Tatenda Macheka Final Draft 2012 Dissertation

Representation of the indigenization policy in the mining sector, how it has been
covered in the privately owned press .A case of the Zimbabwe Independent

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Tatenda Rodney Macheka R09281w
Chapter One
1.0 Introduction
Zimbabwe inherited a sound economy from the colonial government on 18 April 1980.This was
more of political independence than economic emancipation. The wealth remained in the hands
of a few white individuals .The government of Zimbabwe adopted a socialist approach which
died a premature death before emancipating the formerly disadvantaged black indigenous
populace.
This chapter offers insight into the area of study and why it has been of interest while
highlighting the background on the creation of Indigenization and Economic Empowerment
policy in the private print media specifically Zimbabwe Independent . Malcolm X (1961) asserts
that the media act as a double edged sword. Therefore, the media has the ability of creating
heroes and heroines and at the same time creating villains. As a result the media have the power
to promote a public policy or demote a public policy. Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807 as a
defense for his press censorship policy, highlighted the power of the media when he said,
hostile newspapers are more fearsome compared to one thousand bayonets. It is of importance
to note that polices such as the health care policy by Barack Obama the president of the United
State of America (USA), nuclear disarmament policy ,economic structural adjustment policy
(ESAP) and the Land Reform were portrayed neither in a positive manner nor negative way in
the media .This chapter covers the background to the study, the significance, objectives, scope,
structure, limitations and delimitations of the study. The media are an influential institution in
society as they are socializing agents with the power of shaping and even creating public
opinion. In as much as the media can build a personality, they can destroy that same personality.
In the same manner Indigenization policy can be commended or reduced into nothing by the
media.
1.2.0 Background of Study
Baudrillard (1971) argues that the mass media no longer represent reality, but hyper reality.
Hyper reality meaning over exaggerated truth which has been constructed .He says that instead
of mirroring reality, the media are producing reality. Therefore, if the media can produce reality,

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they can produce heroes and heroines at the same time the same time creating villains for the
accomplishment of certain agendas. Stuart Hall (1970) supports the fact that the media
manufacture heroes and villains when he says, heroes and villains are created within certain
discourses and certain political-social contexts. In relation to discourse there are certain
discourses used by the Zimbabwe Independent when referring to the indigenization policy.
Therefore, it is Zimbabwe Independent that explains the policy as good or bad through discourse.

The study is looking at the indigenization policy in the post 2008. Mazango (2008) tamed it the
era in which the political environment in Zimbabwe became so polarized that the polarity
cascaded down to the media and this resulted in the media assuming political identities with the
private press being identified as an Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) wing while the
public media being regarded as a part of Zimbabwe African National Unity Patriotic Front
(ZANU PF) .
Indigenization is a sensitive issue in the history of Zimbabwe and the media has been at the
centre of explaining about it . Chari (2003) points out that the political landscape in the country
shaped the media in Zimbabwe that the media is extremely polarised .The polarised environment
of the press in Zimbabwe can be ascribed to countless issues such as the formation of a vibrant
opposition political party MDC to power in the late 1990s.Chari (2009) noted that the polarized
political environment in Zimbabwe has resulted in both government and the opposition having
entrenched positions on almost every issue, be it politics, economics, or sport. Pro-opposition
media are prepared to go to any lengths to try and tarnish the government of President Robert
Mugabe knowing full well that international opinion is in their favour. Thus, it is easy to
fabricate a story where the government is involved without having questions being asked about
its veracity. The government media on the other hand does not need to be bribed to fabricate lies
about the opposition in the comfort that their legion of readers will believe them.
Richard Ilorah (2001) notes that although ESAP expired in 1995 in Zimbabwe, its negative
impact continued to be felt setting a trend for most of the economic and political challenges that
the country had to face in the succeeding years. It is argued that the emergence of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) and its gaining support from the urban populace after its
establishment in 1999 was due to the negative social and economic impact of ESAP. The 1990s

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were characterised by events that brought the ZANU PF government into disgrace. The
Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) was implemented in Zimbabwe by the
International Monetary Fund and it failed. According to Nathan Shamhuyarira (1995) ESAP was
an unsuccessful instrument to remove the nationalist government from power.
Simba Makoni in an interview with the Mirror 2000 point that the participation of the
Zimbabwean army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.) was as a way to save the
economy which was already collapsing . In 1998,The President of Zimbabwe and first the
permanent secretary of Zanu Pf Robert Gabriel Mugabe's ZANU PF dominated government
supported the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) intervention in the Second
Congo War by sending Zimbabwean troops to assist the then President Laurent Kabilas
government. This was probably a tack to bolster the floundering Zimbabwean economy by
plundering the DRC.
Cox and Anderson (2009) highlight that to further worsen the situation; in August 1998 President
Robert Mugabe once again decided to send Zimbabwean soldiers into the Democratic republic of
Congo (DRC) without the approval of the parliament to support the government of Laurent
Kabila which was under attack by the local opposition forces. According to (Cox and Anderson)
2009 President Robert Mugabe further damaged the economy by sending 12 000 troops to
support fellow Southern African Development Community (SADC) member country DRC at the
cost of US$ 5 million per week. P Chigora (2007) notes that the total cost of the Zimbabwean
governments deployment of 12 000 troops in the DRC has remained a matter of speculation.
However, many observers have argued that the war significantly drained Zimbabwes treasury
and eroded the country foreign currency reserves
Moss (2009) argues that in 1997, approximately 50 000 war veterans demanded and received
unbudgeted compensation equivalent to about US$ 1,300 per person for their war service. Such
a decision to pay an estimated 60 000 war veterans accelerated in inflation and worsened the
growing fiscal deficit creating a hash operating economic environment for manufacturing
industries and increased the costs of production. Hardest hit were major foreign currency earning
industries such as mining, tourism and tobacco production. The same argument is submitted by

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Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries (CZI) which indicated that the 1999 productivity in the
manufacturing sector was deeply rooted in the 1997-1999 economic and political changes.
There was the Land Reform Programme known as the jambaja (meaning haphazard ),it was not
written down as a policy but was just done haphazardly tying to readdress the colonial injustice.
In as much as the Land Reform received both local and global coverage it was portrayed
negatively and is viewed as the root cause of Zimbabwean problems up to date.
According to Gastsheni (2007) the long standing land question was utilised as the central
organising theme for the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)
election campaign to be held in the following year.
Makumbe speaking on Studio 7 in 2004, said the land reform was an answer to silence
threatening political voices, compensating war veterans. The land reform was supposed to be an
agrarian reform rather than a land reform. In a way it was done to reward friends and punish
enemies, up to now land is still limited there was only a change in skin colour .The government
also introduced the Millennium Recovery Programme to try and solve these issues.
The Mugabe-led government embarked on a controversial fast-track land reform program
intended to correct the inequitable land distribution created by colonial rule. Sichone (2003)
notes that the government of Zimbabwe considered land to be the main economic resource
without which prosperity is not attainable for the majority of Zimbabwean black people .Land
distribution in 2001 was therefore a resolution to the colonial land imbalances that created a gap
between Zimbabwes 6 000 white farmers who owned more than 70 percent of the productive
land (some of which lay without being utilised) and the peasants in the old colonial native
reserves. The period has been marked by the deterioration of the Zimbabwean economic
situation. Mugabe's policies have been condemned in some quarters at home and abroad,
especially receiving criticism from the British and American governments arguing they amount
to an often violent land seizure.
Eventually a wide range of sanctions were imposed by the US government and European Union
against the person of Mugabe, individuals, private companies, parastatals and the government of
Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (ZIDERA) of 2001 was

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passed it stated to support the people of Zimbabwe in their struggle to effect peaceful
,democracy change ,achieve broad based and equitable economic growth and restore rule of law.

In 2008, Mugabes party suffered a defeat in national parliamentary elections, but after disputed
presidential elections, Mugabe retained presidential power with the signing of a power-sharing
deal the Global Political Agreement (G.P.A) with opposition leaders Morgan Richard Tsvangirai
and Arthur Mutambara of the MDC-T and MDC-M opposition party.
The formation of the Government of National Unity brought cosmetic changes especially to the
media sector the polarization of the media is still present. Since Zanu Pf has lost most of its
strong hold there was need to win back the public confidence again . Since the Land reform was
over, there was need to come up with something else to convince the public thus the
indigenization policy was authored to cater for the ZANU PF supporters. A ministry was formed
to cater of the issues of indigenization and it was passed into an act and the ministry was given to
ZANU PF.
1.2.2 Indigenization
The Zimbabwe Independent on March 16, 2012 noted that indigenization inspiration has been
drawn from Chinese state capitalism. But Chinese state capitalism did not occur overnight. It
began almost 50 years ago after the great leap forward (1958 to 1963) which subsequently
became a disaster, but was Chinas first attempt to indigenize its economy using its own
economic theory. After the Maoist Cultural Revolution (1965 to 1968), which saw the equivalent
of our Upfumi Kuvadiki and Chipangano emerging, this was followed by a gradual
transition from communist ideals to the embracing of capitalism.
So after their disastrous experiments the Chinese embarked on a well-thought out model to
indigenise their economy. Credit for Chinas transition to capitalism is in the main attributed to
Deng Xiaoping, whose famous quote was It doesnt matter if a cat is black or white, so long as
it catches mice.

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Deng took over the reins of the Communist party after Maos death in 1976 and effectively
became premier in 1978. The economic model created under Dengs leadership is the reason for
Chinas success to date.
Kasukuwere in an interview with Zimbabwe Indpendant on 18 June 2011 said Zimbabwe
indigenization borrows mainly from China, In the modern era, China's influence in the world
economy was minimal until the late 1980s. At that time, economic reforms initiated after 1978
began to generate significant and steady growth in investment, consumption and standards of
living. As of 2012 China is a major importer of raw materials, manufacturer of basic goods, and
exporter of consumer goods. The economy is dominated by large, profitable, state owned
enterprises, but private enterprises also play a major role in the economy. State-owned
enterprises are a major source of profit and power for members of the Communist Party of China
and their families and are favored by the government. However that is not the situation in
Zimbabwe where Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), AIR Zimbabwe, Grain
Marketing Board (G.M.B.) and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Co-operation (ZBC) have not been
performing up to standards.
Mugabe (2011) quoted in National Indigenization Economic and Empowerment Board(NIEEB)
report defines Indigenization policy as a policy focused response to the previous exclusion of
other people from mainstream economic activity by the settlers .The policy seeks to broaden
the economic base by involving the majority Zimbabweans in meaningful and gainful activity
,thus giving greater meaning to our independence and self-determination.
The study seeks to establish how Zimbabwe Independent has explained to the public what
Indigenization Policy is all about. The Zimbabwe Independent in representing the issue of
Indigenization it is doing justice to expose its lope holes or it is just pushing its intended agenda
to the people of Zimbabwe. Kasukuwere in an article written on 23 September 2011 in the
Zimbabwe Independent highlighted that the Indigenization issue was the major reason why the
war of liberation struggle was fought in Zimbabwe. However the Lancaster House Conference
did not fairly address this issue since it actually gave political power to the government rather
than economic power .Indigenization could not be completed in the first decade of independence.

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The willing buyer willing seller approach for redistributing wealth which was used was never
carried to a logical conclusion.
Mnangagwa (2011) in his presentation entitled Zimbabwe Defense Policy In Times of
Indigenization and Economic Empowerment highlighted that after realizing that the land was
back to its rightful owners the indigenization act was introduced in 2007.The government having
learnt from their past mistakes they first drafted Indigenization bill that was later passed into a
law known as the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act.
1.2.3 Mining and Mining laws
Chiwawa (1989) postulated that The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in
the southern part of the continent of Africa, between Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and
Zambia. He says the main reason Zimbabwe was colonized by the Rhodes was that he thought
there was a second rand after they found one in South Africa .Munhumutapa Empire mined Gold
and traded it with the Arabs. Zimbabwe is endowed with rich mineral resources. Zimbabwe has
over 40 types of minerals including gold, diamonds, asbestos, chrome, coal, platinum, nickel,
and copper and so have coal-bed methane gas deposits. This sector was dominated by foreigners
that is why my research focuses more on the mining sector.
The history of informal mining or gold panning mining in Zimbabwe dates back to the period
well before colonization in the late- 1890s. As late as 1908, over 70% of the countrys mines
were still classified as small workings.The Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines (2011) volume two
report points out that as in other African countries, gold mining was the basis for the wealth and
power of many empires and kingdoms in Zimbabwe and this fuelled growth of small-scale
mining on the continent. Chiwawa (1989) believes that despite the growth of small-scale mining
over the years, especially since independence in 1980, the sector has essentially remained
subsistence and a significant complimentary activity to communal and small-scale resettlement
agriculture. As a whole, small-scale mining is an important sector in the mineral production
system in Zimbabwe, as miners work on economic deposits often below the threshold levels of
the larger operators.


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Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (2001) reported that the Mining sector is well
suited for Zimbabwe as it utilizes an abundant resource, labour, and employs a relatively small
proportion of the scarce resource. Minerals such as chromite and tantalite, early small-scale
mining was concentrated on the extraction of gold, copper, iron ore and tin. The definition of
small-scale mining in Zimbabwe includes both legal and illegal operators, mechanized and semi-
mechanized miners of varying sizes in terms of output, employment and capitalization.
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (2001) classify mines into four categories mines
operated by experienced individuals, those operated by unsophisticated groups, registered gold
panners, and cooperative miners. This classification, though covering a significant section of the
sector, fails to take cognisance of the important role played by illegal operators, many of them
gold planners. Tantalite panning has also emerged as a significant activity during the last two
years, fuelled by improved tantalum prices during this period. Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation (2001) estimated 300,000 people to be directly involved in gold panning activities
along 5000 km of Zimbabwes major rivers including Mazowe, Angwa, Insiza, Runde and Bubi.
Most of panning sites are along Zimbabwes rivers,

According to the United Nations World Health Organisation, Zimbabwe has a total population
of 14 million and the unemployment rate of 90% and the youths constitute a higher percentage.
Therefore informal mining becomes any alternative to the unemployed.

The Mine and Minerals Act is the principal law governing mining in Zimbabwe. This law
provides security of tenure and has clear provisions for acquisition, maintenance and
relinquishing of mining title. The act has been in force since 1965 and has served the country
well. Mineral rights are vested in the State President. Gold Trade (Gold Buying Permits for
concession Areas) Regulations Mines and Minerals (Custom Milling Plants) Regulations SI 239
of 2002 states the use of hammer mills by informal miners ,Mines and Minerals (Contracted
Inspectors ) Regulations SI 249 of 2006 , Mines and Minerals (Minerals Unit) Regulations SI 82
of 2008 Mines and Minerals (Declaration of Minerals ) Notice SI 91 of 1990 Regulations Gold
Trade Act Chapter 21:03, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe Act Chapter 21:04
states who should buy and sell minerals ,Explosives Act Chapter 10:08 limits and prohibit the
use and positioning, Precious Stones Trade Act Chapter 21:06 Environmental Management Act

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Chapter 20:27 states how mining activities should not destroy the environment ,Atmospheric
Pollution Prevention Act Chapter 20:03 it prohibits the polluting of the environment, Hazardous
Substances and Articles Act Chapter 15:05 ,Pneumoconiosis Act Chapter 15:08, Forestry Act
Chapter 9:05,Water Act Chapter 20:22, Zimbabwe National Water Authority Act Chapter 20:25,
Companies Act Chapter 24:03 ,Revenue Authorities Act Chapter 23:11 ,Value added Tax Act
Chapter23:12 ,Income Tax Act Chapter 3:06Finance Act Chapter 23:04 ,Capital Gains Tax Act
Chapter 23:01,Companies Act Exchange Control Act ,Indigenization and Empowerment Act
states that all foreign owned mines should submit 51% of their shares to Zimbabwean citizens
people. These laws affects the operation of mining in Zimbabwe.
1.2.4 Trevor Ncube and the Zimbabwe Independent
Olsen (1997) notes that in May 1996, a new weekly newspaper hit the streets in Harare. It was
called The Zimbabwe Independent and it came in the wake of the crisis in the independent press
after the collapse of The Daily Gazette and The Sunday Gazette. According to the 15
th

anniversary magazine of Alpha Media Holdings (2011) the paper was an attempt to revive the
private sector press which had been severely eroded, and to widen the scope and national reach
of published opinion. The Zimbabwe Independent was set up with the backing of solid capital,
management, and editorial resources (including a translocated senior editorial team from Modus,
headed by former Financial Gazette editor Trevor Ncube). The Zimbabwe Independent leading
investors were Clive Murphy and Clive Wilson. Since they sold their controlling interest in
Modus, they consolidated a new publishing company and developed a national distribution
agency which was used to support Zimbabwe Independent. The editorial slant included support
for meaningful black empowerment measures, and for the governments economic reform
program ESAP, but also a consistent criticism and exposure of government mismanagement,
corruption, and abuse of power. Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (1999) alleged the
newspaper proved to be a success, and reached a circulation of 25,000 after little more than a
year. The publishers bought a secondhand press, and also started a Sunday paper, the Sunday
Standard, in April 1997. The market for both the Independent papers is the professional urban
sector, but their impact is doubtlessly larger than their circulation indicates.
According to a report published by The Zimbabwe Independent on its 15
th
Anniversary (2011)
Trevor Ncube was born in Bulawayo in 1962. He was a teacher at Pumula High School in the

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early 1980s.He lost his relatives in the Gukurahundiera. Ncube started in journalism in 1989,
when he was appointed assistant editor of the Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe. Ncube in 1991
was promoted to Executive Editor and in 1994 he received the Zimbabwean Editor of the Year
award from Zimbabwean Union if Journalist (ZUJ).
Ncube was the President of Print Media South Africa and Chair of the Newspaper Association of
South Africa from 2004-2008. He was chair of the board of the Southern African Regional
Poverty Network (2004-2007) and the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (2004-2008). Ncube
also served on the international board of the World Association of Newspapers (2004-2008)
based in Paris. Ncube holds a BA honours (first class) in economic history from the University
of Zimbabwe. He completed the Said Business School, University of Oxford, Advanced
Management and Leadership Programme in June/July 2009.
Saunders (1999) observed that in 1992 Trevor Ncube ,editors of The Financial Gazette ,was
summoned before parliament under the Privileges ,Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act
,1971 to divulge his sources for a story on the findings of parliamentary committee looking into
irregularities at LORAC ,an affair which personally involved senior government officials ,banks
,the CID and CIO. Ncube revealed his source, apologized to the parliamentary committee and no
other action was taken.
Trevor Ncube noted that the most challenging part of his life was when he was fired from
Financial Gazzette after he exposed Mugabes marriage to Grace Marufu. Saunders (1999)
highlighted that it was through the Law on Civil and Criminal Defamation in 1995 criminal
defamation charges succeeded against The Financial Gazzette ,after it published reports about
the secret marriage of President Mugabe and Grace Marufu.
Ncube also owns Munn Marketing, a magazine and newspaper distribution company in
Zimbabwe, and Strand Multiprint, a commercial and newspaper printing company.
He publishes South Africa's Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper, part of The Guardian group of
newspapers and in Zimbabwe, sister publications The Zimbabwe Independent, The Sunday
Standard and Newsday. These three newspapers, Distribution Company and printing company
forms the Alpha Media Holdings which is the parent company.

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1.3 Statement of the research problem
For us to understand how the coverage of the indigenisation policy is carried out we need to
understand the political economy behind Zimbabwe Independent.
1.4 Main Research question
How is Zimbabwe Independent representing the Indigenization Policy?
1.5 Sub Research Question
What are the factors that influence Zimbabwe Independent to represent the indigenization
policy?
Is the indigenization policy an economic or political tool?
What are the interpretation mechanisms in the news production process?
How do ownership and control patterns of the Zimbabwe Independent influence the way
they portray in the period under study?
Who is benefiting from the indigenization?
How does the general public view the indigenization policy portrayal in the Zimbabwe
Independent?

