The Times of Zambia Crisis

IT can no longer be denied that the situation at Times of Zambia has reached crisis stage. Workers have resolved to intensify their strike action following months of unpaid salaries. The three chapel presidents of the Zambia Union of Journalists have all resolved to down tools to press management to pay salaries accusing them of not prioritising workers interest and opting to spend on their own comforts, on retriees and legal fees.
The problems at Times of Zambia are not unique, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) outgoing Director General Chibamba Kanyama lamented in his exit interview on Sunday 1st June, 2014 that salaries were a huge problem to meet at the institution. I have written here extensively on the problem of Zambia's failed media parastatals.
Some opposition leaders see the crisis is an opportunity to raise their political profile by siding with the suffering journalists and other employees. United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema said his party was fully aware that top managers were busy buying expensive personal to holder vehicles while employees are going without pay for such a lengthy period of time.
"It is very clear that the extravagance and selfishness that exists in the PF government leadership has now spread to a few heads of parastatal boards and other quasi-institutions most of whom were handpicked without following laid down corporate governance procedures.
We are wondering how families of these employees are now surviving because we know that some of them are being evicted from their houses, their children have been chased from schools, yet they report for work everyday but bosses and management boards have not helped to resolve the problems."
According to UPND what is happening at Times of Zambia is a clear case where incompetent management boards. 
It is not true that the problem lies with the boards because these problems have existed long before Patriotic Front came into office and as a matter of fact the PF manifesto hinted on commercialisation of these entities. In its current state, who would want to buy the Times of Zambia? Its high time the government accepted that this paper has failed and shut it down since it cannot survive on its own and clearly no longer has much relevance to the pubic who own it.
There is no need to recapitalise the institution as proposed by the union in its many requests to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services as doing so would be pouring water down a bottomless pit. There is absolutely no need for the state to own media in this time and era and given the current fiscal deficit in the public purse it would be imprudent of the minister of finance to allow for recapitalisation of the Times of Zambia.
What are your thoughts?

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