Charamba leaked Talks Documents to The Herald
Investigations
August 16, 2008 | By Metro Investigations Unit | © zimbabwemetro.com ⋅
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In what could be mounting evidence that key people close to Mugabe could be scuttling talks with the MDC, a herald staffer has revealed that the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information George Charamba gave the state paper the highly sensitive talks documents to publish.
‘We were surprised when Charamba gave us the documents way before the talks were concluded on Tuesday afternoon,and specifically told the headline should read ‘ New dawn:Deal sealed’, we published some of the document contents the following day’,the source revealed.
‘At first we thought indeed a deal has been reached,but Charamba called us back with specific instructions on what the story should say’, added the source
On Wednesday The Herald published the documents under the headline:Tsvangirai U-Turn : The facts,in which it claimed that MDC negotiators Tendai Biti and Elton Mangoma were authorised to sign 13 agreements.
The paper went on to list the agreements among them the issue of sanctions,it said;
‘On the 25th of July, Tsvangirai agreed that sanctions were not targeted and the Western economic embargo was hurting the nation and should be lifted as a matter of urgency.
“All forms of measures and sanctions against Zimbabwe (must) be lifted in order to facilitate a sustainable solution to the challenges that are currently facing Zimbabwe.”
The Herald claims however contradict with what MDC National Chairman,Lovemore Moyo , who was also part of the expanded negotiating team said, Moyo said the MDC flatly refused at the talks to speak out against a targeted travel ban on Mugabe and some senior ZANU PF members.
“The document we signed was clear that we refused responsibility for calling off the sanctions and clearly stated that it was not us who said Zanu PF supporters should beat up and rape people,” Moyo said.
There is mounting evidence that George Charamba could be scuttling talks,on the same day Charamba ordered the arrest of MDC media support staffer Andrew Chadwick at the Rainbow towers.
Last week in his weekly column “Nathaniel Manheru”,Charamba accused him of leaking a document to The Star last week which outlined the talks proposal and he called him a ‘rapist of truth’.
The MDC has since accused Charamba of violating the MOU agreement several times by using hate language.
In his infamous column in the state newspaper The Herald Charamba implied that MDC leader,Morgan Tsvangirai was half human.
“…the current talks involve a political Minotaur (a part human and part bull creature) shaped and disfigured..’, wrote Charamba
The vilification prompted an MDC official who requested anonymity to lash out,’These are the same people we are talking to so as to find a common solution to our nation ’s problems,yet Charamba continues to use this kind of language. How do they expect to work with us if they don’t respect our leader?’,he asked.
“There are some in our (MDC) party who are treating these talks with utmost scepticism knowing ZANU PF’s solid history of insincerity,the ongoing violence,intimidation,NGO ban and Charamba’s language, these things just serve to harden their positions.”, the official a newly elected Member of Parliament said.
“When the talks broke off on Tuesday, it became clear that not everyone in Zanu-PF wants the deal,” another well-placed source said yesterday.
“The leak of negotiating documents to the state press . . . is another indication. The documents were leaked by a member of the cabinet. We also expect violence.”
Charamba belongs to the Mnagagwa faction and was major player in the ill-fated Ndiyane plot in December 2004 which was meant to catapult Mnagagwa to the vice presidency, Charamba drafted a speech for Mnangagwa for the event and hired a plane for the meeting.
The Mnagagwa faction is reportedly strongly opposed to any meaningful power sharing deal and is in favour of a cosmetic deal through accommodating a willing partner, the Mutambara faction. Already almost all 10 Mutambara faction MPs have been approached by the faction,some using close friends.
About twenty MDC-Tsvangirai MPs have already been approached by the faction,including a a female MP from Bulawayo and was offered a bribe. The legislator told SW Radio Africa she was offered government tenders for her business and a car, if she voted for a speaker of parliament from the Mnangagwa faction of ZANU PF.
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Very interetsting indeed,ZANU was never serious about these talks!
