Day hell came to a place called 'we are happy'

By Alistair Leithead in Harare
June 24, 2005 - 3:20PM

An image from a recent video shows a building being demolished by a bulldozer in Harare.
Photo: Solidarity Peace Trust

A piece of red plastic tape flutters from a post outside the remains of Lavender Nyika's home in Tafara - a place outside Harare which means "we are happy".

But there is little happiness here. The tape is a traditional sign representing a loss in the family, and while hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have lost their homes, few have lost a daughter.

Charmaine was two years old and inside the family home when the police came with their bulldozers and levelled the house.

All that is left is the foundations, a pile of rubble and a small dirt grave with a wooden cross and a girl's name scrawled on the back of a piece of scrap metal.

"The police came. They had been sent to destroy the house," said Herbert Nyika, Charmaine's father. "They knocked down the building, the walls; they smashed everything. This was when our child was trapped inside. She died there."

Her mother, Lavender, said: "I blame the government because it is they who instructed the police to do what they did. It is terrible. I have lost my daughter in such a strange way."

She added: "Of course they have managed to clean up the city but at the same time they have brought suffering to the people - property destruction, homelessness and now the death of a child."

The family is poor and their home was a small building in the back garden of a bigger house.

The Zimbabwean government has spent the past few years targeting white farmers, those with land and wealth; now it seems it is picking on the poor.

The Zimbabwean press yesterday admitted that two toddlers had died in the demolition drive - Charmaine, two, who died two weeks ago, and Terence Munyaka, 18 months, who died on Sunday from head injuries.

As outrage rose around the world, the Zimbabwean police called on its officers to exercise more care.

In London Jack Straw, Britain's Foreign Secretary, said on behalf of the G8 countries: "We call on the government of Zimbabwe to abide by the rule of law and respect human rights."

Every day in Harare, in Bulawayo, in the towns and cities of Zimbabwe, police in riot gear are systematically moving from suburb to suburb forcing people from their homes. Bulldozers with their buckets raised are silhouetted on the skyline.

The scale of the clearance is so great there is too much work for the police to do - they are now forcing the people to destroy their own homes, or charging them a fee for demolition.

On the roads are wheelbarrows piled high, trucks overloaded with cupboards, beds, mattresses - thousands and thousands of people making their way somewhere, but there is nowhere to go. Many are living in the open - their furniture arranged around them as if the walls were still there.

In Bulawayo, under the cover of darkness, a group of people huddled around a fire, a large pot of maize meal bubbling away on a wood stove. "They came to my home and they burned it down," one man said as he took his turn stirring the pot.

"They say they have a strategy, they say they are clearing up the towns," he says, confused as to why his home was destroyed, but too scared to speak against the government.

Old women, sick men and young mothers drag their mattresses inside the church hall, their few blankets all there is to keep away the bitterly cold African winter air.

The churches are full, their lavatories are overflowing, the people have nowhere else to go and so the government has created a solution.

Well over 2,000 people have been moved to Caledonia Farm, a resettlement camp outside Harare, with no clean water, sanitation or access to food.

The entrance was blocked by police. Intelligence agents mingled among the poor and the homeless. We crept in through the bush to catch a glimpse of the camp, knowing to be caught would mean a two-year prison sentence.

Again people had arranged their furniture around them, huddled together under plastic sheets and blankets. A desperate mass of humanity forced from their homes by the government.

Some say the reason is political retribution, to punish the urban electorate for voting for the opposition; others say it will scatter the angry and dispossessed before the seeds of revolution can be sown; and others look even further ahead and believe that forcing the people to rural poverty will make them dependent on the state for food and blankets and buy political patronage.

Either way hundreds of thousands of people are homeless, cold, destitute and desperate.

- Alastair Leithead is a BBC reporter based in southern Africa. His dispatch was broadcast on BBC 10 o'clock news on Thursday.

The Telegraph, London

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

Monday June 13^th – Sunday June 19^th 2005

Weekly Media Update 2005-22

1. GENERAL COMMENT

2. PURGE OF THE URBAN POOR CONTINUES

3. INFLATION AND ECONOMIC ISSUES

1. General comment

THE media’s failure to adequately inform the public about critical issues affecting their lives was demonstrated by their failure to report and explain the authorities’ six-month extension to the life of the government-appointed commission running the City of Harare.

