Commentary
Somewhere in Africa - McClatchy Newspapers
A reporter in exile
Posted by Shashank
Wed Jul 9, 1:58 PM ET
I'm in South Africa for a few days, and today in Johannesburg I paid a visit to Abel Mutsakani, a Zimbabwean journalist in exile. Abel is the editor of ZimOnline, an independent newspaper covering Zimbabwean politics. Before that he was a top editor in Harare at the Daily News, a popular independent daily -- and the only one in recent history in Zimbabwe -- until Robert Mugabe shut it down in 2003.
One night 12 months ago Abel was parking his car outside his home on the outskirts of Joburg when three men approached him. Abel put his hands up and was about to offer the men his wallet, even his car, when one of the men shot him. They all fled, without taking anything, leaving Abel bleeding outside his home. The bullet went through his left elbow, entered his chest, miraculously avoided his vital organs and settled somewhere by his right ribcage.
News accounts at the time reported that Abel battled for his life. Today he's made nearly a full recovery, in time to cover one of the most important stories of his career.
A Durban-based activist who referred me to Abel said that the assault last July 23 was an assassination attempt, plain and simple. Why else would they have just shot him, without stealing anything? "Mugabe's people are everywhere," another Zimbabwean activist living in Joburg told me. "They can pay someone to kill you for 300 rand (about $40)."
Abel himself isn't so sure. While it's not difficult to ascribe murderous tactics to the Mugabe regime, as Abel pointed out, this is Johannesburg, perhaps one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Carjackings, burglaries, armed muggings and rape are common -- perhaps not completely unexpected in a place with such a huge gap between the wealthy and the wanting, but deeply disturbing nonetheless. The streets go suddenly empty after dark, when middle-class residents retreat behind the concrete walls that surround their residences. The government has made some progress in fighting crime, but anyone who spends any time here is struck by the overwhelming sense of fear that falls over the city at dusk. (Read one resident's experiences here.)
So despite feeling little affection for the government that shut down his newspaper, and threatened him so often that he was forced to flee to South Africa, Abel is more reluctant than most to blame his near-death experience on the Mugabe regime. Random violent crime is the thing that he hates most about South Africa. Zimbabwe being a police state, of course, there's virtually no such thing as a random crime.
"Ahh, this Joburg," Abel said as I was leaving. "You're safer in Harare -- if you don't say anything bad about Robert Mugabe."
