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Labour unrest, inflation and confusion
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Media Update 2007-1
December 18th 2006 - Sunday January 14th 2007
January, 2007

THERE was no marked difference in the manner in which the media tackled the country’s economic distress over the Christmas and New Year holidays, including the week ending January 14^th.

The government media continued to reserve its energies to showering praise on the authorities’ economic programmes while only the private media remained critical of the direction government was steering the economic fortunes of the country.

For instance, although all media highlighted the country’s continued economic problems in the 237 stories they carried on the subject during this period (ZBC [93], the official Press [44], private Press [59]) and private electronic media [41]), only the private media linked the problems to government’s failed policies.

In contrast, the official media – which momentarily monopolised the media space over the better part of the festive period following the mainstream private papers’ holiday shutdown – dishonestly attributed the troubles to “illegal Western sanctions” and unscrupulous businesses. At the same time they depicted the authorities as taking the correct measures to revive the economy in 2007 and lessen consumers’ suffering.

Their duplicity was mirrored by the way they reported on skyrocketing inflation, commodity and service charges, and incidents of labour unrest, which also dominated media space in the week ending January 14^th.

For instance, all the 77 stories they carried on these issues in the week (ZBC [40] and government papers [37]) only highlighted these indicators of economic decline without reconciling them with official optimism on the country’s economic outlook. As a result, the confusion caused by government’s ad hoc interventionist policies on the economy was left unexplored.

In comparison, the 84 stories the private Press carried on the issue during the week were, like the holiday reports, forthright on Zimbabwe’s economic decline and its causes. Of these, 64 were in private papers and 20 in the private electronic media.

a. Labour unrest

The media failed to provide their audiences with contemporary reports of the junior doctors’ strike, which began before Christmas.

The private media belatedly covered the development (which the private online agency, New Zimbabwe.com reported [27/12] as having started on December 21 last year) several days later. ZBC was even more neglectful. It only started reporting the strike two weeks later (Radio Zimbabwe 5/1, 8pm and ZTV & Spot FM 8/1, 8pm).

Even then, its coverage was in the context of official responses to the industrial action and contained no effort to provide their audiences with any informed analysis of the stand-off.

ZTV (8/1, 8pm), for example, simplistically dismissed the doctors’ strike, saying: “It has become traditional for doctors to go on strike at the beginning and end of each and every year”, without investigating why government had failed to permanently address the doctors’ grievances. Otherwise, the official media – despite trying to assess the human cost of the strike - narrowly projected the doctors as selfish and inconsiderate.

For instance, they neither viewed their strike as symptomatic of the ailing health sector nor linked it to worsening economic conditions that have triggered labour unrest in other sectors of the economy.

In fact, The Sunday Mail (7/1) tried to shield government’s culpability by deceitfully attributing the doctors’ concerns over poor working conditions and inadequate drugs and equipment to the “economic sanctions the West imposed on Zimbabwe”.  Such professional dishonesty was also apparent in the manner in which the official Press handled the strike by ZESA employees over low salaries. ZBC completely ignored the matter.

The Herald (5/1), for example, merely reported that the power utility workers had gone on strike, without viewing their demand for over 1000% salary hike as a reflection of the extent to which economic decline has eroded workers’ salaries.

It was against this background that the paper (10/1) reported the failure by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council to meet the examinations marking deadline due to “low turnout by markers owing to poor payment rates” and the exodus of teachers to neighbouring countries (The Herald and Chronicle, 9/1) without reference to the economic hardships faced by Zimbabwe’s dwindling workforce.

The pattern remained unbroken in ZBC’s coverage of the strike by Gwanda municipal workers (Spot FM 10/1, 8pm and ZTV 13/1, 8pm).

The government media’s inadequate coverage of the subject was mirrored by their narrow sourcing pattern in the week as exemplified by ZBC (See Fig 1).

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Despite their belated coverage, the private media reports on the doctors’ strike were generally more informative and viewed the matter in the context of the collapse in the country’s health delivery system.

They also examined the strike’s impact on patients and highlighted the doctors’ grievances. For example, the Zimbabwe Independent (12/1) quoted doctors blaming government for the crisis, arguing that their wage demands were “realistic” because their current basic salary was “equivalent to two crates of beer…”

Earlier, The Financial Gazette (11/1) noted that while government described the doctors’ action as illegal, “no arrests, dismissals or suspensions have been reported” since the strike began, adding that the stalemate between the authorities and doctors would “prolong the suffering of patients”.

The Daily Mirror (8/1 & 12/1) revealed that the situation could worsen as senior doctors, nurses and paramedics, who were still manning the hospitals, had joined the strike also demanding “better working conditions and competitive salaries”. 

The paper, and indeed other private media, linked the industrial action to the country’s economic woes and to the outbreak of several other strikes, which observers projected could trigger mass demonstrations against government.