1.6 Research Objectives
Zimbabwe Independent must not just critises or support a policy because it is a brain
child of Zanu Pf but it must be objective.
If indigenization policy is an economic policy Zimbabweans should make use of it and or
if it is a campaigning tool, it should be available to all parties and readers will make
informed decisions.
To assist media owners, journalists, academia and ordinary readers to understand how
indigenization policy operates.
The study should explain who is benefitting from this policy and how is Zimbabwe
Independent benefiting from the policy.

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Help readers to understand how the Zimbabwe Independent covers the indigenization
policy.
1.7 Assumption of the study
The indigenization policy is being misrepresented in Zimbabwe Independent.
The indigenization policy is genuinely a political tool which is being abused as a political
tool.
Ownership patterns and Funding mechanism have an influence the outcome of news
Zimbabwe Independent is not reflecting reality.
The indigenization policy is portrayed as a Zanu Pf brain child and it is only those who
are aligned to the Zanu Pf who will benefit from it.
The Zimbabwean public is not yet aware about what indigenization is all about.
1.8 Justification of the study
Mazango (2008) notes that the post-2000 era in which the political environment in Zimbabwe
has become so polarized so much that this polarity has cascaded down to the media and this
resulted in the media assuming political identities: with the private press being identified as an
MDC wing while the public media being regarded as a part of Zanu Pf This study of
representation has been done in other areas in certain context but mine tries to focus more on the
Zimbabwe context .How it has been done by Zimbabwe Independent since the Indigenization
and empowerment policy is still in the making .A lot of debates surrounds this policy.
1.9 Scope of the study
I am looking at the period when the policy became so topical in the media that is from January
2010 up to June 2012. The study focus on every article on indigenization since January 2010 up
to June 2012 to make them 130 articles since Zimbabwe Independent is a weekly newspaper ,I
will also analyses indigenization and adverts.


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1.10 Limitations
The researcher as a student at MSU is based in Gweru thus there will be difficulties as the
research is done during the semester it is difficult to manage time the final dissertation is
wanted by October.
Limited resources as the research require travelling.
Since the research is dealing with a burning issue to Zimbabwe which is still in the
making the responsible authorities are likely to withhold information due to fear of
exposing the policys loose ends
This research deals with policy makers and editors some of them who are always busy it
is might be difficult for them to have ample time to discuss.
If elections are held this year the media will shift their attention to elections giving the
indigenization policy very little attention.
1.11 Structure of the study
The chapter dealt with the history, background study, research questions and objectives, scope of
study and the outline of the chapters to follow. The following chapter deals with the theoretical
framework which guides and offers a critical analysis of this study. Chapter three shows the
research methodology used in the study. The following chapter four gives an in depth view of the
structure of the newspapers and the organogram. The fifth chapter presents research findings and
analysis of findings. The final chapter six concludes the study and makes recommendations.
1.12 Conclusion
This Chapter introduced the research topic and its relevance .It provides the background
information to the study and draw attention to the specific issues the researcher intends to
address .It outlined the parameters that the research will follow and listed the obstacles that will
be encountered during the process. The next chapter will look at the theoretical framework and
literature review.


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Chapter 2
Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
2.0 Introduction
This chapter synthesizes from the previous chapter that looked at the background of the study.
Literature that has been written before or that has links with the study will also be reviewed in
this study. Theories relating to the study will also be used especially those relating to identity
creation.
2.1Literature review
Literature review is an essential test of the research question against that which is already known
about the subject. Various journal articles, unpublished works and newspapers have been
published which will enrich the research. Cooper (1998) defines literature review as a process of
gathering information from other sources and documenting it. A literature review is a body of
text that aims to review critical points of current knowledge on a particular topic. Schaefer
(2006) states that by conducting a review of literature relevant scholarly studies and
information researchers refine the problem under study, clarify possible techniques to be used
in collecting data, and eliminate or reduce available mistakes.
Tuckman (1994) argues that review of related literature must make readers see why your study is
necessary.
2.1.1 Media and political interference in Zimbabwe
Saunders(1999),Ndlela(2005),Mukasa(2003)Rusike(1990)Rnning(2000),Dumisani Moyo(2005)
and Zaffio (2002)come to an understanding on the state of the media in Zimbabwe that it is in a
poor state they highlight issues to do with media polarization and the restrictive piece of
legislations some of them that originated from the colonial era. The media in Zimbabwe have
not been innocent in writing the truth they have been partisan they take sides and this has
affected content of the outcome of news .


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2.1.1.1 Saunders,R (1999) Dancing Out of Tune
Richard Saunders Dancing out of tune (1999) notes that one of the pillarsof democracy in any
country is information and its effective distribution .Without reliable and balance information
about what happens in government and society, it is difficult if not impossible for people to
participate in the running of their country. Ndlela (2005) in his paper the coverage of the
Zimbabwean crisis in the Norwegian media notes that the private media played a pivotal role in
representing of the Land Reform Programme which was a government policy . Similar to this
research the private media played a crucial role in representing the indigenization policy.
Saunders tying to bring out how the political interference have the final influence on news, same
as the this research with the fact that Trevor Ncube is not in good books with ZANU PF there is
no way the indigenization policy will be applauded. After using Hermeneutics of Interpretation,
discourse analysis on certain newspaper articles Saunders then concluded that there is absence
of the desired free flow of information. This research links with Saunders line of thinking in that
the political interference of the media has affected the outcome of news .The Absence of
independence in the press has affected the readers.
2.1.1.2Rusike, E.T (1990) The politics of the mass media: A personal Experience,
In his exploration Rusike (1990) makes any assertion that the politics of the mass media in
Zimbabwean context is central to the very existence and survival of journalists and their
newspaper .Newspapers are governed by the political system within which they are operating.
The mass media are an integral part in society and operate within the existing political system
with existing political cultures.
Rusike a former CEO of the Zimbabwe Papers (Zimpapers) resigned due to what he called he
called gross interference in the execution of his duties by the ruling party ZANU Pf soon after
one of his editors Geff Nyarota wrote an investigative journalist story exposing the Willogate
car scandal ,which involved several cabinet ministers. The same interference is also visible to
Zimbabwe Indpendandet they interfere in a way to influence the final outcome of news .Rusike
in his research also focuses on the issue of political interference in the media by politicians. As

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a former Herald Editor Rusike was explaining from experience he used participation observation
which the researcher will also use since the researcher was at the Zimbabwean Independent.
Rusikes receach is interwoven with mine since it highlights the coverage of state issues such as
the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme which was an economic policy .The researcher
is looking at the indigenization policy, Rusike focuses more with the public media the researcher
will fill the gap by focusing on the private media.
The Ministry of Information remained unchanged it was inherited form the colonial system, and
ZBC remained both politically and financially dependent upon the government. Various scholars
agree, the obsession of those in power to maintain tight control of broadcasting and to use it as a
tool for perpetuating political dominance continued amid these changes (Rnning 2003;
Saunders 1999; Zaffiro 2002).
2.1.1.3Mukasa, S. D (2003) Press and Politics in Zimbabwe
Mukasa (2003) pointes out the role of politians in news formation .Mukasa (2003) believed what
emerged in the early 1980s was a tame press headed by government-appointed editors. Most of
these were committed to serving the interests of the ruling party of which they, with the
exception of Willy Musarurwa (ZAPU), were card-carrying members. To his credit, Musarurwa
tried to be less partisan and more professional. He had plans for regular coverage and analysis of
rural issues and events. His editorial policy was that the greatest service the press could render to
the government was to report both the positive and the negative. In reporting the negative and
unfavorable stories, the press was merely drawing governments attention to problems that
needed to be resolved before they got out of hand. But Musarurwas editorial policy was a voice
in the wilderness.
Mukasa (2003) notes that the Zimbabwe government's onslaught against the independent press in
Zimbabwe reached a new crescendo with the enactment of two laws: The Access to Information
and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). The two
laws, which are remarkably similar to laws passed by the colonial regime of Ian Smith, lend
credence to the characterization of the Zimbabwe Government as a dictatorship, undemocratic
and neo-colonialist. This goes against the grain of the spirit, letter, and intent of the
independence struggle and the expectations of citizens when Zimbabwe attained independence in

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1980. For while the Zimbabwean Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and assembly as
well as a multi-party democracy, both AIPPA and POSA have become the legal smokescreen
for undermining both freedom of expression and opposition politics in Zimbabwe. According to
AIPPA, "Any published statement, which is intentionally, unreasonably, recklessly, maliciously
or fraudulently false and either (1) threatens the interest of defense, public safety, public order,
the economic interests of the state, public morality or public heath or, (2) is injurious to the
reputation, rights And freedoms of other persons, will be punished. This create a difficult
environment to operate in for journalists and many journalists were arrested due to these laws.
Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo, has argued that legislation exists to protect
Zimbabweans against western imperialist propaganda as well as to spearhead a new cultural
revolution. Under a new broadcasting act, both personnel and content of the broadcast media
must rigidly conform to the policies dictated by the Minister. Through content analysis Mukasa
gathered the information to come up with the conclusion that the media in Zimbabwe has been
greatly affected by the politics of the day and the laws making it difficult to come up with a
balanced story .Mukasasreseach explains the consequences of political interference in the news
room.
2.1.1.4Zaffiro,J (2002)Mass Media and Democratization of Politics and Society :Lessons
From Zimbabwe ,1990-2000
Zaffiro(2002) pointed out that the relationship between mass media and political democratization
in Africa is significant as it is poorly understood .Editors engage in self-censorship for survival
because of this interference .At the end of the day the representation of stories becomes partial .
Readers should decide for themselves but the newspaper end up manipulating reality .Zaaffiro
used other books to come out with his thesis. The issue of lack of objectivity in Zimbabwes
private media is what I share with Zaffiro to come up with a question is the Indiginisation policy
being covered in an objective manner?
2.1.1.5 Terence Rangers 2002 article, The Zimbabwe Elections: A Personal Experience
Terence Rangers 2002 article, The Zimbabwe Elections: A Personal Experience he notes that
The state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) broadcast repetitive liberation war
documentaries that presented ZANU PF as the sole deliverer of independence, justified the land

18
seizures as a means to redressing a colonial inheritance of racially biased land distribution,
highlighted colonial atrocities, and wrote out personalities and historical events inimical to
ZANU PFs quest to maintain political power. Catchy music jingles and albums, the majority of
which were composed by the then Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, reworking liberation
war songs, and celebrating ZANU PFs role in liberation history, were aired on state-run national
radio stations hourly. This clearly shows interference Newspapers report differently on certain
government policies and they take sides, they do not present reality to the audience which is
wrong and against the code of ethics .Therefore, the media either the public media or the private
media the manipulate the public opinion on government policies. Ranger used critical discourse
analysis when he analysed the music and the discourse used.
The media have the power to manipulate public opinion and make a viewpoint turn out to be the
dominant and acceptable view in society. According to Walter Lippman (1922), public opinion
is the sum total of individual attitudes on an issue affecting individuals. The media are used to
sway public opinion in favour of the political ideology that they subscribe to.
Ndlela in his research used discourse analysis in analyzing of the daily news articles and the
researcher will also use discourse analysis. The media in Zimbabwe has become so polarized the
media its self has become a hegemonic war zone were these political parties fight their own
hegemonic wars .
Saunders (1999) laments that political pressure on the media puts the audiences on disadvantage
the truth will be jeopardized .Its far much better if the media dance to a tune of freedom of
expression and information as its melody and the fundamental principle of democracy and
tolerance as it undermining beat.
2.1.2Ownership and control patterns of the media influence content
Rnning (2004),Garnham (1979),(Melody 1978),McChesney (1999)Bagdikian (2000)) ,Golding
(1977) agrees that ownership of the media has influence in the final outcome of news. The
consequences of foreign ownership of the and funding of the media is that what ever written in
that paper is viewed in foreign lances and the owners of the media house have a say on what
should be written and what should not be written in the papers.


19
Many media scholars subscribe to the notion that those who own and control the media influence
the news content. The old adage which says, he who pays the piper calls the tune sums up how
the political economy of the media influences the production of news content.

Garnham (1979) submits that those who own the means of production have the final say on what
comes out in the media. In the article, Garnham suggests that ownership and control patterns of
the media organization have a direct bearing on content. Garnham (1979) articulates that political
economy is the relation between the economic structure and dynamics of media industries and
the ideological content of media. Content media produce can be largely accounted for by the
exchange value of different kinds of content, under conditions of pressure to expand markets,
and by the underlying economic interests of owners and decision-makers.

2.1.2.1Golding P and Murdock G (1991) Culture Communications and Political Economy
Echoing the same sentiments,Murdoch and Golding (1977) argue that the media are profit-driven
and have to take heed to the interests of their stakeholders in order to achieve the bottom-line and
in so doing this influences media content. Murdoch and Golding (1977) highlight how the
commercial interests of the media influence content when they say the mass media are first and
foremost industrial and commercial organizations which produce and distribute
commoditiesThere are like any other organization seeking to make a profit. They get most of
their revenue from advertising and hence they cannot go against those who advertise in their
media.

2.1.2.2Ronning (2004) The Dilemma of Foreign Ownership and Funding of the Media
Rnning (2004) notes that this is mainly to do with the perceived power of the mass media to
influence the political, social and economic behaviour of individuals. The Daily News, being a
largely foreign-funded newspaper, made such tremendous contribution to the opening up of
political space in Zimbabwe has posed a new dilemma regarding the desirability of foreign
media ownership/funding and its possible implications
Rnning (2004), for example, suggests that foreign funding is both justifiable and necessary in
particular circumstances. He argues that: The ANZ initiative suggests that in the interest of
media pluralism it is necessary to adopt a pragmatic position to what often may be seen as

20
fundamental doctrines in relation to restrictions on foreign ownership and media concentration.
Such principles must be applied in relation to historical circumstances and contexts, and it is to a
large degree true that in Africa it is the market media that are independent

This body of knowledge is significant as it informs the research that the media do not reflect
reality. Instead influenced by their ownership and control patterns in producing news content
favorable to the interests of those that own the means of production. As such the research seeks
to contextualize the issue of how ownership and control patterns influence the content that will
be published. The research will look at the effects of political economy in the context of the
portrayal of Indeginisation policy during the period under study .

2.1.2.3 Brian Ncube (2010)
1
looks at how the political economy of TheHerald and The
Zimbabwe I ndependent influenced how these two newspapers portrayed Reserve Bank
Governor, Gideon Gono during the farm mechanization programme.

Brian Ncube (2010) concluded that indeed the ownership and control patterns of these
newspapers had the final say on the image of Gideon Gono which was adopted by each of these
two newspapers. This body of knowledge is important as it informs this research that the image
of the indigenization policy in ZimIndcould be a constructed reality meant to serve the interests
of those who own and control these newspapers.

In this theme all the scholars mentioned above concurred on the consequences of ownership and
its implications on the final content. Rnning (2004) and Ncube (2010) used interviews ,Ncube
(2010) further used face to face interviews and agreed on the fact that he who pays the piper
dictates the tune .This researcher therefore shares the same sentiments with the school of thought
mentioned above the consequence of ownership have impact on the news out come .


21

2.1.3 Media Representation and Construction of reality
Jean Baudrillard(1981),Michel Foucault (1977),Jacques Derrida (2002),Michael Schudson
(1995) ,Stuart Hall (1973) they agree that the media are not innocent reflectors of reality.
The media do not reflect reality but are instead constructing reality to serve their own interests.
Several media scholars argue that news is not a reflection of reality but a construction of the
media. For example Gieber (1964) asserts that, News is what newspapermen make it. Fishman
(1980) echoes the same sentiments when he says, News is the result of methods newsworkers
employ. Cohen and Young (1973:97) also share the view that news is not a reflection of reality
but a construction of the media when they say, News is manufactured by journalists.
Stuart Hall (1996) is the main proponent of the concept of representation and he defines
representation as the production of meaning through written or spoken language, visual images
and signs. Hall (1996) says representation is an act of ideological recreation that serves the
specific interests of those who control the media. It is those who are in power that control the
representations of others in society. These representations then influence the way we see the
world. In that regard, it can be said that representations are not always innocent and true
reflectors of reality as certain representations are done to achieve certain objectives.
Considering that the media are political actors with political interests which they seek to
accomplish through the representation they confer on a particular issue or a personality, it
becomes clear that the media will depict certain representations in a way that will gain them
political mileage. Hall (1996) presents three approaches to representation which are namely:
reflective approach, intentional approach and the constructionist approach. The reflective
approach suggests that meaning lies in an object and language reflects or imitates the truth. The
intentional approach proposes that people get the meaning intended by the author. The
constructionist approach recognizes the social character of language. As such, it says that we
construct meaning of things. In other words, things dont mean, but we make them mean.


22

2.1.3.1 Foucault, M (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
Michel Foucault (1977) explains the relationship among meaning, power and social behaviour
within social orders. Foucault asserts that discourse concerns both language and practice. This
concept refers to regulated production of knowledge through language which gives meaning to
both material objects and social practice. Foucault focuses on the ways in which social constructs
can foster cultural hegemony, violence and exclusion. Foucault sees meaning as socially
constructed by institutions, [including such institutions as media organizations e.g. newspaper
chains]. The notion, following from the death of the subject, that the condition of authorship has
been dissolved, is leaving only an author position that places an emphasis on what is said. This
vision can be particularly powerful in analyzing the content of mass media. Thus in this study
the issue of giving a certain meaning to the indigenization policy will be exploded in an Africa
context since Foucault reasearched it in a western context . Jean Baudrillard, (1981) goes
deeper in explaining how the media create reality especially in a technologically advanced
society. Baudrillard (1981) develops an account of postmodern society in which consumer and
electronic images have become more real (hyper real) than physical reality and in which
simulations of reality have displaced their originals, leaving only the desert of the real. Jean
Baudrillard defines hyper reality as the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from
fantasy, especially in technologically advanced postmodern cultures. Hyper reality is a means of
characterising the way consciousness defines what is actually real in a world where a multitude
of media can radically shape and filter the original event or experience being depicted. Reality
has been replaced by simulacra (a fake of the real that is not there) thus highlighting that we now
live in a counterfeit age where we only experience prepared realities such as edited war footage,
and meaningless acts of terrorism. The real is produced according to a model that is not given but
artificially reproduced as real.

Baudrillard suggests that the world we live in has been replaced by a copy world, where we seek
simulated stimuli and nothing more. According to him, the sign has imploded and exploded.
This means that the real implodes on itself. Implosion describes a process leading to a collapse
of boundaries between the real and simulations. As such this includes the frontier between the
media and the society, so that the media become the world.

23

Baudrillard says the principle of the real is short-circuited by the inter-changeability of signs in
an era whose communicative and semantic acts are dominated by electronic media and digital
technologies. Baudrillard proposes the notion that, in such a state, where subjects are detached
from the outcomes of events (political, literary, artistic, personal or otherwise), events no longer
hold any particular sway on the subject and therefore have the effect of producing widespread
indifference, detachment and passivity in industrialized populations.

