By Staff Reporter
Information Media and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo on Friday claimed that the arrest of one of his sidekicks, Sunday Mail editor Edmund 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 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.
