Luke Tamborinyoka on Question Time
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, is the guest on Question Time and joins SW Radio Africa journalist Lance Guma to answer questions sent in by listeners. Tamborinyoka comments on the hate speech and defamatory articles directed at the PM, the false statements coming from Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba and also why the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe is calling for licence applications, when it is not legally constituted.
Interview broadcast 20 July 2011
Lance Guma: Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka, is my guest on Question Time. Listeners were asked to send in their questions in advance of the interview using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, e-mail and text messages. Mr Tamborinyoka thank you for joining us.
Luke Tamborinyoka: You are welcome Lance.
Guma: Okay, from a fresh faced student at the Harare Polytechnic, to a journalist at the Daily News, then Director of Information for the MDC and now spokesman for the prime minister. Glenda in Kariba sends in our first question and wants to know just how and why you decided to enter politics?
Tamborinyoka: I’m not sure whether I decided to enter politics or politics decided to enter me but all I can say is that after grounding in journalism training, I then joined the Daily News where I rose through the ranks to become Chief News Editor but as everyone well knows, in 2003, the paper was finally, eventually closed down after a traumatic history of bombings, arbitrary arrests of the reporters and so forth.
And so because it was a political decision to ban the newspaper so to speak, it inadvertently led almost all the journalists who were there politically minded, so we were invited into politics by the misdemeanors of a repressive government.
Guma: Now in your role as the Prime Minister’s spokesman, you have had to spend a considerable amount of your time responding to defamatory articles about the PM and even a lot of hate speech directed at him; as a former journalist, what do you make of these relentless attacks on the PM coming from the state media?
Tamborinyoka: It just tells you how much of gutter journalism is practiced in the state media; one would have thought that since the formation of the inclusive government, the public press would at least begin to give some modicum of respect to a prime minister who in any case in March 2008, trounced Mr Robert Mugabe in a free and fair election but regardless of that fact we have seen relentless attacks, savage attacks on the person and office of the prime minister by a press which is clearly an appendage of ZANU PF.
It has become clear that the public press does not serve the interests of the people of Zimbabwe but serves the interests of a party and a leadership that has now become a minority because it is unpopular with the generality of the people. So it just tells you about the state of journalism; I’m not sure whether yellow is the right colour, I’m not sure the kind of colour the journalism that they practice as the public media is but one would not want to say that they are journalists but rather that they are appendages of the political commissariat of ZANU PF.
Guma: Should we be blaming the journalists? This is a debate that has been held elsewhere – whether these are just people who want to feed their families, they are working for these organisations and they just toe the line in terms of the editorial policies set up.
Tamborinyoka: Lance, I think journalism is a profession and because it is a profession it has something to do with ethics, values and principles and any journalist worth his salt must be able to do things that make his conscience clear at the end of the day. He must be able to practice his profession according to the ethics of that particular profession but when you engage in some kind of gutter journalism where you attack people without giving them the right of reply as is supposed to be the case in any journalism, one would then say maybe these guys are just appendages of the commissariat, department of ZANU PF.
Guma: So you genuinely believe they believe in what they write?
Tamborinyoka: Yah I think most of them believe in what they write because anyone, any journalist worth his salt would not engage in that kind of garbage journalism.
Guma: Your sparring sessions with Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamba have generated quite a level of interest over the years. Give us some insight into your relationship with these people. When you meet at different forums, are you ever on talking terms?
Tamborinyoka: Yah we meet once in awhile with George (Charamba) and we speak but obviously sometimes we are free about our relationship, we last met at Sandton (SADC Summit in South Africa) and obviously he was trying to mislead journalists about the outcome of Sandton and because the Prime Minister left the Summit earlier because he was supposed to go elsewhere to catch a 9pm plane so he left earlier, Charamba said that the Prime Minister was leaving early because he had had a tough beating in the Summit and so he was just laughing at me saying why is your boss leaving early, you are not getting a good deal at this Summit – so of course we talk once in a while but I cannot say he is my cozy buddy.
Guma: You’ve got quite a battle on your hands having to constantly correct misrepresentations from the Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu and his permanent secretary George Charamba on meetings held by the principals.
This is a question that has been sent to us by one of our listeners who does not wish to be named. He says is it not ironic Shamu harps on about ministers leaking details of cabinet meetings and yet he and Charamba are constantly doing the same for meetings of the principals? Don’t you feel there’s one rule for you and one rule for them?
