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Policy contradictions and chaos
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-28
Monday July 16th 2007 - Sunday July 22nd 2007
July 26, 2007

THIS week the government media failed to expose policy confusion characterising government's price blitz and land reforms. For example, almost all the 124 stories they carried on the clampdown on business (ZBC [54] and government Press [70]) merely regurgitated contradictory official pronouncements without reconciling them or matching them to reality. Consequently, none of the reports viewed government's delays in devising a pricing formula; its decision to hike the price of cooking oil barely two weeks after slashing it and disagreements among officials over the banning of fuel coupons as indicative of the chaos characterising the price cuts policy. Such professional ineptitude was more apparent in the official papers.

The Herald (21/7), for example, reported that "some unknown people in Harare" had "crafted" a "fake" Statutory Instrument 137 of 2007 Control of Goods (Import and Export), which they were distributing by e-mail "claiming government intends to ban imports and exports of certain basic commodities when government has not gazetted such a regulation". To reinforce its claims, it quoted Industry Minister Obert Mpofu disowning the alleged law saying government was still "deliberating" on the statutory instrument and had not yet gazetted it.

However, the next day The Sunday Mail reported Zimbabwe Revenue Authority official Florence Jambwa confirming the existence of the legal instrument saying it would be effective from August 1. The provisions of the instrument, said Jambwa, stipulated that individuals or families "will be allowed to import controlled goods for domestic consumption, and not for sale, of up to a value not exceeding the equivalent of US$250 without the need to produce a permit". Notably, no attempt was made to relate Jambwa's claims to Mpofu's.

Earlier, The Herald (18/7) passively reported Vice-President Joseph Msika condemning the Prices and Incomes Stabilisation Taskforce for forcing some companies to reduce prices to June 18th levels saying "it was not within their mandate to do so". Citing the government-sanctioned seed prices, which the taskforce ordered halved, Msika was quoted: "How do you reduce prices that you (Taskforce) gave them?" No attempt was made to interpret Msika's statements as a reflection of the confusion surrounding government's price-cutting crusade.

The official media's reluctance to examine official pronouncements critically saw them also fail to discuss coherently the discord within government over the ban of fuel coupons. For instance, they did not reconcile the pricing taskforce's order for the disposal of fuel coupons "within the next two weeks" (The Herald and Chronicle 19/7) with Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's calls for a revision of the policy (Chronicle 20/7). Instead, they merely quoted him warning against "good intentions having negative results" and urging government to "consider the reality on the ground to avoid a situation where some of the fuel destined for legitimate uses such as powering generators that drive banks, automated teller machines, mines and other sectors of the economy (is not) affected in the process".

The government Press similarly avoided openly discussing policy contradictions that have underlined government's land reform exercise since its inception seven years ago.

For example, The Herald (19/7) did not relate Msika's statement that government "did not say whites should be chased (from farms) but wanted a fair distribution of land" to reality. But while the official Press passively reported such conflicting policy statements, ZBC simply ignored them, preferring to give a sanitised picture of the price blitz.

It is against this background that although the government media's sourcing patterns appeared diverse as shown in Figs 1 and 2, their coverage of the topic remained superficial.

Fig.1 Voice distribution in government Press

Fig. 2 Voice distribution on ZBC

In contrast, the private media highlighted this policy confusion in 38 stories. Of these, 24 were in the private papers and the remainder in the private electronic media. The Zimbabwe Independent (20/2), for instance, interpreted Msika's critical remarks on land reforms as an admission that the programme was chaotic and had "destroyed commercial agriculture". In fact, in another story the paper revealed that despite Msika's claims that the land reform "policy document didn't say all white farmers should be chased out", the police had evicted "one of the last white commercial farmers in Matebeleland North", Margaret Joubert, "in contempt of a High Court order interdicting them from disrupting operations at the farm".

New Zimbabwe.com (19/7) also reported that the authorities had "given the . . . last remaining white commercial farmers notices to leave their farms by September 30". The Zimbabwe Times (19/7) revealed that there was also confusion regarding the status of black-owned farms with two senior government officials bickering over the planned acquisition of Nuanetsi Ranch owned by former PF ZAPU members. Reportedly, Msika had threatened to resign if Masvingo governor Willard Chiwewe went ahead with plans to resettle people on the ranch, arguing that it was pointless to "take land from a black man and give it to another."

By the weekend, The Standard (22/7) reported more confusion in government policies in its story about Mpofu denying government's earlier announcement outlawing the use of fuel coupons. It quoted him claiming that his statement had been "misinterpreted" as government was not scrapping the facility altogether. Instead, he said, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe would be the sole company responsible for selling fuel and "would continue to service those who failed to redeem coupons within the two weeks". How this would be done he did not say. Neither was he asked. The paper also revealed that despite Mpofu's earlier attempts to disown the law banning imports of groceries, he had actually "recalled" the statutory instrument in order to study it and "see how it affect(ed) . . . people". Mpofu claimed that it "was an old instrument, which had been discussed a long time ago".

The private media's voice distribution is shown in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution on the private electronic media

Fig 4 Voice distribution for private Press

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