The Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust has appointed veteran journalists Funny Mushava and Davison Maruziva to its senior management team.
The two have been appointed Editor and Deputy Editor respectively for the Community Newspapers in a move aimed at rejuvenating this division, promoting diversity and ensuring that the voices of the majority living in marginal areas are heard.
Also appointed are Vongai Mukweva-Mudiwa, who comes in as human resources and administration manager and Victor Manyembere, the property officer who will be in charge of the Trust’s properties portfolio.
Elizabeth Chakamanga also joins ZMMT as personal assistant to the Executive Secretary.
In announcing the appointments, the ZMMT Executive Secretary, Ray Mungoshi, said: “We are delighted to welcome these experienced and qualified professionals to our senior management team.
“We are confident that they will bring their expertise and vision to the newspaper division and help achieve our goals of restoring our newspapers back to their perch and achieving diversity in Zimbabwe.”
The Trust is tasked with supervising media companies in which the Government holds a significant shareholding and acts as a buffer between the Government and those companies.
Mushava said he was honoured to join the ZMMT as the Editor of Community Newspapers.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues and the communities we serve to produce quality and relevant news that reflects the diversity of opinions and interests of the people of Zimbabwe, by locating people at the centre of our narratives,” he said.
Mushava and Maruziva have vast experience in journalism spanning over four decades.
The Community Newspapers Editor started his career with The Herald and rose through the ranks to edit The Sunday Mail.
He was founding Editor of the Weekend Tribune under Media Africa Group.
Maruziva started his journalism career at The Lancashire Evening Post & Chronicle in Wigan in the United Kingdom.
He is a former News Editor of The Sunday Mail, under the editorship of the late national hero, Willie Dzawanda Musarurwa, before he was appointed Deputy Editor of The Chronicle.
He was founding Deputy Editor of The Daily News before moving on to Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), where he edited The Standard, and later helped set up the group’s Strategic Business Unit, which published magazines.
He left AMH to establish Panorama Magazine, a National Arts Merit Awards-winning online arts and culture magazine.
Mudiwa was human resources and administration manager with Kingstons, a ZMMT company.
ZMMT was founded in 1981 to transfer control of the country’s major media company, Zimbabwe Newspapers 1980 Private LTD (Zimpapers), and the national news agency, Ziana, to Zimbabweans.
It has a shareholding in New Ziana, Kingstons and Zimpapers.
