Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

Morgan Tsvangirai, seen here on Sunday addressing the faithful at a party rally in Bulawayo, tried to talk tough, but it is too late. Most people now know that Mugabe will do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and the Prime Minister will stick it out because he has run out of ideas and even the energy to continue the fight. Harare Zimbabwe, 13 September 2009 Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's Prime Minister and leader of the MDC-T, today tried to pick up his spine and confront Mugabe. Verbally at least. He is "not going to stand by", he says, while ZANU PF arrests and "persecutes" his parliamentarians and violates human rights. He was oddly quiet on what exactly he will do if he will "stand around." Standing around is exactly what he has been doing. His Minister of Home Affairs, he says, is working "fantastically" with the ZANU PF co-Minister for the same post. If violations are occurring, he is as much at fault as Mugabe and his men. Did we no...

Harare, Zimbabwe 12 September 2009 For three months now, I have been forbidden to publish this extraordinary occurrence, but now I can go ahead, respecting the conditions that I have been given. Three months ago, two very senior MDC figures, both of them serving as high-profile ministers, asked me personally to "sound out" Dr Simba Makoni on thoughts that they claimed had gained widespread acceptance within the MDC. Specifically (and I will never forget this question), I was asked to ask Dr Makoni the following: "If Morgan Tsvangirai was to be removed as president of the MDC, would Dr Makoni be interested in taking over the leadership of the party?" Yes, I was as surprised as you are right now when I was approached on the subject. Now, I had to ask where this was coming from. As far as I am concerned, even to this day, the MDC is entangled with Tsvangirai in a death grip. His political demise will also signal the demise of that party. Like Robert Mugabe, Morgan Tsva...

Jacob Zuma is seen here arriving with incoming SADC Chairman Joseph Kabila at the opening of the SADC Summit in the Great Lakes country. Zuma gave a glowing account of the "progress" in Zimbabwe but failed to table any issues for discussion. A Tsvangirai spokesman later briefed journalists that there will a special summit in Mozambique in a couple of weeks time, then Tsvangirai came out at a press conference later to say that the matter is now in the hands of the SADC Troika on Zimbabwe. It is a confusing set of events, which has left many people contacting me to try and make sense of what exactly has just happened, once you take away all the propaganda. Harare, Zimbabwe, 08 September 2009 Good God! In the last hour, I received a ton of emails from people confused about what exactly has just happened at the SADC Summit in the Democratic Republic of Congo with regards to Zimbabwe. At fault, obviously, is the propaganda wars being conducted even as I speak, with media sympathet...

Tendai Biti was unaware of the transfer of funds from the IMF to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe this week. He was only told of it after independent newspapers started sniffing around, calling Gideon Gono to confirm the story. The papers also spoke to the Finance Ministry who were in the dark about all this. And now it is also being alleged that some of teh money had already been "disbursed" and that this is on "the president's orders". Harare, Zimbabwe, 06 September 2009 It now emerges that Robert "The Solution" Mugabe and Gideon Gono kept quiet about the US$400 million from the IMF for four days, not telling any of the MDC ministers, including Tendai Biti, that the money had been deposited into the Reserve Bank account. At the same time, it is also being alleged that some of the money has already been "disbursed" on the "president's authority". Gono was only forced to admit to the fact that he already had the money after the IMF ...

Mugabe and his men are now in the process of backtracking from everything they have previously agreed to with Morgan Tsvangirai. They are playing for time and Morgan Tsvangirai is letting them. Now he is accusing the MDC of administrative incompetence and failure to fulfil their end of the bargain. He will tell Jacob Zuma this when the SADC Chair arrives in Zimbabwe to open the Agricultural Fair Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 August 2009 Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, the dictator of Zimbabwe, will tell Jacob Zuma that the MDC of Morgan Tsvangirai has not fulfilled any of its obligations in the Global Political Agreement and that he has no intention of doing any of the things Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai wants done because he is not holding his end of the bargain. This emerged as Mugabe's party issued a statement at a press conference addressed by Ephraim Masawi yesterday, saying that the MDC must fulfil its "obligation" to "call off the sanctions they originally ...

