Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

"I meet him whenever I request," Morgan Tsvangirai boasted with regards to Mugabe only two months ago, in an interview with a western journalist. It appears that does apply any more, with Robert "The Solution" Mugabe refusing to see his Prime Minister since Wednesday despite repeated attempts by Tsvangirai to set up a meeting. James Maridadi, the PM's Spokesman, confirmed that Mugabe has turned down Tsvangirai's requests daily since Wednesday. Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 October 2009 Remember Morgan Tsvangirai telling an interviewer two months ago that he meets Mugabe "whenever I want"? It appears that is not happening any more. The Prime Minister's office confirms today that Tsvangirai has been trying to meet Mugabe over the issue of Roy Bennett since Wednesday but that the President has been refusing to see him. Tsvangirai, whom the MDC Spokesman Nelson Chamisa denies has boycotted government business (he says the PM just had to attend to matters at...

IN STEP WITH ZANU PF: Morgan Tsvangirai is so desperate to stay on as Prime Minister that he tried yesterday to rig the results of the internal "consultation" within the MDC on whether they will stay on in Government or not, saying the results were "overwhelming" and in favour of staying in. He was immediately contradicted by his own Party Spokesman last night. That is not going to stop, he is going to dictate his way back and impose his will on his party, which is unhappy with the Inclusive Government  Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 October 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai trying to rig the internal consultation process in the MDC, announcing yesterday that his supporters had voted "overwhelmingly" for him to stay on in the Inclusive Government with Robert Mugabe despite the continued display of bad faith by the dictator. The Prime Minister, however, was immediately slapped on the wrist by his own Party Spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, who contradicted him publicly, saying the pro...

"Yes, you ...." the so-called Prime Minister and his party now want to criminally compromise the people of Zimbabwe and especially gullible MDC supporters by getting them to endorse the criminally flawed agreement that gave birth to the Inclusive MisGovernmen t Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 October 2009 Soon after a meeting of the MDC National Council last week, the party issued a statement saying that they have not only appealed to SADC yet again (appeal is the word they used, although "beg" might have been more appropriate), but they will also be consulting their constituency. The killer line was when the MDC said that the the people were "the real owners of this Agreement." So now it is the peoples' fault? When Tsvangirai and Mugabe were negotiating as the country's currency crashed and burned, fuel disappeared and the suffering of the people intensified last year, the MDC never bothered to give so much as an update on negotiations to its support base,...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 September 2009 MDC leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has effectively dismissed his party as talking nonsense about considering pulling out of the Inclusive Government they are in with Mugabe. Tsvangirai was speaking at the Mining Indaba in Harare. As an interesting aside, although most ministers had attended the speech by Mugabe, ZANU PF ministers boycotted the Prime Minister's address to the conference. State media effectively ignored him as well, although they covered Mugabe's speech in great detail. Tsvangirai said "the change is irreversible", sticking to his position that he will not be pulling out of the Inclusive Government. This is despite the fact that several of his comrades in the MDC have been briefing the media that they are going to the people to consult them on whether to continue in government. The relationship between the two main parties in government has deteriorated to the extent that the Prime Minister is now simply in c...

Zimbabweans are indeed lucky to have a man of the Right Honourable Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's calibre as a leader. A man of wisdom and foresight unequalled in all the world, a giant that stands above all other human beings on earth, an infallible man. Even the Pope wants to be Morgan Tsvangirai when he grows up. Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 September 2009 There is no man on this earth wiser than Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Since 2005, this has been proved to be true. He was right and Welshman Ncube, Gibson Sibanda, Priscilla Misihairabiwi Mushonga et al were wrong. He was right and Thabo Mbeki was wrong. The Prime Minister made no mistakes, diplomatic or otherwise, in his dealings with the SADC mediator. It was all Thabo Mbeki in the wrong because of his love for Robert Mugabe. The Americans were wrong when they told him not to sign the deal with Mugabe. "Mugabe is genuine," he repeatedly said. The Botswana president Ian Khama was wrong when he told Tsvangirai to ta...

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 ...

