Bail for man detained for criticising Zim president
A Zimbabwean court freed a man on bail who had been detained for insulting the president while testifying before a commission probing the fatal shooting of six civilians during post-election protests in August, lawyers said on Monday.
Prosecutors said Wisdom Mkwananzi, 32, pointed at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s official portrait hung on the wall of a hall where the commission was hearing evidence from witnesses, and said: “I am an orphan because of this man. He killed my parents.”
He was accusing Mnangagwa of leading Gukurahundi, a government crackdown in the 1980s during which rights groups say at least 20,000 suspected government opponents were killed.
Mkwananzi was released on $200 (R2,900) bail, according to Kumbirai Mafunda, spokesperson for Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
“He was charged with undermining the authority of the president, assaulting police officers during his arrest and lying under oath,” Mafunda said.
Earlier this month, Alexander Chidzedzere was arrested in the northern town of Kariba on accusations of undermining the authority of the president after he alleged that the ruling ZanuPF party won the July 30 general elections through rigging.
In May, John Mahlabera, 36, an officer at Chiredzi prison in the province of Masvingo, was summoned to appear before a disciplinary hearing after he allegedly called main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa “my president” on social media.
In August, a well-known critic of the president, Munyaradzi Shoko, had charges against him dropped after being briefly held for posting on Facebook that the president’s name was “generally associated with evil and devilish deeds”.
Mnangagwa took over from Robert Mugabe after a brief military takeover in November 2017 and he went on to win the presidential election.
During Mugabe’s rule, arrests on charges of insulting the president were common.