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This noble move by Zanu-PF in particular, seeks to improve the lives of the black majority by ensuring that they have a larger stake in the resources that the nation possesses. Pursuant to that, and in 2008, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act was enacted to ensure that this aim is accomplished. This law also seeks to ensure that the indigenous people become masters of their own destiny through owning and controlling the means of production by channelling them towards their own development.
The full implementation of the empower-ment drive on black Zimbabweans will mark the total independence of Zimbabwe.
However, as this process is under way, there is another fundamental sector that has been basically ignored for a long time in which more black players must get involved — the broadcasting industry. This view was highlighted by veteran journalist Tapfuma Machakaire during a recent meeting in Bulawayo.
He said this could create employment for more journalists and bring competition in the sector which can in turn improve the quality of programmes.
“The empowerment drive by the Govern-ment can also be extended to the country’s broadcasting sector. The Government can license more stations that are owned by the indigenous blacks and broadcasting in minority languages.
“The advantage of this move is to promote minority languages and create employment for journalists. This can also bring about competition in the broadcasting industry which can in turn improve the quality of programmes produced,” Machakaire said.
This will see more community radio stations which are essential in facilitating development at grassroots. Last year, the Government licensed two radio stations in line with the indigenisation drive, the Zimpapers’ Talk Radio (now broadcasting as Star FM) and Kiss FM owned by Supa Mandiwanzira’s AB Communications.
In this regard, the Government has to license more TV stations and community radios. These stations should be owned by black Zimbabweans as long as they have the required capital and resources to maintain them.
These stations should be employed to empower communities by broadcasting in their vernacular languages. As a journalist, it is my desire to see minority groups such as the Tonga, Kalanga and Xhosa among others having their own stations in their localities, tackling issues of importance in their own languages. If black empowerment is extended to the broadcasting industry, it could help in fighting and stifling the activities of Western-based pirate radio stations.
Surely what will be the purpose of tuning to pirate radio stations when I can listen to a news bulletin by say a community radio within my community? Why would I tune into a satellite television if there are a plethora of TV stations in Zimbabwe? Many players will raise competition which will result in the production of good quality programmes that can even attract international audiences.
Besides the necessity of competition, the entry of more black players in the broadcasting sector will also improve the democratic environment in our country. This is because there will be a multiplicity of media platforms for citizens to air their grievances and viewpoints. Community radio stations in particular will act as a public sphere for communities at grassroot levels to debate on issues that matter to them. As such, communities will be better placed to influence policy makers to formulate policies that are in tandem with their own aspirations.
Media polarisation is one living monster that bedevils the Zimbabwean media landscape but I think to a certain extent, it can be diluted by the opening of airwaves to various black players. Polarisation of the media entails the partial and subjective reporting by the media along political and economic lines. This monster which has eroded professionalism among journalists can be eradicated by allowing as many local players as possible in the broadcast sector.
The Zimbabwean media purports to serve citizens yet it continues to report solely about party politics, thereby excluding other significant issues that need attention. However, I am fully aware of strictures that make it difficult to separate politics from certain issues that affect people. It is my belief that if we have a wide array of broadcast stations owned and controlled by indigenous blacks who understand the contextual factors affecting citizens, more issues of paramount importance other than party politics will be brought to the discussion forum.
One of the greatest advantages of bringing more locals in the broadcasting industry is that more socio-cultural issues emanating from communities themselves will be tackled from their own perspective and for their own benefit.
This move will also see the development of a bottom-up type of communication not the current top-down flow of information. This latter form of communication reduces audiences to mere passive recipients of news and information.
The media decides what is newsworthy or not on the audiences’ behalf. It also imposes upon people issues that it deems to be in the public interest.
One worrying factor is that our media content is currently elitist because it continues to hammer on issues and activities of political mandarins or elites. The general populace ends up switching to tabloid news content after failing to identify their lives with the stories hitting headlines in the mainstream media.
But in the bottom-up form of communica-tion, the media simply acts as a mirror by reflecting issues as they unfold in the societies without any distortion. Audiences actively determine what they deem salient for their own development. And the media is seen as merely a vehicle for information dissemination — a vehicle that is driven by communities for their own benefit. It is my argument that for information and economic empowerment of citizens to occur, the media which is owned and controlled by indigenous blacks is necessary. This media should tackle issues from the perspectives of communities concerned.
Another important factor behind the entry of more blacks in our broadcasting industry is the preservation of our cultural heritage and values as Zimbabweans. Stations owned and controlled by indigenous people may be used to counter cultural and media imperialism. This can be done by producing media artifacts that reflect who we are as Zimbabweans. Media artifacts that tell the world who we are and what we customarily do as the Karanga, Korekore, Ndebele, Tonga, Kalanga and Chewa etcetera. These media programmes should make us identify our lifestyle and ubuntu/-hunhu with their content. For this to become a reality, more indigenous blacks must be involved in our broadcasting sector.
Besides preserving our cultural norms, this can also go a long way in promoting minority languages such as Chewa, Nambya, Sotho, Xhosa and Tonga inter alia. The stations broadcasting in these languages can be employed to cover issues affecting these minority ethnic groups in the language they understand. This will also encourage communities to value their own vernacular languages.
Online Reporter