Zimbabwe journalists demand apology from South African politician Malema for media harassment

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The main Zimbabwean journalists' group says it is protesting to South Africa and the continent-wide African Union over harassment of local reporters by aides of firebrand South African youth leader Julius Malema.

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists said Tuesday it is demanding an "unconditional apology" from Malema for the violence of his bodyguards toward a newspaper reporter and photographer trying to meet him during a private weekend visit to Zimbabwe.

Malema's aides and "violent mobs" surrounding him jostled journalists and seized a camera memory card that stored photos, the journalists' union said in a statement.

The rabble-rousing politician, expelled from South Africa's governing African National Congress for opposing senior party leaders, had attended a wedding in Harare of militants in President Robert Mugabe's party youth wing on Saturday.