IN THE PRESS

ONE of the most famous Shakespearean works is the tragedy Julius Caesar, believed to have been written around the mid-16th century.

Of all the characters in the play, readers often pay little attention to a soothsayer who warns Caesar of an impending disaster - his assassination in March.

The soothsayer fires warning shots saying ,“Beware the ides of March ”. Fast-forward five centuries later. We have the complete opposite of the Shakespearean soothsayer who foretold nothing but the truth. Rather, our colleagues in the private media have proven to be purveyorsof distortion and in some instances, blatant liars. One of the editorials last week painted a very gloomy picture about the economy. All sorts of adjectives and superlatives were used to tell the world of an ‘economic implosion’.

Stories were written, some with a potential of causing alarm and despondency. Citizens were warned of ‘a repeat of 2008’. We all know what happened in 2008. Basic commodities were in short supply, inflation sky-rocketed and in some instances there were food riots.

Surely, what is prevailing now and what happened back in 2008 is quite different. The artificial shortage of fuel and cooking has already been arrested. Fuel is in abundant supply and so are the basic commodities.

The illegal cash traders are being dealt with in terms of the Statutory Instrument 122 A of 2017 Exchange Control( Amendment)Regulations, which criminal is es cash vending. Police have since launched a blitz against them. The streets of Harare are no longer infested with these rent seekers. This is testimony that Government is working round the clock to protect citizens from these dealers. There is no implosion. There are no ides of March. The pretentious soothsayers have been put to shame. On the other side of town, we understand that MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai was ‘abandoned’ by his wife Elizabeth Macheka in South Africa.

Elizabeth travel led to Australia on Monday last week via Dubai aboard flight EK714 of a well-known airline. One wonders what was so urgent in Australia that prompted a married woman to leave her ailing husband in a foreign land.

Apparently, she was spotted at the Ha rare International Airport in the companyof her‘ baby dad’ and her two daughters. The gods are watching.