 Geoffrey Nyarota: Former Daily News Editor. Related Articles Nehanda Radio
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14 March 2008
By Geoffrey Nyarota
AN article by British author and Sunday Times foreign correspondent Christina Lamb which appeared in that paper on March 2 revealed that a Munich-based company, Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) was delivering a mind-boggling Z$170 trillion a week to Harare in new bank notes to help sustain the regime of President Robert Mugabe.
The article then delved, by way of speculation, into the dramatic presidential and parliamentary elections now looming on the Zimbabwean political horizon. In an addendum at the end of the story under the sub-headline, “Making of Makoni” the many positive attributes of Zimbabwe’s former Minister of Finance, who is now one of three serious contenders for presidential office in the March 29 elections are listed.
This startling disclosure in made: “Simba Makoni, Mugabe’s strongest challenger, knows Britain well; he studied chemistry at Leeds University and Leicester Polytechnic.”
No information is offered to the reader by way of explaining how this spectacular conclusion was reached that of the three challengers to the Mugabe presidency the former finance minister had, by March 1 emerged as the strongest challenger to Mugabe. According to The Sunday Times Makoni had within 24 days of throwing his hat into the ring demonstrated himself to be a stronger challenger than both Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president, Morgan Tsvangirai and, to use an already over-used cliché, little-known Langton Towungana. The latter literally emerged from nowhere to submit his papers on nomination day.
In the absence of evidence or statements to support or reinforce this statement one cannot be blamed for speculating that what Lamb expressed was, perhaps, a very personal view or wish. Otherwise she would have taken the trouble to disclose the thought-process that led to what could be a legitimate conclusion.
The Zimbabwean political landscape has been shrouded in total controversy over the years as Zimbabweans, frustrated by years of failing to achieve a change of government through a democratic political process, have become obsessed with speculation as to who will eventually replace their ageing leader as President. Journalists have, unfortunately featured somewhere in the forefront of this conjecture.
In the process some media watchers have suggested that the Zimbabwe press in particular, because of its power to influence political events has, unfortunately, become part of the current Zimbabwe political crisis.
The fact is indisputable that going back to the creation by the Mugabe government of its monolithic media empire, the politically partisan approach of government-controlled outlets, both print and electronic, to the coverage of Zimbabwe’s increasingly volatile politics has contributed in no small measure to the polarisation of Zimbabwe’s political landscape.
The privately-owned press has traditionally tried in increasingly difficult circumstances to be as professional and even-handed as possible in their reporting of the political story. It is a Herculean task for journalists to provide positive coverage of politicians who deny them access to the very information that is essential to balance their stories. For good measure the government has enacted draconian legislation such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) to suppress press freedom and constantly harassed, arrested or subjected them to violence.
Political reporting in the period leading to the 2002 presidential election and beyond, a period when the succession to President Robert Mugabe became a hot political issue both in and out of his ruling Zanu-PF party has attracted many journalists. The so-called independent press been sucked into the partisan political coverage that was previously the exclusive preserve of government-owned media. Gradually such partisan journalism has extended its tentacles outside the realm of Zanu-PF succession politics to embrace coverage of the whole political conundrum.
Once in a while the foreign press also falls prey. Their coverage of the Zimbabwe political story has become tainted by what appears to be a burning desire not only to report, but to actually choose the successor to Mugabe on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe. Foreign correspondent Peta Thornycroft called on Tsvangirai to throw his weight behind Makoni even before the latter had completed the process of introducing himself and his agenda.
Her exhortation to Tsvangirai was more or less a reincarnation of an equally determined promotion of Professor ArthurMutambara by her when he returned to Zimbabwe exactly two years ago to assume the leadership of a breakaway faction of the MDC. A salient and consistent streak that runs through her political reporting is the instant recognition of whoever challenges the presidential aspirations of Tsvangirai as a better prospect for the office of Head of State.
One of President Robert Mugabe’s greatest failures or most cunning strategies, depending on where one is coming from, was not to select or identify a successor. Undeterred by this the press, especially the independent press has constantly stoked the succession fire by reporting on succession issues, their reports and expert analyses being sustained by highly placed sources, political analysts and observers, as well as experts who in many cases will not to be associated publicly with their expert analyses in the columns of the newspapers that publish them.
This practice has prompted public speculation that the journalists could be their own observers and analysts.
Until Makoni's arrival on the scene not a single word had been directly attricuted to Emmerson Mnangagwa or Emmerson Mujuru or eben Makoni himself. Instead they always spoke through mysterious analysts and political experts.
The publisher of The Zimbabwe Standard and The Zimbabwe Independent Trevor Ncube, has been a trail-blazer in many media respects, not least of which was his take-over of the respected Mail and Guardian in South Africa . He has just set another precedent. He has publicly associated with or endorsed the Simba Makoni presidential campaign and enjoined others to do so.
