Doesn’t the Herald invariably agree with President Mugabe? Has it ever done anything other than agree with President Mugabe?Isn’t it rather sad when a paper doesn’t have a view of its own but must wait for the president to pronounce on something and then rush to agree with him!The paper’s editorialists then waxed indignant over US Ambassador Charles Ray’s walkout after Mugabe’s abuse of Western nations became a tad too vitriolic.“Try as we might, we cannot find any part of the president’s speech that warranted such discourtesy from Mr Ray,” the paper declared.It obviously wasn’t listening. Who, having kept thousands of Zimbabweans alive with generous handouts in recent years, wants to be told to “go to hell” four times in one sentence? How courteous is that to one of the country’s leading benefactors when he attends a national event? The German ambassador obviously felt the same wayTheir countries are obliged to help us because Mugabe and his supporters have wrecked a once productive economy. The damage incurred by the empowerment regulations speaks volumes for how this government, while denouncing others, has imposed its own form of sanctions on the country.
Nhlanhla Masuku, not known as a friend of the MDC, added his voice last weekend to that of the Reserve Bank governor on the “downward spiral” the regulations have caused.Then there is the looting at Ma-range. “Of course it is all part of an or- chestrated campaign against the Patriotic Front liberation movements,” Stephen Mpofu wrote in the Herald this week. Regime change was still on the cards of imperialism, he warned.And then he rather neatly summarised the situation.“For it is as if the money from the sale of diamonds from Marange, which is the case in point here, will all go into the kitty of Zanu PF and not into the coffers of the inclusive government for the benefit of the entire nation.”
Couldn’t have put it better ourselves! And perhaps Mpofu can tell us where it has all gone so far?Anyway, we know why MDC leaders in the past felt unable to attend ceremonies where insults were hurled at them. These events, instead of imbuing a sense of nationhood, have become partisan and abusive gatherings where the president betrays his resentment of the new order in the country.The Herald felt that because Ambassador Ray was black, he demonstrated “shocking naiveté” in failing to sympathise with Mugabe’s outbursts.This exposes an interesting point. The Herald’s handlers always believed they could get away with misrule because, it was hoped, African Americans would sympathise with delinquent nationalists.But it didn’t turn out like that. Every new appointment from am-bassadors to assistant secretaries of state demonstrated that Zimbabwe’s appalling record on governance was as unacceptable to them as it was to an earlier generation of Americans.And Zimbabwean diplomats calling senior US officials “house slaves” simply compounded the impression of a rogue state. Combine this with a head of state telling his critics to “go to hell”— four times — and you will see a state having difficulty rescuing itself from the morass into which it has sunk.We have repeatedly warned that Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, who pompously reprimanded the three ambassadors who understandably walked out on Mugabe’s fulmina-tions, is unlikely to command much sympathy in Brussels when he next attempts to reopen reengagement talks.Can you imagine that having spoken to Albrecht Konze and Barbra Plinqert in that officious manner he will be invited to Brussels again any time soon!Reengagement is dead. And Mumbengegwi is in part responsible for that.Relations with the US have also sunk to a new low.At least senior officials on the Americas desk at the Foreign Affairs ministry are not trying to defend this crass diplomacy!
We were interested to see that Herald columnist Tendai Midzi is continuing to describe himself as a senior lecturer in economics at the London Metropolitan UniversityWhen he first described himself as such a few weeks ago, we called the university which said they had no such person teaching there.We find it difficult to believe that the editor would publish such a blatant whopper when the facts are easy to establish by a quick call to the university.Let’s hear no more reference to ethics from people like Tafataona Mahoso when this sort of thing persists in the state press.Midzi’s story was originally published by talkzimbabwe.com. Did they verify his claim to being a senior economics lecturer? Obviously not!Poor old Jacob Zuma must be a worried man. With memories of one of his wives’ reported acts of infidelity with his aide, Zuma will not be comfortable with one of his ministers.Co-operative Governance minister Sicelo Shiceka is busy fending off allegations of acts of infidelity involving other people’s wives.Shiceka made his first public appearance in Pretoria this week after weeks of speculation that he was missing crucial government meetings because he was allegedly beaten to a pulp by a jealous husband.“I don’t sleep with other people’s wives,” said Shiceka. “There are so many single women out there. These are lies.”He said that the woman whom he allegedly cheated with has also denied the allegations.But claims that the minister was indeed beaten up by a jealous husband heightened this week when he was seen using crutches while attending a press briefing by President Zuma at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.Zuma responded with laughter when a reporter who was in Cape Town asked the president through a video link about Shiceka’s whereabouts.Zuma was announcing his decision to investigate matters related to the legitimacy of paramountcies, a responsibility of Shiceka’s department.Shiceka — who also had a scar on his head — said: “I fell on the stairs at my home. This news that I was in a person’s house is a lie. As a principle I don’t sleep (with) or date other men’s wives.”But while President Zuma appeared to chuckle over Shiceka’s alleged misdemeanours, he is clearly a source of discomfort to the president.Zuma fell victim to one of his bodyguards who allegedly entertained his wife MaNtuli a few months ago, perhaps taking his job description a tad too seriously!
