Fortune Mbele
JOiNiNG Alpha media Holdings in 2010 came with a lot of excitement brought about by the emergence of a new baby in the media industry. The vibrancy with which the publication hit the market changed the entire media landscape in the country.
As a sports reporter, i felt the challenge to compete with the perceived bigger publication in the region, The Chronicle and producing articles from the region with a national outlook.
we had a great team to start with at the bulawayo office, led by the now late Dumisani sibanda that also had silas Nkala, Nduduzo Tshuma, Richard muponde, Khulani Nkabinde, Fortune moyo and sukoluhle mthethwa on the sports desk and Nqobani Ndlovu and Nqobile bhebhe on The Standard and Independent desks, respectively.
The excitement even grew in 2013, with the launch of the stand-alone Southern Eye, a paper produced in bulawayo and giving me and my colleagues in the region the leverage and leeway to expansively focus more on developments in the region, cutting across from beitbridge (matabeleland south), masvingo, bulawayo, matabeleland North and midlands.
i worked with a team of ambitious journalists, young and experienced and an industrious production team from the bulawayo office, all ably-led by the editor Kholwani Nyathi and his deputy Njabulo Ncube.
To begin with travelling to these parts of the country came with no hassle as we got maximum support from the company to go deeper into the southern region. For my part i had extensive interaction with sporting communities in Hwange, Lupane, Tsholotsho, Gweru, Ntabazinduna, Gwanda, Colleen bawn, Zvishavane and masvingo.
but that came with its challenges i guess of a national nature as advertising was low in the region compounded by the country’s economic woes which led to the Southern Eye stopping publishing as a stand-alone but just as an inset in the main papers at a later stage.
The end to the publication of the Southern Eye dampened the spirits of many as it saw the downsizing of the bulawayo office with some staff having to relocate to head office.
but we soldiered on, still do and the experience and the learning gained through the decade have been invaluable.