Six years ago President Emmerson Mnangagwa promised to transform Zimbabwe’s politics, which he said “had become poisoned, rancorous and polarising”.
After being sworn in to replace long time ruler Robert
Mugabe following a military coup in 2017, Mnangagwa declared: “My goal is to
preside over a polity and run an administration that recognises strength in our
diversity as a people.”
Fast-forward to 2023, the 80- year-old ruler appears to
have thrown his pledge out of the window as he guns for his critics ahead of a
crucial election between July and August.
On Friday, Transform Zimbabwe leader, Jacob Ngarivhume was
jailed for effective three years for his role in organising the July 31, 2020
protests against corruption.
Ngarivhume became the fourth person to be convicted on
charges related to freedom of expression, freedom to petition and to demonstrate
this year after Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) spokesperson Fadzai Mahere,
author Tsitsi Dangarembga, activist Julie Barnes and church leader Parere
Kanyenzura.
The convictions have sparked fears that Mnangagwa’s regime
has started clamping down on dissenting voices to aid his bid for a second
full-term in office in the forthcoming polls.
Ngarivhume, who was the convener of the July 31 protests
against corruption and poverty, spent months in pre-trial detention and was
granted bail on his fourth attempt in September 2020.
Mnangagwa’s government has been using pre-trial detention
to hold those it perceives as enemies of the state behind bars.
According to the Open Society Foundations 2021 report on the
social-impact of pre-trial detentions, the decision to detain a person before
he is found guilty of a crime is one of the most draconian measures a state or
an individual can make.
“A decision made in an instant by the arresting officer can
have a severe, lasting, and adverse impact,” the report reads.
“Whether or not it is justified, and regardless of whether
due process is followed, the arrest is likely to have a traumatic effect on the
detainee and those who love and depend on him.
“Pre-trial detention is one of the worst things that can
happen to a person: the detainee immediately loses his freedom and can also
lose his family, health, home, job, and community ties.”
CCC said Ngarivhume’s conviction and sentence was an
assault on democracy.
“The conviction of political activist Jacob Ngarivhume
after exercising his right to demonstrate is a violation of his fundamental
human rights and an attack on democracy,” the CCC said in a statement on
Friday..
“It is unacceptable that citizens are being punished for
peacefully expressing their views and calling for change.
“The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a
fundamental human right that should be protected and respected by all
governments.,
“We also call on the government to respect the rights of
its citizens to peacefully protest and express their views without fear of
intimidation, harassment, or arrest.”
Vongai Chikwanda, the Amnesty International interim deputy
director for southern Africa said Ngarivhume’s conviction showed a sustained
bid to silence dissent.
“Ngarivhume’s sentencing is a cynical ploy to supress
dissent and it is an abuse of the justice system to intimidate and harass
opposition voices,” Chikwanda said.
“Ngarivhume’s conviction and sentencing show a growing
crackdown on opposition leaders, human rights defenders, activists, journalists
and other critical dissenting voices through abuse of the legal system.
“Authorities must stop weaponising the law to target
opposition figures or anyone who speaks out against corruption.”
Other cases of the weaponisation of the law since the
coming in of Mnangagwa include the case of CCC activist Makomborero
Haruzivishe’s persecution.
He was charged with inciting violence for blowing a whistle
during a protest in 2020, allegedly ‘to alert protestors to revolt against the
police.’
Another curious case was that of Mahere.
Mahere was recently convicted and fined US$500 for publishing
falsehoods in a case involving a woman whose child was erroneously reported to
have been struck to death by a Harare police officer while enforcing Covid-19
lockdown regulations in 2020.
In 2021, High Court judge Justice Jester Helana Charewa ruled
that the law used to charge Mahere was invalid when dismissing a similar charge
against journalist Hopewell Chin’ono.
Lawyer Siphosami Malunga said Ngarivhume was just
exercising his constitutional right to peaceful protest and did not deserve to
be behind bars.
“Section 59 of Zimbabwe's constitution provides that
everyone has the right to demonstrate and present petitions and that these
rights must be exercised peacefully,” Malunga said.
“Ngarivhume exercised his constitutional right to peaceful
protest and has been jailed for four years for doing so.”
Academic Ibbo Mandaza described Ngarivhume’s conviction as
shocking and a symptom of the judiciary’s decay.
