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Weekly Media update 2002 - 45
The media have been so engrossed in reporting the country’s political and economic crisis during the week under review that they have largely ignored the outcome of the 2002 census results. According to the preliminary results of the recently held census, Zimbabwe’s population has increased from 10,4million in 1992 to 11,6million, excluding Zimbabweans living outside the country. The increase translates to 1,2million people in 10 years. The Chronicle, The Herald and ZTV (4/12) merely announced the results without any trends analysis. Only SW Radio Africa (5/12) and The Sunday News (8/12) partially examined and interpreted the results.
The short wave station attributed the decline in population growth to Aids related deaths and mass migration of people fleeing the country’s economic devastation and food shortages.
The station also observed that the results throw into doubt the accuracy of the voters’ roll. An economic and social commentator, John Robertson, observed that during the presidential elections the voters’ roll had 5,6 million people registered as voters. He said, generally, 60% of the population is below the age of 18 years, the minimum age to be counted among the country’s electorate. This would leave about 4.6 million (40 percent) people as registered voters. The difference between the presidential election voters’ roll and the census results was not interrogated further by the media.
Similarly, The Sunday News article, Byo’s census results rejected - City gains 56 000 people in 10 years, quoted Bulawayo Mayor Japhet Ndabeni Ncube disputing the preliminary results. Ncube pointed out that the census figure for Bulawayo of 676 000 people contradicted municipal records showing that over one million people lived in the city and lacked informed comment from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). An official identified as a census manager of the CSO only said the results were “not official”- hardly a satisfactory response to figures released to the country’s media. To its credit, however, the paper gave a comparative analysis of population growth since the country’s census in 1982.
The failure of the private Press and the public media to examine this important topic provides an indication of the extent to which they have allowed themselves to be distracted by the political rivalry between the country’s dominant parties.
While it is true that the current unstable political and economic climate affects every facet of society, the media should remain vigilant in scrutinizing official information, especially on the demographics of the country. The census results contain serious implications for the country’s socio-political and economic development including the various aspects of civic and political development such as the electoral process, which of late has become an arena of serious dispute.
This week MMPZ looks at the coverage of the country’s economic woes and the Harare water crisis, which the media politicized.
2. ECONOMY- COVERAGE COMPLEMENTS GLOOMY OUTLOOK
Reports on the country’s economic recession continued to contest for space in the media. However, while the private media warned its readers of an impending economic catastrophe, the public media concentrated on government’s responses to the various crises without providing coherent analysis for why the crises had emerged in the first place. Their coverage gave the impression that these interventions were justified and presented the business sector’s concerns as “hallucinations”, Chronicle (4/12).
However, The Financial Gazette and The Daily Mirror (5/12)front-page stories on looming company closures, precipitated by runaway inflation, new foreign currency controls and the fixed exchange rate, price freezes and declining exports, provided a clear indication that a likely meltdown of the economy was not an illusion.
The Financial Gazette lead story, Industry to shut down until March, reported that half of the country’s companies planned to close until the end of March 2003 risking at least 370 000 jobs. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Anthony Mandiwanza was quoted confirming the report emphasizing that government and industry had to find an urgent solution to avert the impending economic meltdown. The article also noted that other service industries could be affected by the closures, “further straining an already battered economy”.
However, no comment was accessed from government or labour.
In another related story, the paper alsoreported that exporters were lobbying government to “allow them a favourable exchange rate for the 50 percent of foreign currency earnings they are forced to surrender to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, in a bid to avoid massive company closures next year”.
Similarly, The Daily Mirror, Mines to close, revealed that the country’s largest mining companies had threatened to close down by the end of the year “unless government reverses the foreign currency regime”. The article ran excerpts of the letters some companies allegedly wrote to the Ministry of Mines raising their concerns. Its sister paper, The Sunday Mirror (8/12) carried a similar story but quoted a “local economist” dismissing miners’ concerns saying government “should not dance to the tune of companies every time a policy is implemented”.
In an effort to further highlight the extent to which the economy was shrinking, The Daily Mirror carried another story; Rising production costs undermine economic growth, whichreported that output levels in the manufacturing sectors have decreased by an average of 10-15 percent every year from 1999 reducing capacity utilization to below 60 percent. It also noted that productive agricultural land had declined from 2.3 million hectares in 2001/2 season to 2.1 million hectares in 2002/3.
