Concocted Mutasa charges and Zanu PF’s cowardice

via Concocted Mutasa charges and Zanu PF’s cowardice – The Zimbabwe Independent January 30, 2015

Murder, under-age sex and fraud. These are just some of the charges Didymus Mutasa is facing, according to the Sunday Mail last weekend. Zanu PF Manicaland province, it seems, is behind these charges which include murder, corruption and abuse of office.

Needless to say, nobody has actually been found guilty of these allegations which have all the hallmarks of the state media which abuses its columns on behalf of a malignant state.

No matter that such abuse is dissembling and unprofessional. We are all familiar with this sort of behaviour and it is obvious it has lost its purchase long ago. Who believes Mutasa is guilty of these charges?

Poor old Patrick Chinamasa has been roped in to give substance to these scurrilous allegations. He is heading a special task force that is investigating Mutasa’s record, the Sunday Mail announced.

“We have cases of sexual abuse and abuse of party funds,” Muchinguri said. Chinamasa is heading the special task force that is now finalising its findings, she said.

Good luck to him. But he is unlikely to make much progress with Zanu PF’s mafia gang blurring the picture. But worse that these charges should be concocted is the cowardice that informs all Zanu PF speculation of this sort. Who can forget Ben Manashe who provided dissembling material on Morgan Tsvangirai to an Australian TV channel? Then there was a Canadian connection.

Talk of Cold Comfort

It is worth noting that Mutasa’s Cold Comfort Farm along with other nationalist centres was the recipient of extensive white liberal funding. Mutasa’s detractors should beware of turning up the volume on this one.

Turning up the volume is something President Robert Mugabe does well. At the airport last Thursday he was was in typical form abusing his critics. But he seemed to be keeping his powder dry for his least severe opponents.

Mutasa and former vice-president Joice Mujuru are keen for him to go, but were prepared to wait. Why then the unpleasant language such as “stupid fool” for Mutasa, the most loyal of followers? Is this the language of a statesman? And what will the AU make of it? Do they talk like that?

Indecorous language

Muckraker was pleased to see Alex Magaisa responding to the abuse Mugabe spewed at the airport last Thursday.

Mugabe came under fire for using “unpresidential language” and insulting political foes who cannot respond to his tirades because he is protected by law.

“If you look across the world,” Magaisa said, “There is a manner which is dignified and respectful by which holders of high office are expected to conduct themselves. Presidents do not go around using indecorous language against opponents. They might differ in their opinions, but they do not go around calling each other names. They know that such conduct undermines their own image and makes them look petty and vindictive.”

Magaisa said it was unfair for Mugabe to insult others and then hide behind an undemocratic law.

“It is obviously unfair for him to insult others and then hide behind insult laws,” Magaisa said.

I would have thought the reason for shielding the president from insults was to protect the dignity of this office, but when the president himself is the author of insults, surely, this has a negative impact.

Many Zimbabweans who witnessed the attack on Mutasa at the airport will have been shocked and digusted by Mugabe’s description of Mutasa as a “stray braying ass” and “stupid fool”. How often do we hear a head of state using this kind of language?