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The Odzi murder and racism
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted of the Weekly Media Update 2004-21
Monday May 24^th – Sunday May 30^th 2004

THE government-controlled media’s role as fully-fledged amplifiers of racial strife was highlighted again this week following the alleged murder of a resettled black farmer by a white commercial farmer in Odzi, Manicaland. These media’s biased and xenophobic coverage of the incident, a distinctive echo of their previous week’s coverage of the parliamentary altercation between MDC MP Roy Bennett and Cabinet ministers Didymus Mutasa and Patrick Chinamasa, made a mockery of professional journalistic standards of fairness, accuracy and balance.

While the potential costs of such irresponsible journalism have yet to be categorically assessed, it is not surprising that the private media mainly attributed the Odzi incident and several others that occurred in the week to an orchestrated campaign of retribution against whites by ZANU PF supporters following the Bennett fiasco.

But as accomplices in this new wave of alleged government-instigated lawlessness, the government media carried distorted versions of the circumstances leading to the Odzi murder by giving the impression that Peter Spiro-Landos had fatally shot Mike Mufambi "in cold blood".

Power FM (26/5, 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle (27/5) all promoted this angle. Power FM, for example, claimed that the alleged murder occurred after Spiro-Landos called for a meeting with resettled farmers allocated portions of his Riverside Farm and accused them of "grabbing his property". When they "disagreed with him", it said, Spiro-Landos produced a pistol and fired "straight into the group of farmers, killing Mufambi" before war veterans disarmed him.

The Herald agreed. It quoted police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka saying Spiro-Landos "quarreled" with the farmers over boundaries of his Riverside Farm before the shooting, while the Chronicle argued that the farmer was only injured when the settlers disarmed him and "meted out instant justice".

The reports lacked independent confirmation, which only appeared in the private media. SW Radio Africa (25/5) reported Spiro-Landos as having shot Mufambi in self-defence after war veterans attacked the farmer for allegedly "inflicting harm on government ministers" and for being "related to Bennett by virtue of being white."

The private radio station also revealed that the latest harassment of Spiro-Landos, which ended in the tragedy, was the fifth such attack against him by the war veterans. On all occasions, the police refused to intervene, claiming the matter was politically motivated. Reported the station: "…Spiro kept going back to the police, until for the fifth time the war vets assaulted him, broke his ribs…he got a chance to pull his pistol and fire a shot at one of the war vets who died instantly."

Studio 7 (26/5), The Daily Mirror (27/5) and The Zimbabwe Independent (28/5) corroborated the report. But The Herald and Chronicle (27/5) still censored these details of the incident when it quoted Mandipaka saying Spiro-Landos had "endless clashes with some of the resettled farmers" in order to "keep the whole property (Riverside Farm) to himself". Mandipaka was not challenged to explain what led to the ‘clashes’ or why the police had not intervened.

Instead, ZTV (27/5,8pm) merely expanded on this one-sided account to stir up racial tension. It reported that Zimbabweans had received "with shock the death of Mufambi in a cold- blooded murder " while "others (Zimbabweans) say it’s time government repossesses all farms owned by whites." It claimed that "the goings-on at Landos’ farm in Odzi…. have again brought to the fore the question of whether government was not ill- advised when it continued to extend the hand of reconciliation to former white Rhodesians…" Radio Zimbabwe (27/5, 8pm) quoted the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association’s retired Major Mudavanhu echoing these sentiments. He was particularly outraged because "the late comrade…was killed…by a white man who doesn’t accept…that we have repossessed our land…This is similar to what Bennett did… in Parliament…"

ZTV (27/5, 8pm) and Power FM (28/5 6am) featured similar inflammatory comments from the Affirmative Action Group and the Zimbabwe Farmers Union. AAG’s Esau Mupfumi was quoted saying that Mufambi’s death "shows that whites will never change…They are a problem not only to us and our children but will be a problem to the next generation. It is difficult to keep them because they still have British and American mentality."

The government Press devoted a number of stories to this anti-white tirade, including Rhodies need to draw lesson from Kondozi saga, Apartheid media stoke fires of white panic, Odzi murder leaves unanswered questions over co-existence (The Sunday Mail 30/5); Bennett’s racist behaviour deplorable, detrimental to his ailing party (Manica Post 28/5); and Killings won’t stop land reform (The Herald (28/5). The Chronicle’s comment (28/5) captured the tone of these articles, claiming that Mufambi’s shooting showed that whites were "still living in Rhodesia where blacks could just be killed like flies…"

ZTV contributed to the government media’s inflammatory campaign against whites when it broadcast a blatant falsehood in a survey to gauge the nation’s feeling over the incident (27/5, 8pm). The national broadcaster recklessly quoted an unnamed member of the public claiming falsely, "Bennett killed someone in Parliament and nothing happened to him."

By turning a blind eye to the harmful consequences of such unrestrained racist invective, incidents of racially motivated violence instigated by ZANU PF activists to protest Bennett’s parliamentary misconduct went unreported in the government media.

But the private media duly pointed them out. They claimed that the Odzi incident was part of the ruling party’s retribution campaign against its perceived opponents, especially those from Manicaland, by using Bennett’s parliamentary misbehaviour as an excuse. SW Radio Africa (24/5) reported that ZANU PF "thugs" had petrol-bombed MDC offices in Chimanimani, Bennett’s constituency, while in Rusape, Mutasa was alleged to have ordered shops to close and "forced people to attend demonstrations against Bennett". The station also reported ZANU PF violence against the opposition at Tanganda Business Centre in Chipinge where at least 35 people were said to have fled their homes.

Studio 7 (25/5), the Independent and The Standard (30/5) also carried similar stories. The Zimbabwe Independent, for example, quoted Justice for Agriculture (JAG) vice chairman John Worsely-Worsick saying Manicaland has "become the prime target of fresh invasions". Said Worsely-Worswick: "The flavour of the (farm invasions) are very racist and for the first time, the invaders are demanding that white farmers leave Zimbabwe", a claim also made by Studio 7 (27/5). The Independent reported that as a result, 10 farms had since been invaded and that the invasions had also spread to Karoi, Chiredzi and Kwekwe. The observation tallied with a report by SW Radio Africa (25/5) on the abduction and assault by settlers of Anthony Boddington and six game scouts working for Masapas Ranch in the Save Valley. Boddington was ambushed together with his scouts and "beaten for four hours…" as punishment for asking government and police to remove them.

The government media ignored the incident. They also ignored the violence perpetrated by ZANU PF supporters during an anti-Bennett demonstration in Gweru as illustrated by the Chronicle (28/5). Only The Standard reported that ruling party supporters beat up innocent people in the city and destroyed war veterans’ offices after failing to get the food they had been promised for taking part in the demonstration while the police "watched in silence".

The paper reported that policemen from Gweru Rural Police Station "marched and toy-toyed in the city centre" while singing government’s ‘Sendekera’ land reform jingle, adding that soldiers marching and "chanting Zanu PF songs" have become a common feature in Gweru.

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