In fact, The Daily News (2/12) ran two stories earlier in the week, Farming disasterand Famine looms as commercial farms reduced to zero activity, which highlighted lack of production on acquired farms. The paper (7/12) also reported that companies were “going into mergers, acquisitions, takeovers and of late strategic alliances” to stay afloat in the current harsh economic climate.
The public media ignored these developments and only ran the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions’ (ZCTU) criticism of companies, which intended to close, (The Sunday News and The Sunday Mail (8/12).
To buttress their stance that companies’ concerns were unjustified, they unquestioningly reported government’s blitz on wholesalers and retailers, who were allegedly flouting price controls without analysing the underlying economic implications.
For example, ZBC (ZTV & 3FM, 5/12, 8pm; Radio Zimbabwe, 6/12, 6am) reported: “Government has completed verification of some commodities in the prize freeze list which the public can access from various places in the country”.
The public broadcaster simply stated that the controlled prices had been reached “after consultation between government, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers”. However, no comment was sought from the business sector.
In the same bulletin, ZTV reported that companies caught flouting the price freeze four times will have their licenses revoked adding that “manufacturers will now have to apply to the ministry if they want to rebrand their products and the new brand will be given an agreed value”.
Still, no comment was accessed from business or independent commentators on the implications of these policies on business.
The Chronicle (4/12) comment, Conspiracy in business community, simply blamed business for its problems while exonerating government.
It argued that retailers “are increasing prices on the shelves and blaming it on the foreign currency shortages or some such hallucination. Not to be outdone, manufactures are also withholding their products as a measure to blackmail the Government... Nobody believes the hogwash peddled by business executives that their daily increases are justified. The behaviour of Zimbabwean business people defy basic economics because in a situation where there is a demand for their products and resistance to high prices, the solution is to capitalise on volumes.”
Ironically, the paper, in another article in the same issue, Industry to arrest economic decline, quotedthe Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) acknowledging some of industry’s main concerns such as foreign currency shortages and high production costs.
In fact, The Financial Gazette (5/12) reported that the RBZ had failed to raise US$844 million to finance critical imports, a situation that would “swell the country’s 2003 import bill and worsen the commodity shortages already affecting companies and consumers”.
The paper quoted economists as saying the scenario shows that “our capacity to generate foreign currency is being eroded” hence the need to embrace the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies, which President Robert Mugabe dismissed.
The Sunday Mirror (8/12) carried the same report, which it attributed to Africa Daily.com.
2. THE HARARE WATER CRISIS
During the week, The Daily News (5/12) broke the news that greater Harare had only three days supply of purified water, as Elias Mudzuri’s MDC dominated city council had failed to acquire lime and ecol 2000, which are used in the purification of water. The story saw the media take different and confusing positions on the real causes of the crisis.
While the public media perpetuated government’s side and viewed the issue as symptomatic of Mayor Mudzuri’s ineptitude, the private media was sympathetic to Mudzuri, claiming that the crisis was part of the ZANU-PF government’s grand plan to sabotage the MDC led council.
For example, The Daily News quoted an unnamed source as having said the council’s “efforts to obtain the chemicals were being deliberately thwarted to sabotage the…council’s reputation with the residents in the five urban centres of Harare, Chitungwiza, Epworth, Norton and Ruwa”.
However, the article did not clearly substantiate this line of argument. It merely stated that council had paid the lime supplier US$140,000 in September but had only been supplied with half the amount paid for.
ZTV capitalized on the paper’s scoop and used the story to further attack the MDC council.
The station (5/12, 8pm) allocated 12 minutes to the story and blamed Mudzuri for the city’s water problems. Citing “available documents”, the public broadcaster alleged that the water crisis came “amid allegations of deep-seated corruption (and) misadministration” and accused Mudzuri of being at the centre of controversy for “allegedly concentrating on petty issues including attempts to cover up his misdeeds through vicitmization and advancement of self-interest”.
ZTV failed to explain how his ‘misdeeds’ had caused the water shortages but merely quoted “insiders” as having said “the executive mayor and his councilors were busy trying to frustrate suppliers with a view to taking over their contracts”.
There was no detail on who the suppliers were and how council was frustrating them.
Rather, the station alleged that Mudzuri had taken “a political line and … reportedly openly defied government directives”.
While neither of these claims were explained, Mudzuri, in the same bulletins, was allowed to dismiss these claims saying: “I wish to assure all stakeholders that my council will not be intimidated by such claims as long as we act transparently in dealing with…behaviour of misconduct”.
His comments however, were immediately swamped with mudslinging. The reporter stated: “While Mudzuri talks so eloquent about himself and the council, he has unresolved matters”.
