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Cde Khaya Moyo

According to Dr Obert Mpofu, the Party’s secretary for finance, the national fundraising dinners held in Harare and Bulawayo last month, also exceeded budget targets by three times.

Tafara Shumba Correspondent
As the revolutionary party’s 15th National Annual People’s Conference is on the go in Victoria Falls, the MDC-T and its allies in the opposition camp have pushed the panic button, causing them to react in the most asinine manner.

The conference roars into life amid futile attempts by detractors to discredit it by way of propagating all sorts of blatant lies in the media.

Of course, the detractors have all the reasons to go into panic mode for zanu-pf is going to emerge from the conference stronger than ever, with all its machinery re-oiled.

The conference was well prepared with the party holding successful fundraising dinners in all provinces. The provincial fundraising dinners harvested more than their allotted budget target of US$50 000.

According to Dr Obert Mpofu, the Party’s secretary for finance, the national fundraising dinners held in Harare and Bulawayo last month, also exceeded budget targets by three times.

The bulk of the fund came from the corporate world and individuals who have not only the party but the nation at heart. The oversubscribed fundraising dinners attest to the confidence that people still have in the revolutionary party.

With such a bumper harvest from the fundraising dinners, the NewsDay woke up on December 4 with a shameless screamer — ‘zanu-pf forces civil servants to donate for Indaba.’

The paper flagrantly fed the public with barefaced lies, alleging that civil servants were forced to pay $5 each for the conference.

The NewsDay said a memo sent to civil servants in Beitbridge purportedly written by one Notious Tarisai, an Assistant Regional Immigration Officer partly reads, “Subject: Request for financial contributions towards the zanu-pf conference. Following a meeting attended recently concerning the above subject matter, all staff members are requested to pay US$5 each by the pay date, i.e. 27-11-15.”

The reporter contacted Tarisai and zanu-pf spokesperson, Cde Simon Kaya Moyo who both refuted the authenticity of the memo. However, the NewsDay went on to put the lies on paper despite the facts he was furnished with.

The paper wanted to portray zanu-pf as a party that is extorting money from the hard-pressed civil servants. By publishing a story they knew very well perverts the truths, they thought they would successfully alienate zanu-pf from the civil servants.

Unfortunately for them, the civil servants could not fall hook, line and sinker for hoax as they saw through the plot.

November 27 came to pass, still the civil servants did not pay a dime.

Only a half-baked journalist can buy that gibberish. After exceeding the budget target by three times, how can zanu-pf go on to force civil servants to donate a paltry $5.

Even the NewsDay’s sister paper, The Zimbabwe Independent had a story that acknowledged that zanu-pf exceeded the $3 million target.

However, The Zimbabwe Independent also attempted to tell the public that the target was exceeded because companies including state enterprises were forced to pay. The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dr Samuel Udenge is said to have marshalled $700 000 from parastataals under his sway.

zanu-pf is a people’s party that is very sensitive to the needs and aspirations of its people. At a time Government is running around hunting for money to fund power generation projects, zanu-pf cannot do that. Perhaps Morgan Tsvangirai can do that for he recently bought a $100 000 Mercedes Benz ML when the party coffers are completely dry with party workers going for months without salaries.

After all, it is not a crime for any organisation, be it religious or political, to request for donations. As such, there was no reason for Tarisai and Cde Kaya Moyo to refute the memo if it had indeed come from zanu-pf. They distanced themselves from it because zanu-pf never sanctioned same.

Thus, the alleged memo is a fraudulent act of detractors bend on soiling the good name of the party.

The alleged memo could have been penned by the MDC-T with a view to discrediting the party.

It is an archaic war tactic used by the Selous scouts, who killed innocent villagers disguised as freedom fighters.

It could have been also the work of some criminal elements bend on duping civil servants.

In all earnest, how can zanu-pf selectively force civil servants in Beitbridge only?

How can Tarisai, an immigration officer who is not a zanu-pf official write that memo?

These are some of the questions that the journalist should have interrogated before putting ink on paper.

Even if the memo is to be given a benefit of the doubt, still the journalist stands accused of deliberately drawing a long bow.

The alleged memo is requesting not forcing. This exposes the paper as a willing tool signed up to propagate a sinister agenda crafted in a certain political office.

This is not the first time that detractors attempted to throw mud into the conference.

The private media was awash with speculation which they tried to sanitise by attributing them to some phony political analysts.

The public was told that the conference will see many changes in the leadership including the Presidium. That conference which is running under the theme ‘Consolidating People’s power through Zim-Asset’ is mainly meant to review the year 2015 with a view to taking stock of the progress the party made, what it has not done and proffer the way forward.