A Bulawayo journalist, Annahstacia Ndlovu, was assaulted by Zanu PF members while covering skirmishes at the Fifth Avenue market on Monday where the ruling party was chasing away vendors who are not card-carrying members from their vending bays.
Ndlovu, who writes for Voice of America (VOA), has since reported the matter to the police.
The journalist said she and other freelance journalists were at the Bulawayo Media Centre when they received an alert from informal traders from the market that they were being beaten and wares confiscated by Zanu PF members.
“After receiving word on the violence, I with other journalists namely, Tuso Pamenus, Lungelo Ndlovu and Simbarashe Muparangada rushed to the market to see and capture what was happening there,” Ndlovu said.
While interviewing the affected vendors, the Zanu PF members returned and accosted her demanding that she stops recording.
“Lucky enough I captured them in the video as they approached us. Those Zanu PF men told me not to take the video and asked me who I was. I introduced myself as a journalist but they ordered me to delete the video I had taken. They pushed me to their vehicle while assaulting me as their other accomplices ran away,” said the journalist.
“I asked them why they were beating me but they didn’t answer as they took away my mobile phone.”
Ndlovu said she recognised the individuals who attacked her and that she had reported the incident.
“We know those people and I’ve reported the matter to the police,” she stated, noting that there were probably over 100 Zanu PF members on the scene while two men were the ones who attacked her.
The journalist said the previous day, on Sunday, she had been in Gweru covering the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) rally at Mkoba Stadium and still had footage of the event in her phone.
“The attackers called me ‘Munhu waChamisa’ as they went through my footage and deleted some videos. Unfortunately, I now have one video left that shows the face of one of the attackers,” Ndlovu said.
She went on to say that while her attackers did not destroy her phone, her other phone, an iPhone fell to the ground and was damaged.
Ndlovu and the other journalists have since alerted the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Zimbabwe), an organisation that defends and promotes media freedom.
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