Fingaz fires journos over 'I earn more than you' jibes

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By Staff Reporter

TWO journalists with the weekly Financial Gazette newspaper have lost their jobs after telling their bosses: “We earn more than you."

Sitting correspondents - Tawanda Karombo and Nkululeko Sibanda - have been both shown the door for allegedly participating in the newsroom joke that reporters earn more than senior editors.

Sources at the paper said the duo was unfortunate as Acting Editor-in-Chief Hama Saburi reacted angrily to the jibe without establishing facts.

A source said: "Those two guys were unfortunate because the jokes were coming from senior journalists in the newsroom who string for online websites.

"Almost three quarters of the journalists in the newsroom write for online publications and they are remunerated better. It is in this sense that they guys were going on about how they earn more than the editors.”

Sibanda said he had left the Fingaz but was not at liberty to discuss his exit whilst Karombo could not be reached for his reaction.

Saburi's secretary told New Zimbabwe.com Friday that her boss would return to our calls, but still had not done so by late Sunday.

Journalists at the pink paper have said Saburi is under pressure to "flush out" malcontents within the paper which this year suspended its able and hardworking Editor-in-Chief Sunsleey Chamunorwa.

They say Saburi who was elevated to his current position ahead of veteran Edna Machirori, is struggling for recognition from his subordinates.

Machirori, the former editor of the Bulawayo-based Sunday News was overlooked for the editor’s post, in an apparent bid to rid the paper of Chamunorwa’s influence.

Saburi had been demoted from being Chamunorwa's deputy to Special Projects editor.

Chamunorwa was suspended from his duties early this year for refusing to take orders from Zanu PF officials and the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) who both accused the award-winning journalist of sympathising with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

The CIO is said to be the co-owners of the once popular financial paper whose main shareholder is the central bank boss, Gideon Gono.

Gono was against Chamunorwa’s ouster from the Fingaz and was the reason why he stayed longer before his shock suspension, according to sources.

Lately the Fingaz has lost its lustre in the readership market where its rival The Zimbabwe Independent is enjoying huge success.
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