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Harare Bureau
CIVIL society activist Goodson Nguni has been fingered as the source behind a NewsDay story claiming President Robert Mugabe owed sacked former Zanu-PF Mashonaland East provincial chairman Ray Kaukonde $30 million.The money was loaned to the First Family to boost their business, the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) daily paper claimed.

Citing faceless “impeccable sources”, the paper claimed that President Mugabe told a Politburo meeting last Thursday that they must not be shocked that Kaukonde might drag him to court over the loan, which he gave the First Family before the multi-currency regime in 2008.

President Mugabe, the paper claimed indicated that he would soon settle the debt.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Simon Khaya Moyo and at least three other politburo members who attended the politburo meeting have told The Chronicle that the NewsDay story was a complete fabrication.

Last night, our Harare Bureau reported that it had established that Nguni, the leader of the Federation of Non-Governmental Organisation (Fongo), gave NewsDay the false information which the newspaper went on to publish, despite the fact that he does not sit in the politburo.

After Nguni contacted the paper, NewsDay reporter Richard Chidza, the sources said, immediately texted some questions to Kaukonde, seeking confirmation of Nguni’s claims.

“However, Kaukonde did not respond to the questions, instead he contacted a senior Daily News editor who in turn contacted NewsDay reporters telling them that their story was false and had many holes,” said the source.

The Daily News senior editor, who asked not to be named for professional reasons, said: “I did speak to Kaukonde on Sunday and he was concerned that NewsDay were about to run a false story. In his mind, there was just no basis for the story. As we already know, they went on and published anyway.”

Conveniently, NewsDay claimed Cde Khaya Moyo and Presidential spokesperson George Charamba were unavailable for comment.

Nguni, asked last night if he understood the consequences of giving a newspaper a fabricated story on the Head of State, pleaded his innocence.

He claimed he had not spoken to NewsDay reporter Chidza for the past three weeks and that some people he declined to name, were out to destroy him.

“There’re some people who’re out to destroy me. I don’t know what’s happening here. I don’t attend politburo meetings so how do I know what transpires in those meetings? The writers of the story are there and if people want to know who told them, they should ask them,” he said.

Nguni said while he knew many politburo members, no-one shared with him discussions that transpired in their meetings.

“I don’t know anything about that story. I don’t like Kaukonde and Joice Mujuru. I’m Zanu-PF,” he said.

Chidza refused to comment yesterday, saying he was not allowed to speak to the media.

“Please, leave me out of this. I’m not allowed to speak to the Press,” he said.

NewsDay editor Wisdom Mudzungairi referred questions to AMH editor-in-chief Vincent Kahiya.

Said Kahiya: “Is that the journalism that you’re being taught by (Pikirayi) Deketeke (Zimpapers CEO) that you must phone other papers and ask how they get their stories? I wasn’t in office when that story was done. How can we disclose our sources or tell you how we get our stories?”

AMH proprietor Trevor Ncube, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Politburo members who included Cde Khaya Moyo, Prof Jonathan Moyo, national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and the secretary for the disabled Cde Joshua Malinga lined on Monday to lambast NewsDay for lying.

In April, NewsDay ran a false story claiming that Cabinet had met just once this year, when in fact it had met nine times.