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Beatrice Tonhodzayi-Ngondo

Paidamoyo Chipunza Herald Reporter

ZIMPAPERS (1980) Ltd yesterday said all its business dealings with the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) are aboveboard. In a statement, the group’s public relations and corporate affairs manager Ms Beatrice Tonhodzayi said Zimpapers had a long standing business relationship with Zimdef, which saw the fund placing advertisements in its newspapers and radio stations.

“We are a business that thrives on advertising. There is nothing to hide or be ashamed of that our newspapers such as Chronicle, The Herald, The Sunday Mail and indeed our radio station Star FM got some advertising revenue from Zimdef. That is the reason we are in business. We have to bring in business from as many advertisers as possible,” she said.

Ms Tonhodzayi’s statement follows a report by a local weekly paper and uninformed comments on social media insinuating that Zimpapers had improperly benefited from Zimdef funds.

She said any business that Zimpapers got from Zimdef was open to scrutiny from anyone who wished to establish the true facts, adding that print and radio advertising always leave a clear trail for people to go back to.

“Whatever advertising was given to radio was played on air. It is easy to establish that business was conducted between Zimpapers and Zimdef, which justifies the payment we received. The same goes for what was printed by manner of public notices, supplements or other print advertising. Readers saw those adverts.”

Ms Tonhodzayi said the company got more than $200 000 worth of advertising across its platforms since the STEM project started last year. This included radio jingles, spot adverts and several other forms of advertising.

“These payments are on record and there is nothing sinister about them,” she said.

Ms Tonhodzayi said Zimdef had been advertising on the group’s print and broadcast platforms well before the STEM project started.Zimpapers’ platforms, she said, command the widest reach according to the latest Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS) hence advertisers prefer to advertise where they are guaranteed of reaching the biggest audiences.

Zimpapers has three daily newspapers, four weekly newspapers, two national language publications (all with websites), two radio stations, two magazines, two suburban free sheets, several digital publications, a regional newspaper and vibrant social media platforms.