The Lies Being Told About Arthur Mutambara's Outburst At The Nyanga Retreat


Arthur Mutambara, Zimbabwe's other Deputy Prime Minister, is now using unorthodox means to try and reassert his authority in the party that he leads, the MDC. He lashed out at Mugabe and ZANU PF at the Nyanga Retreat a couple of weeks ago, but that was not what it seemed. It is simply amazing how may people have been taken in by this and what stories they have concocted around this outburst, the most prominent of which being that state media has been ordered to "attack" him in the wake of that Nyanga speech!!



Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 September 2009

You may have read stories here and there stating that the state media had been "ordered to attack Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara" over the statements he made at the retreat in Nyanga to review the 100-day Wishlist that Tsvangirai tried to pass off as a "plan".


Those reports are lies, full stop, period. The end.


I had actually ignored the whole thing because I thought the truth was self-evident even to a buffoon and a drooling idiot.


On the Tuesday after the retreat, I was involved in a long conversation with senior aide to the Prime Minister and the subject of Mutambara's outburst came up.


I said it was quite clear to me that that the deputy prime minister was simply trying to strengthen his hand against his rebels, who were accusing him of now being "ZANU PF", too close to Mugabe and out of touch with the members of his party.


I told the guy I was speaking with that, to me, at least, it was clear that the attack was meant to reassert Mutambara's credentials as anti-Mugabe, and still leader of the opposition. Doing this would allow Mutambara to go back to the electorate (especially the urban electorate who hate Mugabe) and get their votes.


But it was the response from Tsvangirai's senior aide that floored me.


He told me he had spoken to Mutambara after the incident and the Deputy Prime Minister had openly admitted that this was a staged attack and that Mugabe knew about it before hand, since Mutambara had discussed it with him and told him of the strategy.


So, Mugabe appears to have blessed that outburst. The strengthening of Mutambara's MDC would work well for Mugabe, because Mutambara, firebrand though he may be, is more realistic and amenable in dealings with Mugabe.


This reading of events seems to have been borne out now by what is taking place in Zimbabwe.


All of a sudden, contrary to reports that Mugabe had ordered State media to attack Mutambara, the Deputy Prime Minister is getting unprecedented attention (good attention) in the state media.


Only last night, Mutambara was THE main item on the 8 ocklock news on ZTV.

The flagship State television news devoted a good five minutes to his speech, about "unity" and the need for local solutions and turning Zimbabwe into a model country. The speech was given at some function in what appeared to be a rural area, but I was not paying much attention.

It was all positive.

Now, not even Tsvangirai gets that sort of coverage from the state media. Only Mugabe gets that royal treatment. What does this tell us about this whole "ordered to attack Mutambara" thing?

So many stories are being cooked up these days! One of these, of course, I have just addressed in the story below, and it has to do with how the state media "was ordered" only last month to address Mugabe by his new super-long title.

It shows the desperation in the opposition camps, really. Their men are now in charge of the rotting economy. There is no good news coming out of Zimbabwe, as their men are also being outwitted by an intransigent and unrepentant Mugabe.

Previously, these "reporters" lived on playing up the economic collapse, playing up cholera, playing up human rights abuses etc.

They can not do that now, with one of their own at the Finance Ministry and presiding over continued economic decay, and their other men at Home Affairs (presumably signing off arrest warrants for his own MDC supporters and MPs), at the Health ministry, presiding over striking doctors (and, like Mugabe, firing them!), etc etc.

Mugabe, yes, is still as evil as ever, but their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai now says the dictator is The Solution to Zimbabwe's problems.

The Prime Minister and the MDC, moreover, did a Mugabe and a ZANU PF too early, playing up a "recovery" that was not there. The Prime Minister himself ended up dismissing his government's performance at the Nyanga retreat as "dismal" in all respects, including the economy which he has control of now.

I really expected better of Zimbabweans. After all, we are supposed to be the best educated people in all of Africa. So proud of this achievement am I that, no matter what country I am in, I never leave without reminding the people of that country of this fact.

So how come we fail to see such self-evident things as this charade?

I put it down to the desperate need to continue highlighting Mugabe's nefarious nature, which still exists indeed. But sometimes, my fellow Zimbabweans, in the rush to do this, end up playing straight into the hands of the dictator!!

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