Charamba — what misleading statements

TABANI MOYO - Nov 21 2010 16:50 

Permanent secretaries of media and information across the globe generally mislead. Zimbabwe’s Information and Publicity permanent secretary George Charamba is no exception.

It’s a virtue which he has perfected over time.

In his submissions to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication Technology, he presented his opinion as fact that the current broadcasting infrastructure does not allow for new broadcasting entries in an industry which is characterised by state monopoly through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC). http://www.newsday.co.zw/article/2010-11-21-charamba-what-misleading-statements

The need for a political rebirth

TABANI MOYO | HARARE - Nov 10 2010 20:22

There is a chilling debate which is going in circles in Zimbabwe on whether the country will be subjected to the next general election next year or not.

President Robert Mugabe fired the first salvos when he made a public decree that the elections will be held early next year so that his party can kick the MDC out of government.

He was responding to the MDC moves calling upon the United Nations, European Union and South Africa not to recognise the appointments of ambassadors by President Mugabe.

The cold war’s merits and/or demerits will constitute another debate for another forum.

The new frenzy on the need to hold elections next year raises more questions than answers. The two political parties are in agreement that Zimbabwe is ripe for an election next year.

President Mugabe impresses that he wants to stop MDC “nonsense” in government whilst the MDC posits that an election will see them gaining state power as Premier Morgan Tsvangirai was once quoted in the press arguing that he had agreed with Mugabe that the loser should accept the results forthwith.

I hold a position that if an election is to be held next year, it will be a symbolic election aimed at attaining a ritual process which entails the sacrifice of innocent blood without a befitting reflection of the voting patterns.

In such a case one will ask if it is necessary for the nation to be subjected to such a symbolic process which does not lead to any meaningful change in the people’s lives.

Within this realm, the political order would have taken the people of Zimbabwe for granted that they are going for an election when the result, on the other hand, of that same sham will be maintaining the status quo.

Is going for an election after the expiry of the GPA wrong?

The most pressing question under such a scenario will be whether the political parties are wrong to argue for an election after the expiry of the GPA or not.

The answer is never simple but the most ideal situation is that of dragging the political parties in the government of the day kicking and screaming to work together and ensure meaningful reforms to our body politic rather than subjecting the populace to another political nightmare of an election which will lead to another negotiated settlement.

Why then go through the terror of an election when all the signs and intents show that there will be a negotiated settlement after the elections if the institutions that run the election are not transformed?

The political parties should negotiate before this looming election to extend the life of the GPA to 2013 and attempt as much as is possible to sanitise the national institutions running the elections before the next plebiscite.

If one were to land from space today, s/he will be forgiven to think that the political parties have since realised that they can’t work together yesterday.

They will insist that the solution to this incompatible set-up is the holding of an election next year, deliberately forgetting that the reason for the set-up of the present- day government was due to an inconclusive election.

The political order holds that the people of Zimbabwe are already on the touch line anticipating for the next orgy of political contestations. In this country contestations are not founded on a battle for ideas — but they also sublimate into organised physical “socio-politic-militant” orientation.

There is no priced answer for anyone who attempts to answer whether an average person in Zimbabwe is ready for an election or not. The rhetoric of ending the span of the GNU next year is non-attainable though it is the most ideal one under normal circumstances.

It is a virtue of insanity to believe that the country is ready to hold a national election when it is theatrically failing to hold a genuine constitution-making process.

The pretence to hold an election by the political actors as a solution to the Zimbabwean crisis is tantamount to sanctioned state barbarism targeted at killing its people.

It’s an attempt to expose the people of Zimbabwe to the June 27 2008 organised state killings.

As a people of Zimbabwe the state has the role to protect its own. In this case an election at this moment is not one of them.

The political nonsense that is stealing national debate of enriching people’s lives should be stopped forthwith from both sides of the political divide.

It therefore smacks of hypocrisy that the president of the republic calls for an election when the present-day

electoral groundwork is characterised by the following:

• ·         A chaotic voters’ roll, littered with ghost voters

• ·         The impartiality of the electoral body being questionable

• ·         The muted stagnancy in the security service sector reforms

• ·         Single party domineering on the state media

• ·         Unaccounted for funds flowing from our precious minerals, which have the capacity to fund insurgent activities

• ·         Limited information of the number of youth graduates from the Border Gezi training centres who can easily engage in acts of fanning violence at the click of a button

• ·         Unreformed national institutions

But are the political parties ready for an election, notwithstanding the fact that the people of Zimbabwe do not want them anyway? I for one strongly hold that the political parties are not ready on the following grounds:

• ·         There are better platforms for them to measure their respective political parties’ support such as the referendum and the long overdue by-elections which are likely going to take place next year

• ·         It threatens party cohesion. The respective party vultures will use the opportunity to partially address the succession politics through jostling for factional representation in Parliament.

• ·         The scary picture of the last abortive election of June 27 2008 is still haunting party supporters specifically MDC supporters in the rural constituencies such as Manicaland and Masvingo

• ·         The threats of cutting short the terms of office of the serving legislature remain a threat for Zanu PF specifically and double-barrel candidate fielding threat for the MDC.

• ·         The “constitution making process” provided a clear indication for the people of Zimbabwe that “anything” can happen and those who terrorised the people during the June 27 2008 inconclusive election took centre stage in organising chaos during the so-called constitution-making process.

If any political party insists on holding the election under the current electoral system, then it should go on a solo expedition reminiscent of the one-man presidential runoff.

The horror of state-orchestrated violence of June 27 2008 should never be allowed to recur again in our national politics.

This is what the average person holds that if these institutions which are supposed to guarantee their safety are not transformed they will watch helplessly again as terror devours their beloved ones.

We therefore need a constitutional surgical process that will usher in a political dispensation that is tolerant and responsive to the people’s needs.

This way we can safely migrate from the transition to a political set-up that is legitimate through an election that is under the supervision of Sadc, the African Union and the international community.

Above all, the political order of the day should start appreciating the type of messaging and conditioning they are preparing this country on, that we as a people will never know of peace but perpetual party line conflict.

The political parties, which are a mythical creation anyway, are going to subdue the country into perennial combat as long as the parties exist.

This nonsense must be stopped — we are tired of it. When these political parties “chose” to work together they knew very well what they were getting themselves into.

One can therefore only conclude by calling upon the political leaders of the day to stop exposing the nation to dangers of organised killings, abductions and torture under the guise of holding an election with predetermined results.

The country is tired of the political leaders pretending to be holding an election when they are not.

A proper election is run by strong institutions in an enabling environment. Zimbabwe deserves peace and stability.

Above all, we can’t be a barren country which keeps on bothering other nations on how to run our own affairs through our actions of poor leadership and non-adherence to the documents which we authored ourselves. Our system needs a rebirth.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

No more plastic balls

By Tabani Moyo

Nhamo Mhiripiri, in his short story entitled No More Plastic Balls creatively narrates the pains of transformation from childhood to adulthood. He captures the growing pains of young boy ‘caged’ by the strict rules of his household – one day the boy broke the chains, tasted freedom and died with it.

After what seems to be a land slide victory for President Mugabe at the 30th SADC summit in Windhoek, Namibia, one need to unveil the missing links in the MDC’s political approach, where it is coming from and where it is headed to avoid the same fate befalling it at the next regional grouping meeting in 2011.

This is on condition that the 30 days ultimatum issued for the resolution of the outstanding issues will lapse without consensus amongst the parties vis-à-vis the SADC Troika on Defence and Security failing to put closure to the ‘outstanding issues’.

As a matter of fact, the MDC is losing the momentum and goodwill it had gained after the 11 March 2007 calamity when the Save Zimbabwe Campaigners were bushed in Highfields forcing the African Union, through SADC to intervene and mediate in resolving the Zimbabwean crisis.

The following key issues should be dealt with:

• It should start building political activity that is aimed at throwing surprises to ZANU PF so that it gains ground for bargaining

• Fill in the missing gaps in its politics through going back to its founding documents, The National Working People’s Convention of February 1999

• The need to maintain and repair bruised ties with its founding alliances

• Moving away from the myth that its ready for an election, its a reactionary statement to ZANU PF’s equal myth that it is also ready for an election

I read of the ‘verbal war’ amongst the MDCs and Zanu PF on who is slowing down the full implementation of the GPA soon after the SADC meeting with sadness. ZANU PF’s stance was clearly building on its political resolution of its congress held on the 11th of December 2009 that it will stall any progress if the MDC does not call for the removal of sanctions. This is coming after the same Zanu PF left the MDCs moving in circles after throwing ‘songs/jingle’ on the national broadcaster.

Its a pity the MDC doesn’t have any political activity in place to force ZANU PF to give in to its demands. So the MDC will be left whimpering back to SADC calling for its interventions. This is rather sad given the fact that ZANU PF left the summit having convinced the regional grouping that its one of the towering figures on the region with documented political history in the grouping’s liberation credentials. The new chairperson Pohamba and his SWAPO have a clear position on its support for ZANU PF.

The onus therefore lies in the MDC to strengthen its structures and formulating democratic and peaceful activities that will force ZANU PF to rule the country through negotiation, rather than the current unilateral governance style. This is given the fact that ZANU PF is working in a reverse chronological mode – its goal clear, to kick the MDC out of government through testing its capacity to stand its ground. The responses by the MDC on the other hand are showing that its only reacting but not managing to match the challenge.

This is irrespective of the fact that the people of Zimbabwe gave the movement the mandate to be in office, ZANU PF is showing its adversaries that it can do it with or without the mandate of the people. It therefore calls for strong leadership to embark on strategic political activities that neutralises such a hegemony. This is not done through issuing a gamut of statements to the press but the opposite is true, when the press pick up the stories from a systematic political campaign that seeks to move away from the rather intangible concepts of change to delivering real change to the people’s lives.

Revisiting the working people’s convention

If one is to measure the performance of the MDC in government, s/he has to benchmark it with the declaration of the Working People’s Convention of February 1999. This is the declaration which tasked the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) with the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It is therefore imperative for the movement to self introspect and reset its buttons in line with what it committed itself to, namely:

I. The writing of a people’s constitution be initiated with immediate effect through a constitutional commission not based on presidential/partisan appointment, but defined by and accountable to a conference of representatives of elected, civil and other social groups

II. A peoples’ constitution as a reflection of a national value system should be accompanied by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to deal with the unresolved aspects of our past that hinders national integration.