He claims that a constant stream of appearances and references without any direct consequences
to viewers or readers could eventually render the division between appearance and object
indiscernible, resulting, ironically, in the disappearance of mankind in what is, in effect, a
virtual or holographic state, composed only of appearances. In short, the media no longer mirror
society, but instead society now mirrors the reality which is presented in the media. This has
resulted in the media no longer representing reality, but hyper reality which is constructed by the
media. This body of knowledge is significant as it informs the research that the portrayal of the
indigenization policy created in Zimbabwe Independent could be a constructed reality meant to
serve the interests of those who own and control this newspaper.
2.1.3.2Derrida, J (1981) Positions
Jacques Derrida (2002) focuses on language and the deconstruction of an immediacy or identity
between words and meanings. Derrida argues that meaning is not generated by relations of
difference between signifiers, rather by reference to an independent world. To him, meaning can
never be fixed: words carry many meanings including the echoes or traces of other meanings
from other words. Derrida introduces the notion of difference and deferral. The production of
meaning in the process of signification is continually deferred and supplemented. He argues for
the undesirability of binary oppositions. For Derrida, people think only in signs and there is no
original meaning circulating outside of representation.

2.1.3.3 Michael Schudson (1995) Sociology of News Production

24
Michael Schudson (1995) notes three distinct approaches to explaining how news is produced
which are political, economic, sociological and cultural perspectives. Schudson (1995:136) states
that, social, cultural, economic and political forces do in fact structure news production, but
they do not produce news out of nothing. Schudson suggests that news is structured in a way
that favours the elite when he says, the news media have always been a more important forum
for communication among elites (and some elites more than others) than with the general
population (Schudson 1995).This body of knowledge informs this research that media
organizations deliberately package their media products in such a way that generates certain
preferred meanings in their audiences. In that regard, this research seeks to investigate ways in
which the indigenization policy is being packaged.

Stuart Hall (1973) makes an encoding-decoding model which illustrates that moments of
encoding and decoding may not be perfectly symmetrical. There is nothing inevitable about the
outcome of the process -what is intended and what is taken may not coincide. Media
professionals may wish decoding to correspond with encoding, but they cannot prescribe or
guarantee this. Governed by different conditions of existence, encoding and decoding are open to
variable reciprocity. Hall develops three hypothetical positions from which decodings of a
televisual discourse may be constructed. The first position is the dominant-hegemonic position
whereby the viewer decodes the message in harmony with the intended meaning of the encoder.
The second decoding position is the negotiated reading which involves a mixture of adaptive and
oppositional elements in which the televisual discourse is negotiated through and in terms of the
situated conditions of the viewer. The third decoding position identified by Hall is the
oppositional reading. This is the position occupied by the viewer who recognises the preferred
code of the televisual but who none the less chooses to decode within an alternative frame of
reference.


25

2.2Theoretical Framework
Marx (1963) defines the term theory as a group of logical, organized and deductively related law.
He asserts that a theory can be perceived as both a tool and a goal. Bak (2005) postulates that,
the function of the theoretical framework is therefore to show where your study fits in the broad
debates that have gone before.
This study benefited immensely from borrowing various media theories and concepts for
guidance to ensure that the study is a sound piece of academic work. The study revolves around
the public sphere concept, democratic participant theory, development media theory, propaganda
them Political Economy, Discourse and Critical discourse analysis, Agenda setting and Gate
keeping, Mediation, theory, theory of representation. The theories serve to generate
understanding the role of the media in shaping public opinion in the creation of identities.
2.2.1.Political economy of the media
Political economy can be defined as the study of social relations, particularly the power relations
that mutually constitute the production, distribution and consumption of resources. Political
economy can also be defined as the interdisciplinary studies that are drawn from economics, law
and political science in explaining how political institutions, the political environment and the
economic system [capitalist, socialist or mixed] influence each other. When narrowly
constituted, it refers to applied topics in economics implicating public policy, such as monopoly,
market protection, government fiscal policy.
Defined within the realm of mass media, political economy has broad critical significance often
associated with macro-questions of media ownership and control, interlocking directorships and
other factors that bring together media industries, politicians and social elites (Boyd-Barret:
1995). Garnham (1979) cited in McQuail (1994:162)
Political economy of the mass media focuses primarily on the relation between the economic
structure and dynamics of media industries and the ideological content of media. It directs

26
research attention to the empirical analysis of the structure of ownership and control patterns of
media and the way market forces operate.
Mosco (1995) cited in Boyd Barret and Newbold (1995; 186) says, political economy is the
study of social relations particularly the power relations that mutually constitute the production,
distribution and consumption of resources including communication resources. Political
economy sees content, style and form of media products such as newspaper stories or computer
games as shaped by structural features such as ownership, advertising and audience spending.
Political economy according to Klaehn (2005:11) is, the elite media interlock with other
institutional sectors in ownership management and social circles effectively circumventing their
ability to remain analytically detached from other dominant institutional sectors.
The above statement suggests that those who own the media have a say in the final content. As
such, the issue of objectivity becomes a contested terrain since the owners of the media have
influence over the content.
According to Murdock and Golding (1974:205-206), The mass media are first and foremost
industrial and commercial organizations which produce and distribute commodities. They are
like any other organization seeking to make profit. They get most of their revenue from
advertising and hence they cannot go against those who advertise in their media. McQuail
(1994:163) argues that, the media have to make a profit to survive and this often involves taking
decisions which directly influence the content.
Political economy approach emphasizes the media as industries and business enterprises.
Political economy examines the media and the nature of media activity to identify the extent to
corporate reach, the commodification of media products and the controlling nature of state and
government intervention. Political economy shows greater awareness of the need to demonstrate
precisely how the political economic formation of media is related to media context and to the
discourses of public debate and not consciousness.
Murdock and Golding (1977) adopt a Marxist view of ideology for a political economy approach
to the analysis of the mass media. They argue that Marxist statement in the Germany ideology
entails three empirical propositions which they show can be satisfactorily validated; that is, the

27
production and distribution of ideas is concentrated in the hands of the capitalist owners of the
means of production. Therefore their ideas receive much greater prominence and hence dominate
the thoughts of subordinate groups; and that therefore this ideology domination serves to
maintain the prevailing system of class and exploits of subordinate classes. Political economy
posits that, the mass media serve to reproduce class inequalities in that the ownership and control
of the mass media is concentrated in the hands of the ruling class. By concentrating on the
economic base Murdock and Golding (1995:45) argue that, we are suggesting that control over
material resources and their changing distribution are ultimately the most powerful of the many
levers operating in cultural production.
In addition to how the ownership and control patterns of the media influence content, the owners
of media organisations go a step further in advancing their profit motive by paying attention to
the needs and wants of their audiences as explicated by the concept of Critical Political Economy
of the media. Critical political economists see the consumers of the media being sovereign and
ultimately whatever media owners and controllers want they have to refer to the wants and needs
of receivers. Through the mechanism of the market, the voice of the consumer can be heard and
if owners want to acquire an audience and make profit, they cannot afford to ignore this voice
William (2003). Along these lines it can be seen that the media do not reflect reality but are
influenced by the wishes of the audiences to present biased versions of reality.
This research therefore seeks to examine how the political economy and critical political
economy of the Zimbabwe Independent affected the portrayal of Indigenization policy in the
period under study. It will look at how this newspaper portrayed the Indigenization policy with
reference to their ownership and control patterns.
2.2.2 Public sphere concept
Jrgen Habermas (1962) presents the theory of the public sphere which is based on his research
into the bourgeois class of the 18th century in Great Britain, France and Germany. He defines the
public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not necessarily exist in any
identifiable space. Habermas (1962) writes:

28
In its ideal form, the public sphere is made up of private people gathered together as a public and
articulating the needs of society with the state... The public sphere is the source of public opinion
needed to legitimate authority in functioning democracy.
Gripsrud (2000) gives a similar definition of public sphere when he says:
[Public Sphere] is where all human beings congregate and communicate in a huge variety of
ways not least in order to find out how government is doing in terms of securing their life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness and what should be done to improve things if necessary , the formation
of public opinion.
Habermas believes that the public sphere can be most effectively constituted and maintained
through dialogue, acts of speech, debate and discussion. In his further reflections, Habermas
claims that the public debate can be animated by opinion-forming associations which are
voluntary associations, social organizations such as from churches, sports clubs, groups of
concerned citizens, grassroots movements, trade unions to counter or refashion the messages of
authority.
Along these lines, the media can be said to operate as the public sphere as it offers a forum for
citizens to air out their opinion and criticize the government through opinion columns and letters
to the editor. The medias role as a public sphere is seen when ideas are freely articulated without
censorship. In addition, the media [as a public sphere] speaks out on abuses by the powers-that-
be and expose injustice. With this in mind, this research seeks to assess whether the coverage of
the indigenisation policy in the Zimbabwe Independent included a public sphere provision for
the public to voice their opinion about him in the period under study.
However, the public sphere can be said to have retrogressed. Habermas (1989) argues that a
"refeudalization" of the public sphere began occurring in the late 19th century. The
transformation involved private interests assuming direct political functions, as powerful
corporations came to control and manipulate the media and state. On the other hand, the state
began to play a more fundamental role in the private realm and everyday life, thus eroding the
difference between state and civil society, between the public and private sphere. As the public
sphere declined, citizens became consumers, dedicating themselves more to passive consumption

29
and private concerns than to issues of the common good and democratic participation. The
relationship between the private and public spheres and their relation with the state changed.
State and society, once distinct, became interlocked, leading to the refudalisation of the public
sphere. Even institutions such as parliaments could not prevent this erosion of a free public
sphere. Habermas (1989) writes:
Discussions, now a business, becomes formalized; the presentation of positions and counter
positions is bound to certain prearranged rules of the game, consensus about the subject matter is
made largely superfluous by that concerning form.
The public sphere thus changed from a forum for critical and rational debate to an instrument for
the manipulation of public discourse where bureaucratic and economic interests use advertising,
marketing and public relations to create a social engineering of voter behaviour and cultural
consumption (Habermas 1989).
As such this study examines whether Zimbabwe Independent show evidence of a declined public
sphere in their coverage of the Indigenisation policy . In other words does this newspaper present
the publics opinion about indigenisation policy or does it simply give heed to the ruling elites
opinion of it?
2.2.3 Theory of Hegemony
Hegemony is a form of control exercised by a dominant class, i.e., by a group controlling the
means of production. Domination is not imposed from above, but is won through subordinate
groups spontaneous consent to the cultural domination they believe will serve their interests
best. As such, hegemony can be said to be rule by consent.
Gramsci (1982) used the term hegemony to denote the predominance of one social class over
others (e.g. bourgeois hegemony). This represents not only political and economic control, but
also the ability of the dominant class to project its own way of seeing the world so that those who
are subordinated by it accept it as 'common sense' and 'natural'. Gramsci stresses that this
involves willingness and active consent by the subordinate groups. Common sense, suggests
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, is the way a subordinate class lives its subordination (cited in
Alvarado & Boyd-Barrett 1992: 51).

30
However, Gramsci emphasizes struggle. He notes that common sense is not something rigid and
immobile, but is continually transforming itself (Gramsci, cited in Hall 1982). As Fiske puts it,
Consent must be constantly won and rewon, for people's material social experience constantly
reminds them of the disadvantages of subordination and thus poses a threat to the dominant class.
Hegemony posits a constant contradiction between ideology and the social experience of the
subordinate that makes this interface into an inevitable site of ideological struggle (Fiske 1992).
Hegemony is mobilised through civil society or cultural institutions such as education, the
church, the family and the media. It is here that consent is won, reproduced and maintained. The
media act as instruments for reproducing dominant hegemony since they are influenced by
economic and political inequalities and tend to reproduce dominant ideas and marginalise
alternative ideas.
This research seeks to contextualize the notion of hegemony in the case of the Zimbabwe
Independents operations. The study thereby examines whether this newspaper is reproducing
dominant ideas in Zimbabwean politics in relation to the portrayal of the indigenization policy .
2.2.4 The agenda setting theory
Agenda-setting theory was introduced in 1972 by Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw in their
ground breaking study of the role of the media in 1968 presidential campaign in Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. The theory explains the correlation between the rate at which media cover a
story and the extent that people think that this story is important. This correlation has been
shown to occur repeatedly.
The agenda-setting theory asserts that the news media have a large influence on audiences by
their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give
them. Agenda-setting theorys main postulate is salience transfer. Salience transfer is the ability
of the news media to transfer issues of importance from their news media agendas to public
agendas. "Through their day-by-day selection and display of the news, editors and news directors
focus our attention and influence our perceptions of what are the most important issues of the
day. This ability to influence the salience of topics on the public agenda has come to be called

31
the agenda setting role of the news media. (McCombs and Shaw 1972:176). Hence, the media
do not tell us what to think; they tell us what to think about"- Bernard C. Cohen (1963).
The two basic assumptions that underlie most research on agenda-setting are that the press and
the media do not reflect reality, they filter and shape it and the medias concentration on a few
issues and subjects lead the public to perceive those issues as more important than other issues.
The theory explains why most people prioritize the same issues as important. In short, the agenda
setting theory predicts that if people are exposed to the same media, they will feel the same
issues are important.
Media salience is a key independent variable in agenda setting theory and is mostly recognized
as a single construct. Theoretical explications of media salience scholarship vary throughout the
agenda setting literature. Spiro Kiousis (1997) perused the relevant literature and discovered that
three dimensions of mediasalience emerged: attention, prominence, and valence. Thus
developing his multi-construct model of mediasalience. Attention is based on the amount of
coverage/exposure the news media give an object. Prominence is a framing technique used to
highlight or position an attribute/object in a context that communicates its importance. Kiousis
also refers to just the presence of news stories covered by prestigious news organizations (e.g.
Washington Post, New York Times, etc...) as a signaling factor to the public in giving news
stories prominence. Valence refers to the affective (emotional) elements of the media content.
Additionally, there are several theoretical concepts that fall under the umbrella of agenda
setting. Some of these include: status conferral, stereotyping, priming, gate keeping, compelling
arguments, and of primary importance, the concept of framing. The concept of framing will be
discussed in greater detail later. Status conferral refers to the amount of attention given to
specific individuals. Stereotyping is best defined by Taylor (1982)as the "consensus among
members of one group regarding the attributes of another." Priming occurs when news content
suggest to news audiences that they ought to use specific issues as benchmarks for evaluating the
performance of leaders and government.
The theory of agenda setting is of significance to this study as it prompts the researcher to assess
whether the Zimbabwe Independent was successful in setting their agendas through their
portrayal of the indigenization policy in the period under study. It can then be argued that the

32
basic assumption of the agenda setting theory is that the print media Zimbabwe Independent do
not reflect reality, but rather it filter and shape it.
The agenda setting theory focuses on how the media select what should be put under public
debate. It is the notion that the media actually decide what the public should think about by
setting agendas on certain issues and events in the society.
Lazersfield et al (1994) say agenda setting means the power to structure issues. Fourier (1998)
adds that, the basic assumption of the theory is that consciously or unconsciously, the media
create a particular image of reality. The omission of certain events and issues, and the
overemphasis of others, establishes a particular way for media users to think about reality.
McQuail (2000) says that The attention given in news coverage influences the public awareness
of the significance of an issue. Zimbabwe Independent portrayed the indeginisation policy as
one of the worst policies even to be passed in Zimbabwe through the prominence it received.
It is therefore against this background that questions will then surface in investigating whose
agenda was built when Zimbabwe Independent covers a certain policy prominently .One cannot
dismiss the influence of The likes of Tendai Biti and Saviour Kasukuwere in the policy
formulation and set-up .Ethnic issues should be considered when Zimbabwe Independent is
reporting as a business newspaper more than a national paper .
2.2.5Framing and trimming and Priming
Framing is a technique of agenda setting. Although many scholars have differing opinions of
what exactly framing is, McCombs (1993:24)defines it as, the selection of - and emphasis upon -
particular attributes for the news media agenda when talking about an object (the fact of cutting
and trimming news stories in order to filter it and shape it as the sender wishes) . In turn, as we
know from attribute agenda setting, people will frame objects, placing various degrees of
emphasis on the attributes of persons, public issues or other objects when they think or talk about
them.
In other words, it is not just what is said in news reports, but how subjects are characterized and
presented. It is through this unique characterization/portrayal of issues/objects that communicate

33
certain meanings to audiences apart from just stating facts and figures; the whole is greater than
the sum of its parts.
Entman (1991) defines frames as involving selection and salience. To frame is to select some
aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a
way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or
treatment recommendation for the item described. But he also goes on to describe these four
functions: 1) defining problems-determining what a causal agent is doing with what costs and
benefits, usually measured in terms of common cultural values; 2) diagnosing causes-identifying
the forces creating the problem; 3) making moral judgments-evaluate causal agents and their
effects; and 4) suggesting remedies-offering and justifying treatments for the problems and
predict their likely effects. It is through these four functions that the news media can
highlight/characterize certain issues/candidates/problems/attributes and/or choose to ignore
others.
Goffman (1974:24) defines news media framing as, "The central organizing idea for news
content that supplies a context and suggests what the issue is through the use of selection,
emphasis, exclusion and elaboration."
When the news media supply the context, select what to emphasize or exclude information, they
show us how to think about an object/issue/candidate. In order for this to be effective the
audience must be able to internalize the information and individuals therefore apply interpretive
schemas or primary frameworks to classify it meaningfully (Goffman, 1974:24). Journalists,
political campaigns, and the news media use these primary frameworks as a baseline to make the
understanding of issues easier for audiences, thus making them less complex.
This research seeks to validate the notion of the media framing issues and national agendas by
looking at how the indigenization policy has been created in the Zimbabwe Independent and
framed to communicate certain meanings to readers.
2.2.6 The theory of Representation
Stuart Hall (1996) is the main proponent of the concept of representation and he defines
representation as the production of meaning through written or spoken language, visual images

34
and signs. Hall (1996) says representation is an act of ideological recreation that serves the
Considering that the media are political actors with political interests which they seek to
accomplish through the representation they confer on a particular issue or a personality, it
becomes clear that the media will depict certain representations in a way that will gain them
political mileage. Hall (1996) presents three approaches to representation which are namely:
reflective approach, intentional approach and the constructionist approach. The reflective
approach suggests that meaning lies in an object and language reflects or imitates the truth. The
intentional approach proposes that people get the meaning intended by the author. The
constructionist approach recognizes the social character of language. As such, it says that we
construct meaning of things. In other words, things dont mean, but we make them mean.
The media have the ability to fracture or sustain different groups of people in society through
representation. On one hand, the media under-represent communities by exclusion or
misrepresentation through stereotypes and this is often referred to as othering of the other (i.e.
categorizing other people and viewing them in a discriminatory way). This has the direct effect
of fracturing and destabilizing such communities. Examples of communities that have been
delegitimized and fractured by the media through misrepresentation and under-representation
include gays, lesbians, women and children. On the other hand, the media empower and
stabilize other communities through constant and consistent positive representations. Examples
of communities that have been constantly stabilized by the media are the ruling elite, men, and
white people among others.
Barthes (1977) reflects on how the representation made by press photographs is not accurate as it
is constructed by the media to reflect a preferred reality. He points out that a photograph is
composed not just in the usual sense by the photographer, but by conventions of colour, lighting
and subject which help to fix meaning. Barthes (1997) goes on to say that the written text

35
(caption) and the editorial content that accompany press photographs guide the audience on the
reading to make of the photograph.
Adrien Katherine Wing (2001) addresses the politics of representation as depending solely on
those in power. Wing (2001:43) says, An ability to control the representations circulated in
society means an ability to give or take away agency from a group...
What makes the concept of representation significant for the particular concerns of this study is
that it makes it clear that the way the indigenization policy is represented in the ZimIndhas
motives behind it. As such this study seeks to carefully and rigorously question the presentation
of the policy as presented in the newspaper and find the motives behind it.
2.2.7 The theory of Ideology
In fundamentalist Marxism, ideology is 'false consciousness', which results from the emulation
of the dominant ideology by those whose interests it does not reflect. From this perspective the
mass media disseminate the dominant ideology: the values of the class which owns and controls
the media. According to adherents of Marxist political economy the mass media conceal the
economic basis of class struggle; ideology becomes the route through which struggle is
obliterated rather than the site of struggle (Curran et al. 1982: 26).
Althusser (1977) rejected the notion of false consciousness, stressing that ideology is the medium
through which we experience the world (Curran et al. 1982: 24). Althusserian Marxism stresses
the irreducibility and materiality of ideology: i.e., ideology is seen as a determining force in its
own right. The ideological operation of the mass media in the West contributes to the
reproduction of the capitalist system.
Giddens (1991:245) argues that, ideology is shared beliefs which serve to justify the interests of
dominant groups. The definition stresses the need to justify the legitimacy of those in power.
According to Althusser (1977) Ideology in general has no history [i.e. no actual content, no
concrete origin in wrong perceptions etc.], although specific ideologies do. Ideology in general is
always imaginary, representing a non-historical reality. Imagination is eternal [i.e. makes the
same continuing, permanent, and wrong relations between people and social reality, the famous

36
imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence]. Ideology is a
representation of this imaginary relationship. It is not just an illusion which can be easily
dispelled by a correct interpretation, not just a lie to fool subordinate classes, not just the result of
a necessary alienation - ideology is needed in social life. Ideology does not just misrepresent the
real nature of capitalist society - the relation of individuals to the realities is necessarily
imaginary distortion.
Althusser points out that the modern state is a plurality of apparatuses, namely ideological state
apparatuses (I. S. A. s) and repressive state apparatuses (R.S.A.s). According to Gripsrud
(2002:36), An ideological state apparatus is a social institution that addresses us as subjects and
presents certain ideas about the world and our place in it by way of material structures, rituals
and practices. Examples of I.S.A.s include churches, schools and the media.
A repressive state apparatus is an instrument of violence and force used to coerce people into
becoming obedient subjects. Examples include the army, the police and the prison.
Ideological state apparatuses (I. S. A. s) function as state apparatuses, by ideology not by
repression, although they are interwoven with R. S. A. s. They are unified by the ruling ideology
which is revealed in I. S. A. s .The ruling class dominates I. S. A. s, providing a possible site of
class struggle, and there are contradictions in ruling class ideology, leaving room for the
exploited to gain power. But even so, any struggle would still only be in an ideological form.
Reproduction occurs through these I. S. A. s. Any force needed is already under the control of
the ruling class R.S.A.s. The political conditions needed are secured via the I. S. A. s, by means
of the ruling ideology.
According to Althusser (1977) Ideology interpellates individuals as subjects i.e. the very
category of the subject is ideological, and all ideology has the function of constituting
individuals as subjects. The very obviousness and naturalness of the experience of us as subjects
is an ideological effect. We recognise ourselves as subjects - ideology has a recognition function
as well as a misrecognition one. Recognition arises in rituals such as "hailing" - calling
someone's name: ideology does this too; it hails us (interpellation), although we are usually
unaware of this. It has done this eternally - an abstract category of subject lies waiting for us long
before we actually fill out that category with detailed, concrete individual performances.

