ZANU PF and the two formations of the MDC last Monday signed a pact to form an all-inclusive government aimed at ending the country’s decade-long political and economic crisis.
In a hard-hitting statement yesterday, MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa called on the state media to play a positive role in moving our country forward through assisting national healing and creating hope.
We note with dismay that the state-controlled media continues with its use of hate speech and propaganda which flies in the face of the spirit of national engagement and the political settlement in Harare last week, Chamisa said.
The MDC official accused the government’s flagship Herald newspaper of employing a columnist who used hostile language against the opposition which was out of tune with the political developments and mood on the ground.
Chamisa said a Herald columnist publishing under the name Nathaniel Manheru but who is widely thought to be President Robert Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, used his column at the weekend to denigrate the opposition and to peddle the usual falsehood that the MDC is full of imaginary puppets of the whites.
Mugabe himself has often accused the MDC of working with Britain and America to unseat his government.
Even as Mugabe appended his signature to the power-sharing deal last week, he repeatedly asked why the hand of Britain and America was interfering in Zimbabwe’s affairs – in a thinly veiled attempt to remind his audience that the MDC served Western interests.
The MDC forged out of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions by Morgan Tsvangirai nine years ago, has repeatedly denied charges it is a puppet of the West and the opposition party’s frustration at continued charges that its serves Western interests even after agreeing to a power-sharing government with ZANU PF was clear from Chamisa’s statement.
He (Manheru) has not toned down his hate speech, confirming that he is a front for a minority and parasitic elite which is benefiting from the current crisis; a clique that is deriving profit from the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe, Chamisa alleged.
He added: The ZBC (Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation) and the The Herald continue to give acres of space to analysts who want to poison the spirit of dialogue.
They continue to grant acres of space to people who shout at others instead of giving coverage to critical national issues such as HIV and Aids, national development and economic transformation.
The power-sharing deal has been lauded as the first real opportunity in nearly 10 years for Zimbabwe to begin work to end an economic crisis characterised by the world’s highest inflation of more than 11 million percent, skyrocketing unemployment and shortages of food and every basic survival commodity.
But the deal, which was signed on September 15 amid hope by millions of struggling Zimbabweans, could yet unravel as Mugabe, Tsvangirai and another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara have failed to agree on the allocation of cabinet ministries in the new government of national unity. – ZimOnline
Post published in: News