Zimbabwe’s Justice Ministry Dissolved ZIMURA’s Board. The High Court Put Three Members Back. Neither Order Touches the 64 Per Cent of Royalties Classified as Administration

Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs dissolved the entire board of the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association on 26 March 2026. The High Court stayed that decision on 6 May 2026 and put three of the five removed members back in place while the matter is finally decided. Neither order touches the number that triggered the crisis in the first place: ZIMURA’s own disclosure that about 64 per cent of the US$1.64 million it collected in 2024 was classified under staff and administration. No master recording, publishing catalogue or other IP asset changes hands anywhere in this record. What is contested is who controls a collecting society, and how much of composers’ and performers’ money it is allowed to spend on itself before anyone outside the organisation can stop it.

What ZIMURA actually is

ZIMURA describes itself, on its own site, as registered on 30 March 1982, incorporated under Section 22 of the Companies Act (CAP190) as a non-profit company limited by guarantee with no share capital, operating under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act [Chapter 26:05] with oversight from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and representing more than 4,800 local members. It is Zimbabwe’s oldest and largest music collecting society, licensing broadcasters, retailers and venues and distributing the proceeds to composers, authors, publishers and, per its own description, producers.

The money question

ZIMURA’s own 2024 financial disclosure, carried by Zimbabwean trade press and fetched directly for this record, states that the association collected US$1.64 million during the year and that about 64 per cent of that was classified under staff and administration. No further category breakdown, such as specific amounts reaching local artists, foreign rights holders or any trust fund, appears in the source fetched for this figure. A more granular split attributing specific dollar figures to each of those categories has circulated in search summaries; it could not be verified in the one document this desk fetched and is not repeated here. ZIMURA has attributed pressure on collections to the closure of several major retail outlets and falling licensing fees.

That 64 per cent figure, not any single transaction, is the fact that sits behind everything else in this record.

The dissolution

The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs issued an administrative decision dated 26 March 2026 terminating the appointments of ZIMURA’s entire board. The decision was publicly announced on 9 April 2026. Those removed were Alexio Gwenzi (chairperson), First Batani (vice chairperson), Dingumuzi Phuti, Evelyn Natsai Moyo and Chiedza Shoniwa. The stated reasons, as reported by trade press and not contradicted by any document fetched for this record, were “serious governance and operational failures, including alleged breaches of fiduciary duty, weak financial transparency and questions over the legitimacy of its leadership structures.” The removed board was instructed to hand over all organisational documents and materials within seven days to an interim administrator. No document fetched for this record confirms that an interim administrator has since been appointed; ZIMURA’s acting director said at the time that the secretariat would continue operating while awaiting that appointment.

The reinstatement

Gwenzi, Batani and Moyo challenged the dissolution by urgent application to the High Court. On 6 May 2026, the High Court granted a provisional order in case number HCH1742/26, naming as respondents the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, the Office for the Registration of Companies and Other Business Entities, the Registrar of Companies and Other Business Entities, and ZIMURA itself. The operative wording, read directly from trade press quoting the order in full: “The Applicants be and are hereby permitted to continue exercising their functions as Board Members of 4th Respondent without interference,” and “The execution of the Administrative decision of the 1st Respondent dated 26 March 2026 terminating the Applicants’ appointments as Board Members of 4th Respondent be and is hereby stayed.” The order is provisional, not a final ruling, and stays only the minister’s decision as it affects these three; Phuti and Shoniwa were not applicants and their status was not addressed in the order. No document fetched for this record indicates the underlying matter, whether the minister’s dissolution was lawful, has been finally decided.

The leadership dispute that preceded it

Gwenzi and Batani’s own hold on the chair and vice-chair roles was itself contested. According to a dated timeline, board elections took place in 2025, and on 20 January 2026 the board announced Gwenzi as chairperson and Batani as vice chairperson. Three other members, Dereck Mpofu, Gift Amuli and Joseph Garakara, rejected that appointment, maintaining that Amuli had already been installed as chairperson on 10 November 2025. On 12 January 2026, ZIMURA issued a public notice concerning the sale of its Avondale flats; Mpofu, Amuli and Garakara publicly disavowed that notice and were subsequently removed from the board. Separately, an allegation reported in Zimbabwean media, and not confirmed by any document fetched for this record, ties the Avondale sale to an estate agency said to employ Gwenzi. Gwenzi has said the sale was conducted above board and was later reversed after public criticism, with the proceeds held in trust; Mpofu told Music In Africa directly that “the transaction has not yet been completed because we, as the board of directors, refused to sign over or do the conveyancing for the property sale to be complete.” This desk treats the agency-linked-to-Gwenzi claim strictly as a reported, unresolved allegation.

One other source consulted for this record, in a separate article, places this same sequence of events, Gwenzi’s chairmanship, the Mpofu/Amuli/Garakara dismissal and the Avondale notice, a full year earlier, in January 2025 rather than January 2026. This desk could not resolve which year is correct and flags the discrepancy rather than silently picking one account.

A separate, concluded legal matter

ZIMURA’s former executive director, Polisile Ncube-Chimhini, was convicted of fraud in June 2025 by Harare magistrate Rufaro Panavanhu, and acquitted on a separate forgery count, in a case prosecuted by Boniface Masvaire. The case stemmed from a High Court application filed on 14 July 2023 by musician Phillip Chipfumbu (case HCHC482/23) seeking a forensic audit of ZIMURA; the court process surfaced a CR6 company-registration document dated 12 April 2023 that was not, in fact, formally registered with the Department of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property until 15 January 2024. No document fetched for this record states the sentence or fine imposed following conviction. A separate High Court ruling held that ZIMURA’s Articles of Association make no provision for an executive-director post at all. Ncube-Chimhini stepped down on 10 February 2026 after more than three decades at the organisation.

What artists have said directly to Parliament

In testimony before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, reported 2 September 2026, named witnesses described royalty payments as low as US$10 to US$30 a year, against ZIMURA staff pay reported at more than US$4,000 a month. Eunice Dembo, widow of sungura musician Leonard Dembo, said “our music is taking care of management and not us producers.” Gospel artist Tembalami called for an audit of both ZIMURA and the newer rival collecting society ZICCO. Musician Felix Chitopo asked whether a minister should sit on ZIMURA’s board and said its licence should be cancelled. Former board member Derek Mpofu said “if there is a corrupt company on this land, none beats ZIMURA.” The same testimony noted the organisation had operated without a full board, which its own constitution requires to number seven, for more than a year.

What this record does not establish

This record does not establish that any ZIMURA official personally profited from the Avondale sale, that the minister’s dissolution was lawful or unlawful on the merits, that any interim administrator has in fact taken office, the exact sentence imposed on Ncube-Chimhini, the correct year for the Gwenzi-chairmanship/Avondale-notice sequence, or any breakdown of 2024 collections beyond the single 64 per cent administration share ZIMURA itself disclosed. Nothing fetched for this record states that any royalty money has been frozen, recovered or redirected as a result of either court order. The full text of case HCH1742/26 is not published, as it is a provisional order; this record relies on trade press that quotes its operative paragraphs directly, not on the order itself.