MISA-Zimbabwe Trustee, Tim Mutero Nyahunzvi, a veteran journalist and accomplished media trainer, has died.Nyahunzvi, 72, died in Harare on 20 September 2010. He had previously been admitted at Parirenyatwa Hospital battling with prostate cancer for which he was supposed to have been operated on.
A dedicated media professional, Uncle Tim, as he was passionately referred to by several of his former media students at the Harare Polytechnics Division of Mass Communication, Nyahunzvi co-authored and contributed to several journalism handbooks which were used as reference material by media students throughout Africa.
Notable among these is Reporting in Africa published by the Thomson Foundation in London and Friedrich Nauman Foundation and An Editors Manual published by Mambo Press.
Despite lecturing in journalism at the Harare Polytechnic from 1981 to 1997 where he retired as head of the Division of Mass Communication, Nyahunzvi also had similar stints in Zambia and Kenya in the 1960s clocking more than 40 years in journalism and media training.
He remained active upon his retirement from the Harare Polytechnic conducting upgrading courses and seminars for journalists and media personnel in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Kenya and Swaziland. Despite working for Zimbabwean and Zambian publications as a journalist and media trainer, he also branched into public relations in-between his luminous career as an accomplished journalist.
Zimbabwe is a country in transition. It has a lot to catch up with, said Nyahunzvi when he appeared before a parliamentary committee during interviews for positions with the Zimbabwe Media Commission.
The role of the media of communication in a country like ours is enormous and vital. The media does not only need to be free and independent, but it must be responsible and ethical.
This says it all about the sum-total of a dedicated and committed professional who spoke, slept, dreamt and woke up to journalism excellence and responsibility.
MISA-Zimbabwe and indeed the entire media family in Zimbabwe and beyond have thus been robbed of one of the few remaining raconteurs on the evolution of journalism in Zimbabwe and Africa. While we mourn his departure, his distinguished commitment to the profession should serve to inspire latter day Zimbabwean journalists to excel beyond Nyahunzvis unblemished trail-blazing journalism career.
Details of funeral arrangements are still being arranged and mourners are gathered at Number 13 Mukarati Road, Mufakose in Harare.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
Post published in: News