Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

President Mnangagwa is being criticised for setting up an anti-corruption unit in his office. He should not be dissuaded at all. His critics are almost certainly the corrupt element in opposition and ruling party, fearing that the anti-corruption drive now has some teeth. President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared in a video yesterday pounding his fist, demanding that corruption "be dealt with now", as he announced the setting up of a special team of prosecutors in his office. As soon as he announced this, lawyers and constitutionalists who have been silent all this time as corruption hollowed out the prosperity of Zimbabwe, came out of the woodworks to say the move was a violation of the constitution and a whole load of other nonsense. And, yes, no apologies for calling it nonsense. Corruption is a real cancer, the biggest contribution to Zimbabwe's poverty. The president must, by any means necessary, tackle it. He made it clear that the Prosecutor General has in...

Webster Shamu, seen here in parliament with President Mnangagwa, was fired by the President toady and Minister of Provincial Affairs for Mashonaland West. The move marks the end of his political career, especially after the "natural justice" process followed by ED. This post will also explain why Shamu decided to cheat during the primary elections in ZANU PF. Robert Mugabe once stated during a rally, describing then VP Mnangagwa, "Igweta ka uyu..." (He is a lawyer, this one." Mugabe said it admiringly, as he explained how the VP escaped censure and action on the Tshlotsho issue that saw Jonathan Moyo fired from the party. The lawyerly approach by President Mnangagwa is the reason why you have seen it take some time for the firing of Shamu to take place. Mnangagwa is obsessed with the concept of "natural justice" (ensuring that both sides are heard).  I know some people are already pointing fingers at Christopher Mustvangwa as the power behi...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa is going to win the 2018 Harmonised election by a margin of between 218 000 and 392 000 individual votes. It will be a margin big enough to make calls of a recount moot. It will be small enough to give credibility to the masses that attend Nelson Chamisa's rallies these days. Most importantly, it will be enough margin to render the elections credible, free and fair. Where this margin, already guaranteed to President Mnangagwa, will come from, is the blind spot that the MDC Alliance has failed to locate. They have failed even to sniff it. The MDC Alliance and Nelson Chamisa have absolutely no clue how the President and the ruling party are going to win. But they know that they will win. So, the flailing pointing out of issues around the ballot paper printing, transportation and security is serving only to dig a deeper hole for the opposition alliance. Nelson Chamisa, who claims that, without him and without the Alliance, there will be no ...

Robert Mugabe and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sing the National Anthems of their respective countries (top) and in conversation (probably about the "satanic imperialists" (above). Harare, Zimbabwe, 26 April 2010 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe is reportedly "livid but overjoyed" at Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC after the opposition party boycotted all events associated with the visiting Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Tsvangirai, who had been invited to the airport by Mugabe to meet the Iranian president, decided not to show up. He and ministers from his party also boycotted the dinner held at State House, where Ahmadinejad referred to the West and America as "Satanists" and "Satanic". Although Tsvangirai and most ministers boycotted the ceremonies around the visit, the MDC-T co-Minister of Home Affairs and Tsvangirai confidant Eliphas Mukonoweshuro turned up at State House in order to sign cooperation agreements with the Iranian delegatio...

Tendai Biti at the press conference today where Morgan Tsvangirai announced his and the MDC pull-out from cabinet. The presence of such phrases as "paradigm shift" in Tsvangirai's statement betrayed Biti's hand in it. Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 October 2009 So, by now, you have digested the full transcript of the statement I posted here from Morgan Tsvangirai soon after I left his press conference at Harvest House. You, like millions of other Zimbabweans, must be wondering what exactly this is all about. A journalist at the press conference also asked Tsvangirai to "explain to me like a 4 year old: what has the MDC just done?" Tsvangirai responded by stating that the MDC had caused a "Constitutional Crisis" and got impatient with the reporter, asking if he had not just explained that there was now a constitutional crisis in Zimbabwe. Another reporter asked what the MDC would do next, "What is Plan B?" Tsvangirai responded that there was was no ...