State-controlled media, The Herald and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) have totally ignored the statement issued by Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, General Constantino Chiwenga on Monday. In the statement, General Chiwenga warns President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF to stop purging liberation war veterans or risk a military intervention. This came after the general’s ally, former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa fled the country and went into exile after being dismissed from both the Zanu-PF party and government. Treatment such as the ignoring of press statements from senior officials is usually reserved for opposition party leaders such as Morgan Tsvangirai.
The Herald initially covered the General’s press conference and posted live tweets from the press conference. However, the paper, later on, deleted the tweets and pulled down an article that it had written. The paper also removed a Youtube video it had posted of the press conference.
ZBC, on the other hand, did not cover the military’s press statement at all either via radio or television.
Image Credit: Zim Media Review, Collen Bapiro