Opposition activist and lawyer Fadzayi Mahere has lambasted government for the continued denial of bail and detention of former minister and MP Jameson Timba and dozens others – including a woman with a one-year-old arrested for allegedly plotting anti-government protests over a braai in Avondale, Harare, on 16 June while commemorating the Soweto Uprising or Youth Day in South Africa.
Zimbabweans have been living under the jackboot of political repression since independence in 1980 amid human rights abuses, killings and suffering. Mahere writes:
“DAY 37. The continued unconstitutional detention without trial of Senator Jameson Timba and the #Avondale78 is a shameless example of the continued weaponisation of the legal system by ZANU PF to silence opponents.
“It’s not a crime to allow young people to have a private barbecue at your private residence to commemorate the Soweto Uprising. Bail is a constitutional entitlement. They have not committed any crime but even if they had, they’d be entitled to the presumption of innocence and to be tried while residing at home.
“Freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, freedom of conscience and the right to liberty are constitutionally-protected. We must all speak out against this affront to our Constitution. We’ve seen this script over and over and it’s the best evidence of a regime that’s declared war on its people. Is this the liberation that our forefathers and mothers died for?
“Why use colonial tactics against the very people for whom a war of freedom was fought? Why deem any person who disagrees a “dissident”? The jailed young people should be in work, studying or making a living for their families yet they’re caged up in intolerable conditions because those at the top are afraid of shadows.
“Everyone of these political prisoners is innocent. Every progressive Zimbabwean has a duty to speak out until they’re freed. We need new leaders.
