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Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-47
Monday December 5^th – Sunday December 11^th 2005

THIS week the government media continued to hail the authorities’ rhetorical promises to resuscitate the country’s ailing economy as solutions in themselves. This manifested itself in the way these media passively projected President Mugabe’s State of the Nation address and the ZANU PF Congress as precursors to the country’s economic revival. The government papers devoted 13 stories to the matter while ZBH carried 50.

For example, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe (6/12, 8pm) merely reported ZANU PF legislators and the newly elected Senators as having hailed Mugabe’s address saying it "set the tone for social, political and economic development" without fully explaining how. Notably, previous government economic policy pronouncements have received similar praise.

The Herald and Chronicle (7/12) followed suit. They simply reported Mugabe raising concerns over rising commodity prices but failed to reconcile this with the unspecified measures he said his government was implementing to stabilise the prices "in the context of a growing and expanding economy". Neither did they analyse the "considerable progress" Mugabe claimed government had made in combating corruption and resuscitating agriculture.

Rather, the government media reinforced the impression that ZANU PF was the country’s economic saviour through their unquestioning coverage of the party’s conference. They widely quoted ruling party officials rhetorically promising to tackle the myriad economic problems, including multiple farm ownership, profiteering by business people and corruption. However, none of the stories provided any details of how these problems would be addressed. Nor did they measure the capacity of the ruling party to deliver or the practicability of its resolutions.

Radio Zimbabwe (8/12, 6am), for example, simply quoted ZANU PF chairman John Nkomo saying his party’s conference would unveil an economic policy that would "pave way (sic) for a brighter future for this country…"

Similarly, the Chronicle (9/12) unquestioningly reported the President threatening to reintroduce the "regulation of prices of essential commodities" to protect consumers from the high cost of living. But they failed to relate this with Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa’s calls for price deregulation during his recent presentation of the national budget.

The government media’s presentation of the authorities as capable of rescuing the economy contrasted sharply with the 43 stories they carried (official Press [25] and ZBH [18]) on economic decline. Highlights included soaring fuel prices on the open market from the gazetted price of between $20 800 and $22 300 a litre to at least $120 000 per litre, the massive service hikes contained in Harare City Council’s 2006 budget, the continued slide of the local dollar against major currencies, commodity price increases and the gigantic leap in inflation from 411 percent in October to 502.4 percent in November.

Typically, these media largely presented these issues in isolation and avoided viewing them as a clear indication of the authorities’ failure to manage the economy. Rather, Spot FM (9/12, 8pm) tried to downplay the continued economic meltdown by passively quoting Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono saying the inflation scourge was not unique to Zimbabwe as Angola once had "four digit inflation", adding that the country had "everything it takes to bring inflation down".

The government media’s reliance on ruling party and government officials was evident in their sourcing patterns as reflected in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the official Press

Fig 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, most of the foreign voices were delegates to the African Export and Import Bank summit held in Harare, who were quoted making flattering remarks about the country.

The private media did not pay much attention to President Mugabe’s address or his party’s conference as they devoted only nine stories to the issues. However, their stories exposed the apparent economic contradictions and hypocrisy characterising the ruling party’s pledges to tackle the economic problems.

The Standard (11/12), for example, revealed that while ZANU PF officials pontificated about Zimbabwe’s economic hardships, there was a glut of food for about 3 000 delegates at the conference to feast on. This included the slaughter of 50 cattle, 48 goats, 17 impala, 11 Kudu, five reedbucks, five buffaloes, and 60 chickens. It also revealed that the party spent at least $4 billion dollars for the conference.

Studio 7 (6/12) quoted Zimbabwe Social Forum official Regis Mututu expressing doubts that the party would draw up measures to arrest the economic decline saying, if anything, the meeting was another example of the authorities’ "wasteful use of public funds".

The Independent further exposed government’s double standards. It noted that while Mugabe expressed "frustration at the steep increases" in the prices of basic commodities during his state of the nation address, his Agriculture Minister Joseph Made was, on the same day, announcing a huge hike in the selling price of wheat to millers from $900 000 per tonne to more than $12 million.

It added that while the authorities were quick to brand industrialists who raised prices in response to inflation as "saboteurs keen to effect regime change", the same government "purporting to champion the cause of the poor wakes up one morning to effect shocking price rises on basic foodstuffs". Besides, the private media carried 34 stories providing a clear indication of the intensity of the country’s economic crisis.

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