Independent Newspaper’s Truck Torched In Zimbabwe
A truck carrying 60 000 copies of the most popular Zimbabwean newspaper has been burned out. The driver, Christmas Ramabulana, a South African, and a distribution assistant, Tapfumaneyi Kancheta, a Zimbabwean, were admitted to hospital after the attack. The newspaper, the Zimbabwean on Sunday, was printed in South Africa and the truck crossed the border at Beit Bridge on Saturday. In a press release from the United Kingdom, editor Wilf Mbanga said the truck and its contents were set alight on a quiet road off the highway about 200km from Beit Bridge. The weekly The Zimbabwean has been on the streets since 2005, but its Sunday sister publication was not launched until February. Since the March 29 elections, won by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the two newspapers have been carrying the most detailed reports about victims of the political violence.
They have also published harrowing photographs of some of the injuries. Many of those treated in hospitals here have identified their attackers, and the two newspapers publish the names of alleged ZANU PF perpetrators in a column headlined Roll of Shame. The Zimbabwean far outsells any of its weekly competitors, and its sales dwarf the circulation of the daily newspapers, which are state-owned and controlled. Mbanga said he had learnt of the attack when the two injured men contacted the company’s offices here. An ambulance was sent to pick them up. Mbanga said Emmerson Mnangagwa, often tipped as Robert Mugabe’s successor, had recently said The Zimbabwean was to blame for ZANU PF’s electoral defeat. The UN here said two weeks ago the overwhelming majority of people killed, injured or displaced in the violence were MDC supporters.
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