Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday October 13th – Sunday October 19th 2003
Media Weekly Update 2003-41

CONTENTS
1. GENERAL COMMENT
2. TRANSPORT BLUES
3. THE LAND AUDIT

1. General comment

The government-controlled media’s monopoly of daily news output following the banning of The Daily News and as a result of delays in issuing licences to private broadcasters continues to expose their partisan coverage of topical issues. If these media are not slavishly praising government’s policies, they are churning out selective, distorted and contradictory reports that mislead their audiences into believing the government is in control of the myriad problems bedevilling the country.

In the week they also downplayed the country’s isolation by again claiming that Zimbabwe was making progress in courting the international community. This was well illustrated by The Herald (17/10) article, Africa against Zim’s isolation: McKinnon, which distorted the comments of Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon. It claimed that he had “for the first time admitted that African countries are opposed to Zimbabwe’s continued suspension from the club”. Nowhere in the article was McKinnon directly quoted saying this. The paper then tried to buttress claims of African support saying McKinnon’s comments came “at a time Sadc ruling parties are planning to meet in Shamva to find ways of dealing with external forces that are bent on undermining national sovereignty and independence”.

The real nature of McKinnon’s criticism of Zimbabwe and why it would not be invited to the Commonwealth summit in Abuja were conveniently ignored in the article and only emerged by reference in the paper’s comment. Only here could some idea of McKinnon’s comments be assessed by the ferocity of the editorial’s criticism, which swamped his statements with vitriolic and childish insults that have become characteristic of the paper’s handling of the Commonwealth issue and related stories about Zimbabwe’s international relations. The comment rebuked McKinnon’s statements as “highly symptomatic of mental diarrhoea” and went on to rebut the five key issues that the Commonwealth wants Zimbabwe to address before its suspension from the Club is lifted.

A more credible and coherent report on McKinnon’s statements appeared in The Zimbabwe Independent (17/10). The paper quoted McKinnon as saying, contrary to government claims that the Commonwealth’s dealings with Zimbabwe were racially motivated, that it was being handled in the same manner that the Club had dealt with Rhodesia. Said McKinnon, “Zimbabwe is not, as is commonly perceived, an issue dividing Africa from the rest of the Commonwealth. There’s not a single African leader I spoke to that isn’t deeply unhappy about Zimbabwe. No one wants this crisis to just carry on forever…”
The Herald omitted these revealing comments, which belie government-media’s claims that Africa was firmly behind Zimbabwe.

Perhaps it is this obsession with portraying Africa as supportive of Zimbabwe that resulted in the government-controlled media ignoring reports that South Africa – which has been touted as the country’s key ally - has announced stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans visiting that country. This piece of news appeared in The Financial Gazette (16/10).

2. Transport blues

The government-controlled media’s tendency to report symptoms of economic meltdown in isolation was further exposed in their coverage of the crumbling public transport sector. Although they highlighted the crippling shortage of commuter omnibuses, they conveniently failed to give a holistic picture of the causes of the problem. As has become the norm in reporting the country’s crises, they shielded government from blame and found scapegoats in the form of transport operators who they generally accused of withdrawing their services to force government to increase fares. When the government announced the new fares, they then categorically attributed the problem to the fuel shortage but remained silent on the fact that the fuel crisis was a result of the authorities’ failed policies.

Government media confined the crisis to Harare and largely ignored the situation in other towns. Also, their reports bordered on generalisations and lacked a clear measure of the gravity of the situation. For example, they did not explain how badly the national commuter fleet had been affected.

The private media performed little better. Except for SW Radio Africa (14/10) and The Business Tribune (16/10), the rest of the private media ignored the story. Even then, their reports were not so different from those in the government-controlled media as they also failed to view the issue as symptomatic of a hyperinflationary crisis, largely blamed on government policies. Perhaps SW Radio Africa’s failure to view the issue in this light was due to the fact that it merely rehashed The Herald (14/10) report on the matter. The paper (13/10) had earlier reported that commuter transport operators had taken advantage of government’s announcement that it would gazette new fares to hike charges without government approval. Although the paper noted that the delay by government to review fares had resulted in the shortage of commuter transport as operators withdrew their services, it did not take government to task for failing to act swiftly on the issue. The paper (15/10) merely quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo saying, “something will be done to address the situation shortly”, without elaborating.

