Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Tendai Biti and Robert Mugabe at the presentation of the wishlist masquearding as a policy document - STERP - earlier in the year. With Biti not attending cabinet, Mugabe is now pushing SADC to "see reason" and saying he will have to do something to get the budget through cabinet if Biti will not attend to present it. There are two options being toyed with and both would put the MDC-T on the back foot, because they would be irreversible until the MDC-t starts attending cabinet again. It is one element of the subtle pressure Mugabe is putting on the MDC Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 November 2009 Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, has effectively been barred from presenting the 2010 National Budget after Mugabe insisted that there will be no deviation from the normal procedures of crafting it and steering it through cabinet. The Budget is supposed to be presented to Cabinet first for approval, and then to parliament, which then votes on it.  The "disengagement" by...

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...

Thabo Mbeki has "disengaged" from the Zimbabwe issue, Jacob Zuma is proving to be even quieter than his predecessor (despite the assurances we got from half-baked analysts when we pointed out that he would not crack the whip on Mugabe) and the rest of SADC is tired of the Mugabe/Tsvangirai circus. The Ministerial team currently in Zimbabwe will meet with Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately today and fly out of Zimbabwe without committing themselves to anything. For Tsvangirai, it is back to square one. For Mugabe, it is business as usual . Harare, Zimbabwe, 30 October 2009 Details emerging after the meetings the SADC Ministerial team had with ZANU PF and MDC-T leaders yesterday show that we were right yesterday in urging the world not to take the visit seriously as it was simply for show. Inside sources reveal that the team of foreign ministers from the Troika (the Organ on Defence and Politics) listened politely to ZANU PF and MDC-T presentations, made by negotiators from bot p...

As the SADC Ministerial team prepared to land in Zimbabwe (they are now here), the MDC was holding a press conference addressed by Nelson Chamisa, at which Edith Mashaire, the party's Security Administrator, recounted how armed men had attempted to kidnap her in the Harare City Centre two days ago. The police are being dismissive, with the Police Spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena saying this was just a stunt and posturing ahead of the visit by the SADC team. The police, clearly, have no intention of investigating the matter, although number plates have now been taken on two occasions. Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 October 2009 A team of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Foreign Ministers from that body's Organ on Defence and Politics is in Zimbabwe right now meeting with the political leaders of the country. Right off the bat, things are not looking good for Morgan Tsvangirai and his party. The meeting takes place as the MDC has effectively left government, refusing to attend ca...

Morgan Tsvangirai seen here in South Africa. He has now returned home and is meeting with Mugabe as I write this. I will update you as soon as this meeting is finished. It is unlikely that anything of substance will come out of it, though. Mugabe has taken the strategy of making "promises" which will allow Tsvangirai to get back into cabinet and start engaging ZANU PF without losing face. These promises will, of course, never be honoured. And Tsvangirai knows this Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 October 2009 A few minutes ago, along Herbert Chitepo Avenue in Harare, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai pulled me (and other motorists) to the side of the of the road with his motorcade (three brand new Toyota Land Cruisers, a maroon Mercedes Benz S340 and a Double Cab Toyota Hilux). The Landcruisers (which are not marked) are the ones with sirens, leading the way and clearing people out of Tsvangirai's way. The Prime Minister was on his way to his meeting with Mugabe, which is going on as ...