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MDC accuses state media of peddling hate speech
Cuthbert
Nzou, ZimOnline
September
23, 2008
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=3699
The Morgan Tsvangirai-led
opposition MDC party yesterday accused state-controlled media of
publishing hate speech and propaganda that flies in the face of
the "spirit of national engagement and the political settlement"
signed last week.
ZANU PF and
the two formations of the MDC last Monday signed
a pact to form an all-inclusive government aimed at ending the country's
decade-long political and economic crisis.
In a hard-hitting statement
yesterday, MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa called on the state media
to play a "positive role in moving our country forward through
assisting national healing and creating" hope.
"We note with dismay
that the state-controlled media continues with its use of hate speech
and propaganda which flies in the face of the spirit of national
engagement and the political settlement in Harare last week,"
Chamisa said.
The MDC official accused
the government's flagship Herald newspaper of employing a columnist
who used hostile language against the opposition which was out of
tune with the political developments and mood on the ground.
Chamisa said a Herald
columnist publishing under the name Nathaniel Manheru but who is
widely thought to be President Robert Mugabe's spokesman, George
Charamba, used his column at the weekend to denigrate the opposition
and to peddle the "usual falsehood that the MDC is full of
imaginary puppets of the whites".
Mugabe himself has often
accused the MDC of working with Britain and America to unseat his
government.
Even as Mugabe appended
his signature to the power-sharing deal last week, he repeatedly
asked why the hand of Britain and America was interfering in Zimbabwe's
affairs - in a thinly veiled attempt to remind his audience that
the MDC served Western interests.
The MDC forged
out of the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions by Morgan Tsvangirai nine years ago,
has repeatedly denied charges it is a puppet of the West and the
opposition party's frustration at continued charges that its serves
Western interests even after agreeing to a power-sharing government
with ZANU PF was clear from Chamisa's statement.
"He (Manheru) has
not toned down his hate speech, confirming that he is a front for
a minority and parasitic elite which is benefiting from the current
crisis; a clique that is deriving profit from the suffering of the
people of Zimbabwe," Chamisa alleged.
He added: "The ZBC
(Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation) and the The Herald continue
to give acres of space to analysts who want to poison the spirit
of dialogue.
"They continue to
grant acres of space to people who shout at others instead of giving
coverage to critical national issues such as HIV and Aids, national
development and economic transformation."
The power-sharing deal
has been lauded as the first real opportunity in nearly 10 years
for Zimbabwe to begin work to end an economic crisis characterised
by the world's highest inflation of more than 11 million percent,
skyrocketing unemployment and shortages of food and every basic
survival commodity.
But the deal, which was
signed on September 15 amid hope by millions of struggling Zimbabweans,
could yet unravel as Mugabe, Tsvangirai and another opposition leader
Arthur Mutambara have failed to agree on the allocation of cabinet
ministries in the new government of national unity.
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