GWERU: Former Midlands Governor Cephas Msipa has bemoaned how modern-day politicians are propelled into politics by hunger for power as opposed to seeking freedom as was the case with him and other yester-year veteran nationalists.
Msipa chronicled how he sought to free fellow Africans from every shackle of colonial bondage since the late 1950s.
“By then, I was a mere Kwekwe teacher but I negotiated with the editor on the African Daily News to write news articles from the Midlands mining town. I ended up a senior special correspondent for the paper.
“Then I penned an article discouraging the barring of Africans from State Lotteries. My white publisher was of the idea that if blacks lost the first, second, and third time, they would form a rebellion, but I told him that they were already betting in the villages, losing cattle and other livestock in the process but never revolting. He would still have none of that.”
Speaking at belated World Press Freedom Day commemorations held at Midlands Hotel in Gweru, Msipa said he had been asked to consider taking up the deputy editor’s post, but refused after his publisher shelved his controversial news pieces fearing the heavy-handed settler regime.
Gweru Urban legislator Sesel Zvidzai expressed dissatisfaction with the public media, saying it was their duty not to be one-sided. “I do not care if the private media write what they want to please their advertisers like any business. But I take offense if The Herald or ZBC make it a point to please ruling party bosses instead of covering news in a non-partisan manner.
Also at the meeting, Gweru residents and Ratepayers Chairman, Cornelia Selipiwe urged scribes to shun ‘brown envelopes’ and uphold professionalism.
Tendai Manhundu, a female publisher of a local community newspaper, The Midlands Monitor, had no kind words for the local authority, whom she accused of buying journalists with beer.
“It has become a norm for Gweru journalists not to last ten minutes in a council meeting, before they are asked to excuse the councillors and management. Has council grown bigger than the Zimbabwean parliament itself? It is a small wonder that Bulawayo was recently voted the best local authority, because the city even sent council minutes to journalists, something that is unimaginable in Gweru.”
Photo credit: www.southerneye.co.zw
