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Second exile for Zim journalist
Lekopanye Mooketsi, Mmegi (Botswana)
December 14, 2007

http://www.mmegi.bw/2007/December/Friday14/12.php

When Zimbabwean journalist, Tanonoka Joseph Whande returned to his country in 1984 after 12 years of exile in the United States, he did not think he would be forced to flee again. But 20 years later, he was on the run from the same government that liberated the country from colonial rule. He is currently a refugee in Botswana.

When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, there was euphoria about Uhuru and the end of the war. Whande like many other Zimbabweans living in the Diaspora were encouraged to come back and help to develop their newly liberated country. So four years after Zimbabwe gained independence, he returned to the mother land. He had studied journalism in the United States where he worked. Before he left the US, he had already secured a job at the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) as a reporter. Unlike most Zimbabweans of his generation, he is not a war veteran. Neither was he in the struggle. Whande recalled that during the early days of independence, things were fine and the economy was flourishing. "We inherited a solid economy from the white rulers and our currency was stronger than the US Dollar. The country was benefiting from the government that we had. It was given a consensus by the people and not by one man," he reminisced.

At the ZBC, Whande worked with the current Zimbabwean ambassador to Botswana, Thomas Mandingora. But the two former colleagues do not see eye-to-eye nowadays. Whande said at the ZBC, they worked with former guerrillas and this caused problems. The former guerillas had their own way of doing things and did not want to listen to professionals. They were more interested in pleasing the powers that be. "There was a lot of self censorship," said Whande who ended up quitting the government broadcaster. He stated that things started to go wrong in Zimbabwe in the mid-1980s. He said in 1987-1988, the country was showing signs that something was terribly wrong. "Those who knew Rhodesia and Zimbabwe noticed that things were not going well. But then no one would criticise President Robert Mugabe. It was tantamount to treason," said Whande. He thinks the accolades once heaped on Mugabe by the international community changed him and made him power-hungry.

He says Mugabe claimed personal glory and attributed the country's achievements to himself and sidelined his lieutenants. This is when Mugabe changed from running the country as a humble servant and became a hardened ruler. He said the Zimbabwean leader could no longer take constructive criticism and those who advised him were afraid to tell anything that he did not want to hear. Whande said in the 1990s, corruption became prevalent in Zimbabwe and the country started to experience a shortage of goods. "We started to import things that we used to export and this was eating at our foreign exchange. Luckily for us, we had inherited a solid infrastructure in almost every department. In most areas, we did not have to improve what we inherited but just to maintain. But we failed to do this."

Whande said the government started to became paranoid and harassed perceived enemies including journalists. Mysterious accidents which claimed lives became the order of the day. He said one of the first journalists to become a victim of state repression is the former Chronicle editor, Geoff Nyarota who exposed the Willowgate scandal. The scam involved government ministers and other top officials buying motor vehicles from a dealer at subsidised prices and later selling them exorbitantly to the public. One of the ministers committed suicide after he was exposed. The mood had changed and people were no longer afraid to speak their minds. Some journalists who were working for the private media were arrested and tortured. Whande wrote a column for the Daily News, a privately owned newspaper seen to be anti-government. After a period of harassment, it was banned by the government.

After the closure of the Daily News, Whande found it difficult to find a job due to his poisoned pen. But another privately-owned publication, the Independent took him on board. He contributed material to a clandestine radio station established by Zimbabweans in exile. By now he was based in a town called Masvingo. He tried to send an article to the Independent by e-mail but he realised that it was intercepted. The article never reached the editor even when he tried to send it by fax. His nephew told him that a friend who worked for the fearsome Central Intelligence Organsiation (CIO) said he was being trailed. At some stage, Whande said he was detained for five hours for questioning by the CIO after he wrote that one politician was better than Mugabe. The CIO warned him that he should never compare Mugabe with anybody because he is committing treason. He was also cautioned not to write about Mugabe's wife. He skipped the country in 2004 to evade state agents because he did not want to die. On arrival in Botswana, he was locked up for six months at the Francistown Centre for Illegal Immigrants waiting for his asylum status to be considered. He had to wait for another six months for his application to be approved.

Whande spent more than a year at the Francistown centre, which he says is just like prison. "We were treated like prisoners. We were sleeping in cells and not allowed to make telephone calls." He said it was traumatising for him to be kept in incarceration when he was not a criminal. However, he does not blame the Botswana government because the country has to protect its own interests. "Botswana is protecting itself. I am not bitter," he said. Whande is still concerned about his security. He said at times he receives strange telephone calls and e-mails from people he does not know. Whande has every reason to always look over his shoulder because of what happened to the South African-based Zimbabwean Abel Mubakani, a former editor of the Daily News. Mubakani, now editor of ZimOnline, was shot by unknown people who left him for dead. However, Whande said he cannot be silenced. He said that this is why he keeps writing hard-hitting articles for local publications about Zimbabwe.

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