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Tomorrow Zimbabweans will celebrate National Unity Day. Unity and peace remain central to our nation as the year 2020 draws to a close. Here, The Herald’s Senior Writer Elliot Ziwira (EZ) and National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) spokesperson, Dr Geoffrey Takawira Chada (GTC), who is a former executive secretary (1990-2001) of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT), reflect on the media reportage on the emotive Gukurahundi issue during his tenure and beyond and how the Second Republic has opened up space for dialogue aimed at fostering unity and peace for the good of the nation.

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EZ: Dr Chada, I would like us  to start by reflecting on your contribution to the media in the country through your 11-year stint with the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust, which you joined in 1990 as the executive secretary. Would you briefly outline your role with the ZMMT?

GTC: My role was already defined when I came in. My role was to run the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust for the benefit of all Zimbabweans. The mandate of the ZMMT, was to decolonise the mass media in Zimbabwe; and to democratise the mass media for the benefit of all Zimbabweans. One may ask, ‘To decolonise it from who? The media or the Press in Zimbabwe was under the Augus Group in South Africa, who were the owners of the Rhodesia Printing and Publishing Company, which became Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) in 1980.

The Government’s idea was to establish a chain of newspapers that would be a mouthpiece of the Zimbabwean people as a whole, and not a minority based in Johannesburg. To that end, the ZMMT: an autonomous and independent body of distinguished Zimbabweans, like the late Dr Davison Sadza, Mrs Garfield Todd and others, was established in January 1981.

The Trust was to strike a compromise between having a wholly private media controlled by South African interests (40 percent by the Argus Group and 3,42 percent by South African residents), and a solely Government controlled media.

The ZMMT was viewed as a buffer or middle of the road way of managing the media for the benefit of all citizens regardless of race, religion and shade of opinion.

Through the ZMMT, Government acquired control of Zimbabwe’s major newspapers group: Zimpapers, which then published The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Chronicle, Sunday News and The Manica Post (Umtali Post).

However, the ZMMT was a non-governmental, non-partisan, and non-profit making trust.

EZ: Well, Dr Chada, I do not want us to dwell more on the background of the ZMMT, but on your role as the Trust’s executive secretary. Were the editors under your control?

GTC: You cannot say the editors were under our control as such. The approach was this. The editors were given the policy of the ZMMT, which was a reflection of the Government’s. It was that policy that we gave to the editors. It was upon the editors to ensure that they steered their ship within these policy guidelines. There was no direct supervision of editors as such. We gave policy directives, policy guidelines, and say, ‘Now you know the national interest, and the mandate we are pursuing; now you know what the Trust wants to do for the masses; now run your newspapers to meet these national objectives.

EZ: Looking at the national objectives, and the leeway that you gave to editors, there are issues that were already there when you came in 1990. Issues to do with the emotive Gukurahundi, leading to unity talks between ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU between October 2, 1985 and December 10, 1987, which gave us the Unity Accord. How did you handle these issues going forward?

GTC: To tell you the truth, Elliot, it was a most difficult situation. The Gukurahundi issue had already poisoned the environment of reporting. The Unity Accord came in after a protracted set of negotiations from 1985 to 1987. The Unity Accord was signed, but there were certain things that then were attached to it, which even inflamed the environment that I had to operate in.

Number one, within the Unity Accord it was agreed that the two parties, ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU, were to be merged into one party; ZANU-PF.

EZ: Allow me to interrupt you a bit here. I am looking at the way the Gukurahundi issue was articulated or reported in the Zimbabwean Press then, particularly around the events  that where happening in Matabeleland and some parts of the Midlands provinces. Could there have been a designed or subtle way of reporting on the issues?

GTC: Probably, I should give you the international approach to media management. If a country goes to a war or is at war, your media goes to war with you. Your enemy becomes the enemy of the media. You report in order to protect and favour your side.

EZ : Which is the national interest?

GTC: For the Government it is the national interest. The Government is the one that sends in the 5th Brigade. The national unity of the country is threatened by forces that are known to us. As it is, it was threatened by the forces that were supported by the South African state security; Super ZAPU, who were youngsters. Some of them came from Matabeleland, some of them from Botswana, ZAPU camps. They were recruited and trained by the South African state security system to destabilise Zimbabwe.

Now, what is their interest in destabilising Zimbabwe? A weak Zimbabwe will not be able to support the ANC, which is fighting the South African system. ANC is supported by Russia. Russia is one of the protagonists in the Cold War. By undermining the Zimbabwean state, you are actually weakening the Russian influence in the region. That’s a cold war situation played at a domestic level.

