His Excellency Nelson Mandela
President
Office of the President
Pretoria
South Africa

Vienna, 3 February 1998

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) strongly protests the intended deportation of Newton Kanhema, a senior reporter for The Sunday Independent, who has angered the leaders of the ANC in several of his articles.

We are informed that the Department of Home Affairs is trying to serve a letter of notice to Kanhema, a citizen of Zimbabwe, which gives him 21 days to leave South Africa. Kanhema is currently on a four-month sabbatical at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is assisting in an inaugural South Africa programme, but officials served a similar order to his wife, Jean, whose right to remain in South Africa is dependent on her husband’s eligibility.

We understand that the Department has challenged Kanhema’s right to live in South Africa because of what they say is the discrepancy in his application under the 1996 moratorium granted to people living in South Africa from member countries of the SADC (Southern African Development Community), which includes Zimbabwe. To qualify for permanent residency under the moratorium, SADC citizens had to have lived in South Africa continuously since July 1991. Department officials are questioning Kanhema’s claim that he entered the country in 1990.

While officials have given purely technical reasons for withdrawing Kanhema’s permanent residence permit, IPI believes that political motives lie behind the decision. Kanhema has angered the ANC leadership through several provocative articles, in particular his interview with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela late last year, in which she accused the ANC’s national leaders of reneging on their election promises and of trying to impose leaders on provincial branches of the organisation.

IPI, the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in over 100 countries, is most concerned about this attempt by the democratic government in South Africa to silence the critical voice of a journalist. We therefore appeal to Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that the decision to deport Kanhema and his wife is revoked, and that he is able to carry out his profession as a journalist without further harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director