III. The right to minimum standard of health inputs (food, water, shelter) and health care be defined and entrenched in the constitution, guaranteed and funded on an equitable basis by the state through its mobilisation of national resources.

IV. Mechanisms should be put in place to equitable and efficiently distribute public, private and household resources for education to enhance the quality of education and to review the education curriculum and support services provided to better prepare children with skills needed to tap the economic and employment opportunities in the next millennium

V. A housing policy should be developed that integrates housing development across the country, matches community efforts and resources with state, employer and institutional resources.

VI. Media freedom should be enshrined in the constitution, supported by an independent Media Commission and by laws providing for public rights to access to information and for curtailment of government control over interference in the media.

The six (6) randomly picked from the 15 resolutions of the convention glaringly shows that the document is gathering dust in the mind of its authors. The resolutions address issuesunder the armpits of the MDC controlled ministries except the Media.

Our health system is not working. Our beloved ones are dying daily, like flies due to the lack of expertise and the cost of accessing the system. The same is true with our education system. The students are half backed, to those still managing to access it whilst the educators are highly disgruntled. Housing remains a distant dream.

The constitution making process is a fallacy with the drivers of the process pretending to write the country’s supreme law. In essence, the political parties are campaigning to the people of Zimbabwe so that they reiterate their manifesto positions rather than facilitating for a platform for the people to air their view.

Guided by the founding principles rather than principals, the MDC can start building on a lasting political activities that bring real change to the people of Zimbabwe than reacting on daily basis to ZANU PF’s political drill.

Where are the founding alliances?

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and ZIMRIGHTS were the mass based organisations which were at the conception stages of the MDC.

The onus is on the MDC to appreciate that alliances work for its collective good and stop viewing the alliance members as enemies because they insist on the founding principles. ZANU PF taught the MDC a historical lesson at the just ended summit that it might differ with its alliances in the region but when push comes to shove, what brought them together takes precedence over differences.

This is the time for the MDC to mend its ties with the founding alliance members and forge genuine processes that are aimed at reviving the commitment to the national working people’s convention which is supposed to come up with lasting political activism both during and after the inclusive government

Ready for an election or politicking

There has been a lot of grand standing pertaining to the Zimbabwe’s election being held next year, 2011. Broadly the three political parties are not ready for polls in 2011. Specifically the MDC is not ready for an election next year basing on the following scenarios:

• It cuts again the tenure of the legislature before end of office

• It subjects the party to primary elections which in themselves are nerve threatening to the internal cohesion vis-a-vis the party’s congress/conference in the same year

• The institutions that are supposed to safeguard transparent and free elections are not yet transformed

• Its fast facing disgruntlement from the founding members such as the teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers and the broader civil service which to this date still earns allowances of less than USD200 when school fees in government institutions are ranging around USD 700 per semester.

Having noted a wide range of issues affecting which confronts the MDC today, one can only impress on the party that the era of plastic balls is gone. Survival in this highly contest state arena calls of deliberate efforts towards coming up with political activities to confront ZANU PF at every turn and stopping the attitude of running to mom SADC like cry babies without matching the opponent on home ground.

Tabani Moyo is a journalist based in Harare. He can be contacted on rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Stop abusing ZBC

The week gone by was characterised by heated accusations and counter accusations between Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change on the dominance of ‘jingles’ or ‘songs’ in gleeful praise of Zanu PF as the dominant political party in the inclusive government specifically and in our body polity at large.

The suffocating accusations however missed the point by shocking margins. The real issues at hand which the politicians are not telling the nation is that they are contesting for political space and have forgotten the audience which they are supposed to be serving.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) does not belong to the politicians of the day, it belongs to the taxpayer, who by virtue of being forced by the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) to pay license fees or risk facing arrest, deserves first class programming and coverage irrespective of the political, religious, ethnic or class one belongs to.

The ‘jingles’ or ‘songs’ debates are aimed at misdirecting the people of Zimbabwe’s focus from the core problems affecting them ranging from health, education, media freedom, genuine constitution-making process, HIV and Aids, access to clean water, energy supply and the forgotten Beira Feruka pipeline among others.

The symptoms emanating in the form of ‘jingles’are; firstly an offshoot of politicians being reluctant to transform ZBC from a state broadcaster into a genuine public broadcaster. Secondly the politicians entrenching themselves into a statutory mechanism that celebrates ZBC maintaining the monopoly in the industry as seen by the acknowledgement by the three political parties that the transformation in the broadcasting sector will only be done through the BSA which is captured in the Global political Agreement through article 19, a tacit admission of the undemocratic nature of the media landscape.

My concern arises when the entire nation is reduced to a position of discussing ‘jingles’ from Cabinet to a kindergarten child. The solution does not lie in stopping the jingles.

