Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The government claims Zengeza West MP, Job Sikhala (CCC), who has been in pre-trial detention for more than 100 days on allegations of inciting violence, violated past bail conditions, thereby resulting in the courts rejecting his new bail applications.
The outspoken lawmaker is said to have been arrested 67 times but has no single conviction. He has been denied bail five times by the courts in the current case.
Sikhala, Chitungwiza North MP, Godfrey Sithole, and other CCC activists from Nyatsime were arrested on 14 June 2022 after attending the funeral of political activist Moreblessing Ali.
Ali was brutally murdered and her remains were dumped in a disused well and were only discovered three weeks after she had gone missing.
Responding to questions in the Senate on Thursday from Senators who wanted to know how the government was handling the matter, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi, said:
… my understanding is that you are on bail on a specific case and there are conditions that are attached to that.
If you violate your bail conditions then the bail will not be granted should you commit another offence. That is a general principle.
The individual so concerned, my understanding which I just read, not to say that I was schooled by the Judiciary from going to ask about judicial decision but that is not my duty; the decision of the courts was on the basis of the fact that bail was granted, bail conditions were violated and that is the reason to deny bail.
… When we are in court, sometimes as politicians, we must refrain from abusing the courts for political expediency.
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