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Agricultural
chaos
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-43
Monday November
7th 2005 – Sunday November 13th 2005
THE government
media continued to dishonestly handle the crisis bedevilling the
agricultural sector in the 74 stories they carried on the matter.
Of these, 17 were published in the government papers and 57 on ZBH
(ZTV 27, Power FM 16, Radio Zimbabwe 14).
The stories,
which ranged from exposing poor land preparations and difficulties
riddling wheat harvesting, to throwaway calls on farmers by the
authorities to fully utilise farmland, only mirrored indicators
of the confusion plaguing preparations for the 2005/6 season.
But they failed
to holistically address the issue of how these problems would affect
the country’s agro-based economy or question whether government
had drawn up adequate plans to rectify them.
Despite citing
mostly farmers’ complaints, these media continued portraying government
as taking corrective measures while blaming other agricultural players
for the chaos.
For instance,
while The Herald (10/11) announced that government had "launched
a soyabean promotion programme" that would provide
farmers with "inputs" and necessary skills
"to ensure optimum production", the Chronicle
(11/11) blamed delays in the disbursement of funds to farmers to
"rigid technocrats" who were "throwing spanners"
in government’s efforts to "empower the majority" and
"capitalists" who "employ dirty tactics at their
disposal to maintain their grip on the economy."
More blame-games
appeared on all ZBH stations (7/11, 6pm and 8pm), which reported
the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union complaining about the acute fuel shortage
and the criteria the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) was
using to allocate the commodity.
However, instead
of questioning Noczim, the stations (10/11, 8pm) merely cited its
boss, Zvinechimwe Churu, simply promising farmers that the parastatal
had set up "mechanisms" to ensure that half
the diesel "trickling" into the country
would be available to them.
The "mechanisms"
remained unexplained. ZBH also failed to dig out the crucial figure
that constituted the 50 percent earmarked for the farmers. Instead,
ZTV aired a confusing report in the same bulletin that Noczim had
distributed 23 million litres of diesel to farmers out of the 120
million litres it sourced between April and October this year.
However, some
farmers ZTV cited said they had not benefited from these deliveries,
including one whom it coincidentally interviewed while rain pounded
his 30-hectare crop of mature wheat. Despite this claim, the bulletin
continued to quote "agricultural experts"
accusing farmers of selling their fuel allocations on the black
market.
In comparison,
the 25 stories the private media carried on agriculture were instructive
with 15 of them fully exposing the extent of the mayhem in the farming
sector, including a warning that the coming farming season would
be disastrous.
Twenty-four
of the stories appeared in private papers, while SW Radio Africa
carried a single report. Studio 7 ignored the topic altogether.
These media
also highlighted policy contradictions and the chaos surrounding
government’s controversial land reforms. For example, The Daily
Mirror (12/11) quoted the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) revealing
that 17 white commercial farmers had their farms seized last month
in a new spate of violent farm take-overs, despite condemnation
of this practice by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Vice-President
Joseph Msika.
Lands Minister
Didymus Mutasa confirmed the report, but said he was "not
sure" of the number of farms seized.
Earlier, SW
Radio Africa (10/11) citing ZimOnline, reported that the
remaining 18 white farmers in Karoi had been ordered to leave except
for Billy Rautenbach, reportedly a close friend to President Mugabe.
The following
day, the Independent revealed that government had "stepped
up efforts to push the few remaining white commercial farmers off
the land by empowering a reconstituted equipment committee to seize
farming implements". Reportedly, the committee, led
by police Assistant Commissioner Loveness Ndanga, put 10 farms in
Mwenezi "under guard by armed personnel to forestall
the farmers removing their equipment from the farms".
The Standard
(13/11) carried a similar report.
The Independent
also reported that a CIO officer had seized a white-owned farm and
its crops, and that the government had allocated a number of farms
to Chinese enterprises.
The Financial
Gazette and The Daily Mirror (11/11) carried a story
each showing that some resettled farmers had also been affected
by eviction. The Mirror, for instance, reported the dilemma
"new farmers" were facing when it reported that about
100 farmers, formerly resettled at Hunyani Farm, were evicted and
dumped at Montgomery Farm, a private property in Mashonaland West.
While the farmers
were quoted by the paper complaining that their efforts to resettle
at Montgomery were being frustrated by its white farm owner, it
cited Mashonaland Governor Nelson Samkange exposing the arrogance
and racial bigotry that has characterised the reforms since their
violent inception in 2000.
Said Samkange:
"Do you think the government is stupid to take those
people to a farm owned by someone? If we managed to remove Ian Smith
from power then who is this white farmer to stand in our way".
The government
media turned a blind eye to these evictions.
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fact sheet
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