For the past two weeks, The Zimbabwean, a twice-weekly paper which is printed in South Africa and mainly distributed in Zimbabwe, has been forced to pay a weekly 10,000 English Pounds import tax for every edition of the newspaper distributed in Zimbabwe. At this rate, editor of the paper Wilf Mbanga told RAP 21 that he will be forced to pay over one million English Pounds after one year in duties. These harrowing numbers follow the burning of a truck that was transporting 60,000 copies of the Sunday edition of The Zimbabwean from South Africa to Zimbabwe on 24 May.
The gamut of President Robert Mugabe’s relentless fight to stay in office has included everything from threatening war in the event that he loses the run-off election on 27 June, to the recent unwarranted arrests of his main opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai. The independent press that remains in the country has also severely suffered under Mugabe’s seemingly self-proclaimed mandate.
Now, his administration is getting awfully creative in ways to prevent critical news from reaching Zimbabweans. The import duty tax, which is greatly hindering publications such as The Zimbabwean from reaching news-deprived Zimbabweans during this critical time, was imposed on the foreign press on 8 June, under the putative banner of protecting Zimbabwean media space.
Referred to as the “hostile foreign press” by the government mouthpiece the Herald newspaper, foreign newspapers, journals, magazines and periodicals are now ironically classed as luxury goods under the new ruling. This label means a 40 percent import duty of the total cost per kilogram of the paper upon entering Zimbabwe.
“There is no way we will be able to sustain this,” said Mbanga. “In addition, we have been informed by Zimra (the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority) that our newspaper must pay an additional 20 percent surcharge over and above the luxury tax.” Currently, The Zimbabwean, which is the least expensive newspaper in the country, distributes 200,000 copies twice a week in Zimbabwe. “We’ll have to reduce our distribution but we are determined to continue to sell in Zimbabwe,” Mbanga continued. The paper expects to reduce its Zimbabwean circulation to 60,000.
The heavy fines are especially damaging in that it is nearly impossible for foreign newspapers to profit or come out even through distributing papers in Zimbabwe due to the poor economic conditions and outrageous hyperinflation. From a financial perspective, “selling the paper in Zimbabwe is profitless and the government wants the taxes paid in foreign currency,” said Mbanga.
To justify the new tax, members of Mugabe’s administration have raised concern that the lax regulations on the foreign press has resulted in less money being put into the country. “The government is looking at the whole regime which allows anyone to push theirs publications here without paying anything or paying very little, yet when sales are done profits have been turned into foreign currency which leaves the country,” said the Information Ministry’s Permanent Secretary George Charamba to guests during a media awards ceremony.
Foreign news sources, especially from South Africa, have been extremely important to Zimbabweans who are deprived of a pluralistic and free press. Since 2003, four privately-owned newspapers, including the well-known Daily News, have been banned.
Today the country has only two government controlled daily papers and no private radio or television stations. Local independent weeklies are incredibly stifled and subject to government set cover prices and harsh jurisprudence. Consequently, it is papers like The Zimbabwean that have been the main media to fill this vacuum, making the new law even more worrisome.
“How do you confront a lawless government,” said Mbanga, alluding that the paper will have to find other avenues to continue to serve Zimbabweans at this time.
In the meantime, the full content of every issue of The Zimbabwean is available on its website, www.thezimbabwean.co.uk, which attracts over a million hits and between 85,000 and 100,000 unique visitors every week. In addition, the entire newspaper can be downloaded in 52 countries via newspaperdirect.com for $2.75 US (the front page and two supplementary articles from each issue can be accessed for free).
In a desperate attempt to get information to Zimbabweans ahead of the June 27 run-off elections, The Zimbabwean has set up a fund to which well-wishers can donate towards the payment of the duty so that as many copies as possible of the paper can continue to get into the country.
If you would like to contribute to The Zimbabwean fund please contact Wilf Mbanga via email at mbanga@thezimbabwean.co.uk or by telephone at +44 (0) 7963963547