It has been confirmed.
So, the ruling ZANU PF party can, after all, have its opponents arrested and thrown in jail on trumped-up charges.
This shocking revelation was made by none other than the party’s secretary for information, Christopher Mutsvangwa, as he addressed a press conference in the capital Harare.
He told shocked reporters, “We will now reward their [opposition activists and human rights defenders] failure to protest with freedom.
“Now that SADC is over, we will liaise and appeal to the Minister of Home Affairs, Cde Kazembe Kazembe, and our justice delivery architecture to restore their freedoms through imminent release.”
So, there it is for the whole world to hear.
It has been laid bare and made official by the ZANU PF national spokesperson himself.
Let no one ever again accuse so-called ‘detractors’ of peddling falsehoods that opponents of President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa were being persecuted through the weaponization of the law purely for political reasons and at the instigation of the regime itself.
Let the world finally know that whenever the Mnangagwa ruling junta distances itself from the endless arrests and detention of voices of dissent – who are normally held on spurious charges and repeatedly denied their constitutional right to bail – this would be a bold-faced lie.
When they claim that they have no influence whatsoever on the justice delivery system – especially law enforcement and the judiciary – they would be lying through the skin of their teeth.
Those in power in Zimbabwe have the power to have opponents arrested and released from prison.
The Mnangagwa regime has no respect at all for the principle of the separation of power – where the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government work independently of each other.
It is even worse because not only does the executive interfere with and influence the other branches, but the ruling party also plays a role.
If ZANU PF can have opposition activists and human rights defenders released from lawful custody – as Mutsvangwa unashamedly admitted or rather boasted – then it goes without saying that they also can have opponents arrested and kept behind bars.
We now have an idea how a bunch of people can easily access an airport’s high-security apron area, embark a loading airplane, abduct some passengers, hold them incommunicado at the airport while torturing them repeatedly for hours, and then hand them over to the police.
Is that not what happened to Namatai Kwekweza, Robson Chere, Vusumuzi Moyo, and Samuel Gwenzi on 31st July 2024?
Let us remember that torture is prohibited by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Torture is also listed as one of the crimes that constitute a ‘grave breach’ of the 1949 Geneva Conventions on the treatment of victims of war.
Similarly, section 53 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe says: No person may be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
On 16th August, the four were denied bail after being charged for disorderly conduct for allegedly protesting outside a court in June over the arrest of dozens of opposition supporters.
These ‘opposition supporters’ were the 79 who were arrested on 16th June 2024 while commemorating the Day of the African Child at the private residence of their leader, Jameson Timba.
They, similarly, have been repeatedly denied their right to bail and are still languishing in remand prison.
In terms of section 50(1d) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, an arrested person is entitled to be released on bail either unconditionally or on conditions pending charge or trial.
One of those behind bars is a mother with her one-year-old baby and another lady (Tambudzai Makororo) who had to undergo emergency surgery on her leg after an alleged barbaric assault by the police during the group’s arrest.
There are reports that, just in the past two months – as the country prepared to host the 44th Ordinary SADC Heads of State and Government Summit – over a hundred suspected opponents of the regime have been jailed on various charges.
Most of them related to suspicions of planning demonstrations against the Mnangagwa regime during the SADC Summit, which was held on 17th August 2024.
Yet, the right to demonstrate is enshrined under section 59 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Not only that, but freedoms of assembly and association are protected under section 58 of the supreme law.
In other words, there was totally no legal basis for arresting and jailing these people.
In fact, the military-backed junta did not even have a shred of evidence that those arrested had been planning anything outside the dictates of the law.
Is that not why Mutsvangwa is now talking about releasing them from prison without trial?
If they really had a case to answer, would the law not have been allowed to take its course?
Mutsvangwa, of all people, should understand this since his own son Neville faced the same predicament after being arrested in May 2024 and initially denied bail.
Did he (Mutsvangwa) not throw a tantrum especially targeted towards vice president Constantino Chiwenga, whom he appeared to blame for the arrest?
Did his wife, Monica – who is Minister of Women’s Affairs – not also go on a tirade, as she interpreted the arrest as persecution?
It is no longer in question that the Mnangagwa regime is fond of disregarding the rule of law – something which should never be expected from a government that wants to be taken as democratic.
This is the type of lawlessness we should expect from the ‘wild west’ or in a country run by gangsters.
How can a government arrest people simply because they wanted to exercise their democratic rights?
Mutsvangwa himself acknowledged this brazen illegal act by the regime when he said, “We guarantee them freedom since their planned protests in the presence of foreigners have flopped.
“They wanted to steal the main show through the lenses of cameras from the media fraternity, and we really appreciate the efforts made so far to silence them.”
Furthermore, this gives credence to opposition leader and former Zengeza legislator Job Sikhala’s repeated assertions that his 596-day pre-conviction incarceration was nothing more than political persecution.
Indeed, he was a political prisoner – as all the other voices of dissent arrested and jailed by the repressive Mnangagwa regime.
This is especially so considering that he had been arrested and kept in detention on a charge that no longer existed in the country’s laws.
Section 31(a) (iii) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] – which deals with publishing falsehoods – was struck off the statute books by the Constitution Court in October 2013.
Yet, section 70 (1k) of the Constitution states, “Any person accused of an offense has the right not to be convicted of any act or omission that was not an offense when it took place.”
Additionally, there was no evidence at all that he had planned and instigated any violence as alleged by the state.
That is why, even though initially found guilty by the magistrate court, both his conviction and sentence were subsequently overturned by the High Court on 22nd July 2024.
The same goes for another opposition leader, Jacob Ngarivhume, who was sentenced to three years in prison for ostensibly inciting violence, yet in the absence of any prima facie evidence.
He, too, eventually had his conviction and sentence quashed by the High Court on 11th December 2023 after appeal – yet having already served eight months imprisonment.
With such undeniable abuse of the law by the Mnangagwa regime, what then are we to say about the independence of the judiciary, which has been complicit in this ‘persecution through prosecution’?
Can anyone be faulted for concluding that our judiciary is captured by the state?
How else can we describe courts that not only proceed with a trial even on a charge without prima facie evidence or which does not exist under the law, but also denies the accused their constitutional right to bail?
Is this not what Mutsvangwa effectively confirmed in his statement?
If this is not true, then are we to see some form of action being taken against the ZANU PF spokesman for giving the impression that his party can have these opposition activists and human rights defenders released from prison?
In actual fact, all those who have been arrested on trumped-up charges, through the weaponization of the law, should sue the government and all the legal officers involved.
Section 50 (9) of the Constitution clearly states: Any person who has been illegally arrested or detained is entitled to compensation from the person responsible for the arrest or detention.
Therefore, when some of us say there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe, we know exactly what we will be talking about.
It is like Mnangagwa is presiding over a mobster regime.
● Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. Please feel free to WhatsApp or Call: +263715667700 | +263782283975, or email: [email protected], or visit website: https://mbofanatendairuben.news.blog/
