Muckracker: Dubious claims left right and centre

Zimbabwe Independent

Muckraker

8 July 2011

THERE has been much hoopla over Sepp Blatter’s visit this week. “Blatter magic hits Harare,” the Herald proclaimed. Zimbabwe was being singled out for a special favour, we were led to believe.

Of course the only country on the continent Blatter could fit in with perfectly is Zimbabwe. According to one blog he likes money, clings to power, runs a dodgy administration, and loves travel. We were also struck by the way he dealt with his enemies before they could deal with him!

Anyway, no sooner had we had an opportunity to say hello than he was off to South Africa for an IOC meeting, the real purpose of his trip. We were just a pit stop.

We all know that the state broadcaster needs to attack ministers from both MDC formations as they sing for their supper but they took it to preposterous levels on Monday.

This time they were attacking Education minister David Coltart. His Crime? Not being at the airport to welcome Fifa president Sepp Blatter .

What’s more they said this was because he was trying to organise a meeting with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. There was of course no coverage from ZBC of Blatter’s meeting with the Prime Minister.

Never mind that Coltart practically spent the whole day with Blatter  going with him to meet Mugabe, Tsvangirai as well as attending the national women’s Cosafa match against Malawi with the Fifa boss.

This kind of rubbish has few takers  and is among the numerous indicators that professionalism at the national broadcaster has well and truly gone to the dogs.

And they wonder why viewers think their television licence fees are just $50 too much.

Another group of Mugabe praise-singers have come onto the scene. This time in the form of the Muzarabani Nehanda Choir. The Herald quotes group member Ainesu Kasambarave saying of the objective of the album: “Our aim as a group is to promote our area (Muzarabani). We also want to remind youths of the sacrifices that Mbuya Nehanda and other heroes and heroines who came after her made for the liberation of the country.”

“We also want to inculcate into people’s minds how our leaders like President Mugabe have led the country with vision, courage and determination.”

Vision and courage? Runaway inflation, rendering people homeless through Operation Murambatsvina and declaring that the bullet can replace the pen during the presidential runoff campaign after he lost to Morgan Tsvangirai in the first round of elections in 2008 hardly sounds like vision and courage to us.

And you are hardly going to change people’s minds by jingles and bottom wriggling!

The Herald’s literary standards are definitely sinking. How about this for an introductory paragraph from an op/ed piece by a teacher, one Caine Humanikwa: “The West which I hear calls itself the international community is the worst notorious (sic) wealth hunter and the path on which it walks is strewn with trails of blood, cries, death, disasters, great suffering, pain, and poverty and uses brutal tactics to achieve its so-called permanent interests.”

Can you imagine a whole generation of Zimbabweans brought up on this semi-literate drivel? And were you aware that some Zimbabweans should not vacation at the country’s chief resorts?

“In these tough turbulent times,” the teacher continued, “the kith and kin have never stopped holidaying in Nyanga, Victoria Falls, Kariba, clubbing in hotels or abroad.

So “abroad” is off limits as well? Where does that leave?

Sitting in petrol queues apparently. That’s the place to be, according to the writer. But ironically the petrol queues were seen at the time as recruiting sergeants of the MDC.

The thing about Herald and Sunday Mail columnists is that they think they speak for an authentic Zimbabwean constituency when in fact that same constituency voted against these imposters as soon as it had the chance. So now they have to threaten and intimidate with half-baked racist rubbish which gets them nowhere in the end. The nation in 2000 and 2008 said it was not interested in their fulminations.

What is evident is the invention of bogeymen who are manipulated to scare voters. They are called “the enemy” but needless to say they don’t exist. The real enemy are the people pillaging the country as they cling to power. So long as they continue to spout the sort of ignorant and hate-filled vituperations we are currently witnessing in the state media there is little prospect of national recovery.

We were amused by Jonathan Moyo’s reference to donkeys (courtesy of Mahatma Ghandi) at the conclusion of his interview with Chris Maroleng. When it was pointed out to us that it was nothing new and he frequently made reference to donkeys, some wag was quick to say that was because he came from Tsholotsho.

What has happened to Tendai Biti? In London to address the Commonwealth Business Council, he said land reform was irreversible “no matter how ugly it was done”.

So those who were killed and had their properties stolen don’t matter?

He described the US as “intransigent and aloof” and said the land reform was successful when judging production output in crops such as tobacco.

What we have here is a senior MDC-T official prepared to overlook violence and pillaging of property in the name of inter-party solidarity. Is this the right thing to do? Is it principled or just expedient? What happened to the land reform commission? Has that been glossed over?

The members of the Commonwealth Business Council who Biti implored to come here and invest are unlikely to do so when senior members of the government ignore confiscation of property and lack of compensation. This by the way is Zimbabwe’s responsibility, not Britain’s. It was slipped into the 2000 draft constitution by Zanu PF and rejected by voters.

Biti sounded as if he was speaking for Zanu PF. He claimed the country’s judiciary measured up to any other around the world. “The judges and officials are well-read,” he claimed, “well-trained and respected globally.”

And what of the Sadc Tribunal Tendai, to which applicants had recourse if their own judicial systems failed to assist? That proved an inconvenience so it was abolished.

Strange justice there. Again, the MDC-T said nothing.

Biti castigated the Americans for not taking advantage of the opportunities Zimbabwe offered. Can the Americans be blamed for avoiding commitments to a country whose leading party — the MDC-T — is so shallow in its approach to governance?

We recall the visits of MDC-T officials to besieged farms to see the evidence for themselves and then returning to Harare with nothing to say as if some shady deal had been done. Again, what has happened to the land commission?

We were interested to note that Zimbabwe had been removed from the agenda of the Sadc organ on Defence, Politics and Security ministerial committee “because the political and security situation has normalised”.

We rolled around with laughter at that one. Normalised? Is that what they call it?

And who made this dubious claim? Secretary for Foreign Affairs Joey Bimha, we gather.

Zimbabwe will be left to the facilitator to deal with rather than the troika, he said.

Strange isn’t it that this news hasn’t been published elsewhere.

It was salutary to read the remarks of Thailand’s generals on the outcome of their election this week. Thailand’s outgoing Defence minister, himself a retired general, said the army accepted the election result.

“I have talked to military leaders. We will allow politicians to work it out,” he said. “The military will not get involved,” General Prawit Wongsuwon told AFP. “The people have spoken clearly so the military cannot do anything. We accept it.”

Wise words and a good example to others.

Meanwhile, have you noticed how all those columnists in the state media who are batting for Gaddafi omitted to tell us that China hosted Libyan rebel leader Mahmoud Jibril last month? Do we detect a crack in the solidarity ranks?

Finally we enjoyed ZBC’s commentary from the Sandton summit last month. Morgan Tsvangirai left the meeting with “an egg on his face”, we were told.

Scrambled or poached?