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Transport blues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2003-41
Monday October 13th - Sunday October 19th 2003

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".

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