Sunday, 21 September 2025
By Takura Zhangazha*
This is not an obituary. Journalistically others will do so. They will give you date of birth and date of death, background, education and achievements. As are their jobs.
I will just start from this premise in remembering our late media cde James Jemwa.
Many of us never remember the camera man. Or the photographer nor the producer.
We tend to remember the verbal journalist in front of us. As important as the latter are.
And we tend to easily forget the wholesome or even holistic nature of what journalism is and has always been.
It is the sum total of multiple important parts. From production/ownership, to written words (print), static visuals (pictures), audios (radio) and audio-visuals (television/videos). Through to free expression.
It also includes, as is now globally the case, cultural audio-visual productions as conveyed via the Internet on music, drama and podcasts in their various thematic forms.
In fact all of these media forms even before Wi-Fi and the Internet expanded it's reach there was always a central player. Whether you were going to write about it (again print), broadcast it electronically (via radio or television) or put it on social media platforms (Facebook, X, Tiktock).
You were always going to need that brave, creative and in some parts arrogant camera-technician-journalist.
And in Zimbabwe one of the foremost go to persons for this difficult role was always going to be the now late James Jemwa.
When colleagues in Zimbabwe's media profession shared the sad news that he recently passed after a reported road traffic accident that occurred on Friday 19 September 2025 and that he succumbed to his injuries on early Saturday the next day many of us were shocked and emotionally devastating.
Many of us who had worked with him in direct journalism especially with international and local media electronic broadcasting houses, knew his professional mettle. His commitment to the 'story' if you agreed on its parameters and the necessary camera-work. (Including equipment issues).
Others who worked with him on documentary, drama, music related cultural productions will attest to his easy progressive (he was not for sale even when broke) commitment (again) to the themes that they sought to convey to not only the Zimbabwean public but also globally.
I know for a fact that he worked in all of these issues with multiple media stakeholders such as Al Jazeera, civil society organisations, nascent young activist organisations such as #ThisFlag , theater companies and incidentally also covering personal social events such as marriages and funerals. Be they political or deeply personal. And he also had disputes with some producers and celebrity journalists that he always preferred I should not mention. He would say "haisi hondo yako cde Zheng, regai tipedzerane" -It's not your war cde Zheng, we will finish it off without you"
His speciality was his digital camera. And how to manage angles, emphasis on visual points and how the optics were going to make sense to a person who was going to view the same much later. In his absence as a 'behind the scenes' person. And sometimes without accreditation or payment.
He was what I personally considered the 'composite' journalist. He could do the filming, the editing and partly script writing across various audio visual media formats.
The only one thing he personally told me over a couple of beers at the now closed Quill Club at the Ambassador Hotel in central Harare was that he was terrible at print media.
He said, "We leave that to you ana cde Zheng. Isu tiri vemafirimu nema camera. Imi nyorai" -(we are for filming and cameras, you should just write).
And for that, following the audio visual media story emphasis of his journalism, he and cde Paidamoyo Muzulu as journalists they once got arrested and sent to remand prison for covering the demonstrations as led by the Dzamara brothers (in succession) at Africa Unity Square.
It was the advocacy and legal work of organisations such as Misa-Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and many others that got them bail and eventually acquitted.
I am sure those that they were with him during the arrest and detention such as Promise Mkwananzi can better attest to that repressive experience and their liberatory role in it.
When I last met him earlier this year in the company of our shared cde Paidamoyo Muzulu he, as is the case now with many journalists,formally employed or freelancing, was lamenting the poverty stricken state of the profession.
And tasked us all in that conversation with seeking a holistically progressive way forward. One that not only remembers the importance of journalism as a profession with fair wages but more importantly it's important role in a democratic Zimbabwe.
After that we laughed about how he was the first to make me have a YouTube video and how he had generally tried to encourage others to do the same.
He argued that this was the future of sustainable journalism. Where print could not do without audio-visuals and the latter could not do without professionalism.
Then we had a couple of beers and he had to catch a kombi to Mfombi (Mufakose). It was getting late, zvikanzi 'regai ndirove pasi macde'
May his soul rest in peace and may his family be comforted in these difficult times.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity
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