Prominent broadcaster and former talk show host Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa says interviews with the late Morgan Tsvangirai and independent MP Temba Mliswa were some of the toughest assignments she handled in her career.
Parirenyatwa (RP), who hosted talk shows on Capitalk and ZiFM radio stations, made the revelations when she appeared on Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube’s platform In Conversation with Trevor.
She spoke about her experience as a broadcast journalist.
Below are excerpts from the interview.
TN: Ruvheneko Elsie Parirenyatwa, welcome to In Conversation With Trevor.
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RP: Thank you for having me.
It is such an honour and I always applaud anyone who does something consistently and well, and you have done that.
TN: Oh thank you. Thank you very much. You know the thing about this show is that I am getting to learn a lot of people's middle names, the names that they do not want people to know.
Elsie? That is a beautiful name.
RP: Thank you very much. It is from my great grandmother.
It is my great grandmother's name, my father's grandmother from the paternal side yeah. So that is where I got that one.
TN: Secret out. So, you know in inviting you here I have this picture in my mind, you and I are flying from Johannesburg or to Johannesburg, you were sitting with your friend up front and you were giggling and I am seeing all these kids.
What has been fascinating for me is how this kid that I saw giggling has built this amazing brand?
How have you done it Elsie Ruvheneko?
RP: Yeah look, the giggling is part of it, you have got to stay happy in life.
It keeps you young, and it keeps you well.
But look, I think the brand has built itself in a lot of ways.
Had you asked me on that flight if I knew where the brand was going or if I would be here today, I probably would have said no.
It is not something that I woke up expecting in a lot of ways, and my career has opened doors for me that I did not even know would open, or that would be possible for me.
What I have done with every opportunity is seize it, and I tried my best to put my best foot forward at every turn and make sure that if I am in the room; I am remembered.
And that whatever opportunities, whatever privilege, whatever access I am given I take it and harness it.
So that is how the brand has just progressed from television, to online, to radio, to TV.
You know it's been an evolution, and I have enjoyed every bit of it.
TN: What has surprised you about being where you are now?
RP: I think what surprises me is when people still stop me and they say ‘Hie Ruvheneko.’
I do not think that ever gets old, I am sure you can testify.
That sometimes you are in the most unassuming place minding your own business, in the most mundane outfit, or with family just doing something so every day then someone stops you and reminds you that people out there know you, and people are watching and people appreciate the work that you have done.
So there is a mark that you leave on people when you do this work as you know.
I do not even know whether I should call you Trevor or Mr Ncube
TN: Call me Trevor, But you are my child all the same...
RP: Do you see what I mean?
But you know that still surprises me, that you know you make so much of a ripple effect in the work that you do without realising it.
Someone will remind you of a show that you did on radio in 2016 when you interviewed so and so, and you are like how do you remember that?
But that is also the magic of radio, it is a type of broadcast platform that captures hearts genuinely.
You have got Heart & Soul, you know what I am talking about. I am sure your presenters will tell you that radio has this magic because you do not see each other with your listeners, you do not know who they are, where they are, what they are doing.
They do not know your face sometimes.
Thanks to social media now.
You know radio before when you were younger you hardly knew what these presenters looked like.
If you asked your generation, ‘Do you know what Peter Jones looked like?’
A lot of them will say no because there is just a relationship you build with the voice.
TN: And you assume you know the person?
RP: And you assume you know the person.
TN: So the magic happens.
RP: Yeah.
TN: The brand builds itself. But I want to ask you about the deliberate things you have done to build the brand?
RP: So the most important thing I think is being true. I have made sure that if I have got nothing to say I keep quiet.
That if I am doing something, I am doing it in a way that I believe in.
You studied journalism, so you know the basic ethics...
TN: I did not actually, that is what people do not know.
RP: You did not?
TN: No. But let us talk about you now...
RP: No let us talk about you hahaha. See I am about to turn this interview around!
TN: The beauty about having you here is that you are a journalist, you can ask this question.
So, I was never trained in journalism.
RP: No way?
TN: I have never been to journalism at school. This is God using me.
RP: Wow.
TN: I got appointed to run the Financial Gazette, the premier Financial Gazette.
RP: FinGaz.
TN: In 1989. Without experience, without having been in a newsroom.
RP: Right.
TN: And people gave me six months. They said I was going to fail and leave. Seven years after...
RP: There you were.
TN: There I was. Then I got fired and so forth. But I am walking God's purpose, I am doing God's will, I am doing God's work. He has empowered me to do it.
