HARARE – Two journalists were brutally assaulted by soldiers and police officers in Harare’s Warren Park 1 suburb on Wednesday evening.
Leopold Munhende, 28, from New Zimbabwe and Munashe Chokodza, 27, from 263Chat were returning from work at around 6.40PM when they were stopped and questioned by a group of six or seven soldiers who demanded to know where they were coming from.
Munhende said they had trouble getting transport out of town and eventually caught a lift which dropped them off along Bulawayo Road.
“There are always soldiers and police officers at the local shops so we just thought to avoid trouble we would take a long way around. Unfortunately, we encountered them patrolling in the neighbourhood,” Munhende told ZimLive by phone on Thursday.
“We told them we are journalists and one of the police officers asked to see our press cards. He was about to hand them back to us to let us go on our way when one of the soldiers said ‘majournalists manje ndoatinoda, vanoonererwa’ (journalists are the ones that we want to deal with, they think they are special).”
Munhende said a soldier clapped him twice, before tripping him, while another group similarly attacked Chokodza. As they lady down, the soldiers and the two police officers took turns to kick and assault them with truncheons and crude sjamboks.
“After about three minutes they ordered us to get up and run. As I got up, my wallet fell out of my pocket and when I tried to retrieve it one soldier kept kicking it away, and whenever I tried to pick it up he would kick or whip me. The cruelty was some kind of sport to them,” Munhende added.
The two journalists were seen by a doctor, who treated them for minor abrasions and pain. They tried to file a police complaint at Warren Park Police Station but were advised to go to Harare Central Police Station instead.
“We will be making a report today (Thursday) at 5PM with our lawyer Chris Mhike,” said Munhende.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa deployed soldiers to help police to enforce coronavirus regulations, after initially imposing a lockdown which has since been eased. Rights groups say Mnangagwa has used the virtual state of emergency to curtail freedoms and clamp down on critics.
The Zimbabwe Editors Forum (ZINEF) has condemned the assault on the journalists.
“ZINEF strongly condemns the assault of the journalists by security forces and expresses its disgust at the escalation of repression by state actors against media professionals. Journalism is not a crime,” ZINEF secretary Njabulo Ncube said in a statement.
