BULAWAYO – Movement for Democratic Change leader Nelson Chamisa on Saturday visited the jailed Ntabazinduna chief, Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni, at Khami Prison.
Chamisa, accompanied by senior MDC officials, met the traditional leader for close to 20 minutes at the prison, about 35 kilometres west of Bulawayo.
He said on Twitter afterwards: “The people’s chief, Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni was sentenced to 18 months in prison for exercising his lawful duties as chief. He is upbeat, unbroken and thanking you all for your solidarity.”
Ndiweni is serving an 18-month prison sentence after he was convicted of malicious damage to property for ordering the destruction of a perimeter fence at the home of a villager banished from the chief’s area.
The chief’s supporters maintain that he was targeted for his outspoken criticism of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government with Zimbabwe mired in its worst economic crisis in over a decade.
Chief Ndiweni was an auditor for a town council in England when he was forced to return home and take over the chieftaincy following the death of his father, the paramount Ndebele chief, Khayisa Ndiweni, five years ago.
A law firm in which MDC vice president Welshman Ncube is a senior partner is representing the chief, who was charged together with 23 of his subjects. The villagers were given suspended prison sentences and ordered to perform 525 hours of community service.
The lawyers are challenging the convictions handed down by a Bulawayo magistrate as well as the sentences at the High Court. The chief’s lawyers have also filed a separate application for his release on bail pending a determination of his appeal.
