Vol 49 No 14 | ZIMBABWE Keep an eye on Mnangagwa 4th July 2008 The force behind Robert Mugabe's re-election campaign was former intelligence chief Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Secretary for Legal Affairs of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, along with the...
Vol 49 No 14 | ZIMBABWEGERMANY Authoritarian notes 4th July 2008 Until Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel leant on them, Munich-based security printers Giesecke & Devrient GmbH had a lucrative contract to supply paper for Zimbabwe's considerable demand for new...
Vol 49 No 13 | ZIMBABWE The khaki election 20th June 2008 The determination of the military to retain power at all costs makes the 27 June election deadly and pointless The last ditch efforts by the United Nations’ Haile Menkerios and South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki to broker a meeting between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai...
Vol 49 No 13 | ZIMBABWE The praise singing club 20th June 2008 In Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media – the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (paradoxically modelled on the British Broadcasting Corporation but periodically purged), the Harare daily The Herald, and the Sunday Mail...
Vol 49 No 13 | ZIMBABWE The neighbours start to turn 20th June 2008 It began with the refusal of Southern African governments to allow a shipment of Chinese arms to unload at their ports and cross their territory to landlocked Zimbabwe...
Vol 49 No 12 | ZIMBABWE Fighting democracy – Mugabe's last stand 6th June 2008 No matter how President Robert Mugabe does his sums, the odds are against him if there is a credible rerun of the presidential election on 27 June More than 50 opposition supporters have been killed and tens of thousands displaced since the first round. On 4 June, police briefly arrested the likely winner, Morgan Tsvangirai,...
Vol 49 No 12 | ZIMBABWE Change in Chikomba 6th June 2008 About 150 kilometres south of Harare, Chikomba District has long been the home base of the ruling party’s power elite. These days, however, it shows the same political...
Vol 49 No 12 | ZIMBABWE Sanctions and standards 6th June 2008 British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials are concerned whether the Zimbabwe operations of London-based Standard Chartered Bank violate European Union sanctions, according to emails seen by Africa...
Vol 49 No 12 | ZIMBABWE Mawere against Mugabe 6th June 2008 One of Zimbabwe’s most strident businessmen, Mutumwa Mawere, is winning his long battle for compensation with President Robert Mugabe’s regime over the ownership of his company Africa Resources...
Vol 49 No 10 | ZIMBABWE Dealing with a wounded tiger 9th May 2008 Led by its Legal Affairs Secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa, hardliners in the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) cling to power in the face of internal dissent and the government's defeat at the 29 March polls. They insist that President Robert Mugabe will fight a presidential runoff vote against the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) Morgan Tsvangirai, probably in June or July, and will win by all means necessary. After almost a week of political paralysis in ZANU-PF following the 29 March elections, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his allies honed a fight-back strategy for the party that involves...