HARARE - Workers at the scandal-hit Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) must be a happy lot now that they have finally received their salaries after a seven-month delay.
While the restoration of salaries should be a cause for celebration, this must not delude Zimbabweans into believing that all is now well at the perennially bankrupt national broadcaster.
The payment of the salaries, which was obviously the most urgent matter for Media, Information and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo at ZBC, must be the first step towards unravelling how the national broadcaster has been abused over and over again without let up.
Zimbabweans deserve a thorough report on how ghost workers found themselves on the payroll.
Even more importantly, the culprits who milked ZBC must not only be unmasked but made to pay back thousands of dollars they fleeced the Zimbabwean taxpayer.
The ongoing probe at the national broadcaster must also thoroughly investigate claims that some senior government officials turned a blind eye to the looting because they were also benefiting from the rot.
It is alleged these government officials illegitimately accessed free fuel at the national broadcaster.
If indeed this is true, this could explain why government allowed suspended ZBC chief executive Happison Muchechetere and other top executives to reward themselves hefty salaries while workers went unpaid for close to a year.
It is important to establish if the ZBC board headed by Cuthbert Dube approved the obscene salaries received by Muchechetere and company.
Did they have ministerial approval?
If government was totally unaware of the salaries and perks, then we have every reason to believe that there is inadequate policing and an oversight on expenditure in parastatals like ZBC.
The solution to this madness that has been allowed to reign supreme at ZBC is to bring professionalism into the way the national broadcaster is run.
The time has come for ZBC to realise that its real masters are listeners and viewers and not politicians.
Radio listeners and television viewers do not owe ZBC anything.
The national broadcaster must not expect radio listeners and television viewers to pay licence fees while serving them pure hogwash.
If ZBC persists with its negative attitude, viewership and listenership will continue to plummet.
It is also critical for government to stop once and for all, the culture that has allowed successive Media, Information and Broadcasting Services ministers to appoint their lackeys at ZBC so as to further their own personal interests.
These questionable appointments have clearly made the once proud national broadcaster deteriorate to the current disturbing levels.