Presenter: [music plays in background] So coming up wew are going to be having Zimbabwean radio personality and social influencer, philanthropist, digital entreprener, and brand ambassador, events MC and host shes so many things as well as a TV presenter, her name is Samantha Musa and we’re gonna be talking about whats happening currently in Zimbabwe. I’m sure you’ve seen the trend #ZimbabweanLivesMatter we’re going to be finding out whats happening so don’t go nowhere its happening right after this

 04:35

 Comercials

 06:30

 Presenter: Alrighty welcome back 56 past the hour of 7 and as I promised you we got Misred on the line who also just tuned in Misred is Zimbabwean radio personality, social influencer, philanthropist, digital entreprenuer, umm shes an events MC and host as well as a TV presenter best known for anchoring uh ZiFM Stereo drivetime show and the Rush drivetime and was named one of the most. one of the 15 most influencial Zimbabweans its an honour to have you here on the Y lounge Misred good evening.

Misred: Hey thats like a really long profile, [inaudible, laughter]

 Presenter: Cause you just did so much I mean how can we not [laughter in studio]

 Misred: Thanks for having me

Presenter: is it is it [sic] uuh evening whats the timezone, I guess you’re like two hours ahead of us or ?

Misred: So [pause] yeah we’re 2 hours ahead of you guys so its uhh just 3 minute before 10 oclock

Presenter: Ok ok alright its great to have you here I mean uumm we’ve all in Ghana at least uuh we started to hear about whats happening with the #zimbabweanlivesmatter and for people who know a little about what been happening uum is there anything you can, can you tell us, you know a little background umm of events uumm you know and context for everything thats happening currently?

Misred: [Inaudible] uh I think thats the most important thing because a lot of people don’t actually understand the context of what being spoken about by ZImbabweans

[Presenter interjects: Yes]

so I’m just gonna backtrack sightly to what #ZimabweanLivesMatter is all about [Presenter interjects: Yeah]

so basically`the protest umm is birthed from allegations of umm abduction and torture uuh of Zimbabwean citizens of uuh government opponents and they’ve been saying that umm there some what of umm eeh of of of [sic] a compromised judiciary a justice system is just messed up according to them umm there rampant corruption theres a an ailling economy dilapidated public health system and its literally on the verge of collapsing theres also high unemployment umm things like eeh survire food shortages and just generally an unhappy youth populace umm who feel robbed of their dreams of their future so for them I think umm it was one of the biggest umm nxxa things that has come out of all of this is that uh you hear a lot of uh young people it doesnt matter which political party you support but its almost like uhh like a collective citizen movement to just say government we want human rights to be umm to be respected we want to have our dreams back we want you to look at different things and to hear us when we speak and right now we’re not speaking as uhh the ruling party which is ZANUPF or th e main opposition which is MDC but we are just speaking as Zimbabwean citizens

Presenter: and and whats been the response I mean we’re reading headlines that the presidents says things hes going to flush out `opponents and you know it doesnt seem like he being receptive to whats being demanded

Misred: I mean I.. I.. its a very difficult one and i always says to people that its so difficult to understand the Zimbabwean situation unless if you are in Zimbabwe because theres very big disconnect between what happens on social media versus whats happening on the ground. So if you are to read the social media uhh you’d probably think we’re like in the middle of a warzone

[Presenter interjects: Yeah]

and its like bagdhad or one of those countries with like crazy war happening but it actually not like that

[Presenter interjects: Okay]

what happens in Zimbabwe is that uhh social media is a lot of young people, a lot of people in diaspora, who have been disgruntled over the years because they’ve had to come out of the country for different reasons mainly being the fact that the economy has been so terrible for them they’ve had to move to other countries, families have been seperated, so you find that the population of people on social media they’re more of the urban Zimbabweans who have access to internet, who have access to more information than the people in the rural areas, if you were to go to rural zimbabwe today they’ll probably tell you that they don’t know anything about ZimbabweanLiveMatter. So there is a very big disconnect between whats actually on the ground and whats on social media, however I feel that theres also a very big conversation around human rights that hasn’t been umm looked into and this the reason why you find people doing this very thing and now when the president comes out I think he also looks at the complete uumm population and unfortunately the majority of the people are not online even when you look at the numbers of Zimbabweans on twitter for example on instagram it very little as compared to the entire population so he may be speaking to that other demographic thats not online and doesnt know whats happening but they may be feeling the hardships of the economy but then don’t necessarily have a voice and this is why social media has become so important because in as much as on the ground everything may peaceful but a lot of people are disgruntled and they will tell you that they’re unhappy with a lot of things mainly being the fact that our economy is just dead and theres a lot of thing that need to be spoken about that arent being spoken about

Presenter: Wow honestly you’ve given me very very rich perspective on whats happen esspecially even in the discussion on the disconnect on social media thank you so so much Misred umm I hear you’ve been to Ghana before

Misred: I’m I’mma a citizen of Ghana man like I love this country so much [Presenter in Background: Oh Wow]

Presenter: Honestly

Misred: Ghana is almost like Zimbabwe the people [presenter in backgroung: Yup] the people are warm they’re loving they’re umm you know receptive to new people [presenter in backgroung: Facts] I love that about Ghana so I’m literally about to by a house in Ghana.

Presenter: You know in every fellowship I go to right with other Africans its the ZImbabweans I actually connect with the most the [inaudible] Nigerians you know what I’m saying. So i get it 100 percent. It was great speaking to you.

Misred: Lemme say something before I go, umm I think from my perspective I think the events umm of the next 4 weeks will have a long a long lasting impact on the uh say the political and the social landscape of the country which is Zimbabwe and I think there a big conversation that needs to happen from the countries leadership because there have to ensure that they create an environment that is free and supportive to the population, the social obviously business and judical which is what people are talking about and you know theres a lot of different arguements around that but business people want an environment thats conducive for business uhh government wants a populace that is governable, peaceful and supportive and you know the great challenge is actually finding the balance for all these demands and satisfying these different need without the whole system collapsing so this is what we’re praying for our beautiful country Zimbabwe

Presenter: We hope you get it and how can Ghanians doing the listening also be apart of building this? we also have our own problems but i mean umm how do we you know stretch pan-african hands together you know

Misred: I think its important that we understand the context like what you did its a beautiful thing that you reach out and say we wanna understand and see how best we can help. I think tonight umm the president of south africa uh Cyril Ramaphosa uh appointed a special envoy to actually come into Zimbabwe and just figure out whats going with all these reports of umm that people are saying that human rights are being abused etc so it goes to show that in as much as social media may seem like an unimportant thing to the general populace of Zimbabwe but theres a demographic which is speaking on social media and its got impact, because everybody is talking about it I mean I’ve seen all these celebrities talking about it Burna Boy was talking about it American celebrities were talking about it [Inaudible] Ice Cube etc so it means that its an important conversation that we look into this and the government will definately feel the presure because the world is now looking, its an important time for us and its a beautiful thing where we have people wanting to understand what is actually going on

Presenter : Yes, definately and thank you so much for helping share more of that perspective with us over here thank you have a great evening for your time.

Misred: Likewise see you soon

Presenter: see you soon byeee

[END]