BAZ a conduit for the ZANU PF election campaign

By Tabani Moyo

In the Sunday Mail of January 22 – 28, 2012, the Chairperson of the disputed Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), Dr Tafataona Mahoso was going in circles trying to redeem the bettered image of the illegally constituted board. He jumped from one point to another in a bid to mislead the nation that everything was done above board pertaining to the millennium charade of awarding licenses to ZANU PF sympathizers.

This article tries to highlight the major defects pertaining to the status of the BAZ and the subsequent awarding of three commercial licenses to AB Communication and the Zimbabwe Newspaper (ZIMPAPERS) by the same. The controversial move has been branded as a millennium charade in the media circles and fraud elsewhere.

In trying to dispel the ruse of impartiality and objectivity painted by Dr Tafataona Mahoso the article shall attempt to zoom on the following critical issues:

·         Which advert did the current board members responded to when they applied for the positions they are holding, that is if ever they applied?

·          Is it out of coincidence that only the allegedly ZANU PF aliened companies were granted the licenses to broadcast?

·         Is the current BAZ as is, ever going to discharge its duties without putting on its political spectacles and/or probably party regalia?

·         What is the way forward under such circumstances?

where was the advert flighted?

In the lengthy and tedious interview in the weekly state owed Sunday Mail, Dr. Mahoso painted a picture of normalcy on the status of the BAZ. This is sad because as he is fully aware, he never responded to any advert in the press for board members. The parliament of Zimbabwe advertised for commissioners’ posts for the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC). Mahoso and others applied for such placements but failed, and dismally in that regard, in the public’s full glare. How the doctor and others of like mind, who by the way failed to make it into the ZMC ended up at the BAZ remains a millennium mystery.

As members of the public we are therefore calling on the Parliament of Zimbabwe to follow the laws of the land. Through the Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC), it should dissolve the current politicized outfit and advertise vacancies for board members in the press for prospective board members to apply. This is what it should have done in the first place.

the day ZANU PF awarded itself licenses.

 In early 2010, the ZANU PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, was quoted by the Zimbabwe Independent as saying both Tafataona Mahoso and Professor Jonathan Moyo were doing voluntary work for his party. This is sequentially confirmed by the contents of his long, meandering and some yester year century articles in the state media where he is always trying to spruce up the disintegrating party image.

The Manica Post (7 – 13 October 2011) carried a apt headline titled Journalist Supa Mandiwanzira joins politics. The headline was supported with a picture of Supa Mandiwanzira flanked by two senior Zanu PF members. The picture had the following caption: Zanu-PF national secretary for administration, Cde Didymus Mutasa (left), cde Moses Gutu (centre) present Nyanga South constituency aspirant Supa Mandiwanzira to party supporters during the constituency coordination meeting held at Sedze Business Centre last Saturday. If the need be for purposes of evidence and transparency I can still produce this newspaper cutting.

Dr Paul Chimedza, the chairperson of ZIMPAPERS is gunning for the Gutu South constituency on the ZANU PF ticket.

Due to the space constrains I will not hazard going into detail on the obvious party lineage of the likes of Dr Vimbai Chivaura,  Colonel Reuben Mqwayi (Rtd), Ms Charity Moyo and Brig-Gen Elasto Madzingira (Rtd) among others.

This smacks of a ZANU PF ploy to beef up its tools as the party prepares for elections sometime in 2013. It is upon us as the peoples of Zimbabwe, the region, continent and the international community to note that a BAZ chaired by a ZANU PF “voluntary worker” set and issued two licenses to two commercial radio stations whose heads are contesting in the forthcoming elections under the ZANU PF ticket. This can only be defined as fraud.

a void in broadcasting regulation.

Given the aforesaid situation, there is a void in our broadcasting sector for there is no legitimate and credible regulator to call for licenses for the people of Zimbabwe to start broadcasting. Therefore, there is no way under the current circumstances that the current board can claim to be registering ‘authentic broadcasters’ in essence what is happening is a clear situation were by ZANU PF is building a paper trail to the establishment of its manifesto.

