Zimbabwe’s Information and Publicity Minister, Webster Shamu told parliament that US$10 million is needed to repair equipment at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings which is now obsolete and in dire need of revamp.
“The transmitters have been in operation for about 34 years instead of eight years which has significantly affected transmission. The equipment needs to be revitalised due to old age, almost all the transmitters in the country have outlived their life span and need to be revamped,” he said.
“About US$4 million is required to revive the radio network, while US$5 million is required for our television networks.”
Minister Shamu said he was hopeful the equipment will be revamped before the end of the year. We do hope the government will get the money needed, and that there will be no more misuse of funds.
Through corruption and mismanagement of public funds the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings is in these troubles today, so as many other public corporations in the country. A few years ago money was wasted, relocating to different parts of the country and re-branding radio stations. The money could have been used to buy new equipment.
ZBC also lost a lot of revenue from advertisers when it chose to be a propaganda station, focusing mainly on FREE political broadcasts. (Do you still remember the days of Tava neminda tirambe takashinga)
We hope now they have turned a new leaf and there will be no going back to those corrupt old days. ZBC should be working to bring top quality entertainment to it’s licence paying viewers.
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