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Economic decline and labour unrest
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-18
Monday May 7th 2007 - Sunday May 13th 2007

THE government media maintained their reluctance to frankly discuss the causes of the country's economic problems. For instance, almost all their 48 stories on indicators of economic decline (ZBC [39] and official Press [9]), were disjointed and detached from government mismanagement. In fact, they allowed the authorities to simplistically blame all those outside official circles for the decline. For example, ZTV (8/5, 8pm) and Spot FM (9/5, 8am and 1pm) passively reported Industry Minister Obert Mpofu threatening "selfish retailers and millers" who were charging "exorbitant prices" and "diverting maize meal" to manufacture "animal feeds".

No attempt was made to verify Mpofu's allegations.

ZTV also narrowly accused commuter bus operators of unjustifiably increasing their fares, despite quoting them citing the worsening macro-economic environment as the main cause of the hikes. ZBC's failure to diagnose the country's economic ills resulted in it suppressing growing labour unrest and the brain-drain, particularly within the civil service and the health sector. For instance, ZTV (8/5, 8pm) only cursorily referred to the exodus of teachers in the context of parents' concerns over the "continued drop in educational standards". And instead of investigating the extent of the crisis or explaining its actual causes, the station merely presented the authorities as committed to addressing the problem claiming: "Government and the highest office in this country are on record as expressing concern over poor working conditions of teachers".

There was no investigation on what the authorities were doing to address the teachers' problems. Neither did ZBC (7&10/5, evening bulletins) give a coherent picture on the strike by Harare and Gweru council workers, nor view the industrial actions as indicative of the country's worsening economic crisis.

Although the broadcaster gave space to a significant number of members of the public (See Fig 4) bemoaning the country's economic woes, it avoided viewing their concerns in the context of poor government planning.

Fig.4 Voice distribution on ZBC

Details on growing labour unrest found space in the print and the private electronic media. However, only the private media holistically reported labour discontent in light of government's failed economic policies. Typically, the government papers just reported on nurses, state university lecturers and municipal workers' agitation for improved working conditions in isolation and without depicting the extent of the problem. Neither did they attempt to trace its root causes, especially as it came barely three months after the nurses and lecturers had been awarded 'hefty' salary increases.

For example, The Herald (8/5) only reported the nurses' work boycott - which it attributed to the nurses' failure to meet their bus fares - in the context of the Health Ministry's requests for additional funding "to address the plight of health professionals".

No attempt was made to establish when the stay-away started and how widespread it was. Neither did the paper or the Chronicle (9/5) assess the sufficiency of the"220 and 332 percent" hikes in transport and housing allowances respectively government awarded nurses to enable them to continue "coming to work while their concerns were being addressed". Otherwise, the government papers unquestioningly portrayed government as working tirelessly to address the health workers' problems. Their professional deficiencies also resulted in the Sunday News (13/5) failing to explain why TelOne technicians were "leaving the company in droves for so-called greener pastures".

The official papers' inadequate coverage of the topic was reflected in its sparse sourcing pattern (See Fig. 5)

Fig. 5 Voice distribution in the government Press

In contrast, the private media's 17 stories on labour unrest (private Press [11] and private electronic media [6]) were more informative. Apart from highlighting workers' discontent over poor working conditions at the National Railways of Zimbabwe, state hospitals and universities, they linked the workers' plight to the country's economic distress and government's failure to come up with a credible economic package to resolve it.

For example, SW Radio Africa (8/5) revealed that "many clinics in Harare have shut down" as doctors and nurses are failing to turn up for work citing lack of funds to pay for the bus fare. The Standard (13/5) carried a detailed report that revealed that the doctors and nurses were actually in the third week of their strike, which came "barely two months after they returned to work on the back of a massive 800% pay hike".

The Zimbabwean (10/5) agreed and quoted a nurses' representative confirming they were on strike to press for salary hikes. Besides, the Zimbabwe Independent (11/5) and Zimdaily (13/5) revealed that university lecturers, who had been on strike for more than two months early this year, were threatening further industrial action unless there was "progress" on their "salary negotiations" with the authorities.

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