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Paidamoyo Muzulu
MEDIA, Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu defied a cabinet directive to regularise the appointment of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (Baz) board, which were controversially awarded two commercial radio licences last month to companies linked to Zanu PF forcing the matter to play out in the courts and parliament.
Baz chairman Tafataona Mahoso announced last month that they had awarded two operating licences to Zimpapers and Supa Mandiwanzira’s AB Communications after going through and listening to submissions from 14 applicants. The decision torched disapproval from losing contestants, various political players and civil society.
Documents seen by the Zimbabwe Independent show that Shamu defied two directives from President Robert Mugabe’s office and premier Morgan Tsvangirai to reconstitute and regularise the appointment of Baz.
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda wrote to Shamu on June 15 directing him to reconstitute the Baz board in line with an agreement reached by the principals in their meeting on May 9, but the minister turned a deaf ear to the directive.
“You are requested to recommend twelve (12) nominees to the board for consideration by the principals in terms of Section 4 of the Baz Act. The nominees should be conveyed at my office for onward transmission to the principals,” wrote Sibanda in his letter to Shamu.
Shamu had earlier ignored a letter from Tsvangirai in November 2009 ordering him to dissolve the Mahoso-led board, which was appointed in September 2009. Tsvangirai had said the board had been appointed without following the law.
Tsvangirai said Shamu had neither consulted the premier nor the Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) before making the appointments, thereby making them illegal.
Tsvangirai wrote: “In line with my meeting with the president on Friday 13 November 2009, and the agreement reached that the appointments were illegal, I direct that you immediately proceed as follows hereunder, taking into account the importance of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe insofar as media is concerned and the obvious sensitivities of the country on this important board which manages a finite state resource in the form of frequencies.”
Shamu declined to comment on the matter yesterday.
“I am not commenting on the matter over the phone. You should come over to my office,” Shamu said yesterday.
In a related development, Shamu’s defiance has sparked a heated debate in parliament with Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya moving a motion calling for revoking of the two licences which Baz awarded to Zimpapers and AB Communications.
Chikwinya’s motion, among other things, calls for dissolution of the current Baz board unilaterally appointed by Shamu and immediate withdrawals of licences to Zimpapers Talk Radio and AB Communications to allow for further consultations by all stakeholders.
Speaker of parliament Lovemore Moyo told the House on Tuesday that the SROC had not participated in the appointment of the Mahoso-led board.
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