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Operation Sunrise, inflation and indicators of economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-32
Monday 7^th August – Sunday August 13^th 2006

DURING the week the government media continued underplaying Zimbabwe’s economic crisis mostly through overstating the benefits of the Reserve Bank’s mid-year monetary policy. For example, of the 61 reports government papers carried on the economy, 43 (70%) reported approvingly on the RBZ’s efforts to resuscitate the economy while 14 (23%) highlighted indicators of further economic decay in isolation of their root causes. Only four stories (7%) sought to give reasonable accounts on the country’s new inflation levels, which saw year-on-year inflation for July dropping by almost 200 percent from 1 184.6 percent in June and month-on-month inflation surging to 25.1 percent from the June rate of 17.3 percent.

ZBH reflected the same trend. Thirty-six (59%) of the 69 reports it aired on the economy merely promoted the RBZ’s efforts to revive the economy, 23 (33%) papered over the reasons behind the fall in the yearly inflation and 10 stories (14%) drew attention to the myriad problems troubling the economy. And like the official papers, ZBH steered clear of investigating government’s role in this decline.

As a result of the official media’s lopsided coverage of the matter, their audiences only got a sanitised picture on the causes or extent of the economic ills.

This stance was chiefly reflected in the government papers’ sourcing pattern (see fig 1), which gave prominence to official comments on the economic crisis while muffling alternative voices.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in government papers

Although ZBH seemed to have carried a significant variety of comments on the subject as shown in Fig 2, most of them were only reported echoing government views. Those expressing opposing opinions were either suppressed or misrepresented. 

Fig 2 Voice on ZBH

For example, most of the ordinary people the national broadcaster cited commenting on Project Sunrise were presented as endorsing the policy even though they were actually quoted giving contrary views. ZTV (7/8, 6pm) illustrated this point. It reported the "public" as calling for the tightening of the RBZ’s roadblock blitz to flush out money-launderers, but instead most of those interviewed appeared to be complaining about the searches. Otherwise, the government media just flooded their audiences with official pronouncements on the purported smooth progress of the operation. These included updates on the number of people that had since been arrested on allegations of "money laundering" and the amounts recovered from them, which ZTV (7/8, 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle (8/8) put at 2 545 and $500 billion respectively.

Notably, no identities of those implicated in these economic crimes were revealed.

The Herald (8/8), for example, withheld the names of two "senior police officers" allegedly implicated in money laundering following their interception at two separate roadblocks but did not explain the basis for keeping their identities a secret. Neither did it identify the "unscrupulous businesspeople in and around Harare" that it said had devised methods to evade the RBZ’s dragnet. Instead, The Herald and Chronicle (10/8) were determined to depict the RBZ blitz as having unearthed massive illegal money. This resulted in the two papers appearing ludicrous by passively reporting Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri accusing Barclays and FBC banks of suspiciously peddling huge quantities of cash despite information to the contrary.

Although the papers reported the two banks saying they had recovered their cash from the RBZ – confiscated under the $10 trillion seized at the Harare International Airport after the authorities "erroneously associated" them "with some wrongdoing in connection with the movement of cash between places" – they still quoted Chihuri maintaining the two had a case to answer. How this was so, they did not say or ask. They simply quoted Chihuri insisting that the banks’ case was a serious issue that had caused "havoc" to the country’s economy adding, "they (banks) have a lot of explanation to do and apologising to the nation and the President himself".

The official media’s celebratory coverage of the RBZ’s crackdown on money laundering was also replayed in ZBH’s coverage on the fall in inflation. Despite initially carrying a balanced report on the matter (ZTV 9/8, 8pm), the rest of the broadcaster’s 22 stories simplistically hailed the dip as indicating the effectiveness of government’s economic policies without providing any informed analysis on its implications. And in an effort to portray its excited coverage of the issue as reflecting national sentiment, ZTV, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe (10/8, 8pm) reported members of the public and economic analysts describing the development as "a sign of better things to come". ZTV (10/8, 6pm) and Radio Zimbabwe (10/8, 8pm)’s Shona bulletins also wrongly translated the term inflation to mean the "firming" of the Zimbabwe dollar.

ZBH’s prejudiced and unprofessional coverage of the inflation decline was also aptly captured by the way ZTV’s main anchor conducted an interview on the subject with Senator Guy Georgias. Rather than stick to basic interviewing values, the newsreader manipulated the senator’s responses by asking him leading and politically loaded questions. One of the questions was framed thus: "…the decline in the annual rate of inflation has raised optimism among Zimbabweans but whilst we’re making efforts to revive the economy, will there be any significant results in the face of, say, some external forces such as sanctions which have been imposed on Zimbabwe?"

