Editor fined on gun charges

By Newsday | Sep. 16, 2014

SUSPECTED administrator of the controversial Baba Jukwa Facebook page, Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi was yesterday fined $150 for contravention of the Firearms Act after he was convicted for illegal possession of a firearm.

In passing ruling, Harare magistrate Tendai Mahwe said the firearm could have been used to commit criminal offences.

Together with his brother Philip, Kudzayi is also facing charges of attempting to commit acts of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism after allegedly publishing or communicating false statements deemed as prejudicial to the State and undermining the authority of the president through the Baba Jukwa Facebook page.

The State alleges that in April 2013, the Kudzayi brothers hatched a plan to overthrow the government through unconstitutional means by creating a Gmail account, [email protected] using a mobile phone line registered in Phillip’s name.

It is alleged that the two formed organisations called Gunda Nleya Brigade and the Zimbabwe Revolutionary Army to overthrow the government.

Kudzayi was appointed Sunday Mail editor in April following the resignation of Brezhnev Malaba and is said to have played an instrumental role in Zanu PF’s 2013 election media campaign.

He penned a column in the Herald under the pseudonym Mai Jukwa, presumably to counter Baba Jukwa’s exposés.

Kudzayi is also alleged to have posted articles on Baba Jukwa’s Facebook page where he called for a rebellion against the government if the July 31 2013 elections were stolen. He posted articles claiming they had a Dare reChimurenga in place to study the situation in Zimbabwe.