Below is a summary of what transpired up to the suspected missing of Zimbabwe’s Gweru-based independent journalist, Kudzanai Musengi yesterday. What is most worrying is that the development comes at a time when Musengi reported on the latest farm invasions of white commercial farms in Gweru, involving state security agents based in the town and the threats that he received for covering the invasions.
Yesterday at around 2 p.m. journalists from the Midlands capital, Gweru in Zimbabwe’s third largest city gathered for a meeting to discuss preparations for the world press freedom day coming soon on May 3. After the meeting and when journalists dispersed around 5 p.m., that’s when Musengi was last seen.
He usually alerts his wife at home of his whereabouts as a routine for his safety since there have been numerous cases of journalists being abducted, especially those from the independent media. But when Musengi did not report home yesterday, his wife became suspicious and this morning alerted journalists in Gweru.
At around 9 a.m. today we gathered as colleagues and began to map the way forward to locate the whereabouts of Kudzi as he is affectionately known in journalism circles. We have been trying his mobile since morning and it’s not reachable.
We have engaged the services of our Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA- Zimbabwe) lawyer for the Midlands, Tonderai Chitere. Since this morning, with our lawyer, we have visited and phoned all police stations in Gweru but they don’t have any record of his arrest. We have phoned hospitals, visited places where he usually drinks, contacted the people he was last seen talking to yesterday but to no avail.
After all these attempts and with the help of our legal advisor we visited the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) offices basing our move on the threats Musengi received last week from suspected state security agents. His wife also confirmed that he told her that he had been threatened with unspecified action for reporting farm invasions on white commercial farmers involving top security agents in the province.
Our lawyer together with one senior journalist went to the office of one Shepherd, in charge of the CIO while we remained in the car. The report from there is that Shepherd said Musengi is not on their list of “wanted people” and that he knew Musengi as a “drunkard young man who will come back around four or five.”
It’s 6 p.m. and Musengi has not come back. As journalists we are growing anxious. Under law we cannot report a missing person to the police as this is only done after 48 hours and this can only be done around 5 p.m. tomorrow. We are trying to be patient and not rush to conclusions as Musengi could probably be holed up somewhere but our main fear stems from the threats he received and the fact that he has never failed to always report home on his whereabouts knowing the nature of his job.
All we are saying is that if there is anyone out there with information of Musengi’s whereabouts please help us. If there is anyone holding him for whatever reason, please have heart. His wife, little kids, relatives and colleagues are worried.