The Chronicle (15/10) revealed that the transport crisis was in fact bigger than Chombo’s make-believe optimism. It reported that, “all passenger (train) services between Chiredzi and Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls had been suspended after the NRZ (National Railways of Zimbabwe) failed to procure fuel”. Rather than seek comment from government on why it had failed to supply one of its troubled parastatals with fuel, The Herald (18/10) accused NRZ of failing “to source their own fuel from outside” arguing that it had the “capacity and the resources at their disposal”. The paper deliberately ignored the fact that government specifically committed itself to supplying public transport operators, which includes the NRZ, with subsidised fuel when it announced its ill-fated dual pricing structure for fuel.

It is this attempt to shield government from blame that saw ZBC (ZTV & 3 FM 15/10, 7am and Radio Zimbabwe 15/10, 8pm) give the impression that government was in control and doing everything possible to address the public transport crisis. They quoted Chombo assuring suffering commuters that government would grant the Zimbabwe United Passengers Company (ZUPCO) “an additional $2,4billion” to buy more buses and repair old ones, as part of the authorities’ efforts to resolve the transport crisis. There was no investigation into whether that would suffice.

The Sunday Mail (19/10) latched on to this and hailed the move as the solution to the on-going transport crisis. But The Business Tribune (16/10) pointed out that the plan “seems desperately long-term” and would not bring the quick relief that commuters were hoping for.

ZTV (15/10, 8pm & 3 FM, 16/10, 6am) also reported that government and commuter omnibus operators had agreed on new fares, as yet another measure of arresting the crisis. ZTV stated that the new fares were “reasonable enough to cushion commuters and at the same time keep operators’ businesses afloat”. But it did not tell the public what the new fares were or investigate whether transport operators considered them viable. Instead, ZBC merely sourced commuters’ comments on the new charges they were yet to be informed about. It was only two days later that The Herald (17/10), ZTV (17/10, 7am) and Radio Zimbabwe (17/10, 1pm) announced the new fares ranging between $400 and $1000 for distances within 30km radius of Harare. ZBC and The Herald simply endorsed the new fares (some of which were still far below what operators were already charging) as the solution to the problem without analysing the implications of government’s continued price control regime on the viability of transport operators.

This endorsement was made despite the fact that a news feature in the same issue of The Herald quoted transport operators Gordon Christie and Batsirai Nyakuvambwa pointing out that unless government deregulated the sector, its collapse was imminent. Said Nyakuvambwa, “Fares should be deregulated for the sector to cope with rising costs, otherwise, the state will have nothing to control in the next two years or so with the way things are going. There will not be any operators”. In a rare moment of candour, the article warned government to address the concerns of the transport operators, saying, “populist statements are not going to work”. This unusual frankness in handling topical issues was also evident the next day when the paper (18/10) reported that the deepening public transport shortages were not restricted to fare charges alone, but to fuel shortages too. It revealed that the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), which is supposed to supply operators with subsidised fuel, had “run dry”. The paper also noted that several government institutions such as the prison services and public hospitals had also been affected.

However, any hope that the government-controlled media might have weaned itself of turning news stories into propaganda, was shattered by The Sunday Mail (19/10) article, Economy in fresh danger- UK works with corrupted officials to derail fuel supplies. This story, which explored the realm of the fairy tale, tried to divert attention from government’s bungling by cobbling up yet another British conspiracy over the fuel shortage. In its 12 editions between August 3 and October 19 this year, The Sunday Mail has carried eight stories accusing Britain of plotting against Zimbabwe, four of them front page news stories, while the others were commentaries from its political editor Munyaradzi Huni.
This time the paper accused British High Commissioner Sir Brian Donnelly of conspiring with “some indigenous businesspeople and some civil servants” in “thwarting efforts by the Government to revive the economy in a bid to plunge the nation into chaos ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting set for Nigeria in December”. It added, “This has led to the current fuel crisis”. But there was not a shred of evidence to support this arrant nonsense beyond quoting unnamed sources saying Sir Brian was giving some businesspeople foreign currency to import fuel and, as a result, the commodity “has either become scarce or is available but is sold at way above the agreed price by the Government”.

