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Zanu PF militia detain journalist
MISA-Zimbabwe
August 28, 2007

Godfrey Mutimba, a reporter with the privately owned Standard was on 23 August 2007 detained for four hours by ruling Zanu PF militia at a shopping centre in Masvingo Province's Gutu district.

During their four-hour ordeal, Mutimba and his friend who were detained at Mushayavanhu business centre, were pushed and shoved by the militia who were armed with sjamboks and sticks. The militia were reportedly on patrol in the area during the memorial service of opposition MDC founding member and chairman Isaac Matongo which was disrupted by heavily armed police over the Heroes Holidays on 13-14 August 2007.

Mutimba was following up reports that several villagers who defied orders by traditional leaders not to attend the memorial service were being victimised by Zanu PF officials. There were also reports that Zanu PF militia had declared Gutu North a no-go area for MDC supporters.

"They ordered us to sit down and produce our IDs (identification documents). Their leader, Joe Masanga, claimed he had seen us earlier at Matongo's memorial service. He said we were back (in the area) on a spying mission. They wanted to beat us with sticks and sjamboks and for a moment I thought that was the end of my life," said Mutimba.

The two were only released following the intervention of Benson Dandira, the Zanu PF councilor for Ward 35 who ordered their captors to set them free as Mutimba was an accredited journalist as required under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

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