Zimbabwe journalist caught-up in Aussie sanctions

Zimbabwe journalist caught-up in Aussie sanctions

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By Styles Cavuto

INTERNATIONAL sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's regime have descended into a farce after Australia slapped sanctions on top Zimbabwean journalist, Trevor Ncube, the proprietor of Zimbabwe's last two independent papers.

Zimbabwean journalists last night reacted with outrage to the travel and financial sanctions imposed on Ncube, describing the move as "completely barmy".

The Australian Reserve Bank said in a statement that the list of 120 people had been updated to include "new members of, and persons associated with, the government of Zimbabwe."

"I am totally perplexed by this decision," said Conrad Nyamutata, a former chief reporter with The Daily News which was banned in 2003.

"I think it raises questions about the process of coming up with names of individuals who are on that list. It's a total mystery to me, particularly if you consider that Ncube's papers -- The Independent and The Standard -- are the last bastion of independent journalism in Zimbabwe."

Ncube appears alongside 120 other names of Mugabe's henchmen. Bizarrely, the Australian government has him down as born on April 18, 1971. Ncube was in fact born on September 9, 1962.

The Zimbabwe government has banned four independent newspapers in the last two years. Ncube's Independent and The Standard are the last remaining independent papers, after two others were taken over by state intelligence. Ncube has also acquired South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper. He is not known to be a supporter of Mugabe's government.

Critics of the sanctions regime against Mugabe have always questioned the process of coming up with the names. The United States, the European Union and Australia have all drawn up their own lists of individuals who are prevented from conducting business with their citizens or traveling to those countries.

Human rights groups question the inclusion of low ranking officials in Mugabe's government, while businesses and financial institutions keeping the flickering Zimbabwean economy alive are left out.

Last week, President Robert Mugabe's opponents in the UK reacted with outrage when UK immigration waved through several emissaries of Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono.

The team is representing the Zimbabwe government in a legal battle before UK courts to take over the Shabanie Mashaba Mines from exiled businessman, Mutumwa Mawere.

On the trip was Afaras Gwaradzimba, appointed by Gono as administrator of SMM Holdings following Mawere's ouster.

Last year, Gono was allowed into the UK on a fund raising mission for the Zimbabwe government to solicit foreign currency from exiled Zimbabweans. To this day, the European Union has not included him on its list of individuals barred from travel within member countries -- although Australia and the US both have him down on their lists.

TO SEE THE AUSTRALIAN SANCTIONS LIST, PLEASE CLICK HERE

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