Back to Index

Food security and the blame game
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-36
Monday September 19^th – Sunday September 25^th 2005

THE country’s tenuous food situation – made more alarming by recent revelations of poor preparations for the 2005/6 farming season – continued to be a highlight of the media during the week.

In all, the media carried 136 stories on the topic. Of these, 70 appeared on ZBH (ZTV 39, Power FM 14, and Radio Zimbabwe 17) and 11 on Studio 7, while the government-controlled papers published 30 stories and the private Press 25.

Although ZBH had previously highlighted how the inadequate farming preparations risked worsening Zimbabwe’s insecure food situation, their stories this week contradicted this impression by projecting government as having taken great strides to rectify the problem.

However, none of the stories matched the authorities’ rhetoric on the matter with facts on the ground.

For example, all ZBH stations (19/9, 8pm) reported the reassurances by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) that the country had "enough grain reserves to last until the next harvest despite the drought", without challenging the board to back its claims with reasoned statistical evidence. Consequently, the national broadcaster’s audience remained no wiser as to how much maize, if any, the board was holding in its reserves.

Instead, ZTV (19/9, 8pm) and Power FM (20/9, 6am) supinely cited the GMB blaming fuel problems and poor road networks for the unavailability of the maize nationwide.

In fact, nearly all 70 stories ZBH carried on Zimbabwe’s food and agricultural problems diverted attention from government’s poor management of the sector by blaming it on other factors. These included agro-based businesses ‘linked’ to former white farmers who were accused of allegedly scaling down production of agricultural inputs in protest against land reforms (ZTV 25/9, 8pm) and some millers who were blamed for "sabotaging the government’s effort to feed the nation" by withholding maize meal (Power FM 19/9, 6am).

Resettled black farmers were not spared either. ZTV (20/9, 8pm), Power FM (21/9, 6am) and The Herald (21/9) reported Gono describing as "criminal" their inability to maximise maize yields per hectare as compared to Chinese and South African farmers. However, government’s complicity in the fall in agricultural production through its chaotic land reforms was left unexplored.

Only The Sunday Mail (25/9) broke ranks with its stablemates by fairly assessing the matter in its comment, Address real issues facing new farmers. The paper disagreed with Gono’s attempts to blame the farmers alone for low production. It argued that "some of the reasons for non-maximum utilisation of land go back to the Government and to his (Gono) office", adding that until the "real issues affecting farmers" are addressed "yields will continue to be low" as farmers "cannot take shortcuts and still get maximum yields".

Otherwise, like ZBH, the rest of the 25 stories the government Press published on the subject absolved government while blaming farmers for the country’s agricultural problems. For example, although The Herald (19/9) and Chronicle (22/9) cited the shortage of inputs as responsible for what is expected to be poor yields in cotton and tobacco, The Herald (20/9) paradoxically blamed farmers for the grim outlook.

The paper accused the farmers of not doing much to "boost agriculture", saying they should not just wait to "be spoon-fed…expecting government to lay on everything, from fuel to fertiliser".

Responding to farmers’ concerns over fuel shortages, the paper urged them to emulate other "businesses" that were not "wringing their hands in despair" over the issue but sourcing "free funds" to import their own fuel "either directly or through agents".

The Herald (22/9)’s comment, Unproductive farmers must lose land, echoed these views. It amplified official statements attacking resettled farmers for failing to fully utilise land given them saying government should repossess such land as recommended by several land audits, including the Charles Utete Report.

However, it did not challenge government why it continues to conduct so many land audits without implementing their recommendations.

Instead, The Herald and Chronicle (23/9), sought to portray government as implementing sound measures to ensure high productivity. The papers merely quoted Agriculture Minister Joseph Made saying the increase in the producer price of wheat from $1 749 128 to $6 920 780 per tonne would ensure that "wheat production remains viable and provides an incentive for farmers to continue producing the crop," without seeking comment from farmers.

Similarly, ZBH carried at least five stories that passively quoted government officials and their sympathisers praising the enactment of the 17^th Constitutional Amendment saying it will "enhance" agricultural production, as it would bring to "finality" wrangles over land ownership.

The government media’s partisan coverage of the matter was reflected in their over-dependence on government voices as shown in Fig 1 and 2 in line with their agenda to absolve the authorities of blame.

Fig 1 Voice Distribution on ZBH

Fig 2 Voice distribution in government Press

In contrast, the private media gave a more informed analysis of the problems affecting agriculture and the country’s food security. Almost all the stories attributed the problems to government’s chaotic land reforms and skewed macro-economic policies, as well as its continued denial of the existence of a humanitarian crisis in the country.

For example, Studio 7 (19/9), The Financial Gazette (22/9), The Zimbabwe Independent (23/9), The Standard and Sunday Mirror (25/9) exposed the complete disdain with which the authorities viewed the starving masses. They reported President Mugabe as having denied that Zimbabweans faced starvation, saying they were a "very happy" people whose problem was their dependency on maize when they could eat "heaps of potatoes" and "rice" the country had in stock.

As the Independent columnist, Muckraker observed, Mugabe, at a stroke, managed to combine the crudely insensitive comments of the 18^th Century French queen, Marie Antoinette, who called on her people to "eat cake" if they could not find bread, and colonial Rhodesian leader Ian Smith, who boasted of having "the happiest Africans on the continent".

The private media viewed Mugabe’s statement as a reflection of his detachment from reality and his insensitivity to the plight of suffering Zimbabweans.

In addition, Studio 7 (19/9) carried two other stories in which it cited Mugabe denying there was a humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. For example, it reported him as having refused humanitarian assistance from the UN during his meeting with the world body’s secretary-general, Kofi Annan, in New York. Citing unnamed UN officials, Studio 7 reported that Mugabe had only agreed "under pressure from Annan" to have the UN bring in food but only "to complement" his government’s efforts.

The government media all censored these reports, including Mugabe’s bizarre comments, which attracted media coverage around the world.

Studio 7 (21/9) also revealed that the country’s food crisis had caught up with the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), which had started to send mostly junior officers on forced leave as it was unable to "provide three meals a day". The station quoted an unnamed army official saying because of these problems the ZNA had even suspended recruitments.

Although the private Press gave more space to official sources, it balanced government’s perspective with independent comment from alternative sources, farmers, foreign experts and MDC voices. See Fig 3.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

Similarly, Studio 7 attempted to balance government assessment of the country’s food insecurity with perceptions of mainly international relief organisations and the opposition MDC as shown in fig 4.

Table 4: Voice distribution on Studio 7

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