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