Harare ZBC Chief propagandist Rueben Barwe has been ordered to reimburse the estimated US$20 000 allowances he was given for his aborted trip to New York to cover President Robert Mugabe at the United Nations General Assembly which started on Monday.
Barwe together with the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss, Happyton Bonyongwe were last Friday denied visas to travel to the United Nations, although the rest of Mugabes 80 member delegation was allowed to enter the United States, despite being on targeted travel restrictions.
Sources at ZBCs Pockets Hill told The Zimbabwean that Barwe was now battling to reimburse the money advanced to him, as he had already spend part of the funds on paying wages for workers at his Norton farm. Barwe is still in shock after he was denied a USA visa. The New York trip is a cash cow for ZBC reporters and cameramen as they are able to pockets thousands of dollars in allowances. Barwe thinks that being asked to return the money by ZBC is a betray and stab in the back, said a senior journalist at Pockets Hill.
Another source at the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity said the trip was doomed from the start as Barwe clashed with another Zanu PF loyalist Judith Makwanya, over who should accompany Mugabe. Both Barwe and Makwanya did not wait to be nominated by their editors and instead they all went ahead and submitted visa application forms to the USA embassy. This clash was turning nasty and ministry was forced to intervene and selected Barwe as Judith has been accompanying Mugabe to New York for the past successive six years, he said.
The Ministry official said Makwanya was notorious for imposing herself on lucrative foreign trips as she had the support of the powerful Media ministry permanent secretary George Charamba. She also claim to be closely connected to the First Lady and threatens other journalists, blocking them from covering Grace Mugabe. The official said ZBC General Manager for News, Tazzen Mandizvidza and the propaganda stations Chief Executive, Happison Muchechetere were powerless over Makwanya and Barwe who report directly to Charamba , Zanu PF and CIO headquarters.
We have received reports that Makwanya demonizes other reporters because she does not want them to accompany Mugabe on his numerous foreign trips. For Barwe and Makwanya foreign trips are a way to make easy money and bootlick Zanu PF. The two do not want competition and have thus labelled most reporters MDC sympathisers, while threatening their powerless editors and managers, he said.
Asked to comment on whether Barwe had returned the allowances advanced to him, ZBC spokesperson Sivukile Simango said the information was confidential. Makwanya and Barwe are both on the US and European Union sanctions list because of their role in propping Zanu PF sponsored terror and propaganda. On Monday Zimbabwe filed a complaint with the United Nations Secretary General after the US Government barred CIO boss Happyton Bonyongwe from attending
the UN General Assembly in New York.
Bonyongwe was supposed to be part of President Robert Mugabe’s delegation to the UN’s 65th Ordinary Session but was refused a visa by the US embassy in Harare along with ZBC Chief Correspondent, Reuben Barwe. Both are on the list of individuals barred from travelling to the US under sanctions imposed by President George Bush in 2002.
Post published in: News