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TODAY the continent commemorates Africa Day, a day set aside to celebrate the birth of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now the African Union (AU) on May 25, 1963 when 32 independent countries came together to forge unity.
The last country to join the AU was South Sudan on July 27, 2011, with Morocco rejoining the continental body in January 2017.
The founding fathers of OAU saw it fit to form a body to spearhead the fight against colonialism and apartheid in a coordinated manner for in the words of Kwame Nkrumah: “Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world! Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa.”
Thus, article 13 adopted of the first conference of independent African Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 22-25 May 1963, appoints “the day of 25 May as African Liberation Day, so as to organise popular demonstrations on that day and to disseminate the recommendations of the Summit.”
The historical day was commemorated by the OAU as African Liberation Day.
In 2002, the Heads of State and Government of African countries replaced the OAU with AU, and a vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and “presenting a dynamic force in the global arena” was enunciated.
According to the Head of Communications at the African Union, Mrs Wynne Musabayana, the Africa Day theme is the same as the theme of the year, which is “Silencing the Guns, creating a conducive environment for Africa’s development.”
While commemoration of the day is traditionally characterised by discussions and festivities that reflect the continent’s cultural heritage, diversity and shared experiences, the essence for the day is meant to reflect on the common challenges the continent faces in a global environment.
Conscious of the OAU’s original mission of fighting for the independence of countries still under colonial rule, defend their sovereignty, uphold human rights and restore the dignity of the African people — the current AU has continued to pursue that legacy albeit with a myriad of challenges.
The reality that is difficult to ignore today is that the end of colonialism did not mean the end of Western domination in the affairs of former colonies.
Many countries on the continent are still at the mercy of Western nefarious machinations whose aim is to effect pliable regimes that safeguard their
PRESIDENT Kaunda of Zambia and President Nyerere of Tanzania are reported to be ready to fly to London to put pressure on Britain in an attempt to break the impasse at the Zimbabwe-Rhodesia conference over transitional arrangements.
Sources in Dar-es-Salaam say that late last week Mr Robert Mugabe and Mr Joshua Nkomo sent a message to Dr Nyerere. It asked what the Frontline States position would be if the PF (Patriotic Front) stood firm in refusing to accept either a two-month transition, or leaving intact of the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian armed forces, as proposed by Britain.
Dr Nyerere sent a message to them own political and economic interests which are at most, at variance with the interests of the majority African people.
A good example is Zimbabwe, in which the West had to impose economic sanctions after the country embarked on the land reform programme meant to correct historical injustices that favoured the minority whites.
Another example of Western stranglehold is that of former French colonies.
Despite the largely symbolic break from a colonial history with France, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Cote d’lvoire, Mali, Niger, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo Brazzaville and Gabon remain indebted to France.
So sad that France still benefit through a “colonial pact” that directs these countries to put “85 percent of their foreign reserves into France’s Central Bank”, under the control of the French Minister of Finance.
Many will remember former AU representative to United States Dr Arikana Chihombori-Quao’s presentation titled “The pact for the continuation of Colonisation”, in which she stated that France has taken over US$500 billion from Francophone African countries based on this pact signed before the countries’ independence.
The Francophone case and other continued acts of continued exploitation clearly put to the fore the idea that the road to total emancipation is still under construction.
Also sad is the fact that while the day is of such paramount importance to all Africans, only a handful of countries celebrate it as a public holiday.
The day is marked as a public holiday in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Zambia, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia and Mauritania.
This is not to say that all the countries that do not celebrate the day as a public holiday are less Pan-African.
However, making the day a public holiday implants in citizens the day’s sacredness and makes citizens to seriously reflect on Africa’s development, peace and security.
We owe it to ourselves to ensure that the future does not die in the present.
We owe it to the future generations in ensuring that Africa’s history of subjugation and valiant struggle against colonialism is not lost. As we celebrate Africa Day today, let it not be lost on any African mind that the road to total emancipation is still under construction.
Let us remain united and be inspired by the Pan-African spirit of the founding fathers who in their wisdom formed the OAU to dislodge colonial rule.
Forward Africa! Pita Afrika kwa Umoja! on Friday promising full support for the PF on these issues. He also spoke to the Australian Prime Minister Mr Malcom Fraser, and the Jamaican Prime Minister Mr Michael Manley, on the two points.
Dr Nyerere and President Kaunda are ready to fly to London, but not necessarily on the same time.
These tactics are reported to have been agreed in principle by telephone after Mr Manley had stopped over in London last week. He is known to have telephoned Lusaka and Dar-es-Salaam
AS I write, two fellow scribes are behind bars after being denied bail for attempting to interview three MDC-Alliance members who are said to be receiving treatment at a private facility in Parktown, Harare.
