Back to Index

Human Rights Issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-31
Monday August 2nd - Sunday August 9th 2004

While the government continued to assure the world of its commitment to holding peaceful, free and fair elections in the country, private media reports revealed otherwise.

They continued to unmask several cases of State-tolerated political violence perpetrated against perceived enemies of the ruling party.

In fact, the recent acquittal by the High Court of six MDC activists accused of murdering war veteran leader Cain Nkala during the run-up to the 2002 presidential poll was a reminder of how ZANU PF, aided by its media, appeared to be the greatest threat to political tolerance in the country.

Despite the fact that the discharge of the MDC activists marked the end of one of Zimbabwe's most politically charged court cases, the official media and its handlers were pointedly reticent over the development thereby covering up for their complicity in the political mayhem that accompanied Nkala's murder.

For example, ZTV (5/8, 6pm & 8pm), Power FM (6/8, 6am), The Herald and Chronicle (6/8) only carried brief, uncritical reports on the court outcome. In addition, the Chronicle tucked the story on page two while ZBC buried the item deep in its bulletins.

This was in stark contrast to the zeal the government media displayed when the incident occurred in November 2001. These media played a role in inciting violence against the MDC when they quoted ruling party officials, war veterans, pro-government analysts and even police officers recklessly churning out inflammatory hate speech against the MDC, which they blamed for Nkala's death. Footage of Nkala's exhumation and pictures of another ZANU PF supporter Limukani Luphahla, who was allegedly burnt to death by MDC supporters, were repeatedly shown on ZTV with the apparent intention of provoking anger and hatred for the opposition.

Even President Mugabe is on record declaring, during a speech at Nkala's burial at the Heroes' Acre, that the ex-combatant's murder proved that the MDC was a terrorist, violent party whose days were numbered. Similarly, vice president Joseph Msika promised that those who were "itching for violence would get violence". This resulted in a wave of violent attacks by ZANU PF mobs on the MDC and its properties.

It was in this light that the Independent observed that the ruling was " a huge embarrassment to . . . government which had used the murder to launch a propaganda campaign against the opposition dubbed 'war against terror'."

The Daily Mirror (6/8) voiced the same sentiments. It even inserted a 2001 photo showing ZANU PF supporters wielding placards inscribed with hate messages such as "Kill the terrorists" and "MDC terrorists are Rhodesians".

Though the acquittal of the MDC activists was certainly an indictment of ZANU PF's political intolerance, The Herald (7/8) quoted President Mugabe ironically warning perceived "traitors" against throwing Zimbabwe into "strife" and "unhappy fate" through "unmeasured language meant to inflame, incite and instigate" during his speech at the burial of national hero, Mark Dube. The paper also quoted him describing as "satanic" efforts by Archbishop Pius Ncube and "his opposition colleagues" to invite Britain to "invade" Zimbabwe, a thing he said Dube would never have done.

Meanwhile, the private media carried 13 reports on political motivated hostilities perpetrated by State security agents and ZANU PF supporters against the public, MDC supporters, labour, traditional and civic society leaders. They recorded 12 incidents.

Human rights activist Arnold Tsunga predicted more such abuses. He told Studio 7 (6/8) that government's crackdown on its perceived opponents would escalate in the run up to the Parliamentary elections.

Said Tsunga: "It's a consistent pattern to arrest human rights defenders and to justify why government must promulgate an NGO Bill and create a perception in the minds of ordinary citizens that these people are dangerous to society and therefore we need to arrest them . . . ." As if to buttress Tsunga's observations, The Standard (8/8) revealed that the police had used POSA "11 times over the last two weeks to bar" Tsvangirai from meeting his party's rural constituency leadership.

The report quoted MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi saying, "barring of his party meetings at a time when the government was talking about introducing electoral reforms, should serve as a reminder that the government was not serious."

In fact, the police's complicity in the suppression of civic liberties came for a special mention in the Independent comment, which called on the force to "redeem their image" and stop behaving like an extension of ZANU PF.

Besides accusing the police of selective application of POSA, the paper criticized them of using "brute force to break up peaceful demonstrations, of hounding civic leaders and using the law to prevent opposition parties and civic groups from assembling".

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