Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Sikhanyiso Ndlovu is new Zim media minister


Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has elevated educationist Dr Sikhanyiso Duke Ndlovu to the post of Information Minister, filling the post left vacant by the death of Tichaona Jokonya last year in a reshuffle that has seen the retention of the old guard with critics dismissing it as mere window-dressing in a country wallowing in its worst economic crisis ever.

The last reshuffle was after the March 2005 parliamentary election and Mugabe usually rewards loyalists with cabinet posts.

Sikhanyiso, as he is affectionately called by fawning scribes from the state media and described as one of Mugabe's most adhering loyalists, was surprise choice ahead of Webster Shamu who was heavily tipped to land the post.

Shamu, a former broadcaster and known for his abrasive approach, is Minister of State for Policy Implementation.

The United States educated Dr Ndlovu, born on 4 May 1937, one time PF Zapu cadre and formerly the Deputy Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education is the Zanu PF deputy national the commissar and non-constituency member of parliament.

Ndlovu has his work out for him in shoring ailing state media enterprises following revelations that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) and New ZIANA were teetering on the verge of collapse while suffering from debilitating interference from powerful Information and Publicity Permanent Secretary George Charamba.

Charamba, a Mugabe favourite, is said to have been responsible for stalling the appointments of Lydia Mavengere and Ishmael Kadungure to the posts of Director of Radio and Television, respectively in the newly restructured ZBH. The posts have been re-advertised.

A serious dearth of funding and massive staff haemorrhage has seen frequent breakdowns and shoddy programming become the order of the day.

The government has attempted to stem the rot by gazetting new radio and television license fees that hwere frozen last week in Dr Ndlovu's first move as minister.

A radio licence would have cost Z$50,000 while those of a television and car radios Z$150,000 and $200,000 respectively, up from Z$600 for a television.

The average Zimbabwean earns an average Z$20,000 a month in a country where the Poverty Datum Line is nearly Z$524.000.

Dr Ndlovu’s background in the media is somewhat sketchy save to say that he is popular among a section of journalists who saw it fit to make him patron of the Bulawayo Press Club.

His area of expertise is distance education and runs a number of colleges under the banner of the Zimbabwe Distance Education Colleges.

An affable character that is not given to the whims of being in a cabinet position, he is sometimes is victim to bouts of naivety like linking positive media coverage to his propensity to plying journalists with alcohol.

Sikhanyiso is likely to tread softly in an area that is replete with political landmines, most of which are residual of the era of the much reviled former minister Jonathan Moyo, chief among them, the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

Analysts say that by appointing Ndlovu, Mugabe was placing an obedient gate-keeper with the real power to make decisions that matter lying decidedly elsewhere as opposed to throwing a cat among the pigeons.

While media watchers might ordinarily expect the new minister to bridge the yawning divide between government and the independent media, Ndlovu’s softly- softly disposition disqualifies him as the right man for the job.

It is worth noting that former minister Jokonya had started to make positive moves in that direction before his death in a Harare hotel last year, however, some are less confident in that regard with Sikhanyiso Ndlovu at the helm.

It is felt that lacks the spine to carry this mission through in the face of overwhelming political pressure from ruling party big wigs intent on clipping the wings of an ever inquisitive independent media.

Zimbabwe’s private media have been reeling under a rash oppressive legislation, lawsuits, intimidation and outright attacks.

Government’s ambivalence in creating an enabling environment for the media has been seen in former Acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana who while challenging journalists to speed up the formation of a self-regulatory council, defended AIPPA saying it was necessary to ensure order in the media industry.

Mangwana and Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communication chairman, Leo Mugabe, went on to pour cold water on the still-born self-regulatory Media Council of Zimbabwe (MCZ) implying that it would not be allowed to see the light of day if it excluded certain items they disagreed with such as an instrument of punishing errant journalists.

There is also suspicion within government circles that that the MCZ is an attempt by civic society to displace the state-supported Media and Information Council headed by acerbic former media lecturer Dr Tafataona Mahoso.

Dr Ndlovu might feel hard done by his critics’ dismissal of his capabilities of biting the bullet, but evidence on the ground point to an individual more associated with comical gaffes than being a serious politician.

The independent press in Zimbabwe has been quoted as saying that Mugabe, possibly making his last cabinet changes before he leaves office in 2010, expects that his last team of ministers will save whatever survives of his chequered legacy which now leaves him looking like one of the worst leaders to have emerged from post-colonial Africa.

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