Charges against Sunday Mail editor laid out
HARARE – Sunday Mail Editor Edmund Kudzayi, who was arrested on Thursday, is expected to appear in court today facing charges of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe and subverting or attempting to subvert a constitutionally elected Government.
Kudzayi’s lawyer, Joseph Mandizha of Mandizha and Company, yesterday said Kudzayi would also face another charge of keeping ammunition in an unsecure place. It is an offence under the Firearms Act to keep live bullets at an unsecure place. “I can confirm that we are going to court tomorrow,” Mandizha said.
Information Media and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo on Friday claimed that the arrest of one of his sidekicks in Kudzayi was an indication that there is rule of law in Zimbabwe.
Recently President Robert Mugabe branded Moyo a ‘devil incarnate’, accusing him of appointing editors to state-owned newspapers who were sympathetic to the opposition. Early Thursday morning armed police officers raided Herald House and went to Kudzayi’s office after visiting his home.
The police demanded access to Kudzayi’s office and took a laptop Mac Book Pro, IMAQ laptop, Kia cellphone, white charger adapters, a power bank, a flash stick, and an “MDC-T debate disc” for April 29, 2014. They also confiscated power cables, a computer CPU, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse.
“There is nothing special to say about what is happening, to address members of the practicing fraternity, except to say what is happening is very serious indeed from whatever perspective one may look at it and this is with respect to the situation at Zimpapers and the arrest of the Sunday Mail editor,” Moyo said.
“I think all rational fair minded people will understand that when police take action or when law enforcement agents take action, it should give us from a legal constitutional point of view some relief that at least the rule of law or the course of justice is taking place.
“It’s much easier for everyone concerned especially when we take into account the fact that there is no individual and indeed no institution that is above the law. That is always far better than sitting to resolve an issue through other means,” Moyo said at a graduation ceremony for a Bulawayo based journalism school.
“That is the essence of a constitutional democracy that a matter, however, important is ultimately resolved in terms of the law and in this connection I am very pleased that Zimpapers have made it very clear that they are a law abiding institution and that they are going to fully cooperate with the law enforcement authorities in terms of the law,” Moyo added.
Kudzayi faces a raft of allegations including undermining President Robert Mugabe’s authority, terrorism, espionage, attempting to overturn a constitutional order – and many other charges being currently worked on.
It is however widely reported that Kudzayi as editor of the African Aristocrat blog based in the United Kingdom penned a 2010 article claiming that Mugabe’s daughter Bona had been raped in Singapore after a student party.
According to the report Bona filed rape charges against two Tanzanian students studying in Singapore at the time. The two students who were put under police investigation however insisted that she had consensual sex with them.
The report claimed that Bona who studied under the name Tracy Guvamombe alleged that she was a victim of drink spiking and rape at a student party held in the upmarket Faber Park neighbourhood.
One of the accused was identified as the 27-year-old son of a Tanzanian business tycoon. The suspects allegedly invited Bona to the lavish party and plied her with spiked wines and went on to have sex with her in one of the bedrooms.
The claims infuriated the First Family. Grace Mugabe later publicly addressed the allegations when commenting about Bona’s prospective nuptials in October last year. The First Lady denied her daughter was raped, proudly adding that she would marry a chaste maiden.
There is also speculation that Kudzayi’s arrest maybe connected with investigations into unmasking the social media figure Baba Jukwa who tormented the ruling ZANU PF party prior to last year’s elections. Kudzayi is believed to have been behind the pro ZANU PF Amai Jukwa Facebook character.
The Amai Jukwa page, mostly critical of the MDC-T and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai , gave birth to Baba Jukwa, the iconic character that alleged that it was spilling the beans on President Mugabe and his officials.
Some of what Baba Jukwa wrote on Facebook was confirmed to have been correct by Rugare Gumbo, the ZANU PF spokesman, suggesting people in the party leaked information.
According to the laws contained in the new constitution, the police are allowed to hold Kudzayi for 48 hours, after which they will either have to charge and take him to court or release him. They have until 7pm on Saturday to do so. Whether the police will abide by the new constitution remains to be seen.