It happened with Nathaniel Manheru in The Herald being temporarily suspended after the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU) before bouncing back with ultra zealous venom spewing, what if ZBC starts flighting dead bodies or the clips of people being chopped off their hands in a manner reminiscent of the June 27 violence orchestra?

Will we start talking of dead bodies? It’s wiser to deal with the root cause of the problem specifically through transforming it from state to public broadcaster.

There are bigger problems at ZBC which clearly show that its behaviour is that of a state broadcaster as opposed to a genuine public broadcaster which needs strong leadership to deal with as noted below:

•  Massive corruption as seen by the recent vehicle acquisition without going to tender;
•  Editorial interference from the government through the Information ministry;
• Limited access with an average reach countrywide of slightly above 60% mostly through radio;
• Acting as a party mouth- piece;
• Crisis of staff recruitment through appointment of the CEO and the board by the Information ministry which compromises impartiality of staff when discharging its duties;
•  Exclusion of minority languages and;
• Lack of credibility emanating from the afore-stated factors among others.

Against such a glaring crisis one will be left dazzled when the political order of the day concentrates on resolving the symptoms emerging as the root cause of the catastrophe.

If the country is to genuinely own ZBC, a comprehensive way of doing it is to deal with the ‘jingles’ debate as a total approach towards undoing the rot from top to bottom in compliance with international standards and norms.

The public service responsibility of a transformed ZBC should be clearly set out in law, and must strive for the following minimum requirements:

• To provide top quality, independent programming that contributes to a plurality of opinions and an informed public;
• To provide comprehensive news and current affairs programming, which is impartial, accurate and balanced;
• To provide a wide range of broadcast material that strikes a balance between programming of wide appeal and specialised programmes that serve the needs of minority audiences;
•  To be universally accessible and serve all the people and regions of the country;
• To provide educational programmes and programmes directed towards children; and,
• To promote local programme production, through minimum quotas for original productions and material produced by independent producers.

For this to happen, our current laws governing broadcasting such as the BSA should be repealed and give way to a democratic law that establishes an independent broadcasting regulatory framework that is answerable to the Parliament of Zimbabwe.

If we are serious as a country, these are simple matters which have been achieved across the region. We need to stop the culture of pretending to be reforming the institutions and set forth before dawn.

Tabani Moyo is a journalist who recently relocated to Harare from Gokwe. He can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Free our airwaves

By Tabani Moyo

Events of the past few weeks have shadowed the media reform discourse in a significant way. The long shadow cast on the topic seems to have been deliberate. The government of Zimbabwe is on a field day that the people of Zimbabwe are caught in the euphoria of the few papers licensed so far living the opening of the airwaves a wild guess.

Aside from the licensing of the five (5) newspapers namely The Daily News, News Day, The Mail, The Daily Gazette, the Mail and Weekly Worker, there seems to be a deafening silence as to when the airwaves will be opened up.

The resistance in the opening up of the airwaves points to a culture of emulation on the part of Zanu PF and its co-governing parties to the Rhodesian governance style which was entrenched in a naive repressive system which believed native Zimbabweans were incapable of broadcasting or telling their own story without government interference.

This is a clear indication that the present day government is incapable of remaining the custodian of the mission and vision statement of the liberation struggle which was tirelessly fought by the gallant people of Zimbabwe for 16 years of blood spill. The cardinal goal underlying the tireless execution of the struggle had been the quest for a just and equitable society where the people make free choices and decision.

Electronic Broadcasting plays a critical role in a people’s lives. It is therefore a prerogative of the government of Zimbabwe to allocate the broadcasting electromagnetic spectrum which facilitates new players in the broadcasting sector to start proffering alternatives and facilitate the process of equipping the people to make informed decisions.

The attempts to maintain the Rhodesian broadcasting monolith is tantamount to effecting sanctions on a people since they are silenced and bombarded with the partisan messages in an attempt to maintain a political hegemony. It is therefore my clarion call for the government of Zimbabwe to remove the sanctions on its people so that they can start talking and listening to different views which defined the campus of the hard won independence.

The desperate and helpless picture of broadcasting being a security matter should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves. South Africa for example has more than a 1000 community radio and television stations, what is peculiar about Zimbabwe?

One gets shocked when political parties are in agreement that there exist pirate radio stations which must be shut down and repatriated to Zimbabwe. During the liberation war, the Rhodesian government suffocated the broadcasting arena through both legal and extra legal measures. Zanu PF found new voice in the Voice of Zimbabwe in Mozambique, which was branded terrorist by the then ruling regime. By their own nature the ruling elites suffer short memories in just the same way this government holds that the broadcasting sector will be transformed using the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BSA). Paradoxically this same law has failed to see the registration of any broadcaster since its promulgation in 2001.

Why then hold the naive position that the emerging voices in the name of the Voice of America (VOA)’s studio 7, SW Radio Africa and the Voice of the People (VOP) are pirate when the political parties knows very well that the front door remains perennially closed? Freedom of expression and the media are no different from the right to speak – if anyone for any reason believes, that these are not pressing and urgent matters then they must brace themselves for a rude awakening. The people will always find alternative ways to speak since it’s a god given right.

