Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Tendai Biti is sworn in as Minister of Finance by Mugabe in February this year in this photo. The smiles are long gone now, after Biti went after one of Mugabe's favourite persons, Gideon Gono. Now there is a concerted effort to get rid of him, with Mugabe launching a fresh campaign to first discredit Biti as someone who is working against the economic recovery that he is supposed to spearhead. Mugabe will now ask Tsvangirai (for the second time) to fire Tendai Biti as Minister of Finance and reassign him to another post in a reshuffle. The tactic is to distract the MDC relieving pressure that Mugabe now feels keenly on the "outstanding issues". Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 November 2009 In a move seen and even acknowledged by many in ZANU PF as a diversion tactic, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has now renewed pressure on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to fire Tendai Biti and has now started a campaign to "demonstrate that the Minister is working against the inter...

Health workers protest in Harare recently (they were told by the MDC-T Minister of Health that his job was not to sort out their problems. "My job is to concentrate on policy," he told their representatives). Now it emerges that poor pay and working conditions are the least of Zimbabwean workers' problems. Jobs are still being lost and the Inclusive Government, despite its best efforts to lie, can now no longer hide its failures Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 November 2009 Here a shocker of Zimbabwe news. Two thousand Zimbabwean workers have been retrenched so far this year, parliament was told yesterday by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Elijah Mutemeri, coordinator for ZCTU, told a parliamentary committee that most of these were retrenchments from companies facing viability problems, while the rest were simply victims of companies that are closing down. The ZCTU, being a body concerned with workers, has simply concentrated on ensuring that the workers get their dues...

With unemployment in Zimbabwe still standing at above 90%, the Inclusive Government failing to formulate any policies that can create jobs and no opportunities for "doing deals", more and more people are turning to crime. An OK Supermarket was blown up last week by thieves who were after its safe. This is something that we knew only to happen in South Africa, not Zimbabwe and is testimony to the failure of the this government to give people hope, let alone jobs. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 October 2009 It is a sign of just how superficial the so-called "recovery and improvement" in Zimbabwe. It is a contradiction of the chest-beating and crowing from the MDC Tsvangirai especially, which has been claiming that it and ZANU PF have together brought relief to the people of Zimbabwe by improving their economic fortunes. Last week, a group of thieves went to Chinhoyi and blew up an OK supermarket in the town, in a bid to get to the safe, where they thought money was being kept o...

BP Shell in Zimbabwe (pictured above), who had concluded a deal to sell their assets and company in Zimbabwe to a South African and Kenyan Oil consortium are now likely to see the deal scuppered by a Zimbabwean minister who actually has a personal interest in the oil business. Harare, Zimbabwe, 02 October 2009 At a time when Zimbabwe is looking for foreign direct investment (FDI), a ZANU PF minister in this so-called Inclusive Government is poised to scupper one of the largest investment deals in Zimbabwe since 1999. Saviour Kasukuwere, the ZANU PF minister in charge of the Youth Development and Indigenisation ministry has confirmed that he is likely to stop the takeover of BP Shell assests in Zimbabwe by a South African company, Engen, which has got together with a West African Oil company to buy up the assets and the company. BP Shell has more than 75 Service Stations (Gas Stations) in the country and it one of the largest oil companies operating in Zimbabwe. Kasukuwere says he will ...

Although quite clearly living under Mugabe's shadow, as evidenced by the legal requirement to have Mugabe's portrait in his office, Morgan Tsvangirai is till insisting that he will not vacate the office of Prime Minister and pull the MDC out of the Inclusive Government coalition. The move is being resisted by large sections of the MDC National Council as well as the National Executive, as I revealed yesterday. The Financial Gazette today says the party leadership is "at sixes and sevens" over the issue, with those formerly opposed to a pullout now supporting it and others formerly for the pull-out, like Tendai Biti, now against it! Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 September 2009 The Financial Gazette has now caught up with my story, the one I told you about this week concerning the splitting of the MDC-T. The dispute is around the party's continued presence in the Inclusive Government, even as Mugabe openly spits not only on the Global Political Agreement, but also on Morgan ...

The good old days: A Zimbank Cheque for 6 quadrillion Zimbabwe dollars is held up by a customer in December last year before the dollarisation of the Zimbabwe economy. Bankers Association President J.P. Mangudya issued a statement today saying Zimbabwe banks will now start issuing US dollar chequebooks (with strict conditions) to "bona fide customers". The move is almost certain to see an upsurge in bank deposits. By the way, Zimbank, on whose account the above cheque is drawn, are under international sanctions from cosying up to Mugabe and no US citizen or company is allowed to do business with them. Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 August 2009 Zimbabwe Commercial banks have issued a statement revealing that they will now start issuing chequebooks for US Dollar accounts to their clients. The US Dollar is now the official currency of Zimbabwe, designated by Zimbabwe's banks as Currency Number 1. The Zimbabwe has essentially been banned in Zimbabwe itself and is now officially relega...

This is virtually the only South African currency still freely available in Zimbabwe - 5 Rand coins, which most shops use for change. The coin in equivalent to 50 US cents in most outlets. As for notes, as soon as people accumulate a good amount of them, they run with them either to the bank or to black market traders, who are offering better rates on the rand than the US$1 to R10 offered by retailers and other sellers of products. This is all just a failure of policy and a failure to plan by the Inclusive Government. Harare, Zimbabwe 08 August 2009 The South African Rand, the preferred currency for the Inclusive Government of Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, has disappeared from Zimbabwe in the last few weeks. It used to be that when one went into a shop, they got their change in rands even if they had paid in United States currency. At the time, there were less US dollars than Rands in Zimbabwe. There are also no United States currency coins in Zimbabwe, ...

