Press freedom organisations have condemned Zimbabwe's decision to seize the passport of the owner of the country's last two independent newspapers. Trevor Ncube owner and director of Zimbabwe's two remaining independent newspapers and of South Africa's Mail and Guardian, was ordered to hand over his passport on Thursday when he landed in Zimbabwe at Bulawayo airport from South Africa.
The confiscation of Ncube's passport is based on a recent set of constitutional amendments which allows for the limiting of Zimbabwean citizenship against those who the government sees to be harming the interests of the country. President Robert Mugabe gained the two-thirds majority needed to make the amendment to the constitution in the March parliamentary elections. Ncube told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he was on a list of government critics whose passports the immigration authorities have been ordered to seize.
"The existence of this list is an affront to basic rights including freedom of expression and freedom of movement," said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive Director. "This is nothing short of a witch hunt against those courageous few who still dare publicly to criticise President Robert Mugabe's regime and its repression."
International Press Institute (IPI) Director Johann P Fritz said in a statement, "The confiscation of Ncube's passport is yet another depressing sign of the lengths the Zimbabwean government will go to suppress its critics." He said, "I call on the authorities to return Ncube's passport and for him to be allowed to carry on his work free of all harassment and intimidation."
"Ncube's media have often criticised members of government and the use of a constitutional amendment to prevent his free movement is draconian and shows that rather than drafting laws in support of free expression, the government is intent on passing repressive laws that silence the country's citizens," said Fritz.
"There seems to be no end to the array of harassment used against journalists in Zimbabwe", said Reporters sans Frontières (RSF). "The use of such draconian methods shows once again the determination of the authorities to put an end to freedom of opinion in Zimbabwe."
Console Tleane, head of media at the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) in Johannesburg, told Mail & Guardian Online on Friday that he viewed the confiscation of Ncube's passport "as a further demonstration of the regime's desperate attempts to silence its critics, particularly those who have spaces to express themselves where they live, such as in South Africa."
In a statement, FXI said: "[Ncube] has clearly attracted the wrath of the authorities on the basis of his activities in the media, which is hardly surprising given the fact that media freedom has been all but eliminated within Zimbabwe." It said, "This latest action shows that Zimbabweans living abroad will increasingly feel the brunt of the repressive actions of the Zimbabwean regime. Those who have left the country, not to live abroad permanently in exile or asylum conditions, like Ncube, will eventually be forced to assume such status, that is, become exiles."
The SA National Editors Forum (SANEF) on Thursday condemned the actions of the Zimbabwean government, saying it was using a "draconian" legislation to try to suppress critical voices within and outside of Zimbabwe. "The government is trying to silence all dissent whatsoever," said John Makumbe, a lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe.
"Trevor publishes the only independent newspapers in Zimbabwe. This is a new onslaught against what remains of a free press. The government will pounce on all critics and tell them they are locked in Zimbabwe. The country is becoming like a big prison. We are all in jail," Makumbe added.
"This is intended to break my spirit. It is intended to intimidate me. It is intended to silence me," Ncube told the Mail & Guardian Online on Friday. Ncube said he did not think his name would be on the list of targeted persons. He appears to be the first person to have his travel documents taken away from him under the new laws.
Ncube was this week also erroneously placed on the Australian government's list of Zimbabweans who are under sanction, though he is in negotiations to have his name removed from the sanctions list. An expanded list of 127 Zimbabweans barred from entering or doing business with Australia was released November 30. It also included a leading economist and executives of private firms and banks.
"I'm obviously shocked at both actions. I'm barred from Australia and now I'm barred from leaving Zimbabwe," Ncube said. Australia, an outspoken critic of the Zimbabwe government, on Thursday acknowledged mistakes in the list of people facing sanctions for cooperating with Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian regime.
Ncube, who is based in Johannesburg, flies between South Africa and Zimbabwe, where he is executive chairman of the Standard and the Zimbabwe Independent weeklies. He said he was not given any reason for the seizure, but was told to go to the regional passport office in Bulawayo. There he was shown a letter dated November 28 and titled "Invalidation and Withdrawal of Zimbabwean Passports."
