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Herald Reporter

THE Office of the President and Cabinet has raised concern over growing spiteful articles on the First Family disconcertingly and consistently being published in the AMH Group stable newspapers.

This comes as The Standard, a weekly newspaper falsely sought to link First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa to an alleged list of Covid-19 Rescue Fund drawn up and run by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.

In a notice, Deputy Chief Secretary- Presidential Communications, Mr George Charamba said The Standard should retract its story.

“This week’s issue of The Standard spitefully links the First Lady, Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa to an alleged list of Covid-19 Rescue Fund drawn up and run by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.

“For the record, the First Lady has nothing to do with the said list of beneficiaries.

“Secondly, she is neither aware of, nor a shareholder in, a company called PPAC Investments Private Limited, as wrongfully alleged by the paper in the said report.

“The Office would only be too happy to be furnished with evidence linking the First Lady or any member of her household to the said company,” he said.

Mr Charamba said The Standard newspaper’s “fallacious article is driven by ill-will” as shown by an insert in the story which read, “Kwekwe, a city in the Midlands province, is Mnangagwa’s urban home area and he has a farm, Precabe, in the vicinity”.

“Quite how President Mnangagwa’s alleged residence in Kwekwe, or his having a farm in the vicinity of the same city, bears any relevance to the alleged Covid-19 Rescue Fund boggles the mind.

“As before and, in respect of publication under AMH stable, for the second time in about as many weeks, the Office of the President and Cabinet urges the media to desist from maligning the innocent through false reports and/or imputations.

“For this latest calumny, the Office once more requests The Standard to issue a prompt, well-positioned retraction and apology to the First Lady and her Family”.

While last week it was daily tabloid NewsDay that tried to create a filial relationship between the President and one Tarirai Mnangagwa, this time its sister paper, The Standard has been caught peddling falsehoods.