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ZUJ to assist axed Sunday News sports editor

By Gerald Chateta
for ZimEye.org

Published: March 16, 2010

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Harare(ZimEye)-  Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) Secretary General Foster Dongozi has said his organisation was not discriminatory on representing members and would  fully assist Wellington Toni, a sports editor with the state-owned Sunday News in Bulawayo who was last week fired on allegations of posting a comment on ZimEye website, exposing corruption within his workplace.

ZUJ secretary General Foster Dongozi said in an exclusive interview in Harare at the weekend that they were going to engage a lawyer to challenge Toni’s dismissal.

There have been reports that ZUJ was not willing to represent Toni despite him being a full paid up member of the union.

“As the trade union that has been our mandate to represent our members and we do not know where all this is coming from. In fact, the said journalist has not approached the Union to present his case before the secretariat, and we are not saying  that will stop us from taking up his case.

“The problem might be that of communication breakdown because of geographical distance given that he stays in Bulawayo and the secretariat is here in Harare, but besides we have an office in Bulawayo which services the Matabeleland region. Our members are free to approach that office with their cases.

“It’s unfair to say that the union discriminate members. It must be put on record that most of the members whom ZUJ has given legal labour case representation are from the state media. The state media has a lot of journalists and media workers who were victimized and ZUJ has represented them,” said Dongozi.

Dongozi said the union like any other organization in the country might have financial problem but had other means of assisting sacked members.

Documents available reveal that the decision to fire Toni was made after a hearing committee recommended his dismissal to the board.

Toni becomes the second editor to be fired by the company recently. The editor of Umthunywa, a weekly vernacular newspaper published by the same company, was dismissed allegedly for using a picture showing a woman being carried to a clinic in a wheel barrow.

Dongozi warned journalist to desist from trying to strike deals with employers when they have been accused of committing a disciplinary offence.

“We are having a serious problem from senior state media journalists who approach the union after having struck deals with employers who would have then crooked them,” added Dongozi.

Efforts to interview Toni were fruitless as he was said to be out of the country on personal business.(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)


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