Zimbabweans should refuse to be subjected to such a toy-story of political grandstanding rather than national development.

where do we go from here?

In conclusion we need sanity in the broadcasting industry through firstly ensuring that the current BAZ board needs to be dissolved by parliament; legal challenges and/or political parties coming back to their senses and disbanding the creature which is causing chaos in the industry.

There after the long term solution has to safeguard against the recurrence of such mischief through ensuring the establishment of an Independent Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (IBAZ) that is done in sync with the regulation of telecommunications and ICTs. These two arms will be responsible of managing our frequency spectrum.

With such measures in place, as a nation we would move towards much progressive issues like digital migration rather than being stuck with Stone Age laws like the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Interception of Communications Act (ICA) and the Criminal law Codification and Reform Act (CODE) among others

Tabani Moyo can be reached at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Speech presented by Tabani Moyo (Quill Club Secretary General) on the occasion of handing over the Zimbabwe Somalia Solidarity Fund to UNICEF

05 October 2011

Speech presented by Tabani Moyo (Quill Club Secretary General) on the occasion of handing over the Zimbabwe Somalia Solidarity Fund to UNICEF

The UNICEF Representatives,

Quill Club Executive members

Members of the press

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank colleagues at UNICEF Zimbabwe offices for according us this opportunity to handover our humble contributions in our efforts to respond to crying voices in the Republic of Somalia. We engaged with the Harare office for quite some time for this day to become a reality. On behalf of the Quill Club, we appreciate the role you are going to play in handing over this donation to the beneficiaries.

Ladies and gentlemen,

On the 22^nd of July 2011, the National Press club, having been touched by the broadcasts and pictures exposed in the international media launched a week’s campaign targeting to raise USD 1000.00 under the banner Zimbabwe-Somalia Solidarity Fund

The initiative, as you might be aware became the first one of such a nature in Zimbabwe. As such we are proud to be the pioneering institution to publicly mobilise the people of Zimbabwe towards a such a noble cause of saving lives.

The inspiration is founded in the comprehensive notion of African solidarity. We come from the background that we take care of each other. If our brother or sister is struck by such a natural calamity through our solidarity we must act. 

At no given point in our collective lives have we reneged from this notion, which is entrenched on the pedestal that life is sacrosanct and we as Africans should collectively uphold such a value system. With this campaign, we therefore answered to more than 9.6million peoples’ cry for help in the adverse face of famine in Somalia to express our solidarity beyond spiritual, thought, empathy and sympathy to economic and humanitarian solidarity.

We as Africans can not find restful and peaceful nights when we are aware that the vultures await to patch at shallow graves of victims of hunger. As we serve dishes of lunch and dinner at our respectful homes we need to remain alive to the fact that a child is buried daily in Somalia due to starvation, dehydration and failure to access medication. As I said, as Africans we are bound by the spirit of Ubuntu, which prescribes that we are each other’s keepers as brothers and sisters therefore with this statement of commitment to the same we seek to raise a new sense of hope to the people of Somalia.

As each other’s keepers, we surely must be haunted by the devastating pictures and video footage of the humiliating suffering which continues to haunt more than 360 000 children and the starvation of the general populace of up to 9 million people.

Therefore our nights can only be nights punctuated by nightmares in light of such gruesome conditions of degrading starvation. The sight of children getting permanently disabled due to limited supply of food and water can only but exacerbate the nightmares on fellow Africans and the peoples of the world.

Neither can our souls find peace for as long as children die of mosquito bites due to limited access to blanketing and other clothing requirements. Such suffrage corrodes the development of our human progression and our value system, which differentiate humanity from the rest of the animal world.

The very same spirit of solidarity which was shared amongst the peoples of Africa in dislodging the colonial administrations in the respective nations from Cape to Cairo has not left us as a people. It is the very same spirit which has inspired this group of journalists to make this humble contribution.

