Second exile for Zim journalist
Mmegi. Botswana
Friday, 14 December 2007
LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
CORRESPONDENT
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 Dias****a 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
Cor****ation (ZBC) as a re****ter. 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 flouri****ng. "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
censor****p," 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 im****t
things that we used to ex****t 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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