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MDC Alliance’s Job Sikhala.
- Lawyer and legislator Job Sikhala has been in remanded in jail for a month.
- He says he has no remorse and would relatively be jailed for his beliefs and battle for the freedom of Zimbabweans.
- Sikhala has referred to as for a nationwide prayer day for him and others who’re additionally in detention.
Like a heavyweight wrestler caught with an ankle lock transfer and anticipated by his opponent to surrender, Zimbabwean serial sufferer of state repression, opposition politician Job Sikhala will not be about to throw within the towel.
As an alternative, in an emotional letter from jail, Sikhala referred to as on Zimbabweans to carry a day of prayer on 17 July for these incarcerated with him.
He stated:
Could you please kindly make Sunday, seventeenth of July 2022 a nationwide day of prayer for all of us who’re jailed with out trial for searching for justice for Moreblessing Ali.
Sikhala, the Residents Coalition for Change’s (CCC) vice nationwide chairperson, human rights lawyer and legislator, was arrested on 14 June.
His arrest got here after violence broke out in Nyatsime, Chitungwizwa, a dormitory city east of Harare, after the burial of Moreblessing Ali a CCC activist who was allegedly killed by Zanu-PF member Pius Mukandi Jamba.
Investigations by the police didn’t hyperlink the homicide to political violence. However due to the risky political local weather within the nation, each Zanu-PF and the CCC have traded barbs, culminating in violence over the difficulty.
Sikhala, who can be the authorized counsel for the Ali household, was charged with instigating violence, which he denied.
With some CCC youth members, he’s now a visitor of the state, having been denied bail 3 times.
READ | Zimbabwe’s MDC Alliance official arrested as one other politician is denied bail
His CCC colleagues stated his detention was meant to interrupt his spirit. However in his letter, Sikhala wrote as if his detention did hassle him.
“I’ve no regrets in any way with the function I performed along with many different Zimbabweans to acquire justice for Moreblessing Ali after she was murdered.
“It’s a function that I’m ready to be imprisoned for as a result of I used to be doing my work as a lawyer, Member of Parliament, a group chief.
“Generations to return will bear in mind many others and myself for having been jailed for standing up for a defenceless and poor girl who was brutally murdered by political thugs,” he wrote.
Behind bars
Showing in court docket on July 7, Sikhala and one other accused, legislator Godfrey Sithole, advised a Harare Justice of the Peace they have been denied entry to their lawyer and a health care provider by jail authorities. When Sithole fell unwell he was denied medical care.
The 2 are housed on the infamous Chikurubi Most Jail.
Of their earlier court docket look, they have been introduced in with leg chains, which is often reserved for harmful criminals.
On Tuesday, Sikhala was taken from jail to court docket to face new costs of obstructing or defeating the course of justice.
Within the second cost, he’s accused of getting “recorded and circulated a video clip whereby he meant to mislead cops probing the homicide of Moreblessing Ali”.
Who’s Job Sikhala?
Sikhala made a reputation for himself on the flip of the century alongside Nelson Chamisa, amongst different youth activists, within the Motion for Democratic Change led by the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
He was often called a voice that spoke out forcefully in opposition to late Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe and taking part in protests in opposition to his misrule.
He earned himself the nickname “Wiwa” which was derived from the late Nigerian political and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was an outspoken critic of the Nigerian authorities.
ALSO READ | Zimbabwe’s outspoken opposition lawmaker Job Sikhala launched on bail
Like Saro-Wiwa, tried by a particular navy tribunal in Nigeria for his activism and was hanged in 1995 by the navy dictatorship of Basic Sani Abacha, Sikhala’s tribulations mirror his.
Detained and tortured numerous occasions, the tall and considerably cumbersome Zengeza West legislator continues to not appear bothered by state strain regardless of him being charged with treason which carries the loss of life penalty.
He has scars to point out for it.
State brokers arrested him in 2003 along with Gabriel Shumba, the now exiled human rights lawyer, and others.
In a single interview, Sikhala as soon as stated: “Torture, persecution, and arrests have emboldened my resolve to battle for my nation.”
The News24 Africa Desk is supported by the Hanns Seidel Basis. The tales produced via the Africa Desk and the opinions and statements that could be contained herein don’t replicate these of the Hanns Seidel Basis.
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