HARARE --Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) last week suspended three senior managers on allegations of sexual misconduct and leaking details of a directive to impose a news blackout on Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.Jacob Phiri, news production manager, Freedom Moyo, bulletin manager, and O’Brien Rwafa, reporters manager, were suspended on Thursday and ordered to surrender company property, including vehicles, cell phones and their IDs to the security manager. They were also ordered not to talk to any ZBC employee about issues concerning company business and barred from visiting any ZBC premises during their two-week suspension.
Phiri and Moyo are being accused of leaking company information to the private press and online publications, while Rwafa is facing sexual abuse allegations. Last week ZBH chief executive officer, Happison Muchechetere, told the editorial team to impose blackout on MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai because he had pulled out of the government and the story was leaked to online publications.
According to a source within the ZBC Current Affairs department, who attended the editorial meeting, Muchechetere and Tazzen Mandizvidza (General manager News and Current Affairs) suspected that Moyo and Phiri had something to do with the leaking of the details. The ZBH Human Resources Manager declined to comment and referred The Zimbabwean to ZBH Boss, Happison Muchechetere. He was not available at the time of filing.