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Economic issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-29
Monday August 1^st – August 7^th 2005

THE debate over Zimbabwe’s worsening economic crisis dominated media coverage in the week. The print media carried 77 reports on the matter, 39 of which appeared in the government newspapers and 38 in the private Press. ZBH carried 37 reports, while Studio 7 had 14 stories.

However, the government media’s coverage of the economic meltdown evaded examining its root causes, or the measures the authorities were taking to arrest the decline. Consequently, these media neither explained the exact reasons behind government’s efforts to seek economic rescue packages from China and South Africa, nor discussed the circumstances surrounding the aid agreements.

Rather, all the five stories that the government Press carried on the China/Zimbabwe agreements emphasised the purported benefits of the alleged deals. For instance, The Herald (4/8) reported that Zimbabwe and China had "struck a telepathic understanding" in various spheres of development that include political and economic co-operation, which would place Zimbabwe at an advantage when it comes to negotiating economic deals. Without providing informative detail on the deals, the paper’s opinion piece (6/8), Attacks on Chinese products unjustified, tried to endorse Zimbabwe’s trade with China by simplistically portraying the Chinese as better trading partners than Zimbabwe’s former Western associates.

It crassly claimed that the quality of Chinese industrial products were actually better than Western products as exemplified by the "guns of Chinese origin" that "triumphed over the Western-made FN rifles of the RF (Rhodesian Front)" during the liberation struggle. It added that "Westerners" were "peddling falsehoods" about Chinese products "in the hope of cultivating consumer resistance to Chinese goods" and "deal a fatal blow to the Look East policy."

ZBH adopted a similar slant. For instance, Power FM (1/8, 6am) & ZTV (2/8, 6&8pm) simplistically claimed that President Mugabe’s recent visit to China would improve Zimbabwe’s economic fortunes by providing the business sector with vast investment opportunities. These superficial reports captured the tone of the14 stories ZBH carried on the Zimbabwe/China relations.

The government media’s oversimplification of Zimbabwe’s economic problems was also evident in the way they suffocated government’s attempts to obtain a US$1 billion loan from SA to pay for essential imports and offset its debt with the IMF.

None of the eight reports the government media (the government Press [6] and ZBH [2]) carried on the loan adequately outlined the reasons why government wanted the credit, or provided details regarding the terms of its disbursement. So reluctant were these media to discuss the matter that their coverage of the issue only emerged in the context of defending the borrowing.

For example, South African President Thabo Mbeki provided the government media (The Herald, Chronicle, 2/8, and Power FM, 2/8, 1pm) with a perfect opportunity to defend the loan following Mbeki’s claims that Zimbabwe’s crippling foreign debt was "a natural consequence of (Zimbabwe’s) liberation and independence, which imposed on the new government a duty to deal with the urgent needs of the formerly oppressed" and not a result of "corruption".

Mbeki’s claims were allowed to pass without any scrutiny.

The government media’s unwillingness to go beyond official pronouncements to unravel the details of the SA/Zimbabwe negotiations to bail-out Harare was illustrated by The Sunday Mail’s failure to take the Governor of the Reserve Bank to task on the matter. Instead, the paper passively quoted Gideon Gono refusing to shed light on the issue on the basis that "borrowings between nations" were "never done through megaphone negotiations".

The government media’s unprofessional handling of the matter and other related reports on indicators of economic collapse was reflected in their sourcing pattern as shown in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

The government Press also carried nine editorials either echoing or magnifying government policies.

The private media were more analytical in their coverage of Zimbabwe’s economic woes. For example, the nine stories they carried on Zimbabwe’s trade relations with China critically examined the alleged successes of Zimbabwe’s economic embrace with China.

The Financial Gazette (4/8) and Zimbabwe Independent (5/8) argued that apart from Chinese political support, Zimbabwe had failed to secure the desperately needed rescue package.

The Independent noted that although Mugabe had returned from China clutching more bilateral and preferential trade agreements, including "a paltry US$6 million for grain imports" enough to feed the starving multitudes for three months, "it leaves Mugabe with nothing for fuel and power imports."

The Financial Gazette concurred, adding that the much-publicised visit was "a significant failure" since the figure was "a far cry from the US$420 million the country needs to bridge a massive grain deficit".

The Independent also contended that while President Mugabe claimed China was Zimbabwe’s "great friend", the Asian country had "stronger economic and cultural ties with the West" which it was consolidating. And while Mugabe boasted about the success of his ‘Look East policy’, said the paper, latest figures showed that Zimbabwe’s total trade with the Chinese was only US$264 million annually, an amount which can "barely buy five months’ supply of fuel."

The private media also updated their audiences on the negotiations surrounding the SA/Zimbabwe loan in the 17 stories they carried on the issue. They revealed that SA had attached strict conditions to the loan Zimbabwe was seeking. Studio 7 (3/8) and the Independent, for example, quoted SA government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe saying the loan should benefit Zimbabweans "within the context of an economic recovery programme and political normalisation".

The same sentiments were echoed in another story published in the SA-based Business Day and reproduced by the Independent and The Daily Mirror (5/8). The story claimed that part of the deal was aimed at averting Zimbabwe’s expulsion from the IMF, a move confirmed by Netshitenzhe. He was quoted as saying the IMF had already given Zimbabwe four weeks’ grace period, following talks between SA and the international lender.

As the week closed, Studio 7 (7/8) quoted the South African Sunday Times claiming that Pretoria had given Mugabe a "week to agree to democratic reforms in return for a financial aid package of up to US$500 million".

The openness in which the private media debated Zimbabwe’s economic ills was reflected in the private Press’ sourcing pattern as shown in Fig 3.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

The private papers carried six critical editorials of government’s economic management. In addition, they carried 22 other stories that highlighted the increasingly poor performance of the economy.

Although Studio 7 was also revealing in its coverage of the country’s economic meltdown, which included four reports on indicators of economic decline, it failed to balance alternative voices with official comment. See Fig 4.

Fig. 4 Voice distribution on Studio 7

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