With the current confusion over the BAZ board which was announced by the Minister of Information and Publicity Honourable Webster Shamhu which is chaired by known media hangman Tafataona Mahoso, it remains a daunting task to dream of the opening of the airwaves in the near future.

We are told the same hangman who is at the helm of administration as the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) will not be going anywhere anytime soon and that he will continue serving the two roles of being the policy head at BAZ and the administrative chief at ZMC. Cooperate governance at its most elementary level teaches us of separation of powers to enable effective checks and balances. In this case one person will serve as a gatekeeper of two media regulatory bodies with the seeming implied blessing of government.

We are also told by the staffers in the Ministry of Information and Publicity that the BAZ has the electromagnetic space for 60 community radio stations, three television stations and 10 frequency modulation stations for prospective broadcasters. Since 2001 this valuable space has been lying idle with the BAZ keeping the information firmly under wrap.

The people of Zimbabwe are tired of being subjugated to the diatribe and political venom spate by the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation. This institution belongs to the people of Zimbabwe its transformation will play a critical role in meeting the needs of the republic. The launch of TV2 is therefore another ploy to deceive the populace that the cooperation is on a transformation path. ZBC should be genuinely transformed from a state broadcaster into a public broadcaster which serves the nation’s differing tests.

It was a shocker this week when we had that the ZBC management had acquired a fleet for its management and a Mercedes Benz for its CEO, one Happison Muchechetere. The PR manager was quoted as saying it fits the CEO status. Such is the state of rot in our country. It is sickening to hear the broadcaster tell its audience with a straight face that the CEO has such a status when the company he is heading covers less that 70% on the country, with obsolete equipment that is more than four decades old and a legitimacy that has been lost due to political interference. This state of decay can mainly be attributed to the fact that the broadcaster is accountable to nobody.

Equally disturbing is the uncoordinated debate on convergence, where the Information and Communications Technology Bill is bouncing to and from cabinet like a Yoyo. For there to be convergence firstly the three ministries involved with ICTs that is to say ICT, Information and Publicity and the Transport and Communications should firstly understand and appreciate the need for convergence before going to cabinet. The stakeholders should be consulted to facilitate the people of Zimbabwe’s access to the ICT and broadcasting services.

In light of this, the government should start implementing the establishment of a three (3) tier broadcasting system in the form of public, community and commercial broadcasting.

However for this to happen, there is need for thorough housekeeping matters which include the repeal of BSA and replacing it with a democratic law that is representative and creates an independent broadcasting authority that is answerable to parliament as opposed to the ministry.

The myth of Zimbabwe’s broadcast media being a sensitive security matter has become irrelevant paranoia since other countries have moved on in the region. What is so important about Zimbabwe except the narrow parochial party political interests?



Tabani Moyo is a journalist based in Gokwe. He can be contacted on rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Myth of transition and fitness to govern

By Tabani Moyo (main picture)


It has been more than a year under the government of national unity. The performance to this end clearly speaks of a mission impossible in terms of reverting Zimbabwe back to a full democracy and improving a people’s lives.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word transition as, “the process of changing from one state or condition to another.” The questions in the Zimbabweans’ minds today remains - what are we changing from and where are we headed. Squarely, this is the jinks puzzle which defines the power relations in our government. The three political parties will want to gain political power in the next election so that they can look back one day and say we managed to out manoeuvre our opponents during the transitional period.

Therefore, in assessing its fitness to govern or lack thereof, one need to first and foremost debunk the myth that we are in a transition and that during this transition, we cannot squarely measure the performance of the government given the complexity of its making. For too long we have been exposed to the messaging that the government is not performing owing to its numerous centres of power.

From the onset, there laid a great danger espoused in the foundation of the negotiation process. The founding point was that Zimbabwe had produced a hung parliament in the March 2008 plebiscite hence the need to mitigate the pile up of cabinet bills in the august house by ensuring the three feuding parties come together and collectively govern. This has sadly transferred the baggage of a hung parliament to a hung cabinet as the different centres of power govern either through the media or acts of blatant defiance. Resultantly we now have a hung government, whose fitness to govern has become heavily contested.

The argument is that, of these three centres of power, only one is working for the collective good of Zimbabwe and the other two, Zanu PF and Ncube-Mutambara MDC are imbedded in making it impossible to govern Zimbabwe in a translucent and transparent manner. Whatever the case might be, the government has collectively failed to effect meaningful and lasting change in people’s lives. The excuse has and will remain – we are in transition and its complex so non-delivery is poised to happen.

In honest and earnest terms, there is a new culture of ‘wait and see’ as the law of diminishing returns sets firm amongst the political arms. Energy and zeal are fast burning out as promises lead to additional promises. It seems there is a business as usual approach due to political fatigue, when the journey is supposed to be beginning. In the process, some among our midst are fast forgetting the reasons why they accepted to be in ‘transition’. A rude awakening call awaits. How long will the transition last? By their nature transitions are supposed to be time specific. If it’s going to be two years or less than five years, then it’s an acceptable time span.

This argument stems from the fact that the life span of this government is going to be five (5) years which is clearly a constitutional term of the government. Therefore, ZANU PF and two MDCs are essentially serving a full government term irrespective of the fact that the political parties will insist on the contrary. There is nothing transitional about serving a full government term.

There should, therefore, be a paradigm shift in terms of policy approaches from short term to long term since the political parties are going to serve full office tenure. These stop gap measures should stop forthwith and give way to the effecting of developmental and lasting programs that are meant to change the people’s living standards as opposed to the humanitarian and salary governance style that has crept into present day Zimbabwe.

The stop gap measures approach are informed by the reality of the political parties’ comprehension of the fact that an election is pending hence long term investment will not produce results to the electorate. Hence the entire nation is being held by a thread of belief that the reason why the levels of unemployment and industry capacity remain sorry is because of the current transitional phase.

The import thereof, is that if the ‘inclusive government’ is serving a full term of office, it should be held to account for the progress and lack of it during their reign. The three political parties’ manifestos clearly outline that they are going to deliver in the socio-economic and political elements if voted into power – they are in power now for a full term, whether they are voted for or not. The word transition has been abused for too long in this country and should not be continuously used as a scapegoat for non-performance by attaching a time frame to it.

Attempts to juxtapose the element of transition and stagnancy in delivery will be unfortunate and sad. It is will be a virtue of insanity just as saying Zanu PF was failing to deliver in every five year term because it was awaiting a transitional election at the end of its full term. Zimbabwe cannot stomach such thinking so can the rest of the continent and the region.

Our leadership was elected into office, to those who were elected, to make things happen – there is therefore no space or time to go around explaining why the leadership is failing to effect change in a people’s lives. Zimbabwe awaits for the leadership that makes things happen.

This takes me back to the argument of fitness to govern. As stated in the first paragraphs, the next election will be in 2013; this is the most feasible date for all the 3 political parties who agreed to govern the state together on the 15th of September 2008.

ZANU PF cannot fathom being exposed to an electoral test any time soon given the marginal losses accrued in the 2008 plebiscite which was held under minimum conditions of peace. The same is true for the Mutambara factor, if exposed to electoral temperatures this will in all probability mark the end of its political life. The Tsvangirai led MDC is embroiled with factional challenges internally and facing a huge challenge of gaining state power if it goes to an election now, it will come out more weakened.

Both Zanu PF and MDC-T face a serious crisis of primary elections which by their own nature are politically nerve threatening. They draw lines of factionalism as the leadership will be trying to protect the so called heavy weights from being thumped by ‘mafikizolos’.

Comprehensively, if Zimbabwe is to conceive a genuine and true transition, the transition should face minimum standard answers of where the country will go after the next election which will happen in 2013, since transition in one way or the other points to the change of the present state to the other.

Calling for an election before an in-depth transformation of electoral institutions, the state machinery of power, effecting meaningful media reforms in broadcasting and the laws governing the print media will lead to yet another transitional still birth. The vanquished will retain a point of strength and start acting and behaving like winners whilst the genuine winners are left crying to the world over a stolen victory or blocked democracy.

The civil society, should therefore mend its partially broken wings as a watchdog of the basic tenants of democracy rather than making ‘politically correct’ decision to appease narrow political conquests.

It is therefore only fair to call upon the collective arms of the state to stop political grand standing and start addressing the developmental and long term infrastructural questions which still linger in the minds of Zimbabwe’s people in line with the full constitutional term they are serving.

If we are not careful as a people, the entire five (5) years under this government will go to politicking and political voodoo, which does not have any socio-political or economic meaning except narrow and parochial political interests.

Any meaningful political concepts should have the ability to address the long term infrastructural needs. This entails structured efforts towards revitalising our industry which is still wallowing below 30% production capacity and creating employment opportunities to almost 85% of the unemployed resource pool.

Our education system needs a life saving system in the form of proper remuneration for our educators and a surgical treatment of our civil service remuneration to instil confidence in the country’s biggest employer. In the same vein, the state has the duty to educate its people through a non-commercial fee – it must start acting like a responsible being. Our hospitals remain a death parlour trap. Utility access in the form of electricity and water is a mirage. This is irrespective of the fact that the ministers manning them had been criticizing from the outside and we are now shocked with their defining silence when the centre is falling apart.

So is the GNU fit to govern, collectively it is not given its politicking stance rather than addressing the fundamental issues of development in the country. The donations which are pouring into the country are going into non-investment use such as the civil service bill and humanitarian aid. The right arm of government doesn’t have a clue what the left arm is doing for example in mining, the MDC does not have a clue of where the huge monies coming from the Chiyadzwa mine fields are going. ZANU PF boycotts the council of ministries meetings with impunity among other acts of militant defiance.

If there was a semblance of governance fitness, one would have expected by now some transparency over the country’s resource levels and usage. A clear cut road map towards recovery from a decade of recession which is clearly guarded with a unity of purpose aimed at transforming the state institutions.

Zimbabweans should therefore start demanding that their government to deliver – for the government is not in transition but serving a full constitutional term in the ambience of a hung government which by its own nature is not made of angels.

*Tabani Moyo is a journalist based in Gokwe. He can be contacted on rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

The paradox of media reforms!

The need for media reforms remains contested terrain in Zimbabwe more so in the context of the political contestations over the issue.

