Staff Reporter
Harare- Zimbabwe’s state propaganda broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has procured luxurious and top of the range Mercedes Benz and SUV’s for its senior managers as a thank you for propping the former ruling party and now ailing Zanu PF which dismally lost the 2008 March 29 harmonised elections.
ZBC Board of Governors who spoke to The Zimdiaspora said the corporation’s chief executive officer, Happison Muchechetere will soon take delivery of the latest Mercedes S350 worth over US$200 000, hardly two months after the company bought him a top of the range Nissan Navarra.
The three general managers, Tazzen Mandizvidza in charge of news and current affairs, Allan Chiweshe who heads programming and the feared Brigadier-General Elliot Kasu of Finance and Administration would be awarded with the latest VX V8 Toyota Landcruisers worth an estimated US$100 000 each.
Middle level managers will also be given SUV’s such as Toyota Prados and Vigos as well as Isuzu 4 X 4’s.
The vehicles were this week seen at ZBC’s Pockets Hill Headquarters for test drives by the senior managers.
“We are just coming back from a four-day ZBC retreat meeting in Nyanga, where as a board of Governors, we approved the purchase of new vehicles for managers,” said one ZBC Board member who requested anonymity.
“Ourselves and the parent ministry of media, information and publicity felt that managers have not been adequately rewarded for doing a good job of defending the revolution since the 2008 June 27 Presidential run-off, hence the decision to buy new vehicles for managers.”
Another ZBC Board of Governor said the managers will be sold their current vehicles at “book value” meaning they will only pay a song for the cars among them 4 x 4’s which are less than two years old and were donated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to campaign for Zanu Pf in the March 29 elections.
The Board of Governors who attended the four-day retreat meeting which was also attended by managers, were each hired a Mercedes Benz to travel to the venue in Nyanga and were said to have been paid thousands of dollars in allowances.
However, workers are up in arms against the decision to buy managers expensive vehicles at a time the company has failed to award them salary increments, claiming that there was no money.
“This management is very greedy and insensitive to the plight of its workers. How can they buy themselves expensive cars when workers have no money and standards have deteriorated due to obsolete equipment?,” asked one member of the ZBC workers committee.
Another worker’s committee member said Board of Governors were hired the Mercedes and paid thousands of dollars in travel and subsistence allowances to buy their silence and to entice them to approve the shady dealings at ZBC, including the procurement of the luxurious vehicles for senior managers.
The government is dragging its feet on opening up the airwaves, with the ZBC still enjoying a monopoly on both radio and television broadcasting in the country, despite the 2001 Supreme court ruling nullifying the state domination on the sector.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation is one of the few state institutions which is still living in denial by refusing to recognize the Global Political Agreement especially with regards to the office of the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who it continues to label a sell-out and Western puppet despite his widespread support among Zimbabweans.
A local media organisation, the Media Monitoring Project recently published a report documenting the inflammatory, intimidating, and abusive language appearing in Zimbabwe’s state media during the
March 2008 harmonised elections and the June 27 presidential run off.The organisation accused the state media of complicity in the murder, rape and torture of innocent people and observed that the elections witnessed a resurgence in the use of hate speech in the government controlled media aimed at publicly discrediting Zanu PF’s legitimate opposition in a concerted campaign to portray these groups as ‘traitors’ ‘sell-outs’ and ‘puppets’ intent on undermining the country’s sovereignty.
The state broadcaster continues vilify perceived opponents of Zanu PF and churns out propaganda in support of the former ruling party and a few months ago Chief executive Happison Muchechetere and the feared permanent secretary for information George Charamba directed the broadcaster to blackout MDC ministers on radio and television.
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written by nleya, February 03, 2010
written by Myekeleni N Manzini, February 03, 2010
They have no money when it comes to showing programmes their clients wants, for example, they were deal darling to show African Nations Cup, yet they have money to treat themselves to luxury cars.
People are told that there is no money, yet Zanu and MDC ministers, Mayors and now the ZBC boss are living in luxury. Tsvangirai promised people that he will leave no stone unturned fighting corruption; however, it appears he is living in corruption and he loves it.
I thought Zanu and MDC would use common sense and use the limited resources available to rebuilding the Nation, but alas they are in a looting competition. Workers are told to tighten their belts further while boss are living large.
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