ZUJ now suffers credibility gap

By Guthrie Munyuki

The eagerly-awaited Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) congress which later became a sham, has come and gone but sadly left the union strongly divided.

It became a sham because out of the more than 450 members, only 42 were invited and allowed to vote at a secret location, some 470 kilometres out of the capital Harare.

The congress was held at How Mine – reached via some dirt road from Bulawayo. Aspiring executive members from the privately-owned media residing in Bulawayo such The Standard’s Nqobani Ndlovu, did not even know the venue until the very final minute.

Ndlovu failed to attend the election, as did other interested colleagues who were duped into believing that the ZUJ congress had been slated for Padandaro Lodge in the city.

The ZUJ congress had attracted a lot of interest including from journalists domiciled in the Diaspora who had expected to see an elected executive with strong credentials to lead the union during this transitional period.

It must be pointed out that most ZUJ members from the privately-owned media were not invited to the congress, and even when they knew it was on, the venue was kept a secret from the majority of the membership including some members of the executive lads who wanted to seek re-election.

Former president Matthew Takaona defended the decision to alienate the union members from the venue by strangely saying the move was done to keep away politicians from sponsoring their own candidates.

Of course, this was a flimsy, absurd and hollow pretext which for a good reason exposed the hand of Zanu PF politicians in this congress.

Takaona might have meant the congress venue was kept a secret to “stop MDC T” politicians sponsoring journalists because judging by the outcome of the elections, it is Zanu PF who won!

Zimpapers and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) who have remained under the shackles of Zanu PF predators got the influential posts.

The News Editor of The Sunday News, Dumisani Sibanda, was elected new president while the ZBH’s Mercy Pote and the Herald’s Michael Padera were elected first and second vice presidents respectively.

Foster Dongozi, whom most colleagues accuse of being supine and pliable, was retained as secretary general. Evince Mugumbate, a former employee of the state-controlled ZBC was unopposed for the position of treasurer.

The Standard’s Masvingo reporter, Godfrey Mutimba, was elected committee member. Another Standard reporter, Jennifer Dube, was elected the new chairperson of the Gender Mainstreaming Committee.

The voting patterns here are a clear sign that ZUJ, whether deliberately or not, has delivered the union into the hands of the state!

There is just no way Sibanda, Pote and Padera can question or condemn government actions when they take instructions and are paid by the same people!

Takaona was fired from his position at Zimpapers for defending journalists from The Daily News when he was still employed by The Sunday Mail. Surely, he cannot expect us to believe that the new ZUJ leadership will deliver in the face of bullying by Zanu PF politicians.

If the Zimpapers and ZBH can be forced to denigrate the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, there is nothing that can stop the same Zanu PF politicians using their power to intimidate and silence ZUJ, through its leadership.

If anything, Dongozi, if it is crunch time, would be either left on his own or simply put a feeble fight.

After all, Dongozi who was first elected into office under the ticket of “independent” journalists when he was still features reporter at The Daily News, is no longer viewed as an ally by the same constituency.

Given what has transpired at ZUJ, and the dangers posed by the Zimpapers and ZBH dominated positions, it is only sensible for independent journalists to revive the Independent Journalists’ Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ).

IJAZ was formed in 1999 for the sole purpose of lobbying, protecting, fighting and promoting the rights of independent journalists. This was necessitated by the torture of the late Standard founding editor, Mark Govha Chavunduka and reporter, Ray Choto.

When formed, IJAZ had a strong leadership but later heeded calls by key stakeholders to join hands with ZUJ and fight as one unit to resist the repressive laws wrought on us by the Zanu PF government.

IJAZ, at the time, had spiritedly fought the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) through the courts until its case landed in the Supreme Court where it challenged the constitutionality of this evil law.

IJAZ, after losing its case at the Supreme Court almost at the same time The Daily News lost its case in the same court, fielded a similar challenge at the African Commission on Peoples and Human Rights (ACPHR) and won.

The then Zanu PF government which had presided over the closure of four newspapers was forced to eat a humble pie. A raft of bad sections of AIPPA were noted, and the government had no option but to amend and/or to repeal some sections.

IJAZ took matters into its own hands after the ZUJ led by Takaona failed to take this issue beyond the High Court challenge of 2002.

The unity government which is beset with numerous problems surely does not inspire confidence in us to the extent that we can break the balance that had been traditionally ZUJ’s bedrock – sharing of key posts between the state media and the independent press.

Now that this balance has been compromised, it is time to revive IJAZ and include well-meaning freelance journalists into this body to work outside ZUJ.

Recently, we revived the Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights (ZJHR) to complement other key partners in the areas of justice promotion.

It is only proper for us journalists in the independent media to organise ourselves and prepare for the assault on media freedom.

We have seen how hate language, speech and vitriol have been promoted and spewed by the state-controlled media despite the formation of a unity government.

If lawyers, doctors, engineers and many other professions can organise, run and execute their functions effortlessly, why should we fail as independent journalists to run our own affairs?

The whole world knows that Zimbabwe’s independent journalists have borne the brunt of a repressive state machinery and that all the newspapers that have been shutdown are independent.

We bear the scars of knee-jerk tactics; our hearts carry the pangs of pain brought by seeing the collapse of a once vibrant independent press.

Hundreds are without jobs and for the last six years, their lives have been in the hands of a Zanu PF government which had the sole of prerogative of making us breathe or suffocate.

It is time to forget yesterday’s travails and make a push for the revival of IJAZ.

Guthrie Munyuki was arts editor of both The Daily News and Daily News On Sunday when the newspapers were banned in 2003