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Murambatsvina continues in Mbare
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-44
Monday November 14^th 2005- Sunday November 20^th 2005

THE most "effective" way to deal with sensitive political developments that expose the government’s disdain for humanity and the rule of law is to censor it. And that’s just what the government-controlled print and electronic media did in the week over the authorities’ sudden night-time eviction from Mbare of hundreds of destitute Murambatsvina victims, despite a court order barring them from taking such action before finding them adequate alternative accommodation.

With an illegal monopoly on broadcasting and a massively dominant position in the Press following the ban on The Herald’s main competition, the government media’s gag on this latest example of the authorities’ flagrant disregard for the law demonstrated how successfully the government has seized control of the flow of information in the country.

It also illustrates how severely compromised these media are in discharging their public mandate to report news fairly and accurately, and underlines the need to reform laws inhibiting the development of a diverse media community free from government control.

Only the niche market Daily Mirror (15/11), the private radio stations (14,15&16/11), and the Zimbabwe Independent (18/11) reported the event. These media revealed that Harare municipality stealthily swooped on at least 250 homeless people camped at Mbare’s Tsiga grounds in the middle of the night, bundled them into lorries and dumped them at the notoriously squalid Hopley Farm.

But while the private stations and the Independent interpreted the authorities’ removal of the vagrants as a violation of a court ruling and an abuse of their rights, The Daily Mirror (15/11) avoided that angle and simply reported the eviction as an isolated event. It even seemingly endorsed the move on the grounds that the "squatters" were victims of Murambatsvina "who had returned to live in squalid conditions". The paper then passively quoted Harare City Council spokesman Leslie Gwindi justifying the eviction saying the council’s stance that "these people know where to go" was "unequivocal", adding that it was "illegal" for the settlers to remain "where they were staying and also detrimental to the city and themselves".

Instead of questioning Gwindi’s comments, the CIO-controlled paper then presented a glowing picture of the purported benefits of government’s rebuilding programme, Garikai. It passively reported Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo using the "official handing over" of 100 houses to Garikai beneficiaries in Bulawayo to present the housing programme as paying dividends, saying the project was not a "political gimmick" but a demonstration that government was "serious…and will not lead Zimbabweans astray".

The paper did not question Chombo over the confusion and delays characterizing Garikai, or why the authorities had finally agreed to accept UN assistance for Murambatsvina victims (Studio 7, 16/11 and The Financial Gazette, 17/11) when they had previously rejected it.

Nevertheless, The Daily Mirror, The Financial Gazette, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (17/11) revealed that government had again defied another court ruling by extending the tenure of the commission running Harare in contravention of the Urban Councils Act.

Although The Herald (15/11) carried a similar story it censored the fact that the courts have outlawed such a move and claimed that the Urban Councils’ Act empowered government to extend the commission’s term of office.

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