“LIFE is nothing but vanity”, said the wisest man to have ever walked on earth. The time tested wisdom is easy to brush aside when man still walks at the prime of his life but impossible to ignore when the moment of truth beckons.
Celebrated career journalist, Charles Kizigha went the way of the ancestors peacefully in Dar es Salaam early this week to evoke memories of a highly illustrious son of the land who served his country and profession with a degree of passion and dedication few can boast.
Yet, all memories of him shall be interred with the body and, despite his labours and triumphs, to have no more reward under the sun. Man though, lives to leave a mark and Charles leaves behind him a life lived like a colossus.
Charles was the earliest bird to arrive in the office and the last soldier to bunker out. He was a role model for many, yet a bar too high to reach.
In his career, which spanned over forty years, Charles distinguished himself as a “Bombshell” Investigative Journalist, working as a team and as a lone ranger whose work often caused heads to roll.
He had many works to his credit but three are quite monumental and the author can dare say they were unequalled by their impact in society and in government circles.
The first case that Charles investigated, involved a coffee smuggling scandal through Tanga port.
A gang of economic saboteurs had worked out an elaborate coffee smuggling racket by using Tanga Port to export dubiously the crop that the country depended on as a major foreign currency earner. It was Charles who busted the ring.
Another high profile story Charles unearthed involved the scandalous leasing of godowns at Kiwalani in Dar es Salaam belonging to the Sugar Development Corporation (SUDECO).
A number of officials lost their jobs as the then Minister for Agriculture, the late Joseph Mungai too had to resign his position as a result.
The third story (not listed chronologically) involved the equally scandalous leasing of aircraft by the Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC) from a Lebanese businessman, George Halack.
It turned out that ATC then needed long range airliners to operate foreign routes, including flights to London. However, ATC had only the commuter Boeing 737s.
A company decision was reached to hire the equipment rather than buy new planes. That was where George Halack entered the picture.
The Lebanese wet leased (that is, equipment and crew) two Boeing 727s to ATC, ostensibly to run its foreign operations. One plane landed in Dar es Salaam and another at the Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA).
The planes were ruled not airworthy from the beginning and the whole deal became a huge scandal, which perhaps could have remained under wraps if Kizigha hadn’t entered the scene.
In that scandal the then Minister for Transportation, Augustine Mwingira and ATC General Manager, Lawrence Mmasi had to resign their positions and were never re-engaged.
When the plane at KIA was started, the engines only squeezed out honey. They were arguably the most expensive beehives in Tanzania’s history.
Another story about Kizigha’s career was narrated to the author by Reginald Mhango, former News Editor of the Daily News and Sunday News.
Unfortunately, both men are now dead but according to Mhango, it was Charles Kizigha who first came across news about the plot to assassinate Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere as he attended morning service at St Peter’s Church in Dar es Salaam and overthrow the government.
According to Mhango, the conspirators who included junior army officers led by a civilian, one Maghee, used to meet at Palm Beach Hotel in Sea View to hatch out their plans.
On one such occasion, the plotters hired a taxi driver and during the ride to their destination, continued discussing their coup plans within earshot of the taxi driver.
The taxi driver was both startled and shocked but didn’t show it then. After dropping his clients at their destination, the taxi driver looked for the only person “in government” that he knew who happened to be Charles Kizigha.
Kizigha too shared the sensitive news with his superiors at the Daily News. The government machinery went into action and Maghee and his fellow conspirators were arrested, tried and sentenced to prison terms.
Charles Kizigha had his own style of working. He maintained a personal news diary and rarely depended on being briefed by the News Editor on what to do or which stories to pursue.
In fact, Kizigha tended to be rather unproductive if assigned what to do. Editors knew and respected his style and potential. Most of his stories dominated the front page, often as lead stories. So Requiem aeternam Mzee wa “Scoop.”
Charles Kizigha was one of a handful trail blazing journalists who joined the then Tanganyika Standard (Newspapers) Ltd when the company was largely a “whites” only field.
All the sub editors were white as were the News Editor, Training Editor and Mr Brendon Grimshaw, who was from Yorkshire in England and the last white Managing Editor before the newspapers were nationalised in 1972.
Mr David Martin, the News Editor deserves special mention here. He first came to Tanzania as a correspondent for the London Observer but ended up as a literary spear for the Southern Africa liberation struggle, a multi-national and multisectoral campaign led by Father of the Nation Mwalimu Julius Nyerere for which The Standard together with Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam played pivotal roles on the media front.
