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MISA Zimbabwe chief quits
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
February 25, 2007

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=5938&siteid=1

MEDIA Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) chairman, Thomas Deve, resigned last week after discovering the organisation’s board of trustees had decided to suspend him over allegations he was closely linked to the government’s security agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

In his letter dated 10 February, Deve offered to resign after he discovered some board members were investigating his alleged links to the CIO.

His letter was addressed to the chairperson of the board of trustees, Tim Nyahunzvi. Allegations of Deve’s links to the CIO were published on a website last year.

Deve wrote: "I acknowledge that we discussed the two sets of allegations over lunch on Tuesday 6 February and gave you my reaction. I offer to resign. My personal matters should not be allowed to stall progress for MISA, an organisation that I cherish so much.

"I do not doubt that you are acting in the best interest of the organisation and that my resignation from NGC (National Governing Council) will go a long way in allowing everyone to focus on what MISA stands for."

Last week, Nyahunzvi confirmed Deve had resigned, having admitted he was a close friend of President Robert Mugabe’s press secretary, George Charamba,Nyahunzvi confirmed that the allegations in a news website, NewZimbabwe.com last year claiming that Deve was an intelligence operative, had prompted the board to suspend him.

NewZimbabwe.com also alleged that Deve "is very close" to Charamba, a relationship said to have begun when they were at the University of Zimbabwe.

"As a board we wrote a letter to him, giving him an opportunity to respond to those allegations. His response then came last week when he offered to resign," Nyahunzvi said.

However a statement issued 11 days ago by Loughty Dube, MISA’s deputy chairperson bears no mention of the complaints raised in Deve’s resignation letter. Dube said adding Deve was resigning due to his work commitments.

"Mr Thomas Deve," Dube said in a three-paragraph statement, "is heavily involved in the World Social Forum activities, regionally and internationally and had to spend a month in Kenya, in January 2007, on official duty.

"Thomas says he remains a committed member of Misa-Zimbabwe and will be available for duty in the near future. Thomas is one of the longest serving members of the Misa-Zimbabwe National Governing Council, having served in the capacity of Treasurer and his current term would have been his second and last as Misa-Zimbabwe chairperson. He is one of the few remaining senior journalists in Zimbabwe having worked for SAPES, The Zimbabwe Mirror as well as the banned Daily News before moving into the NGO sector.

"On behalf of the Misa-Zimbabwe Trustees, members, National Governing Council and Secretariat, I extend my gratitude to Thomas for his leadership of Misa-Zimbabwe in the past three years and wish him well in his future endeavours."

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