By Martin Muleya
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) -Civic Society Organizations and human rights activists have called upon all Zimbabweans to bury their pride and work for the common good of the country in driving the development agenda, particularly at community level.
Speaking during a one day sensitization meeting held at a local hotel, with CSOs and human rights activists, Civic Society and Churches Joint Forum (CSCJF) National Coordinator Abigail Mupambi reiterated that the meeting in Mutare was a providential development in history occasioned by the many unfounded stories circulating on various social media platforms about Cyclone IDAI that claimed a lot of lives, destroyed household property and infrastructure in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts.
She said it was time people of Zimbabwe stop accusing and counter accusing each other of theft cases alleged to be taking place in the resort town and focus should be to gather information with regards as to how the people in those communities need to b assisted.
“We are here in Manicaland province as civic society organizations and human rights activists to equip those living in Chimanimani and Chipinge as well as other residents in the province, with tools of gathering correct information in this information age. After Cyclone IDAI devastated the two districts, we have realised that most of the information circulating on various media platforms is false and we are now mandating locals from these communities to feed the correct information into the national trajectory,” said Mupambi.
The firebrand human rights activist Mupambi lamented that ever since Cyclone IDAI hit Manicaland province in March this year, most of the information relayed through various media platforms had been very negative with little or nothing to do with championing the developmental agenda of these marginalised communities other than reporting the theft of humanitarian aid.
Mupambi also hinted that the dissemination of information war is a continuous process and thus communities should be developed by empowered citizens.
CSCJF Manicaland coordinator Reverend Walter Nyakunu also weighed in saying the sense of pride as a nation had been washed away in people’s hearts by the insatiable appetite to spread false news. This he said, has worked to the detriment of carrying the country’s development agenda from moving forward as Zimbabwe already suffers a battered image even from the people inhabiting in it as well as from the international community.
He likened the situation to the biblical betrayal of Jesus by his disciple Judas Iscariot to the Pharisees after having been greased with money.
This he said, has been the trend lately as most civic organizations as they focus mainly on the negative facets affecting the communities they purport to serve so as to get donor funding instead of writing positives.
“It is important to drive the development agenda to the locals in the marginalised communities. For this to happen effectively we need to also include the voice of the church as Zimbabwe is rated a Christian country. Particularly in the wake of the devastating effects of Cyclone IDAI we must all focus on developing our country that has over the past years suffered a battered image from the international community. The aftermath of Cyclone IDAI draws all of us as citizens of this country to self introspect ourselves and also reminds us of how each one of us has a role to panel beat the image of our nation through disseminating correct and developmental information,” said the clergyman.
He implored all churches in Manicaland to have an all day prayer in remembrance of those who perished as well as a way of consoling those who survived in the disaster of this devastating magnitude.
Developmental Agenda for Youth Trust (DAY) national chairman Emmanuel Machikwa said the thrust of the meeting was to empower people in Manicaland province to practise citizen journalism while focusing on the positives particularly on the background of the Cyclone IDAI effects.
He said the climatic disaster had put the country on the spotlight and it was the duty of every citizen in Zimbabwe to sell the good of the communities they hail from through disseminating correct information.
“We organized this meeting because we want our people to make responsible advocacy through focusing on the positives in their communities through citizen journalism. Every citizen in this country is duty-bound to sell the good of the communities they hail from. This meeting came on the background of the Cyclone IDAI disaster whose effects have caused a lot of misinformation making headlines often resulting in donor apathy. And where there is no correct information, wrong information becomes the truth. We want to train people in Chimanimani and Chipinge districts to disseminate information helpful to their communities,” said DAY chairman.
CSCJF is a civic society organization founded last year. It was initiated by a group of leading churches, Civic Society Organizations and human rights activists in Zimbabwe who realised that the country was now forever stuck in election-mode even when the election era had constitutionally passed. CSCJF was thus established to redirect CSOs, politicians, masses and government officials from fruitless political fights and deal with issues that affect the masses beyond political blinkers.
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