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The purge of the poor and Operation Garikai
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-24
Monday June 27^th – Sunday July 3^rd 2005

GOVERNMENT’S continued purge of the poor under Operation Murambatsvina and its succeeding ‘reconstruction’ programme, Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, dominated media coverage again during the week.

Government-controlled newspapers published 35 stories on the topic and the private Press 41.

The electronic media carried 147 stories. Of these, 120 were broadcast on ZBH (ZTV 53; Power FM 35; Radio Zimbabwe 32) while 27 were aired on Studio 7.

The government media continued its passive coverage by merely echoing official views on the matter, including an attempt to pre-empt the assessment by UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka of the humanitarian crisis triggered by the government operation.

In contrast the private papers exposed the chaotic and heavy-handed manner in which Murambatsvina was implemented and publicised the growing local and international condemnation of the exercise.

However, none of the media adequately examined the details regarding the implementation of Garikai and Murambatsvina, such as the laws government is using to justify its actions, the credibility of its reconstruction claims and where government will find the unbudgeted $3 trillion it claims to have set aside to fund this massive exercise.

The media also failed to demand the selection criteria for identifying the beneficiaries of Garikai and have still made no attempt to investigate the extent of the failure of urban councils to implement their housing waiting-list system or whether any of the hundreds of thousands of people allegedly on these lists will qualify as beneficiaries.

The government media also blacked out incidents that exposed the callous nature of government’s actions and its disregard for the rule of law. For instance, they censored the brutal eviction of Porta Farm residents despite court orders barring such actions and ignored government’s illegal construction of "model" houses at Whitecliff Farm. These issues – and reports of at least three deaths at Porta Farm - only appeared in the private Press.

Instead, the official media simply glossed over the widespread suffering caused by Murambatsvina with the purported virtues of Garikai. Twenty-two (63%) of the 35 reports the official Press carried on the "winding-up" of Murambatsvina and the launching of Garikai reflected this position, while the rest were passive stories on Tibaijuka’s visit.

For example, The Herald (29/6) supinely quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo as having told Parliament that Murambatsvina was "90 percent" successful, adding that government was "now directing its efforts towards the reconstruction of infrastructure throughout the country".

Chombo’s claims that the authorities had given the public "adequate notices…advising them not to construct illegal structures" or his assertion that some shack owners had acknowledged their illegal conduct by "pulling down the structures on their own" went unchallenged.

The paper’s reluctance to openly discuss the matter was reflected by the fact that while it gave Chombo acres of space to defend Murambatsvina, it suffocated the MDC questions he was responding to.

ZBH employed similar reporting tactics with ZTV carrying 16 glowing stories on the officials’ portrayal of Garikai and Murambatsvina while reporting unflatteringly on alternative comment. For example, ZTV (28/6, 8pm) manipulated British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s alleged comments that he "welcomed" Tibaijuka’s investigation into the effects of Murambatsvina because he "personally" knew her to suggest that he intended to influence her to produce a negative report.

However, the same bulletin did not apply the same interpretation to Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya’s statements that he perhaps knew Tibaijuka "better" than Blair.

The Herald and Chronicle (30/6) also reported on government’s attempts to link Blair to Tibaijuka.

Nevertheless, the following day The Herald (1/7) quoted Jokonya’s deputy, Bright Matonga, saying the UN envoy would do her work without influence from "the Zimbabwean government or from Blair". This apparently followed a meeting between Tibaijuka and government officials at which she reportedly hailed government’s "seriousness" in allocating housing stands to the homeless.

Besides the Tibaijuka issue, the government media also seemed bent on pre-empting African Union envoy Bahare Tom Nyanduga’s planned evaluation of Murambatsvina. For example, The Sunday Mail (3/7) reported official suspicion of his "unprocedural" visit, saying the AU dispatched him to Zimbabwe without "notifying government through the normal channels". However, Nyanduga told the paper that government had been informed of his visit.

