A journalist has filed assault charges against Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Botswana who he says attacked him over an article he wrote, police said on Thursday.
Hloniphani Chengeta, a journalist for Botswana’s Sunday Tribune
claimed Phelekezela Mphoko grabbed him and held him against a wall after the diplomat objected to a report he had written.
”We have received a complaint and we are dealing with it,” Botswana’s police commissioner, Norman Malebogo said.
It is unclear whether Mphoko’s diplomatic immunity would frustrate attempts to prosecute him.
”We are conferring with Foreign Affairs on the matter. A decision has not yet been taken as to how the suspect should be dealt with,” Malebogo said.
The incident followed the publishing of an article in which the journalist quoted the Information and Publicity Secretary of Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Nathan Shamuyarira, saying that Botswana was being used by British and United States troops to launch a regime change in Zimbabwe.
Shamuyarira was also quoted as claiming that Botswana was working with Zimbabwe’s opposition party and Western powers to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.
Chengeta said that Mphoko ”grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and held me against the wall. One of my colleagues managed to pull him off.”
The watchdog Media Institute of Southern Africa issued a statement on the alleged assault, saying Zimbabwe’s High Commission to Botswana denied the allegations. – Sapa-AP