Back to Index

Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-15
Monday April 25th - May 1st 2005

THE country's deepening economic crisis continued to dominate the media, which carried 145 stories on the matter. Of these, 71 appeared in the government-controlled Press, 43 in the private papers, 29 on ZBH (Power FM, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe) and the remaining four on Studio 7. The stories included the continued collapse of local industries, the worsening shortages of fuel, power and foreign currency and the crumbling of service delivery in the main cities, particularly Harare. As has become the norm, it was only the private media that viewed the shortages as symptomatic of the country's shrinking economy. The government media largely evaded such discussions. They either reported on the economic problems in isolation or simply glossed over the issues with authorities' promises to rectify the economic slide.

For example, none of ZBH's nine reports on the crippling fuel shortages fully discussed the reasons behind the shortages or gave a holistic picture of its effects countrywide. Rather, it restricted coverage on the matter to the situation in Matabeleland South and Harare and tried to blame the shortages on fuel dealers who were allegedly holding on to the commodity in anticipation of a price hike. The broadcaster's reluctance to openly discuss the matter was reflected by its failure to access comments from officials and economists on the issue as shown by the voice distribution on ZTV and Power FM.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on Power FM and ZTV

All ordinary voices were quoted complaining of the fuel crisis and calling on government to resolve the matter.

As if to respond to their calls, The Sunday Mail (1/5) reported Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono saying the fuel crisis "will be fixed" in the "next one and a half to two weeks". However, the paper failed to challenge Gono to fully explain on how he intended to tame the fuel shortage and turn "around our beloved economy". Such mere regurgitation of official pronouncements and passive presentation of government's commitment to resolving the country's economic crisis was also apparent in stories such as: Zim committed to NEPAD, the Chronicle (27/4); Zim committed to COMESA, SADC trade protocols, the Sunday News (1/5) and Zim expects 1.2m tonnes of maize: Muvhuti, The Herald (28/4).

It also manifested itself in the government media's coverage of the just ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). Although the official Press carried 29 stories on the matter, in addition to two ZITF supplements carried by The Herald and Chronicle (26/4), these were public relations pieces that acquiescently portrayed the Zimbabwean economy as finally overcoming its problems. Despite the government-controlled papers' depiction of the ZITF as having been a "success", they provided little evidence to support this. Rather, these papers, as exemplified by the Sunday News and Sunday Mail (1/5), merely quoted Trade Minister Obert Mpofu saying the Fair was successful because "many companies from the Far East" had come to exhibit. However, he did not say how many companies from Asia constituted the 604 companies (562 foreign and 42 local) that exhibited at ZITF.

Similarly, The Herald (30/4) and Sunday News used Mozambican President Armando Guebuza's official speech at the Fair stressing the need to "foster and nurture" co-operation between Zimbabwe and Mozambique on economic and bilateral issues as vindication that the country's economy was poised for recovery despite hostile machinations by Britain and its Western allies.

ZBH's 47 stories on the Fair were tailor made in the same fashion. The reports presented the annual trade showcase as a success and a reflection of the country's purported economic growth. Throughout the week, the government-controlled broadcaster emphasised on how enquiries and deals were made during the event without elaborating on the actual worth of the business deals.

In a bid to downplay the absence of big companies at the Fair, ZTV (27/4, 8pm) seemed to celebrate the presence of small-to-medium scale enterprises and resettled farmers saying this demonstrated that they were committed to the country's economic turnaround programme. However, except for five public relations stories published by the Mirror stable on ZITF, the rest of the private media viewed the matter differently in the seven reports they carried on the topic. Five of these were in the private Press while the remaining two were on Studio 7. The private media stance on ZITF was epitomised by The Standard (1/5) comment, Shrinking ZITF mirrors economic collapse. It noted that the trade fair was poorly attended as it recorded the least number of exhibitors since 2003. The paper largely attributed this to Zimbabwe's poor international image and the current foreign currency crunch. It observed that larger companies were forced to stay away because they would have been unable to fulfil orders made at the Fair due to lack of foreign currency to import critical raw materials.

To buttress its point, The Standard observed that "as of last week" the foreign currency auction floor was only able to avail US$11 million "against a demand for 6 436 rejected bids for US$125 million". Therefore, added the paper, it was "unfair" for government to officially invite Guebuza "to preside over an event that is either predominantly empty or overly populated by quasi-flea market operators". The rest of the private media's 43 reports on the economy largely highlighted the extent to which the economic situation had deteriorated. This was summed up in the Zimbabwe Independent comment, What legacy will Bob bequeath?

The paper accused government and Gono of peddling "the lie that the economy has turned the corner" while things were falling apart in the country. It cited shortages of basic commodities such as fuel, power and water in Harare as well as the collapse of sewerage systems in Harare and Chitungwiza. To further highlight Zimbabwe's economic woes, The Financial Gazette (28/4) reported that government had angered the International Monetary Fund - which the central bank is trying to engage for the crucial balance of payments support - by attempting to block the Fund's scheduled visit next week. The paper quoted "impeccable sources" saying government's plans to delay the Fund's routine consultation on the pretext that it was "not yet ready to meet the IMF delegation" because the recent split of the Finance and Economic Development Ministry into two portfolios could "negatively influence the IMF board's decision on Zimbabwe".

Meanwhile, the Independent and The Daily Mirror (28/4) predicted more power cuts as a result of a breakdown in the power unit at Hwange Power Station that supplies the country with over 220 megawatts. The Mirror quoted ZESA Holdings corporate Affairs manager Obert Nyatanga as saying the power utility required at least US$7 million ($45 billion) per month to arrest problems that led to the breakdown. Studio 7 also highlighted similar economic woes in its four stories, which were all critical of the country's economic performance. However, the private radio station's sourcing was thin as it heavily relied on alternative comments at the expense of official sources as compared to the private papers, which were diversely sourced.

See Fig 2 and 3 below.

Fig 2. Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig 3. Voice distribution on Studio 7

Although the government media also touched on some of the issues raised by the private media, they hardly went beyond official statements. For example, while the Chronicle (28/4) reported ZESA as acknowledging that it required over US$2 billion between this year and 2010 to avert a power crisis, the paper did not ask, as did the Mirror of the same day, why the power utility had not made efforts long ago "to develop its own local power supply that would generate electricity for all domestic needs without having to rely on another foreign country".

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