Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Billy Rautenbach (above) is supposed to testify in South African courts in the trial of that country's former Police Commissioner on allegations of corruption. He was implicated by another witness, who said Rautenbach had given him US$100 000 with which to bribe the Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi, who was then also the head of Interpol. The bribe was so that the Police Chief looked the other way whilst Rautenbach continued to operate in South Africa. Rautenbach is alleged to be one of the major financiers of the Mugabe regime, in exchange for vast business concessions. He is banned from traveling to Europe and America. Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 November 2009 A Zimbabwean millionaire, Mugabe ally and Financier has bolted from South Africa and is hiding from testifying in the trial of South Africa's former Police Commissioner, in which he stands accused of handing over US$100 000 in bribes. Billy Rautenbach, who brought the South Korean car brand Hyundai into Zimbabwe and South Af...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 November 2009 These are images from Sokwanele's Flickr Album of Terror and they show some of the farm workers who were shot this last week at a farm that is being taken over by the Deputy Governor of The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The farm in protected  by the SADC Tribunal ruling, but we all know that the government has said that it will not listen to anything the Tribunal says. Of the farm workers shot (with rubber bullets, apparently), two were seriously injured and sent to Harare for treatment. The farm under discussion is in Mugabe's home province.  Interestingly, these farm workers are being shot at and brutalised like this over a few piggeries- yes- piggeries. The deputy governor has already taken over the bulk of Friedewal Farm, but now wants the farmer, Louis Fick, who is a South African and a leader of the Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union, to give up what little he is still hanging on to. Fick himself has not been allowed to set foot on the f...

A diamond dealer holds out a rough diamond wrapped in a US Dollar note at Chiadzwa. The area is now a magnet for all sorts of shady characters, including armed robbers, who shot and killed a shopkeeper on Friday. They come in search of the wealth (in US Dollars, now Zimbabwe's official currency) they believe pervades the area as diamond dealers splash out in shops or hoard cash at home from their illegal diamond sales Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 October 2009 The Chiadzwa Diamond Fields are proving to be a hunting ground for violent criminals. It emerges today that a young man has died at the army-controlled Diamond Fields, shot in the stomach by armed robbers. Three men showed up at a shop at Chiadzwa and bought drinks and cigarettes, apparently. And then they hung about until after 10p.m., when the shop was closing. Instead of asking them to leave, an assistant to the shopkeeper decided to lock them in, so that no one else could come in. He would have unlocked for them to leave. Instead ...

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces remain opposed in principle to Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, whom they accuse of trying to sell Zimbabwe's birthright to the West in return for money. They are also especially bitter about Tsvangirai's call for Zimbabwe to be put under sanctions when he was still an opposition leader (he said South Africa should cut off fuel and electricity supplies). Now, one of their new MPs has had to grovel in front of a Major General in the army, who threatened to kill him and make him "disappear without a trace" for "disrespecting generals and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces." Harare, Zimbabwe, 12 October 2009 MDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Masvingo West, Tichaona Mharadze, went on his knees to beg forgiveness from Major General Englelbert Rugeje after the army Major-General took out his service pistol at a Masvingo and threatened to kill him. Rugeje told those who were with him that he had threatened to kill Mharadze because he had "de...

This was Mupedzanhamo Market in Mbare, Harare, this morning. Despite attempts by the MDC-dominated Harare City Council to rectify the ZANU PF patronage and corruption, Mugabe's home-boy and Minister of Local Government, Ignatious Chombo, has blocked that move, saying only Central Government can allocate stands there. ZANU PF loyalists protested last week about the proposed Council actions and one of them died after being hit by a stone on the back of the head. Now, moves are afoot by ZANU PF to mete out retributive violence on MDC supporters in the capital. Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 September 2009 A bloodbath looms in Harare as ZANU PF activists plot "revenge" for the death of one of their own at a market in the dirt-poor township of Mbare in in the capital city. The death of the ZANU PF supporter, Mrs Martha Chitambira, who was 70 years old, is being blamed on MDC supporters by ZANU PF, including President Mugabe himself. The background is rather strange. The Market, known as...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 August 2009 South African Police Services (SAPS) are refusing to release the name of a Zimbabwean cabinet minister whom they confirm was assaulted during a robbery at a friend's house in Bryanston, Johannesburg. But locally, the minister has been identified as Fidelis Mhashu, the MDC Minister of National Housing and Social Ammenities. The house where he assaulted is Mutumwa Mawere's. Mhashu lost R5 000, a watch and a phone. The minister was hit on the back of the head with a gun during the robbery. This is not stopping SAPS from blaming the unfortunate minister for the crime committed against him, however. They say he got what he deserved because he did not follow protocol. He should have done this by notifying SAPS that he had arrived in the country and requesting VIP protection. The police say he was entitled to the protection, as are all visiting ministers from foreign countries. The minister was ignorant of this fact. The minister was reportedly having ...