Award-winning
journalist Hopewell Chin’ono says Zimbabweans must overcome fear to hold the
government to account if the country is to end the scourge of corruption.
Chin’ono, who
was recently released from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison, where he was held
for over 40 days for allegedly inciting Zimbabweans to protest against
corruption on July 31, said looting by government officials had gone out of
hand.
The veteran
journalist was speaking at an event organised by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe
and the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) in Harare on Friday. CIJ runs
a newly-established investigative journalism platform NewsHawksLive.
Chin’ono said
Zimbabwe needed brave investigative journalists to uncover the rot in
parastatals and government departments that have become havens for the corrupt.
The journalist
said although his arrest was linked to the way he exposed the US$60 million
scandal involving the procurement of Covid-19 personal protective equipment by
a company known as Drax International and members of President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s family, he had only relied on information that was in the public
domain to blow the whistle.
He said when he
was in prison he was told that Mnangagwa said he had crossed the line by
tarnishing the first family’s name.
“We should not
be afraid of telling the truth because we will be thrown into prison,” Chin’ono
said.
“The only unique
thing I did was to say there is more into the story than I have read and
started digging.”
“There was a
false narrative while I was in prison that I was getting information from the
government.
“I never got
information from anyone. “Once we get journalists whose only job is to
investigate and write what is happening out there, we will begin to see a
shift.”
Prince Dubeko
Sibanda, the chairperson of the parliamentary portfolio committee on
information, publicity and broadcasting services, said legislators were worried
about the executive’s abuse of the state-controlled media.
“Sticking out
like a sore thumb is lack of interest by the executive to comply with the
constitution,” Sibanda said.
“We have
witnessed covert interference in the operations of the media from Munhumutapa (Information
ministry headquarters.)” Standard
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