Post+to+open+offices+in+Zimbabwe+and+Venezuela



=Post to open offices in Zimbabwe, Venezuela=


 * By Nomusa Michelo**

Post, Wednesday March 29, 2006
POST editor Fred M'membe has disclosed that the newspaper would soon open bureaux in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

Speaking when South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Dr Blade Nzimande paid a courtesy call on him on Monday, M'membe said The Post was trying to extend its coverage to areas that were not adequately and objectively covered by the international media.

He said in the next two months, the institution would be opening a bureau in Venezuela so that it could adequately cover Latin America.

M'membe revealed that the Venezuelan authorities have offered to grant The Post an embassy status in Caracas.

"We have already held talks with the Venezuelan government so within the next few weeks they would be able to tell us what they have set for us," he said.

M'membe further said The Post would also be opening another bureau in Zimbabwe.

"The coverage of issues in Zimbabwe has been very poor. We covered the last elections and I think we came up with more stories than any other media in the region," M'membe said.

"We are seeing a dangerous trend developing where the use of copy from the western media is dominating even on issues which we can cover adequately for ourselves."

M'membe also said The Post was currently carrying more international news on its website than any other newspapers.

Dr Nzimande said The Post should equally find space in other countries.

"I would see some space for a newspaper like this in other countries as well," he said.

Earlier, information minister Vernon Mwaanga told Dr Nzimande when he paid a courtesy call on him that Zambia was proud to have played a role in the liberation struggle of the region.

He said the nation fought both the apartheid regime and for the release of African nationalists.

"We did so at a great expense because people of Zambia paid for this freedom with their lives and with their blood. We didn't do that because we wanted gratitude," Mwaanga said.

"We did it out of principle because we believed that for as long as any inch of Africa remained unfree none of us would feel free to walk the soils of this continent knowing that our brothers and sisters are not yet free.

"As a result of this relationship we built, based on our principal support to the liberation struggle, we are proud to be part of this history for the African continent."

And Dr Nzimande said South Africa would forever be indebted for the role which Zambia played in the liberation struggle.

He said he was hopeful that the visit would create a variety of networks and platforms where people would be able to exchange and share challenges.

"But the biggest challenge that we face as a region and as a continent is the challenge of development and poverty eradication and the challenge of how we work together continuing in that great Zambian tradition of internationalism and solidarity," Dr Nzimande said.

Later, Dr Kaunda said he was proud that the people of South Africa have been saved from the barbarism of apartheid.

"We are proud of the work you are doing uniting the great people of South Africa. Some brutal people cheated us saying that they were speaking under God but they divided us thorough colour and the like," he said.

Dr Kaunda said the federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was destroyed not because they hated the bigger nations but because the people did not want a relation of the rider and the horse.

Dr Nzimande said there was need for the spirit of post independence to be revived.


 * From: http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=8178**

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