The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana said the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) will take appropriate action against two presenters who made controversial comments about King Lobengula and colonialism live on air.
ZBC presenter Victoria Manase, and Farai Magada, who was a co-host on last Wednesday’s Good Morning Zimbabwe (GMZ), are under scrutiny following their remarks.
Speaking last week live on air as they discussed apartheid in South Africa, Manase claimed that King Lobengula was enticed with sugar into selling his lands to colonialists.
Magada argued that despite its “ills” colonialism was a necessary evil as they could now “sit in front of cameras and wear proper clothes not nhembe.”
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Mangwana said King Lobengula was deceived by Europeans into signing a mineral concession, that became known as the Rudd Concession, adding that “The sugar nonsense is just that.” He wrote:
Now to those who argue that this brought positivity to the people of Zimbabwe and future generations, there is nothing original about this banal argument.
In 2017 Helen Zille of South Africa had to apologise after she said there were positive legacies of colonialism such as “piped water, transport infrastructure and an independent judiciary”.
Colonialism dehumanized people, made them subjects to a foreign-based monarch, changed their way of life and pillaged their resources.
Can an African American argue there are positive legacies of slavery because slavery made them Americans? Of course, that’s a very heightened level of ignorance.
There was nothing wrong with the African way of life. There was nothing wrong with the African economic system.
There was nothing wrong with the African’s Religious systems and certainly nothing wrong with the African’s dressing.
The administrative issues around a related trending issue will be dealt with by the institution. It is adequately equipped with codes, rules and guidelines to deploy.
Asked by one of his followers to “just reproach what those ladies said and make them apologize, then fire them”, Mangwana said:
You are the same person who will immediately turn around and say the Perm Sec is interfering with the running of the ZBC, corporate governance blah blah. I said the issue will be dealt with by the institution.
Mangwana was also asked to give updates on disciplinary action against the presenters to which he responded:
I am not the employer. Their employer will take the necessary action.
The decades-old narrative suggests Lobengula, the king of the Ndebele people in what is present-day Zimbabwe, made a deal with British imperialists in the late 19th century, trading mineral rights for sugar. This has been dismissed by historians as false.
Historians say King Lobengula was made to sign the mineral concession whose contents were not fully and truthfully explained to him by a white missionary Charles Helm, who spoke Ndebele fluently and was the intepreter.
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