Prominent Zimbabwean investigative journalist and columnist Tawanda Majoni has been summoned by police over undisclosed charges.
Majoni, who is the director of Information for Development Trust (IDT) and a columnist for The Standard, was on Monday asked to present himself to Harare Central Police Station by officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s CID Law and Order, who refused to disclose why he was being summoned.
His lawyer Godwin Giya could not immediately comment on the issue, but indications were that the veteran journalist will present himself to the police on Tuesday.
The detectives are said to have indicated that they wanted to question him over certain articles that he has written.
Majoni’s hard-hitting column in The Standard known as Corruption Watch focuses on public sector corruption and misgovernance.
IDT is an investigative journalism hub that supports the local and southern African media and journalists to probe corruption, human rights abuses and socio-economic violations relating mostly to the public sector.
It was formed in 2015 and, since then, has helped scores of journalists produce more than a hundred investigative stories exposing malpractices in the public and private sectors.
The organisation has also capacitated media houses and journalists to investigate legal, environmental, political, human rights and socio-economic violations among foreign investments in Zimbabwe and southern Africa.
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In December last year, Majoni was also summoned by detectives from the Police Internal Security and Intelligence unit, who quizzed him about IDT’s registration status.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has been clamping down on critics and dozens of activists were arrested in August ahead of the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) summit, which was held in Harare.
A number of opposition activists such as Jacob Ngarivhume, Jameson Timba and several Citizens Coalition for Change supporters have been denied bail after they were arrested on what has been described as trumped up charges.
While arrests of journalists is no longer as common as it was during the rein of the late Robert Mugabe, the authorities still use various tactics to try to silence the media.
