Mugabe, Nujoma to launch newspaper in SA

Mugabe, Nujoma to launch newspaper in SA

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By Basildon Peta

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe and Namibian President Sam Nujoma have joined hands to start a new regional newspaper called the New Sunday Times to "counter the threat from the global media to African values".

But critics have called the project "stupid", and said the two leaders should rather devote their resources to feed the poor in their countries.

The newspaper will be sold in all Southern African countries and will start publishing on July 1, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

But it seems the real aim of the new newspaper is to offer competition to South Africa's Sunday Times, which has been persistently demonised by the Mugabe government, as the "chief culprit" in publishing "anti-Zimbabwe stories".

The new publishing project comes in the wake of a warning by Nujoma at the weekend to use the Namibian army to defend Zimbabwe militarily should it be attacked by "colonialists" bent on removing Mugabe from office.

The New Sunday Times will be jointly published by the state-run Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (Zimpapers) and Namibia's New Era Publishing Corporation, a company wholly owned by Nujoma's government.

However, a senior Namibian journalist, who did not want to be named, described the project as "doomed from the start" because it lacks credibility.

"The project is unsustainable," he said.

"I don't see how readers and advertisers can sustain Mugabe and Nujoma's propaganda tool. In fact, at the risk of sounding disrespectful, I dismiss the project as wholly stupid."

"The two leaders are better advised to feed the poor in their countries instead of wasting their taxpayers money on this kind of project."

Mugabe's chief spin doctor, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, and his Namibian counterpart, Nangolo Mbumba, have already signed a memorandum of understanding for the two countries to jointly publish the regional newspaper.

This memorandum was followed by another agreement signed in Harare on Tuesday by the chief executives of New Era Publications Corporation and Zimpapers.

Assistant Editor of Zimbabwe's state run Herald newspaper, Moses Magadza, will edit the New Sunday Times from Windhoek. The Herald said the New Sunday Times would carry news articles from Namibia, Zimbabwe and other Southern African countries "written from an African perspective".
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