South Africa Arrests Bloggers Critical of Government

South African police have arrested at least one blogger (possibly three) in an apparent crackdown on Government dissent.

According to local media, Albert Oosthuizen who runs zasucks.com – was arrested allegedly on the basis of an outstanding warrant from 1993. Two bloggers from the Boerevryheid blog are also believed to have been arrested, although those arrests have not been confirmed.

Zasucks.com has as its mission to “bring news to the outside world of the crap that has become of South Africa”

Confirming that the arrest of Oosthuizen may have been politically motivated, Oosthuizen was released from custody after the state prosecutor refused to place the case on the roll. The same report also notes that despite facing a fraud charge, police confiscated Oosthuizen’s computers and seized mobile phones in the house, including those belonging to his daughters.

Oosthuizen said in a post to Zasucks.com that he had been told by police that his equipment would be studied by the Organised Crime, Cybercrimes units “after which they may or may not bring indictments against me.”