By our reporter
Renowned Social entrepreneur and chairman Mali Group Frank Gashumba has once again attacked his long time rival Robert Kabushenga over his negative contribution to Uganda using New Vision.
Gashumba accuses the media outlet CEO for publishing negative stories about the country thus tarnishing Uganda’s image.
He says New Vision under the leadership of Kabushenga has successfully distanced prospective investors and tourists through its negative stories.
The Ssisimuka Uganda boss cited out examples of unbalanced stories about Sudhir Ruparelia where the paper depicted the businessman as a fraudster despite his contribution to the economy and stories of foreigners who died from two top hotels in the city which New Vision ran for days linking them to government security organs.
Gashumba further accused Kabushenga for destroying the government owned newspaper.
He says the paper’s copy sales highly reduced.
According to Gashumba, by the time Kabushenga took over as Vision Group’s CEO in 2007, the company was making over shs19 billion profits per year but in 2017, the company made only shs14 million in profits.
Gashumba’s full statement;
Kabushenga is a ‘weavel’ too!!!
By Frank M. Gashumba
Mr President, if General Kale Kayihura has been part of the ‘weavil’ in the Uganda Police Force (UPF), then Kabushenga is a certified Virus!!. Vision Group under his leadership has done successfully is to brand Uganda negatively with unfortunate stories published and run on its outlets. Despite being a partly government owned Newspaper, New Vision has consistently published negative stories about Uganda which has greatly tarnished the country’s image. The paper has successfully distanced prospective investors and tourists through its negative stories. Last year for two months
it ran unbalanced stories about Sudhir Rupaelia that Sudhir depicting him as fraudsters despite his contribution to the economy!
Now we can exclusively report that top Bank of Uganda (BoU) officials connived with top officials from DFCU Bank to fail Crane Bank and steal the institution’s properties and money which they successfully did! At the time of its closure and ‘staged collapse’, Crane Bank was valued at 1.9 trillion but was given away to DFCU at a paltry sh200b! To date, the Bank of Uganda has not released the sale agreement between Crane Bank and DFCU. New vision played a crucial role in portraying Crane Bank as a failed institution. Once Malcom X said that ‘media is such a powerful tool that can turn an innocent person into a devil’ and this is exactly what Vision Group through its English daily successfully did. Back to Kabushenga, where is it written in the Bible or a Qoran that everything negative that happens in the country must be reported about in the national paper????
Two months ago, foreigners died from two top Hotels in Kampala and New Vision ran shouting headlines for days linking them to Government security organs! Who does that? Very sad!! I have two friends one working with Emirates and one working with Qatar Airways who confirmed to me that very week of the death of the two foreigners that they airlifted coffins containing dead bodies from Qatar and Dubai But you will never see such story in newspapers in Middle East newspapers. Why? Because they know when such stories run, they will automatically affect negatively the country’s image and many sectors like tourism will be hit hard. It is a public secret that United Arab Emirates’ earning are from the Emirates airline and tourism!
Many of you remember the late Security Minister Aronda Nyakairima died aboard Emirates airline, did it feature in any newspaper in Middle East? So when New Vision writes terrible stories about Uganda, do these editors and leadership of the Vision Group have any idea what impact of such stories have to the country’s image and reputation? About investors and tourists dying in our hotels, it is a direct notification to tourists and investors coming to Uganda that Uganda is not safe at all if visitors can die from five star hotels!
Two weeks ago, we had volunteers who were coming from Germany to volunteer with Sisimuka Uganda but cancelled their trip saying that what they read in the papers about Uganda is unfortunate and felt unsafe to travel and stay in the Pearl of Africa! They instead switched and went to Ghana! Who loses? Our economy! This is how Kabushenga and New Vision have destroyed our image on the global scale.
Do you guys know that Kabushenga has succesfully destroyed New Vision. Out of a population of 41 million ugandans, New Vision only sells 21,000 copies a day! Super abnormal losses considering the company’s operational costs. By the time Kabushenga took over as the CEO of Vision Group in 2007, the company was making over 19 billions (profit) per annum. But last year (2017) it made only Uganda shs sh14m only as profits! What Kabushenga has done successfully is that you can nolonger seperate him from New Vision. Every small event where Kabushenga is, New Vision will run his huge pic on front page which was never the case during William Pike’s era.
So Mr. President, I always hear you inviting investors to Uganda but as long as New Vision potrays uganda as a not so safe destination to invest in or visit, I am sorry to say but you are wasting your time inviting prospective investors and tourists to the pearl of Africa.
A national newspaper must promote the country’s interests first just the way Rwanda’s New Times does rather pulling the country down!
Watch the space, I am going to show you how the entire Vision Group (Newspapers, Televisions, Radios, online platforms, etc) made just sh14m profit in 2017
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