Zim PR guru appointed to continental body

as vice president. Also appointed to the body are Mr Peter Mutie from Kenya, who will be the association’s president, while Mr Yomi Badejo Okusanya from Nigeria is the secretary-general.
The new executive will hold office for the next three years.
APRA is the umbrella body for all national associations of public relations and all practitioners on the continent.
The appointments were made at the 24th APRA Annual Conference and General Meeting held in Kenya last year.
Ms Chima is a career public relations practitioner. She began her career in the field in 1982 as a staffing officer in the Ministry of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
In 1987, she moved to Manica Zimbabwe Ltd as public relations manager. She later joined Bainland Communications in 1995 as managing director, a position she holds to date.
At Bainland she has undertaken and overseen a number of public relations projects with companies such as Bindura Nickel Corporation, Stanbic Bank and non-governmental organisations.
Ms Chima holds a Master of Sciences degree in Strategic Marketing Management from the University of Derby (United Kingdom), and an executive certificate in Community Development and Humanitarian Project Management from the University of Zimbabwe.
She also holds a Diploma in Public Relations and a postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation.
In an interview, Ms Chima said she would use her position to restore the country’s public relations industry both regionally and globally.
“One of my key goals during my tenure of office is to help revive the visibility of Zimbabwe’s public relations industry in the region and globally.
“Because of the economic turmoil that the country underwent over the past decade our public relations industry has not been as active as it should, which in turn has had a negative impact on its reputation.
“The primary purpose of APRA is to help in creating an enabling professional environment for accurate perception and understanding of necessary and effective performance of public relations practice in the region, and these should essentially reflect in Zimbabwe’s public relations industry,” she said.
Ms Chima’s goal for the local public relations industry have since received a significant boost as APRA member countries have unanimously selected Zimbabwe as the host of the 25th APRA Annual Conference and General Meeting in May this year.
“The hosting of a conference of this nature is quite immense, especially the opportunity to project the country’s achievements and aspirations directly to the continent’s leading image managers, who can in turn become advocates.
“The hosting of the annual conference and AGM will help ensure that the international spotlight is on the local public relations industry.”
She added that her organisation has communicated with the Ministry of Information and Publicity over support for the hosting of the event and has since received some positive feedback.
APRA is the successor organisation to the Federation of African Public Relations Associations (FAPRA) that was inaugurated in 1975 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Some of the key objectives of APRA include setting standards of public relations practice through its code of ethics, fostering the establishment of national and sub-regional public relations associations so that the profession can flourish on the continent.