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Zimbabwe Today

Mugabe's next moveToday

How Zimbabwe's President plans to tackle his enemies now

Those of us who believe in freedom in Zimbabwe should brace ourselves. According to police sources, we can expect a wide series of high profile arrests this month, as Robert Mugabe moves finally to eliminate all official opposition to his reign as the country's dictator.

A senior member of the Harare CID, the law and order section, based at police general headquarters in Harare, has told me of plans to detain a number of national executive members of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The charges against them will vary, but they will include treason, attempted murder, terrorism, sabotage and malicious damage to property. The charges will be backed up by a well-prepared case using fabricated evidence and bribed or threatened witnesses.

The so-called evidence is being gathered by an unholy alliance of the police and the spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), and the general thrust of the charges will be to link the MDC with terrorism.

Members of the military will also be heavily involved, with troops testifying that they were hired by the MDC to bomb police stations and to attempt to assassinate senior government officials and military commanders.

Some soldiers will also testify that they were paid by the MDC to take part in the military riots that shook Harare last month.

"The idea is to build a strong case which will accus

The torture of Jestina MukokoDecember 31 2008

The incarcerated human rights defender tells of her horrific treatment

Jestina Mukoko, the head of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, who was kidnapped from her home last month, and was today still held illegally by the police, has described her treatment following her abduction. It is a grim story of deprivation, assault, and torture.

Jestina, 54, has told the world what happened to her in papers filed at the Harare High Court, in which she demanded that the trumped-up charges of plotting to topple President Mugabe be dropped, and that she be released as ordered by a High Court judge last week.

She said that for 19 days, following the abduction, she had no idea where she was being held. On journeys she was always blindfolded, even when the state security agents who first grabbed her handed her on to the police.

In her statement she says bluntly: "I was tortured. At first I was assaulted on the soles of my feet with a hard rubber object, while I was sitting on the floor. Later I was told to raise my feet to a table, and then everyone in the room started assaulting me.

"They took a break for a while, then started beating me again. And beatings continued every few hours. The men were always visibly drunk, many of them with bottles of liquor in their hands."

Her torturers constantly accused her of recruiting and training youths for banditry, and of working with the opposition Movement For Democratic Change (MDC) in an alleged plot to topp

We know where they areDecember 24 2008

The recent abductees have been found - but they're still in jail

To the enormous relief of their families, many of the 40-odd human rights workers and others who have disappeared recently have been located. Despite vehement government denials I can confirm that they are in police custody, and various charges against them are under consideration.

Police have continued to deny that they hold any of the missing people, but Harare-based lawyer Charles Kwaramba told me yesterday, Tuesday, that, following intensive investigations, he could confirm that at least 12 have been located in different police stations in the Harare area.

Zimbabwe Peace Project Director Jestina Mukoko, kidnapped outside her home three weeks ago, an event which made headlines across the world, was first held at Highlands police station, then moved to Matapi in Mbare, where she remains. She is believed to face a charge of recruiting people to be trained to overthrow the government.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's former personal assistant Ghandi Mudzingwa is being held at Highlands, while Concillia Chinanzvavana, the MDC women's leader from Mashonaland West, and her husband Emmanuel Chinanzvavana, a councillor in Zvimba South, are both at Marlborough police station.

These names and others are believed to be facing charges similar to that levelled against Jestina Mukoko.

We now also know exactly who carried out the abductions. The operation was c

I hear wedding bells...December 22 2008

...and they herald a new political dynasty that could change the face of Southern Africa

Next Saturday Wesley Bongani Ncube and Gugulethu Zuma will celebrate their wedding in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, and may I be the first to raise a glass to the happy couple and wish them long life and happiness together.

I am toasting the future not only of the bride and groom, but also of what the marriage will doubtless entail - the creationof a new and powerful political dynasty that will stretch across the uneasy borders of this region.

It is in this major new alliance between neighbouring fiefdoms that that there lies the possibility that finally the big player in the game, the Republic of South Africa, will see its way clear to settling the problems of Zimbabwe once and for all.

To understand what this wedding means you must examine the gold embossed invitation card which our country's most privileged and important people - oh yes, including yours truly Moses Moyo - have received during the past few weeks.

There you will find the names of the bride's parents - Jacob Zuma and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma - and the names of the bridegroom's parents - Welshman Ncube and Ntokozo Mkandla Ncube. And in the world of Southern African politicis, such names don't come much bigger.

Father of the bride Jacob Zuma is, of course, currently President of South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC), and if all goes according to plan - his pla

Friendly fire!December 16 2008

The truth behind the Shiri shooting

Zimbabwe's Air Force commander Perence Shiri, the target of an attemped assassination on Sunday morning, was shot at by his own side. My sources reveal that Shiri was the victim of a plot hatched by the feared spy agency the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

Four hitmen armed with machine guns waylaid Shiri as he was driving back from his farm in Shamva, a mining town in Mashonaland Central. The plan was to fire first at the car, forcing it into a ditch, and then to finish off the Air Marshal at point blank range.

Three bullets hit Shiri's vehicle, one of them wounding him in the shoulder. But it is understood that he pulled out a pistol and returned fire, forcing the hitmen to flee. He later received treatment for the wound at the hospital at Manyame Air Force Base.

My source in the CIO told me that Shiri, who is a member of the Joint Operations Command, the military junta that virtually rules Zimbabwe today, was targeted because of his growing stature within the ruling Zanu-PF party.

"He has begun to rival the Zimbabwe Army Commander, Constantine Chiwenga," I was told. "Chiwenga is determined to succeed Mugabe, so it was decided that Shiri should be eliminated."

There was also a suspicion within Zanu-PF that Shiri had been in secret contact with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), with a view to achieving immunity from prosecution, in the event of the MDC taking powe