|
Back to Index
Intolerance
and elections
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-30
Monday July 26th – Sunday August 1st 2004
AS the country
heads for the 2005 general elections, political intolerance appears
to be on the increase with media reports exposing heightened political
violence and harassment of the opposition MDC by ZANU PF activists.
The revelations took some gloss off hopes that government would
complement its proposed electoral reforms by creating a conducive
environment to allow the opposition to campaign freely.
Though the government
media carried some of the reports, they were generally uncritical
in nature.
For example,
The Sunday Mail (1/7), Radio Zimbabwe and Power FM (1/7,
1pm) unquestioningly reported the raid of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s
Harare home by the police. They reported that the raid of the MDC
leader’s home was in search of firearms "suspected to
have been used to fire shots during the skirmishes between ZANU
PF and MDC youths in Mvurwi early last month".
The Sunday
Mail quoted police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
saying even though they had already questioned Tsvangirai and three
of his bodyguards over the matter, police had received information
that some of the firearms used during the clashes could have been
hidden at Tsvangirai’s home.
However, the
report did not pin him to state exactly which of the two parties
had fired the shots. Instead, the paper appeared merely content
with making inferences. It noted: "According to recent
reports, police said the MDC youths provoked the ruling party youths
by throwing two teargas canisters at their vehicle."
In fact, SW
Radio Africa (27/7) fully exposed the partisanship of the police
in handling issues concerning the opposition MDC. It reported that
the police had ordered the MDC to abandon their rallies in Manicaland.
The party’s official, Evelyn Masaiti, was quoted as saying the police
were "frustrated by the popularity of the MDC".
Even The
Herald (29/7) captured the police’s biased perception of the
MDC. The paper allowed a top police officer to speculatively criticise
the MDC of planning to unleash violence ahead of the 2005 elections
when he addressed 70 police officers who had completed a course
in public order.
Assistant Commissioner
Douglas Nyakutsikwa said the Zimbabwe Republic Police had started
deploying its public order reaction teams to all the country’s provinces
in preparation for next year’s polls because "… we would
be under spotlight from the Western countries and the MDC has also
threatened to use violence and boycott the elections…"
While The
Herald let such statements pass without scrutiny, SW Radio Africa
(29/7) quoted MDC MP Giles Mutsekwa castigating the police officer
for "brainwashing recruits into believing that the MDC
is a violent party" and treating "police
officers just like Border Gezi militias."
Besides exposing
the unprofessional conduct of the police, the private media also
revealed that ZANU PF activists were using violence to curtail the
activities of the opposition party. For example, The Zimbabwe
Independent (30/7) quoted Tsvangirai alleging in his weekly
message that political violence in the country had resurfaced with
greater intensity ahead of the polls following disruptions of the
opposition party rallies by ZANU PF militias. The disruptions occurred
in Harare, Mvurwi, Buhera, Goromonzi and Birchneough Bridge.
In addition,
the paper reported on the abduction and severe assault, by ZANU
PF militia, of Bob Makone, younger brother of MDC official, Ian,
after a rally addressed by Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere
at Musavadye School in Wedza.
The Standard
(1/8) appeared to corroborate the Independent story. Although
it quoted Tsvangirai saying his party had intensified its campaigns
in the rural areas, the MDC leader admitted to several attempts
by ZANU PF militia and the police to block the party’s meetings
in some provinces after realising that it was "covering
a lot of ground" in the rural constituencies.
But optimism
that such problems would be ironed out through dialogue between
the two main political parties ahead of the proposed electoral reforms
was quashed by the Department of Information’s venomous denial on
ZTV (26/7, 8pm), The Herald (27/7) and Chronicle (28/7)
that there were any talks between the MDC and ZANU PF on the matters.
The Department of Information was reacting to a story carried by
ZANU PF’s mouthpiece The Voice, which claimed the ruling
party and the MDC had held talks over the proposed electoral reforms.
MDC secretary
general Welshman Ncube was also quoted in The Sunday Mirror
(1/8) denying such talks.
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
|
