HARARE – Lawmakers Godfrey Sithole and Job Sikhola clocked 66 days in jail on Monday as a magistrate threw out their latest bail application on changed circumstances.
Harare magistrate Feresi Chakanyuka said nothing had changed since the pair were denied bail in June to warrant their release.
“Nothing has been placed before the court to prove that what the two had been denied bail for initially has been addressed. Passage of time cannot be used as an excuse to be granted bail,” Chakanyuka said.
Sikhala and Sithole were arrested in June accused of inciting public violence after Citizens Coalition for Change activists clashed with Zanu PF supporters in Nyatsime, the scene of the abduction and murder of CCC activist Moreblessing Ali.
Prosecutors allege the two acted in connivance and accused Sithole of organising transport which ferried mourners to Ali’s memorial service in Nyatsime where violence flared up.
They both deny the charges.
Chief magistrate Faith Mushure denied the pair bail in June after ruling that they were men of means and likely to reoffend.
Sikhala and Sithole appealed at the High Court but their application was thrown out.
They again approached the magistrate court seeking bail on changed circumstances, culminating in the latest ruling.
The two also said there was no justification for their continued detention because the court was not shown the alleged video forming the offence they are being charged with.
Prosecutors did not release the video, but the magistrate still ruled in their favour.
Sikhala is separately charged with defeating the course of justice relating to the Nyatsime incident and was denied bail in that case last week.
Sikhala, the MP for Zengeza West, has reportedly been arrested over 70 times in the last 20 years without a single conviction.
His CCC party accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime of targeting him, along with other critical opposition voices, with the aim of crippling the main opposition in the midst of a cost of living crisis and ahead of general elections next year.
Musa Kika, the director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum reacted: “Anyone, everyone, can see that this kind of law is devoid of humanity, common sense and any moral content, and this kind of legal system is abnormal, corrupt and evil.”
