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Poor service delivery
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-23
Monday June 11th 2007 - Sunday June 17th 2007
June 21, 2007

THIS week the government media papered over the country's poor service delivery characterised by acute power and water shortages. Their 66 stories on the matter (ZBC [30] and government Press [36]) neither gave a coherent picture of the extent of the problem nor its effects on households and businesses. Otherwise, the official media appeared content in peddling simplistic official promises of an improved service.

For example, there was no substantiation of claims by Water and Infrastructural Development Minister Munacho Mutezo that the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)'s takeover of water and sewer reticulation services in 40 of the country's towns had "yielded positive results" (ZTV 13/6, 6pm and Spot FM 14/6, 8am).

Neither did ZBC stations reconcile his claims with findings by Parliament and the Comptroller General that Zinwa was technically incapacitated to take over these services. Nor was there was there an attempt to link the minister's assertions with ZTV (11/6, 7am) revelations that Glenview and Glen Norah residents were fetching water from Mukuvisi River due to severe water shortages in the suburbs. Such passivity also manifested itself in the official papers' coverage of the issue. For example, none of them followed up on Zinwa's promise (The Herald 12/6) that "normal water supplies" would "resume in all parts of Harare by the end of the week" or examine the situation in other Zinwa-run towns. The official media equally failed to holistically explain the reasons behind the power outages.

While Radio Zimbabwe and ZTV (16/6, 1pm &6pm) reported Vice President Joseph Msika claiming that government had relaxed laws to facilitate the entry of private companies into the power sector and alleviate the electricity problems, they did not question him why no new players had been licensed. Neither did they ask him on the fate of several power deals government has previously claimed to have signed with other countries to boost electricity generation. Nor did The Herald (13/6) reconcile ZESA's attempts to narrowly blame power shortages on technical faults at Hwange Colliery with its earlier revelation (12/6) that the power utility had failed to "service a US$5 million debt" with the DRC's Snel power company, leaving it with no option but to "cut off supplies to Zimbabwe". However, the Chronicle (14/6) quoted a Snel official denying the report.

And in an effort to downplay the country's failure to meet its power demand, The Herald (12/6) tried to regionalize the problem saying all SADC countries were "facing severe power shortages forcing traditional exporters to limit supplies to Zimbabwe in order to meet their own growing needs". In the same vein, ZTV and Spot FM (13/6, 8pm) passively allowed Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya to claim that demand for electricity had outstripped supply by only 3%, when Zimbabwe was reportedly producing just 700 Megawatts instead of the required 1500 Megawatts.

ZBC's lopsided presentation of the issue was reflected by its dependence on government comment as shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Although the official papers' sourcing pattern appeared diverse (Fig 2), they remained uncritical.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Except for the private electronic media, which totally ignored the water crisis, the private Press fared better as they exposed the disastrous effects of both the water and power shortages on urban residents in 10 reports they published on the subjects. The private electronic media's four stories only concentrated on the power outages. For example, The Financial Gazette (14/6) and The Standard (17/6) highlighted "massive" water cuts in Bulawayo where some residents were disconnected for up to eight hours a day.

The Standard also reported on the crippling water shortages in seven other towns.

The critical coverage of the private Press also manifested itself in their reportage of the power crisis in the country.

The Gazette reported that demand for firewood had gone up since the introduction of "widespread" and "prolonged" power outages, while The Zimbabwean (14/6) reported that blackouts had made life "miserable" for residents. It revealed that in Chiredzi, for instance, power cuts were affecting sugar cane production and the town's water reticulation posing a "health hazard" for residents. The Zimbabwe Independent (15/6) revealed that Mozambique's power utility HCB "has reduced" electricity supplies to Zimbabwe by 66% after ZESA failed to settle a US$12 million debt dating back to 2004.

And contrary to the impression created by the official media, it noted that though the whole SADC region was facing power problems, Zimbabwe "appears to be the only country reeling from electricity shortages".

The private media's sourcing pattern, as exemplified by that of the private papers, is shown in Fig 3.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

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