Chamisa wants Mnangagwa to stop weaponising the law

Nelson Chamisa, leader of the Citizens Coalition for Change, says the continued denial of bail to opposition MP Job Sikhala is “a pure abuse of the law and weaponization”.

Sikhala has been detained at Chikurubi maximum security prison for more than two months, awaiting trial on charges of inciting violence and obstructing justice.

He was arrested on 14 June 2022 from Nyatsime along with Chitungwiza North MP Godfrey Sithol and 14 others while demanding justice for the slain Citizens Coalition for Change activist Morblessing Ali. Ali is yet to be buried as his distraught family is demanding that Sikhala, the family lawyer, be released from prison first.

Ali’s family says that Jaanu-PF thugs have driven him away from his Chitungvija house.

“The detention of Nyatsime 16 is oppressive and authoritarian. Zimbabwe’s supreme law makes bail a constitutional right,” Chamisa said.

Sikhla, described as a political prisoner by human rights defenders, has been locked up for 78 days.

Earlier this month, the jailed MP wrote to the African Union, regional bodies and international human rights organizations about the deteriorating political situation in Zimbabwe and the collapse of the rule of law.