STATE broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is reportedly re-hiring some of its experienced staff fired using the Supreme Court ruling that allows the termination of employment contracts on three months’ notice, NewsDay has learnt.
by Staff Reporter
Sources close to the developments also claimed that a human resources audit had revealed that some senior managers who were asked to re-submit their educational and professional certificates did not possess the requisite qualifications for their jobs.
“At least three departmental heads in the radio department (names withheld) only had ‘O’ Levels as their highest qualifications, while a former acting general manager only has an ‘A’ Level certificate,” an insider said.
ZBC spokesperson Gladman Bandama yesterday said: “There is nothing like that. I think there is a lot of speculation among staff members that after the exercise to rationalise staff and pronouncements made by the permanent secretary (George Charamba) regarding the on-going digitalisation programme, some think there was a plot by management to fire people and then re-hire them on contract basis.
“We gave notices of termination to a wide spectrum of our staff as part of rationalising our staff levels because we had become bloated over time.
“As the permanent secretary said, as part of the digitalisation programme, we will need to hire experienced staff and some among those who we laid off might be lucky to come back because we might need them, but definitely not on contract basis. We will definitely need experienced producers and other staff and it is only proper that those with an idea of the environment will have an advantage”.
President Robert Mugabe in his State of the Nation Address on Tuesday indicated that government had since committed funds for the digitalisation programme that had initially been set to be completed by June 17 as set by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
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As regards the issue of lack of qualifications on the part of some managers, Bandama could only say: “We have made reference to the fact that this is a rationalisation process and there was need for a criterion during the selection of who goes and who stays, hence the issue of qualifications obviously came up. So those who were found wanting obviously had to be asked to go”.
In January last year, Charamba told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media and Broadcasting Services that former chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere did not have the qualifications required for his position.
“The incumbent was not fit to be where he was as he was an editor. I wrote to the former minister Webster Shamu a damming report about him. I fell short of letting him know that he was not qualified. However, there was a lot of shadow boxing on the matter,” Charamba told the committee chaired by Zanu PF’s William Dewa.
Muchechetere, who has been engaged in a bitter fight with the ZBC, has since been fired using the Supreme Court ruling.
