[1] President Mugabe achieved a diplomatic coup in December 2007 when he attended a European Union-Africa summit despite a visa ban on Zimbabwean government officials, effective since 2001.
Responding to Merkel's criticism of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, Ndlovu told her to "shut up or ship out," saying Germany needed a head of state like Otto von Bismarck.
[5] He launched his campaign by slaughtering a beast and giving away bicycles to some of the people who attended his rally at Nkulumane Primary School, an act that his critics described as a gimmick to buy votes.
[6] Milford Gwetu, an MP for the Movement for Democratic Change who was running for re-election in the same constituency as Ndlovu, died during the campaign, and as a result the election there was delayed.
[8] The Herald reported on 3 January 2009, that Ndlovu had been dismissed from the Cabinet earlier in the week, along with 11 other ministers, because he no longer held any seat in Parliament.