CIO fails to pay Mirror journalists, again

CIO fails to pay Mirror journalists, again

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• Wallace Chuma: The real Ibbo Mandaza

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• CIO grills Mandaza over Murambatsvina

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• Independent wary of CIO media infiltrators

• Mandaza suspended from Mirror

• Journalists targeted in CIOGATE

• Mandaza fires Mirror board

• Mandaza admits to CIO ownership

• Hollow tales full of sound and fury

• Parliament probes Mediagate

• Media scandal deepens

• CIOGATE: Mandaza muzzled

• Panic as Zim rocked by media scandal

• Newspapers sell their souls for survival

• Scandal rocks Zim media industry

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWE'S state security agency has for the second month running failed to pay the salaries of journalists and other staff at the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspaper Group.

The Zimbabwe Mirror Newspaper Group -- publishers of The Sunday Mirror and The Daily Mirror -- was taken over by the Central Intelligence Organisation in a secretive take-over paid for with tax payers' money.

Another paper, the weekly Financial Gazette was also taken over by the CIO, according to an invetigation by the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper.

A staffer at the Mirror said Thursday night that the salaries, which were due by February 25, had not been paid out and there was no explanation by management.

Last month, the CIO also struggled to pay January salaries until they were bailed out by the Jewel Bank, cited by the Independent investigation as the central plank in the take-over of the Mirror.

"Apart from the salaries, there is no sign of even pay slips which are usually given by the 21st of each month,” said one journalist speaking on conditition he was not named.

He added: “We now risk being evicted from our houses for failing to pay rent."

The journalist also said the CIO were hesitant to open up their purse because of uncertainty over their continued ownership of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, following a court application by suspended mirror proprietor, Ibbotson Day Mandaza to have board members jailed for contempt of court.

The contempt charges emanate from the board’s decision to disobey a High Court order reinstating Mandaza.

As a result of the uncertainty, the CIO are said to have put on hold the purchase of computers and vehicles needed by the company. News about the CIO’s failure to meet their obligations come at a time when they have gone on a firing and suspension spree against journalists and other professionals regarded as Mandaza’s sympathizers.
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