The demands of the newsroom deadlines are such that you tend to dismiss anything that can only be a distraction to your day-to-day work.
That is how I reacted to a story that appeared in The Herald alleging editors of privately-owned newspapers had been bribed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to spruce up his image in the wake of his “marriage scandal”.
I also failed to notice that during the last few days, ZBC radio and TV had been aggressively running the same malicious story. The climax was reached on the Friday 8pm bulletin when ZBC analyst, Gabriel Chaibva was wheeled on the set to “name and shame” journalists who are said to be implicated in the so called bribe scandal.
I was among the journalists named and so was Standard editor, Nevanji Madanhire. Brian Mangwende, the editor of NewsDay and Faith Zaba, the political editor for The Zimbabwe Independent were also named.
Once Chaibva “named” us, phones started ringing; the first one obviously coming from family members who had been watching the box. The same happened to Madanhire and, I presume, to the other editors as well.
Chaibva is a good old friend of mine. We interacted quite a lot both on personal and party matters when I was active as a reporter covering the political beat.
I remember in the lead up to the 2005 split of the main MDC, Chaibva aligned himself to Welshman Ncube’s faction, and then became a harsh critic of Tsvangirai.
I will not burden you with the reasons Chaibva made the somersault, and also why he later turned his back on Ncube’s faction and then became more aligned to Zanu PF.
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But soon Chaibva evolved into a star ZBC analyst, outshining the likes of Vimbai Chivaura, Claude Mararike, Tafataona Mahoso and others.
And on Friday, he was at his best as he explained to ZTV viewers about the so-called bribe scandal. Notably, Chaibva sought to prove that the journalists had a generally corrupt relationship with Tsvangirai, going as far as to suggest that they cast a blind eye to his sexual exploits.
He categorically stated, that the private media never wrote a single story that was negative about the premier. While I can’t say much about other papers, I have no hesitation to dismiss Chaibva’s utterances as baseless, uninformed, if not outright stupid.
So-called ZBC analysts need to be reminded that before they open their mouths on television, they need first to be informed.Chaibva and whoever planted that story in the state media needs to be reminded that it was The Standard, a paper that is unwavering in its quest to bring politicians to account, that brought to light Tsvangirai’s relationship to Locadia Karimatsenga Tembo.
That was way back on May 30 2010 when The Standard published an exclusive story headlined: PM finds new love. The story for the first time revealed that the Premier had started a relationship with the wealthy commodity broker.
On February 27 2011, we ran another exclusive: “Tsvangirai fathered my baby.”In the story that set tongues wagging, a 23-year-old Bulawayo woman, Loreta Nyathi, alleged that she was carrying the PM’s baby.
Her lawyer Josphat Tshuma of Webb Low & Barry confirmed that he had received an instruction to draft a maintenance letter of demand to Tsvangirai.
The Standard ran a number of articles until the case was resolved without going to court. Even when news about Tsvangirai’s alleged marriage to Locadia came to light, The Standard also covered the story.
It is from this background, that we find suggestions that The Standard editors were bribed to stop writing anything negative about Tsvangirai’s love affairs not only mischievous, but also patently dishonest and malicious.
Tsvangirai, like any other politician, has never been a sacred cow at this paper and will never be. As long as he remains in public office, he will be held to account.
Just a few weeks before Christmas, on this space, Madanhire chastised the way Tsvangirai conducted his affairs. Under the title, Bed-hopping Tsvangirai soiling his own image, the editor penned a piece critical of the PM’s “open zip” approach to relationships.
Writing in the column, Madanhire recalled an incident when a teacher came to class with his zip open and one brave pupil wrote on a piece of paper only three letters of the alphabet “XYZ” which meant, “close your zip” and gave it to the teacher.
Madanhire wrote: “Can someone write the same three letters and please throw them at Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai? In the wake of his November marriage, or whatever it was, no one knows what he will do next. Sing Zuma-style Mtshina Wami, Mtshina Wami (Bring my machine gun) or like Silvio Berlusconi, host bunga-bunga parties?”
So where is the cover up?We therefore find Chaibva’s suggestions that The Standard has been trying to cover up the PM’s indiscretions baffling. Either these unfounded allegations were made out of malice or sheer ignorance.
They could also be an unintelligent attempt to rubbish a newspaper that is connecting with the readers. The alleged bribe scandal could be a creation of someone who is desperate to stop privately-owned newspapers from carrying out their important role ahead of elections this year or in 2013.
Chaibva and like-minded people must be reminded The Standard does not pander to the whims of politicians. When politicians mess up, it cannot be the role of The Standard editors and journalists to clean-up the mess.
We have set ourselves a code of conduct that has been well-publicised and we will abide by it.
By Walter Marwizi