A Cold War international situation played at a domestic level. Hence, the South African state security training the dissidents to come and fight for the secession, by the way to break away as a separate state; to join Botswana? Nobody knows.

EZ: Coming to 1990 now. You have inherited a conflictual situation, how then do you navigate your way?

GTC: Well, I want to articulate the conflictual situation. We now have one party; and the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe (who became the President after the signing of the Accord), wanted to promote a one party State. Some of his colleagues, like Edgar Tekere were against a one party State. So, he went on to form ZUM (Zimbabwe Unity Movement) to oppose the one party statism that the former President Mugabe was now promoting. In the Accord, we also now have the institution of the Executive Presidency. The Executive Presidency is now an institution. So, in the March 1990 elections, Executive Presidency comes in as a candidate, and Edgar Tekere comes in as a contender for Executive Presidency opposing Mugabe. So, ZUM is fighting to stop one party statism, and it does that by trying to win the Executive Presidency, so that Tekere could stop the movement that Mugabe was promoting.

Now, do you see that all these forces are converging in 1990? 1990 elections. They are coming out of the Unity Accord. There are issues that had been agreed upon in the Unity Accord. The platform on which they were fought was the 1990 elections. And I am only three months into the job when these elections were held. The question is, ‘How do you manoeuvre or navigate to run a media institution with these conflictual forces coming from different directions, and converging on one event, the March 1990 elections?

EZ: During this time  the issue of Gukurahundi is not talked about?

GTC: The issue of Gukurahundi is not talked about mainly because it was a perceived way of uniting the people. Talking of Gukurahundi was almost like you were opening up the old wounds. You were almost encouraging us to go back and fight. You were almost encouraging dissidents to go back and continue fighting. So, you had to hold back if we were going to be united. But then, I am saying as I gave the analogy of going to war; when you go to war, you go with all your arsenal. The media is part of the war, the politics, the economy, you name it. Everything, in support of your position; in support of Government position. So, trying to report on Gukurahundi happenings was viewed then as trying to open old wounds; to deny the success of the Unity Accord on which one party statism was based; Executive Presidency was based. So, you can see the forces? These leaders haven’t changed. At the same time the editors of the newspapers haven’t changed. The hands off approach continues into the post-1990 period.

EZ: So, by the time we get to 2000, 2001 thereabouts, the issue of Gukurahundi is bloated out?

GTC: The issue of Gukurahundi is actually frightening, because the same attitude prevailed. If you are going to be talking about or reporting about Gukurahundi, the questions are, ‘What is your interest? What is your intention? Why are you trying to take us back where we think we sealed the differences by a Unity Accord?’ Why are you trying to take us back?

EZ: The media’s hands were tied then?

GTC: Exactly. If you could answer the question: why are you taking us back where we thought we agreed and united? We are moving forward into the future, a future of unity. By taking us back you are trying to continue dividing us. We were divided for sure by the Gukurahundi conflict nobody can deny that. But we are now trying to seal, we are now trying to heal those wounds. And you journalists are trying to go back and open up the wounds? No, no we would not allow you to do that.

EZ: By keeping quiet on the issue, believing to be moving forward, and forgetting about the past are we saying that we are reconciling, or we are simply saying we accept the existence of conflict but let us not talk about it?

GTC: We did not say: Let us forget about the past. The idea of Peace and Reconciliation did not start in 2013. It started in 2001 as a concept. The concept of conflict resolution was developed slowly; how  can you we resolve our conflicts. It was recognised that we still had a conflict that needed to be resolved. By the time the Organ for National Healing was developed, the idea of the Gukurahundi was very much part and parcel of it. How do we approach it; how do we reconcile; how do we resolve the issues that happened in the 80s because they are still with us?

We may think we solved the conflict by the Unity Accord, but that did not really solve the problem. Let us look for a better way, hence, the Organ for National Healing and Rehabilitation came in, which was succeeded by the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. It was recognised that the conflict had to be solved.

EZ: On that note Dr Chada you have brought us to another issue. Between 1990 and 2001 you were with the ZMMT giving policy direction on how conflict issues could be handled, and how some issues are better off unsaid for the good of the nation. You are now part of the NPRC as a commissioner, which means there is a shift whereby the push is to go beyond conflict as a continuous phenomenon. From the NPRC’s perspective how can conflict be resolved?

GTC: Let me start by saying we are not a Gukurahundi Commission. The way things are coming out in the newspapers, it looks like the NPRC is a Gukurahundi Commission. Gukurahundi is just part of the conflict. There are issues even going back to the 12th Century when state formation started on the borders of South Africa and Zimbabwe. When we met parliamentarians in Mutare about five months ago, they indicated that they wanted us to start from around 3BC. But of course we are not going to be able to cover all those conflict areas, unless we are given 50 years maybe. There are current areas of conflict that we should be looking at. Conflicts during the liberation struggle and after independence in 1980.

