HUNDREDS of workers at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) yesterday underwent a rigorous vetting exercise administered by officials from the Ministry of Information to determine if they were genuine employees as the broadcaster started paying outstanding salaries.
BY JOHN NYASHANU POLITICAL EDITOR
The workers had gone without pay over the past six months with the ZBC management citing financial challenges amid reports that about 400 ghost workers, among them former staffers and managers’ wives, were on the broadcaster’s payroll.
ZBC spokesperson Gladman Bandama told NewsDay yesterday that the verification exercise was carried out at the ZBC headquarters at Pockets Hill in Harare.
“I am glad to say some of our employees who bank with CBZ, our mother bank, have already received their salaries. Funds are being deposited into workers’ accounts and very soon everyone will have been paid,” said Bandama, adding that the employees were being paid their outstanding salaries all at once.
Some employees described the vetting exercise as cumbersome with staff being asked to produce their national identification documents which were then checked against their filed records.
“They then checked the amount of advance payments each of us received for them to make correct deposits,” one employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
The salary payout follows recent government intervention through Media, Information and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo following reports that ZBC managers were living large, while their subordinates had gone for several months without pay.
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Moyo immediately dissolved the ZBC board and sent CEO Happison Muchechetere and other senior staffers on forced leave, pending a forensic audit after it emerged that the Muchechetere was earning a gross monthly salary of $40 000 and huge perks.
Meanwhile, ZBC TV’s Music Request presenter, Tendai Chitsinde, has died. She was 24.
ZBC reported yesterday that Chitsinde died on Wednesday at Parirenyatwa Hospital while giving birth. The child also died in the process. Bandama said ZBC would meet some of the burial costs.
She is set to be buried in Mvurwi tomorrow afternoon.
