Unfortunately, one of the things that should have fallen for good by now, but which is stubbornly defying this gravitational pull, is the toxic nature of our politics.
In this polarised climate, the boneheads and windbags on both sides of Zimbabwe’s political divide – egged on by their ignorant minions, mainly on social media – continue to sow seeds of anarchy between and within the country’s two main political parties, a phenomenon that is spreading beyond the political sphere into all societal relations.
The result of all this: everything in the country, including those that relate to the most inane of issues, is now given a political label, and also looked at from a fatal “us” versus “them” perspective.
It is little wonder, therefore, that this pernicious polarisation – which is pushed by a diverse mix of charlatans that include evil-minded politicians and thoroughly discredited so-called journalists – has made political tolerance and compromise impossible in the country in recent years.
As one would expect in this mayhem, the chaos mongers have not spared Zimbabwe’s leading and most influential daily newspaper, the Daily News.
Some of the invectives and claims that have been thrown our way from all manner of quarters since we successfully returned to the news stalls nine years ago have even bordered on the bizarre.
There have been the silly barbs that we are an opposition newspaper out to destroy Zanu-PF. When the ruling party’s factional wars boiled over in 2014, Team Lacoste were then said to be funding us to destroy former VP Joice Mujuru and her allies.
A little later, Grace Mugabe was persuaded to make the egregious lie that we had received a whopping $2 million from the same Mujuru, for a 10 percent shareholding in our company to fight Team Lacoste.
Amazingly, the same airheads in Zanu-PF later claimed that it was in fact Grace and her ambitious G40 allies who were working with us to destroy the then VP Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Fast track to 2020 and a few nincompoops within the burning MDC – cheered by Zimbabwe’s well-known cast of hoaxers, many of whom worked for years in the service of Zanu-PF – now also claim that we have allegedly been “captured” by powerful elements in the ruling party to destroy some opposition leaders and their party.
It all boggles the mind.
As we have observed before, what makes all this the more galling is that among the pathological liars pushing these fanciful claims are the lowlifes who falsely and maliciously also made similar claims in 2017 – going to the extent of making a pitiful presentation to this effect at a Zanu-PF politburo meeting then, just before the military toppled Robert Mugabe from power.
Surprisingly, some MDC bigwigs believe this horse manure.
The good thing is that lies have short legs, and the truth always prevails. As has happened before, the Daily News will be vindicated by time, reality and history.
This brings us to a critical point, about the role of independent media like the Daily News in the life of our society.
Is an independent newspaper one which only reports on the ugly goings-on in Zanu-PF, and ignores the muck in the MDC? In other words, should opposition misdemeanours be ignored by independent media?
Oh Hell No!
At the heart of this stone-age mentality within some opposition circles is a lack of understanding of the role of journalism in a democracy, as well as a misplaced sense of entitlement to positive press by independent media among some high-up MDC dunces.
In these politicians’ twisted minds, if a newspaper criticises Zanu-PF then it is a good and objective paper. If it dares to portray them in negative light, then it is doing the bidding of the ruling party.
et the nub of democracy, media freedom and independent journalism – which these fools claim to stand for – demands that such bigwigs respect the right of newspapers to be critical whenever this is merited.
Indeed, journalism is at its most useful to society when it is challenging and probing against all people in positions of authority. And this most certainly includes opposition leaders.
For the avoidance of doubt, we at the Daily News firmly believe that our duty is to our country only – not to political parties and their leaders: which is why we always “tell it like it is”, without any fear or favour.
To that extent, brawling and misbehaving MDC officials and their hired guns should stand guided that we will never be intimidated by them and their attack dogs, or yield to their dubious agendas.
Our work and history attests to this. Even Mugabe understood this by the time of his death.
