Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe's Finance Minister, holds up the briefcase containing the 2010 National Budget last Wednesday at parliament. Biti is now being accused by ZANU PF of underfunding or denying funding to critical areas of reform, such as media. Mugabe's party has now found a new voice on sanctions, with the Zimbabwean dictator due to tell South African facilitators today that sanctions are the real reason why reform can not be implemented and that not even the MDC-T Minister of Finance, who should be funding these reforms, is also finding it tough-going with the "sanctions" in place. Harare, Zimbabwe, 08 December 2009 The Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, Tendai Biti, has frozen media hangman Tafataona Mahoso and his new Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe out of the National Budget, a revelation that also explains why Mugabe is now so virulently anti-Biti that he wants him reassigned or fired by Morgan Tsvangirai. Mahoso has requested US$156 000 but only got US$39 000 f...

Roy Bennett is seen here with Morgan Tsvangirai in South Africa last year. Bennett had fled to South Africa because ZANU PF heavyweights were relentlessly pursuing him after he was released from jail, where he had been sent for assaulting Patrick Chinamasa in parliament. He came back to Zimbabwe around the time of the inauguration of the Inclusive Government, believing that as a member of a party (the MDC) now to be in government, he would be protected. He was alerted to his imminent arrest the day before ministers were sworn in and he tried to flee the country through Charles Prince Airport in a private jet, but was abducted from there and sent to Mutare Prison. His ordeal has been ongoing since then. Harare, Zimbabwe, 15 October 2009 Information just getting to us says Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has "suggested" that it is best for Roy Bennett to be granted bail when he appears before the High Court for his application on Monday. Mugabe still wants to maintain t...

Lavish lifestyles: The MDC now says it is OK for them to use taxpayer funds to splash out on the lavish living of the Speaker of Parliament who spent a year at taxpayers' expense at the 5-star Miekles Hotel (pictured above) because ZANU PF also use taxpayer money to fund their lavish lifestyles. Greed in the MDC is now encouraged because ZANU PF is also greedy. It is a twisted logic that will ensure that this country is doomed for the generations to come unless the people of Zimbabwe come to their senses. Harare, Zimbabwe, 05 September 2009 One of the most senior confidants of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in the MDC, Eddie Cross, who even managed to get a ministerial post before Mugabe put a stop to his nomination on the grounds of his previous criminal convictions says the Speaker of Parliament's scandalous expenses and greed is justifiable because ZANU PF and Mugabe also behave in the same manner. In a letter that he distributed widely to the media, Cross says the speaker...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe sleeps at the African-South America Summit in Venezuela last week. It is difficult to see how this old man, who now sleeps through half of every meeting he attends, can still be giving not only the MDC but the international community as well, this much trouble. But as the story below reveals, he has a whole army of dedicated sycophants and advisers on whom he relies to keep him "on message." Harare, Zimbabwe 03 October 2009 Very late today, we got hold of Robert "The Solution" Mugabe's briefing notes for his Monday meeting with Morgan Tsvangirai. This is a routine meeting where, in Tsvangirai's words in a previous interview, "I report to the President on government business." The notes are an amalgam of positions taken by the ZANU PF Politburo, advice to Mugabe from his ministers and strategic thrusts coming out of the Joint Operations Command. These positions are based on the expectation within ZANU PF that M...

To Morgan Tsvangirai, this is all that matters - laughing off the people's suffering with the dictator Robert "The Solution" Mugabe. Everything else is not an issue to him, even as the armed forces continue smuggling loose diamonds from Zimbabwe to fund ZANU PF and lavish lifestyles, even as his MPs face trumped-up charges of abusing farming inputs, even as Mugabe continues to drag his feet on implementing the swearing-in of Roy Bennett, as he raids ministries from the MDC, as he postpones the posting of ambassadors........this all does not matter because Tsvangirai says he has developed some chemistry with the dictator Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 August 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai has told the Guardian of London that he has developed some chemistry with Mugabe and works well with the dictator, despite mounting evidence that Mugabe still continues to hold him in contempt. "Over time, you develop some chemistry, you can't just go in and talk about business, you talk about per...

