HARARE – The Zimbabwe Newspapers Group’s head of content syndication and former Sunday Mail editor Mabasa Sasa has left the company.
Sasa was prosecuted for supplying false information to the police after wrecking a company vehicle while driving without a licence sometime last year, ZimLive understands.
The insurance company baulked at repairing the vehicle after discovering Sasa was not licenced to drive.
He was hauled before a Zimpapers disciplinary hearing but opted not to wait for the sack.
On Friday, Sasa tweeted a YouTube video of Frank Sinatra belting his hit tune ‘My Way’.
Some of the lyrics for the song say: “And now, the end is near/And so I face the final curtain/My friend, I’ll say it clear/I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain/I’ve lived a life that’s full/I’ve travelled each and every highway/But more, much more than this/I did it my way.”
“The fat lady has sung. On to the next chapter,” he added in another tweet.
Zimpapers CEO Pikirai Deketeke said: “He has moved on.”
Sasa was removed as Sunday Mail editor in December last year after a change of guard at the Ministry of Information where the journalist’s ally George Charamba was removed as permanent secretary.
It has become customary for Zimpapers editors to change with the arrival of a new Information Minister. New ministers appoint editors they can trust to communicate their message in what is now commonly referred to as “hunting with your hounds.”
Sasa left at the same time as Herald editor Caesar Zvayi, who was assigned a new post of editor at large in charge of special projects.
The post of head of content syndication, which did not exist before Sasa was appointed, was seen as a halfway house to his final exit.
Sources told ZimLive that after the insurance company refused to repair the accident damaged vehicle, Zimpapers had tried to sell the wreck on the cheap – attracting questions from the board.
“Board members wanted to know why Zimpapers was disposing of a car with such a low mileage so cheaply, with the potential loss of $45,000. That’s when the full details of Sasa’s misrepresentations came to light. The board ordered a disciplinary hearing and that was only ever going to end one way,” a Zimpapers source said.
Sasa was a one time editor of the Southern Times in Namibia and also served as deputy editor of The Herald under Zvayi.