However, the official media’s upbeat coverage of the effectiveness of government’s economic strategy was belied by the stories they carried on indicators of economic decline. These included reports on the rising prices of goods and services, underlined by the sharp rise in the Poverty Datum Line, which "surged 24 percent to $84 000 (84million) last month" for a family of five (The Herald and Chronicle 10/08). But to its credit, The Herald (8/8) linked the hike in fuel prices on both the formal and informal markets to the RBZ’s devaluation of the dollar, which it said had "immediately" triggered increases in commuter omnibus fares. In addition, it reported a Caltex official confirming the development.

The Mirror stable’s coverage of Zimbabwe’s economic chaos basically resembled that of the government media. Its stories on inflation (three) and the RBZ’s Operation Sunrise (seven) were mostly passive endorsements of these developments.

However, the rest of the private media did not seem to find any justification for celebration in the 67 stories they carried on the economy, 34 of which were on the monetary policy, six on inflation and 27 on indicators of economic decline.

Of the 67 economic stories, private papers carried 43 and the private electronic media 24. The reports continued to question the usefulness of government’s ad hoc economic measures, which they projected as doomed unless the authorities resolved fundamental economic influences that had caused the economy to slide in the first place.

For example, these media continued to criticise the soundness of the monetary policy and the conditions under which Project Sunrise was being implemented. The Financial Gazette (10/8), for instance, reported civic organisations as planning to challenge the legality of the emergency powers being used to confiscate cash from individuals and businesses as they believed some of the things being done were unconstitutional or were a violation of human rights. The paper quoted the coordinator of the umbrella NGO, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Jacob Mafume confirming the move, saying: "The action seeks also to challenge the setting up of road blocks, the use of unauthorised people; in this case, the militia, who do not have the authority to search people."

Apart from the planned lawsuit, Studio 7 (8/8) and the Gazette also reported the Parliamentary Finance Committee as seeking a meeting with RBZ governor Gideon Gono to force him to abandon his currency reforms, which the Gazette claimed had exposed "the commercial interests of many powerful figures". They said the committee believed Gono should have tabled his policies in Parliament before implementing them. The Standard (13/8) agreed, criticising Gono for "exercising his powers way beyond what would be regarded as normal".

While the government media gave the impression that Gono’s monetary policy was being implemented smoothly, Studio 7 (10/8) and The Zimbabwe Independent (11/8) reported confusion and alarm over the phasing out of the old currency, especially among those in the rural areas, as they could not easily access banks to change their money. In fact, the station and the Gazette revealed that state security agents had been placed on high alert for fear there could be riots as the expiry date on the use of the old currency approaches. The government media censored these matters.

The private media also did not view the retreat in the rate of inflation as a source of celebration, noting that inflationary factors such as the cost of living (exemplified by the soaring Poverty Datum Line) were still rising at a faster rate. For example, online news agency New Zimbabwe.com (9/8) quoted economist Tony Hawkins predicting that "inflation will rise sharply during the second half of this year because of huge increases in the price of commodities and also due to high money supply growth". In addition, it linked Hawkins’ observations to the fact that companies were operating below 30% capacity due to foreign currency shortages and that output in commercial farming had declined by more than 60 percent.

Online news agency Zimdaily (10/8) agreed. It accused Gono of wanting the nation to believe that "inflation was under control" and will drop to double digits by 2008. It noted that the governor neglected to mention that it was most likely the massive supplementary budget announced by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa would be mostly financed through the printing of new money leading to broad money growth, which will, in turn, lead to yet higher levels of inflation.

The private media also continued to highlight indicators of economic decline, which they linked to government’s poor management of the economy. However, they still failed to connect the recent sharp rises in prices of goods and services to the ripple effects of Gono’s devaluation of the dollar.

The critical manner in which the private media tackled the topic is mirrored in their widespread use of alternative sources as shown in Fig 3 and 4.

Fig 3 Voice sourcing in the private Press

Notably, the Mirror stable recorded 13 (42%) of the 31 government voices quoted by private papers. The lack of balance in the private electronic media’s coverage of the economy and inflation is reflected in the dearth of government voices in their stories dealing with these issues. 

Fig 4 Voice sourcing in the private electronic media

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