The SA Police Service emphatically denied on Tuesday that Zimbabwean intelligence officers were in South Africa to arrest cricketer Henry Olonga.
Senior Superintendent Selby Bokaba said: ”There are no such people in the country. We have established that.”
The Democratic Alliance asked the government on Monday whether Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was searching for Olonga in South Africa, following reports to this effect in London’s Sunday Telegraph.
Olonga and fellow Zimbabwean cricketer Andy Flower staged a protest against what they called ”the death of democracy in Zimbabwe” during one of their World Cup Cricket games in Harare, by wearing black armbands.
Both Olonga and Flower were later disciplined by the Zimbabwean Cricket Union. Olonga quit international cricket following Zimbabwe’s exit from the World Cup.
Zimbabwe lost to Sri Lanka in East London on Saturday. Bokaba said four senior officers of the Zimbabwean police — not the CIO — were in South Africa as the guests of the International Cricket Council and the SA Police Service.
They were here ”as part of the security for the Cricket World Cup”, Bokaba said.
Some of the World Cup matches have been played in Kenya and Zimbabwe. A similar delegation of Kenyan police had also visited South Africa, Bokaba said, and had returned home. – Sapa