Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. THE prosecution has decided to withdraw charges it had preferred against Transform Zimbabwe leader Jacob Ngarivhume.
It alleged that key witnesses failed to appear in court, hence the withdrawal and the matter will proceed by way of summons.
He was being charged with attending an unlawful gathering and disorderly conduct.
Last October, the State withdrew murder charges against the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) leader Obert Masaraure and secretary-general Robert Chere before plea after the trial failed to kick off for nearly eight years.
Allegations against Masaraure were that on June 1, 2016 at around 10pm, the trade unionist and his accomplices who were in the company of the now-deceased Roy Issa met at Quill Club, Ambassador Hotel, where they were imbibing.
It is alleged they left the place 30 minutes later and went to Cresta Jameson Hotel, where Issa, a youth activist and member of Artuz, died.
The prosecution alleged that following a misunderstanding with Issa, Masaraure and four others ganged up against him and assaulted him in the head with unknown weapons, resulting in his death.
The prosecutors charged that the accused persons concealed the offence by falsely claiming that Issa fell from the balcony of Jameson Hotel, resulting in his death.
At the end of 2023, Blessed Mhembere (22) of Chitungwiza was accused of “moving around a bus terminus, shouting at the top of his voice”, calling for the removal of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
This is despite Section 61 the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of expression through (a) the freedom to seek, receive and communicate ideas and other information; and (b) the freedom of artistic expression and scientific research and creativity.
Mhembere spent nearly a month in jail before being released on bail.
In 2020, freelance journalist Hopewell Chin’ono spent 44 days in pretrial detention after being charged with inciting violence following his exposé of the COVID-19 procurement fraud within the Health and Child Care ministry.
Dissenting journalists and opposition activists have fallen victim to the weaponisation of the law.
Even those who are in the ruling Zanu PF party are not safe from weaponisation of the law.
The moment they speak out against injustices, they quickly become statistics of the injustices.
They are arrested, charges that do not stick are preferred against them, cases from as way back as five-plus years ago are resurrected.
This is a worrying trend, which shows that the new dispensation is refusing to break from the past to allow unfettered free expression, whereby citizens are free to voice opinions about the office of the president, according to human rights defenders.
New laws such as the Patriot Act open the door to violations of the human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
Moreover, the penalties provided by the Bill range from loss of citizenship, denial of the right to vote and the death penalty.
The weaponisation of the law is a desperate and patent move to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and to public participation in any discussions.
“Law and justice are not always the same,” said American journalist and social activist Gloria Steinem.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” contended Martin Luther King, Jr, an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders of the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
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