Suspended Zimpapers’ Chief sub-editor Washington Rungano Gwanzura has been dismissed while his junior Tinashe Chuma has resigned after being accused of breaching the company’s Code of Conduct after publishing a readers’ comment that wished the death of an undisclosed member of the Zanu PF presidium.
The State-controlled Zimbabwean mass media company had suspended the two sub-editors after one of its titles H-Metro published an “unacceptable article” which wished the death of an undisclosed member of the Zanu PF presidium.
Chief sub-editor Gwanzura and his junior Chuma were accused of breaching the company’s Code of Conduct and Grievance Procedure.
Gwanzura was accused of breaching the said act by “clearing a copy for printing with an unacceptable statement in the feedback column”, while Chuma was alleged to have extracted an ‘unacceptable’ article from Twitter and filed it for publication.
Both sub-editors were sent on two weeks suspension without pay pending further investigations and were not allowed to set foot at Herald House.
“In the meantime please be advised that you are barred from setting foot at Herald House until investigations are completed,” read part of the suspension letter authored by Production Editor Rosental Mutakati.
Circumstances are that on an unknown date, a reader wrote a condolence message in memory of the late dance-hall musician and liberation hero Soul Jah Love (Soul Musaka) and part of the message ‘prayed’ for the death of an undisclosed member of the Zanu PF presidium.
The condolence message was published in the H-Metro edition of February 19 2021 on the Feedback Column.
Source: Zim morning Post
