Modus Media Executives Meet Mnangagwa After "Rest In Peace" Error In Birthday Message
Daily News editor Guthrie Munyuki and executives from Modus Media, the publishers of both the Daily News and the Financial Gazette, met with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri, and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) chief Isaac Moyo at State House on Friday to personally apologize for an advertisement that mistakenly suggested the President was dead.
On Thursday, September 19, The Financial Gazette published an advertisement from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces congratulating Mnangagwa on his birthday, but it erroneously concluded with the phrase, “May his soul rest in eternal peace.”
The Daily News issued an apology on Friday, explaining that the mistake was due to a production error.
Later that day, George Charamba, Deputy Chief Secretary for Presidential Communications in the Office of the President and Cabinet, said Mnangagwa was satisfied with the explanation provided by the Modus Media executives.
According to Charamba, in a light-hearted moment, Mnangagwa humorously asked them, “Where are the flowers for the dead man?”
Charamba also shared a letter of apology from Munyuki, addressed to Aaron Nhepera, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Defence, dated September 19. Read the letter:
The Financial Gazette, published a birthday congratulatory message to President Emmerson Mnangagwa by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) with a serious error in its edition of this week.
At the end of the ZDF birthday message, and through lapses in the production process, the newspaper ended up carrying mortifyingly wrong words instead of saying ‘MAKOROKOTO, AMHLOPE, CONGRATULATIONS!’
We apologise profusely to President Mnangagwa, his family, his office, the government and to the ZDF for the anguish and inconvenience that this inadvertent mistake caused.
We have taken action to strengthen our internal systems to ensure that this kind of error never occurs again.
Once again, we would like to apologise for this error profusely.
The meeting at State House took place following an incident early Friday morning when unidentified gunmen, claiming to be law and order police, raided Munyuki’s home in Harare but did not find him.
These alleged gunmen, reportedly in two vehicles—a Toyota Fortuner and a Toyota Hilux—temporarily confiscated the phones of Munyuki’s wife and children and searched through their messages.
Mistakes in advertisements are common in Zimbabwean newspapers. This is often due to advertising staff using old templates for regular clients, making only minor adjustments to the text.
It seems that the Daily News staff mistakenly used a condolence message but forgot to replace the phrase “May His Soul Rest in Eternal Peace” with the celebratory phrases “Makorokoto, Amhlope, Congratulations!”
More: Pindula News
