Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Simba Makoni holds up the Finance Minister's Briefcase in 2002, just before presenting Zimbabwe's national budget for that year. Even back then, Makoni was reluctant to take the job and hesitated until Mugabe called him to say he could not wait announcing his cabinet any longer and that he would announce the cabinet without a Finance Minister if he did not get a response from Makoni by the end of that day. Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 July 2010 Dr Simba Makoni paid what was dubbed a "courtesy call" on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai last week, amidst persistent reports from within the MDC-T that Morgan Tsvangirai has proposed him for the Finance Minister position in a bid to get rid of Tendai Biti, whom the Prime Minister is in a bitter fight with for control of the MDC-T. Sources in the Prime Minister's office say Tsvangirai proposed Makoni to Mugabe for the second time just last week, with the president refusing flat out to entertain the idea of the former Finance Mini...

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai chats with President Robert Mugabe at State House after the President had sworn in ministers nominated by the Prime Minister from his own party to replace those he had fired Harare, Zimbabwe 18 July 2010 A source extremely close to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai this last week described the fighting in Tsvangirai's party as "frightening" while claiming that the opposition party is so disorganised that "we will never take power from ZANU PF". The source, a confidant of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, blamed all the infighting on the Prime Minister, saying he was told "not to rock the boat" but went ahead anyway to reshuffle the cabinet on his side." The source also confirmed that Tendai Biti, the Finance Minister in Zimbabwe's coalition government and MDC-Tsvangirai's Secretary-General was saved from being reshuffled or fired by President Mugabe himself. "The PM came back from a Monday meeting one d...

Pic: Sunday Ma il President Mugabe is seen here wearing the flowing white robes of the Johane Marange Apostolic Faith Sect in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe this last week. The president, in the clearest indication yet that he will stand for office at the next elections, attended the sect's annual gathering. He wants their votes at the next elections. Harare, Zimbabwe, 18 July 2010 President Robert Mugabe appeared on the front page of the Sunday Mail in Zimbabwe today putting on the white robes of the Johane Marange Apostolic Faith sect. The Zimbabwean president was attending the sect's customary retreat in the mountainous Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. The sect is becoming a powerful force in Zimbabwean politics, with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai also being seen there last year. The reason for the homage being paid by politicians is that the sect has hundreds of thousands of followers all over the country and they tend to follow the teachings of their leaders closely. T...

Prime Minister `Morgan Tsvangirai, Vice-president Mujuru and Deputy Prime Ministers Arthur Mutambara and Thokozani Khupe arrive at the Opening of the Third Session of the 7th Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday. Members of the Presidential Guard of the Zimbabwe Army take up their positions outside Parliament soon after the arrival of President Mugabe to open parliament in Harare, yesterday President Mugabe whistling to himself as is his custom whenever he inspects the Guard of Honour. Behind him is the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga President Mugabe arriving in his vintage Rolls Royce at the Parliament Buildings in Harare yesterday. Harare, Zimbabwe, 14 July 2010 President Robert Mugabe opened the Third Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday as crowds watched from Africa Unity Square on a giant screen. There was gridlock in the city centre, the traffic jam having been caused by the closing off roads leading to th...

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, seen here holding hands with President Mugabe after the swearing-in of new MDC-T Ministers to replace those fired by Tsvangirai in his struggle to contain infighting within the opposition party has now gone ahead and fired  Harare, Zimbabwe, 04 July 2010 Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who is also president of the MDC witha surname (the MDC-T), has taken gloves off and taken the fight to Secretary General Tendai Biti (also Zimbabwe's Finance Minister in the coalition government). Tsvangirai last week fired high level officials at Harvest House, the MDC-T's Head Office in Harare, Zimbabwe. Among those to go were the Finance Director of the party and members of the Secretariat, which Tsvangirai is accusing of being in service of Tendai Biti in his alleged bid to unseat Tsvangirai at the next Congress of the MDC-T. This is coming after Tsvangirai fired several ministers and demoted others in a recent reshuffle of his ineffective rump of the Coa...

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai At the Press Conference today when he fired Energy Minister Elias Mudzuri and shifted some deck chairs on the Titanic Government. Harare, Zimbabwe, 23 June 2010 Clearly, the knives are now out for those said to be plotting against Morgan Tsvangirai's Life Presidency of the MDC that carries his surname. The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe has fired one of the two heavyweights against him in the party. Elias Mudzuri, the Minister of Energy, is now no Minister at all, "redeployed to the party", according to Morgan Tsvangirai. Tendai Biti the PM left alone. This is basically a shot across the bow for the Finance Minister. Now he knows Tsvangirai means to be elected president at the next Congress and still has power to destroy careers for the leaders of the MDC-T. Indeed, the tone of the press conference left no doubt at all that the Prime Minister had said he was firing Mudzuri for incompetence. Mudzuri also suffered for what Tsvangirai considered ...

