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Star FM presenter George Msumba (GM) had an interview with Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister
Dr Jenfan Muswere (JM) on the “State of Affairs”, a current affairs programme that discusses important events. Continued from yesterday
GM: Let’s focus on the National Development Strategy 1. Minister, are you satisfied with the manner in which the media has been carrying out its watchdog role?
JM: The media has a very important role to play, to inform the nation because the national policy is to ensure that we leave no one and no place behind. And as His Excellency, the President has stated, a number of times that “Nyika Inovakwa neVene vayo, that Zimbabweans, have got a responsibility to contribute to nation development, to nation building, and also to unity.
Yes, the media has a role to raise awareness. The media has a role to identify the negative and the positive aspects related to the National Development Strategy 1, but I am more than confident to state that we are in the right direction, the growth of GDP, the transformation of the whole economy.
Pre-2018, before the New Dispensation, Zimbabwe was importing most of its food, but I am now happy to indicate that 80 percent of the goods on the shelves in supermarkets are actually being manufactured in Zimbabwe. Pre-New Dispensation, we had challenges related to food security. But, I’m confident to say in terms of the national development strategy we’ve achieved in terms of our constitutional obligation, in terms of food security, and we are now focusing on nutrition security.
Yes we’ve had challenges around the environmentally-induced droughts like El Nino, but we’ve put in place policies, we’ve put in place systems and frameworks that are going to guide us in terms of ensuring that we achieve food security.
We also achieved security in terms of the production, the planting and production and harvesting of wheat. We also achieved the highest record in terms of production of tobacco, and we’ve registered significant achievements in terms of the Tourism Recovery Plan.
We’ve also achieved in terms of the digital economy, we have also achieved in so many sectors of the economy. And we believe that the media should continue working together with the Government of Zimbabwe for them to be able to ensure that we leave no one and place behind.
Yes, there have been industrial challenges and the Government is ready to assist the media players so that we build robust institutions; so that we are also in a position to advance the Government’s economic blueprint.
And I’m elated to say that the media has clearly been articulating a number of national development strategy (NDS1) issues and has also been able to unpack the economic policy interventions from time to time.
Yes, here and there, you have inaccurate reporting, which is perhaps unethical and which we are going to deal with as we work together, because now we’ve established an ad hoc Ministerial Advisory Committee which advises the Government on a number of initiatives.
But I know there have been difficulties. That’s part of the nostalgia. But now we’re working together with all media houses. I have already indicated that I am a minister of all media houses, and we want to ensure that the economic policy interventions under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, that we will leave no one and no place behind as articulate policy and also as we encourage Zimbabweans to play a part because the Vision 2030 is a shared responsibility.
Vision 2030 is a framework that allows the contribution by all Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and also in the diaspora as we seek to ensure that we achieve the upper middle income society before even the year 2030.
So the media has played a key role and we want the media to understand and appreciate that Zimbabwe comes first, that ethical journalism is also important for us in terms of nation building and that the media have a very, very important role to play in nation building.
The media have an important role in order to articulate developmental opportunities that Zimbabweans will be in a position to participate.
They also, have an important role in terms of image building and international relations. So we will continue to engage with all media houses as we work together in an inclusive, participatory framework that allows the media to be able to flourish in terms of the Constitution, but also in order to support that, the Government of Zimbabwe developed a number of legislative and policy interventions, which also are in line with the Constitution of Zimbabwe in terms of the freedom of expression and also in terms of a the Zimbabwe Media Commission Act, which also allows for the regulation of the media through the Chapter 12 institution, the Freedom of Information Act, all these are legislative developments that have been developed in order to allow journalists, to allow media practitioners to have access to Government economic policies, to have access to information and also of importance is that the Government of Zimbabwe also in the New Dispensation repealed AIPPA in order to allow the flourishing of journalism and media practitioners.
So we are confident that as we work together, as we walk this journey together, that we’ll be in a position to educate, to entertain, to raise awareness of a number of critical issues.
And I’m also more than happy that during the Covid-19 era, our journalists were also given special status and they managed to do a very brilliant job during the Covid-19 pandemic to raise awareness across the country, including in rural areas.
And as you are aware, that Zimbabwe did extremely well, given the background, also, given the reality that we did not have international financial institutions giving us those big budgets to be able to support our healthcare systems.
But I’m happy that journalists, media practitioners played the crucial role as we managed to defeat the Covid-19 pandemic.
GM: Some people are saying the media is not selling well the NDS1. At times we experience challenges in getting hold of ministers and technocrats within the ministries to come and explain these issues so maybe you can talk to them on our behalf so that they quickly come through to articulate these issues so that there is no misinformation out there.
JM; Of course, we have created a number of platforms and as the official Government spokesman and I’m in a position to discuss with my colleagues, ministers and also to discuss with other agencies across Government ministries for them to participate, for them to be able to work together with members of the Fourth Estate as we articulate NDS1 issues also to emphasise that whenever you have a challenge with any minister, we can liaise with their are our colleagues, we are servants of the people and as His Excellency, the President has always highlighted that we work for the people and that the people come first. So there are a number of initiatives that we’ve undertaken, including the translation, including the conversion of the NDS 1 from English to Shona, Ndebele, Kalanga working with the Midlands State University, and also here to express my confidence that the translation, the conversion of the National Development Strategy is being done by the Midlands State University.
We’ve also engaged all media houses, shared all National Development Strategy copies, shared with them the reviews that have been done over the years. We also have a number of platforms where we discuss with the media, including the post-Cabinet briefing sessions, where we articulate a number of policy issues related to the National Development Strategy 1. We also have the ministerial sessions where we discuss with members of the Fourth Estate as well.
And we also, if the provincial tours that we always encourage all media houses to be able to participate in all these programmes and I can tell you that the post-Cabinet briefing sessions, the provincial tours, the segmented media briefings that we’ve had a number of times, they’ve always been over subscribed and that through our district information offices and also through various media channels, we’ve also been able to get the message across.
Yes, there are a number of challenges, but we are confident that working together, we will be in a position to be able to inform the whole country about the National Development Strategy 1.
GM: Is the Second Republic comfortable to be critiqued to say, ‘but we are seeing some challenges’, are you comfortable?
JM: Yes, we’re comfortable. Nothing to hide. We are in a position to discuss any issue. We are also in a position for us to be able to work together. We’re also in a position to be able to highlight any issues that the public or the people of Zimbabwe might be interested in. So we are servants of the people and the journalists and the people of Zimbabwe.
So freedom of expression is protected in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. This is precisely why we’ve put in place the legislation which you have highlighted that relates to access to information. And this is precisely why we also repealed AIPPA because under the leadership of President Mnangagwa, issues such as the existence of AIPPA, members of the fourth estate had highlighted that it inhibits the media practitioners growth.
It also inhibits media houses. So this is precisely why the Second Republic managed to repeal the legislation and also to refine through a stakeholders, approach, a number of pieces of legislation.
And this is also why we’re in the process of developing and amending other legislation for us to ensure that there is a media viability and that there is transparency and accountability that the members of the Fourth Estate should be able to contribute towards.
◆ To be continued
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