ZBH targets six again

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) has retrenched the six suspended journalists it was ordered to re-instate, writes our correspondent.

In June, ZBH suspended the journalists for allegedly failing to support President Robert Mugabe adequately during the March election. They were news editor Patrice Makova, producers Monica Gavela and Sibonginkosi Mlilo, reporters Brian Paradza, Garikai Chaunza and Robert Tapfumaneyi. Also suspended was Robson Mhandu, the general manager for TV services.
 
The six sought recourse at the Labour Court which ruled in their favour and ordered re-instatement with full benefits. Mhandu did not join the action.
 
But now ZBH human resources head Benania Shumba has notified the six of looming retrenchment, they said.
 
They claimed they had been told that they could no longer fit in the new structures.
 
The journalists said they were consulting their attorneys and would make known their position "once we had sought legal counsel".
 
Mugabe's party, Zanu PF, which controls the public media through government appointees in the Information ministry, purged journalists it suspected of running botched campaigns for the party and its leader in the March 29 elections which saw the liberation movement losing to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
 
The MDC got 100 seats, the other faction 10 and Zanu PF 99.
 
Among the high profile casualties of the purge was the ZBH former chief executive officer Henry Muradzikwa who was dismissed for the same reasons as his journalists.
 
The veteran journalist was replaced by war veteran and Mugabe loyalist, Happison Muchechetere, one of whose first acts in office was to suspend the six journalists.