THIS IS WASTE OF TYME… WHY TSWANGIRAYI STILL ATTEND THESE STUPIT TALKS LET HIM IGNORE AND REFUSE WE WANNA SEE MUGABE AND MUTAMBARA VERI TWO TOWONA KUTI CHI CHICHAYITIKA I BET YOU MUTAMBARA AND MUGABE JUSS WANT TO FOOL TSWANGIRAYI …..LEAVE IT MR MONGIZA TOWONA KUTI MUTAMBARA ACHAYITEYI …..
Charamba would have to be of the biggest morons in the large pool of Zanu PF party morons.
Zwangendaba,
If Mugabe is left alone honestly he will rule till death and be buried at Heroes Acre. To be left alone is exactly what most in ZanuPF want and that is why most are determined to scuttle the talks coz they fear for their priviliges.That is purely the reason why they must not be left alone.Dont fool yourself thinking that the economy will bring them down, far from it.Their are many African countries who have had collapsed economies for decades together with dictatorship leaders and they are still trugging on. Only in Western civilisation can an economy bring down a regime.To leave ZanuPF alone alone would surely be the strategy of a fool and can only be supported by the beneficiaries who in this case are ZanuPF people and Asylum Seekers. Pressure must even be stepped up to Mugabe kusvika abvuma. Dont forget that people in the Regime have millions of forex that why they can afford to splash on themselves and Judges and Chiefs etc The only sufferer is the common person.
I, like many other Zimbabweans, stopped reading the Herald and all the other Zanu PF controlled papers a long, long time ago. All these papers printed was Zanu PF hog-wash from start to finish! On the 14 August 2008, broke my own rule and read The Herald. It was the many independent and international publications who encourage me to read it- The Herald was reporting on what was covered in the hitherto secretive Mugabe- Tsvangirai and Mutambara tripartite talks.
According to the terms of the Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) signed by all the parties to the Zimbabwe talks there was to be a total media blackout on the talks. The Herald’s report was based on documents about the talks “seen by The Herald”. The most likely leak here was Zanu PF. Mugabe himself had dropped hinds on how the talks were proceeding in his Heroes Day speech, for example.
It is Mugabe himself who stood to gain the most from the media blackout. He has always held the Zimbabwe public in total contempt and not worthy of the fundamental right to be heard and freedom of expression even on matters of critical national importance. Indeed, as far as he is concerned, especially on such matters!
Why Mugabe would have authorised the leak – no one within Zanu PF would have dared do such thing without his approval, such is his hold not only on the country but on his party too? Mugabe is almost paranoid about rules when it suits his agenda only to disregard or even break the same rule the next minute. It all serve to underline his own position he has absolute power on the one hand and on the other hand he himself above the law.
Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara and their respective MDC factions were foolish to agree to the media blackout in the first place. They should have known they will be gagged but not Mugabe. The latter, true to form continued to pour out of his vitriolic rhetoric like hot ash out of an active volcano. But worse still, both Tsvangirai and Mutambara should have know this would be a slap in the face of every Zimbabweans who for thirty years now has been demanding a meaningful say in the governance of the country.
That Tsvangirai and Mutambara should join Mugabe in his contemptuous disregard of what the people think and say is particularly disappointing given that only yesterday they were with the people in the outrage. But that is what power does to people. The two may only have ascended a few metres up the mountain above us the populous at the base and already they are “looking down” on us. They see it as fit and proper that they should make decision affecting us all without as much as “By your leave!”
To judge from what Mutambara has been saying recently; the man certainly has no head for heights. A few metres up the mountain and already he is hallucinating!
As for Mugabe he is at the very top of the mountain. His head is in the clouds and already he thinks he is a God! Infallible and therefore not to be questioned by mere mortal!
The Herald’s report on the “seen document” was going to be the usual Herald hog-wash but I also it would be foolish to ignore it. There are four reasons why that was so:
1) Whilst it would be true that the Herald would pick only those items which Mugabe wanted discussed at the talks and give them the spin Mugabe himself would have given them and ignore all the other issues. Still it was worth knowing those picked items, to confirm what many people had already guessed Mugabe would want discussed.
