Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. HARARE, Apr. 22 (NewsDay Live) – A ZANU-PF youth leader has spent nearly a month in remand prison after being charged over alleged insults directed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa and remarks opposing efforts to extend his tenure beyond 2028.
Tawanda Zange, 37, a member of the party’s political commissariat in Mutoko district, Mashonaland East, was arrested on March 24 following a verbal altercation with another party official.
He faces charges of disorderly conduct in a public place and criminal nuisance under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.
Prosecutors allege Zange used “threatening, abusive and insulting” language against Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF during a dispute with neighbour Tinos Moyosvi, 48, also a party official.
According to the State, Zange allegedly shouted slogans denouncing ZANU-PF and “Vision 2030”, a government development agenda, and made remarks perceived as insulting to the president.
Police arrested him shortly after the incident, and he was later denied bail by the Mutoko Magistrates Court.
On Monday, his lawyer Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights renewed a bail application, citing changed circumstances.
Chinopfukutwa argued that the charge had been reduced from undermining the authority of the president to disorderly conduct, a less serious offence, and said his client had provided an alternative address to mitigate concerns about interference with witnesses.
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