Arrested for stating the obvious
I really am stumped by co-Home Affairs Minister Theresa Makone’s insistence that the police have been reformed. The implication is that all is rosy in Zimbabwe’s law and order department. But if that’s the case, how can a young man be jailed for a year and sentenced to hard labour, as in the SW Radio Africa story below, simply for calling an 86-year-old man old.
Man jailed for one year for ‘insulting’ Mugabe
A 23 year old man has been sentenced to a year behind bars with hard labour, for ‘insulting’ Robert Mugabe.
On Friday Chipinge provincial magistrate Samuel Zuze handed down the stiff sentence to Gift Mafuka, who was accused of make an “insulting” remark to two children wearing pro-Mugabe T-shirts. Mafuka apparently asked the boys why they were wearing T-shirts, picturing an old person with wrinkles.
Mafuka was found guilty of contravening the Criminal Codification and Reform Act, by “insulting the office of the President.” However, his sentence was reduced by two months on condition he does not call Mugabe ‘old’ again in the next five years. Mugabe will be 91 by that time.
Human rights lawyers have called the sentence “political” as Mafuka’s comments could not in any way be considered a crime. The lawyers have encouraged Mafuka to appeal, saying his conviction and sentence were unlikely to stand up in a higher court.
May we suggest to Mr. Mugabe that he checks in with his plastic surgeon the moment there is a window of opportunity in his busy schedule, as clearly he is in need of a top up of the Botox he has on a regular basis.
Alex Bell, SW Radio Africa