Joey Bimha, the Permanent Secretary in the Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Ministry, has announced that MDC ambassadors are not going to be posted to their missions this year because the government "is broke". They will finish their training and then sit there twiddling their thumbs, possibly until the end of this Inclusive Government. Meantime, Roy Bennett is not sworn in, governors are not sworn in.........this Global Political Agreement is a joke Harare, Zimbabwe, 16 August 2009 While MDC lackeys and apologists prematurely celebrated the "appointments" of ambassadors from their parties, Robert Mugabe has, as usual, been busy plotting and it has now been announced that the candidates for these posts will not be posted to their respective missions. Even before Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in, I told you on this very blog, in an article entitled "MDC Dreaming" says Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Officials , (which I wrote early February, after Tsvangirai had announced h...

Dr Simba Makoni, the leader of Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn party in Zimbabwe is being charged under POSA (Public Order and Security Act) with addressing 400 or more people last year in Glendale without police clearance. I suppose they can not find any other charge to stick! Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 August 2009 Dr Simba Makoni, interim President of Mavambo.Kusile.Dawn has been charged with "addressing more than 400 people" in Glendale during the 2008 Presidential Campaign. Makoni is due to appear in court in Glendale this week to face trial on the charge. I was with Dr Makoni in Glendale during the campaign and during the incident for which he is being tried and it is nothing more than harassment. Those who followed the Makoni campaign during the Presidential elections of 2008 know that the Doctor held very few rallies. His approach was to do "walkabouts". At every place where we arrived and where he did his walkabouts, we went to the local police station where Dr Makoni explain...

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Gideon Gono, seen here with Mugabe at a warehouse where some of foodstuffs and goods from his quasi-fiscal operations were stashed, has come out publicly to defend his role as Monetary Policymaker, setting him on a collision course with Biti yet again. Gideon Gono's festive Monetary Policy tradition came to end yesterday. Instead of calling all and sundry (even our advertising agency got an invite) to his Mount to hear the Sermon, he called in only bank industry CEOs this time. He is much more restricted now, with the ending of quasi-fiscal activities and therefore can not pronounce policy position on all sorts of areas as he used to. One notable thing that came out of his Monetary Statement yesterday was an indication that he and Mugabe are balking at one of the demands from the South Africans for Zimbabwe to join the Rand Monetary Union. "Our strong views and preference, however, are that as Zimbabweans, we must have our own currency and au...

Chiyadzwa Diamond Fields, where small-scale miners (Makorokoza) made fortunes in the confusion of 2006/7 and into last year. There was a brutal clampdown at the Fields and it is sad some 80 or so people died at the hands of soldiers, the story is denied by both the MDC and ZANU PF since they got into government together. The Kimberley Process Team which was here earlier this month, has recommended a ban on Diamonds from Zimbabwe for at least six months So. Despite the Herald shrilling propaganda from their pages during the recent visit of the Kimberley Process Team to Zimbabwe, that very team has now announced that it is recommending a ban on Zimbabwe trading in diamonds through the process for "at least six months". It is a big deal because the Process is literally the only legitimate way in which diamonds can be sold on the world market. It was set up to certify diamonds as free of blood ( diamonds funded and fuelled the horrific conflicts of Sierra Leone, DRC and Liberia, ...

It is all about ZIM 1, the presidential number plate in Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai has also now joined the plotting of Mugabe. But it is almost certain that his embrace of the Kariba Draft in the hope that it can help him to secure the presidency will certainly come to grief. It was reported this last Sunday that JOMIC (Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee), which is the arbitrator and overseer of the Inclusive Government's GPA, has now endorsed the Kariba Draft as the basis of a new constitution. It is a victory for Mugabe and ZANU PF, clearly, that this body, which houses very senior figures from all parties (especially the negotiators themselves) has now genuflected to this hard stance taken by the Solution and his cronies. What is more puzzling to observers is why Tsvangirai's negotiators agreed to this travesty at all. Why did they bend (seemingly) to Mugabe's will? The answer is simple enough and was given to me a few moments ago by a senior figure within the MDC-T...

