20101105
africanews

The European Union office in Zimbabwe has dismissed claims previously made by the country's state controlled Herald newspaper that the European bloc had accepted President Mugabe's unilaterally appointed envoy.

The Herald reported that the EU ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Dell’Ariccia had told their reporter that the appointments were internal issues within the government of Zimbabwe, not of his organisation’s concern.

“This is a reflection of internal matters, which must be dealt with internally,” quoted The Herald, from which statement the paper presumed the EU had accepted the Zimbabwean Ambassador.

The appointment of senior government officials who include provincial governors, the central bank governor, ambassadors and the attorney general has for a long time threatened the life of the coalition government in Zimbabwe with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai accusing President Mugabe of unilateralism while the later accuses the former of failing to call for the removal of sanctions imposed on him and his party officials by the western countries and the American government.

The Global Political Agreement (GPA) which is the basis from which the coalition government was formed states that the appointment of senior government officials should be done by the President after consulting the other two GPA principals who are PM Tsvangirai from MDC and Professor Authur Mutambara from the breakaway faction of the MDC.

PM Tsvangirai last month wrote letters to United Nations, European Union and South Africa to the effect that the newly appointed Ambassadors where not recognized in Zimbabwe, thus making their appointment null and void.

The Prof Mutambara led faction of the MDC, who are the biggest beneficiaries of the current political setup has condemned PM Tsvangirai’s action along with ZANU-PF officials.

This is the second time in one week that The Herald has run a story that is latter contested by the sources for misquoting them or that they never had an interview at all. Recently the chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly Dr Lovemore Madhuku had a task of writing to all the local media houses the he had never done an interview with The Herald where he was quoted.

The paper literally attacks all opposition forces within and without Zimbabwe including PM Tsvangirai, NCA’s Dr Madhuku and several labour movements in the country from where PM Tsvangirai’s MDC party derive most of its support.