Durban - Reports that South African journalist Angela Quintal and her colleague Muthoki Mumo have been released following their arrest in Dar es Salaam, are misleading, Mthuthuzeli Mama, Quintal’s partner told the Daily News on Thursday.
Quintal, a former editor of the Mercury, The Mail and Guardian and The Witness, and Mumo were arrested on Wednesday evening at around 11pm.
“I asked the detainee last night under which law they were detaining her, and there was no reply to that. They went to their hotel yesterday evening at around 11pm and effected the arrest without any explanation. It was the Tanzania intelligence fronting with immigration officials. She told me that when they left the hotel the immigration people disappeared. They don’t have their passports so to say they have been released is misleading,” Mama said.
Quintal is Africa Programme Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Mumo is the sub-Saharan Africa representative for CPJ Africa.
Attempts to get comment from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation were unsuccessful at the time of publishing.
The two journalists were reportedly in the country on a reporting mission for CPJ.
“Angela declared before-hand that they would be attending some meetings in that country so this arrest or interrogation doesn’t make sense. Her Twitter account was hacked and that’s how the misinformation came about,” Mama said.
He praised the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation for its prompt response in attending to the matter.
“They have been excellent and their officials are with Angela as we speak. We hope that the matter will be resolved soon. You can’t say people are free when their passports are confiscated because if they want to travel to South Africa they can’t,” he said.
He said Quintal had planned to also tour the country, and visit some sites where South Africa’s liberation movements had their camps.