Except for The Herald (9/6), the rest of the media ignored the issue and the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)’s court application seeking the termination of the commission’s term to facilitate the holding of council elections.

In its application, CHRA argued that it was illegal for government to extend the commission’s expired term because according to the Urban Councils Act, a commission can only be in office for a maximum of six months. Thus, the Harare council commission’s tenure should have expired on June 10.

But instead of openly discussing the provisions of the Act and the legality of government’s moves, The Herald sought to justify the reappointment of the Harare Commissioners. It argued: “Although commissions are normally appointed for a period of six months, government indicated at the beginning that the commission would operate for 24 months, implying it would periodically renew the commissions’ mandate”.

Without viewing this as proof of the authorities’ blatant disregard for the law, the paper then gave Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo acres of space to further try and legitimise government’s actions. Chombo claimed that it was “untenable to have elections” because former Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri was contesting his dismissal, adding that government was happy with the commission’s “turnaround strategy” for the city.

“We cannot disturb the momentum. We also cannot disturb the clean-up campaign just to satisfy the whims of a few people”, he added.

Notably, the private media’s failure to pick up the story and expose the authorities’ disrespect for laws that attempt to entrench democratic practice and the blatant violation of the citizenry’s rights to choose leaders of their choice was tantamount to abdicating their professional role as watchdogs of government.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Independent (17/6) revealed that despite calls on the government to repeal repressive laws, the authorities were actually considering stiffer penalties for journalists and civilians who violate various sections of the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA). According to the proposed amendment, fines for those found guilty of breaching some clauses of POSA, which currently range from $20 000 to $200 000, would be increased by between 400 and 800 percent.

The government media ignored the matter.

2. Purge of the urban poor continues

THE government’s continued clampdown on the urban poor under its Operation Murambatsvina continued to dominate the media. The newspapers carried 59 stories on the matter, 31 of which appeared in the government-controlled Press and 28 in the private Press. The electronic media carried 99 stories. Of these, 64 appeared on ZBH (ZTV (38), Power FM (13) and Radio Zimbabwe (13) while Studio 7 carried 35 stories.

Although the stories generally pointed to a continuation of the severe social upheaval resulting from the exercise, all the stories from the government media unquestioningly endorsed it. Only private media reported on local and international condemnation of the programme, and exposed the brutal and inhumane nature of the “clearances”.

The passive nature of the official media’s coverage was illustrated by the way in which they only echoed or amplified government’s justification for the ‘clean-up’ by mainly depicting the authorities as working flat out to ensure that no one was disadvantaged by the operation. This unquestioning approval of the crackdown saw Power FM (13/6, 1pm), ZTV (13/6,6pm) and the Chronicle (14/6) using officials from the Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban Planners (ZIRUP) and the Urban Councils’ Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) to suffocate the real scale of the human suffering caused by Operation Murambatsvina with fatuous comments.

For example, ZTV merely quoted ZIRUP’s Percy Toriro urging “environmental stakeholders to maintain the glow that has been awarded to cities by the clean-up exercise” without linking it to the humanitarian misery it has caused.

Similarly, the Chronicle quoted UCAZ president Fani Phiri defending the denial of shelter and “survival means” of the victims because the clampdown was like a “bitter medicine that healed the people”.

But it was comment from Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri that best illustrated the authorities’ contempt for the victims of Murambatsvina. He was quoted in The Herald (16/6) describing them as the “crawling mass of maggots” that were “bent on destroying the economy”.

To justify the government’s harsh execution of the clampdown, The Herald (15/6) handily used an isolated incident in which “80 pigs and 120 goats” were discovered in one of the ‘illegal’ houses in Harare during the operation as “testimony to the extent to which our cities had deteriorated”. In addition, the government-controlled papers carried nine stories – exposing alleged black market dealings in gold, fuel and several other commodities – as proof of the benefits of the crackdown.

