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Economic chaos
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-25
Monday June 19^th 2006 – Sunday June 25^th 2006

AS the country’s economic ills continue to worsen, the government media continued to avoid discussing them in the context of the government’s actual policies as opposed to those declared. Instead, they dishonestly portrayed measures taken by government to halt the meltdown as bearing fruit.

It was in this context that 34 (46%) of the 74 economic stories ZBH carried were glowing reports on the purported success of government’s National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) and Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s visit to China. The rest comprised stories that largely projected a sanitized picture of the state of the economy (26 stories or 35%) and piecemeal reports on indicators of economic decay (14 stories).

The official Press adopted a similar trend.

Only 11 of the 47 stories they carried on the matter focused on the galloping cost of commodities such as bread and fuel. The remainder largely hailed the purported successes of government’s economic turnaround efforts or tried to blame the country’s economic decay on alleged conspiracies by outside forces aimed at discrediting government.

Consequently, none of the stories investigated or criticised government’s complicity in the economy’s poor performance or holistically assessed the factors that have led to the economic decline and the extent to which the economy has become dysfunctional.

For example, ZTV (22/6, 6&8pm) passively reported Zimbabwe Tourism Authority boss Karikoga Kaseke celebrating Zimbabwe’s winning of the "prestigious" Global Destination Award in Dubai, "the second award in six months" after "the Best Destination in Africa (prize)" it won "in China."

There was no discussion on how exactly such awards would benefit the economy and the international credibility of those organizations providing the awards. Instead, it simply projected them as indicative of the success of government’s ‘Look East’ policy.

All 23 stories on NEDPP, which the broadcaster carried as daily updates on government’s alleged implementation of the economic blueprint, exhibited similar docile reporting.

This was also reflected in the official media’s 25 stories on the increase in commodity prices and service charges, which avoided viewing the issues as reflective of the country’s poor macro-economic environment. Such insincerity in handling the country’s pervasive economic freefall saw ZBH (23/6, 7am & 8pm and 25/6, 8pm) simply present the rise in bus fares as restricted to Gweru when it was actually a nationwide hike.

Similarly, The Herald (21 & 22/6) ignored quizzing government’s decision to criminalize bakers for increasing the price of bread while simultaneously disregarding their operational costs. This was especially so as Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe chairman Burombo Mudumo told the paper that bakers were being forced to import floor at double the price charged by local millers, because there was a shortage of the commodity in the country.

The government media’s lopsided coverage of the economy was mirrored by their dependence on official voices as indicated in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, although the national public broadcaster also gave considerable space to business and alternative voices, most of them were part of Mujuru’s entourage to China and were predictably quoted supporting government policies.

In contrast, the private media continued to provide a different perspective on the country’s economy in the 41 reports they carried on the subject (private Press [32] and private stations [9]). Apart from ascribing the country’s myriad economic problems, they also provided a clearer picture of the state of the economy and its dim future.

For example, The Financial Gazette (20/6) cited TA Holdings executive Chairman Shingai Mutasa bemoaning government policies, saying: "What is lacking, is a combination of the courage to put economics first and the will to implement policies accordingly", adding that until then, there was no hope for recovery.

The Zimbabwe Independent (23/6) warned that the country could be trapped in a fuel price spiral, as there was neither an improvement in the exchange rate nor a significant decline in the international crude oil prices.

It also revealed that government profligacy had reached an all time high since 1980 after its domestic debt for June soared to a record $21 trillion. In addition, the paper noted that government had closed 2005 with an outstanding total "external debt of US$3.9 billion against export receipts of only US$1.7 billion".

Studio 7 (23/6) carried a similar report.

The station (21/6) also quoted Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Luxon Zembe projecting a 100 percentage points rise in inflation from the current rate of about 1,200%.

Economist Eric Bloch concurred on SW Radio Africa (21/6), saying due to the current rate of economic decline, "an ordinary family of six would need Z$180million a month to survive" by December.

In a teleconference on the Zimbabwean crisis aired by the station on the same day John Robertson warned that the authorities would "soon" fail to print notes "to keep pace with the rate at which prices are increasing" resulting in "a massive cash crisis… ahead of us".

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