Zim hunting Olonga in SA?

2003-03-17 18:22

Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance asked the government on Monday whether Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) was searching for cricketer Henry Olonga in South Africa.

DA spokesperson Martin Slabbert, referring to a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph that seven CIO officers arrived in East London on Friday to escort Olonga back to Zimbabwe, where it is believed he will face treason charges, said: "We want to know if this is true."

Olonga and fellow Zimbabwean cricketer Andy Flower staged a protest against what they called "the death of democracy in Zimbabwe" during one of their World Cup Cricket games in Harare, by wearing black armbands.

Both Olonga and Flower were later disciplined by the Zimbabwean Cricket Union.

A DA statement on the matter read: "It appears that Olonga is being intimidated and hunted down for daring to say what the rest of the world knows - the Mugabe regime consistently tramples and ignores the human rights of its citizens and shrugs off calls for free and fair elections."

The DA is to ask that the parliamentary committees on sport and recreation and safety and security be briefed on the matter.

The party said questions that should be asked were:

Was the National Intelligence Agency aware of CIO operatives being sent to South Africa to track down Olonga?

Did the NIA offer assistance in locating Olonga? and

Was the SA Police Service or the World Cup security team consulted or informed about the CIO's presence in South Africa during the World Cup?

SA Police Service spokesperson Senior Superintendent Selby Bokaba said the SAPS did not know of any official delegation of the CIO personnel that were in South Africa.

Bokaba said, however, that five senior officers of the Zimbabwean police were in South Africa as guests of national Commissioner Jackie Selebi.

They were observing security arrangements for the Cricket World Cup, in case Zimbabwe should host a similar event in future. The five were not CIO members.

Bokaba said if the CIO wanted to operate in South Africa they had to "go through proper channels".

Asked if CIO agents could be in the country without South Africa being officially informed, Bokaba referred Sapa to the National Intelligence Agency.

- SAPA