Did anyone miss this over the weekend on ZBC-TV News: “Digitalisation to usher in new ERROR”? Yes, E-R-R-O-R instead of E-R-A.
CONWAY TUTANI ECHOES
However, it’s very much possible that error it could have been as a result of a genuine mix-up of the words “error” and “era” because even though they are spelt differently, they basically sound similar. Moreover, this doesn’t happen every day at ZBC, to their credit.
It’s about almost the same pronunciation, but different meaning — like bath, berth and birth. I am sure all of us, at one time or another, have made such a written mistake and it’s not out of ignorance as such and no one needs to go to town about it.
Moreover, it’s not peculiar to ZBC because I have seen mix-ups of a similar nature even on BBC. Call it error, ignorance or whatever, it was not done out of the spirit of misleading or misinforming or lying to viewers — far from it.
Now, compare this with faceless —but known — State media columnist Nathaniel Manheru’s concluding passage last week in a tribute to the late author and freedom fighter Alexander Kanengoni, who was also an editor at The Patriot, an unapologetically pro-establishment weekly that has failed to make an impact: “The column will continue to run of course, the editor willing, and, together with The Patriot and Zimpapers, help to decolonise minds, clearly define issues of the day, and enlighten and mobilise the nation.”
That one sentence is loaded with presumptions and — most disgracefully and unforgivably — blatant and plain lies calculated to mislead and misinform. Let’s unpack them.
One, is Manheru implying that the trio of him, Zimpapers and The Patriot are more enlightened than the rest of us? Is knowledge exclusive to them? Well, you can’t be more full of yourself and dismissive of others than that. Such arrogance reflects a fixed mindset.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
They have too high an opinion of their own importance, but this is not shared by the readership as seen from the overwhelming negative feedback to Manheru’s piece last week and many more before that.
This means whatever Manheru and his ilk are trying to do — such as “decolonising minds” — they are failing monumentally. Manheru has been writing this monotonous and tedious stuff for about 15 years and still counting, but has not made any headway, going by the way his target readers have been voting over that period.
What other yardstick can be used except that? The issues of the day are rotten politics, institutional decay and grand corruption that we should mobilise against.
They have this mistaken belief that they have a higher value than other people.
They sound more like the worst example of a mutual admiration society (MAS) than anything else. An MAS is a group of two or more people, in a workplace or other social environment, who routinely express considerable esteem and support for one another, sometimes to the point of exaggeration or pretence. An example of MAS was when President Robert Mugabe declared: “Ndisu tegatega takasunungura nyika” (It is only us, and no one else, who freed the country), heaping praise on themselves.
Two, as if Manheru’s upstartism of presuming to teach us basics like that of a university professor treating his students as if they are kids just beginning at creche or Grade Zero wasn’t bad enough, he goes on to lie — and shamelessly so.
Therein — pardon the pun — lies the lie: “The column will continue to run . . . the editor willing . . .” “The editor willing”? Really! Who doesn’t know that Manheru rules at Zimpapers?
That the editor is totally powerless when dealing with and confronted by Manheru? In fact, it won’t reach the stage of confrontation because the editor would have long been fired. Manheru is a component and extension of the one centre of power in Zimbabwe — Mugabe — making him uniquely positioned to do as he wishes.
It is no coincidence that only his column can fill a whole page and more, while others are much shorter. All rules — including house style and deadlines —don’t apply to that column.
Because he is close to Mugabe, Manheru has become a powerful bureaucrat. And powerful bureaucrats all over the world can mess up big time. This is a concern because they often protect themselves behind the skirts of politicians. It’s a fact that bureaucrats are responsible for the running of the system with almost complete authority.
That’s why Manheru has/had the guts to stamp on the authority of former Information minister Jonathan Moyo and fired War Veterans minister Chris Mutsvangwa. What more of a mere editor at Zimpapers? Zimpapers staffers —past and present — know that Manheru has told an outright lie because he has been their de facto boss for the past decade and a half.
The Manherus have always existed and shall continue to be with us and are not unique to Zimbabwe.
Our Manheru is not the first and the last. The important thing is to recognise such characters when you see them and expose them for what they really are.
Maybe the correct response is to pity Manheru for this kind of behaviour because it could be pathological, sickness of the mind.
And it does not matter how small the lie is.
A person who will lie about the small things, lies about the big things. How many of these anecdotes about Kanengoni and others before that Manheru has been giving us in minutest detail and at great length over the years are actually based on fiction like the lie — not mistake — about him being at the mercy of Zimpapers editors he signed off with last week?
We all can lose our way, but this one big lie has damaged what little was left of Manheru’s credibility. A lie is a lie — not a mistake.
Icho! (Take that!)
