Mugabe summons newspaper editor as purge widens

Mugabe summons newspaper editor as purge widens

MOYO: In hot water

• Mugabe reprimands his spin doctor

• Mugabe 'frightened' by own spin doctor

• Mugabe's own Joseph Goebbels

• Mnangagwa suffers crushing political defeat

• Mugabe says Zanu PF divided

• Mugabe wants female deputy

• Mnangagwa outsmarted in race for State House

• 'President Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF's Waterloo'

• Moyo clashes with Shamuyarira over Sky

• Nkomo declares war on 'saboteurs and infiltrators'

• Zanu PF editor at war with Moyo

• Moyo escapes censure as Mugabe drags feet

• Moyo, and the art of beautiful propaganda

• Moyo splashes cash in race for Tsholotsho

• Moyo for President?

• Moyo bars foreign cricket journalists

• Moyo orders Sky News crew out

• Matsanga deported in Sky News row

• Sky News debacle tears Zanu PF apart

• Moyo orders Sky News out, again

• Moyo 'to fill jails with lying journalists'

• Zanu PF set to grill Moyo

• Mugabe's spin doctor spends millions on album launch

• Moyo sings for his supper

• Mugabe's spin doctor eyes presidency

• Zanu PF at war over Mugabe's successor

• Deported Mugabe ally calls Moyo 'gay rant'

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe extended his purge on party challengers by summoning the editor of a state newspaper to explain a string of stories backing the under-fire Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

The editor of the Bulawayo Chronicle newspaper Stephen Ndlovu and the chairman of Zimpapers Justin Mutasa were summoned to Harare on Wednesday and got a strong ticking off from Mugabe, sources said.

The move came within hours of the suspension of SIX Zanu PF provincial chairmen for taking part in a meeting convened by Moyo in Tsholotsho, apparently to draw-up plans to prevent Joyce Mujuru's nomination as Vice President in favour of Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa. Moyo was "strongly reprimanded" by Mugabe, according to party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.

The Chronicle exhausted acres of space since Monday trying to exonerate Moyo from any wrongdowing over the so called "Tsholotsho Declaration" which allegedly sought to defy Mugabe's order that a second Vice President should be female.

In a lead story under the headline "Tsholotsho Declaration: The facts’’ Moyo was quoted by the Chronicle describing the whole issue as “ugly lies" calculated to tarnish his image and the image of all everyone involved.

Moyo, currently campaigning to represent Zanu PF in Tsholotsho in parliamentary elections next year, went on to say that the allegations against him are "similar to the false intelligence used by United States President George Bush to invade Iraq".

Mugabe is said to have felt that the story was attacking him for talking action against Moyo, the architect of Mugabe's relection in 2002.

Sources say what angered Mugabe most is that the information which was used in the Chronicle was similar to that which Moyo presented in the party's politburo meeting on Tuesday as his defence - proof that Moyo does not respect the privacy of what goes in the politburo and leaks it to the press.

“The article proved beyond doubt the allegations that Moyo has turned the Chronicle into a Tsholotsho paper and some people now call it the Tsholotsho Times," an unnamed journalist was quoted as saying on the website TimeUp.

It was not immediately clear what would happen to the editor, but possibilities are that he might be fired or heavily reprimanded. In the same issue of the Chronicle, Moyo attacked the governor of Matabeleland North Obert Mpofu. accusing him of misinforming the president.

This as well did not go down well with the President who is said to respect Mpofu and remains convinced there was a "Tsholotsho Declaration".
Additional reporting www.timeup.info
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