While somewhat novel in Zimbabwe, endorsement of presidential candidates by media organisations is intrinsic to United States presidential election campaigns.
Barack Obama has been endorsed by many media organisations. He has also received the backing of three members of the powerful Kennedy family. He received the backing of the patriarch of the family Senator Ted Kennedy, America's liberal icon. He was emulated by his son, Representative Patrick Kennedy and niece, Caroline, the last living child of the legendary US President John Kennedy.
The endorsement of larger-than-life personality Oprah Winfrey has worked wonders for Obama, while the backing of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has stirred controversy.
Zimbabweans are by their very nature generally a politically conservative and rather unpredictable society.
Endorsement of politicians remains in the realm of novelty. But endorsement by a media organisation has so far had the effect of a kiss of death on more than one occasion, especially where the organisation lacks the clout to reinforce its endorsement. For instance, the online publication NewZimbabwe.com has consistently endorsed in vain, creating an impression now that its approval is the harbinger of political disaster. There is a string of political failures to reinforce this theme.
They supported Tsvangirai’s former general secretary, Professor Welshman Ncube, when he broke away from the mainstream MDC. He has since been relegated to the periphery of political leadership. Likewise, New Zimbabwe fiercely backs former Information Minister, Prof Jonathan Moyo, who has effectively been reduced to an armchair revolutionary far from the nucleus of any Zimbabwean political formation.
Then there is the remarkable case of Prof Arthur Mutambara. “Where were you Mutambara, our saviour”, or words to that effect a New Zimbabwe headline screamed on Mutambara’s arrival back in Zimbabwe in 2006. Now he battles to be the “saviour” in Parliament of the people of the Constituency of Zengeza West. I predict he will be lucky not to lose his deposit.
Completely undeterred by this track record of failure New Zimbabwe.com has now focused its attention on Makoni. “Cometh the hour, cometh the Mak”, a headline on the website optimistically declares.
There is always the danger in Zimbabwe that endorsement by certain publications can undermine the prospects of a politician who otherwise possesses impeccable credentials or commands an impressive quantum of public goodwill. It’s rather like Mugabe praising a good journalist for a job well down. Even if the President was praising from the bottom of his heart the public would look askance at the journalist in question.
The endorsement of Makoni by Ncube raised more than a few eye-brows, because of inherent implications that go beyond the fortunes of the beneficiary of the endorsement in the forthcoming elections. Zimbabwe’s mainstream print press has by Ncube’s action effectively become split into two camps. The unwavering endorsement of Mugabe and the ruling Zanu-PF party by the state-controlled media is an aberration that Zimbabweans have grudgingly come to accept over the years. Journalists working for the two daily newspapers, The Herald and The Chronicle, as well as their sister newspapers, have over the years come to associate their partisanship with patriotism.
Following the banning of The Daily News, which the Media and Information Commission tricked publishers, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, into believing would be registered in time to play a role in the forthcoming elections, the independent weekly newspapers have become crucial in contributing to the achievement of a truly democratic media dispensation. They include Ncube’s Zimbabwe Independent and Zimbabwe Standard, whichare now firmly ensconced in the Makoni camp. The Financial Gazette is owned by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, a Mugabe blue-eyed boy, while former Zimbabwe Television anchorman, Supa Mandiwanzira, an eminent Mugabe praise-singer sits on the board of directors. The journalists try to do an honest job but must remain painfully aware which side of their slice of bread is buttered in this period of endemic penury.
This means, therefore, that, as a result of Ncube’s declaration, Tsvangirai, the politician and the MDC, the organisation that currently demonstrates repeatedly a capacity to attract the largest gatherings, have no backing in the mainstream media of Zimbabwe. But, judging from the size of the said attendances, it would appear that word of mouth and cellphone text messages have become more powerful than the conventional media, including supposedly dominant radio, in propagating political messages in Zimbabwe.
Such a total lack of mainstream media support is nothing new on the Zimbabwe’s political landscape.
When Mugabe led Zanu-PF back into the country from exile in 1980 he campaigned in a hostile media climate. The Herald, The Chronicle, as well as television, radio and the foreign press either ignored or published disparagingly about Mugabe and the Zanu-PF campaign. But Mugabe had been on the campaign trail for years and he was thus able to score a resounding victory, which was the will of the people. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, who relied on an overwhelming government infrastructure and an adoring press to back him, secured a modest three seats.
Whether or not newspapers endorse certain political parties or presidential candidates, they remain under obligation to provide even-handed coverage of the whole election campaign. They are free to profess as much love for the candidates of their choice as they may wish, but they still owe the other contesting parties and the public at large adequate and accurate coverage of the election process.
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