• Weekly Media Update 2004-22
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• Future of troubled banks bleak
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• 'Malaysia did give timber to Mugabe'
• ECB dilemma as Zimbabwe lose Test status
• Warning: Armed Robberies
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• We are not racist, says ZCU chief Chingoka
• Zimbabwe Poll Challenge Dismissed
• Will end be swift or prolonged?

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

Monday May 31^st – Sunday June 6^th 2004

Weekly Media Update 2004-22

CONTENTS

1. BANNING OF TRIBUNE CONDEMNED

2. GENERAL COMMENT

3. LAND AND THE POLITICS OF POWER

4. HARARE CITY COUNCIL CIRCUS

1. Banning of Tribune condemned

THE Media Monitoring Project condemns the cynical and unconstitutional banning of The Tribune newspaper by the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. This latest onslaught against free expression, and particularly the privately owned media, demonstrates precisely why so many of the provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act are clearly anti-democratic and grossly repressive. Laws that allow government to destroy private enterprises and so many livelihoods for essentially relatively minor regulatory offences should be struck off the statute books. This gagging of one of the few remaining alternative sources of information in Zimbabwe once again clearly illustrates government’s underlying intention of introducing this legislation to silence all media institutions beyond its control.

2. General comment

THE authorities’ obsessive fear of alternative sources of information manifested itself again at the beginning of the week under review with news that government is trying to force Internet Service Providers (ISP) to monitor individual e-mails and ‘shop’ all sources of  “objectionable” and “anti-national” messages (The Standard, 30/5).

Although The Standard reported initial resistance from the country’s ISPs, the government media simply ignored this important development towards the entrenchment of a police state.

The Zimbabwe Independent (4/6) followed up the story quoting information technology (IT) consultants as saying government could only interfere with e-mails originating from or destined for local ‘zw’ domains. IT expert Robert Ndlovu was quoted saying it would be impossible for government to snoop into e-mails that used international domains such as Yahoo and Hotmail. Said Ndlovu: “As long as you use international e-mails to send sensitive information, there is no way government can open them, unless of course you give them your password”.

Similar views appeared on the radio stations, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (2/6).

The Daily Mirror (3/6) reported that ISPs had no capacity to implement government’s demands.

The private media also viewed government’s attempt to gag the electronic “information highway” as part of its campaign to stifle all alternative news and information outlets.

For example, the Independent’s Editor’s Memo pointed out that the government’s move “reflects a heightening of paranoia felt in the upper echelons of power” adding that “instead of regarding the Internet as an instrument of knowledge and freedom” the authorities saw “it as a tool of “imperialists”’.

Such evident intolerance of alternative sources of information also prompted the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) to adopt a resolution condemning the country’s media laws, which it observed were meant “to protect President Mugabe from criticism while he is able to make unrestrained attacks on civil society and his critics in the media” (the Independent). WAN was also reported calling for the “elimination of the repressive provisions of AIPPA, together with POSA” and that “other attempts to silence independent media” should cease “immediately”.

Predictably, the government media ignored this latest condemnation of the country’s repressive media environment.

3. Land and the politics of power

THE chaotic nature of government’s land reforms, always dismissed by the authorities as a lie being peddled by government opponents to discredit the programme, resurfaced this week following the emergence of alleged eviction notices served on newly resettled farmers by the Lands Ministry headed by John Nkomo. Notable however, was the simplistic way in which the government-controlled media, particularly ZBC, The Herald and The Sunday Mail, covered the matter. They neither viewed the problem as arising from the general chaos that has characterised the reforms since their inception, nor a vindication of the results of government’s own land audits undertaken in the past two years. Instead, they personalized the matter by accusing Nkomo and his office of plotting to derail land reforms by handing back expropriated land to evicted white commercial farmers. This aroused the curiosity of the private media over a possible political motive for such an agenda.

In its initial report on the issue, The Herald (31/5) accused “a group of civil servants and some unnamed politicians as the protagonists in this despicable scandal”, an allegation that was echoed by ZTV that same evening. ZTV also reported that the development had precipitated new farm invasions by “scores of land hungry Zimbabweans” in protest against “government bureaucrats trying to return land to the whites” thus derailing “an otherwise successful land reform”. No analysis was made on the legality of such invasions. Instead, it quoted liberation war veterans and war collaborators’ groups as having “vowed to do all they can, including going back to war if some people are still bent on returning land to the white minority.”

War veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba accused those behind the eviction notices as the same people who “played a part in suppressing the first land demos”. But he was not seen revealing their names. However, he was more categorical in The Herald the next day (1/6) where he accused Nkomo and his permanent secretary, Simon Pazvakavambwa, of complicity in the purported withdrawal of offer letters to the new farmers. He also claimed that Nkomo had, during the height of farm invasions, ordered the “arrest of our members …carrying out land occupations and also demolished our houses when he was the Minister of Home Affairs”.

Chinotimba even issued an ultimatum to Nkomo saying the minister should urgently convene a meeting to explain the deeds of Pazvakavambwa “or risk being hauled before a meeting that would be convened by war veterans”.

Nkomo and Pazvakavambwa were not given an equal platform to defend themselves. The paper merely cited Nkomo as having dismissed the eviction notices as “fake” during an interview with ZTV (31/5, 8pm) and that Pazvakavambwa could not be reached for comment.

However, the issue took a political twist with The Tribune (4/6) reporting that “tempers were high this week during the ZANU PF Cabinet and Politburo meetings” with some members saying there might now be “fifth columnists” in the party who were trying to destroy the ruling party from within after having failed to do so from outside. The Zimbabwe Independent (4/6) reported the same sentiments.

SW Radio Africa (2/6) quoted Zimbabwe Liberators’ Platform official Wilfred Mhanda speculating that Chinotimba was being used by some senior ZANU PF officials to attack Nkomo. The Sunday Mirror (6/6)’s Behind the Words column reflected a similar view saying Chinotimba was being used by “worms” within ZANU PF who espoused “policies that make Zimbabwe a laughing stock of the world” and spoke “destructive venom each time they open their motormouths”.

However, in his interview with The Tribune, Nkomo alleged that the attacks on him and his ministry were calculated to divert attention from the irregularities bedevilling the land reform programme that his office had unearthed. For example, the minister claimed that the presidential land implementation team had uncovered several anomalies while verifying land allocation and ownership. These included multiple ownership, multiple allocations, double allocations and people on land without offer letters. Nkomo was quoted by the paper as saying they had since discovered that about 63 individuals owned multiple farms totalling 102 427 ha, which some of them had started parcelling out to relatives when they realised that the ministry’s net was closing in on them.

Although the paper did not ask him to divulge the identities of the 63, it claimed that its independent investigations had revealed that among them were ministers, deputy ministers and senior government officials. In fact, The Sunday News (6/5) revealed that some of these government officials were refusing to hand over their extra farms.

Nkomo was further quoted in The Tribune saying his ministry had discovered that there were 3,212 people issued with offer letters although they were not on the land. Said Nkomo: “This suggested that this land is hidden somewhere or …that there were some beneficiaries that had not been given (offer) letters and … that some could be ghost beneficiaries”.

In addition, Nkomo said, there were 1,513 vacant A2 plots compared to 99 971 applicants on the waiting list, a situation which “did not make any sense” because government still held so much derelict land that had been offered but remained unoccupied.

The Daily Mirror (2/6), the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard (6/5) carried an IRIN report alleging that several small, medium and large commercial farms given to resettled farmers under land reforms still remained fallow. In fact, serious economic repercussions arising from land resettlement were clearly indicated in a Daily Mirror (2/6) report, which claimed that despite government claims of a bumper harvest, the authorities were actually spending “hundreds of billion of dollars on maize imports with the assistants of US-based companies”. The story, based on the London-based Africa Confidential, alleged that about 400 000 tonnes of maize had been imported between April and May this year. This was confirmed by the chief executive officer of the Grain Marketing Board, Col. Samuel Muvhuti, who stated that the importation of the food was “intended to feed the nation” during harvesting time.

But The Sunday Mail (6/4) would not debate these issues at all. Instead, it followed in the footpath of its stable-mate, The Herald, in personalising the problems besetting the agrarian reforms. For example, the paper’s faceless columnist Lowani Ndlovu diverted public attention from the real issues at hand by carrying personal attacks on The Tribune owner and ZANU PF MP, Kindness Paradza, for having allowed his paper to “trap” Nkomo into accusing some ZANU PF insiders of scheming to discredit his regularisation of the land reforms.

Ndlovu noted that it was “simply unacceptable” for Paradza to attack ZANU PF policies or programmes outside the “party caucus”. However, Ndlovu conveniently ignored how The Herald had provided Chinotimba with an unrivalled stage to attack Nkomo and his officers. In fact, Chinotimba, whom private media reports (The Tribune 4/6) claimed was due for disciplinary action over his outburst against Nkomo, was quoted by The Financial Gazette (3/6) as saying he would apologise to the minister “because we got to know he was unaware of the letters”.  

