Staff ReporterZimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly surprised many in Chegutu when he stopped at a fast food outlet to buy lunch over the weekend.
According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, Mnangagwa commandeered his motorcade to Chicken Inn, bringing the food outlet to a standstill, as patrons wanted to get a glimpse of the country’s number one.
Mnangagwa ordered a two-piecer and a minute maid and even tipped the cashier who served him.
Commenting on the incident, one of the country’s renowned journalists, Hopewell Chin’ono said that Mnangagwa’s gesture did not warrant a front page slot, adding that this was one of many reasons why the country’s media needed to be reformed.
Chinóno said that the state controlled media should not have also put “the story on a banner head as if nothing more meaningful happened over the weekend”.
“It is a story but it didn’t warrant the front page treatment,” Chin’ono told News24.
In an interview early this month, Chin’ono criticised the state of the media in the southern African country ahead of elections on July 30.
He said that both the private and state-owned media in Zimbabwe were failing to play their roles as they seemed obligated to take sides in their coverage.
The southern African country was expected to go to the polls on July 30 in what appears to be a closely contested race.