The official media also portrayed government as caring for the victims’ plight by providing alternative accommodation. For example, ZTV (15/6,6pm) and Power FM (16/6) quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo announcing that 30 000 stands were “awaiting allocation to those without homes”, adding that the names of the beneficiaries would be published in The Herald on Friday (17/6).

The Herald (17/6) itself was unhelpful. It passively reported that government had named 4 470 people out of 20 477 who would be allocated housing stands at Whitecliff Farm without questioning the criteria used to select the beneficiaries, or even whether they had been victims of the evictions. Nor did it provide any information about the stands except to say that the beneficiaries would only be allowed to occupy them once “basic services are put in place and until they are issued with a certificate of occupation”. The Herald did not ask how long this might take or why the authorities had not first serviced the stands and allowed the beneficiaries to build homes before flattening their existing dwellings.

ZTV (15/6, 8pm) and the Chronicle (18/6) also steered clear of asking pertinent questions.

Only the private Press reported estimates of between 200,000 and a million people who had lost their homes as a result of the clearances. Studio 7 (14/6) and The Financial Gazette (16/6) however, also quoted Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya disputing these figures. The Gazette quoted him as having said there “were much less than 20,000” affected.

The official media’s uncritical nature was illustrated by their reliance on the authorities and pro-government commentators at the expense of other pertinent sources. See Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the public Press

Alternative	Govt.	Ordinary People	Police	Local govt.	Business	Unnamed
2	8	14	15	7	1	4

All 51 sources quoted by the official Press endorsed the operation. In addition, they carried five editorials and opinion pieces that also approved government’s action.

Similarly ZBH relied more on government/officials as their primary sources of news, quoting them 41 times, with only two from ordinary people.

However, except for The Daily Mirror’s comment (17/6) supporting Operation Murambatsvina and calling on government to extend it to illegal gold panners, the rest of the 62 stories the private media carried continued to expose the human suffering caused by the exercise. They also carried local and international criticism from Australia, the US, the United Nations, European Union, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), health experts and church leaders.

The Standard (19/6) also revealed that even some senior members of ZANU PF had reservations about the operation. The government media dodged these developments by maintaining its one-sided positive portrayal of Murambatsvina.

For example, ZTV (18/6,8pm) and Power FM (19/6, 6pm) announced that “efforts to transform Caledonia Farm into a planned, structured and well organized transit camp are now at an advanced stage” without comparing how this squared with Chombo’s earlier comments on ZTV (16/6, 6pm) that the exercise had been “conceived and planned by government” after “elaborate consultation” and “not initiated on the spur of the moment”.

Neither did the station (16/6, 8pm) question why government was only now setting up “committees to systematically execute resources to people affected by the clean-up exercise”.

Instead, Power FM and ZTV (18/06,8pm) reported on families at Caledonia Farm now having access to “clean water, better shelter and hygienic conditions…”

ZTV showed footage of the farm, where 13 small tents had been put up, with six big ones still to be erected. A police officer was quoted saying the people there were happy. None of the “residents” was interviewed to comment on conditions at the farm.

The official media ignored the public outcry arising from the purge. For example it was silent on the outbreak of riots in Bulawayo’s Makokoba suburb and the lawsuit brought against Chihuri by informal traders in Bulawayo “over the confiscation of their merchandise” as reported by Studio 7 (14/6 & 16/6) and the Independent.

In addition, the Independent revealed that government had barred humanitarian groups from assisting thousands of families who were affected by the exercise because they feared that donors’ intervention would be an acknowledgment of the humanitarian crisis the operation has caused.

The critical manner in which the private Press handled the operation was reflected in their more diverse sourcing pattern as shown in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

Voice	Total
Government	5
MDC	4
Police	7
Local government	1
Alternative	13
Lawyer	1
Business	1
Foreign	3
Ordinary people	16
Unnamed	3

Fig. 3 Voice Distribution on Studio 7

Station	Government	ZRP	ZANU PF	MDC	Reporter	Ordinary People
Studio 7	4	1	0	6	6	22

The private papers also carried four editorials and opinion pieces critical of the exercise.

