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Municipal Issues and Police clampdown
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-18
Monday May 16th - Sunday May 22nd 2005

THE government-controlled media's professionally passive role also manifested itself in the way they failed to question the heavy-handed manner in which the police violently evicted vendors and flea market operators in Harare, Bulawayo and Chitungwiza, ostensibly to weed out economic crimes.

As a result, none of the 27 stories carried by ZBH or the seven published by the official Press on the subject hardly captured the element of rights abuses committed during the operation, or why government was now acting against informal economic activity after allowing it to flourish for so long. ZBH only mentioned the violent nature of the "clean-up" when, for example, Radio Zimbabwe (21/5, 6 am) cursorily reported that government "has expressed concern over the stoning of three ZUPCO buses by Chitungwiza residents". No reasons for stoning the buses were given.

Instead, 25 (93%) of the ZBH stories appeared to justify the violent clean-up. For example, ZTV (20/5, 8pm) reported "some Harare residents" as having "commended" the government-appointed commission running the city council "for ridding the city of unscrupulous foreign currency dealers, unlicensed flea market operators and drug dealers." ZBH's narrow portrayal of the matter was also mirrored in its continuing dependence on official explanations for the clampdown as illustrated in Fig 1. Notably, none of the victims of the raids were quoted.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Except for one story in The Sunday Mail, which quoted six informal traders highlighting their plight, the rest of the stories the government Press carried on the matter also just regurgitated official justification for the crackdown. For example, The Herald (21/5) passively quoted Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Sithembiso Nyoni as saying the destruction of flea markets had been "necessitated by the rise in criminal activities in the informal sector". The police and Harare City Council Commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara echoed these views.

A critical analysis of the issue only appeared in 16 stories published by the private media. Eight of these appeared on Studio 7, six in the Mirror stable and the rest in The Standard. The reports either exposed the brutal manner in which the police handled the issue or condemned the alleged clean up exercise.

For example, two of the stories carried by Studio 7 recorded two incidents of rights abuses committed against a journalist, vendors and flea market operators by the police. In one, the station (20/5) reported the arrest of freelance journalist Frank Chikowore for filming the police raids in Harare. It claimed the journalist was beaten and held overnight by police without charge, and quoted the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) condemning the arrest. The public media censored the incident.

The same bulletin also revealed that the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights was "investigating a number of cases in which vendors were detained or beaten or had their goods confiscated." In addition The Standard reported that "frustrated" residents of Chitungwiza had "fought running battles" with police following the demolition of tuck-shops and the confiscation of goods from vendors. Reportedly, the ensuing melee resulted in the stoning of a commuter omnibus belonging to a government-controlled bus company and a supermarket. The Herald (21/5) also reported on the skirmishes in Chitungwiza but buried them in its story, Police blitz expands countrywide.

Meanwhile, in another case of rights abuse Studio 7 (20/5) and The Standard reported that about 300 villagers from Silalatshani in Filabusi had been arrested for demanding that their chief address them on government's food relief plans as they were facing starvation. And in a related incident, The Standard reported on the politicisation of food in Mwenezi where traditional leaders were reportedly denying suspected MDC supporters food aid.

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