Mr George Charamba
Senior Reporter
Government should review the criteria used in appointing senior officials by focusing more on their business acumen and not political affiliation, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Mr George Charamba has said.
Addressing students attending Senior Non-Commissioned Officers’ Management Course Number 53 at the Manyame Air Force base on media and press freedom in Harare on Tuesday, Mr Charamba said such appointments were critical as the country sought to refocus its attention towards economic growth.
He said Zimbabwe had evolved politically and the country should now move towards attainment of economic power.
“For me to be a permanent secretary, my vetting relates to political credentials,” he said. “They do not relate to what I know about business.
“The kind of leadership type you will have as a permanent secretary henceforth will have to be a human being who is familiar with the rules of business. We have been surviving on political credentials. The time has now come for Government to review the qualifications for a permanent secretary to say hey, are you business literate?
“If you are not, out.”
Mr Charamba said in view of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation, it was important to have accounting officers who were business literate.
Furthermore, he said, it was unfortunate that the country was not aware of its value in terms of minerals and as a result most accounting officers were not able to negotiate sound business deals for the country.
“We cannot even negotiate with other nations, let alone companies,” said Mr Charamba. “You know companies are in the habit of hiring best lawyers to deal with us, yet we are ill-equipped.
“Much more fundamentally, we do not know what this country is worth by way of minerals.”
As such, Mr Charamba said, Zimbabwe was not an enlightened shareholder as a nation when it came to its sub-soil assets.
On press freedom, Mr Charamba said the new Constitution provided for expanded liberties to include both freedom of expression and media freedom.
He said the existence of more publications did not always translate into more information to the society as they would be competing on the same story.
“It does not follow that the more papers you have the richer a society is,” he said.
“Secondly, let us agree that publishers are not humanitarian people and they are not missionaries.
“They want to make sure that the dollar you have, you sacrifice your lunch to buy their paper and ultimately they will give you what you want and not what you need.”
Mr Charamba said media freedom could not be absolute as it might undermine other freedoms that were also constitutionally protected.