One of Zimbabwe’s two independent radio stations was destroyed on Thursday when a bomb exploded at its offices during the early morning hours.
No one was injured in the explosion between 12.30am and 1am at the Voice of the People (VOP) short-wave radio.
”We were called this morning by one of our staff and told it looked like the building was on fire. Then we came here and saw this,” said Faith Ndebele, the VOP’s chairperson.
The offices, located in a residential neighbourhood in Harare, was staffed by a lone security guard at the time. The bomb blew off the roof and destroyed all the radio station’s equipment.
The security guard said he saw three men jump over the radio station’s perimeter wall.
The VOP uses local reporters who do their programmes in local languages and then send computer sound files to The Netherlands, from where they are broadcast on short-wave back to Zimbabwe to avoid falling under the oppressive media legislation enacted by President Robert Mugabe’s goverment. — Sapa-AFP