A DISTINGUISHED author has paid tribute to a Swindon journalist who reported from the frontline of the fight against racism in Africa and Europe.

John Beasant was a close friend of Musosa Kazembe, known as Simon, who fought apartheid in South Africa and in his native Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe.

Musosa, whose activities included helping freedom fighters escape from prison, settled in Britain after being expelled from his homeland.

He worked for the Adver in the 1970s and lived in Swindon for the best part of 40 years, first in Covingham, then in Freshbrook.

His career also took in Drum magazine in South Africa, the Times, the BBC and the European newspaper.

Mr Beasant, who helped Musosa escape to the UK, told how his friend refused to be intimidated by either side in Rhodesia, where Ian Smith’s white minority govern-ment cut links with the UK in 1965.

Mr Beasant said: “The roles being played by Simon and myself could not have been more diverse; he the central African editor of the Johannesburg-based Drum magazine which, in muted tones, beat out the call for African emancipation, whilst I was personal assistant to Sir Edgar Whitehead, leader of the opposition in the Rhodesian Parliament.

“But, as fortune and chance would have it, we were, at once, natural friends and, indeed, allies.

“Journalistically, he walked a tightrope, with Smith and his government apparatus swinging on one end whilst at the other those African nationalists who were all too often irritated by Simon’s provocative bravery engaged in something very similar.

“And the penalties of incurring the displeasure by Simon’s refusal to be intimidated by either side, were real and immediate.”

He added: “One of his most attractive qualities was his laughter, which seemed to arise from the very centre of the earth.”

Mr Beasant still has vivid memories of his first meeting with Musosa in 1965, just months before Smith’s Rhodesian Front party broke off the country’s ties with the UK.

The setting was Salisbury, now Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.

Mr Beasant, whose works include Oman and Stalin’s Silver, said: “The office was small, hot and, as ever, crowded with friends and journalistic colleagues, with the temperature being raised to monsoon proportions by the excitement of provocative debate, the ‘cooking’ of other people’s geese and the raw, red meat of African nationalist cock-pit politics.”

The pair engaged in several escapades, including one into what was then Portuguese Mozambique, which bordered eastern Rhodesia.

They met Frelimo guerillas fighting for independence from Lisbon.

Musosa was Malawian by birth and spent much of his childhood with Scottish surrogate parents.

His assignments for the UK press included interviewing right-wing politician Enoch Powell, infamous for his “rivers of blood” immigration speech.

The great-grandfather died in December, at the age of 74.

However, Mr Beasant only recently heard of his old friend’s death, due to extensive travel commitments.

He said: “My late mother was both proud and pleased to accommodate two of Simon’s boys during their early and difficult days of settling in Britain.

“She came to love them as her very own; a love that extended to Simon’s wife, the ever patient Kay.”