SUMMARY

National media institutions short-changed Zimbabweans
over two important events in the week under review. The
state media swamped its audiences with uncritical support
for President Joseph Kabila’s state visit to Zimbabwe, while
the independent Press generally limited itself to affording the
MDC space to explain its boycott of Kabila’s parliamentary
address. Nowhere could a balance be found, nor an
independent analysis of the ramifications of Kabila’s visit.
The independent Press also failed to highlight government’s
efforts to railroad two important new laws through
Parliament (the Broadcasting Services Bill and the Political
Parties (Finances) Bill). Predictably, the state-controlled
media did the same. The extent of government’s
manipulation of parliamentary procedure in its preparation to
force through the two Bills with minimum debate was never
clearly explored. As a result, the repressive new
broadcasting law appeared on Zimbabwe’s statute books
without the public being consulted or even getting a chance
to be adequately informed of the issues at stake.

1. President Kabila’s state visit
The state media’s coverage of Kabila’s visit to Zimbabwe
far exceeded its news value. Television (27/3 8pm) was
especially suffocating, carrying five items on the man
(including his parliamentary address which itself clocked up
11mins 05secs) that consumed a total of 22minutes and
55 seconds of the bulletin. The MDC boycott was reported
in the first item, accompanied by one comment each from
ZANU PF and the MDC. President Mugabe was also quoted
in the bulletin describing the boycott as shameful.
Notably, radio was less enthusiastic (carrying three items
on Radio 1 & 3 and only one on Radio 2). But Zimpapers
followed television’s theme the next day with The Herald
(28/3) carrying the full text of Kabila’s parliamentary
address. It also carried news of his address as its lead,
and criticism of the MDC’s boycott from Mugabe and
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. The only voice outside
government was The Zimbabwe Mirror’s chief executive,
Ibbo Mandaza, (also on television the previous night) whose
paper (30/3) was alone in accessing an array of sources
including diplomats, political analysts, and ordinary people
– all of whom criticized the MDC, as did The Mirror itself.
ZBC bulletins (28/3) used the parliamentary debate of the
boycott as an opportunity to further highlight government
criticism (Foreign Minister Mudenge and Chinamasa)
without providing any indication of what MDC MPs had to
say. (The Herald weighed in the following day with the
same story). And in the vox pop that led ZBC’s 8pm
bulletin (28/3), the MDC’s Tafadzwa Musekiwa and
Learnmore Jongwe were given just 16 seconds to state
their party’s case, while eight other voices, including other
opposition groups, all criticized the MDC.
Over the two days, television granted MDC spokesmen just
35 seconds to explain their boycott, as against seven
minutes or more granted to their critics.
The Daily News (28/3) quoted MDC’s Tendai Biti
extensively in its coverage of the boycott, and included a
comment from Chinamasa. But it only reported Kabila’s
address the following day (29/3). The Financial Gazette
ignored the entire story, preferring to dig deeper into
Zimbabwe’s shadowy connections with the DRC’s mining
ventures. But The Zimbabwe Independent (30/3) led its
edition with the MDC’s Tsvangirai attacking Mugabe over
Kabila’s visit. It also carried an opinion piece inside in
defence of the boycott in which the author (Joram Nyathi)
claims:
“…there are no laid-down principles or policies
transparent enough for the public to know what is
happening or why something is being done the way it
is. The government and ZANU PF have tended to turn
national events into party political issues and party
issues into national occasions.”
This statement, taken with Biti’s observation that the MDC
was not consulted when the decision was taken to bring
Kabila to parliament, sheds some light on the state of
government in Zimbabwe today. But Zimbabweans could
be forgiven for failing to be enlightened.

