‘Nyarota slept, dreamt, breathed and lived journalism’
PICTURE: Geoffrey Nyarota’s book, ‘Perils of Investigative Reporting in Zimbabwe’, displayed in a store in Avondale, Harare, in 2024 (innov8bookshop/Instagram)
Veteran journalist Geoffrey Nyarota, who died on 22 March 2025, was well known not only in Zimbabwe, but throughout the southern Africa region and beyond.
Like the character Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, his fame rested on solid journalistic achievements.
As a journalist, Nyarota rose to prominence in the late 1980s when, as Editor of the Chronicle, he uncovered a corruption scandal involving senior government officials, including ministers, who were accused of misusing a government facility to purchase vehicles from Willowvale Motor Industries and then reselling them for profit.
The exposure prompted the Sandura Commission, chaired by High Court judge Justice Wilson Sandura, leading to the scandal being known as ‘Willowgate’.
As the founding chairperson of MISA Zimbabwe, Nyarota endeavoured to uphold the values of the 1991 Windhoek Declaration on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press.
The Declaration’s definition of an ‘independent press’ is ‘[one which is] independent from governmental, political or economic control or from control of materials and infrastructure essential for the production and dissemination of newspapers, magazines and periodicals’.
Following through upon that, Nyarota, who bagged several international journalism awards during his illustrious career, [co-]founded the original trailblazing Daily News [with Wilf Mbanga].
To date, MISA Zimbabwe exists as the regional headquarters of MISA, and remains a thought leader on media freedom, freedom of expression and access to information – inspired by the giant steps taken by people such as Nyarota.
His life was marked by trials and tribulations, but those resulted in an enduring legacy, evidenced by the publications that showcase his passion for investigative journalism
‘Nyati’, as he was popularly known by virtue of his totem, also chaired the government Information Media Panel of Inquiry (IMPI).
The IMPI report is a living, go-to document on what needs to be done to secure a democratic media environment in Zimbabwe, where the media can operate freely and independently as it plays its watchdog role.
In an article to mark MISA Zimbabwe’s 25th anniversary, Nyarota referred to the upsurge of a desire to control the media (media capture) as ‘narrow-minded’ and a ‘betrayal’ of the Windhoek Declaration.
‘Not only must any efforts at media capture, some of them embroiled in outright corruption, be fiercely resisted; they must be exterminated
‘MISA must rise to the challenge of such initiatives by devising strategies to combat any counter-productive media manipulations. One effective strategy would be to inculcate among journalists the practice of powerful investigative reporting, as well as that of ethical journalism.’
- Chinaka is the Chairperson of MISA Zimbabwe’s Board of Trustees
- This tribute first appeared here
