Damned Lies And The Zimbabwe Times Again!
Please do take a moment to sign our petition to get 2 year old Nigel released from Maximum Security Prison in Harare, where he is being kept as a political prisoner with his parents in solitary confinement. To read his story and add your name to the petition, please click here
Now, for today's post: According to the Zimbabwe Times on their website today, I have been fired by Simba Makoni, together with Major Kudzai Mbudzi and Dr Ibbo Mandaza.
I really have no idea where Geoff gets all this fiction. I was amazed to read this, as was Dr Makoni when I spoke to him a few minutes ago. He responded by saying "Well, he is seeking to sell his paper." Only, of course, this is an online paper.
You will recall that I caught The Zimbabwe Times plagiarising my article, Open Warfare, Police Vs Army,(see the screenshot above) in which I broke the story of Mugabe plans to arrest a whole bunch of MDC supporters on banditry charges as a pretext for declaring a State of Emergency. After I caught the paper red-handed, they then turned around and accused me of being guilty of their plagiarism. The paper did not like the fact that I called them on it and I suppose this is one way to get back at me.
The truth of the matter is that I am still working with Simba Makoni. There is nothing in that story from the paper that is true, not one thing. I laughed so hard when I read their cooked up story. Godfrey Chanetsa, Head of our Communications at Mavambo, was also pretty taken aback when I told him about this a few minutes back.
He says he has known Geoff for almost 30 years now and is surprised that the former Government editor is now attacking him. Nyarots's site claims Chanetsa was a virtually adopted son of Mugabe and Sally. He also claims that Chanetsa rose rapidly through the ranks to become Press Secretary to Mugabe and then a diplomat in London as a result of "nepotism in high places"
It is strange all this and I can not think of any reason why the online paper would cook up such a story, completely baseless and false. The only reason I can think of is that they are rather piqued I caught them and called them on plagiarising my article. The claims that they could not reach me are also false. Just yesterday, Wamambo, one of the readers of this blog based in London called me on the landline at the Mavambo offices to ask about putting the Chatroll back on the blog. He got through first time and we chatted a bit.
Godfrey Chanetsa says he won't dignify the insinuations in the story with any attention. We do know however, that Nyarota and the Zimbabwe Times are very anti-Simba Makoni, cooking up stories at every opportunity about him. They campaign very heavily for the MDC-T and believe that Simba poses a threat to the party they support. Even their own readers have pointed out that they lean too heavily towards the MDC, not even ever offering constructive criticism to that party. I think the correct term is "bootlicking".
In any case, now you know. We have another lie from the Zimbabwe Times and I wonder where the sense of shame is.
Previous Articles (Please Click on One To Read The Full Article)
- Russian Soldiers To Move Into Zimbabwe
- Petition To Free A 2 year Old From Maximum Security Prison
- Mugabe Stokes Up Tribal Hatred
- Jestina Mukoko - Real Reasons For Arrest Revealed
- Jestina Mukoko "Implicates Tsvangirai"
- Mugabe Prepares To Arrest Tsvangirai
- Zimbabwe Approaches South Africa To Officially Use The Rand
Hi Denford,
ReplyDeleteI see the Sumday Times is saying that Grace has transferred 92,000 USD from the RBZ into a Malasian account for use during their holiday in Malaysia.
Also, as an aside: I am still only able to read a few of the comments (despite the suggestion from Dawn Hull), but I guess that's an improvement on not being able to read any of them.
ReplyDeleteAlso your link to the ZimbabweTimes Article goes to the edition of the 3rd December.
And finally the link to the Nigel Mupfuranhehwe petition just leads to the comment page for the article.
Forgive Nyarota - he is suffering from the guilt he feels about the 20000 people in Matebeleland he "tried not to see die and report on " while they were butchered under his nose while he was editor of chronicle but was quick to point out corruption in high places when a fe cars were stolen by Nyagumbo and company. was he not awarded some international prize for these cars going missing while 20000 people down a mineshaft were all in a days work.
ReplyDeleteProtect the cars damn the people
Haiwa Tigere
I hear you Tigere.
ReplyDeleteIt started with them trying to ignore this blog, treating it as if it does not exist and trying their best to do us down by promoting "rival" blogs with constant links etc.
It has hasn't worked, because we are now officially the Number two blog in Zimbabwe on Afrigator, the largest ranker of African social media in Africa.
So this is their desperate last ditch effort.
Again to help him in his efforts to destroy the blog, Nyarota is being helped by those foreign-based websites who can't report matters on the ground as they happen as feel threatened.
So you will see that they all carried this false story by Nyarota while ignoring my own correction.
I only feel pity for all them, as you rightly suggest, because all other media recognise the great work our team is doing on this blog.
It is only SOME "Zimbabwean" websmasters out there in the diaspora who trying to ignore us, everyone else recognises what we really are, which is why, less than three months on the web, we are whipping the asses of websites and blogs that have been around for four, five years.
They are not happy at all, but favouritism is not going to help them at all. I daresay we will continue to see the steady rise in readership here because we do not lie to people and we are on the scene, bringing real news while they cook up stories from London and Adelaide!
Thanks for the encouragement.