Mugabe orders audit of how Zimpapers editors were appointed

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday piled more misery on Media, Information and Broadcasting Services minister, Professor Jonathan Moyo as it emerged that he had ordered an investigation into how editors perceived to be anti-Zanu-PF had been appointed to head State newspapers.

Moyo appointed three new editors at Zimpapers. Mduduzi Mathuthu, who was editor for New Zimbabwe, a United Kingdom-based online publication was appointed Chronicle editor.

Edmund Kudzayi was appointed to head The Sunday Mail, replacing Brezhnev Malaba who had also been appointed by the same minister to the Chronicle years back. Moyo also appointed Caesar Zvayi to replace Innocent Gore at The Herald.

But yesterday, Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said Mugabe had ordered an audit into the appointments.

"What I know is that the President said the appointments should be investigated. He never said the editors should be withdrawn," Gumbo told The Standard yesterday.

Sources said during last Wednesday's politburo meeting, Mugabe initially ordered the dismissal of the editors appointed by Moyo claiming they were sourced from institutions that were advocating for "regime change."

Speaking at the burial of Zanu-PF Politburo member, Nathan Shamuyarira at the National Heroes Acre in Harare, Mugabe hinted about an impending crackdown on what he described as "party weevils" that were destroying the ruling party from within.

Mugabe on Friday had accused Moyo of using the media to fan divisions in the party during the funeral wake of Shamuyarira. He also attacked Moyo for appointing editors at State-owned newspapers accused of peddling the regime change agenda and being sympathetic to the opposition MDC.

Mugabe charged Moyo with using his intellect and control of the state media to set party leaders against each other as well as appointing what he described as MDC sympathisers to editorial roles in the State-run media.

Following Moyo's appointment as information minister, senior editorial changes were implemented at Zimpapers which saw Edmund Kudzayi take over as Sunday Mail editor from Brezhnev Malaba while former NewZimbabwe.com editor Mduduzi Mathuthu took over at The Chronicle. Happison Muchechetere was also removed from the ZBC.

Explaining Mugabe's anger over the changes, our source said: "The biggest problem with Moyo is that he gave the impression he was briefing the President yet it's not true.

"He never subjected anyone to security clearance as is normal practice. The way he fired Brezhnev Malaba (former Sunday Mail editor) … was in bad taste. He then replaced him with an individual who is not a journalist.

"Now he (Moyo) wanted to transfer (deputy Sunday Mail editor) Munyaradzi Huni to the (Manica Post) for no apparent reason … until he was told point blank to stop it by (George) Charamba.

"The party also has a long memory. It was not lost on many that Moyo used NewZimbabwe.com to attack the President and the party between 2005 and 2008."

Mugabe yesterday said Zanu-PF was infested with "zvipfukuto" (a Shona word for weevils ) that were bent on destroying the party from within and vowed to flush them out.

Mugabe said the media should spell out the country's values, not to sell out.

"The objectives of the liberation struggle were never in question in regard to those who lie at the National Heroes' Acre.  Nathan, you all know now the leadership that he gave us. I talked yesterday about his own direction which was people-oriented," he said.

"It is not your own little ideas about how you can beat so and so like you are playing a soccer match. If you want to play soccer, why don't you join Dynamos or Highlanders?  We are telling people we must be one, we must be united in agriculture and in mining. We must organise our people to take advantage of these resources. Your publicity in newspapers should go in that direction."