Stories

General Solomon Mujuru, who had been piling up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to step down and even gave him an ultimatum two weeks before the 2008 elections, suddenly turned around after the elections and gave no hint at all that he had had differences with Mugabe.

(84 VIEWS)

Japan was in a quandary over whether to invite President Robert Mugabe to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development or not after the United States insisted that Mugabe should not be invited while Southern African countries said they would not attend the conference if Mugabe was not welcome.

(67 VIEWS)

Britain was so frustrated by South African President Thabo Mbeki’s failure to put pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to step down after losing the 2008 elections that Prime Minister Gordon Brown arranged a 30-minute meeting with African National Congress president Jacob Zuma to discuss Zimbabwe though British officials were worried about corruption allegations against Zuma and what they termed other “political baggage”.

(81 VIEWS)

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai left Harare for Gaborone in April before the announcement of the results of the 2008 presidential elections fearing that he might be arrested as part of a military coup against President Robert Mugabe.

(70 VIEWS)

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he had won the 2008 presidential elections and condemned any re-engineering of the results saying President Robert Mugabe would not get away with it this time.

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The leader of the Movement for Democratic Change Morgan Tsvangirai told a press conference on 1 April 2008, three days after the polls , that he had received enough votes to avoid a runoff but avoided stating that he had won the elections.

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President Robert Mugabe backed off from announcing himself winner of the 2008 elections because of the large support for Movement for Democratic Change candidate Morgan Tsvangirai and pressure from the military and his own party.

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Simba Makoni’s entry into the 2008 presidential race generated excitement but soon faded as no heavyweights from the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front , apart from Dumiso Dabengwa, rallied behind him and he was increasingly seen as a spoiler.

(69 VIEWS)

A poll by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, three weeks before the March 2008 elections, showed that Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai had surged ahead of President Robert Mugabe reversing the tables from a month before.

(114 VIEWS)

The signing into law of the Indigenisation Act by President Robert Mugabe, three weeks before the 2008 elections, sent panic waves within the business community but according to the United States embassy the move was an election gimmick to force the business community to vote for Mugabe.

(44 VIEWS)