By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |
Prison officials on Friday blocked Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader, his deputy, Nelson Chamisa, and others from meeting with party members imprisoned at Chikurubi Maximum Prison.
They had planned to meet the party members who were recently convicted for the murder of a top police officer, Petros Mutedza, in 2011.
The jailed members include MDC-T councillor Tungamirai Madzokere, Yvonne Musarurwa, Last Maengahama and Phineas Nhatarikwa.
The officials told Tsvangirai and his entourage that they must first seek authorisation from Paradzai Zimondi, the prisons boss.
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Chamisa said they waited for some 30 minutes before being told that Tsvangirai was a high profile person who must first seek clearance before meeting with prisoners.
It was not clear, however, if that was contained in any prison regulations or the law.
“They (prison officers) said he could not get in because he is not an ordinary citizen. He needs to have a clearance, but they could not say in terms of what law they used to bar him, only saying it’s an instruction from their bosses,” Chamisa said.
He described the behaviour of the prison officials as foolish.
“These are foolish instructions from their bosses who might also be foolish, blatantly unlawful and politically-motivated. What we want to know is why president Tsvangirai is prohibited from visiting his party members who are in prison,” Chamisa said.
Tsvangirai was riled by the prison officials’ attitude and accused them of trying to humiliate him.
“This is obviously unlawful. It’s intended to humiliate. I have come to see our people, like anybody else, and it’s my constitutional right,” Tsvangirai said.
He said barring him from seeing the prisoners was violation of his constitutional right, but indicated that he would follow their instruction.
“What clearance am I supposed to seek? But, anyway, we will follow their process, but this is an unusual instruction with the intention of creating confrontation which is not necessary,” he added. Nehanda Radio
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