Emmerson Mnangagwa, Minister of Defence and Mugabe's now-certain heir, seen here with PM Morgan Tsvangirai in parliament, answered questions in the House yesterday after a delay of some months during which parliamentarians complained to the Speaker and the media that the Minister was not availing himself to answer their questions. He was asked about the failure or reluctance by the Service Chiefs to salute the Prime Minister and he fobbed them all off with a flimsy explanation. Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Minister of Defence and Mugabe heir-apparent yesterday told parliament why the service chiefs will not salute Tsvangirai in an explanation that was clearly lacking in sincerity, as I will explain. Mnangagwa was shown on Newshour on ZTV last night explaining that the Service Chiefs only salute the president of the country as the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. He pointed out that the Service Chiefs were also absent at the very low-key swearing-in of Vice-Presidents ...

Mugabe, seen here swearing-in Morgan Tsvangirai on February 11 this year, now wants to "strengthen" his structures in the Diaspora and is now certain to run again for President against Tsvangirai. He has said before that if the results are the same as last time, "we may continue with the arrangement" of having Tsvangirai as Prime Minister and he as President. Robert "The Solution" Mugabe's party, ZANU PF, is "strengthening our structures in the Diaspora to ensure that they spread our message." The statement was made on Tuesday by Savour Kasukuwere, the Minister of Youth and one of those accused by the MDC-T of being behind the disruption of the Constitutional Conference at the Harare International Conference Centre. Those in Diaspora can rest assured that they will soon see some of their comrades living it up as money from the Diamond Fields is poured into their coffers in order for them to "spread the message." This statement comes...

While the Inclusive Government of Mugabe and Tsvangirai says it has no money to collect such rubbish as in this picture, which is piling up in cities all over Zimbabwe, they can find the resources to waste on bugging the Mavambo phones and the like. I told you a couple of days ago that our phone lines went dead and our Internet connection also disappeared. The lines came back yesterday of their own accord, after TelOne said as far as their systems were concerned, everything was working fine and they had no idea what had happened to our switchboard. It turns out now that a group led by a CIO operative named Cleopas Chidhakwa intercepted our lines at a "green box" along Fourth Street and did their thing. One of the people who assisted him was Givemore Murapa, also of the President's Office. They were in two cars as they did the job over the weekend and into Monday: a black Toyota Yaris and a Mazda B2200 pick-up, both of which had no number plates (the President's Office...

Inclusive Cabinet Being Sworn in, February this year. A deputy Minister from the MDC Tsvangirai in this cabinet had been arrested for stealing a cellphone belonging to "War Veterans leader" Joseph Chinotimba. First, apologies, it appears I spoke too soon. No sooner had sung the praises of Nelson Chamisa than Internet connection in Zimbabwe collapsed entirely. While we are back online at the Mavambo offices, with out phones and internet connection restored, my other internet connections went completely dead. Curiously, last night, as I was working on some posts for the blog and doing other housekeeping things, electricity at the office was also switched off. It is almost unheard of for power to go in the city centre and, even more suspicious, the power went only on the block where our offices are (about ten building on one side of George Silundika. As I drove out, everywhere else there was power). But we could never expect anything else from this Inclusive Misgovernment. ****...

Deputy Prime Ministers Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara are seen here with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni at State House in Entebbe. The two were taken on a junket by Robert "The Solution" Mugabe as he starts his offensive to charm the MDC-T leadership into submitting to his will. He appears to be winning. Meantime, back home, all hell is breaking loose, with Civil society partners of the MDC-T declaring their marriage to the opposition party dissolved. Former allies of the MDC-T, the Zimbabwe Congress Of Trade Unions and the National Constitutional Assembly have blasted Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe over their failures on not only the constitution but also the running of the country in general. Almost all of the criticism was directed at Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T, signalling that the myopic days of "why criticise Tsvangirai, criticise Mugabe instead" are over. Indeed, it serves no purpose to harp on about the geriatric Mugabe, who everyone agrees...