Witnesses told The Zimbabwean that about half a dozen plainclothes police details and armed unformed officers raided Herald House where the Sunday Mail is housed and apprehended Kudzayi.
They were led by Chrispen Makedenge, the head of the police Law and Order section. It was not immediately clear what the police arrested Kudzayi for, but sources said it is in connection with a Facebook platform, Baba Jukwa, of which unconfirmed reports say he was part.
Baba Jukwa went viral ahead of the 2013 general elections, exposing sensitive information and developments in Zanu (PF).
The Zimbabwean recently reported that the police and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) were jointly investigating Kudzayi, two cabinet ministers and a Zanu (PF) legislator for their involvement in the Baba Jukwa project.
Kudzayi is said to have been taken to Harare Central Police Station first and then shifted to a yet unknown base, after initially slipping out of Herald House when he got news of his imminent arrest.
Kudzayi, an IT expert with questionable media history, was appointed editor of the Sunday Mail early this year during a reshuffle. Police also reportedly made several visits to the Zimbabwe Independent, looking for its editor, Dumisani Muleya.
Muleya insisted he would not turn himself over to the police, who did not specify the reasons why they wanted him, because “I do not have any business with the police”.
The two events coincided with a suspicious early morning burglary at the residence of Mduduzi Mathuthu, the editor of the Chronicle, the Sunday Mail’s sister paper under the Zimpapers stable.
Mathuthu was appointed the paper’s editor at the same time as Kudzayi, following Moyo’s cabinet appointment, while Muleya is regarded a close ally of the minister.
President Robert Mugabe recently publicly attacked Moyo for using his position as a minister to undermine Zanu (PF) and appointing public media journalists that were hostile to the party in the past.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe National Editors’ Forum (Zinef) has expressed grave concern at the searches at the three editors’ offices and houses “without the police explaining the cicurmstances under which the (searches were) being conducted”.
“Zinef is concerned about the welfare of the editors, and we call upon the law enforcement agency to protect them and not to hunt them,” said Brian Mangwende, Zinef chairperson, in a statement.
Post published in: News
This marks the beginning of the end of Jonathan Moyo ambitious political life. I love it.
That is what Mugabe does to his toilet paper. He flushes is after use