State exposes Sunday Mail editor’s lies

via State exposes Sunday Mail editor’s lies | The Zimbabwean 22 June 2014

A State prosecutor, Tawanda Zvekare, has exposed the embattled Sunday Mail editor, Edmund Kudzayi, as a liar whose publication in May claimed that two Zimbabwean journalists based in South Africa were behind the viral Baba Jukwa Facebook page.

The Sunday Mail, on May 11, ran a screaming front page story, “Hackers unmask Baba Jukwa”, that named Mxolisi Ncube and Mkhululi Chimoio, both based in South Africa, as the faces behind the controversial page.

The two journalists refuted the allegation and engaged Obert Gutu, a local lawyer, to represent them.

The story, which was picked by the Herald, the Sunday Mail’s sister paper, and other publications, also claimed that Ncube and Chimoio had duped the editor of The Zimbabwean, Wilf Mbanga, by demanding money from him in order to market the publication.

The Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Jonathan Moyo, seen as the one who plucked the 28-year-old Kudzayi from abroad and appointing him Sunday Mail editor early this, also weighed in, calling on security agents to arrest the two journalists.

However, police investigations and a subsequent charge sheet produced in court following Kudzayi’s arrest late last Thursday indicate that Kudzayi was Baba Jukwa, an online character that revealed sensitive information about Zanu (PF) and President Robert Mugabe ahead of last year’s general elections.

Kudzayi appeared in court yesterday and was charged for plotting to subvert a constitutional government, attempted insurgency, banditry and terrorism.

Leading the State case on Saturday when the Sunday Mail editor appeared in court for the first time, Zvekare said Kudzayi was Baba Jukwa—a shady personality that national security agents put a $300,000 bounty on.

He said the editor authored and published articles that were false and designed to incite, urge or suggest the establishment of a movement whose purpose was to overthrow President Robert Mugabe illegally.

The prosecutor said Kudzayi connived with his brother, Phillip Tawanda, in creating the Baba Jukwa page through an account, babajukwa2013, that used an Econet mobile number–771 446 541—registerd in the latter’s name but was being used by the editor.

The State alleged that Kudzayi was part of a militant group calling itself Gunda Nleya Brigade and another they referred to as Zimbabwe Revolutionary Army that planned to overthrow Mugabe ahead if he rigged the 2013 general elections.

Zvekare said, contrary to his claim that the Sunday Mail obtained information from yet unnamed hackers, the Baba Jukwa account was never hacked.

The State is also accusing Kudzayi of writing an article in the Zimbabwe Mail, an online publication, accusing Mugabe of being a dictator who “commits gross human rights abuses” and had “stolen the 2008 elections”, in addition to presiding over the “economic collapse” of the country.

“He further called the President a tyrant and accused him of taking the land from white farmers and giving it to his cronies and not the people of Zimbabwe,” read the charge sheet that was produced in court yesterday.

Kudzayi, who will appear in court tomorrow for a bail application, is further accused of failing to secure ammunition.

It is not yet clear why Kudzayi, as the editor of the Sunday Mail, reportedly planted information nailing Ncube and Chimoio as the ones behind Baba Jukwa, but critics speculate that he, together with some Zanu (PF) politicians, wanted to preempt focus on them as the ones behind the page.

Several weeks ago, The Zimbabwean broke the story of a “Sunday Mail senior staffer”, two cabinet ministers and a Zanu (PF) legislator as being under probe by the police and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

While the police have issued a statement denying investigating cabinet ministers, The Zimbabwean is reliably informed that they were initially targeted by the joint probe but have been left out for political expediency.

Intelligence sources insist that Kudzayi frequented one of the ministers’ private business offices where he was hired for IT projects whose details remain hazy.

The minister is said to have financed his colleague in cabinet, paying his rentals at a house in Borrowdale, when he was out of government and had fallen on hard times.

The two are alleged to be spearheading a campaign to remove Mugabe from power and have him replaced by a member of the younger Zanu (PF) generation.

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