TREVOR Ncube, the owner and publisher of the Mail & Guardian and Zimbabwe's Standard and Independent newspapers had his passport impounded as he landed in Bulawayo on Wednesday.
Ncube, who commutes between South Africa and Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo on a business and family trip, the Mail & Guradian reported.
The impounding of Ncube's passport came as Australia promised to urgently review a list of individuals on economic and travel sanctions which includes the journalist whose papers are critical of President Robert Mugabe's regime.
Ncube said that his name was on a government list of more than 60 prominent Zimbabweans whose passports would be similarly confiscated if they travelled back to their homeland.
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 Zimbabwe government alleges to be harming the interests of the country.
The M& G reported that Ncube was cleared through customs but then recalled from the car-park, ostensibly to have a spelling discrepancy checked.
The customs official, who had a list of passport numbers with him, made a call to a senior official and said: "It's him" -- an action which suggests that there is a renewed crackdown on Zimbabweans who live outside the country.
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.
"I'm obviously shocked at both actions," he told the Mail & Guardian from Zimbabwe. "I'm barred from Australia and now I'm barred from leaving Zimbabwe," he said from Harare.
Earlier, Ncube had told New Zimbabwe.com: "I am a patriotic Zimbabwean who is appalled by the destruction inflicted by President Robert Mugabe’s government to a once beautiful and prosperous country. Therefore I believe that it is inappropriate for anybody to include me in a list of President Mugabe’s supporters. I am sure that the President himself is disappointed that I am viewed in certain quarters as one of his supporters.
"I am told that a mistake was made and that this situation will be reviewed by the Australian government.
"It appears the Australian government had information which caused them to believe that I play an advisory role to some government institution. The Australian government should have thoroughly checked their information before going public on this issue. It is obvious that the list has some glaring mistakes which could have been obviated through double checking with people concerned.
Apart from having names of dead people, the Australian list also gets ages of people wrong. They have Ncube down as born in 1971 when he was in fact born in 1962. They also have Eric Bloch, an economist and columnist for the Independent, as born in 1981.
Ncube has been a fierce and vocal critic of both Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the country's beleaguered 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% shareholding in the company.
