Like Mugabe, Museveni has stayed too long
What is it like to be the publisher of an independent Zimbabwean newspaper?
For me personally, it is the victimisation at citizenship level. But mostly it is the journalists who are arrested. Two weeks ago the editor of my Sunday paper received an envelope with a bullet and a message that said “watch out”.
This is psychological intimidation. But it’s also just seeing the difficulties that my colleagues in Zimbabwe are operating under. We are having to review salaries every three months just to make sure that our colleagues survive. We suffer power cuts on a regular basis.
You can’t find spare parts because foreign currency is in short supply. It is an environment where you have impediments placed in your path on an everyday basis.
So, how have your papers survived?
God! I pray everyday for God’s protection and the papers continue to survive. We have an amazing group of journalists in Zimbabwe; patriotic people that want Zimbabwe to change. Those are the people who have kept the company going; the people that have ensured that we play by the rules, that we pay our taxes.
You also own Mail&Guardian, a big continental brand; what is the trick?
I am afraid it’s God. My mother was a domestic worker.
If I tried to find worldly ways to explain it, I would fail. How many kids born of a domestic worker and a cook have risen to where I am? Mail&Guardian is an international brand.
As a newspaper, what has a paper like Mail&Guardian done right that explains its success?
I am passionate about journalism as a vital instrument of shaping the course of Africa and our country; that journalism should be used as platform upon which we hold our leaders to account. For us to be able to do that we must ensure that our journalists are adequately educated, properly trained.
But every African government should see the creation of strong media houses as a big calling. We should see our presidents – President Museveni must have the challenge of creating a university [or academies] to train journalists because it’s a strong and vibrant media that calls all of us to account; it’s a mirror… It’s a one thing to want the East African Federation but if the federation has weak media, it will perform as poorly as Uganda and Tanzania have performed.