zimbabwe: there can be only one voice, says Mugabe government

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday September 7th – Sunday September 14th 2003
Weekly Media Update 2003-36

CONTENTS

1. GENERAL COMMENT
2. THE LAND AUDIT AND REFORM
3. CREDIBILITY WAR

1. General comment

The government’s continued closure and more recently, the seizure of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) equipment using the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) clearly demonstrates the ZANU PF led government’s intolerance of alternative opinion.
The ANZ, which publishes The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, was shut down on Friday 12th September 2003 after the Supreme Court ruled that it had to register with the Media and Information Commission (MIC) for its case to be heard in the Supreme Court. ANZ is challenging the constitutionality of some sections of AIPPA.
MMPZ condemns this campaign against freedom of expression orchestrated by the state using repressive legislation.

Besides this latest development, The Daily News has been bombed thrice and none of the culprits has been brought to book. Its editors and reporters have been arrested and in some cases assaulted by the police for executing their journalistic responsibility. Some of its vendors have not been spared either. They have been intimidated and harassed by overzealous ZANU PF supporters, who have banned the paper in areas perceived to be the ruling party strongholds. In almost all these cases, the suspects are yet to be brought before the courts of law.

The ANZ is not the only casualty of AIPPA and government’s undemocratic and unjust media policy. Several community newspapers have stopped publishing because of the punitive registration requirements in Statutory Instrument 169C/2002 (Chapter 10:27) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy (Registration, Accreditation and Levy) Regulations of June 2002. In addition, several foreign correspondents have been denied the right to practice in the country using the same regulations.
The broadcasting sector is no different. Joy TV ceased operations on legal grounds. The Voice of the People, which exercised its constitutional right to freedom of expression, had its offices bombed last year. And as in The Daily News case, the matter remains unresolved until today. No alternative broadcasters have been licensed.

The latest event serves as a clear indication to the people of Zimbabwe that AIPPA, hastily crafted under the guise of promoting rights to freedom of expression, has become the very antithesis of what it’s supposed to stand for. MMPZ believes these rights can still be reclaimed if Parliament considers an overhaul of the policy objectives of AIPPA.

2. The land audit and reform

The week saw the Presidential Land Review Committee led by Charles Utete present the long-awaited land audit report to President Robert Mugabe, amid reports that chaos continued to reign supreme over the contentious land reform programme.

In their coverage of the issues, the government-controlled media sought to present government as committed to restoring order and stamping out corruption that has marred the land distribution exercise. As a result, they conveniently failed to investigate and expose government officials, who had violated the one-man one-farm policy. Instead they merely churned out claims by authorities that top officials were returning extra land they had seized. It was therefore hardly surprising that they did not attempt to expose some of the nitty-gritties of the findings of Utete’s committee, which the private media did.

Besides investigating the details of the audit report, the private media continued to highlight the anarchy that has engulfed the farming sector ever since the land reforms began. In fact, their tenacity in covering the land issue was epitomized by The Financial Gazette (11/9) story Land scandal unfolds- ZANU PF heavyweights. The article, which coincided with the presentation of the land audit report, carried a list of top ruling party officials who had allegedly violated government policy and acquired more than one farm. Although the article only highlighted the extent of land grabbing by top officials in Matabeleland, it indeed gave an insight into how some officials had allegedly milked Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform for their benefit.
None of the media has followed up on The Financial Gazette’s findings by investigating the situation in other provinces.

Instead, ZBC (11/9, evening bulletins) merely gave a platform to officials who were implicated by The Financial Gazette to defend themselves. In its 8pm bulletin, ZTV quoted ZANU PF Chairman John Nkomo as saying, “For some reason some people’s names will appear on lists when in fact the individuals have not been informed…people just come up with names and come up with figures.” Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi cobbled a conspiracy theory to defend his alleged multiple-farm ownership alleging he was included in the list by people who “are trying by all means to scandalise me and tarnish my image, but I am very clean”. He further attributed his alleged involvement in land grabbing to people who were trying to neutralise ZANU PF stronghold of Beitbridge by getting rid of him. Even Matabeleland North Governor Obert Mpofu, who reportedly handed over an extra farm to government, dismissed reports on multiple land ownership by chefs saying they emanated “from those opposed to the land reform programme. They want to show a picture of failure…”

