Group slams calls for Job Sikhala’s arrest over Geneva speech
‘We refuse to be coerced and bullied into silence through the usual historic Rhodesian tactics and use of repressive laws.’
By Staff Reporter
The National Democratic Working Group (NDWG) has hit out at calls for the arrest of former legislator Job Sikhala by some government and Zanu PF individuals who claim the political firebrand violated the Patriotic Act through his scathing account of Zimbabwe’s human rights record in Geneva recently.
Sikhala spent 595 days under pre-trial detention at Chikurubi Maximum Prison over a slew of offences which include inciting public violence.
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The offences stemmed from his role as lawyer hired by the family of Moreblessing Ali, an opposition activist who was gruesomely murdered by a Zanu PF activist in May 2022.
Sikhala’s lengthy incarceration without bail became a rallying call for the release of political prisoners and further spotlighted on Zimbabwe’s compromised judiciary.
The NDWG chairperson and facilitator was one of the guest speakers at the UN Human Rights and Democracy Summit in Geneva where he shared his experiences under state detention.
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His remarks drew the ire of several high-ranking Zanu PF members, including spokesperson Nick Mangwana, who accused Sikhala of lying about the government on foreign land.
NDWG acting chairman, Dr Wurayayi Zembe held a press conference in Harare to declare unequivocal support for Sikhala.
Zanu PF apologists feel the former opposition legislator violated the Patriotic Act, a Zimbabwean law created not too long ago to criminalise negative speech against the government on foreign land.
“In the light of an unjustified onslaught and calls by Zanu PF functionaries among them; Nick Mangwana, Energy Mutodi, Sengezo Tshabangu, Owen Mudha Ncube and Zanu PF Varakashi (Destroyers) for the arrest on the statement made by Hon. Advocate Sikhala in the brief 13-minutes was precise in its articulation of the Human Rights and Democracy miscarriages in Zimbabwe,” Zembe said.
“We are therefore not alarmed, moved or fazed by the Zanu PF regime members’ attack on our chairman and facilitator for telling the world about his experiences during his latest political imprisonment.
“The Zanu PF government has enacted a raft of laws including the Patriotic Act whose sole purpose is to limit democratic freedoms and thereby entrench a totalitarian system of governance in which people are subjected to all kinds of political, social and economic abuses.”
Zembe gave an account of several incidences involving abductions, murder and torture of government critics in the past years.
He added, “We refuse to be coerced and bullied into silence through the usual historic Rhodesian tactics and use of repressive laws.
“We are all Zimbabweans. This is our country together. We will not be swept under or pushed outside our nation by a club of greedy self-centred Zanu PF individuals.”
Zembe also dismissed as a fraud, an X (formerly Twitter) handle in which unknown individuals purporting to be Sikhala are gushing out provocative content against government.
