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Fuel Increase - Excerpt from Weekly update 2003-15
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe
April 14th - April 20th 2003
The unprecedented
increase in the price of petrol (and to a lesser extent, diesel)
was an appropriately bitter 23rd independence anniversary birthday
present for embattled Zimbabweans struggling to make ends meet in
a hyper-inflationary economic environment. Indeed, it was the highlight
of the week despite efforts by the government and the media it controls
to remind their audiences how important it was to guard against
threats to Zimbabwe’s sovereignty – the familiar old refrain that
President Mugabe regurgitated in his Independence Day speech on
Friday.
But the fuel
price hikes were by no means the only dismal news of the week: news
that inflation had now reached yet another record – 228% – was reported
in all the Press on the same day the new fuel prices were reported
(16/4). In fact, Wednesday, April 16th, was surely a "grim
news" day, for although the Chronicle tried to present the
new inflation figure as a slowing down of the rate, due to government’s
"tight monetary controls", The Herald, The Daily Mirror
and The Daily News all reported on the crippling effects of the
Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority’s load-shedding, a subject
followed up by The Financial Gazette and the Zimbabwe Independent
the next day. Earlier in the week The Daily Mirror (14/4) reported
ZESA’s intention to increase electricity tariffs by an incredible
222% in April and a further 444% by the end of the year.
While the Press
did access comments from the captains of industry and other experts
on these increases individually, there has been no analysis in the
media about the overall effects they will have on inflation – and
on the average working family. But with unemployment now running
at 70% (The Daily News 17/4) this constituency is a fast diminishing
minority and reports that load-shedding threatened the jobs of hundreds
more workers (The Herald and The Daily News 16/4) and the viability
of businesses (Fingaz and the Independent), there indeed seemed
little to celebrate on Zimbabwe’s 23rd birthday.
This was a theme
that emerged repeatedly in the private Press, while The Herald and
the Chronicle hammered home ZANU PF’s same conspiracy theory message
that pervaded its election propaganda, starting with The Chronicle’s
report (14/4) of Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo warning of
people "sent by imperialists" to cause division within
the ruling party. A number of stories littered the government controlled
Press reinforcing this theme during the week and implicated the
opposition MDC in the process, such as the leader page story in
The Herald (15/4) headlined ‘…MDC formed to revive colonial domination’.
And president Mugabe dutifully added the final flourish with his
independence speech, reported in The Herald (19/4) under the headline,
‘No to Foreign rule’ and, ‘President slams…Western countries’ bid
to recolonise Zimbabwe’.
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