Protests over ZTA chief's 'whore' slur at female journalist

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Posted to the web: 09/01/2009 15:22:08
THE Zimbabwe Union of Journalists has expressed “deep offence” after the chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) reportedly called a female journalist “a whore”.

Sandra Mandizvidza, a journalist with the Standard newspaper, called Karikoga Kaseke to get his comment over an alleged incident with former TV presenter Barney Mpariwa at the Miss Tourism Zimbabwe finals last week.

“After I had introduced myself to him and before I had explained my reason for calling, Kaseke said: ‘I don’t want to talk to you, write any bullshit you want to say, uri hure (you are a whore)’,” Mandizvidza said.

“He later phoned me on the office line and confirmed in the presence of ZTA spokesperson Sugar Chagonda that he had called me a whore. He repeated his rants, and went on to say: ‘Wawana story, chinyora zvaunoda (you’ve got your story, write what you want’ He did not explain why he was doing that.”

Mandizvidza said Kaseke’s comments were a “clear and deliberate act of intimidation by a public official, and an attempt to hinder me from performing my professional duties.”

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) wrote to Kaseke on Friday demanding that the ZTA chief apologises to Mandizvidza.

ZUJ secretary general Foster Dongozi said in the letter: “We would like to put it to you that we are deeply offended by such utterances against our member. e are particularly appalled by the violation of Mandizvidza given that it comes so soon after the commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence which ran from November 25 to December 10.

“As the face and voice of the country's efforts to revive the tourism sector, we do not feel using crude language against young journalists is one way of attracting visitors to the country.”

New Zimbabwe.com understands Mandizvidza called the ZTA chief to get his comment over an alleged altercation with Mpariwa backstage at the Miss Tourism Zimbabwe finals.

Mupariwa was the MC at the event and had been told that at the end of the night, he should ask everyone to sing the national and “salute” the winner, Vanessa Sibanda.

“Tourism Minister Francis Nhema told Mpariwa that it would not be necessary and so the national anthem was never sung. Kaseke is said to have manhandled Mpariwa backstage and that’s what Mandizvidza was trying to confirm,” a journalist at the Standard said.
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