WEBSTER SHAMU . . . Media and Information Minister

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Information Ministry has threatened to fire senior managers at the country’s sole broadcaster – Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) – after they failed to screen the official opening of a mining investment conference by President Robert Mugabe during the main news bulletin on Wednesday.

Sources at the ZBC’s Pockets Hill studios told ZimOnline on Friday that Information Minister Webster Shamu, and his permanent secretary George Charamba on Thursday stormed the studios and read the riot act to about 10 managers charged with delivering the 8pm news after they allegedly botched the bulletin on Wednesday night.

The state-owned ZBC – also known as Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) – which runs Zimbabwe’s only television and radio stations failed to screen Mugabe’s keynote address due to technical hitches blamed on faulty equipment.

The footage, which later appeared well after 9pm, had no sound.

“There was drama on Thursday when Shamu and Charamba stormed into Pockets Hill and summoned managers after the Wednesday debacle,” said one of the managers who attended the meeting.

Insiders said some of the managers taken to task by Shamu and Charamba included chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere, Tarzzen Mandizvidza, Freedom Moyo (bulletin manager), Jacob Phiri, Brian Rwafa (responsible for reporters) and five other senior managers responsible for editing.

“The problem is not with us but the equipment. Judith Makwanya brought the tape with the presidential story around 7pm but we could not slot it in immediately due to problems with the editing equipment. When we finally slotted it in after 9pm, there was no sound,” said another ZBC source.

“We were told that Mugabe is the President of this country and should be the top story whether we liked it or not. Charamba went on to say those who did not like were free to leave ZBC,” the manager added

Shamu, in a brief conversation yesterday, confirmed that he went to the ZBC with Charamba “but it was a routine visit as we are familiarising ourselves with the surroundings”.

Charamba was not immediately available for comment.

The meeting at ZBC coincided with a statement by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party on Thursday criticising the state media for bias in favour of Mugabe and his ZANU PF party and against other parties in the unity government.

In the statement, the MDC said it was worried by the manner in which the Information Ministry had abdicated its national responsibility to the taxpayer in pursuit of parochial interests of protecting one exclusive political party in the inclusive government.

It said the public media has been abused to become the arena of maligning and vilifying the MDC, its leadership and members at the expense of covering pertinent issues affecting the ordinary man and woman.

“The Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity is the spokes-ministry of the inclusive government in its entirety. The public media, under the express orders of ministry officials, have become willing vehicles of spreading hate speech, divisions and tension in the inclusive government through overt bias and positive coverage of ministers and officials from one political party,” it said.

The MDC condemned the partisan use of public institutions such as the public media to the detriment of national and public interest.

The ZBC was initially conceived as a public broadcaster but has been tightly controlled by Mugabe’s ZANU PF administration, which has the final say on senior editorial and managerial appointments.

In addition to controlling the airwaves, Mugabe’s also runs the country’s largest newspaper empire after closing down four independent papers including the Daily News that was Zimbabwe’s largest circulating paper when it was shut down in 2003. – ZimOnline