The editor of ZimOnline, an independent Zimbabwe news agency based in South Africa, was shot and seriously wounded this week in Johannesburg, its deputy editor said on Thursday.
The attack on Abel Mutsakani occurred Monday night as he arrived at his Johannesburg home, Abel Chapatarongo told Reuters. He said that three men were involved in the shooting, which left Mutsakani with a ruptured lung.
“He is in a stable condition, but the doctors say they can’t remove the bullet because it is lodged near the heart,” Chapatarongo said. The attackers fled without stealing anything after Mutsakani’s wife triggered the house alarm, he added.
A police spokesperson on Thursday confirmed the shooting.
Daniel Molokela, spokesperson for ZimOnline, told the Mail & Guardian Online on Thursday that they were treating the incident as a robbery, “but we are not sure of the type of people who are targeting him”, he added.
“It’s not possible to verify whether it was one of these typical criminal things in Johannesburg or if it was more than that,” he said. “But we understand the political context of his job as a displaced journalist working for an alternate news voice on Zimbabwe.”
South African-based journalists, including a correspondent for United States television network CNN, have been victims of violent crime in the past year. There is no evidence, however, that they were targeted because of their profession.
A rising number of journalists based in Zimbabwe also have been assaulted in what some say is an orchestrated campaign by President Robert Mugabe’s government to silence dissent. A freelance television cameraman was found murdered earlier this year after disappearing from his home in Harare.
Mutsakani was the managing editor of Zimbabwe’s best-selling daily newspaper, the Daily News at the time of its banning in September 2003.
He moved to Johannesburg in 2004 where he and other Zimbabwean journalists established ZimOnline, an independent news service.
‘Out of control’
Earlier in July, opposition parties said the latest crime statistics prove crime is out of control despite government assurances to the contrary, opposition parties said.
“We are alarmed at the increase in murder [2,4%], the 118% increase in bank robberies, 52,5% increase in robberies at business premises, the 21,9% increase in cash-in-transit heists and the sharp increase in robberies at residential premises [25,4%],” Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) spokesperson Velaphi Ndlovu said in a statement.
“It once again proves without doubt that crime is out of control in South Africa and that the levels of crime remain alarmingly high, despite empty government promises,” he said.
The IFP believed it again highlighted the need for increased visible policing at banks, business premises, shopping malls and within residential areas.
Dianne Kohler-Barnard of the Democratic Alliance (DA) said the figures made a mockery of Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula’s assurances to foreign business that the crime rate was under control.
There had been some reported decreases, such as attempted murder (3%), rape (5,2%) and indecent assault (5,5%), but because the absolute figures were not yet available, actual performance to previous years could not be compared, she said.
What also needed to be taken into account was that many of the categories indicating decreases were crimes where the victim might be strongly influenced not to report due to risks of secondary trauma, inadequate victim support and lack of victim-friendly processes.
“This is especially true for sexual offences.”