22 August 2009

Harare — PARLIAMENT has been forced to bend the rules to accommodate two people who failed to be nominated to the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) including a known Zanu PF activist.

Chris Mutsvangwa, former ambassador to China and a Zanu PF candidate in last year's parliamentary elections and Zimpapers board member Lawton Hikwa were added to the list of 12 nominees submitted to President Robert Mugabe.

It was not clear last week which names were dropped from the final list.

The duo had not made it into the top 12 list from which Mugabe is supposed to select nine that will constitute the ZMC.

Zanu PF caused a furore after their publicists including former Media and Information Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso failed to impress at the public interviews earlier this month.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who accused the panel of experts that was in charge of the selection process of favouring the MDC, led the onslaught against parliament's standing rules and orders committee (SROC).

The SROC organised the interviews.

"The controversy stemmed from the fact that politicians had their own list and our panel of experts came up with people that it felt excelled in the interviews," said Masvingo MP Tongai Matutu, who chairs the SROC.

"While we believe this was not the best way to do the nominations, we do not see the amendment of the list as compromising the process because this was a product of consensus among the main parties."

The original list of the ZMC nominees contained lawyer Chris Mhike, journalists Nqobile Nyathi, Mathew Takaona, Miriam Madziwa, Henry Muradzikwa, Godfrey Majonga and Wabata Munodawafa, academics Rino Zhuwarara and Clemence Mabaso, Pastor Useni Sibanda, publisher Roger Stringer and banker Millicent Mombeshora.

Mahoso was left out after he came last in the interviews that drew 27 participants.

There was optimism that the commissioners who were seen as largely untainted by Mugabe's previous administration that fought hard to destroy media plurality will drive the reform agenda.

Zanu PF loyalists including Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba have been fighting tooth and nail to retain the status quo that would have included Mahoso who gained notoriety for closing down independent newspapers.

Matutu said if his committee had refused to alter the list there would have been an impasse in the media reform process, which is a key indicator for the troubled Global Political Agreement (GPA).

But media activists said the latest developments were a clear indication that true media reform in Zimbabwe was still a long way off.

"It is an insult to journalists to have people who performed badly in the interviews being nominated to head such an important institution," Zimbabwe Union of Journalists secretary-general Forster Dongozi said.

"It shows lack of seriousness on the part of the politicians leading the process and raises serious credibility questions for the ZMC.

"This is but a mirror of what is happening elsewhere as far as the implementation of the GPA is concerned where there are some forces in the inclusive government who are working hard to ensure that important reforms are not done properly."

Dongozi said there were already signs that the selection of various commissions would be compromised after the SROC failed to invite applications for commissioners for the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe.

The SROC simply forwarded names of nominees who had failed to make it into the ZMC to Mugabe for consideration.

"There are some experienced broadcasters who did not apply to be considered for BAZ because they thought those positions would be advertised," he said. "The whole process is compromised and could reverse all the gains made so far in media reform."

The director of the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Takura Zhangazha said the confusion surrounding the nomination of ZMC commissioners showed the urgent need for self-regulation in the media.

"This (altering of the list) undermines any assumption that the ZMC will be an independent commission because the nomination of commissioners had to be negotiated by political parties," Zhangazha said.

"The commissioners will now be seen as people who hold briefs from political parties.

"This also emphasises the need for voluntary regulation of the media."

If the ZMC is successfully constituted it will pave the way for the registration of a number of private newspapers that are waiting in the wings to challenge the monopoly enjoyed by the state media.

Last week, The Sunday Mail claimed that papers such as The Daily News were still a long way off because the three principals to the GPA, Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara had to intervene in the selection of the ZMC and BAZ commissioners.

The claims were seen as an attempt to fuel confusion and stall the process further.

Meanwhile, Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe has called for transparency in the selection of commissioners to sit on various commissions to be created under the GPA.

"The appointment of commissioners should be strictly on merit not political affiliation," ROHR said in a statement.

"As an organisation we encourage all law-abiding Zimbabweans to reject any attempts by the political parties in the inclusive government to impose commissioners with self-serving partisan interests at the expense of the nation."

The SROC is yet to conduct interviews for commissioners of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

allafrica