Frank Chikowore and Samuel Takawira were arrested last Friday after they visited Harare West MP Joana Mamombe and activists Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova.
Chikowore and Takawira appeared before Mbare magistrate Manase Musiiwa, charged with disobeying an order by a police officer.
We will always commiserate with fellow scribes even when they are accused of having flouted the laws of the land. The first instinct of every scribe is to sympathise with one of your own.
But after sympathising, we take time to reflect on issues to do with ethics in journalism and whether or not this incident poses as a test case for younger scribes to understand the fact that, just like any other profession, journalism operates within the confines of the law and basic professional ethics.
Subordinating oneself to the law and ethics, is neither a sign of being pliable nor being pro-establishment.
Rather, adhering to the laws and ethics is the first step in understanding the basics in informing, educating and entertaining the public.
Since the matter of the two journalists is still pending in courts, restraint becomes cardinal in writing this piece.
However, the incident gives us an opportunity to reflect and revisit ethical issues in journalism and the media in general.
All over the world, journalists are governed by codes in the conduct of their work. Ethics are thus inseparable from journalism because the practice of journalism is centred on a set of essentially ethical concepts of freedom, democracy, truth, objectivity, honesty and the right to privacy.
All these concepts are relative to the laws and sensibilities of the operating environment of journalists.
If the proper role of journalism is viewed as that of providing information, then the ethical questions naturally need to focus on maintaining the quality of the information disseminated after seeing British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Tanzanian officials are confident that, if necessary, full Commonwealth support could be secured for demands that the interim period should be closer to the six months proposed by the Patriotic Front.
For this reason, Tanzanian officials remain optimistic that despite the current impasse at Lancaster House, Britain, faced with international pressure, will back down on this issue and the talks will be able to move forward. to various publics.
As journalists, we need to be conscious of the codes of conduct governing our work and the guiding compass for that is our national Constitution.
We need to come up with our own codes that reflect the dynamism of the profession, our cultural values, our shared experiences, as well as our social and political environment to formalise values and standards.
The failure by local journalists to come up with “universal” codes of conduct have raised serious questions about the status of our “profession” and the consequent moral implications of the behaviour of some of our fellow journalists.
Many a time, individuals who join the profession without entering journalism school, where ethics are taught in the first semester, have caused embarrassment to the profession.
There is always a thin line between political activism and robust news gathering. There is also a thin line between the right to privacy and the right of the public to know.
As highlighted by Andrew Belsey and Ruth Chadwick in an article titled “Ethics and politics of the media: the quest for quality” published in 1992; “Journalism is an honourable profession, though many of those who should care for it, often including its own professionals, have dishonoured it.”
The two also had harsh words for media consumers. They accuse consumers of sometimes “doing journalism no service by putting up with trivia and trash, accepting execrable standards as norm.” Yet journalism remains an honourable profession because it has an honourable aim of disseminating information that includes news, comment, opinions and other discourse needed to navigate the vagaries of daily life. This is an honourable exercise because the health of any community depends on it.
Of course, the advent of information technology has presented the media
LESSONS FOR TODAY
◆ Today marks the 57th anniversary of the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union. The continental body was a major arbiter in Zimbabwe’s attainment of Independence, 40 years ago.
◆ The Frontline States leadership that included Dr Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Sir Ketumile Masire of Botswana, played leading roles in ensuring that the warring with a myriad of challenges. But instead of mourning, the media must celebrate the coming of new technology as the quest for information remains on high demand as human beings assess their chances of own survival as a species, or, at a less fateful, just worry about what sort of life for the future.
The media should take advantage of the fact that the world has become an electronic village where everyone has instant access through radio, television and new electronic media to the latest circulated information.
The demand for information has put pressure on media houses to not just be the first to break the news, but to come up with a unique slant or selling point of the story. This sort of pressure has often led some gullible journalists to deliberately or ignorantly flout existing laws in the quest for that “unique” slant.
One could be forgiven for thinking that some African journalists deliberately disregard the laws of their operating environment in order to be arrested.
They think being arrested elevates their status as daring journalists being persecuted in the pursuit of a public good. A lesson not taught at most journalism schools in Zimbabwe is that nowhere in the world does the Press operates in a vacuum. Journalism students are fed with the notion of a free press that does not exist anywhere in the world.
As Ghanaian veteran journalist Baffour Ankomah writes in “The Making of the Africa-Nation” edited by Professor Mammo Muchie and published in 2003; “On the wings of this deceit, we set forth to reproduce this ‘free press’ in Africa with catastrophic results. ‘Publish and be damned’ — then becomes a code to die for.”
It makes one to feel good for being seen to “uphold” press freedom by being truculently hostile to laws, disregarding ethics.
