More on the Chinese arms currently parked off Durban, courtesy of The Times of South Africa - and more for the South African Government to be thoroughly ashamed of.
First of all, the shipment was expected and approved of by the government’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC), whose scrutiny committee met earlier in the week [...]

Looks like the message may finally be getting through to Thabo “No Crisis” Mbeki, if a BBC report is anything to go by - up until now South African criticism of the election fiasco has been coming from the ANC and other non-governmental bodies, but now Government spokesman Themba Maseko has joined the growing chorus:
South [...]

A less-than-subtle message for Thabo Mbeki was flown over New York yesterday to coincide with his address to the UN Security Council.  Hopefully he didn’t miss it.

Meanwhile, Zanu-PF seem to have decided that asking foreign nations to call for election results to be released is treasonous - according to “Justice Minister” Patrick Chinamasa, at least, [...]

SW Radio Africa reports that students at the National University of Science and Technology at Bulawayo have rioted on campus, during protests calling for Mugabe to stand down.  There has also been a statement from the President of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, Clever Bere, that the country’s students won’t stand by if the election [...]

Okay, this just in from the “what the f*ck?” department. Two separate but probably related stories:
First up, armed Chinese soldiers have been seen on the streets of Mutare:
However … there was a surprise presence of Chinese soldiers armed with revolvers in the city. The Chinese, together with about 70 Zimbabwean senior army officers [...]

I haven’t been following things Zimbabwean quite so closely these past few days, as it’s become so disheartening and frustrating. The general strike called by the MDC has had only limited support, thanks to a combination of bad publicity - it’s not like ZTV or The Herald are going to give it any mention [...]

The BBC reports that the MDC’s petition to force the release of the Presidential poll results has been rejected - there are no details yet, but on the face of it that gives Zanu-PF a free license to sit on the results for as long as they like.  If the court can’t or won’t order [...]

So the official word from the SADC summit is that Zimbabwe should release the results of the Presidential poll as soon as possible, and urges both sides to accept those results. The only problem is that, over two weeks after the polls closed, any results released now are going to be so heavily massaged [...]

I would laugh at Thabo Mbeki’s assertion that there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe, if it weren’t so clear that there is.  I want some of what he’s on, as it’s so clearly mind-altering.  His talk, reported by the BBC, about continuing to follow the legal process including a run-off if it’s ever called, also [...]

Okay, that’s probably not the phrase to use, but Bob has backed away from attending tomorrow’s SADC summit - although the rent-a-mob seems to be going there without him.  Tsvangirai will be there, by invitation, although if the plan was to have him and Mugabe work out a deal under SADC auspices, that now doesn’t [...]