HARARE - Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has officially hired Luke Tamborinyoka as his new head of public relations.

Journalist Tamborinyoka goes into Munhumutapa Building as both official spokesman and director of communications, making him one of the most powerful figures in the centre of government. It means yet another shake-up of the PM's Munhumutapa team, which has been repeatedly reorganised.

Tamborinyoa's appointment as the PM's spokesman is expected to bring extra horsepower to Tsvangirai's press team and play a key role in preparing his media strategy in the run-up to the next election.

Tamborinyoka replaces James Maridadi, who has been moved to a new powerfull position where he will be responsible for protocol, an equivalent to a Chief of Staff in the US president.

Repeated efforts to obtain comment from Jameson Timba, the minister of State in the PM's office, were futile. But a senior bureaucrat in the PM's office said: "This is a very, very senior role. It is top table stuff."

Tamborinyoka will go head-to-head with President Mugabe's spin doctor, George Charamba, who has relied on blatant propaganda and aggressive media management to engage in crude efforts at mind control of the masses.

Senior government officials say Tsvangirai's new squad are, on balance, the best team to be given the chance to take this great country forward.
The appointment has fuelled speculation that Tsvangirai was surrounding himself with loyalists. After a decade of backing the MDC, Tamborinyoka is expected to make a formidable contribution as a senior member of Tsvangirai's team in building the most effective strategy to win the general election.

Prior to his posting to Munhumutapa, Tamborinyoka was the director of Information and Publicity at Harvest House, the MDC HQ in central Harare. He spearheaded the MDC's savvy media campaign. A veteran MDC cadre, in 2007, Tamborinyoka spent 71 days in a remand prison in Zimbabwe for allegedly hiding “weapons of war” at the MDC headquarters, before being acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

Veteran journalist, William Bango, takes over from Tamborinyoka as director of information at Harvest House. Bango, a former senior editor at the Daily News, was the MDC-T’s director of policy and research. Maridadi, the PM's former press secretary, will continue to handle day-to-day briefings with political journalists while Tamborinyoka takes a wider strategic role.

By The Zimbabwean