Source: Inside media’s reportage on succession – DailyNews Live
Maxwell Sibanda 30 July 2017
HARARE – As the Zanu PF succession debate gathers momentum ahead of the
2018 elections, there has been mixed feelings on how the local media has
captured its dynamics.
The Daily News caught up with analysts and media practitioners to find out
how they rate the media’s performance when it came to reporting on the
issue as it relates to how it has helped shape the Zanu PF succession
debate.
Misa-Zimbabwe national director, Nhlanhla Ngwenya, alleged that the media
has been captured by factionalists, claiming its reportage is steeped
through the lens of their preferred factional handlers; and this cuts
across the media divide.
“You don’t need rocket science to determine, which faction the media and
their journalists are bidding for,” said Ngwenya.
“In all this, Zimbabweans remain the poorer with regards information on
issues that affect their daily life struggles.
Ngwenya said it was time the media retrace its roots to basics to rebuild
the public trust in news outlets as credible sources of information that
are independent from political interests in the ruling party.
Social commentator, Rashweat Mukundu, said the media in Zimbabwe has been
captured by the political elite in its reporting on the succession issue.
Mukundu said the succession agenda has been more of an elite political
struggle focused on who gets power not what the citizens expect from those
with or aspiring to assume power.
“I have not read a single story that talks of the vision of those
contending for power, even indirectly, should they be afraid of being
labelled ambitious. The media is, therefore, the voice of those with power
whose sources are the political elites, hence the media is being
controlled by that group and that is both the State-owned and private
media,” said Mukundu.
“While it is an exciting story, succession must be on accountable and
transparent, people-centred leadership and people’s interest not those
already privileged,” added Mukundu.
Human rights researcher, Dewa Mavhinga, reasons that the media had every
right to open up to the public and scrutinise the Zanu PF succession issue
as it did.
He said the only challenge could have been that in some cases sections of
the media tended to take factional positions around succession without
offering a broad and balanced overview.
“Another shortcoming was when the media tended to exaggerate the
importance of various factions and personalities, while overlooking the
centrality of Mugabe in the entire succession issue and in playing
factions against each other,” said Mavhinga.
Veteran journalist, Nevanji Madanhire, said no one truly understands the
dynamics playing out in Zanu PF.
“Perhaps the only thing known for sure is that Mugabe is running his last
lap and therefore jostling to succeed him cannot be denied entirely. Based
firstly only on mere speculation, the media somehow identified two
supposed rivals and labelled them: one as Generation 40 (G40), the other
as Lacoste,” said Madanhire.
“The media went on to promote this matrix and concretise into some
reality, which isn’t based on any research. There are definitely other
forces in Zanu PF outside these two alleged factions. Members of the
so-called G40 group can be counted on the fingers of one hand meaning they
can’t, strictly speaking, be defined as a faction.
“Lacoste – allegedly made up of the military and the war vets – is itself
also much of a fiction. There are millions of people outside the war
veterans and the military who don’t give a damn about G40 or Lacoste;
media have not attempted, or have failed, to identify what these millions
of people think.
“Mugabe says his successor will be identified at congress according to the
party constitution; this is very likely the way the succession issue will
be resolved. But if he expires before congress the scenario will change
dramatically with the military perhaps having the final say either openly
or behind the scenes. Media have failed pathetically,” said Madanhire.
Political analyst, Vivid Gwede, believes the media started reporting about
the succession issue in the early 1990s, but decades later there has been
a lot of heat and no light.
“The media cannot be blamed for anything, except that the rich speculation
probably lulled people into missing the unfolding life presidency project.
Year-in-year-out, people have expected a change of guard, which never took
place. It worked to (President Robert) Mugabe’s favour,” said Gwede.
“If we believed he was grooming any successor, we were all fooled. The
media neither shaped nor spoiled implementation of succession; it was part
of the watchers of the spectacle of the divide and rule that has occurred
in Zanu PF over the years,” said Gwede.
Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono said: “I think the media has been used to
inflame the already volatile succession race. The Mnangagwa camp captured
the State media and has ruthlessly used it to propagate their claim to the
presidential throne but what we miss is nuanced analysis.
“It’s all reportage without proper analysis of who is doing what and why
and the implications of their success or failure to succeed.
“The private media has also ridden on the sound bites from people like
Jonathan Moyo and George Charamba without breaking down the complex
scenarios.”
Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme said: “The media can play positive
roles in conflict and national issues such as succession. It can do this
by being a facilitator that helps bring all parties to the conflict or
issues together and help them understand each other’s differences and find
common ground and develop mutually beneficial collaborative solutions.
“To this end the private media by and large helped Zimbabweans understand
the complexity of the succession issue, different players involved
including the military, different interests and positions.
“It also kept the issue on limelight making the citizens to focus on it
and opposition parties making the issue a campaign statement. To this end
the media played a positive role as a facilitator.”
However, Saungweme added that State media played a role as a spoiler and
confused the debate. “It endeavoured to cloud issues by projecting
factionalism at the expense of facilitating people to focus on the real of
issue of succession. It scattered attention on the issue. So to answer
your question the media helped shape and scatter the succession issue at
the same time.”
Media practitioner Nigel Nyamutumbu said the media; particularly the
State-controlled press has clearly been caught up in the Zanu PF factional
battles to the extent of being patently aligned.
“Journalists have in some cases been cited as conduits of one particular
faction over the other and this has resulted in the media framing the
succession debate along narrow partisan lines.
“This bluntly unethical journalism has crippled the real succession
debate, which should be premised on ideology and policy.
“The media has failed to interrogate what the warring factions have to
offer the people of Zimbabwe outside petty personality battles that are
unhelpful to anyone,” said Nyamutumbu.
Political activist Tabani Moyo said: “That the President does not in any
way intent to relinquish power to anyone is no longer speculative but a
reality. In any organisation, every person who joins it wishes to scale up
the leadership ladder.
“With an aging and defiant leader at the top, chances are high that the
intensity of jockeying will be high. This is a reality with or without the
media. At one stage of the other, this boiling point was going to be
reached. The interest in this succession battle than in any other
organisation is that it is the ruling party!
“When you get to a point that the generals publicly pronounce their
positions, then we have a challenge of the constitutional order being
strained. The whole circus around succession possesses a real danger of
Zimbabwe disintegrating. It should be treated with seriousness.”
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