The Standard,
4th May 2008
Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu last week disrupted a function for journalists celebrating World Press Freedom Day when he took issue with the organisers after they asked him to respond to a keynote address by Senator David Coltart.
Ndlovu, who arrived shortly before the meeting at the Bulawayo Press Club ended, claimed he had been invited as guest speaker and accused the organisers of “disregarding protocol”.
He dashed to the high table, where the speakers were sitting, drawing boos from journalists who had been given the opportunity to ask questions after Coltart of the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC addressed them on the prospects of press freedom in the new political dispensation.
Coltart is the Senator for Khumalo in the city.
‘You cannot invite the government and expect me to just come here and respond to an address by someone else,” Ndlovu protested. “It now looks like I am gate-crashing… the government does not gate-crash. Others gatecrash into government.”
After about 10 minutes, Ndlovu appeared to calm down but only to protest for another five minutes, when he was asked to address the journalists as the patron of the press club.
He walked out after it was explained to him that he had confused the dates as the journalists had invited him to be the main speaker at a function organised by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, scheduled for yesterday evening.
Later in the evening, Ndlovu was involved in more drama when a ZBC news crew from Bulawayo was accused of stealing his cellphone during a press conference he held at a hotel.
The phone was reportedly recovered stashed in the wheel of the news crew’s car and the journalists were still being questioned by the police yesterday morning.
ZBC was hosting a party for its employees at the same hotel which was attended by top management, including chief executive officer, Henry Muradzikwa.
The incident happened in full view of journalists and about five police officers were quickly dispatched to deal with the case. But police were not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, Coltart told journalists the outcome of the recent elections gave Zimbabweans a rare “window of opportunity” to push through reforms to guarantee freedom of expression and ensure the public media was not used to advance partisan politics.
“The public media has been used as instruments of the governing party for the past four decades and that must now come to an end,” he said. “We need to restructure public institutions such as the ZBC to ensure that it becomes a professional entity.”
He said there was real danger that if checks and balances were not put in place soon after the new government comes into power, the new leaders would fall into the same trap of wanting to control everything.