Why the government insists that the MDC was involved in last month’s anti-government protests

Coming back to your question which talks about whether we have got information centres in this country.  I think you are very correct that the President from the time he was inaugurated, he has been consistent with his message.  He needs everybody to be on board, and everyone should have access to information.  This is why our Ministry is carrying out a project of digitalisation which will then allow the whole country, corner to corner, talking from Beitbridge to Chirundu, from Machipanda to Plumtree to access their televisions and radios.  It is important for each and every citizen to listen to what their Government is doing and this is the project which we are working on.  We also have a lot of officers in the districts.  We collect information from the whole country.  We also have in areas like Kanyemba, a public viewing screen because we realised not many people have television sets in their homes.  So we have actually put that so that they can access.  In Mapisa in Matabeleland South we have also finished a project where we want our people to access televisions and radios.  We do have officers across the country so that everybody accesses information because information is power.  Information will make even a poor farmer, wherever he is, to know that whatever he is growing; if it is tomatoes, we want that farmer to access information like where can the tomatoes be sold and at what price.  So, I just want to say, information is very critical and the Government of the day, which was constitutionally elected to represent the people, whose mandate is to serve the people of this country, is doing everything in its power to make sure that all Zimbabweans access information.  I thank you.

HON. SEN. MAVETERA: Part of my question Mr. President is that, we have got Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation saying violence was committed by MDC, which is divisive.  We already know that the issue was a labour issue by ZCTU, I am saying, is that the position, where do they get that information because it is divisive and it pushes people apart instead of uniting them on a common cause.  No one celebrates what happened, it is very regrettable on the nation.  I think we need to be very responsible and try not to be partisan when we report such unfortunate incidence which befell our country.  So, it is about the nature of ZBC reporting.

HON. SEN. MUTSVANGWA: Through you Mr. President.  This country has intelligence, there is nothing that happens in this country which intelligence does not pick.  There is a threat on this country for regime change and that is the information which is there.  On the 3rd to the 7th of November, meetings were held at Wild Geese, it is on record.  On the 12th of January, a meeting was held in Belvedere and there is a record. So, when they report, they report from the reports coming from our intelligence and our security institutions.  So, this is what we need to understand, there is no country which does not have – and we would not be where we are and would not have enjoyed peace if we did not have intelligence and security institutions which are concerned about the security of its citizens.

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