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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-26
Monday Jul 11^th – Sunday July 17^th 2005

DURING the week media attention was drawn to renewed regional pressure aimed at prodding ZANU PF and the MDC to engage in dialogue and resolve the country’s continuing political and economic crises.

The electronic media broadcast 42 stories on the topic and other related political developments. Of these, 28 were aired on ZBH (ZTV [13], Power FM [8] and Radio Zimbabwe [7]) and 14 on Studio 7. The Press carried 40 stories on the matter, 19 of which appeared in the government papers and 21 in the private Press.

While the government media simply recorded or amplified officials’ dismissal of prospective talks between the two parties, the private Press interpreted the developments as part of regional leaders’ attempts to find a lasting solution to the Zimbabwean crisis.

The private papers linked the sudden visit to Zimbabwe by South African Vice-President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to such regional initiatives. But the government media steered clear of these interpretations, opting instead to view Ngcuka’s visit merely as a "courtesy call" on President Mugabe and his deputy Joice Mujuru.

ZTV (12/7, 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle (13/7) failed to go beyond Ngcuka’s diplomatic etiquette and unravel the real purpose of her meeting with President Mugabe and Mujuru. ZTV and The Herald passively quoted her saying her visit to Zimbabwe stemmed from her desire to "to understand the challenges in Zimbabwe".

ZBH also obscured the fact that Nigerian President and chairman of the African Union, Olusegun Obasanjo, had embarked on a fresh effort to re-open dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC. Instead, the national public broadcaster carried five stories, which largely recorded government officials rebutting such plans.

For example, ZTV (15/7, 8pm) quoted President Mugabe saying there was "no way" his party could talk to the MDC because it was a "British creature" and "lacked the spirit of nationalism".

Coverage of efforts to revive the talks in The Herald (13/7) and Chronicle (15/7) were equally dismissive. The Herald, for example, trashed such calls as "ill-advised and mischievous as they imply that Zimbabwe is a failed state where all institutions of dialogue have ceased to exist". It argued that calls were not "genuine" but "aimed at raising the profiles" of Obasanjo and Tsvangirai and "not the national interest".

Despite the official denials of the potential revival of the ZANU PF/MDC talks, Studio 7 (11/7) carried confirmation from Obasanjo’s office that both President Mugabe and Tsvangirai had certainly "discussed the matter" with the Nigerian leader and agreed to meet in Harare. No timetable was set.

Besides Obasanjo’s efforts to push for an internal settlement, the Zimbabwe Independent (15/7) quoted unnamed sources as saying Ngcuka’s visit to Zimbabwe was part of a new effort by President Thabo Mbeki to revive talks between the two parties as a "follow-up" to the meeting "between Mbeki and Mugabe…in Libya over the issue".

The Sunday Mirror (17/7) concurred in its story, Mbeki in fresh bid over Zim.

Earlier, The Financial Gazette (14/7) had also linked Ngcuka’s visit to the revival of the talks agenda. But while the paper’s headline gave the impression that Mbeki had pledged to "get tough on Zimbabwe", there was no evidence to substantiate this.

In addition, The Standard (17/7) reported that there was mounting pressure on the region to take decisive action on Zimbabwe. The paper reported that the EU had come up with a "raft of resolutions" on Harare, including plans to appoint a special envoy for Zimbabwe "in order to galvanise action among African states".

However, the media failed to investigate the point for calling for the talks, especially when these had failed before. They also failed to investigate the agenda for the proposed dialogue.

Notably, while The Herald’s docile story (16/7) quoted President Mugabe dismissing the need for talks because there was "no problem in Zimbabwe except that the United States and Britain wanted to destabilise the country", the Gazette and Independent reported that Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis was causing unrest even in ZANU PF. The Gazette reported that Cabinet was divided on how to resolve the fuel crisis while the Independent revealed that ZANU PF MPs had "staged a revolt" over government’s failure to resolve the issue.

The Herald and Chronicle (15/7) censored these developments and only reported that government had given the green light to individuals with foreign currency to import fuel to arrest the shortages.

Contrary to President Mugabe’s sanitised picture of the situation in Zimbabwe, all media carried a total of 92 reports that pointed to a deepening economic crisis characterised by sharp increases in commodity and service prices, including a 20% rise in inflation from 144,2% in May to 164,3% in June.

In fact, Studio 7 (17/7) cited South Africa’s City Press alleging that the Zimbabwean government was seeking a US$1 billion loan from South Africa to finance food and fuel purchases and loan repayments to the IMF to stave off expulsion. This startling news appeared nowhere in the Zimbabwean media.

But while the media preoccupied itself with the talks issue, they ignored the significance of Mugabe’s sudden resumption of his nationwide tours. For example, although the government broadcaster carried four stories on President Mugabe’s tour of Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland West and Matebeleland North where he donated a total of 500 computers to 50 different schools, it did not explore the underlying purpose for his visits.

Similarly, except for Studio 7 and the Mirror stable, the rest of the media have been reticent about exploring the MDC’s internal squabbles and subsequent paralysis. For example, only The Daily Mirror (14/7) followed up the story of the power struggle gripping the party – a topic the paper has enthusiastically covered in past weeks – and reported that Tsvangirai had dissolved his shadow Cabinet as part of his attempts to "patch up cracks" in the MDC.

The Sunday Mirror quoted MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi confirming the party infighting.

The government media made reference to the matter in six stories, which included one quoting former MDC MP Roy Bennet accusing "corrupt opportunists" of hijacking the party and Tsvangirai’s response to the allegations. To its credit, The Herald (16/7) carried an interview with MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube who was allowed to articulate his party’s agenda and respond to allegations levelled against the opposition.

Although, the government media quoted the MDC as shown in Fig. 1 and 2, they were mostly quoted in negative stories about the party. Otherwise, the rest of its local sources and four editorials carried by the official Press parroted government’s position on talks.

Fig 1. Voice distribution for Public Press

Fig 2. Voice distribution on ZBH

Despite the private media’s stories on the country’s political developments being more revealing, they relied too heavily on MDC comments as shown in Fig. 3 and 4. Most of the foreign voices were officials confirming regional leaders’ moves to revive talks between the MDC and ZANU PF.

Fig 3. Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig 4. Voice distribution on Studio 7

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