Community Newspapers’ Association of Zimbabwe Condemns Alleged ZEC Tender Scandal
The Community Newspapers’ Association of Zimbabwe (CNAZ) executive committee has expressed grave concern over reports of an alleged corrupt US$40 million tender awarded by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to ex-convict businessman Wicknell Chivhayo.
In a strongly worded statement, the CNAZ said it “unequivocally condemns corruption and the abuse of national resources for personal gain of a few individuals at the expense of a whole industry.”
The association was reacting to an exclusive report by The NewsHawks newspaper, which revealed that Chivhayo and his associates were “feasting” on the ZEC procurement deal with South African company Ren-Form. The report alleged that the invoices were inflated by up to 235%.
CNAZ noted that this scandal comes at a time when ZEC had cancelled advert bookings for all community newspapers during the 2023 harmonized elections, citing lack of funds. The association said it had made “frantic efforts” to secure adverts from ZEC, meeting with various authorities including the then Minister of Information, Monica Mutsvangwa, who had tried to intervene.
“Election adverts have over the years and in the First Republic been a lifeline for community media. They enabled community media to retool and recapitalize,” the CNAZ statement read. “The failure by ZEC to give adverts to community newspapers weakened most of the newspapers and this has seen over 60% closing down or partially closing and yet others retrenching significantly and altering contracts for staffers from full time to part time.”
The association demanded a transparent system and clear criteria for the issuance of adverts by ZEC, stating that the current approach is “anti-media and not in the spirit pledged by President Mnangagwa of supporting industry and creating jobs.”
CNAZ called on the Ministry of Information and the Zimbabwe Media Commission to intervene and “thrash out a clear, transparent policy on how ZEC adverts should be distributed.” The association also urged for a review of how last year’s adverts were distributed and an audit of the effectiveness of ZEC’s information dissemination arrangement.
“A weak Fourth Estate means a weak executive, a weak legislature and naturally a weak judiciary because the checks and balances system is broken,” the CNAZ warned.
