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Town House corruption
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-36
Monday September 4^th 2006- Sunday September 10^th 2006

THE government media’s reluctance to fully report claims of corrupt activities by Zimbabwe’s political elite was mirrored in their selective suffocation of alleged irregular council deals implicating government and police officials that emerged during an inquiry into the conduct of suspended Harare Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya. They censored claims by Harare’s Acting Director of Housing, James Chiyangwa, that senior government officials, including the President’s office, had pressured council workers to allocate housing stands to their friends and relatives and abused council resources for personal needs. The disclosures were part of submissions made before the commission investigating Chideya.

The suppression of the graft revelations was more pronounced on ZBH. It only carried two stories on the matter and even these were mere announcements by Spot FM (4/9,7am) and ZTV (5/9, 8pm) that Chideya’s disciplinary hearing had opened. The only other time ZTV referred to the case was on Friday’s 7am bulletin when it sneaked news that the town clerk’s appeal against the procedure used to appoint the investigating team had been dismissed onto its news bar.

While the national broadcaster steered clear of the Town House disclosures, government papers selectively reported them. However, they only gave prominence to allegations of corruption involving Chideya and Harare Commission deputy chairperson Tendai Savanhu in the eight stories they carried on the subject, remaining silent over other disclosures.

It was only through official responses to private media reports on the inquiry that readers of the official Press were able to trace allegations of nepotism levelled against President Mugabe’s wife, Grace. The Herald (7/9) aptly illustrated this dishonesty. The paper unquestioningly quoted Harare chief fire officer Servious Mugava accusing Chideya of breaching the Urban Councils Act by instructing fire tenders to "ferry water, at council cost" to Savanhu’s home for more than a year. As a result, claimed Mugava, his department could not respond urgently to some cases of fire outbreaks. But while the paper quoted Mugava describing Chideya’s actions as illegal since council had no "policy on the provision of water to individuals", it did not question under what law the city authorities used fire tenders to supply water "during state functions, such as funerals of late national heroes".

The Herald also, buried Chideya’s defence in Mugava’s accusations and did not give due balance to the argument by Chideya’s lawyer that the abuse of fire tenders was common practice as Harare Commission chairperson Sekesai Makwavarara also had water supplied to her residence. Neither did the paper give any prominence to Chideya’s argument that delays in finalising cases of suspended heads of departments could not be blamed on him but on Makwavarara and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo. The paper only referred in passing to Chideya’s claim that the two had suspended the council officials on "suspicion that they were supporters of an opposition political party" and not for "misconduct" as alleged.

The Herald (8 & 9/9) also suddenly became defensive over the alleged involvement of the President’s office in the Town House scandal. It passively carried statements by Makwavarara and presidential spokesman George Charamba dismissing as fabrications private media reports of Chideya’s hearing during which the First Lady’s alleged interference in the council’s housing allocations emerged. The government paper omitted this evidence in its reports.

The private media’s coverage exposed the extent of the government media’s selective reporting of the inquiry.

THE Mirror stable also only gave prominence to the corruption accusations against Savanhu and Chideya. The Daily Mirror (9/9), for instance, simplistically accused Chideya for the rot at Town House and reported analysts criticising him for "using every trick in the book in desperate attempts to shift attention from a track record of career failure to blemishing the establishment". The paper then catalogued cases of Chideya’s "chequered history" and quoted government apologist Godfrey Chikoore and unnamed "analysts" blaming him and "his sympathisers" for unreasonably "dragging" the President’s office into the matter.

Only audiences of the other private media got a clearer picture of the extent of government meddling in Harare’s affairs. They carried six stories on the matter: private radio stations (four) and private papers (two). They openly reported the allegations against the President’s office and other government officials. And they also linked the Chideya probe to factional fighting within the ruling party and to other previous cases of corruption involving government officials unearthed by several commissions of inquiry.

The Financial Gazette (7/9), for example, reported that three council officials had revealed that Chideya’s alleged allocation of housing stands to "undeserving people" was not an exception as council received "numerous ‘recommendations and directives’ on the allocation of stands" from senior ZANU PF, police and government officials "as well as politically connected elites".

Said housing director James Chiyangwa: "We have allocated a number as a result of these approaches". As examples, he named the President’s wife, Chombo and Makwavarara as having allegedly ordered council to allocate stands to certain individuals. In addition, the paper revealed that it was not only Savanhu who allegedly benefited from the abuse of fire tenders: the late Justice Minister Edson Zvobgo and the portfolio’s present minister, Patrick Chinamasa, also did. The Zimbabwe Independent (8/9) carried a similar story and further revealed that inquiry chairman, magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe, "immediately interjected" during Chiyangwa’s testimony "advising (him) to confine himself to giving evidence related to the suspended town clerk".

Earlier, Studio 7 (5/9) reported the revelations in the context of power struggles within ZANU PF. It quoted the party’s Harare publicity secretary William Nhara criticizing Makwavarara for running down the city and called for the restoration of a properly elected council to replace her commission.

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