RP: Wow. See, I mean I think you are doing it so well and so professionally that it is an assumption that this is your line.
You understand? Also, because you have been in this for years. So there we are.
TN: The deliberate things?
RP: The deliberate things you know, and for me having to say if I am going to ask someone questions, and I know the answers, which is 101 with journalism right?
Do not ask something that you do not know the answer to.
So, you know you have done your research, and you ask someone a question as a subject on your show, and they try to avoid what you are asking or to answer smart.
And the idea is that you have to pursue, and you have to get the answers.
Because once you are putting on a show or an interview, you are not doing it for you and that guest, you are doing it for your audience.
And the line that I chose, which was current affairs, people want to know, and in the Zimbabwe that we live in, people demand answers because there is so much that does not make sense to them.
So, if you are going to sit down with somebody who is a leader or a mover or a shaker, your responsibility is to your audience, to say what do they need to know and understand about what Zimbabwe is looking like today?
I made sure that no matter what, I pursued the answers. I think that set me apart in a way. I tried not to be afraid, because if you are afraid you do not achieve anything as you know fear can cloud everything, and stagnate everything.
I would make sure that I put my neck out to say look until you have answered me I am not letting it go.
You know I was a dog with a bone, and it got me into trouble many times.
TN: It made people not like you?
RP: Yes.
TN: Can I make a confession?
RP: Yes.
TN: I hated you when you did an interview with Nkosana Moyo.
RP: Why?
TN: Because you asked these questions and I was like why is she going there.
RP: What do you mean?
TN: Because I liked Nkosana Moyo, I wanted him to be president...
RP: I see.
TN: And there you were spoiling it.
RP: Well he was trying to be the president of my Zimbabwe, and everyone's Zimbabwe, and he deserved to be asked the important questions.
Now if you are someone rooting in this corner, I understand how you would have wanted a certain picture to be painted, but I interviewed him and many other candidates who were running that year, and it was an interesting year you know.
He handled it well...
TN: So here I am...
RP: You were being protective.
TN: Exactly.
RP: But he handled it. He is intelligent you know, and he is one of those technocrats that people respect. I really was...
TN: The thing with Nkosana is, you will ask him a question and then he turns it around and asks you a question...
RP: That is why I am saying he is so intelligent.
TN: Yeah.
RP: You have got to be careful with your guests, you have got to be careful.
You have got to be careful with me because I was about to interview you!
TN: So who has been the most difficult person to interview for you?
RP: The most difficult...?
TN: I like your laughter, but before you share it!
RP: I will say the most challenging would be...There were two.
Honourable Temba Mliswa, because I often interviewed him in the heat of something he was in the middle of, and you know him when he is passionate about something, or something has happened, or a legislation that he believes in has not been passed.
When he is in the middle of trying to achieve something, you do not want him on your show because he gets fired up.
And I remember one particular show on Capitalk Radio where he walked out of the studio.
That is how angry he was.
TN: How did that make you feel?
RP: You see, I had interviewed him so many times before, so I knew how he gets, but never to that extent.
And it made me feel bad because at the end of the day when you are bringing someone onto your show they are your guest, and you are supposed to treat them well and make them comfortable.
And obviously something triggered him, and to a point where he thought he needed to walk out.
And he does not do that, he does not even walk out of Parliament, and now imagine him walking off your set?
So that was that.
He is a challenging guest, and also because he has his wits about him.
And if you do not have someone else on the show, if you are just discussing politics with Honourable Mliswa, and you do not have someone on the show to rebut, or to challenge him, you end up having to play devil's advocate, which is not the way to do journalism.
So he is a challenging guest, because he can go and go and go and go at someone or at a policy and you cannot challenge. So you want to put him in a debate setting, where it is him and another guest.
So that is one. The other guest who was probably the most difficult was the late Morgan Richard Tsvangirai.
TN: Aha. Why?
RP: Why, because of the time. The time that I interviewed him, I remember pleading with my boss at the time when I was still at ZiFM, to say please can I interview him.
And his office had said yes, but it was now getting clearance to continue with that interview, which was not so easy.
Now you can imagine I was younger, I was probably in my late 20’s by then, and nervous, and this is the first time he had been given a national platform to actually speak and it was live.
You understand?
The sensitivities around it. So it was a huge responsibility.
And to this day I feel like I might not have done the interview justice, but I am just glad that I was part of giving him a voice that Zimbabwe had never given him, to be able to speak as an opposition leader live on radio you know and say what he needed to say.
So that was hard, because it is like if I mess this up this could be my career gone. So that was a big challenge.