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Cuthbert Mavheko
Addressing a Press conference in Harare recently, the Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Cde Cain Mathema, said the police had unearthed a plot by some foreign nationals and locals to hold a workshop in Bulawayo on an undisclosed date this month.
He said the objective of the meeting is to prepare civil society for protests to overthrow the Zanu-PF Government.
“The main agenda of the workshop is to mobilise and capacitate civil society organisations to stage purported effective demonstrations and disturbances to overthrow the Government,” he said.
Since Zanu-PF implemented agrarian reforms in the country in 2000, western imperialists, backed by the MDC, civil society and some NGOs have used every strategy at their disposal to foment civil disorder in the country with a view to overthrowing the Government.
However, Zimbabweans have remained resolute and united against imperialist machinations. Zimbabweans are not fools. They know that Nelson Chamisa and the MDC- Alliance are wolves in sheep’s clothing.
In fact the majority of Zimbabweans have now awakened to the true character of the MDC Alliance as an instrument of re-colonisation, whose treasonous invitation of sanctions against the country is the cause of the economic challenges Zimbabwe is facing today.
It is worth noting that Western imperialists have not given up on their quest to subdue the country and plunder its raw materials. What has only changed is their modus operandi.
In the past, the imperialists would directly invade a country and annex it, relying on what was then called the right of conquest. Today, the imperialists covertly colonise a country through agents of regime change recruited in a targeted country. These agents are then used to destabilise the country through destructive street protests with a view to installing a puppet government, which they will be able to control.
The MDC-Alliance has proved beyond a shadow of doubt that it does not have the interests of the nation at heart, and is, in fact, a Trojan horse for Western imperialists bent on re-colonising the country.
This truism was once highlighted by former president Robert Mugabe in 2000, when he said: “The MDC should not be judged by its black trade union face; neither by its salaried black suburban junior professionals; never by its rough and violent high density ‘lumpen’ elements. It is much deeper than these human superficies; for it is immovably and implacably mooted in the colonial yesteryear. It is a counter-revolutionary Trojan horse, contrived and nurtured by the very inimical forces and oppressors of yesteryear.”
Since he assumed the reins of power, President Mnangagwa has proved that he has what it takes to counter the evil machinations of the West, pull the country out of the quicksand and lead Zimbabweans into the proverbial Canaan – a land flowing with milk and honey.
This was corroborated last month by none other than Mr. Eddie Cross, a former Bulawayo South Member of Parliament and ex-MDC national executive member, when he addressed journalists in South Africa.
He told the Sunday Times that President Mnangagwa had taken Zimbabwe on a path of transformation. He expressed full confidence in ED’s ability to move the country from the quagmire of past leadership.
“There is no doubt in my mind that President Mnangagwa will take Zimbabwe on a different route. And I think in the past nine months he has not received sufficient recognition from the international media for what he has actually achieved,” Mr. Cross was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times.
As I personally see it, the international media has trivialised Cde Mnangagwa’s achievements primarily because some foreign journalists, particularly those from western countries, are toeing the line of their governments, which have a bone to chew with our government over land reforms.
It seems clear, all matters considered, that western journalists are on the same wavelength with some local scribes in the private media. They are working hand in glove in peddling falsehoods about the country in order to tarnish its image and scare investors away.
Society in general looks up to the media for information, education and entertainment. The media is a very powerful force that can build or destroy communities. In the light of this, every journalist worth his/her salt has a moral obligation to uphold media ethics by disseminating correct information so that society is able to make informed decisions.
However, the tragic irony is that the local media has been infiltrated by pseudo-journalists, who have a penchant for resorting to lies to try and justify the unjustifiable. Their modus operandi is simple: They create sensational or exaggerated headlines, typically those that cause alarm, panic, fear and despondency among the general citizenry in order to maximise sales of their newspapers. Former president Robert Mugabe once described this type of journalism as gutter or “yellow journalism”.
Experts say “yellow journalism” is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate, well-researched news and uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques used in “yellow journalism” include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering or sensationalism by extension.
The term “yellow journalism” is used nowadays to decry journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical manner.
In respect of “yellow journalism”, Mr Petros Dengu, a retired journalist, had this to say: “This type of journalism is often practised by scribes who are half-backed and lazy. They don’t research or pick a phone to call the source of the news so that their stories hold water. It is these journalists who are tarnishing the image of journalism in this country.”
Now back to the main story. While delivering a lecture for the founder of the MDC, the late Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, on February 15, 2019, Nelson Chamisa said President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF were making frantic efforts to lure him to the negotiating table so that the country can move forward. He said he would not be cowed into dialogue with them.
Chamisa appears to be living in a utopian world, which does not exist. In all honesty, how can the revolutionary party, which won a resounding two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in the July 30, 2018 harmonised elections, seek dialogue with him when the electorate gave the ruling party an overwhelming mandate to form a government on its own?
Chamisa must stop day-dreaming and come to terms with reality. If he and his party are to rebound politically in the face of the ‘mother of all defeats’ they suffered at the hands of Zanu-PF in last year’s elections, he must refrain from plotting to overthrow a democratically-elected government through illegal demonstrations. Instead, he should go back to the drawing board and re-strategise for future elections.
As I round off this debate, let me counsel my compatriots to be wary of the MDC-Alliance which is plotting to use them for political expediency to participate in illegal, potentially violent demonstrations aimed at overthrowing a legitimate Government.
It is an open secret that the economic challenges, which the country faces today, were caused by illegal sanctions imposed on the country by western imperialists at the behest of the MDC. The tragic irony is that the same party is now masquerading as the biblical Moses, sent by the Almighty to emancipate Zimbabweans from the shackles of economic enslavement.
– Cuthbert Mavheko is a freelance journalist based in Bulawayo. Contact details- Mobile 0773 963 448; e-mail [email protected]
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