Mzembi slams the putting of leg irons on Job Sikhala and Sithole

Exiled former Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi has slammed President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime for bringing opposition MPs Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole to court in leg irons.

“What really is the justification of putting leg chains on top of handcuffs on anyone in 2022, let alone on a blackman by a black government?? Highhanded treatment of Job Sikhala is a symbol of the highest degree of repression,” Mzembi said.

When Mzembi was dragged to court by Mnangagwa’s regime in 2018, it was Sikhala who acted as his lawyer.

Sikhala and Sithole were charged with incitement to commit public violence in June following clashes between CCC youths and Zanu-PF youths in Chitungwiza at the funeral wake for murdered Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activist Moreblessing Ali.

Ali was abducted by alleged Zanu-PF thugs for two weeks before her body was found cut into pieces and her intestines packed in a plastic bag and thrown into a well at the Beatrice home of claimed Zanu-PF supporter and murder suspect Pius Jamba.

Jamba has since been arrested as the key suspect in the murder.

Sithole and Sikhala were denied bail by magistrate Gibson Mandaza who argued they were “a threat to public security”. They approached the High Court but the State is delaying filing its response in the bail application.

The legislators will spend two more nights in prison because the State delayed the two’s bail appeal hearing after it failed to file its response.

The matter has been moved to Thursday to allow the State to respond.

Sithole is a CCC Member of Parliament for Chitungwiza North. Sikhala is the Zengeza West MP.

The two are represented by lawyers from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR).

“We are intensifying efforts to get Hon. Sikhala and Hon. Sithole is out of prison and today the National Prosecuting Authority undertook to file its response to our bail appeal and Justice Munamato Mutevedzi will preside over the hearing on Thursday,” ZLHR said in a statement.

CCC said in a statement:” The regime in Harare continues to postpone the freedom of our MPs, Sikhala and Sithole after it failed to file its papers, subsequently postponing the bail hearing to Thursday 7 June 2022. The two are being persecuted for demanding justice for Moreblessing Ali.”