The police wanted Dumisani Sibanda to disclose the whereabouts of the author of a story about the police force.
(MISA/IFEX) – On 16 November 2010, Dumisani Sibanda, the bureau chief for the privately-owned daily “Newsday”, was briefly detained and questioned by police at the Bulawayo Central Police Station.
Sibanda, who is also the president of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), was questioned in connection with a story that appeared in the “Newsday”‘s weekly stable mate, “The Standard”, regarding the alleged cancellation of police promotional examinations.
The story alleged that the police examinations were being scrapped to facilitate the absorption of war veterans and retired police officers into the police force ahead of elections in 2011.
Sibanda told MISA-Zimbabwe that police from the Criminal Investigations Department’s Law and Order Section picked him up from the “Newsday” offices in Bulawayo on 16 November. He said the police wanted him to disclose the whereabouts of Nqobani Ndlovu, the author of the story in question, as a precondition for his release. He was later released after telling them that Ndlovu was out of town.
Meanwhile, police reportedly descended on the “Newsday” offices on the morning of 17 November looking for Ndlovu, who was not in the office at the time.