BBC News Online: World: Africa

Why I left Zimbabwe

I felt an enormous sense of relief flowing through my body as the doors closed on the plane taking my family and I to South Africa.

We were now safely out of the reach of the state security agents who had been trying to get hold of us since the early hours of Sunday morning.

The last I heard was that six or seven men, both police officers and others from the secret service, some armed with machine guns, were waiting for us inside our house.

It was obvious that there was very little to gain by trying to stay in Zimbabwe and a great deal to lose.

Lawless

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo told our lawyers that he would not be bound by a court order which gave us until next Friday to wind up our affairs in a country where we had spent the last four years.

The so-called "security" officers had a similarly low esteem for what the judges and the government's own lawyers had decided.

It remains to be seen whether all foreign journalists based in Zimbabwe will go through a similar ordeal, or whether this was only aimed at myself and Mercedes Sayagues, of the South African Mail and Guardian.

But it does come after the bombing of a local newspaper, the intimidation of judges and the indictment of senior figures in the opposition.

What is certain is that the period leading up to presidential elections next year, will not be an easy one for the many Zimbabweans not seen as "politically correct" in the eyes of the government.