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Local government issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-42
Monday October 31^st – Sunday November 6^th 2005

THE official media’s complicity in the persecution of MDC-led councils was illustrated by their passive coverage of government’s victimisation of Chitungwiza town council on allegations that it was failing to provide basic services to residents.

For example, ZBH and The Herald, merely amplified official attacks on the council without providing a holistic picture on the root causes of the problems bedevilling Chitungwiza in the 19 stories (ZBH [13] and The Herald [six]) they carried on the matter.

Neither did they view the problems facing Chitungwiza Council as indicative of the general collapse of basic amenities in all the country’s major towns and cities, including Harare. Instead, they simplistically presented the Chitungwiza saga as an isolated case of maladministration.

For instance, ZTV (31/10, 8pm) reported that "Chitungwiza residents and ratepayers" had "demonstrated" against their council over its alleged mismanagement of the town.

Notably, while ZTV presented the protestors as ordinary ‘residents’ of Chitungwiza, almost all those shown wore ZANU-PF regalia and chanted ruling party slogans.

Power FM (31/10, 8pm) carried a similar story and reported ‘residents’ as having called on the authorities "to take over" the running of the council by appointing "a commission".

As if heeding such calls, the next day Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo was quoted on ZBH (1/11, 8pm) ordering Chitungwiza council to reinstate "with immediate effect" town clerk Simbarashe Mudunge, who was suspended on allegations of fraud, and to "rectify the situation in the next few days". Chombo warned that government would be left "with no option" but to "get (council) out of office" if it failed to do so.

The Herald (2/11) picked up the story the following day.

It reported that Chombo had issued a "24-hour ultimatum" to the council "to produce and present a turnaround plan to address the problems affecting the town" or be fired and replaced by a government-appointed commission.

Like ZBH, the paper did not seek comment from the mayor, Misheck Shoko, nor did it question the practicality of a one-day ultimatum. It also failed to provide a catalogue of the council’s failings. It only reported that the order followed "Monday’s demonstrations by residents against poor services". Notably, The Herald did not cover the protest.

The next day, The Herald reported a fresh government attack on the council by quoting Chombo accusing it of failing to source fuel to conduct its duties following revelations that the council had contracted a private firm to collect money from its district offices, a function previously conducted by municipal police. The paper’s lop-sided story studiously avoided reporting the council’s fuel problems in the context of the acute nationwide fuel shortage, which is severely affecting other councils.

It merely quoted Chombo telling the council to "find other ways of getting fuel".

Barely five days after Chombo’s threat to fire the council, ZBH (6/11, 8pm) passively announced that, "government had taken over the running of Chitungwiza municipality". ZTV unquestioningly reported the minister as saying government would provide "$5 billion for the purchase of pumps for water and sewer reticulation systems and manpower to improve the lives of the people of Chitungwiza".

But in its earlier story, The Herald (2/11) claimed government had already "chipped in with $5 billion towards the upgrading…of Chitungwiza’s sewerage system," and reported Chombo also ordering council to lay the pipes and cover the trenches dug in March "following government’s intervention…" before the end of the week. The paper said work had stopped as a result of "unclear hitches…" which unnamed "observers noted were political". Only when the paper tried to explain the town clerk’s suspension did readers get to suspect that government had actually only released $250 million for the project, but it wouldn’t say whether this might have been the reason why work had stopped.

While the government media myopically presented Chitungwiza council as incompetent, they showed little concern over the mismanagement of Harare’s own crumbling amenities, including crippling water shortages, garbage mountains, intermittent street lighting and decaying roads, among other issues.

As a result, all 17 stories they carried (ZBH [13] and the government Press [four]) on the water crisis in Harare merely highlighted the human suffering caused by the water shortages and avoided taking the government-appointed commission running the city to task.

ZBH (4/11, evening bulletins) and The Herald (5/11) captured the tragic consequences of the sorry state of affairs in Harare when they reported the death of a Mabvuku woman trying to evade Harare municipal police dispersing residents fetching water from a burst pipe in the suburb. (SW Radio Africa (4/11) and The Daily Mirror (5/11) also reported the incident). But rather than question government on whether it would dismiss the commission because of the capital’s increasingly serious water crisis, the government media restricted themselves to quoting members of the public merely "urging" the commission to resolve the crisis.

Earlier, The Herald (4/11) sought to portray the Harare commission as working flat out to rectify the problems by reporting glowingly on a yet to-be-signed agreement between Moscow and Harare promising "housing provision, refuse collection, sewage treatment and employment creation…". It did not reveal that residents were against the extravagant trip, which is said to have gobbled up $2,2 billion of ratepayers’ money. This appeared in The Daily Mirror (1/11).

The partisan manner in which the government media handled the topic was reflected by the way it largely failed to balance official views with alternative voices. See Figs 1 and 2.

Fig 1. Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig 2. Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, all the ordinary people’s voices were narrowly quoted calling on the commission to solve the water shortage.

The private media, as illustrated by SW Radio Africa (31/10 & 2/11), Studio 7 (2/11) and The Standard, were more questioning. These media interpreted government’s meddling in the affairs of Chitungwiza Council as a precursor to the authorities’ eventual takeover of the council as was the case with the Harare City Council.

The Standard, for example, noted that the 24-hour ultimatum and the arbitrary reinstatement of a suspended town clerk by Chombo was a, "multi-faceted brutal attack on an elected council, reminiscent of the manner in which the government has acted against and removed the elected mayors of Harare and Mutare, adding that Bulawayo and Gweru were the next targets of the assault.

Contrary to the impression created in the government papers, the weekly noted that while Chitungwiza had applied for funding in order to deal with "these serious health issues", government had "deliberately found every excuse…to put obstacles and make political capital out of all this" as was the case now. It accused government of duplicity on the matter, saying although Harare has suffered a water crisis and neglect of refuse collection since 1997, "no strategy has been demanded by those now issuing an ultimatum to Chitungwiza."

The story was one of eight stories the private newspapers carried on council issues, seven of which appeared in the Mirror stable. Although the stable did not analyze the underlying intentions of government’s interference in Chitungwiza, it gave Shoko a platform to air his views on the matter and revealed that some of the people who demonstrated against Chitungwiza council were "bussed from surrounding areas such as Dema" while others were forced to support the protest.

The private Press’ voice distribution is shown in Fig 3.

Fig 3. Voice distribution in the private Press

Notably, local government voices comprised Chitungwiza Council officials’ response to government allegations.

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