Kholwani Nyathi, the editor of the weekly newspaper The Standard of has accused Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa of telling blatant lies in order to divert attention from his own incompetence. This comes after Chinamasa accused the Standard of working with an unnamed cabinet minister although it is implied it’s Professor Jonathan Moyo, to attack Command Agriculture. Chinamasa also alleged that the cabinet minister was actually editing the article for The Standard before it was published.
In his response Nyathi says:
Instead of responding to the damaging allegations raised in the advisory note, which is not in dispute, Chinamasa sought to cast aspersions on the integrity of The Standard by claiming that he was alerted by a faceless member of our team last Thursday that a negative story about Command Agriculture was being written.
He also claimed without shame that an unnamed Cabinet minister helped to edit the said story.
For the record, The Standard only received the document from a whistleblower on Saturday morning and, therefore, Chinamasa’s allegations that he was alerted on Thursday are only driven by malice and are a futile attempt to mask his incompetence.…Journalists do not need the help of ministers to understand that such conduct has serious ramifications for public finances. Chinamasa is throwing mud at the messenger because he has been exposed for recklessly allowing a flawed financing model of the Command Agriculture programme.
More: Read the full response on The Standard