Tamborinyoka: Yah it’s quite clear that there’s one rule for the goose and one rule for the gander. What is actually ironic Lance is that even today I have actually had to issue a statement disclaiming the mistruths that have been pedaled through the state media by George Charamba and Webster Shamu.
You know these guys are not the spokespersons of the principals; the principals meet as leaders of political entities and these guys continue to pedal mistruths and lies about the principals’ meetings and obviously like the questioner put it, one would have thought that the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity is supposed to be a spokes-ministry of the inclusive government, of the government in its inclusiveness.
They cannot continue to speak on one side or one third of the government as is currently the case. So I’ve had obviously a tenacious time trying to fight these things where these guys go and misrepresent the goings-on in the principals’ meetings. It just tells you what kind of government and what kind of ministry we have that it is not playing its role and is not serving properly the people of Zimbabwe in terms of disseminating information.
Guma: Let’s just briefly touch on this – it’s a story that’s quite topical this week – the Herald yesterday was accusing the prime minister of trying to smuggle the Welshman Ncube issue. Just clarify this for us – we’ve seen your statement – for the benefit of our listeners – just clarify the matter for us.
Tamborinyoka: Well of course as the prime minister in any case can’t be said to have smuggled the issue of Welshman Ncube, it appears in as far as these guys are concerned, the prime minister is a perennial smuggler; the other time he was said to have smuggled a siren for his vehicle, now they are saying that he has smuggled the issue of Welshman Ncube into the meetings of the principals.
What happened like I said in my statement today Lance is that the principals met on Monday and of course the president actually introduced the issue of Welshman Ncube, he said that there had been misrepresentations from the Professor Ncube-led political formation that they wanted their president to be included in the meetings of the principals and of course it was agreed that this was an issue, it was before the courts and they also agreed that it was an internal matter and Professor Mutambara was urged to go and speak to his colleagues and find an amicable solution to their internal political matter which is in any case, before the courts.
So this is what happened, the president introduced the issue of Welshman Ncube before the principals but obviously it is not (inaudible) because the Herald goes on to their usual lies and say that it was the prime minister who smuggled the issue of Welshman Ncube into the meetings of the principals.
Guma: On the 7th of June 2007 you walked out of prison having spent 71 days in remand prison on trumped up charges of terrorism. You were subjected to physical beatings using baseball bats and batons, tortured for several days and also denied food. Your party is in a coalition government with the same people who did this to you and your colleagues. How difficult is it to work with these people?
Tamborinyoka: This is an uneasy coalition Lance; it is a coalition of people coming from diverse backgrounds. Of course sometimes I meet some of the guys but I can tell you we are doing this for the people of Zimbabwe and we meet these people, and it is an uneasy relationship of victims and perpetrators but of course we will not allow the temporary trappings of this inclusive government, this temporary transitional government to seduce us into a state of amnesia.
We will never forget what we went through at the hands of ZANU PF and I can tell you that the transitional government is just a reality, the country is in a fluid transition to democracy and so we can’t avoid working with some of these guys but as far as we are concerned these are the sunset days for the yesteryear periods of torture and so forth.
Zimbabwe is in an inevitable transition and we are marching forward regardless of what we went through and right now there are some people who are still suffering in prison on trumped up charges of having murdered a policeman.
Some of us know that these charges will collapse like a deck of cards and so even though we are working with some of these guys Lance, we remain committed to the goal we are fighting for, we remain committed to accomplishing a new and democratic Zimbabwe. So we will not allow, we will not be seduced into a state of amnesia during this stage of the transitional government.
Guma: I suppose that answers part of my second question, we have a question from Gerald in Harare who sent us a Tweet and wants us to find out if you personally ever feel it was a mistake to join the coalition government? Where you are working with people who are constantly trying to undermine you at every turn.
Tamborinyoka: Remember, some of us are born and bred in the MDC; we are grounded in the MDC; we are grounded from Harvest House so we are joining this inclusive government from Harvest House, so our politics is shaped by Harvest House and so I can tell you is that even though we are working in this government we are very much aware that in May of 2006, in fact our Congress resolution was that we were going to engage in democratic resistance, we are going to force the dictatorship screaming and kicking to a negotiating table, we are going to have a new constitution, we are going to have a transitional government before finally (inaudible) into a new democratic Zimbabwe.
