Durban - After armed police raided his home and his office early on Thursday, Edmund Kudzayi, the newly appointed editor of the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, handed himself over to police later in the day.
Police confiscated equipment from his office, but have so far not laid any charges against him.
Police are also looking for Dumisani Muleya, the editor of a privately owned newspaper, The Independent, owned by Trevor Ncube, who also publishes two daily newspapers in Zimbabwe and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa.
Police visited Muleya’s office on Thursday but were told he was on leave.
Muleya told online publication New Zimbabwe.com by telephone from Harare: “I’ve no business with the police, and until they state specifically why they want me, I will not be turning myself in.”
Mduduzi Mathuthu, appointed last year to edit a state newspaper, The Chronicle, in Bulawayo, said that his home had been burgled early in the day and that his communication equipment had been stolen.
Mathuthu spent several recent years in exile, mostly in London, where he helped launch a well-read online Zimbabwean newspaper, NewZimbabwe.com.
The arrests are believed to be linked to a fight between two camps within the ruling Zanu-PF party over who will succeed President Robert Mugabe, 90, when he retires or dies.
The fight intensified after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, believed to support presidential contender Emmerson Mnangagwa, assisted state media with information about corruption among high-ranking civil servants who support Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
Moyo also brought in new editors, like Mathuthu, to the state media and the Zanu-PF-controlled media has recently become more critical of the government. - Independent Foreign Service
The Mercury