Mahoso appointed to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe board

“That issue is being revisited and appointment of board members of BAZ is the business of the President and the Prime Minister just like what we did on the appointment of the Zimbabwe Media Commissioners.” “It starts off with the SROC, the names are submitted to us, we consider and we select. That has not been done. Therefore it is quiet irregular for the minister or anybody to announce those names, Tsvangirai said Tuesday.

He spoke just before leaving for Spain where he will receive an International Bar Association (IBA) award for the respect of the rule of law and another award from the Cris Gaberoun Foundation. Shamhu last week unilaterally announced board members to public entities that directly fall under his ministry. He said Mahoso will now head the board of BAZ with Zimbabwe Open University Vice Chancellor Dr Primrose Kurasha as his deputy. He also announced the BAZ board along with appointments to various parastatals and other organisations under his ministry. All the boards he announced included retired military officers. These include Brigadier-General Epmarcus Kanhanga (Zimpapers), Brig-Gen Elasto Madzingira (BAZ), Brig-Gen Benjamin Mabenge, Major-General Gibson Mashingaidze (both ZBH), Brig-Gen Livingstone Chineka (Transmedia) Brig-Gen Collin Moyo (Kingstons) and Col Claudius Makova (New Ziana).

Tsvangirai however said the appointments by Shamhu were meant to undermine the authority and credibility of the ZMC and the BAZ before they are even constituted. What is very unfortunate is that resurrecting people from the dead does not inspire confidence in the whole process. As principals we have agreed on the names for the chairperson and deputy of the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).” “There is one legal point that has to be addressed before the names of the commissioners are made public. That is what President (Robert) Mugabe said he wants addressed, said Tsvangirai. He said the appointment of the Zimpapers board members was also irregular as the company is a publicly quoted company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and the appointment members should be done through an Annual General Meeting.

What we are supposed to do as government is appoint members to the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust, who are supposed to go into the AGM and submit who want to be on the board of directors of Zimpapers, so again its very irregular, he said. Tsvangirai, also acknowledged that there have been challenges in the inclusive government in terms of the full implementation of the GPA but maintained they, would be over come. What we have done is that while we all appreciate that there has been some progress, there are some areas where we have not fulfilled the global political agreement. So we have now put in place a mechanism to do an interim evaluation of the GPA… said Tsvangirai.