“That’s my reaction to the shocking news about Jacob
Ngarivhume,” he said.
Prominent lawyer Tendai Biti described the judgment as
shockingly irrational.
“It’s a gross assault on the basic right to protest
codified in the constitution and a massive reflection of the paranoia and
psychotic nature of this regime,” Biti said.
Independent Norton legislator Temba Mliswa said Zimbabwe
was fast moving into an autocratic state.
“The guilty verdict and four-year sentence for Ngarivhume
is only the latest confirmation that all charades of democracy are being
removed,” Mliswa said.
“The courts have become a political front to fight
opposition players and not a platform for justice and truth.”
Political analyst Blessing Vava said the conviction showed
that rule of law had broken down.
“I think we really need an independent commission of
inquiry to look into the state of the judiciary, the people presiding over the
magistrate courts are now clearly political,” Vava said.
“The conviction is also meant to be a warning to activists
and those critical to the government that you must not dare challenge the
authorities.”
Mnangagwa has been accused of shutting down the democratic
space.
Today marks exactly 319 days since Zengeza West MP for CCC
Job Sikhala was arrested for allegedly inciting public violence over the death
of opposition activist Moreblessing Ali.
Sikhala was arrested on June 14, 2022 alongside fellow
opposition MP Godfrey Sithole and 14 other residents of Nyatsime.
Since then, Sikhala has been held in protracted pre-trial
detention at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare.
A book released on Monday last week by Civic Society
Organisations namely Southern Defenders, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Civic
Space Network and Political Prisoners in Africa summed up the persecution of
government critics and judicial capture using Sikhala as a case study.
The study is titled: Justice Delayed is Justice Denied:
Persecution by Prosecution in the Case of Zengeza West Opposition Member of
Parliament Job Sikhala.
It makes a comparative analysis examining how the courts
have applied themselves in other public interest cases involving politically
exposed persons with links to the ruling party.
“The political history of Zimbabwe characterised by
repression of opposition politics and Sikhala’s membership of the opposition
makes suspicions rife that Job Sikhala and his CCC political party are being
targeted for holding dissenting political views,” the study reads.
“The situation is compounded by strong suspicions of
judicial capture, which are based on the courts' seeming failure to apply the
country’s laws to every person consistently, equally and impartially regardless
of stature or political affiliation.”
Sikhala has been denied bail more than 10 times.
According to the constitution, bail is a fundamental right
as provided in Section 50(1) (d) and the Criminal Procedure and Evidence
Amendment Act [Chapter 9:07].
“The country's judicial precedence on bail is also rich,”
it reads.
“Judicial precedents and the facts in Job Sikhala’s case in
light of the charges of obstruction of justice levelled against him, make it
difficult to understand why Job Sikhala continues to be held in prison and
suspicions of selective application of the law.
It is difficult to imagine that a judiciary is independent
and impartial when it keeps a suspect in custody for 10 months on a bailable
offence and in circumstances where others in similar circumstances have all
been granted bail under the same incidence and same charges.”
Mnangagwa’s administration has been relentless in jailing
critics, but reluctant to arrest Zanu PF members involved in corruption
charges, with those nabbed easily granted bail and their cases collapsing
during the trial.
A notable example is Mnangagwa’s niece and Zimbabwe Miners
Federation boss Henrietta Rushwaya.
She was arrested on October 26, 2020 at the Robert Mugabe
International Airport while attempting to smuggle six kilogrammes of processed
gold to Dubai worth US$366 000.
Rushwaya was also named in a recent Al Jazeera exposé on
gold smuggling and money laundering.
“An assessment of how the country’s courts apply the law in
cases involving whistleblowers/journalists exposing corruption, government
critics, activists and persons who hold dissenting political views such as Job
Sikhala, reveals a glaring trend of selective application of the law, which is
even more evident when further assessed against how the courts apply themselves
in cases involving high profile politically exposed persons linked to the
ruling political party and accused of arguably more serious crimes,” the
Sikhala case study reads.
“Examples are the cases of the Gokwe Nembudziya legislator
Justice Mayor Wadyajena; former Health minister Obadiah Moyo; former Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo and Henrietta Rushwaya.
“This reinforces strong views about judicial capture and
selective application of the law.” Standard
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