BY OBEY MANAYITI
ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH) chairman Trevor Ncube yesterday pledged to play a critical role to ensure that the media is objective and works towards a positive goal for the benefit of everyone, especially in this “toxic environment”.
Ncube also made a passionate plea for unity, urging citizens to put away polarisation and work towards a common goal that will see Zimbabwe flourish again.
AMH are the publishers of NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard.
Ncube, a member of Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) made the remarks at the council’s inaugural meeting at State House in Harare, saying the country was going through a painful period and that polarisation should be put aside for the sake of progress.
He called for dialogue to find solutions for the country.
“We cannot work and build in this current toxic environment. We have a role in the media, the public and private media to stop being activists and work towards uniting our country,” he said.
“In saying that Mr President, I realise that it is not going to be easy because of where we are coming from and because of the pain that we have but the alternative Mr President will be dialogue.”
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Ncube added: “We cannot afford to be where we have been over the past two decades. We need to hold hands, we need to put our political differences aside so that the country has amazing infrastructure, amazing institutions and amazing people and, above all, we regain that status of being the breadbasket of Southern Africa.”
He said Zimbabwe was polarised, and hence the country cannot move forward in its divided state.
“Our country is polarised and we cannot build (our country) when we are divided and as somebody coming from the media I see the polarisation in our society. I see the divisions in our society projected in our media and Mr President, I am hoping that my role in the PAC will be to play a key role in nurturing a media that contributes to national unity,” Ncube said.
“Mr President, democracy can be ugly and messy, democracy says we do have different views, but we only have one country which is called Zimbabwe and our role is to work towards the upliftment of that country.”
He said the move by Mnangagwa to appoint him to PAC was in itself a show of tolerance and it was an honour for him to be able to be given an opportunity to serve the country in that capacity.
He said he accepted to serve on the basis that he wanted the situation in the country to improve and he would not want to be a bystander in building Zimbabwe for the benefit of all citizens.
Ncube said PAC members were ready to serve and they also saw the urgency of having results that could transform the country. He said within the PAC there were men and women that were determined to be ambassadors in their own right and work without any reward for the benefit of Zimbabwe.
“Mr President, we look forward to being of service to you, we look forward to speaking truth to power in love. We will disagree, but we will be focused on one thing, of serving the nation,” he said.
