Takaona threatens to sue Mutasa

Zimpapers bussed in more than 20 journalists, led by senior reporter and war veteran Emmilia Zindi, to attend a ZUJ congress which was supposed to be attended by invited guests only.

“I want to make it clear that I am going to take legal action against Mutasa for attempting to disturb this congress. I am surprised that he decided to sponsor workers to attend a congress of a trade union that they deem critical to them. Our union affairs should never be bankrolled by employers and if there are those who are aligned to employers and want to highjack this union I want them to go back to their bosses and tell them that their mission has failed and will never happen in ZUJ.

“I want also to say that if there is anyone close to Mutasa ,go and tell him that he has waged a war against me and I am not going to tolerate his actions”, fumed Takaona. Delegates from Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings told The Zimbabwean in confidence that they had been offered a bus to go and disturb the congress, but they refused. Dumisani Sibanda of the Chronicle was elected the President of the Zimbabwe Union Journalists after beating his fellow Zimpapers workmate Isdore Guvamombe, while Mercy Pote of ZBC walloped Terrence Mapurisana who occupied the position of Vice President with Michael Padera of Zimpapers. Foster Dongozi was re-elected uncontested as secretary general for a 2nd term.

Sexual harrassment

Meanwhile, the newly elected ZUJ gender committee says it is going to investigate and bring to book all cases of sexual harassment. Takaona, who is now the organization’s consultant, said he would work with the new committee to unearth all such cases. “We have a number of reported cases and we want to make sure that we get to the bottom of these with immediate effect. Its disappointing that editors and managers take advantage of female internship journalists and sexually abuse them while threatening to dismiss them in case they reject the proposals. This is an unfair situation which needs not to be tolerated. “In this era of HIV\AIDS it puts the victims at a high risk of contracting the pandemic. I am disappointed because we have not heard of any single matter that was investigated,” said Takaona.

A member of the committee, Sheila Mahlatini, said she was disappointed by the increase in reports of sexual abuse in news rooms. “My message to all female journalists is that please do not remain silent when you are sexually abused. Its your right as a women to choose for your self whom you want to fall in love with and you should no be forced by anyone to fall in love with him. If you feel you have been sexually abused report to us and we promise that we will deal with the perpetrator,” she said. A case in point is that of one ZBC news manager who is currently on suspension pending investigations of sexual harassment against a female journalism intern. His suspension came after ZBC Chief Happison Muchechetere had publicly labelled as prostitutes all female interns who had complained that they were sexually abused by his managers.