Scribes at Trevor Ncube’s newspaper group, AMH, have declared incapacitating according to the below statement by the Zimbabwe Union Of Journalists.-
STATEMENT: Reference is made to the above subject matter that journalists at Alpha Media Holdings, the biggest private media house in the country, have always shown a strong urge to execute their duties, as portrayed by their continued willingness to work and produce stories and content for the three publications — NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard — and digital platform.
In the past, even during the peak of the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic, we have gone the extra mile of going out of our way to make sure we produce content.
In that vein, we would like to highlight that our salaries have been heavily eroded by the ever-rising inflation, yet we are expected to continue producing content for the three publications and digital platforms.
That the salaries have been heavily eroded, we are finding it extremely difficult to afford to put decent meals on our tables, clothe ourselves and our families, pay for our rentals, worse even come to work on a daily basis. We are requesting that salaries be pegged in United States dollars or the equivalent on our contracts indexed to the official bank rate.
That we are failing to get transport on time to take us to diaries means we will fail to get the stories our readers would want to read.
That we are short-staffed undermines the quality of our work and it would be noble if management beefs up staff in the newsroom.
Being short-staffed meaning long working hours for staff that is already there, hence fatigue has creeped in, but we have always strived to come to work and produce tomorrow’s newspaper. In all that, one journalist is expected to write across all three publications, which is against their contracts.
All the above-mentioned challenges affect the quality of our work, yet we strive every day to reach international standards and be the “pinnacle of journalism” in the country.
Hence, we write to you expressing that we are heavily incapacitated to discharge our duties as Alpha Media Holdings journalists.
We also write to inform you that going forward, we will not be able to discharge our duties starting tomorrow May 30, 2023.
Yours faithfully