Zimpapers justifies receiving more than $200 000 from Zimdef for advertising

Zimpapers 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. She said,

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. 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. These payments are on record and there is nothing sinister about them.

Tonhodzayi’s statement follows a report by The Standard and comments on social media that Zimpapers had improperly benefited from Zimdef funds.

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