The government media ignored this. Instead, The Sunday Mail added a conspiracy theory to the whole issue by implicating the MDC and the shadowy pressure group, Zvakwana. The MDC was accused of allegedly bribing some government and ZANU PF officials to produce documents purporting to withdraw land offered to new farmers in an operation aimed at restoring acquired land to former white farmers.

No authenticated evidence was provided.

As the week drew to a close, The Herald, Chronicle (4/6) and ZBC (4/6, 8pm) reported that the Supreme Court had passed a “landmark judgment” that would bring relief to the new farmers who have been receiving eviction letters after the superior court ruled that an order to acquire land for resettlement could not be withdrawn six months after it has been issued. The ruling also empowered the Lands Ministry with the sole authority to either revoke or withdraw an acquisition order. This was a result of an appeal by Airfield Investments (Pvt) Ltd challenging the dismissal by the High Court of an application to bar the State from acquiring its property pending the determination of the constitutionality of sections 8, 9 and 10 of the Land Acquisition Act.

However, these media failed to fully examine the consequences of the ruling on the rights of the white commercial farmers, prime targets of the government’s land acquisition programme.

The private Press missed this story.

4. Harare City Council circus

THE government’s ongoing efforts to hound the MDC-led Harare city council out of office by directly interfering with the running of the municipality reached alarming extremes after Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo suspended 13 MDC councillors for allegedly interfering with the management of council affairs. The move followed the councillors’ decision to ignore a directive by Chombo barring them from meeting as a full council so they could elect a new deputy mayor and standing committees for the city.

Similarly, the minister also suspended the MDC executive mayor of Chegutu, Francis Dhlakama, for allegedly failing to resolve the town’s problems.

But while these issues generated interest in the private media, they did not get the attention they deserved in the government media. SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 (1, 2 & 3/6), The Financial Gazette (3/6), The Standard and The Sunday Mirror (6/6), tried to put Chombo’s latest action into context, viewing it as a clear subversion of the democratic rights of the electorate that voted the councillors into office.

In fact, Chombo’s determination to undermine the democratic will of the electorate was further exposed by revelations on Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (1/6) that he had used heavily armed riot police to forcibly evict the newly elected deputy mayor, Christopher Mushonga, from Town House. Some councillors and Mushonga’s lawyer were reportedly assaulted during the police raid. 

The government-controlled media simply ignored this. Instead, The Herald subhead (2/6) “Defying government directive costly for 13…” implied that the councillors deserved the punishment. In addition, the paper, including the Chronicle of the same day, failed to question how the 13 councillors could be suspended “for interfering with the management of council affairs” when they were elected to run the council. Neither did they provide further details on the provisions of section 114 (1) of the Urban Councils Act, Chapter 29/1, from which Chombo claims to have derived his powers to suspend the councillors.

However, The Financial Gazette sourced comments from lawyers Kay Ncube, Beatrice Mtetwa and Lovemore Madhuku arguing that the councillors’ move to defy Chombo’s directive was legal. Said Mtetwa: “Chombo has been abusing the Urban Council’s Act…The minister does as he pleases with council…(Sekesai) Makwavarara was voted to that position by councillors and she can be voted out through a vote of no confidence.”

Studio 7 (03/06) quoted the Combined Harare Residents Association lawyer condemning Chombo’s decision as illegal because the councillors had acted within the provisions of the Urban Councils Act.

A comment in The Standard described the suspension of Dhlakama and the 13 Harare councillors as “the latest in a series of bizarre escapades” by ZANU PF “to make it impossible for all MDC-headed local authorities to operate”. It further questioned Chombo’s declaration that the suspended councillors would not be returning to Town House or contesting elections in the next 10 years saying he had “subverted the wishes of Harare ratepayers with impunity and ridden roughshod over the will of citizens elsewhere”. 

Meanwhile, none of the media linked Harare City Council’s poor service delivery to the incessant meddling in the management of council by government. It was not surprising therefore that the weeks-old strike by council health workers, which has crippled clinics throughout the capital, scarcely got any attention. The media failed to report the extent and effects of the industrial action. They also failed to query how, because of the suspensions, future council budgets would be formulated since only a full council can do these things.

Ends.

The MEDIA UPDATE was produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw

Feel free to write to MMPZ. We may not able to respond to everything but we will look at each message.  For previous MMPZ reports, and more information about the Project, please visit our website at http://www.mmpz.org.zw