Save us the hypocrisy

The hypocrisy of some sections of the so-called private media has been exposed in its handling of Tsvangirai's recent and continuous bout of ill-health.

The private dailies always have a field day whenever President Mugabe is rumoured to be ill. They go all out to sensationalize it, cherry-picking quotations from phantom sources to give the cobbled articles a semblance of authority. Now that the tables have turned and it's now their golden boy Tsvangirai who is ill, they have moved from conspicuous silence to outright denial and then shamelessly downplaying it.

Indeed Tsvangirai's illness couldn't have come at a more inopportune time as barely weeks after the private press went to town claiming that President Mugabe was seriously ill, literally with one foot in the grave in Singapore, Tsvangirai himself was admitted at the Trauma Centre, Belgravia, while President Mugabe was attending the inauguration of South African President, Jacob Zuma.

While the President's spokesperson has always been accused of trying to cover up the President's alleged illness(es) and using it to gain political mileage, its apparent that the glove fits more snugly on Tsvangirai's spokesperson, Luke Tamborinyoka. Though Morgan may have chosen, of his freewill, to differ in a major way with the rest of progressive Zimbabweans, these sons and daughters of the soil do not gloat over his mortal fallibility. Rather, the likes of Tamborinyoka and some media players should avoid seeking political and economic mileage out of health issues of a Statesman approaching a milestone century of generally excellent health.

When the President left for Singapore to receive eye treatment, George Charamba clearly stated that the President was going on a weeklong private visit during which he would undergo a routine eye check-up following a recent cataract procedure on the same.

That the private media chose to derive their own interpretations from this clear statement is their own fault. Charamba's statement was authenticated with the surfacing of video footage of the President walking on his own two feet into Glen Eagles hospital, and not wheel-chaired, in visibly good health and accompanied by the First Lady. This did put to rest unfounded speculation that the president was bed-ridden.

On the contrary, following Tsvangirai's succumbing to what all mortals succumb to at one point or the other, his spokesperson, Tamborinyoka, has made a shoddy job of misinforming the public on the gentleman's illness or state of health. This has lent credence to the perception that Tsvangirai's ever-faithful mouthpieces are aiding and abetting the hiding the facts from concerned citizens.
 
When rumor started that Tsvangirai was ill, Tamborinyoka was quick to downplay it, being quoted in the press on 26 May 2014 saying Tsvangirai was resting at home on the advice of his medical team. Of note is that he declined to specify what his boss was suffering from yet he has always called for transparency on leaders' health matters. Rather than speculate on President Mugabe's fully disclosed eye problem, rumours are mounting on the nature of Tsvangirai's medical dilemma, with the more imaginative pointing to his "undisclosed ailment" as alluded to by his wife Elizabeth Tsvangirai nee Macheka.

Tsvangirai's mouthpiece, the Daily News went on to lead with a headline "I am fit – Tsvangirai " in their May 27 edition, claiming that he was "as fit as a fiddle" and only recharging his batteries at home. For crying out loud, his batteries must really have been flat for it has taken this long to recharge!

Tamborinyoka and company were left with egg on the face when less than 24 hours later, it was revealed that Tsvangirai is actually admitted at the Trauma Centre in Belgravia for a "mental and nervous breakdown". How anyone could be as fit as a fiddle in a hospital bed in the midst of a mental and nervous breakdown really boggles the mind.
 
Why all the secrecy, more-so from people who have always been vocal about the need for the full facts concerning the health of the country's leaders to be disseminated in order to avoid unnecessary speculation?

In a poor and inhuman attempt to use Tsvangirai's illness to gain political mileage, Tamborinyoka went on to claim that Tsvangirai was receiving treatment locally while others went to Singapore implying that it was out of concern for the taxpayers money that he is being treated in Zimbabwe yet it is an open secret that, typical of the door mat policy, he is now as poor as a church mouse.

Should Tsvangirai have been discharged from the Trauma Centre by close of the day yesterday, as he was expected to, then another trauma awaits him. Cutting a forlorn penniless figure, he failed to cough up the nearly $3000 bill accrued for his medical upkeep at the upmarket Trauma Centre.