{"id":106243,"date":"2025-03-22T23:01:41","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T21:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal"},"modified":"2025-04-04T13:19:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T11:19:54","slug":"high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal","title":{"rendered":"High Court Rejects Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s Bail Appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza on Friday, 21 March, denied HStv senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s bail application.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga (44), who is facing charges under Section 164 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, has been in remand since his arrest last month.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist was arrested on February 24 after turning himself in to the police. He is accused of unlawfully recording a video of Blessed Runesu Geza and allegedly distributing it on YouTube via Heart and Soul Broadcasting Services channels.<\/p>\n<p>On February 28, Harare magistrate Farai Gwitima denied Mhlanga bail, saying he might interfere with witnesses.<\/p>\n<p>Mhlanga\u2019s lawyer, Chris Mhike, appealed the decision on March 7, arguing that there were no valid reasons to keep him in detention.<br \/>\nHowever, in his ruling on Friday, which lasted nearly an hour, Justice Mandaza said he found no error in the Magistrates Court\u2019s decision. He said:<\/p>\n<p>It is my view that there was a proper exercise of discretion in this matter by denying the appellant bail.<\/p>\n<p>After careful examination, I did not find any misdirection by the lower court.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, the decision of this court is that the appeal by the appellant against the decision of the magistrate court on February 25 is being dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Mandaza said the charge against Mhlanga is about transmitting data messages that led to inciting violence.<\/p>\n<p>He asserted that it doesn\u2019t matter whether the words were spoken by Blessed Geza or someone else; the nature of the charge remains the same. Said the judge:<\/p>\n<p>The offence is that as an employee of HStv, he (Mhlanga) transmitted violent messages. There is no absurdity.<\/p>\n<p>The charge is about transmitting data messages leading to incitement of violence. It is not an essential element of the offence that the violence must have occurred.<\/p>\n<p>What is clear from the message is that there were undertones of violent messages aimed at the President and police officers.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the words were uttered by Blessed Geza or someone else, it doesn\u2019t change the nature of the charge.<\/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. High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza on Friday, 21 March, denied HStv senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s bail application. Mhlanga (44), who is facing charges under Section 164 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, has been in remand since his arrest last month. The journalist was arrested on February 24 after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":106242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[7387,19],"class_list":["post-106243","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>High Court Rejects Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s Bail Appeal - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza on Friday, 21 March, denied HStv senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s bail applic ...\" \/>\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\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High Court Rejects Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s Bail Appeal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"High Court judge Justice Gibson Mandaza on Friday, 21 March, denied HStv senior journalist Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s bail applic ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-22T21:01:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T11:19:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/03\/sm_1742672466.193391.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"827\" \/>\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\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"High Court Rejects Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s Bail Appeal\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-22T21:01:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T11:19:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\"},\"wordCount\":355,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/03\/sm_1742672466.193391.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\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/high-court-rejects-blessed-mhlangas-bail-appeal\",\"name\":\"High Court Rejects Blessed Mhlanga\u2019s Bail Appeal - 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