Mujuru offside - MDC

The Welshman Ncube led MDC has castigated acting President Joice Mujuru over her weekend attacks on the media for exposing the rot in the state run institutions dismissing the acts as a ploy to destroy Zanu-PF.

Mujuru said the recent revelations on the hefty salaries earned by heads of parastatals was the works of Zanu-PF members who wanted to destroy the party from within.

MDC spokesperson said Mujuru's statements dampened hopes that the corruption dogging state institutions would be dealt with.

"If what is quoted in the Herald and attributed to VP Mujuru is true and reflective of the attitude of Zanu-PF and its national leadership towards matters of corruption and over paid under achieving public service CEOs then we are in for a bumpy ride," Dube said.

"The media as the mirror of society cannot and should not be blamed for reporting things as they are. The statements attributed to VP Mujuru cannot be allowed to go unchallenged as they are a dangerous footnote signalling desire for a muzzled media.

"This if allowed, besides being constitutionally wrong, it would drag our society back into retrogressive political and administrative abyss."

Dube said it was folly for Mujuru to seek excuses in blaming the media for reporting what has been pronounced by leaders in her government and political party.

"We would be shocked if our country's VP actually is un-aware that both the Minister of information and Permanent Secretary are indeed Zanu-PF stalwarts and not opposition politicians.

"We are reminded yet again through these utterances of the folly of the blame game which makes leaders attempt to talk themselves out of situations into which they have acted themselves into," Dube said.

"It remains our hope that the VP of Zimbabwe will, with speed, deny any association with such retrogressive thinking as attributed to her and show that she stands for media and citizens' freedom and that the embraces the truth that transparency is the game changer in the fight against corruption."