Daily News editor Guthrie Munyuki addressed the recent blunder made by the Financial Gazette regarding an advertisement from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces congratulating President Mnangagwa on his birthday.
The ad erroneously concluded with the phrase, “May his soul rest in eternal peace,” mistakenly implying that the President had passed away.
While many took to social media to mock the error, Modus Media, the publisher of both the Daily News and Financial Gazette, issued a formal apology to the President and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces for the oversight.
In an interview with ZBC News on Friday, Munyuki clarified that the mistake arose from the unintentional use of a previous condolence message from the ZDF. He explained:
The advert was actually congratulating the President for having turned 82. But unfortunately, we made a mortifying blunder. One of our designers picked up an old template so that she could get the correct symbols and court of arms of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. But unfortunately, the template that she had picked was the one where ZDF had previously expressed a condolence message to one of the fallen heroes and so she removed the old text and put in the new text but without checking that there was still something that she had to do on the foot of the advert and that was “May his soul rest in eternal peace”.
Munyuki, along with executives from Modus Media, met with Mnangagwa, Defence Minister Oppah Muchinguri and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) chief Isaac Moyo at State House on Friday to formally apologise for the error.
President Mnangagwa reportedly accepted the apology, and in a light-hearted moment, he humorously asked, “Where are the flowers for the dead man?” This quip was shared by his spokesperson, George Charamba.
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