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Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2006-9
Monday February 27^th – Sunday March 5^th 2006

ZIMBABWE’S ever worsening economic environment, characterized by soaring cost of living and crippling commodity shortages continued to dominate the media. ZBH carried 65 stories while the private radio stations carried 12. The print media published 69 stories, of which 39 appeared in the government papers while the private Press carried 30.

But while all media gave space to the country’s economic crunch, it was only the private media that reported the issues in the context of the country’s poor macro-economic environment. The government media’s stories were typically pro-government, piecemeal and avoided holistically interpreting the issues as indicative of the authorities’ mismanagement of the economy.

It was against this background that ZTV (28/2) restricted National Bakers Association Chairman Burombo Mudumo’s lucid explanation on the root causes of the recent bread price increases to its 7am bulletin and suffocated his comments in its subsequent main evening bulletins. Mudumo ascribed the hike to "the current hyper-inflationary environment" and the increase in the cost of production and ingredients such as yeast and wheat. He pointed out that contrary to official claims, bakers were buying flour at $35 million per tonne and not the gazetted $25 million, adding that in any case, flour, which is a controlled commodity, "only constitutes 20% of the cost of a loaf (of bread)".

ZBH radio stations ignored the matter.

The stations’ failure to diligently handle the country’s contracting economy resulted in Spot FM (3/3, 1pm) only reporting that David Whitehead Textiles was "operating at 7%" of its full capacity in the context of disclosures by President Mugabe during a campaign rally in Chegutu, where he pledged to set up a committee that would address the company’s problems. There was no discussion on the source of the problems. Neither did the station relate the textile manufacturer’s woes to the country’s ailing economy.

Rather, throughout the week ZTV tried to gloss over the country’s deep-seated economic problems in its business news by claiming that the country’s currency "continues to firm against major currencies".

The station conveniently ignored the fact that it was actually the authorities that were controlling the exchange rate in a bid to halt its continued slide.

The government Press’s stories were cut from the same cloth.

Like ZBH, these papers deliberately disregarded linking indicators of economic deterioration to government’s skewed policies and selectively blamed private businesses for the mess. For instance, they depicted price increases in goods and services by private companies as unwarranted and driven by profiteering but shielded state entities from criticism following similar price hikes. The Herald (27/2), for example, reported government dismissing bakeries’ "unilateral" bread price increase of between $60 000 and $75 000 a loaf from $44 000 as "illegal and mischievous". However, The Sunday Mail (5/3) would not also seek reactions to a 1 000 percent fee hikes by the Zimbabwe Republic Police for fingerprints, firearm certificates and police clearance certificates.

Earlier, The Herald (2/3) passively reported Energy and Power Minister Mike Nyambuya justifying the imminent massive price hike in electricity tariffs by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) on grounds that the power utility’s electricity import bill had skyrocketed to $600 billion a month from $5 billion. It did not give the percentage price increase.

It was only the next day that the paper revealed that ZESA had planned to raise the tariffs by at least 670 percent, staggered over the year. Even then, the matter was only reported in the context of the central bank having turned down the proposed increases as inflationary, saying it had instead recommended a 450 percent increase, to be effected on quarterly 95 percent increases with the last 70 percent being implemented in January 2007.

But while the official papers criminalised price increases by private businesses it would not give them space to defend themselves. Instead, the Chronicle (27/2) simply urged consumers to boycott goods and services whose prices were being increased "willy-nilly". It also attacked the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) for reducing itself to merely measuring and announcing the consumer monthly expenditure basket "instead of fighting the illegal increases".

The Sunday News (5/3) criticized a report by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) attributing the acute slump in industrial production to the authorities’ "policy inconsistencies", among other factors. The paper said it found it "shocking" that the CZI was playing a "blame game" when the "nation needs constructive ideas". Said the paper: "The CZI has unwittingly answered a longstanding question regarding the corporate sector’s patriotism…If the top executives do not believe in the nation, which country do they pay allegiance to?"

The government papers’ pro-government stance was reflected in their sourcing pattern as shown in Fig 1.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in government papers

Although ZBH’s sourcing pattern appeared diverse, most of its sources merely highlighted problems blighting the economy and barely discussed the real causes of the economic decline.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Except for the Mirror stable, the rest of the private media generally linked the symptoms of economic decay such as the galloping cost of living, commodity shortages and the widening budget deficit, to the way the authorities were running the economy. For example, while the official media castigated bakers for bread price hikes, The Financial Gazette (2/3) revealed that a "massive" bread shortage was actually looming following the failure by the state-run Grain Marketing Board to allocate adequate wheat rations to millers. The development, said the paper, had led to the country’s top milling companies "virtually switching off their flour mills" and threatened the livelihoods of at least 15 000 workers in the baking and milling industry.

The next day the Zimbabwe Independent (3/3) quoted Mudumo denying the official claims that the new bread prices were unjustified, saying the increases were due to high production costs. "Operating with the gazetted price", he said, "would therefore force many bakeries to close shop."

An unnamed baker made similar comments on Studio 7 (28/02), adding that bakers were currently struggling to meet demand in Bulawayo and government’s directive that bread be sold at old prices would "worsen the shortage."

But it was not only the local manufacturers that questioned government policies. The Gazette reported the IMF director of external affairs, Thomas Dawson, attributing Zimbabwe’s dismal economic performance to skewed government policies, particularly the central bank’s "quasi-fiscal" activities, which he said was responsible for fuelling inflation and the widening budget deficit. He noted that Zimbabwe’s refusal to accept "the comprehensive" economic reforms that the IMF has "repeatedly recommended" had worsened the situation.

Economist John Robertson made similar observations on Studio 7 (2/3), adding that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s efforts to seek financial and technical assistance from the IMF would not bear fruit as the Fund was "very, very unlikely to have any kind words" for him because "Zimbabwe is breaking all the (economic) rules…"

In addition, the station revealed that so bad was the country’s economic situation that government had put security agents on "high alert" for fear of mass protests against the deteriorating economic climate.

The private papers’ critical approach was illustrated by their attempts to balance official comment with business and alternative views. See Fig 3.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig 4 Voice distribution on private stations

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