37
This study seeks then to investigate whether the Zimbabwe Indpendent is furthering a certain
ideology through their portrayal of the indigenization in the period under study.
2.3 Conclusion
The researcher looked at literature review that comprises of published and unpublished works by
various scholars in the field of media and communication studies. Conceptual and theoretical
backgrounds from a number of scholars have also been taken note of in this chapter as they have
helped to uncover various issues involved in this study. The next chapter looks at research
methodology.


38

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
This chapter integrates the background of the study and the literature review/theoretical
framework that has been what has been covered so far in the study. It provides a clear and
concise description of how the study was undertaken. It discusses the methods used to analyze
the coverage of the Indigenization Policy. This chapter mainly focuses on the research design,
population, sampling procedure, sources of data used, and data collection procedures and data
analysis procedures as well as methods of data presentation .
3.1Research methodology
Haralambos and Holborn (1995) refer to methodology as, theory and analysis of how research
does or should. This therefore refers to the range of approaches used in research to gather data
.In research there is a wide range of methods that one can use .The methods used by the
researcher are usually determined by the nature or type of research that one wants to carry out .
These are methods and procedures for the data collection, research design, source of the data,
types of the data, the population of the study, the sample, the sampling method, data collection
procedure and data presentation and analysis.
3.1.2 Reflexibility
Since the researcher will use some of my work that the researcher wrote in the paper under
study there is need for reflexability. (Brewer, 2000) Reflexibility refers to circular relationships
between cause and effect. A reflexive relationship is bidirectional with both the cause and the
effect affecting one another in a situation that does not render both functions causes and effects.
In sociology, reflexivity therefore comes to mean an act of self-reference where examination or
action "bends back on", refers to, and affects the entity instigating the action or examination.

39
Affective reflectivity awareness of how the individual feels about what is being perceived
thought or acted upon.
In this study it commonly refers to the capacity of an agent to recognize forces
of socialization and alter their place in the social structure. A low level of reflexivity would
result in an individual shaped largely by their environment (or 'society'). A high level of social
reflexibity would be defined by an individual shaping their own norms, tastes, politics, and
desires. The researcher will not be mutually attached to the former employers. The researcher
will be guided by ethical considerations.
3.2Research design
Research design refers to a plan and structure of the study used to obtain evidence to answer
research questions. It is used to structure the research, to show how all of the major parts of the
research project work together to try to address the central research questions. Guy et al
(1987:92) defines a research design as a plan of procedures for data collection and analysis that
are undertaken to evaluate a particular theoretical perspective. He further states that the research
design involves the process of planning what procedures to follow and how data will be
collected. In this case the purpose of the research is to find out whether the media have the power
to manipulate public agendas such the indigenization policy .
3.3 Unit of Analysis
Babbie (1992) defines unit of analysis as the individual, the collectivity, the object, the event
being studied and about which data are being collected. The unit of analysis is the major entity
that you are analyzing in the study. Samples of specific articles will be taken from the
ZimIndthat covered various issues about the indigenization policy from. . January 2010 up to
June 2012 Articles, commentaries and letters to the editor that dealt with issues to do with the
indigenization policy were looked at closely using content analysis.
3.4 Research Universe/population
Research universe constitutes all people or target audience who are prospects for a specific
product, service or message. Zwitters (2006) opines that the research universe refers to the whole

40
group in whom the researcher is interested in. He further points out that it is from this group that
the researcher then has to proceed to select a representative sample since studying the whole
group may be impossible. This study focuses on editors and journalists from Zimbabwe
Independent (esp. those who once covered Indigenization Policy) to get their perspectives on the
motivation behind their representation of the Indigenization Policy during the period under study
from . January 2010 up to June 2012.It will also select two politicians form Zanu Pf and MDC T.
3.4.1Target population
Ghauriet al, (1995) says the target population is the actual population to which the researcher
would really like to generalize .Wegner (2005:62) states that in research, population parameters
comprise of all the possible observation of the random variables under study. Wallen (1996:54)
is of the view that population includes all individuals whom the researcher is interested in
obtaining information and making inferences on. In this research the target population consists of
MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora in Harare and Zanu Pf politburo members which
include The Minister of Indeginisation Saviour Kwasukuwere and Patrick Chinamasa and
reporters and editors who cover at the indiginisation policy in the Zimbabwean Independent.
3.5 Sources of data
Data sources refer to the origins of data used in the study. This research used mainly primary
data and a sizeable amount of secondary data.
3.5.1 Primary data
Aaker, Johar, Gita and Sengupta (1995:77) states that primary data are collected especially to
address a specific research objective. Haralambos and Holborn (1995:828) alludethat, primary
sources of information consist of the data collected by researchers themselves during the course
of their work, raw data from respondents, first-hand information, information collected by
conducting interviews and questionnaires. Primary data can also be viewed as the original data
obtained from the study and collected by the researcher solely for the research in question. I
conducted interviews to source data during the research. Primary data is not summarized and
contains all the data relevant for the study since it is sought specifically for the current study.
However it is time consuming and expensive to gather the data.

41

3.5.2 Secondary data
Secondary data used comprised of newspaper articles from The Zimbabwean Independent that
were written on indigenisation .The secondary data was also obtained from the internet on issues
to do with indigenisation. In this research I also had to rely on secondary sources because they
are some of the cheapest and easiest means of access to information.
3.6.1Qualitative research
The study used qualitative research method in the collection of data through tools such as
unstructured interviews to allow respondents to express their attitudes feelings and motives about
a particular issue. Keller(1998) states that qualitative research has its roots in social science and
is more concerned with understanding why people behave as they do ,their knowledge, attitudes,
beliefs and fears .
Weill (1989:181) states that qualitative data is presented in words and is usually richer, vital, in
depth and therefore more likely to present a true picture of a way of life, of peoples beliefs,
attitudes and experiences. Data collection is the gathering of information needed to address the
research problem. Grinnel (19985:206) considers a research instrument as any type of data
collection device designed to gather data on a research problem.
To obtain information for this research, both primary and secondary data sources were utilized.
There is greater emphasis on holistic description, that is on describing in detail all of what goes
on in a particular activity or situation. The researcher used qualitative research methods to get a
critical and rich understanding of Zimbabwe Independents editors and reporters beliefs,
concerns, motivations, aspirations, behavior ,reasons and preferences about the Indigenization
Policy.
Qualitative data will be collected mainly through unstructured interviews which allowed
respondents the room to express their attitudes, opinions, feelings and motives towards certain
topics. Data was also collected using questionnaires and samples of newspaper articles that were

42
written about the Indigenization policy during the period under study . The qualitative research
study thus focuses on a specific not general universe.
3.6.2 Quantitative research
McLeod (1994:59) says quantitative research is a method of gathering primary data from a
representative sample of the target population using a highly structured format. The frequency of
newspaper articles that featured the indigenization policy during the period under study will be
looked at using quantitative research method.
Quantitative methods entail counting and measuring of events and performing statistical analysis
of a body of numerical data. The method focuses on numbers rather than words and also focuses
on generalization and testing. Subjective judgments are greatly reduced or eliminated in
quantitative research .The number of stories that features the indigenization will also be outlined
through quantitative research. Tables and pie charts will be used to present the information that
had been gathered.
3.7 Sampling
Sampling is conducted in this research. Searle (1995) defines sampling as the selection of units
of analysis such as people or institutions for the study. The idea is about selecting a few samples
from a bigger group (sample population) to become the basis for estimating or predicting a fact,
situation or outcome regarding the bigger group. Trochim (2006) defines sampling as the process
of selecting units (such as people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying
the sample there may be generalizations of results back to the population from which they were
chosen. Sampling is a statistical practice concerned with the selection of individual observations
intended to yield some knowledge about population of concern especially for the purpose of
statistical inference. It helps in achieving accurate results within a short time frame as many
different peoples views are captured and represented by a smaller population within a short
frame of time.
3.7.0Sampling frame and sampling unit

43
A sampling frame is a list of items or elements in a population from which a sample is drawn
(Ray and Mondal 1999). In other words, the listing of accessible population from which you will
draw your sample is the sampling frame. The sampling frame in this research includes the
editors, readers, reporters, and publishers as well as articles, commentaries and letters to the
editor that dealt with issues to do with Indigenization policy . A sampling unit is the larger unit
containing the objects. Each of the newspaper editors, readers, reporters, publishers and
newspaper articles in the sampling frame constitutes a sampling unit. More so indeginiation is
across all sectors that is banking ,tourism, education and mining therefore through sampling I
came out with mining sector .
3.7.0.1Sampling methods
Sampling can be divided into two broad categories which are probability sampling and non-
probability sampling. In this study both probability and non-probability techniques of sampling
were used in a bid to achieve more reliable findings. Under probability sampling, each member
of the society has a chance of being picked. While in non-probability sampling there is no way of
assessing the probability of the elements of population being included in the sample. Probability
techniques like systematic, stratified and cluster sampling were employed while non-probability
techniques like convenience sampling were used in this study.
3.7.1 Probability sampling
Probability sampling is a sampling technique in which each element of the population must have
an equal chance of being included in the sample. Probability sampling comes in three types that
is, simple random, stratified random and cluster sampling. According to Giles (1990) in
probability sampling the samples are so constructed that every element from the total population
has a known probability of selection and the limits of probable error in relating results to the
whole population are thus known mathematically in advance. With probability sampling
methodserrors encountered during sampling can be computed, the results are projectable to the
total population and information can be obtained from a representative cross section of the
population of interest. The researcher used stratified random sampling, purposive sampling and
convenience sampling for the purpose in this study

44
3.7.2 Purposive Sampling
Purposive sampling, sometimes called judgmental sampling, refers to strategies in which the
researcher exercises his or her judgment about who will provide the best perspective on the
phenomenon of interest, and then intentionally invites those specific perspectives into the study.
The process involves nothing but purposely handpicking individuals from the population based
on the researchers knowledge and judgment. Krippendorf (2004:119) notes that purposive
sampling is a non-probability sampling technique which aims at selecting all textual units that
contribute to answering given research questions. He further notes that a purposive sample is
obtained according to the discretion of someone who is familiar with the relevant characteristics
of the population. Therefore this method was used in selecting newspaper articles commentaries
and journalists.. In addition the local newspaper vendor assisted the researcher with information
as to the frequent newspaper customers.
The judgmental sampling technique was chosen because of its advantages which include the low
cost of sampling and the lesser time which was involved in the selection process. Through
purposive sampling, the selected interviewees would bring forth good results thus lesser chances
of having people who would distort the data. However, the sampling technique had limitations as
well and some of them involved the fact that the choice of the interviewees could be subject to
the researchers bias and stereotypes which could distort the results. Moreover, it was not
possible to accurately identify the sample using this method because the population was very
large.
3.7.3 Non-probability sampling
Ray and Mondal (1999) define non-probability sampling as a procedure in which there is no way
of assessing the probability of the elements of population being included in the sample. Giles
(1990) argues that non probability sampling is based on the choice of the selector. In this type of
sampling, items of the sample are chosen deliberately by the researcher instead of using a
systematic method that gives every element a chance of being part of the sample.
3.7.4Convenience sampling

45
According to Nachimias (1996), convenience sampling/opportunity sampling is whereby items
are chosen in an unstructured manner from the population frame. Convenience sampling
involves simply using what is immediately available. It entails choosing the nearest and most
convenient people to be respondents. The researcher had to interview any person that he found
holding a copy of the ZimInd during the period under study. The researcher used this method
with the intention to get inexpensive approximation of the truth. The samples were selected
because of their convenience. This method was to find out the readers perceptions about the
newspapers depiction of the indigenization policy . The advantage of convenience sampling is
that it is cost effective and less time consuming. However, its flaw is that it leaves other points
that may be essential to the study.
3.8 Methods of data collection
Data collection is a term used to describe the different ways used in gathering and preparing
information in a study. Methods of data collection may be qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative
research is all about exploring issues, understanding phenomena, and answering questions while
quantitative research refers to the systematic empirical investigation properties and phenomena
and their relationships. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record,
to make decisions about important issues and to pass information on to others.
There are two main types of data collection. These are primary and secondary data collection. In
this research primary data shall be used. Primary data is data collected for the first time. Methods
for collecting primary data include observation and interviews Data was gathered through
interviews with the ZimIndseditors and journalists to get their perspectives on the motivation
behind at different phases of the indigenization policy. A qualitative content analysis will be
done on the newspaper. Observation will be used as a data gathering technique in this study.
3.9.1Interviews
According to Boyd-Barret (2004), an interview is a focused discussion between two or more
people which helps to gather information which is valid and reliable to a study. Interviews are
also understood to be question and answer sessions intended to draw certain conclusions from
the interviewees. This method of data collection involves the researcher asking respondents

46
open-ended questions. Interviews can range in type, from structured, unstructured, and semi-
structured. A structured interview is an approach in which questions are specific and prepared in
advance before the interview. The advantage of structured interviews is that the interview
ensures uniform wording of questions for all respondents. An unstructured interview is an
approach in which questions and corresponding responses are open ended. The advantage of
unstructured interviews is that the interviewer has greater flexibility in wording questions to suit
the respondent. The other advantage is that the interview may also produce important
information which might have been left in the questions.
O'Leary (2004: 162) says, Interviewing is a method of data collection which involves the
researcher asking respondents basically open-ended questions. Denzin (1970) argues that
interviews could be viewed as, any face to face conversation whereby one person extracts
information from another. Interviewing has a wide variety of forms and a multiplicity of uses.
The most common type of interviewing is individual, face to face group interviewing, mailed or
self administered questionnaires, and telephone surveys. Fontana and Frey (1994:233) cited by
Punch (1998:125) note:
Interviewing can be structured or unstructured. It can be used for marketing purposes, to gather
political opinions, for therapeutically reasons, or to produce data for academic analysis. It can be
a one-time, brief exchange, say five minutes over the telephone, or it can take place over
multiple, lengthy sessions, sometimes spanning days, as in life history interviewing.
Therefore, this research made use of interviews as a suitable data gathering technique in order to
find out how readers viewed the portrayal of the indigenization policy in Zimbabwe
Independent. The researcher conducted face to face and telephone interviews with editors,
journalists and newspaper readers and discussed various components of the study.
Questionnaires will also handed out to extract,the newspaper readers views about the
indigenization policy representation in the newspaper under study.
3.8.2 Face to face interviews
Face to face interviews are characterised by synchronous communication in time and place. Due
to this, face to face interviews can take advantage of social cues. Social cues, such as voice,

47
intonation, body language etc. of the interviewee can give the interviewer a lot of extra
information that can be added to the verbal answer of the interviewee on a question. In face to
face interviews there is no significant time delay between question and answer; the interviewer
and interviewee can directly react on what the other says or does. An advantage of this
synchronous communication is that the answer of the interviewee is more spontaneous, without
an extended reflection.
Face to face interviews can be tape recorded with the permission of the interviewee. Using a tape
recorder has the advantage that the interview report is more accurate than writing out notes. But
tape recording also brings with it the danger of not taking any notes during the interview. Face to
face interviews are easy compared to other interview methods. The researcher used face to face
interviews to obtain information from Zimbabwe Independents editors, readers, reporters, and
publishers pertaining to their perception concerning the indigenization policy representation in
the Zimbabwe Independent.
3.8.3 Telephone interviews
Telephone interviews are a technique of obtaining data over the telephone. Telephone interviews
involve an effective way of screening interviewees to a later date and take part in v the structured
interview. Before the interview, it is essential to find out if the interviewee will provide fruitful
information about the study. The researcher will telephone journalists and editors during the
study. The advantage of telephone interviews is the extended access to participants, Mann and
Stewart (2000) argue that people from all over the globe can be interviewed if they have access
to telephone or computer and some personal issues which are so sensitive that participants might
be reluctant to discuss them face to face with an interviewer may be easily discussed over the
telephone. However the major drawback with telephone interviews is that high telephone charges
resulted in the researcher trimming the number of questions. This will be used to contact a
representatives form both political parties in this case The Minister of Youth Empowerment and
Indeginisation and Douglas Mwonzora the spoke person of MDC T since they have a busy
schedule a telephone interview will be convenient.
3.8.4 Questionnaires

48
According to Haralambos and Holborn (1995) a questionnaire is a list of pre-set questions.
Questionnaires are usually designed to produce quantitative data and abstract concepts have to be
translated into questions. A questionnaire is in written form and respondents are also expected to
give their responses in written form. Questionnaires give access to what is inside the
respondents mind, what he/she knows. Thus it gives the respondents knowledge of information,
values, preferences, attitudes and beliefs. People are more truthful while responding to the
questionnaires regarding controversial issues in particular due to the fact that their responses are
anonymous. Thus by using this method, the newspaper readers views about the indigenization
policys representation in the newspaper under study are extracted.
There are two categories of questionnaires. Anderson and Burns (1996: 96) identifies these
categories as closed questions which are appropriate where the possible alternative answers are
already known and open ended questions which are used particularly where an issue is complex
and where the possible alternative answers are not known. Leedy and Ormrod, (2001) cited in
Kotler P and Nancy (2008:98) argue that, the paper-pencil-questionnaires can be sent to a large
number of people and saves the researcher time and money. A questionnaire can be
administered in three ways which are: (1) Mailing to the respondents, however this has
disadvantages as respondents may fail to understand the questions hence answer incorrectly. (2)
Respondents may be gathered in one place and then complete the questionnaire. (3)
Questionnaires can be hand delivered and in this case the researcher can clarify issues to the
respondents nevertheless it is time consuming.
According to Leedy and Ormrod (2001:99) questionnaires often make use of checklist and rating
scales. These devices help simplify and quantify people's behaviors and attitudes. The researcher
mostly makes use of open ended questions. Questionnaires ensure fast and easy access of data
from people without using coercion. However questionnaires also have drawbacks. Majority of
the people who receive questionnaires do not return them and those who do might not be
representative of the originally selected sample. For that reason in order to avoid that, the
researcher made close follow-ups to the respondents. Hence, respondents may need to be
followed up on answering the questionnaires so that the final outcome will not be watered down
by a high percentage of getting no response from respondents.

