IN April, famed South Sudanese journalist, Alfred Taban, passed away in Kampala, Uganda. A former BBC correspondent, Taban was among the first reporters to cover the genocide in Darfur. On a continent, which continues to struggle with corruption, poor governance, and political instability, African journalists, such as Taban, are critical in holding governments accountable.

Yet it is becoming more and more difficult to be an African journalist, thanks to both widespread hostility from governments and increasing financial pressures.

Donors play a crucial role in extending a lifeline to Africa’s independent media. However, despite their best intentions, donors often make missteps in funding African media projects, undermining the media sector that they are trying to help.

Here are three common mistakes donors make in funding Africa’s media projects.

Funding is spent on trainings and workshops

Donors tend to spend their funds on short-term, cosmetic interventions, which fail to address the systemic constraints that beset Africa’s media. Just as development organisations can overly focus on capacity building initiatives, donors channel the majority of their efforts into trainings and workshops, believing that African reporters need to hone their journalism skills. But, this is often not the case. Most African journalists know what constitutes good reporting; they speak with multiple sources, support claims with primary sources, and provide critical analysis.

Whereas the quality of reportage has been underwhelming, it is not as a result of the lack of education on the part of journalists. What undermines local journalism is the lack of finances and unviable business models, which subjects most outlets to the control of their patrons. At The ScoopNG, where I am an investor and editorial team member, we dropped an advertiser who sought editorial control and declined several offers to publish stories in exchange for payment.

The vast majority of African media platforms are not as fortunate as TheScoopNG (although maintaining this stance has placed the platform in a situation where it is cash-strapped).

Underfunded media platforms in Africa are unable to pay their reporters, who depend on their sources to pay them for positive coverage. Brown envelope journalism is so deeply entrenched that, in Nigeria for example, most newspapers do not pay their staff. Instead, they expect their journalists to earn a living by soliciting bribes from their sources. Underpaid and crunched for time, local journalists often reprint press releases or report stories citing one source. As a result, stories in the local press become regurgitative, poorly written, unimaginative, and biased, undermining the ambitious aims of journalistic rigor workshops hope to accomplish.

Funding is project-based

If donors fund Africa media projects beyond training, the scope of the financing is project-based, which curbs local media houses’ ability to plan for the future. From a donor’s perspective, tying funding to six-month or one-year projects, for example on elections or a specific anti-corruption campaign, makes good budgetary sense. Not only does it hold local media houses accountable for the spending, it is easy to measure funding outcomes. Lacking strong business models, some African media outlets depend on these grants to stay financially afloat.

But this dependency has a negative impact on the long-term health of local reporting. Journalists in Africa are sometimes derided as “professional workshop attendees”; if that is the case, then editors have turned into professional grant writers. Chasing short-term funding and filling out grant applications every few months reduces the amount of time that editors have for setting the editorial agenda of their media platforms.

Local media platforms become stunted, and are not able to plan and build for the future by recruiting an experienced team; expanding editorial; and tackling ambitious stories that serve the public good. Donors like Open Society, Omidiyar, Bloomberg and Ford Foundation should look to provide general support for African newsrooms, with a focus on building sustainable business models.

Donor-driven agendas

Finally, donors tend to finance investigative reporting that concentrates on a few subject matters, which often reflect stories that westerners find important. Donors gravitate to the same type of stories, such as hunger in the Horn of Africa, or ivory trafficking in East Africa, or government corruption in West Africa, which crowds out slower moving stories that take longer to produce and are not considered as relevant outside the continent. Stories that focus on government policy, the environment or health care are often ignored. Nonetheless, there are glimmers of hope:

non-traditional media donors like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have helped to finance health reporting through outlets like Premium Times (Nigeria) and Bhekisisa (South Africa), but this is more the exception than the rule. Others have argued that this also makes newsrooms into advocacy institutions.

While important, a media landscape that solely awards, funds, or publishes a narrowly defined set of stories incentivises journalists to pursue incomplete, and distorted coverage.

While press freedom has made gains in some African countries, it is deteriorating in others. To support journalists, donors should reassess how they have been financing media on the continent.

Donor energies and funds should address the systemic problem of unpaid and under-resourced reporters by helping independent media platforms create sustainable business models. Donors can also provide grants and fellowships to these platforms that are on a rolling basis and adhere to milestones. Donor mandates that have a larger scope would allow for comprehensive reform and lead to greater impact and community ownership in Africa’s media.

