The disaster is closer to home Cde Chombo

Zimbabwe Independent

Muckraker

5 August 2011

MUCKRAKER was intrigued by Nathaniel Manheru’s column last weekend which seemed designed to impress us with his importance.

It was about a meeting between President Mugabe and what sounded like Ronald Reagan. After Reagan had finished speaking, Mugabe attempted to reply. Sadly, he wasn’t allowed to because Reagan had other commitments, or at least his aides claimed he had.

Why Manheru should have treated us to this little vignette is difficult to say, except of course to illustrate how clever he is in comparison with the editor of this newspaper.

He is so clever in fact that he is allowed to write forests of column inches without any editorial restraint, a fact that doesn’t reflect very well on those who so indulgently accommodate him! His contributions obtain no benefit at all from the extra acres Manheru invades and occupies on a weekly basis. Then of course there was the time he was so busy showing off that he mixed up Harold Wilson and Harold Macmillan.

Last Saturday we tried to cut through the dross to interpret why he should have waxed so indignant about Constantine Chimakure. Then it occurred to us in a flash. The previous Friday George Charamba had been laying down the law –– literally –– on the role of the Zimbabwe Media Commission and how the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe fitted into that. It was a little lecture from on high and as Chimakure pointed out, we have our own ideas of where to put the ZMC!

So Charamba should spare us his funny little homilies and his anecdotes from years gone by and tell us what steps he is taking to remove himself as an outstanding issue so the country can have a professional public servant in that job.

There has been very little comment on the riots that took place in Malawi two weeks ago. The country’s civil society has been excoriating about the record of President Bingu waMutharika. He sacrificed the country’s essential aid programme because a UK cable published by WikiLeaks described him as “autocratic and intolerant”.

Isn’t that fair comment?

Nineteen people were killed in the riots in Blantyre. Malawi’s economy has been sacrificed on the altar of pompous self-regard. Couldn’t many African presidents be described as intolerant? And needless to say, he is one of Zimbabwe’s few remaining allies in the region. Then there’s the wife. That’s another story!

We were interested to read David Coltart’s remarks in The Australian ahead of his visit to Sydney last week.

He was evidently anxious to dispel claims that President Mugabe was a monster.

“No, he is not a monster,” he said.

“He is not Idi Amin… Fewer people are being murdered.”

Mugabe is a complex individual, Coltart  tells us. He even enquired after Coltart’s daughter who had been injured in an accident.

It was such things that gave room for optimism, he felt.

Which is all well and good. But did Coltart tell his audience about the disappearance of his election agent Patrick Nabanyama? Or the fate of MDC officials who were incarcerated after being implicated in that case?

Then of course there was the LRF account (which Coltart helped to author) of the thousands of people murdered in the Gukurahundi. Was any of that complex?

It is one thing for Coltart to feel flattered, quite another for him to let Mugabe off the hook marked Matabeleland 1982-1987. That will require something more substantial. And Coltart should say so.

Muckraker is delighted to hear the news from Caracas. Hugo Chavez and Noam Chomsky have fallen out.

Chavez has long considered Chomsky one of his best friends. He has basked in his praise for Venezuela’s socialist revolution and echoes his attacks on US imperialism, the Guardian reports. But now these two intellectual heavyweights have quarelled after Chomsky accused Chavez of amassing too much power and making an assault on democracy.

In particular Chavez has refused to heed Chomsky’s pleas for the release of a notable judge. Chomsky accuses Venezuelan authorities of cruelty in detaining the judge, a “glaring exception in a time of worldwide cries for freedom”.

Chavez is rapidly running out of friends. First he alienated Brazil, then Argentina. But Chomsky, it may be argued, was more important than either nation.

He was a towering intellect whose book Chavez marketed during his visit to the UN General Assembly a few years ago when George Bush was present.

Hot air balloon Tafataona Mahoso will have a problem choosing because he admires them both. Chomsky accused Chavez of intimidating the judiciary and adopting enabling powers to circumvent the national assembly.

Still in South America, what happened to the president’s proposed visit to Ecuador? He had every chance to drop in there on his return from the UN where he attended a youth conference. Why are we not being told why that trip was cancelled? Also, why was he never invited to Venezuela?

Did Herald readers notice the reading material on General Chiwenga’a bookshelf last Saturday? It was Tony Blair’s autobiography. This is where Zanu PF got the silly story about a British invasion. In fact the UK Defence minister is quoted as dismissing any such project. Nobody in Britain took the claim seriously, but it was grist to the mill for the gang around Mugabe.

Blair repeated recently Britain’s offer to release funds for land reform so long as the UNDP agreed to a credible programme.