The crisis facing the media reforms agenda is found in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) signed by the three political forces which constitute Zimbabwe’s inclusive government. Article 19 of the GPA states that the registration and re-registration of new and closed media players respectively will be done under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

It is paradoxical that these two pieces of legislation which led to the closure of the media space in Zimbabwe should be the foundation of reforms and/or transformation. This poses a serious contradiction in terms given how the acts are repressively structured to curtail the very same goal of securing media freedom.

This clearly explains why the political foes are now stuck when it comes to addressing this fundamental catastrophe. In negotiating and signing the GPA, the negotiators overlooked several issues pertaining to what defines media freedom and freeing the media environment. The GPA points to a desire to retain control of the media notwithstanding political pronouncements on commitment to the so- called reforms.

There is no need to go beyond statements of commitment. This can be demonstrated through the repealing of the nefarious acts and explicitly guarantee media freedom as opposed to hanging on to these discredited pieces of legislation. Assertions by the Permanent Secretary of Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba that AIPPA is necessary to secure the industry and the country from foreign aggression is sad and fact free.

Prior to the media reign of terror orchestrated by former minister of Information Professor Jonathan Moyo through AIPPA, the media industry existed without the restrictions of today. Any publisher who wanted to start his or her newspaper would simply notify and register with the General Post Office of Zimbabwe and proceed as planned with the publication. This should be the spirit which governs well intentioned media reforms.

One remains cognisant of the hopes raised by the signing of the GPA pertaining to the opening of the media space specifically that of registration and opening up of new and closed papers respectively. However, reforms are not symbolic. They require a surgical process of the entire system governing the media industry.

Adverts pertaining to the registration of the News Day, sister publication of the Zimbabwe Independent, the banned Daily News and other prospective papers are now awash in the public domain. Their return and entry into the market is long overdue. Viewed differently, their registration will not necessarily mean the sealing of the envisaged media reforms. The very same legislative acts which would have registered the publications can equally be used to close them.

Meaningful reforms should, therefore, be underpinned by the repealing of AIPPA and BSA to clear the confusion arising from the conundrum of Article 19 of the GPA and thus pave way towards guaranteeing media freedom in the constitution.

Likewise, the government should disinvest from Zimpapers as that gives government an unfair competitive advantage in what is supposed to be a free market environment. Newspapers should survive or fold on the basis of their strength to satisfy the target audience. In this transitional phase the way forward would be to bring back the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust to act as a buffer and minimise interference by the state with editorial decisions at Zimpapers.

Newspaper companies should be registered in terms of the Companies Act while the General Post Office of Zimbabwe should retain its traditional role of receiving notification and registration of newspapers from prospective publishing companies.

In the broadcasting sector, the government has a role of distributing the magnetic spectrum. This cannot be done through the BSA due to its restrictions on issues pertaining to ownership, the responsible minister’s discretionary powers and lack of technical capacity on the part of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), among other issues. An independent regulatory board answerable to parliament is therefore necessary as the starting point for genuine media reforms.

These are the parameters that should frame negotiations or any form of discourse around the issue of media reforms. Opening of the media space should therefore not be measured on the return of The Daily News or the entry of new players alone but as the precursor to wholesale reforms that will allow Zimbabweans enjoy the right to freedom of expression with minimum state interference.

Tabani Moyo hits back after being attcked by Gwisai

Not in my name!

Comrade ‘Munyaradzi Sambo’, it’s not in my name!

Yesterday, 19 January 2009, Sambo a long serving member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO) posted to this popular platform of assessing ideas and contestation of philosophies an estimated four paged ‘document’ with the ISO resolutions which was assessing the organization’s position.

In the document Sambo used a paint brush and recklessly painted everyone black in the process, I was no exception, I was not bothered in the beginning since I have come to know the comrade’s tendencies when it comes to addressing issues; He always taps ideas from his principal.

Given such, I decided to respond to the principal rightfully as a citizen of this country and a legal persona with rights to express myself outside the confines of my work environment, political affiliation and other elements of life which define human kind.

Firstly, the accusations leveled against me are against the grain given that Sambo and his principal have known me since my days at the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition where I was a communications person who loved my job. My contribution to this struggle is to keep the progressive elements of the struggle and the populace informed. To this I have arranged numerous press conferences for different organizations to sell their message to their stakeholders; a contribution that will not stop even if self anointed, more equal than others ‘left wingers’ are forced to perceive it otherwise.

What bothers me, however, is the malicious idea that I mobilized and organized a press conference for individuals in ISO. It’s a pedestal assessment of my capacity. Had I mobilized for that press conference I don’t think you would have the comfort of roaming around peddling falsehoods with impunity. If you are to progress by other people’s points of strength with the hope that one day you will overturn the course of reality, then you should not be surprised when the face of reality slashes over to sleep talk.

And to Mr Sambo’s principal (Munyaradzi Gwisai), allow me to quote directly from the Crisis Coalition think tank report of 14 March 2006 held at the Cresta Lodge in Harare which if I am not mistaken, Sambo attended; The think tank dicussed Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe.