STUMPED: With Mugabe's breaches now reaching monstrous proportions, emboldened by a weak SADC approach, the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has clearly run out of ideas on the next step. His behaviour this last week shows that he has given up already and it is increasingly difficult to understand his continued faith in the SADC regional body, whom he says he is sure will attend to his "outstanding issues as a matter of urgency." SADC appears in no hurry, and that should tell the MDC something. Harare, Zimbabwe, 10 September 2009 There can be no other explanation for the Morgan Tsvangirai's behaviour around the continued intransigence of Robert "The Solution" Mugabe except that he has given up. First of all, he has given up on Mugabe, despite all the protestations to the contrary, despite the "we remain committed", despite the "no reverse gear", "we sink or swim together". The problem, of course, is that while Tsvangirai think...

SITTING PRETTY: Robert "The Solution" Mugabe is now supremely confident and secure in his position, thanks to Prime Minister Tsvangirai. None of this is likely to change Nothing will come of it, of course. You have, I am sure, heard by now that the MDC-T boycotted cabinet today. They were protesting the moving of cabinet from Tuesday to Monday. They figured the move by Mugabe, who leaves for an African Union Summit in Libya on Tuesday (today), was designed to deny the Prime Minister the opportunity to chair cabinet. The boycott is mere posturing, of course. The threat by Deputy PM Thokozani Khupe that the MDC-T reserves the right to disengage from the Coalition government is also hollow and only serves to drive the final nail into any prospects for recovery. More importantly, though, people must also realise that this is mere posturing, designed to hoodwink the public into thinking the MDC-T has finally retrieved its spine from the trash can. After all, Simba Makoni is launch...

While Tsvangirai is willing to pursue the dictator to Kingdom Come, Tendai Biti and others believe Mugabe is "moving goalposts". So, he's reverted to type then? In a move certain to anger  Tendai Biti and the MDC-T National Council, Morgan Tsvangirai has decided to take the route of quietly defeating his Council's resolution to take the dispute over jobs for the boys to SADC. The Prime Minister was advised by the president that SADC does not respond to statements by political parties. They will only engage a government.  Consequently, unless one of the Principals in the government approaches SADC with a grievance, SADC would simply ignore the resolution of the aggrieved political party. (Mugabe also falsely clams that unless the Principals ALL agree to declare an impasse, they can not approach SADC). Tsvangirai has decided not to take the matter to SADC. You will notice that since he came from that meeting in Masvingo at the Flamboyant Hotel, Tsvangirai has made no mo...

HERE ARE THREE ZANU PF HARDLINERS: General Chiwenga, Mugabe's top Commander, happily congratulates the president soon after his inauguration at State House on Sunday June 29. Misheck Sibanda, the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, can be seen in the background, partly obscured by the General. These are the men who are causing Tsvangirai endless headaches. But he insists Mugabe, at least, is "not the problem." Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe and his security chiefs have refused to disband JOC (the Joint Operations Command, which was at the forefront of strategising Mugabe's retention of power in the chaotic aftermath of the March elections in 2008). Instead, JOC still sits regularly, thumbing its nose at the Inclusive Government. The meetings, some of which I have reported here before, are mainly held in two places: at State House, which Mugabe now uses as his preferred office after moving his family to his mansion in Helensvale, Borrowdale, a minute's ...

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 ...

Walking out of the GNU? Dream on. The MDC-T coffers are are fast running dry. Their donors, who kept the party going through huge injections of money (US$10 million in the first six months of 2008 alone) have all fled. Their reluctance to fund the opposition coincided with the party's decision to go into an unholy marriage with Mugabe in the Coalition government. In a moment of pique and frustration, the Prime Minister, speaking to some of his staff, including a young man who acts as the political strategist in his office, blurted out yesterday after the cabinet meeting that "this is not worth it." Tsvangirai's frustration has to do with Mugabe's continued open contempt for him, even as the Prime Minister is told by the dictator that he has to respect him (which the Prime Minister has duly done, referring to the dictator as "Father", even in their private one-on-one Monday meetings, correcting journalists at press conferences when they do not use the Pre...