On the subject of political studies, students should know that the Speaker of the House of Assembly is known as the Speaker of Parliament. Muckraker mentions it in passing because there was recently an attempt to mislead people on that score.

Government says it will not hesitate to dismiss corrupt councillors from across the political divide whose actions negatively impact on service delivery, ZBC reported on Sunday.

The warning comes after MDC-T councillors, who dominate most urban local authorities, “have made headlines for all the wrong reasons with the latest being allegations of accumulation of ill-gotten wealth”.

Ironically Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo is at the forefront of making the allegations. According to the report Chombo said reports indicating that councillors are looting council resources for personal gain show the calibre of people who were chosen in the 2008 harmonised elections.

“There have been reports that have reached my office that councillors are living lavish lifestyles that cannot be accounted for,” Chombo said. “If they are found to be abusing council resources, I will just fire them. The law is very clear and no one should cry foul,” he said.

“All local authorities run by MDC-T councillors are a complete disaster,” he said. “Zimbabwe is a democratic country but the parties should have set standards for the candidates because we cannot have a local government system run by small boys, who are careless and corrupt,” he said.

This is rich coming from Chombo who has acquired vast tracts of land and property across the country under controversial circumstances. While we do not condone any instances of corruption from whichever party, we find it laughable that Chombo should have the temerity to describe others as having lifestyles they cannot account for.

He is a “complete disaster”. Who can forget Chombo pushing out elected mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, replacing him with the Sekesai Makwavarara-led commission. Harare and indeed most municipalities are still to recover from Chombo’s meddling over the years.

Residents watched Harare, once one of the cleanest cities in Africa, degenerate into a cesspool of waste and decay under the Makwavarara-led commission.

Who is the disaster here?

We were concerned by the interest registered by Youth minister Saviour Kasukuwere in Big Brother Amplified co-winner Wendall Parson. Kasukuwere was among the first to issue a congratulatory message.

“We are proud of his achievement,” he said. “We would like to call upon the nation to rally behind Wendall and expect a huge turnout at the Harare International Airport when he comes back,” Kasukuwere said.

Muckraker hopes that there is no intention to “indigenise” Wendall’s money by demanding a 51% stake. And by the way, what happened to Munya?

Two editors this past week got rapped for doing their job. One was our own Constantine Chimakure for calling for media reforms and the other South Africa’s City Press editor-in-chief Ferial Haffajee for unearthing ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s trust fund scandal.

Sowetan columnist Eric Miyeni had launched a scathing attack on Haffajee in his column titled “Haffajee does it for white masters”.

In his column Miyeni said Malema “must never answer a Ferial Haffajee”.

“Who the devil is she anyway if not a black snake in the grass, deployed by white capital to sow discord among blacks?” he declared.

“In the 80s she’d probably have had a burning tyre around her neck.”

Luckily Sowetan readers will be spared any more disgust at reading Miyeni’s rants as his column was immediately discontinued.

Sowetan acting editor, Len Maseko, said Miyeni’s column has been discontinued with immediate effect.

“Avusa Media and the Sowetan newspaper are committed to free, fair and robust debate,” said Maseko.

“However, the expression of these views should not be accompanied by the promotion or condonation of violence against those who hold differing views. In his latest column Miyeni crossed the line between robust debate and the condonation of violence.”

How many times have the Manherus and Jonathan Moyos of this world crossed that line?

Meanwhile, as mentioned in our introductory remarks, closer to home Chimakure was on the receiving end of personal attacks from Manheru for having called for media reforms. Apparently Manheru was stung by Chimakure’s call for the implementation of the Government Works Programme which, among other things, is mandated to democratise the media space by introducing two Bills — a Freedom of Information Bill and Media Practitioners Bill.

Chimakure went on to question how –– as George Charamba postulates –– the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe could be formed under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Media Commission as a statutory body when it is supposed to remain voluntary.

This elicited a venomous response from Manheru, with attacks on the person of Chimakure. Fortunately Manheru’s readers were not fooled. A reader stated that: “After reading through this article with its expletives, I expected to be educated on where Chimakure erred. I can’t find it. What has caused him (Manheru) to be so incensed? Does he think Zimbabweans are dumb? Thanks to the Internet, everybody can now dissect his stupidity online and not have to depend on the useless Herald.”

Some questions that need to be asked, a reader submitted last weekend.

“If the Chinese are classed as indigenous, can they vote? How many Chinese are there in Zimbabwe? And when will we have a Chinese president?”

Don’t laugh. Have you done a head-count recently?

Muckraker visited a Chinese restaurant last weekend. The lady proprietor had a Zimbabwean translator to say “Good evening, you are welcome”. She has been in the country some 10 years. There is no need for her to learn any English. Everybody she knows speaks Chinese.