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Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo (second left) is flanked by Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba (left), Deputy Minister Cde Supa Mandiwanzira and Zimpapers board chairman Dr Paul Chimedza, who is also Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, at a workshop in Harare yesterday

Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter—
INFORMATION, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has hailed the public media for successfully defending the nation over the years in the face of incessant attacks by detractors. The attacks, he said, saw Government spending most of its energy and resources repelling the assaults ahead of caring for the people.

Some public media journalists ended up on Western sanctions lists for refusing to toe the Western, neo-colonial line.

Prof Moyo, who met ministry staff as well as the boards and management of institutions that fall under the ministry during a two-day retreat, yesterday said the challenges the country faced over the past 14 years were part of a “well-calculated sinister agenda.”

“Of course, our sector, the information sector, has played a pivotal role. It has been in the frontline in defence of our country.
“For 14 years, our country has gone through a very difficult period and, of course, all sorts of challenges, many of them unwarranted, because they have been a well-calculated agenda.

We have spent a lot of time, energy and resources as a country confronting these challenges, being robbed of the time to deliver to our people.

Government exists in order to take care of its citizens, in order to improve the lives of its citizens. Ours has existed to defend our very own existence as a state and as a country,” he said.

Prof Moyo said with the new mandate given to Zanu-PF by the electorate in the harmonised elections, it was now time to implement Zanu-PF policies as captured in the manifesto.

“I have heard some people saying, during the campaign, that it was Team Zanu-PF, now it is Team Zimbabwe and from a rhetorical point of view, it sounds intelligent what they are saying, isn’t it, and yet it is very wrong. This is Team Zanu-PF.

We have a Zanu-PF Government, Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe, composed of Zanu-PF, led by Zanu-PF, and we are not shy about that. Dynamos does not cease to be Dynamos because they have won the league, do they? And they become some kind of a national team,” he said.

Zimbabwe has been at the receiving end of a negative international media assault since the country embarked on an agrarian reform programme to address colonial land imbalances since 2000.

This was compounded by illegal sanctions that the European Union and the United States imposed whose effect was to impede investment in the country.

Prof Moyo said with Zanu-PF having overwhelmingly won the July 31 elections, reminiscent of the 1980 election victory if not better, it was time to implement party policies for the good of the populace.

He said with the mandate from the electorate, which ditched MDC-T, Zanu-PF was now firmly in control.
“This emphatic victory is unprecedented. What feels like 1980 is the fact of being in full control. The numbers are themselves unprecedented. To be in that position of total control against the backdrop of serious treachery is very significant,” he said.

He said according to population census conducted last year, young adults between the ages of 18 and 35 were 4,9 million from an adult population of 7,9 million and that presented them an opportunity to vote in ways that had never been presented before.

Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba said the two-day meeting would allow the ministry to come up with a vision and mission statement as well as a client charter to guide it.

Boards and chief executives of institutions and parastatals under the ministry — New Ziana, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, Zimbabwe Newspapers Group, Kingstons, the Zimbabwe Media Commission, signal carrier Transmedia and the Zimbabwe Film School — are participating in the strategic meeting.

Deputy Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Cde Supa Mandiwanzira and Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care Dr Paul Chimedza attended the meeting.