A massive transmission blackout is looming across Zimbabwe following Robert Mugabe’s sacking of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo’s which has seen ZBC’s transmission boosters across the country crashing down as they are removed under unexplained circumstances.

In a move that has left Zimbabweans with numerous unanswered queries about the future of television and radio stations, satellite transmitters from most borders have been pulled down, leaving many communities without radio and television programs, ZimEye.com has learnt.
Professor Jonathan Moyo was removed from his powerful post of Information and Media Minister in a surprise humiliation by Mugabe last week Tuesday.
A recent visit by ZimEye.com to the mentioned areas revealed the removal of transmitters, in a bid to avoid conflict with neighbouring countries, as Zimbabwe has failed to comply with the deadline on digitalisation process. The country missed the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) digital migration deadline which was 17 June 2015.
Nathan Mdlongwa a prominent resident of Victoria Falls told ZimEye.com they witnessed the removal of transmitters in their area but it was not clear what they were going to do. “We asked the guys who were pulling down the boosters recently and they told us that they were ordered to do so as to avoid disturbing other countries’ transmission. They further told us that they will let us know in December before the festive season,” he added.
Another elderly woman Sithembile Mwembe, told ZimEye.com that they have been without local transmission for many years. “We have been long listening to studio 7 and that is where we hear all our news. We last heard ZBC news in 1984, before the peak of Gukurahundi. Why don’t they just ask for ideas from Studio 7, because we listen to them daily without interruption here,” she posed.
Several people who spoke to ZimEye.com in Plumtree, Beitbridge, Victoria Falls and Tamandayi, have not received local radios and television news for several years. Media Institute of Southern Africa MISA, has been holding workshops recently, with media practitioners, feeding back on the recently published (IMPI-Information Media Panel of Inquiry)survey results.
Efforts to get a comment from the relevant Media Ministry were fruitless, as the minister was not available after Mugabe sacked him. The Minister of Technology and also a journalist by training, Supa Mandiwanzira, was also not immediately available for comment by the time of going to press as his mobile was going unanswered.
There was no suggestion however that Professor Moyo caused or influenced the move. Sources close to government, who refused identification, told ZimEye.com that, the pulling down of transmission boosters was done to avoid conflict with neighbouring countries, as Zimbabwe is far from complying with digitalisation process.