A FIFTH daily newspaper went on sale in Zimbabwe on Thursday.
The Mail, spotting a mast head almost identical to the UK Daily Mail, is the third daily paper to be launched over the last six months after NewsDay and The Daily News.
The three papers join the The Herald and The Chronicle on the newspaper stalls.
The Mail is edited by veteran journalist, Barnabas Thondhlana, who quit as deputy editor of The Daily News to join the new paper.
Details of the newspaper’s ownership were not released, but its chairman is believed to be Hensley Chamboko, who previously owned the Business Weekly.
The Mail’s first edition splashed with the headline ‘Restrictions on rallies biased’. The story accused police of banning MDC rallies while not applying the same rules to Zanu PF rallies.
A front page teaser for a story inside had the headline ‘A white man is only good when dead: Mugabe’ – a story on weekend comments by President Robert Mugabe who was critical of Western military intervention in Libya. Mugabe told mourners at the burial of national hero David Karimanzira on Sunday that “only a dead imperialist is a good one.”
Thondhlana told New Zimbabwe.com by telephone from Harare that the paper was independent.
“The paper out today is only a dummy. It’s mainly for the consumption of our advertisers. We should start publishing more regularly after a week or so,” he said.
“We have no connections to any political party. The newspaper is owned by a consortium of businessmen, led by Chamboko."