At the think tank, Professor Brian Raftopolous commented on why Munyaradzi Gwisai had been expelled from the MDC and he said, “Gwisai was expelled from the party because he was always a minority in the MDC and that his extreme left ideology was a doctrine and largely theoretical. Gwisai failed to link his position with other issues of the party…”

So you see comrade Sambo, there is a danger when you start believing that you are the only god ordained spokesperson of socialism. Being in the left is a deep conception of the heart, mindset and orientation of which, I would like to think every one of us grew up under the doctrine of Marx and Lenin which helped us to understand the tilted terrain in which we operate in. It is not a hat, banner, bandanna or a pair of shoes which Sambo can abuse by choosing who to anoint by capping or disanoint by recalling. Comrade you should understand the principles of this ideology from its infancy.

The danger of self acclamation or spokespersonship to a movement as big as socialism is that you start preaching hoping that the people see you as the alpha and omega of socialism. You eventually reach the extent where when you go into and electoral process and you loose, you would think that the people betrayed the left movement. No chief, that’s a ruse, the movement went on after the demise of Marx and those before you and it will continue without the recited mantra which you rarely practice.

This attitude of claiming the demigod status , awarding personalities the god fathers status in socialism will slowly, and eventually drive one into a state of self denial. The dangers of self denial are that one will never know the difference between what is practical and what is theoretical. It happened in the 2003 by-election in Highfields.

I wonder who are some of the most equal person’s advisors or my be it is exaggerated ego, after being expelled by the party which you have been attacking on state broadcaster, ZBC being accorded a quarter of the news hour bulleting attacking the leadership of the opposition, the very party’s representative went on to thump the most high.

The results are still a public recorded as noted below: Pearson Mungofa MDC won with 8 759 votes, ahead of Zanu PF's Joseph Chinotimba who polled 4 844. The African National Party's candidate garnered 272 votes while Munyaradzi Gwisai, 73 votes ahead of the United Parties and Zimbabwe Democratic Party candidates, who polled 34 and eight votes, respectively.

What happened in Highfields, if one might answer? Was Chinotimba more socialist than some amongst our midst? This is the problem with pretence and it is the, ‘I am holier than thee’ mentality which leads some of our comrades exposed to untold humiliation when reality emerges. Even little known ANP party which was formed on the eve of the election managed to pull a better performance. Just stop spreading the misinformed position and portrait on an individual being an epitome of the institution. In their on right, institutions should outlive individuals.

Thirdly, the misnomer of the hand of imperialist causing destabilizations! You see comrade when there is a leadership failure, people will always find a scapegoat especially an outsider’s hand. The argument is as old as human kind, you start hearing of familiar names like renegade, enemies (as if to say of the state), sovereignty, sellouts, imperialists then you know that the struggle have taken a dangerous path. When ZANU PF uses such words on anyone of us you know that there is something to follow.

I am no stranger to being labeled an imperialist comrade, I have equally received such abusive language from the State. But you should bear in mind that you don’t hold the creative language of attacking people through the public media whilst those people stand by and watch. Very soon they will start responding and you will not hold the leverage to prescribe how they respond to such personality slaughter.

You have realized that I didn’t address issues of your organization because of my respect of institutions. Equally, be man enough, and stop attacking the organization which I work for in you perennial quest for attention which is fast becoming more of paranoia than anything else.

Lastly Comrade Sambo, you come from the same generation as I do and I hope history has been very fair to us both because it has taught us the mistakes which have been made by the generations which came before us. I hope you will dust off this layman approach of being loud, in an attempt to show intellect. We have people in the generations before us who still sound like they are still in their first years in SRC. By now you should understand this terrible linkage between loudness and emptiness.

I would not want to waste more of my productive time dwelling on who should be in the extreme left or extreme right because in essence I might end up turning a blind eye on humanity issues which are somewhere in between. I will not remove my eyes from the ball, which is the struggle for a better Zimbabwe to fight someone who could not exceed Chinotimba’s votes. No! Not me!

The section in which I was attacked by Gwisai and Sambo:

d. This is why it has become necessary to expel Gwisai and other longstanding leaders of ISO as has been threatened, for without that this the renegades cannot succeed in their designs to liquidate the ISO into popular front politics and opportunism. Indeed so crass has been their betrayal that the press conference was facilitated and mobilized by the imperialist-funded Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe) through Thabani Moyo, formerly of the Crisis Coalition. The very same MISA whose executive director Takura Zhangazha vigorously led the opposition of the inclusion of anti-neoliberal and anti-capitalist demands in the Peoples Charter and who despite being a leading figure in the Peoples Convention still went behind everyone’s back to join the MDC-T technical team in the MDC-Zanu PF talks in South Africa despite that such talks had been roundly rejected by the Peoples Convention as a useless elitist platform. Today it is a network of such forces that have become the closest friends of the Mutero-Tigwe clique, funding them and pushing their propaganda. We ask whether it is a mere coincidence that the Mutero-Tigwe clique seeks to destabilize ISO, so conveniently near the elective Zimbabwe Social Forum annual strategic meeting where Gwisai is being supported by ISO and many progressive movements to stand as chairperson, but being massively opposed by the very same right-wing NGOs?