Sundaymail Editor
John Masuku
ALUM Mpofu, who died on March 28, was first and foremost a highly skilful media researcher who strived to capacitate broadcasters to make a lasting impact on their audiences through understanding their specific needs, expectations and listening trends.
Corporate and political leadership trailed second for the late former chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and Member of Parliament for Mberengwa South.
His abilities all rested on the pillars of his extraordinary strategic research expertise.
Although Mpofu never practised as a news reporter, programme producer or disc jockey, his deep understanding of audience needs from radio and television programmes caused many serious media practitioners to introspect their roles and purposes, be it behind the microphone, in front of the camera or in the station manager’s swivel chair.
Sometime in the mid-1990s when I was ZBC Controller of Radio Services — in charge of four national radio stations with different mandates and targets — I received a phone call from a soft-spoken gentlemen who said he had been given my name by colleagues at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) where he worked as a strategic media researcher.
He believed I could help him clinch some audience research consultancy contracts.
That is how I got to know Alum Mpofu.
Indeed I had interacted with many managers at the South African public broadcaster through the Southern African Broadcasting Association meetings in Johannesburg and elsewhere.
I asked him to come to Pockets Hill and explain his story.
He did without delay and I later introduced him to my colleague Cde Munyaradzi Machacha, who was Controller of Marketing and is currently a ZANU PF Politburo member and the Principal of the party’s Chitepo Ideological College.
On his next visit, Mpofu was to bring his business partners who included the now Zimbabwe Media Commission Commissioner Susan Makore (then known as Susan Manhando).
After listening to their presentation, Cde Machacha, who was also acting director of Programmes for News and Current Affairs (in the absence on study leave of Ambassador Thomas Mandigora), promised to present Mpofu’s company research proposal to the board of directors.
The unavailability of funds kept the brilliant proposal in limbo but the late legislator was to occupy, in less than a decade, the top position at ZBC as the national broadcaster’s chief executive officer.
Away from business formalities over cups of tea and coffee, Mpofu and I became very good friends as I sought to understand from his SABC experience, the value of regular audience research and strategic media management, including effective scheduling and correct positioning of radio and television stations to meet changing demands of different target audiences and advertisers.
He shared many research reports which I really admired as they reinforced what I had been taught at BBC Radio Training in London, UK, by Graham Mytton — then head of BBC audience research. Mpofu also gave me a copy of an academic book, “Public Service Broadcasting: Policy Directions Towards 2000”, which he had jointly edited with his University of Natal colleagues Manhando and Keyan G. Tomaselli, which, over a decade later, I was to cite extensively during my Master of Philosophy in Journalism studies at Stellenbosch University.
Having done his undergraduate studies in Sierra Leone, whose two universities — Fourah Bay College and Njala — enrolled many Zimbabweans of my generation through scholarship assistance from the Geneva-based International University Exchange Fund, my conversations with Mpofu gave the impression that we were former varsity mates in the West African country, then led by President Siaka Stevens. Many did not know that I only relied on many stories which I heard from my former secondary schoolmates and close friends who studied there as well as at Nigerian universities.
Relying on my shared information, we also talked about prominent Zimbabwean academics who researched and taught in that region like the late Dr Stan Gorerazvo Mudenge (former Minister of Higher Education) Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe (Midlands State University founding Vice Chancellor), Dr Philip Thomas Kazembe (prominent educational psychologist in the 1960s/70s), Professor Kuzvinetsa Peter Dzvimbo (Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education boss) and Dr Misheck Sibanda (Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet) among many others.
It was during the tenure of my former University of Zimbabwe Political Science and Public Administration lecturer Prof Jonathan Moyo as Minister of Information and Publicity that following a major restructuring exercise, my old friend Alum Mpofu was appointed straight from SABC to be ZBC CEO, effectively succeeding Mr Luke Munyawarara.
By then I had been transferred to Bulawayo as Controller Montrose Studios, and the opportunity of being part of the new top-dog’s team had hit a brickwall when together with my managerial colleagues I became a candidate for retrenchment after all my applications to compete for top jobs in new business units were not responded to.
Therefore, the incoming CEO, my dear old friend Alum, was to preside over my departure from the corporation after almost 27 years of loyal, dedicated service in various journalistic and managerial capacities.
When, sometime in 2001, I met Mpofu at Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport in Bulawayo on the day he was going to be formally introduced to Montrose Studios staff by Dr Gideon Gono (then chairperson of the ZBC board of governors), he looked worried.
When he emerged from the arrivals lounge, he immediately whispered to me: “So sorry Masuku my friend. I had thought that you would be part of my new leadership team but, hey, it’s tough up there,” he said, to which I replied: “I understand, Mpofu. You need not worry about that. Congratulations on your appointment”, as I led him to my car.
I also seized the opportunity to pass through the city centre to show him the newly established BES School of Journalism, the first in the City of Kings and Queens which I had established with my friend and businessman Mr Obert Sibanda.
He was clearly impressed and pledged maximum support with internship opportunities for students and workshops.
After disappearing from public life for a while following widely publicised negative sexual orientation narratives, I was to reconnect with Mpofu when he had become Member of Parliament for his rural home, Mberengwa South constituency.
During one Mining Media Awards ceremony in Harare which he attended as a guest of his successor at Pockets Hill, Mr Munyaradzi Hwengwere, I, as chairperson of the adjudication committee, in my presentation of the judges’ report, consoled losing journalists by saying, “If you have not won a prize this evening, don’t despair or give up.”
I further said: “Look! My former CEO at ZBC Hon Alum Mpofu seated there only managed to become an MP after five or so unsuccessful attempts. He persevered and here he is, now a Member of the august House.”
The audience, including the recently departed legislator himself, burst into wild laughter.
Although Alum Mpofu the media strategist and politician is gone, with his sponsorship of the Patriotic Bill in Parliament still unfinished, I will always remember his passionate respect for all media consumers and insistence that listeners and viewers should be given their desired products in the form of well-packaged, relevant news and programmes at most convenient times through well-structured channels.
John Masuku is former Controller Radio Services, Controller Montrose Studios at ZBC and executive director of Radio VOP.
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