Susan Makore appointed ZiFM boss

AB Communications, the media company that owns ZiFM Stereo and television production company Mighty Movies, has announced the immediate stepping down of its chief executive officer Supa Mandiwanzira.

Mr Mandiwanzira has stepped down following his appointment as Deputy Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services. When ZiFM was awarded the licence many made the point the station was a Zanu PF proxy.

Mandiwanzira subsequently becoming a Zanu PF MP and Deputy Minister in Mugabe’s government has exposed the fallacy that licencing ZiFM and Star FM (owned by the Zanu PF controlled Zimpaper’s Group) amounted to media reforms.

Shockingly 33 years after independence Mugabe and his Zanu PF party still have a monopoly over Radio and TV in the country. This was the same strategy employed by the white minority regime of Ian Smith which Mugabe replaced after independence.

Meanwhile AB Communications has appointed Susan Makore as its new Chief Executive Officer to replace Mandiwanzira. Makore was previously managing director of Mighty Movies.

Makore is one of the country’s leading women in media with extensive experience in broadcasting. She has over 15 years’ experience in the media and mostly the broadcast industry. She is a former lecturer on the University of Zimbabwe’s Media and Communication postgraduate and Masters programmes.

Makore was also the chief executive of Zimbabwe television from 2003 to 2006. Susan sits on various boards that include the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, Financial Gazette and Women’s University in Africa.