Mediating a regime in crisis: corruption and succession in Zimbabwe’s state media

Abstract

Political scandals are rarely the focus of major academic research in Zimbabwe where tight control of the dominant state media by the ruling party ensures that scandals involving senior government officials are suppressed. Informed by Altheide and Snow’s media logic and Thompson’s concept of mediated political scandals, this article uses framing analysis to examine The Herald’s logic behind exposing the ZIMDEF scandal involving former Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Jonathan Moyo. We therefore view the scandal as a political power scandal within ZANU-PF as two main factions, the Lacoste faction led by then Vice-President and now President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the G40 faction fronted by the then Minister of Higher Education Jonathan Moyo, who fought a nail-biting contest over the succession of long-time ruler Mugabe as his reign entered the twilight. The article argues that the scandal evolved like a choreographed sting operation, in which the objective was not to expose public corruption, but to neutralise a formidable political foe as the race to succeed former president Robert Mugabe intensified.

The Media and the Commemoration of Robert Mugabe’s Death through the Camera’s Lens

“…Given that Mugabe’s light soon after the coup was dimmed, the use of The Herald brings out an interesting dynamic on how the stable, which is the mouthpiece of the nation-state, constructed memories around Robert Mugabe. On the other hand, NewsDay falls under the Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) which has been practicing oppositional journalism (Mpofu et al, 2022). Oppositional journalism has been counter-hegemonic where it challenges the state’s ideologies, and thus has been framing Mugabe as tyrant and dictator Mare and Matsilele (2020).…”