Private media grossly misleading about the on-goings in Zanu-PF

The decision by the Zanu-PF politburo to endorse the provincial elections in Manicaland, Midlands and Mashonaland Central should be applauded.

While the private media feasted a lot on such election results claiming that those who won elections would be gagged and then elections nullified, the revolutionary party decided to deal with continuity instead of confusion.

As such Zanu-PF should be applauded and it should be aware that the private media has an agenda to fulfill as it wants to divide the supporters of the party. Zanu-PF should guard against being told what to do by the private media. It should also be aware that any media house, the world over, has an audience to satisfy and as such it uses its editorial policy as a way of making that a reality.

The private media which had already declared that provincial elections were held on factional lines allegedly pitting Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Emmerson Mnangagwa, were a nullity as they were held while President Mugabe was out of the country. It is telling its readership, that the provincial elections have been held on factional lines as the two; Mujuru and Mnangagwa are vying for a possible opportunity to succeed President Robert Mugabe once he retires from his presidency.

On its crusade to destroy Zanu-PF, the private media even before the Zanu-PF provincial elections were held, connived to divide the revolutionary party as they kept on carrying out different stories portraying the party as in crisis. Some private media houses with the appetite for character assassination of Zanu-PF senior members had come up with damning articles about Zanu-PF elections and the perceived succession battle.

The stories that portrayed a situation in which they said Zanu-PF's provincial elections, held in the three provinces were won by members aligned to Mujuru and that Mnangagwa was loosing the succession war.

They kept on portraying a factional war within Zanu-PF although there was no evidence to support such allegations. The media portrayed a picture which depicted that Mnangagwa was losing the succession battle in a way which was designed to mislead ordinary people into believing that in Zanu-PF there is underground factional war. It is an open secret that the private media has constantly managed to brew up such stories as a way of creating confusion and division within Zanu-PF.

The revolutionary party should clearly come out challenging such media houses and put to rest such unsubstantiated allegations meant to confuse people.

The politburo's decision that provincial elections held in the three provinces be accepted by all people, should be applauded as that has shown the people that the media has no power to drive the agenda of the party.

It is the duty of the revolutionary party to make sure that the interests of the party are not compromised by listening to what the private media is doing. The swift action by the politburo to urgently intervene in taking action against the notion that there were winners and losers of certain factions has shown that Zanu-PF is a non-factional party which is geared to accommodate everyone.

Had the revolutionary party dissolved the elections result of the three provinces, the same media would have celebrated that as an achievement on the part of their agenda setting process. They would have gone to town in saying that factional fights in the revolutionary party have reached alarming levels as they caused the dissolution of the provincial elections results. Various theories would have been proffered over such actions and a lot would be in circulation now concerning such a decision.

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Mukachana Hanyani is a Harare-based political and social commentator.