Godwin Muzari
12 July 2009
THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) last week finally admitted that it banned Hosiah Chipanga's latest release Hero Shoko from airplay for political reasons after a forceful denial a fortnight ago.
Chipanga joins popular musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo and Leonard Zhakata whose music was banned from radio stations and ZTV after it was perceived to be anti-establishment.
Standardplus broke news of the banning of Chipanga's album on June 21.
But ZBC spokesperson Sivukile Simango insisted that it was not the broadcaster's policy to ban songs on political grounds.
Simango said they only banned songs for moral reasons but Allan Chiweshe, the manager responsible for programming, on Thursday finally mustered the courage and said Chipanga's album had been banned because it was "political".
Before Thursday's admission, Chiweshe had initially agreed with Simango saying no one had stopped the album from airplay before making the admission.
"The album is highly political and we cannot play any of the songs in this period of national healing," Chiweshe said.
"Our programmes and songs at the moment are tilted towards the current political phase of national healing and any material that undermines this goal will not be accepted."
Ironically, the MDC-T led by PM Morgan Tsvangirai wrote to ZBC and the public print media complaining about their open bias towards Zanu PF.
The party accused the public media of continuing to publish hate speech despite the new political dispensation.
Although only two songs on the album have strong political messages, Chiweshe said all the songs somehow hit sensitive chords.
"All the songs are political. Some are not direct but if you read between the lines you will realise that he is singing about political issues," Chiweshe said.
The ZBC officials did not inform Chipanga about the development and the musician says he had spent a lot of money and effort trying to establish what was going on.
Chipanga said he prayed and asked for divine intervention on the matter.
"I am fed up now. I tried every means possible to establish what is going on with the album. I have been to ministers' offices and I have visited the ZBC offices on numerous occasions," Chipanga said. "No one takes responsibility for banning the album.
"I prayed last week and asked God to intervene. Let his will be done on this album because no man can stop his message from getting to its destination," he said.
"I have told the directors of my record company that I have done my best," he said.
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