via Under fire Charamba’s Mugabe quit hint 27/01/2014 NewZimbabwe
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson has inadvertently revealed that the veteran leader may be planning to retire despite his party insisting he will be its candidate for the 2018 elections.
But the official line remains that he is in fine fettle and will see out his current five year term and then seek another mandate in 2018.
However, his spokesman, George Charamba, let slip the veteran leader may be contemplating retirement in a curious interview with the State-run Herald newspaper on Monday.
“My real wish is not to be a day longer in Government after the President’s retirement because whoever comes must be able to select their own team,” Charamba said.
Besides being Mugabe’s spokesman, Charamba is also the permanent secretary for the Information Ministry which is responsible for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).
Revelations of the mess at ZBC where the CEO was taking home $40,000 while ordinary workers went unpaid for six months appeared to have left Charamba under pressure.
The ZBC board was promptly sacked after Jonathan Moyo took over as Information Minister while the CEO was sent home on indefinite leave.
Questions however emerged on why Charamba and Moyo’s predecessor, Webster Shamu, did not take action to address the malaise at the national broadcaster.
And in what was a clear attempt to clear his name, a report was then leaked to the State media claiming Charamba wrote to Shamu expressing concern over the situation at ZBC and urging action.
But no sooner had that little trouble passed than revelations also emerged that the chief executive officer at the government-run and heavily indebted Premier Service Medical Aid Society (PSMAS) was earning whopping $230,000 per month.
Apart from the debt pile, PSMAS has been failing to pay service providers forcing members, most of them civil servants, to pay cash upfront for healthcare.
Charamba, it so happens, is a member of the PSMAS board which begs the question whether he was aware of Dube’s outrageous salary and what he did about it.
Dube and the PSMAS board chairperson were sent packing on Monday.
He told the Herald: “When we had the GNU and Minister (Webster) Shamu had been appointed new Minster of Information, I actually authored a memo to the President proposing that in the context of the GNU and its strange politics, would it not have been wiser for us to go back to the old system where the President would have his own Press Unit distinct from the Ministry of Information, and my reasons were very political.
“The President said no, you have to keep both and you are old enough to manage both portfolios – which I did – but the MDC leadership was not happy with that kind of arrangement,” said Charamba who is also believed to be pro-Zanu PF Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru.
“For me it was a very versatile arrangement because I could shoot as Secretary of Information on matters to do with the structures of Government but still escape the limitations of being Secretary of Information by taking another identity as spokesperson of the President,” he said.
“So it gives me some very malleable room. I can assure you that the MDC admits that the two roles were used to devastating effect.”
COMMENTS
George Charamba is and has a motor-mouth. Learn to keep quiet.
More will be revealed… We are deep in there. The cookie now crumbles.Watch this space…..
The man has never known the difference between Mugabe and Zimbabwe. He has just admitted Mugabe is above the nation. He doesn’t understand he earns tax dollars. That he should crow about using his position as a weapon against the MDC shows just how narrow minded he is.
We are preparing his special room at hotel Chikurubi, we will let you know when the guest can move in.
This man is full of big words and lots of conspiracy theories (true or not) yet he does not know a simple human resource management fact that a good worker will not necessarily be good manager.
Why does he want to tackle complicated issues (conspiracy theories) when he cant even recruit, select, and appoint an appropriate CEO of a company like ZBC. If he cannot assist in the proper selection of a simple CEO who can produce results how does he expect to take on the whole world’s politics. Putting the cart before the mule.
Zimbabweans in general want to use theories upon theories to solve problems when the solutions are really quite simple. The type of education that Zimbos receive is typically manifested in the works of Mr Charamba (Nathaniel Manheru). All theory and no practicality to solve problems. Trying to sound all intelligent but not solutions for everyday life.
Oh Hutu we like you. You feed us these delectable little tidbits! And sure, the cookie is crumbling! And will sure watch that space. “But this is what I commanded them saying, ‘Obey My voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people….Yet they did not obey or incline their ear but followed the counsels and dictates of their own evil hearts and went backwards and not forwards.” Ezekiel 7:23-24
who cares. Let them eat each other.
I long for a day when the president and his hangers-on will introspect and audit their performance to date.Yes we are all words and no action and R.Mugabe clearly typifies this. Worse still he knows we will not lift a finger hence the impunity. FORGET THE SMALL FISH.. Muchechetere. C.Dube AIR ZIMBABWE, NRZ,G.Charamba the list is endless…the buck stops with the NATION’s CEO R.G.MUGABE.
God is the ultimate Auditor… and, they who have turned and rebelled against righteousness to fill their pockets with loot and power and corruption, the result of that judgment will be utterly devastating and without reprieve. I shutter to think of it………
Glory be to God.
Mutare,nyamauru high school the headmaster and SDA needs to be well investigated.