Moyo fails to turn up

via Moyo fails to turn up – DailyNews 27 June 2014 by Chengetai Zvauya

HARARE – Jonathan Moyo, minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services yesterday, failed to appear before a parliamentary portfolio committee to answer questions about the arrest of the Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi and realignment of media laws.

Moyo was invited by the Media, Information and Broadcasting Services parliamentary committee to give oral evidence. The lawmakers in the committee were disappointed by the non-appearance of Moyo at the scheduled hearing.

Zanu PF MP for Umzigwane William Dhewa, who chairs the portfolio committee, said they had received communication from the Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma that Moyo would not be pitching up.

“We were informed that the minister is not coming today as he has other engagements but we are still demanding that he appears before us and we expect him next week,” Dhewa told the Daily News.

Another member of the committee, James Maridadi, the MDC legislator for Mabvuku, said the MPs were looking forward to Moyo’s appearance before the committee.

He said there were a lot of issues happening in the media that the committee had a keen interest in.

“I am very disappointed that the minister did not come to explain the issue of Kudzayi, where he came from,” Maridadi said.

“We have information that he has no experience in journalism but in Information Communication Technology (ICT) yet he was made an editor of a state newspaper at the tender age of 28. I know what I am talking about because I am a journalist by profession and you cannot become an editor at such a young age.