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Zimbabwe
court convicts self-employed worker over Mugabe insult
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
September 23, 2013
A Zimbabwean
court has convicted a self-employed man who allegedly slandered
President Robert Mugabe after blaming his unemployment woes on the
octogenarian’s mismanagement of the country’s economy.
Chiredzi Magistrate
Honest Musiiwa on Friday 21 September 2013 convicted Regis Kandawasvika,
aged 36 years, after finding him guilty of undermining or insulting
the authority of President Mugabe in contravention of Section 33
(2) (b) of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform) Act, one of the country’s
repressive piece of legislation.
Magistrate Musiiwa
fined Kandawasvika $150 for committing the offence failure of which
he would spend 60 days in jail. Kandawasvika, who denied committing
the offence during the trial which commenced late last month and
who was represented by Blessing Nyamaropa of Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights (ZLHR) opted to pay the fine.
Particularly
angered at his failure to obtain employment despite passing his
Ordinary Level examinations, the 36-year-old Chiredzi man vented
his anger on President Mugabe’s portrait, prosecutors alleged.
Kandawasvika, aged 35 years at the time of his arrest in October
last year, was charged with contravening Section of the Criminal
Law (Codification and Reform Act).
The State alleged
he held President Mugabe accountable for his failure to secure employment
despite having obtained six Ordinary Level passes. State prosecutors
said
Kandawasvika
insulted President Mugabe when he struck the Zanu-PF leader’s
portrait hung in Khomanani Bar in Tshovani high density suburb on
2 October 2012. According to the State, Kandawasvika struck the
portrait alleging that President Mugabe was the author of Zimbabwe’s
unemployment problems. The State alleges Kandawasvika uttered the
following words: “Ndiri kutambura nokuda kwehutongi hwezimudhara
iri Robert Mugabe. Ndine masabhujekiti six pa‘O’ Level
kasi handina basa rekuita. Handidi kana kumboriona zimudhara irori.
Ikozvino, gwendo runo riri kuenda kamwe chete.” The State
translated this to mean: “I am suffering because of the ruling
of this old man Cde Robert Mugabe. I have six ‘O’ level
subjects but I have no job. I don’t want to see this old man.
This time he is going one way.” The State said the alleged
utterances were unlawful, abusive, indecent and obscene. According
to the State, after uttering the “unlawful, abusive, indecent
and obscene” words, Kandawasvika had an altercation in the
bar with Robert Madhambara, a security guard, ignited by political
party differences. Kandawasvika allegedly then picked bottle tops
from the floor and threw them at President Mugabe’s portrait
three times after failing to hit the portrait with a pool table
cue stick, the State alleges. The prosecutors say Kandawasvika was
only stopped from further pounding the President’s portrait
by Augustine Mafukidze, a security guard who informed the police,
leading to Kandawasvika’s arrest.
The conviction
of Kandawasvika is the latest in a string of draconian prosecutions
brought against Zimbabwean citizens considered critical of Mugabe.
Since 2010, ZLHR has attended to more than 70 cases where clients
have fallen foul of Section 33 of the Criminal Law (Codification
and Reform) Act, which State authorities routinely invoke against
political and human rights activists including ordinary Zimbabweans
for allegedly making seemingly innocuous jokes the country’s
serving ruler.
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fact
sheet
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