Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

A Botswana Game Ranger poses for a photograph: three such rangers have been arrested in Zimbabwe and are currently on trial at Hwange Magistrates' Court in Zimbabwe. They had crossed into Zimbabwe in pursuit of rogue lions and were intercepted as they tried to reenter Botswana. Zimbabwe has refused to release them and, as a result, the Botswana government has recalled its top Defence and Intelligence attaches from Harare, demanding that Zimbabwe does the same before the end of this month. Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 February 2010 The Government of Botswana has recalled its military and intelligence attaches from Zimbabwe and has demanded that Zimbabwe recall its own attaches from Botswana within 30 days. The diplomatic chaos is a result of the arrest of Tswana (Botswana citizens) game rangers who had allegedly crossed into Zimbabwean territory illegally. They were, say Zimbabwe authorities, also carrying "weapons of war". The Botswana Foreign Minister, Phandu Skelemani, said in ...

New Year Message from Dr Simba Makoni – Interim President, Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn (MKD)   As 2009 has drawn to a close, and we welcome the year 2010, I take this opportunity, on behalf of the National Steering Committee ( NSC ) of our Party, to extend cordial greetings to all the people of Zimbabwe . The year 2009 started on a positive and optimistic footing for all of us, on the back of two landmark occurrences, viz : ·                     the abandonment of the worthless Zimbabwe Dollar, on January 29 2009 , by the then ZANU (PF) regime; and, ·                     the installation of the Inclusive Government, on February 13 2009 .   Unfortunately, that optimism quickly faded away, as members of the so-called Inclusive Government wasted no time to settle into their relatively more comfortable positions, and engaged themselves in fierce struggles for power, and bigger shares of the meager national resources.   Much to the dismay and disbelief of all of us, the new me...

It was in the Exhibit Room at the Harare Magistrates' Court (above) that two policemen and their civilian accomplices were caught red-handed demolishing a wall with hammers and chisels in a bid to get to US$1.5 million which was being kept there as evidence in a smuggling case. Harare, Zimbabwe, 31 December 2009 Times are still tough for Zimbabwe's underpaid policemen, it seems. Cephas Dumba and Talkmore Manyasha, two Harare-based policemen, tried to break into the Magistrates' Court in Zimbabwe's capital to steal US$1.5 million that was being kept under lock and key as evidence in the trial of that Mozambican who was caught a few days ago trying to smuggle the money out of Zimbabwe. The policemen have since been arrested, together with a University of Zimbabwe Engineering student and two other people, apparently initially attempted  to replace the one and half million US dollars evidence money with fake US dollar notes.A fake note dealer had given them US$400 000 for t...

The United States Department of State has launched a second Democracy Video Challenge, with winners to be spread across all continents and hemispheres. The prizes are the same as last year, including an all-expenses paid trip to Hollywood, New York and Washington D.C. The deadline for entries in January 31 2010. Let's hope we have a Zimbabwean winner this time around. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 November 2009 I wrote last year about the project coordinated by the US State Department called Democracy Video Challenge, in which ordinary people from all regions and continents were asked to submit a video and win an all-expense paid trip to Hollywood, Washington and New York. The competition appears to have been such a success that the State Department and its other sponsors (including the United Nations now), have launched the second Democracy Video Challenge, in which people are being asked to make a short (no more than three minutes) video completing th sentence "Democracy is.......