M&G boss trapped in Zim
2005-12-08 18:20
Johannesburg - 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, Mail & Guardian Online reported on Thursday.
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, M&G reported.
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.
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.
Ncube said: "I'm obviously shocked at both actions," he said 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 on Thursday.
M & G Online quoted Ncube as saying 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 interests of country.
Ncube has been a fierce and vocal critic of both the 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, who still retain a 10% shareholding in the company.