "appealed" to the Principals in the Zimbabwe government for them to help unlock the US$510 million that was deposited by the IMF into the Reserve Bank account on 26th August this year. The money, on which Gideon Gono had already started issuing orders to the IMF, was frozen in that account on the orders of Tendai Biti. He says, in so doing, he has blocked certain elements from abusing the money. Munyaradzi Kereke, a senior RBZ official who spoke to the state media (on Gono's behalf, it was said), said his boss had asked the Principals to "urgently intervene and unlock the US$510 because not doing so will have serious effects on the economy." Biti promptly responded yesterday by saying that his statement from last week st...

Jacob Zuma is seen here arriving with incoming SADC Chairman Joseph Kabila at the opening of the SADC Summit in the Great Lakes country. Zuma gave a glowing account of the "progress" in Zimbabwe but failed to table any issues for discussion. A Tsvangirai spokesman later briefed journalists that there will a special summit in Mozambique in a couple of weeks time, then Tsvangirai came out at a press conference later to say that the matter is now in the hands of the SADC Troika on Zimbabwe. It is a confusing set of events, which has left many people contacting me to try and make sense of what exactly has just happened, once you take away all the propaganda. Harare, Zimbabwe, 08 September 2009 Good God! In the last hour, I received a ton of emails from people confused about what exactly has just happened at the SADC Summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo with regards to Zimbabwe. At fault, obviously, is the propaganda wars being conducted even as I speak, with media sympathet...