ZBC proposes to beam council meetings

ZIMBABWE Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has requested city fathers to beam live Bulawayo's full council meetings in a similar way it covers parliamentary sessions.

In a letter addressed to the town clerk Christopher Dube, dated February 27, as indicated in the latest council report, the national broadcaster requested a partnership with the local authority, in a development it says is likely to benefit both parties.

"Further to our meeting on the 14 February 2019 ZBC would like to give you and your stakeholders an opportunity to increase and enhance the council's visibility and brand through quality service provision by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation on ZIM 24 and Khulumani FM during your full council meetings," wrote ZBC.

The national broadcaster further noted that as this was going to be a live programme, the move was going "to give the council an opportunity to place notices and announcements during proceedings from such stakeholders as construction companies, banks and suppliers."

According to the letter, the coverage of the full council meeting by ZBC comes at no cost to the council. This is however, ostensibly because the broadcasting company intends to use the platform to attract commercials which in turn will be a revenue generation platform.

In turn council resolved that the proposal be supported as it will improve council's visibility provided content will be managed to project and enhance particularly the positive attributes of the organisation. It was also resolved that the programme would be useful to sustain transparency and accountability through the live streaming of full council meetings.

Council holds full council meetings once every first Wednesday of the month. Council is already in partnership with Centre for Innovation and Technology who live-stream full council meetings on social media platforms.