Harare, Zimbabwe (News of the South)-Veteran journalist and author Bill Saidi has died though the cause of his death is still to be known. He was 78.
Born at St David’s Mission in Marondera in 1937 the veteran journalist worked for a number of newspapers in a trade that spanned over four decades and included spells in both the private and government publications in the country.
He wrote for The Herald, The Daily News and The Standard and was also a correspondent for some foreign publications.
Saidi in later years had run-ins with the government and in 2007 was part of a list of journalists allegedly listed as targets to watch by state security in the run-up to the 2008 elections.
Titled 2008 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, the document, listed Saidi and other individuals like Wilf Mbanga of The Zimbabwean, under the heading “Targeted Journalists” and accused them of working hand in hand with hostile anti-Zimbabwe Western governments.
Saidi had since relocated to Zambia where his cause of death is still unknown.
In a message Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Jonathan Moyo paid his condolences to the writer whom he lauded as a veteran of the trade.
“Veteran Zimbabwean journalist, Bill Saidi, is no more. MHSRIP”, he said.
According to Weaver Press, his publishing House as a writer, Saidi had his work published in Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia and elsewhere and in magazines such as African Parade, New Writing from Zambia, Okike and the Negro Digest.
They have also been published in various anthologies such as Voices of Zambia, and Norton’s Introduction to Literature (2010).
Saidi has also published novels: The Hanging (1978); Return of the Innocent (1979), Day of The Baboons (1988) Gwebede’s Wars (1989), and The Brothers of Chatima Road (1990). He has written Who’s Who in Zimbabwe (1991) and a memoir A Sort of Life in Journalism (2011).
He published two short stories with Weaver Press: ‘A Fine Day for a Funeral’ Writing Still (2003) and ‘The Winning Side’ Writing Now (2005.
Burial arrangements for the journalists are still to be revealed.
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