I thought I should point out that it is not factually correct to include Transmedia because it was created by law and therefore through an Act of Parliament, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation Act), 2001, which has not been amended and would have to be amended to abolish Transmedia which is totally independent from ZBH.

In terms of this law, ZBH’s mandate is ONLY broadcasting while the mandate of Transmedia is ONLY transmission.

The nine companies were: (1) Zimbabwe Television (ZTV), (2) Radio Zimbabwe, (3) Spot FM, (4) National FM, (5) Power FM, (6) On Air Systems, (7) National Television (NTV), (8) Channel C and (9) AfricaWorld.

Three of these never took off as they were in the early implementation stages and they are: (1) Channel C which was a great joint venture with Multichoice Zimbabwe to start a 24 hour all entertainment channel on satellite, (2) AfricaWorld which was a joint venture with Namibian Broadcasting Corporation which was a 24 hour all news station along the lines of CNN broadcasting from Windhoek, Namibia and (3) National Television (NTV) which was a 24 hour full spectrum television broadcasting in Zimbabwe’s 14 indigenous languages other than Shona and Ndebele and based in Bulawayo.

So in point of fact, only SIX companies were actually set-up and operationalised. The reason ZBH was a “holding” company is precisely because it was holding six companies and could hold more as business and policy requirements dictated.

I doubt that in English you can have a group chief executive overseeing two companies. I do not think two is a group because we all know it is a duo but I stand corrected.

The claim that I did not put money into the companies is very astonishing because it suggests that the whole thing was my personal project and yet we all know that broadcasting in Zimbabwe is considered a security area and is controlled by the State through the government.

Why is Jokonya unable to be honest enough to say that the Government did not put money in the companies because it is broke. Why can’t he say that? Did he expect me to put my mother’s money into those companies or what?

And if the problem is that I did not put any money, why can’t Jokonya put that money since he is so wise as to see that there is no money in the companies?

Even with the new arrangement, money must still be found and poured into broadcasting because it does indeed require a lot of money, and most of it in forex for capitalization purposes, which cash strapped Zimbabwe simply does not have.

I hope Jokonya will not have to put his mother’s money into the new ZBH.