Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Media Update # 2001/39
September 24th – September 30th 2001

CONTENTS
1. Summary
2. MDC Row
3. Chikomba by-election
4. Political Violence

1. SUMMARY

News of a fresh dispute within the opposition MDC provided the
state media with a golden opportunity to pursue its agenda of
recent weeks to discredit the party and add their own
embellishments portraying the organization as violent, divided and
tribalist. While the state media had irrefutable proof of a dispute
between a number of MDC MPs, ZBC and Zimpapers added their
own assertions that the party was split along class and tribal lines,
ascribing these claims to unnamed “sources” and “insiders”.
The private Press, on the other hand, appeared reticent to publicize
the row, although to be fair, the state owned Herald (25/9) broke
the story via a private letter from three MDC MPs to the party’s
leadership leaked to it evidently by sources within the party’s
structures. The ensuing violence was given equal front-page lead
status by The Daily News and Zimpapers’ dailies (29/9), while The
Financial Gazette (27/9) came to the not unreasonable conclusion
that the MDC had been heavily infiltrated, but failed to provide any
evidence for this beyond comment from the MDC.
In other events during the week, the state media ignored reports in
the private Press of a new upsurge of violence on the farms and
elsewhere, thus portraying the result of the Chikomba by-election
as the outcome of the ruling party’s “peaceful” but vigorous
campaigning.

2. MDC ROW

ZBC (25/9) carried The Herald report of a clash between MDC MPs
Tapiwa Mashakada, and Tafadzwa Musekiwa, Learnmore Jongwe
and Job Sikhala.
ZBC Radio repeated the unsubstantiated claim by Zimpapers that
the MDC was also split over who should lead the party with some
members proposing that the party’s president should come from
Matabeleland where, it falsely claimed, the MDC has most of its
support.
The Zimpapers’ story quoted “inside sources”, as saying “there
was a feeling among senior members that the party president
should come from Matabeleland where the MDC was
dominant.”
And it went on to say:
A faction comprising non-trade unionists and the
so-called liberals was said to be backing (MDC
secretary-general) Prof Ncube while the other
faction comprising former trade unionists wanted
either Mr. Tsvangirai or Mr. Sibanda.
No effort was made by either the radio or the state Press to verify
any of these unattributed claims implying the party was being
threatened by class and tribal divisions.
The next day The Herald (26/9) carried a story quoting MDC’s
Welshman Ncube denying there were any divisions in the party or
that he was leading a faction. And even though it also quoted him
as saying that his age disqualified him from contesting next year’s
presidential election, The Herald continued to regurgitate the claim
by its “sources” saying, “there were now two distinct factions
within the opposition party, with Ncube leading one and Mr
(Morgan) Tsvangirai at the helm of the other.”
The Financial Gazette (27/9) blamed MDC’s problems on infiltration
by the Central Intelligence Organisation and ZANU PF. The
newspaper reported “Spies from the state’s Central Intelligence
Organization and others from the governing ZANU PF party
have infiltrated the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) heavily to try to dramatically weaken the party
before next year’s crucial presidential poll …”
Although the newspaper quoted two political analysts who
observed that infiltration of political opposition parties was ZANU
PF’s stock-in-trade, it did not provide any evidence of its own to
support its claim.
The Daily News and The Herald (29/9) reported the attack on the
home of MDC MP Job Sikhala and his threat to quit the party. In its
introduction The Herald stressed that “… the MDC has been hit
by fresh divisions …” And although Sikhala was quoted at length
accusing two of his party colleagues in the Harare provincial
executive as being behind the attack, a clearer picture emerged in
The Daily News of a gang of youths being responsible for a number
of violent incidents. The paper reported the police confirming the
incident and investigating it, but The Herald failed to probe a
comment it obtained from the police that amounted to negligence.
Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena was simply reported
as saying, “the police had no business getting itself embroiled
in internal party politics”.
In ZBC’s coverage of the incident, all stations (28/9, 8pm) quoted
Sikhala blaming some MDC members for the attack and
threatening to quit the party if the accused were not punished.
However, even Sikhala seemed confused over who the enemy was
when he also said the cause of the attack was that the MDC had
been infiltrated by the CIO, a line that ZBC conveniently ignored in
favour of portraying the MDC factionalism as self-inflicted. No
comment was sought from other party executives to give an insight
into the problem. The television reporter referred to the Adelaide
Acres incident the previous week, where MDC supporters clashed
over provincial executive posts, to further buttress claims that the
opposition was mired in division.

Television carried a phone-in interview with Arthur Molife, a former
MDC chairman for its UK branch who was reported to have
defected to ZANU PF, immediately after the report on the attack on
Sikhala’s house. Molife stated that he was being harassed by the
MDC. Asked what form of harassment he was being subjected to,
he said: “I have been branded a CIO agent. I think being
branded a CIO is a serious form of harassment…”
The interview was then followed by a report on the outbreak of
violence in Norton in which the MDC was accused of being
responsible, presenting a picture that the opposition was also a
violent party. All radio stations also carried the report.

