Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner to South Africa Simon Moyo has accused the local media of being ”unAfrican” in the way they reported the murder of a South African tourist in Zimbabwe on Sunday.
”It is unfortunate that some media in South Africa have found it appropriate to exploit the incident and bring in their usual obsession with Zimbabwe, by bringing in extraneous issues,” he said on Wednesday.
”Such conduct is deplorable in the extreme. It is insensitive, unAfrican and inhuman.”
Moyo, however, was not immediately available to elaborate.
Thomas and his girlfriend, Megan, her father and her two youth sisters were approached by three gunmen at Hillside Dams, a family resort in Bulawayo.
One of the men shot and killed Thomas before robbing his girlfriend and her family of items to the value of Z$12-million (about R11 760). Four men had been arrested in connection with the killing.
South African media reported that Megan’s father, Leon Bezuidenhout, who witnessed the killing, said there was no hope of a revival of the tourism industry in Zimbabwe.
He said Thomas’s murder was typical of the violence common in that southern Africa country.
”It is so pathetic that tourists who bring in the much-needed foreign currency in Zimbabwe can be murdered like this. Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has ground to a halt because of the rampant lawlessness and if the government cannot stop it then there is no hope for its revival at all,” said Bezuidenhout, who is an official at a South African tourism company.
Tourism in Zimbabwe has fallen off sharply over the past three years due partly to political tensions in the southern African country.
On Wednesday Moyo also conveyed his condolences to relatives and family of Thomas, saying the killing was regrettable.
”The city of Bulawayo, where the incident occurred, is known for its peace and tranquillity, let alone the hospitality of its citizens.”
He said although the incident was viewed as isolated, the speed with which the police have moved to arrest those allegedly involved was commendable.
They are: Sikhumbuzo Moyo (26) Wiseman Ncube (39) Judas Misheck (23) and Ezekiel Ncube (28) all of Old Pumula township.
Three suspects were initially picked up, and their capture led to the arrest of a fourth on Tuesday.
The Bulawayo-based newspaper, the Chronicle, reported on Wednesday that the four suspects have been linked to other crimes in the city.
Inspector Langa Ndlovu described the act as purely criminally-motivated and said the suspects will be dealt with accordingly. He said one of the suspects was found in possession of a pocket knife, a spark plug and a hyenas tail.
”He said he was given the hyena’s tail by an Inyanga to protect him from police detection for other crimes he had committed,” Ndlovu told the paper.
It was reported that Thomas’s body was flown to Johannesburg on Tuesday for burial. The body was ferried by an SOS International plane which was chartered from South Africa by a medical aid company for which Thomas’s mother works.
This was after Air Zimbabwe had told the deceased’s family that they had no commercial flights to South Africa.
Denise Bezuidenhout, Megan’s mother, said he would be buried in Boksburg on Saturday after a service at Boksburg’s Trinity Church.
”SOS International came on Tuesday to collect the body and went back the same day. We are supposed to be leaving Zimbabwe today (on Wednesday) for the burial on Saturday morning,” said Bezuidenhout. – Sapa