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Farirai Machivenyika and Wallace Ruzvidzo 

Herald Reporters

THE Sadc Electoral Advisory Council (SEAC) Pre-Election Assessment Mission, which is in the country ahead of harmonised elections to be held later this year, began meetings with various stakeholders in Harare yesterday in line with the regional bloc’s standard practice of observing elections in Member States.

 The SEAC is being chaired by Justice Ticheme Dlamini from the Kingdom of Eswatini who is deputised by Advocate Notemba Tjipueja from Namibia while two officers from the Sadc secretariat complete the Mission during its week-long stay in the country.

The SEAC yesterday met with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and journalists from the public and private media.

Later in the day, SEAC met with Zanu-PF officials at the party’s headquarters.

During its meeting with journalists, the SEAC asked them their views on, among other issues, their role in the electoral process, their opinion on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s state of preparedness, the security environment in the context of the impending elections, laws that govern the coverage of elections, measures the media have put in place to avoid the spread of fake news and whether journalists were free to cover political events.

The Herald Editor Mr Hatred Zenenga said the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group had guidelines for its journalists to follow during elections.

“Journalists follow the Group’s guidelines on how to cover elections during the election period,” he said.

“There’s a clear policy on how to cover elections and this is for the pre-election period, the actual elections, and the post-election period. It’s clear and laid out for the journalists themselves. 

“We have also trained journalists on the coverage of the forthcoming elections so the groundwork has been done and training has been done.”

In his remarks, ZBC’s Assignments Editor, Mr Albert Chekai, said the national broadcaster was guided by various statutes on how they covered elections and refuted allegations that they were biased towards Zanu PF.

“By law, we are mandated to cover elections through the Electoral Act and according to that Act we are supposed to give political parties equitable coverage and we have to underline the word equitable. 

“There will be no coverage that will be equal but equitable because some parties just contest one or two constituencies while others contest 210 constituencies so as the national broadcaster, we are prepared to provide equitable coverage,” he said.

Managing Editor of an online publication, Ms Monica Zodwa Cheru, said the security of journalists needed to be looked at, especially after a female journalist, Ruvimbo Muchenje, was assaulted at a CCC rally in Chinhoyi in September last year.

“I think the issue of security for journalists is something that needs to be looked at not as a Zanu PF issue but all political parties and also on the issue of access, the CCC has also in some instances deliberately barred some journalists from accessing their events under accusations of bias or whatever so there is a need to engage all political parties to ensure journalists access to their events,” she said.

Justice Dlamini said the SEAC would meet every stakeholder until April 18.

“We will be here and every single day we will be engaging other stakeholders until the 18th of this month and that is when we will be drafting our report, and on the 19th we will finalise it, and on the 20th is our departure date,” he said.

“Among other stakeholders, we will meet include the relevant Government ministries, the police and the (Ministry of) Defence because they play a role in the electoral process. We will also meet political parties, civil society organisations and Sadc ambassadors accredited to Zimbabwe. 

“Engagements will also be held with faith-based groups and representatives of the UN and the AU”. 

The report produced by the SEAC will be handed over to Namibian President, Hage Geingob, who is the Chairperson of the Sadc’s Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

Speaking after a closed-door meeting with the SEAC team at the party headquarters, Zanu PF Secretary General, Cde Obert Mpofu, said they had fruitful engagements.

“We had a very fruitful meeting with our colleagues from SADC where several issues regarding our forthcoming elections were discussed.

“The team raised a number of issues relating to our preparedness and whether issues that bedevil most of the elections held in Africa have been taken care of in our preparations,” he said.

Justice Dlamini described the meeting as informative adding that early indications were pointing to a peaceful plebiscite.

“Let me mention that we had a very fruitful engagement with the leadership of Zanu PF and we do hope that the upcoming elections will be peaceful. We will prepare a report but we are still to meet other stakeholders including the opposition political parties. 

“We will then consolidate the views from stakeholders then from there we will at least make a conclusion on the ground in  Zimbabwe concerning the general elections,” he said.