THE LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
Last Updated on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 08:30 Written by Administrator Friday, 24 February 2012 15:57
On Monday 20 February 2012, six of the seven Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters walked out of Harare Remand Prison and Chikurubi Maximum Prison marking the end of their 9 month battle for freedom and the beginning of a long awaited break from the dingy prisons. The seventh activist will be released today. The seven, Councillor Tungamirai Madzokere Lazarus Maengahama, Stanford Maengahama, Phineas Nhatarikwa, Stanford Mangwiro, Rebecca Mafikeni and Yvonne Musarurwa were granted bail on the 18th of February by Deputy Chief Judge, Justice Luke Malaba following an appeal made by the defense led by Charles Kwaramba to the Supreme Court.
The seven are among 29 MDC supporters and Glen View residents facing trumped up charges of murdering a police officer at a Glen View nightclub in May 2011, in a case which has largely been viewed as a political ploy to silence the MDC supporters. Three remain in custody including MDC Youth Assembly Chairperson, Solomon Madzore, remains in remand.
Responding to the granting of bail to the seven, lawyer, Jeremiah Bamu wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to the activists,
‘It has been a long walk, and a protracted battle, but finally, Tungamirai Madzokere, Lazarus Maengahama, Stanford Maengahama, Phineas Nhatarikwa, Stanford Mangwiro, Rebbecca Mafikeni and Yvonne Musarurwa, will walk out of the gates of remand prison on bail... Hats off to Charles Kwaramba for his sterling efforts and tireless quest for the release of these Cdes. Our hope remains with Solomon Madzore for the expeditious processing of his bail appeal and have high hopes that he shall also be set free’
While the activists, whose charges remain unsubstantiated, were walking out of prison, President Robert Mugabe was on the ZANU PF controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation (ZBC) in an interview responding to a question on alleged fraud charges against the Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai where he said,
“What we don’t want is people getting arrested on the basis of evidence which is not clear and on the basis of facts which have not been thoroughly investigated. The police must investigate these cases thoroughly so that by the time they get to the stage of building a case and taking it to the court, they are quite sure that they have a case against the particular individual to who it relates but just rushing to build a case against somebody doesn’t do us good at all,”
The words above sound hypocritical coming from President Mugabe who has, since independence, presided over a police force which arrests on suspicion and not on evidence and a political party which uses prosecution as a form of persecution. During the Gukurahundi in the 1980’s, ZAPU officials were detained for long periods of time without trial. One such example was the detention of the late Lookout Masuku and Dumiso Dabengwa for four years without trial as a strategy to force ZAPU to form a unity government with ZANU.
Over the years, prolonged detentions have been used to silence dissent and as a form of both physical and psychological torture against opponents of the Mugabe regime. In 2007, MDC officials including Dennis Murira and Paul Madzore were incarcerated for over five months under unsubstantiated terrorism charges. Despite spending five months in prison, the charges were never substantiated leading to the dropping of the terrorism charges. In December 2008, Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Director, Ms. Jestina Mukoko and other civil society activists and MDC supporters were abducted from their homes and unlawfully incarcerated for three months without fair trial. An order for permanent stay of criminal proceedings against Mukoko was issued by the Zimbabwe Supreme Court citing human rights abuses during her abduction and incarceration.
The police in Zimbabwe have become a law unto themselves, arresting to investigate and not investigating to arrest. In most instants, the accused persons are released due to lack of evidence. If the President really believes in what he said during the interview he should reign in the police and ensure that before they make any arrests they conduct thorough investigations and arrest based on facts as opposed to political affiliation.