Today the Herald published a damning leaked Memo written by the Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba directed to the former Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Minister Webster Shamu. The Memo dated 1 November 2012 largely criticised the way suspended ZBC CEO Happison Muchechetere ran the state broadcaster (to the ground, it must be said), but also reveals some glaring weaknesses in the Information Ministry, under Minister Shamu at that time.
Sometime in 2012, ZBC workers wrote a petition alleging poor corporate governance against the senior management which they intended to lodge at the Anti Corruption Commission. Sensing danger, ZBC CEO, Happison Muchechetere apparently wrote a “State of Affairs” report to his immediate boss Secretary George Charamba to presumably pre-empt a defense to the workers’ allegations.
Interestingly, in his memo, George Charamba says this was the first report Happison Muchechetere had written to him since he took the top post at ZBC – three and a half years earlier!
George Charamba’s memo to Minister Webster Shamu was primarily a response to Muchetere’s “State of affairs” reports which Charamba described as “defensive”.
If Charamba’s memo is anything to go by, then the writing was on the wall for ZBC for a long time. It portrays Happison Muchechetere an incompetent manager who had everything else to blame for failure except himself.
Amongst Muchechetere’s excuses were “multi-dimensional political machinations”, and the evidence of these “political machinations” are simply hilarious.
The specific instance ZBC CEO gives to back up his political interpretation of events is both tenuous and self-embarrassing. Three persons are said to have invaded ZBC premises with a view to unlawfully photographing its premises and assets. After a search, a business card of an MDC-T operative is found in the phone pouch of one of the accused. With due respect, Sir, I find it incredible that the CEO’s report seeks to place the fate of the whole ZBC on that small card, on that small evidence. If the trespassers had not come in, would ZBC financial fortunes and industrial relations have been any different?
George Charamba
Other excuses Muchechetere put forward in his state of affair report included absence of state funding, non-payment from government and parastatals, and partly expensive “National Galas” ZBC hosts each year.
Charamba argues that issues of non-payment from government and parastatals were squarely on Muchechetere’s failure to run ZBC as a commercial entity which entered into credit arrangements which it was responsible for.
However, despite the valid argument raised by Charamba regarding his issues with Muchechetere’s, there is no doubt that the leaked memo also exposed some glaring weaknesses in the Information ministry during that time.
Firstly, Secretary Charamba admitted that they were not receiving audit reports, minutes from board meetings, procurement reports among other critical information from the ZBC. More startling is how Muchechetere went over three years without submitting a single report to his parent ministry as Charamba alleges. Surely, if the ministry felt these reports were important, they could have demanded them.
Secondly, there is a strong sense that the “old” Ministry was complacent and lacked the will to decisively deal with Muchechetere as the “new” ministry has done under Professor Jonathan Moyo. In his closing remarks and recommendations contained in the 2012 Memo, George Charamba advises Minister Shamu not to take disciplinary action against Muchechetere (not to say he would have taken that course of action) and even suggests protecting them from further “stress”.
There are real, substantial shortcomings in the ZBC CEO. A positive attitude is to view these as genuine weaknesses requiring remedial intervention, not disciplinary action.In any event, it would not be good to dispatch a Ministry team at the same time that the Commission is at ZBC. It might just add to the confusion and stress.
Mr George Charamba
At this point could the ZBC be fixed by remedial action?
Further down the memo, Secretary Charamba says Muchechetere and “his management have an image of persons who crave for a larger life, all at the expense of workers and sound management of ZBC affairs”. Charamba’s remedy is for was for Muchechetere “to readjust his personality so that he rebuilds his image and regains staff trust”. This didn’t happen and was unlikely to do so especially with staff going for months without pay.
The Herald says it could not get a comment from Minister Webster Shamu (who is now minister of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services) so it’s not quite clear whether he read Charamba’s memo and what his reaction was.
The Herald’s comment on Charamba’s memo seems to celebrate it as something prophetic headlining it as “ZBC Mess Foretold”. However, The Ministry’s weakness is summed by a reader comment on Charamba’s memo on the Herald’s website,
Actions speak louder than words. Others wrote and talked. Professor Moyo acted. Therein lies the difference.
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28 comments
and this article is posted on techzim because??
ah so it was a liquid issue not zol then….
ZOL is part of Liquid my friend. No difference
Ok you may as well say Econet then. Same difference?
yeah i was saying that the issue was liquid related not zol only
Agree with your “and…because?”
Besides the article struggling for tech-relevance,Politics is too murky. I wouldn’t advise in getting mixed up.
Unrelated:From mobile,The Facebook “Recommend” in line pop up is blocking my comment box,so hardly see what I’m typing.unless I zoom-out or play tricks-Nexus 4,FF
hey, thanks for the feedback on the “recommend” popup box. will check into it to see how we can fix.
Sure.Thanks for responding!
We have been covering ZBC and issues around broadcasting all along. Maybe this is outside your area of interest tech wise but it does not necessarily mean it does not interest other Techzim readers. In fact, one reader inboxed on Facebook requesting that we look at the memo, something that we had already done. The point is not everything you find here may be “for you” because tech is broad and so is our following. Regarding the internet outage, maybe you could have sent us a tip about it because we did not experience it here. Thanks.
You’re not getting his point. He’s not even saying it in bad taste. Like many of us he has supported and continues to support TechZim from the start.Have you bothered to check his normal comments? Is he unnecessarily malicious?
Drawing the “not for you” card is rather dismissive.
