About Us

Open Parly is Magamba’s groundbreaking media initiative that provides real-time access for young people to parliament, senate, and council proceedings. Armed with just a smartphone, our young team of content creators and citizen journalists broadcast live from the corridors of power. As Zimbabwe’s leading Open Data project, we aim to analyze and explain complex parliamentary processes so that young people can actively participate in decision-making processes.

Our Operations

africa

The Open Parly Africa project has rapidly spread across the continent and currently has operations in:

  • Zimbabwe (Open Parly ZW)
  • Zambia (Open Parly ZED)
  • Nigeria (Open Parly Nigeria)
  • Uganda (Open Parly Uganda)
  • Somalia (Kalfadhi.com)
Twitter
OpenPalry session

Open Parly’s innovations have received global attention. Our powerful Twitter Spaces discussions have been officially recognized by Twitter for curating inclusive platforms and for increasing public access to parliamentary affairs in Zimbabwe. We have also hosted panel discussions addressing the pros and cons of mandatory voter registration in Zimbabwe.

Audience

With a Twitter audience of over 240,000 young people, Open Parly ZW was nominated at the African Digital Media Awards 2022 as one of the continent’s leading media platforms for Best Audience Engagement. Open Parly ZW reaches over 12 million impressions per month on Twitter, and its team of committed young citizen journalists covers more parliamentary sessions than even the national broadcaster, ZBC. During the 2023 elections, Open Parly ZW was one of the only newsrooms to give all political parties equal and fair coverage during its shows. It was additionally one of the only media houses to broadcast the election rollout with reporters giving updates from all over Zimbabwe. Open Parly ZW Zimbabwe has run multiple successful campaigns that have resulted in progressive policy change over the years. The project’s reach is so large that it is often mistaken for the official parliament site and social media.

Open Council

In 2019, Open Parly launched a hyper-local initiative focusing on town councils called Open Council. This initiative concentrates on livestreaming local authority meetings and increasing youth access to local government issues across Zimbabwe

Open Council has initiatives in:

  • Harare
  • Masvingo
  • Mutare
  • Bulawayo
  • Chitungwiza
  • Marondera

Open Parly and Open Council are media platforms run by the Magamba Network, Africa’s trailblazing creative and digital media organization.