Hate speech back in state media

george_charambaHARARE - The much-reviled Nathaniel Manheru column bounced back on to The Saturday Herald pages last week after being banished by the inclusive government on allegations of promoting hate speech. The Other Side with Nathaniel Manheru column, written by Mugabes press secretary, George Charamba, has often helped give an insight into government think


Well-placed sources told The Zimbabwean that there were plans to bring it back on a permanent basis in open defiance to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee, JOMIC, which oversees the implementation of the Global Political Agreement.

Zanu (PF) wants the column introduced and will, incredibly, defend itself by arguing that banning it would infringe freedom of expression rights of the columnist!
The column was brought back to test the waters. I can assure you that we could see the MDC formations being dragged into a useless tug-of-war on whether the column should stay or be removed, said the source.

Ceaser Zvayi has been irregularly penning a pro-Zanu (PF) article called Eagle Eye.
Last weeks Nathaniel Manheru column appeared to have been designed to pour cold water on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais visit to Western capitals and to praise China for a US$950 million loan facility, the existence of which becomes more doubtful by the day.

China: When bullets begin to flower, was the title of the column which generally praised the Asians for a loan of which finance minister, Tendai Biti, says he is not aware.
In it, Charamba confirms that the Prime Ministers tour was given a propaganda spin in order to belittle him:

Zanu (PF)s propaganda mandarins did not help matters. Wrestling initiative, they framed the Prime Ministers trip as Mugabe initiated, as Mugabe defined, a position Tsvangirai is still battling to shake off.

In the same column, Charamba praises the founder of the column, Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo, for his attacks on the Prime Minister in a series of opinion articles in which he said Tsvangirai went to visit Western countries as the PM of NGOs.

Post published in: Politics

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *