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Independence and the economy
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-16
Monday April 17^th 2006- Sunday April 23^rd 2006

THIS week the government media diverted its attention from Zimbabwe’s biting economic hardships with euphoric glorification of the 26^th independence anniversary.

This was manifest in the 78 stories they carried on the subject, 45 of which appeared on ZBH and 33 in government papers. The stories narrowly hailed the commemoration of the event and projected it as a milestone achievement in the face of alleged Western machinations against the country’s economic development.

No attempt was made to reconcile the purported achievements of independence with the country’s sorry state of the economy, characterised by untold widespread suffering of the majority.

Rather, these media shied away from these hard facts, preferring to dwell on the trivial, including peddling conspiracies to explain Zimbabwe’s malfunctioning economy. As a result, their stories were saturated with generalised nationalist rhetoric on Zimbabwe’s resilience under constant external threats, the alleged huge attendances at commemoration venues and the public’s alleged appreciation of President Mugabe’s speech, among others.

Notably, ZBH devoted 23 stories out of the 54 it carried on the independence celebrations to bombarding its audiences with such mundane information disguised as news. The remaining 22 reports were premised on either regurgitating or amplifying Mugabe’s speech.

For example, ZTV (18/4, 8pm) reported about "jubilation in all provinces as people came to listen to the President’s speech, read by governors…" while in Harare it reported that "thousands thronged the National Sports Stadium for historic independence, ululating and cheering as President Mugabe, the first lady and the first family entered the stadium.

The government papers could not allow this fawning propaganda to go unmatched, as exemplified by The Herald (18/4). It argued that Zimbabweans had "every reason to celebrate" independence as the country was "evidently a success story in Africa" despite "sustained attacks from all fronts by Westerners and their lackeys opposed to the land reform programme". And the fact that Zimbabwe had withstood these "external" destabilisation attempts, added the paper, was "testimony" to the "strength of the foundation the government laid during the first 20 years of independence and that it continues to fortify today".

The paper even claimed that Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation figures, scientifically established by the government’s Central Statistics Office, were a misrepresentation "of the state of the national economy as the indices that were used to calculate it have since changed with changing consumption patterns in Zimbabwe that saw families revising their monthly baskets".

No authoritative voices were quoted supporting this childish attempt to misinform its readers.

Such unquestioning coverage of the matter also resulted in these media dodging interrogating Mugabe’s independence speech painting an optimistic economic future of the country. For instance, they did not question the timing or prudence of government plans to seize majority shares in the mining sector; his projection of economic growth of between one and two percent and his government’s intentions to implement an economic recovery plan aimed at restoring the country’s battered economy in just six to nine months.

Instead, these media’s subsequent reports on the country’s economy just passively fed on these presidential utterances, presenting them as government’s resolute commitment to finding a lasting solution to the country’s myriad economic problems.

For instance, following Mugabe’s comments on his government plans to acquire at least 50 percent stake in the mining industry, ZBH responded by carrying 20 stories out of the 62 reports it carried on economic issues to depicting the arrangement as a welcome and overdue development. All its sources, ranging from the ordinary people, political analysts to mining and legal experts, were reported as "hailing" the move.

However, ZBH’s one-sided coverage of the matter was belied by its failure to probe the Chamber of Mines’ cautious support of the move. Although the national broadcaster reported the mining grouping as welcoming the authorities’ plans, it reportedly had reservations with some "envisaged challenges" in the plan that it felt should be first "discussed and dealt with before the proposed amendments and regulations are adopted" (ZTV 19/4, 8pm and Spot FM 20/4 7am/1pm).

Similarly, there was no informed or balanced discussion on government’s launch of the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) aimed at stabilising the economy within six to nine months in the official media.

Typically, the 23 stories that ZBH carried on the subject were premised on either official justification of the programme or the broadcaster’s analysts welcoming it.

Also fashioned in the same way were the 10 stories on the topic carried in the government papers.

For example, they never quizzed the authorities on why they thought NEDPP would suddenly become a success when at least five other programmes such as the Zimbabwe Programme for Economic and Social Transformations (ZIMPREST), the Millennium Economic Recovery Programme (MERP) and the National Economic Recovery Programme (NERP) had previously failed. Neither would the papers seek clarity on the fate of these programmes.

The government media’s uncritical nature was also evident in 38 other stories they carried (ZBH [19] and government papers [19]) that simply highlighted indicators of economic decay in isolation of their causes or portrayed government as working hard to address the problems.

These media’s passivity was reflected in their over dependence on government comment as shown in Fig. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 Voice Distribution on ZBH

Fig 2.Voice distribution in the government Press

Apart from the 11 stories carried by the Mirror stable, which passively celebrated the country’s independence, the rest of the 26 reports the other private media featured exposed the façade of economic prosperity the official media were touting as one of the hallmarks of self-rule in the last 26 years.

Private papers carried 11 of these reports and private radio stations 15, nine of which appeared on Studio 7 and six on SW Radio Africa. These media also dismissed the partying that the government media associated with the event, arguing that instead many ordinary Zimbabwean had found the holiday gloomy given the tough economic conditions.

For example, Studio 7 (18/4) reported the public bemoaning the economic hardships bedevilling the country, saying that the independence commemoration was actually "a painful reminder of what life used to be like in the aftermath of the national liberation". These unflattering sentiments were reinforced in an advert the private radio station placed in the Zimbabwe Independent (21/4), carrying the results of its nationwide survey about the public perception of independence.

Nearly all the 19 respondents’ recorded in the advert expressed very dim views about independence, which they contended had brought them hunger and suffering, commodity shortages, high cost of living, oppression and rights violations, among others. However, the station did not specify the criteria used to solicit the views or the total number of responses it received.

The Financial Gazette (20/4) agreed, saying the struggle for economic survival in the country was "too real, brutal, unrelenting to be masked by any amount of propaganda" on the virtues of independence.

In addition, the private media remained unimpressed by NEDPP or government forecasts of economic growth, which they projected as unrealistic. The Gazette viewed the economic roadmap, "strewn with promises of heaven-on-earth within short periods", as a "desperate" attempt by the authorities to appease the masses amid the opposition’s calls for protests against government’s mismanagement of the economy.

The Zimbabwe Independent (21/4) reported economists rubbishing NEDPP as "wishful thinking" because "there was no way an economy" which " has contracted by a cumulative 35% in the past five years could bounce back overnight to register a 2% growth rate when a number of functioning economies are struggling to achieve that".

Rather, they noted that NEDPP – like its predecessors – showed a "terrible policy paralysis in government", adding that the "current problems in Zimbabwe can no longer be resolved by the incumbent…as he is the author of the problems in the first place".

Equally, the paper dismissed Mugabe’s forecasts of economic growth saying they indicated his detachment "from reality" as further demonstrated by his continued "talk about the gains of independence while people are suffering from economic hardships".

Besides, the private media carried 22 stories that linked the continued economic meltdown such as the galloping cost of living, commodity shortages and the weakening of the Zimbabwean dollar against major currencies to government’s skewed economic policies.

The private media’s sober handling of the subject was mirrored by their attempts to balance official comment with independent views as exemplified by the private papers’ voice distribution shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

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