Denford Magora's Latest Zimbabwe News Blog

These are the Chimanimani Mountains in Eastern Zimbabwe, where some more diamonds have been found and a new rush has started. Lebanese buyers are said to be the most active and persistent as they deal with the new illegal diamond miners, called panners because of the rudimentary equipment they traditionally use to extract the precious stones and minerals. Now that the government of Zimbabwe has publicly said it will intervene, it will not be long before we see another bloodbath like the one witnessed at Chiadzwa in Marange, at the original diamond fields of Zimbabwe Harare, Zimbabwe, 01 February 2010 As more and more of the Zimbabwe's Manicaland Province area is discovered to contain even more diamonds than previously thought, Lebanese citizens have emerged as the major driving force behind the new surge in informal mining of the precious stones in the area. The area that had been previously identified as rich in diamond deposits in Eastern Zimbabwe's Manicaland Province (Mara...

Robert Mugabe is greeted yesterday (Saturday 30 January 2010) at Bole Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he is attending the African Union Summit, at which, surprisingly, Zimbabwe has been elected into the Peace and Security Council of the continental body, the African Union. Mugabe is currently on a high, after getting the aid of the British in putting Morgan Tsvangirai on the back foot, getting the support of regional and African leaders for his calls for Tsvangirai to make Britain and "her allies"lift"sanctions against him. Harare, Zimbabwe, 31 January 2010 In February 2009, Morgan Tsvangirai threw Robert Mugabe a lifeline, thereby assuring the loser of Zimbabwe's last credible presidential poll a continued stay in office. Now Mugabe is using the very same lifeline given to him by Morgan Tsvangirai to strangle the MDC-Tsvangirai leader. Tsvangirai is feeling the heat. As I predicted early last year (when I said it will not be long before we hear Morgan Tsvang...

Robert "The Solution" Mugabe addresses the media at the end of the ZANU PF Politburo meeting on Wednesday 27 January 2010 at ZANU PF Headquarters along Rotten Row in Harare. The president of Zimbabwe says the Politburo has directed that no more concessions be made to the MDC-Tsvangirai until sanctions (illegal sanctions, he calls them) are lifted unconditionally by Britain, American and the European Union and their allies. Mugabe had earlier informed ministers from ZANU PF that Jacob Zuma and other SADC presidents had told him that they support this stance Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 January 2010 Robert "The Solution", the Houdini president of Zimbabwe, appears to have done it again, claiming to three senior ZANU PF ministers that he spoke to Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, this week and got an assurance from him that the issue of sanctions was of real concern to the South African Development Community (SADC) leader because it was a "threat to regional secur...

Dr Evil, aka, Robert "The Solution" Mugabe, seen here leaving ZANU PF Headquarters in Harare on Wednesday, 27 January, surrounded by some of his security guards. The guards are only part of his vast motorcade, guzzling enough fuel to drive to London and back every week. Morgan Tsvangirai, aka Prime Minister Mini-me Harare, Zimbabwe, 29 January 2010 Morgan Tsvangirai, aka Prime Minister Mini-me of Zimbabwe, is demanding what Dr Evil, aka Robert "The Solution" Mugabe has in terms of security, essentially signalling that there will be no change in the way Zimbabwe is governed should Prime Minister Mini-me replace Dr Evil as President of Zimbabwe. In the ongoing discussions around "outstanding issues" in the implementation of the Global Political Agreement, Morgan Tsvangirai wants to be given the same level of security as Mugabe. The President of Zimbabwe currently moves around with a convoy around 15 cars, including an ambulance that is equipped to be a mobil...

Peter Hitschmann arrives at Harare High court in Zimbabwe on Thursday last week for the trial of MDC-T Treasurer Roy Bennett, in which he is a key witness for the State. The presiding judge has now ruled that he is a "hostile"witness against the State, allowing Attorney-General Johannes Tomana to cross-examine him in order to discredit his new testimony that the confession upon which Roy Bennett's current prosecution is based was obtained under torture. Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 January 2010 Zimbabwe's Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana, has managed to get his own main witness declared "hostile"to him by the judge presiding over the ongoing trial of MDC-T Treasurer-General Roy Bennett. It means that Tomana has managed to score a victory most observers said was unlikely and strengthen the Attorney-General's hand considerably in the trial of the embattled Tsvangirai confidante, Roy Bennett. Justice Bhunu said that he was impeaching Hitschmann on the basis of his...

Zimbabwe police appear to have decided that chasing after protesters does not pay but that crime is the route to go. Several have been arrested in the last few months for robberies, mostly armed robberies, in a move that also shows that there are others within the force whose suffering has not blunted that their sense of right and wrong. Still, the underpaid civil servants in Zimbabwe, including policemen and Intelligence agents will continue to engage in these activities until and unless their working and remuneration conditions are improved Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 January 2010 Struggling Zimbabwe police officers have been in the news of late quite a lot for engaging in crime activities and the latest case involves a police officer and a Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative, together with car dealers. Police in the Matabeleland South Province of Zimbabwe have now arrested four people, including the police officer and CIO operative. They have been charged with armed robbery a...

A mother buried her baby alive in Zimbabwe last week. The baby miraculously survived a whole night buried in the "grave", which was really just a pit. She has been hauled before a traditional court and fined a goat and a cow by Chief Negomo. It reminds me of the infamous incident when my friend Noreen Welch and the late Tsitsi Vera were suspended by Zimbabwe Television after failing to contain themselves while reading the story of a woman who had gone to the toilet on a train and given birth thinking she only needed to relieve herself, unaware that she was pregnant. This is much sadder, obviously and the mother deserve much more than being fined a cow and a sheep Harare, Zimbabwe, 24 January 2010 A new-born baby buried alive by her mother survived for a whole night in the grave before being rescued by an alert man who lives near the graveyard. Phibian Chinehasha (the surname means "that which has anger"in the Shona language of Zimbabwe) says he became suspicious aft...