However, ZANU PF senior official Shuvai Mahofa, transcended patronage. ZTV (11/09, 6pm) quoted her corroborating private media reports saying, “what is bad is the chef has a farm and the wife has a farm…(yet) they are one family.” ZTV did not challenge her to give names of such individuals. But this was hardly surprising as it jellied well with government-controlled media’s attempt to pre-empt the land audit’s findings by giving the impression that those who had multiple farms were already adhering to President Mugabe’s call that they should give them up. For instance, The Herald, Chronicle (9/9) and ZTV (9/9, 7am) quoted Nkomo as saying “ZANU PF officials and other people” had handed over “30 000 hectares of excess land” to government. Apart from naming Mpofu as one of the individuals, who had handed over land, the rest of the culprits remained faceless. Without challenging Nkomo to give other names, The Herald and Chronicle then quoted him trying to explain the causes of multiple farm ownership saying some people had benefited from both the A1 and A2 resettlement models and that, “some people…acquired farms in different provinces and ecological regions in a bid to widen their farming prospects”.
But the papers were oblivious to the fact that such excuses were far from controlling the damage but merely buttressed reports that the whole exercise was chaotic. Further, the two ZIMPAPERS dailies echoed without verification, government claims that 300,000 families had been resettled under the A1 model.

However, The Zimbabwe Independent (12/09) disputed this figure. It reported that the land audit committee had discovered that “only about 130 000 families have been allocated land...” adding that the figures “were exaggerated to justify the grabbing of large tracts of land…” Following such revelations of land grab, President Mugabe was quoted as promising the land audit committee that, “We shall take full cognisance of your findings...we will take urgent action”, The Daily News (12/9). The paper then seemingly interpreted these remarks to mean that Mugabe might sack government officials implicated in the land scam. The Sunday Mirror was equally optimistic saying, “…indications…so far filtered through to us point to a serious resolve by the head of state to correct anomalies embedded in the country’s land reform.” However, the two papers failed to fully explain why government would this time act on Utete’s findings when it has failed to thoroughly do so in the past.
Further, except for The Sunday Mirror, none of the media tried to draw parallels between the findings of the recent land audit with the one done under Flora Bhuka.

Meanwhile, the private media continued to expose the chaos that surrounds the whole resettlement programme. For example, The Daily News (9/09) revealed that rather than heeding Mugabe’s call to hand over extra farms they had grabbed, some of them were actually doing the exact opposite. It reported that war veterans’ leader, Mike Moyo, had clashed with Mines Minister Edward Chindori-Chininga over a farm Chindori-Chininga allegedly wants “to grab from him to add to two other farms the minister already has in Mazowe district.” The same issue also pointed out that despite Mugabe’s call “no Cabinet minister has publicly surrendered the extra farms…”

To further highlight that government’s one-man one-farm policy seemed to be an illusion, The Daily News (12/09) quoted Justice for Agriculture as having said that 1, 500 single-farm owners had each lost their properties to land reform.
The same paper (10/09) revealed that besides lack of a clear policy on land acquisition, farm invasions were continuing. It reported that ZANU PF supporters and a retired army colonel had forcibly taken over the Lion and Cheetah Park outside Harare. The report further stated that the invaders had refused to have the animals relocated thus endangering the lives of people in surrounding communities.
In another report, the paper also alleged that unnamed government officials in Matabeleland had renewed pressure on Halglen Animal Conservancy owners to leave, putting the lives of 3,200 animals at risk. In fact, The Daily News (10/09) disclosed that game ranchers had “since the beginning of the government’s fast-track land reform lost up to 90 percent of their safari-hunting game...”

As if to confirm such reports, The Sunday Mirror (14/09) reported that the Department of National Parks and Wildlife had “barred influential politicians and businessmen allocated properties in Matabeleland North province under the A2 resettlement scheme from carrying out any hunting activities”.

Studio 7 (08/09) reported that government officials were even evicting newly resettled farmers together with commercial farmers. Nevertheless, The Sunday Mail (14/09) insisted that the success of the land reform programme is “not questionable.”

3. Credibility war

Although the government initially gave the impression that it can do without the international community, recent events on the ground have shown otherwise. It is making concerted efforts to get the country back into the international fold by painting a picture of normalcy in the country.