49
Many people in Zimbabwe are uncomfortable to discuss a prominent and yet controversial
political issue because the country is politically polarized. Thus questionnaires are appropriate to
use in extracting the newspaper readers views about the indigenization policy depiction in the
Zimbabwe Independent since the target audience constitutes Zimbabweans who are sometimes
not at liberty to publicly discuss political issues. Hence questionnaires might provide an effective
public sphere for discussants to reveal their perceptions openly without fear.
Questionnaires are appropriate in collecting data from a considerable number of people over a
relatively short period of time and they are less expensive. They permit anonymity and therefore
can result in more honest answers. However, questionnaires limit respondent participation since
they consist of structured questions and questions can be misunderstood and respondents can lie
to the researcher.
Questionnaires will be given to the current and former editor Editor of the Zimbabwe
Indpendant and business journalists
3.8.5 Observation
Observation is a data collection technique which involves systematically selecting, watching and
recording behavior and characteristics of the phenomena under study. It relies on a researcher's
ability to gather data through his or her own senses. Observation can be participant when the
researcher takes part in the situation he or she is observing and becomes an insider. The other
type of observation is non-participant observation and this is whereby the observer does not
participate but simply observes as an outsider. According to Giles (1990) observation can result
in more accurate information on behaviour of people than questionnaires and interviews. It gives
context related information which gives more meaning to a persons behaviour and the
researcher can observe as many issues relevant as possible. Nevertheless, observation may result
in the violation of issues relating to privacy and confidentiality and if informants are aware of the
presence of an observer, they may change their behaviour which results in the observer recording
the wrong information.
3.8.5.1 Participant observation

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Participant observation makes the observer less obtrusive because the researcher becomes a
member of the group. For participant observation to be effective the researcher has to gain entry
first and then acceptance into the organisation under study. Gaining entry at most is negotiated at
each level in the organisation and acceptance is also a continuous process and must be negotiated
anew at each level and with each new informant (John Best and James Kahn, 1993 cited in
O'Leary, 2004). Wimmer and Dominick (2000:113) note that participant observation takes place
in the natural setting of the activity being observed and this can provide data rich in detail and
subtlety.
The researcher has been a newspaper reporter for Zimbabwe Independent newspaper based in
Harare for 6 months ; as such he has made several contacts with journalists and editors at
theZimbabwe Independent . In that regard the researcher has unrestricted access to the
newsrooms of b of the newspaper . This therefore makes it easy for the researcher to gather as
much information as possible while the journalists and editors behave naturally since they will
not be aware that Im observing them. They will be thinking that it is one of my long stopovers
to my friends. Spradley (1980) notes that participant observation always takes place in
community settings, in locations believed to have some relevance to the research questions. He
further added that the method therefore becomes distinctive because the researcher approaches
participants in their own environment rather than having the participants come to the researcher.
Thus the researcher had a close everyday interaction with the newsroom personnel of the
Zimbabwe Independent.
3.9Methods of data analysis
Smith (2003) defines data analysis as a practice in which unprocessed data is ordered and
organised so that useful information can be extracted from it. The process of organizing and
thinking about data is key to understanding what the data does and does not contain. After the
collection of data, it was analysed. Semiotic analysis, discourse analysis, content analysis as well
as the hermeneutics of interpretation were used in the analysis of data.
3.9.1 Content analysis

51
According to Krippendorf (1980: 144) content analysis is a research technique for making
replicable and valid references from data to their contexts. Content analysis according to
OSullivan (2000:326) is a part of empirical, social scientific tradition and it is a method which
has been developed to investigate the patterns which characterize, manifest or surface features of
large quantities of media output.
It can also be used to make comparisons between different media in analyzing texts. Content
analysis can be said to be a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages that relies on the
scientific method. Content analysis is where texts like magazines and books are studied in order
to unveil hidden meanings.
Quantitative content analysis starts with word frequencies; space measurements (for example
column centimetres in the case of newspapers); location or position of the news-story (for
example Front page, or being the last in the news bulletin); time counts for radio and television
and keyword frequencies.
Qualitatively, content analysis can involve any kind of analysis where communication content is
categorized and classified. In its beginnings, using the first newspapers at the end of the 19
th

century, analysis was done manually by measuring the number of lines and amount of space
given a subject. Content analysis was used in this research in newspaper texts to investigate the
portrayal of the indigenization policy in the media. ZimIndarticles will be looked at in-depth
using content analysis in a bid to uncover the hidden meaning of the text. Content analysis is
helpful in that it looks directly at communication via texts or transcripts, and hence gets at the
central aspect of social interaction.
3.9.2 Critical discourse analysis
Critical Discourse Analysis is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the
way social power abuse, dominance and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text
and talk in the social and political context. vanDijk (1998) states that with such dissident
research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose
and ultimately to resist social inequality.


52
Some of the tenets of critical discourse analysis can already be found in the critical theory of the
Frankfurt School before the Second World War (Rasmussen, 1996). Discourse analysis is meant
to provide a hidden meaning and motivations behind a text and is meant to reveal those silent
voices. Stubbs (1985:1) says discourse analysis is concerned with language use beyond the
boundaries of a sentence or utterance it also looks at the relationship between language society
and the interactive dialogue of everyday society .

Critical Discourse Analysis is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and
spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias. It
examines how these discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social,
political and historical contexts.

Fairclough (1993) defines Critical Discourse Analysis as discourse analysis which aims to
systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between
discursive practices, events and texts, and wider social and cultural structures, relations and
processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically
shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these
relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony.

It is against this background that the researcher was interested in critical discourse analysis as it
was used to analyses the aims behind the use of language that decorated and merited the
indigenization policy taking note of the selected articles from the newspapers as well as their
diction.

3.9.3Hermeneutics of Interpretation
He`idegger (1992) says that hermeneutics of interpretation is a method which is used when the
research question asks for meanings of a phenomenon with the purpose of understanding the
human experience. This method of data analysis focuses on texts as a research data source and it
also emphasizes the socio-cultural and historic influences on qualitative interpretation.
Consequently, some hidden meanings are exposed. This data analysis method also emphasizes
on the need for one to first understand the history, political, social and economic contexts so as

53
to understand the phenomena. Gripsrud (2002) notes that social scientists cannot simply go out
and observe society but have to know where to do their investigations, and what to look for. As
such, what they look for will have to be understood on the basis of what they already know, and
the theoretical assumptions with which they are equipped. Since hermeneutics of interpretation
emphasizes on the importance of historical, political and economic environments when studying
texts, this method was useful in understanding the dilemma of minority groups concerning the
way they are represented in the media. The researcher used hermeneutics of interpretation in the
interpretation of newspaper texts from Zimbabwe Independent .This method was also used in
conducting interviews. The participants views and responses were not constrained in any way
by the researcher therefore this method is important in that it values the views and responses of
participants.
3.10 Data presentation methods
Both qualitative and quantitative approaches will be used in presenting the information that was
gathered using various research gathering techniques. Thematic approach together with narrative
and descriptive ways were used as data presentation techniques.
The descriptive method was used as graphs and tables were drawn to present instant
interpretations .The narrative form of presentation was used so as to give evidence of what the
articles sampled would mean and the views of the reporters who were interviewed. Rose (2011)
alludes that a graph is a diagram showing the relation between variable quantities and they are
five basic types of graphs that are used most frequently.
Rose (ibid) defines tables as a set of facts or figures systematically displayed especially in
columns .When one decides to use a table, it is highly recommended to adjust the size of the
table to the six by six guide line in mind .Used in the context of tables , this guide line suggests
that a table should try to have no more than six columns and no more than six roles in order to
keep the amount of information to a reasonable level.
The research therefore will use the pie charts and tables in presenting data collected using
qualitative and quantitative research methods .Thematic approach combined with descriptive and
narrative ways were also used in presenting data.

54
3.11 Conclusion
This chapter highlighted the various research methods and techniques that were used in the
research in gathering information. The next chapter then focuses on the analysis of the
organization under study, Zimbabwe Independent

Chapter 4
Organizational Analysis
4.0 Introduction
The study has covered the introductory stage and the aims, objectives and limitations has been
covered in that area. Theoretical framework and literature review has also been looked into
indepth. Literature and theories that link with the study. Methods of data collection and analysis
has also been covered.This chapter provides an analysis of the organization under study,
Zimbabwe Independent and highlights on the historical background, ownership structure, vision,
objectives, internal framework, funding mechanisms and editorial policies, with the aim of
providing an informed understanding of the performance of the newspaper and how they cover
government policies in this case the Indeginisation policy.
4.1 Historical Background of Zimbabwe Independent
The Zimbabwe Independent is a weekly national publication and was established on 10 May
1996 . Saunders (1999) Trevor Ncube is the founder of Zimbabwe Independent .In 1996 he was
fired from financial Gazette in August 1995.Ncube had been convicted together with
Simbarashe Makunike who was deputy editor in The Financial Gazette and its publisher,Elias
Rusike a former Zanu Pf politburo member for publishing a defamatory story on the president s
secret marriage to Grace Marufu.Trevor Ncubes case became the first defamatory case in the
history of Zimbabwe after independence. The news paper was published in era of Economic
Adjustment Structural Progarmme.

55
Chari (2002) notes that The Zimbabwe Independent was found by Trevor Ncube and his fellow
journalists Iden Withertell and Basildon Peta and others .The Standard was then formed after and
Trevor Ncube in 1998 bought The Zimbabwe Independent and The standard from Brian
Murphy and Clive Wilson who were the core founders .Journalist who came together to form
these papers mainly came from The financial Gazette .Journalist from Financial Gazette include
,Vincent Khahiya ,Barnabas Thodlana,Chamunorwa and Joram Nyati. Zimbabwe Independent.
became the first online publication in 1996.Zimbabwe Independent became owned under the
Standard group of newspapers which is now Alpha Media Holdings the AMH operations at
Strand Multi Print which has a host of other state-of the art printing presses .This offset web
printing machine is capable of printing broadsheet size newspapers and up to 32-page section
tabloid size newspaper in full process colour at a speed of 35000 copies an hour.
Zimbabwe Independent plays a watchdog role as it informs maintain and educate the public of
all political and economic issues .The paper tries to plays voice for the MDC-T and it give
coverage on all the issue that are not reported in the public media. Zimbabwe Independent has
tried to put in the open and inform all the issues and happenings. Their criticism of the president
and how he ran the country which had enjoyed a hegemonic stance in the public media from
independence was challenged by Zimbabwe Independent.
Zimbabwe Independent grew from the second largest publication after the Daily News with a
circulation base of 22 000 a high rise from a circulation of 15 000.Since it is now a global trend
in the Conglomerates that publishers share distribution, infrastructure and printing facilities
which are expensive In 2004 Allan Munn and family decided to dispose of Munn Marketing
(Pvt) Ltd. But however due to the financial situation in Zimbabwe no bank was in a position to
assist the company to purchase that lifetime offer because they did not understand the business of
newspaper and magazine distribution .A.M.H funded this acquisition from their own resources
which inflicted financial strain on the rest of the company Munn Marketing was of huge strategic
importance that AMH could not afford to let it pass.
From struggling little operations the company has worked hard to turn Munn Marketing around
and it is now the biggest private owned magazine and newspaper distributor in the country and it
brings more foreign magazines titles into the country than anybody else. According to Zimbabwe

56
Independent Munns distribution network touches all major parts of the country with lots of
potential for growth.
Many African publishers are struggling and some go bust largely because they are fleeced by
unscrupulous distributors and printers. Thus the company was fortunate to be controlling their
own distribution but they still suffer at the hands of unreliable printers and high printing costs
that impacted negatively on the quality of it products and viability.When Strand MultiPrint Pvt
Ltd was offered for sale the company did not hesitate to acquire it. The acquisition of the printing
press in The Netherlands and construction of a factory to house the business constituted the big
investment.
The printing press is able to produce high quality newspapers with process colour, in addition to
a broad range of semi commercial products .The combination of high print quality and
flexibility for varied production is one of the strengths of the companys Solna Web Offset Press
can print anything from newspapers to semi-commercial print on uncoated stock.The design of
this printing press is focused on providing an overall basic solution within economic reach of
most printers.
Trevor Ncube in a speech on Zimbabwe Independent said the absence of a daily title has been a
major weakness which the company moved to address with the impending launch of the
Newsday. It took some time to acquire a licence for the paper due to the lack of media friend
laws. The first application for the paper to be licensed on September 16 2008 which means that
the company has been waiting for 20 months and on the 1st of June the paper hit the streets of
Zimbabwe.Newsdays birth in part represents the hope of a tortured nation and the paper
provided leadership as the country normalises. The paper played a leading role in national
healing, national building, reconstruction .The paper celebrate the companys diversity and has
been engaged and relevant .Newsday is Zimbabwe candidly talking to it.
The paper has created jobs, contributed the quality of our national dialogue and projects our
hopes as a nation. Newsday has transformed the group and began to redraw the media landscape.
The paper was supposed to be published long back was it not.Most of the growth AMH
experienced has taken place under the most difficult economic and political circumstances in
the country but this has laid a foundation of diversified media publishing company.

57
Zimbabwe Independent as part of Alpha Media Holdings is passionate about the importance of
vibrant independent media empowering people in a strong and growing democracy. The medias
role is viewed as creating a market place of ideas where the best and most creative contribute to
economic growth and development .Experience has shown that successful societies are only
those that allow their citizens to freely express their creativity ,ingenuity and entrepreneurship.
AMH is very ambitious and it seek to become the biggest media house in the country and it is
very confident to put in place a solid foundation for this. Technology, new products innovation
is centred to the companys strategy going forward .AMH attract the best skills in the industry to
help build an institution that will be around long after our generation. As the company
consolidate it continues to look out for opportunities that line up with their strategic vision of
being a multi-media multi-platform supplier of news and information to an increased discerning
public.
AMH would not be where it is today without the loyal and committed workforce ,the reading
public and their valuable advertisers who have kept them going in both good and bad times.
These stakeholders are pivotal to the success of AMH.
4.1.2 Discussions
Trevor Ncubes origins are Zambian and he has always been on the spot light on this issue for
his citizenship. Zimbabwe independents founding fathers had political roots some of them from
Zapu and other from Zanu Pf . Rusike was a former politibro member and also an Editor at The
Herald who late resigned due to too much interference by political figures. Iden Withertell is
white. Iden Wither is believed to be a homosexual which brings the issue of European ideology
into play. So by virtue of Ncube being Zambian by origins and Iden being of British origins
Indigenization policy representation becomes a gladiator that might shake the foundation of
Zimbabwean Independent.
4.1.3Group Mission Statement
Our duty is to serve and inform the public, which we strive to do professionally ,courageously
and responsible while enhancing stakeholder value and upholding press freedom ,human rights
and cultivating democratic values.

58
To be a leading provider of independent business news and information that serves readers and
advertisers . is targeted at the decision makers and company executive who require hard news
,business and market news presented in its political context .

4.1.4Group Core Values
AMHs value is proposition is to provide world class media services and products to provide
world class media service and products to companies and organisations that want to speak
directly to their target audience s and that their message ,often in the form of adverts ,inserts or
such material is delivered with the consistency and strength that is needed to be heard . The
companys operation in printing and distribution play a pivotal role in delivering on this promise.
Professionalism
Accountability
Teamwork
Profitability
4.1.5Discussions
In their Group mission statement the paper clearly stated theirthey serve and inform the public
however taking the stakeholders, advertisers and shareholders in to account. However these have
an influence on the final content of the indigenisation policy. Zimplats is one of the constant
advertisers in the Zimbabwe Independent and the try to attack the indigenisation to protect their
advertiser. The core values of Zimbabwe Independent are, Professionalism, Accountability
Teamwork and Profitability. This is not only written in blue print but should be refelected in
their story coverage for instance is there any professionalism in implementing the indigenisation
policy .In terms of Accountability the stance in their coverage is Kasukuwere accountable for
what is doing is every one benefiting .The Zimbabwean Independent questions also questions
the issues of teamwork in the Indigenisation policy by the GNU it seems Kasukwere the minister
and Matutu his deputy are sing from different hymn books .Profitabilty come to task when the

59
indigenisation policy has been implemented are the indigenised mines making some profits.
Therefore there is a link between the values and what is being reflected in the stories .

4.2.0Staff Structure
4.2.1 The Zimbabwe Independent Organogram

Zimbabwe
Independent
Newsday
The
Standard
Alpha
Media
Holdings
Fig 1

60

Board of Directors
The policy of the organisation is set by the board of directors and they ensure the company is
operated in a legal and ethical manner .The board of directors inclues Trevor Ncube ,Mike
Curling ,Beatrice Mtetwa ,Raphael Khumalo and Iden Withertell. They meet twice a year to
review the progress of the company. They meet to discuss issues that threaten the company such
as the Indigenisation.
Chairman
The role of the chairman is to ensure good governance ,maintain ethical standards and build the
board to be a strong and effective team and to be able to fulfil the board of its
responsibilities.The chairman will be responsible for the goal defining .The Chairman also
controls the distribution of profits as well as the dividends that are paid to the shareholders.The
news editors has power to spike stories before they reach the editor reports directly to the
editor.Trevor Ncube is the chairman.
Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O)
Editor

Assistant Editor
Dumisani Muleya
Paidamoyo
Muzulu(political
reporter)

Political Editor
Faith Zaba
Wongai
Zhangazha(political
reporter)
Boldon Hungwe
Photographer
Deputy Editor
Itai Masuku
Bussiness Editor
Chris Muronzi
Bussiness repoter
Bernard Mpofu
Student
Chief Business
reporter
Bussiness repoter
Reginal Sherekete
Production

61
The C.E.Os main responsibilities include developing and implementing high level
strategies,major decisions that involves the day to day are taken by the C.E.O. Communication
between the Board of directors and the corporate operation of the company are largely done by
the C.E.O. The C.E.O is a board member and as a board member he prepares the agenda for all
board meetings .Raphel Khumalo is the Chief Executive Officer.
Group Projects Manager
The projects manager manages and supervises the day to day operation of ZimInd. The proper
functioning and updating of the websites is up to the group projects manager. The project
manager .The project manager enforces project standards and review all projects proposals
prepared by the projects and supplements before passing it on to clients .He analyses project
profitability, revenue margin ,bill rates and utilization.

