New Zimbabwe Paper Hits The Streets - Already Getting Threats From Tsvangirai Thugs

This is the latest newspaper in Zimbabwe, produced by an MDC activist based in Johannesburg and distributed widely in Zimbabwe. This is only their second issue and they have already started getting threats from Tsvangirai thugs. The paper has taken a strong stance against Morgan Tsvangirai for his continued faith in Mugabe and the Inclusive Government

Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 September 2009

The editor of a new Zimbabwean paper published out of Johannesburg and distributed all over Zimbabwe has already suffered threats and intimidation from MDC supporters in Harare, he says in his second issue.

"..I say a big NO to threats and intimidation that came from some MDC-Tsvangirai activists last week after we published our first issue, " he writes in his current issue, which is only the second issue of the paper.

"I met a group of them in Harare who accused me of being "bought" to attack Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai because of our assessment and reporting of the political situation in the country. What came out of these responses by Tsvangirai's supporters is a dangerous trend that feeds off the Mugabe system and culture where leaders are regarded as untouchable cult individuals, who must not be criticised or brought to accountability," writes the editor, Itai Dzamara.

Dzamara is an MDC activist who subsequently worked with the Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe. He has since left the country for South Africa.

Because of the dearth of good newspapers in Zimbabwe, the new publication has already attracted wide readership especially in Harare and Bulawayo, the two main centres in Zimbabwe.

The newspaper is sold for US$1 per copy.

It is printed on expensive paper, better quality than that of any publication in Zimbabwe at the moment.

But, as can be expected, although the man behind it is a well-known MDC activist, he has made the cardinal mistake (in Tsvangirai supporters' eyes) of criticising the Prime Minister's continued faith in the Inclusive Government.

According to these supporters, the editor has no brains to think for himself and could only have been bought by God-know-who to attack Tsvangirai.

Mind you, the paper is also rabidly anti-Mugabe, calling him and his army officers and Generals "terrorists". But it is the attack on Tsvangirai that has managed to get him threats from Tsvangirai supporters.

It has always been like this. The intolerance of MDC supporters has to do with the fact that Tsvangirai has taken the Mugabe approach, where he rewards his thugs with material things and money.

Clearly, as far as these thugs are concerned, if Tsvangirai is ousted or is no longer popular, then they stand to lose their material gains.

So, keep this in mind, whenever you hear MDC thugs threatening free-thinking Zimbabweans for expressing themselves against Tsvangirai, it is not Tsvangirai they are defending, but their material gains under Tsvangirai.

It is like the situation with Mugabe and his thugs and cronies.

But more and more people are beginning to see the truth and this time, no amount of threats are going to save the incompetent and servile MDC-T from the full gaze of the people.