Huge send-off for Daily News staffer

The late Daily News staffer, Sharon Muguwu, was laid to rest yesterday at her rural home in Chikomba District.

Muguwu, 28, succumbed to leukaemia cancer on Tuesday. She was described by relatives, friends and workmates as a humble and hardworking journalist willing to learn.

The only daughter and the first child in a family of three siblings, the good-natured and much-loved journalist spent the last four months in hospital, bravely battling the disease.

Speaking at the funeral, Daily News deputy editor, Guthrie Munyuki, recalled how the affable Muguwu joined the stable in early 2011.

“Journalism is often described as a man’s field not suitable for the lily-livered due to the odd working hours as well as the current political polarisation, but Sharon soldiered on.

“She was someone who had foresight; hence her deliberate decision to continue furthering her education. We have lost a heroine of the struggle,” Munyuki said.

Muguwu will be deeply missed by everyone she came into contact with in her short but illustrious life, he said.

The funeral was well attended by senior ANZ officials including group managing director Sharon Samushonga, journalists from across the media spectrum, music promoters and artists as well as government officials.

Muguwu’s friend and close confidant, Tarisai Jangara, was at a loss for words as she broke down while describing the famed entertainment reporter as “a humble and dedicated cadre”.

She was one of the first journalists to join the ANZ — publishers of the Daily News, the Daily News on Sunday and the Weekend Post — when the company resumed operations in late March 2011, after it had been unjustly shut down for eight long years by paranoid authorities for telling the Zimbabwean story like it is.

Born on August 14, 1988, Sharon attended Chindunduma High School in Shamva where she did Form 1 to 6, before going on to do a diploma in Mass Communications at Harare Polytechnic from 2008 to 2009.

After joining ANZ as a reporter in 2011, she worked hard to improve her academic qualifications and professional standing, attaining an Honours Degree in Media and Society Studies from Midlands State University in 2015. Daily News