The letter was signed by the country's chief immigration officer and stated that the passports of 17 people were "invalid" and should be withdrawn immediately. Ncube said his lawyers were taking urgent action to challenge the passport seizure. "This is about a regime that wants to control the minds of people," he said. "They are basically saying that you can't speak out, because if you do, you will lose your passport."
The Zimbabwean government is well known for its repressive treatment of critics and independent journalists. A crackdown on the press over the past five years has left the country with no independent daily newspapers, no private radio news coverage, and only two prominent independent weeklies.
The crackdown, says a CPJ report, has taken a devastating toll on Zimbabwe's independent media. Once home to a robust press corps, journalists remaining in the country are either without jobs in their profession, or they work under threat of laws that, among other things, set prison terms of up to 20 years for publishing false information deemed prejudicial to the state.
Most of the journalists named in the list are currently in exile. They include Geoffrey Nyarota, former editor of the Daily News and also a former recipient of a CPJ International Press Freedom Award; Nqobile Nyathi, the last editor of the Daily News before it was closed in 2003; Lloyd Mudiwa, a former Daily News reporter; exiled broadcast journalist Caroline Gombakomba; and Basildon Peta, former news editor of the business weekly Financial Gazette and a former leader of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. Peta is now a correspondent for the London-based Independent in South Africa. The list also includes businessman and former Daily News owner Strive Masiyiwa, who is based in South Africa. According to a CPJ analysis, Zimbabwean journalists living overseas make up one of the largest groups of exiled journalists in the world. There are at least 90 scattered around the world.
The Robert Mugabe government has used repressive legislations to close several newspapers, harass dozens of journalists, and drive many into exile. Earlier this year, it passed a constitutional amendment empowering it to seize travel documents of citizens deemed to be acting against the national interest.
Ncube has been a fierce and vocal critic of both Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the country's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Ncube bought the Mail & Guardian, which has published articles critical of the Mugabe regime, in 2002. He acquired the company from Britain's Guardian Newspapers Limited group, which retains a 10 per cent shareholding in the company.
Ncube's newspapers have received several warnings from the government's media and information commission. The commission has already closed down four publications, including the Daily News, which was Zimbabwe's biggest newspaper.
Detailed scanning of passports at some airports follows the enactment of a constitutional amendment last August that authorises the government to withdraw travel documents from some Zimbabwean citizens, acording to a Voice of America (VOA) report. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told parliament at the time that the amendment was in "the national interest" and was intended to deny travel privileges to Zimbabweans who criticised the government in foreign countries, which, he said, adversely affected the economy.
The very next day after Ncube's passport seizure, the Bulawayo police confiscated the passport of opposition spokesperson Paul Themba-Nyathi. The seizure of Themba-Nyathi's passport, taken when he returned on Friday from a two-day visit to South Africa, "is a spiteful move by the government," the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said in a brief statement. "It confirms our suspicions that the government plans to prevent a number of its most prominent critics from leaving the country."
The Zanu-PF party has, meanwhile, acording to a Reuters report, recommended a crackdown on Western-sponsored groups hostile to Mugabe and asked security forces to make a list of people whose passports should be seized. On the last day of its annual conference on Saturday, the party adopted a central committee report that recommended government action against non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civic groups allied to the opposition.
"The opposition is also grouped in the form of NGOs and civic groups, all sponsored by the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union," it said. "Stern action shall be taken against them." Senior Zanu-PF officials refused to discuss any details.
Last year, the party had passed a legislation that banned foreign funding for local rights groups and tightened the registration of other NGOs. Mugabe did not sign the bill as Zimbabwe badly needs aid from NGOs as it struggles with food and fuel shortages.
Critics charge Mugabe, the country's sole ruler since independence from Britain 25 years ago, has plunged one of Africa's most promising countries into a deep political and economic crisis through controversial policies. Mugabe has consistently blamed Zimbabwe's problems on sabotage by opponents of his drive to redistribute white-owned farms among blacks and sanctions imposed on the country by the West. Despite its firm political grip on the southern African country, Mugabe's government still feels insecure and has imposed tough media and security laws to police its opponents, analysts say.
