allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Muckraker - the Vituperations of a Sore Loser (Page 1 of 3)

IS there anybody in the state media who will tell us the truth? The ultimate deception was a Herald heading on Saturday which claimed there was "No Winner" in the presidential election.

So the man who came first did not win? Well, none of the candidates secured an absolute majority. Therefore there was "No Winner".

So that's how it works? And if President Mugabe had won 47% of the vote and Morgan Tsavangirai 43%, would the Herald have told us there was no winner?

Putting aside this gross dishonesty for which we waited six weeks, there was another bit of electoral news on the same page: "Brown humiliated in UK council polls".

So the news of a local government setback for the Labour leader in the UK eclipses the manifest humiliation of our own leader whose pathetic 43% of the poll was the best he could do after blandishments, threats and inducements on an epic scale?

Perhaps the worst dimension to all this was Zanu PF's claim that the results "did not reflect the genuine expression of the will of the Zimbabwean people". This was after Mugabe had told us (when he thought he was winning) to accept the results with good grace.

Emmerson Mnangagwa complained about anomalies, malpractice and inflation of opposition figures.

"The anomalies revealed a pattern in the management of the electoral process which was biased against Zanu PF and in favour of the MDC," Mnangagwa claimed.

In other words all the things Zanu PF used to get away with are now the subject of bitter disputation!

Zesn was accused of being a conduit for British and American funds used to bribe electoral officials. Did the police find any evidence of that in their raid on Zesn's offices two weeks ago?

"In short Zanu PF and all its candidates, especially its presidential candidate, feel aggrieved and were greatly prejudiced by attempts by the MDC and its sponsors to tamper with the electoral system," Mnangagwa declared.

Again, has this been proved? Or is it, as we suspect, the vituperations of a sore loser? We thought the lengthy sifting of votes in 21 constituencies was designed to produce the smoking gun Zanu PF was looking for. Evidently it proved elusive.

Tafataona Mahoso was equally bitter with voters.

"What Dr Gono did not reveal (in his latest monetary statement) is the shocking fact," Mahoso said, "that a very significant minority among our own people, 47% of those who voted in the recently concluded harmonised elections, in fact voted for the very same foreign-sponsored party which asked for and received the curse of illegal sanctions upon the people...The continuing existence of such a foreign-sponsored party and the existence of such a significant minority who elected 99 sanctions-loving MPs into our parliament now constitutes a national scandal..."

Mahoso obviously hasn't learnt Rule No 1 in politics: Never insult the voters.

He is evidently one of those who view the people as unreliable and in need of reconstitution.

He is unable to grasp the fact that sanctions were the product of a systematic assault upon voters in 2002 which is now repeating itself.

There will be no respite for Mahoso or Gono as long as they persist in supporting a brutal and delinquent regime.

And is our information correct, that Gono was among the recalcitrant gang of service chiefs and others who beseeched Mugabe immediately after the poll not to surrender to the democratic outcome? A clarification from the governor would be useful.

Meanwhile, we were amused amidst the gloom to hear that Gono "waved his magic wand once more" in his monetary policy review to "bring relief to the majority of Zimbabweans". His statement was "just what the doctor ordered", the Herald declared.

Herald reporters who engage in such Pollyanna reporting should ask themselves what happened on all the previous occasions he got his wand out.

He may tickle their fancy with that wand of his but the country is no better off. So stop trying to fool the public.

And by the way, where else has a central bank governor changed policy on the back of advice from a joker?

Gono confessed that he increased cash withdrawal limits after taking advice from ZTV's Dr Zobha.

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