Ex-ZBC CEO saga takes new twist

THE resignation of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) chief executive officer Adelaide Chikunguru has taken a new twist after a letter emerged purporting that Information minister Jenfan Muswere had forced her out of the parastatal.

The letter written by Chikunguru was addressed to the Chief Secretary to the Office of the President and Cabinet dated October 10, 2023.

The letter was copied to Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana, Corporate Governance Unit permanent secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet Allen Choruma, then Veterans of the Liberation Struggle Affairs minister Christopher Mutsvangwa and ZBC board chairperson Josaya Tayi.

In the letter, Chikunguru said Muswere was pressuring her to resign through perceived insults during meetings.

“In these meetings, he continued to repeat that ZBC management and board were incompetent and had failed. He highlighted numerous times his intention to want to fire the board as well as myself. This is besides the reports and performance reviews by the Corporate Governance Unit, which we gave him,” Chikunguru said in the letter.

“He further made accusations that I had not given him the required documents and that I was a non-performer. He highlighted in one of the meetings that his intention was to award salary increments to ZBC staff and exclude management since they were non-performers. I did not understand the basis of these accusations and insults, especially considering that some of them were made in the presence of my subordinates.”

Chikunguru said Muswere wanted her to resign because he assumed she was related to the ex-Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa.

“Judging from his tone, I believe that he thinks I am in some way related to the former minister and may not have got to my position by merit. He insinuated this in many meetings. However, this is untrue as you know, my relationship with the former minister Hon Mutsvangwa was professional and I only met her when I joined ZBC,” she said.

Chikunguru recently resigned after being suspended over alleged financial mismanagement and corporate governance failures.

Efforts to get a comment from Muswere were fruitless as he was not answering his mobile phone.