Legislation railroaded into Parliament
All the media told their audiences that the Broadcasting
Services Bill and the Political Parties Finances Bill had
received their first reading in Parliament. But none of them
provided the public with relevant details of the Broadcasting
laws. Zimpapers' dailies made no mention of the fact that
the Parliamentary Legal Committee had found some of the
clauses in the original regulations that remained in the Bill
unconstitutional, but that the government was pushing the
new law through Parliament anyway.
And none of the media asked why Justice Minister
Chinamasa, called for parliamentary regulations relating to
the Legal Committee's work to be so curtailed as to
effectively prevent any debate on the Bill. Was it because
the Presidential decree on the broadcasting regulations
was due to expire at midnight on April 4th and that if new
laws were not in place by then there would be no legislation
governing broadcasting - just as Parliament was due to
break for the Easter recess? None of the media could tell
us; just as none of the media attempted to explore whether
this was bad timing by an incompetent government, or
perfect timing by government officials anxious to stifle any
discussion of the new laws. Instead, The Herald (28/3)
merely reported that the Legal Committee had been given
four days to produce another report, this time on the Bill
itself. Inexplicably, it took The Daily News (30/3) two days
longer to report the same thing without explanation. ZBC
kept its stories to a bare minimum (28/3 morning bulletins),
and 31/3 which quoted the Department of Information's
George Charamba saying the Bill would ensure that radio
and television programmes would reflect Zimbabwean life
and not topics that would please business people. Other
privately owned papers appeared to ignore the fast-tracking
of the Bills altogether.
The Herald (27/3) did provide an outline of the provisions of
Political Parties Finances Bill (27/3), saying that the Bill
would ban foreign funding of any political party, member of
a political party, or candidate. However, in its article,
Tsvangirai cries foul over Parties Bill, two days later, The
Herald contradicted itself when it said: "…the Bill only
proposes a ban on funding of parties…"
Waking up late to the news again, The Daily News (30/3)
only carried criticism from Tsvangirai and NAGG's
Shakespear Maya, without attempting to explain the
provisions of the Bill. Neither did The Financial Gazette
(29/3), which also just featured Tsvangirai's comments.

NCA conference
The NCA’s all-stakeholders’ conference attracted
considerable attention, but approached previews and
coverage of the event from different perspectives. Despite
The Herald (30/3) quoting NCA officials explaining the
purpose of the meeting, the state-controlled media
trivialized the impending event. And on the day it was held,
The Herald and The Chronicle each carried a childish full-
page advert from the ZANU PF Supporters Network urging
Zimbabweans not to attend. The Sunday Mail (1/4) clearly
took a dim view of the conference's success, referring to
its resolutions only in passing. Instead, it carried lengthy
interviews with Information Minister, Johnathan Moyo, and
the ruling party's Publicity Secretary, Nathan Shamuyarira,
both criticising the NCA initiative.
Although ZBC (29/3 Nhau Indaba and 8pm radio and TV)
told its audiences that the NCA conference was due to go
ahead, it reiterated government’s view that a new
constitution was no longer a priority. However, in a further
preview of the event, television’s 8pm bulletin (30/3), did
interview the NCA’s Lovemore Madhuku. The event itself
was first item on television’s 8pm (31/3), but instead of
focusing on the event and its resolutions, it featured
Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, repeating the party
line and accusing the NCA of being a “bogus” organization.
None of the state-controlled media have adequately
explained why a new constitution is now no longer a
government priority. The nearest Moyo got was: “We
cannot expect the people of this country to take us
seriously if we purport the view that constitution
making is a priority… It can only be a priority to people
who are not part and parcel of the political process
and (who are) not conscious of our history.”
ZBC has not asked why government’s once-urgent national
mission in reclaiming the sovereignty of the country has
now become such an unpatriotic pursuit.
The Standard (1/4) reported the unexpected success of the
conference as its lead and outlined the meeting’s
resolutions, while The Sunday Mail carried the story inside,
together with a warning from Moyo that “the government
would never allow a situation where donors create a
bogus group such as the NCA, with the political
motive of subverting the national interest.”
The Standard noted that 3000 people had attended while
The Sunday Mail simply stated that attendance had been a
thousand. Neither paper provided sources for their figures
which should have been easily obtained from the
organizers, and nor did they identify which organizations
those who attended represented.
In its preview of the conference, The Financial Gazette
(29/3) quoted the NCA vice-chairman and political analysts
reinforcing the need for a new constitution, while The
Independent carried a six-page supplement outlining the
motives of the NCA and the reason for the conference with
Shona and Sindebele translations.

