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
