Independent candidates removed from media commission list

By Violet Gonda
19 August 2009

The transparency of the appointment of commissioners to the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has been put under the spotlight again after two candidates, who had passed the first round interviews, have allegedly been removed from the final list to pave the way for ZANU PF loyalists.

After days of bitter complaints from ZANU PF about the process of choosing nominees to sit on the ZMC it has now emerged that the shortlist of 12 candidates has been sent to Robert Mugabe for final selection. Although the list sent to Mugabe has not yet been made public, it is reported that Chris Mutsvangwa, a Zanu-PF activist and former ambassador to China, has been included, despite not having been on the first list that was released to the media two weeks ago.

Lawton Hikwa, a Dean at the National University of Science and Technology, has also been included on the list submitted to Mugabe, although his name was not on the original shortlist. However, publisher Roger Stringer and broadcast journalist Douglas Dhliwayo, who had passed the first selection process, have allegedly been removed from the list.

It is understood that none of the candidates chosen have received any official communication and they have not even been told how they scored in the interviews. When contacted for comment Stringer told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday: “I am concerned about the transparency of this whole process and concerned that all this information is apparently being reported, when no official communication has been made to the candidates.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo has said the list published by journalists two weeks ago soon after the interviews, were ‘not the official one.’ He told Zimonline website: "What happened was that there were two lists, one from the panel of human resources experts and another from Members of Parliament. From both lists, there were nine candidates who had made it and the three remaining candidates had to come up after discussions and collations. That is when Chris Mutsvangwa’s name ended up in the list of the final 12.”

Speculation is rife that political pressure played a huge part in including Mutsvangwa, as ZANU PF had accused the selection committee of bias in favour of the MDC. This was after several ZANU PF allies, like former chairman of the Zimbabwe Media and Information Commission Dr Tafataona Mahoso, failed to impress the parliamentary selection committee.

From the list of 12, Mugabe is expected to select nine people to sit on the newly constituted Zimbabwe Media Commission.

On Tuesday the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights called on the Speaker of Parliament to clarify to the public the process of selection of the four national commissions. This was after the state media reported that the selection process of the Zimbabwe Media Commission, the Electoral Commission, the Human Rights Commission, and the Anti-Corruption Commission had been put on hold and that a system of “proportional representation” of the three political parties will be used to establish these commissions.

There has also been an outcry from media organisations when it was revealed that candidates to sit on the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) would be drawn up from the list of remaining candidates who failed to make it for the media commission positions. It’s reported that six nominees will be chosen to sit on the BAZ which regulates the operations of the radio and television industry.