Mugabe's spokesman attacks party editor

Mugabe's spokesman attacks party editor

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By Staff Reporter

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's official spokesman, George Charamba, has launched a barbed attack on the editor of the Zanu PF newspaper - The Voice -- and called for his sacking.

Writing in his column in the official Herald newspaper last Saturday, Charamba said former Herald reporter Lovemore Mataire was "making headlines out of sunrise on a dry savannah spring."

Charamba's cover as author of the Nathaniel Manheru column was blown by his former boss, Professor Jonathan Moyo, who until February was government spokesman.

Charamba has recently been complaining about the news output and choice of headline stories at the the state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings.

Charamba said the Voice had "nothing of political value and nothing fresh at a time when the ruling party is making earth-shaking news on all fronts."

"Mataire is one man who makes a headline out of sunrise on a dry savannah spring. The man can’t see, let alone interpret, scoops which abound around him. Please, this is a fecund time for the ruling Party and much needs to be explained, justified and defended, and the natural first port of call for an inside view of things is the Voice, if only it could be itself," Charamba blasted.

Sources say the unprecedented attack on Mataire exposes Charamba's desperation to see the back of the former Herald man who was elevated to the position at Zanu PF stalwart Nathan Shamuyarira's recommendation.

Charamba's scathing and personal attack, appearing under the title Wanted: Editor for The Voice, also reveals intriguing details of how the Department of Information in the President's Office has shielded "party journalists" from criminal prosecution and bankrolled musicians who have supported the violent land seizures in the country.

"His candidas, sorry, "Candid Brief" (Mataire's column) is disgustingly self-positioning by a life so ordinarily lived, a life so uneventful and low in achievement, and whose only sparkle are occasional seizures of delusions of grandeur that make the man think mightily of himself.

"The block (sic) thinks to be born into a Zanla camp by a brave and revolutionary couple is an act of valour and supreme sacrifice on his part. And he swears by his birth place, occasionally dropping big names and prepossessing rumours to build some halo or aura around his puny person. Acres and acres of editorial staff is spent on attacking individuals who accomplish for the Party on any one day what would take him a lifetime.

"And he dares throw a stone at ZBH’s Newsnet, let alone Zimpapers? He dares talk about chaos at ZBH? He, of all people? Can he tell us with any measure of candour to where he has taken the Voice editorially, ever since his takeover from Cde Webster Shamu, now a Government Minister? Can he give us the print run of the Voice; the sales, the advertisements?

"It’s all murky, grey and entombed at the Voice which cries out for editorial leadership and presence! Is there a single story he had broken since his colourless editorship? What is he bringing into the party kitty?

"But he is a man battling a deep complex of guilt and denied greatness. For him appointment is not merited. It is canvassed, which is why he goes about accosting politicians for the editorship of Manica Post. My foot, so it becomes what? A piece of doggerel?"

Charamba reveals how Mataire escaped prosecution after he allegedly caused an accident which, according to sources, killed a Central Intelligence Organisation officer and left a female passenger with one eye.

"Since you love prying into people’s lives, let me give it back to you," Charamba said in his address to Mataire. "You recall your jaunt to the Village? You recall the fatal accident you were involved in which claimed an innocent motorist? And cost a lady companion an eye? And cost the Party a brand new vehicle that was a complete write-off? And left your marriage in tatters? What scoop were you hurrying for at the Village? Tell us a little more candid briefer? What have you done to repair all this? Is this a good enough criterion for an upgrade?"

Zanu PF sources told New Zimbabwe.com Charamba was a light-weight in Zanu PF and is unlikely to influence editorial changes at The Voice.

"Shamuyarira is Mataire's mentor and as long as he is happy with what he is doing there, change as advocated by Charamba is years away," said the source.
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