Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

All grandiose talk of housing construction from Mugabe's government so far has been nothing but hot air. Private developers, people like Philip Chiyangwa, for instance, with his Pinnacle Properties, tend to do a much better job. But now Mugabe has decided to make yet another grand announcement about handing over a thousand hectares to the Angolans and Chinese to build whole towns. I am sure it is the last time we will hear about it, although the Chinese are likely to take the land anyway and do something else with it. Harare, Zimbabwe, 28 December 2009 Zimbabwe's government (still a ZANU PF government now getting Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC to do its bidding), has given a Chinese/Angolan company - Sonangol - one thousand hectares of land, purportedly to build new towns around the capital Harare. The land, in Mt Hampden (which Cecil John Rhodes' European settlers first targeted as the capital of a new Rhodesia or Zambezia) and Mazowe, is imply just a gift at the moment and...

Days after Robert Mugabe attended the China-Africa Summit in Egypt (above, Mugabe is second from right as you look at the picture), a Chinese/Angola joint Venture has signed a US$8 billion investment deal with Zimbabwe. The MDC-T and their ministers have been deliberately left out of the negotiations and the signing ceremony, which was inexplicably presided over by Mugabe's Chief Secretary and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 A Chinese/Angolan joint venture company has signed a largely mineral and precious stone deal with the Zimbabwe government worth US$8 billion. The US$8 billion comprises of five separate "strategic cooperation Agreements", according to the Zimbabwe government. The joint venture company, called Sonangol, will invest in gold and platinum refining, oil and gas exploration, fuel procurement and distribution, and housing development. It has also been announced that a "significant" amount of th...