2) Mugabe is the dominant figure in these talks- like it or loath it- and therefore his agenda would constitute the talks’ agenda.
3) It would not inconceivable that both Tsvangirai and Mutambara would discuss whatever Mugabe wanted discussed. The two have discussed and agreed on outrageous things Mugabe put before them in the past; the 18th Constitutional Amendment last year and, as stated above, conniving with Mugabe in denying Zimbabweans a meaningful say in shaping the outcome of these talks.
4) This would be a rare chance to comment on the talks. Mugabe would want to present the people of Zimbabwe with a fiat compile of whatever he bamboozle Tsvangirai and Mutambara to sign.
According to The Herald report Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara agreed on the following:
• To have the West imposed economic sanctions lifted
• End all outside interference in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. A theme Mutambara commented on with gusto in his Hero’s Day article. And, apparently, one that has caused Tsvangirai and ultimately the talks themselves great difficult. He reportedly wanted “the next Government to be premised on the results of the inconclusive March 29 elections – a demand that has been the cornerstone of the Western opposition to Zimbabwe’s electoral process;” commented The Herald.
• Britain was to honour its Lancaster House obligation to fund land tenure reforms in the country.
• All external radio stations to be closed and Zimbabweans working for them to return to Zimbabwe and “start working for the good of the country rather than for its enemies”.
• State organs and institutions, rule of law, etc – The Herald gave no details of what exactly was agreed beyond the simple statement.
• Security of persons and prevention of violence, etc. – again no details given
• Promotion of equality, national healing, cohesion and unity – again no details
The root cause of Zimbabwe’s economic melt down is that the present regime of Robert Mugabe is incompetent and corrupt. And whilst Zimbabweans have been aware of this for years, there was absolutely nothing they could do about it because the regime has ruthlessly denied us all a meaningful say in the governance of the country. None of the agreed things above address these underlying economic and political causes.
The Zanu PF and MDC talks have been going on for years now, ever since the disputed 2000 and 2002 election results. Is it any wonder they have achieved nothing when all the parties talk endlessly about is trivial matters.
Mugabe and Mutambara are reportedly ready to sign and form a new government on the basis of the trivia agreed above. Tsvangirai, “would be accommodated in the new Government when he was ready to sign” The Herald said.
Even Tsvangirai, for all his own shortcomings and incompetence, he has seen the talks, based on Mugabe’s set agenda, are a waste of time. He would have walked out a lot time ago if only he had an alternative plan. As it is, he too will sign whatever rubbish Mugabe puts before him!
The so called new government would be a great disappointment because it will accomplish nothing. How could it when, like the Mugabe regime before it, it seeks to address problems that are not there whilst ignoring the real problems.
Zimbabwe’s economic and political mess will remain, if anything, it will get a lot worse! If we are to end the mess then we must get competent leaders not people like Mugabe, Tsvangirai or Mutambara. The three are a joke; the whole world sees them as a joke. If we are serious about solving our problems and want the world take us seriously then we need to take ourselves seriously!
Msg to brother Thabo Mbeki: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality” Quoted from a Desmond Tutu speech.
Those who hav ears let them hear.
hate language indeed
WHO are “the people” and what are “the people”? Are “the people” slow? Are “the people” thick? Are “the people” liars, mendacious, deceitful? Are “the people” base?
“We the people” have spoken, but what did they say, what are they saying? “We the people” have voted, but who did they vote for, what are they voting for?
What do “the people” want? Do they even know what they want, or do they lie to themselves, lie to other people, and lie in the polling booths? Can you believe a word that “the people” say?
Who are “the people”? Are they only people like you? Are “the people” only people who are businessmen and businesswomen like you? Are “the people” only people who live in urban areas like you do? If you live in town or a city, are the people who live in rural areas, the countryside, people, too?
Are rich people “the people”? And are you part of “the people” if you are a member of a family that is elite? Are the elite people?
