IN THE PRESS
THE late United States Democratic politician Jess Unruh once made a famous statement that ‘money is the mother’s milk of politics’ which means that money play a critical role in politics. In other words it’s difficult to separate money from politics, according to Unruh who was also known as the Big Daddy Unruh.
Some academics would argue that too much money perverts democracy but it cannot be outrightly dismissed that resources are at the core of running an efficient democracy or political party.
Embarrassing events which happened last week at MDC-T Headquarters – Harvest House - speak to a sinking ship. The Sherriff of the High Court reduced the party offices to an empty shell after raiding seven floors and collected office furniture to settle a US$108 000 debt owed to a former employee. The Sheriff’s visit to the MDC-T has exposed the opposition as a fragile party with no resources to take part in the big political playing field ahead of elections next year. The unending debts problems which have spilled into courts are indicative of a donor fatigue. These handlers can obviously get tired of wasting their money on political leadership which squander resources on girlfriends. It’s a public secret that the MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai paid several thousands of dollars to settle scores with one of his estranged lovers in recent years.
Mr Tsvangirai has proved, through his actions, that he is such a disorganised fella who cannot be trusted with State money. The lack of resources will certainly make life more difficult for the MDC-T as events lay it bare that the opposition will not have enough money to campaign for the next elections, hence the clumsy move to form a wobbly coalition with other failed politicians like Dr Joice Mujuru. The idea of the coalition is all about trying to access donor money. But again, this plan will fail.
Our fellow scribes at the factory-like newsroom somewhere close to Magaba seem to have an obsession about the First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe after claiming that ‘Grace eyes sugarcane farm’. The details of the story prove otherwise. The part of the land referred to was allocated to the Women’s League and hence the journalist-cum-activist and his captured editors were supposed to discern the difference between the First Lady and the Zanu PF Women’s League. Amai Mugabe is not the Women’s League and vice-versa.
Even the other newspaper which claims to be the best in the land despite selling a few thousand copies in weekly sales, alleged a tender scandal at the Office of the President after the latter wrote to the State Procurement Board to speed up the implementation of the Zimbabwe Integrated Transport Information System (Zimtis). The scandal allegations ignore the explanation that in terms of Section 20 of the Procurement Act, the President may issue written policy directive on matters concerning public procurement. So, whither the scandal fellow scribes? Lawyers say res ipsa loquiter, meaning facts speak for themselves. As journalists we say, facts are sacred!