Zanu PF editor at war with Mugabe's spin doctor

Zanu PF editor at war with Mugabe's spin doctor

MOYO

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IT is difficult not to feel just a little sorry for Lovemore Mataire. Here is the editor of a party newspaper chosen for his obedience, not to say enthusiasm, for the Zanu PF cause when writing as an editorialist in the state media. Upon the basis of that misguided loyalty he was duly promoted to editor of the tired and little-read party mouthpiece, The Voice.

From there he was expected to toe the party line and generally continue with the slavish tradition exemplified by the geography teacher Caesar Zvayi whose ignorant and hate-filled posturing gives Zimbabwean journalism, not to mention teaching, a bad name.

Now Mataire is under fire as he finds himself caught up in the internecine war for the succession to President Mugabe. His crime was to have innocently referred to talks between Zanu PF and the MDC on the much-touted electoral reforms.

These informal contacts are now common cause and as the proposed reforms bear a remarkable resemblance to those being advanced by the MDC, it is hardly surprising that observers should point to their source, which in private is not denied.

Civics and regional governments have also played their part in getting Zanu PF to adopt measures it was implacably hostile to only a few months ago.

But the Department of Information and Publicity immediately put out a statement, in the florid language which provokes so much national mirth, calling The Voice’s report “a complete falsity” and its editor “ideologically confused”.

It’s appalling that state media are being treacherously abused by officials in the Information department who should clearly explain the national interest as opposed to their petty wars with Nathan Shamuyarira who appointed Mataire - Comment from the Zimbabwe Independent

By Staff Reporter

THE battle for the control of Zanu PF has sucked in Lovemore Mataire, the editor of the party mouthpiece, the Voice who has gone into the trenches on the side of a growing army fighting the powerful Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

Mataire has launched an unprecedented attack on President Robert Mugabe's spin doctor, describing him as "suffering from a serious megalomania disease (and) trying to cover up for the time he was on the other side of the political divide."

Mataire who is believed to favour the anti-Moyo lobby which has Zanu PF information supremo Nathan Shamuyarira and national chairman John Nkomo in its ranks was recently described as "ideologically confused" and publishing "complete falsities" by Moyo.

“It is appalling that an editor of an organ of the ruling party can get it so wrong,” Moyo railed following a story in the Voice which made reference to informal talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition MDC. Moyo has always insisted there were never any talks, which differs from what Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.

Responding to Moyo's statement, Mataire said he would never be dissuaded from exposing individuals whose actions in Zanu PF were contrary to the policies of the party and the government.

In an interview with ZimDaily, Mataire described Moyo's disruptive tendencies within the party as "reactionary psychosis".

"These disorders which persist for the month, at the end, making a mass attack against the ego, and practically always leaving as their sequel, a weakness which is almost visible to the naked eye, according to such evidence, the future of such patients is mortgaged," Mataire blasted.

"People who watching in silence are not stupid or dummies and those who had skeletons in their cupboards start to huff and puff before creating unnecessary hullabaloo. Maybe it was high time somebody stood up and said 'Look, indeed the emperor has no clothes'."

Moyo, a former critic of Mugabe's government until he was recruited, has been waging a personal war against his opponents within the government and Zanu PF using the public media. He is believed to be positioning himself to succeed President Mugabe when he retires, but his opponents say he is an "infiltrator and saboteur" and are seeking to clip his wings.
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