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Purge of the urban poor continues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-22
Monday June 13^th – Sunday June 19^th 2005

THE government’s continued clampdown on the urban poor under its Operation Murambatsvina continued to dominate the media. The newspapers carried 59 stories on the matter, 31 of which appeared in the government-controlled Press and 28 in the private Press. The electronic media carried 99 stories. Of these, 64 appeared on ZBH (ZTV (38), Power FM (13) and Radio Zimbabwe (13) while Studio 7 carried 35 stories.

Although the stories generally pointed to a continuation of the severe social upheaval resulting from the exercise, all the stories from the government media unquestioningly endorsed it. Only private media reported on local and international condemnation of the programme, and exposed the brutal and inhumane nature of the "clearances".

The passive nature of the official media’s coverage was illustrated by the way in which they only echoed or amplified government’s justification for the ‘clean-up’ by mainly depicting the authorities as working flat out to ensure that no one was disadvantaged by the operation. This unquestioning approval of the crackdown saw Power FM (13/6, 1pm), ZTV (13/6,6pm) and the Chronicle (14/6) using officials from the Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban Planners (ZIRUP) and the Urban Councils’ Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) to suffocate the real scale of the human suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina with fatuous comments.

For example, ZTV merely quoted ZIRUP’s Percy Toriro urging "environmental stakeholders to maintain the glow that has been awarded to cities by the clean-up exercise" without linking it to the humanitarian misery it has caused.

Similarly, the Chronicle quoted UCAZ president Fani Phiri defending the denial of shelter and "survival means" of the victims because the clampdown was like a "bitter medicine that healed the people".

But it was comment from Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri that best illustrated the authorities’ contempt for the victims of Murambatsvina. He was quoted in The Herald (16/6) describing them as the "crawling mass of maggots" that were "bent on destroying the economy".

To justify the government’s harsh execution of the clampdown, The Herald (15/6) handily used an isolated incident in which "80 pigs and 120 goats" were discovered in one of the ‘illegal’ houses in Harare during the operation as "testimony to the extent to which our cities had deteriorated". In addition, the government-controlled papers carried nine stories – exposing alleged black market dealings in gold, fuel and several other commodities – as proof of the benefits of the crackdown.

The official media also portrayed government as caring for the victims’ plight by providing alternative accommodation. For example, ZTV (15/6,6pm) and Power FM (16/6) quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo announcing that 30 000 stands were "awaiting allocation to those without homes", adding that the names of the beneficiaries would be published in The Herald on Friday (17/6).

The Herald (17/6) itself was unhelpful. It passively reported that government had named 4 470 people out of 20 477 who would be allocated housing stands at Whitecliff Farm without questioning the criteria used to select the beneficiaries, or even whether they had been victims of the evictions. Nor did it provide any information about the stands except to say that the beneficiaries would only be allowed to occupy them once "basic services are put in place and until they are issued with a certificate of occupation". The Herald did not ask how long this might take or why the authorities had not first serviced the stands and allowed the beneficiaries to build homes before flattening their existing dwellings.

ZTV (15/6, 8pm) and the Chronicle (18/6) also steered clear of asking pertinent questions.

Only the private Press reported estimates of between 200,000 and a million people who had lost their homes as a result of the clearances. Studio 7 (14/6) and The Financial Gazette (16/6) however, also quoted Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya disputing these figures. The Gazette quoted him as having said there "were much less than 20,000" affected.

The official media’s uncritical nature was illustrated by their reliance on the authorities and pro-government commentators at the expense of other pertinent sources. See Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the public Press

All 51 sources quoted by the official Press endorsed the operation. In addition, they carried five editorials and opinion pieces that also approved government’s action.

Similarly ZBH relied more on government/officials as their primary sources of news, quoting them 41 times, with only two from ordinary people.

However, except for The Daily Mirror’s comment (17/6) supporting Operation Murambatsvina and calling on government to extend it to illegal gold panners, the rest of the 62 stories the private media carried continued to expose the human suffering caused by the exercise. They also carried local and international criticism from Australia, the US, the United Nations, European Union, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), health experts and church leaders.

The Standard (19/6) also revealed that even some senior members of ZANU PF had reservations about the operation. The government media dodged these developments by maintaining its one-sided positive portrayal of Murambatsvina.

For example, ZTV (18/6,8pm) and Power FM (19/6, 6pm) announced that "efforts to transform Caledonia Farm into a planned, structured and well organized transit camp are now at an advanced stage" without comparing how this squared with Chombo’s earlier comments on ZTV (16/6, 6pm) that the exercise had been "conceived and planned by government" after "elaborate consultation" and "not initiated on the spur of the moment".

Neither did the station (16/6, 8pm) question why government was only now setting up "committees to systematically execute resources to people affected by the clean-up exercise".

Instead, Power FM and ZTV (18/06,8pm) reported on families at Caledonia Farm now having access to "clean water, better shelter and hygienic conditions…"

ZTV showed footage of the farm, where 13 small tents had been put up, with six big ones still to be erected. A police officer was quoted saying the people there were happy. None of the "residents" was interviewed to comment on conditions at the farm.

The official media ignored the public outcry arising from the purge. For example it was silent on the outbreak of riots in Bulawayo’s Makokoba suburb and the lawsuit brought against Chihuri by informal traders in Bulawayo "over the confiscation of their merchandise" as reported by Studio 7 (14/6 & 16/6) and the Independent.

In addition, the Independent revealed that government had barred humanitarian groups from assisting thousands of families who were affected by the exercise because they feared that donors’ intervention would be an acknowledgment of the humanitarian crisis the operation has caused.

The critical manner in which the private Press handled the operation was reflected in their more diverse sourcing pattern as shown in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig. 3 Voice Distribution on Studio 7

The private papers also carried four editorials and opinion pieces critical of the exercise.

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