When in doubt, blame it on SA

WHEN in doubt, blame it on South Africa. This was obviously Zesa’s response to last week’s power crisis which saw the whole country plunged into darkness. At first there was a convoluted attempt to explain that a “power swing” was responsible for abnormal fluctuations which shut down supply.

But then a shift occurred in Zesa’s reasoning.

“Having so far found no reason on our network for the power loss, our preliminary assessment is that the power swing occurred due to incidents in the South African grid.”

The investigation was steadily enlarged to include other regional members of the power pool so public attention was deflected from the most likely source of the problem — Zesa itself.

Needless to say, no reports of irregularities in the power supply were reported from South Africa or Zambia. While “investigations” proceed, let’s bear in mind that Zesa charges have risen by 600% in the past five years without any commensurate improvement in service.

When the power went out last Thursday, Zesa’s public relations department stopped answering their phones and executives refused to comment on the crisis.

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Rumours that President Mugabe accidentally cut the powerline instead of the ribbon when opening the Matimba-Insukamini link recently are of course entirely mischievous. So is the story that Zesa hadn’t paid its electricity bill.

NJAMA, the National Journalistic and Media Awards, has come and gone without the participation of the electronic media. Despite calls for a boycott from the Kindness Paradza-run Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, the event went ahead and was well-attended.

Award-winning journalists and members of the public turned up, and Paradza should have known they would. Next time Paradza speaks we will rightly wonder who he is representing.

One could not help feeling pity for the guest of honour whose first three jokes garnered no response from the gathering due to the poor PA system. Attempts by Wilf Mbanga to rectify the situation by removing the mike from its holder only increased the noise. Journalists are not known for being good organisers, and Mbanga should take heed.

One can be forgiven for also thinking that the occasion had nothing to do with journalists — the invitation card had in bold “The Willie Musarurwa Memorial Banquet”. The sole link with journalism was an afterthought, a banner right under the nose of a painting of Leopold Takawira proclaiming journalists annual awards, or something to that effect.

Must be something to do with the donor dollar which funded the event. Controversy dogged the awards from the outset. Rather like the presidential poll, any attempts by candidates to pull out were declared “illegal” by the organisers.

Chairman of the organising committee Mbanga got into a heated spat with ZUJ boss Paradza. Mbanga declared the ceremony would “definitely go ahead with or without ZUJ”. Any prize winners boycotting the ceremony would forfeit their prizes, he warned.

ZUJ knew of ZBC’s pull-out five months ago, he said, and raised no objections then. The same applied to using Zanu PF HQ as a venue, he said.

He accused ZUJ of not representing its members’ interests and using “ambush tactics in an attempt to wreck the whole thing”.

“I think it’s a cheap publicity stunt. Paradza is behaving like a spoilt little brat,” Ziana reported Mbanga as saying.

Paradza said ZUJ was never consulted about anything, but only heard of ZBC’s withdrawal through the media.

The awards were ZUJ’s “baby”, he said, “and it was not for the Willie Musarurwa Memorial Trust to tell them what to do.

“They should learn that anything involving journalists should involve ZUJ,” Paradza declared. “In fact, some of us were groomed by the late Musarurwa.”

ZBC were stung by remarks made by the panel of judges last year.

Muckraker was fascinated to notice a report in The Herald saying Horizon journalist Ray Choto had won an award “for his stories on President Mugabe’s marriage to Ms Grace Marufu”. Now, is this the same marriage we were always told was entirely “fictional”? And why is the ceremony called the National Journalistic and Media Awards? What is the difference between journalistic and media?

Once the whole furore has died down one salient point remains. The Willie Musarurwa Trust was guilty of the most extraordinary professional naiveté in holding the ceremony in the headquarters of the ruling party which was delighted to have this endorsement.

BUT back to Kindness Paradza who has also been in the news regarding another issue. He put out a statement on behalf of ZUJ expressing shock at the untimely death of journalists Malachia Madimutsa and Solomon Maimbodei. But Paradza went one step further and anticipated the ruling party by recommending hero status for the two journalists.

Now we have a problem with indulgent eulogies for ex-colleagues given the need to honour the dead. But for leading journalists to subscribe to the discredited and self-serving hero selection system is highly questionable.

And we were fortunate to have the criteria set out by Nathan Shamuyarira in respect of one of the two journalists.

“Cde Maimbodei was declared a national hero because he showed great bravery on the battlefield and he continued to support party principles even after the war”.

Is that the system we journalists are endorsing — supporting party principles come what may?

It was left to James Chikerema to provide some perspective. He said the forty thousand sons and daughters who died in the war were the true heroes, not those who had survived by dodging bullets, or “dogging bullets” as one newspaper put it.

POOR Gareth Willard is at it again. Readers will recall how sad he was after seeing the hilarious movie, Priscilla Queen of the Desert last year. Now he is sad after viewing Chris Hampton’s cinematic masterpiece, Carrington.

In a review littered with typographical errors, he suggests that embassies have entered films with a gay theme in order “to make their own statements” following last year’s Book Fair furore.

From this extraordinary assumption, he proceeds to make a series of silly and uninformed generalisations which Ken Mufuka would have found useful. Readers should go and see this beautifully- made and enlightening film to see just how misleading Willard’s reviews can be.

Stop being such a dwip, Gaweth, and find yourself a proofreader, or is it a proof leader, to put things straight for you for whatever.

FINALLY, a question for Dr Stamps. How old did she say she was? And is it still a joke?Ad quias ature