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Strikes and inflation
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extract from Weekly Media Update No. 2002-38
October 14th - October 20th, 2002

The public media continued to restrict the coverage of the PTUZ-organized teachers' strike and the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) lecturers' strike to official statements. ZBC (ZTV 14/10, 7am & 8pm, Radio stations, 8pm) opened the week by quoting the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture permanent secretary, Thompson Tsodzo, announcing the dismissal of 627 teachers who took part in the teachers' strike. Tsodzo also called on all retired teachers interested in teaching to report to the ministry's offices for "immediate employment". Tsodzo was not challenged on whether the move was a justifiable answer to the teachers' grievances, which even government admitted were genuine. No comment was sought from the PTUZ.

Subsequently, ZBC (17/10, 8pm and 19/10, 8pm) merely restricted itself to PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe's re-arrest and court appearances. There was no information provided on whether the strike was continuing or not.

The print media did not fare any better. So shoddy was their coverage of the teachers' strike that the PTUZ had to resort to advertising (The Daily News 18/10) to explain labour procedures governing strikes and the firing of teachers following a Herald (15/10) article purporting that the Public Service Commission (PSC) had "fired 627 teachers who went on strike".

Indeed, The Herald article, despite reporting that the PSC had fired teachers, never sought the commission's views on the matter. Just like ZBC, it allocated space to Tsodzo, to reiterate his threats against striking teachers.

Other such inadequate articles on the matter included, 300 teachers receive letters of dismissal, (The Chronicle (14/10), Teachers' dismissal condemned (The Daily News 16/10) and Fired teachers will not be reinstated: Tsodzo,(The Herald 16/10).

However, credit should go to SW Radio Africa (15/10) and (16/10) and The Daily Mirror (16/10), who both carried reports explaining why the teachers' dismissal was illegal. The Standard (20/10) also carried a belated but similar explanation.

Meanwhile, SW Radio Africa tried to highlight the magnitude of intimidation and state-sanctioned repression of workers' and students' discontent throughout the country. The short wave station (15/10) reported that riot police had crushed a UZ students' demonstration in support of the lecturers and teachers. Nine students were reportedly arrested and The Daily News reporter, Lloyd Mudiwa was detained for 40 minutes for covering the demonstration. The public media ignored these events. SW Radio Africa also quoted a wide range of organizations, such as Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) (15/10), Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Crisis in Zimbabwe, Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) (17/10), and the African branch of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, condemning the teachers' dismissal and Majongwe's arrest.

Still, no media was able to give a comprehensive picture, in terms of facts and statistics, of how effective or ineffective the strike has been. But they did provide one-off updates, even of other industrial actions such as the strikes by UZ lecturers, medical professionals, Air Zimbabwe engineers and workers from David Whitehead.

However, The Daily Mirror (14/10) and The Financial Gazette (17/10) linked the strikes to the hyper-inflationary environment prevailing in the country. Quoting labour and economic analysts, The Daily Mirror said workers were merely engaging in industrial actions to safeguard their survival owing to general increases in prices of goods and services.

The Financial Gazette agreed in its article, Zim heads into summer of discontent. The paper also carried warnings by economists that the strikes that rocked the public sector in the second half of this year were only the start of a wave of labour unrest likely to engulf the country in the next few months.

First Mutual Life fund manager Nyasha Chasakara stated: "As long as inflation remains high, then this problem (of unrest) will persist. Invariably when wages are not catching up with inflation, people won't be able to make ends meet".

The paper also reported, in a separate story, threats of an unspecified action by the ZCTU if its demands that government significantly cut income tax rates, including exempting all workers earning below $23 000 per month were not met.

These stories coincided with reports that Zimbabwe's inflation rate hit a record-high of 139.9 percent in September, The Financial Gazette, The Business Tribune (17/10), The Daily News (18/10) and The Herald (18/10). But while three of the newspapers generally agreed that the best way to arrest inflation was to curb the money growth levels and limit government's excessive borrowing from the private sector, among other remedies, The Herald, said the solution to inflation hinged on the successful outcome of the coming agricultural season.

Similarly, ZTV (16/10, 8pm), in its 30-second announcement of the new inflation rate, quoted unnamed analysts who allegedly claimed that ". an increase in the productive sector should contain inflation". No elaboration was made. Surprisingly, ZBC's radio stations, which have bigger audiences, ignored the story in its main bulletins.

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