Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is Zimbabwe’s state-owned national broadcasting service, operating television and radio from its Pockets Hill headquarters in the Highlands suburb of Harare. ZBC broadcasts in English, Shona, Ndebele, and other constitutionally recognised national languages.

Media assets

Television: ZBC TV, ZBC News, Jive TV

Radio: National FM, Radio Zimbabwe, Power FM, Classic 263, Khulumani FM, 95.8 Central Radio

Ownership and governance

ZBC traces its institutional lineage to the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC), established in 1960 under the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. After the political transitions of the late 1970s, the broadcaster was renamed the Voice of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979 and then the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation in 1980, following the country’s independence and the establishment of majority rule under Robert Mugabe. ZBC’s modern corporate and commercial structure derives from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act of 2001, which provided for successor companies to take over the functions, assets, and liabilities of the former corporation, with the state as the sole shareholder in the successor broadcasting structure. The Broadcasting Services Act, together with its 2025 amendment, provides the broader broadcasting regulatory framework. In 2005, then-Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo unbundled the corporation into nine companies under a holding structure known as Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH).

The corporation is 100% state-owned. Its Board of Directors is appointed by the Minister responsible for Information under the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act, following consultations involving the Office of the President. A new 13-member ZBC Board was formally gazetted on 13 June 2025, chaired by Helliate Rushwaya, with Tapson Dzvetero as vice chair. The board membership reported at the time of gazetting included Chipo Nheta, Henry Mukono, Nanette Silukhuni, Charles Munganasa, Precious Charandura, Thandolwenkosi Nkomo, Sibongile Mpofu, Queen Mpofu, Amon Matambo, Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa, and Martin Kweza. Independent Zimbabwean media have reported that Rushwaya is a niece of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a relationship that has been the subject of repeated commentary on the politicisation of ZBC’s leadership architecture.

The Chief Executive Officer position has seen significant turnover. Adelaide Chikunguru was appointed substantive CEO in June 2021, having previously served as Group Corporate Communications Executive at Tongaat Hulett; she was suspended in February 2024 on allegations of financial impropriety and weak corporate governance, and resigned in March 2024. After more than seventeen months of acting arrangements, Sugar Chagonda was appointed substantive CEO effective 1 August 2025. Chagonda began his broadcasting career at ZBC between 2004 and 2009, served as Head of Corporate Affairs at the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority from 2009, and held a corporate-affairs role at the Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company from 2018. Rushwaya framed Chagonda’s appointment as a mandate to transform ZBC’s editorial output and production quality and to elevate news bulletins to international standards in terms of aesthetics and delivery.

Operational oversight of ZBC sits with the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services. Zhemu Soda was appointed Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services in the February 2026 cabinet reshuffle, replacing Jenfan Muswere, who was concurrently moved to the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development. Muswere had served as Minister since 11 September 2023. The reshuffle followed local media reports of tensions over Muswere’s attempted changes to the ZBC Board, though the government did not officially present the reshuffle in those terms. The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) is the sector regulator with responsibility for licensing and spectrum allocation.

Source of funding and budget

ZBC’s revenue mix combines television and radio licence fees, advertising, and direct Treasury allocations. Licence-fee compliance among Zimbabwean households has historically been low, with earlier estimates placing payment rates at approximately 10%. On 23 May 2025, the Broadcasting Services Amendment Act introduced a mandatory vehicle radio licence fee required prior to motor-vehicle insurance or licensing, a measure designed to substantially expand the corporation’s licence-fee base. The vehicle licence-fee component generated significant public backlash from motorists and media stakeholders, and Jenfan Muswere announced in November 2025 that the government would reduce ZBC licence fees from January 2026 as part of a coordinated tariff-reduction response.

Government and ministerial reporting cited a projected ZBC revenue figure of approximately US$55 million under the corporation’s 2022–2025 reform cycle, framed as a benchmark improvement over previous years. The same reform cycle was described by the Ministry as including the completion of audited accounts for the 2016 to 2024 financial years, the regularisation of Annual and Extraordinary General Meetings, and the commissioning of a forensic audit at the corporation. The 2026 ZBC budget includes a government allocation equivalent to US$10 million for local content producers, including filmmakers, musicians, and producers, channelled through the public broadcaster to support the Zimbabwean creative industries. The 2026 National Budget, presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on 27 November 2025, marks the first annual fiscal plan under the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) spanning January 2026 to December 2030.

Capital investment in broadcasting infrastructure has accelerated under the ZimDigital Phase 2 programme, which targets the expansion of television coverage beyond a 38% national footprint and radio signal reach beyond 62%. The programme is supported by Transmedia as signal carrier and is intended to complete the digital migration that Zimbabwe missed against the original International Telecommunication Union 2015 deadline. Under the 2025 Broadcasting Services Amendment Act, subscription and satellite broadcasting licensees are required to carry up to three channels of the public broadcaster, with at least one channel unencoded.

Editorial independence

Zimbabwe’s Constitution imposes impartiality and independence obligations on state-owned media, requiring all state-owned media to determine editorial content independently, be impartial, and afford fair opportunity for divergent views. ZBC, however, lacks an effective independent oversight mechanism capable of enforcing those obligations in practice. The corporation’s editorial coverage has been the subject of repeated judicial and observer scrutiny. In 2019, the High Court of Zimbabwe found ZBC and state-owned newspapers in breach of constitutional obligations of impartiality and independence, ordering fair party representation in broadcast and print coverage during election periods.

The corporation’s appointment architecture compounds the editorial-independence question: the ZBC Board is appointed by the Minister of Information following Presidential consultation, the Chief Executive Officer is appointed by the Board, and senior editorial roles are appointed through the corporate hierarchy. The reported familial relationship between Board Chair Helliate Rushwaya and President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been cited by Zimbabwean media as a structural feature shaping the broadcaster’s editorial latitude.

ZBC’s coverage of the 2023 harmonised elections, in which Emmerson Mnangagwa was returned for a second term as President, was the subject of monitoring by the European Union Election Observation Mission, which found that ZBC devoted a dominant share of monitored news and current-affairs coverage to ZANU-PF, the President, and government, with highly positive tone and limited opposition coverage. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe summarised observer findings that ZBC and state-owned newspapers favoured one party in contravention of constitutional and electoral standards.

AI and digital policy

ZBC operates an extensive digital footprint anchored by the zbc.co.zw corporate website, with live streaming for radio and television, the ZBC News online portal, and social-media accounts across Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The corporation has also pursued an expansion of its content production and distribution architecture, including studio recapitalisation at Pockets Hill and Montrose and the establishment of provincial content hubs under the ZiTESA framework. No publicly available evidence of a formal ZBC policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified in this review. At the national-policy level, the Cyber and Data Protection Act, the Broadcasting Services Act, and the Broadcasting Services Amendment Act of 2025 shape the regulatory environment for digital content.

May 2026