IN THE PRESS

AFTER President Mugabe appointed Justice Luke Malaba as the new Chief Justice following the retirement of former head of the judiciary Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, the private media was at it again; doing what it knows best — creating a storm in a tea cup.

With screaming headlines such as “Battle over deputy chief justice looms”, a reader would expect names and details of who will be involved in the imaginary battle. But shockingly, the fight is what it is to them — imaginary and nothing more.

Maybe the battle will only happen in a newsroom somewhere close to Magaba in Mbare. Obsessed with factional politics, the private media has become purveyors of distortion, with many of their stories a stark contrast of events on the ground.

If there was a battle over the DCJ post, why then did they not give the reader a picture of how the battle will be fought?

They are surely robbing readers of their hard-earned money by asking them to buy newspapers with such skeletal stories.

Maybe they were caught flat-foot when the President appointed Justice Malaba as they expected something else to happen so they could create more storms in tea cups. As if that was not enough, they tell us that Vice- President Emmerson Mnangagwa tried to use under-fire ZANU-PF deputy secretary for women affairs Cde Eunice Sandi-Moyo as a trump card to remove his counterpart, Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, from his post.

The same private Press always tells us that VP Mnangagwa leads a faction they call “Lacoste”, while VP Mphoko and Cde Sandi-Moyo are said to belong to another called“G40”.So,thequestionis:IfVPMnangagwa is from “Lacoste”, how then does he field someone from a different faction to remove VP Mphoko?

If Cde Sandi-Moyo has her own ambitions, why then burden the reader with assumptions that VP Mnangagwa wants VP Mphoko replaced?

Although the private Press tells us that the provision for a female ZANU-PF Vice-President and Second Secretary has been brought back into the fold, our understanding is that the matter has been explained many times over.

It will not affect sitting VPs as it will be adopted later.

So, why all the distortions from downtown Harare newsrooms?