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MDC meltdown
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-43
Monday 29th October - Sunday November 4th 2007
November 08, 2007

All media followed up on the strife rocking the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC faction, sparked by the opposition leader's controversial dissolution of the party's women's league, led by Lucia Matibenga, in alleged disregard of recommendations of an internal inquiry and advice from the party's national executive council. They carried 56 reports on the matter. Of these, ZBC carried eight stories, official papers (15), the private electronic media (15) and private Press (18). These media's reports not only updated their audiences on the subsequent controversial election of Theresa Makone to replace Matibenga and the outbreak of violence between those supporting Matibenga's ouster and those opposed to it, they also analysed the implications of the development on the party, especially ahead of next year's elections. Even the government media, whose unflattering coverage of opposition activities is a matter of public record, reported the development as a matter of fact. All their stories on the subject, for example, simply reported on the in-house squabbles as they unfolded without embellishing them with editorial intrusions.Examples included 'MDC fails to hold women's congress' (ZTV 30/10, 6pm & 8pm) and 'Troubled MDC faction's national executive committee is holding a crisis meeting in Harare today' (Spot FM 3/11, 1pm).

The government Press also gave a fair assessment of the in-fighting in the opposition, reporting on the "chaos" and "violence" that erupted in Bulawayo where the MDC's women's assembly factions held two "congresses" to elect a new leadership (The Herald and Chronicle 29/10). Subsequently, The Herald (30/10 & 1/11) recorded four incidents of intra-party violence in the opposition, which included assaults and the stoning of houses. The private media went even further. They cited analysts criticising the Matibenga sacking as a political blunder that once again exposed Tsvangirai's flagrant disregard of the party's constitution, and his authoritarian qualities, which in October 2005, led to the initial split in the party.

New Zimbabwe (1/11), for example, carried an opinion piece by Dr Magaisa who largely attributed the problems in the party to Tsvangirai's "inept leadership," which has "plunged the party into a quagmire". ZimOnline (29/10) and the Independent quoted political analyst Eldred Masunungure saying the ouster of the executive of the women's assembly exposed the opposition's weakness on strategy on the eve of the crucial 2008 elections.As the week ended, The Standard (4/11) reported that Tsvangirai had failed to secure the endorsement of Makone as chairperson of the women's assembly by the national executive, which reportedly told him that the process leading to her election was "flawed" and "unacceptable". The Sunday Mail carried a similar story. However, none of the media sought clarification from Tsvangirai on the chaos in his party.

A sampling of the voice distribution from the private and government papers reflects the pattern throughout the media (Figs 5 and 6).

Fig 5: Voice distribution of the government papers

Fig 6: Voice distribution in the private Press

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