The Sunday Mail deliberately ignores the fact that government’s confusion and contradictions in policy formulation is the main cause of the country’s problems. This was clearly demonstrated by Trade Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi’s pronouncements on price controls. He was quoted in the Chronicle (14/10) as having said government would soon announce a new pricing structure for basic commodities, but barely two days later the same minister was again quoted in the same paper (16/10) making a policy shift saying government, “will not reintroduce price controls to ensure continued supply of products”, adding that controlling prices “impacted negatively on suppliers”.

3. The land audit

Such chaotic policing of strategic national sectors by government was highlighted by private media reports demystifying government propaganda on the success of the land reform programme. The Financial Gazette, The Zimbabwe Independent, The Sunday Mirror and Studio 7 (17/10) all unearthed details of the Charles Utete Land Audit report, presented to President Mugabe last month. Although SW Radio Africa also covered the issue, it largely used The Financial Gazette and The Zimbabwe Independent stories. These private media generally noted that the findings exposed the chaos and anomalies surrounding the whole reform process, which the private media has persistently exposed in the past.

The government-controlled media however, ignored the issue and continued to give the impression that government was putting everything in place to ensure the success of the coming farming season.

The Financial Gazette (16/10) was the first to report on the Utete report, saying the audit “indicates that a paltry 134 000 people have so far been allocated land, 30 percent of which are still to take up their allocation under the A1 and A2 resettlement models, leaving swathes of productive land lying idle”. The paper noted that this figure is far below government’s claims that 300,000 households had been resettled under the controversial fast-track land reform programme. Said the paper, “This not only compromises the country’s food security situation, but also has a negative impact on the feeble economy as agriculture has, for some time, had the biggest single sectoral contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)”.
SW Radio Africa (16/10) carried the same report that evening.

The Zimbabwe Independent (17/10) dismissed the report as a “smokescreen aimed at whitewashing the damaging consequences” of the land reform programme. It noted that instead of technically reviewing the land reform programme, the report “is saturated with Zanu PF mantras and lacks analytical depth”. For instance, said the paper, the report “ignores the link between land reform and economic decline and skates over the destruction of commercial agriculture and the plunder of billions of dollars worth of equipment by the ruling elite”. Further, the paper observed that apart from justifying the arbitrary fast-track programme, the report “glosses over the issue of multiple-farm ownership which President Mugabe had led the public to believe was the central focus of the investigation”, adding in its comment “Thus the rotten core of Zanu PF’s land seizures remains surgically unattended”.

But The Sunday Mirror (19/10) viewed the report differently. It described it as “thorough” and claimed that “the thorny issue of multiple farm ownership is addressed in detail in a separate annexure to the Utete report”. However, the story did not state exactly what those details were.

The issue did not find space in the government-controlled media, which was preoccupied with peddling ‘positive news’ on the land reform programme. For example, The Herald (14/10) unquestioningly reported claims by District Development Fund (DDF) Director James Jonga that the fund would till about 100,000 hectares of land for communal and A1 farmers. Jonga was quoted as saying the targeted hectarage would produce 500,000 tonnes of grain “which happens to be the equivalent of the national grain reserves”. He added, “This plus the other huge amounts that will come from the model A2 farmers will mean that the country has more than it needs for normal subsistence and commerce”.
In another report in the same issue, Maize harvest set to increase, the paper simply relayed Chombo’s figures on projected high yields for the 2003/2004 farming season without scrutiny. The article bombarded readers with general figures of the amount of inputs government has distributed to farmers and the anticipated tonnage without clarifying whether they represented the needs of the country.

ZBC adopted The Herald stance throughout the week. In one such report, ZTV (16/10, 8pm) even tried to downplay the shortage of seed saying that government “has started importing seed from South Africa and Zambia to offset the 70 000-tonne deficit”.

However, SW Radio Africa (13/10) quoted South African economists as saying “South Africa was no longer capable of supplying all the 14 SADC countries” with maize and has “just enough to take its own citizens through to the next season.” In fact, The Standard (19/10) revealed that newly resettled farmers were still failing to access inputs and were facing several problems two months into the farming season.
Even ZTV (16/10, 8pm) and The Sunday Mail (19/10) could not hide this fact.
Ends.

The MEDIA UPDATE was produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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