With this small donation, we are hopeful that we have set in motion a national process of solidarity from business, the churches, the various sectors of our economy and the polity to name but just a few. We therefore believe this process shall among other things manage to achieve the following:

·         Trigger into motion other institutions to remember and assist the people of Somalia during this trying time

·         Escalate the Somalia humanitarian disaster to unlock additional areas of interventions

·         Increase awareness on the need for solidarity amongst Africans in both times of trying and triumph,

·         And ultimately save lives in Somalia

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Having noted the above, the Quill Club, whose membership is mainly of journalists remain forever indebted with this expression of solidarity from fellow journalists, members of the civil society, the business community and the general public who through their contributions shall make a difference. Special thanks go to the UNICEF Zimbabwe office for accepting to receive our humble contribution on behalf of the Children of Somalia.

Finally, we would like the people of Somalia to know that as we hand over this donation, we are doing so with sadness for we could have done better. We are doing so knowing very much that this is like going to bed with an unfinished song, yet we know the fully well the pains of such a song. Theirs is a song of sorrow; the hymns of human lose and choruses that threaten humanity.

With those few remarks,

I thank you.

MDCs digging own graves

Tabani Moyo
September 01, 2011
fist published by Kubatana.net 

The dust of the government’s hollywood lifestyle is refusing to settle down. It cannot settle down especially when the people are living in such a sea of poverty. However, the development has shown beyond reasonable doubt that the MDCs are stuck in an omnibus syndrome to governance. The mimicry politics have taken over the voice of reason as the so called ‘democratic change merchants’ stampede for the gravy train.
I happened to bump into three ministers one from the MDC and two from the MDC-T riding in their new filthy lucre. The windows where lowered, music loud as if to attract attention from the public in the exhibition of a newly acquired status. The status of a polished league of gentlemen/women I guess. I said god forbid. These are not business people who have the leeway to do whatever they want with their profits, but public officials ridding on the poor taxpayers’ hard earned income.

What happened to the so called paragons of virtue, those who saw everything wrong about public officials abusing state funds on luxuries? The virtue seems to have sublimated during the ‘opposition’ times, as the train gets more gravy laced, the elements of virtue are crucified on the altar of public suffrage. As we stand no single minister has declined the offer of these fuel guzzlers, their consciences are clean and their declaration of intent manifest that they are still in a struggle for a better Zimbabwe!

Personally, I don’t have a problem with ZANU PF being implicated in this bangle, we as a people know of its heinous deeds. That’s why the people of Zimbabwe risked limb and life in forming and supporting an alternative vehicle to rid the rot in ZANU PF. It becomes confusing when the line between ZANU PF’s actions and those of the MDCs becomes blurred. 

20 million on luxuries! 

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) is set to increase the utility cost of delivering energy. The public hospitals have collapsed, children this summer shall die of mosquito bites, the industry performing below 30%, women failing access basic sanitary facilities and our education system turning into an elitist platform among other things.

With the above cacophony of problems, we have learnt that ZANU PF and the MDCs can actually unite in ‘looting’ from the poor. The current blame shifts between Minister of Transport, Infrastructure Development and Communication Nicholas Goche and the Minister of Finance Tendai Biti should not be tolerated to continue stealing our intellectual space in the papers. The decision to purchase the goodies is a collective one from the cabinet which the three parties are represented. 

In this process there is no room for afterthought. The three parties could not agree at cabinet level on the need to increase civil servants salaries but unanimously agreed to squeeze harder the drying pockets of the taxpayers.


As I stated before such are the pitfalls of proximity to state power it exposes the cravings which were going to manifest themselves soon after the ‘opposition’ takes total control of state power. We are better off with some of these happenings are unfolding at this juncture of our cultivation as a people. The MDCs only got into office two years ago; they are already leaving the lives of movie stars or the English premier soccer stars. One can only remind the MDCs of the calamity of approaching this ‘struggle’ with omnibus gloves. It gives the impression of a false sense of ‘arrival’, a false sense of destiny. The ministers believe, their yearnings have been achieved, hence the need to amass as much as they can before sporadic cabinet reshuffles. These state trappings are dangerous for the same people who came up with these platforms or movements can still do the same and push aside primitive ‘accumulativists’ into political dustbins.
Tabani moyo is reachable at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Commercial radio licenses – beware of wolves in sheep’s skins

By Tabani Moyo

On 27 May 2011 the improperly constituted Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) called for applications for two free- to- air national commercial radio broadcasting services. A national free- to- air national commercial licence refers to a profit making broadcasting entity that transmits an un-encoded signal throughout Zimbabwe.

