By Moses Chamboko
Considering the epic interest The Herald has in the MDC, one wonders how long it will take decision-makers at Herald House to relocate some reporters to Harvest House, if moving the entire printing press will be too costly a venture.
As Nelson Chamisa rightly observed, there now seems to be Herald reporters who are more concerned about the MDC than the party’s leadership and membership. In the process, ostensibly to justify their continued existence on the master’s payroll, these pseudo members will use every opportunity to fabricate stories about the MDC which makes every objective reader wonder whether it is still worth their effort to read this terribly discredited publication.
One of the most insipid and perfidious news articles was the recent report headed “MDC-T in shambles in Aussie” Anybody who is not a stranger to Oceania as well as to the MDC, will understand that there is nothing called MDC structures in either New Zealand or Australia. What is not contestable is the fact that there are multitudes of MDC activists and sympathisers across the globe, including New Zealand and Australia who have established very strong networks over the years.
These functional networks are ready, willing and able to be galvanised into formal structures as and when the party issues an activation code. It is these groupings that have been foolishly or negligently misrepresented as formal MDC structures by The Herald. Nevertheless, it is not really surprising that such obvious logic can elude the simple minds of overzealous reporters at Herald House who often confuse verbosity with fact.
Before rushing to the printing press, one would have expected a sober journalist to check and verify his/her facts with relevant offices in order to protect the little grain of credibility that still remains within the once respected national daily. Gone are the days when people used to wake up during the smallest hours of the morning to queue up for the newspaper as each day brought floods of adrenalin of news expectation.
No wonder why, today, there seems to be more copies of The Herald in lavatories than on desks! This is exactly where it belongs.
Most bizarre was the postulation that a Sydney branch of the MDC was contemplating to replace Ambassador Zwambila. If this were true, then the ambassador would go into the book of records for being the first one to lose her job to a non-existent committee that the inclusive government she represents has never heard of. Is The Herald aware that ambassadors don’t serve parties but governments?
As if that was not enough, a number of people were left with a broken rib or two after laughing uncontrollably when they read The Herald’s wish list of ambassadorial hopefuls, one of them my very close colleague for many years. Such is the kind of imagination that could make William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens or Chinua Achebe green with envy. Closer to home, one would have been forgiven for thinking that they were reading a front cover episode from Potonjere, The Comic or Kwayedza. If there are still editors at The Herald, either they are in a deep slumber, guilty of sabotage or both.
This is the same media that has forlonly “recalled” an ambassador on numerous occasions as well as project the false image that all of our embassies have now been amalgamated into one which is run from Canberra. There are two sides to this fantasy; either there are people who can’t imagine surviving for a day outside the patronage system exemplified by ZANU PF or ambassadors nominated by the MDC President are so effective that they are causing sleepless nights to sworn hoodlums who can’t accept that ZANU PF is in its eleventh hour.
The writers Moses Chamboko can be reached on [email protected]