As the UNDP representative pointed out yesterday at a function in Harare, more than half of Zimbabwe's population still have "limited or no access to safe water" and that cholera deaths continued into last month despite the Mugabe-like declarations by Morgan Tsvangirai that cholera had been eradicated. Harare, Zimbabwe, 20 August 2009 Deputy Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Reuben Marumahoko, a ZANU PF minister, was laughed at yesterday during a function at which the United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative Agostinho Zacharias warned that Zimbabwe continues to face a humanitarian crisis despite the assurances of Morgan Tsvangirai that "things have improved." Zacharias pointed out that, despite Tsvangirai also claiming that cholera had been arrested, deaths had occurred in July, this past month, which brought the cumulative total of deaths from cholera to 4 288. He also revealed that 6 million Zimbabweans, more t...

A protester with a placard urging Tsvangirai to "stop the genocide in your jails" is seen here at Shell House, the ANC Headquarters during the Zimbabwean Prime Minister's meeting with the South African president earlier today Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 August 2009 A South African human rights group staged a protest during the meeting between Morgan Tsvangirai and Jacob Zuma in Johannesburg today. The South African Prisoners' Organisation for Human Rights (SAPOHR) held up a banner with the message: Prime Minister Tsvangirai, Stop The Genocide In Your Jails. Yes, they are his jails now. It is a curious state of affairs and Tsvangirai will obviously protest about the labeling, but this is a bed he made and must sleep in. By agreeing to go into government, by telling supporters at rallies that "there is nothing Mugabe does without my approval" after the formation of that Inclusive Government, he is essentially taking responsibility for the actions of the government. T...

Miners at the vast Chiyadzwa Diamond Field in Zimbabwe. There is a new push to ban diamonds from here on the international market Just as Morgan Tsvangirai ends his begging trip to the USA and Europe, news comes that Zimbabwe diamonds will now almost certainly be banned totally from the world market. The current chair of The Kimberley Process, Namibian Deputy Mines Minister Bernhard Esau, told a conference of the Kimberley Process group in Windhoek today that "gaps can be strengthened" with regards to the process in Zimbabwe. It was a surprising thing, coming as it does from a government that supports Mugabe heavily. The group pointed to the Marange massacres of illegal miners as a top concern for them and it is the Marange diamonds that they do not want out in the market. The Zimbabwe government now denies the killings. It's strange, because it was the MDC-T Deputy Minister of Mines who defended the ZANU PF abuses in Marange. "There are unsubstantiated reports of a ...

Deputy PM Arthur Mutambara at the World Economic Forum a couple of weeks back. He is spearheading a doomed drive to "rebrand" Zimbabwe. Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara personally called yesterday to invite us to a "Rebranding Zimbabwe" workshop due to be held here in Harare tomorrow (25 June 2009). Unfortunately, Dr Makoni had a prior engagement and had to send regrets for this event. (Some exciting things are happening here and Zimbabwe will experience a political earthquake in the next few days!) But it all just got me thinking: This is an exercise in futility. Some things will actually need to change before Zimbabwe can spend money on rebranding. Right now, the only thing that has changed is that the two MDCs are now part of ZANU PF. Other than that, repressive laws are still in operation, for example. Journalists are still barred from Zimbabwe, sewage continues to flow in the streets, democracy activists continue to be harassed and arrested, WOZA proteste...

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai leaves No. 10 Downing Street after a meeting with embattled British PM Gordon Brown. Tsvangirai had earlier dismissed Sekai Holland and the Diaspora as "paranoid" and "obsessed". Looks very pleased with himself, doesn't he? Not only has Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe called his own minister of National Healing, Sekai Holland, as well as Zimbabweans in the diaspora "paranoid", but he has also stated that "if you wanted a Mugabe ouster, you should have staged a revolution." Tsvangirai made the comments during an interview on Monday with BBC Radio Four. Mike Thompson, the interviewer, tried to bring up the subject of the continued harassment of MDC-T officials, MPs, Civil rights activists and journalists by referring to an interview he had in Zimbabwe two weeks ago with Sekai Holland. He resisted naming the Minister, but that did not stop Tsvangirai. "I know who we are talking. We are ...

Irene Khan, Head Honcho at Amnesty International is seen here at a press conference in Harare earlier today. She said human rights violations persist and said the Unity Government had failed to arrest this trend. In Zimbabwe today, Irene Khan, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, issued a damning report of the Unity government to journalists. But even this was couched in diplomatic-speak, which is uncharacteristic of the organisation. Khan said commitment was lacking from "sections" of the government, without naming names. She did, however, state that "persistent and serious human rights violations continue." Quite sensibly, she also added, "The government must give as much attention to securing human rights reforms as they are to seeking economic resources ." This will no doubt get The Solution's back up. It will be dismissed as talk of regime-change agenda. It is all quite predictable that way. The Mail and Guardian says: "Khan said a...