 Adewunmi Emoruwa is an investor in African media start-ups democratising access to information, including thescoopng.com and The Election Network. He is the lead strategist at Gatefield, a public strategy group.

BULAWAYO councillors have expressed concern over a spike in diarrhoea cases in the city amid revelations by the health department that the source of the disease remains unknown.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

A recent report compiled by the council’s health, housing and education committee shows that as many as 473 cases were recorded between July and September.

On Monday alone, four cases were recorded at Nketa council clinic, mayor Solomon Mguni confirmed in an interview yesterday.

“We are still trying to find out what could be the cause of these diarrhoea cases in the city.
“We would also like to believe that probably some of them have to do with residents drinking water from contaminated containers they use to store water in the wake of water shortages,” Mguni said.

The diarrhoea outbreak comes at a time the council has rolled out awareness programmes to avert outbreaks of waterborne diseases against the background of sewage pipe bursts.

“Diarrhoea cases (473) were on the increase in the month of September 2019, exceeding the action threshold for four clinics (EF Watson: 23 cases, Mzilikazi: 16 cases, Pelandaba: 11 cases and Magwegwe: 9 cases); followed by a total of forty-two (42) dog bite cases,” the latest council disease surveillance report read.

“This is a major public health concern. The diarrhoea outbreak was investigated and contact tracing was done, however, the etiological agent remains unknown. All the contacts visited were asymptomatic.

“Since the causative agent is still unknown, the rise in diarrhoea cases from July to September 2019 creates an urgent need for the protective factors against contracting diarrhoea to be strengthened.

“These include improved (water, sanitation and hygiene) activities, contact tracing, active case finding as well as health education and intensified shop inspections. There is also a need for factors associated with contracting diarrhoea in Bulawayo to be assessed so that preventive measures can be established.”

Bulawayo has largely been spared of deaths related to water-borne diseases such as typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea. In 2008 and 2009, the city was also relatively unscathed by the cholera epidemic that swept the country at the time and left thousands dead.

AN AFRICAN modelling and fashion platform titled Model Entertainment Afrika has been launched to advocate for the professional promotion and exposure of African beauty and talent.

BY PRECIOUS CHIDA

The platform is a digital modelling portfolio and virtual fashion runway where different models will showcase fashion from different designers around the world.

Speaking to NewsDay Life & Style yesterday, business entrepreneur and founder of the website, Mike Mandoza said the idea of launching the platform came after the recent cancellation of Zimbabwe’s participation in the Miss world pageant which was spoiled by lack of support from cooperates.

“Due to the recent cancellation of Zimbabwe’s participation in the Global “Miss World” pageant 2019, owing to the lack of moral and corporate support, coupled with financial and organisational constraints, a ray of hope shimmers in our new online digital platform and the cultural agency decided to give the limelight to the African beauties and talented designers,” he said.

Mandoza said the site has become phenomenally active and visible throughout the African continent and in other western countries. It is hoped the platform would help establish Zimbabwe and Africa on the global fashion and modelling arena.

Mandoza added that the platform is meant to promote African business, culture and tourism.
“The website is a multi-functional humanitarian institution promoting African beauty, African values, culture, heritage, tourism and hospitality, as well as business and education,” he said.

Mandoza, who was recently studying digital arts and film making said Africa had a massive untapped digital creative economy potential.

“The concept of the creative economy, particularly in Africa, is an evolving idea that has the possibility of gaining global acceptance and traction in contemporary thinking about economic development if people adapt digital technology,” he said.

Mandoza sees his innovative development as an all-encompassing virtual model agency with the potential to help improve the lives of the African model and girlchild.

He said his long-term interest in fashion, culture, design and film industry inspired him to create this ground-breaking portal.

Now at an advanced stage, the portal is expected to offer deportment and etiquette training for those select models wanting to further their careers.

CONFEDERATION of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Henry Ruzvidzo says the past nine months have been extremely tough for most companies, and expressed hope that the 2020 National Budget would bring about some relief in terms of market and currency stability.

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube will present the National Budget on Thursday next week.

Industry is facing a plethora of challenges that include foreign currency shortages, power cuts, exchange rate fluctuations, policy inconsistencies and corruption.

“The last nine months have been trying for the industry. Commitment to the mono-currency must be clear. I think we know of instances when we have other sections of our economy insisting on payment in US dollars. This puts the local currency under threat,”Ruzvidzo said.

