News / National
MPs Defend Mberengwa East MP - Hlongwane - On ZESA story
09 Nov 2011 at 06:38hrs | Views
Members of the House of Assembly have castigated the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Authority (ZBC) journalist Constance Makoni for rushing to question the morals of members of parliament while failing to do same for members of the executive and her own organization.
The MPs, who caught up with this reporter at a local hotel where they were having a coccus on their welfare - from Zanu PF, and the two Movement for Democratic Change formations all requested anonymity for professional reasons - jointly and severally attacked the only public broadcaster and its employee for poor programming, failing to prioritize and running a white elephant studio in Bulawayo.
Commenting on a story where ZBC alleged that members of parliament do not want to pay for Zesa bills, the angry legislators said ZBC must hold itself to account first explaining to the public and its workers how it procured top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz vehicles when workers were drowning in poverty, a lack of pay, with some reduced to outright beggars.
The ZBC story came after Mberengwa East legislator Makhosini Hlongwane is said to have called for the exemption of MPs from paying their utility bills including those of Zesa.
First to fire a salvo was a Masvingo legislator, who said, "Members of Parliament have become fodder for people like Constance Makoni who have dismally failed to appreciate the context of the debate in Victoria Falls and instead with pen dipped in bile, are adulterating and vulgarising a most well meaning economic debate that took place at the resort town about the cost of utilities and their impact on the economy," he said.
A ZBC insider based at Pockets Hill studios in Harare wondered weather the top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz vehicles driven by ZBC management in a sea of workers poverty and despondency represent any moral efficacy and yet journalists like Makoni are "busy themselves with non issues".
A Gwanda based MDC MP defended Hlongwane saying, "For the several white top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz cars given to management, ZBC has given the public antiquated studios, a shell called Montros studios, a Zanu PF news hour, and the most boring programming on earth"
Whereas an MDC T MP from Harare added, "ZBC should not depend on a travesty called Constance Makoni, a fashionista masquerading as a journalist, who clearly fails to see the proverbial log in her own eye preferring to attack members of parliament who are doing a sterling job in difficult circumstances where for three years they have worked without allowances"
"It's not possible for people like Constance to understand that ZBC is a parastatal and therefore dependent on tax payers money" added another legislator.
"For this mentally incapacitated shallow girl who writes pieces that are thin on scholarship and reportage, a newsroom and a modeling ramp are the same.
"For starters she was not even there in Victoria falls when fruitful engagement between members of parliament and Zesa and other key stakeholders took place. She could not even credit other news stables with the story" fumed another lawmaker from Mashonaland Central
From Mashonaland East a legislator said, "Debt rescheduling and debt exemption are surely two different things and Constance is better revisiting her diction. But in any event why is Constance not asking why councilors are exempt from paying their water bills and she up to now does not see anything wrong about that except for MPs. Does she pay for ZBC radio and television licenses herself since she works for the ZBC. Do Zesa staffs pay their electricity bills," he questioned.
A corporate who attended the meeting commented that, what Hlongwane spoke about although in a flurry of very fruitful engagement was economic debate relating to the cost of utility bills impacting the economy and if indeed he asked for that it is not out of the ordinary.
MPs complained that Constance talks about the current crop of MPs as if she knows any other crop which was better than the current one in her recital of other people's nostalgia as if ZBC has any crop of reporters.
They asked why Constance, in her newly found moral high ground has not gone to interview Ignatius Chombo for example over his vast wealth which is clearly accumulated by corrupt means. Where does she stand on the case of Dumba for example? Why is there deafening silence from Constance on Air Zimbabwe? ZBC in its current state has no moral capacity to criticize MPs said one MDC T MP from Bulawayo.
The MPs said the ZBC journalist was a victim of self prosylatisation and pontification by which does not question issues around how to strengthen our parliament so that the role of oversight is acquitted well by parliament on behalf of Zimbabweans simply because she lacks appreciative capacity to grasp the maze of complex matters parliamentarians have to grapple with everyday"
The MPs, who caught up with this reporter at a local hotel where they were having a coccus on their welfare - from Zanu PF, and the two Movement for Democratic Change formations all requested anonymity for professional reasons - jointly and severally attacked the only public broadcaster and its employee for poor programming, failing to prioritize and running a white elephant studio in Bulawayo.
Commenting on a story where ZBC alleged that members of parliament do not want to pay for Zesa bills, the angry legislators said ZBC must hold itself to account first explaining to the public and its workers how it procured top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz vehicles when workers were drowning in poverty, a lack of pay, with some reduced to outright beggars.
The ZBC story came after Mberengwa East legislator Makhosini Hlongwane is said to have called for the exemption of MPs from paying their utility bills including those of Zesa.
First to fire a salvo was a Masvingo legislator, who said, "Members of Parliament have become fodder for people like Constance Makoni who have dismally failed to appreciate the context of the debate in Victoria Falls and instead with pen dipped in bile, are adulterating and vulgarising a most well meaning economic debate that took place at the resort town about the cost of utilities and their impact on the economy," he said.
A ZBC insider based at Pockets Hill studios in Harare wondered weather the top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz vehicles driven by ZBC management in a sea of workers poverty and despondency represent any moral efficacy and yet journalists like Makoni are "busy themselves with non issues".
A Gwanda based MDC MP defended Hlongwane saying, "For the several white top of the range Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz cars given to management, ZBC has given the public antiquated studios, a shell called Montros studios, a Zanu PF news hour, and the most boring programming on earth"
Whereas an MDC T MP from Harare added, "ZBC should not depend on a travesty called Constance Makoni, a fashionista masquerading as a journalist, who clearly fails to see the proverbial log in her own eye preferring to attack members of parliament who are doing a sterling job in difficult circumstances where for three years they have worked without allowances"
"It's not possible for people like Constance to understand that ZBC is a parastatal and therefore dependent on tax payers money" added another legislator.
"For this mentally incapacitated shallow girl who writes pieces that are thin on scholarship and reportage, a newsroom and a modeling ramp are the same.
"For starters she was not even there in Victoria falls when fruitful engagement between members of parliament and Zesa and other key stakeholders took place. She could not even credit other news stables with the story" fumed another lawmaker from Mashonaland Central
From Mashonaland East a legislator said, "Debt rescheduling and debt exemption are surely two different things and Constance is better revisiting her diction. But in any event why is Constance not asking why councilors are exempt from paying their water bills and she up to now does not see anything wrong about that except for MPs. Does she pay for ZBC radio and television licenses herself since she works for the ZBC. Do Zesa staffs pay their electricity bills," he questioned.
A corporate who attended the meeting commented that, what Hlongwane spoke about although in a flurry of very fruitful engagement was economic debate relating to the cost of utility bills impacting the economy and if indeed he asked for that it is not out of the ordinary.
MPs complained that Constance talks about the current crop of MPs as if she knows any other crop which was better than the current one in her recital of other people's nostalgia as if ZBC has any crop of reporters.
They asked why Constance, in her newly found moral high ground has not gone to interview Ignatius Chombo for example over his vast wealth which is clearly accumulated by corrupt means. Where does she stand on the case of Dumba for example? Why is there deafening silence from Constance on Air Zimbabwe? ZBC in its current state has no moral capacity to criticize MPs said one MDC T MP from Bulawayo.
The MPs said the ZBC journalist was a victim of self prosylatisation and pontification by which does not question issues around how to strengthen our parliament so that the role of oversight is acquitted well by parliament on behalf of Zimbabweans simply because she lacks appreciative capacity to grasp the maze of complex matters parliamentarians have to grapple with everyday"
Source - Byo24News
