In the "Willowgate" investigation, Maruziva and Nyarota reported that ministers and officials from the government of President Robert Mugabe had been given early access to buy foreign cars at an assembly plant in Willowvale, an industrial suburb of Harare.
The Washington Post reported that the commission's hearings "struck a deep chord" in Zimbabwe, where citizens had grown to resent the perceived growing corruption of government.
[2] However, Maruziva and Nyarota were both forced out of their jobs with the state-owned paper and into newly created public relations positions in Harare.
[3] Though the men were given pay raises, Mugabe also stated that the move was a result of their "overzealousness", leading to public belief that they had been removed for their reporting.
South African Associated Press photographer Obed Zilwa was arrested for the attack, but the newspaper alleged that agents of Mugabe's security forces had thrown the bomb.
In May 2008, he was arrested in the paper's office for having printed an article in April by Arthur Mutambara, leader of an MDC faction[13][14] and charged with publishing "false statements prejudicial to the state".