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MDC split and the Senate poll
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-44
Monday November 14^th 2005- Sunday November 20^th 2005

THE widening rift in the MDC between its president Morgan Tsvangirai and party secretary-general Welshman Ncube continued to hog the media limelight. The electronic media carried 27 stories on the matter, of which 17 appeared on ZBH while the private stations featured the remaining 10. The Press carried 26 stories, 16 in the private press and the rest in the government papers.

But while the media gave due prominence to the matter, they failed to go beyond the MDC officials’ comments on the in-fighting by independently analysing the real source of the problems besetting the party. Neither did the media independently verify the allegations and counter-allegations made by the feuding camps.

Otherwise, most of their stories were largely event reports that rehashed the mudslinging and puerile insults characterising the row.

But the government media was the worst in this regard.

For example, throughout the week, the official press carried at least 10 stories that simply amplified the insults and accusations traded by the party’s rival factions. These papers, especially The Herald, seemed particularly keen on ridiculing Tsvangirai by mostly highlighting statements made against him by his rivals, which portrayed him as a dictator, power-hungry and materialistic without establishing the veracity of the claims.

The Herald (14/11) for example, unquestioningly peddled allegations by MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi that Tsvangirai had cheapened the MDC’s cause by his "immeasurable" love for money. Nyathi claimed that Tsvangirai had a history of misappropriating funds, which started during his time as secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), where he used to "draw moneys" from the organisation without the treasurer’s approval. Other pro-Senate faction officials, such as Job Sikhala and Gift Chimanikire, were also given acres of space to berate the opposition leader. Tsvangirai was only quoted in retrospect, while the ZCTU was never accorded the right of reply.

The paper (16/11) only later reported the ZCTU threatening legal action against Nyathi’s "malicious" allegations saying "at no stage" since the "inception" of the ZCTU in 1981 "was one person entitled to sign a cheque and withdraw money as an individual".

The paper’s anti-Tsvangirai thrust was illustrated by its attempts (14/11) to suffocate the number of people who attended his anti-Senate campaign rally in Bulawayo, saying only "scores of people" attended the event.

However, the Chronicle of the same day carried a fair representation, revealing that about 5 000 people had attended, while the campaign activities of the pro-Senate faction, set for the same weekend, had "flopped due to poor attendances".

In a rare display of professionalism, ZBH (14/11, 6&8pm bulletins) tried to balance the pro-Senate faction’s views with those of Tsvangirai. For instance, while ZTV quoted Chimanikire dismissing Tsvangirai’s expulsion of 26 MDC candidates contesting the election as unprocedural, it also quoted Tsvangirai attempting to reassert his authority .

However, there was no independent investigation into what the MDC’s constitution says regarding the dismissal of members.

Rather, ZTV quoted pro-government "analysts", such as Herald reporter Caesar Zvayi and University of Zimbabwe lecturer and Chronicle columnist Godfrey Chikowore maligning Tsvangirai for allegedly trying to "thwart a democratic process by advocating for a boycott of the…elections".

Zvayi, for example, accused the opposition leader of "threatening members of his party with violence, calling them names in the media" without backing his claims.

Besides seizing on the bickering to launch another anti-Tsvangirai campaign, the official Press also capitalised on the outbreak of intra-party violence in the MDC to discredit the party. They carried a total of five stories on the matter.

ZBH initially ignored the violence and only carried it four days later in the context of a police update on the electoral campaign climate ahead of the poll. The official media virtually ignored the campaign activities of the MDC’s 26 candidates only reporting them in the context of the party’s feuding. However, the government papers devoted 23 stories in which they positively presented ZANU PF’s campaign trail as proceeding smoothly.

Similarly, 16 (89%) of the 18 stories that ZBH carried on the election campaigns positively focussed on the ruling party. The other two covered the MDC candidate for Chitungwiza expressing hopes that he would win. Most of the ZANU PF stories cited party officials using the MDC’s internal strife to project the opposition party as confused thereby selling the ruling party as the ideal choice.

Apart from turning a blind eye to the MDC’s election activities, the official media provided little information on voter education in the 12 stories they carried on the electoral process. The stories merely regurgitated the electoral authorities’ statements on their readiness for the election. Consequently, the full benefits of the Senate or the mechanics governing the administration of the election remained unexplored.

Such a dearth of information on the electoral process resulted in Spot FM (15/11, 1pm), The Herald and Chronicle (17/11) simply quoted the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announcing the "categories" of "non-citizens" who are not eligible to vote without questioning whether this represented a disenfranchisement of some members of the electorate.

The partisan nature of the government media coverage of the Senate election and the MDC split was reflected in their sourcing pattern as shown in Figs 1 and 2, which gave more publicity to the ruling party’s campaign speeches. The MDC voices were only quoted in the context of their internal fights.

Fig 1. Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig 2. Voice distribution on ZBH

Although the private media’s coverage of the MDC feud was balanced, they also largely failed to adequately examine the root causes of the problems within the party, in the 33 stories they carried (Press 16, radio stations 17). For example, while The Daily Mirror (14 & 15/11) and Studio 7 (14/11) balanced the counter-accusations between the two MDC camps, they did not add any analytical value to the arguments.

Such passivity resulted in the Zimbabwe Independent (18/11) missing the opportunity to publicly confront Tsvangirai on his alleged sins against his party in the paper’s inappropriately titled front-page story, Tsvangirai speaks out. The paper merely reported the MDC leader as having denied allegations levelled against him saying his party’s internal problems were part of MDC’s "self-renewal".

Tsvangirai’s colleague in the anti-Senate lobby, Isaac Matongo, however, told The Standard (20/11) that the crisis bedevilling the opposition party was triggered by a plot to oust Tsvangirai and replace him "with a submissive leader who can negotiate with ZANU PF". He did not provide evidence to support his claims.

SW Radio Africa (18/11) also quoted former MDC MP Roy Bennett echoing similar views and involving Britain and South Africa in the crisis. He accused the two countries of trying to push for a reformed ZANU PF that would form a government of national unity with elements of a divided MDC. However, he was not challenged to substantiate his claims.

The private Press’s failure to adequately handle the MDC crisis was also reflected by the manner in which they handled the intra-party clashes in Bulawayo. The Daily Mirror (15/11) and The Standard did report the events, but made no attempt to identify the perpetrators. The Standard, for example, only carried a captioned picture of one of the victims, Bekithemba Nyathi, but did not say from which MDC faction he belonged.

Like the government media, the private media did not carry the campaign activities of the MDC candidates or useful information on voter education. They only focussed on the problems bedevilling the MDC, as their sourcing patterns suggest in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig 3 Voice distribution - private Press

Fig 4. Voice distribution - private radio stations

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