He was a close friend and confidant of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere who also turned Martin into a sympathiser of his (Mwalimu’s) socialist policies, viewed in the West then as being no different from Communism, affiliation to which Mwalimu vehemently opposed.
Mr Grimshaw was succeeded by Ms Frene Ginwalla who was Indian and a member of the South African Communist Party living in exile in Tanzania as a freedom fighter under the wings of the African National Congress (ANC).
Ms Frene Ginwalla (90) would go on to become the first Speaker of Parliament (1994 – 2004) in post-apartheid South Africa. She lives in Johannesburg. Mr Grimshaw on the other hand, died recently in the Seychelles where he had bought an abandoned 10 hectare former marine park island and turned it into a private retirement home.
In a nutshell, such was the environment in which Charles and a handful others worked. It was employment by merit, says Salim Said Salim, who first joined The Standard in 1965, four years before Charles did.
Actually, Salim should have been the one to eulogise Charles but he gave the author the green light to go ahead and write this in memoriam.
The journalism we were taught respected seniority and were reminded that the profession was quasi-military. The editor had the final say on what goes into print and no journalist could question why their story was not published.
As hinted to above, The Standard was a heavily whites only field but that does not mean the paper was impervious to the wind of change blowing in the country after independence from Britain on December 9, 1961.
Sammy Mdee had joined The Standard in 1963 together with Hadji Konde. Mdee would later become the first indigenous Managing Editor while Konde was deputy. Both are no more.
The second half of the 1960s marked a time when more Africans joined The Standard. They included Emmanuel Bulugu, who later became Deputy Managing Editor, Kusai Kanisa (KK) and Nsubisi Mwakipunda, the first indigenous News Editor. Sadly, they are all no more.
Others were Boniface Byarugaba and Felix Kaiza, who was the first indigenous Chief Sub Editor and many others including the late Marianus Mbunda, the pioneer ace court and crime reporter and the late Mike Sikawa, also a maestro of court and crime reporting.
Remembering Charles Kizigha invariably also becomes something akin to running a roll of Who was Who in The Standard in those days. Names like Juma Penza, Subira Kumbuka, Charles Rajabu and Kassim Mpenda all come to mind.
The first two have since died. Kassim Mpenda was one of the longest serving Chief Sub Editors during the critical period of popularising the Arusha Declaration and marshalling the media front at a time of heightened war for the liberation of Southern Africa.
That too was about the time when “word technician” Kenyan journalist Philip Ochieng also joined “The Standard” and added professional vibrancy to the papers unequalled in East Africa. Ochieng too died recently in Kenya.
Honestly, it is impossible to remember all the “ice breakers” into The Standard’s journalism but suffice to say here that “The Standard,” which became the Daily News and Sunday News after nationalisation in 1972, was a place of identifying and nurturing potential and talent for print media journalists and press photographers.
Among them was the late Ernest Milinga, who started as darkroom assistant and became one of the best press photographers in the country, especially with a hawkish eye for sports photos.
The early 1970s saw the arrival of young university graduates including Naijuka Kasiwaki, Franklin Mziray, Jenerali Ulimwengu and the late Abdallah Ngororo, who became Deputy Managing Editor and in the opinion of the author was an English language genius unlike any that the Daily News ever produced, except perhaps for the late Phili Karashani.
Sadly, the privatisation and trade liberalisation policies of the mid-1980s impacted negatively on the Daily News, which was established not so much as a business venture but as a vehicle for social cohesion in society.
The newspaper almost collapsed but it was Kizigha again who took the unorthodox decision to ensure journalists participated effectively in the collection and expenditure of revenue until the government decided to bail the paper out of its mounting debts and plummeting worker morale.
Thus, truth be told, as we mourn Kizigha’s passing it should also not escape our minds that the history of the Daily News could have taken a completely different curve had it not been for the staunch loyalty that Kizigha demonstrated for a state owned company that was not just a business but akin to family.
Yet journalists are rarely honoured as national heroes. It is the author’s view that the trend should come to an end. Kizigha’s death should serve as a wake-up call for affirmative action for journalists to be recognised as the recorders and custodians of living history who merit decoration and honour in society.
It is the only way of doing justice to years of their selfless dedication and diligent service to society, very often unmotivated by pecuniary reward, only heeding the call to a noble vocation.
For the gift of Charles Kizigha’s life and our shared faith as Christians let me end by praying: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always and forever and ever. Amen.
