Print version to stop

The publication will continue as an on-line news service and community information platform at www.thezimbabwean.co
“It has been a long and tortuous road with many highs and lows.

We have reported our nation’s darkest hours and also some wonderful  stories of human courage and endeavour in the face of enormous difficulty and suffering,” said the Editor, Wilf Mbanga, this week.

The newspaper and its staff have suffered over the years for their unwavering dedication to freedom of expression and access to information for all Zimbabweans.

The delivery  truck containing 60,000 copies of The Zimbabwean on Sunday  was hi-jacked on Africa Day 2008 shortly after it crossed the Beit Bridge border by eight men in plain clothes wielding AK47 rifles. “We understand they were led by the provincial commander of Masvingo CIO at the time (name supplied).  The driver and his assistant were badly beaten and the truck set alight. To this day nobody has been held to account for this  crime,” said Mbanga.

This was followed by punitive tariff barriers, when the government declared The Zimbabwean  to be a “luxury” and imposed a 74% duty on the cover price. This had a devastating effect on the newspaper, forcing the cessation of the Sunday edition and drastic cutting of the number of copies of the Thursday edition, which at that time was selling up to 200,000 copies a week.  Sales never recovered from this.

Staff members have been targeted over the years. One reporter was kidnapped by unknown assailants and produced in court, by ZRP law and order maintenance detectives, after a writ for habeus corpus was obtained. He had been tortured while in police custody.  Another reporter had to be re-located after being constantly harassed by the police. He endured two spells in the cells, each time being released without charge. His company laptop was confiscated and has never been returned.

Banned by Chihuri
Unlike most local newspapers, most advertisers were afraid to advertise in The Zimbabwean  for fear of reprisals from Zanu (PF). The police commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, banned policemen from reading the newspaper, while prison authorities allowed relatives of prisoners to bring any other newspaper except The Zimbabwean  into the country’s jails.

In 2008, ZBC announced that a warrant of arrest had been issued for Mbanga because of a story he was purported to have published alleging that President Mugabe had ordered the murder of a ZEC official who had leaked information to the press about the rigging of the 2008 elections. As can easily be proved, the story was never published by The Zimbabwean.

In 2014 the Zimbabwean authorities announced that they wanted to question Mbanga about Baba Jukwa, accusing him of being the administrator of the Facebook page of the Zanu (PF) mole who became enormously popular on social media ahead of the 2012 elections.

Mbanga paid tribute to the wide range of donor organisations from many countries who have supported the newspaper over the years in its quest to make accurate, independent information available to as many Zimbabweans as possible. Donor funding made it possible to distribute  hundreds of thousands of “priceless” copies of the paper to those in remote rural areas without access to new technologies – or even electricity and airtime.

Archives
There are three full archives of the newspaper held at the British Library and in private collections in The Netherlands and South Africa. “We want to ensure that the information contained in every issue is available to researchers in the future,” said Mbanga.

“The management and staff take pride and satisfaction in knowing that we made a stand for freedom of expression when it was under serious threat in our nation. We were part of an important effort to bring good governance to Zimbabwe, to record the appalling human rights abuses committed by those in authority and to make a difference at an extremely difficult time in our history,” he added.

Over the next few months, the website will be developed and expanded into a community information sharing platform – to which Zimbabweans will be invited to submit their multi-media news and views. It is envisaged that the website will become a vibrant on-line community where Zimbabweans can tell their stories, discuss their issues, share successes and use their right to freedom of expression to help build the Zimbabwe we all want.

The website also contains a precious on-line archive of events in Zimbabwe during the information blackout of 2005-2010, when no international media were allowed into the country and the local independent media were severely constrained by legislation like AIPPA and POSA.

“We are confident that the advances of modern technology and the resourcefulness of Zimbabweans will ensure that the people’s right to freedom of expression and access to accurate information are no longer subject to the whim of the authorities,” said Mbanga.