Zimpapers board members quit

Zimpapers board members quit

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By Staff Reporter

SEVERAL board members of the Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited have resigned following clashes with the new Minister of Information Tichaona Jokonya, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.

The Zimbabwe government remains the majority shareholder in Zimpapers which publishes the flagship Herald and Sunday Mail newspapers together with several other regional titles including the Chronicle, Sunday News, Manica Post, Umthunywa, Kwayedza and Trends magazine.

A board member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said all the seven board members tendered their resignation letters last week and Jokonya was expected to make a determination last night.

However, New Zimbabwe.com was told last night that board chairman, Herbert Nkala, a former Rainbow Tourism Group chief executive, had been kept on as board chairman. It was not clear if he withdrew his resignation, or had it turned down.

The sources said the clashes between the board and the Minister ranged from salary increases, which the Minister was against, to editorial policy. Efforts to contact Jokonya last night were fruitless as his phone was switched off.

"We have repeatedly told the Minister (Jokonya) that we were selected on merit and not on political grounds but he seems not to believe that," said the board member.

The resignation has affected the wage negotiations between the workers and management which were supposed to have been wound-up last week.

Disgruntled members of the workers' committee told New Zimbabwe.com that their meeting with management had been cancelled pending the resolution of the mass resignation of the board members.

"This is a serious issue because every year in July our salaries are reviewed. Now with this problem we are still earning peanuts," said a workers' committee member who also spoke on condition he was not named.
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