Alright, let's not pretend this is surprising. A big media company in Zimbabwe, Alpha Media Holdings, has not paid its staff for an entire year. We're talking about the people running NewsDay, The Standard, and a bunch of other outlets like Independent, Southern Eye, and HStv News. The owner is Trevor Ncube. Employees just got a pathetic fifty bucks right before Christmas, which the company apparently called an "advance" for a salary from next month they'll probably never see. Meanwhile, the editors and bosses pocketed a whole hundred dollars themselves. Let that disparity sink in.
These journalists and staff are apparently still expected to put out newspapers and run digital platforms, meeting every deadline, while not getting their actual salaries. They're dealing with landlords threatening eviction, schools demanding fees, and medical bills piling up. The company's excuse is the usual stuff about bad ad revenue and high costs, which, fine, maybe true. But the entire weight of that financial mess has been dumped on the regular workers. The guy in charge, Ncube, loves to talk about ethics in journalism, but having your employees work for free for a year is a pretty wild ethical stance.
The whole situation has obviously created a ton of anger internally. Staff feel completely exploited, watching the very people telling them to keep working get double their insulting Christmas handout. It's a brutal look for a media group that's supposed to hold power accountable, all while it can't even handle its own payroll for twelve straight months. People are literally counting down the days to rent being due and schools reopening with empty pockets.
These journalists and staff are apparently still expected to put out newspapers and run digital platforms, meeting every deadline, while not getting their actual salaries. They're dealing with landlords threatening eviction, schools demanding fees, and medical bills piling up. The company's excuse is the usual stuff about bad ad revenue and high costs, which, fine, maybe true. But the entire weight of that financial mess has been dumped on the regular workers. The guy in charge, Ncube, loves to talk about ethics in journalism, but having your employees work for free for a year is a pretty wild ethical stance.
The whole situation has obviously created a ton of anger internally. Staff feel completely exploited, watching the very people telling them to keep working get double their insulting Christmas handout. It's a brutal look for a media group that's supposed to hold power accountable, all while it can't even handle its own payroll for twelve straight months. People are literally counting down the days to rent being due and schools reopening with empty pockets.
