Zimbabwe

The details of the US$8 billion China Sonangol/China International Fund are becoming more apparent as subsidiary deals are signed. On 7 December, Zimbabwe's Transport and Mining Ministries signed mining and construction...

The China International Fund and China Sonangol are being used to bail out troubled regimes when international pressure on them is at its highest. First, there was the...

Emmerson Mnangagwa is nicknamed 'the Crocodile' partly for his ability to snap after long periods of log-like but watchful inertia. In November's election for the Praesidium of the...

In the hierarchy of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, the Politburo Secretary for Administration ranks fifth, running the Secretariat that sets dates and agendas for the political...

When arms disappeared from Pomona Barracks, north of Harare, last month, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front barons again blamed the Movement for Democratic Change but military intelligence...

For once, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change appear to have scored a palpable hit against President Robert Mugabe and his allies. Following a...

The hoped-for seamless assumption of the late Vice-President Joseph Msika's positions by John Nkomo is teetering on the brink of farce. Thanks to Didymus Mutasa, the Secretary for...

The return of the mercurial Jonathan Moyo to full membership of the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) could prompt further splinters in the party. Several...

The fifth congress of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front in December will shape the party's leadership and policies for the next five years. National delegates are...

The death of Vice-President Joseph Msika has wrecked the succession strategy of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. The plan had been to hold a party congress -...

More arrests, more vexatious court verdicts against the Movement for Democratic Change, thanks to President Robert Mugabe's loyalists in the judiciary. The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is...

Following the death on 4 August of Joseph Msika, the new Second Vice-President is likely to be the Chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, John Nkomo....

The military parades and razzamatazz over the Heroes and Defence Forces weekend in August dovetailed with Vice-President Joseph Msika's state funeral and saw the junta on its best...

A rowdy session is in prospect following parliament's return after the winter recess and President Robert Mugabe's determination to regain control of it. His strategy - and that...

Ructions in the Movement for Democratic Change's factions are threatening its grip on parliament. After last March's elections, Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC faction won 100 seats, and Arthur Mutambara's...

After a three-week tour through Western capitals and having raised some US$150 million for his fragile government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai now knows that diplomats and business people...

Parliamentarians launched the great constitutional debate on 24 June, amid growing tension in the power-sharing government. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change is struggling to persuade...

Since the power-sharing government began work in February, the Politburo of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has leaked like a sieve with graphic details of...

The battle for supremacy within the power-sharing government is taking second place to wrangling for power within the three main parties (AC Vol 50 Nos 8 & 9)....

Security officers still gaol human rights activists. Jestina Mukoko, Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was re-arrested on insurrection charges on 4 May, along with 14 other activists,...

Tendai Biti did not mince his words. 'The power-sharing accord is a poor document - it's a strange amalgam of extreme nationalism and things we like such as...

The Zimbabwe Republic Police, under Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, celebrated Independence Day on 18 April by withdrawing permission for a rally by the Movement for Democratic Change on the...

Warm words emerged from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's ministerial retreat in Victoria Falls on 3-6 April and are encouraging foreign business to look at profitable turnarounds. Yet Western...

'There will be no immediate plans to [re]introduce the money because there is nothing to support and hold its value,' said Economic Planning and Development Minister Elton Mangoma....

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has emerged as the key figure in Zimbabwe's economic recovery, walking the uneasy path between securing external finance from sceptical outsiders and dealing with...

In London for the G-20 summit on 2 April, African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka told Africa Confidential that Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Tendai Biti was making headway: ‘Since...

Some of the businessmen targeted for sanctions by the European Union and United States are fighting back. John Bredenkamp, named as a collaborator of President Robert Mugabe’s regime...

The death in a freak car crash of Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, will have both political and religious consequences. Traditional Shona etiquette required...

It was a grotesque birthday banquet. President Robert Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwawo organised the celebrations. They were in poor taste from both a political and a culinary point...

The barons of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front are jostling for mineral riches as the power-sharing government struggles to make its mark. They are joined by Chinese...

South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is proud of the Southern African Development Community for its brokering in Zimbabwe. At a meeting of SADC finance ministers in Cape...

Under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, the mining portfolio (like the army) remains under the control of President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front cronies, all of...

Back in the 1950s, as independence for its Empire became inevitable, Britain tried to unite some smaller units into federations it deemed large enough to stand alone. This...

Welshman Ncube, the long-time oppositionist who chairs the monitoring body for the new power-sharing government, is distributing leaflets which read: 'Zimbabwe is our Zimbabwe. It is not Mugabe's...

With control of the Prime Minister's office (Morgan Tsvangirai) and Finance Ministry (Tendai Biti), the Movement for Democratic Change has been handed the tough issues of food, jobs...

Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man credited with keeping Robert Mugabe in power when he lost the first round of last year's presidential election, is the clear winner in the...

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won 2008's elections then walked naked into the negotiating chamber with President Mugabe's ruling clique. On 30 January, under pressure from South Africa and...

Under the terms of the 'Global Political Agreement' the power-sharing government will be made up as follows: the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front will have 16 ministers, the...

Basking in President Robert Mugabe's approbation, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono has shrugged off opposition calls for his dismissal for incompetence and corruption and looks forward...

THE CIVIC SOCIETY ACTIVIST The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will reject the agreement brokered by South African ex-President Thabo Mbeki and no inclusive government will be...

As China emerges as the biggest outside financier of the power-sharing government, differences in Harare over policy towards Beijing are growing. The first public row broke soon after Prime Minister Morgan...

The Beijing-Harare axis is thriving under Zimbabwe's power-sharing government. Despite opposition claims that China would lose influence because of its close relations with President Robert Mugabe and its historical support for...

Beyond the political controversy about relations with the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front regime, Chinese businesses are set to provide an important source of new investment and jobs for Harare's shaky...

Asia is an attractive destination for the property and financial portfolios of the senior cadres of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. It is extremely profitable, free from...

After disappointments in Asia, President Robert Mugabe and Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono have been working hard to bring in Russian capital, especially in the opaque diamond sector. Russian surveyors have...