Stop insulting the voter

The site has been around for 13 years now and in the digital world, it is easily one of the oldest.

As of June 2013, Dreamstime says it boasted of 6 000 000 registered members, more than 157 000 contributing photographers and over 177 million photos, illustrations, cliparts and vectors.

Among the 175 million-plus images is one captioned ‘Happy African American doctors medical professionals in hospital ward’, available on . As of Friday last week the image had been viewed 1107 times and downloaded 17 times.

The image shows two figures one male and another female, clad in white coats with stethoscopes around their necks and posing for the camera.
The female figure holds a clipboard and the male folds his hands while curtains, a clock and medical equipment in the background suggest a hospital setting.

The very same image is seen on page 21 of the MDC-T’s manifesto under part five where the organisation promises quality and affordable health care to Zimbabweans.
Why would MDC-T, a political party with considerable support nationally use stock photographs of African Americans to promote a local drive by Zimbabweans to benefit their own communities?

The political party surely has a publicity department that takes pictures wherever the Prime Minister goes and he has been in hospitals numerous times.
It is a wonder how a picture of African American doctors was used as a symbol of Zimbabwean health policy in a presentation supposedly meant to dispel rumours of puppetry and show a truly indigenous and original political force.

The manifesto, by attempting to trick Zimbabweans into believing a false reality insulted the intelligence of the electorate because generally everything in, such documentation is seen as indisputable fact.

Another misrepresentation was the very first picture, on the flip side of the cover page.
Here, a young woman kneels on a cement pavement while looking up to the camera which is situated on a higher trajectory.

She holds a plastic pot with a young plant inside it surrounded by rich brownish red soil.
The young lady extends her arms away from her body and into a loosened ground with more brownish red soil, suggesting the act of planting, and feeding into the general theme from the political party that says a new Zimbabwe will be ushered into existence should it win the upcoming elections.

But based on the motifs and designs on the young woman’s collar, sleeves and skirt, and the general facial structure and composition, there is absolutely no doubt that she is South African, a fact confirmed by Dreamstime as the photo was taken by one Anke van Wyk in Port Elizabeth and is available on Dreamstime it had been downloaded 122 times and viewed 2754.

The political party also got this image from Dreamstime, through the link, . The caption on the picture reads, ‘A beautiful young African woman planting an Avocado tree just with her hands in organic healthy red soil in her little eco garden outdoors’.

A manifesto’s objective is to bring the voters and political leaders together by outlining common goals and subjects.
But when photographs in the manifesto mislead through misrepresentation, the voters have every right to feel either disillusioned of downright insulted.

On page 19 under “Part III: a Robust and Modern Infrastructure”, the MDC-T manifesto shows an image of a yellow train passing over a bridge.
The picture as the Herald’s Tendai Mugabe wrote last week is of a Thai train passing over Kwai river in the southeast Asian country.

Perhaps most unforgiving of them all is a picture on page 6 of the MDC-T manifesto of four children.
Two are holding hands, one has her hands on the hip and the oldest stands in the back.

The children are all facing the same direction and seem to support the massage on the opposite page about restoring hope among Zimbabweans.
The picture was acquired from Dreamstime under the link, .

The caption reads, ‘Young african girls, in a township looking at what is going on over there? South African Town by Barberton in Mpumalanga’.
So the caption actually mentioned that the picture is of Children from South Africa but for whatever reason, it was used to promote the MDC-T vision for Zimbabwe. Under “Part IV: Delivering Quality Social Services’”, the Movement for Democratic Change outlines its commitment to caring for the elderly and on that page 25 of the manifesto, the party included a picture of an elderly woman looking to the skies and laughing.

What the party probably forgot to mention was that the woman is not Zimbabwean, but African American, sourced from , and it is captioned, ‘Old people and emotions, portrait of bizarre senior African American lady laughing with head tilted up”.

Also purportedly purchased from the Dreamstime website is a picture of a smiling lady standing in front of a vegetable field.
The caption on where it was sourced from reads, “August 2, 2007 — A woman in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, harvest cabbage with other members of a farming cooperative, supported as part of an effort by international aid agencies to help locals generate food and income as Zimbabwe continues to deteriorate under the leadership of Robert Mugabe”.

The picture’s caption suggests that Zimbabwean farmers need international aid to sustain themselves, and this is echoed in Morgan Tsvangirai’s message during the current campaign where he has repeatedly insinuated that, “We have many rich friends”.

Another picture, one on page 22 of the manifesto showing school children studying is available on and is captioned, “July 30, 2007 – Students at a primary school in Mutoko, Zimbabwe, study after a lunch provided by an international humanitarian agency to the school’s more than 500 pupils. School feeding programs are vital to helping many children stay in school in Zimbabwe, as rampant inflation and high rates of HIV make education an unattainable dream for many youth”.

Why would a political party use pictures from six years ago, when the economy was bad, to paint a picture for the future.
Maybe with MDC-T, the past is the future.

Tricking voters by using inappropriate images is taking the public for a ride, and insults their intelligence through misrepresentation.