Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

President Mugabe's eldest child, Bona Mugabe, is seen here greeting Vice Presidents Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi & their wives at President Mnangagwa's inauguration ceremony at the National Sports Stadium in Harare today President Robert Mugabe was not in Singapore today. He was at home. For a man his age, he is in remarkably good health, even though he sent a letter to the inauguration, read by President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the National Sports Stadium today, pleading ill-health. The letter was not a sign that Mugabe has forgiven Mnangagwa and Chiwenga. No. Those present at the Blue Roof when the decision was made are clear what Bona and her husband's presence at Mnangagwa's inauguration today was all about. As an aside, despite what the former president is accused of having done to this fellow citizens and to the country, some of us were amazed at the spontaneous and deafening applause that echoed through the National Sports Stadium in Harare today wh...

The Mugabe Family at the Harare Showgrounds on Friday: from left is Robert Mugabe Jnr, Bona Mugabe, who is at University in Hong Kong and whose house there was the subject of international attention when it was photographed by the Sunday Times of London, then Chatunga Mugabe, the last born and Grace Mugabe, the First Lady. Harare, Zimbabwe, 31 August 2009 It appears Robert "The Solution" Mugabe's daughter, Bona, flew back with her father from Dubai last week and the whole family was at the Showgrounds for the opening of the Harare Agricultural Show by Jacob Zuma. I just wonder what the deal is with Robert Junior and Chatunga straightening their hair! I thought you may enjoy this photograph, published over the weekend here in Zimbabwe.

Robert Mugabe with the effects of the botox injections still fresh. As you can see, if you compare with the photo below, which was taken two months later, the effects of the botox were wearing off, with Mugabe looking hollow-cheeked at Heroes Acre on July 11 President Robert Mugabe was flown out to Dubai for treatment and I understand his urologist, Awang Kechik, has also flown out to Dubai to meet him there. I had initially got information that he had flown to Singapore or Malaysia, but I can confidently reveal that he is in Dubai. His urologist is normally based in Malaysia. His daughter, Bona, was on the same flight to Dubai as the urologist. The presence of Mugabe's urologist points either to a recurrence of Mugabe's prostate problems, which have been remission since 2003, or to the fact that he is just playing it safe and wants a check-up to make sure he is still in fine fettle. ZANU PF sources are insisting that Mugabe is not in any danger at this point and that this is j...

Gideon Gono and Robert "The Solution" Mugabe inspect some of the equipment on display at the height of Gono's farm mechanisation programme. He also sourced seed maize and fertiliser to give to farmers in order to encourage productivity, justifying the move by saying even the colonial regime gave assistance to white farmers after World War 2. It is these inputs that have now put a large number of MDC-T MPs in court. Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 August 2009 The trial of MDC-Tsvangirai Member of Parliament for Bikita East, Edmore Marima opened yesterday at the Harare Magistrates' Court. Brigadier-General Nyikayaramba (which means "the country says no") testified against the legislator who faces a lengthy prison sentence like the one handed down to another MDC-T MP, Ernest Mudavanhu of Zaka East in Masvingo Pronvince, who was sentenced last month to two years in prison for the same offence. He automatically lost his seat as a result. The Brigadier General testified that...

In a shocking about face, the MDC told the media yesterday that they could live with Gideon Gono because they can "manage and control him" through a revision of the Reserve Bank Act. This is coming just two days after the Service Chiefs waded into the fray in support of the cornered Governor. This has clearly rattled the MDC-T. Tsvangirai, especially, seems so mortified of upsetting the Generals. He told the New York Times this year, "We had won the election but did not have the support of the military" in justifying why he decided to play second-fiddle to the man he had defeated at elections. "We can not unravel the tentacles of the State without Mugabe," Tsvangirai said. But the party still insists that Tomana is not up for negotiation and must simply go. So, what if the Generals come out in public support of the Attorney General as well? The MDC-T will retreat sharpish as well? Like they have just done on Gono? There will be an excuse. Perhaps one is b...

President Robert Mugabe "went ballistic" on Saturday when he found out Morgan Tsvangirai and Emmerson Mnangagwa have secretly  met up to six times since the MDC leader became Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is said to have met with the ZANU PF heavyweight, who has been confirmed already by Mugabe as his preferred choice for President, in Harare and at a farm in the Kwekwe area. Mugabe, told Saturday in a briefing about the meetings, is reported to have threatened to send the Minister of Defence back into the "wilderness" ( gwenga, was the Shona word Mugabe used, apparently). Although not immediately clear whether Mugabe was told what the mettings were about, he immediately saw this as a threat to his continued grip on power. Mugabe, although he has told Mnangagwa that he will most certainly now take over as head of ZANU PF and eventually President of Zimbabwe, likes things done his way. He believes Mnagagwa and Tsvangirai may be planning to sideline him, now that...

I had not noticed this until a regular source in the president's office informed me that Robert Mugabe put on a bullet-proof vest to visit Tsvangirai in hospital at the Avenues Clinic in Harare. Apparently, when news of the accident came and it was confirmed that the Prime Minister was injured but alive, Mugabe announced to his astonished security team that he would be visiting the Prime Minister at the Avenues Clinic. At first, security advised against it, and pointed out that the circumstances around the accident were still murky. Mugabe insisted.  So the usual anonymous advance team was dispatched to the hospital. When they arrived, there was a crowd outside, people who had come to hold a vigil outside the hospital for Tsvangirai, as well as journalists and patients waiting to be treated. The advance team radioed back to Helensvale, Mugabe home, saying the situation was not conducive. What if this was an assasination attempt and the assasins were waiting outside the hospital to ...

Robert Mugabe's birthday television interview, a tradition every year since the days of Jonathan Moyo, is being broadcast here in Zimbabwe as I write this. Notably, Mugabe frankly admitted that his daughter, Bona, is staying at the house in Hong Kong (pictured above), "with a friend." "It's for our girl," said Mugabe, "and her friend, another girl. Then we had to have enough room for, masecurity people, you know." Mugabe denies that he bought the house, however. He says he is renting it only "for our girl, while she is studying there. When they finish their degrees, then they come back home." The house was exposed by the London Sunday Times, whose photographer, Richard Jones, had a run-in with Grace Mugabe at the Shangri-La Hotel in Hong Kong, where the Firt Lady had gone to fetch Bona for her holidays back in Zimbabwe. She is reported to have puched him repeatedly in the face and head, wit her diamond ring causing bleeding and injuries t...