High moral road has commercial cost for papers

Malcolm Dean has pointed out that those “newspapers with the lowest level of trust have the highest circulation and papers with the highest level of trust have the lowest circulation”.

The News of the World, a Sunday tabloid that published for the last time in July last year, claimed a circulation of 2.8 million. Its more respectable counterparts sell considerably less. And the newspaper’s departure apparently left a hole in the lives of many of its readers, who failed to fill the gap with other brands.

In January, The Guardian reported that almost half of the News of the World’s 2.66 million buyers had given up on buying a Sunday paper by the end of last year, almost seven months after the title’s closure at the height of the phone-hacking scandal. Murdoch launched a Sunday edition of The Sun last month to win them back.

With most newspapers seeing a decline in circulation, choosing the high moral road can have a commercial cost.

Zimplats

The Zimbabwean government remains unapologetic regarding its indigenisation policy, in which foreign-owned firms have to hand over 51 percent of equity to locals.

Zimbabwe, which was once the bread basket of Africa but quickly deteriorated into a basket case, is slowly picking up the pieces from its days of hyperinflation.

On its new path, Zimbabwe seems to be paving the way to economic empowerment for its masses through the indigenisation policy. But how will the proceeds from indigenisation trickle down to the population of about 15 million?

Impala Platinum’s subsidiary, Zimplats, on Tuesday agreed in principle to cede 51 percent to the Zimbabwean government, employees and communities. Zimplats’ previous plan to cede a 29.5 percent stake to locals was rejected by the indigenisation ministry. In its revised plan presented on Tuesday, Zimplats agreed that a 10 percent stake would go to communities, another 10 percent to staff and 31 percent would be transferred to a sovereign wealth fund.

Zimplats said in a statement: “No agreement was reached on timing nor valuation other than that the shares sales would be at appropriate value.”

Cynics believe that the sovereign wealth fund will simply become a bottomless trough from which Zimbabwean politicians and their mates will feed.

Not so, said George Magosvongwe, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Indigenisation. He is confident that the sovereign wealth fund is in the interest of all of Zimbabwe’s people. He said yesterday that the government planned to grow the economy by creating jobs and by opening opportunities through partnerships with foreign firms.

Only time will tell if Zimbabwe’s politicians stick to their promise of providing wealth for all citizens.

Fisheries

Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat-pettersson has done “an about turn” on the wholesale relocation of the fisheries branch of her department from the coast to Pretoria, according to DA fisheries spokesman Pieter van Dalen.

She had assured the portfolio committee that there would be no total move of Marine and Coastal Management from the Western Cape – which just happens to be ruled by Van Dalen’s party – to Pretoria.

He believed it had a lot to do with the pressure placed by his party on the minister “to reverse the nonsensical decision to move coastal management inland”.

Now it seems that only the portion of the staff comprising human resources and legal services will be located in Pretoria, with the majority of the operation remaining at the coast. This is, according to Van Dalen, where it needs to be in order to manage South African marine resources. About 80 percent of the country’s fishing is done along the Western Cape coastline.

The coastal management unit has the specific task of ascertaining fish stocks, on which the total allowable catch (TAC) for any given year is based. Van Dalen said that the process of applying for fishing quotas required specialised legal services, which should also remain close at hand.

“Officials need to be close to where fishing is taking place in order to deal with these matters properly. We ask that the minister handles any move that takes this into account,” he said, noting that the minister should consult with the affected parties, including fishermen and women.

However, Joemat-pettersson’s special adviser, Rams Mabote, said the minister had not made an about turn. She had said from day one the same things that Van Dalen now called an about turn, he said.

“The minister emphasised that the mooted move would be informed by a scientific study and won’t be a thumbsuck. Nothing has changed.”