(MISA/IFEX) – Mduduzi Mathuthu, a reporter for “The Daily News” based in Bulawayo, was arrested along with photographer Grey Chitiga on Sunday 18 November 2001, on allegations of kidnapping and torture. The state media Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and “The Herald” reported that Mathuthu and Chitiga were arrested under the Law and Order Maintenance Act […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Mduduzi Mathuthu, a reporter for “The Daily News” based in Bulawayo, was arrested along with photographer Grey Chitiga on Sunday 18 November 2001, on allegations of kidnapping and torture. The state media Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and “The Herald” reported that Mathuthu and Chitiga were arrested under the Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA).
Assistant Commissioner Oliver Mashonganyika, the deputy officer commanding Bulawayo, said that Mathuthu and Chitiga had been arrested following the kidnapping and severe assault of Ndabezinhle Moyo on the night of Saturday 17 November. The police allege that Moyo was abducted by suspected opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) youths and taken to the party offices, where he was beaten.
“The Herald” reported that the MDC youths asked Moyo to confess that the murder of war veteran leader Cain Nkala was the work of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF). Mashonganyika further alleged that the youths later called Mathuthu and Chitiga to record Moyo’s confession. Police took Mathuthu and held him for two hours, then returned with him to “The Daily News”‘s offices in Bulawayo, where they seized the notebooks he had used and Chitiga’s camera. It is believed that MDC activists who claimed to know full details of Nkala’s kidnapping and murder had agreed to give an interview to Mathuthu. The allegations by the police that Moyo was kidnapped could not be independently verified.
Efforts by Mathuthu’s colleagues to ascertain under what charge he had been detained were fruitless. The police denied Mathuthu and Chitiga’s lawyer Washington Sansole access to his clients. A MISA-Zimbabwe source in Bulawayo said that Mathuthu and Chitiga arrived at the Magistrate’s Court on 19 November.
In a related development, on Friday 16 November, war veterans and ruling party supporters in Bulawayo destroyed thousands of copies of “The Daily News”, “The Financial Gazette” and the “Zimbabwe Independent”. The war veterans were demonstrating to protest Nkala’s murder. Newspaper vendors selling independent newspapers were beaten up. A news crew from the government-owned “The Chronicle” was beaten up in retaliation and had its car burned down by suspected opposition MDC youths. A car belonging to the ZBC was also damaged.
