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Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2008-3
Monday January 21st - Sunday January 27th 2008

The government media carried piecemeal reports that failed to do justice to Zimbabwe’s accelerating economic decline. Consequently, there was no critical analysis on the causes of the problems and their total impact on the economy. For example, the 100 stories that the government media carried on the subject (ZBC [30] and official papers [70]) provided limited insight on how government planned to end the nationwide shortages of power, water and fuel, among a host of others. They either passively reported the authorities claiming to be in control of the situation or promising to correct the problems.

For example, ZTV (22/1,8pm) and Radio Zimbabwe (24/1,1pm) reported the power utility ZESA claiming that "the situation that led to a blackout throughout Zimbabwe is now under control" but did not relate this to reality. Particularly, there was no questioning ZESA’s capacity to meet national power requirements mainly due to the acute shortages of foreign currency to acquire spares and upgrade existing power generating stations.

Similarly, there was no attempt to question claims by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) that it was working "flat out" to restore normal water supplies in Harare when, in reality, the situation appeared to be deteriorating. Instead, the public media passively allowed the authorities to divert attention from their shortcomings by blaming all those outside official circles, such as industry and Western "sanctions" for the crises.

The Chronicle (21/1) for example, reported Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu blaming another spate of price increases on "economic saboteurs" planning to "force people to revolt against the democratically elected ZANU PF government", while The Herald (22/1) cited Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono narrowly blaming banks for the cash crisis.

No comment was sought from the banking industry and there was no attempt to inquire why the RBZ had allowed financial institutions to engage in speculative purposes without intervening. In addition, the official media failed to explain why Gono failed to appear before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development to name the top party and government officials he alleged were involved in corrupt activities as they had earlier reported. ZTV (22/1,8pm) vaguely reported that the governor would appear after elections because Parliament had adjourned, but failed to clarify whether the PPC could still not have met to hear the matter.

The superficial manner in which the official media handled the topic was illustrated by its failure to balance official rhetoric with alternative views as exemplified by the government papers’ sourcing pattern. See Fig 1.

Fig 1: Voice distribution in the government Press

Only the private media gave expression to the extent of the economic meltdown, which they attributed to poor government policies. For example, they extensively reported on how extensive power cuts had crippled industry, especially during the two nationwide blackouts. The Financial Gazette also blamed government for failing to establish additional energy sources despite the fact that "it was known much earlier that traditional sources of power imports would dry up in 2007 because of increasing demand for electricity in regional countries".

The Zimbabwe Independent (25/1) blamed the Reserve Bank for the cash crisis saying it had created a "macro-economic environment, which allows speculative tendencies to flourish" adding: "The mess in the banking sector is indicative of serious policy flaws which has become the hallmark of ZANU PF governance".

And contrary to government media’s explanations, the Zimbabwe Times (21/1), SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 (22/1) revealed that President Mugabe had blocked the parliamentary committee from questioning Gono because he feared embarrassing revelations that could thwart his party’s prospects in the March elections. The private media’s sourcing pattern, as illustrated by that of the private papers, is shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the private Press

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