Notwithstanding the fact that the legality of the board which called for these licenses is heavily disputed, one also needs to examine the wide reaching nature and effect of this call for licenses.
Due to the non-transparent manner in the management of the broadcasting signal administered in this country, chances are high that the smokescreen call for the licenses will become an extension of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)’s monopoly.

For example the Zimpapers stable applied for a license in line with the permanent secretary George Charamba’s advice at the organisation’s strategic retreat held in Nyanga early this year. If Zimpapers is granted the licence, it will fit well into the propaganda manufacturing mills of Zanu PF ahead of the elections which will augur well with the government’s intention to maintain state monopoly of the airwaves.
Given that scenario the BAZ’s impartiality and sincerity will be put to severe test considering that Radio Voice of the People (VOP) which was bombed by ‘unknown persons’ on 29 August 2002, is also among the applicants for the two commercial radio licenses. As for the other applicants, it can be anybody’s guess as to who their sponsors are.
The euphoria and excitement that accompanied the call for the applications in question might at this stage be premature.

be wary
On 6 July 2011, the infamous duo of Tafataona Mahoso and Obert Muganyura who are the BAZ chairperson and chief executive officer respectively, painted a misleading picture on the state of incapacity to regulate the prospective new players in the broadcasting sector.

The duo was quizzed on why BAZ had opted for only two licenses in the category of commercial broadcasting contrary to its submissions to parliament in 2009 that the regulator was going to give priority to community radio stations. Muganyura claimed that the regulator had conducted a survey in 38 centres in Zimbabwe and that those surveyed had said BAZ should prioritise commercial radio stations ahead of community radio broadcasters.

One can only wonder as to whether the survey was ever conducted notwithstanding the methodology that was used during the so-called survey which was conducted in a veil of secrecy.  What criterion was used in determining the 38 centers surveyed and how reflective are they in terms of the nation’s preferences?

In the same meeting Muganyura confirmed that the country has capacity to license 56 community radio stations as per his position and plan submitted to the same Committee in 2009. Why then is Muganyura and his comrades in the Ministry of Information, permanent secretary George Charamba and Minister Webster Shamu reluctant to give the people of Zimbabwe their space to access and disseminate diverse views through their own community radio stations.

the ruse of broadcasting and state security
The paranoid Zanu PF personnel stationed at the Ministry of Information and those at the Zanu PF headquarters have been peddling misleading statements for too long that broadcasting is a state security concern hence the need to keep it tightly controlled as a monopoly. This is a misplaced notion because the people of Zimbabwe know better that broadcasting is a developmental agent which, if freed will positively contribute to our knowledge index and nation building.

Jonathan Moyo, George Charamba, Webster Shamu, Tafataona Mahoso and Obert Muganyura among others of like thinking, should sober up and realize that Zimbabwe is not their private entity but it belongs to its inhabitants. To this reality, they need to wake up and smell the coffee on what’s happening elsewhere – private broadcasters and community radio stations continue to mushroom and proliferate throughout the region and Africa as a whole save for Zimbabwe and Eritrea.

In 2008, for example, the DRC had 41 radio stations and 51 TV stations in Kinshasa alone out of a total of 381 radio stations and between 81 and 93 TV channels throughout the country. In 2006/7 Benin had 73 radio stations while Uganda has more than 120 and Mali 200. South Africa has an aggregate of more than 1000 TV and radio stations combined.

the monitoring incapacity myth
Muganyura argued that the regulator did not call for applications for more licenses because it does not have the capacity to monitor and control the new players in the country.

