Financial Gazette (Harare)
Mavis Makuni
13 December 2007
opinion
THE Minister of Information and Publicity, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, has been quoted in the official press as saying that as "part of its policy to open up and show the world the true Zimbabwean story", government would continue to invite foreign journalists.
Ndlovu made the remarks while welcoming a group of French journalists. "Zimbabwe cannot live in isolation, so the world needs to know more about our country and we have decided to open up and receive the foreign journalists." This would be a profound statement if the extent of its veracity could be ascertained. It is difficult to believe that the government of Zimbabwe, which has introduced a raft of draconian laws to curtail press freedom, now intends to allow journalists to report on events unhindered.
It has never ceased to amaze me that the government prefers the "true Zimbabwean story" to be told to foreigners abroad when it can be a criminal offence for a local journalist to "tell it like it is." Whenever foreign celebrities or groups of tourists visit the country, they are exhorted upon their departure to tell the true Zimbabwean story. When Jamaican reggae star, Luciano, visited Zimbabwe recently, a headline appeared in one of the official newspapers urging him to project the country in a favourable light.
The question these people who are exhorted to be spin doctors on behalf of the government must ask themselves before they can accept their assignments is what the true Zimbabwean story is and why it needs to be covered differently from the way the international media covers the rest of the world. They should also ask themselves why they would be allowed to report "objectively" when local scribes who try to do the same are subjected to verbal abuse, threats and accused of being unpatriotic. "We have to tell the Zimbabwe story and not only the good things but also the challenges and difficulties we are facing as a nation including what is causing them," Ndlovu told the visiting journalists.
What he really meant is that foreign journalists should describe the situation in Zimbabwe from the official point of view so as to gloss over the unpleasant realities. These realities include the fact that Zimbabwe has the highest rate of inflation worldwide, the majority of its people are unemployed and live below the poverty datum line. This has been compounded in recent months by the government's ill-conceived and arbitrary price controls, which have emptied supermarket shelves of basic essentials, including mealie meal, a staple commodity. The people must spend endless hours in long queues in a bid to source the basic necessities which people in other countries take for granted.
Ndlovu obviously does not want foreign journalists to know that in the midst of this human misery and deprivation, official corruption is rampant and the ostentatious wealth and consumption of the politically powerful and well connected is a constant reminder that under a more democratic dispensation, there would be enough to go round to enable every Zimbabwean to enjoy a decent and dignified life. The embattled and weary people of this country are living through the seventh year of a political and governance crisis that the powers-that-be seem at best unwilling to address and at worst bent on perpetuating for reasons best known to themselves. That is the crux of the real story of this country.
Ndlovu would have the foreign journalists believe that the economic and political problems in Zimbabwe are the result of "illegal sanctions and lack of balance of payments" without permitting them to investigate and independently establish the truth for themselves. He neglects to explain how it can be that targeted sanctions imposed on individuals in President Robert Mugabe's government can impact disastrously on every facet of modern existence in a sovereign country that has been independent for almost 30 years. The pre-independence colonial regime of Ian Smith survived a total trade embargo imposed by the United Nations for almost 15 years without the country degenerating into the shell of its prosperous former self that Zimbabwe is now.
It is a fallacy to claim that targeted sanctions are responsible for the ruination of the agricultural sector, the collapse of the health and education systems, the deterioration of infrastructure throughout the country. Zimbabwean authorities should not expect foreign journalists to see things through rose-tinted glasses when they themselves cannot explain situations truthfully. While government apologists have gone out of their way to throw the "illegal sanctions" red herring to absolve the government of blame for the general economic malaise, they have never given a convincing explanation as to why these measures are only hurting the ordinary person.
It has become the norm for officials calling for the lifting of targeted sanctions to give the impression that they do so for altruistic reasons to ease the plight of the ordinary Zimbabwean. They however never explain how the ruling elites have remained unscathed if the targeted sanctions have affected the whole country. It is clear different factors such as corruption, looting, plundering and economic mismanagement are at play.
Propagandists never say why government officials regard the lifting of targeted sanctions against themselves as the only way to improve the lot of the suffering populace when they steadfastly refuse to consider the normal tools at the disposal of any people's government -- common sense, transparency, adherence to democratic principles, observance of human rights and the embracing of humane governance and justice for all.
The mantra about illegal sanctions has worn thin even at home and only the most gullible foreign journalists, despite knowing the background to the imposition of targeted sanctions, should be expected to swallow this yarn. In fact, the French journalists should have asked Ndlovu why the Zimbabwean leadership has not emulated the example of Cuba which has been under United States sanctions for almost half a century. There, government officials have not reacted by going into a frenzy to amass as much wealth as possible and robbing the populace of its share of the economic cake as has been the case in this country.
I was amazed to read about Ndlovu telling the visiting journalists that investors had been banned from investing in Zimbabwe by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and touting this as the reason why the country could not generate enough foreign currency.
"This is the Zimbabwean story, including our successes in agriculture that we want the world to know about and we are working very well with the ZANU PF secretary for information and publicity, Cde Nathan Shamuyarira in implementing this programme", the French journalists were told.
What agricultural successes is Ndlovu talking about when drastically reduced agricultural production and the resultant food shortages are the main outcome of the land re-distribution programme, which, despite declarations to the contrary, continues to be mired in corruption and chaos up to this day. Charity begins at home. The Minister of Information and Publicity cannot expect a self-serving version of the "true story" of Zimbabwe to be told abroad when he and his colleagues do everything possible to deny realities and suppress the truth at home.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Financial Gazette. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
