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Liberties lost to graft decrees
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-9
Monday March 1^st – Sunday March 7^th 2004

Only the private media reported belatedly on the gazetting of a Presidential amendment to an earlier Presidential Decree that extended the period police can detain suspects of economic crime and removed the jurisdiction of the courts to determine bail. This amendment extends by a further seven days – to 21 days - the period the police can detain those suspected of corrupt activities in circumstances where there are prima facie grounds for a charge and again removes the court’s authority to determine bail during this period.

The Daily Mirror (3/3) and The Zimbabwe Independent (5/3) reported that Mugabe had again used his Presidential Powers to tighten his original amendment to the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.

While both papers acknowledged government’s need to stamp out corruption, they questioned the rationale behind such laws.

For example, The Zimbabwe Independent quoted lawyer Sternford Moyo saying the new law rendered "ineffective the right of an accused to be brought before a court as contained in section 13 subsection 4 of the constitution". He added, "the country will, inevitably, be perceived as a police state" as this law substituted the opinion of a judicial officer with that of a policeman. Likewise, The Standard (7/3) quoted Law Society of Zimbabwe President Joseph James criticizing the new law: "Our courts have stated and reiterated that it is wrong and unlawful for law enforcement agents to arrest and investigate later and this is precisely what this legislation is allowing."

For example, The Herald (1/3) merely personalised the current Mugabe’s anti-graft campaign as a "constant feature of his leadership". It thus linked the current anti-corruption drive to an inquiry Mugabe ordered in 1989 under the Sandura Commission to investigate top-level abuse of vehicle sales at the Willowvale Motor Industries.

However, the paper was quiet on the failure by government to effectively punish all those in its ranks who were implicated in the scandal. Neither would the paper, and indeed its stablemates, question government’s sudden zeal to engage in mortal combat with the long-running corruption epidemic.

Nevertheless, to buttress this notion of a dedicated leader, ZTV (6/3, 8pm), The Sunday Mail and Sunday News (7/3) quoted a belligerent Mugabe threatening corrupt leaders and business people at his belated 80^th birthday bash: "Even if you run away to Britain … it does not matter whether you are my relative or you are a prominent politician or businessman, you will be arrested."

Government media reports seeking to present the anti-corruption drive as a serious mission, dovetailed with these sentiments by carrying regular updates on police attempts to apprehend suspected corrupt businessmen, especially the four National Merchant Bank directors, who reportedly fled to the UK to avoid arrest (The Herald, 1, 2 & 3/3, Chronicle 2/3, and The Sunday Mail and ZTV, 02/03, 8pm).

The stories, based almost exclusively on police information, again revealed the extent of the cooperation between the government media and the police, but they contained no indication of balance by seeking the other side of the story to police claims that the four had externalized foreign currency equivalent to $30bn.

Only the private media did this.

The Tribune (5/3), for example, published the full text of a letter written by NMB chief executive Julius Makoni to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono explaining his reluctance to turn himself over to the police under Mugabe’s draconian anti-corruption decrees until he was guaranteed his constitutional rights.

Makoni, on leave in the UK when police launched investigations at NMB, claimed that arrests under the anti-graft regulations had been "turned into politically motivated witch-hunts, which deny victims the necessary constitutional assurances to defend themselves publicly and fairly" through the courts. He further alleged that one of the investigative teams had let slip that they were under pressure to make more arrests "‘and that facts and your evidence are of no concern to us…we have orders to detain you lot’". Said Makoni: "We abhor the Government’s modus operandi to arrest and then investigate and at the same time assume guilt until proven innocent…" The Zimbabwe Independent and SW Radio Africa (05/03) also carried excerpts of Makoni’s letter.

As if to corroborate Makoni’s concerns, The Sunday Mirror (7/3) reported the police as "having problems deciding on a sustainable charge to lay against" Zimbabwe United Passengers’ Company (ZUPCO’s) chief executive officer, Bright Matonga, after he also fell victim to government’s corruption war.

In fact, The Standard (7/3) comment dismissed government’s anti-corruption crusade as a charade that is only trying "to convict selected companies and individuals" while "ZANU PF chefs and bureaucrats have been looting left, right and centre".

The paper accused the government of creating the fertile ground for corruption when, through its "foolhardy policies" it created a shortage economy and a thriving parallel market in which the government itself and the corporate world openly traded.

Observed the paper: "No one was sourcing foreign currency from the banks because there was none…Many institutions including ZESA and Noczim sourced foreign currency on the black market."

However, amid these allegations of selective persecution, none of the media seemed to question why the top brass of some institutions also implicated in irregular banking practices, such as Trust Bank, had not been arrested too. But as Makoni stated in The Tribune, the full story is not being told through the various media for the public to see for themselves what is really taking place in the financial services sector.

The Standard comment agreed: "It is clear…that there is a much more complex, bigger picture than people are being led to believe"

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