“The biggest challenge is fiscal deficit because we are not borrowing from outside, we are resorting to local borrowing through overdrafts and Treasury Bills to finance deficits. We hope the budget will address that.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce says it has set up a ministerial advisory committee comprising private sector players to breathe life to the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy (ZNIDP). Launched in June, the ZNIDP (2019-2023) seeks to turn the manufacturing sector into a technologically advanced, competitive and diversified industry by 2030.

“In the Ministry of Industry we set up the ministerial advisory committee, which comprises renowned private sector players working with our own ministry staff to translate the ZNIDP into a live outputs and outcomes driven initiative,” Industry minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu said in a speech read on his behalf at the financial indaba in Harare yesterday. The strategic objectives of the ZNIDP include facilitating sustainable growth of industry, development of new industries and the transformation and diversification of the local industry.

“I think we have reached a stage where collectively, in both private and public sectors, we need to focus our intentions on how we craft solutions to the known challenges so that we expend our energies more productively.

“There is a mix of short to medium-term policies and strategies that we wish to adopt in the ZNIDP to spur industrialisation, such as improving the business operating environment, mobilising funding for industrial development, supporting mining and agricultural sectors, enhancing research and development skills transfer as well as infrastructure development,” Ndlovu said.

The financial Indaba was held under the theme Driving towards 2030 economy anchored on production and exports.

MDC Alliance MPs who went to Parliament on a pro-poor campaign ticket were this week part of hundreds of parliamentarians who blew $5 million at the resort town of Victoria Falls in the name of pre-budget conferencing.

By Sibanengi Dube, Our Reader

Air tickets, five-star hotel rooms, three course meals, allowances and single malt whiskies seem to have taken precedence on the legislators’ list of priorities.

As to why other affordable venues were discarded in favour of Victoria Falls, one of the world’s most expensive venues, is difficult to imagine. Maddening poverty currently gripping Zimbabwe should have been used by the MDC to morally justify a boycott of the conference, while demanding a cheaper venue for the event.

Such superfluous expenditure came at a time State hospitals are operating with neither doctors nor painkillers. Medical doctors are pleading poverty to the extent of failing to raise busfares to go to work, while the government can’t afford to import even painkillers because of “sanctions”. The same government without money for painkillers then ropes in the MDC to join a week-long spending spree in Victoria Falls. If this is not madness, then one should assist me to find an appropriate term for it.

Zanu PF is being consistent here. It has nothing to lose by displaying a DNA which it has always exhibited since 1980. MDC Alliance parliamentary chief whip, Prosper Mutseyami, missed a political penalty shoot-out here.

Mutseyami should have declined to lead his colleagues to an opulent feeding trough, sponsored by starving and bare-footed taxpayers, who can’t even afford a satchet of coarse salt.

A three-star hotel or B&B only facility on the outskirts of Harare would have done the trick, than splashing taxpayers’ cash on parties, air tickets, cruises and crossborder shopping escapades.

Do these charlatans expect citizens to believe that only Victoria Falls is good enough to accommodate them as they carry out their parliamentary responsibilities? Only a fool would commit such resources to extravagance before even fulfilling a single essential on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model.

The MDC is now skating on thin high moral ground for accepting an invitation to dip their fingers in the cookie jar in the name of attending parliamentary duties. These chaps are constantly testing the patience of the poor people. The late Morgan Tsvangirai’s parliamentary red brigade are short-minded and appear to have conveniently thrown away their scripts to make ends meet.

MDC MPs should by now have raised their profiles beyond the seduction of mammon, stipends or allowances. A $3 200 attendance fee, fuel coupons and air tickets were enough for MDC MPs to throw away their hymn books and start singing Zanu PF tunes.

What about all the election rhetoric of being pro-poor and keeping the Zanu PF government under check? This was a missed opportunity to show solidarity with the suffering population. They instead chose to enjoy the trappings of power.

Shockingly, one senior MDC chap I spoke to seemed convinced that the fruitless expenditure incurred was consistent with their “strategic” contributions at the conference. He believes that their contributions helped to put the interests of the poor in Finance minister Mthuli Ncube’s upcoming budget. Since when has Zanu PF started factoring in MDC contributions to the national agenda? Did the MDC MPs’ presence in Victoria Falls change anything?

One would have anticipated the MDC to push for a pre-budget consultative meeting around the country in the run-up to the budget presentation so as to get public input, instead of jumping at the slightest opportunity to nibble marinated fillet and sip cold beers and fresh drinks in a bushy resort as the poor famish.

THE MDC notes with regret and surprise the announcement by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that it will introduce a new currency next weeks.

MDC communications

This is indeed a shocking development, considering that since 2017, this government has essentially introduced and acknowledged the existence of five currencies.

The first currency was the multi-currency regime that it inherited from the inclusive government. The second currency, introduced by the present regime through an expansionary fiscal policy and the running of huge budget deficits since 2014, was the RTGS$ (Real Transfer Gross System), which essentially was fictitious transactional money that was only recognised locally.

Things would come to a head in December of 2017, when the central bank cemented the existence of the bond note (introduced in 2016) through a Statutory Instrument.

In February of 2019, the government officially introduced a new currency, through SI33/2019 called the RTGS dollar, which was initially pegged at an exchange rate of 1:2,5 against the United States dollar. On June 24, 2019, the government officially jettisoned a regime of multiple-currencies and adopted as the sole legal tender in Zimbabwe, its RTGS dollar, through SI142/2019.

Thus, this year alone, the government has introduced four currency regimes. That is to say the regime of multiple-currency and bond notes that operated before February 20, 2019 based on a parity exchange rate of 1:1.

Secondly, the formal introduction of the RTGS dollar at an exchange rate of 1:2,5.

Thirdly, the official demonetisation of the multiple-currency regime and the retention of the RTGS dollar as the sole currency in Zimbabwe.

Now, yet another currency is to be introduced.

Not only that, on the same day that RBZ governor announced his new currency, the Minister of Finance, at another forum, advised that government was considering the introduction of the rand.

POLAD, your silence when Zanu PF continues to abuse the people of Zimbabwe is astonishing. One of the latest cases of abuse is the distribution of food aid donated by the United Nations in a partisan manner, where the people ended up protesting against the hijacking of the programme by Zanu PF.

By Kennedy Kaitano, Our Reader

Zanu PF is so unashamed of its dirty way of doing things, and it starts from the very top with government officials lying to the people that it was government providing assistance to the needy people, while it is donors.

First was Labour and Social Welfare minister Sekai Nzenza, who told the world that government was assisting people, when in actual fact this assistance was coming from international donor agencies.

Once government claims ownership, Zanu PF automatically gives itself the licence to interfere with the distribution process because it is the ruling party. What the people know is that Zanu PF has long turned to be a ruining party.

Of course, you can expect that from Zanu PF. The big question is why are the leaders of political parties represented in Polad silent when such atrocities are committed? I also ask: Where are the President’s advisers when Zanu PF ministers lie about donor programme in a way that is meant to make people believe that government was doing something good? Is such corruption going to be dealt with?

One then tends to accept the argument that Polad members are just in it for personal benefit rather than correcting government’s political rhetoric.

It’s time Polad leaders are exposed for their failure to deal with matters they purport to be championing.

WOMEN Leadership Networks (WALANs) in Manicaland province organised two intergenerational coaching and mentorship sessions in Mutasa and Nyanga on October 31 and November 1, 2019, respectively.

Walpe

WALANs are women community-based leadership support structures, which were set up by Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (Walpe) and Africa Women initiative for Development Economies (AWIDE) as part of capacitating women at local levels.

The sessions brought together aspiring women leaders and current business women and leaders.

The exciting platforms, which were attended by 100 participants, created opportunities for the women to exchange ideas and strategies on how to be effective leaders and role models.

Young women were grateful for the opportunity to learn from those who have walked the journey before them.

Those who intend to run for public office got to learn strategies to run an effective campaign from female councillors. And those who want to make it in the business world got tips from successful businesswomen, who have made it in the male-dominated arena.

The intergenerational dialogues shall continue every month as these women would meet and discuss various pertinent issues affecting them as women.

It was also encouraging to note that since the start of the programme, seven women who had been trained by the consortium on transformational leadership and social entrepreneurship have already taken up community leadership positions in their areas.

Patricia Mangemba of Mutasa, who went through the two trainings was, on October 30, nominated to be a member of the ward development committee.

Using the skills and knowledge acquired during the trainings, Patricia was supported and elected by fellow WALANs members, who received the same training with her.

This shows that if women are equipped with knowledge and information, their voices would be amplified and they can to take up leadership positions and be part of the decision making processes within their communities.

Walpe and AWIDE aim to have more economically empowered women taking up leadership by 2023.