It’s a valid point that many articles are drifting away from the type of material we had seen from the beginning. Maybe your content scope has changed… say so! But there’s certainly a drift from tech-related issues to peripheral ones.
What are comments for?
I meant that kthaker is a general contributor who’s history of generally non-malicious comment should indicate to you that his concern is genuine. As opposed to brushing it aside.
That said, thanks for your response.I also insist this piece is way off your general scope.
Good day!
Hi. Thanks for following Techzim from the start and we really appreciate your valued support.
Regarding the comment in question, I was merely answering his question as to why this post is on Techzim. I don’t think his question or comment is malicious in any way otherwise I would not have responded because we don’t generally respond to malicious comments. There is nothing wrong with comments and that’s why we have an open comment section that we hardly moderate. However, we also reserve the right to respond to comments that warrant responses like the one in question.
On the view you raised on content, I do not agree that we a drifting to peripheral issues as you suggest but rather since we can do more, we are now able to cover wider tech-related issues that may form core tech themes for other readers. So “peripheral” is relative in this case. Tech is dynamic and we are responding to that content wise.
However, we are listening to your concerns and we will definitely look at striking a balance. Thanks again for your continued support.
Hey I think you are right because know I have a fair idea of whats going to happen to the ministry of IC
BTW nothing wrong covering ZBC
Tendai, no need to get defensive here. the point is.. herald, newzimbabwe, dailynews, newsday, kwayedza and every other news site all provide enough information on whats happening at ZBC with regards to their HR issues.
Techzim is a technology related site. as was mentioned by others..people come to this site for tech related news (which is branded Tech Zim). had this article been about ZBC and its future plans to introduce digital broadcasting or the technology related to it.. then no one would complain. perhaps, if it were an article to discuss what ZBC needs to do, technology wise, to get things back on track for them.. im sure you’d have alot more interested people posting comments then.
I suspect you’ve rather tried to start a discussion about ZBC and its political issues (thinking it was a good idea to get the comments rolling in a heated debate) but what you dont understand is that this is more suitable for your own personal blog.. or perhaps as a guest publisher on newzimbabwe where the general readers look for info on current affairs as an example.
With regards to Liquid outage, well, its a little cheeky for you to suggest that it wasnt serious because you hadnt experienced it..and that I should have sent you a tip about it. fact is, the outage was for about 10-15 minutes where major ISP’s lost all international connectivity. while this might not seem like alot of time, companies in Zimbabwe who depend on internet to run critical businesses felt the pinch. If you had taken the time, and interest to speak to some of the key tech people at some of these major service providers.. you would’ve got some really valuable tech info to report on rather.
thanks for the feedback @kthaker:disqus
On the Liquid story, thought I’d say a bit more to what Tendai has already explained. We don’t constantly check what ISP is down or up. And especially if we’re not affected by the outage, it’s difficult to know. Worse still if it’s a 10 minute outage.
We do get lots of tips about what’s going which we follow.
You work at an ISP/hosting company which places you within the sphere of such information as it happens, so do give us a headsup when there’s a chance we might have missed something you think deserves coverage.
yeah i should note, i failed over to my umax connection during the issue and it was working fine…..so they dont get upstream from liquid so would explain why it carried on working
Totally agree with you @kthaker, i read the article halfway and i felt like i was on newzim or thezimbabwemail or something. It’s a political web they are dealing with at ZBC and the tech element to it is negligible in my view. The condescending tone of the moderators leaves a lot to be desired, we are your audience so write comments in a friendly manner rather than saying:
“And your problem with me is?”
“The point is not everything you find here may be “for you” because tech is broad and so is our following”
if you feel like giving such responses please rethink of the impact such comments will have on the audience.
We thank you
Looks like Charamba is fighting for his life… this must have been triggered by some perceived threats to his tenure (real or just imagined). Unfortunately it does not only expose Shamu as the weak link it also points to Charamba’s negligence of duty. The ZBC problem is only coming to light now because Moyo for some reason decided to prob it but Charamba (and his ex-boss) has always known about it but decided to do nothing about it. This loudmouth has an ego much bigger than his brains.
Uyu wamunoti tendai makamuwana kupi?
And your problem with me is?
Political
When the Herald publishes a ‘damning’ story on a Zanu PF member, then you know its because of the infighting, not because they are doing what is right.
The only story here is that Charamba is fighting Shamu. Nothing has been done and nothing will be done to remedy the situation.
The only change will be in personnel, and looking at our history, the new personnel will continue looting, and then the cycle will continue.
To me broadcasting is under ICT! Very good article. Keep it up guys and don’t be too narrow as being advocated by some users, surely they are free to choose articles to read and to skip like I do to any newspaper!
Not a newspaper, buddy. That’s exactly what its about
if about broadcasting issues, then yes. but this is not what the article is about
@kabweza:disqus remember my post a ~week ago http://www.techzim.co.zw/2014/01/new-techzim-top-5-trended-social-media-fix/#comment-1205846970 maybe it will hit you later. just hope its not too long before you do so
“Tendai is a Techwriter with Techzim with a special interest in startups, consumer gadgets, apps and social media.” – I just read a political article on techzim… I come here for technology news and find a political article. Is this what writers who specialize in gadgets, apps and social media do to pay the bills now? Better yet, if your bosses have you the go ahead for this article did they realize they also gave us the go ahead to find tech news elsewhere? Quite disappointing. If I wanted to read/hear about something like this I’d buy the herald or listen to a combi conductor.