{"id":31992,"date":"2021-01-01T21:12:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T19:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=31992"},"modified":"2021-01-01T19:32:55","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T17:32:55","slug":"false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted","title":{"rendered":"\u2018False Equivalence!\u2019, ED\u2019s Congratulatory Messages To Mwonzora & Chamisa Contrasted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Zimbabwe<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday released a statement congratulating newly-elected MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora and expressing hope that the two will collaborate.<\/p>\n

Mnangagwa\u2019s message to Mwonzora has however stirred controversy with some political commentators of the view that the development is unprecedented as it is unusual for an official from the ruling party to speak so highly of the leader of the MDC.<\/p>\n

Other observers were, however, quick to point out that Mnangagwa also congratulated his nemesis MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa when he assumed the party\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

Former Herald political editor Tichaona Zindoga has dismissed the comparison, saying it is \u201cfalse equivalence\u201d to draw parallels between Mnangagwa\u2019s congratulatory message to Mwonzora vis-\u00e0-vis the one to Chamisa. Zindoga posted on Twitter:<\/p>\n

Some folks are trying to insult our intelligence by equating this [Mnangagwa\u2019s congratulatory message to Chamisa] message by ]Mnangagwa] to [Chamisa], to ED\u2019s gushing, extended peroration made with respect to Mwonzora\u2019s rise as the regime\u2019s preferred opposition leader.<\/p>\n

First, the above text is a dry, formal courtesy, not going beyond 140 characters. On the other hand, ED did a whole thread of 5 Tweets, more than 230 words and some 1300 characters! He clearly felt a sense of occasion.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it is clear that the intentions & values of the two messages are different. This is ultimately seen in different tones. In Chamisa\u2019s case to communicate an uneasy, brittle truce of rivals; in Mwonzora\u2019s an extension of patronage & paternalism towards a subaltern.<\/p>\n

Thirdly, [Mnangagwa] in endorsing [Mwonzora] arrogated himself the role of final arbiter not just in legal processes involving opposition but also an arbiter of the quality of opposition in the country. Mwonzora is his ideal opposition, he told us.<\/p>\n

Lastly, [Mnangagwa] framing and conceptualisation of working with opposition as a \u201ccollaboration\u201d, barring any limitations in language, betrays Mwonzora\u2019s role as immoral and open to abuse \u2013 without any scruples from him, of course, because of he got what he wanted!<\/p>\n

Former University of Zimbabwe Political Science Professor, Jonathan Moyo agrees with Zindoga that Mnangagwa\u2019s message to Mwonzora is not congratulatory but an endorsement. He also wrote on Twitter:<\/p>\n

It is disingenuous and a false equivalence to compare @edmnangagwa\u2018s one-tweet 2018 pre-election \u201ccongratulation\u201d of @nelsonchamisa with his five-tweet 2020 thread \u201cendorsement\u201d of @DMwonzora. A congratulation and an endorsement are worlds apart. Stop making false equivalencies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday released a statement congratulating newly-elected MDC-T president Douglas Mwonzora and expressing hope that the two will collaborate. Mnangagwa\u2019s message to Mwonzora has however stirred controversy with some political commentators of the view that the development is unprecedented as it is unusual for an official from the ruling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":31991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,35,12,15],"tags":[1493,2189,1793,1112,64,2311,19],"class_list":["post-31992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zimbabwe-2","tag-douglas-mwonzora","tag-jonathan-moyo","tag-nelson-chamisa","tag-tichaona-zindoga","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018False Equivalence!\u2019, ED\u2019s Congratulatory Messages To Mwonzora & Chamisa Contrasted - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday released a statement congratulating newly-elected MDC-T president Douglas Mwonz ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018False Equivalence!\u2019, ED\u2019s Congratulatory Messages To Mwonzora & Chamisa Contrasted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday released a statement congratulating newly-elected MDC-T president Douglas Mwonz ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-01T19:12:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/01\/img-5fef5ca6966b6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"575\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018False Equivalence!\u2019, ED\u2019s Congratulatory Messages To Mwonzora & Chamisa Contrasted\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-01T19:12:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2021\/01\/img-5fef5ca6966b6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zimbabwe\",\"Douglas Mwonzora\",\"Jonathan Moyo\",\"Nelson Chamisa\",\"Tichaona Zindoga\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/false-equivalence-eds-congratulatory-messages-to-mwonzora-chamisa-contrasted\",\"name\":\"\u2018False Equivalence!\u2019, ED\u2019s Congratulatory Messages To Mwonzora & Chamisa Contrasted - 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