A letter from prison by jailed former Zengeza West MP Job Sikhala:

December 14, 2023

Dear Zimbabwean and Worldwide Friends,

My dearest friends, today marks exactly one and half years, that is, the full 18 months under persecution, incarceration in a meter by two and half meters solitary confinement in Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison by the regime in Zimbabwe since my arrest on the 14th of June 2023.

During this period, hot weather and electricity blackouts in the dark solitary dungeon where you can hold the thick of darkness, I wake up during the middle of the night, the room is fully flooded with my sweat, mosquitos having completed feasting breakfast, lunch and supper from my bare body.

I taught myself that decency is only for free. I am under repression and I must conquer the mental motives of my persecutors. What must be known my dearest friends is that there is no amount of suffering that I have not gone through in my life. I slept on an empty stomach days to no end, but was never tempted to steal from anyone all my life.

I, and my late parents laboured in other people’s fields for school fees, food and clothing. Railway stations and bus terminuses became my shelter in search of a better life. I used thatched slums built of poles as accommodation going to school. I used to travel 46 Kilometers daily to and from school, living in Zaka, walking round Siya Dam to Mazunguye Secondary School in Bikita. Crossing paths with hippopotamus from Siya Dam and Leopard harboured in the mountains separating Zaka and Bikita during dark hours coming from school.

There is no difficult situation insurmountable to me. I am a typical field Negro. This must inform everyone about the comfort and satisfaction I get by living among the poor people.

We share our poverty together. That is why I am passionately prepared to die for the poor and the downtrodden. They deserve complete protection and shelter from those who wield power. I lived the experience and the new experience I am going through has strengthened me. I have witnessed some becoming mentally unstable, after few weeks of solitary confinement where I am currently detained. All this because I was the lawyer to the family of the late Moreblessing Ali, a poor woman who was gruesomely and callously murdered.

Few days ago I saw her in her dream flying like an angel in white garments coming where I was standing with some people in my company. I asked those who were with me in that dream, whether the person who was flying to us was not Moreblessing Ali. They told me that it was truly her. I further asked them, why she was not walking but flying in wings.

I can’t share more of what she said to me after she landed where we were standing.

It is now eleven days from Christmas, and 18 days from New Year. I wish all of you my dearest Zimbabwean and Worldwide Friends a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

For me, it is the 2nd year running having my Christmas and New Year under repressive incarceration.

It is the second year running when my wife and children will have their Christmas and New Year without their Father. I will celebrate mine in solitary dungeon.

It’s sad that nation is now bereft of moral leaders since the bewitching of Archbishop Pius Ncube. Mercenarism has crept in. They lined up for dirty cars and dirty money from the oppressor, deforming the name of God.

They can’t speak a word on the face of gross injustice being perpetrate against me.

Hundred kisses of love my dearest Zimbabwean and Worldwide Friends. I Love you all. Stop not praying for me and Zimbabwe.

Enjoy your Christmas and New Year.

Job Sikhala

Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison