Mandaza suspended from Mirror

Mandaza suspended from Mirror

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By Staff Reporter

IBBOTSON Day Mandaza, the embattled proprietor of the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group has been suspended just days after he lost total control to a publicly funded covert take-over of the group titles -- the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror -- by the Central Intelligence Organisation, we can reveal.

Sources said Monday that Mandaza was suspended as Chief Executive Officer and replaced with Tichaona Chifamba, The Daily Mirror's deputy editor.

Mandaza has become the first casualty of Zimbabwe's biggest media scandal ever, now commonly known as Mediagate or CIOgate. It involves the take-over of the Mirror titles and a third privately-owned paper, The Financial Gazette, by Zimbabwe's intelligence services to control dissent and curtail criticism of President Robert Mugabe's isolated regime.

Mandaza had sustained weeks of determined resistance to remain at the top of the Mirror titles until he was summoned by National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa on September 19 for an emergency meeting at his office. The meeting was also attended by CIO director-general Happyton Bonyongwe and the disputed Mirror chair Jonathan Kadzura.

At the same meeting, the veteran journalist and author was accused of siphoning money from the Mirror and had been given a December 31 deadline to quit the organisation he founded in 1997. It was not immediately clear what sparked his dramatic ouster this week.

A source at the Mirror Group told New Zimbabwe.com last night: "Mandaza has been suspended with immediate effect. There is a lot of gloom at the Mirror and journalists have really been engulfed by a feeling of uncertainty at the course of events."

Mandaza had previously denied the CIO take-over after The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper broke the scandal on August 12, telling The Daily Mirror: "As things stand, the Mirror group is 100 percent owned by myself through my company. As such, all loans obtained in this venture are secured by myself through the companies with whom I am associated.”

The Independent which says it got its information from "high level intelligence sources" revealed that the CIO started manoeuvres to muscle into the Financial Gazette and the Mirror Newspapers Group's two titles in 2002. Billions of taxpayers' funds were poured in to the project. They already control the Financial Gazette.

The CIO tried and failed to buy into the Tribune and is currently making moves to muscle into the ruling Zanu PF mouthpiece, The Voice.

"The CIO controls those three newspapers (Fingaz and Mirror titles)," a source told the paper. "They control a large stake, if not 100% of the Fingaz, and 70% of the Mirror group. Ibbo Mandaza (Mirror chief executive and editor-in-chief) owns 30%."

Mandaza's mobile phone was switched off last night and no comment was available from the Mirror Group.
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