Online Reporter
Mutare Bureau
ILLEGAL economic sanctions imposed on the country are no longer an excuse for failing to deliver, and office bearers must think outside the box to devise mechanisms and strategies that ensure self-reliance, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Speaking during his familiarisation tour of Zimpapers’ Mutare branch — where the country’s largest diversified media company owns and operates The Manica Post and Diamond FM radio station — Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Zhemu Soda, said sanctions should not be used as a justification for underperformance.
“Gone are the days when we used to talk about sanctions, sanctions and sanctions. One of the days, even His Excellency President Mnangagwa said he is tired of excuses based on sanctions. Even for us as Ministers in Cabinet, where we used to say we were supposed to do this but because of sanctions we failed, he said, ‘You are now preaching to the converted.’ He knows about all those issues, so gone are the days we took sanctions as an excuse. Let us think of the ways we should build our resilience,” said Dr Soda.
Dr Soda said the economic stability achieved so far in the country and the ongoing National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) policy are issues that should be exhaustively published and broadcast across all media platforms.
“People have a right to be connected through the news that we are spreading. A lot of care has to be taken to ensure that we properly and formally inform people so that they make informed choices. We must not be seen misinforming people. We are in the NDS2 period, where we are supposed to be pushing or informing the people about what NDS2 is all about.
“There are a lot of things that we are supposed to be talking about in NDS2: the economic stability that we have achieved so far, which we think should be able to spur further development trajectory by ensuring investors now prefer Zimbabwe as a good and safe investment destination; the food security that we have achieved. Just this week on Tuesday, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development (Anxious Masuka) was telling us that we will establish some hectarage, and from that hectarage, we will surpass our food requirements in terms of the wheat we need.
“There is a lot that we should be talking about, including the brand Zimbabwe. We must be able to brand Zimbabwe as a preferred investment destination and also spur the efforts of our tourism industry. The kind of social development that is happening, gender issues — so there is a lot that we should be talking about during this NDS2. Devolution programmes that are happening, especially those you are covering in Manicaland province. All these issues must be featured in your Manica Post and should be broadcast through Diamond FM,” he said.
Dr Soda urged the State-owned media entity to be proactive in maintaining and expanding its revenue streams.
“You talked about financial challenges that you are facing, but I am happy you mentioned that you have since started diversifying.
That is the way to go. You will recall that our Zimbabwe Media Policy speaks of economic sustainability, and those are some of the sustainability mechanisms or strategies that you are supposed to be pursuing, as opposed to pursuing the traditional ways of generating income.
We need to look at other ways, especially looking at avenues like the courier services, just as you have already done.
“We don’t have an excuse for failing to inform our people. As Government, we are making every effort to make sure that in areas where the signal is poor, we improve by putting in new equipment. We must continue to endeavour to digitalise because gone are the days when people used to look for hard copies to read.
“People nowadays just download and read. You must also think of the day you will not be able to sell even a single copy. How are we going to be generating income to cover our costs?” said Dr Soda.
