Dr. Mantiziba filed another complaint with the MCC over a story carried by the Sunday News in its 18-24 January 2015 edition titled ‘CEOs Bleed Treasury’.Dr. Mantiziba states that he feels there was bias in the reportage that claimed that “Dr. Ruth Labode reportedly discovered expired drugs at Mpilo during the Committee’s tour of Mpilo, UBH and Ingutsheni”.
He questions why Mpilo is the only institution singled out for reportage as being affected, when other hospitals such as United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) and Ingutsheni were equally found to have expired drugs. Dr. Mantiziba is also aggrieved by the statement: “Mpilo Central Hospital CEO Dr. Lawrence Mantiziba was also the subject of a heavy onslaught after it emerged that he has been using a hired vehicle since he joined the institution in 2012”.
He feels that he was unfairly singled out of three Bulawayo Hospital CEOs who had been reported on by other media as driving Mercedes Benz vehicles hired from CMED.
STATUS: Resolved
B-Metro indicated that the newspaper made an effort to grant Dr. Mantiziba the right of reply before publishing but that he declined to comment – hence the paper ran the story with his ‘no comment’ response.
Section 4 of the VMCZ code of conduct is relevant here as it exhorts media practitioners to “ensure that all steps that a reasonable competent and objective practitioner would take to check its accuracy have been taken” including giving the right of reply to persons accused of wrong doing.
However, the MCC noted and acknowledged the response by B-Metro in its written and oral submissions that they did try to ensure they gave the complainant the right of reply before publication.
In a meeting between The B-Metro editor Limukani Ncube, the complainant Dr. Mantiziba and the VMCZ Secretariat, the aggrieved party provided official documentation highlighting that contrary to claims in the initial story that he was wasting resources travelling between Bulawayo and Harare, his trips since he took up the post averaged one trip per month. He also disputed claims that the Resource Mobilisation initiative was doomed to fail highlighting: the procurement of an ambulance, the rehabilitation of four boreholes, the renovation and upgrading of several wards as some of the fruits initiative.
These issues were captured in the B-Metro’s right of reply article published on the 27th February – 5th March 2015 edition.
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