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Monetary reform crusade
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-31
Monday July 31^st 2006 – Sunday August 4^th 2006

THIS week the government media diverted attention on the real causes of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis by swamping its audiences with stories about the alleged efficiency of the authorities’ mid-year monetary strategy in arresting the decline.

All the 231 stories they carried on the subject (ZBH [116] and government papers [115]) passively praised the monetary policy, presented by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, without providing informed analysis of its implications. This clearly manifested itself in the way these media merely cheered the monetary statement on the sole basis that Gono had simply chopped off three zeroes on the nominal value of the old currency and introduced an entirely "new" re-valued currency.

The celebratory overkill coverage of the issue was exemplified by ZTV. It dedicated 2 hours 40 minutes (38%) out of the 7 hours 1 minute allocated to its main news bulletins (except weather and sport segments) to portraying the monetary policy as the precursor to a dramatic turnaround in the economic fortunes of the country. In addition, all ZBH stations (31/7) beamed the policy presentation live while ZTV rebroadcast it after its main news bulletin.

The next day ZTV allocated eight minutes to Gono briefing the public, businesses and diplomats on the new measures of his policy in its evening news bulletin (8pm) and followed this up with an hour-long ‘special programme’ after the bulletin, showing Gono publicly threatening businesses that their operating licences would be revoked if they did not toe his line. Notably, the station did not question the legality or morality of his actions.

Neither did the government media examine the effectiveness of Gono’s economic revival plans, such as the concessions he made to exporters and gold miners, the impact of the 150 percent currency devaluation or the reduction in interest rates.

The Herald (1/8), Spot FM (2/8, 8pm), for example, did not even refer to the term "devaluation" or state by what percentage the dollar had been devalued (except for the Chronicle 1/8). They merely cited Gono evasively describing it as the new "exchange rate management system".

In addition, the official media did not question the governor’s silence on the problems of the scarcity of goods, the hyperinflationary environment, ballooning government debt, and the lack of jobs and restoration of business confidence, all essential to the economy’s revival. They muffled them in their commendation of the new currency, seen as the genesis of an economic turnaround rather than a symptom of a failed economy. To further buttress this notion, they passively carried daily adverts from the central bank reinforcing this assumption.

Some of the adverts featured childish and misleading slogans such as "zero to hero," "restore value in the month of our heroes," and outright misconceptions, saying, "call it deflation or just simple convenience, we are fighting for you to get more bang for your buck," as if simply removing the zeroes from the old currency translated into more buying power for suffering Zimbabweans. In fact, one advert (also carried in the private Press) gave the impression that removing the zeroes would also result in a corresponding drop in the price of goods and services. Depicting a partly sliced standard loaf of bread as costing $85 000 before the zero-shedding exercise, the advert falsely showed it as "now only" selling for $85, giving the impression that it had become massively cheaper as a result of the revaluation.

This misrepresentation of the realities of Gono’s monetary policy even resulted in the government media passively reporting Gono accusing businesses that increased the prices of their products and hoarded cash of sabotaging the economy. For example, Spot FM (2/8, 8pm) reported the governor threatening to invoke "special powers" to deal with companies that had increased prices following the introduction of the new currency. It did not link the spate of new price hikes to Gono’s devaluation of the dollar.

Following the Governor’s policy statement, The Herald carried daily updates on the authorities’ hunt for ‘economic saboteurs’, which included graphic images of how much had been collected and from where. By the weekend, The Sunday Mail (6/8) reported a total of $422 billion ($422 million) as having been recovered from ‘illegal’ dealers countrywide since the RBZ onslaught.

No questions were raised on the manner in which the authorities conducted the operation, its legality or how the stop-and-search tactics were affecting human rights.

Otherwise, the government media coverage of Gono’s monetary statement was restricted to flattering praise of the governor, whom they portrayed as the scourge of business malpractice. The Herald (6/8) even made religious reference, likening him to Jesus by describing Gono as "The Second Coming". The paper also carried cartoons (31/7 and 6/8) portraying him as a warrior defending the people by shooting down the "offending" zeroes as if they had somehow manifested themselves without the government’s knowledge.

Although the government media carried an impressive assortment of comments on the monetary policy (see Fig 1 and 2), it either suppressed or misrepresented critical views on the subject. For example, while ZTV (2/8, 6pm & 8pm) claimed that "Gweru residents welcome the slashing of zeros which would reduce the risk of carrying large sums of money", the residents quoted in the bulletin expressed contrary views.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on the public broadcaster

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, Gono was the most quoted voice of all those cited by the government media.

The Mirror stable, just like the government media, was uncritical of Gono’s monetary policy. Its 23 stories on the topic were just unanalytical reports of the governor’s presentation.

It was left to the other private media to give a more critical assessment of the monetary statement in 74 stories they carried on the topic, 53 of which were published by private papers and the remainder by the private electronic media.

They generally dismissed Gono’s reforms as of no consequence, saying they did not address the economic fundamentals that had given rise to the proliferation of zeroes on the old currency in the first place.

To support their arguments, they cited analysts attributing economic problems to poor economic management, which they said had resulted in the shrinking of the country’s production base. The Financial Gazette (3/8), for example, viewed the revaluation of the dollar as a "quick fix" aimed at forestalling a "looming politically embarrassing situation in which Zimbabweans would need wheel barrows to wheel huge bundles of cash", while the Zimbabwe Independent (4/8) saw it as an admission by government of its failure to revive the economy. The Independent quoted economist Blessing Sakupwanya saying the currency reform required a stable economy and the removal of zeroes was, "a mechanical process that we will have to do again if inflation remains at current levels".

The Standard (6/8) raised the same issues.

Besides reporting public confusion surrounding the use of the new currency, Studio 7 (1/8) quoted ZANU PF and MDC MPs lamenting the short period the central bank had given Zimbabweans to phase out the old currency. The online agency ZimDaily did not even see the logic of printing new smaller denominations such as cents, saying they were "worthless" in Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment considering that printing each bearer bond cost $50 000.

In fact, while the government media celebrated government’s clampdown on ‘illegal dealers’ in the country, the Independent reported that the RBZ would require an estimated $1 trillion in its "military-style operation to harvest" the old currency from "all corners of the country and arraign those trying to repatriate huge amounts of cash into the country".

However, the private media also failed to report adequately on the effects of government’s devaluation of the dollar from Z$101,000 to the US dollar to Z$250,000, or, as Gono described it, "a readjustment to Z$250". While the private media put the devaluation at 60 percent – a figure that ZimDaily (31/7) said was based on an IMF calculating system – they did not provide details on how the method worked, or more importantly, how this would affect prices, especially of imported goods such as fuel.

Voice distribution in the private media, exemplified by the private Press, was relatively balanced as shown in Fig 3.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the Private Press

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