by Tatiana Repkova

Retired army general Solomon Mujuru plans to launch a daily newspaper to prop up his wife's faltering presidential ambitions, New Zimbabwe.com has revealed.

Vice President Joice Mujuru, the ex-general's wife, is determined to fight for Zanu PF's leadership. Solomon Mujuru's supporters see the newspaper project as the best way to get Joice Mujuru's message across, sources said. General Mujuru has put former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) journalist Musekiwa Khumbula in charge of recruiting a capable team of journalists for the planned newspaper, which sources say will be called The Express. Khumbula is a corporate affairs consultant for Innscor Africa, whose chairman is Ray Kaukonde, a Mujuru loyalist and governor for Mashonaland East province.

Mashonaland East was one of two provinces, with Harare, which refused to back President Mugabe's plan to extend his term by two years when it expires in 2008. Kaukonde is one of the leaders of the “Stop-Mugabe-Campaign,” which Mujuru's loyalists called the “Look East” policy at last year's annual Zanu PF conference, the term being a bastardisation of Mugabe's “Look East” policy which promotes trade with Asian countries.

The Express, according to sources, has been licensed by the Media and Information Commission (MIC), although no confirmation could be obtained from the media watchdog last night. But reliable sources close to the project told New Zimbabwe.com that the bulk of staff from the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror - which have failed to publish for two weeks due to financial problems - will move to the paper, which is scheduled to hit news stands in April or May. A source revealed Monday: "Everything points to the launch of the paper sometime in April. The latest would be May. Tafataona Mahoso (MIC chairman) has already issued a licence to the owners of the paper." http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/ijaz24.16136.html; March 21, 2007