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Media ownership in Zimbabwe
MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from Report on International conference on media support strategies for Zimbabwe
November 30, 2005

http://www.i-m-s.dk/Media/PDF/Zimbabwe

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Context
Zimbabwe witnessed a gradual growth in privately owned print media during the 1990s. However, the enactment in 2002 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), which introduced a stringent licensing regime for media houses, coupled with the country’s economic meltdown, has stifled investment in the sector.

But, in spite of the economic constraints on private media (see the section on the ‘Media business environment’ elsewhere in this document), it is the print media licensing authority, the Media and Information Commission (MIC), that has brought about most closures of private publications in recent years. A case in point was the Weekly Times, deregistered by the MIC in February 2005 barely two months after it was launched. Such licensing decisions are likely to make anyone think twice about investing in the media industry.

Foreign ownership in media is restricted both by AIPPA and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA), which applies to the broadcasting sector. Although the BSA allows for the licensing of private broadcasters, the licensing authority, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), has yet to license any radio or television stations that are not owned by the state. The restrictions on programming under BSA are such that it would be extremely difficult for anyone in the business of independent news and current affairs to broadcast in the current environment. Not that anyone in this line of business would be granted a license in the first place; BAZ is accountable to a government that is paranoid about subversion through the airwaves. This makes it unlikely that the BAZ would license anyone without the correct political credentials.

Those with such credentials have already begun to buy into those private print media that continue to operate. In October 2002, owner of the Financial Gazette, Elias Rusike, sold his controlling stake in the paper to a consortium of businessmen led by reserve bank governor Gideon Gono. Gono, a former Chair of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, has been linked to the buy-out of another newspaper company, the Zimbabwe Mirror Group. Also implicated in the deal is the government’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). Meanwhile, in 2003, Africa Media Communications Holdings (AMCH) sold its stake in Africa Tribune Newspapers (ATN) to a group of journalists led by former ZANU-PF legislator Kindness Paradza.

Given this scenario, it is perhaps not surprising that a veil of secrecy surrounds the true identity of shareholders in many private media houses. Research carried out for this paper sought to get behind the veil. However, the Registrar of Companies is in a shambles, and few of the files we sought could be found. So it is still difficult to say for sure who’s who in the media industry. It is ironic that an industry that is supposed to facilitate the free flow of information, and act as a watchdog on government, should be so opaque. Most easy to ascertain was the ownership structure of the Zimbabwe Newspapers, the government-controlled publisher of the Herald and Sunday Mail, which is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

What follows is an account, as far as could be established, of the ownership structures of Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), The Independent Newspapers Group, New Ziana, the Zimbabwe Mirror Group, The Financial Gazette, Africa Tribune Newspapers, and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings. Also included are the circulation figures¹ for newspapers published by the respective companies.

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1. As provided by the Zimbabwe All Media And Products Survey (ZAMPS)

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