This week government and the media it controls used the visit by the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) delegation and the world acclaimed tourist attraction the Victoria Falls, as their launch pads for this campaign. In its report on the visit, ZBC (ZTV, 10/09, 8pm) stated that ACP legislators, who were reportedly on a fact-finding mission ahead of the ACP/EU summit scheduled for Rome next month, were “impressed with their discussion with the political leadership of this country across the political divide,” adding that “they solidly stand beside Zimbabwe in the quest to see a fruitful relationship with the European counterparts.” However, the station did not elaborate on what exactly they had discussed with the leadership. Neither did it clarify who had invited the delegation.

This was also not fully explained by The Herald and SW Radio Africa (11/09) reports on the delegation’s visit. The two quoted some members of the delegation as saying there was democracy in the country, basing their argument on the fact that the MDC was represented in the parliamentary committees.
The Sunday News (14/09) then latched onto this naïve analysis of the democratic processes and concluded that the delegation has “the capacity to change the negative image of Zimbabwe held by the European Union”.

Notably, the private Press largely ignored the visit. Nonetheless, they carried other related developments that belied government-controlled media’s sanitized reports on the situation in the country. For example, The Daily News (8/9) carried the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (ZHRF) report which revealed that 59 cases on the curtailment of basic freedoms were recorded in the month of July alone. Studio 7 (09/09) carried a similar report. In its comment, in the same issue, the paper called for the setting up of a commission of inquiry into the activities of the National Youth Service recruits and graduates saying allegations against the programme “have become too numerous and too loud for the nation to ignore.” This followed a report on the gruesome activities of the youths produced the by Solidarity Peace Trust, chaired by Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube and Anglican Bishop Rubin Philip of South Africa.

The Herald (9/9) ignored the report yet it vilified Ncube saying he was “an opposition activist with access to a pulpit, is an avowed anti-government and anti-Zimbabwe stooge.” However, this did not deter the private media from exposing the erosion of democratic principles in the country. Throughout the week, SW Radio Africa reported on the on-going political violence in the Midlands Province where ZANU PF youths were allegedly harassing MDC supporters.

To further highlight the deteriorating situation, The Daily News (11/9) reported that ZHRF had told diplomats from 23 Commonwealth countries meeting in London ahead of the Commonwealth summit scheduled for Nigeria at the end of the year that, “there has been continued disregard for the rule of law and manipulation of the judiciary that has compromised equal access to justice”.

Despite such reports, the government-controlled media would not relent. This was reflected in the way they unquestioningly peddled government’s attempts to revive tourism by marketing Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls as a peaceful destination in the region.

Instead of giving a holistic picture on why the tourism industry was declining, ZBC (ZTV, 10/09, 8pm.) narrowly attributed the waning of the industry to “bad publicity that Zimbabwe has been receiving abroad” and the “marketing strategy that has been used”. The broadcaster conveniently ignored that the prevailing political situation has a bearing on the number of tourists that the country is currently attracting.To give credence that the new marketing strategy, which saw stakeholders in the tourism industry travel to South Africa to promote Zimbabwe, was working, ZBC (Radio Zimbabwe and ZTV, 14/09, 8pm) carried South African Tourism Minister Mohammed Moosa as having pledged to support Zimbabwe’s tourism sector.

The Herald (8/9) also expressed optimism on the success of the campaign saying personal appreciation of Ruvhuvhuto sisters’ song Come to Victoria Falls Down in Zimbabwe, which is being used to sell the falls would do the trick. Said the paper, “Judging by the soothing voices and harmony of vocals the music is expected to sell to the world the beautiful scenery that Zimbabwe has”.

It is this slavish campaign for government policies that has blinded the government-controlled media even on cases where officials are falsifying information. For instance, ZTV (14/09, 8pm) allowed Tourism Minister Francis Nhema’s claims in South Africa that the fuel situation in the country had normalised. He was quoted saying (ZTV, 14/09/2003, 6pm), “At last I can stand here and say we do have petrol. You will be assured. You drive up to Zimbabwe and (we) will refill your tank.” He got away with such gross misrepresentation of facts.
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: [email protected]; [email protected]

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