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Nyemudzai Kakore Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has re-assigned senior managers as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise. General manager news and current affairs Tazzen Mandizvidza has been appointed general manager-productions and television services.His former position will remain vacant until the board finds a replacement.
Head of radio services Christopher Chivinge has been tasked to lead news and current affairs, while Josephine Zulu — who held that position — will head radio services.
The changes come as ZBC faces the heat from Government and the public after it went through a serious leadership and managerial crisis which compromised its capacity to effectively and meaningfully discharge its mandate.
Ordinary workers went for half a year without salaries, while the now suspended chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere and other senior managers were earning tens of thousands of United States dollars.
Police on Thursday recorded a warned and cautioned statement from Muchechetere in relation to alleged inflation of the cost of an outside broadcasting van bought from a Chinese firm.
Muchechetere allegedly quoted the price of the US$100 000 van at more than US$1 million,.
ZBC corporate communications manager Mr Gladman Farai Bandama said the general manager’s position would for now remain vacant and the new board would decide who was the best person to take up the post.
“The re-assignments come against challenges that have faced the corporation and the need to continue exploring means and ways to improve programming. The reassignments are therefore aimed at creating synergies and opportunities for improving all aspects of the operations of the corporation,” he said.
Mr Bandama said the reassignments targeted systems that needed improvement before completion of a Government-ordered forensic audit being conducted by KPMG Chartered Accountants.
“While the audit is continuing, you don’t sit around when there are performance issues which need to be addressed, what we can resolve with the information we have. The forensic audit will only help to inform a permanent decision,” he said.
The Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Ministry has been working to improve the performance of the parastatal.
The Comptroller and Auditor-General appointed KPMG Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe) to conduct a forensic and turnaround audit of ZBC.
The firm is expected to submit a comprehensive audit report to the Auditor-General by the end of this month.
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