3. Inflation and economic issues

THE official media’s preoccupation with portraying government in a good light was not confined to Operation Murambatsvina as symptoms of further economic decline did not get due prominence in the 42 stories that they carried on the matter (ZBH 27 and government papers 15).

These media’s reluctance to fully discuss the causes of the continued economic meltdown was reflected by the manner in which their stories glossed over Zimbabwe’s highly inflationary environment characterised by crippling fuel shortages.

For instance, the government Press – which carried seven stories on these issues – failed to view these problems as indicative of the general economic decline as illustrated by The Herald and Chronicle (15/6), which simply attributed the rise in inflation from 129,1% in April to 144,4% in May to “surprise price increases effected by retailers and manufacturers in the post-election period”.

In fact, The Herald (16/6) even saw conspiracies behind the rise in inflation, opining that it was a consequence of “the haphazard price increases by retailers and manufacturers”, driven by other “motives” aimed at “derailing the economic turnaround programme”.

To reinforce the notion that commodity shortages were artificial, the Chronicle (14/6) gave the impression that the on-going Murambatsvina had resulted in most basic commodities emerging on supermarket shelves “as people operating the black market turn away from illegal dealings”.

While ZIMPAPERS blamed the commodity price increases on the alleged machinations of the business community, they justified the hike in the selling price of their newspapers saying this was due to the increase in “production costs and raw materials”.

ZBH did no fare any better. ZTV (14/6,8pm) also announced the increase in inflation that the Central Statistics Office attributed “to the rise in food prices”, but carried no analysis on the development or reasons for the hikes as is its custom when the rate of inflation falls. Rather, Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe (17/6, 1pm) merely reported the RBZ governor’s assurance that “Zimbabweans have been assured that the recent rise in inflation will be arrested by year end.”

It was not clear how the governor would do this.

The official media’s superficial handling of the topic also manifested itself in the way they largely paid lip service to the scale of fuel shortages. The closest The Herald (18/6) came to addressing the matter was when it unquestioningly reported Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya saying his ministry would present to Parliament the Petroleum Bill, which is meant to regulate the oil industry, as part of government’s short-term measures aimed at ensuring adequate fuel supplies.

There was no detail about the Bill or exactly how it would resolve the crisis.

Further, despite revealing that the shortage was partly due to the rise in international oil prices, which had resulted in the country “receiving less fuel than it used to buy”, the paper failed to challenge the authorities on why they had not adjusted their pricing too.

Rather, the paper drifted into its typical blame-game and seemed to attribute the shortages to the “fuel industry” that was diverting “the product onto the parallel market”.

This vague and intimidating reporting reflected comments from Energy and Power Development Minister Mike Nyambuya who declared that “his ministry and law enforcement agents will intensify monitoring and inspection of the fuel supply system to ensure equitable distribution…”(ZTV, 17/6,8pm; Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe, 18/6,1pm).

The report did not question how much fuel government was importing, if any.

The official media’s professional ineptitude in handling the topic was illustrated by their reliance on official comment as shown on Fig 4.

Fig. 4 Public Press voice distribution

Alternative	Govt.	Ordinary people	Police	Professional	Business	Unnamed	Lawyer/Judiciary
2	10	1	3	1	3	2	1

Notably, alternative and business voices that were quoted echoed official views. The papers also carried four editorials that approved of government’s economic policies.

In contrast, the private Press was analytical in its 23 stories on inflation, price increases and other economic issues although Studio 7 inexplicably ignored these issues altogether. For instance, The Standard, which related the increase in inflation to the country’s poor economic performance, quoted analysts as having said the recent hike in inflation had sounded a “death knell” to government’s economic turnaround efforts.

The paper quoted economist Tony Hawkins actually projecting a further increase in inflation saying the imminent hikes in electricity tariffs and fuel prices will “fuel the rampaging inflation scourge”.

The paper also claimed that the country’s economic woes were set to worsen following the printing of money by government to “finance an overshooting Budget deficit after failing to extract about $6 trillion dollars from local credit markets”.

The report was part of the 11 stories that the private papers carried on commodity shortages and price increases, all attributed to government’s failed economic policies.

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