Activist arrested for threatening journalist

A Harare-based political activist, Grant Tabvurei has been arrested for allegedly threatening the editor of The News Leader newspaper, Itai Dzamara, with unspecified action. 

Harare Central Police Station’s Law and Order section has confirmed the arrest of Tabvurei. Constable Ngezi is handling the case and said on Tuesday. ‘We managed to find him and have recorded a cautioned statement.’

The case was reported by Dzamara on May 13 this year after he had received threats from Tabvurei in messages sent through facebook.

According to Dzamara’s report, Tabvurei was part of a number of political activists that were mobilised and deployed by former MDC youth assembly’s secretary general Promise Mkwananzi, to launch a series of attacks on The News Leader editor.

Mkwananzi’s fight with the editor was caused by what the former deemed unfavourable coverage and analysis of the MDC leadership squabble by Dzamara.

Tabvurei sent messages to Dzamara including that, ‘l equate you to Lucifer, the father of lies. You need to be cast out, that is why l will be a pest. What l will do is for me to know and for you to wonder.’

Dzamara said he decided to report the matter due to sustained attacks. ‘I had detailed information showing that Mkwananzi had even paid people to physically attack me. Some of them approached me and confessed. So when Tabvurei issued the threat, l found it prudent to have the law take its course,’ Dzamara said.

Contacted for comment Tabvurei told Nehanda Radio;

“Getting a cautioned statement by the police cannot be equated to arrests. I do not fight MDC wars, I am a National Taskforce member of the NCA. I think the reason why his (Dzamara) articles end up as falsehoods it is simply because he does not do background checks.

“I share nothing in common with that boy Mkwananzi except that we all passed through ZINASU. I quizzed the inclusion of the NCA in his article that was analysing the rifts in the MDC-T since we have no relation in anyway with the various formations of the MDC.

“I think Dzamara just made an error by linking me to Mkwananzi whom I personally do not see eye to eye, in which I urge him to withdraw the charges but he can still pursue the case to its finality,” Tabvurei added.