The Mirror consultant and seasoned journalist, Matthew Takaona successfully filed his papers on Wednesday to represent Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party, the CCC in the August 23, 2023 harmonised elections.
Takaona will lock horns with Winston Chitando who is the current Minister of Mines for the Gutu Central Parliamentary seat.

Takaona who led the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), four times between 1997 and 2010 switched to Gutu Central four weeks before CCC’s nominations last month after Gutu North, the seat he originally eyed was dismantled during the delimitation process.
The award winning journalist was fired from The Sunday Mail in 2004 where he was both acting news editor and business editor by then Minister of Information and Publicity, Jonathan Moyo for defending journalists and Press Freedom.

He then started to build ZUJ and established a secretariat from scratch with the support of the Canadian Embassy. By 2006 ZUJ had one of the biggest secretariats for any trade union in Zimbabwe with 14 employees including two offices; one in Harare and another in Bulawayo. He revived the National Journalistic and Media Awards (NJAMA) in 2002. The awards had last been held in 2004. Takaona is credited with the formation of the Voluntary Media Council which today is the country’s most respected media regulatory body.

Takaona won many awards and in 2004 he won the Auxillia Chimusoro HIV and Aids Award alongside music icon Oliver Mtukudzi. The award was sponsored by the US Embassy.

In 1997, Takaona led the biggest strike in the history of the media in Zimbabwe which saw Zimpapers scaling down operations to a minimal for 11 days. Workers won salary increases of up to 300% which was not usual those days.

At ZUJ he also initiated housing projects for journalists and other media houses and secured more than 400 residential stands in Norton, Whitecliff, Ashdown and Zimre Park…Masvingo Mirror