The Econet Founder and Rockefeller Foundation Trustee, Strive Masiyiwa, is now said to have effectively taken over the MDC. Those in the MDC-T aligned to Tsvangirai believe that the man wants the job of leading Zimbabwe and the opposition for himself, but they may be mistaken. What is not in doubt is that Masiyiwa will be a nominee, from the floor, for president of the MDC-T at the next Congress. Harare, Zimbabwe, 19 June 2010 Lets cut right to the chase: Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai lost control of the MDC-T six months ago, it has now emerged. Yes, the latest news from Zimbabwe is that the Prime Minister lost his party to Strive Masiyiwa, the founder of Econet and a man many believe would make a good president, seeing as he has already done wonders in the private sector, is a staunch christian and is unlikely to filch funds from the state like some of the so-called leaders we have now have been known to do. News of Strive's takeover of the party has been clouded for some time ...

"Oh my God! Is that a gun you are holding, Morgan!" Tendai Biti and Morgan Tsvangirai are shown here before they came into office (but not power) in the Inclusive Government and before Tsvangirai doctored the MDC-Tsvangirai constitution to abolish term limits for the presidency of his party. Harare, Zimbabwe, 13 June 2010 Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, on 2 June called a surprise emergency meeting of the MDC-Tsvangirai National Leadership to confront Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance and MDC-T Secretary-General over allegations that the Minister was undermining the Prime Minister and blocking funding. Tsvangirai produced a report, which he claimed had been compiled by the Security Department of the MDC-T. The report alleged that Biti and his loyalists were busy going around the country "re-organising" party structured to pack them with their own sympathisers ahead of the MDC-T Congress slated for some time next year. The meeting was attended b...

Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 June 2010 A parliamentary committee consisting of MDC and ZANU PF Members of Parliament has proposed that the army presence at Chiadzwa be beefed up to cover even more of the area in order to "curb illegal mining". Although it had been announced months back that the army was moving out of the diamond fields, the Committee lets the cat out of the bay by not calling for the army to return, but calling for them to remain. The manner in which the announcement is being made is also rather confusing. The committee is not, in effect, recommending. The language used by the Chairman of the Protfolio, ZANU PF's Chindori-Chininga, suggests that decisions have been made. One of these decisions is to force whatever investors are given the green light to mine the 75 000 hectares of diamond claims to use security recommended by the government. The recommendation is already being actioned. The army "will"train a special unit to secure diamond fields and thi...

Marondera MP and MDC Secretary for Welfare, Ian Kay 9above in blue shirt) is in police custody after police raided his home. They said they had a warrant to search for dirty magazines, weapons and drugs. In the end, they say they found expired drugs in his home, which he was giving away to his constituents because government hospitals have nothing of the sort. Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 June 2010 Marondera farmer and MDC-Tsvangirai MP, Ian Kay, has been arrested by Zimbabwe police who raided his home in the extremely posh Harare suburb of Helensvale (where Mugabe also lives now in his private mansion after abandoning State House and turning it into an office). The police say that they were looking for "offensive material", including pornography, drugs and even weapons of war. There is no word on whether they found any titillating stuff at the MPs house, but the fact that they have arrested him is very telling. Police have him at Harare Central on charges of distributing expired med...

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, seen here on May 11 in conversation with US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (centre) and Senator Russ Feingold (also of President Obama's Democratic Party) at the US Capitol in Washington DC came back home only at the end of May and had a frosty meeting with Mugabe on Monday this week. Nothing came of it, with Mugabe telling Tsvangirai to " go and report to America and Britain" if he wanted. Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 June 2010 On Monday this week, Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe who is in bed with the MDC-T of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, reportedly came out to express open hostility towards the Prime Minister, telling to "go and report to the British and the Americans" that he (Mugabe) was refusing to swear in Roy Bennett and reverse the appointments of senior judges (which Mugabe did without consulting Tsvangirai). Morgan Tsvangirai himself has been busy galivanting around the world, visiting, amongst other countrie...

Dr Tafataona Mahoso has been appointed the CEO of Zimbabwe's new Media Commission, despite having vied for the Chairmanship of the same body, losing out to Godfrey Majonga. Mahoso is known as the "Media Hangman " because he ran the previous Media and Information Commission which presided over teh closure of several newspapers in Zimbabwe as well as the banning of several journalists from practising their craft. Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 May 2010 If proof was needed that Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T are just passengers in the so-called Inclusive Government of Zimbabwe, then it was provided this last week by the appointment of Dr Tafataona Mahoso as the Chief Executive Officer of the new Zimbabwe Media Commission, which was supposed to usher in a new era of media plurality and democracy in Zimbabwe. Mahoso is accused by his detractors of being a "media hangman"in his previous incarnation as Chairman of the now defunct Media and Information Commission (MIC), which pr...

Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the MDC-T and Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, addresses a press conference at his party HQ in Harare on May 16 2010. Tsvangirai is frantically trying to contain a looming threat from two factions in his party that have now joined forces and are pushing for a Congress to be held so that they can challenge his position. Tsvangirai has reacted by stripping Secretary General and Minister of Finance Tendai Biti of the majority of his powers, as well as effectively suspending Elias Mudzuri from the position of National Organising Secretary, a post effectively now held by a Tsvangirai loyalist, Morgan Komichi. The MDC-T Congress, postponed time and again, is now, according to Komichi, only to be held after a General Election in Zimbabwe, whenever that may be. Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 May 2010 Some time back, I was accused of being a nay-sayer, a hater of the MDC etc for pointing out facts that are now emerging to be true. Last week, Tendai Biti, the most potent and cre...