Daily News workers bitter over ‘their’ idle printing press

By Lance Guma
18 January 2006

Former Daily News Journalist and founder member of the Association Of Zimbabwe Journalists in the UK, Sandra Nyaira, has criticized her former employer for neglecting the welfare of its journalists. She said besides the issue of their pensions not being resolved, there was a need to clarify the ownership of the printing press which she says was donated by a South African company to the workers. She says they don’t know what the printing press is being used for at the moment and they want it to generate money for the financially troubled journalists.

Not helping matters is the fact that former Chief Executive of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) Sam Sipepa Nkomo was fired from the position a few months back after standing as a candidate in the senate elections. The journalists say this has created an information vacuum since they feel he has a lot to answer for in this case. A source close to the Daily News says the journalists have to bring evidence to prove that the printing press was indeed given to them. It was no good to say so verbally without any evidence. Donors in most cases will not want to get sucked into such messy affairs and are likely to keep quiet over the issue. The source however says there will normally have been a letter from the donors indicating to whom the printing press had been given to.

Nyaira says several former Daily News journalists are struggling to make ends meet, with some having passed away leaving behind destitute family members. She said all this was happening while a printing press that had the potential to generate money for them was either lying idle or being used elsewhere without their knowledge.

Speaking from South Africa the Chairman of the ANZ, Professor Norman Nyazema, disputed Nyaira’s claims. He says people are forgetting that former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo got the paper closed down and as such is surprised they expect them to have money to support everyone affected by the closure of the paper. He says no one is focussing on the legal expenses they are incurring in the courts to try and get the paper licenced. They have done their best under difficult conditions to look after the journalists and fight for a licence in the courts at the same time. All this happening while the company is out of business and not selling anything.

He also says its important for the workers to clarify who they mean by ‘their former employers’ since the ownership of the Daily News changed hands at one point. He admitted the issue of their packages following the paper’s closure is still before arbitration and should be sorted anytime soon. The government closed down the paper after two bomb attacks on its offices and printing press preceded the use of repressive media laws to finally close it down.