So this transitional government is actually part of an MDC road map, it is part of the Congress resolution of 16 to 19 March 2006; so this transitional government is actually part and parcel of the road map that we carved out for ourselves in March 2006. So we are on the fourth lap of our ladder and I can tell you we are getting there.
Guma: We have a question from Masvingo sent in by Tongai who says he does not understand why the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe is calling on applications for commercial radio licences when it has been well documented they are not legally constituted and a new board is supposed to be put in place, so he would like you to try and clarify if you can, this particular issue.
Tamborinyoka: You know the illegality of the BAZ board is a matter of public record. You know it is like a group of thieves calling for a (inaudible) meeting. These guys are illegal and they cannot be allowed to invite applications for broadcasting licences and I think that this is all part of ZANU PF’s machinations ahead of the next SADC Summit to give an impression that the airwaves are being freed in Zimbabwe, that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe has actually started to invite applications so that the issue of media reform, SADC will actually think that there is movement on the issue of media reform when in actual fact we all know that it can’t happen under the stewardship of Comrade Mahoso who is both chief executive of the Zimbabwe Media Commission as well as chairman of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe which is an incestuous relationship that obviously brings to the fore the fact that this guy can’t work for both entities.
So the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe is one of the illegally constituted boards but I can tell you that the principals have agreed at their level that the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe should be reconstituted, that the ZBC board should be reconstituted, that the board of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust should be put in place as a way of liberalizing the media ahead of the polls. But what we are seeing the resistance from the ministry of Media, Information and Publicity to bring in a new culture and to liberalise the airwaves in line with the GPA.
Guma: Now does this mean those who are already applying, the applications will be dealt with by the old board or the new one? How is this going to work because people are already applying, responding to these requests for applications?
Tamborinyoka: Yah I think the applications by those who are applying just tell you how desperate people are to do business, how desperate the people are for an alternative broadcasting station, it tells you that people are ready to do business and give Zimbabweans an alternative channel.
Obviously one would expect that a properly constituted Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe board would have demanded to legitimately invite applications. What we are seeing in this case Lance is a ruse by a board that is not properly constituted. Only last week but one this body was telling the Parliamentary portfolio committee that even the applications that they are inviting, they can only be able to do the necessary processing, they will only be able to grant these people a licence after 18 months.
And you and me know that after 18 months, that is the exactly not what the negotiators, and the principals think that that must be the time line in which the media reform must have taken place in this country, it is too far away. So you begin to say to yourself this is obviously a ruse to give the impression to SADC, to the region, to the AU that there’s movement in Zimbabwe in terms of democratic reforms but I think that the people of Zimbabwe, SADC and all those bodies are not going to be hoodwinked by this cheap drama.
Guma: We have a question that comes all the way from Mutare, the person has refused to be named but they are saying can you please ask Luke we are hearing all these reports about the MDC formations uniting to contest as one political party in the next elections. Is this true?
Tamborinyoka: I wouldn’t want to say anything at this stage. To the best of my knowledge there has not been any discussion around this issue at this particular moment but I wouldn’t want to pre-empt anything, there’s still a long way before the next election so I can’t say much on that one.
Guma: And our final question comes all the way from Hwange and this is Priscilla – “can you please ask Luke – do you see a free and fair election being a possibility the next time Zimbabweans go to the polls?”
Tamborinyoka: I think the question is not whether I see, the question is that the people of Zimbabwe must demand it and I think that the prime minister has since taken a position, he has since announced that this road map must be implemented and that the MDC will not participate in an election, an election in quotes, it will not participate in a war where violence is taking centre stage.
So as long as there’s violence and as long as the necessary building mechanisms as President Banda put them, the necessary building blocks of free and fair have not been put in place, we will not participate in any cheap (inaudible), we will only be able to participate in a free and fair election and it is something that we are going to be demanding until we have that free and fair election just like the election we had at least in March 2008 which had some semblance of freedom. So we will not take part in anything that is just but a free and fair election.
Guma: Well Zimbabwe that’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s spokesman, Luke Tamborinyoka joining us on this edition of Question Time. Mr Tamborinyoka thank you so much for your time.
Tamborinyoka: Thanks Lance.
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