Abducted Zimbabwean journalist found dead

By Violet Gonda
4 April 2007

Edward Chikomba, a journalist at the state broadcaster ZBC, was abducted near his Glen View home last Thursday and his body found dumped several days later in Darwendale, just outside Harare.

Our correspondent Simon Muchemwa spoke with relatives at the funeral wake at Chikomba’s home in Glen View on Tuesday. They said unknown assailants arrived at the journalist’s house on Thursday night and assaulted him with rifle butts in full view of witnesses before throwing him onto an Isuzu Nissan hard body vehicle.

Muchemwa said: “But before they fled with him a nephew tried to wrestle with the abductors but he was overpowered because he was hit with a rifle butt on the mouth and fell on the tarmac. There was some commotion around the area to such an extent that a lot of people woke up and even witnessed this vehicle taking off at high speed.”

Chikomba was then taken to an unknown location and was considered missing until the discovery of his body in Darwendale about 50km west of Harare, on Saturday. However it was not until Sunday that the police finally phoned his relatives with the tragic news.

The man, who was affectionately known as ‘Big Ed’ by his colleagues, had retired in 2000 as a cameraman but was still working on a part-time basis at the ZBC. Although it is not known why he was killed it is strongly believed it was politically motivated.

Our correspondent said: “You cannot tell at the moment but what we can simply confirm is that the style of abduction which was done on him is also the same style of abductions on several MDC activists, some of them who have ended up in police custody and others were dumped in areas outside Harare, like Darwendale, Marondera and Goromonzi. So you cannot rule out that it is also a politically motivated abduction.”

Some journalists at the state broadcaster, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there is a massive witch-hunt currently underway at the ZBC in connection with the leaking of information that Robert Mugabe did not want known.

Muchemwa confirmed that a number of people are being investigated at the ZBC allegedly in connection with ‘leaked unedited comments” made by the 83-year-old leader during his birthday interview in February, over the controversial succession issue. “This led to the suspension of (Newsnet Editor in Chief) Tarzan Mandizvidza and I am told a number of people, especially the VTR operators and the camera people, are under investigation and some of them have even stopped going to work.”

Muchemwa added: “It could be possible that he (Chikomba) could have been one of those people who were being investigated but the area itself where he used to stay in Glen View is a highly volatile area because this is the area that (murdered) Gift Tandare used to stay. It is just a stone’s throw away from Gift Tandare’s home and there is a lot of tension in that area.”

It is not known when the journalist is going to be buried as it is reported that there is a wrangle between Chikomba’s family and the police, who had initially refused to release the body.

Meanwhile, a correspondent of the UK based The Zimbabwean newspaper, Gift Phiri, is still in police custody. Phiri was abducted by police from his house on Sunday and lawyers were on Wednesday filing an urgent High Court application to order the police to bring the journalist to court on Thursday. Phiri is being charged with working without accreditation. Wilf Mbanga, the editor of The Zimbabwean newspaper said the police are also accusing him of abusing journalistic privileges. Lawyers have confirmed that the journalist has been tortured while in police custody.