News / National
Moyo accuse MDC-T for causing ZBC's financial problems
03 Oct 2013 at 05:40hrs | Views
Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Professor Jonathan Moyo
Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Professor Jonathan Moyo has accused the MDC-T for being most culpable for ZBC's financial problems after failing to provide funding for the broadcaster in the budget through its secretary general and former Finance Minister Mr Tendai Biti until he left Government in August this year.
The accusations come after the MDC-T released a statement yesterday, which called for the immediate payment of salaries to the ZBC employees, saying as 'a labour backed party', it condemned the non-payment of salaries.
"Throughout his tenure, (Mr) Biti did not allocate a cent, let alone a dollar, to address the problems that the newspapers have been highlighting about the plight of workers at ZBC," Moyo said.
"These problems became particularly acute during the life of the unity government and according to the newspapers, some of the workers have not been paid for five months.
"It is instructive that the MDC-T has become aware of the plight of these workers after leaving government on August 21, and this kind of hypocrisy from the MDC-T - which is clearly out of depth and beleaguered and looking for anything that can give it mileage now that it's running on empty - does not help the problems that are being reported."
The minister said he recognised the problems at the ZBC were "very serious as reported by the newspapers", adding: "What the newspapers have reported paints a sorry and serious state of affairs that needs attention.
"However, we have not received as a ministry anything from the ZBC board, management and indeed workers. Nothing!
"It sounds like the MDC-T knows more about that situation than we do."
The accusations come after the MDC-T released a statement yesterday, which called for the immediate payment of salaries to the ZBC employees, saying as 'a labour backed party', it condemned the non-payment of salaries.
"Throughout his tenure, (Mr) Biti did not allocate a cent, let alone a dollar, to address the problems that the newspapers have been highlighting about the plight of workers at ZBC," Moyo said.
"These problems became particularly acute during the life of the unity government and according to the newspapers, some of the workers have not been paid for five months.
"It is instructive that the MDC-T has become aware of the plight of these workers after leaving government on August 21, and this kind of hypocrisy from the MDC-T - which is clearly out of depth and beleaguered and looking for anything that can give it mileage now that it's running on empty - does not help the problems that are being reported."
The minister said he recognised the problems at the ZBC were "very serious as reported by the newspapers", adding: "What the newspapers have reported paints a sorry and serious state of affairs that needs attention.
"However, we have not received as a ministry anything from the ZBC board, management and indeed workers. Nothing!
"It sounds like the MDC-T knows more about that situation than we do."
Source - herald
