(MISA/IFEX) – Unions representing Zimbabwean journalists this week condemned a death threat made against journalist Njabulo Ncube by a war veteran leader, “The Financial Gazette” has reported. Ncube, a reporter with “The Financial Gazette”, is the paper’s bureau chief in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. On Saturday 10 March 2001, a war veteran leader in […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Unions representing Zimbabwean journalists this week condemned a death threat made against journalist Njabulo Ncube by a war veteran leader, “The Financial Gazette” has reported.
Ncube, a reporter with “The Financial Gazette”, is the paper’s bureau chief in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. On Saturday 10 March 2001, a war veteran leader in Bulawayo, Abel Mahlangu, stormed into the Bulawayo Press Club, where the South African High Commissioner to Zimbabwe was addressing journalists, and shouted threats at Ncube. He told Ncube that he would be dead by the 2002 presidential elections because of his alleged links with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). “You are a fool. You will be killed for nothing. You will not last up to 2002,” Mahlangu shouted at Ncube.
Basildon Peta, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, and Abel Mutsakani, president of the Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe, said they were taking the threat against Ncube seriously and would hold Mahlangu responsible if anything happened to Ncube. Peta said the police should seriously investigate Mahlangu as he should not be allowed to get away with such threats.
“Our constitution guarantees everyone the right to life and if somebody makes such a threat on another person and is allowed to get away with it, then it only exemplifies the depths we have sunk as a nation. We are back to the dark ages,” said Peta.
Mutsakani said his association was trying to talk with the war veterans’ leaders over their continued attacks on independent journalists.
“The Financial Gazette” publisher and Chief Executive, Elias Rusike, said that he condemns Mahlangu’s behaviour in the strongest possible terms. He urged Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo to ask Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri to provide security to Ncube and other journalists who have been harassed and attacked by mobs of self-styled war veterans. Rusike said the government should guarantee the safety of all journalists to ensure that they can do their work without fear or hindrance from any quarter.
He rejected charges that “The Financial Gazette” was a mouthpiece for the opposition MDC.
“It [the Financial Gazette] is independent of the government, the ruling party, the MDC and big business. Our mission is to provide a forum for debate and discourse for people and groups with different and, at times, conflicting viewpoints,” said Rusike.
“We are guided by the pursuit of the truth. We are balanced and objective and go out of our way to give both sides of the story,” said Rusike.