Studio 7 (9/1) also reported on threats by teachers that they “might go on strike” if they do not get an 800% salary rise, a 1,500% increment in transport allowances and a 1,000% increase in housing allowances.

The critical manner in which the private media handled the topic was reflected in its wide use of alternative voices as shown in the private electronic media’s sourcing pattern in the week. See Fig 2.

 Fig 2 Voice distribution in the private electronic media

b. Price increases and inflation

THE government media failed to coherently discuss the sharp increases in commodity and service charges that characterised the Christmas holidays and the beginning of 2007 in the context of government’s policies.

The price hikes included that of bread, school fees and uniforms, and bus fares. The news of the increases came as Spot FM (22/12,8pm) reported new figures from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) that December’s consumer basket had increased to $246,000 up from $208,000 in November. Reports of declining fertilizer production also featured, in which ZimPhos, was said to be operating at 50%, and Windmill at 10% of their capacities (ZTV, 24/12,8pm).

Despite extensively highlighting these indicators of economic decline in 96 stories (ZBC [74] and the official papers [22]) during the holiday period, the government media avoided carrying informative analysis of the serious nature of these problems, nor did they attempt to identify their root causes.

Instead, the stories generally regurgitated official threats against businesses that raised their prices, even in instances where they did so with government approval.

Consequently, the confusion surrounding government’s price control regime and its adverse effects on the economy was unexplored.

For example, The Sunday Mail (31/12) passively reported some parents calling on government to intervene in the pricing of school uniforms without discussing the prudence of such a move. Instead, the paper and The Sunday News (7/1) continued to report passively on calls for price controls in the education sector.

However, The Herald (9/1) argued otherwise by noting that “schools are not spared from inflation”, adding that while it was important to “protect parents against unreasonable fee hikes, it is also vital to ensure that schools remain viable”.

But The Sunday Mail (14/11) did not relent. It continued sowing seeds of confusion by failing to reconcile government’s approval of a 1 000% increase in rates in Chitungwiza to reports in The Herald (4 & 9/11) and Spot FM (8/1, 8pm) featuring the Estate Agency Council and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo warning landlords against “illegally” charging “exorbitant rentals”.

Earlier, The Herald (27/12 & 5/1) also did nothing to clarify government price control policies when it allowed the authorities to confuse the public on its position over commuter omnibus fare increases. The paper, for example, simply quoted the authorities describing the hikes as “illegal” and threatening to “withdraw permits of urban omnibus operators flouting government gazetted prices” without pointing out that it was actually government that had sanctioned the fares.

In fact, the official media tried to divert attention from government’s failure to turn around the economy with unsubstantiated official optimism that 2007 would be better.

For example, ZTV (10/1, 8pm) merely cited unnamed analysts giving qualified optimism that “the inflation rate of between 500% to 600% prediction by fiscal authorities is attainable”.  Neither did it explore their calls “for policy interventions in controlling money supply growth…” and the need to “stimulate Foreign Direct Investment as well as resuscitate foreign currency reserves.” Nor did they investigate the cause of the excessive money supply or how it could be controlled.

However, the next day ZTV (11/1, 8pm) quoted the public in Harare saying they were “losing hope” that inflation, currently running at 1 281%, “would decline this year considering that prices of basic commodities are now rising haphazardly yet their salaries remain stagnant”.

The same report cited business strategist Chester Mhende questioning the authorities’ methods of calculating the rate of inflation. He contended that they were using “wrong ingredients” such as the controlled official foreign exchange rate instead of the parallel market rate where businesses obtain hard currency. Thus, he added, the real rate of inflation “is far higher than what is being reported...”

The Herald (11/1) buried news of the record rate of inflation and the sharp increase in the monthly cost of living to its business section.

In contrast, the private media reported candidly on Zimbabwe’s economic crisis and quoted economists and other commentators predicting a bleak 2007 unless government listened to advice and implemented effective turnaround strategies.

For example, The Financial Gazette (11/1) reported analysts interpreting the rise in inflation as indicative of government’s “failure to slow an economic decline that is breeding conditions for unrest,” while the online Zimbabwe Times (6/1) cited economist John Robertson forecasting inflation to hit 4,000 percent “if government fails to adhere to advice offered to it by the IMF”.

Similar views were echoed in The Standard (14/1).

Earlier, Studio 7 (28/12) forecast that the spate of price hikes in goods and services in almost every sector of the Zimbabwean economy was likely to throw January’s salary adjustments into disarray. There was no so such analysis in the government media.

The difference in the manner in which the government and private media tackled the economy was reflected by their sourcing patterns.

For instance, although the official papers’ sourcing appeared diverse (See Fig 3), most of those outside government were quoted either endorsing government policies or calling on the authorities to enforce price controls.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the government Press

The private papers’ critical approach was mirrored by the significant amount of space they allocated to independent views as shown in Fig 4.

Fig 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

The MEDIA UPDATE was produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw

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