Mugabe in plan to steal elections

ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s government plans to steal next year’s parliamentary elections and Zimbabwe’s journalists are appealing to the international community to prevent such a grave injustice from being committed against the Zimbabwean people. This was the declaration from Daily News of Zimbabwe editor, Njobile Nyathi, when she addressed a Commonwealth Journalists Association dinner at the University of the West Indies St Augustine campus on Monday night.

Nyathi said the Zimbabwe Supreme Court had reserved judgment to March on a case which will determine whether the newspaper’s parent company Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) will be able to operate legally, but it was possible that “judgment on the ANZ case could remain outstanding for several months, if not years.” In September 2003, the court ruled that ANZ was operating illegally because ANZ had refused to register with the government-appointed Media and Information Commission as required by the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. ANZ charged that the Act was unconstitutional and accused the Commission of bias. Nyathi claimed this was phase one of a plan by the ruling Zanu-PF to steal the March 2005 parliamentary elections.

“There is widespread feeling that judgment is unlikely to be handed down before next year’s parliamentary elections. The media to which most Zimbabweans have access is the public media but because of Zanu-PF control, this media has failed to serve the nation’s interests, operating as mouthpieces of the ruling party. “Therefore, in the run-up to next year’s elections, the propaganda to which Zimbabweans are exposed is likely to intensify. She said the public media has consistently failed to allow the opposition, especially the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and civil society groups critical of the government, to articulate their agendas. What this means is that the media are not providing a balanced view of the pre-electoral landscape.

The MDC will not have a mass market platform to inform the nation of its agenda. Civil society groups wishing to promote free and fair elections are unlikely to have access to public media that would allow them to provide potential voters with critical information about the polls. As the public prepares for next year’s polls, there will be half-truths about Zimbabwe’s worsening economic situation and the politically-motivated violence that has accompanied elections in the country over the past four years. There will be no coverage in the public media of the electoral irregularities that are certain to accompany the polls,” she declared. Nyathi said this was “tragic for a country that has shown so much potential when it first became independent 24 years ago, and whose democratic landscape has been steadily eroded in the last five years.” However, she said all was not lost once those who have Zimbabwe’s best interest at heart “continue to work hard to expose the wrongs which continue to be perpetrated often in the name of the people of Zimbabwe. 

“I have no doubt that whatever hardships the independent media in my country will face in the next few months, journalists will continue to strive for a democratic Zimbabwe. “Most of the international media and human rights organisations will also continue to push in their own way for good governance, the rule of law and a free press in Zimbabwe. It is only by speaking out that the Zimbabwean media and the country’s international supporters can bring hope to the people of Zimbabwe. I believe there is always hope as long as the voices that speak for truth and justice do not allow themselves to be silenced,” she declared.