Muradzikwa set to be named new ZBH CEO

Muradzikwa set to be named new ZBH CEO

• Zanu PF fires newspaper editor

• Power struggle at Information Ministry

• Zimbabwe's information minister Jokonya dies

• Jonathan Moyo: ZBH needs money, but whose money?

• Jokonya makes sweeping changes at ZBH

• MPs finger Herald political editor over sexual abuse

• Zanu PF editor fights demotion, suspension

• Herald journalists remanded in custody

• Herald journalists up for murder

• Herald suspends journalist over Gono speech

• Mutasa halts Zanu PF editor's trial

• Bail for 'thieving' Zanu PF editor

• Herald court reporter charged with extortion

• SABC crew ejected from Murerwa briefing

• Al-Jazeera to set up Zimbabwe office

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S troubled state broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH), will this week name former Ziana Editor-In-Chief Henry Muradzikwa as the new chief executive officer, New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.

Sources within ZBH said staff now feared a culling of journalists and other staff, particularly the young crop of reporters and presenters at the corporation.

A source at ZBH revealed: "There was so much expectation mainly from workers about the much-talked about change, but reports of an old and retired journalist coming back means doom, at least according to the sentiment."

Muradzikwa was last week seen having lunch with a committee of the ZBH board that appointed him. He is said to have demanded a brand new Mercedes as part of his pay package.

A ZBH source said: "We can expect Muradzikwa to bring back the Radio Maputo war-vets-cum-journalists to manage the succession war within Zanu PF. It seems all the young editors and managers are on their way out."

Radio Maputo was a radio station set up by Zimbabwe's independence war veterans to relay messages during the war of independence from white minority rule in the 1970s.

Muradzikwa's insistence that he wants to be given his Mercedes before assuming office has delayed his appointment which could have been made last week, sources said.

The ZBH has no money and has been struggling to pay staff salaries. ZBH sources believe the government will pump in an extra $3 billion (new currency) at the next budget to bolster the publicity machinery and lift staff morale.

Muradzikwa would be expected to implement a second wave of reforms announced by former Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya before his sudden death in July.

Jokonya wanted to reverse changes made by his predecessor, Jonathan Moyo, who unbundled the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to form nine companies, although only six companies were ever set up.
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