Following up earlier reports in the state media over feuding within
the party’s Harare provincial executive, The Zimbabwe Mirror (28/9)
reported that the future of the Harare interim executive “… hangs
in the balance as party executives … failed to reach a
consensus over the fate of the entire provincial leadership”.
Welshman Ncube was quoted as saying the party was in the
process of solving problems in the national leadership before
tackling the province.
The Zimbabwe Independent (30/9) ignored the issue altogether.
The Standard (30/9) quoted MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda as
saying the national executive would act on the divisions.
In a front-page article headlined “MDC crisis deepens”, The Sunday
Mail (30/9) reported a confrontation between Tsvangirai and Ncube.
And, like the stories in its sister paper, the article relied on
unnamed party insiders for comment. In another story aimed at
discrediting the opposition, the paper drew comparisons between
the MDC and ZANU PF, suggesting that the opposition was paying
dearly for its lack of structures and that its support base was
dwindling. According to the story, which was heavily biased:
ZANU PF can gain ground in urban areas through income-
generating projects and addressing other problems such as
transport and the cost of living. On the other hand, the MDC
cannot sell any programme in rural areas because they made
the blunder of failing to support the land reform
programme”.

3. CHIKOMBA ELECTIONS

Coverage of the Chikomba by-elections in the state media was
slanted in favour of the ruling party, while the private press focus
centred on the irregularities surrounding the poll. The Herald (24/9)
did not hide its allegiance. In a front-page article, the newspaper
noted: “Voter turnout in the Chikomba by-election is likely to
be higher than in the general election last year boosting ZANU
PF’s chances of holding the seat … There is a tendency in by-
elections in safe seats for supporters of the majority party to
make less effort in voting since they know their party will win.
But the ZANU PF machinery went out and campaigned hard
for people to vote in the by-election”.
ZANU PF officials were extensively quoted describing their
campaign strategies. Ironically, The Herald (24/9) noted that “In
what has been described as a test case, the ruling party agreed
not to hold rallies for the by-election or rely on wide media
coverage”.
And indeed, coverage of the Chikomba by-election was accorded
less time on television than the Bulawayo and Makoni West
elections. While the Bulawayo and Makoni West polls were each
accorded 24 minutes in five days before polling, a paltry three
minutes were accorded to the Chikomba by-election.

The Daily News, which had earlier reported a number of incidents of
brutality and even murder in the constituency during the campaign,
now (24/9) noted that “irregularities, including intimidation,
harassment, and the unlawful arrest of MDC supporters,
among them an MP, marred the two-day Chikomba by-election
…”
It also reported that “War veterans and ZANU PF supporters
forced village headmen to bring people to the polling stations
and marked registers of the villagers present before they
voted."
MDC officials were quoted as saying “that the MDC supporters
were being arrested by the riot police” and that “ZANU PF
youth in youth brigade uniforms carried knobkerries and
intimidated voters”.
The state-owned print media ignored all these electoral
irregularities and abuses, thus giving the impression that the
election had been won by peaceful campaigning.
News of the ruling party's victory in Chikomba predictably made the
front page of all dailies (25/9). Zimpapers even cryptically reported
“the local traditional leadership was incorporated into the
campaign programme to ensure that the party policies trickled
down to the grassroots”.
But the implications of this tactic on the fairness of the election
were not examined. The quote simply glossed over the widespread
intimidation and the violation of the electoral process by traditional
leaders reported in The Daily News. And in what was presumably
an attempt at an analysis of the election result, The Herald carried
a news article the following day (26/9), which stated that the
Chikomba result confirmed ZANU PF's political dominance. But the
story only relied on ZANU PF officials for comment with no
alternative viewpoints quoted.
By contrast, The Zimbabwe Independent (28/9) quoted an MDC
official and a political analyst as saying that ZANU PF’s victory
was not a useful barometer for the presidential election.

ZBC’s coverage also gave the impression that the elections were
free and fair by suppressing incidents of political violence and
electoral abuses. Information about the electoral process was also
missing. ZBC (ZTV 21/9, 8pm) merely reported that there were 77
polling centres and that 344 presiding officers would oversee the
election without giving further detail. For example, there was no
information about how many mobile polling stations were to be
used and in which districts. No information was given about the
voters’ roll and who would monitor the elections.
MMPZ notes that one of the media’s greatest failures is their
tendency to be distracted by political agendas (in the case of the
state media) and political violence and other gross abuses (in the
case of the private Press) at the expense of subjecting fundamental
electoral processes to public scrutiny. For example, comment
from election monitoring groups would have been welcome, but this
was significantly missing in all sections of the media.
Consequently, the transparency of the electoral processes and
management of the election itself remained unexplored.
When radio (Radio 2/4, 25/9, 8pm) announced the results,
reference was made to other by-elections won by ZANU PF but
mayoral elections won by the MDC were ignored. State radio failed
to analyze the results, which could have shed some light on voting
patterns in Zimbabwe.
However, in a rare feat of balance, ZTV (25/9, 8pm) did interview the
MDC's Learnmore Jongwe, and Chris Mutsvangwa the ZANU PF
Harare provincial secretary for administration, who each gave their
parties’ interpretation of the election results.

4. POLITICAL VIOLENCE

While political violence in all its diverse forms continued to be
prominently reported in the private Press during the week, the state
media ignored most of them, focussing only on the attack on
Sikhala's home mentioned earlier in this report, and on the violence
in Norton. Thus it was that The Daily News carried 15 stories
relating to political violence during the week, compared to The
Herald's two stories.
The Daily News (25/9) reported new farm invasions and vandalism
in Mwenezi, and connected it to the Abuja agreement. The next
day it followed this up with a report that raids continued on
undesignated farms. It corroborated the story with comment from a
farm owner, who reported damage to property and a threat to a
housing project valued at $64 million. This theme was reinforced in
The Standard (30/9) under a sponsored 'Crime Watch' column that
featured a CFU report confirming continued farm invasions in the
Selous farming area.
The Financial Gazette exposed the government’s violation of the
Abuja and SADC agreements. Although, the weekly did not report
any violent incident per se, it did report that the government
continued to acquire land for resettlement illegally. It stated that
1200 notices were served on commercial farmers, against a
Supreme Court interdict ordering a stop to compulsory acquisition
as from July 1st 2001. However, armed with this evidence, the
paper missed the opportunity to seek government comment on why
it continued to do this given the recent initiatives on the land issue.
In a new dimension of lawlessness, The Daily News (26/9) reported
that ZANU PF supporters had invaded three gold mines in the
Midlands province, and had stolen gold concentrates worth millions
of dollars. An MDC MP was quoted confirming and condemning the
invasions. No arrests were reported.
The Herald and The Daily News (28/9) reported that armed military
and police personnel descended on Norton town to quell political
violence between MDC and ZANU PF supporters. Predictably, the
dailies differed on who was responsible for the violence. The Herald
blamed it on the opposition, whilst The Daily News blamed it on
ZANU PF. The Herald quoted a ruling party district secretary
blaming the MDC saying, “We do not want violence here.
However, if they continue attacking us we will defend
ourselves.”
But it also quoted the MDC vice-chairperson in the area saying:
“Our party does not condone violence. ZANU PF attacked us
first and we retaliated in self defence.”
Both papers woke up late to the news. Police spokesman Wayne
Bvudzijena was quoted in The Herald saying the seeds of the
violence were sown on Sunday following disagreements over a
venue for a political rally. The paper reported that the actual
clashes, which resulted in injuries and damage to property,
happened on Tuesday, whilst The Daily News traced the violence
back to Monday.
The Daily News’ report concentrated on the indiscriminate assault
and harassment perpetrated by the soldiers and police against the
town's residents. The Herald completely ignored the excesses,
although it acknowledged an unofficial curfew had been imposed. It
simply glorified and legitimized the heavy-handed state presence.

The state broadcaster also ignored most incidents of political
violence, especially those that characterized the Chikomba by-
election and censored reports that soldiers and police details were
beating up Norton residents indiscriminately.
ZBC (ZTV, 30/9, 8pm), in a veiled attempt to cover up for the
army’s misconduct in Norton, reported that, “…disturbances in
the area (Norton) have been blown out of context with thugs
and thieves taking cover under politics to carry out their evil
deeds. Victims of beatings say they were attacked for their
property and money and not for political reasons as reported
in some sections of the media”.
Five residents were quoted with three of them absolving the army of
any wrongdoing. Instead, they praised the army for restoring order.
One of the three civilians was incredibly quoted as saying:
“Soldiers saved people. There were other people who were
masquerading as soldiers beating up people and stealing their
property. The situation has improved because of the soldiers. I
thank the soldiers for saving my father’s life…”
The reporter stated that although there were some residents who
complained about the army’s behaviour, its deployment had
brought peace to the town.
The story was ignored by radio (all stations) that day and was only
mentioned the next morning (1/10, 6am).
The report conflicted directly with an earlier news story (Radio 1/3
& ZTV, 28/9, 8pm), in which the deployment of army and police
details was linked to political unrest in Norton. In its initial report of
the Norton violence, ZBC blamed the MDC for the violence and
stated that ZANU PF had acted in “apparent retaliation”. The
reporter did not seek a comment from either ZANU PF or the MDC
to get their side of story.
The state broadcaster also failed to inquire about the imposition of
the curfew, which was mentioned in passing.
Ends

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