Studio 7 (1/7) alerted its audiences to Nyanduga’s visit. The government media ignored the issue. The failure by the official media to handle the subject professionally was again reflected in their dependence on official comment as shown on Fig 1 and 2.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, all government, local government, police and alternative voices that these papers quoted endorsed government’s policies. The 11 foreign diplomats’ voices were mainly Tibaijuka’s comments while the MDC was briefly quoted in the context of reports on parliamentary debates on Murambatsvina. Even then, the opposition’s views were drowned by government officials’ justification for the operation.

The pattern remained unbroken on ZBH. For example, of the 179 comments recorded on the State broadcaster 88 (49%) of them were official voices, endorsing Murambatsvina. It was also notable that ZBH only highlighted Tibaijuka’s alleged favourable comments on the exercise.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

In their efforts to portray a positive picture of Garikai, the official media ended up flooding their audiences with confusing statistics and uninformative comments from the authorities. For example, while the Chronicle (27/6) quoted Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema claiming that about 600 houses would be delivered by August 31 under Garikai, two days later it also reported the chairman of the Bulawayo Reconstruction Committee, Lieutenant Colonel Brave Matavire, putting them at 1 000.

In contrast, almost all 41 stories carried by the private papers critically examined government’s actions. Of these, 15 were on Tibaijuka’s visit and questioned the practicability of government’s plan to provide all displaced people with decent accommodation. The rest either continued to condemn Murambatsvina or exposed the humanitarian crisis it has caused.

Eight of the 27 stories carried by Studio 7 exposed government’s heavy-handed implementation of Murambatsvina, 18 highlighted the international community’s criticism of the exercise and the remainder was an update on the continuing demolition of ‘illegal’ structures.

The Zimbabwe Independent (1/7) viewed the government’s reconstruction exercise as a ploy by the authorities to "mislead" the UN and "cover up the disastrous impact of the crackdown". The Sunday Mirror (3/7) agreed, saying government’s "damage control overdrive" was being complemented by an "all-is-roses" government "media blitz" to impress the envoy.

The Financial Gazette (30/6) expressed similar sentiments. The paper, The Daily Mirror, Studio 7 (30/6) and the Independent also exposed the police’s brutal eviction of Porta Farm residents in defiance of court orders barring them from doing so.

Similarly, The Standard (3/7) reported government’s defiance of a court ruling ordering it to destroy model houses it built at Whitecliff farm "within 48 hours" because they were illegal. This High Court ruling reported in the Independent barred government from allocating stands at Whitecliff Farm and building there because it was privately owned.

The government media ignored this.

And contrary to government media portrayals that Tibaijuka had been impressed by government’s implementation of Murambatsvina, The Standard reported her as having been "upset" by what the victims of the exercise were experiencing, particularly at Porta Farm. It also quoted the victims complaining to Tibaijuka over the manner in which they were treated by the authorities.

In fact, the extent of the disdain with which members of the ruling party view the opposition MDC and their hundreds of thousands of urban supporters was revealed in an alarming story in the Independent which quoted Industry and Trade deputy minister and Seke MP Phineas Chihota claiming in Parliament that the victims of Murambatsvina who had no rural homes to go to were "not indigenous".

"Ninety percent of our people who have been voted into Parliament from the other side (MDC) are not indigenous and the constituencies they talk about have no identity and recognition," the paper quoted him as saying. The paper reported protests from all corners of the House including Chihota’s ruling party colleagues. But it also reported Zanu-PF "sources" saying the blitz on Zimbabwe’s urban population was "a thinly veiled ethnic cleansing campaign".

Only the British Broadcasting Corporation carried a story similarly reflecting the gravity of the crisis in Zimbabwe when it reported at the weekend that Methodist churchmen had called on South African President Thabo Mbeki to intervene because the unfolding tragedy contained all the ingredients of "genocide".

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

The private papers carried 11 editorials that also critically examined the operation. Despite its diversified sourcing, Studio 7 remained thin on comment from the authorities. The only official voice the station recorded (30/6) was that of Matonga, attacking US President George Bush for criticising President Mugabe as a "tyrant".

Fig. 4 Voice distribution on Studio 7

The rest of the voices were critical of Murambatsvina.

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