Star Fm and ZiFM were recently awarded commercial radio licences and are said to be taking business away from ZBC.
Workers who spoke to TheZimbabwean on Tuesday said poor programming, corruption and mismanagement have seen advertisers leaving the station in droves in search of alternative media outlets.
The company, which mainly depends on advert and licence revenue, is reportedly in a financial mess and is believed to have accumulated an estimated overdraft of $800,000 with CBZ, its banker.
To further compound the woes of the propaganda mouthpiece is the resignation of two senior marketing managers, Piwayi Dzuda and Moses Banda, who have since joined Star Fm and ZIFM, respectively.
“Our financial situation for the greater part of this year has not been good but I think the departure of Dzuda and Banda was the final nail in the coffin. Advertisers seem to be following these guys and the new manger is not even known in the field,” said one worker who refused to be named.
“Again, the management underestimated the power of the new stations.
They thought they were just coming in for fun but these stations are professional and have taken over a fair amount of the market share.
ZBC is as good as dead,” he added.
The workers committee which has been fighting for employees to get their salaries is finding the going tough.
The company has been struggling to pay its workers, relying on overdrafts to finance its soaring wage bill driven mostly by the excessive and unsustainable perks for the top four managers.
“These top four guys are milking the organisation”, said a senior worker in the marketing department Workers at the state broadcasting station were on Monday advised by management that the company had no money to pay them their August salaries.
“CBZ is now demanding that the company should at least return a quarter of the overdraft if it is to increase the overdraft .Our salary bill is at $400 000,” the official added.
Efforts by The Zimbabwean to get an official comment from ZBC's spokesperson, Sivhukile Simango, were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.
Post published in: News