Group Editor
Vincent Kahiya, Russian trained he makes sure that every material that goes in to the three
papers is linked with the editorial policy of the Group .
Editor in Chief
Dumisani Muleya ,The editor in chief is the backbone of all activities and operation that are in
the newsroom. He is the editor of stories from the main senior reporters .There are suitable
articles that picks that he sees to be suitable to be published .He is the one who direct the
editorial department.
Deputy Editor
Itai Masuku The duty of the deputy editor is to be the assistant to the editor in chief and he plays
the major role in his absence .The deputy Editor also sources stories and allocate the reporters
stories.
The news editor

62
Dingilizwe Ntuli .The news editor is the first person to see the stories .At The Zimbabwean
Independent the news editor can be classified at the same level with the editors from bits he
literally runs the newsroom. The news editors is also responsible with the salaries of interns and
correspondents. The news editor has power to spike stories before they reach the editor .The
news editor reports directly to the editor.
Discussions
It is of importance to note that at this point starting from the board of directors we see Beatrice
Mutetwa .She is one of the brains behind the MDC-T legal decisions .She is the official legal
representative of the MDC members and she has received awards in France as one of the few
women who are champions of democracy and human rights in Africa. At the height of her career
Mutetwa representated Jestina Mukoko. Therefore, having such board members with such
background the editorial slant will never agree with the indigenisation policy. In the companys
structure right from the Chairman up to the news editor all this characters are of Ndebele
origins. This reflect a tribal aspect .Vincent Khahiya is a Russian trained jounalist ,he was
funded by the government thus in a way he is there to enhance judicial links. The government of
Zimbabwe in this case ZANU PF knows that people have a tendency of believing the private
media so they lick some important information from the party to the private media . The current
Zimbabwean Indpendant editor Dumisani Muleya came at Zimbabwe independent in 1997 a
after the newspaper was established when he was attachment. According to Raphel Khumalo,
Muleya was too good that he never went back to Harare Poly to finish his studies. Therefore
we see a newspaper being headed by someone with uncompleted journalist education.
Business Editor
He is responsible for the business section of the newspaper and the newspaper the business editor
also decides what stories are to be looked at and who is to cover them .
Political Editor
The political editor deals with stories with stories that deal with politics .He also has reporters
who are directly under him .He reports directly to the news editors .

63
Sports Editor
He is responsible for the sports desk only.
Sub Editors
The sub -editors are the last in the line of the correction and approval of stories ,The sub editors
proof read the stories .Sub editors make sure the stories cover the slant of the publication
.They are the ones who lay out the pages ,creating attractive and innovative headlines and to add
pictures .
Chief reporters
The chief reporter stands in for the news editors in his absence ,though he is normally a reporter.

Reporters
The reporters write the stories and they ensure they get the best scoops of the stories for the
4.3 Funding Mechanism

Fig 2

64

4.3.0 Advertising Revenue
Media firms that rely on advertising are fairly sensitive to the state of the overall economy.
Picard (1989) advertising is the lifeblood of the media advertising funds a diverse, pluralistic
media landscape. Without advertising, many of the worlds media as we know them
would not exist. The long standing tension between editorial integrity of the newsroom and the
desire of news media owners to maximize profits, corporate pressure has resulted in altering
news in a manner that never would have occurred if the newsroom had been "independent and
freestanding
Zimbabwe Independent survives with some competitive advertising rates it chargers its
advertisers .Econet and Zimbabwe on Line being its major advertisers.
4.3.1 Discussions
In a bid to attract more advertisement the newspaper is involved in manufacturing of figures of
circulation. Chimakure notes that this is a tactic across boards even The Herald is guilty for that.
Every time ZAMPs publishes its figures Zimbabwe Independent runs an article denying the
Funding Mechanism
Advertising
Sales from Cirrculaton
Shareholders
Other

65
findings. At one point Zimbabwe Independent had a miss understanding with Econet and it
pulled out.
4.3.2 Below are the rates of different publications charge for adverts

Publication Rate 27*5 20*4 Half Page Full Page
(27*10) (20*7) (54*10) (40*7)
Herald $ 4.00
$
540.00
$
320.00 $ 1,080.00 $ 2,160.00
Sunday Mail $ 4.90
$
661.50
$
392.00 $ 1,323.00 $ 2,160.00
Chronicle $ 3.00
$
405.00
$
240.00 $ 810.00 $ 1,620.00
Sunday News $ 3.70
$
499.50
$
296.00 $ 999.00 $ 1,998.00
Manica Post $ 3.34
$
450.90
$
267.20 $ 901.80 $ 1,803.60
NewsDay $ 3.86
$
521.10
$
308.80 $ 540.40 $ 1,080.80
Zimbabwe Independent $ 5.75
$
776.25
$
460.00 $ 805.00 $ 1,610.00
Financial Gazette $ 5.06
$
683.10
$
404.80 $ 708.40 $ 1,416.80
Standard $ 4.12
$
556.20
$
329.60 $ 576.80 $ 1,153.60
Daily News $ 3.50
$
472.50
$
280.00 $ 490.00 $ 980.00
Kwayedza $ 1.50
$
202.50
$
120.00 $ 210.00 $ 420.00
H-Metro $ 1.50
$
202.50
$
120.00 $ 210.00 $ 420.00

N.B Zimbabwe I ndependent has the most expensive rates for advertising

4.3.5 Distribution
AMH do not only gather and disseminate news it also distribute the news to all corners of the
country through the distribution branch Munn Marketing. Through this arm some publications
such as Financial Gazette and The Mail use this arm to distribute their copies around the country
Fig 3

66
and they pay for the services in advance giving AMH a strong financial muscle. Zimbabwe
Indpendant is not distributed in rural areas since its target audience is the middle class.
4.3.6 Printing
Strand Multipoint is one of AHMs cash cow which is keeping the company in good financial
shape due to its well functional printing press. AMH print its on copies and other Media Houses
such as Financial Gazette The Mail and Daily News uses the same printing press to print their
copies hence bring a chuck of money in the organisation.
4.3.6.0 Discussions
Alpha Media Holdings is a parent company of Zimbabwe Independent and it is the official
media pattern of U.S Embassy since they are the major foreign share holders in Media
Development Loan Fund (MDLF) an American organization they own 39% of AMH. Trevor
Ncube s 61% are said to be of that of someone who is playing a front the issue is Americans are
running the show. Americans becomes the enemies of indigenisation policy. It starts to be clear
why the paper takes a more aggressive stance on Indigenisation policy. In printing and
distribution AMH has a competitive advantage it is Trevor Ncubes coward that made the Mail
to fold since it was being printed at Strand Multiprint , Ncube increased the printing cost to kick
out the new competitor out .
4.4.0 Paper Layout
Zimbabwe independent has the weekly independent and an online publication it is the same as
the printed article .Advertisers who advertise in the printed are not necessarily the ones who are
on the online edition .The pages of Zimbabwe independent differs weekly depending on the
number of stories and adverts in the newspaper for the week .Zimbabwe Independent is usually
constituted of political stories rather than any other and though it possess as a business
newspaper.
The paper begins with the local news on the first two pages ,the stories cover different aspects of
the Zimbabwe situation .A feature story is the next story which is written by any one on an
social issues. There is the comment section which is dominated by comments ;it has options

67
concerning anything that is of national interest .The section has editorial cartoons and comments
from different intellectuals .letters come from the readers who get the opportunity to contribute
to paper .The opinions pages contains the Editors memo the section has the paper to express the
a stand point on a certain topic .The column section is the next ,this is the most attractive part of
the paper there are people who comment comically about serious issue .There is also the
analysis section which gives the civic organisation and intellectuals to voice their different
views on current issues . Business digest encompass the business section of the paper all the
business stories are covered in this section .The independent extra is an entertainment piece
which consists of worldwide news on entertains ,jokes and games. Sports news gives the entire
local and international scores on all mass and minority sports.
4.5.0 Links with other organisations {local and foreign} certain specified publics
including the government
McQuil(1987), argues that , people are important in the process of mass communication they
choose content ,they make meaning and they act on the meaning. This same applies to an
organisation that deals or has links with media organisations. For good public relations every
organisation should have good press relations in order to have the correct image to the corporate
public. According to Public relations is management through communication. According to The
first World Assembly of Public Relations Associations, held in Mexico City, in August 1978 PR
is the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics. Public
relations provide an organization or personal exposure to their audiences using topics of public
interest and news items that provide a third-party endorsement.
4.5.1 Government :Everyone if subject to the government of the day and due to the fact that
everyone pays tax everyone should be well versed or has the right to know what the money is
being used for and for instance the topical issue of diamonds in Marange, the luxury gate and
parliament and the legislative arm of the government provides a very rich bank of news.
According to Lippmann (1992) news is what happens around us and news is perishable.
4.5.2 Financial Sector : The financial sector plays a pivotal role in Zimbabwe and this include
institutions such as Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry CZI, Zimbabwe Mining Development
Corporation ZMDC, Bankers association of Zimbabwe BAZ .Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe RBZ

68
all these are organisations which deals with AMH on day to day basis .If they have a media
briefing they will make it a point that Zimbabwe Independent should cover them because it is a
business paper
4.5.3Advertising Industry: For the media to operate from day to day it needs the adverting
industry because it brings the money hence AMH is in good terms with its advertisers some of
them include big companies topping the Zimbabwe stock exchange such as Delta although
relations soured with Econet it was also one company that was one of the best advertisers
.Advertisement agents also plays a pivotal role in AMH and these include DDB#3Zimbabwe,
Adrenalin Advertising & Design Consultants (Pvt)Ltd, Barker McCormac Ogilvy, Dicomm-
Direct Communications (Pvt) Ltd, Think Tank, iDeas Factory these advertising agencies can
book their adverts and then pay later.
4.5.4 Media Houses i.e. Competitors and Consumer News and Business
Channel(CNBC):CNBC is a foreign news agent and it uses Zimbabwe Independent as their
Zimbabwean correspondent on business news Zimbabwe Independents sister Mail and
Guardian which is in South Africa shares stories with Zimbabwe Independent .However most
media Houses in Zimbabwe are Zimbabwe Independents competitors and they include
Zimpapers stable i.e Herald ,Sunday Mail ,Chronicles, Manica Post and Daily News ,Financial
Gazette and The Mail. Through a column called Macracker Zimbabwe independent will be
attacking ZBC and Zimpapers especially responding to Nathaniel Manherus column.
Discussion
Zimbabwe Independents links with the above mentioned organisation they provide news most
commentators of the indigenisation policy are from the ministry of Finance there is need to be
good books with the sources. Most of these organisations are advertisers and they should be
treated in a manner that they should keep on advertising. Zimbabwe Independent is a
corresponded of CNBC an American broadcaster. Such relationship makes the researcher
question Zimbabwe Independent as an agent of western imperialism.

69
4.6 Conclusion
This Chapter highlighted an analysis of the institution under study through providing the
historical background, core business, funding mechanisms and its link with other organisations.
Also presented in the chapter includes editorial policy, mission statement and the organisational
structure. The discussion argues the loose ends of the topics discussed .The chapter shows the
links of Zimbabwe Indpendant with The next chapter will focus on the data presentation and
analysis.


70
CHAPTER FIVE
Data presentation and analysis
5.0 Introduction
This study has covered the introduction to the research, literature review and theoretical frame
work focused on Methods of data collection and analysis and ,explored the organization .This
chapter focuses on presentation and analysis of data gathered using the research methods
outlined in chapter three. The gathered information is discussed in comparison to the objectives
of the study aimed at drawing to a conclusion. Thematic approach is used to present data
collected in relation to the representation of the indigenization policy . Key research methods
were used which are quantitative and qualitative content analysis is used to find out the number
of articles that portrayed Indigenization as a sound economic policy .
5.1. Internal and external influence behind Zimbabwe Independent
Group Editor of Zimbabwe Independent Vincent Kahiya says that news is like a mineral or any
other product, it goes through a long process that is more like a blast furnace. News passes
through certain stages to become what audiences read in the newspaper. McQuial (2010) is of the
opinion that accountability involves a relationship between media and some other parties which
include internal and external and the next diagram explains what influences the final outcome of
news. Owners are part of the internal forces, these include Trevor Ncube, Brian Murphy, Clive
Wilson Withertell and Basildon Peta. Ncube was fired by the owners of paper because they had
links with the Mugabe regime. Ncube was fired from the Financial Gazette and now he is
always fight the Mugabe regime through his newspapers. Ncube in a public lecture held at
Midlands State University in 2010 admitted that his departure from Financial Gazette was one of
the hardest episodes in his life because he failed to keep the ethics and he revealed his sources .
Therefore in this study the researcher discovered a negative approach towards the
indigenization policy coming from the history between the owner and ZANU PF. This can been
seen in most of the articles for instance an article on 16 March 2012 with the headline What
next after Zimplats indigenization? it reads

71
Zimplats has been doing well not simply because it sells one of the worlds most highly-
priced minerals but also as a result of its sound management. It has had world class
management. We are more concerned about government trying to get into business. As
we have said before, governments worldwide generally do not have a good track record
of running businesses.
Ours is no exception. Once again a gentle reminder is the demise of parastatals such as
Air Zimbabwe, NRZ, Zupco, and the Cold Storage Commission to name but a few. Many
of these are or were at one stage virtual monopolies, but still floundered because of poor
management.
The article shows that Zimbabwe Independent take more of a critical approach on the
government. Chari (2009) supports this by saying the polarisation in our society today is best
depicted in the press. Basically the press is either pro-government or anti-government.
Sometimes objectivity is sacrificed on the altar of expediency in order to be true to their chosen
positionIf you buy newspapers from one divide, you will get half the story.
This is supported by the political economy of the media theory in chapter two which alludes that
the owner has the final say in everything. Ncube during the public lecture at MSU said whatever
decision is taken the buck stops at him. Murdoch (1989) highlighted that public broadcasting in
this country (Britain) have paid the price for their state sponsored privileges and that price is
their freedom of expression. That is the same thing as Zimbabwe Independent since it is owned
by Ncube it has to pay the price of freedom of expression to Ncube .Zimbabwe Indpendandt at
the end of the day does not write the truth but what Ncube wants .
Picard (1989) notes that advertising is the life blood of the media. AMH marketing officer
Wilson Masawa said without advertisement it is difficult or impossible for Zimbabwe
Independent to survive. However advertisement has brought the death of the public sphere ,
stories which suit the advertisers are the ones that are written, advertisers such as Zisco and
Zimplats have a say on the slant of the indeginisation stories .Therefore,in chapter two
Habermas (1989) notes that the public sphere thus changed from a forum for critical and rational
debate to an instrument for the manipulation of public discourse where bureaucratic and
economic interests use advertising, marketing and public relations to create a social
engineering of voter behaviour and cultural consumption.

72

External and internal forces on the Zimbabwe Independent

The researcher noticed that sources who supply information are a strong influence to the
outcome of news. Sources of indigenization policy stories include the ministry its self, National
Indigenization Economic and Empowerment Board (NIEEB) and Kasukuwere .Chimakure the
former Zimbabwe Independent editor noted that usually stories come from Kasukuwere himself
for instance the deadline for submission of the indeginisation plan by all mines . Kasukuwere
provided the information discussed in the politburo but in the story his name will not be included
he will be referred as a close source to the minster, If the editor does not do that next time he
wont get stories, said Chimakure. The researcher then realized that the final product (news) or
the final story on indigenization in the news paper will be distorted it will be a construction of
Zimbabwe
Independen
t
Public Opinion
Clients (advertisers)
Social Institution
Audiences
Pressure and interest groups
Referent
Regulator
Sources
Owners
Fig 4

73
reality as what is mentioned in chapter two . Foucault(1977) sees meaning as socially
constructed by institutions, [including such institutions as media organizations e.g. newspaper
chains].
The diagram showed referent, these are those who are the subject of reporting whether as
individuals or groups and these are the Ministry of Indigenization and Youth Empowerment
,ZANU PF ,Affirmative Action Group (AAG) (a group which lobby for black empowerment it
which was found by Zimbabwean prominent businessmen Phillp Chiyangwa), Chipangano (a
group of Zanu Pf youth from Mbare), In 2011 Zimbabwe Independent vendors were attacked by
Chipangano. After all these factors have been put together the researcher has come to a point that
the mentioned factors influences content one way or the other . Government regulators and law
makers as guardians of public interest and these laws include Public Order and Security Act
(POSA) and Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Mukasa (2003) laments that
AIPPA and POSA have become the legal smokescreen for undermining both freedoms of
expression and opposition politics in Zimbabwe. More so the late Edison Zvobgo (2000) who
was one of the first black lawyers in Zimbabwe questioned the democratic principles of AIPPA
when he said
I can say without equivocation that this law , in its original form ,was the most calculated and
determined assault on our liberties guaranteed by the Constitution ,in the twenty years I have
served as Cabinet minister.
However Chinamasa at a public lecture at MSU in 2012 justified the piece of legislation and said
United States of America and United Kingdom has even harsher laws than AIPPA. Chari and
Chuma (2002) highlighted that Jonathan Moyo a ZANU PF politburo member and a former
minister of information, after the enactment of the Act defended it saying it was very necessary
in times which Zimbabwe was going through the land reform programme and was put under
economic sanctions and Britain trying to force regime change through foreign owned media .
Chari and Chuma (2002;75) noted that Zanu Pf Secretary Nathan Shamhuyarira summed up the
new media policy emanating from the ministry of information saying, If I were running the
papers today , I would put tougher legislation because we cannot have a situation where
foreign governments say want they want to remove the government using journalist and

74
NGOs. (Shamhuyarira at Kadoma Media workshop ,The Chronicle ,28 October
2002).Shamuyarira was politicking he is usually cool headed.
With these laws, Zimbabwe Independent is reduced from a watch dog to toothless dog meaning
to say POSA and AIPPA has tamed Zimbabwe Independent .Dumisani Muleya, the current
editor of Zimbabwe Independent said, they have been practicing more of self censorship when
writing the indigenization stories to avoid being arrested and this affects the news therefore the
final product that is the indeginisation story that the audience finally read in the paper will be a
mere constructed truth. Social institution are affected by media or depend on the media for their
normal operations and these include National Indigenization Economic and Empowerment
Board .Public opinion refers to the society as a whole. The society has its own expectation hence
these is considered when writing a story.
5.1.2 Discussions
Curran and Gurevitch (2000) notes that the principal role of the media, according to the liberal
theory is to act as a check on the state .The media should monitor the full range of state activity
and fearlessly expose abuse of official authority. For instance the researcher found out that the
mines were given a short period to submit their indigenization plan and Zimbabwe independent
mentioned it. However once the media became a subject to public regulation it may lose its bite
as a watch dog, worse still ,Curran and Gurevith (2000) noted that it may be transformed into a
snarling Rottweiler in the service to the state, meaning to say regulation might end up making
Zimbabwe independent a public relations department of the ministry. Mukasa (2003) argues that
ultimately the press in Zimbabwe falls victim to being propaganda machinery in the creation of
necessary illusions necessary because ruling party elites need to create such illusions in order to
stay in power. Yet in all fairness it must be stated that the new breed of independent journalists
in Zimbabwe are blazing a trail towards press freedom. They are doing so under very heavy and
draconian legislation. These courageous journalists have taken more than their fair share of
victimization and vilification. Saunders (1999) believes that the media in Zimbabwe must dance
to a tune which takes freedom of expression and information as its melody ,and fundamental
principles of democracy and tolerance as its underlying beat. The researcher found out that
political economy ,hegemony ,ideology framing and priming affected the coverage of

