Brian Temba
Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube has expressed dismay over a story written by a local publication The Zimbabwe Independent, alleging that Minister Ncube stayed at a local hotel for two years.
ZimInd, a business weekly under Trevor Ncube`s Alpha Media Holdings, in its September 24 edition ran a story headlined “Govt lavishes Ncube with a US200 000 hotel stay.”
The story claimed that from his appointment to June this year, Minister Ncube stayed at Miekles Hotel accruing a heavy cost running into hundreds of thousands.
However, Minister Ncube`s office has dismissed the sensational story.
Chief Director Communications and Advocacy in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Mr Clive Mphambela asked the paper`s editor to issue a retraction to what he termed damaging lies.
“It (the story) has misled the public through your unverified report of non existent wasteful expenditure on account of Government and the Honourable Minister’s office.
Among other untrue, malicious and defamatory statements, you say in your report , Ncube allegedly lived at the magnificent Meikles Hotel where an executive room cost US$200 per night.
A simple check by your newspaper with the Meikles Hotel will confirm that at no time did the Honourable Minister of Finance and Economic Development spend two years at the said Hotel. Furthermore no such payment has either been paid by Government nor is payable by Government as alleged by you,” said Mr Mphambela in the letter.
This is not the first time that the paper has been accused of writing falsehoods on Minister Ncube.
In March 2019, it wrote a story in which it said that Minister Ncube and Reserve Bank Governor Dr Mangundya had clashed in a heated meeting, only to retract the story a week later.
In the retraction, they admitted to running an unverified story, which is a cardinal sin in journalism.
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