The Zimbabwe Music Rights Association on Thursday pleaded with parliament’s portfolio committee on Information, Media and Broadcasting Services to help them recover more than $700k worth of royalties owed by the state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) since 2011.

The association which has a membership of more than  3 600 artists revealed before the committee that ZBC was the chief defaulter compared to other entities,

Zimura’s lawyer Witness Zhangazha told the committee that ZBC had failed to comply with the payment plan they had agreed on.

“If you were to look at these acknowledgements vis-a-vis  the dates of payment that are shown in the statement  you will see that none of these diverse acknowledgements was complied with in full by ZBC, they would make promises to pay,  this is why we felt let’s try this honourable arm of government , we have tried the other one which is the courts but it failed,” Zhangazha said.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee on Information Prince Sibanda assured the association that the committee was going to invite ZBC so that they can explain their operation among other things.