The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Saturday, August 12, 1967 — A South African woman journalist who crossed into Zambia on Monday without a visa, said today that she was declared a prohibited immigrant when she tried to leave the country later the same day.

She claimed that the driver of a coal truck who gave her a lift there was also declared a prohibited immigrant.

Mrs Janet Archer, a journalist on a Port Elizabeth newspaper, is touring Rhodesia and wanted to see what conditions were like at the Zambian border. She said she was given a lift on a coal truck going to Zambia and crossed the border, unknown to Zambia immigration officials.

When the driver drove to the barrier on his return trip to Rhodesia, she was asked by a border guard to leave the truck and report at the immigration office.

She was then told she had broken the law by entering Zambia without a visa and was asked to sign a Prohibited Immigrant notice giving her 30 minutes to leave the country.

At no time did she tell anyone she was a journalist, and although she took full blame for her trip to Zambia, the truck driver was also declared a prohibited immigrant.

She said she was cleared through the Rhodesian barrier at Victoria Falls and simply remained in the truck when the driver reported in Zambia while coal was being unloaded.

In an interview at Victoria Falls after her adventure, she expressed amazement at the vast quantities of coal she saw stockpiled in Zambia.