Morgan Tsvangirai speaks under the watchful eye of his boss, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe at the opening of the "Investment Conference" in Harare yesterday. A South African investor interviewed by ZTV yesterday said the conference was a joke because, if he invests in a factory in Zimbabwe, "I will need to drill a borehole because there is no water in the country. And then I have to buy a generator to give me power. Your government needs to address these issues first before asking investors to come in." The Inclusive government of the two men above is, however, too busy "eating" all revenue, paying for a bloated government etc to actually see that it has its priorities wrong. On top of all this, you now have the army thumbing its nose at investor confidence as I explain in this article. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces has now publicly come out to demonstrate that it listens to no one in the world and is essentially running the show in Zimbabwe. Earli...

Showing his age: The Solution, Robert Mugabe, struggles up the steps at Gideon Gono's farm with King Mswati of Swaziland earlier this month. The dictator has now come out smash all the toys his and Tsvangirai's Inclusive Government was playing with. It really is a crisis There goes the neighbourhood. Yesterday, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe dealt a massive, irreparable blow to any prospects of economic recovery and investment in Zimbabwe. Speaking to his party's National Consultative Assembly, Mugabe said he was dead set against the dollarisation of the economy and that he is going to change it. His exact words were "Tiri kuongorora kuzvichinja todzokera kumari yedu." Which means, "We are looking at changing all that and going back to using our own currency." Good God! What has got into the man, this Prime Minister's "Solution"? Anyone who was thinking about investing in Zimbabwe will now back off sharpish. This is guaranteed. Dol...

PICTURE OF HEALTH: It appears even Morgan Tsvangirai has given up on Mugabe retiring, telling an audience at Wits University barely two weeks ago: "President Mugabe is not going anywhere. He is with us in this government until we achieve positive results" The commenting system on the Blogger platform, who host this blog, has been misbehaving for some days now and I commiserate with all who have called and emailed to say you can not leave your comments. I am sure the blog platform are aware of this glitch and are fixing it, so we should be back to normal soon. A few of you who have called or emailed today were asking how feasible it is for Mugabe to go it alone, to abandon the Coalition with Tsvangirai as he has now clearly decided to do. First thing to understand is that Mugabe now believes that the MDC needs the GNU more than he does. The explanation is found in the story below this one, the story in which I tell you about Mugabe's ZANU PF publicly humilating the MDC by ...

BETTER DAYS: Tendai Biti is seen here with Mugabe and South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe when South African business leaders jetted in to talk investments with the Zimbabwe government.  Now Mugabe has publicly humiliated Biti and the Prime Minister by saying STERP was drafted by ZANU PF before the Inclusive government was formed and simply handed to Biti when he took office President Mugabe and ZANU PF have now basically declared the GNU or Inclusive Government dead. Mugabe's party yesterday let it be known through the media that Tendai Biti did not draft STERP. Instead, it is claimed, the plan was drafted by the ZANU PF government prior to the MDC agreeing to go into the Government of National Untiy or Inclusive Government. Apparently, Biti was handed the document when he took over and "all he did was present it to Cabinet". You will also notice that the 100 Day Plan document itself does not carry pictures of the President and his two deputies. Although it details...

The profiteering in Zimbabwe has reached alarming levels, I tell you. This last week, I received a foreign cheque in US dollars and duly went to Barclays Bank to deposit it in my new foreign currency account, which they had helpfully automatically opened for me because I am a long-standing customer. Imagine my shock on Monday when my branch called me to tell me that bank charges for clearing this cheque were US$109. I know that in Kenya, where I have made enquiries, the very same cheque, from the very same company, is cleared for US$20. In South Africa, the charges are even less than that. Meantime, instead of supervising Zimbabwean banks that are doing this, Gideon Gono is busy fighting political battles? Can he explain how it is that the very same cheque, cleared by a neighbouring country through the very same process and the very same international bank, costs five times less in a neighbouring country than it does in Zimbabwe? The problem goes back to politics. The MDC-T president i...

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe Minister of Finance, delivering the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today Tendai Biti launched the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme in Harare today together with Robert Mugabe and Acting Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe. For those present at the ceremony, it was sad to miss Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is recuperating in South Africa and is only expected back in Harare next week. What we got today is really his big Action Plan for Zimbabwe, and welcome news to the ears of the weary citizens of Zimbabwe. But what struck me was Tendai Biti's admission that there are indeed sanctions on Zimbabwe. Previously, the MDC and its supporters have always maintained that these are only "targeted sanctions, travel bans and the like, just a harmless bit of fun at ZANU PF's expense." Biti told the gathering today, " STERP recognises that apart from targeted travel bans, measures have been taken against Zimbabwe, denying the co...

Tendai Biti, MDCs minister of Finance, chats with the man he said last week is now "like a father" to the MDC, President Robert Mugabe. This was at the unveiling of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme (STERP) earlier today. Mugabe and Biti publicly begged for US$5 billion. But in the background, the MDC have kicked into action a risky strategy to get rid of one man, Gideon Gono, Governor of the Reserve Bank. Read on. So determined are the MDC to get rid of Gideon Gono, the Reserve Bank Governor, that they have now embarked on a risky strategy to force Mugabe's hand. So even as they smiled at each other during the launch of the Short Term Economic Recovery Programme today, the daggers are secretly drawn. Tendai Biti says the country is broke, totally broke. There is no money at the Reserve Bank to meet even the most rudimentary needs of government, let alone teachers' US$100 "salaries" (which the teachers want reviewed anyway).  But teachers started re...