Do you, reader, consider yourself to be “the people”? Or are “the people”, to you, other people? People out there, washed or unwashed, great or not great, nasty or not nasty, base or not base, but always, other people? Are they mostly poor, to you? Mostly stupid, or, at least mostly not quite as bright and intelligent as you? Mostly not quite as attuned to what is going on as you are?
“The people dem ah renk!” is a popular Jamaican street saying which in strict literal translation means “the people stink”, but in actual usage means “the people” are a nasty piece of work, a waste of space. It is one of my favourite sayings, one I use a lot. The great irony? These other people probably think exactly the same of you: “the people” are always somebody else.
Politicians spend their working lives talking at length about “the people”. But what do they actually know about these people they talk about? Which of them lives among “the people”, really lives with them, who is an elected politician?
How long do they spend among “the people”, really spend, outside of driving or flying in for special or ordinary visiting times, for speech-making, for electioneering?
Who sees “the people” close up and very personally on a day-to-day basis, lives among them, eats among them, talks to them, every single day — but who is not, strictly, of them? That is, he or she is of the ruling class, a politician, a leader?
It seems to me that it is very easy to forget what it is like to be one of “the people”. But then again, do “the people” really expect their leaders to dwell amongst them? Do they not expect their rulers to live in big mansions, ride in big cars, have plenty of money and lavish lifestyles, otherwise their leaders and politicians would be no better than them, and what, then, would give them the right to rule over “the people”?
But “the people” want it both ways, do they not? “Look at him,” they say of a leader, “eating and I have no food! Look at his birthday cake — where is my cake so I can eat it too?” Deliver them cakes, but would that satisfy them?
Who are “the people” to a politician? His constituents or his country? Are people who support opposing parties “the people”? If the opposition is murdering, torturing, ill-treating “your” people, who then, does the opposition comprise of? People. Surely, “the people”.
And if the boot were not on their foot, where, pray is the guarantee that “your” people would not behave in like manner? Are not “your” people, that the opposition is “persecuting”, people who are capable of doing exactly the same things to “the people” who are not seen as being “their people”?
Yes, they, your people are capable of being persecutors, murderers, torturers, starvers, that you allege “other people” are. Otherwise, you will need to spell out what is so different about “your” people, people from the same rural areas, from the same towns, from the same cities, from the same educational (or lack of educational) backgrounds, with the same upbringing.
What makes “my people” murderers and “your people” incapable of murder?
Politicians say they are “working on behalf of the people”. What they do not say is which people they work for. They cannot be working for all the people. They work for and profess to love their people.
Take them away, out of their section of “the people”, the familiar, comfortable people, and put them among others of “the people” and see how they fare and how they feel now and see how long they last.
What do “the people” want? Can you treat “the people” better than they deserve? Yes, in my experience, it is definitely possible to do that. If you see, observe, spot that what “the people” want has changed, is changing, will change, what do you do about that and when do you do it?
When did “the people” — which people? — of Zimbabwe decide that the Western-backed Movement for Democratic Change had become a party that was good enough for them to replace Zanu-PF?
When did Zanu-PF realise that “the people” — which people? — had moved away so far, had lost sight of the revolution to the extent that they could even contemplate voting for, bringing in Members of Parliament who were being primed and prompted, propped up, funded and aided by Western powers whose sole aim is the destruction of Zanu-PF, the revolution, and the man who symbolises both: President Robert Mugabe?
Are “the people” who voted for voted for the MDC so radically different in countenance and personality, shape and form from “the people” who voted for Zanu-PF? No, they are not. You cannot. You cannot tell the people of Zimbabwe apart from each other.
Therefore, how does the West know, how are they so certain that the leader of the MDC, and “the people” who have voted for the MDC into its current parliamentary majority, are such nice, good, clean-living, fantastic people incapable of despotism, dictatorship, atrocity? The West does not know. They do not care to know because they do not care.