The report then catalogued Mudzuri’s alleged unresolved matters citing his dismissal in 1999 for abusing a council vehicle and his reinstatement on the April 4th by the new council with full benefits backdated to August 1999.
The public broadcaster did not explain how this could have created the water shortage nor provided its audiences with the circumstances under which he was reinstated, leaving the impression that it was done corruptly.
To further malign Mudzuri, ZTV, in the same bulletin, sought to present the mayor as having been elected into office illegally. It claimed that “many people” (not named) felt Mudzuri “flouted the urban councils Act by standing in the mayoral election race” before resigning from council.
As if this was not enough, the public broadcaster sought to mar Mudzuri’s achievements further when it reported: “While Mudzuri might have made strides into addressing some of the issues … especially on the resurfacing of roads, and street lighting, many are not aware that he is using financial resources that were generated by the Elijah Chanakira-led commission”, threateningly adding, “only time will determine Mudzuri’s stay at town house”.
However, ZTV’s (6/12, 8pm) hypocrisy was exposed when the same reporter who dismissed the council’s explanation that the water problems were caused by foreign currency shortages turned around and confirmed the problem. He reported that the water purification problem “has been worsened by the city’s failure to acquire foreign currency from the central bank despite the fact that normal channels were followed”.
ZBC (8/12, 8pm) quoted local government minister Ignatius Chombo as having “accused the Harare City Council of playing political games to cover up for its failure to provide clean water” adding that “government has given the council US$500 000 to buy chemicals”.
No attempt was made to corroborate Chombo’s claims with relevant council authorities.
But contrary to ZBC’s allegations, The Zimbabwe Independent (6/12), Zanu PF firms hold Harare hostage, reportedthat ZANU PF-linked companies, which were awarded contracts by previous ZANU PF council authorities, were in control of “all strategic services which support the day-to-day running of the city” and had “established a choke-hold on the local authority”.
The article named the companies involved and highlighted how they were linked to ZANU PF.
Unnamed sources were quoted echoing sentiments raised in The Daily News saying: “Contracted companies could be holding the council to ransom and deliberately sabotaging the new council”.
The paper’s investigations were later used in The Daily News (7/12) article, Mudzuri faces axe. The article quoted Mudzuri concurring with private media reports that there were plans to oust him. The Weekend Tribune (7/12) carried a similar story.
The Daily News and The Zimbabwe Independent (6/12) broadened the issue and observed, in their comments, that the water crisis in Harare was an example of ZANU PF government’s determination to frustrate MDC led councils.
For example, The Daily News comment highlighted cases of intimidation, legal impediments and even physical assaults that MDC mayors were enduring in Bulawayo, Masvingo, Chegutu, Chitungwiza, and Harare.
Reportedly, the overall aim was to force the mayors to leave office.
It concluded: “The fear is that if MDC-run councils do well and score more successes than Zanu PF councils were ever able to achieve, the electorate could be persuaded to give them a chance to govern the country on the basis of their record at local government level”.
The Zimbabwe Independent noted that government was “using powers at its disposal to thwart the democratic will of the people” and cited the recent attack on the mayor of Chegutu by alleged ZANU PF members as an example. It observed that the Chegutu incident was a clear sign the ruling party pays “only lip-service to issues of democracy and pluralism”.
Earlier, The Daily News (4/12) reported MDC shadow minister for local government, Gabriel Chaibva, as saying ZANU PF was plotting to kill the Chegutu mayor, Francis Dhlakama. However, ZANU PF official Philip Chiyangwa denied the claims.
Despite these observations, the public media was relentless in its campaign to tarnish Harare City Council’s image. For instance, The Herald (7/12) reported that residents blamed Harare’s water crisis on “poor planning and corruption in the awarding of tenders” by the council. The paper did not substantiate these claims.
Not to be outdone, The Sunday Mail (8/12) projected Mudzuri as corrupt and abusing his powers to influence decision making within the council. The paper, just like ZTV, reported that Mudzuri influenced the city’s Special Council to withdraw his 1999 case, which was to be heard in the Supreme Court in May 2002.
Besides giving details of the transactions surrounding the back-payment of Mudzuri, there was not a shred of evidence to prove that the mayor used his executive powers to influence the council.
Instead, the article went on to malign Mudzuri, accusing him of “refusing to take orders from the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Ignatius Chombo, flouting tender rules and victimizing council workers perceived to have connections with the Chanakira Commission”.
Ends
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