00:00In Zimbabwe, one of the biggest challenges, of course, we had a drawn-out economic meltdown
00:05that started in the 2000s and has emanated since then, characterized at one point by
00:12severe hyperinflation in the billions. So as a result, it was very difficult for media
00:17houses to survive. And the infrastructure of printing a paper every day, every week, and
00:24so forth, was just far too expensive. So we decided, because at the time, one of the things
00:29that happened is that there was a huge explosion of internet penetration. And WhatsApp is the
00:34preferred media of communication. So we saw an opportunity to create content to distribute
00:39on WhatsApp specifically. And that was the driving force behind digitalization of Harada
00:45Hughes and turning it into a digital publication where we specialized in having a podcast that
00:50we distributed on WhatsApp. So we had a WhatsApp database of over 5,000 recipients. So those
00:57recipients, we sent our podcast which discussed topical issues. Harada News was a publication
01:03that focused on service delivery. So in Zimbabwe, one of the major issues is the city, the city
01:09of Harada was not able to provide efficient services of water. The sewer and infrastructure system
01:17was dilapidated. So for example, during this economic meltdown, one of the things that happened
01:22is that Harada's infrastructure, which was originally built, water infrastructure was built for 600,000
01:28people, but today caters for 4.5 million people. So easily three quarters of the residents were
01:34not getting reliable water. Three quarters of the residents were not able to efficiently manage
01:42waste and sanitation. And the road system had dilapidated. So we saw this as a point to create
01:49discourse and discussion around the local issues, which affected most people.
01:54Do you have any kind of update when it comes to service delivery in Harada? What are the biggest
02:00challenges? What are the achievements?
02:02Well, the problems continue. Of course, there has been efforts to create avenues to have clean
02:11water through the drilling of boreholes, wells for clean water. However, the vast majority of citizens
02:17remain without clean water. And part of this is because our country has a somewhat political stalemate
02:23where the opposition parties control the city councils that provide service, but the national government
02:31is controlled by the ruling ZONOPF party.
02:34We have made pleasure to hear the oleh
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