Interviews of Candidates for Appointment to BAZ Board

After the interviews Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders  will submit a list of the six top-rated candidates and the President must choose three, including at least one woman, to appoint to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe [BAZ] Board from this list [see below for more detail on the relevant statutory provisions].

Candidates and interview times

The candidates and the times at which they will be interviewed are shown in the following table provided by Parliament:

Public attendance

Members of the public may attend the interviews as observers.  Persons wishing to attend should use the Kwame Nkrumah Avenue entrance to Parliament and note that national identity cards or valid passports are necessary for admission.

About the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe [BAZ] and its Board

The Broadcasting Services Act [“the Act”] establishes the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe [BAZ] for the Broadcasting Authority Board and for the appointment of a twelve-member Board to exercise the functions of the BAZ.  These important functions include:

·        generally, advising the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services on all matters relating to broadcasting systems and services; including advising on ways of improving and promoting a regulatory environment that will facilitate the development of a broadcasting industry in Zimbabwe that is efficient, competitive and responsive to audience needs and the national interest

·       planning and advising on the allocation and distribution of the available frequency spectrum,

·        receiving, evaluating and considering applications for the issue of any broadcasting licence or signal carrier licence.

Board members

The Board presently has no members – the 5-year terms of office of the previous members have long since expired.  This resulted in a High Court order setting aside a controversial decision [cancelling a licence] by the BAZ Chief Executive Officer that should have been taken by the Board [this was in the Kwese TV case in September 2017]

Section 4(2) of the Act provides for the twelve-member Board to be appointed in the following ways:

a)   nine are appointed directly by the President after consultation with the Minister and Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders [at least three of these members must be women]. Note:  This process falls outside the scope of this bulletin.  It does not require the conduct of public interviews by Parliament.

b)   three are appointed by the President from a list of six nominees submitted by the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders [at least one of these members must be a woman].  Note: This bulletin refers only to the filling of vacancies for three paragraph (b) members. 

Parliament has been requested to provide a list of six nominees to enable the President to fill the three paragraph (b) vacancies.  Twelve candidates have been shortlisted from those who applied to be considered in response to an invitation for nominations that was published in September.  The next step is for public interviews of these twelve candidates to be conducted on Friday.  Thereafter the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders will decide on the list of six nominees to be submitted to the President – at least two of whom must be women.

Chairperson

The Act provides for a chairperson and vice-chairperson to be designated from among the Board members. 

Note: The Broadcasting Services Act has still not been aligned with the Constitution.

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