Iam not the one – Mbanga

The Zimbabwe Republic Police and the spy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) last week launched a joint manhunt for the UK-based editor who publishes two titles, The Zimbabwean which comes out on Thursday and The Zimbabwean On Sunday.

Police spokesman Andrew Phiri told state television that Mbanga was wanted for undermining President Robert Mugabe after he allegedly published a story about the death in highly suspicious circumstances of former Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) director for polling Ignatius Mushangwe.

Phiri said Mbanga was wanted for questioning after implicating President Robert Mugabe and senior security officials in Mushangwes suspected murder two years ago.

According to the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, the article purportedly published by The Zimbabwean insinuated that Mushangwe was murdered at Mugabes instigation for allegedly leaking the results of disputed presidential elections held in March 2008.

The police spokesman claimed that the paper published falsehoods by claiming that there was a meeting attended by Mugabe, Emmerson Mnangagwa and CIO Boss Happyton Bonyongwe and former ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe where it was agreed to eliminate Mushangwe.

Mbanga denied there was ever such a story published by his newspaper.

We have checked our archives and we have no record of this story. We did not publish the story. In fact, we are aware that the story was carried by another publication which is something the police could easily ascertain for themselves, said Mbanga.

He blamed the latest onslaught on himself on a personal vendetta harboured by Chinamasa since 2007.

Patrick Chinamasa is pursuing a personal vendetta against The Zimbabwean and me personally. He has hated The Zimbabwean since its inception. In 2007 he sued us for a story published in2005 about his marital arrangements. The matter is still pending, said Mbanga.

He added: This is an abuse of his office and of public funds. The police are allowing themselves to be used to settle personal matters.

Chinamasa published a different statement in all newspapers accusing The Zimbabwean newspaper of planning to “discredit our institutions including CIO and ZEC.”

Chinamasa also denied details of an article published last month titled ‘CIO trains ZEC officials’. The story that The Zimbabwean stands by — exposed details of how ZEC officials were receiving training from CIO operatives on new techniques of electoral fraud

Chinamasa, the Zanu (PF) point-man on legal affairs, claimed the paper was “serving certain political interests,” without elaborating.

The fact that the warrant came hardly two weeks after Mugabe called for a fresh poll is alarming, especially since the Zimbabwean titles have been the targets of a barrage of government attacks during election campaign periods.

In 2008, a whole truck carrying copies of the newspaper was seized and burnt by unknown people suspected to be military intelligence agents.

Critics fear the attempts to frame Mbanga over the Mushangwe story were part of a wider plan to crackdown on the veteran journalists papers and force them to tone down their criticism of political violence and human rights abuses ahead of polls.

But Mbanga insists his papers will continue to report on the Zimbabwean story as it unfolds, without fear or favour.

He said The Zimbabwean would soon approach the Voluntary Media Council and the Zimbabwe Media Commission to ask the bodies to intervene to ensure journalists lawfully carrying out their work are able to do so without being threatened or their lives endangered by state officials and others seeking to hide from the media spotlight.