A journalist from the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Shandukani Mathagu, was arrested on Saturday in Zimbabwe, the SABC confirmed on Sunday.
Mathagu was held on the Zimbabwean side of the Beit Bridge border post as he allegedly did not have a passport and had entered Zimbabwe illegally.
According to Manas Tshungu, the head of SABC’s Limpopo news service, Mathagu had been writing a story about the long queue of trucks on the South African side of the Beit Bridge border post.
Tshungu said a South African customs official had told Mathagu that the cause of the trucks’ delay was on the Zimbabwean side of the border and had invited the journalist to accompany him into Zimbabwe.
The official had reportedly assured Mathagu that he could cross into Zimbabwe without a passport as long as he was accompanied by a South African official.
The Zimbabwean police had different views, Tshungu said, and arrested the journalist.
After supplying Zimbabwean authorities with Mathagu’s passport, the journalist was released, Tshungu said.
A spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Ronnie Mamoepa, confirmed the incident.
Trucking queues have presented problems at Beit Bridge in the past.
In late 2002 trucks spent more than a week queueing in temperatures of above 40 degrees Celsius. Some were carrying hazardous chemicals.
The jam was the result of construction work on the Zimbabwe side of the border that had been delayed by plant equipment not being supplied with diesel as a result of the Zimbabwe crisis.
Trucks had been bound for many Southern African Development Community countries. — Sapa