What they care about, what they want is the break-up, the end of a revolutionary, liberation-era party that reminds them of their defeat, failure, and losses.
When one man is hated to such an extent by a group of nations all sharing the same skin colour that there is an editorial in the biggest mass-selling daily British newspaper calling for his murder, and a prime-time mass audience British state television programme airs views calling for his death, as in the case of President Mugabe and his presidential election run-off, then you realise that it is something, perhaps some things, other than the man himself that is also hated.
What does that man, Mugabe, represent? “We are not a British colony,” he instructs them. “We are not a British colony.” The British would like him dead.
Why do the British and their people want his Zimbabwean opposer, the other man, the other guy, the one who threw in the towel? What does that other man represent to the white nations of Europe and America? What is this one capable of being, of becoming that pleases them?
When it is said or written that actions are taken and things are done “on behalf of the people” of Zimbabwe, my question is: on behalf of what? Their virtues? Their morals? Their decencies? It is up to “the people” and the Government of Zimbabwe to provide their living standards.
But how do you protect the minds of a revolutionary country from being seduced by outsiders and their promises of a life lived as richly empty as theirs? If “the people”, after one generation, are tired of hearing about “the revolution”, how do you freshen their minds? By making the revolution modern. By saying that the revolution wasn’t just then; the revolution is now.
The revolution is how you live every day each day, each night, each month, each year. The revolution is you and your life. The revolution is your family and your children and your future.
Protect the revolution. What was gained in harsh struggle over years can be lost — or thrown away — in an instant. If Western lives are so great, so golden, why do their people want the little in comparison that Africans have? Why do they want what is yours when they have so much already? Because they have so much and yet they have nothing at all in comparison.
We think we have so little and yet we have so much. Seeing the true value of what you have. Seeing it and recognising it before those who truly know the value seize it from you.
They say we are the “poorest” continent, and yet they will not leave us alone. They are all over us, trying to take, take, take. Who steals from the “poor”? Do rich people covet a poor man’s goods? Do they sit and plot how to rob from those who do not have? Perhaps only if they suffer from mental illnesses.
The revolution is still a work in progress. More work, more progress. It will never “finish”. There is no “end”. You have to remain ever vigilant to protect the gains of the past. There is no “that’s in the past”, when foreign powers still want to relive their past in your territory. And take back from you today what they possessed yesterday.
I say this and I say it now, today: President Mugabe is the greatest African leader! He has done it all. He has fought and won in all three wars: national, political, empowerment. His legacy cannot be surpassed. Look at him, listen to him, read him, and you will see this: God is by his side.
For me, Mugabe has become the barometer of African consciousness. What you think of him, how high you hold him up, this great African leader, will reveal how conscious, how aware, how awake you are to Africa’s past, present, and future realities.
Mogidza, I love your english and the creativity but not the contents,but is it true though that you’ve been fired as the new editor of The Herald now that Zvayi is back from exile and you are now ready for a new dawn under the leadership of non other than MDC.Welcome aboard-Your Captain **Morgan T.
lets forget about politics and talk sense, any zimbbabwean ladies out there who are willing to try it with a lady i am a lovely lady if you want to chat with me you have to show that you are interested. its my first time to fancy girls so dont worry mntaka**** lets give it a go
if we all have Zimbabwe at heart, then the way for true democracy will not as hilly as the Zanoids want it to be. A government , who as a trustee of the natural rights of the people, should it fail to protect and comply with its constitutional contratual obligation of protecting those rights, would automatically forfeit its office and leave the people free to conclude a subsequent social compact with the new sovereign. But this is not the case in Zmbabwe. A Zimbabwean perspective shows that, Zimbabweans are once in every few years given the an unfair short opprtunity to vote; to elect representatives form the oppressing class, who will repress them for another term. When people complain, they are labelled, ‘enemies of the state’. People have been oppressed, people have and are indeed fighting for their quest for social justice. Therefore, its war with the Zanoids. However, everything that has the beginning has an end. Zanoids will certainly perish its a matter of time.