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Media fails to explain council circus
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-12
Monday March 22nd - Sunday March 28th 2004

The government's disregard for democratic principles was also illustrated by the manner in which it is trying to hound Harare's MDC councillors out of office by incessantly interfering in the administration of council affairs.

This meddling ultimately led to the creation of a wedge between acting mayor Sekesayi Makwavarara and her former party, the MDC, on how to administer Harare and subsequently to her resignation from the party.

But instead of debating the matter honestly, the government media found themselves siding with Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo whose politically motivated directives to council are a source of the chaos.

For example, The Herald (22/3) did not question the logic behind Chombo's directive stopping councillors from holding committee elections to replace Makwavarara as the acting mayor until he had met them. Or after the misconduct hearings against suspended Harare mayor had been finalised (ZTV 25/3, 7am and 8pm, Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe, 26/3, 6am).

Neither did the government media question the heavy-handed manner in which council security barred councillors from holding their meeting at Town House

(SW Radio Africa, 25/3 and The Daily Mirror, 26/3). SW Radio Africa reported that "among the security guards who threatened the councillors with physical assault if they did not leave was.self-styled war vet Joseph Cinotimba".

Rather, The Herald distorted the reason behind Makwavarara's resignation and tried to present her as a victim of rampant gender inequality in the MDC. Having invoked this emotive subject as the reason behind Makwavarara's resignation, the paper then tried to harness the wrath of women's organisations against the party. In all this, the conflict of interest between her party and government policies, which led to her fallout with the MDC, was obliterated.

To buttress this falsehood, an unnamed "observer" was quoted claiming that the opposition had no women's organisation "because the party does not want women to progress for fear they might take over leadership positions." This ignored the fact that the MDC has the Women's Assembly, led by Lucia Matibenga.

The Daily Mirror (22/3) corrected The Herald's distortion when it quoted MDC Harare chairman, Morgan Femai, as saying the MDC's differences with Makwavarara stemmed from her failure to adhere to the opposition party's directives and principles.

But The Herald (23/3) would not listen to this explanation. Its regular contributor, Caesar Zvayi, admonished the MDC while praising Makwavarara for displaying "maturity and level headedness" by ignoring "puerile directives from Tsvangirai" and refusing to toe the MDC's "policy of destructive engagement".

The Herald (26/3) used the resignation from the MDC of another councillor to further vilify the opposition.

Meanwhile, Chombo's row with suspended Mayor Mudzuri took another twist after the minister appointed yet another committee chaired by government lawyer Johannes Tomana to investigate fresh allegations of misconduct against Mudzuri (The Herald, 23/3). The paper described the probe as the "last lap into investigations" following the completion of an earlier inquiry led by Jameson Kurasha.

However, no media appeared to have fully probed this circus at Town House. Coverage on the issue was restricted to Mudzuri's walkout from the Tomana inquiry because he had not seen the Kurasha Report, which he contended was used by the Tomana Commission to bring the misconduct charges against him (Studio 7, 23/3, SW Radio Africa, 25/3, The Herald, 24/3 and The Sunday Mirror).

Said Mudzuri on Studio 7 (23/3): "They refused.to give us the report. They have never given me time to speak to my lawyers. It's like I have just to walk in there and subject myself to them."

However, Studio 7 (24/3) and The Herald (24/3) quoted Tomana saying the mayor's absence "will not disturb the proceedings". His committee would deliver a default judgment anyway.

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