ZANU PF elections
The ruling party’s provincial elections and the selection of
its mayoral candidate in Masvingo were widely reported in
the state-controlled media, but received less attention in the
privately owned press.
The main feature of the reports in the state media was that
the elections and the events leading up to them were
reported uncritically in the name of party “restructuring”.
The fact that some political heavyweights were simply
barred from contesting in Harare and Mashonaland East
was reported, but only The Independent examined how this
may have compromised the democratic process in the
party and then only in relation to Harare province. It
suggested that “…the election could see a stage-
managed poll in the capital as the party is keen to
smooth the succession issue by first securing pliable
provincial executives.”
And The Daily News (26/3) reported that bitter infighting in
the party’s Masvingo provincial council had prevented the
party from selecting a mayoral candidate by consensus. It
quoted the party’s provincial chairman confirming that the
council – for the third time – had failed to agree on a
candidate. Instead, the Politburo was given the task to
select a candidate from five names forwarded by the
council. Three days later, The Herald (29/3) reported that
the Politburo had selected Jacob Chademana.
The paper’s lead story that day featured Politburo efforts to
clean up the Harare province elections, which included
barring former provincial executive chairman Tony Gara
and his deputy from contesting the top posts, a story
carried by ZBC television the night before. But it was not
clear why. Nor was it clear why “the controversial district
co-ordinating committee elections” were also nullified,
except for vague allegations of vote-buying and general
incompetence, which had led to the firing of four the party’s
Harare interim executive. While giving some details of the
procedures, the story quoted Border Gezi as saying the
action was taken to bring order and unity to the party in
Harare.
The Sunday Mail reported that in Mash East, Paddy Zhanda
and MP Victor Chitongo had been dropped because they
were “…bringing down the work of the party in the
province.” But this was never explained.

5. Other
i. Tuck shop Demolitions
The council’s renewed war on tuck-shops in Harare
received significant coverage in the state-owned media. The
Daily News (28/03) also reported the development, while the
rest of the privately owned press ignored it. After earlier
reports of government ordering the commission running
Harare to stop destroying tuck shops, Local Government
Minister Ignitius Chombo (The Herald 30/03) was quoted
threatening to fire the commission if it continued doing so.
The implications of the demolition of tuckshops were
underreported on ZBC. It carried no news of the council’s
renewed attack on tuck-shops. Initial stories simply stated
that government had formed a committee to supervise the
operation of tuckshops (31/03 6am radio). And subsequent
reports (Radio 2/4 and television 30/3 6am) merely reported
Chombo’s comments.
The story behind this obscure feud remained a mystery in
the media, leaving the public in the dark. There is a lack of
analysis of the socio-economic pressures that have seen
“tangwenas” and tuck-shops sprouting all over the high-
density suburbs. No one knows what is happening to the
thousands of people who have been made homeless, or
what the commission intends to do to ease these
increasingly serious pressures on Harare’s poor urban
population.

ii. MDC training youths in Uganda
The Sunday Mail (01/04) carried an unsubstantiated front-
page article suggesting that five members of the opposition
MDC underwent military training in Uganda to stage an
insurrection against the government. The article relied
heavily on “unnamed sources” and “insiders”. The article
also quoted Minister of State Security Nicholas Goche
confirming that they were investigating the matter. MDC’s
David Coltart and former ZCTU deputy secretary general
Isdore Zindoga were also quoted denying the charge.

ENDS