Back to Index

The battle of the towns
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2003-34
Monday 25th - Sunday 31st August, 2003

The coverage of the urban council elections as well as the Harare Central and Makonde parliamentary by-elections scheduled for August 30 and 31 assumed greater prominence this week as the election dates drew closer. For example, the Press carried 34 articles on the elections. Fifteen of the stories were in the government controlled Press while 19 appeared in the private papers. 3FM carried 12 reports, Radio Zimbabwe 19 and Studio 7 23.

As in previous elections however, the government-controlled media continued to expose themselves as willing campaign tools for the ruling party. They largely carried pro-ZANU PF activities while ignoring those of the MDC. For example, ZTV devoted 19 minutes or 50 percent of the total time it allocated to the elections in its 8pm bulletins (excluding sports, business and weather) to ZANU PF campaign activities. The remainder were on the progress of voting during the two-day polling. The MDC was not covered.
Radio Zimbabwe also campaigned for ZANU PF in nine stories or 47 percent of the 19 reports it carried. The rest were updates on the voting days. This was also the case with 3FM, which carried seven (58 percent) pro-ZANU PF stories out of 12 election reports.

Similarly, of the 21 stories on campaign activities the government-controlled Press reported, 18 were pro-ZANU PF, two were negative portrayals of the MDC and one was about the National Alliance for Good Governance (NAGG).

This blatant partisanship even saw ZTV and the Chronicle shamelessly campaigning for ZANU PF’s candidate for Harare Central, William Nhara, who they presented as an "analyst" – and not an interested party – when seeking his comments on topical issues during the week.

Against this background ZESN chairman Reginald Matchaba-Hove was quoted on Studio 7 (26/8) correctly observing that "Government had disregarded the SADC protocol on elections…which states that opposition parties shall be given equal opportunity…and time and space in the state media…"

The private media were more professional, giving more balanced coverage to the main contestants. For example, of the 13 campaign related activities carried in the private Press seven were on ZANU PF, while six were on the activities of the MDC. Studio 7 adopted a similar trend. Out of the 23 election stories the station carried, 10 or 43 percent covered both the MDC and ZANU PF candidates. The rest were largely updates on voting days.

The private media also highlighted flaws in the electoral process, such as irregularities in the voters’ roll and alleged vote-buying through the abuse of food aid by ZANU PF. The private Press, for example, carried six reports on such issues. However, the papers and Studio 7, waited for the MDC to raise these concerns for them. For instance, The Daily News (26/8) quoted the MDC claiming that "nearly 20 000" people had been improperly registered as voters nationwide, whilst 1 700 people who voted in the 2000 parliamentary elections were missing from Harare Central voters’ roll alone. Names of those who were reportedly missing included the former MP for the constituency Mike Auret, Ward 6 councillor Dale Dore, Ward 7 councillor Michael Laban and Susan Tsvangirai, the wife of the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. MDC Director of Elections, Remus Makuwaza, was quoted alleging that the Registrar-General’s office had removed some names from the roll because it wanted to replace "genuine voters with ghost voters." Although the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) was quoted denying receiving such reports, Makuwaza insisted that his party had communicated the irregularities to the electoral body. Studio 7 (28/8) also carried a similar report and quoted the MDC candidate for Harare Central Zwizwai Murisi describing the roll as "…shambolic and fraudulent".

The two did not carry independent investigations to verify this.

The Herald (27/8), on the other hand, seemed bent on stifling such allegations. Its report on the matter, which was the only story carried by the government-controlled media on the matter, merely quoted Murisi - in passing- as having "alleged that about 1 704 white voters has been removed from the roll". No effort was made to verify these claims with the RG’s office.

The Daily News (30/8) also reported that the RG’s office denied both independent and opposition candidates access to the voters’ roll. The paper quoted opposition and independent candidates for Mutare, Kariba, Kadoma and Victoria Falls complaining that they had yet to receive copies of the roll a day before the elections.

Earlier, the paper (27/8) and The Zimbabwe Independent (29/8) revealed that apart from allegedly manipulating the roll in its favour, the ZANU PF government was also using public funds and food to buy off voters. The Daily News reported that Social Welfare Minister July Moyo had directed Masvingo City Council to disburse $60 million immediately for the food-for-work programme, to "villagers" before they had done any work, while The Zimbabwe Independent (29/8) reported that ZANU PF councillors in Bulawayo had "reduced the price of maize in a vote buying bid".

Perhaps the worst allegation of political manipulation, bordering on blackmail, was provided by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who was quoted in The Daily News (27/8) threatening Manicaland province that it would remain underdeveloped as it "lacks patriotism" because "since independence… all the opposition parties had their leaders from Manicaland… We had Ndabaningi Sithole, Muzorewa, Dongo, Tekere, and now we have Tsvangirai, all from Manicaland province. And these people have been known to be leading actors against the government."

The public media turned a blind eye to this vindictive side of ZANU PF and concentrated on promoting the ruling party’s candidates while discrediting those of the MDC. For example, The Herald (28/8), Zanu PF scents victory in Kariba polls, glowingly reported the ruling party’s preparations for the town’s mayoral elections, largely quoting ZANU PF’s Kariba election campaign coordinator, Younus Patel. Said the paper: "Veteran educationist and former district education officer for Kariba Cde Petros Tofile Maya will stand against opposition (MDC)’s little-known Mr John Houghten (sic). Not much is known about Mr Houghten except that he is a white man living in the district." Notably, Patel’s ethnicity was conveniently concealed.

ZTV (26/8) copied this racist approach in its campaign against Houghton. It reported: "In this election MDC is represented by a white man, John Drollent Houghton, who has the support of commercial white farmers."

The government-controlled media, obsessed with maligning the MDC, ignored many incidents of political violence, which were largely attributed to ZANU PF by the private media. They reported 17 incidents during the week, confirming that this barbaric practice has become a feature of Zimbabwe’s elections. The government media, which only carried denial reports, was at pains to present ZANU PF as a peace-loving and democratic party. And they even downplayed incidents of violence during polling to give the impression that voting, which was marred by apathy, was peaceful. For example, ZTV (30/8, 8pm) reported that, "Voting…in various towns and cities around the country started peacefully today with no major incidents reported." 3FM (31/8, 8pm) followed suit, reporting that "voting in Ruwa was peaceful with minor incidents of violence being experienced". No detail was given about these incidents. Similarly, Radio Zimbabwe (31/8, 8pm) reported vaguely that incidents of violence were " low". The Sunday Mail (31/8) story, Polls off to a peaceful start despite pockets of apathy, provided a similar illusion.

However, The Standard and Studio 7 (31/8) disputed such claims and reported that the MDC had alleged that its candidate Murisi was assaulted by ZANU PF supporters on the first day of polling while a car belonging to MDC MP and polling agent, Blessing Chebundo was stoned in Kwekwe. Meanwhile evidence emerged during the week that appeared to vindicate claims, mostly by the opposition, that sections of the judiciary has been subverted to serve the interests of ZANU PF instead of democracy.For example, The Herald and Chronicle (27/8) reported that Justice Tedias Karwi had dismissed the MDC’s urgent application seeking to bar security forces from running the elections. The judge reportedly said the MDC had "failed to disclose the basis upon which the application could be treated as urgent," despite the fact the elections were a few days away.

In another case, The Herald and The Daily News (30/8) revealed that Justice Ben Hlatshwayo had thrown out an application by 11 aspiring MDC candidates for Chegutu council seeking to reconvene the nomination court on the grounds that they were prevented from registering for the elections by ZANU PF supporters. The Herald quoted Hlatshwayo as saying he "would give reasons for his judgment in due course".

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP