The Financial Gazette

Njabulo Ncube, Clemence Manyukwe and Levi Mukarati Staff Reporters

THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) yesterday appeared to defy a Tuesday Cabinet directive to stop playing ZANU-PF jingles, which ridicule other partners in the shaky coalition government. The Financial Gazette has it on good authority that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy, Arthur Mutambara, ganged up against President Robert Mugabe at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting over the abuse of the State-broadcaster for partisan purposes, resulting in the decision ordering the dropping of the musicals.
But it was business as usual yesterday on the airwaves, as ZBH continued with its political campaign for the party whose single-handed governing of the country since independence in 1980 was interrupted following its defeat by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) formations during the 2008 general polls.
ZBH chief executive officer, Happison Muchechetere, yesterday declined to comment on the continued use of the jingles by the public broadcaster which has  raised questions over ZANU-PF’s sincerity in the power-sharing truce signed between the three principals.
The previous jingles aired by ZANU-PF spin-doctors in the run-up to the bloody 2008 harmonised elections were blamed for the political violence the MDC-T claims killed over 300 of its supporters.
There are also questions whether ZANU-PF is paying the State broadcaster for flighting the jingles played every hour on both television and radio.
“I don’t talk about those issues over the phone,” Muchechetere said.
Media Information and Publicity Minister, Webster Shamu, was not answering his mobile when this newspaper called seeking comment.
But sources in government and at Pocket Hills, the headquarters of ZBH, said it was business as usual as they had not be formally advised of the Cabinet directive, which President Mugabe is said to have acceded to.
“Nothing has been communicated to us. We are playing the jingles as if nothing has happened,” said a senior ZBH executive, speaking strictly on condition he is not named.
Cabinet sources said PM Tsvangirai was the first to bring up the subject during the meeting and DPM Mutambara came in strong support.
“The issue of these jingles created debate, but it was (DPM) Mutambara who gave a sound analysis of their impact to the coalition government. He said they were in bad taste, insensitive to other players in the coalition government, divisive and politically undermined the authority of the Prime Minister,” said the source.
“ZANU-PF ministers sought to downplay the subject arguing that there are pirate radio stations demonising the President and their party, but the MDC ministers stood their ground that they had no control over the stations.
“In the end the Cabinet resolved that the jingles be stopped with immediate effect and a statement condemning the pirate radio stations must be issued.”
ZBH has continued to be biased against both formations of the MDC, occasionally maligning its leaders and glorifying ZANU-PF despite negotiators agreeing at their last round of talks to reform the public media by specifically turning the parastal into a truly public broadcaster run by an independent board.
In the run-up to the 2008 general polls, the MDC-T wrote a letter to the broadcaster complaining about its tilted coverage and media blackouts meted against the party.
In a letter written to then ZBH chief executive officer, Henry Muradzikwa, the MDC-T said as a publicly-funded corporation, the broadcaster must be impartial, adding that the corporation was in violation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) guidelines.
Media watchdogs have also roundly condemned ZBH’s alleged bias and impartial coverage of other partners in the coalition government.
Recently, the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ), said ZBH was continuing to violate Article XIX of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and its public service charter, which compels it to give fair and balanced coverage to all political parties.
MMPZ added that the bias underlines the need for urgent and thorough reform at the so-called public broadcaster to release it from ZANU-PF clutches and censoring activities disadvantaging the other partners in the inclusive government.
“This deliberate censorship of the activities of the country’s most popular political party in government not only represents a flagrant breach of the GPA, regional and international protocols on public broadcasting, but also graphically illustrates the grossly unprofessional journalistic conduct of the national broadcaster that is depriving the nation of important news about the activities of the country’s Prime Minister and his party’s government ministers,” said MMPZ.
ZANU-PF insiders claimed yesterday the removal of the jingles would be a major blow to Shamu, who doubles up as ZANU-PF’s political commissar, as he intended using them as the launch-pad for the party’s campaign during the on-going constitution-making process and the next elections pencilled for next year.
Former Information tsar, Jonathan Moyo is credited with producing and directing ZANU-PF jingles at the height of President Mugabe’s land reforms and during the past elections.

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