75
indigenization stories by Zimbabwe Independent . For an indigenization story to be published all
those above mentioned factors are part of the procedure that affect the final product at the end of
the chain.
5.2 Ethical Compromise.
The researcher found out that ethics are not profitable when writing indigenization stories
,figures and facts are very crucial there must be appropriate ,but it is not mandatory for
comments to be candid.
McQuail (2010) notes that ethics in the newsroom are embodied in the code of conduct, a
journalistic code of ethics refers to a set of principles of professional conduct that are adopted by
journalists themselves.
Chris Muronzi, the business editor of Zimbabwe Independent said that as a journalist he sticks to
ethics and he does not take bribery .In his 10 years as a journalist , Muronzi said the owners
expectations are to keep the highest levels of journalistic integrity to safe-guard content integrity
,to go an extra mile and dig deeper to broaden the range of reportage and enhance content.
Muronzi further indicates that a story is presented on the strength of its merits and not given a
slant and angle it should have weight .Therefore there is need to respect ethics than profit.
During my attachment period at Zimbabwe Independent there is a statement which was
constantly repeated by the then editor of Zimbabwe Indpendent Chimakure, he said,
When Zanu Pf does well that does not sale the paper, our readers love MDC so let us write
stories that make our jobs secure and these are the ills of Zanu Pf
you should know which side of your bread is buttered .
It therefore explains that ethics are not profitable, what should be taken into consideration is that
in as much as AMH gets funding from shareholders there is need for the organization to be
viable. The researcher therefore gathered that in as much as indigenization policy is correct there
is need to tarnish its image to gain some revenue.
Zimbabwe independent reporters interviewed agreed with the fact that the media strives on
selling news and advertisements .The indigenization policy became an agenda on the
newspapers business and political desk as the issue was announced and marketed by different

76
reporters. Most of the respondents were of the view that sales increased slightly when the mining
sector was given deadlines and ultimatum by Kasukuwere, indigenization had become a
household name in the Zimbabwe, regionally and internationally. By attacking indigenization
mining companies such as Zimplats and Anglo American would advertise more,so as to push
the agenda. Zimbabwe Independent then write in a more sympathetic way playing more of public
relations to Zimplats . This can be supported by an Editors memo written on March 16 2010 it
said
Most people agree the principle of indigenisation ,now fuelled by the winds of resource
nationalism sweeping across different countries , is good, but the approach is bad. This
will almost certainly embolden and intensify calls for nationalisation which has failed
everywhere with disastrous consequences not just in Zimbabwe, but also across the
region.
By entertaining the failed idea of nationalisation, however remotely, Zimbabwe, which
suffered a decade of cumulative decline characterised by an economic meltdown and
hyperinflation, may be inviting trouble again. The truth, as we saw in the case of
Zimplats, is that mining companies are getting increasingly squeezed but are hanging in
there because they no longer have any easy investment destinations to turn to, although
this crusade might end up being a pyrrhic victory. The Zimplats story is likely to end that
way.
Chimakure also understood that during this indigenization era , Zimbabwe Independent also
engaged several organisations which flighted their advertisements on the newspaper and also
became the official media partners of mines such as Zimplats and Unkie hence this means by
partnering such major mines AMH can get financial assistance any time they need it .
The media is elitist in nature as noticed by Herman and Chomsky (1988) thus it serves the
interests of those with the economic power, those who owns the means of production are the
likes of Trevor Ncube .Indigenization as a product that sold Zimbabwe Independent meant that
the organizations that were associated with it were not to be outdone in space allocation in the
newspaper. The study found out that whenever indigenization policy made the headlines with an
article in The Zimbabwean Independent , advertisements of Zimplats and Unkie mine would
follow behind the story a trend that was seen 11 articles that were sampled. This was
systematically done to catch the eye of the majority share holders and Chief Executive Officers
of Zimplats and Unkie whenever they read articles on Indigenization.

77

The graph explains the importance of news values in relation to the Indigenization policy .As
illustrated in the graph above from January to June 2011 there was a decline in the coverage
because the Government of National Unity (GNU) was expected to end after two years thus the
newspaper was focusing more on political violence and other election related issues.
From July to December 2010 the paper was focusing more on succession in ZANU PF .ZANU
PF held its congress in Mutare and endorsed Mugabe this was more news worth than
indigenization policy according to Chimakure. We had to shift our attention to what was more
news worth since news is perishable some Indeginisation story were moved to the business
section ,others were spiked, those which were relevant we gave them to our sister paper
Newsday and others were put to the next issue, said Chimakure.
The beginning of 2011 saw the anti-sanctions campaign launched and this worked hand in hand
with the indigenization policy as a number of community trusts were launched, and that is
when the indigenization policy received more coverage ,when Kasukuwere gave mining
companies ultimatums. What is of importance is that Zimbabwe Independent does not exist in a
vacuum but there are other newspapers hence in this kind of business there is competition and
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
JAN-JUN2010 JUL-DEC2010 JAN-JUN2011 JUL-DEC2011 JAN-JUL2012
N
U
M
B
E
R

O
F

A
R
T
I
C
L
E
S

Indeginisation articles from January 2010 to July 2012
Fig 5

78
Zimbabwe Independent needs to have nose for news or Zimbabwe independent will publish
stale news.
From June to December 2011 the indigenization policy was covered lightly since there were
significant events in the history of Africa and Zimbabwe. At home Solomon Mujuru died on 15
August 2011 and abroad one of the few remaining dictators the president of Lybia Muammar
Gaddafi died on 20 October 2011.This was newsworth and according to AMH marketing
manager Wilson Masawa these stories sold the newspaper on their own. Chimakure highlighted
that the indigenization policy is always with us but the death of these two figures were perishable
and it sold the paper more hence in business it is profit that counts first. Mujuru and Gaddafis
deaths were more news worth than the indeginisation policy and there required urgent attention,
said Chimakure.
The period January 2012 to June 2012 saw the number raising to 27 articles that is an average of
one story per publication because the issue of election was so controversial. Kasukuwere was
now making sure its loud and clear that they were not going to stop .
5.2.1 Discussions
Snyman (1971) defines news as the knowledge about new topical and contingent events which
differ in relevance to different people ,This therefore means that what is news to others is not
news to others .News is primarily information on what is happening currently (topical).News is
time conscious and it varies from with place and culture (contingents) .News is anything new
which should be different to something published before (novelty). Ibboton (2002) perceive that
news is something that is new, interesting and true .It is what the editor says is news. The
simplest tradition version of the idea of news is Who says What, Where, When Why and How
,this is known as the 5Ws and 1 H. However Currann (2000) suggest that new times call for new
thinking. There is need for freedom of expression and by expressing any of your opinions
without being guided by the 5Ws and 1H formula ,however you might end up compromising
ethics .The researcher gathered that what is news to Zimbabwe Independent is the loose ends of
the indeginisation policy but this is not ethical .Some indigenization policy stories do not reflect
reality but it is the reconstruction of reality. In chapter two, the issue of representation is argued
at length, the media do not reflect reality but are instead constructing reality to serve their own

79
interests. Several media scholars argue that news is not a reflection of reality but a construction
of the media. For example Gieber (1964) asserts that, News is what newspapermen make it.
Fishman (1980) echoes the same sentiments when he says, News is the result of methods news
workers employ. Cohen and Young (1973) also share the view that news is not a reflection of
reality but a construction of the media when they say, News is manufactured by journalists.
Therefore at the end of the day what we read in The Zimbabwe Independent is not the truth but
we read what is profitable to Zimbabwe Independent. Ethics are being taken for granted.
5.3 Zimbabwe Independent a political pamphlet
Zimbabwe Media Commission chairman Tafatawona Mahoso in an article in the Sunday mail of
2 October 2011 said that Trevor Ncubes floundering Zimbabwe Independent has gone to the
dogs to the point of unashamedly becoming a pathetic MDC-T pamphlet in a desperate bid to
secure a good chunk of the three million dirty pounds from the British government. The
researcher once highlighted in Chapter four that News Day the sister paper of Zimbabwe
Independent was give three million by Media Development Fund which happens to be a Non
Governmental Organization from Britain .Mahoso then goes to critic this gesture that it was
through hero worshping the MDC and lambasting ZANU PF that the money was obtained .
According to Zanu Pf spokes Rugare Gumbo Zimbabwean Independent is an agent of the west to
ensure regime change in Zimbabwe it is backed by western Nations .During my period of study
the period January 2010 to June 2012 there are 104 articles written on indigenization. Mahoso
laments that Zimbabwe Independent is an MDC pamphlet and has no agenda other than that.
The article below is in contrast with the idea that Zimbabwe Independent is an MDC pamphlet ,
it was written in the Zimbabwean Independent with the headline We are failing to learn from
past mistakes the reporter wrote written on Novermber 26 2009.
I thought the wound which is still fresh upon Zimbabwes government would remind them not to
repeat the same mistakes. Barely a decade since the so called land acquisition and redistribution
programme in Zimbabwe, I gather the government passed a bill into law which will mandate all
foreign owned/controlled companies to cede 51% control stake to local Zimbabweans. Once
again the idea is a noble one but wrong timing and wrong methodology. They should also be
improving infrastructure and technology to match or better that of industrialized nations and
improve social services and delivery in order to create a vibrant economy once again. After that

80
we can tackle the issue of indigenisation. If we are not cautious we will repeat the same mistake
we made on land redistribution and the whole issue will defeat its purposeThe Zimbabwe
Independent Friday 16 December 2011.

It is therefore clear in the article above that what is wrong is not the indigenization but the
implementation, like what the reporter wrote that the idea is a noble one but wrong timing and
wrong methodology, that is the believe of the newspaper. This therefore is supported by
Chimakures view that Zimbabwe Independent owners expectations are that, content should be
fair ,accurate and should not be sponsored or commissioned. The article is objective ,the issue of
the effects of ownership and funding has been discussed in chapter two under political economy .
Garnham (1979) submits that those who own the means of production have the final say on what
comes out in the media. In the article, Garnham suggests that ownership and control patterns of
the media organization have a direct bearing on contentIn chapter four we have seen in the
oganogram the likes of Beatrice Mutetwa a Human Rights and Media Lawyer. She is the one
who represented Jestina Mkoko and most of MDC-T victims of violence, this explains how she
has an influence on the final content on indigenization stories.
negative reporting
80%
positive
reporting
20%
coverage on indegisation
Fig 6

81
National Indigenisation and Economic Empowement Board (NIEEB) Chairman David Chapfika
said , private media has failed the indigenization policy ,It has portrayed it as a Zanu Pf
objective which is wrong . While MDC-T spokes person Douglas Mwonzora said the
independent has been consistence in reporting the truth.
According to Chari (2010) in terms of reporting, the media in Zimbabwe is polarized along
political lines. Both the privately owned and state owned media hold entrenched positions on
almost every issue, be it sport, entertainment, business or politics. The state media is
unapologetic in its support for the ruling Zanu PF government while the private press seems to
have signed a pact with the opposition to hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil
regarding its affairs. While in the public media the indigenization is portrayed as the solution to
Zimbabwean problems the Zimbabwe Independent does not agree to this ,it sees it as a problem
more than a solution.
Politics has influenced Zimbabwe Independents coverage of the Indigenization policy .The
newspaper gave meaning to political activity and it does that partisanly. Gideon Gono the
Reserve Bank Governor of Zimbabwe goes ahead and say that a fine balance should be struck
between the objectives of indigenization and the need to attract foreign capital. Zimbabwe
Independent interpreted it as an advice which was sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.
Thus the issues of priming, gatekeeping and agenda setting which was mentioned in chapter 2
are clearly illustrated. The researcher reviewed 104 articles from January 2010 to July 2012 the
table below shows how the articles were covered it terms of bias and objectivity
Sector Mining Banking Companies Tourism
Positive coverage 12 6 22 0
Neutral coverage 32 20 28 6
Negative
coverage
60 78 54 98

Total 104 104 104 104
Fig 7

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From fig 7 the coverage of indigenization stories across all sectors and there is a traceable link.
The Zimbabwe Independent portrays the policy in negative light. This is due to the political
interference by politicians. It is alleged that in May 2011 Central Intelligent Officers broke
into the Zimbabwe Independent newsroom and took all the computer hard drives. There were
investigating the story that was written in the previous publication saying Chiwenga was
uplifted to China for medical reasons. Jonathan Moyo sued Zimbabwe Independent for
publishing his articles that he used to write critising President Mugabe .On May 2012 World
Press Freedom Day minister of Information and Publicity Webster Shamhu said the private
media should stop reporting negative things about the country .Therefore this hostile relationship
will always find its way to the newspaper. Stories end up being written to attack an perceived
enemy. Chimakure said the best way to attack when you are attacked is to attack and hence at the
end of the day we have more stories portrayed in the negative light.
5.3.1 Discussions
The idea of Zimbabwe Independent is to shape peoples perceptions, how the Zimbabwe
Independent comes up with accusations and the framing . Framing is the selection of and
emphasis upon particular attributes for the news media news media agenda when talking about
an object (the fact of cutting and trimming news stories in order to filter it and shape it as the
sender wishes) .This is where propaganda comes in from of uncivil discourses putting some one
in to a certain frame for instance the article in which Kasukuwere is likened to Hitler Kasukuwe
said , I am Hitler 100 fold. This was packaged, rephrased feature stories, cartoons were
produced and hard stories were written . Mass media has various forms of affiliation. Revisiting
the Media and Democracy, Zimbabwean Independent is not neutral ,it has been adulterated, it
has gone to bed with politicians and hence coming up with partial stories and misrepresenting
facts. Zimbabwe Independent has influenced the meaning making process. In Chapter two the
researcher refers to the three representative by Hall. Hall (1996) presents three approaches to
representation which are namely: reflective approach, intentional approach and the
constructionist approach It has given coloration and shape to political proceedings. This is why
media regulation becomes political. The control of Zimbabwe Independent comes with framing

83
if a reporter frame something wrongly he/she deserved to be fired. That is why editors such as
Vincent Kahiya how was sent to Russia by the ZANU PF government , Consatantine Chimakure
who worked with Jonathan Moyo in 2000, Brain Mangwende the son of the late Minister
Mangwende and Dumisani Muleya who has various friends in both parties have connections
with politicians .
5.4 The indigenization a political Gimmick
Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU) vice president Enillia Mukarati condemned the
indeginization policy as an election gimmick that has gone horrible wrong in the same way as
the violent land reform programme .In an article written by Zimbabwe Indpendant in December
2010,Mukarati says Indigenization of mines is being used to build a war chest for Mugabes
former ruling party so as to sponsor violence in a bid to win the forth coming election.
Community share ownership is nothing more than a platform to woo voters ahead of
elections such is the strategy in Zimbabwe that everything is done on short term basis to
with elections in mind and never minding the people.
According to the former Editor of the Zimbabwe Independent Constantine Chimakure,
The spirit behind the policy is good but the provisions of the law encourage wealth
grabbing, instead of creation. That promote assert grabbing .
Therefore in a way what the Zimbabwean Independent is against is not the indigenization policy
but the way it is being implemented. This is supported by the article written in the paper with the
headline Editors Memo: Kasukuwere must use 51% of his brain! Written on 13 July 2012
If our ministers actually used 51% of their brains, especially Kasukuwere, Zimbabwe would be
such a peaceful and prosperous country Frequently, we awake to screaming headlines of stories
telling us which economic sector is in the indigenisation firing line, leaving us wondering what
will be next after all key sectors of the economy including schools have been targeted for
indigenisation. Kasukuwere really approaches indigenisation with a very wide mouth and
completely shut mind. Since the indigenisation campaign started, the minister has embarked on a
noisy crusade trying to force foreign-owned companies to surrender 51% of their stakes to Zanu
PF cronies and shady entities which have no money to pay for their equities, meaning
indigenization is actually expropriation in disguise. Mining companies were forced to cede the

84
majority of their shares to some bogus community trusts whose trustees remain as opaque as their
origin and functions. Having managed to get some mines to comply, Kasukuwere has gone on to
act like a Super Minister by encroaching on colleagues portfolios, targeting different sectors,
mainly banking.
This article shows what is at stake and what is important is that the indigenization policy is not a
curse but Kasukuwere is a curse he is trying to push a ZANU PF agenda in an economic policy .
According to C. Mashiri (2011) of all public policies adopted in post-independent Zimbabwe,
indigenization as presently formulated is the most harmful, partisan and counter-productive of
them all. Mashiri further highlights that it is very regrettable that selfish political expediency and
greed rather than sound economic principles are the driving force in the implementation of the
controversial piece of legislation.
Cochran (1995) defines a public policy as political decisions for implementing programs to
achieve societal goals .Zimbabwes indigenization policy is pursuing other objectives.
The ongoing wanton vindictive parcelling out or the threatened take-over of other peoples
businesses, investments, and valuable assets by Zanu-Pf activists is not achieving societal but
short-term partisan goals.
Mashiri (2011)notes that The half-baked policy is actually damaging the economy and will have
serious implications for the future of the country at a time when it is slowly recovering from
implosion. C.Z.I. President Kanyenye said Zimbabwe has the potential to do better but with
high levels of unemployment this is not the time to throw spanners into the works but of putting
heads together to solve problems facing the country. Unfortunately indigenization has emerged
to be a problem in itself rather than a solution because it has proved to be shameful legalized
looting.
Former Business reporter at the Zimbawe Indpendant Paul said blacks were marginalized and
will probably remain that way for some time to come, the current indigenization policy is an ill-
conceived, corrupt and highly politicized campaign that is deliberately targeted at settling scores
than redressing colonial imbalances.


85
Mashiri (2011) points out that given the growing number of failures of some of the indigenized
companies, it is time government took stock of the negative impact the policy is having on
foreign investment and the wider society. It does not make sense to sacrifice the countrys
valuable resources in order to win a vote here and there.
Chimakure notes that the indigenisation policy is being promoted by Zanu Pf to win the
electorate at the expense of the economy .Since the introduction of the policy, direct foreign
investment has dried up, the stock exchange is performing dismally and there has been a general
slowdown in economic growth. The researcher gathered that the inconsistence in economic
policy scares away investors. Last the government said look East policy and now indeginisation
policy that is inconsistence
The policy according to Zimbabwean Independent Chris Muronzi is a Zanu Pf legal smokescreen
to endear itself to voters through parcelling out wealth to a connected few under the guise of
wealth redistributing previously disadvantaged black people .
On the other hand according to The Sunday Mail of October 14-20,2012 an interview with Saviour
Kasukuwere denies that the indigenisation , policy is not a campaigning strategy he said there is
a law that was passed by parliament .A law which is very clear in terms of empowering the
people of Zimbabwe ,from all walks of life. It cant be denied that ZANU PF has always sought
to see the people of Zimbabwe in better circumstances .So is it wrong that the idea ,its
conception ,its birth came from that party . Indigenisation is not a campaigning strategy of Zanu
Pf but it is its brain child .
5.4.1 Discussions
Zimbabwe Independent manages to critic the indigenisation, this is in conjunction with what the
researcher highlighted in chapter two in the theory of public sphere .The medias role as a public
sphere is seen when ideas are freely articulated without censorship. In addition, the media [as a
public sphere] speaks out on abuses by the powers-that-be and expose injustice. Mashiri a
political analyst said what is clear in the case of Zimbabwe is that we have never followed the
doctors orders insofar as sorting out our economy and therefore have been bound to be ill and

86
then go on a witch-hunt seeking those who cursed us. Yet we brought this on ourselves. The
problem in Zimbabwe is none but ourselves.
Therefore the indigenisation policy is an economic tool policy that has be turned into a political
policy than an economic one ,it does not stimulate investment or economic growth in anyway
and hence does not appear as such . Mashiri points out that those that follow politics know that
there is a very thin line separating economic policies and political ones ,a look on the land
reform in Chapter one confirms this separating economic policies and political ones. For that
reason Zimbabwe Independent is not against the indigenisation policy what it is against is the
way it is being implemented. How can you empower people by destroying what was established
before? The researcher came to the understanding that there are better ways to address the
indigenisation but because elections are at hand ZANU PF is already in panic mode.
Trevor Jakachira an economic analyst notes that we are aware that inspiration has been drawn
from Chinese state capitalism, but Chinese state capitalism did not occur overnight. As
highlighted in Chapter one in the background indigenization began almost 50 years ago after the
great leap forward (1958 to 1963) which subsequently became a disaster, but was Chinas first
attempt to indigenize its economy using its own economic theory. According to Zimbabwe
Independent on March 16 2012 after the Maoist Cultural Revolution (1965 to 1968), which saw
the equivalent of our Upfumi Kuvadiki and Chipangano emerging, this was followed by a
gradual transition from communist ideals to the embracing of capitalism.
Zimbabwean independent on 16 March 2012 after Chinas disastrous experiments the Chinese
embarked on a well-thought out model to indigenise their economy. Credit for Chinas transition
to capitalism is in the main attributed to Deng Xiaoping, whose famous quote was It doesnt
matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.
Deng took over the reins of the Communist party after Maos death in 1976 and effectively
became premier in 1978. The economic model created under Dengs leadership is the reason for
Chinas success to date.

