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M&G's CEO barred from leaving Zim
Mail & Guardian (SA)
December 08, 2005

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?

Trevor Ncube, the owner and publisher of the Mail & Guardian and Zimbabwe's Standard and Independent had his passport impounded as he landed in Bulawayo on Wednesday.

Ncube, who commutes between South Africa and Zimbabwe, is in Bulawayo on a business and family trip. As he landed, he was cleared through customs but then recalled from the car-park, ostensibly to have a spelling discrepancy checked.

The customs official, who had a list of passport numbers with him, made a call to a senior official and said: "It's him" -- an action which suggests that there is a renewed crackdown on Zimbabweans who live outside the country.

"I was informed that the instruction to confiscate my passport came from the president's (Robert Mugabe's) office, meaning the Central Intelligence Organisation, " he said.

Ncube was this week also erroneously placed on the Australian government's list of Zimbabweans who are under sanction, though he is in negotiations to have his name removed from the sanctions list.

"I'm obviously shocked at both actions," he told the Mail & Guardian Online from Zimbabwe. "I'm barred from Australia and now I'm barred from leaving Zimbabwe," he said from Harare. He was told to report to immigration today.

Australia, an outspoken critic of the Zimbabwe government, on Thursday acknowledged "mistakes" in the list of people facing sanctions for cooperating with President Robert Mugabe's increasingly authoritarian regime.

Ncube said that the Australian embassy in Zimbabwe had phoned him to apologise "profusely".

An expanded list of 127 Zimbabweans barred from entering or doing business with Australia was released November 30. It also included a leading economist and executives of private firms and banks.

Jon Sheppard, the Australian ambassador in Zimbabwe, said the list had been difficult to compile and may have been released prematurely.

"It will be reviewed and we expect deletions," he said. "We are asking people who are surprised to find themselves on the list to bear with us."

Sheppard said Australia has gone a step further than other countries by including senior executives of state-owned enterprises on its list of people facing sanctions.

"It shows we are trying to do something," he said.

Meanwhile in Harare, Ncube said that his name was on a government list of more than 60 prominent Zimbabweans whose passports would be similarly confiscated if they travelled back to their homeland.

The confiscation of Ncube’s passport is based on a recent set of constitutional amendments which allows for the limiting of Zimbabwean citizenship against those who the Zimbabwe government alleges to be harming the interests of the country.

Ncube said he did not think his name would be on the list of targeted persons.

"I had no reason to suspect that because I'm a patriotic Zimbabwean. I have businesses here at home in Zimbabwe and also in South Africa," said Ncube, who was in Bulawayo for his brother's wedding.

Asked what would happen should the Zimbabwean government refuse to return his passport, Ncube said he would take legal action.

"I'm sitting with my lawyers as we speak and we are discussing the alternatives that I have."

He said he was not deterred by the government's actions and that he would continue to speak out against injustices where they exist.

The SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) on Thursday condemned the actions of the Zimbabwean government, saying it was using "draconian" legislation to try to suppress critical voices within and outside of Zimbabwe.

"The government is trying to silence all dissent whatsoever," said John Makumbe, a lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe.

"Trevor publishes the only independent newspapers in Zimbabwe. This is a new onslaught against what remains of a free press. The government will pounce on all critics and tell them they are locked in Zimbabwe. The country is becoming like a big prison. We are all in jail," Makumbe added

Ncube has been a fierce and vocal critic of both Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party and the country's beleaguered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Ncube bought the Mail & Guardian, which has published articles critical of the Mugabe regime, in 2002. He acquired the company from Britain's Guardian Newspapers Limited group, which retains a 10% shareholding in the company.

Ncube's Harare-based newspapers, the Zimbabwe Standard and Zimbabwe Independent are effectively the last of what remains of the independent press in Zimbabwe.

Ncube's newspapers have received several warnings from the government's media and information commission. The commission has already closed down four publications, including the Daily News, which was Zimbabwe's biggest newspaper.

In 2004, police arrested Iden Wetherell, the then-Zimbabwe Independent managing editor and the 2002 recipient of World Press Review’s International Editor of the Year Award, on charges of defaming Mugabe. News editor Vincent Kahiya and reporter Dumisani Muleya were also arrested.

The arrests followed an article written by Muleya and Dzamara, which said that Mugabe had "commandeered" an Air Zimbabwe airliner for a trip to East Asia, leaving passengers stranded at the airport. The paper noted this was the second time Mugabe had diverted an Air Zimbabwe flight.

Mugabe's government has seized thousands of white-owned commercial farms under a land-reform programme critics say has crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy and contributed to widespread hunger. It has also introduced sweeping media controls, arrested its critics and shut down independent newspapers.

Recent elections have been marred by intimidation and fraud, according to independent observers.

Additional reporting from Sapa, AP, World Press Review and Guardian

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