Even in Britain, seen by some as a standard, journalists are required to parties reached an agreement, that would lead to Uhuru. They were the midwives of the democratic process and remain so through the regional bloc — SADC.
◆ The Lancaster House Agreement was a constitutional agreement crafted not just by the warring Rhodesian parties, but it involved a number of international interests, considering that the Conference was held a few months after the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, held in Lusaka, live and work within the law and an ethical code.
The media in Britain is restricted by criminal laws of official secrets, obscenity, blasphemy, sedition, and reporting restrictions on Irish terrorists’ groups and their alleged supporters; civil laws of libel and breach of confidence; and by the judge-made law of contempt of court.
In addition to the laws themselves, there is the problem of the judiciary generally unsympathetic to the ideas of a free press and freedom of information and firmly wedded to prior restraint through the use of interlocutory (‘gagging’) injunctions.
Many journalists are aware of the Calcutt Committee Report, which in January 1991 resolved to clean up the industry, eliminate intrusions into private lives or interfere with police investigations.
The report proposed that physical intrusion, including “door stepping” and electronic “eavesdropping” become illegal.
In response, while the Press was alarmed by this, it simply resolved to behave better.
How did the Calcutt Committee come about in the first place?
It came after two Sunday sports journalists had dressed up as medical staff in order to take photos of actor Gordon Kaye, who was hospitalised after a car crash. That case made legal history and was the basis of the Calcutt Committee Report.
There are more such cases.
In 2018, some journalists were spotted trying to sneak into a hospital where a Russian official was being treated. After strong condemnation by the hospital, Britain’s National Union of Journalists said the reporters “need to act responsibly and sensitively when covering stories at hospitals”.
In 2013, a journalist dressed up as priest and tried to make his way into the ward where Formula One Michael Schumacher was in a coma.
“It’s revolting, in my opinion,” is how Schumacher’s manager described the journalist’s conduct.
Codes of conduct are paramount in the building of a healthy journalism profession. Journalists need to familiarise themselves with media laws governing their operations.
We hope the duo of Chikowore and Takawira won’t be found on the wrong side of the law after trial.
Ultimately, there is need for the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) and Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) — two bodies that purport to represent journalists — to conduct more awareness workshops on ethical issues in journalism and the media.
Zambia during the second half of 1979.
◆ One of the most contentious issues at the talks was the land question. Land was the major bone of contention because whoever had property rights to it had the ability to unlock the country’s economic wealth. But the 2013 Constitution has made it clear that the land reform programme is irreversible.
Response to “least 294 privately-owned buses and kombis recently cleared by the Central Mechanical and Equipment Department ( will now join the Zupco franchise”
Well done. This is much appreciated as transport is key to our economy. — @Mr_Mupako
Response to “48pc of local sanitisers fail standards tests”
The last thing we want is to get people to think that they are applying hand sanitisers or wearing face masks when in fact, they are not because they are using sub-standard products. Thinking that you are protected when in fact, you are not, exposes you more. —@MaminiminiObert
Response to “Covid-19 positive cases rise to 51”
It would be best to put our educators on half pay indefinitely, subject to periodic reviews. In the meantime, we the adults transform our schools into safer places of learning.
It is not only necessary to reduce teacher to pupils’ ratios, but we need to construct new dormitories at boarding schools.
Can we say we reopen schools after a year? We do not lose anything by delaying reopening of schools by as much as a year. — Takunda Nigel
Response to “Chitungwiza relief kitchen re-opens”
We are in a disaster situation and for the MDC-A run council to close the kitchen run by Ms Samantha Muzokori was heartless and a sign of how this political outfit does not care about the welfare of people.
May God bless Ms Muzokori, who runs the kitchen with her partners.
I hope the regularisation process will be smooth. — Mai Tino
Response to “Covid-19 positive cases rise to 51”
This shows that we should all take necessary precautions to ensure that we keep and stay safe. Personal hygiene is key. When in public, maintain social distance because you never know who has the virus, always wear your face mask and wash hands regularly with soap under running water or use a hand sanitiser. Always reminding each other and keeping these in mind is good. — Gift Mashoko
Response to “Teachers unions oppose June exams, schools reopening”
We need to be practical and realistic about our situation. The teachers’ unions are being too theoretical, to such an extend that if we follow their reasoning, then the country should go into more than 100 percent lockdown.
All we need are basic standards to minimise risk of spread. In any case, almost all the Covid-19 cases are imported and accounted for, the active cases are all quarantined to some extent. The recovery rate is also pleasing. We are also more prepared and now know about the disease than before.
And by June 21, our region will be creeping out of winter (flu season) as the sun starts “moving” towards the southern hemisphere.
Let us not work from a position of panic and sensationalisation. — Goto
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