News / National
Mugabe's Spokesperson at the centre of the rot at ZBC
29 Mar 2014 at 15:17hrs | Views
The secretary for Information, George Charamba has been accused by suspended ZBC boss, Happison Muchechetere of being at the centre of the rot at the broadcaster. He said Charamba, among other things, imposed unqualified managers on ZBC.
In a report titled Addendum to Special Audit Report and Essential Supplementary Audit Muchechetere denied the fraud allegations claiming that some of the maladministration charges he was being accused of were a result of Charamba's interference.
He charged that Charamba had in 2011 ordered ZBC to re-engage Chris Chivinge as one of the line managers. "Mr C Chivinge's re-engagement in 2011 was imposed by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Information even though the candidate had no requisite qualifications to hold the post to date."
"The board expressed reservations on the imposed re-engagement culminating in a compulsory interview in which certain conditions were set, but none were fulfilled by the candidate."
According to minutes of the recruitment committee chaired by ZBC acting chief executive officer Allan Chiweshe that included suspended general manager (finance) Elliot Kasu on May 27 2011, Chivinge failed to produce copies of his "O" and "A" Level certificates.
"Mr Chivinge was asked the issue of qualifications where he indicated that he has 10 'O' Level subjects and 10 points 'A' Level. Mr Chivinge was asked to produce copies of certificates, but did not have any," the minutes read. In 2006, Chivinge was booted out of ZBC following irregularities regarding a trip to China, but was seconded by the Information ministry to Africa World Television Station in Namibia where he worked as editor-in-chief before bouncing back at ZBC in 2011.
He made the claims as ZBC yesterday announced its new management team comprising Christopher Chivinge (head of news and current affairs) taking over from Tazzen Mandizvidza, who was reassigned to head of film production, while Josephine Zulu becomes head of radio services. Muchechetere also claimed that Charamba once forced ZBC to donate and fund a gala - which fell outside the diarised government national galas - for youths in his rural home in Buhera.
"ZBC drew money without notice from its company financial resources as contribution following (Charamba's) demand. This was done at a time the parent ministry knew that ZBC staff was in salary arrears. In addition to the monetary donation, ZBC deployed digital six-camera OB van equipment and digital DSNG (satellite uplink) to provide live coverage of the event at ZBC's cost on top of the donation."
In a report titled Addendum to Special Audit Report and Essential Supplementary Audit Muchechetere denied the fraud allegations claiming that some of the maladministration charges he was being accused of were a result of Charamba's interference.
He charged that Charamba had in 2011 ordered ZBC to re-engage Chris Chivinge as one of the line managers. "Mr C Chivinge's re-engagement in 2011 was imposed by the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Information even though the candidate had no requisite qualifications to hold the post to date."
"The board expressed reservations on the imposed re-engagement culminating in a compulsory interview in which certain conditions were set, but none were fulfilled by the candidate."
According to minutes of the recruitment committee chaired by ZBC acting chief executive officer Allan Chiweshe that included suspended general manager (finance) Elliot Kasu on May 27 2011, Chivinge failed to produce copies of his "O" and "A" Level certificates.
"Mr Chivinge was asked the issue of qualifications where he indicated that he has 10 'O' Level subjects and 10 points 'A' Level. Mr Chivinge was asked to produce copies of certificates, but did not have any," the minutes read. In 2006, Chivinge was booted out of ZBC following irregularities regarding a trip to China, but was seconded by the Information ministry to Africa World Television Station in Namibia where he worked as editor-in-chief before bouncing back at ZBC in 2011.
He made the claims as ZBC yesterday announced its new management team comprising Christopher Chivinge (head of news and current affairs) taking over from Tazzen Mandizvidza, who was reassigned to head of film production, while Josephine Zulu becomes head of radio services. Muchechetere also claimed that Charamba once forced ZBC to donate and fund a gala - which fell outside the diarised government national galas - for youths in his rural home in Buhera.
"ZBC drew money without notice from its company financial resources as contribution following (Charamba's) demand. This was done at a time the parent ministry knew that ZBC staff was in salary arrears. In addition to the monetary donation, ZBC deployed digital six-camera OB van equipment and digital DSNG (satellite uplink) to provide live coverage of the event at ZBC's cost on top of the donation."
Source - Southern Eye
