In what could be mounting evidence that the state media is being used by some key people in ZANU to destroy talks through fabricating stories and vilifying Tsvangirai. Herald Journalist Mabasa Sasa who on Tuesday wrote the ‘Deal sealed ‘ story and was handed the sensitive talks documents by George Charamba has been exposed.

In his latest news report the reporter claimed that,

“When Tsvangirai briefed the Organ on Politics he was challenged by President dos Santos and asked how he reconciled his power claims with the requirements of Zimbabwe’s electoral law.’

Metro has since established that there were only three people in the briefing Dos Santos, Kikwete and Mswati,neither of these presidents spoke to the press. Tsvangirai’s briefing was the last and was in the evening.

No journalist had any contact with the three presidents, it is unimaginable let alone feasible that Sasa could have been told by any leader,or source and at what time.

Without giving any back up to his report the reporter further claimed that ‘Indications are that the Sadc secretariat is also “angry” with the manner in which Tsvangirai had been stalling and pressure was mounting on him to “be reasonable”.The reporter did not specify what those indicators were.

However what all journalists saw and was widely reported by respected news agencies was that an estimated 2,000 and 3,000 people protested against Mugabe’s presence outside of a regional summit venue.

The protesters also delivered a memorandum to the executive secretary of SADC saying, “Robert Mugabe is not legitimate leader of his country … he has not been democratically elected by the people of his country.”

Metro has already reported that Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information George Charamba gave the reporter the talks documents to publish before the talks had collapsed and specifically told the reporter the headline should read ‘ New dawn:Deal sealed’.

The same reporter went on to publish a doctored version of the documents under the headline:Tsvangirai U-Turn : The facts, he claimed that MDC negotiators agreed with ZANU PF on 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.

The claims have since been debunked MDC National Chairman,Lovemore Moyo , who was also part of the expanded negotiating team publicly said the MDC flatly refused at the talks to speak out against a targeted travel ban on Mugabe and some senior ZANU PF members.

George Charamba who directs the Herald editorial content belongs to the Mnangagwa faction and was major player in the ill-fated Ndiyane plot in December 2004 which was meant to catapult Mnangagwa 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.