A JOURNALIST arrested on Wednesday will spend the weekend in jail after a magistrate hearing his case told him: “I’m off to a party.”
Nqobani Ndlovu’s lawyer said Bulawayo magistrate Sibongile Msipa made the remarks in jest, but it had left the Standard reporter distressed.
“The reason that she was attending a party appeared in jest,” lawyer Josphat Tshuma said. “The main reason she couldn’t make a ruling on our bail application was that she wanted more time to study the submissions. My client’s relatives and colleagues obviously did not take kindly to the partying remark.”
Prosecutors opposed bail saying the journalist was a flight risk.
The magistrate remanded him in custody to Monday.
Ndlovu was arrested on Wednesday and charged with criminally defaming the Zimbabwe Republic Police after he wrote a story alleging the force was flouting recruitment procedures by hiring war veterans who would “direct operations during elections next year”.
The ZRP says it has “not at all recalled any single retired police officer and war veterans to take up whatever vacant top posts the paper alludes to”.
Ndlovu also faces an additional charge of attempting to cause disharmony among the police.
Earlier Friday, his lawyer had secured a High Court order compelling the police to bring him to court.
Ndlovu’s colleagues expressed concern about his health saying he had contracted diarrhea while detained at the Central Police Station.
Reacting to Friday's court ruling, the Standard newspaper's publisher Trevor Ncube said on Facebook: "It's another very sad day for Zimbabwean journalism."