The arrest and subsequent denial of bail for the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) senior journalist, Blessed Mhlanga, is not only criminalisation of journalism but a blight that eclipses whatever good things one might imagine Zanu PF to have delivered.
Any attempts to differentiate the current regime’s behaviour from Robert Mugabe has been further undermined.
The argument here is not that the present regime has any been better, for most characters running it were Mugabe’s enablers.
The promise of this regime was clear and promising: A Zimbabwe that is open for business and one that, at least, promised freedom of expression to citizens and journalists.
The promise and delivery are of course not one and the same. In action the regime has shown how worlds apart these are.
Reacting to the police's barbaric action of chasing away journalists waiting to be addressed by the opposition at Bronte Hotel in 2018 Mnangagwa told the world and Zimbabweans that freedom of speech was the anchor of the new Zimbabwe.
“Anyone is free to address the media at any time” he tweeted. What has changed now?
It would seem that intervention was dishonest on the president’s part.
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In 2023 Misa and Amnesty International released reports suggesting that the promises Mnangagwa made had not been delivered, as the new was the same as the old.
There is this imagination and obsession, in ruling party circles at least, that the media can and will overthrow the so-called democratically elected government.
The fear of the media is not healthy at all and suggests deep confidence crises among the ruling elite.
They have not made any plausible argument why they should remain at the helm of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe has become an embarrassment in the sub-region.
The chairmanship of Sadc, where all and sundry are told to walk up with their chests high because mese muri machairman eSadc is not only laughable but a product of intellectual vacuousness.
Zimbabwe’s problems have largely been those of greed by the powerful.
The coup that disposed of Mugabe and still retained Mugabeism had nothing to do with the new Zimbabwe, but it was about greed.
Greed to stay in power and pawn the country and vandalise the future of millions of citizens.
The current vision 2030 has nothing to do with the aspirations of millions of hopeless Zimbabweans.
Both inside and outside the country. What it is about is Mnangagwa's greed.
It is about the greed of the minions parroting this vision.
By the way, the whole vision is fuzzy. Even its visionaries are seeing darkly through the glass and they cannot clarify anything, assuming they have the capacity to.
The arrest of Blessed Mhlanga for the interviews he conducted with those who disagree with the vision 2030 project not only undermines the constitution, freedom of expression but is meant to strike fear at the hearts of the critics and independent journalists who might give those voices an expression.
Arresting Mhlanga for interviews he carried and not arresting people like Blessed Geza who have said unpalatable but constitutional things is unreasonable.
It undermines the role of the media in society. One wonders what our journalism schools should teach in the face of such behaviour by the state.
Zanu PF then needs to redefine journalism for us so that we know what the profession means in the limited imagination of the regime.
Before his arrest, Blessed Mhlanga wrote on X that he is a journalist, who speaks to anyone, ‘includ[ing] those that seek to jail me’.
Under Zanu PF we have seen journalists being polarised and factionalised to the detriment of citizens’ rights to a free, fair, well informed and informed media.
For a long time Zimbabweans have not been fairly served in as far as their informational needs are concerned because of the poisoning effect Zanu PF has had on the media across the board and this includes coming up with restrictive laws that have no place in the current day and age.
If the ruling party is doing everything well, surely there is no need to worry about the side shows of the war veterans and those critiquing it.
However, it is clear that vision 2030 is a selfish project which has no interest of the nation at its core.
Blessed Mhlanga is a convenient victim of the factional power plays in Zanu PF.
The courts should be called upon to uphold the rule of law and not seen as aligned to the regime.
It is unfathomable that a journalist could be denied bail in a case where he never said anything, on a platform he does not own and we do not even have proof he was responsible for the transmission of the material.
Equating journalism to terrorism is not helpful to Zanu PF.
It undermines whatever project the party is embarking on, good or nefarious. And for the courts to be seen to be co-signing to such behaviours is tragic.
It creates heroes unnecessarily and these heroes become a symbol of the party’s oppression and millions’ hopes and dreams.
It sends a message even to those who want to invest or visit the country for tourism etc that there is clearly no rule of law in Zimbabwe, if such things can happen to citizens, what else could happen to investors and visitors.
*Professor Shepherd Mpofu is a Zimbabwean-born academic based in South Africa+
