by Tawanda Majoni
What is good for the goose should certainly be good for the gander, but not where Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana is concerned.
By launching a $1 million lawsuit against ZBC, Mangwana, a senior member of Zanu (PF) and part of the party’s propaganda machinery, has exposed himself in many ways.
Just to rewind, Mangwana, who is a COPAC Co-chair in the constitution-making process, was peeved by the fact that ZBC recently went out of its way to invite panellists from Zanu (PF) who took turns to berate him, calling him a sell-out for “acceding” to demands by the MDC formations.
Mangwana felt he should have been given the right of reply and that he was defamed by the statements made against him. He even argued that his life had been endangered by the sell-out accusations.
All this makes sense, but only as long as one doesn’t give it a context. Our laws certainly give an offended person the right to litigate against libel. But the litigation betrays Mangwana’s short memory, or rather, selective memory. At one time, he was the Acting Minister of Information and Publicity. Some of us with neither short nor selective memories recall that, during his brief stint in that portfolio, a lot of controversial things happened.
Remember the incident that ZBC and Zimpapers covered widely, pregnant with the claim that robbers armed only with stones managed to pounce on his residence and scared away a police detail with a whole FN rifle?
I am not very sure what that reportage wanted to achieve, or the real background to it, but what was obvious then was the fact that the reports insulted our minds and dignity. Many queried how small-time thieves with pebbles in their palms could drive away a trained, FN-wielding member of the Police Support Unit.
I hear the incident irked Zanu (PF) bigwigs and possibly offset the loss of Mangwana’s cabinet post. As the Acting Information Minister, he did nothing to suppress the insulting reports by the official media, a choice that could imply that he was gloating over them.
This is just one example of how he could possibly have manipulated the very same conduit he is now seeking to wear down through a lawsuit. He also did nothing to stop ZBC from spewing vitriol and hate language against Zanu (PF)’s political opponents – implying that he wanted it that way, and loved it so.
I am not ready to listen to that gobbledygook where Mangwana would claim that a cabinet minister is not supposed to interfere with operations (or lack of them) at any media house, ZBC included. Cabinet ministers in charge of the information portfolio have always done that, since independence in 1980.
Just recently, to show Mangwana’s duplicity, he found it convenient to talk to a media outlet where he accused Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche—his counterparts in the same party—of being the real sell-outs during COPAC negotiations.
He even, by implication, accused his boss, Robert Mugabe, of selling out, when he said the politburo had approved the manner in which he was negotiating at COPAC. Since Mugabe is in charge of the politburo that sold out, Mugabe is therefore a sell-out.
Again, what is good for the goose should be good for the gander. Why is it that Mangwana thinks it is OK to call other people sell-outs in a newspaper but not so when he is called the same thing by panellists appearing on ZBC?
What the learned lawyer should have done was to ask ZBC to make a retraction. Alternatively, he should have asked Happison Muchechetere to give him a right of reply by allowing him to appear on the same programme to “clear the air”. That is best practice.
There is another route he could have taken. The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe is an organ expressly set up to deal with this kind of dispute between individuals and the media. He could have sought an amicable resolution to his grievances.
On a parting note, I am not sure if Mangwana will gain anything from litigating against ZBC. Of course, I am ardently against the manipulation of the media, but what the learned lawyer-cum-politician should have anticipated is the fact that by suing ZBC, he is declaring himself his own party’s enemy.
A million dollars is certainly bound to bring that ailing broadcaster to its knees, if he succeeds in his suit. That would mean Zanu (PF) would go for the next general elections without a mouthpiece, and that would make a number of people very mad.
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