Zimbabwe police on Wednesday arrested the editor of the Standard newspaper and a reporter after a weekend report on the arrest of a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Cabinet minister.
It is not clear what specific charges editor Nevanji Madanhire and reporter Patience Nyangove will face. However, the charges may relate to a report in which the paper said a senior police officer, Crispen Makedenge, was involved in last Friday’s arrest of Minister Jameson Timba, and linked Makedenge to allegations of human rights abuses.
Jameson Timba, a Cabinet minister from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, was arrested at his office on Friday for allegedly calling President Robert Mugabe a liar. He was freed on Sunday.
The newspaper wrote on Sunday that “notorious Makedenge” had previously been accused of “abducting and torturing” human rights campaigners.
The Standard, along with the daily NewsDay and the Zimbabwe Independent, is part of the independent media group Alpha Media Holdings, which is owned by publisher Trevor Ncube, the majority shareholder in the Mail & Guardian.
Lawyers said police had first arrested Nyangove on Wednesday, returning two hours later to pick up the editor. The paper’s human resources manager, Loud Ramakgapola, accompanied Madanhire to the police station but was not charged, the lawyers said.
However, their arrest came as media groups had warned of a possible crackdown on independent journalists after state media claimed journalists were being paid “to tarnish the image of President Mugabe and Zanu-PF”.
State media have quoted unnamed Zanu-PF officials who had called for the arrests of the journalists for receiving payments from Western governments.
Freedom of the press
The 2011 press freedom index of international watchdog Freedom House ranks Zimbabwe lowest of all the states in the Southern African Development Community and places it 173rd of 196 countries worldwide — it has been designated “not free”.
In November last year Zimbabwe police arrested Nqobani Ndlovu, also a Standard journalist, for “criminally defaming” the Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri. This in turn followed the issuing of an arrest warrant for Wilf Mbanga, the London-based editor and publisher of the Zimbabwean newspaper.
The arrest of Madanhire and Nyangove comes amid fears of a crackdown as a row escalates between members of the military and the MDC.
Last week, a top army officer and close Mugabe ally accused the prime minister of being a national security threat and a lackey of Western powers.
“Tsvangirai doesn’t pose a political threat in any way in Zimbabwe, but is a major security threat … He takes instructions from foreigners who seek to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe,” the state-owned Herald newspaper quoted Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba as saying.
Cabinet arrests
On Tuesday, another top aide to Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe energy minister Elton Mangoma, was cleared of charges that he had breached tender regulations in a fuel deal, after the judge said the state had no case.
Mangoma, a top aide of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, was arrested in March, accused of breaching tender regulations in the purchase of five million litres of diesel from a South African company when Zimbabwe’s fuel reserves ran dry in 2009.
In July he faces further allegations of cancelling a tender for the supply of pre-paid meters to the state electricity company. — Additional reporting by AFP