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28 May 2008
By Lance Guma
In the latest instalment of Zanu PF thuggery, 8 men in civilian clothing brandishing AK-47 rifles, intercepted a truck carrying copies of The Zimbabwean newspaper and set it on fire.
The paper is printed in South Africa and delivered to Zimbabwe in a South African registered truck. On Saturday evening this truck was hijacked at the Ngundu Halt, about 150 kilometres south of Masvingo.
It was carrying 60 000 copies of The Zimbabwean on Sunday. The South African driver and his Zimbabwean assistant were kidnapped and bundled into a Toyota and Isuzu truck parked on the side of the road. They were then driven to an isolated spot in Mandamabwe near Masvingo.
The driver, Christmas Ramabulana, and his assistant, Tapfumaneyi Kancheta, were ordered to move the newspapers to the back of the truck and then sprinkle petrol all over them.
The thugs also stole diesel from the newspaper truck before using their rifles to fire a volley of shots into the back of the truck, setting the newspapers alight. Ramabulana and Kancheta were then severely beaten with rifle butts before being dumped in the bush.
The hijackers burned Kancheta’s passport while Ramabulana (the South African) was given his passport back. All their belongings including clothes, shoes, blankets and groceries were taken from them.
The newspaper’s publisher Wilf Mbanga, speaking from the United Kingdom, told Newsreel that the hijacking was yet another attempt to stop Zimbabweans having access to information.
He said the paper was established to try and make a stand against Mugabe’s media blackout and was serving ‘a population starved of accurate information and fed a daily diet of the coarsest government propaganda.’ Mbanga said they were now having to look into alternative transport and distribution methods.-SW Radio Africa.
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