Everyone knows that this office has become an office of excuses on why it has been failing to issue licenses for new players since 2001. However it never occurred to me that it could one day fall this low and shallow in its deceptive tendencies.

If BAZ does not have capacity to monitor and control new players one will be quick to ask how the government managed to intercept and shut down Capitol Radio on 5 October 2000? How did the government intercept Radio VOP signals leading to the arrest of the radio station’s six trustees in 2006? It equally sobers one’s mind how the same government is intercepting and jamming external radio stations such as Voice of America’s Studio 7, SW Radio Africa and Radio VOP from broadcasting in Zimbabwe. That argument is pedestal.

Zimbabweans are not a gullible lot. All they are asking for is their right to speak and freely express themselves thus fulfilling the founding aspirations of the liberation struggle which the current government is collectively failing to uphold.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com

Independence: a reality check

By Tabani Moyo

ON APRIL 18, 2011, Zimbabwe turned 31 -- marking three decades of ‘self-rule’ and independence from the white supremacist regime of Ian Smith.

It is imperative for the present generation to introspect on the trials and tribulations that we as a people have experienced and attempt to make a proclamation on the course of direction which we must pursue.

In his 1979 book, Unity and Struggle, Amilcar Cabral said: “We must avoid the obsession of some comrades that everything is spoiled, everything is over if they should leave the posting where they are. Nobody is indispensible in this struggle; we are all needed but nobody is indispensible.

“If someone has to go and goes away and then the struggle is paralysed, it is because the struggle was worthless … this is without mentioning cases of other comrades who think when they are transferred, they are going to die, because they have already established all conditions for working in one spot and are called upon to go to another. What blindness! As if our land were just a little corner! This shows a lack of awareness of the real reason, the aim and characteristics of our struggle.”

Our struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe was not fought by Zanu PF alone. It was Zimbabwe’s struggle for self rule and independence, and all living in it fought and felt it. Its aspirations, hopes and dreams were aimed at ending all forms of discrimination, facilitate equitable access to the country’s resources and the greater enjoyment of a peace of mind which comes with such freedoms. It was never a personal struggle -- each and every man and woman played a part in ensuring that the settler regime was dismantled.

With the coming of independence in 1980, the nation lost its way in the euphoria of the black administration coming into power. We literally surrendered our rights into the hands of other men to define and chart the course of our destiny. In this, we allowed man and woman to build fiefdoms and empires of immortality aimed at self preservation as opposed to serving the nation

Personalities grew in stature and the national image dwindled. As Cabral clearly stated in his historical narratives, we need to deal with the ‘irreplaceables’ in our body polity.

The Southern African Development Community through its organ Troika on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation seems to have struck the correct code. What it did on March 31, 2011, was to remind the political leaders of Zimbabwe on the virtues of the liberation struggle which they were fast forgetting.

Impliedly, the resolutions seem to point to the fact that the concept of sovereignty comes with responsibilities for the state actors.

The main challenge which confronts Zimbabwe today is too much investment in personalities. We are fast moving towards creating cults in our political leaders. Our artists are now relegated to dedicating their creative prowess in praise singing. It’s like the country pulse at one moment is on pause as dance, song, poetry and other forms of art congest media prime time slots in a bid to immortalise the mortals. Truly, these are not the founding principles on which the liberation struggle was waged. What the country fought for was the freedom to choose and other freedoms including living in peace.

Zanu PF has lost its legitimacy and mandate to see through the aspirations of Zimbabweans. The MDC factions, on the other hand, seem to be trapped in the political methodologies and facing challenges in interpreting the stage at which we have reached in the journey of the liberation struggle. This is a stage of understanding the realities of the nation, managing to lead the nation from the realities and providing practical solutions to these realities.

There is need for an overhaul of our politics, drifting away from the personification process towards a configuration of Zimbabwe where every man and woman is equal.

Tabani Moyo can be contacted at rebeljournalist@yahoo.com