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Economic Issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-16
Monday May 2nd - Sunday May 8th 2005

ZIMBABWE'S economic problems continued to generate immense interest in the media, which carried 160 stories on the issue. Seventy of these appeared on ZBH (ZTV, Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe) while the government-controlled Press published 46 stories, private papers 41 and Studio 7 three. Issues tackled in the stories included the persistent commodity shortages, the failure by the government-appointed commission running the City of Harare to provide basic amenities and government's recent acquisition of two Chinese MA60 planes.

Notably, it was only the private media that gave a holistic interpretation of the economic ills as indicative of the country's continued economic decline. The government media dodged such discussions, preferring to smother them with the purported successes of government's economic policies, particularly the much-publicised 'Look East' policy.

It is against this background that 10 of the 46 stories the official papers carried passively celebrated government's acquisition of two MA60 planes from China, on behalf of Air Zimbabwe, as reflective of the achievements of the 'Look East' policy. ZBH followed suit. It devoted 38 (54%) of its 70 stories on economic matters to reporting simplistically on the professed economic benefits of the acquisition on the struggling airliner and the country's ailing tourism sector. Moreover, ZTV used 22 minutes (13%) of the 2 hours 51 minutes of its main bulletins (excluding arts, foreign and sports segments) in the week to reporting approvingly of the MA60's purchase. This was in addition to a live coverage of the commissioning of the planes the station beamed on Wednesday (4/5), which it subsequently repeated soon after its 8pm bulletin of the same day.

ZBH's sourcing pattern, illustrated in Fig 1, merely highlights its unbalanced coverage of the purchase of the planes.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

The government broadcaster unquestioningly allowed the authorities to use the platform accorded by the acquisition of the planes mostly to self-congratulate themselves on the alleged successes of their 'Look East Policy' following Zimbabwe's fall-out with the largely developed economies of the West over governance issues. Even the business voices, sourced mainly from the government-controlled institutions such as the Rainbow Tourism Authority and Air Zimbabwe, merely echoed or amplified government sentiments. As a result, there was no attempt to balance official interpretation of the matter with alternative opinion.

For example, ZTV (4/5, 6pm & 8pm) did not question Transport Minister Chris Mushowe on how the acquisition of the two 52-seater planes was likely to make Air Zimbabwe the "best" airliner in Africa by 2008. Neither would it - including The Herald and Chronicle (5/5) - provide statistics to back President Robert Mugabe's claim that China was "steadily becoming the largest foreign investor in Zimbabwe". Rather, The Sunday Mail and Sunday News (8/5) merely tried to stitch together business deals that Zimbabwe has struck with China in the power, construction, steel and transport sectors to defend the alleged virtues of the 'Look East' policy.

This unquestioning support of the policy resulted in The Sunday Mail columnist Munyaradzi Huni blindly endorsing the proliferation of cheap Chinese products on the local market on spurious claims that "Zimbabweans just love them." Huni, however, evaded discussing the negative effects of the influx of such "cheap" products on the country's manufacturing sector.

The government-controlled media's attempts to glorify government's purported efforts to resuscitate the economy while simultaneously blaming others for its poor showing was apparent in three stories the official Press carried on fuel shortages. For example, The Herald (7/5) claimed that government's efforts to "normalise" the fuel situation were being "scuttled" by black market fuel dealers who were hoarding the commodity and selling it at inflated prices. It ignored that the black market of the commodity was a symptom of the shortage. Similarly, ZBH hardly related its 11 stories on the price increases and shortages of basic commodities to the authorities' poor economic policies. In fact, its partiality on the matter was exemplified by the official papers' dependence on government opinion as shown below.

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

In addition, the government-controlled Press also carried seven editorials and opinion pieces endorsing government's economic policies. In comparison, the private media inexplicably failed to explore the economic benefits of the government's purchase of the planes although the 44 reports they carried on other economic issues were more informative. For example, they continued to highlight the commodity shortages and price increases, among other problems, as symptomatic of a shrinking economy. Besides, they also criticised government's poor economic policies, such as its price control regime and its failure to live within its means, as worsening the economy. For example, though The Daily Mirror (3/5) welcomed Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono's assurance that government would soon resolve the fuel crisis, it called on the authorities not to "stifle" but come up with "competitive prices for the commodity" to ensure its availability. It then criticised government for continuing to subsidise prices of fuel saying "our economy can no longer sustain a social budget where every commodity is subsidised".

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Independent (6/5) revealed that Gono's much-touted economic "turnaround" strategies risked being derailed by ruling "ZANU PF hawks" opposed to his policies, such as currency devaluation and his intention to re-engage Western institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank. Quoting unnamed sources, the paper claimed that the hardliners' failure to support Gono's policies had almost forced him to quit. The government-controlled media still ignored these issues. Rather, The Saturday Herald (7/5) simply carried an Information Ministry statement dismissing the Independent story as "speculative".

The government media's uncritical stance whenever they are dealing with government related issues were notable too in the way they papered over the government-appointed commission's poor administration of Harare. For example, while ZBH alone carried 15 stories on the matter, none of its stories enquired on the practicality of the commission's promises to improve service delivery to the capital "within 15 days" following a stakeholders meeting in Kadoma, Power FM (2/5 8pm), Radio Zimbabwe (2/5 8pm) and ZTV (3/5

6pm, 8pm). Moreover, it did not explore why government had failed to do that in the past.

In fact, besides reporting on the commission's revelations that it would establish six strategic business units to deal with water and sewage problems, among others, ZBH failed to demand information on the exact logistical set-up the business unit would assume. ZTV's voice distribution in these stories mirrored the unprofessional ineptitude in which ZBH handled the matter.

Fig 3 Voice distribution on ZTV

All official voices merely recommended the urgent need for action without identifying the cause of the crisis while the voices of Harare residents - all unhappy with council's poor service delivery - were just used to legitimise the commission's resolve to solve the problem. The private media was however sceptical of the commission's plans in the three stories they carried on the matter, particularly on the usefulness of restructuring council into strategic business units ostensibly to improve service delivery. The Standard, for example, dismissed the proposal as a "hoax of the new millennium" meant to "provide justification for the extension of term of the commission", which would "expire this week". It noted that experience had shown that "unbundling", as was done at quasi-government institutions such as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, the National Railways of Zimbabwe and Post and Telecommunications Corporation, had not yielded positive results.

The Gazette agreed, saying the only solution to the city's problems was to expel the "political chameleon", acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara, whose office should take full responsibility for the deteriorating situation. Unlike the government Press, which largely relied on official sources in compiling their economic reports, the private papers tried to balance government comments with alternative views as Figure 4 shows.

Fig 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

The private papers also carried eight editorials that were critical of government's economic policies.

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