Saturday 30 October 2010

The Gono-Grace ‘affair’: Was that story the truth?

Saturday, 30 October 2010 00:00

Last week Zimbabwe was rocked by the scandalous details of an alleged affair between First Lady Grace Mugabe and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon Gono.



While the details of the sensational Sunday Times story reverberated on the Internet around the world, none of the Zimbabwean newspapers touched it.



The Sunday Times recently laun-ched a special Zimbabwean edition of the newspaper. While the details of the Gono/Mugabe affair would make more relevant reading in Harare than in Johannesburg and London, the majority of the population of Zimbabwe, those without access to the Internet remained largely ignorant of the alleged scandal.

That was until copies of the article were printed on office computers and circulated in Harare.

Reporter Jon Swain’s scandalous scoop has raised many an eyebrow, particularly within the Zimbabwe media many asking, “Is the story true?”

I will attempt to provide a logical response to that question.

I seek to address fundamental issues of professional and ethical journalism in the context of the strategies employed in the construction of Swain’s article.

A source close to both Gono and Grace told an online publication the story was “littered with falsehoods”.

“The story claims Cain Chademana was a senior police officer and a decorated veteran of Zimbabwe’s independence struggle,” she said. “That’s a decorated lie because Chademana died aged 36, and (was) therefore too young to have fought in any war. Again, he was never a police officer.”

The source said around the time Sabina Mugabe is supposed to have spoken to President Mugabe about his wife’s alleged infidelity she was in a coma and was, therefore, unable to speak.

Both Sabina Mugabe and Chademana, the only two witnesses who could testify in court to the veracity of the alleged facts, are dead and, therefore, not available to help their defence. The Sunday Times was cognisant of this.

Another give-away indication that there might be more to Swain’s story than meets the eye is the manner in which he handles his sources.

On one occasion Swain apparently conducted a group interview with several (CIO) officials.

Not only did Swain accomplish the rare feat of persuading CIO officials to be interviewed as a group, which is very unlikely; he also got them to articulate whole sentences, while speaking in unison, which, of course is impossible.

A Zimbabwean journalist who also cannot be named, said he had known Chademana personally from 1997 when he was security aide to the late Eddision Zvobgo.

“Chademana was probably 36-38 years at the time of his death,” he said.

“He was almost my age, and would never have gone to war. In fact, he went to school with my journalist colleagues, and finished his A-Levels here in 1992.”

The journalist said Chademana had been unwell for a long time.







suspect investigative journalism



Many journalists in Harare have openly marvelled at Swain’s apparent long-distance penchant for cultivating hordes of sources, even in the most unlikely places. Apparently he remarkably has several sources within the ranks of Zimbabwe’s much feared Central Intelligence Organisation also within the fortress that is the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and at Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Farm.

Normally only a journalist with suicidal tendencies would pester “the boys in dark glasses” with pointed questions about the alleged secret love life of the First Lady of Zimbabwe, before proceeding to her farm to do the same among the farm workers.

The security arrangements around the farm would be above average. It is unlikely a white journalist straight off a flight from London would be pampered with details of which bedroom the lady of the house uses when allegedly visiting with the governor of the Reserve Bank.





by geoffrey nyarota


This article first appeared in The Standard

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