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Reshuffle and anti-graft mirage
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted of the Weekly Media Update 2004-6
Monday February 9th- Sunday February 15th 2004

President Robert Mugabe's announcement of a 'new' bloated anti-graft cabinet, mandated to fight corruption and mend the country's tattered economy, highlighted the week. The reshuffled government - embraced by the government media as the solution to Zimbabwe's economic crisis but dismissed as a non-event by the private media- added four new faces to Mugabe's cabinet and increased Zimbabwe's ministries from 19 to 22. It also created positions for governors in the capital Harare and the country's second largest city of Bulawayo.

But if anything, the development only underscored the government-controlled media's status as toothless watchdogs of official policies as demonstrated by their failure to critically examine the reshuffle. Their reports hardly went beyond Mugabe's official pronunciations that his restructured government would fight corruption. Neither did they probe how by retaining the majority of the 'war cabinet', largely considered as non-performers, would Mugabe successfully weed out graft.

The government media's narrow agenda, projected correspondingly with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's (RBZ) efforts to mop up the chaos in the financial sector, was hardly surprising as it was in tandem with their efforts to showcase government's sincerity in fighting corruption and other economic ills. The arrest and detention of ZANU PF central committee member, James Makamba, on charges of externalising foreign currency was timely, as it was used as proof of Government efforts to eradicate corruption. Makamba was denied bail using the newly gazetted anti-graft regulations, which the government media used to buttress the notion that government was committed to fighting graft.

Such passive endorsement of government's claims of eliminating corruption was aptly illustrated by The Herald and The Chronicle (10/2) in their coverage of the cabinet reshuffle. The papers merely reported the new appointments but would not categorically state that besides creating new portfolios, Mugabe had only recycled his old ministers. Moreover, they did not query the logic behind the creation of additional ministries.

The Chronicle simply welcomed the new portfolios saying it "underlines the fight against corruption and monopolies and seeks to consolidate the land reform programme and black empowerment". The paper's comment (11/2) claimed that the creation of the anti-corruption and the anti-monopolies ministry "is a clear indicator that the ruling party is concerned about the lives of the people". It added that since Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo was now responsible for lands, land reform and resettlement "the future looks bright for Zimbabwe". The Herald comment (13/2) raised similar views. But the papers' views were simply echoes of Mugabe's statements on ZTV (10/2, 8pm), justifying the expansion of the cabinet saying, "people want a large Government" adding that "if they (people) want us to shrink it in future we will shrink and shrink and shrink and then we retire".

No critical analysis of the negative implications of a bloated government on the economy was offered except in the private media. In fact, the private media tried to penetrate the veneer of rationale behind the supposedly 'new' cabinet in relation to the current political and economic environment in the country. For instance, SW Radio (10/2) quoted government critic John Makumbe dismissing Mugabe's splitting of the original Lands Ministry then led by Joseph Made into two as "a bit of a distortion and. senility" because "resettlement is now in both John Nkomo's portfolio and in Made's portfolio." Similarly, The Financial Gazette (12/2) quoted other analysts castigating Mugabe for failing to downsize his cabinet "to contain government profligacy". The Standard challenged Mugabe's claim that Zimbabweans want an enlarged cabinet, saying the president "seems entirely oblivious to the consequences of a large cabinet on the fiscus".

In fact, The Zimbabwe Independent (13/2) revealed that six ministries were already "in trouble", after exhausting their 2004 budgets. The paper pointed out that the creation of three new ministries would thus worsen the situation as these portfolios "were unbudgeted for".

The paper noted that such unbudgeted expenditure was in conflict with former finance Minister Herbert Murerwa's budget statement and RBZ Governor Gideon Gono's monetary policy, which both called for fiscal discipline. While pro-government analysts Ibbo Mandaza and Tendai Gurira were quoted on ZTV (10/2, 8pm) applauding the 'new' anti-graft cabinet as a reaffirmation of "Mugabe's commitment to fighting corruption, revive the economy and empower people in this country," Makumbe disagreed. He told SW Radio Africa (10/2) that Mugabe's reshuffle was like shuffling rubbish in a bin thinking it would smell differently. ".it doesn't make any difference. It still smells terribly."

The Tribune (13/2) echoed his views, and likened the reshuffle to shuffling cards "for a game of solitaire".

The government media would not relent. For example, The Chronicle (12/2) citing several pro-ZANU PF individuals claimed that Bulawayo residents had applauded the expansion of the cabinet saying "this will ensure that the economic revival that has been brought about by the reforms in the financial services sector will be allowed to bear fruit". The Herald (13/2) followed suit by reporting that the church had "thrown its weight behind Government efforts to crackdown on corruption". However, The Daily Mirror (12/2), disputed government media's claims that the public had welcomed the new cabinet. It reported that, on the contrary, people had generally "expressed outrage and dismay at the new cabinet ." Earlier, the paper (11/2) quoted political analysts dismissing government's anti-graft crusade as an election gimmick calculated to win urban voters ahead of the 2005 parliamentary elections. University of Zimbabwe political scientist Eldred Masunungure was quoted by the paper as saying: "Corruption captures the imagination of the urban electorate in the same way land reform swayed the rural electorate".

In an attempt to belie government claims that it was serious in its war against corruption, The Sunday Mirror (15/2) quoted MDC official David Coltart citing previous cases of high-level corruption, such as the Willowvale and NOCZIM scandals noting that those involved had not been arrested. He thus noted that the arrest of Makamba and another ZANU-PF official Phillip Chiyangwa was "just a 'smokescreen' to fool the electorate" into thinking ZANU PF was now serious about combating corruption. In fact, Musunungure pointed out in The Daily Mirror (11/2) that as a result of government's efforts to woo voters, "We will continue to see the targeting of high profile personalities to demonstrate that government is serious about smashing corruption".

The government-controlled Press ignored such analysis and preferred littering its space with news on the perceived successes of Gono's monetary policy as illustrative of government's commitment to clean up the mess in the financial sector and resuscitate the economy. This is despite the fact that Gono himself was quoted telling the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe that his policy was yet to pay full dividends, The Zimbabwe Independent (13/2) and The Sunday Mail (15/2). Such professional docility resulted in ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe (9/2,

8pm) failing to question the apparent shift in government's hard-line attitude towards international money lending institutions such as the IMF when it quoted Gono as saying the central bank had started honouring its external debts with such institutions in a move that "would help mend relations". Gono was not asked how much the country owed the donor agencies or how much it had been able to repay so far. Neither did the media link the anti-graft hype to the impending IMF visit to Zimbabwe, The Zimbabwe Independent.

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