Zimbabwe’s attempt to strip newspaper owner Trevor Ncube — publisher of the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent in that country and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa — of his citizenship threatens the ownership of his newspapers and media freedom, the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) warned on Wednesday.
The Zimbabwe government is preventing Ncube from renewing his passport, claiming he is not a Zimbabwe citizen — a charge he contests.
The action is “a serious inroad in what is left of media freedom in Zimbabwe and Ncube’s personal freedom”, Sanef chairperson Ferial Haffajee and Sanef media freedom sub-committee convenor Raymond Louw said in a joint statement.
“Ncube states that he has been informed that the government’s conduct has been approved ‘at the highest level’ — which means that it has the support of President Robert Mugabe, whose abysmal governance of Zimbabwe has been vigorously criticised by Ncube’s papers, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard, the last independent papers in that country.
“This can only mean that Mugabe wants to close down the papers or to change their critical stance by forcing on them a new ownership structure more supportive of him.”
Haffajee and Louw said loss of citizenship would mean that Ncube could own only a 40% share in his newspapers, which meant control would pass from him.
They dismissed Zimbabwe’s state-appointed Media and Information Commission’s assurances that the papers would be allowed to continue publishing, saying the laws against foreign ownership would prevail, so Ncube’s papers would be unlikely to continue their critical role.
Sanef raised concern that the action could also impact on South Africa’s M&G weekly newspaper, which Ncube publishes and Haffajee edits, and other media institutions in which Ncube is involved.
“Sanef supports Ncube in his endeavours to obtain legal redress through the Zimbabwe High Court, but believes the proper course of action would be for the government to give him his passport, stop interfering with his freedom of movement and to leave his papers alone.”
‘Unnecessary tension’
It was reported last week that Ncube will contest the stripping of his citizenship in a High Court application once a date is allocated.
Zimbabwean authorities announced their decision to strip Ncube of his Zimbabwean citizenship in late December because, they say, he is a Zambian citizen by descent.
Ncube will ask the court to direct the home affairs minister to confirm that he is a citizen of Zimbabwe and order the country’s registrar general to renew his passport within three days of a court order being granted.
The government has refused to renew Ncube’s passport and declared, by fax to his office, that he is no longer a citizen. The grounds are that Ncube’s father was born in Zambia.
Mathew Takaona, the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, told the M&G his union is “deeply concerned” by the latest development to strip Ncube of his Zimbabwean nationality, which he thinks is likely to create “unnecessary tension between the government and the media again”.
“The negative publicity that the government continues to complain about won’t stop; it’s making matters worse,” he said.
Insiders within the government contend that the matter is “political”, and say that unnamed senior government officials are pushing for the withdrawal of Ncube’s citizenship to pave the way for the government to seize control of his two publications.