Dar es Salaam – A court has ordered the winding up of one of Tanzania’s oldest private media conglomerates, a decision that has reignited a long-running debate about the survival of independent journalism in a country where the press is squeezed from all sides.
The Commercial Division of Tanzania’s High Court issued a compulsory winding-up order on March 2, 2026, against Sahara Media Group Limited, the Mwanza-based company that owns Star TV, Radio Free Africa (RFA), and Kiss FM.
Judge Dr Mwajuma Kadilu ruled that the company was irreversibly insolvent, with its debts far exceeding its assets and no viable prospect of recovery.
“What sustains the existence of a company is its financial capacity and ability to discharge its debts,” Judge Kadilu wrote in her ruling. “Having been proved that the petitioner is in such a big loss and with no capacity to pay debts, winding up should be a better course to undergo.”
The petition was filed by the company itself, making this a voluntary application for compulsory winding up. It was a rare and telling sign of just how dire the situation had become.
The company
Sahara Media Group is one of Tanzania’s largest privately owned media conglomerates. Established in 1994 by Dr Anthony Diallo, a former Cabinet minister and long-time member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, the company operated across broadcasting, press services, advertising, and publicity for over three decades.
The group was formerly known as Sahara Communication Publishing Company Limited (SCPC) before a name change was formalised in 2010. Its outlets served millions of Tanzanians, particularly in the Lake Zone, where Mwanza is the commercial hub.
Yet the company’s history has not been without turbulence. In July 2017, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) clamped down on its offices over a tax debt of Sh4.5 billion. The company also faced multiple labour disputes in the courts, with employees taking it to task over unpaid wages.
An academic study published in 2022 examined the effect of compensation and social benefits on job satisfaction among Sahara Media Group employees, finding a strong relationship between basic pay and job satisfaction, and recommending that the company urgently improve its compensation practices.
Online discussions following the winding-up ruling also referenced claims by workers that the company had failed to pay salaries for months.
The ruling
The petition was supported by an affidavit from Steven Dogani Diallo, the company’s Principal Officer, and accompanied by audited financial statements, board resolutions, and tax demand notices from TRA’s Mwanza office.
The financial picture was stark. For the year ended December 31, 2023, the company recorded a loss of Sh3,934,269,231 (approximately US$1.5 million). Losses had continued across five consecutive years.
By the time the petition was filed, approximately 80 per cent of the company’s revenue was being consumed by tax liabilities alone, leaving nothing for creditors, employees, or operations.
Outstanding tax obligations totalling Sh97,746,606 had accumulated through a series of demand notices issued between April and June 2025. The board of directors had resolved as early as May 2025 to seek winding up, acknowledging the company’s inability to pay its debts.
Judge Kadilu, applying Section 282(1)(d) of the Companies Act, Cap. 212 R.E. 2023, found that the company met the legal threshold for winding up. No creditor or interested party filed a notice of intention to object after the petition was published, a silence that spoke volumes.
“I am satisfied that Sahara Media Group Limited qualifies to be wound up,” the judge declared. “Consequently, this petition is allowed.”
The court appointed two advocates as joint liquidators: Alex Gaithan Mgongolwa of Excellent Attorneys and Frank Mwalongo of Apex Attorneys, each tasked with administering the liquidation for an initial three-month period under court supervision.
The court also froze all disposals of company property, share transfers, and changes in membership with immediate effect.
Wider crisis
The collapse of Sahara Media Group did not happen in isolation. It is the latest casualty in a sector that has been haemorrhaging for years, battered by a combination of government policy, technological disruption, and an underdeveloped advertising market.
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Government advertisements contribute between 50 and 70 per cent of revenue for private media outlets. When the late President John Magufuli’s administration drastically reduced spending on private media and redirected resources to state-run platforms, the effect was immediate and devastating.
A 2024 government-commissioned report on Tanzania’s media economy found that from 2018 to 2022, advertising revenues for local newspapers fell by 44 per cent, while broadcast ad revenues declined by 33 per cent.
Between 2020 and 2023, three newspapers collectively reduced their annual circulation by more than four million copies, representing a market loss of Sh4 billion.
The same report found that 77 per cent of journalists in Tanzania earn less than Sh500,000 per month, with 56 per cent lacking employment contracts. Some journalists are paid as little as Sh2,000 per story.
Regulatory squeeze
The regulatory environment has compounded the financial strain. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks Tanzania 95th out of 180 countries on its 2025 Press Freedom Index, noting that the media sector is governed by laws enacted between 2016 and 2020 that are widely regarded as obstacles to press freedom.
In October 2024, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) issued a 30-day suspension order against three newspapers owned by Mwananchi Communications Limited after one published an animated video seen as critical of the president. Similar actions have been taken against other publishers.
READ MORE: The Struggle for Integrity: The State of Tanzania’s Media in 2023/24
Experts describe the media as “a financially broken industry,” noting that over the past eight years, the traditional advertising model had “nearly collapsed.” Media houses that attempted to pivot to events or public donations found the results insufficient.
Technology has added another layer of pressure. Digital platforms have eroded print circulation and broadcast audiences alike, while social media has drawn advertising budgets away from traditional outlets. The 2024 media economy report urged the sector to prepare for the added disruption of artificial intelligence.
Reckoning
The winding up of Sahara Media Group has prompted a wider reckoning in Tanzania. Online forums have debated whether the company’s fate was primarily the result of mismanagement or of an industry-wide crisis that no single outlet could have survived alone.
Some commentators have pointed to the company’s long history of tax disputes and labour grievances as evidence of internal governance failures.
Others have argued that the structural conditions facing all private media in Tanzania, including dwindling advertising, a hostile regulatory environment, and the relentless march of digital disruption, made the outcome almost inevitable for any outlet without a powerful patron or a diversified revenue base.
The RSF has noted that privately owned newspapers in Tanzania often derive between 40 and 80 per cent of their income from state advertising, and that those which stray from the government line see these resources evaporate.
READ MORE: Tanzania’s Media Services Act: A Manifestation of the Man With the Hammer Syndrome?
Tido Mhando, former CEO of Azam Media, who chaired the government committee that assessed Tanzania’s media economy, captured the dilemma facing the industry.
“Due to the challenging legal and political environment faced by the media in our country, outlets now find themselves self-censoring,” he said at the launch of the committee’s report in June 2024.
“Consequently, media content increasingly focuses on entertainment, romance, music, sports, drama, films, and talk shows, with little societal value.” The veteran journalist is now the Presidential Adviser for Information and Communications at the State House.
Some commentators have noted that the fall of Sahara Media Group is a stark reminder that in Tanzania, even three decades of broadcasting to a loyal audience offers no guarantee of survival when the economics of journalism are broken.