EZ: Well, Dr Chada, I know you are passionate about these things, but let us narrow down to unity. Why is unity crucial to you as the NPRC? And how has the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa assisted your cause in conflict resolution?

 GTC: It was the President who removed the fear around the discussion of emotive issues like Gukurahundi. He said we should talk about it, so that we can dialogue on how to resolve the conflict that happened in the past; so that it is not carried into the future unresolved. He pointed out that the push for development and upper middle economy status  by 2030 cannot happen in the absence of unity and peace. Hence, his call for open dialogue and devolution among other deliverables.

Also, the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa had taken a bold step towards addressing conflict through the signing of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission Act on January 5, 2018.

This paved the way for dialogue towards  sustainable peace and peaceful co-existence.

EZ: What role does unity play in ensuring development, sustainable peace and peaceful co-existence?

GTC: Unity is the perquisite for development and development is a prerequisite for peace; and peace is the prerequisite for nation-building.

As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.”

Therefore, unity, development and peace are the three pillars for nation-building. As a foundation of political and economic development, where political participation without discord is encouraged, unity allows for a single vision of the Zimbabwe we want for future generations. It is the glue that keeps a family, a community and a nation together. The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU), was able to liberate the rest of Africa due to unity of purpose. Had it not been for that sense and spirit of unity, Africa would still be under colonial rule. Above all, unity is the seedbed of peaceful co-existence.

EZ: In reference to the President’s call, where do you locate dialogue and devolution in the conflict resolution matrix?

 GTC: Dialogue is the prelude to building a national consensus. It is the key to national unity. Devolution is a strategy to bring peace at the local level by developing the nation from the grassroots up.

Once local development grievances are addressed through devolution programmes as set out in the devolution policy, we will be able to see unity surging from the village to the nation. Some of the major causes of disunity are inequality, exclusion and injustice. When an aggrieved group assigns blame on the state for its perceived economic, political or social exclusion; and frustrations over unmet expectations, a wrong narrative can lead to mobilisation of violence. This is what the devolution policy is addressing right across the nation.

When people feel excluded from the distribution of national resources, they are motivated to find ways to be heard. The devolution policy objectives are specifically intended to address some of these reasons for conflict. The devolution programmes are there to address the inequality and exclusion manifest in policy areas related to access to political power and governance; land, water, mineral resources, delivery of basic services, justice and security. Devolution, therefore, will allow autonomy of sub-national regions to accommodate diversity and reduce risk of violence at national level.

EZ: You talked of a shared vision. How can unity be promoted through a shared vision?

GTC: Unity promotes a shared vision. A shared vision of the Zimbabwe we want is the most powerful force in nationhood. A shared vision answers the question: What kind of Zimbabwe do we want to leave behind for the next generation? Unity should be able to facilitate the creation of a shared vision, which will permeate the nation and give cohesion to our diverse people.

EZ: How can political participation promote national unity?

GTC: Unity creates an environment for free political participation, which is the essence and lifeblood of democracy. It provides citizens with the right to seek to influence public affairs without fear; provides a climate where citizens can exercise their civic rights without fear of intimidation. Unity gives citizens a sense of ownership of the products of governmental processes. This sense of ownership in turn becomes a binding obligation; the glue that holds the various parts of the nation together.

Unity gives citizens a sense of collective responsibility in the implementation and ultimate success of the decisions of the government. Since government policies derive their legitimacy through citizens’ involvement, such legitimacy ensures acceptability and united efforts toward the realisation of agreed objectives. In the absence of unity, out of ideological differences, or for partisan reasons, good policy initiatives become ineffective. Unity easily allows the process by which citizens’ concerns, needs, values and expectations are taken into account in governmental decision n-making processes on a non-partisan basis.

The granting of city status to Victoria Falls by the President is a classical example of decisions made on a non-partisan basis. This two-way communication between the Government and citizens, with the overall goal of better decisions supported by the public, fosters the well-being of citizens and generally reduces poverty. In a nation that is united, citizens’ political participation is a continuous process that goes beyond voting at elections.

Unity will rally all citizens to protect the national interest, for it is the bedrock of participatory democracy.

EZ: Your message to Zimbabweans on the Unity Accord that gave us the National Unity Day!

GTC: The Unity Accord is a legacy that our leaders bequeathed to us as a framework in which we should keep our country together. We have a mandate to build our country on the three pillars of unity, development and peace.