IN THE PRESS
WEEKS of speculation over Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s alleged poisoning at a Gwanda Presidential Interface rally last month were finally settled after the VP firmly stated that “no such thing ever happened”.
The private Press went to town fuelling rumours that VP Mnangagwa ate food which was laced with fatal poisonous substances.
We were told by our colleagues in the private media that the VP had “poison” flushed out his system at a hospital in South Africa. This was meant to be a scoop but it has since been proved to be false given that VP Mnangagwa dismissed such an insinuation as “false and mischievous” and “meant to create a rift between him and the First Family”.
To put a rest to the matter, President Mugabe even told a bumper crowd at Mkoba Teachers’ College open grounds that the VP was indeed sick but it was not food poisoning. The Head of State and Government said he had an hourlong briefing with VP Mnangagwa’s doctors at State House who ruled out poisoning. Now where does that leave naysayers in the private press and social media? Where does that leave prophets of doom who claimed to have correctly “predicted” the poisoning? VP Mnangagwa has spoken and so has his principal, President Mugabe. They are speaking with one voice; no discord. There was no food poisoning, at least according to the alleged poisoning victim and medical doctors.
Meanwhile, the MDC-T continues to hog the limelight for all the wrong reasons. Chaos seems to be reigning supreme in the opposition camp because party leaders are at loggerheads. The house is burning. There is disunity in trying to unite the fragmented MDC formations under the “MDC Alliance” charade. MDC-T deputy president Thokozani Khupe has stirred an hornets’ nest as she puts a litmus test for MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai on who controls Matabeleland region. Khupe and other Matabeleland politicians from the opposition are fuming because Tsvangirai went to bed with the People’s Democratic Party and the MDC, among others.
While Tsvangirai was cornered by donors to railroad his subordinates into a coalition, Khupe believes that her position would be at stake once the coalition comes to life. It’s just a mess in the opposition camp.
Once again, we were reminded that Tsvangirai has not abandoned his open zip and shut mind policy amid allegations that he impregnated another Bulawayo woman — the 36-year-old Nobuhle Ndiweni. As a married man and a leader, surely Tsvangirai should lead by example. He has shown all manner of bad leadership.
On the other side of town, the ZANU-PF mobilisation machinery has proved a force to reckon with.
Hundreds of thousands of youths are thronging rallies. This is an indicator of what’s to come in 2018 elections. Indeed ZANU-PF is here to stay!