{"id":105995,"date":"2025-03-14T09:39:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T07:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges"},"modified":"2025-03-25T21:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T19:56:54","slug":"journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges","title":{"rendered":"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga To Appear In Court On Incitement Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>Journalist Blessed Mhlanga is scheduled to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court on Friday, March 14, for a routine remand hearing on charges of incitement to violence.<\/p>\n<p>During his initial court appearance, Harare magistrate Farai Gwitima denied Mhlanga bail, saying he might interfere with witnesses if released. She said:<\/p>\n<p>It is my considered view that given his position at work, if granted bail, he is likely to interfere.<\/p>\n<p>Of critical importance some of the witnesses have not been retired, hence his release will jeopardise investigations.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga then approached the High Court for bail but his bid for freedom was put on hold as High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza indefinitely adjourned his bail hearing to review an application for the use of video evidence.<br \/>\nJustice Mandaza will advise on a new date for the bail hearing after considering the defence\u2019s request for electronic and video recordings, which form the basis of the State\u2019s case against Mhlanga.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga\u2019s lawyer, Chris Mhike, argued that the video evidence is crucial to arriving at an informed verdict, citing discrepancies between the request for remand form and the alleged video recording.<\/p>\n<p>However, the State countered that the defence should have requested the evidence at the magistrates court where Mhlanga initially appeared.<\/p>\n<p>Mhike disputed the State\u2019s assertion, referring the judge to the court transcript, which shows that he had indeed requested the evidence at the magistrates\u2019 court but was refused by Magistrate Gwitima.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga, the head of news at Heart and Soul TV, was arrested on February 24, 2025, on charges of incitement to violence.<\/p>\n<p>The allegations stem from interviews he conducted with Blessed Geza, a war veteran and vocal critic of President Emmerson Mnangagwa\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Geza, who is reportedly in hiding, is also wanted by the police on charges of incitement to violence, undermining the authority of the President, and theft.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. Journalist Blessed Mhlanga is scheduled to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court on Friday, March 14, for a routine remand hearing on charges of incitement to violence. During his initial court appearance, Harare magistrate Farai Gwitima denied Mhlanga bail, saying he might interfere with witnesses if released. She said: It is my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":105994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[7387,19],"class_list":["post-105995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-blessed-mhlanga","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Journalist Blessed Mhlanga To Appear In Court On Incitement Charges - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga is scheduled to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court on Friday, March 14, for a routine rem ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga To Appear In Court On Incitement Charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga is scheduled to appear at the Harare Magistrates Court on Friday, March 14, for a routine rem ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-14T07:39:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T19:56:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/03\/sm_1741932800.317468.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1120\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga To Appear In Court On Incitement Charges\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-14T07:39:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-25T19:56:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\"},\"wordCount\":330,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/03\/sm_1741932800.317468.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Blessed Mhlanga\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/journalist-blessed-mhlanga-to-appear-in-court-on-incitement-charges\",\"name\":\"Journalist Blessed Mhlanga To Appear In Court On Incitement Charges - 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