87
Zimbabwe , however, appears to be simply driven by nothing other than political expediency
ahead of anticipated elections. The media in this case Zimbabwe Indpendent has to remind the
authorities that it is management that makes businesses tick.
5.5 Zimbabwe independent a publics fear
The researcher found out that even when all the reporters are called for the same press
conference on indigenization tomorrow the stories will definitely come out contradictory. NIEEB
Public Relations Officer Grace Tsvakanyi said in her own understanding the media is a public
sphere but Zimbabwe Independent is a publics fear. A public sphere is a contestation of ideas
where people would meet and discuss. The public sphere has been adulterated. It has been
pouvarised by commercial imperative by economic interest .Habermass mourns the death of the
public sphere.
McQuil (2010) notes that the media should inform educate and entertain the public. Zimbabwe
independent is either not performing its duty or over doing it or both. According to The Sunday
Mail of October 14-20,2012 an interview with Saviour Kasukuwere, he laments that the public has
been mislead by the private media (Zimbabwe Independent is part and parcel of the private media.
He goes on to say while we are busy implementing and changing our peoples lives others are
distracted by the media. Kasukuwere highlighted that there are certain characters that are throwing
spanners in the works. Therefore, in a way the Zimbabwe independent becomes a publics fear to
ZANU PF. Zimbabwe Independent becomes an un controlled pen which serves but to destroy.
The researcher gathered that there are sour relations between Zimbabwe independent and the
ministry. At one point in 2011 Kasukuwere threatened to kill a reporter on a telephone interview.
The Ministy of indigenization views the Zimbabwe Independent as a publics fear that poison the
hearts and minds of the public about indigenization.
In as much as Zimbabwe Independent is a public sphere it is influenced by many factors that the
final product news (indigenization policy stories) end up following the stance of owners,
shareholders and advertisers.


88
For Habermas (1962) the function of the media have thus been transformed from facilitating
rational discourse and debate within the public sphere into shaping, constructing, and limiting
public discourse to those themes validated and approved by media corporations. This is shown in
the diary meetings that the researcher did during attachment, before writing a story the researcher
was asked to present it first in the diary and some of the facts about the indeginisation will be
tailor made in the newsroom. Sub Editors would come up with headlines before the story was
even laid on the page.
The interconnection between a sphere of public debate and individual participation has been
fractured and transmuted into that of a realm of political information and spectacle, in which
citizen-consumers ingest and absorb passively entertainment and information. Citizens thus
become spectators of media presentations and discourse which mold public opinion, reducing
consumer/citizens to objects of news, information, and public affairs. In Habermas's (1989)
words: "Inasmuch as the mass media today strip away the literary husks from the kind of
bourgeois self-interpretation and utilize them as marketable forms for the public services
provided in a culture of consumers, the original meaning is reversed.
5.5.1Discussions
Curran (2000) notes that people are now represented through political parties ,interest groups
and the so called privileged citizens, the public sphere should be a neutral space with in society
,at it the government ,civil service ,judiciary ,parliament ,political parties and election party
competition on its center. For Habermas (1962), the function of the media have thus been
transformed from facilitating rational discourse and debate within the public sphere into shaping,
constructing, and limiting public discourse to those themes validated and approved by media
corporations.
The researcher come to an agreement that Zimbabwe Independent has failed to act as a neutral
force when representing the indeginisation policy. The public sphere concept thus is not
applicable ,instead of interacting and exchanging ideas Zimbabwe Independent has constantly
tell its audience what to think about. Communication should be a two way process. The
researcher therefore agrees with Habermass that the media has been adulterated it has gone to
bed with politicians and it has become a publics fear.


89
5.6 Indigenization policy punishing enemies and rewarding friends .
According to Morgan Tsvangirai (2011) in his book ,At the deep end, just like the land reform
programme ,Zimbabweans didnt benefit but Zanu Pf supporters did not benefit. Gideon Gono in
as much as he is Mugabes ally he laments that the indeginisation policy ,if not done properly,
then the policy will scare away investors and Zimbabwes economy will be worse that what it is
today. Former president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Sternford Moyo dismissed the
Indigenization Act saying it focuses on directors and company secretaries and required them to
put forward indigenization plans when in actual effect they were not the owners of the company.
He further explains that the state entities which are set to be created by the Act will suffer losses
like what parastatals are doing and the government later decide to privatise them. The state will
end up having accumulation of entities and will run them down just like what they did in other
areas. Moyo said;
There is opportunities for business and not destroy what has already been built .How can we built
a house by taking bricks from another house which has already been built.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti goes on to highlight that the policy is set to benefit a few elite ,he
agreed that the transfer of value was ok but in a situation where the majority is poor you just
transferring shares from a few rich black people .
The researcher gathered that meaningful investors are from the west and these are the same
people who imposed sanctions through ZIDERA. These investors are the same owners of the
mines. Therefore indigenization becomes a counter attack to punish the enemy. However
Kasukuwere said the government was not against foreign investment in Zimbabwe but against
foreign arrogance. He said some foreign firms expected him to do a jambanja(violent
takeover) so as to attract international press ,but he wont do that as the law is on his side.
Rio Tinto Zimbabwe a mining company in Zimbabwe said indigenization posses a major
threat to its diamond operation in the country. Bloch (2011)said investment was a prerequisite
for sustainable economic recovery ,for the generation of much needed employment. No investor
is interested in investing if compulsorily reduced to the role of a junior partner .

90
Mashiri (2011) notes that at a time when Zimbabwe is sitting on a US$6.9 billion debt and
government is unable to attract sustainable lines of credit let alone direct foreign investment, the
mining sector is facing an uncertain future over the 51% indigenisation slice. ZANU PF activist,
Saviour Kasukuwere has reportedly declared: Currently work is at an advanced stage to finalise
consultations on the mining sector .
5.6.1Discussions
Indigenization Act spells doom for investment, there is nothing wrong with indigenisation for
allowing local Zimbabweans to participate in the economy of the country .What is wrong is to
expect someone to bring money into the country and say we will take 51 percent .In this case the
enemy being punished is the foreign investor and the friend is the ZANU PF elite. However,
through Employee share ownership schemes or trusts (ESOS/ESOT) and Community share
ownership schemes or trust (CSOS/CSOT) every Zimbabwean benefits. Mines such as
Zimbabwes platinum mining company allocated 10million to the community trust. Unki
Platinum mine did the same.
The researcher found out that Zimbabwe Mines Development Coperation (ZMDC) has ran down
mines, a handful of mines are still operating the rest are closed .African Associated Mines or the
Shabanie and Mashava Mines are lying idle because of Chinamasas miscalculations .The
government is now saying they are looking for a foreign investors to rekindle the fire.
Indigenization raises more question than answers, if Zimbabwe has a lot of mining recourses ,
which is true why can not it start its own mines where Zimbabwe have a 100 percent indigenous
ownership. Let us start our own and show the world we can do it. Zisco steels major share
holder is not Zimbabwean Essar holdings has an Indian origins. The major share holder
happened to be Indian. The truth from this research is greediness has been involved in the
Indigenization policy. Indigenization policy is to benefit friends of Zanu Pf those who are said to
be politically correct and punish enemies those who are the investors from the west those who
imposed the economic sanctions on Zimbabwe.


91
5.7 Conclusion
Research findings from different research methods were highlighted and discussed in this
chapter. These results have got a lot of bearing on the objectives and significance of the research.
The research has clearly brought out that even though the editors and reporters write the
indeginisation policy is influenced by many factors .Zimbabwe Independent also operate as a
business so the need profit however this gives abandonment of ethics . They do depict the
situation on the ground on the area under study. Other aspects from other chapters were
highlighted, this is to say theories and concepts which had links to the study were made use of.
The findings are the ones which the researcher derived some of the recommendations and
research conclusion. The next chapter will look at the overview of the study, recommendations
and areas for further research.


92
CHAPTER SIX
Evaluation, recommendations and conclusions
6.0 Introduction
The study so far has enclosed the preface to the research, literature review and theoretical frame
were looked into work focused on Methods of data collection and analysis, explored the
organization . Key research methods were used which are quantitative and qualitative content
analysis is used and this is chapter sums up the research and gives recommendations based on the
findings and analysis of data presented in chapter five. The recommendations are set in relation
to the research problems presented in chapter one as well as the findings of the research. It shows
if the objectives were achieved at the same time as the sub research question if in was answered.
6.1 Evaluations and Conclusions
The research has show that following ethics and codes of conduct in a polarized media
environment is impossible. There is the biased coverage of political events and different
economic events in the country .Ownership and control, regulation and advertisers is a major
hindrance of the reporting of journalists at the Zimbabwe Independent. The content that is
published to the public as noted has consequences as well on how the newspapers readership
perceived. This shows that through the articles that are published the readers can evaluate the
truthfulness and fairness of the Zimbabwe Independent.
The research establishes that polarization, regulation, shareholders and advertisers have caused a
lot of misrepresentation of the indigenization policy. The media in Zimbabwe has had a lot of
problems that affects the practice of journalism .Journalism is not managing to work
professionally because of the polarization of ideas .The people in power have the platform to
publish all .
Indigenization policy is a brain child of Zanu Pf although in was passed into a law by parliament.
Thus, to call it an economic policy will be doing injustice since there is a thin line between an
economic policy and a political campaign strategy. Therefore the indigenization policy is a
campaigning strategy embedded in economic policy.

93
Hall (1996) highlights that representation is an act of ideological recreation that serves the
The reseachers objective and assumptions have been achieved,the representation of the
indeginisation policy if influenced by ownership. The indeginisation policy has remained a
ZANU PF project and it has benefitted the few elite. The study shows that most of the
Zimbabweans a leaving under the poverty datum line and they are not able to buy the shares of
companies such and Zimplats and Unkie.
The research has managed to prove that Zimbabwe independent has not just critised the
indigenization policy. What it is against is not the policy but the way in which the policy is being
implemented and its beneficiaries. The 51% local and 49% scares away investors.
There is need to take an African scholar approach on Indeginisation Issa Shiviji (N.D) noted that
Saps came with conditions ,they weakened the African states. Shiviji pointed out that the
opposite of poor in Africa is not rich but not donor funded. Neo Liberal discourses are
ahistorical. Paulo Ferreira (N.D.) suggested that development should wear a human face it should
be endogenous not exogenous. This school of thought are in line with the indeginisation policy .
Walter Rodney (1973) notes that, development in human society is a many-sided process. At
the level of the individual, it implies increased skill and capacity, greater freedom, creativity,
self-discipline, responsibility and material well-being. Therefore in a way indeginisation policy
is the kind of Africa development. It is a home grown idea which is different from
ESAP.Indeginisation is our won making and the researcher found out that it has successful
managed to see Zimbabwean problems which is lack of empowerment what wrong is the
solutions to the problem.
The researcher is in line with Mamdanis idea that wheather nationalaising property or
privataising the government has failed the people through corruption and nepotism .Mahmood
Mamdani (1996) notes that whether they sought to Africanise or to nationalise, the historical
legitimacy of post independence nationalist governments lay mainly in the program of

94
deracialisation they followed. The difference between them, however, was an effect of the
strategy of distribution each one employed. Whether the tendency was privatization or etatism,
both strategies opened opportunities for nepotism and corruption, for clientelism.

The researcher used a combination of methods to get data for the study .These include critical
discourse analysis, hermeneutics, content analysis .To collect information from the field ,the
researcher used questionnaires and carried out interviews .Methods of data analysis were very
effective as they had to be substantiated by information from the field .Interviews were carried
out with business reporters and editors at The Zimbabwe Independent . Questionnaires were
distributed to the reporters who could not be located at their respective offices at 1 Union
Avenue .However, some questionnaires could not be returned to the researcher and reasons to
that could be best known to them.
Purposive and Convenience sampling was employed to get the articles that portrayed the
indiginisation policy . This method was borrowed as through sampling every article had an
equal chance of being selected hence the need to save time. Interviews and questionnaires were
employed to get the information on what exactly was on the ground during my time of study.
Methods of data analysis used entails that through the language used by the Zimbabwe
independent reporters.
Constant repetition of Indeginisation policy articles in the by the Zimbabwe independent could
be witnessed in stories covered ,opinion articles and advertisements and these became evidence
that the newspaper was covering it and at the same time maintaining their relationship between
mining companies and themselves Constantine Chimakure in an interview with the researcher
confirmed that Zimplats is a brand that they cannot afford to lose as it directly or indirectly
brings in a lot of revenue to Zimbabwe Independent.
6.2 Recommendations to the Zimbabwe Independent
The research findings have prompted the researcher to make the following recommendations to
Zimbabwe Independent in order to improve the quality of its products there is need to respect
ethics this improve the standards and quality of their stories. In as much as the Zimbabwe
Independent is a business entity aiming to make money they should be balanced and fair .

95
Furthermore the appointment of positions by Trevor Ncube should be according merit not on
traibal. The researcher found out that most of the decision making positions are occupied by
individuals from Matabeleland. Dumisani Muleya took over from Chimakure in January 2012,
Muleya did not finish his diploma but he is now the editor of the Zimbabwe Independent he is of
Ndebele origin. Raphael Khumalo the Chief Executive Office of Alpha Media Holdings is also
from Bulawayo. Itai Masuku and Dingilizwe Ntuli are the Deputy Editor and News Editor
respectively.
Habermas (1992) defined the public sphere as a virtual or imaginary community which does not
necessarily exist in any identifiable space. In its ideal form, the public sphere is "made up of
private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the
state".(p 176). The press' role in acting as a public sphere that encourages citizen participation
was alluded to.
The Zimbabwe Independent as private media should act as a watchdog and the voice of the
voiceless in the Zimbabwean environment there are a lot of issues that the public needs to be
informed about .The private media should disclose a lot of issues and report objectively for
democracy to prevail in Zimbabwe .As the private media they should not have a side on the
issues they have to report on there should not be a slant in the news they publish.

6.3Recommendations to The Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Indigenisation and
Empowerment
There is need to accept that the politics of Zimbabwe has changed ,the era of one part state is a
thing of the past. We are in a government of national unity and for things to move in one
direction we should operate in one accord. It is none but our selves who will make Zimbabwe a
better country therefore The minister Kasukuwere and his deputy Tongai Matutu should not
spent time arguing on the mistakes caused by the other because at the end of the day we are all
Zimbabwe. The issue of name calling like saying Tsvangirai is a puppet and Kasukuwere is a
mad dog will take Zimbabwe nowhere .

96
At some point in history China which is now an economic super power and one of the Asian
tiger was at the same stage where Zimbabwe is today it used the same formular as us .Therefore
there is need to work for a common purpose ,a common goal indeginisation might be a Mugabe
idea but it has to benefit every Zimbabwe through the community ownership schemes.
Indeginisation should not be partisan, its about ourselves standing up ,self determination and
being the ones who determine our own history. If Zimbabwe managed to excel in terms of
education and human resources in the same spirit we can do the same in indigenization
6.4 Recommendations to future studies
This research recommends that further studies may be carried out in other sectors besides mining
these sectors include banking sector ,tourism and the business sector .Indeginisation is an
ongoing process so is its study .Scholars need to know its achievements and what is has achieved
so far .
6.5 Conclusion
This chapter highlighted various conclusions that were arrived in the study. The chapter
highlighted all the other chapters intertwine them to come up with a summary that concludes the
whole study . It also put forward recommendations of what can help the Government in ensuring
an active and positive role of engaging with citizens in developmental norms in the
Indeginisation policy. The chapter has brought in the concept of development in line with
indeginisation to see if Zimbabwe is going in the correct direction. Recommendations for further
study were also noted by this section of the study. This therefore marks the end of the study.


97
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Interviews
Alpha Media Holdings Group Editor Vincent Kahiya on 18 September 2012
MDC-T spokesperson Dogulas Mwonzora on 1 October 2012
National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Public Relations Officer Grace
Tsvakanyi 27 July 2012
National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Chairperson David Chapfika 27 July
2012
Newsday Editor Constantine Chimakure 18 September 2012
Zimbabwean Independent Business editor Chris Muronzi 18 September 2012
Zimbabwean Independent Editor Dumisani Muleya 18 september 2012
Unpublished works
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Empowerment.
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Websties
www.studio7.com
www.zimind.co.zw
www.herald.co.zw
www.kubatana.net
www.nieeb.co.zw
www.sundaymail.co.zw


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Appendix
Questionnaire
My name is TatendaMacheka, a student from Midlands State University, in the Department of
Media and Society Studies. I am currently writing a dissertation on a research topic entitled
Representation of the indigenization policy in the mining sector how it has been covered in the
privately owned press .A case of the Zimbabwe I ndependent form J anuary 2010 to
J une2011.The purpose of this study is to explore the medias representations of public policies .
As a former employee of the afore mentioned weekly newspaper, may you please assist me with
honest and truthful responses bearing in mind that all the information is private and confidential.
No names are required and anonymity is guaranteed and your co-operation will be greatly
appreciated.
Questions to journalists and editors

Please tick in the appropriate box
1. Type of employment?
Editor Journalist

2. Age
20-25 26-35 35+

3. For how long have you been working for that organization?
0-1yr 2-5 yrs 5-10 10+

4. Do you take journalism ethics into consideration in your operations? Explain in brief your
answer
.
5. What are the expectations of the owners of your publication in terms of content and
reportage............................................................................................................................................
6.What is Indigenization Policy and Economic Act to you?
............................................................................................................................................................
................................................................................................................................................


103
Interview Questions
My name is Tatenda Macheka, a student from Midlands State University, in the Department of
Media and Society Studies. I am currently writing a dissertation on a research topic entitled
Representation of the indigenization policy in the mining sector how it has been covered in the
privately owned press .A case of the Zimbabwe I ndependent form J anuary 2010 to
J une2011.The purpose of this study is to explore the medias representations of public policies .
As a former employee of the afore mentioned weekly newspaper, may you please assist me with
honest and truthful responses bearing in mind that all the information is private and confidential.
No names are required and anonymity is guaranteed and your co-operation will be greatly
appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Questions to journalists and editors
1. How important is the Indigenization to the politics of Zimbabwe and the Government of
National Unity (GNU)?

2. What was your view of the indigenization policy as political tool , then as a an economic
policy?
.

3. If your view of the Indigenization policy changed with the changes you had initially , explain
why it changed.
4.In terms of the coverage of public policies like indigenization policy, are there pre-set rules of
how to represent them [written down or otherwise] which should influence the slant of your
story?..................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................
.................................................................................................................................
Thank you for your co-operation.

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