The Sunday Mail
Philip Gurajena
So another week has passed by and, as usual, the media was leading with one story -the running clash between the police and members of a mapositori sect.It is sad to note that as the nation focuses on the story of the apostolic members who beat the living daylights out of the police and journalists, the underlying culture of violence has not been adequately scrutinised.
Indeed it is on the light side, looking at those pictures of bald-headed chaps delivering a whipping.
As a spectator, it is easy to laugh and giggle at the whole fiasco, but for those who were under the shadow of the rod, it becomes a totally different story not worth a single giggle.
In that light, let us spare a thought for the victims of this shameful act. I am against any form of violence.
But then it could be argued that the police incited the beating that they subsequently received. Indeed the leadership of the church could have been summoned to the police station to answer to the charges being levelled against them instead of addressing a whole church congregation and delivering the news of the ban.
Question: What locus standi does Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe president Johannes Ndanga have to call for the ‘‘banning’’ of a religious organisation whose rights to religious expression are safeguarded by an entire constitution?
None.
What he did was like waiting for match-day to announce that Dynamos Football Club has been banned in front of its legion of fans and expect them to take it lightly.
If that is not provocation, then I really don’t know what is.
Banning a church is not like taking a stroll in the park and the fact that the police were roped in in what was undoubtedly a hatchet job for Ndanga et al is sad to say the least.
While the reaction of the church members is appalling, common sense tells you there were a million other ways of dealing with the crisis rather than the route taken.
Operation salvage Pride:
Part two of the whole charade which the media failed to adequately capture were the reactions to the issue, purportedly by Zanu-PF youths.
There is a serious criminal element in going to the church shrine with the intention of burning the shrine down and the legal term that can be used is “malicious damage to property.”
That kind of vigilante ‘‘justice’’ has no place in our democracy and once allowed to fester could become a serious problem in future.
Violence begets violence, remember that.
With my seriously Catholic genes I know of many instances in which priests have held the soft bottoms of the altar boys and often rubbed them inappropriately in paedophilia acts.
How does the nation react?
Do we storm the cathedral, announce the banning of the Catholic Church and burn down the cathedral? I do not think so, because the priest is the one who will be wrong, not the church.
And the fact the media chose not to scrutinise these shortcomings speak volumes.
Gyrate gyrate gyrate: I have sadly noticed that Zimbabweans suffer from a massive dose of the “holier than thou” complex and while we are probably the dirtiest people under the sun, we always want to appear pious.
The whole Bev debacle is one such case in point. While we play the role of running some sort of false theocracy, yours truly will attest to the fact that many of the “holier than thou” leadership members and media pundits rush to Summit in South Africa the moment they set their bags at the hotel ngale kuMzansi.
For the rare reader who doesn’t know about Summit, this is the place where they provide the greatest adult entertainment with heart-stopping striptease.
There, the majority of the drooling audience are Zimbabweans and in some instances, the majority of the strippers also happen to be Zimbabwean! How we have to export our “artistes” and then follow them to our back garden in South Africa is an amazing and very expensive habit.
Perhaps we should stop the hypocrisy methinks. Enough said.
Paupers Fight and Burial
It turns out the fight over the use of the name Parade was being waged between two paupers who do not have the capacity to run the esteemed titles!
Last week, the talk was that nobody between the two really had the money to run a magazine. The other ‘‘faction’’ of the Parade title, which only produced ONE edition this whole year, was ordered to pay up its workers who had gone for sometime without receiving a cent. All this, while the woman at the helm of the crumbling shell of an institution gallivants across the globe.
Sad day for journalism and sometimes I just think we would rather have no magazines than see the exploitation of media practitioners.
It’s bad enough that they are getting a beating by the vapositori, now the Parade titles are both headed for a paupers’ burial if their fast demise is anything to go by.
As we say back home, umkulu lo msebenzi.
It isn’t a stroll in the park running media products.
Hairy Affair!
What is the media scene without a little bit of banter about the quality of writing and the flaws of the gate-keepers? This past week had a particularly fun slip-up in The Herald of all places.
The contest will not be open to the public with few tickets going round for those who want to attend. We were then told it is going to be one hell of a hairy affair. As it is “Definitely not a show for the poor, but one for the elite as PUBIC tickets to the show have been pegged at $300!” That is one hell of an expensive non-shave event!
And until next week, let’s keep our eyes on the fun and media as we weave through the jungle that the media has fast become.
