Witness Testifies Designing The Zambian Newspaper

A WITNESS has testified that former Zambia Daily Mail deputy managing director Davis Mataka told him to come up with a design of a 12-paged private newspaper to be called The Zambian.
Mulenga Chomba, 41, a former Zambia Daily Mail deputy chief sub-editor, said in 2011, Mataka told him to design a newspaper layout which he did and took to him.
Mr Chomba, a journalist of Lusaka’s Kaunda Square Stage II, said some time elapsed before Mataka called and informed him that the “principals” had approved the proposed newspaper layout.
He said this when he testified in a case in which former Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services permanent secretary Sam Phiri and Mataka are charged with corrupt acquisition of public property and revenue contrary to the Laws of Zambia.
Phiri and Mataka are jointly charged with former Inter-African Network for Human Rights and Development (Afronet) executive director Ngande Mwanajiti.
“I designed the front and back page of this tabloid and handed the sample to Mataka but time elapsed before he informed me that the principals had approved the proposed design. I then proceeded to design a 12-page layout and the first concept was done at the Zambia Daily Mail headquarters offices,” he said.
Mr Chomba said he and Mataka drove to a house in Lusaka’s Nyumba Yanga residential area located on Kasonkomona Road where they found Mwanajiti and a Jones Kaumba.
He said at the house, which was being referred to as the centre and well-equipped with computers and internet, four other Zambia Daily Mail employees arrived and Mataka addressed them on what their roles would be.
He said Mataka then proposed the use of pseudonyms for Zambia Daily Mail staff who were contributing to the publication of The Zambian newspaper.
Mr Chomba said Mataka further told them that they would be given K600 transport and communication allowance after four editions.
“Mataka picked a paper and asked every one of us to pick a name we would use as bylines in the paper. I proposed that I be referred to as Mpanda Mabula, Mataka was John Allan Mugunda and Mwanajiti was George Banda,” he said.
Mr Chomba said his role was to design the newspaper and that Mataka gave them mobile phones to use and paid them the logistics.
In cross-examination, Mr Chomba said The Zambian newspaper was a government project and there is nothing wrong Mataka did in following government directives.

Posted by Editor on October 23, 2014. Filed under LATEST NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry