via Moyo: Mutasa claims – why now? – NewZimbabwe 26 January 2015
INFORMATION minister Jonathan Moyo has said there is nothing investigative about some stories appearing in the state media as most of the information is supplied by politicians with grudges against rivals.
Moyo said this last Friday while addressing local editors at their annual general meeting in Harare.
Giving examples, the minister said if state media was conducting real investigations then recent stories about sacked Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa should have been reported ages ago.
The Sunday Mail reported that Mutasa, who was also presidential affairs minister, gave 15 farms to his wives, lovers and relatives.
Said Moyo: “One of the interesting questions that has come up in the Mutasa debate is that people are saying …
“ … so you guys, you just want to start telling us he has 15 farms … what what, now that he is out, why didn’t tell us that he had 15 farms when he was in?
“It’s not even us announcing this information, its people coming with that information, but to me it’s the indictment of the media.
“They are busy writing these irrelevant things and you pride yourself as an investigative journalist, why are you telling us now?”
After he was axed from his party and government jobs for allegedly working with former vice president Joice Mujuru to illegally remove President Robert Mugabe from power, the state media has been awash with various graft and abuse of office charges against Mutasa.
The Mail recently claimed that the disgraced former minister would soon be charged with abuse of office for distributing land to his wives, girlfriends and relatives.
It was also claimed that Mutasa was pocketing nearly $20,000 per month from tenants occupying properties owned by Zanu PF in Rusape.
Suddenly a “Mafia Boss”, Mutasa was also accused of murder, under age sex and fraud.
Mutasa denies claims he was part of a plot to oust Mugabe and recently penned an article dismissing as illegal the December party congress which deposed him from his powerful Zanu PF position.
He said he, and other disgruntled party officials, would soon launch a court challenge against the congress and seek the return to office of the leadership which was in place before the meeting.
The daring earned Mutasa a sharp rebuke from Mugabe as the veteran leader returned from his extended holiday in the Far East.
Addressing supporters at Harare International Airport, Mugabe said Mutasa was now “near being mad”, adding the former cabinet minister was “a stray ass beyond redemption”.
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