Newspaper editor killed

The editor of Swaziland's state-owned newspaper was shot dead on Monday morning, apparently in an attempted carjacking, agencies reported. Sandile Ntshakala, 29, had just finished editing the latest edition of 'The Swazi Observer' when armed men sprayed his car with bullets, killing him, Wilton Mamba, news editor of the newspaper said. The attack occurred in Mbuleni township, about 10 km from the industrial city of Manzini.

"We are dumbfounded about the attack," Mamba told AP. Ntshakala had been editor of the paper for five months. "This is a real loss to the profession. We have lost such a young and talented journalist who was role model to aspiring journalists in Swaziland," said Sibusiso Mngadi, secretary-general of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ).

A reporter at the newspaper, Bongani Mtjali, was driving Ntshakala home when a group of armed robbers blocked the road and demanded the car, Mamba said. When the pair eluded the ambush, the robbers opened fire on the car, killing Ntshakala, but missing Mtjali, who drove to a nearby police station. Police later confirmed the attack. The death of Ntshakala came barely a month after a senior journalist with the same newspaper, Mfanukhona Nkambule, was attacked by an unknown gunman who assaulted and later shot him in his house in Manzini.