The Daily News
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was addressing a prayer meeting on March 9 organised by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and Zimbabwe Pastoral Fellowship Association at Mucheke Stadium in Masvingo.
According to the New Zimbabwe, this is when he came up with a wise step towards reconciliation with President Mugabe’s supporters. He energetically corrected a newspaper sympathetic to his MDC-T party of “raising political tensions” in the country through sensational reporting and deliberate distortions. Tsvangirai said, “This story claims that I said Mugabe wants war. I never said that, it’s not true.”
Tsvangirai reacted after the privately-owned The Daily News splashed with a story under the headline, ‘Mugabe wants war: Tsvangirai’.
Prime Minister added, “We want peace to prevail in the country, but we have problems with some newspapers that write misleading and inaccurate stories.”
Tsvangirai has previously reserved that treatment for the state media, which he has publicly accused of falsifying stories to discredit his party.
The MDC-T’s distrust of the stridently pro-Zanu PF state media has been conversely matched by Zanu PF’s mistrust of The Daily News – both sides of the media divide accused of abandoning professional standards in pursuit of sensational headlines.
The Daily News report relied on quotes which Tsvangirai made at a news conference last Thursday at which he demanded political reforms before new elections.
“Zimbabweans want a peaceful election and not a war. That is what the people of this country want and that is what SADC wants,” Tsvangirai told delegates at the launch of a document by his party outlining ‘Conditions for a Sustainable Election in Zimbabwe’.
According to Zimeye, Gospel music icons Pastor Charles Charamba and Mrs Olyvia Charamba were to perform at the event alongside high-riding gospel music star Blessing Shumba.