The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
MEDIA polarization and disjunction in Zimbabwe has given detractors a leverage to manipulate information and misrepresent facts to the outside world which in turn gives a false impression of the country’s economic situation, a Cabinet minister has said.
Addressing media personnel from across the board in Gweru, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa said it was incumbent upon the media to report objectively and truthfully on the positive developments in the country and complement Government efforts in bringing investment.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the country had made significant strides in laying a solid foundation towards achieving vision 2030 that would see the country becoming a middle-income economy.
She says this can only be achieved if there is no disjuncture between the Second Republic’s achievements and what the media delivers to the nation.
“Despite the Transitional Stabilization Programmes, (TSPs) delivering on most of its set objectives, there is a glaring disjuncture between those achievements and what the media is delivering to the nation. Consequently, we now have a National Development Strategy meanwhile the nation is not fully informed on the fundamentals that were realised by the foundational programme.
“Wherein at some point, prophets of doom and our detractors were predicting an economic meltdown of great proportions, the TSP which invested in development enabling infrastructural sectors such as roads, energy and ICT buttressed by a raft of measures including deliberately working on budget rationalisation, introduction of the Forex Auction System and an assortment of financial sector reforms, the country has stabilised the economy by arresting the hitherto runaway inflation, stabilized prices and brought the much needed macroeconomic stability,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the country was still pursuing its open for business philosophy and implored the media to promote citizen participation to enable the nation to meaningfully and viably realise its developmental aspirations as enunciated in the National Development Strategy.
“Colleagues in Government and the media industry, it is my conviction that if the nation is to meaningfully and viably realise its developmental aspirations as enunciated in the National Development Strategy, citizens, families, the corporate sector, local authorities, government departments, other countries that we do business with as well as investors from within and abroad need to understand the course we have chart out in the NDS1.
People need information to understand what NDS is all about so they can participate enthusiastically. The mantra chosen by the Second Republic, ‘Zimbabwe is open for business,’ needs to be made a reality by sharing information that advances the national agenda. Zimbabwe cannot be seen as open for business if there is discord in the messages coming out of Government and our media houses as we will be sending wrong, mixed and confusing signals. The media has been called the Fourth Estate, this more from the important role it has assumed in statecraft and nation building,” she said.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the media should not be viewed in binaries of public and privately owned media.
She said there must bee a shared vision.
“That national responsibility or rather obligation to ensure that there is a shared national vision for the common good of everyone lies squarely on the shoulders of those that are gathered here. Government is the main source of the information of where the nation is going meanwhile the Media with your communication capacity and capabilities, you have the platforms and skills to inform and galvanize the nation to that end.
This calls for close collaboration between Government and the media as well as unity of purpose in the media industry in pursuit of the national interest. It is my wish that sooner rather later, there shall come a day when there is no reference to public or private press, but there is Zimbabwean press which tows the national flag in pursuit of our common goals.
Zimbabwe’s ability to create wealth for its people hinges on how much all of us can contribute to the improvement of our national competitiveness in an anarchic world characterised by a vicious competition between states,” she said.
