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By Lebo Nkatazo

THE Zimbabwe Independent newspaper has suspended a senior journalist following a leak of its lead story before publication to the country’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) last week.

The privately-owned newspaper suspended senior political reporter Augustine Mukaro after IT technicians discovered that his e-mail address had been used to leak a front page story to the CIO, which used it to seek a court order preventing the paper from publishing the story.

The Zimbabwe Independent is owned by journalist Trevor Ncube who is also the publisher of two weeklies -- The Standard and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa.

The story written by senior reporters Dumisani Muleya and Constantine Chimakure gave an account of the upheavals in the spy agency, spawned by former politburo member Simba Makoni’s recent defection from the ruling Zanu PF.

The story linked CIO director general Happyton Bonyongwe to an underground Zanu PF faction supporting Makoni’s candidature.

The story also indicated that the top spy faced the axe at the expiry of his tenure next April.

The Zimbabwe Independent was barred from going to press with the story last Friday after Bonyongwe sought a High Court order stopping the newspaper from running the story.

IT experts engaged to investigate the leak confirmed Tuesday Mukaro’s e-mail account had been used to route the story to the CIO via a Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) server.

The printout of the story used by Bonyongwe to file an urgent High Court application showed the article had been sent through the union’s email address – admin@zuj.org.zw.

Mukaro who has been with the Zimbabwe Independent for close to 10 years is the newspapers’ workers committee chairman and ZUJ national treasurer.

Investigations have revealed that Mukaro used his Zimbabwe Independent email account to route the article to a ZUJ server before onward transmission to the spy agency from the ZUJ offices in central Harare where he has unlimited access.

Zimbabwe Independent Editor Vincent Kahiya on Tuesday wrote to Mukaro suspending him with full benefits until a disciplinary hearing is held.

Sources close to the Independent revealed that Mukaro has already admitted sending he story to ZUJ but claimed it was “a mix up”.

The sources say Mukaro told his bosses Tuesday that he had mixed up the story with a message meant to enquire on his airtime credit and fuel coupons with the ZUJ secretariat.

Zimbabwe Independent chief executive Raphael Khumalo confirmed Mukaro was on suspension pending a disciplinary hearing.

Mukaro is likely to lose his job if the disciplinary hearing finds him guilty of an offence.

In an affidavit to the courts Bonyongwe claimed the Independent story was malicious and compromised national security.

Bonyongwe wrote: “Publication of a detailed version would cause irreversible harm, loss of cohesion, alarm and despondency, indiscipline and multiplicity of adverse consequences, which have the potential of militating against the operation and effectiveness of the security organisation.”

The CIO boss was last week quoted by the state-controlled Herald newspaper distancing himself from Makoni after earlier media reports had linked him to the independent presidential hopeful and former finance minister.

ZUJ president Mathew Takaona who expressed shock at the developments says the trade union will hold separate investigations and “act swiftly” on its findings.
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