By Fungi Kwaramba
Zanu PF crackheads, whose leaders have openly boasted of having degrees in violence, yesterday launched a savage and unprovoked attack on senior Daily News writer, Mugove Tafirenyika, while he was covering President Robert Mugabe’s Harare meeting with a section of war veterans and ruling party youths.
The barbaric attack, which happened in the full glare of gathered party bigwigs and law enforcement agents, began when prominent Zanu PF member Energy Mutodi — who is a well-known sympathiser of embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa — was spotted by the lowlifes taking pictures of proceedings with his mobile phone, close to the VIP tent where Mugabe and other party leaders were seated.
It was at that point that one of the yobs was sent by some women in the crowd to confront and manhandle Mutodi, in what was clearly a partisan and overzealous factional move — attracting the attention of gathered journalists in the process, who promptly started taking notes and pictures.
Just as the dust was beginning to settle down on this side show, one of the Zanu PF ruffians then demanded that the journalists, including Tafirenyika, delete their pictures of the melee.
And when the quiet Tafirenyika tried to protest politely that the order was unreasonable as the media had been sanctioned to be present at the event, and to document proceedings as was their right, all hell broke loose as the miscreants descended on him, raining deadly blows on him.
They not only attacked him, but also bizarrely accused him of being an alleged sympathiser of pro-democracy pressure group Tajamuka/Sesjikile group — which has been playing a leading role recently in calling for a stop to Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic rot.
Alarmed journalists from both the State and private sector walked out in solidarity with Tafirenyika at that point, going on to seek the intervention of Information permanent secretary and Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba, who — to his credit — calmed down the situation.
But Mugabe himself — who in the early 1980s boasted that Zanu PF had degrees in violence as innocent civilians were being slaughtered by the army in parts of Matabeleland and the Midlands — was to later rub it in on the gathered journalists when it was his turn to speak yesterday.
“To journalists I say go and tell those who you are representing that … Mugabe is still here,” the increasingly isolated and frail nonagenarian said, in cryptic remarks that suggested that the media are doing the bidding of his political foes.
Meanwhile, Mutodi wrote on his Facebook page during the rally that “the situation is so tense here that anyone accused of supporting Mnangagwa is hiding to avoid being spotted by Zanu PF Harare youths” — with the ruling party sharply divided between those rallying behind the Midlands godfather and those in the so-called Generation 40 (G40) faction which opposes the VP’s ascendancy to power after Mugabe.
The Group Editor of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News, the Daily News on Sunday and the Weekend Post, Stanley Gama, said he was “saddened beyond words that journalists are now being attacked by Zanu PF supporters even in front of the president himself”.
“That this dastardly act could happen right in front of the president and senior government officials speaks volumes of how far our beloved nation has fallen down in terms of respect for human rights.
“Indeed, if the president’s supporters can behave this violently and disgracefully in his presence, what more are they capable of doing away from the glare of dignitaries and the media?” he said.
Charamba confirmed he was alerted to “crowd” problems with journalists but could not commit himself on Tafirenyika’s assault.
“What I know is that there was an attempt to bar them (journalists) from taking their positions, and they brought it to my attention and we immediately resolved that,” said Charamba.
“I sent my officers to help them vana (Ben) Mungate. I am, however, not aware that there are some who were assaulted, it was not brought to my attention. If something like that happened it would be untoward.” Daily News
