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Government media's coverage of agricultural production
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-35
Monday September 12^th – Sunday September 18^th 2005

DESPITE having previously exposed a lack of readiness for the coming farming season, which projected a gloomy picture of the agricultural sector, the government media changed its tone this week.

Almost all their 86 reports (ZBH [48] and government Press [38]) on the topic glossed over Zimbabwe’s food security concerns and the poor preparations for the forthcoming season by presenting the authorities as having introduced measures that would ensure high agricultural production. For example, ZBH (13/9, 6 & 8pm) simplistically celebrated the increase in the price of seed and fertiliser saying this would ensure availability of inputs, which are currently in short supply. There was no explanation how exactly the new prices would automatically translate into affordability.

The official media’s attempts to present a sanitised outlook of the agricultural sector resulted in ZTV (15/9, 8pm), Power FM (16/9, 6am) and The Herald (16/9) depicting the UNDP as having approached government with a pledge to assist in the provision of inputs, when in actual fact it was government that had asked for assistance from the world body (Independent and SW Radio Africa, 16/9).

Their dishonesty also saw ZBH and the government Press suffocate alarming revelations by Secretary for Agriculture Simon Pazvakavambwa that the country had only three weeks supply of grain. In fact, the three stories the official papers carried on the matter were only in the context of official denials.

For instance, The Herald and Chronicle (12/9) quoted National Security Minister and Chairman of the National Taskforce on Grain, Didymus Mutasa, dismissing Pazvakavambwa’s claims as "completely untrue and unfounded", saying he did not expect such a comment from "a senior person like him".

Mutasa told the government dailies that the country was importing 15,000 tonnes of grain weekly from South Africa, in addition to other grain that was "coming from other countries and the local market". He did not name the other countries that Zimbabwe was importing maize from or the tonnage of grain they had since delivered. Neither did the papers ask him.

More official denials appeared on Studio 7 (12 & 14/9) and The Daily Mirror (12/9).

Zimbabwean Ambassador to the UN Boniface Chidyausiku, for example, told Studio 7 (14/9) that government would "not go begging" for assistance because there were no food shortages, adding that "donors" who wanted to assist were the "very people" who wanted to "bring regime change in Zimbabwe".

However the private media, as exemplified by The Financial Gazette (15/9) and SW Radio Africa, challenged these official pronouncements. The weekly carried three stories, which showed that contrary to the officials’ denials of a looming food crisis, Pazvakavambwa – whom it said risked losing his job after being grilled by Mutasa’s taskforce over the maize grain shortage disclosures – was right.

It reported that government had in fact "lent credence" to Pazvakavambwa revelations when Mutasa "inadvertently" revealed that the government was importing 15 000 tonnes of maize weekly as this would translate to 60 000 tonnes per month against the monthly national requirement of more than 150 000 tonnes.

Moreover, the Gazette cited statistics it obtained from the South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS) revealing that while Zimbabwe stepped up grain imports from that country between April and August, "the volumes have been progressively declining in recent weeks". It noted that SAGIS had not recorded any exports to Zimbabwe during the past two weeks. The reports were part of the 18 stories the private media (private press [10], SW Radio Africa [4] and Studio 7 [4]) carried on the chaos in the agricultural sector and the country’s precarious food situation.

Meanwhile, The Standard (18/9) exposed the racial bigotry that has characterised government’s land reforms. The paper reported Mutasa telling a land audit meeting in Masvingo that the few remaining white farmers must be "cleared out" under a new programme called "Faster track" because they were "dirty" and "similar to the filth that was in the streets before Murambatsvina."

The government media (The Herald, 12/9 & ZTV, 13/9, 8pm) censored this hate speech in their reports of the same meeting.

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