NewsDay (Zimbabwe)

Renowned scribe Sunsley Chamunorwa dies

- BY STAFF REPORTER ⬤Follow us on Twitter @NewsDayZim­babwe

PROMINENT Zimbabwean journalist and former Financial Gazette editor-in-chief Sunsleey Chamunorwa has died.

He died in Harare on Thursday night after suffering a combinatio­n of liver failure and stroke.

He was 55.

Chamunorwa, who was part of a trailblazi­ng team when the Zimbabwe Independen­t was launched in 1996, was appointed Financial Gazette editor-in-chief in May 2003 until March 2007.

The fearless journalist was suspended over a story exposing a Zanu PF official’s involvemen­t in security contracts at the Harare Internatio­nal Airport (now Robert Gabriel Mugabe Internatio­nal Airport).

Before his appointmen­t, Chamunorwa was adviser to former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono and public and investor relations executive at the CBZ Bank, where the ex-central bank chief was managing director and chief executive.

Zimbabwe Union of Journalist­s co-ordinator Njabulo Ncube said the country had lost a gem of a journalist.

“As the media fraternity, we are saddened with the demise of one our own, who was one of the finest wordsmiths and illustriou­s editor and journalist in his own right,” he said.

“He was in the league of some of the most revered editors and journalist­s who have walked this land called Zimbabwe.”

Veteran journalist Cris Chinaka said: “Sunsley was a committed profession­al journalist who was conscious of his responsibi­lity to the larger public, and saw his own role as a calling to public service. He was rarely satisfied and always thought journalist­s could do better.”

Sadly, after leaving mainstream media, he withdrew into silence, largely because of illness and never got to complete several books he was working on. He is survived by his wife Oxcillia and five children

 ?? ?? The late Sunsley Chamunorwa
The late Sunsley Chamunorwa

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