Back to Index

Economic Issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-28
Monday July 25th - Sunday July 31st 2005

THE government media’s reluctance to openly discuss key national issues was demonstrated by the way in which they covered President Mugabe’s recent trip to China aimed at shoring up the country’s waning economic fortunes.

Although they carried 28 reports ‘hailing’ the trip as ‘successful’ these media provided very little information to back this up.

For example, none of the 18 stories that ZBH carried hardly audited the details surrounding the "number of agreements" signed (ZTV, 31/7, 8pm).

ZBH’s Reuben Barwe merely reported that China was Zimbabwe’s "all-weather-friend" without exactly explaining how the "Zimbabwe and China trade", which "had grown by at least 40% per annum, reaching $250 million per year", had revived the fortunes of the economy.

Similarly, the 10 stories that the official Press carried on Mugabe’s trip were scant on detail and failed to link it to government’s efforts to seek an economic rescue package.

Rather, these papers (26/7) merely reported that the country’s mining, transport and road sectors were set for "a major transformation as Chinese companies have expressed an interest in investing" in them. The next day The Herald announced that China and Zimbabwe had signed several deals, including a US$6 million grant to import grain, the provision of 100 computers to support President Mugabe’s "wish to make technologies accessible to all people" and investments in the power industry and coal mining.

The government media’s supine coverage of these trade agreements reflected the way they covered the rest of the problems bedevilling the economy. They carried 43 reports that glossed over the country’s food insecurity, the galloping cost of living, and its purported thawing relations with international financial institutions.

In contrast, the private media were more revealing in their 31 stories on the economic crisis. For example, they linked Mugabe’s visit to China and Zimbabwe’s appeal for a US$1 billion loan from South Africa directly to the country’s precarious economic situation.

The Independent reported that Mugabe had "failed to get a rescue package he had hoped for" and "entered trade and investment deals that will not be of any help to the battered economy in the short to medium term".

It revealed that government was so desperate for financial support that it could "mortgage key national resources" to get it.

Economist Godfrey Kanyenze agreed on Studio 7 (27/7). He said Zimbabwe was "simply signing off its wealth without tangible benefits".

The Gazette (29/7) revealed that Zimbabwe had even taken its "begging bowl to Namibia…in its increasingly desperate bid to rustle up urgent financial aid from its dwindling bed of allies."

In addition, the paper reported World Bank director Harwig Schafer saying the country’s "rapid economic decline" over the past six years was "unprecedented for a country that is not at war" with 70% of Zimbabweans living below the poverty datum line.

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP