The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has challenged journalists to use indigenous languages in their reportage so as to help citizens understand policy issues and national programmes.
Speaking about the role of Chapter 12 Commissions in promotion, preservation, safeguarding and implementation of indigenous languages at the national languages indaba in Victoria Falls last week, ZMC chairperson Professor Ruby Magosvongwe also implored politicians to use local languages when addressing their supporters in communities.
Prof Magosvongwe urged media houses to desist from being urban centric but go out to speak to rural folks and hear their issues, as well as help explain to them national policies like National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).
“You find a politician going to a rural community and addressing people in English, and there is no translation. At the end of the day, the politician is talking to the media and not addressing the community. That is a very serious concern for us as Zimbabwe Media Commission.
“All politicians, when we go to do our campaigns in provinces, let’s use local languages. We are appealing to our media practitioners and content creators to use local languages. This is an appeal, it is not ZMC that can do it but it is our practitioners and other stakeholders,” said Prof Magosvongwe.
She said ZMC commissioners and some members of the secretariat were moving around provinces meeting journalists to conscientise them about the critical nature of using local languages.
She said licensing of community radio stations was a strategy by Government to promote use of local languages in respective communities.
There are a few newspapers that publish in local languages in the country.
Prof Magosvongwe said work is underway to craft a Media Practitioners’ Bill that will help address concerns raised by citizens from a cross section of public offices.
She said sometimes people who sought help from various public offices were snubbed when they do so in indigenous languages and ZMC currently has no mandate to address such problems.
“Regardless of how good our policy is and as long as it is not operationalised in local languages, it will be talk show and we are not interested in talk show.
“We are having conversations for the Media Practitioners’ Bill so that one of the issues to be addressed will be the languages so that we respect indigenous languages,” she said.
-@ncubeleon
