MDC –USA joins other progressive forces in calling for the immediate firing of the AIPA architect and media hangman, Tafataona Mahoso from any and all positions associated with the new Zimbabwe Media Commission.  Mr. Mahoso cannot and should not have any direct leadership role let alone be the chief executive officer of the ZMC given his checkered role in the now defunct Media and Information Commission. Mahoso singlehandedly and in cohorts with the nutty professor destroyed a once nascent and vibrant media in Zimbabwe by needlessly pandering to the whims and caprice of his masters in ZANU PF. The rest is now history as one media house after another was condemned, bombed or simply haunted out of existence by Mahoso and his political handlers.

To even imagine that Mahoso can be entrusted with supervising the process of bringing about a new media era in Zimbabwe is not only insulting but a sure way to continue the same failed and vindictive media policies that have resulted in Zimbabwe being one of the world’s most media hostile societies of all time. Zimbabwe has no dearth of able men and women who could be entrusted with implementing the mission of new Zimbabwe Media Commission. Whose interest is Mahoso serving by occupying such a powerful and influential position of Chief Executive Officer for ZMC? It is obvious that the new chairman of ZMC, Godfrey Majonga either has no idea of what the role of CEO ought to be or that he is willfully negligent in carrying out the mandate so entrusted to him and his commission.
The CEO, Mr. Chairman, is responsible for the day to day implementation of your Board’s decisions not to mention the very important advisory role he plays within the ZMC.  Mahoso who has been rightly characterized as the master media hangman in Zimbabwe cannot be rehabilitated. Instead he should be confined to the ZANU PF partisan media houses where he can continue to spew the same old and tired conspiracy theories about some imaginary forces reading to re-colonize Zimbabwe. Of course this is a figment of his and his masters’ imagination. Most Zimbabweans know that it is the failed and myopic policies of his masters that have brought this once beacon of Africa to its economic knees. The role of the media cannot be overemphasized as we try and get our country back up on its feet. Whom we entrust with this critical role sends a message of how serious we are as a nation in our attempts to create a new nation. Mahoso is hardly that confidence builder.
Mahoso has not in any way demonstrated that he is now willing to give media freedom a chance. He is occupying that very important office for the same reason that ZANU PF has retained his services ten years back, to muzzle a free and vibrant media in Zimbabwe. MDC –USA supports the statement by MISA-Zimbabwe, the MDC and all those who cherish a free media environment in Zimbabwe that Tafataona Mahoso be hereby and without further delay relieved of all his responsibilities as the CEO of ZMC. It is naïve to assume that as head of the secretariat Mahoso will “just implement the decisions of the commissioners.” This is far from the real world reality. Mahoso cannot be relied upon to undo the damage he did to the media landscape in Zimbabwe. He is so much invested in the old order that his continued occupation of the CEO office is anathema and a sure way for the ZMC to fail.